Prologue: The Discovery

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The Distant Past

The Crystal Ponies have been assembled in front of the Crystal Palace. Its white shining walls and its wide entrance used to be majestic to watch, but time, and a lack of interest to keep it in good shape, turned it into a reflection of the Crystal Kingdom: a decaying, fractured relic of the past, destroyed by corruption and that was just trying to survive as long as possible before its population either died or left it in the search of something better.

But the citizens of the Crystal Kingdom wouldn't leave for now. The guards wouldn't allow it since the new King, Sombra, ordered to close the borders and now, what once was an open and vibrant kingdom, has become a national prison. What once was a kingdom in a bad shape, has now become a livid nightmare from which there is no way to escape, Sombra brought a level of terror never seen before in this poor and decaying kingdom.

Every once in awhile, the King would gather the citizens in front of the Palace so they could listen to one of his speeches, much to the citizens grievances. For any problem the kingdom had to face under his rule, he would always blame the rebels (even though they were few and too disorganized to be an actual threat), Discord (even though he concentrated his actions in Equestria) or the previous king's corrupt administration (even though Sombra himself was more corrupt than the previous king he has mercilessly executed) while making a huge show to keep the impression of his formidable power to anyone who dared to challenge him.

The Crystal Ponies were already used to Sombra's speeches by now, and all they wanted was for somepony to take him out or to just die so they didn't have to endure him anymore. Sadly, death would elude them all. The crystal ponies would have to endure King Sombra, as he started to plan a new group in the Crystal Army, specialised to ensure the citizens of the kingdom would behave in the way he wanted them to behave.

There was an opposition against his tyranny, like the daughter of the previous king, and a few nobles who didn't liked Sombra's reign in any way or sense, but, as stated, they weren't organized nor united in their rebellion for either personal ambitions or too much distrust among each other. So, instead, they lived hidden in the dark to avoid Sombra's forces.

To make it all worse, Sombra placed his most loyal followers in control of all the strategic positions (advisors, generals, administrators, etc) and while there were rumors of discomfort among Sombra's followers, they were just that, rumors. The only hope was for the new princesses of Equestria, who were fighting Discord to restore Harmony in not only Equestria, but the whole world as well, but they wouldn't be able to do much until Discord was finally defeated and nopony knew when that would happen.

And today, in the 3rd anniversary of his coming to power, Sombra gathered once more his citizens in front of the decayed Crystal Palace, so he could show them something new he came up with, probably to keep the population distracted fromhis mistakes. He came down with his personal guards and generals and, after a few minutes of waiting and enjoying the power he now held, he decided to start the most important speech he would ever do in the history of the kingdom.

He adjusted his voice with the use of a spell that would amplify it and, with a resounding voice, he started his speech:

"Citizens of the kingdom. I've called you here, in front of our beautiful Crystal Palace, because I've heard that among you, even after I've saved you from Discord and the crisis that the previous, incapable ruler created, there has been thoughts of escaping our beautiful kingdom and to defy me. I've heard that some of you are even trying to instigate a revolt, to call for help to other kingdoms or even hire mercenaries to invade us and destroy the beautiful land we've created."

The ponies wore scared faces, either for actual fear or just to fake emotions and not getting arrested by Sombra's guards.

"But fear not my loyal citizens, They have no chance to stop, neither our might or progress. And to prove it, I announce to you that I'm not only working on a spell that will me grant eternal life, so I can protect you for all eternity, but that I'm also, as a proof of how powerful I am, going to summon a creature from another world and change it into one of us. I'm certain that this will give you enough proof of not only my power to keep you safe, but also that nothing can stop me nor the transformation of the kingdom to a glory never seen before".

That sounded good enough. Granted, he hadn't told the citizens that disease had been killing the kingdom and that he had to give away the fortunes of the kingdom to nearby clans of griffons, diamond dogs and Minotaurs so they wouldn't invade the kingdom. But the Kingdom didn't have to know, for now, Sombra would keep the facade. At least he would have a great time spending it with his enemies in the dungeons but, before any of that, he had a summoning to do: "and now, behold..."

After ordering to his guards to move aside, He pointed his horn to his left and started to charge the necessary magic to do the summoning. The crystal citizens watched with wonder at what Sombra had pointed and to see if this 'summoning' would actually work and while, at the beginning, there wasn't much to see, with each second that passed, the ponies could feel more and more of the magic concentrating in his horn.

What they didn't know, was that Sombra was trying to make it look like it was easy: his face showed pure concentration, but in the inside he was close to having a headache as this was taking more energy than calculated, but he couldn't stop, he had to show his magnificence, he had to prove that he deserved to rule this kingdom.

And while this was happening, a few ponies that opposed him were also watching:

One was a mare earth pony of normal height, orange mane and red coat, with emerald eyes and a hoof holding a torch as a cutie mark. Her name was Ruby Flame, she worked as a maid inside the Crystal Palace, but in secret, she was among the most influential among the opposition against Sombra. She was always making sure that the Crystal Ponies didn't forget their heritage, which Sombra was trying to change, and always giving them hope that change would come soon. And since she was inside the palace, she would also work as a spy to funnel important information to the friends she had in the opposition.

The other one was a unicorn Stallion (a bit short compared to other ponies): he had a grey mane, yellow coat, blue eyes and a cutie mark consisting on a scroll with a feather writing in it. His name was Clearing Onyx and he was the main leader of the Opposition, he would always write essays, to show the citizens of the Crystal Kingdom how Sombra was destroying everything that was important to the Crystal Ponies and how horrible Sombra was: he would even say that the kingdom was fine, but he was actually selling the kingdom's treasures to outsiders just to stay in power and that he was allowing the kingdom to die of starvation .

This two ponies were in the front row, watching Sombra's most recent speech and they didn't believe what was going on: Sombra was actually attempting a summon and, from the looks of it, he was succeeding. Something was materializing from all that energy Sombra was gathering and, from what little they could see, it had a bipedal figure (like a Minotaur) but skinnier and with a different type of legs.

They tried to make up what was the poor creature that now had to endure Sombra, but they couldn't get much of his original appearance, because in the moment the spell finished the summon, it started to change him into a pony. They could see how it was changing him from whatever it was into a equine figure, starting with the extremities: they started to take the shape of hooves and his head started to elongate and had a more equine figure. The more it changed, the more it could be heard it's horrifying screams of agony.

Ruby and Onyx were horrified for the suffering that this poor creature was having, and they felt angry for how powerless they felt now, unable to help or stop this atrocity, but they couldn't show that, if they showed their emotions they could get caught by the guards, so all they could do was to stand there and look amazed like everypony else, they didn't wanted to give him the pleasure of having more enemies to torture.

By the time the spell ended Sombra was tired, he could barely stay on his hoofs and he felt that his lungs were too small for the amount of air he needed to breathe but he was making sure that nopony could see that. He would keep his confident face (although it was a bit hard to keep right now) and smile to his audience. Sombra decided to look at his new subject, he was an earth pony, with a brown coat and a dark mane, his eyes were closed from the pain that Sombra quite enjoyed on giving (and was going to keep giving when he got bored in a few hours) and had no cutie mark.

And very soon, by the time he would be done with him, this new stallion would be his most loyal general and the leader of his new army.

Present day

It has been a long day for Cadence.

She had to reform 10 laws that were made during the reign of Sombra, she made a speech to the Crystal Ponies assuring them that neither Sombra nor the KP (whatever that was) were coming back and, lastly, she had recently ended a conference with the Professors of the Crystal Empire regarding the research of the past of the Empire before Sombra came and the mental blocks that he imposed on the citizens of the Empire.

From what was researched, some parts could be investigated through the books of the Library, but any attempts of actually remembering the past would be met with a migraine-inducing mental block, that would stop any attempt of remembering anything before Sombra. The researchers and magicians of the Crystal Empire couldn't find a solution to this, not even with the help of Equestria's greatest minds, and it looked like, whatever Sombra did on the Crystal Ponies, it was going to be permanent.

Cadance talked for 5 hours with the most brilliant minds of the Empire to see if they could find a way to eliminate the spell, but nothing could be found. The idea that Sombra would go as far as to erase the memories of the crystal ponies was infuriating.

But, interestingly, the weirdest part of the spell was how selective the mind blocks were: they would allow a few details to be remembered, like the pony's personal life, and the more away from Sombra's reign the memory was, the more it could be remembered in general while the closer it was to Sombra's reign, the more the block would act. The most fascinating thing of the mental block was that the moment of history that was erased the most, was exactly in the middle of Sombra's own reign. Whenever the Ponies tried to remember that period, although they didn't want to in the first place, they would meet a 10 years gap in his rule. Cadance found this very odd, considering that Sombra was a very egocentric pony so, why erase the middle of his own rule?

A theory among historians, like Recording Quartz, was that those memories may be tied with the weird machines, factories and other buildings that could be found all across the Empire. The buildings and houses went even beyond the borders of the Empire reaching the Griffonian Kingdom, the Minotaur Republic and Equestria itself, meanwhile some Journalist, like Firm Marble, theorized that Sombra's rule was so bad that he decided to erase it out of shame, but since any attempt to remember the past would be met with the mental blocks (and the headache that came with it), nopony was sure of what could be the truth. Still, by the end of that conference, Cadance was very tired and she wanted nothing else but a hot tea, a relaxing bath and probably to share a moment of privacy with her husband Shining Armor.

After having a relaxing bath with hot water and finally being in her room, Cadance's maid brought her the tea she wanted. Cadance always found very odd that her maid was working in the Crystal Palace, after all, why would an earth pony with a hoof holding a torch as a cutie mark be a maid? The cutie mark wasn't related to her work at all, but whenever she were asked about it, Ruby Flame would say that she could not remember anything and that everything she knew was being a maid.

Cadance was finally going to rest on her bed when, suddenly, a yellow unicorn came and awoke her:

"Princess, this is urgent."

Her drowsiness hadn't stopped her from recognizing Professor Clearing Onyx and he did look like he had found something very important. He knelt down and spoke:

"Excuse me my Princess, but this is urgent, I found something that I think you would like to know."

Cadance was very tired and she really wanted to sleep, but her patience and love for her ponies was telling her to allow him to speak, so she forced a little smile and with the sweetest voice she could muster and she responded to her faithful subject: "Of course my little pony, what is it?"

Onyx looked up to her Princess, seeing her tired, and he felt a little sad for not allowing her to rest, after all, he was in that conference and he knew how tiresome that was, but he had to show her what had been found:

"Princess, while I was gathering my equipment to leave the Palace, I accidentally stumbled into a bookshelf inside the conference room. This bookshelf in particular didn't fall and no matter how much I tried to, it wouldn't fall. So after investigating it for a while, I found that it actually held the opening to a secret passage that hoarded a lot of books, pieces of historical importance and a weird machine that, if the instructions are trustworthy, would be able to play movies."

This shocked Cadance: "Movies? But that's something that had been developed just a few years ago in Equestria, are you telling me that you found a 1000 year old machine that could do just that?"

At this moment Clearing Onyx was starting to get excited for bringing this news to the Princess. This could mean that somehow, the Empire was technologically ahead of it's time, and while it saddened him that this happened during Sombra's reign, and that for some reason Sombra didn't want it to be known, they would use it for the betterment of the Empire.

"Yes my Princess, but not only that, we've also found some movies that could be played as well and one of them was marked as a documentary, but since it didn't have a title, we're not sure if it was about Sombra or not. I think we should watch it for it's historical value, I understand that you may be tired, but at the very least we could see a fragment so we could get an idea of what to do with them in the morning?"

Cadance was now starting to feel a little bit more energetic: she wanted to sleep, but this news brought to her could mean the discovery of the century, it could be the key to restoring the Crystal Empire from all the damage that Sombra did. No matter how she saw it, this just couldn't be ignored or postponed.

"All right, bring it here." - She said, she then thought: 'At the very least, since it's a Documentary I'll fall asleep anyway.'

After asking her husband to join her (if she wasn't going to sleep, then neither would he) they both went to the conference room and waited for Clearing Onyx to set up the machine.

This machine was, to say the least, weird: it didn't look like the Movie players of Equestria, this one looked more advanced; while the movie players of Equestria looked gigantic and needed film reels to go in, this one was small and it looked like it only needed a small disk. This differences gave Clearing Onyx had a hard time reading the instructions to properly use the machine, but he managed to figure out how the machine worked without a problem and, after a few minutes of waiting, it started to play the movie with the beginning being followed by a haunting song:

Movie

It was in color and sound (much to the surprise of the audience) and it started with the following text:

This documentary was made to speak about one of our most critical moments in the history of The Crystal Kingdom and the newly formed Crystal Empire, a moment that while controversial, it needs to be understood so the citizens of the Empire can move forward. The other reason for the existence of this, is to show to our future generations of the horrors that we had to endure before reaching what many argue to be "our best moment in the Crystal Ponies's History".
For this documentary, we will use images, pictures and testimonies of ponies who were there and witnessed firsthoof what happened.

The movie started by showing an announcement:

The fight of the century: Earth Pony versus Minotaur, come here on the 5th day of the 1st month to the Arena next to the Crystal Palace to see who is going to win, if either Brains or Brawn.

Then the movie focused on the date: 5/01/00

The movie went to a Crystal Pony, while the images were now in black and white, it could be seen how his mane and coat were shining like any other Crystal pony would be and he was wearing a cloth with very bright colors, with metal shoulder pads and a light helmet for protection. Then, a narrator started to describe the scene:

"And here it is, our gladiator Black Diamond preparing for the duel of his life, the Nationally famous Crystal Pony has been preparing himself for his first fight against a Minotaur, and while many assume that he is going to lose, many others remember how he, by this point on his gladiatorial career, has defeated pegasi, griffons and unicorns alike while being an Earth Pony himself. If he can win, he will bring glory to the Crystal Kingdom."

Audience

Cadance and Shining Armor were starting to feel uncomfortable, they didn't like where this was going, it was probably about a type of sport that by this point wasn't practiced any longer and was probably related to fighting, what kind of creature would find pleasure in seeing two living beings fight each other?

Cadance wanted to leave, but her husband wanted to keep watching. He told her that, at least they should be watching a little bit more before deciding if it was worth their time and because he wanted to see what kind of fighting tactics were used by earth ponies in those times because, just like today present, whenever an earth pony would fight a Minotaur, it would always end with the earth pony being thrown to the ground and being swept like a mop.

Movie

The fight started: the Earth pony was moving carefully and only attacking whenever he saw an opening, he was giving good strikes with his hoofs and he always avoided the hands of the Minotaur. The fight was looking glorious, the shots that were being shown made it look like the earth pony was going to win, but after a few minutes of fighting, the Minotaur managed to grab him by the neck and begun to throw him to the ground and sweep him like a mop. After showing the healing ponies getting close to Black Diamond to give him first aid, and with the Minotaur celebrating his most recent victory, another narrator started to speak:

"Too bad for our little pony, but he isn't the only one that's having a bad day, the regime was also getting a big hit in their mandate as, just a few days ago, King Sombra was dethroned."

Chapter 1: The Military Junta

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If you find Green text, click it, since it's a link to music to give ambiance to the story

The Distant Past

The Crystal Palace was, as the name implied, a palace made out of the best crystals that could be found in the region. It was made by the founder of the Crystal Kingdom and it symbolized the magnificence of the kingdom, its citizens and its ruler. Inside the Palace, one of the most majestic things to watch was the Throne room, decorated with the most beautiful pieces of jewelry, metal and crafted stone; it had the floor carpeted with the best fabric avaiable at the time and it was of a red wine color, it was a marble to watch and the most important piece of this throne room was the throne itself, made out of marble and covered in molten gold with precious stones. This throne was meant for the king of the Crystal Kingdom and it's descendant, but today things were a bit different for the Throne room wasn't being occupied by one pony, but rather, three ponies. This were the ponies that staged a coup against Sombra to take him out of power and save the kingdom, it was a successful coup but they now had to figure out how to stabilize the kingdom before anarchy could destroy what was left of it.

This three ponies were, respectively, the new heads of the Crystal Kingdom. So let's take a look at them:

One was a tall Unicorn with a black mane and a deep blue coat, purple eyes and an arrow as a cutie mark. His name was Pure Diamond, General commander of the Crystal Army, a pony that deeply loved the Crystal Kingdom and, as of right now, he was trying to keep his mind under control because the coupe d'etat caused a lot of friction inside the Crystal Guard and him, along his two partners, ruling now weren't making it any easier. This weren't the kind of things you would do when your life as a Crystal Guard was supposed to be 'obey your king and protect the ponies of the kingdom'. But, under Sombra's reign, those 2 things entered in conflict, Pure Diamond had to choose between one or the other. It scared him deeply the idea of going against Sombra but, after some intense debating, he chose to protect the ponies from the usurper king. Not too long after that, he now had to keep all of the Crystal Guards under control to avoid any type of internal struggle among his soldiers, he had to avoid another coup for the stability of the kingdom and see how to stabilize the government by defining the head of state. But he will take care of that after the conference that was going to start in a few minutes.

The other pony was a mid-height Pegasus with a cyan blue coat, monochromatic mane, yellow eyes and a lightning sword as a cutie mark. His name was Lt. Golden Strike, a pony who started his career as a Crystal Guard not too long ago and has been quickly rising on the ranks. Typical of a young pony, Golden Strike new that, after this coup d'etat, he was only going to advance even more in the ranks thanks to his skills and quick thinking in military strategy and troop command, after all, he quickly subdued the soldiers loyal to Sombra and arrested them. He was sure that very soon he would meet a nice mare and they would marry, make foals and get to the high society he always dreamed off while being loved by the Crystal Ponies for being the one that dethroned Sombra. Granted, first they would have to keep control of the Kingdom to make sure nothing wrong could happen but he wasn't afraid of anything, he already faced rogue soldiers and won with no problem. He wasn't sure what his general or his friend besides him were thinking right now, but this was nothing the most awesome Pegasus could handle, they would manage to stabilize the Kingdom in less than a year. It was clear that, while he had the heart in the right place, he still lacked the mental capacity to understand what had to be done.

The last one was an earth pony with a brown coat and a dark mane, dark-brown eyes and he had no cutie mark. This pony used to belong to a different species and used to live in a different world, but Sombra took that away from him. He also used to have a name in said previous life but, as long as he lived in this new world, he preferred to go by the name Swift Rise. It was the most appropriate name he could think off, after all, he had to adapt quickly to this new life or face torture... or at least it used to be that way. Now that the source of his suffering was gone, he could focus on finding a way back home. And, even if he couldn't find such way, he would make sure that this new life weren't as bad as it was when Sombra ruled.

Granted, Swift Rise was now a Colonel, he had some duties and he would serve as he was supposed to do so, but that didn't stop him from feeling nervous from the most recent order he have received. After the coup was done, Pure Diamond explained that they would have to explain the citizens of the kingdom what have just happened and each one of them would have to present themselves to the kingdom. Because Swift Rise, being a shy and reserved stallion, would have to be the one making the opening speech in front of the Crystal Ponies, he was starting to regret ever being part of this coup but, even when he didn't liked to talk unless necessary, he would follow orders because that was the military norm and he would fulfill it. Thankfully, his military training would help him to look calm, but that didn't remove the emotions of anguish that were choking him on the inside.

Pure Diamond, Golden Strike and Swift Rise were starting to move to the Plaza in front of the Crystal Palace to meet the newly formed press and the citizens of the kingdom so they could make their speeches to explain what's just happened and what were going to be the procedures from here on out.

As they were getting closer to their destiny, Pure Diamond looked at his subordinate Swift and, while he usually had a stone face by nature, it was quite clear that he was getting very nervous, so Diamond decided to help him to release some tension before the coming press conference:

"Swift."

Swift looked up and saw his General, Pure Diamond, looking straight at him:

"I understand that you feel nervous right now. It isn't easy to make this kind of speeches when you don't like to talk at all, but you were chose because you have a very powerful skill to convey a message and reach to the heart of those who listen to you. You are our best bet to ease the civilians before they fall into panic after the what we pulled off, so we need you. But don't worry, this will be just a speech, nothing compared with taking down Sombra. If you managed to convince me, Lt. Strike and a big part of the guard to take down Sombra and that this was the best way to help the Kingdom, then this will be nothing to you." - In that moment a very confident Pegasus decided to help his friend to overcome his fears. - "Yeah Swift, the General is right, this should be nothing for you, you adapted to our pony life faster than anypony expected, you survived to all of those months of torture in front of Sombra and never broke, you managed to convince some of Sombra's most loyal guards to dethrone him, heck, you even managed to reach to the rank of Colonel faster than me, and we joined the Crystal Guard at the same time, or did you just forgot how we used to share the same room?" - Swift waved his head and looked at his partner, while the nervousness was still there, now he looked ready to face the new challenge that was in front of him with the same confidence and determination that made the Crystal Guard to turn against Sombra, after looking that one of his most trusted partners was ready to meet his new challenge, Pure diamond decided that his soldier was readier than ever: "Exactly, compared to all we've been through, this is nothing".

