Fallen Queendom

by Zeroraid

15

Sunset slammed the door shut behind her as Gentle took the time to catch his breath. “Goddess, there’s no end to them!” She panted as Gentle headed over to a cabinet and started trying to push it in front of the door. Seeing what was being attempted Sunset called upon her magic, lifting the cabinet before pulling it over. “There, that should hold em off.” She muttered as she heard the door start to rattle. “For a minute anyway.” She turned her head and started looking around. “Ok no windows, and no other doors… great.” She cursed as Gentle fumbling with his hooves to try grabbing his baseball bat. Giving up, though he decided to try his magic and although it was also kind of clumsy to use, he was able to grab his bat and hold it at the ready. “Yeah, from the looks of it we’re going to have to fight our way out of here…” She muttered as she started looking for something she could also use as a weapon. “Still, I’ve never seen so many constructs in my life…” She muttered as Gentle gave her a look. “Why does this guy have so many?”

“No idea…” Gentle muttered as he looked at the barricaded door and took a breath. “But we can’t just let those things run throughout the castle.” He whispered. “If they get loose in town…”

“Yeah…” Sunset grumbled as she took a few steps away from the failing barricade. “Ready?” Gentle took another breath as he looked at Sunset and nodded his head as he grabbed his bat. “Then here we… go…”

As soon as the words left her, the barricade vanished, being chewed through by the crystal horde as they made themselves known. Sunset went first slamming an arcane wall into them that pushed them back outside as they were given some room to make a break for it. An magic ray was fired and Gentle swung his bat.

Of the two attacks, one destroyed, and the other simply knocked them back so they could get back up. Regardless they kept going fighting off as many as they could before Sunset set up a barrier and let the horde crawl over it. Without warning her shield grew spikes that made all those on it grow still before it expanded, and disappeared. Gentle charged right afterwards, swinging like a madman - er pony and tried smashing the horde into pieces. All he ended up doing was dent his bat before Sunset fired a ray at the weapon as it started to glow with foreign magic.

He didn’t question it, he didn’t look back, instead just went back to swinging, this time his weapon managed to chip and break everything it started colliding with.

‘’Ok, this I can work with.’ He told himself as he hit another construct and flattened it into the ground. On impulse he threw a back kick at another and knocked them away, lost his balance and fell to the floor.

Sunset turned, firing a blast of magic from her horn before swinging her head to fire off a sweeping laser at the horde to push them back. When one managed to latch onto her back she popped out of reality leaving them to fall as she picked them up and threw them elsewhere. She charged her magic, focusing it into her hooves and started knocking the crystal spiders away. ‘It’s a little hard to do it in this body, but thank god I practiced martial arts back on Earth.’ She thought to herself as she turned and punched another construct and broke it into shards. One landed on her back and suddenly disappeared as she saw Gentle holding onto it with his magic hand. He tossed it into the air and switched to his bat, knocking it away as he sent it back into the horde.

Sunset turned rising up and slammed her hooves on the ground to create a shockwave that knocked everyone off their feet and followed it up by firing magic from her horn. Gentle got to his feet, using his enchanted bat to start smashing everything he could reach. Before he got to far into it, something tugged at his tail and he found himself lifted into the air and pulled along.

“Come on!” Sunset shouted as she took off running.

---

“Still nothing…” Pale Arts muttered as she crossed into another room and made a face. “I should have used a bit of my magic to be able to track the heart back when I made it.” The mare stated as she sighed to herself and pressed on. “To be fair though, I never intended to have to seek it out, but hindsight as they say.” The mare muttered as she stopped walking, her attention staring at the walls for a moment as she seemed to think.

“Still, I wonder.” She thought aloud, pulling herself to a stop as she started focusing her magic and tapped the ground with her hooves.

Something left her, something that traveled across the walls and through the flooring as it raced across the palace, searching for locked doors and hidden crevices in search of something.

In her minds eye she found far too many locked doors, and she found far too many hidden passages that dug beneath the palace - beneath the empire itself. She found secret chambers and locked storage rooms. She found crystal guards waiting to be pulled from and she found a prison hidden beneath the castle.

“The Umbrum…” She realized. “Have to deal with that later…” She muttered as she kept looking. That was going to have to be something she took care of later.

She kept looking, and she found the castle library. She looked further and she found the resting place for the royal bloodline. She looked elsewhere and she found her wards in the middle of combat. “Good for them, help them get the experience they need in fighting.” She muttered. “Best send a shade to protect them though.” She continued her search and she found a storage room full of things that would perhaps never see the light of day. She saw pictures locked away and she saw an armory. “Come on… come on… where are you?” She thought as she pulled herself to a stop and focused her attention on something else. “Damn… I thought we had more time…”

---

Elsewhere

Maybe it was a pegasi thing, but the cold always bothered her for some reason. Everytime the cold seasons came she had to bundle up more than the rest of the Canterlot populis. Maybe it really was a pegasi thing; after all she had been one before her ascension. Regardless Cadence released a breath, shivering slightly as she took a moment while the weather started to get to her. She could tell they were starting to get close and if her auntie was right the airship wouldn’t be able to carry them that much farther.

Regardless she felt somepony wrap around her as she smiled slightly, feeling somepony else’s body heat starting to transfer over to her. “Cold?”

“Not anymore.” Cadence looked back at her husband and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Thanks.”

“You don’t need to thank me, you know.”

“I know.” Leaning back she rested her head on the nook of Shining Armor’s neck and sighed lightly.

