The Crystal War Book I: A Spark to Light the Dark

by NatureSpark

I. Nature Spark

~Prologue~

“In the same way that you cannot know darkness without having first seen the glory of light, it is also true that a country cannot hope to know rightful peace until it has seen the savage reality of war.”

~ Suresign the Philosopher (248th Year of Discord’s War)

Two crystal guards turned their heads up to the inky black sky when they heard the sound of wings flapping from somewhere high above, but whatever it had been was gone from view before they could manage to get a good look at it. They assumed it was nothing more than bird starting its journey south and resumed their silent vigil in front of the palace gates. The starry night held a faint note of foreboding in the air, but nopony around seemed to notice. Far below the palace’s highest towers, the crystal ponies slept peacefully in their beds, woefully unaware of the treachery that was about to take place in their rulers’ home.

When the Crystal Empress walked over to her open bedroom window and attempted to close out the cool autumn breeze for the night, a clawed hand reached through and grabbed her in a painfully tight grip around her slender throat. In the blink of an eye, another hand had covered her mouth before she got the chance to scream for her guards, who were posted just outside her bedchambers. She was violently dragged from her room in the dead of night and suspended above the serene city in utter terror. Red eyes were the last sight that she saw before passing out and being carried away.

Quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping emperor, another intruder slipped in through the open window and set about his work in utter silence. He placed various objects around the large bedchamber, objects that would confound the ponies who came to check on their fair empress and lead them to mistaken conclusions. If the work was performed correctly, they would be lead to believe that Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, had sent her night guards to take the empress prisoner. The resulting war would be magnificent and terrible; a war to rival Discord’s.

With the espionage finally completed, the intruder made his way to the window, claws scraping over the polished floors with every step and then jumped out, unfurling large feathered wings as he fell through the sky. They caught the air current a moment later and carried him up into the night, but he made sure to escape just slowly enough so that the crystal ponies standing guard far below would see a winged intruder flying away. The guards raised the alarm as soon as they saw this and alerted the rest of the castle. Before long, every armored soldier was scrambling as they tried to prevent the trespasser from escaping. They were far too late however, the damage was done and their empress was long gone.

The infiltrators met up in the sky high above the heart of the empire and flew off into the dark night. They only had to wait now, wait until the next phase of their employer’s plan was ready to be enacted. A war would benefit them greatly; after all, war would give them many opportunities to sell their particular skills to the highest bidder. The two mercenaries laughed as the capitol of the Crystal Empire faced the effects of what they had just done.

In just a few days, the Crystal Empire would blame Princess Luna for the crime and vote to declare a war on Equestria. The ties between the two kingdoms would be severed and all of the nations that had treaties would be forced to pick sides. Enemies would be defined and lines would be drawn. Many would lose their lives in the bloody struggle that followed. War would consume every single nation on earth and it would be so glorious that Discord himself might rise from his stone prison and applaud. Yet those who lived and breathed for violence, well, they would flourish in the coming months…

I. Nature Spark

Comments

[NatureSpark]

Please feel free to leave constructive criticism or comments of any kind, after all I can't get better at writing without some help.

[Braveheart106]

Hmm pretty good! I like it but was quite a bit shocked to hear them use swear words in Equestria lol, but then again they're in the olden days, so it must've been used commonly then(besides its your story, so whatever you like goes). Though there were little bits of error here and there, but not too evident. I think this could be going somewhere good so I'll stick around. I hope you will continue to edit and improve your stories, and remember to make your story unique, nobody likes to see the same story concept more than once, so make sure your story has something that will make it stand out! Good job so far and keep up the good work.