They reached the door to the outside and Pure Diamond decided to look one more time at his Ponies, comrades in this new way that was going to lead into a new time for the Crystal Kingdom.

"Good, now, before we leave, I want to thank you for being here, if it weren't for your loyalty, honesty and trust, we may have never got this chance to bring the Kingdom this new light of hope, now Swift, are you ready?" - He nodded, - "do you remember your speech and what are you supposed to convey?" - He nodded, - "good, now let's begin this new age for The Crystal Kingdom".

The door opened, they could hear the reporters screaming already to them and taking notes of what was going on, but they were ready and stepped out of their hideout, ready to bring the news to the Kingdom.

The Present

Princess Twilight was smiling from the excitement.

When she received the letter from Cadence stating the discovery of various objects of intrinsic historical value, to say that she was desiring to get a look into it was an understatement, especially once she heard of the existence of a film that could possibly change what was known of Pony, Griffon and Minotaur history. It was impossible to measure how much she wanted to reach The Crystal Empire right away and, as usual, her friends decided to follow her, including Spike who really wanted to come back to the place where he helped so much to save when everything looked so dire. After all, the trip would last a week at best, so they wouldn't lose too much time on this and he wouldn't have to do his chores back at Ponyville.

"Wow Twilight, a little bit more and you might beat Pinkie Pie in making the biggest smile." - Said an overconfident Pegasus, at that moment, Twilight's face stopped smiling and she looked at her chromatic friend -, "what? What do you mean Rainbow?" - "What I mean is that the closer we get to The Crystal Empire, the bigger your smile gets. At this rate you may not only beat Pinkie in smiling, but also, you may even hurt your face." - And she wasn't wrong about the face part, but Twilight never realized it. At this statement, however, a pink pony that could be related with the energy itself decided to interject at the idea that somepony might surpass her on smiles. - "Oh! Dashie, don't be so silly, that's impossible, everypony smile when they're happy, it's impossible to get hurt for doing something when you're happy!" - In that moment, she got close to Rainbow's ear and, with a very cold voice, whispered. - "And nopony can smile like I do, the show states so," - then she went back to her spot and looked at everyone with her happy go attitude.

A few seconds after that, everypony decided to let her be Pinkie and proceeded with the talking with Twilight deciding to explain herself about her excitement. - "I'm sorry everypony, but I can't just hold back this desire to get there as quickly as possible. From what the letter said, this discovery would explain why the Crystal Ponies couldn't remember much of their past when they came back. It could even explain all those weird factories, buildings and contraptions that can be found across the Empire," - at this, the most refined pony decided to enter into the conversation. - "I understand your emotions Twilight dear, I'll even add that should we have known this from the beginning, our first trip into The Empire could have been a lot easier, after all, if it weren't for spikey wiky, it could have ended in a very undesirable way." - At the mention of his name by the mare of his heart, the purple scaled dragon decided to add with a very happy and proud face. - "Then is a good thing that I went for the trip, right?" - This was responded with a few eye rolls, but they let it pass since he had the right to be proud of this. -
"And Twilight isn't the only one excited to go back to the Empire, I really want to see how everything is going on know that Cadence has been ruling for a while".

Rainbow Dash decided to show her support for her friend - "It's all right, I understand, that's why we're here, to show you how much we care about this, both for you and Cadance. But don't expect me to pay a lot of attention to what will be talked there, I'm not interested in any of that nerdy stuff, sorry egghead, but this kind of stuff isn't interesting for me," - very quickly, the farmer Applejack decided to jump in the same bandwagon as Rainbow Dash. - "Ah' agree with Rainbow Dash sugarcube. Ahm not interested in this sciency stuff, but we'll be right beside you for support an' showing that we care for you," - at this, everypony nodded as a way to support her and, while Twilight found it a bit disappointing, she was still happy to see her friends supportive of her and what she liked and being with her friends even when it was for something that they weren't interested in made her feel very grateful and happy, she would always enjoy this kind of moments with them.

After a few hours later, they finally reached the Crystal Empire, with its crumbling buildings from the distant past combined with the new, modern urban styles that were so common in Equestria. Twilight Sparkle was very sure that, with enough work and help from Equestria and the crystal ponies themselves, this Empire would become a nice place once again.

When Twilight and her friends got into the Crystal Palace, they were received by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, invited as well by Princess Cadence for this event that promised to be very important for the whole world, and they were being accompanied by Princess Cadence and Shining Armor; after the introductions (and a little nostalgic dance) was done, they went to the conference room where they met a few ponies, griffons and minotaurs that were historical researchers, professors and diplomatic personnel from Equestria, The Crystal Empire, The Griffon Kingdom and the Minotaur Republic. Once another row of introductions were done by everybody, The Professor Clearing Onyx decided to start the gathering, he cleared his voice and decided to begin talking to the audience:

"Hello and welcome to this Conference meant to share the most recent historic discoveries of The Crystal Empire with the respective Kingdoms and Nations that were involved with us so many years ago. Now, if you have doubt of this since The Griffon Kingdom was made 800 years ago while the Minotaur Republic was founded 300 years ago, I would like to show you that some of the historical records found here are treaties with ancient Griffon tribes, like the Thunder Clans and the infamous Blood Wings, and some minotaurs heroes like Lightning Hammer and Adamantium Shield." - At this moment, the historians looked at him with a mild curiosity but they kept their skepticism, they would believe him after seeing the notes themselves.

"But before seeing those, we want to show you this movie that depicts a very important moment in our history, while Princess Cadence, Shining Armor and I saw a piece of it, we decided that it would be best to see it at the same time as you to show that hasn't been adulterated at all and, to proof that, we're going to show you up to the point we last saw, and after a little bit of talking and opinions so far, we'll continue to watch until we think it would be another good moment to stop so we can gather our thoughts so far, is that agreeable?" - Everybody nodded, Clearing Onyx went at the machine, turned it on and the movie started.

A few short minutes later

After pausing the movie in the moment that said that King Sombra was dethroned, many Historians started to shout and argue the impossibility of it (specially the Equestrians and Crystal Ponies) arguing that Sombra was known for being extremely powerful, to the point that it required 2 Princesses to defeat him and The Crystal heart to finally vanquish him. The idea of him being dethroned sounded laughable at best, plus that they never heard of such a thing as a "Crystal Kingdom", overall, they were very close to call this movie a big fraud. But, before this could end up in a low note, a voice was heard above the others.

"If I may." -, when everybody looked, they were surprised to see that the one speaking was none other than Princess Celestia. Understanding the weight on her words, they all decided to stay quiet and let her speak. - "Since my sister and I were the ones defeating Sombra a 1000 years ago, I will say that we don't know much of what was happening in the Crystal Empire by the time. We were fighting Discord for a long time and, after turning him into Stone, we had to fix many of the problems Equestria had to struggle with because of Discord's chaotic magic, being the Everfree Forest one of the few problems that still haven't been fixed to this day. During all this time, the Crystal Empire acted as an ally that sent us the resources we needed to stabilize Equestria and we had very little time to see what was going on with our Crystal friends. At best, we got a visit from the Queen Mi Amor Candente when she was on vacation, but she barely talked to us about the affairs of her lands, so we knew next to nothing beyond that. By the time we were finally starting to get a hold of running Equestria, Mi Amor Candente came with her foal, Loving Sapphire, claiming that she was overthrown from The Crystal Empire by Sombra the possibility of him murdering her husband, who stayed behind trying to protect her. Before my sister and I defeated Sombra, he cast the curse that disappeared the Empire for 1000 years and only Mi Amor Candente and her daughter, along a small regiment of soldiers that took her to Canterlot, stayed behind since they weren't in The Empire when Sombra cast the curse. And, for the record, of the few archives we had at the time that were saved from Discord's chaos, they DO mention the existence of a Crystal Kingdom; the reason that we all call it 'The Crystal Empire' is because that was the name given to it by Mi Amor Candente whenever she came to visit. From what I can see, this movie might actually explain the reason of said contradiction, so I ask you to, please stay here for a little while and see where could this go." - At this, many historians became surprised and, before any of them could keep arguing against the veracity of the film, Luna interjected too.

"I agree with my sister, and to answer your question about his power: when my Sister and I fought him, he had an amulet known as the Alicorn Amulet, an object known for increasing the power of an Unicorn to the level of an Alicorn. That was the only reason he was so powerful and why it required the power of my sister and I combined to defeat him. In the end, all that was left of him was his spirit and, after the disappearance of The Crystal Empire, we took the amulet and made sure that it couldn't be found ever again."

After that, everybody was shut and decided to watch the rest of the film. Even Twilight's friends were curious by this point and wanted to see who or what was capable of overthrowing Sombra being in a physical body when he was so dangerous just being a spirit.

5 minutes later, after eating and drinking, the movie proceeded:

Movie

Crystal Films Presents

Times of Dictatorship: Times of Swift Rise

The Portrait of a Brown coated Pony with a dark mane and dark brown eyes appeared. From what could be looked, he had a white armor with golden shoulder pads.

Executive Producer:
Buoyant Emerald

An earth Pony mare with orange mane, read coat and emerald eyes appeared, sitting on a bench, while being followed by 2 separated images of 2 more Unicorns (both stallions; One with a Lime mane, lemon coat and green eyes and the other with a White mane, gray like coat and black eyes; it was impossible to see their respective cutie marks from the angle they were looking at) sitting in their respective benches. After that, the film started to show a group of Crystal Ponies moving through what looked like the Empire, but without the architecture that it had now.

General Production:
Clear Gem
Glowing Obsidian

A pegasus mare with a golden mane, silver coat and bronze eyes started to seat as well, her cutie mark was almost impossible to see, but from the looks of it, apparently had a quill.

Direction of Photography:
Right Grade

Locution:
Clearing Onyx

Post Production:
Fine Cut

An old earth pony stallion with a blue mane, cyan coat and purple eyes seated in another bench, once again, it was impossible to see his cutie mark; 3 more ponies followed: the first one was another old unicorn with a yellow mane, butter coat and cream eyes. He was the only one so far whose cutie mark could be seen well and apparently it was a black hole (?). The second one was a pegasus stallion with red mane and blood like coat and ruby like eyes, again, no cutie mark could be seen. The third one was an earth pony stallion, with a yellow mane, a white coat and blue eyes, he apparently had a cutie mark, but it could only be seen what it appeared to be musical note.

Animations:
Giant Post

Another mare seated: she had a light blue coat, bright pink and purple mane and tail along with deep blue eyes.

Mix and Sound band:
Strong Glass

A book under the name "The Crystal Kingdom facing terror" was shown and then being zoom out.

Music:
Melodious Pearl

Edition:
Bright Quartz

Script and Writing:
Clear Gem

5 years ago

Appears the image of a spring valley, when suddenly it's covered in frosting while it start to rain chocolate.

"It's been a few decades since Discord started to cause chaos across the land, Princess Celestia and Luna has been trying to fight him off, and while their efforts haven't done much as of now, it has managed to make him focus on just Equestria and leave the rest of the world alone."

Images of Discord creating cotton candy with popcorn and honey hurricanes are shown, then it changes to Princess Celestia and Luna trying to rectify his wrongdoings and failing miserably when Discord decided to encase Celestia in a giant green-colored Jelly and Freezing Luna by covering her with chocolate and then freezing it over.

The scene changes to the Crystal Kingdom, there we can see a crystal pony, unicorn, with a Dark Red coat with a purple-ish mane with orange eyes wearing royal regalia talking in front of The Crystal Palace.

"And while Discord isn't terrorizing the Crystal Kingdom, it doesn't mean it's citizens are safe or in good conditions. The actual King, Loving Garnet, while he really has the heart in the right place, he's incapable of properly rule the kingdom. Many ponies are suffering from hunger and disease caused for his mismanagement of the country, not even realizing that his most trusted Ponies, are the ones making it impossible to save the Kingdom."

Images of the King ruling are shown, followed by a group of ponies looking like nice ponies, but then the picture change showing the ponies stealing from the citizens and laughing at them while the citizens look bad nourished and close to die.

The old earth pony stallion with a blue mane, cyan coat and purple eyes appears and start to talk, in the corner of the film appears his name: Recording Quartz; Occupation: Historian/Sociologist.

Recording Quartz (RQ): "Loving Garnet was one of those kings that would have been a good ruler if he had a more trustworthy court".

The old Unicorn with a yellow mane, butter coat and cream eyes appeared as well his name on the corner showed: Firm Marble; Occupation: Journalist.

Firm Marble (FM): "His court were ponies that didn't cared for anything, they took everything and told the king that everything was fine, he never knew what was happening... or what was going to happen. I suppose he was the only one who never saw coming the coup d'etat"

Recording Quartz (RQ): "It was an announced strike".

"When the queen Amore dies from a disease, and with the Princess Mi Amor Candente still too young to rule, the king is incapable of stabilizing the kingdom and, in the end, is taken over by Sombra, who lead the armed revolt under the promise of helping the ponies of the kingdom, but the ponies started to feel the problem when they witnessed Sombra's first action as the new King."

FM: "By this point, the citizens were mad at the nobles, always taking everything from them, this created a lot of tension and hate among those who wanted a change, those who wanted to reform the kingdom and later, those who wanted to be the new nobles".

A black unicorn with a black horn and red eyes appears killing a red unicorn by cutting his head, followed by another group of ponies. On the bottom a crowd of ponies are looking at the spectacle and celebrating.

Flame Ruby (FR); Occupation: Political Activist/Maid.

Flame Ruby (FR): "When I saw the King being murdered, I felt horror for the lost a nice, but awful ruler at the hands of a Pony who didn't showed any signs of even caring about us. But that wasn't the scariest part, the scariest part was when I saw the crowds celebrating what he did."

Firm Marble (FM): "Anypony who understood what was going on or saw what was going to happen to us, lost all hope of having any shred of good life."

"Sombra started to increase the power of the Crystal Guards by increasing the amount of guards (through conscription) from a few hundreds to tens of thousands in a Kingdom of just 100.000 citizens, at best. He started to force his rule into the ponies by eliminating anyone who opposed him and indoctrinating the soldiers into being loyal to him, his followers and his generals; while he gave more food to the citizens, but just enough so they didn't complained too much and always making shows of how powerful he was, being the biggest one a summoning and transformation of a creature from another world into a pony."

Audience

By this point everybody was having very different opinions on the subject:

While Celestia, and Luna, was initially embarrassed of her ponies looking at her being humiliated, again, by Discord, although that focus was quickly changed when Sombra's Rise was shown. She was also sad about the King who wasn't capable of properly rule. The dangers of corruption was something she was highly aware of now, being tempted by it at first. When she started to rule, she had a hard time learning how to get rid of it, and while there was still corruption in her Kingdom, she at least managed to control it to a certain degree and it would be just a matter of time before she could totally get rid of it. It also couldn't be ignored the fact that Sombra dared to take an innocent creature from another world and forced it to live under him. They also felt relieved to know that their ponies would never fell under those conditions of hatred and unrest that were against all she believed in and was glad that her ponies were always eager to forgive and forget. Luna on the other hoof saw that as signs of what could have been had she actually succeeded in her plans as Nightmare Moon, the idea of polluting Equestria in that same poisonous hatred caused her to shudder at the thought.

The historians, meanwhile, were highly interested in seeing how King Sombra raised to power. It was a huge mystery to them since, while there were records of him, most of the history of the Empire was unknown because the only sources in existence were the Libraries of Equestria (which suffered a lot of damage from Discord and, thus, most of the information was lost forever) and the Crystal Empire's which wasn't available until now, now they were expecting this to show at the very least, what kind of ruler he was since they couldn't see anymore reasons for this film, after all, it looked like he just got the power and he had the followers.

Princess Cadence was hurt seeing how her ponies were suffering under a corrupt kingdom and how it looked like they were just going for the worse with Sombra's coming and that wasn't even talking about how low her ponies could fall if they could accept such monstrosity to happen on the first place. Shining Armor, on the other hoof, was shocked at how Sombra was starting to militarize the Empire. Yes, he would like it more if he could have more ponies serving so he could protect the citizens more, but never in the way Sombra was doing so. The Crystal Guard was supposed to protect the citizens, not to suppress them, and he was glad that, thanks to his work, the soldiers were being drilled into the loyal and reliable guards they were now.

All of the element bearers (plus Spike) were terrorized of how Sombra was treating them, no wonder the crystal ponies didn't wanted to remember his rule, but what baffled their minds was the idea of ponies wanting to celebrate the murder of a king. Twilight was especially affected. If she weren't a good ruler, would she cause the same kind of results on the ponies? The idea alone almost cause her to panic but, for now, she wanted to keep watching just so she could learn something from this, and avoid committing the same mistakes.

Clearing Onyx was surprised of finding his name there, he tried to remember when he accepted to do something like this, but he would just get a headache. It felt so alien to hear his own voice in something he couldn't even remember to have agreed on doing. It was almost the same story for Flame Ruby, she was serving the food and beverages for the guest of the palace. Everything was fine until she saw herself on the film. She felt very weird, why was she on a film? She never aimed for that kind of thing in her life, she only wanted to be a maid, or was it being an activist?, she only wanted to... what did she wanted in her life? When she tried to remember she would only feel a migraine that would block any attempt to remember.

Movie

"But when all hope was lost, something happened, something that nobody saw coming."

The mare with light blue coat, bright pink and purple mane and tail along with deep blue eyes appeared. Name: Jewel Joy; Occupation: Civilian.

Jewel Joy (JJ): "I was in school when, suddenly, we were told "everypony to your houses". I tried to ask what was going on, but all I would get was something like "I don't know, something happened, something good"".

FM: "King Sombra's dethroning sounded impossible, and still does".

RQ: "We all thought he had the control... And, apparently, we were wrong".

A Newspaper clip appears with the headline "The Crystal Guards took over the control of the kingdom yesterday".

The Stallion Pegasus with red mane and blood like coat and ruby like eyes appeared this time on screen. Name: Crimson Cut. Occupation: Officer of the Crystal Guard.

Crimson Cut (CC): "Sombra was very strict and he always focused on indoctrinate us to him and, well, his generals. They didn't liked that, neither how he was damaging the kingdom."

RQ: "The military were splitting among those who liked Sombra and those who wanted to help the kingdom. In the end, that schism, that incapacity from Sombra to keep the guards together, lead to his dethroning."

FR: "I was working in the Crystal Palace that day and I remember that I was cleaning Sombra's throne, when a group of guards entered the throne room and, before Sombra could even greet them or shout at them for entering without his permission, they hoofed him in the face, broke his horn and then arrested him," - she paused, after remembering the moment with a few more details she added, - "when Sombra recovered from the pain, he demanded to know who dared to arrest the King, and they answered "The High Military Command"".

Images appears depicting a pony guard with crystal shoulder pads and golden marks in the helmet looking at the horizon while another group was taking a black unicorn with a broken horn out of the kingdom, on the background it could be seen the crystal ponies celebrating the moment.

"King Sombra and his most loyal generals and officers are arrested and soon exiled from the kingdom, while many of his followers goes into exile or goes into clandestinity. The military has taken total control of the kingdom, there is fear of this resulting in something worse, but at the next day, everypony acts like if nothing happened, like if they silently decided to accept what just happened."

For the first time, actual ponies appear in the film being recorded, showing a press conference with 3 crystal guards that weren't wearing their helmets but wore their respective armors, one with a white armor and crystal shoulder pads while the other two had normal armors, entering into the conference room while being followed by a group of soldiers, they all had the stone face common of all the guards.

The first one, an Unicorn, is shown talking to the audience while holding his notes through magic.

"The military joint that took over the kingdom is made by the General Pure Diamond: crystal pony, unicorn, of noble birth, graduated in the Crystal Academy, he was the second in command when King Sombra was in charge."

The second one, a Pegasus, is then shown talking now with the help of notes being held by his wings.

"Another member is the Lt. Golden Strike, an energetic and extrovert pegasus guard, born in the Crystal Kingdom but with Equestrian ascendance."

The third is then shown slowly walking towards the journalist, holding his notes with his hoofs in a very awkard position to be sure to not get them dirty.

"And the Colonel Swift Rise, the summoned creature and then turned pony by Sombra, who is looked as the true mastermind behind the military coup".

The colonel moves into a podium so he could speak to the public while Pure Diamond and Golden Strike sits behind him, both of them with stone like faces, not allowing to show any kind of emotion while the colonel gives the speech:

"There's ahead of us, a series of problems of hard solutions: the evident disorganization of the country, the lack of a stable economic structure, the unfair treatment of social classes, the disadvantages between the species of ponies, the weak state of the k-"

"There is no king or nobles in the government, 3 guards assumes the control."

Pure Diamond and Golden Strike are shaking hoofs with a lot of ponies that are getting close to meet them while they dropped the military face and are showing emotions so the citizens could feel safer with them, although Swift Rise looks like he doesn't want to be there at all.