“Bit for your thoughts?”

“I’m just… thinking you know. Equestria gets attacked by some unknown force and our nation is in shambles. We’re going north to try and protect the Crystal Empire - which just so happens to pop up again out of nowhere…” Cadence released a small noise. “This wasn’t really how I expected to spend my first year of being married.”

“Me neither.” Shining Armor admitted.

“It’s actually a bit better.”

“… what?” Shining actually pulled back from his wife for a moment as she giggled.

“Shining, you know I’ve always been a bit of a thrill seeker, and how many couples can say that they got to save a resurrected kingdom together?”

“Good point.” The stallion muttered as he leaned back into his wife. “We get to be the couple with the most awesome story to tell.” Smiling, the two fell into relative silence before one of the ships staff approached them, pushing a trolley that had a pair of covered plates resting on a tray.

“Princess Mi Amore, Captain Armor, your meals.”

“Thank you.”

“Thanks, and please Shining Armor will do.” The stallion stated as he scratched the back of his head. “I’m not really Captain of Celestia’s Guard anymore.”

“You’re right it’s ‘Prince’ now isn’t it.” Cadence received a look from her husband as she giggled and the plates were set down before them.

“Ugh~ it thought being called Captain took a while to get used to… Prince?”

“You’ll get used to it my love.” Cadence nuzzled her spouse as she smiled.

Watching the staff disappear the mare was quick to frown as she stared down at her plate. “Still…” She muttered. “I hate to say it, but this doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

“Here we are being served like nothing is going on in the world, like what happened a while ago doesn’t really mean much.” She stated. “It’s a bit…” She found the word she was looking for, but failed to use it. “There are people starving and hurting back in Equestria, and yet…”

“I know.” Shining Armor muttered. “You’re right it does feel pretty messed up, but there’s nothing we can really do right now.” Shining stated as he looked out the window. “We’ve all got a part to place: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are trying to keep the peace while sending out search and rescue parties, Twilly cis helping the Princess with some spell that might bring help, and we’re…” He gestured to what was around them. “We’re here, heading north to find the crystal empire and seal away Sombra.” He stated. “We’ve all got our part to play in this, so…”

“I know…” Cadence muttered. “It still just feels weird, you know.” She stated. “Being allowed to eat like this while everythings going on…” She muttered. “That said, I’m still not really sure why we’re going to the Crystal Empire like this.” She muttered. “Wouldn’t it be better to have reinforcements or something.”

“Yeah.” Shining Armor agreed. He wasn’t one to question Princess Celestia’s decisions, she’d never done anything to warrant such thoughts, but this was one of those rare exceptions. His wife was being sent into the unknown, yes he would be beside her, but it was still something that caused him to grow worried. Maybe it was just the fact he’d always been protective of his family, maybe it was because of his training with the guard, but this was something that bothered him. “I’m sure she has a reason though…” He muttered to himself as he took a breath. Both fell silent for a moment as they seemed to think. After a moment though, Cadence turned to the food and made a noise.

“We should probably eat, food’s getting cold.”

“Uh~ right.”

---

Crystal Empire

Pale Arts stood at the edge of the Crystal Empire staring at the crack that was staining her barrier, as something pitch black rested on the other end. If she was going to be honest, it felt like the shadow was staring at her.

To be fair though, it was.

“̵̡̞̥̻͋̃̅͝Ỳ̷̛̖̥̻̞o̸̔̈ͅu̷͎͗̋̌̾~̶̟̫͍̝͋̿̍͘”̵̡͍͈̟̚

The shadow on the other side of the barrier hissed.

“̵̰͓̰̽͝I̵̻͋ ̴̖̼̥̺̎́͒̈́k̵͕̖̾̔̚͜ṅ̴̺̗̽̽o̴̢͔͂ẁ̶̧̨̳̖̊ ̵̼̯͔̓y̸̻̌͐́͊o̴̳͕̟͠͝ų̴͓̣̔…̷̧̢̧͌̂͐̀”̴̲̜̲̩͛́̋̈

“And I know you… Sombra.” Pale Arts whispered as she stared at the entity. “The Usurper, the Dark King, the Crystal Tyrant… and unofficial student of Grogar.” She stated nodding her head in greeting. “I confess, I thought you were dead till ‘she’ told me otherwise.”

“̶̦̈̋Ẅ̵̡͖́̓͝ĥ̵̩͇̦̾a̸̢͔̳̺̾̈̄̉ẗ̶̺͍̼̠́͋ ̴̟͆͐͌̚ä̸͉̰͇́͝͝͝r̸̩̰̦͍͑̄e̷̥͓̊͠…̸͕̰̻̓ ̵̻̜̦͝y̷̰̜̝̬̌̋̆̍ȍ̸̩͖̰̮u̵̬̻͉̭̓̃͐…̸̘̀͐ ̷̳̘̟̱̊͐d̷̬̙̋̈́͗͝ö̷́̀͜i̵̝̜͉͒͐͘͠n̷̺͚̹͆̂͜͝g̵̩̈́̆̇̕ ̵̛͇͍͑h̷̤̻͊̃̚͜e̴̼͕͔̳̎͘r̸̺͒ẹ̶̤̗̓̀̉?̷̠͈̠̀̌”̸̟͔͎͐̚

“I am fulfilling a request.” She saw a pair of green eyes staring at her. “You are here for the Empire yes?” It was a rhetorical question. “By all means then… try and take it.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Will this story be as long as Displaced: Fallen Kingdom was originally intended to be?