"The Kingdom looks lively, like if nothing have happened, the citizens just wants to get back at their lives and enjoy what they have now."

Various activities being done by the crystal ponies are shown: foals playing among each other, adults going around and buying food and other frivolities, dancing in parties, etc. Among the ponies, the ones who step out the most are those who are wearing a black tuxedo and are always well groomed.

"Life goes on, but the citizens have to be quiet because what is left of Sombra's followers are lurking in the shadows and any type of protest is looked as association with him and is quickly arrested."

The pegasus mare with golden mane, silver coat and bronze eyes appeared speaking, name: Lasting Marble; Occupation: Teacher.

Lasting Marble (LM): "There was a persecution from the military against Sombra's followers. If you said something against the actual government, you would be looked as one of his followers and be sent to jail. While nopony liked this type of repression, they also wanted Sombra's minions to be arrested, so they said nothing."

FM: "While the military would allow the media to say whatever they wanted, they would always take a look at what you said, and if you stepped out of the line, your working place could suddenly be inspected by them".

A Meeting board is seen, filled with many military Ponies and a few civilians.

"While the military are in control, the control isn't exclusive to them. Well known professionals among the civilians are appointed to the court or are turned into administrators, one of those being the ex-Princess Mi Amor Candente, who survived Sombra's takeover by hiding in the shadows until his dethroning."

A pink unicorn mare appears in the screen, she was signing some scrolls and after doing so she is received with open forelegs by Pure Diamond. Another scene opens with some Unicorns making a lot of giveaways to foals that look dirty and poor.

"The military junta have offered that, in the right moment, they're going to follow the right procedures to crown a new king; the nobles are highly interested in who will be chosen as the new king and under what conditions, but they stay very quiet, some make fundings and charities to rise in popularity, for the time of choosing the next king comes, but nothing else, any type of political control or speech has been banned."

A military procedure opens in, making a inauguration of a big library.

"The Crystal Kingdom doesn't lack resources by now, Sombra forced his citizens to mine nearby mountains and use it's resources to increase the amount of money avaiable for the Kingdom. Now, the military were using it for infrastructure, building constructions of great magnitude like the stadium, the Library and the new houses for the citizens of the kingdom."

Audience

At this point, everybody was in shock and, baffled, but mostly in shock:

Celestia didn't know what to think of this. on one hoof, she was glad to see how the Crystal Empire (or Kingdom? why the change in the name?) was saved from Sombra (as hard to believe as it was) but the idea of the no monarch or ruler in the kingdom was something she never heard of, - "the military took control of a kingdom, how is that possible?" - She thought. She tried to search for goods or bad of this but her mind was in such state of shock that she couldn't think clearly. But she was aware enough to keep her poker face so no one knew what was going on, and while her sister Luna was keeping the same face, Celestia knew that she must have been in the same state of shock... and she was right, but for different reasons, all this time, Luna was always worried of what could have happened should the rise of Nightmare Moon had won, and this film was acting on her as an answer, she wasn't sure exactly how (the shock didn't let her think clearly), but she knew that somehow, should Nightmare Moon had won, this story would have repeated in Equestria. They both knew there was something else they should be taking notes of, but they would probably remember what once the shock had leave them.

The historians were surprised by this turn of events: the equestrians were close to cry out that this film was a forgery. The possibility of guards taking over was impossible, they were made to protect not to rule, what kind of political government was this? The crystal ponies were baffled, they didn't know what to think now, there were some notes in the military of some of this ponies (Pure Diamond was mentioned in there somewhere), but most of the information provided by this film was completely new. Why the library and archives hadn't talked about any of this? There had to be a reason for all of this. The only thing stopping the ponies from leaving were the Griffons and minotaurs who wanted to see all of this who, for some reason, were VERY focused on the film.

Cadance couldn't make up her mind. The idea that her Empire was once ruled by military was surprising, but to know that they allowed her ancestor to have a political power? Give her back her nobility? What was going on? She felt that this was conflicting with the information her aunt Celestia told her about how her ancestor came to Equestria, if all of this information was true, then, what happened that made Sombra in charge again? Shining Armor on the other hoof... didn't know whether to feel glad that he was commanding officers that had their citizens well being as a priority or be ashamed over the idea that they decided to take the control instead of giving the throne back to the rightful ruler, Mi Amor Candente.

Neither Twilight nor her friends (including Spike, who was starting to feel lost at this point for the amount of information being dumped on him) was capable of gathering their thoughts: Pinkie wanted to know where to find the music used in the film so she could use it on her parties (there was something else, but she didn't know what at the moment. Maybe it was that she forgot to adjust the stove, maybe is that she had to search for a new recipe for a new type of cake or maybe it was that there was something weird with that earth pony... nah, it probably was the cake recipe). Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy were surprised at this turn of events, the idea of no ruler on a kingdom was something new to them so they didn't know what to think of it. Rarity was focused on the ponies that were wearing tuxedo, they looked quite good and she might try to make that outfit once she get back at the boutique. Twilight was perplexed, she was trying to think on how it was possible for guards to be in control, she tried to think of a way, but that train of thought would always go to her brother, but he was married to Cadence, so he couldn't count, but he was a Chief General, but he was an exception, but - headache -, agh, maybe it was for the best to think on something else, like the mining, they were using it to increase the state of the kingdom, then she remembered what that colonel was talking about... now she wanted to know what they did on the Kingdom, it was a good thing that she was taking notes of this, it would be helpful for her.

Movie

"By this point, the Military shows cohesion and control, but there's tension among them. A big part of the military doesn't like the General Diamond, they don't trust him, he is too farsighted, of a rich and noble family, with advanced ideas and friend of the elite. They comment that he wants to become the new king. On the other hoof, Swift Rise has popularity between the officers, he is always by the book, follows the rules and represents them all the time. A true Crystal Guard."

"While Sombra's followers may be weak right now, it doesn't mean that they can't influence the ponies, they have become the resistance and they're trying to take down this new government."

RQ: "The followers of Sombra, who were later called 'sombrist', were ponies who wanted to regain the control that Sombra gave to them".

CC: "They were in a state of revengeance, they were took down, now they wanted to take the new government out".

"Pure Diamond promise that Sombra won't be coming back and that they are already searching his followers in the city with a new type of guard designed to be the defenders of the kingdom. There was no way that they would recover the kingdom, and this was the last time Pure Diamond would make a public appearance."

A unicorn guard is having a walkway in the kingdom when, suddenly, he is foalnapped by a group of ponies who put a metal ring on him. They put him into a carriage, while they beat him down, they take him into a house where they start to shoot him with their horns and leave the body there.

"The story goes that the General Pure Diamond was on his way to the Crystal Palace when he was intercepted, a dozen of ponies gathered for the ambush, they force him to get into a carriage. The leader said "take off your helmet, because today you stop being a commander". Pure Diamond doesn't obey, they struggle and goes to the new suburbs called "The Merciful", and they stop in a empty house. In an attempt to escape, Pure Diamond hoof the leader, everything starts to crumble, they take him to the courtyard, there are discussions and threats, they start to shoot him, first in the face, then in his back. The Chief General Pure Diamond, leader of the Military Junta, is left agonizing in the cold floor. By noon, the newspaper shows the news."

A newspaper clip shows the headline: Leader of the military junta murdered.

"In a place where safety reigns, terror strikes were nopony expected. There are rumors about the attack: some say that he was attacked by ponies with a personal vendetta, others that were Sombra's followers terrorizing the kingdom, others that it was an attempt of a military strike"

A big funeral is shown, with the military, family, relatives, friends and acquaintances gathered, some are crying while others (military) show nothing as usual.

"The funeral is lead by Swift Rise, now ascended to General, who is looked by many as the instigator of this, but they're just rumors (like everything else) and only one thing is certain: the tragic death of the Chief General Pure Diamond."

"A few days later, chaos start to erupt in the kingdom: in the outside, groups of Griffons, Minotaurs and Exiled ponies are trying to invade while, in the inside, Sombra's followers had started to attack the city by making riots and terrorizing the city in general. The Military junta is forced to take action and Swift Rise decides to make the first move to defend the Kingdom: He decides to proclaim himself the King and reforms the Kingdom into a Constitutional Monarchy".

Chapter 2: Pacific Takeover

View Online

A Little reminder:

Recording Quartz (RQ): Historian/Sociologist
*Firm Marble (FM): Journalist
Flame Ruby (FR): Political activist/Maid
Jewel Joy (JJ): Civilian
Crimson Cut (CC): Officer
Lasting Marble (LM): Teacher

I am also a bit of a perfectionist so I'm always making some changes here and there in the previous chapters to make sure that they're not contradicting the new chapters, I'll try to make sure this doesn't happens too often.

Also if you watch green text, it's a link to listen music to give ambience.

The distant past

Up in the mountains, close to the Crystal Kingdom, there was a large pack of Diamond dogs. They've been living in there for a time, carving the gems they could find to strengthen themselves and also trading them with other species for goods that couldn't be obtained otherwise. They owe this way of living to King Sombra, whom they bowed their loyalty, and, thus, they allowed him to live among them until he could get his kingdom back. According to him, the usurper was planning to attack them and destroying the new life that the Diamond Dogs were having, since they subjected themselves to Sombra they would always get enough food to survive. The pack was starting to grow slowly but steadily now that the dogs could live 2 more years before dying in the mines and it was easier to allow at least 3 pups to survive.

And inside the caves of his loyal dogs, Sombra was now planning what to do with that traitor. He already got rid of Pure Diamond thanks to his followers, but Swift Rise was still a problem. Sombra wasn't sure how, but that traitor managed to overthrow him, break his horn and now was the new king. How he managed to do that when he never showed that level of political skill or influence among his soldiers? Sombra would never figure it out. To make it all worse, whatever he was doing in the kingdom was getting results, somehow, by giving the citizens more power, he managed to focus more on getting rid of his followers both outside and inside the kingdom. But that didn't mattered, soon he would have the means to recover the throne and make sure that the traitor would regret for the rest of his life the betrayal of the true king of the Crystal Kingdom but, for now, he would try to recover the kingdom with the help of his followers.

Meanwhile

There are 2 ponies outside the throne room:

One was Golden Strike, he wasn't very sure of what was going on or how to feel about it. While he was angry for Pure Diamond's murder and really wanted to get the ones behind it, the Crystal Guard couldn't leave the borders defenseless. He was glad that Swift Rise proclaimed himself King to bring stability, but he wasn't sure if he could do it or if it actually was a good idea and that's not even speaking of his political decisions. Why create a parliament? Why give power to the civilians? How is that going to solve the problem with Sombra's followers inside the Kingdom? He wasn't sure, but Swift Rise has proven multiple times that he knew what he was doing, both when he convinced Pure Diamond of overthrowing Sombra and when he adviced to create better infrastructure for the citizens of the Kingdom (it made the ponies very happy and accepted them very quickly). In the end, he would have to accept this and obey, such was the life of the military.

The other one was a pink Unicorn with a pink mane, violet eyes and a heart shaped cutie mark, she was the new Speaker Mi Amor Candente and she was mad right now. The kingdom her father worked so hard to save was in a dire state and this pony was crowning himself as a king and forming some weird elections or whatever they were. She would have sent a diplomatic mission (with a guard division as protectors of the diplomatic mission of course) to try to solve this with talking and, if it didn't worked out, then it would be war. And she would try to keep the kingdom stable from the get-go. But no, the new king was too busy organizing some "elections" to make a court whose specific job would be making laws. Ok, they would have other duties, but between that parliament and a Supreme Court of Justice (why making a court to apply the law? the king should be the one making the law and enforcing it while helping the citizens by saying who was right on their problems) the Speaker was looking at this new king as someone incapable of doing his job, heck, he was going to send another general to defend the kingdom instead of going himself, if anything, she didn't had too much hopes for this new king.

Swift Rise was inside the throne room, he was about to create a new type of guards to defend the kingdom. This new division would have the specific job to protect the kingdom from any type of criminal or terrorist inside the kingdom. And right now he was interviewing the potential new leader of this new division. Golden Strike and Mi Amor Candente were doubtful of this pony, but they didn't had much say on the matter.

"Hey!" - Started the monochromatic officer. Once the pink unicorn realized that somepony was speaking to her, she decided to address him. - "Um, yes?" - Golden Strike looked doubtful, like if he didn't know how to express himself, an anomaly for the extroverted pegasus. - "What do you think of this?" - "Uhm, could you be more specific please? There are too many things in my mind right now," - at this, Strike decided to explain himself a bit more, - "I mean all of this. General Swift Rise has always shown signs of knowing what he was talking about or what to do, heck, it was his idea to dethrone Sombra. But, right now, this new idea of his sound too weird, I don't even know if they'll work."

At this, the pink unicorn started to feel a rising unpleasantness. - "In all honesty, I don't like it. I grew up thinking that a King or Queen had to be able to take the Kingdom on its own shoulders and send it forward. This decisions may go against what I know and grew up learning, but in practice they sound good and I have to accept that if it weren't for him, Sombra would still be in charge right now and I really don't want to know how that would be." - At hearing this, Golden strike felt a punch of guilt. General Pure Diamond was among the ponies who wanted to put Amor Candente on the throne again, but Rise denied this by stating that she had no experience on ruling and that she could, not only, make everything worse but create a political turmoil. In the end, they both agreed on giving her amnesty and allow her to be a mayor so she could start having experience on the matter. It was one of the few times that Pure Diamond and Swift Rise ever had a discussion so heated up, but it didn't looked like a good time to tell her, and it probably would never be.

After a very awkward silence, Golden Strike decided to change the subject once again: "Well, at least you're not the only one who thinks that... and what do you think of him?" - At this, the angered unicorn had to stop fuming and tried to remember her first encounter with the earth pony. He was cold and distant, but always managed to remain tactful, respectful and somehow complimented her, he was very weird to begin with. - "Him? Well, I'm grateful to him for saving the kingdom and trying to protect it from Sombra, but I would rather have him as my general in the borders, protecting us from Sombra rather that being a king." - While this was true, she had to accept that the 3 times that she have talked to him so far, he always looked like knowing what he was talking about, whether it was about economics, politics or pony rights. Sometimes it even looked like if he knew more than he let be shown; the now chancellor was astounded how this guard showed signs of being cultured and smart when the Crystal Guard was known for being filled with brutes or ponies that only cared of how to make a sword shiny. He was a total mystery.

Golden Strike couldn't miss what she meant - "So you do want to be the ruler?" - He wasn't angered at this or surprised, after all, she was the princess once. Mi Amor Candente felt discovered and was afraid of any type of repression, but after looking at his eyes, filled with curiosity and care, she felt safe and decided to explain herself. - "Yeah, I mean, I was the princess, I was supposed to be the next one on the line. But that right was taken away from me before I could even attempt to rule, now I'll never know if I could have saved my kingdom." - Her ears then started to go down and her face started to show signs of sadness.

After seeing the sadness on her face, and still feeling guilty for not saying anything when the time came, he decided to help her feel better. - "Don't worry speaker Candente, I'm pretty sure that he chose you to have your current position as speaker so you could do something like that. You can help the king, that's something, right?" - At this thought, her eyes lighted up a bit. - "Yeah, I suppose." - Seeing an advance, the overconfident pegasus decided that it was time to tease her a bit. - "And don't worry, you're not the only one wanting to save this kingdom. You got me, the Crystal guard, the citizens of the Kingdom and the King, who you'll be having a lot of time to meet personally and help to run this kingdom," - sadly for him, the tease failed to be understood, - "thanks," - she said, not realizing that she was already paired up with the strangest earth pony she has ever met.

In that moment the door opened. Swift Rise and the other pony came out. He was an unicorn with a black mane with a pearl white coat and his eyes were black but had a shine that remembered the onyx, as a cutie mark he had a golden star surrounded by shackles and his face was showing a smugness that rubbed off as wrong to both Strike and Candente. He walked until he was about to exit the room, turned around, looked at the king (who was at the entrance of the throne room) and said:

"My King, I am honored for being accepted as the leader of this division created by you. I assure you that I will pass your test, find the one responsible for the murder of the general Pure Diamond and send the criminal to the justice it deserves. But I have also decided to accept the challenge you want to impose on me".

At this point, both Strike and Candente were curious about this, apparently, something else was going on here, but they didn't saw Swift Rise starting to slightly smile at this words, the Unicorn in front of him would have notice his slight change in his lips, but he was too far to notice it.

"In 2 years, I will have made such work in this kingdom, such efficiency of security and safety, that the citizens will be able to sleep with their doors open".

The Present

Everybody was relaxing from the movie, or, at least, was trying to. They were all trying to digest all the information that was just given to them by the documentary and, if the movie wasn't stopped, they wouldn't be able to take any more information.

"Well, that was enlightening." - Nobody could see who said that, but another voice followed soon after. - "Indeed, who would've believed that the myths from the Golden Wings could actually be true?" - This time, Twilight managed to find the speaker, a brown griffon with the head of an Eagle, he was speaking with two other griffons on a closed section of the room. Of the other griffons, one was male with white feathers with black spots on the wings and an owl head, while the other one was female, dark blue feathers and the feathers of her head made it look like she had a crown, almost like a queen, she then decided to proceed the conversation. - "Indeed, my mother will be surprised to know that our clan might have some evidence about the legitimacy of our claims as the true rulers of the Griffon Kingdom."

At this statement, Twilight couldn't resist and decided to jump into the conversation with a very kind and soft, - "excuse me," - when the griffons turned, they looked dismissive (as if they didn't wanted someone else listening) but, once they realized that the one speaking to them was a Princess of Equestria, they decided to salute her. - "Hello there, Princess Twilight Sparkle." - Said the female griffon with an air of smugness. - "I suppose that this kind of conversations won't be private if you have them in a room full of potential listeners, but it's alright, this isn't as private as I would like to believe. In what can I, the great Princess Anna Romanov, help you with?" - Twilight wasn't sure of what kind of princess this griffon was, but if that air of smugness and ego was close to Rainbow Dash's then she had an idea of how to get the information she wanted.

"Well, I accidentally listened how you were mentioning some myths about an old clan of your Kingdom so I hope you could-" - in that moment the griffon princess interrupted Twilight Sparkle, - "sorry but before you keep speaking nonsense I have to interrupt you, but fear not that I will give you the information you seek. The Golden Wings weren't some old griffon clan, they were the founders of the Griffon Kingdom 800 years ago. They were among the wisest griffon clans of their time and, as such, they had the highest teachings of war and civility ever conceived, even for today's standards. Teachings that allowed them to submit all the other clans after a 100 years of ceaseless war. They also gave us many of our myths that tried to explain how they came to have such knowledge, one of these myths were of what today is known as the Crystal Empire." - At this moment, Twilight's interest started to rise and listened closer to her speaker of equal royal position. - "They were told that there was once a Kingdom made out of Gemstones that shone as bright as the Sun and filled with knowledge and wisdom so high that even the poorest and uneducated civilian were capable of talking of philosophy on the same level of Equestria's wisest mages. The Golden Wings always told us of how they used to be subjects of these kingdom and that, after its disappearance, they explored the northern lands and the ice mountains for decades until they settled on, what is today, the capital of our Kingdom." - And, in that moment, the griffon's eyes started to shine as she started to speak about what she loved the most. - "Eventually, desiring to regain that glory they once had when they were subjects of The Crystal Empire, they decided to start the annexation of the other griffon clans and territories (whether it was through diplomacy or war, since they had the knowledge of both) until all the clans were their subjects. Over the course of the centuries, what used to be an Empire of clans, ended up transforming into a Kingdom of just one unified clan and multiple families, and my family, the Romanov family, is descendant of the Golden Wings." - In that moment, she finally took a breather of all that long explanation and, looking back at Princess Twilight, she asked. - "Is all of that information enough for you, Princess of Friendship?".

Twilight wasn't sure what was more surprising, the amount of information given or how much the Harpy looked like she enjoyed hearing her own voice. But that would be a conversation with her friends for another time, for now, she would treat them with the respect her title deserved. - "Yes, thank you, I am also going to guess that the reason you're enjoying this record is because it looks like it could bring authenticity to the stories of your ancestors right?" - At this the dark blue griffon started to smile and looked at Twilight like if a child just figured a very easy test and started to talk in a very condescendant tone. - "Exactly! You certainly are a very bright mare, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I suppose that the rumors of your knowledge aren't false as I presumed," - at this point, Twilight wasn't really liking her but, before she could say something else, they were interrupted.

"Alright folks, the rest is over, time to go back to the film, I hope you found these moments good enough to digest the information given to you." - Both princesses decided to split and go back to their spots with, on one side, Twilight starting to plan on how could she get a comeback against the smug princess. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, the other griffons were starting to nag their young and egotistical princess for the way she treated the equestrian princess. "Your family will be very disappointed for the way you acted in front of Equestrian royalty," - at this, the griffonian princess just shrugged it off. - "Please, like if she knew something of what is to be a noble or a royal. She never had to learn how to administer a whole city and bring justice to your citizens at the age of 5 or studying 800 hundred years of history in 1 year while searching for a new way to improve your kingdom without taking into account that I'm negotiating how to rule with your future husband." - The Griffon diplomats lowered their tone, understanding a bit of her temper, but they remained still with their position. - "Still, as long as you're here, you're representing your family and kingdom, and what do you expect their opinion of us will be if you act like one of those so called nobles who just talks but had never done anything productive with their lives? Do you think the equestrian royalty will support you if you decide to regain the throne after you mistreated one of them?" - At this, the 17 years old princess decided to think and, after some quick reflection, she said on a resignated tone. - "Fine, but I won't give her my respect until she shows that she deserves it." - The other griffons looked at her with some disapproval, but at least this was some improvements compared to other years. The age certainly has improved her character.

Now, while this conversation happened between Twilight and Anna, there were other conversations worth picking up.

On the other side of the room. 3 alicorns, 2 unicorns (a mare and a stallion), 2 Earth Ponies, 2 pegasus and a dragon were speaking of what they've just seen:

"Well, that was certainly something." - Said the lunar alicorn. - "I never expected that the Crystal Empire had such chaotic environment even when Discord wasn't attacking it." - "Indeed my sister. I thought that, with us trying to engage Discord, that the rest of the planet would be safe, but it saddens me to see how wrong we were." - Celestia, not capable of holding up the sadness, started to lower her ears. Applejack, not wanting her princess to be so sad, decided to join the conversation. - "Aw, don be so hard on ya'self princesses. It ain't like ya knew that was happening." - And this statement was supported by Rarity. - "She is right princesses, there wasn't anything you could have done to stop it and, in the end, if it weren't for you, maybe it would have been even worse for everypony. Since Discord would've been causing damage across the whole land." - And Rainbow Dash then decided to give her own piece on this conversation. - "Yeah, and in the end it wasn't so bad, that Swift Rise managed to get rid of Sombra, granted, I or my friends wouldn't have needed any type of help, but not everypony is as awesome as us." - And, after finally gaining some courage for herself, Fluttershy decided to intervene. - "Yes, I will add how amazing it was that an earth pony managed to do all that, but I don't mean that earth ponies can't do something like that, is just that I'm very surprised, that's all..." - at this point Pinkie Pie decided to try to cheer her friends. - "Don't worry Fluttershy, you're right, it's super duper amazing how that pony managed to defeat that meanie pants of Sombra and while I can't figure out what is wrong with him I do know that I would make a lot of parties to celebrate." - "My little ponies." - Interrupted Celestia. - "While I appreciate that you're trying to cheer us, please remember that this victory against Sombra was short lived, after all, both Luna and I had to deal with him again which means that he somehow managed to regain the throne." - At this little reminder, many of the ponies started to flatten their faces and trying to change the conversation.

Cadance decided to enter the conversation at this point, wanting to give her own piece regarding what she understood so far. - "While is true that Sombra managed to come back, I'm still surprised to see that another pony managed to take over through the military, after all, they were supposed to be very loyal to him." - "Dear, I think I can explain that." - Said Shining Armor. - "When I started to drill the guard, I managed to find a script that, for its design and state, it looked like it was very recent and it said For we are the Crystal Guard, we're not loyal to the Royalty or Nobles, we are loyal to the citizens of the Kingdom and we'll do anything in our hoofs to protect them from any type of harm, whether it comes from the outside or the inside of the Kingdom, we will never fail our citizens nor let them fall into certain doom, for that is our oath, who wrote that was a mystery to me since all I could find was a 'P' and a 'D', but now I realize that it must have been the General Pure Diamond who decided to make an oath to protect the citizens short after expelling Sombra." - At this revelation, the Princesses, ponies and Dragon were surprised and, finally, Spike decided to ask. - "Ok, all of this is cool, but how was that Swift Rise going to make it work with a Constri-, constitoo-, const-" - as Spike was trying to articulate the word, a newcomer decided to make itself known. - "Constitutional monarchy." - Everypony turned and saw one of the Minotaurs getting close to them. - "Sorry for the interruption but, as of now, I have been listening to your conversation since my friends over there." - In a corner of the room could be seen 2 more minotaurs talking with the other 6 pony researchers and it looked like they were in a very hot conversation. - "Since my friends have that conversation owned, I preferred to listen to the other conversations on this room to see if there was something else worth talking about and I couldn't stop myself from hearing your question young drake, and I am going to answer." - Spike's eyes were filled with happiness at the idea of someone deciding to not only listen to him, but who also thought that he had a very good question but before he could get his answer they were interrupted.

"Alright folks, the rest is over, time to go back to the film." - At this, Spike got sad, but the Minotaur decided to cheer him by saying. - "Don't worry young drake, perhaps after seeing the next part, you might get a glimpse of how does this type of government works." - They went to their places and Spike got very curious with Twilight, since she looked like someone had said something very mean to her, but her face was gone when Pinkie gave her a cupcake, at first she was surprised at the sudden cupcake but, after seeing who was giving it to her, she decided to eat it happily. And then, the movie proceeded.

Movie

A large group of crystal ponies appears in front of the Crystal Palace, with Amor Candente speaking to them.

"While the idea of having a King again was nice, the ponies were very reluctant to accept another General as a King or to accept the changes he was bringing to the Kingdom, nonetheless, Mi Amor Candente managed to calm them to avoid a social explosion."

RQ: "That's how it was Candente." - The old stallion said with enthusiasm, - "she always knew what to say to the ponies so they could calm down".

FM: "She was very knowledgeable and wise, both her and the king knew that a social explosion was what Sombra wanted, so Candente would try to keep the population calm while Swift Rise was restructuring everything else."

A newspaper front line appears with the headline 'Workers strike avoided, the new speaker proves herself' followed by another newspaper that said 'Ponies will choose who will represent them on the kingdom'.

"With a calmed down population, now the new King has the time to make the necessary reforms the kingdom needs to survive in this complex times, he decides to create a Supreme Court of Justice so the justice would be sentenced by an unbiased system of judges and a Parliament to take care of the creation of the laws for the kingdom. Just one more thing and he would have more time to get rid of the invaders."

RQ: "Normally, a king appoints the ministers or generals by himself, but to make sure that the ponies wouldn't be too angry, he decided to grant them the power to choose them."

FM: "The ponies became shocked at the idea of letting their voice be heard like that, it has never happened before in our history".

LM: the old teacher looked undisturbed. - "It was a smart move, I'll admit that. Now, if there was a problem with the government, it would be our fault since we chose them, but nonetheless, after the shock, all the ponies wanted to elect themselves or elect their friends".

JJ: "I remember my mother saying now it will be our fault if something goes wrong, but at least we can have a true voice, I'm starting to like this new king," - then, she started to giggle, - "my dad got jealous of him, but it didn't lasted too long".

FR: "Now, that we had our chance of voicing our opinion, everypony was starting to say who had to be what, even the nobles got caught in it, but before it could become a chaos, the King made a new announcement".

Swift Rise appeared in front of the Crystal Palace with Golden Strike, Amor Candente and a mysterious unicorn pony and he started to give a speech:

"In a few months, the first elections ever held in the history of this world will be made, but to make it easier for you to choose, we will make some rules, first, the need of a political group that represents-"

The scene is covered by a note that said 'Political Parties have been created, the King decides to create their own called The Independent Front and will represent him in the elections'.

"With the announcement of the parties, the nobles started to create them like crazy, each noble would create their own political party and use their resources to promote themselves to the kingdom."

FR: "I still remember how Safe Care would create his party, the Ponies Matter party and say that 'each one of us had the power to change this kingdom now', he always had a natural charm".

FM: "With the political parties, the nobles now had an easier way to gain control of the kingdom, if their political party was on the parliament, or Crystal Congress, then they could make the laws they desired".

"But in their emotional craze and dreams of power, nopony noticed the other 2 announcements the king made that day."

CC: "Nobody noticed how Golden Strike was being sent to deal with the invaders." - Said in a very bitter tone, then he closed his eyes and said in a much more sinister tone. - "Or the naming of the leader of new guard division," - he shuddered, - "that stallion always gave me the creeps".

"With a trusty commander being sent to the front to defend the exterior of the kingdom, the interior will be defended by a new unicorn that has just entered into the political stage, Stray Stone."

CC: "Nopony knows from where did the king found him or where he came from, but in the moment my eyes crossed his, I knew something was going to happen, I just wasn't sure of what at the time."

FR: "Those shining eyes would always melt my legs, it was how he could look at you with such a confidence and when he talked to you, you would just lost yourself in him, more than once he would manage to convince me to help him in some errand".

"Stray Stone was going to be the leader of the new Division of guards to help with the security of the kingdom, the Kingdom Protection Division, or KP."

Stray Stone is shown in front of a dozens of earth, pegasus and earth ponies wearing tuxedo. The pegasus and earth ponies were wearing gemstones on their necks (a shield shaped gem) and forelegs (a sword shaped gem hold with a ring surrounding the forelegs of the ponies).

"As their first task, the king ordered them to find the responsible of the murderer of the General Pure Diamond, if they succeeded, they would become the official law enforcers of the kingdom."

CC: "Nopony believed any of those guys would be capable of doing anything, for me, and many others, this looked like a way to calm everypony until the elections could begin."

FM: "And while the ponies did started to forget about the recent events, the king decided that it wasn't enough".

A factory is displayed receiving gems and then transforming the gems into various types of objects.

"With the gems being mined, the king decided that it was time to gain more bits by creating the Crystal Mining Operations and Gem Manufacturers or CMOGM, for the extractions of gems, a company that worked exclusively for the government. With that done, the King started to create the many type of tools to improve the life of his subjects, such as the laser projector for pegasus and earth ponies."

A shield shaped gem along with a big ring (big enough to fit into a foreleg) with a sword shaped gem attached to it were being delivered to the KP.

"And the voice projector that is quickly used to bring entertainment to his subjects."

One of this large gems were being shown, they looked like a box but with multicolored buttons and it was voicing a fascinated group of ponies a song.

"And now I'm coming to ask you to not punish me for loving you with all my soul"

The earth pony stallion, with a yellow mane, a white coat and blue eyes and a musical note as a cutie mark appears singing the song, name: Pitch Perfect; job: singer.

Pitch Perfect (PP): "I want you to have mercy even from the ingrate that for my little sin, my soul destroyed." - He stopped singing and added. - "For that song I won the first award." - He started to look up trying to remember. - "In the Elite magazine and it was chose by the citizens, the public voted by sending a letter to Crystal Voice respectively."

JJ: "Everyday at 5pm we had to turn up the speaker to dance everything that was new."

Many ponies dancing, singing and moving various musical instruments would appear.

"It looked like, everything that was happening in the kingdom was on the Crystal Speaker, it was it's golden time, the most popular voices of the Crystal Kingdom, new singers, foreign artist, and the musicians that comes with the sound of the mountains."

More Ponies were shown dancing and touching their music.

"What isn't talked about, it's politics. The king has ordered that, until the preparations of the elections are ready, no more politics would be talked, and the citizens didn't minded this, it looked like all they needed was to work to have a peaceful life, the King was taking care of their safety."

Ponies are shown working on the construction of houses and other buildings.

"The new working conditions not only to promote immigration from the farms to the capitol of the kingdom, but one from even farther away."

A large amount of ponies are shown coming to the kingdom from Equestria, while from the mountains were coming griffons and minotaurs.

"Its the forced harvest of a chaotic time and the wars on the periphery, now that they were far away from Discord or, they step into this new land of opportunities, once they cross the gates of the capitol, they start to search for a new job."

"It was a decision from my clan." - Said a Golden griffon, all of his feathers were yellow gold and they were glowing majestically. Name: Golden Claw. Job: Prince of the Fast Flight clan; Immigrant.

GC: "We were going to what the elders called 'pony lands', for them, all that was after the mountains was 'Pony Land'."

"We managed to cross Equestria and reached the capitol at 5am," - said a middle aged pink earth pony stallion, he was totally pink and with green eyes. Name: Special Ore. Job: Mineral Appreciation.

SO: "And after that we got a nice house at 3pm." - He started to smile with nostalgia at that moment. - "I came because of the new laws of immigration that the king at the moment, Swift Rise, made and because I was searching for a job at the new Mining company they had".

GC: "We moved because it was safer to live there and our soldiers were being either recruited into the kingdom's army since war was all they knew, meanwhile, me and my other nest brothers were going to attend to their new education system and learn all there was to learn."

SO: "When I was hired I started to study the gems, the rocks, anything I was given and had to analyze what it was and what was worth, it was taxing at first with all this knowledge of minerals that not even I knew, but after a few months, I managed to even start to train other ponies to study mineralogy".

"The immigrants, like the crystal ponies, don't get involved into politics, they only want to have a nice and peaceful life, out of Discord or the wars of the other territories, both things that the new king was providing them, they get integrated and enjoy their new life in these peaceful times."

LM: "I still remember those first days teaching griffons, minotaurs and equestrians, not only I had to teach them about the history of our Kingdom, but to promote them to teach the history of their homeland, not even counting calculus, language and the many, many things that the king installed as the new education system in the kingdom".

RQ: "It was very simple, the professors would promote our kingdom's history and teach the new methods of calculus, chemistry, language, etc. But the new teachings would come from books wrote by Swift Rise himself, he would not indoctrinate them, but he would make sure that they had no attachments to their homelands, they would be proud of living in this new kingdom, and the motto for this new school method was-".

JJ: "Zero Ignorance." - She said in a nostalgic and happy voice.

LM: "Zero Immorality." - She said in a very angry voice.

CC: "Enter into the new education to gain." - He said in a voice that betrayed no emotion.

FM: "Maximum Knowledge." - He said in a cold voice.

RQ: "The best morality lessons." - He said in a creeped out voice.

FR: "And become a part of the new ideal kingdom." - She said in a very nervous voice.

Audience

Once again, shock was surrounding everybody in the conference room, and again, for different reasons.

Celestia had a lot to digest from this: on one hoof it was the happiness of knowing what happened to her ponies while she and Luna were fighting Discord. But she couldn't shrug off the feeling that while it looked like what this king was improving the life of his citizens, he was starting to do something else; she felt conflicted over the idea of giving the ponies that kind of power with the elections, if the Sombrist somehow managed to take over or the nobles had more egotistical goals in their heads, then it would be a disaster, but she couldn't suppress the possibility that there was something else that this king was planning, after all if he managed to dethrone Sombra, then he would have a plan to balance the power in the kingdom.

Luna on the other hand, was thinking of how innovative some of this ideas looked like, a Court of Justice made of unbiased judges to decide who was right and who was wrong? a Congress to create the laws? How much free time could her or her sister have with something like that? And create a second division of guards to protect the interior of the kingdom while the other division to protect the borders. If She and her sister could apply that to their Lunar and Solar guard, how much safer would Equestria be? Perhaps, she would have to talk about this with her sister during the next break.

The Griffons were surprise of seeing the appearance of the founder of the Golden Wings clan, all they could find in their history searches would be, at minimum, some worn out paintings in leather of him. But this, this was full evidence of his existence, the kingdom will not believe this, but they had the evidence right in front of them, and to the princess Anna, all that was left to prove now was her relation to the great clan that founded her kingdom.

The historians were looking with a very interested face. Some were grinning, others were trying to digest the information being thrown at them, after all, perhaps, they were watching firsthoof the origins of how Equestria managed to obtain such a boost in their education, when Discord came, the education, economy and politics of Equestria got destroyed so, although the Princesses were the reason of their political stability, they never understood how could the education and knowledge has survived such chaotic times. All of this could've been explained if the ponies fled to the Crystal Empire while they were having such education reforms, that means that after the Crystal Empire disappeared, the ponies must have fled again to Equestria and provide all that knowledge to Equestria, to say that they were happy of solving one of the many mysteries of Equestria was an understatement.

Cadance was at this point taking notes of how she could improve the kingdom, all of this ideas were looking nice, granted, they would have to be studied thoroughly to make sure that they could be implemented well, but if this could work, then not only the Crystal Empire would thrive, but her (and her husband's) job would become much easier. Shining Armor was almost on the same page as his wife, the main difference was that he was focusing on the military aspect and under the idea of including other species to diversify his soldiers, there were other species living in the Empire, so it would be nice if they could get more benefits of living in it.

Twilight was already making a checklist of all the things she would have to study when she came back to Ponyville, it would be a matter of time, but Equestria just couldn't stay back. There were just too many good ideas to be ignored, granted, she would have to talk about it with Celestia, Luna and Cadance but, for now, this was going to be the beginning of a new age, although she couldn't ignore that there was something wrong with all of this. It was the same story for her friends, except Spike who was trying to guess how many books Twilight was going to ask him to search for.

Movie

"Inside this new system being created by the king, everybody was happy; good news were always coming, the invaders had been stopped for the moment, the Sombrist has hidden to avoid the Kingdom Protection, everybody was getting a better education, everybody had a job, and to make everything even better, the Kingdom Protection has found a lead to the murder of Pure Diamond."

A dark green pegasus with an inked feather was being taken by the ponies in tuxedo.

"Now, after a few months of stabilizing the kingdom, Swift Rise decides that now is a good time to start the elections, he makes the announcements and explaining how it would work the new Congress."

RQ: "Basically there would be 100 seats for the Representatives and 25 for the Senators, the senators would be the defenders of the civil rights of the citizens while the representatives would be the ones in charge of the legal rights of the laws, the law would be approved if both sides of the Congress accepted the law".

"This riles up the nobles, who start to make many political speeches in front of groups of civilians while making feasts and inviting everypony in them to try to win them out. Meanwhile, the IF, the Political Party of the king, not only was doing this, but they were also promoting themselves through the Crystal Voicer, giving ideas of multiple new laws that could be approved once they were installed, like the Law of Tramps and Robbers that would make sure that the streets could become even safer or the Law to conscript the Sombrist. To cap it all off, unlike the other nobles, who were working alone, the king managed to choose who would be seating in all of the 125 positions of the Congress, he still had to gain most of the votes on the elections but this didn't stopped him, he would always find something to improve his Political Party's image."

A worn out Golden Strike shows up in front of Swift Rise, he looks disappointed and depressed, but the king put his foreleg in his shoulder and smiles at him.

CC: "I still remember the day that Golden Strike came back. He was sad because while he managed to repel the invaders, it was at a big cost, I was there watching how he was apologizing to the General when the General said 'Don't worry about it, our enemies are gone for now, you gave us the needed time to prepare for a counter strike and when they come back, we will defeat them. Now come, relax and get ready for a promotion in a few days'." - He started to looked pleasantly happy. - "And as promised, Golden Strike got promoted to Colonel and was sent to the new Science department to see the tests of the new weapons that were being developed".

"Before anyone could realize, the election days were there. Everypony went to vote, excited over the idea of their voice being listened. The Nobles are excited over the idea of having the power of controlling the law. Sure, they would have to learn to speak among themselves so the Congress wasn't paralyzed but they were sure that pretty soon, they would regain the power that Swift Rise has taken from them."

RQ: "Brilliant Amethyst, a very unlikable pony and aiming for the senate, told me that day, before the results were in, 'I wanna see the face of that uneducated guard when he realizes that he will have to deal against 125 nobles' but, in the end, he was the one being surprised." - at this, he started to laugh.

FR: "In retrospective, we should have seen the results coming, Swift Rise always had an ace under his sleeve or a way to win in whatever plan he laid out".

"What nobody took on account, was that there were over 125 independent nobles competing against each other and one political party, and while each noble won around 50 to 100 votes, the Independent Front was made up of Military (controlled by Swift Rise and loyal to him), and each guard voted for the IF, making it around over 50.000 votes plus all the immigrants that Swift Rise allowed to vote for this special occasion."

FM: "We all forgot that the crystal guard was made up of soldiers loyal to Swift Rise and that they also had the power to vote, we underestimated them, but in the end, they made a big difference".

CC: "I will admit that I voted for his party, but only because I never liked the noble elite, if it weren't for them, Sombra would have never happened".

An Emerald Crystal Pony is showing the results after counting all the votes and when the nobles sees the results, they all drop their mouths to the ground while Swift Rise was the only one looking confident and was smiling on his clear victory.

"The Supreme Court of Justice was going be installed by the new Congress (which was made up of followers of Swift Rise), they would be checking if the ponies had the credentials of be attorneys, judges or magistrates of the defense and, to cap it all off, the king Swift Rise himself would be the one giving the final approval to every single one of the magistrates applying for the Court. In the end, all the spaces in the Congress and Supreme Court were filled with followers of the new king, even though he was completely unopposed to rule the kingdom, he now had more power than ever."

The king scream the word APPROVED for the final magistrate and once he finished the words, all the Ponies in the Congress start stomping their hooves at the words of approval made by the king while victoriously smiling with all the confidence they could muster. The king himself, starts smiling with true happiness and starts hugging a shocked Colonel Golden Strike and a shocked Speaker Amor Candente who, not only, were shocked by the crushing victory of the king, but also for the physical contact he was giving them.

"We have entered into the times of Swift Rise."

Author's Notes:

For those wondering about the 3rd griffon, here is a link to the species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpy_eagle and here is a image

Also if you think that the Last name Romanov is weird, remember: there was a human in Equestria and he left a big mark on the place.

Also I apologize for not making right Applejack's accent, but I really don't know how that works.

Yes, the voice Projector is the equivalent of the radio, basically once it receives enough magic to power on, it can be self sustained until turned off.

For those wondering, The Golden Wings clan was formed 50 years after the disappearance of the Crystal Kingdom and 50 years later they started to attack and annex all the other griffon clans and after 100 years of war, they founded the Golden Empire that would be later be renamed into the Griffon Kingdom once all the clans became royal families and nobles. They're also descendants from the Fast Flight and Blood Wings clan.

If you think this was long, it was actually going to be longer, but once I saw how long this was getting, I decided to cut it here, the second part will come after the next chapter.

EDIT July 12th of 2019: If you like this and you want to support me, you can do it through my Ko-Fi. Feel free to check it out.

Chapter 3: It was called KP

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A Little reminder:
Recording Quartz (RQ): Historian/Sociologist
*Firm Marble (FM): Journalist
Flame Ruby (FR): Political activist/Maid
Jewel Joy (JJ): Civilian
Crimson Cut (CC): Officer
Lasting Marble (LM): Teacher
Pitch Perfect (PP): Singer
Golden Claw (GC): Griffon immigrant
Special Ore (SO): Earth Pony immigrant

Also I recommend to listen the music to be more submerged on the story

The Distant Past

It's been 6 months since the king Swift Rise got control of the Congress and Supreme Court, 6 months since the king installed himself on the throne unopposed and 2 and 1/2 years since King Sombra was exiled. Still, the differences in the Crystal Kingdom between 3 years ago and now were as big as day and night. The sensation of security was big, the education has been vastly improved, more buildings were being constructed now than in the 100 years this kingdom has existed and the ponies now had a way to reach their voice in the kingdom and, to make sure they were going to be voiced, they now had an ID. A paper that detailed their name, Cutie Mark, signature, it had a profile picture and a number that was in order of ID petitioner (in other words, the first ID issued was No. 1 and so on and so forth). This ID was going to bring the Ponies and citizens of the Kingdom many benefits, one of them was access to future buildings, being protected under the new Constitution, being allowed to belong to unions and other government designed events in the future years, like the next games at the new stadium.

It was a dark night in the Crystal Kingdom, and Jewel Joy was returning home after celebrating in a party for passing High School. Now she would have to deal with College, but she wasn't worried, the new studying program have given her a lot of knowledge, she was already smarter than her parents. Of course, she was now being pressured by her friends and family because she haven't found her cutie mark yet and very soon she would have to find a job, but if the rumors of what will be studied in high school were true, then she wouldn't have to worry about her cutie mark in her whole life. But right now, she was very nervous for going so late on the streets.

The streets were dark. Granted, there were more lamps than a few years ago, but that wasn't the reason she was nervous. It wasn't for the fear of being robbed either, it was because of the curfew that the king announced recently. Sure, the reasons behind it sounded very sketchy, but he did promised that it was just a temporary measure, as soon as the Sombrist were captured, the curfew would be lifted and, so far, the king haven't given them any reason to doubt him, with the exception of-

"HEY!"

Jewel Joy turned around with fear and, once her eyes saw who was speaking to her, her coat paled of fear and she had to add extra pressure on her hooves so nopony could see how they were shaking.

The Stallion was wearing a black tuxedo, his mane was well groomed, his chest had the Shield Gem and his foreleg had the Sword Gem that they should be wearing and, while the Crystal Guard's armor was enchanted to make the guards look white or brown, this suits made them all look yellow; if she didn't knew better, he would look like he was coming from a party. But no, she knew better, they were the new guard division that the king has deployed, the Kingdom Protection Division, or KP for short.

He looked at her with a face that simply said "She looks like a criminal". Jewel wanted to run, but she knew better, she still remembered what happened to the last one who tried to run away from them so she just stood there and waited for him to get close while the feeling of certain doom was piercing her heart.

"Papers, please." - He said in a cold tone, Jewel Joy obeyed and gave him her ID papers, he looked at them meticulously and after watching them for what felt like 5 minutes (even though it were less than 30 seconds) he asked her:

"Lady, are you aware of the curfew that started a few days ago?" - She looked at him with a guilty face. - "Yes officer." - She started to show guilt and started to lower her ears and head, but he kept looking at her. - "Then why are you out this late? Aren't your parents worried about you? It's not safe to be around this late on the streets".

In that moment Jewel Joy was about to burst in tears for the panic she was feeling, but she managed to hold herself, and kept talking as calmly as possible (although it was noticeable a hint of sadness in her voice).

"I was in a party celebrating my graduation from school with my friends and it got late, my parents don't allow me to stay in my friends houses so I had to leave her house. I swear officer I was going to my parents house and the curfew caught me in the streets, please, if we go to my house my parents will certify what I just said."

He kept looking at her, like if he felt extreme prejudice against her but, suddenly his face got softer and said:

"Sure, I'll escort you to your house, but be better prepared next time, until the curfew is lifted, it's not safe to be around the streets. Now, tell me in what street you live in and we can start moving."

Jewel Joy felt like a big weight was taken out from her, she stopped feeling that dooming dread, her hooves stopped shaking and her face relaxed.

"I live in the Lucky Gem street cross the Olive Emerald, in front of the Fountain of Victory." - He then talked in a voice that made her feel very safe. - "Alright, let's go and don't stay too far away from me." - And they departed to Jewel Joy's house.

They started to walk in the direction to Jewel Joy's house and, as they walked, Jewel Joy couldn't stop noticing how a few corners up ahead there were a few more KP guards looking at some papers while some young ponies were lying down on the streets with their mouths looking at the ground.

One of the guards looked at them with the same prejudice that her escort was wearing a while ago, but when he saw who was escorting her, he stopped looking at her with that face and quickly said with a hint of authority.

"Officer Obsidian Edge, what are you doing with this civilian?" - Obsidian Edge looked at Jewel Joy and responded with a matter of fact. - "Sir, officer Scorching Charcoal, this civilian got caught up in the middle of the curfew and I decided to escort her to her house, once I finish this, I will come back to my post, sir." - Scorching Charcoal looked at them with some air of skepticism, but very soon his face dropped that image and look at the two of them like if they were friends. - "Good, you can proceed, but I expect you to add this to your report." - Obsidian Edge saluted his commanding officer with respect and responded. - "Sir, yes sir." - And proceeded in escorting Jewel Joy while she was starting to feel curiosity on the ponies on the ground, but she tried to not look back so none of the guards could suspect anything on her.

When they were getting close to Jewel Joy's house, Obsidian Edge decided to ease Jewel Joy's tension and decided to clarify what she just saw. - "Don't worry about those stallions, they were just some tramps that were wasting their life. A brief time in jail will give them the time to think they need to start searching for a better life." - Something in those lines sent Jewel Joy a shudder down her spine, but she wasn't sure of what, nonetheless, she felt bad for those stallions. - "Well, I hope they get better after this." - And at this words Obsidian Edge added with a lot of good will, - "we both do".

Jewel Joy's house was in a very nice place, being in front of the new Fountain of Victory (to celebrate King Sombra's dethroning) and very close to the market. She had a very good place to live in and it allowed a lot of mobility in the very active capitol of the Crystal Kingdom. Granted, it was the only city so far, but the king made the promise of building more cities to improve the way of living of the population and grant better job to all the inhabitants of the Kingdom. Once they were in front of her house, Obsidian Edge knocked on the door and, when Jewel Joy's father opened it and saw the officer, he got pale,feeling the same feelings that Jewel Joy felt half an hour ago.

"Sir, I found your daughter walking on the streets while the curfew was active, since this wasn't done on purpose and this is probably her first offense, I'll let it pass, but do not expect this again from either me or any other officer, understood?" - The Stallion managed to leave his shock and started to nod, while looking at his daughter with clear evidence that she was going to get grounded, Jewel Joy couldn't suppress blushing knowing full well that she was going to get in trouble.

Obsidian Edge saw the problem that Jewel Joy was getting into and decided to help her out while saying his leave. - "Now, miss Jewel Joy, have a good night, I hope we get to meet again under better circumstances, I hope you have a good rest a good luck with your studies, I understand that getting prepared for College is a big thing, but never let it take away your life, understood?" - he then subtlety winked his eye at her. Understanding, she quickly said. - "Understood officer, next time I decide to study with my friends I'll try to leave earlier." - Obsidian Edge smiled, - "good," - he looked at the family and said his farewell. - "I wish you all a good night".

While Jewel Joy got grounded, it would have been worse if it weren't for Obsidian Edge's help. She promised herself that if she ever got a chance, she would give him her thanks. - "Who knows." - She added while she was starting to get comfortable in her bed. - "Maybe the KP isn't as bad as everypony says it is," - and, with a big yawn, she went to sleep. Not forgetting the stallion that made sure that this night didn't ended in a tragedy.

A few months ago

A Dark Green Pegasus was starting to wake up on his cell. He had an inked feather as a cutie mark which represented his desire to write, he has been under arrest for the last couple months under the suspicion of being linked to the murder of Pure Diamond, but they didn't have any proof of it and they would never prove it.

The cell was in awful conditions: there wasn't a bathroom, so he had to pee and defecate on a corner of the cell, his nose already got used to the putrid stench; the cell was so small that he didn't had enough space to move or stretch his wings properly, if he even were allowed to stretch his wings. They were tied up by 3 very thick ropes when he was arrested and haven't been untied ever since, how long has it been? A month? He lost count since the jail didn't had any windows, in other words, he lost the sense of time. The food was awful as well, whatever they were giving him, it tasted so bad and it looked so awful (it look like a gray paste with a consistency of molasses) that he refused to eat it and left it in front of his cell. He was sure that it must have been a week since he refused to eat but that thing looked the same (and tasted the same).

The Kingdom Protection has been very keen on interrogating him, each day they would go for him and interrogate him until late at night and then he would be returned to his cell, and today looked to be no different.

His cell was opened and he saw one of the guards looking at him with hate, like if it were his fault of whatever happened to his life. He took him but, unlike other days, this time he was taken by force. The guard didn't even talked, he just grabbed him by the head and started to drag the pegasus, who was starting to feel the effects of bad nourishment, - "hey, calm down, just say it and I will follow you." - Said the pegasus, but he was responded by a buck to the face that almost took off one of his teeth, he had to close his eyes from the pain while the guard only said to him with as much hatred as he could. - "Shut up you filthy traitor! You only talk when ordered to." - After that, the guard dragged down the pegasus by his ropes, which caused on him a lot of pain on his already sore wings.

He was shut after that. After a while walking, they reached another cell, a lot smaller than his original cell, but this one was crowded with at least 10 Kingdom Protection guards and, in the middle of them, there was a unicorn with a black mane with a pearl white coat and his eyes were black but had a shine that remembered the onyx, as a cutie mark he had a golden star surrounded by shackles and his face was showing a very familiar smugness that the pegasus have learned to despise, for the unicorn in front of him was no other than Stray Stone, the leader of the Kingdom Protection guard.

Stray Stone was looking at him with a big smile, as usual. - "Hello and good night Expressive Voice, I hope your staying in this cell has been appropriate to the quality you deserve." - The pegasus Expressive Voice looked at him with contempt, desiring for a way to smack him in the face, but he decided to not say anything, as usual, but this didn't stopped Stray Stone from talking. - "Now, usually, we would just hold you in one of our interrogation rooms and question you until you decided to speak, but on the looks that it hasn't worked and that a new law has been allowed that give us a lot more to do. I have decided to change the system of interrogation that will be held on you." - The unicorn moved aside, allowing Expressive Voice to see the bottom of the room. In the bottom of it, there were four wheels lying down on the floor and, in the center of those wheels, there were some very thin cross-like figures sticking out from the wheels.

The guards moved Expressive Voice to the wheels and made him step above the crosses, he could feel how the edge of the crosses were annoying his round hoofs, and the guards then put some weight on him, Expressive Voice wasn't sure how much, but it felt a bit heavy. He heard Stray Stone's voice. - "Don't step out from them, or else we'll beat you up. Of course, your other option to leave this is by talking and admitting your involvement with the murder of the General Pure Diamond." - Expressive Voice decided to not talk and responded with a silent rebellion. At this petty attempt of rebellion, Stray Stone said on his usual happy and confident tone: "So be it, stay there until we say so." - Expressive Voice would have laughed at this, it looked so silly, there was no way they could make him talk by making him stand on some crosses. Now all he had to do, was to wait until they allowed him to leave.

An hour has passed and Expressive Voice was still confident on passing this new method of interrogation. Sure, his hooves felt a bit numb and the crosses were starting to hurt, but it wasn't that much. In any second now the guards would give up on him as usual and take him back to his cell.

It's been 3 hours since Expressive Voice has been standing on the crosses and what originally was a minor annoyance. Now it was a downright torture, the crosses now were damaging his hoofs (he could feel his hoofs bleeding out) and the weight carried on top of him made it much harder to stay up. He could feel his legs trembling, so close to let go, Expressive Voice was so close to scream, but he wasn't going to give in to them, he would endure this and he would stay faithful to his silent rebellion but, for how much longer? He wasn't sure, his body could give in in any moment and he wasn't sure what the guards could do to him. Time felt non existent, Expressive Voice was on the verge of talking, his body was close to break, it would be his will or his fortitude, but he wasn't sure which but, sadly for him, his body decided to answer by dropping to the floor.

Expressive Voice hadn't even touched the ground, when he felt a lot of hooves stomping him, stomping his wings, stomping his face, stomping his barrel, stomping his legs, stomping his sensitive parts, he was so tired that he couldn't move to at least attempt to defend himself from this onslaught of hoofs. He didn't had the energy to scream from the pain he was receiving. At last, they stopped stomping him, he didn't know how much it lasted, but when it was finally over, Expressive Voice didn't feel anything, he couldn't feel his wings, he couldn't feel his legs or face, he could barely breathe, but it was finally over... - "Put him back on the wheels." - Said Stray Stone.

It was in this moment, Expressive Voice couldn't hold it any longer and broke -"NOOOO!! PLEASE STOP, NO MORE, I BEG YOU, I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT BUT PLEASE DON'T PUT ME IN THERE AGAIN!!!!" - And, for the first time since the beginning of the interrogation, he saw the face of Stray Stone, and what he saw terrified him: Expressive Voice didn't see the face of a pony, or a being that had any semblance of worry for the lives of others, he saw a demon, smiling with pleasure at the pain and suffering he was inflicting upon, his eyes were shining more than usual and the more they shone the more it felt like they were piercing his soul. When he heard his voice, so filled with confidence and self indulgence, like if he had done an outstanding job, Expressive Voice lost any semblance of resistance or will and just obeyed what Stray Stone started to say:

"Do you accept your involvement in the murder of the General Pure Diamond?"

"Yes."

"Respond: What was your part of the Job?"

"I was among the ponies who foalnapped Pure Diamond-" -. "General Pure Diamond" -. Interrupted Stray Stone. - "-General Pure Diamond. I made sure that there was nopony at the vicinity when the attack happened."

"Good, do you know who orchestrated the murder?"

"Yes"

"Respond: Who did it?"

"It was Lord Crystal Sapphire, he never liked Pure Diamond or the Crystal Guard in general and decided to side with Sombra to recover most of the goods he lost when The Military Junta was in charge."

At this, Stray Stone for the first time stopped smiling and said in a very cold voice - "Soft Hoof," - a Guard got close to him, Stray Stone looked at him and continued. - "Pick up 4 more guards to follow you and right now go after Lord Crystal Sapphire and put him under the charge of Murder attempt of first degree, you know what to do if he resist." - The guard looked over at Stray Stone, nodded and left the place. Shortly after that, Stray Stone looked over the Pegasus and remembered that he still wasn't done. - "Call me Scorching Charcoal." - After a few minutes, another guard came close to him. - "Scorching Charcoal, are you done with the paperwork?" - The guard responded with a stone voice. - "Sir, I've finished the paperwork of the new recruit Obsidian Edge, he will start tomorrow morning." - Stray Stone, keeping his stone like face, continued. - "Good, now bring me The Eraser." - Charcoal looked at the Pegasus and if you had a good eye, it would look like he was looking at Expressive Voice with pity, but nopony noticed, he left the cell and, a few minutes later, he came back with one of those brand markers that slavers used on cows to mark them as a part of their farms, but there was no sign or visible mark on it, only a big circle in it, and it was in hot red.

Stray Stone looked at the Pegasus and to Voice's horror he said. - "For the crime of helping on the murder of Pure Diamond; and betrayal to your country, Kingdom and homeland, you should be charged for the death penalty. But the law is the law and I will follow it even if I don't want to. You will be charged of being removed of any right for citizenship you had before this moment and you are now exiled from the Crystal Kingdom and its boundaries and, as a sign of it, you'll have removed what makes you unique or acceptable in any pony society. If you ever return here, you will be executed on first sight." - In that moment, Expressive Voice felt a big burning sensation on his left flank and for the second time, he found the energy to scream one more time for the pain he was feeling. It was like no other, a burning that was destroying his left flank, time ceased to exist, only this burning and the infinite desire to make it stop at any cost. When the pain was finally over, Expressive Voice looked over to his left flank with whatever energy he had left and saw to his horror, that his Cutie Mark was now covered under a big black hole. Now nobody would ever see his cutie mark, the mark that defined him; what made him so special and unique among other ponies now was erased, gone, that moment of joy he felt when he was a colt was now destroyed and once again, Expressive Voice broke, his face started to get filled with tears and the more he cried, the less he could do to hold it, in the end, he felt like he was stripped down, he was no longer Expressive Voice, now he was nothing.

Meanwhile, Stray Stone looked at him, but he wasn't smiling, he was looking at the pegasus with pity, for he never found joy in the idea of destroying somepony's identity, but he felt total disgust over anypony who even tried to betray the kingdom or its citizens.

"Erase the Cutie Mark on his other flank..."

The Present

It has been five minutes since the movie was stopped, but nobody had started go after food or started to speak, as everybody was still having their mouths open from the shock. For how easily Swift Rise managed to claim total control of the kingdom, while the ponies were surprised of how he managed to maintain control so easily, the ones who got the most surprised were the griffons and minotaurs.

The Griffon Kingdom had a Judge system and a council, but they never had that type of control. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice was completely independent from the other powers and they always bring trouble wherever there was a corrupt judge, while the council of nobles were always trying to take over the kingdom, between the faction of usurpers, the faction of loyals and the neutral faction, it was a miracle that the kingdom has managed to last over this 800 years.

The Minotaur Democracy while it had a few problems in the creation of their Republic, they were sure that the institutionalization of the Congress and the Supreme Court were separated from each other. What Swift Rise did, was just give a false sense of democracy while actually imposing even more of his rule over the citizens, nonetheless, they'll admit that he was very clever in doing so.

"Ahem" - Said Clearing Onyx when he finally came out of the shock. - "I suppose we can go to a break to recover from this information we've just received and so we can discuss and give our opinions so far." - The whole room agreed a few minutes after they recovered as well and after going to the bathroom and get more snacks, decided to start their own set of conversations, the Princesses of Equestria decided to start their own discussion.

"Well, that was certainly unexpected." - Celestia started, being the first one to recover from the shock and being quickly followed by Luna. - "Indeed sister, I don't know you, but I seriously underestimated that stallion. I thought that, because he wasn't a pony and he was just taking over, he was going to end up causing more harm than good but, as it has been clearly shown, he proved me wrong." - She said with the most stoic face she could muster, so nobody could see her embarrassment. Cadence decided to continue but, before she could start, a big shout that said IMPOSSIBLE was listened. When the princesses decided to see who was shouting, they saw a griffon that was now realizing that he talked a bit too high, he then blushed and said. - "Sorry, I got, hum, excited, please go on." - And all the other groups decided to proceed on their conversations.

After that... interesting moment, Cadence decided to proceed with an stoic face. - "I agree, but I will also say that we should have seen it coming, considering that Swift Rise was considered the mastermind behind Sombra's dethroning, we shouldn't be surprised of how he managed to give freedom to his citizen and still managed to keep control of the Kingdom." - At this, Twilight decided to add her own opinion, not hiding her excitement. - "But isn't it amazing?, he created a government branch that can create and handle the laws and another one designed to handle the judicial system and bring justice to the kingdom. If we had that, our workload would be a lot easier because now we wouldn't have to deal with all the ponies that goes to Canterlot to ask for help for minor things." - This words caused Celestia, Luna and Cadence started to dream in all the things they could do if instead of listening to all the petitioners of the kingdom, they had a judicial system capable of handling that, it was a nice dream. But they had to focus fast since Twilight was still talking, - "-especially with the judge system. Not only that, but he created political parties so everypony could decide where to voice their opinion and decides who to trust for the legislation. Princess Celestia, you allowed the creation of political parties just a century ago and even still, they're not that useful, there is so much we could learn from this government system."

When Twilight said this, the other princesses looked at each other with insecure faces and then Celestia decided to explain. - "You may be right Twilight, but take notice of how Swift Rise handled it. He created the system so the political party with the most seats in the Congress decides what laws to approve or, in other words, HIS political party. That means that the congress will approve any law the king decides to create. That goes the same with the Supreme Court, the parliament decides who will be a judge or attorney so people will get the justice based on what the king considers justice. Do you understand what that means?" - Twilight may be starting to learn how to be a Princess, but she was smart enough to understand the true motive of what Swift Rise did. And, as her face turned more serious, she concluded. - "While he created a system for his ponies to rule, it was in the end a facade so he would still be in control, in other words, not only he still decides what laws to create while the parliament is taking care of minor stuff, but the Supreme Court will trial and ignore anything the king decides that isn't worth their time, in other words, it's still an autocracy but with the mask of another system. But what does that mean for the ponies?" - At this, she was showing total concern, after all and so far, this king still hasn't showed what he was truly capable of, and the idea of a pony that controlled the laws, judicial practices, school system EVEN MORE than the princesses themselves, while being a former Crystal Guard, was a bit terrifying.

Luna decided to say: - "It means that we are going to watch just how truly far any of us could go if we allow our desire for power take us over." - Coming from Luna, who once was Nightmare Moon, a mare that tried and failed to take control of Equestria, it meant a lot. It meant that they were about to see, how far could have Nightmare Moon go should she have taken over the control of Equestria over 1000 years ago.

*ding*

"The Recess is over, please come back to your seats," - the princesses seated back, now paying as much attention as they could, since now they were going to see how truly far Authoritarianism could go.

Meanwhile

The Minotaurs and Griffons were very distressed by this news. Something that both the Griffon Kingdom and the Minotaur Republic shared in common was how the legendary Crystal Empire influenced them both, more so than Equestria would like to believe. Both lands always had recorded legends of how that kingdom was the birthplace of the greatest figures of their species history, The Romanov Family for the griffins and the Mjolnir Hammer for the minotaurs were just one of many examples. And to figure out just how devious and manipulative was the King of said Empire, it sent a chill down their spine.

"All right" - Said The Princess Anastasia. - "We must accept the idea that the king that both of our lands have been so belovedly praising, might have been very dangerous." - "IMPOSSIBLE!" - Said one of her escorts in a tone that was listened by all of the room. Once he realized that all the room was looking at him, he blushed and said. - "Sorry, I got, hum, excited, please go on," - the other groups decided to continue on their own conversations, while his partners looked at him with a disappointed look.

"Look," - continued Anastasia, - "I understand why we would all prefer to deny this, but we must accept the possibility that Swift Rise wasn't as noble or perfect as we make him out to be. Especially if we can accept the few flaws that the Great Alexander Romanov had or accept the existence of - *shudders* - Blood Hawk..." - at the mention of that name, all of the griffons shuddered at the memory of such dark age in griffon history. After that, the griffon that just shouted decided to response (much quieter). - "But we're not talking of any simple historical figure, we're not even talking about the founders of our great Kingdom, we're talking about the legend that inspired our founders. That one figure that we never found any confirmation of his existence until THIS. RIGHT. MOMENT. How do you expect me, or anyone else, to accept that the one creature that not only influenced in the creation of the Golden Wing clan, who then created the Griffonian Empire and is now the Griffon Kingdom or, in other words our WHOLE STORY, isn't the wise, strong and noble king we all made him up to be? Nobody back home would believe us unless they watch this film" - "I have to agree with the griffin." - Said one of the minotaurs. - "Even though we have created our Republic very recently, our species as a whole was, and still is, very jealous of our story and, even though he was a legend, almost a myth, King Swift Rise it's still regarded as the source of the many ideals and decisions that lead to the creation of our Republic. Heck, if it weren't for his influence, Celestia would have gotten a much harder time helping our founding fathers to unite our country. The Equestrians may not know (or accept it), but many of our laws, ways of thinking and research in technology and moral were influenced by Swift Rise, we don't call it the Swift Code of Justice for anything. If this film goes where I think it's going, many of the things we hold dear may have been a lie".

All of the griffins and minotaurs talking then went into a deep thought, reluctant and fearful over the idea that the one figure they idolized the most, not for his power nor longevity, but for how much he managed to influence them. Even today, 1000 years after his disappearance, he's still regarded as a very important figure to them.

At this, another minotaur said in a very dulled tone. - "For now, all of what we're talking about is just conjecture, our biggest achievement so far is that we can now certify that he was real, the amount of debates we can end with just that is almost uncountable. But we must also remember that, after 1000 years of history, is very likely that we may have changed a few things about him, after all, it would not be the first time, right?" - At this, the other minotaurs nodded, remembering how they used to call the founding fathers as the greatest thinkers of all time, when in actuality they just wanted to have total control over the land. Granted, at least the moral teachings they held onto were very useful, and if they could learn from the good and remember the bad, if only to not go down that road, then they could surely do the same thing with this king.

*ding*

"The Recess is over, please come back to your seats," - at this, the griffons and minotaurs decided to seat back, but not before one of them said: - "Just remember, we still haven't seen all of this, and maybe we can find something else about him among all of the objects that were found along this movie, it's still too early to judge him." - They all agreed, and started to watch the film.

Movie

"The Kingdom was in shock, nopony expected the King to have so much support."

The stallion with a Lime mane, lemon coat and green eyes appeared. Name: Lord Yellow Pyrite. Job: Farming Landlord

Lord Yellow Pyrite (LYP): "Now that I think about it, I remember my defeat. I didn't understood at the time that I was so focused on saying that I was going to help the citizens, that I didn't saw that I was facing somepony alone while he had the support of the whole kingdom. The nobles weren't even united against him." - He then went to look at the floor, remembering the defeat and what it meant to him.

Another Stallion with a White mane, gray like coat and black eyes also appeared, he was showing signs of old age. Name: Lord Polished Gem. Job: Mining Landlord

Lord Polished Gem (LPG): "I remember that one of the promises that the IF made to win those elections was the creation of a syndicate for workers, so everypony had better job conditions and minimum wage. I didn't understood what it meant since I always gave my workers a good share of money and good working conditions, but apparently it wasn't enough, because some of my own employees voted against me. Now that I understand what the promise was about and what achieved, I understand why I lost."

"Now that Swift Rise had nopony to stop him, the first thing he decided to do was changing a few laws and adding some new ones, specifically the law of Tramps and Thieves, the Law of Land Taxation and the Progress Decree."

FM: "Those laws basically allowed the Kingdom Protection to arrest anypony who had no job under suspicion of being a thief, take the land on anypony who hadn't paid their taxes and the decree allowed the King to search for any new project that could allow the Kingdom to progress technologically, magically, socially, educationally, Militarily and economically".

LM: "Now he had total control of what could be taught to our foals and how to evaluate them, should I had said anything against those changes, I would have gotten fired." - By this point, the old mare no longer could hold her face and started to show her anger at how the educational system was being changed, but at the last second she added. - "At least, it became now free education, so every Filly, Colt, griffon or minotaur could have education and not just the ones that could pay it".

CC: "Now we could finally have the much needed equipment to defend our borders, but I was wondering if that was the only intention of the king..." - and while he said this, he was showing a lot of skepticism on his face.

RF: "For a moment I was afraid that the king would use these new laws to attack his enemies, but he assured me that it would never happen, he would only search for Sombra's followers and make sure that the young stallions wouldn't waste their time and, instead, they would search for a job, when I heard that, I got happy," - but as Ruby Flame said this, her face showed doubt on this.

"Now that the king is beginning to make safer the streets, it's also time to upgrade the kingdom."

Many construction ponies starts digging the land while holding behind them huge pipes while in another section, another group of ponies start to put the foundation of the library (while starting to form the title "Crystal Library").

"He starts to use the Kingdom's vault to make great constructions, while the Stadium was being finished, he was going to start the construction of a Library to contain all the information of the world from the past and present, a sewer system, make more lamps for the streets, more houses and many more buildings."

Images of the city being put in a cradle while the king is singing to hear while giving it gifts also are shown.

"The kingdom stops being a simple city, it starts to become in the daughter of the king, and he is ready to coddle her."

A filthy crystal pony with teeth missing, a disheveled hair and an eye unfocused is transformed into a clean pony with perfect teeth, not a single tooth missing, a well groomed hair and perfect looks.

"Its citizens stop being simple ponies and they start to have ID with birth certificates, high education and citizenship, the immigrants stop being looked as something lowly or repulsive and they're starting to have the same rights as any other citizen, from free school to full paid jobs."

GC: "I was rather surprised at this, I never saw such inclusion to a foreign resident, but I didn't complaint, I finally was capable of searching for any type of education or job I wanted and that would allow me to become a better leader for my clan".

"With the new laws for the worker, the installment of minimum wage, the technical schools and all the jobs opportunities coming from the many constructions being held, everybody is having a good life, everybody, except the sombrist and the nobles."

RQ: "For the sombrist, this new laws meant that both the fear of Sombra and his influence would lower and that this new king would enforce his control, this made the sombrist afraid of him and started to make desperate moves in an attempt of dethroning him".

PG: "When the new laws came, all the nobles got screwed, now we had taxes, make legal the land we owned so it couldn't be taken away, we had to give a true payment to the workers, very few were unaffected or actually got benefited".

"And, as usual, discomfort brought protest and some protest went to revolts and the new king wasn't going to allow anything that could risk his rule."

An earth Pony wearing a crown is shown starting to walk into a podium while a pink unicorn besides him is holding with magic a big scroll, after that a newspaper clip is shown with the headline 'The followers of Sombra has been conscripted, following Sombra may get you exiled'.

"The king has given his new division, full capabilities to capture and process any follower of Sombra under suspicion of treason."

RQ: "What this basically meant, is that any type of comment you could make, would turn you into a follower of Sombra and thus, an enemy of the kingdom".

RF: "Of course that would be the meaning after all, the sombrist were the only ones that weren't getting benefited from this new reign, hence, they would be the ones that would try to dethrone the king".

"But the sombrist aren't the only ones who doesn't like the new reign: the nobles, especially the ones who got benefited the most with Sombra, were starting to show discomfort with this new ideas, this new laws, now their money, their lands and workforce was being taken away from them. But whether they where in favor or against the regime, if they talked against its policies, for the new reign, they were all sombrist."

LPG: "I still remember when I was told that I was breaking the law, even though I was never told about them, and decided to take big spaces of my farms and much of my possessions were confiscated. What was left to me was so small that I could no longer make enough money to make a successful life. I stopped being a noble."

A pony with fancy clothing is shown with all of his money (in big sacks) being taken away from him.

"Many more similar cases start to spread. The nobles stop being nobles or rich, very few manage to stay untouched."

FM: "For a while my friend Hidden Gem, who was very skillful staying inside the law, stayed fine and managed to transform his territory into a company, so he managed to keep most of his work force and his treasures, but many others started to protest."

LYP: "Me and a few of my friends went to the palace to protest and, once we got there, all of the ponies stood aside, then the Kingdom Protection came, they beat us down and took us to the jail. I stood there for like 6 months or so, but I remember the first batch of prisoners being exiled."

Ponies are being expelled outside of the kingdom, most of them are looking back with hints of sadness in their faces while mares are trying to stop the guards from separating them.

"For the new reign, there's no space for dissidence, so they prefer to send protesters away, with no house, no families, defense against invaders or way to survive, they are expelled from the kingdom and left to die, they were only asking for a better treatment and this is what they got, complete injustice."

A Pony with a fancy mustache is shown writing in a big scroll.

"The newly formed opposition, lead by Lord Crystal Sapphire, decides to write a note pointing out all the flaws and treacheries of the new reign, all of their abuses and how they were becoming just like Sombra. This will have big consequences."

It's dead at night, the ponies are going back home, with the pony with the fancy moustache being escorted by 3 more ponies when a guard get close to him and aim his foreleg at him.

"It's 8pm when the richest landlord of the Crystal Kingdom, Crystal Sapphire, was going back home, he was going undercover and with 3 pony escorts. He was walking on the main plaza when, suddenly, a guard of the Kingdom Protection known as Soft Hoof went to his position, aimed his sword gem at him and said 'You're under arrest, Lord Crystal Sapphire'."

PG: "I was at the newspaper in that moment, searching for a new job when I heard from outside Dead pony on the plaza."

The pony with the fancy mustache starts to move his head in a negative way and gives the guard a paper.

"Very calmly, Crystal Sapphire says that there must be a mistake and show the guard an ID with a fake name."

PG: "In that moment, I quickly ran outside with a pony holding a camera called Perfect Shot and goes to see what was going on, we get into the guard fence and Perfect Shot gets in but I couldn't pass them."

Other Crystal Protection guards appears and start to take the ponies while they try to run away.

"Some of the ponies tries to run from the guards."

PG: "At the next day we start to gather the pictures and see what happened."

One Kingdom Protection guard aim at the pony with a fancy mustache.

"Not everypony makes it."

The guard shoots two lasers from the gem sword in his foreleg into the pony with the fancy mustache.

"Two shots, one to his head and the other to his neck stops Crystal Sapphire."

PG: "Then I start seeing in the photo reveal, first the slim legs, then the golden pocket watch, and at last his bloodied face." - He closed his eyes and starts to show a bit of pain. - "To me that was one of the hardest moments in history of the opposition." - In that moment Polished Gem started to cry.

A newspaper clip is shown: 'Lord Crystal Sapphire executed under suspicion of treason'.

"An arrest becomes a crime."

FM: "The murder of Crystal Sapphire was a convulsion for the whole kingdom, because he was the pony of sympathies and they killed him for being brave."

RQ: "It was the first time in the history of the Crystal Kingdom. That a Government. Murdered. In the streets. And shamelessly. A leader of an opposition." - The Stallion then starts looking at what it's in front of him with such sense of honesty that you could only believe him.

Audience

There wasn't a single pony, griffon or minotaur that wasn't affected by this.

The Princesses were shocked at how far somepony could go to suppress a rebellion, the historians were mouth hanging and ashamed at the kind of pony they've been holding in good lights for so much time and the civilians were feeling a deep chill running down their spines, not realizing that they were feeling terror at the idea of living in a place like that.

Chapter 4: The Ideal Kingdom

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A Little reminder:
Recording Quartz (RQ): Historian/Sociologist
Firm Marble (FM): Journalist
Flame Ruby (FR): Political activist/Maid
Jewel Joy (JJ): Civilian
Crimson Cut (CC): Officer
Lasting Marble (LM): Teacher
Pitch Perfect (PP): Singer
Golden Claw (GC): Griffon immigrant
Special Ore (SO): Earth Pony immigrant
Lord Yellow Pyrite (LYP): Farming Landlord
Lord Polished Gem (LPG): Mining Landlord

The Distant Past

It's been a few weeks after the assassination of Lord Crystal Sapphire and 6 months since the elections. The ponies were enraged, but they did nothing, they feared that the KP would do to them what they did to Crystal Sapphire, but there were two ponies who didn't liked what happened and had enough power to say something about it without the threat of the KP.

Golden Strike and Amor Candente were going to the throne room to have a discussion with the king Swift Rise. They were both angry for a very simple reason: it reached to their ears about the murder of Crystal Sapphire and it was inconceivable. Crystal Sapphire was one of the most caring, kind and sophisticated ponies the Crystal Kingdom has ever met, there was no way that he was sided with Sombra when, in fact, he supported Pure Diamond in the Military Strike against Sombra. To think that Crystal Sapphire was conspiring against the new reign was unthinkable.

They both were going to tell the king their opinion on the matter and ask him who made such defamation on Crystal Sapphire's image. They were about to open the door to the Throne Room when, suddenly, it opened and, to their chagrin, they saw Stray Stone leaving the throne room while, to both ponies dismay, he was smiling and holding on his mouth a paper that could, very well, be a new law that would benefit him, no doubt about it.

Mi Amor Candente, being the diplomat she has become over the years, knew that talking to him right now wouldn't be too beneficial neither would go anywhere so, instead, she preferred to address him as the civil code dictates and then proceed to talk to the king. So she looked directly at Stray Stone's eyes, made the best poker face she could muster, and greeted him:

"Greetings Stray Stone." - She said in the calmest and melodious voice she could make, - "how have your day been? I guess that it's just going to improve now, doesn't it?" - Stray Stone looked at her, his eyes always showing as if he was having some kind of never ending fun, he put the scroll on his left foreleg and responded with his usual smug and confident voice. - "Greetings Candente and, indeed, I had a very good day. Ever since my division showed justice to that criminal, the citizens have started to become more adjusted to the law and the terrorist attacks had started to decrease, very soon I will have completed the challenge the king invested upon me".

Candente, for all of her anger, managed to show a face of peace and calmness and if it were for her, she would have then said her goodbyes and proceeded to talk to the king but, sadly, that patience wasn't shared by Colonel Golden Strike who, even now was still holding himself up, decided to retort to this stuck up pony who thought to be more than he was actually worth. - "Crystal Sapphire never was a criminal! He was always caring of the citizens of the kingdom, he helped me to get into the Crystal Guard and if it weren't for him, Sombra would have stayed in power because Sapphire gave us the support we needed to make the coup." - By this point Golden Strike was very close to Stray Stone and was starting to expel steam from his nose but, from all of this, Stray Stone not only wasn't fazed by this, but he actually kept his smile.

"Oh, my apologies Strike-" - "Colonel Golden Strike to you." - interrupted Strike in the coldest voice he could make, - "Colonel Golden Strike..." - proceeded Stray Stone. - "It is understandable that you may think that Sapphire was an honest pony, trust me, I was also surprised by this, but I do have a confession and after raiding his house we found a lot of deals that not only confirm our suspicions, but also shows that he wasn't the nice stallion he claimed to be." - At this Strike was going to retort something among the lines of that evidence must be false, but before he did that, Amor Candente interrupted them and stopped the bickering.

"STOP." - she said in a high voice that somehow managed to not be a scream. Both stallions looked at her (Golden Strike was surprised of seeing her friend this angry while Stray Stone was keeping his smile) and she decided to finish the discussion once and for all "Stray Stone, I know you have your evidence, but could you please stop teasing others, this won't get you anywhere and, instead, will separate you from others and YOU Strike, please, be more patient, I'm aware the battlefield hasn't given you time to wait and you must be prepared to respond immediately, but you don't have to act like that in here, there are some benefits in patience."

Both stallions took her word and decided to listen. While nopony knew what Stray Stone was thinking at that moment, Strike remembered the many times Swift Rise would tell him that patience was the key to victory and, apparently, he wasn't the only one who thought like that. The pink unicorn was really showing signs of knowing which battles to pick and which battles to avoid.

"And now, if both of you are done with this, I would like to proceed to the court of the King, we were going to have a conversation of the recent developments in the kingdom and how they were starting to affect the Crystal Guard and the Crystal Ponies so the King could make a more effective pace in the progressive movement he has started, good bye Stray Stone and have a good day."

Stray Stone looked at her and, still keeping his smile, said his apologies and went on. Golden trike couldn't miss the opportunity and managed to see a fragment of the paper Stray Stone was holding. The soon to be colonel almost paled when he managed to see the word "curfew" in it.

After a few minutes of waiting to enter, Strike decided to speak to the pink fury besides him. - "Candente, look, I'm sorry for doing that, it's just that, Sapphire was a figurehead for me, he taught me all I know and I wanted to defend him."

"It's alright Strike, I understand, the problem is that you were falling in his trap and you didn't even realized it. You must be careful, he is the type of pony who plays with others and uses them to get in a higher position. That is what happened to my father and I fear that it's just what it's happening to Swift." - By this point, she was starting to get angry at that Stallion. From where did he came from? Sometimes he would just appear out of nowhere, and that smile, was it possible to smile for that long? He was so different, it was like if he worked on a different logic system, what did Swift Rise saw on him?

"So you have gotten a bit more interested in your new friend?" - Teased Golden Strike and, unlike other times, the pink diplomat started to become red and stuttered a response that showed how easily Golden Strike broke through her defenses. - "Wh-what?, no-I mean- yes, I do care for him, but not like that, he is only a-"

In that moment Strike shut her mouth with his hoof and said in a very low volume. - "Look, don't say stuff like that so close to him. He might hear you and it may not look like it, but he has a fragile heart. So be careful with what you say close to him, ok?" - At this Candente nodded and decided to remember it for later.

At that moment the door started to open up and a guard told them that they could finally enter but, before entering, Golden Strike told her in an even lower volume. - "And you didn't heard this from me, but he thinks you look cute." - And moved fast to the throne room, leaving a pinkish red unicorn trying to keep her head straight on the actual subject at hoof: the necessity to improve the lifestyle on the crystal ponies and to reduce the power of the KP.

4 months later

King Sombra was fuming with anger because, somehow, the Crystal Ponies have managed to repel all of his attacks. No matter what he did, that pegasus would always react on time to his moves and reject him, but what was the more surprising weren't his tactics or how efficient he was. It was the equipment of the Crystal Guards: those gems that allowed non-unicorns to shoot lasers were mind blowing, those wing-blades for pegasi were surprisingly useful (he should have listened to Pure Diamond back then) and the gems to amplify the power of the unicorns was great, once he came back to power he was going to use that to invade Equestria.

But that also brought up something that was being a big concern to him. The subjects loyal to him inside the Crystal Kingdom stopped sending information to him months ago, and these weren't common ponies, these were high ranking officials and very important figures (not including the lower ponies that were still loyal to him) so, what happened to them? They were very good at hiding and some of them were his best spies during his reign. They couldn't have been captured, could they? Probably they were waiting for the right moment to send their reports to him, yeah, it probably was that but, still, he had to prepare for the next attack, he would not repeat the same mistakes he did before.

In that moment a Red Griffon with a Harpy head came to him and gave her report to him:

"Sir, all the griffon clans loyal to you has been called, they will take over a few months to come. I also report to you that a few minotaurs have decided to join us and will aid in in our cause".

At this, Sombra started to smile with the same confidence he had the day he was exiled and the day he was defeated on his first invasion attempt to recover the throne. - "Excellent, when all of them finally get here, we will take another couple of months to prepare ourselves for the next fight. I will not repeat the same mistakes I did last time, no I will win this and I will reclaim my Kingdom and you will ll get the reward you deserve".

"Thank you my lord" said the Red Harpy.

"And now, before I forget, did you obtained the objects I ask you to get?"

"So far, we only found the Centaur's blood and the 50 horns from Unicorns who were exploring this lands. We didn't leaved a single witness alive but we're still lacking the other objects, but once we find them we will give them to you my lord."

"Excellent, now, leave the objects there and start the preparations of what could be the longest war your clan may have ever known."

The leader of the Blood Wings obeyed and left the cave Sombra was residing in and hoped that this was the best solution for her clan, she was recently appointed as the new Tribe leader and all she could do now was to see her fellow clan members to die after that brutal retaliation the Crystal Kingdom gave them. Maybe they were merciful? She hoped so, because this new fight didn't had any signs of being better than the last one, only bloodier and with more casualties than ever.

Meanwhile, at the same time

The curfew was finally over and Jewel Joy couldn't be any happier, she finally found a good job in one of the new factories that were recently built, a factory dedicated to refine the gems and improve in their use. She also tried a job on the cloud factory and the new electric factory, but she didn't had the requisite the jobs required and, on her way to her new job, she saw a new store selling one of those new items that used electricity, this was something like the Crystal Speaker, but this was called "radio" or something like that, it also sung music.

"What a good song, I really like this band, now how are they called?" - She said as she mused in the song. A song that really gave her a deep desire to dance over and over with somepony but, before she could begin to move her hips like many other foals has done whenever they heard this band, a voice stopped her from doing that:

"They're called the Billo's Crystal Boys" - Said a male voice behind Jewel Joy. She turned around in fright only to find one of the KP guards and, for a moment she was scared until she remembered that voice. - "Obsidian Edge?" - She asked, the stallion nodded and this made Jewel Joy get very happy. - "Oh Edge, I'm so happy to meet you, what are you doing here?" - She asked to her very close friend and, after that fateful encounter, they started to walk together through the beautiful streets of the Prism Avenue and, in the process, they passed by a jail. If it weren't for the high volume of the music of the stores that were on both sides of the jail, they would have listened some very terrifying screams. Meanwhile, the Obsidian guard started to answer his very close friend's question:

"Doing my official rounds, I'll finish in a couple hours and then I'll have the rest of the day free, so, since I found you here, I was wondering, will you have this afternoon free?" - This made his eyes looked hopeful at the possibility of advancing with this beautiful mare that invaded his dreams and drove him mad with never felt before emotions.

Jewel Joy looked downwards, gave it a thought, and said. - "Sure, today I got my new job and I will start tomorrow, so why not celebrate? I'll be waiting for you at the fountain at 6pm, deal?" - Obsidian Edge couldn't be happier at this turn of events. - "Deal, 6pm, I'll be there, promise." - He then decided to proceed on his round and said his good byes to the mare that outshone the moon itself in terms of beauty. - "See ya soon my lady".

Jewel Joy blushed a bit and responded accordingly to the Stallion that gave her the safety she always wanted. - "Goodbye handsome." - And after seeing a big blush coming from the stallion, she decided to proceed and tell his fathers the news: She finally got a new job and a date. Her father was still a bit annoyed that she hadn't found her cutie mark yet being a big mare now, but she didn't cared, cutie marks were useless now and there was nothing wrong with that. She could walk on the streets without fear of getting mugged, the weather was regulated to the point you knew the weather a month in advance, the government was going to rebuild all the houses in the Kingdom so they not only were more durable with its stone conditions, but they were also going to have this new electricity to improve on the ponie's well being.

While she was going back home, she looked at one of the new stores and saw a very nice dress, it was very cheap (only 2 pieces for it) and she would look very nice in it while dating Obsidian Edge.

She looked around and noticed that each day there were more and more ponies wearing clothes, originally only the nobles were allowed to wear clothes as a sign of their wealth in the kingdom. But now the clothes were so cheap and easy to get that almost everypony (and even griffins and some minotaurs, whenever they could find something of their size) were using them. So, why not join them? That way she would give Obsidian Edge a very nice surprise.

After buying that dress and taking the package to her home, Jewel Joy couldn't but notice how much the Kingdom has changed from how her parents told her everything was before Swift Rise (or even Sombra) came in:

A Sewer Channel, Hospitals, Railroads, stone made avenues, new military advancements, Plazas, better housing for everybody and much more, this new king was sending this kingdom to places she never thought could even be dreamed and it looked like he wasn't stopping; apparently he was planning to use the Crystal Heart to it's maximum efficiency, so Sombra could ever come back again and it would require the ponies to do so. Jewel Joy felt so happy she had so many things that could improve on her life, she was proud of this new lifestyle, this new king, this new kingdom, she felt like living in the best Kingdom ever, the ideal kingdom and she hoped this would never stop.

The Present

As the air condensed on the movie room, the individuals residing it were becoming prey of the shock caused by the reveal of the types of monstrosities that they knew Sombra must have done but they never expected to see on their life. They knew that individuals like Sombra and, apparently know, Swift Rise were the kind of despots that would crush any type of opposition and/or hero daring enough to challenge their tyrannies and try to stop them, but they never expected to see it so directly on that movie.

Just seeing the images and shades drawn by the movie were strong enough to freeze their minds and wonder what kind of world was this one they were now seeing, was it right to create something like this to be seen by the very citizens that lived through it? Should they see this and remember a time that may be better forgotten?

As Spike was watching this, he no longer felt as he was seeing a boring documentary, he now felt as if he was now seeing a distant world that could have been had he fail to stop Sombra back then. Twilight and the other ponies were wondering how cold must a heart be to take away a pony's life? Those were questions that neither of them wanted to know. Meanwhile, the Griffon Princess was feeling a deep sense of familiarity that crawled up her body as she remembered the monster that took away her family from power and sent them to exile for many years.

Nonetheless, by this point the audience was too enthralled in the movie to actually try to stop it, everybody wanted to keep watching to see if they could finally see something that could give them a respite and that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't going to be as bad as it looked like.

The Movie

"The murder of Crystal Sapphire causes great bewilderment among those who are against the new king, it reinforces the image and power of the Kingdom Protection and its director: Stray Stone. Each time more, the new reign is reflected with this police institution."

Amor Candente is shown talking to the ponies in one of the districts of the kingdom, the ponies look like they're angry, but they're listen very carefully to what Candente is saying.

"Meanwhile, Candente is doing her usual job to keep the masses calmed saying that she disapproves this crime from the Kingdom Protection and promises that she was going to talk to the king to ask for a rectification for this crime".

RQ: "Candente was the bridge between the citizens and the King. She would always go to the streets and listen to what the ponies wanted and she would communicate it to the King since he wasn't a social pony."

"Whether the king listened or not to his Speaker, it didn't passed too much before we knew the next move of the King to solidify his power: a Curfew."

JJ: "I remember that curfew. It was very annoying because I always finished my classes very close to the curfew and I almost get in trouble with one of the KP." - After saying that, she started to blush.

"Under the excuse to catch the remnants of the Sombrist and pacify the kingdom. Swift Rise started a curfew and allowed the Kingdom Protection to arrest anypony who was a suspect of being allied with Sombra. The results start to show very quickly."

A Grey Unicorn is walking on the streets of the kingdom late at night when suddenly an earth pony takes him down and put a restraining ring on him.

LPG: "I was captured during one of those curfews and was charged of being a sombrist even though I never sided with Sombra in the first place."

A Butter coated unicorn was talking to a group of ponies when suddenly the door are busted, 4 earth ponies wearing tuxedo and gem pieces start pointing to them. all the ponies in the room lay to the ground and are immideatly arrested.

FM: "I was doing an interview to a group of workers for one of the old farms of Crystal Sapphire when, suddenly, the KP showed up and arrested all of us under the pretext of being sombrist. We shouted that it wasn't true, but they didn't listened and arrested us anyway".

"The police raids spread like fire and arrest many ponies, some are released quickly, others not that quickly."

LM: "My husband got caught on the curfew once. He was on the corner of the main street, late at night when, suddenly, he was grabbed from behind, I waited and prayed for him to appear again, but I never saw him again." - The old mare started to drop tears and added with a broken voice. - "I had to explains to my grand daughters that they weren't going to see their grandfather ever again." - And she started to sob.

A battalion of Crystal Guards are shown marching through the fields, preparing themselves and showing their discipline to the king.

"The following 4 months are of terror as nopony leaves, nopony complains and nopony moves. The kingdom is silenced and the new king is solidified as the new ruler of the kingdom. All of this with the support of the Crystal Guard, who are getting more and more prominent in the life of the citizens."

The scene fades to black and then it starts showing the face of Stray Stone, smiling like if he were having a party.

"Stray Stone, a Unicorn of good manners and well behaved, with his almost supernatural abilities to control of the Kingdom Protection and track down insurgents. He has managed to find all of the sombrist and arrest anybody who dared to complain against the new king."

The Scene fades again and this time, it shows a jail. A KP unit (holding a club in its mouth) is trotting down a hallway with every cell being filled with at least one pony. Suddenly, one of them speaks something and, in response, the KP unit hits the cell bars, scaring away the pony.

"The Jails of the Kingdom Protection are soon filled with dissidents and political enemies."

RQ: "Those were one of the scariest moments of the kingdom, the citizens were afraid of even talking to Candente for the fear of being caught by the Kingdom Protection and nobody knew when the curfew was going to end".

"But the terror ends or, at least, soften up a bit after the first 4 months of the curfew being installed when it finally cease along with the raids."

FR: "I still remember how, a few days before the curfew was stopped, I was dusting the hallways in the throne room when, suddenly, I hear the King and the Chancellor having a fight. I couldn't understand what they were fighting about." - She then showed a sly smile. - "But a few days after that fight the curfew was released."

"Everypony starts to celebrate with the new invention of the king: The Radio."

CC: "Yeah, the king was busy during those 4 months. I still remember how he started a new branch in science dedicated EXCLUSIVELY to the Crystal Guard so we could defend ourselves better from any type of invasion, Sombra would've never see it coming".

"During those 4 months the king started to begin the construction of weather factories, gem refineries, food processing and one of the best industries in the history of the kingdom: The Electric factory. A factory designed to take the electricity of the clouds formed in the weather factory of the pegasi, would be refined and transported to the other factories by the unicorns and lastly, the earth ponies would provide the whole kingdom of the electricity to light the streets with lamps, create heaters, electric stoves, power up the plummeting and much more, this ideas, are just the beginning."

RQ: "The electricity is one of the key features of Swift Rise's kingdom. It allowed to any non-unicorn to have a better life with almost all the benefits that had being a unicorn."

"Very soon, the kingdom start their celebrations for the anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom and (conveniently) the first year of the end of King Sombra's tyranny."

Ponies are shown dancing with each others the songs of the radio.

Unicorns, pegasi, earth and Crystal ponies are shown sharing drinks and talking very amicably.

Griffons, minotaurs and ponies are competing in a dance party and having drink contest.

In one of the dances, the king could be seen dancing with a pink unicorn that looked very red on her cheeks and was trying to avoid the cameras.

The scene changes again and now it shows the King walking with a squadron of guards and KP units escorting him while a voice could be heard: "The King Swift Rise is heading to the Congress to start his renditions and start a new year as a King".

"With the first official year of his rule done and the Congress recognizing his rule as king of the Crystal Kingdom (to make it even more official and legal), Swift Rise decides to make a rendition of accounts to prove how effective his rule has been."

The King pulls out of his saddlebags a paper and once it's placed where it must be, he starts to read all the things he has done to the kingdom.

"What the list is the most filled about is the amount of infrastructure and progress has been made in the kingdom and after saying how he pretends to keep this project to help the Kingdom he decides to end his speech":

"For the enrichment of the Crystal Kingdom, I summon the grace of the Almighty Creator so those new fruits incarnate in the new ideal kingdom, keep determining our acts and establishing firm and longstanding bases for our institutions." - After finishing his speech, everypony in the Congress start to stomp the ground in cheers while Swift kept his face serious in front of the cameras.

Earth Ponies are shown digging the lands and destroying boulders outside the Kingdom while bringing construction equipment.

"Construction of public works is the easiest face of the government that now uses the imprecise, indoctrinate slogan of 'The Ideal Kingdom'. It can be translated as the transformation of the physical media with facts and works to create with the passage of time into the new crystal pony."

Crystal Ponies inside a big building are using schematics, compasses and other materials used for architecture schematics.

"From the offices of the Crystal Projections, the planifications for the improvements of the kingdom are being made."

What looked like a city was being built.

"It's being constructed the College City."

The Big Tower that was very familiar to Twilight and the rest of her friends was shown.

"The new Tower for the Crystal Palace."

The Stadium where the future Equestria games were going to be held.

"The conclusion of the Stadium."

The Library that Twilight loved so much was also being shown.

"The Crystal Library."

Many construction ponies with some minotaurs were working in a railway.

"The Southern Railway."

Old houses and buildings are getting demolished.

"The old is demolished to build the new, and the King decides to inaugurate the buildings in the exact day of the anniversary of the dethroning of King Sombra and he does it every year."

Swift Rise is shown cutting the ribbons to inaugurate the buildings with a pair of scissors.

"Like the Circle Guard, a social club for the Crystal Guard; made to give joy and comfort to the branch that holds the power in the Kingdom"

Many Crystal Ponies, all of them from the military, are dancing on the room along the King and Amor Candente.

"But the most emblematic public work is the new road that connected the Kingdom to the sea a marvel built in only 3 years."

Ponies working on the Road are shown making two roads: One made of Marble for the ponies who wanted to take their time and another one of Rails for those that wanted to get there fast.

During the construction, a lot of journalist ponies, griffons and minotaurs are taking pictures and showing their amazed faces at the construction workers not only making the road with stone, white marble and precious gems, but also because some of those gems could glow at night and that the workers were making electric lamps to illuminate everything in a 10 mile radius with guards patrolling the areas.

The King appears during one of this constructions to inspect it and smiling at the efficiency of his ponies.

RQ: "The Road to the Sea was a dream for the citizens because, for the first time, they would be able to travel to the Sea, safely, and have some very nice vacations with a look to the sea, a beautiful sight. The mystery of traveling on the road, even if you got caught by the night, nothing would happen to you."

More construction ponies are working in the city, eliminating the dirt roads and placing rocks that shines like Crystal.

"While the Kingdom isn't that close to the Sea, that it's fixed through the constructions of more houses and buildings, expanding the capitol and, in doing so, the creation of new icons for the city."

The workers quickly build more plazas on the outskirts of the kingdom and surrounding it with more houses and each one taller than the one before. Each Plazas are filled with fountains, Gem-made statues, clock towers, etc. Then, the scene fades to black to be filled with a new voice:

"Crystal citizens." - Says the King who is speaking through a series of mics to the radio and Crystal Speaker. The scene starts to show images again, a radio sounding the king's voice inside a house while a few letters appear to give the audience an idea of how much time has been since the construction scene.

One year later

"During this year, the kingdom has rejoiced in the necessary progress to-"

"Without the fear of political adversaries. The government announces that everything is going well."

"-in the unity of the Kingdom, and to those who has participated in this progress by joining the working class, I give you all a cordial salutation and wishes for the best in the new year."

the King ended his speech and is greeted by stomps and cheers.

FR: "There is a point between the second year of Swift Rise's reign, to his fifth year, where nopony said anything against him."

RQ: "And the truth is that, in the Kingdom, not even a fly was moving. The king's control over the life of his citizens was total and complete."

LYP: "The Sombrist were swept away along the nobles, but specially the sombrist, and since the very first year Swift Rise takes control of the kingdom, Lord Crystal Sapphire is murdered and, later after him, Stable Peridot and Strong Garnet, the historical leaders that has always been involved in the politics of the kingdom, while the rest of them were exiled from the kingdom".

LPG: "So the kingdom enters into a state of calm, of rest in politics. The citizens no longer thought about politics in the streets in terms of civil administration or direction of the country or political figures."

FR: "The few things that were done were clandestine moves, those papers that circulated in the streets."

CC: "They were all underground gangs, painting the streets, passing papers, but the great mobilizations that were done before Sombra, those were no longer capable to be done."

LM: "In those moments we were caught by the police, and I was taken to the Central Jail of the kingdom where I was foalnapped for 6 months."

FR: "My friend Clearing Onyx and I got into a fight, he claimed that this new king was worse than Sombra and I disagreed with him, I told him that Swift Rise was a savior and that, if it weren't for him, Sombra would have destroyed the Kingdom and all the other lands surrounding us." - Ruby Flame then started to look down while her ears folded back and started to tear up. - "He told me that I was a traitor to the cause and... other mean things... I had no other choice but to turn him over to the Kingdom Protection."

FM: "I still remember that when I was captured I was told that a double agent that worked for the Kingdom Protection and also for the Newspaper where I worked, "The New Vision", found me out and turned me in. I was accused of being a sombrist even though I never was." - In that moment he started to give a stone look at the camera and looking at it with the biggest seriousness he could muster. - "The were no courtrooms, only prisoners, thousands of prisoners, and, they were sentenced by the police".

CC: "The Kingdom Protection transformed into a monster." - The guard then started to show all of his disdain by frowning a scowl in his face, pausing on his sentences to give more strength to his words. - "In a machine. Of BRUTAL repression. Bloodthirsty. Where torture was the order of the day." - He started to remember all of the prisoners he saw whenever he went to make an inspection, all of the innocents ponies he saw in there. Their screams as they were being tortured and he remembered how his Colonel tried multiple times to release them but couldn't and started to tear up from the impotence. - "The Cross, The Eraser, The Shocker, the Whip Slashes, the Exiles."

FM: "It was a torture without interrogation, because the interrogation were already done."

LYP: "The Crosses were some tall, thin and sharpened crosses that were put in the ground and you were stepped in it." - The Noble started to remember the pain.

LPG: "You were left in it for hours and hours until you dropped." - His legs started to strain from the memories.

LYP: "At the beginning you laughed at it because you thought that it was something dumb."

LPG: "But you later realized that it was extremely painful, especially for how it was piercing your hooves for months and months."

FM: "I always had weak legs so I couldn't stand for too long on the crosses." - And the more he spoke, the slower and slower he made his sentences to make sure that the audience could absorb the information he was giving but, as slow as he was speaking and as old as his voice sound, his voice was as clear as day.

LYP: "Until you finally give up and drop because you have no other choice."

FM: "Then it was a beat down with their hooves and sometimes with Iron. They were very hard. They always hit my face and it deformed it".

LPG: "My friend Brilliant Amethyst was tortured in the the Jail The Fountain in a brutal way since he was 'erased', one of the worst things that could be done."

FM: "Being 'erased' basically was that your Cutie Mark would be scorched so nopony could ever see it again, your special talent, what represented who you were, was taken away from you, I was erased." - In that moment he moved aside to show his flanks and show how in the place where his Cutie Mark was supposed to be, there was instead a black hole. - "There used to be an eye with a scroll shaped pupil to symbolize my search for the truth and knowledge, now there is nothing there." - If the movie could be paused just in the right moment, the viewer would notice how his eyes got a bit watery as he spoke. - "Torture is the most depressing thing there is, the most horrible. The torturers are beings that always goes crazy."

A moving picture of four crosses are thrown into the center of the picture and afterwards, four hooves starts to slowly be placed in them with a resounding BOOM when they finally touches the crosses.

The Crystal Palace has now been rebuilt and now it looks more like a big Castle that shines in all it's glory, but the cardboards and maps still calls it the "Crystal Palace" and from there the scene quickly starts to move towards a new building.

"Outside of the horrors of the jails, the outlook is different. The College City has been finished and all the attention is centered in its great theater, heart of modernism and the government is taking advantage of this using it as the site of the first Conference of World Culture."

The Theater is filled with many crystal, equestrian and southern ponies, griffons, minotaurs, zebras, dragons and many other species.

"A Conference designed to work with other governments to share ideas for the development of culture and strengthen relationships between the nations of the whole world, but in the end is just an excuse for the king to show off his kingdom, the Gem-exporting government really likes to brag about its wealth to the other kingdoms, tribes and clans that has come to this fascinating idea including the Kingdom of Equestria whose princesses has finally defeated Discord and are now focusing on the reconstruction of their kingdom, but to not lose the chance of this, they send a delegate instead of them".

"With this conference the Kingdom of Swift Rise tries and success in getting recognition of his rule on the world stage."

The Ponies are using a machine that are unrecognizable and are aiming to the Center of the Stage.

"And there's in the conference a new and very powerful intruder, the TV."

The weird machine is now pointing towards a group of ponies who are dancing in front of it.

"The first shows are filled with theaters and educational purpose."

A Mare unicorn is hitting another mare pegasus with a spoon.

"Of politics, only the 'official one' is spoken, and is never shown any type of news that critique or angers the government."

A well dressed unicorn stallion was sitting behind a desk in a very well organized room, he focus on the camera and starts speaking.

"One of the fundamental elements of celebration in this holidays, is the crib".

Two earth ponies, two unicorns, two crystal ponies, three pegasi and one griffon are competing on who can win a race, a pegasus is winning but is hard to see its features because the screen is in black and white.

"Over time, the shows that gain the biggest audience are sports like races, gladiator battles and strength competitions."

Two minotaurs are seen fighting each other on a ring, suddenly, one of them throws the other to a deformed part of one of the walls in the ring, the minotaur is then putting his hand on his back, trying to ease the pain while the mares and female minotaur start booing to the other minotaur, all of this while the narrator of the battle is speaking about it.

"OW! That's gotta hurt, boo to the wall breaker, the ladies dislike him but don't worry, on the next fight, it will be the chance for the good ones."

The narrator stop speaking and the scene pass to the houses watching the fight.

"And if those boxes are filling the houses, then the streets are being filled with theaters and movies with the citizens always filling them to see their favorite stars and also to be seen."

A theater could be seen with lot of well dressed ponies and griffons entering, while they're entering to the theater a lot of cameras are seen taking shots at them, some of this ponies take a mic and sings while others just seat and start to wave their hooves in a way to say hi.

PP: "We were the most popular artists and Soft Voice was the favorite tenor in the crystal kingdom."

LM: "Soft Voice was the singer of the moment and ALL the mares died for Soft Voice."

JJ: "Especially Soft Voice, he was something amazing."

A great Ballroom is filled with griffons, minotaurs, zebras and ponies of all kind, in the center of the ballroom, there's an earth pony stallion. While the image is in black and white, it can still be seen that he is wearing a black and white tuxedo with a white rose in his chest, he is singing with a lot of energy and showing all of his abilities in it, the audience is listening with great focus, glad and cheering for him and enjoying all of his talent for that one night and prepared to remember it for as long as they can.

A gladiator Pony, the same one from the beginning of the movie is seen fighting against a Unicorn, dodging his spells while trying to get close to him.

"Other celebrities are also getting a lot of recognition lately, like Black Diamond and Piercing Magic, as a great rookie in the big leagues."

The King Swift Rise is seen with Amor Candente in a room, Candente is wearing a wedding dress while the king is wearing a wedding suit, the camera Zooms out to reveal that the wedding is happening in front of the Crystal Palace.

"But what took all the attention from the press, the citizens and the military, was the wedding of the king with the Ex-Princess Amor Candente."

Golden Strike (who's smiling) and his guards are on the left side of the Bride, while Stray Stone (who's smiling more than ever) and his Kingdom Protection are on the right side of the king, in the center of the wedding are the citizens of the kingdom with the air being surrounded by pegasus and griffons while on the ground there are unicorns, crystal and earth ponies, zebras, dragons and if you could look closely, you could see in the corner of the camera a small bug like pony.

RQ: "It wasn't that surprising when you take in account that the only mare that Swift Rise ever met (that was single) was Amor Candente, and he was lucky that she said yes, because is hard to tell who would have married him."

CC: "The King always had a soft spot for her since she wasn't like the other mares who only cared for money or any of those stuff the nobles didn't liked to mingle with anything outside their social caste."

FR: "Those two would always talk in their free time, rumors of them being in love started to spread among the staff." - She then started to make a sly smile.

PP: "I remember that, I was originally going to sing in the party, but then the new queen said that she would prefer Soft Voice. But I was still invited along the rest of the kingdom".

The king and the queen make their vows and kiss, while they're at it, the whole kingdom cheers and celebrate.

"But there are places where the wedding isn't being celebrated."

A jail is focused, after entering, the images start showing ponies in the cells looking at the ground in sadness or being beating by the KP.

"The prisoners, aren't aware of what's going on, they live in a different world than the one in the outside and, sadly, the ones in the exterior doesn't know either, or doesn't care at all. For them, all they do is living in the new kingdom created by Swift Rise, all they care is the happiness and improvements in their lives that Swift Rise is providing them with. All they now is the new Ideal Kingdom."

Author's Notes:

Originally, this was going to be one chapter along with the previous one, but they were getting too long and besides, this way I could make a better focus on the two things that solidified the power and control of Swift Rise: The repression and the progressive nature of his reign.

The Main difference between the Radio and the Crystal Speaker is that one works with Radio Waves while the other one works with magic, by this point, the entertainment industries made through this two devices were fighting each other to see who would have the biggest audience.

Also, Since I did found images of unicorn, pegasus and earth Crystal Ponies, whenever I mention Crystal Ponies is to remind the reader that there are Equestrians in this kingdom as well but that there are unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies in both Equestrian and Crystal ponies alike.

Southern Ponies are the ancestors of the Saddle Arabians.

The Police was the Kingdom Protection unit and there was a severe rivalry/hatred between the leaders of the Kingdom Protection and the Crystal Guards: Stray Stone and Golden Strike respectively.

If any of you are wondering, the last remnants of those loyal to Sombra were taken by the KP by the end of the first year of the reign of Swift Rise (when the curfew was lifted), any prisoner after that were just ponies speaking their minds of the government flaws.

Now I have a question for you, does Equestria knows what a TV is? because if they do I'll have to make some rewrites in here.

EDIT July 12th of 2019: If you like this and you want to support me, you can do it through my Ko-Fi. Feel free to check it out.

Chapter 5: From Kingdom to Empire

View Online

The Distant Past

Once again, the Crystal Palace was shining in its new glory. All the citizens of the kingdom could see the splendor of the Crystal Palace from miles away. Inside of it, the King Swift Rise and the Queen Amor Candente have just come back from their Honeymoon on the coast and they were enjoying themselves in their room (having a surprisingly simple design with just a bed, two chairs and one table with a small library on one of the walls; it looked more like the room of a normal citizen rather than the room of a noble) with some staff members already starting gossips about how the King and the queen were preparing themselves already for a successor. Others said that the king hated foals, there were some rumors that the king preferred to work while others that the queen saw the Crystal Guard as his King's lover (common gossips), but what was truly known, was that during the honeymoon the regents of the Crystal Kingdom still managed to control their territory miles away from their Palace. How they did that was another mystery that the journalist and historians would try to tear apart for the rest of the Crystal history. Inside the Palace, the maids were cleaning up the room of the new couple and they couldn't stop gossiping:

"Well, I honestly like this new king, way more ordered than the previous ones and he always treat us with respect. He doesn't remember our names but at least he acknowledge us as important. I've never been treated like that in my life."

"You're completely right Dusty Pearl, and I've never seen the guards being so well behaved. Do you remember before, during Sombra's time? When they were so brutish and savages? Now they call us madam, they never flirt and they always do their job when they're supposed to. And let's not talk about how handsome they are now..." - At this all the maids started to dream with some of the guards and their handsomeness.

"Alright ladies, you can dream if you want, but keep working." - Said the Boss of the maids.

"Yes, Madam Flame Ruby." - responded all of them.

A while later, the maids went to clean the Throne Room, since the royal couple was out to open one of the King's new buildings. The maids were among the ponies who has seen the most changes inside the Crystal Palace, from King Loving Garnet to King Swift Rise, the maids has seen them all and they've detected how every king acted inside the palace (who they treated with, what they chose to do and their next step in the administration of the kingdom) and so far Swift Rise was their favorite with the good payment they got and a better schedule and working conditions.

During all of this working and gossiping the door was knocked, the maids quickly silenced themselves and focused on their work while waiting for the door to open. When it opened, a guard entered the throne room. He looked cool and collected, his armor shined like the sun and it even looked comfortable to wear. The guard looked around and after looking he decided to talk to the maids:

"Good morning ladies. I'm searching for the King so he can approve this Bill, the Congress has finally given its decision on the new law he proposed and all it needs now to be done and it starts it's application is for him to sign this."

The maids looked at him with a piercing glance, it was quite clear that he was hiding something, but their job was to clean the Palace and keep it ordered with the help of the butlers, not to indulge in politics. Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, Flame Ruby spoke:

"I apologize, but the king has left the palace with his wife to buy a few garments and other items in preparation of the possibility of a royal descendant, if you desire, you could wait here for when he comes back or go search for him in the markets".

The guard looked at her, he nodded and thanked her for her services and left. After he left the maids asked Ruby if it was a good idea to tell what was the king doing, at which she simply replied that it wasn't a secret of state (the guard probably was the one holding that) and everything inside the castle was always kept in secret among those who lived inside of it, a lesson she herself learned when she started to work there. Shortly after that, the mares restarted the gossip, now talking about the king wanting to change the name of the Crystal Kingdom.

2 Months Later

The Transversal between the Paradise Street and the Shining avenue was known for being the most populated area of the whole Garnet District of the Diamond State in all of the Crystal Empire:

It was visited during the mornings for the markets, bustling with seller offering items that could only be found there in the whole world (from TVs to food) and it was all legal. From mothers looking for house items of food to the house, to new visitors from other lands (who would later stay to live among the Crystal Citizens) desiring to have a chance in their life and be successful in anything.

It was visited during the noon for all the business ponies and delegates that would come here to lunch after having a hard day. Ponies, minotaurs, griffins, zebras and now changelings were always coming to rest from a hard day at work, talk with other work partners and would later go back to their work to proceed with their day.

It was visited in the afternoon for younglings of any kind, desiring to play now that school was over and they wanted to enjoy the rest of their day playing with other kids. Earth and crystal ponies played ball with minotaurs, zebras, dragons, Diamond puppies and nymphs. Pegasi played with griffons, dragons and changelings who could make the best moves in the sky. Unicorns would make tests of mental strength with changelings. All the species's younglings would be playing in the street while the KP would make sure that they didn't got into anything dangerous.

It was visited in the night by those workers that wanted to hang out with their partners and make one or two parties before going to bed. Normally they would go to bars to drink until they couldn't drink anymore or it was the time to leave, either way, it was just to relax and have a good day.

And in one bar in particular, there were 3 griffons (two males and one female), 1 [male] minotaur, 3 ponies (one crystal pony, one pegasi and one earth pony) discussing a few things that have just recently happened.

"I still don't understand how could we lose that battle!" - Said the female griffon, this one in particular had the head of a harpy, - "we had numerical superiority and tactical superiority. We surpassed you 4 to 1. Just... why?"

At this, the griffon besides her just told her very calmly. - "Look, I understand your concern, but if you look at it, you never had a chance."

The harpy Griffon looked at him with a glare that could kill anyone, thankfully she was drunk enough to not be a threat to anybody but the glare was still worrying. At this moment, a Crystal pony decided to proceed with the conversation.

"That's true, you had too many generals that acted very disorganized (never in touch with each other) and we had the technology superiority. Just a few of our cannons and a good electric storm and we got rid of your most dangerous warriors (who also decided to directly charge at us). Just be glad that the King decided to give amnesty to anyone willing to live under his rule."

"In other words," - said the minotaur, - "you were screwed from the beginning. Golden Claw was just being kind to you." - But the harpy, wanting to have the final word, decided to criticize something from the golden griffon.

"That reminds me, how come you're acting so weakly?, if you were grown in my tribe, you wouldn't have survived the first test of maturity." - In that moment the Griffon looked at her with a venomous glare and responded with an icy tone that made all the other drinking partners shiver in fear.

"I had to survive in the tundra for 1 year just as the first step of adulthood and my second step consisted in going to an enemy tribe and steal one of their treasures and I will remind you that my clan has 10 steps for adulthood." - The harpy melted in fear at the look of the griffon that (outside of this city) could very easily belong to a chief tribe. - "I came here searching for a good life for my tribe, but to love here we had to accept the rules of the city and so we did. Don't you ever dare to criticize me or my clan for what we had to do." - After hearing that statement (and to her surprise), Golden Claw became as joyous as he was a few seconds earlier and started to ask about that new species (changelings they were called) and what they were supposed to be doing here, this made the harpy realize that perhaps there was something else to this place and perhaps she picked well in asking forgiveness to her tribe. Perhaps, there was nothing else to fear now that they were living here.

In that moment, the door was opened and 3 Kingdom Protection units entered the bar. They started to scan the whole bar and then went close to the crystal pony that just talked to the harpy. During all of this, she saw the looks in all of her new partners in her new life and she saw the same look in their faces: Fear.

The police officers asked the identification papers to the crystal pony and he gave them to the officers. The harpy saw how everybody (including Golden Claw) avoided glances and didn't dared to look at the officers or the pony and this left her perplexed, for never in her life she saw so much fear in such strong warriors. What could this officers do that they could instill so much fear?

The KP units told the pony to go with them and he moved without making any type of rebellion (no running, fighting or even a few words), he just moved and went on with them. The griffon managed to look a dreading apathy in the pony as he went on and once she looked at the officers, they just looked at everyone in the bar, they apologized for the inconvenience and wished them a good night. She hoped that once everything was sorted out she would see again that pony.

She never saw him again.

The Crystal Mountains
Two weeks later

Sombra was, for the first time in his life, feeling despair. He had no horn, no followers, no army and now he was even losing his supply of food. He needed the last ingredients if he wanted to recover his power. But then, what?

What he once considered a weakling has managed to topple him over and over. All of what he had has been destroyed, and now he was completely alone, he would rather be back in the court of Loving Garnet or (better yet) dead to be in this position. All he could do now was cry, for he felt lost. What could he gain by recovering his magic? Nobody in the kingdom would want him back. All because of that traitor, not even Pure Diamond was such a scumbag. He could feel his laughter, mocking him, how dare him to mock the great Sombra, savior of the Crystal Kingdom? Nobody could do that, nobody would ever do that, nobody will do that.

No, he would come back and once he were back, he would erase him from history. He would erase his name, he would erase everything he ever did, he would erase anyone who dared to oppose him and he would make sure that there were no one that could even remember Swift Rise. Nobody would ever know who was Swift Rise, the Crystal Kingdom would be back to him and once he were back, their citizens would be glad that he decides to show mercy on them.

Sombra packed his stuff, and then he departed to the north, the frozen tundra where nothing ever came back from there.

The Present

Sometime between the breaks

One of the pony researchers went to the bathroom and scanned the place with magic. Once he was sure that the place was safe he decided to use sound proof spells and reinforce the doors so nobody could break in, then his eyes glowed green and his horn shone like an emerald.

My queen. - He said in a mind connection.

- Yes my servant? what have you discovered that it requires for you to give me your report ahead of time?

- I have found some records about an ancient king that the history of the Crystal Empire has forgotten.

- Why should I care for some death pony?, what has he done that could be important to us?

- I found a treaty among Changelings and Crystal ponies signed by your mother and said king.

...

- My Queen?

- Name.

- Sorry?

- What was his name?

...

I order you to give me his name! - As soon as the Changeling Queen gave the order, the changeling in the bathroom felt a strong pain in his head. This was weird, the queen was always so collected, this was unusual.

- That's not all, we also found a color film that shows said king having a wedding with amor candente, in that film I saw a-

- Give! Me! His! Name! - The Pain came back and it was 10 times harder, he almost fainted for how big were the punch like induced pain he just got, but he managed to recollect himself and told her what she wanted to know.

- Swift Rise. King Swift Rise.

...

- My Queen?

...

- I apologize for disturbing you, I'll try to-

- No, keep watching that film and gather as much information about him as you can.

- My Queen?

- I'm going there with the best the hive can offer.

- My Queen!?

- Once you feel my signature, reveal yourself and tell Princess Cadence about my visit, any future problem will be payed with luxuries to both you and your family. That is all.

The connection was lost and the changeling, accepting his fate, decided to go back to the conference and watch the rest of the film.

Conference room

Everybody was trying to recover from what they just watched: the crystal kingdom was once ruled by a tyrant that made his citizens happy. He was a totalitarian but wasn't authoritarian. He repressed his citizens but didn't destroyed their life. He actually brought progress to the kingdom through political moves that even today would be considered taboo (in example: coming to power through a coup d'etat, the violations of Sapience Rights, the creation of political parties and giving power to the military among other things). He was a very interesting character that required further investigation.

The Griffons were having it hard, while the king that supposedly gave the griffons the bases to become into the empire they are now did existed, he was anything like he was portrayed in the books: He wasn't a wise king who decided to embrace the griffons into his protection, he wasn't a protector of the individuals lives, what was truth were the militarization and how he had powerful military command. A lot of changes would have to be done in order to give a good information to the griffons in the kingdom (like changing how history was given and what were the philosophies that could be brought through Swift Rise).

The minotaurs were also having it hard but not because of the historical differences, but because based on the film and the documents they now had in their hands, apparently Swift Rise made a better constitution than them. The Constitution made by Swift RIse was almost flawless (from the political system, to the electorate, to the defense of the rights of sentient beings, it covered a lot) compared to theirs. This meant that they now had to create a new constitution based on this and those could take so long to make and implement that it was already too bothering to think about, and that's not even covering how the public will react at all of this decisions.

But the ones that were taking it the worst were the ponies.

All this time they thought that Tyrant kings were like Sombra: opportunistic oppressors who would destroy the lives of anypony who even dared to challenge their rule while using black magic to control the population, all of that while destroying the lives of its citizens. Swift Rise was like that but not the way they expected him to be, they hadn't expected him to bring progress, they hadn't expected that he would create a system that would allow him to stay in power but that would perfectly work under any other circumstance, they hadn't expected him to be an ancestor of Princess Cadance. So far the equestrians had noticed the hints (The Queen was Amor Candente and she had a daughter before Sombra taking over her throne and the movie shows that Swift Rise married her), but the information that solidified Swift Rise as an ancestor to Cadance didn't sit well on the monarch, she was trying to avoid making a fit for she didn't wanted to be related to such a monster. The ponies (Shining Armor, Celestia, Luna, Twilight and her friends) had to split their time between calming her and trying to digest all of what they had saw and they had to debate on what to do with this information, should they show this film to the world? The Ponies were very sensitive, how could this affect them? They didn't knew, but before they could make a decision, the recess was over and the movie proceeded.

Movie

The Stadium is crowded with civilians making a dance at the rythm of a song, the scene moves to a parade of guards and soldiers marching on the streets. This guards all had their respectives weapons: Soldiers had swords, spears, shield gems, sword gems for long range fighting and saddlebags to carry first aid hits and food among other goods. The Guards had their typical Shield gems in their chests, Sword gems in their forelegs and specialized horseshoes. During this parade, the King (wearing a white armor) was also in the parade and he was being followed by his generals (who were wearing black armors). The parade was followed by the civilians who were using musical instruments as they were marching.

"During two weeks and ending each 5th day of the 7th month of every year, a numerous acts, parades and inaugurations are celebrated in both the capital of the kingdom and the new cities surrounding it. It's the Week of the Motherland, an innovation promoted by the government under the name of the new ideal kingdom."

More marches are shown as well as guards saluting the citizens (ponies, griffons, minotaurs, diamond dogs and dragons) while they were saluting as well, the scene switches to a statue being uncovered and the journalist taking photos at it.

LYP: "It was the exaltation of the heroes of the motherland." - He said as he was moving his forelegs to exaggerate what he was saying in an almost monotone voice.

FM: "It was a fully political party."

CC: "I saw it well in the sense of celebrating the glories of the nation."

JJ: "It was about having pride of being part of the Crystal Kingdom, pride for the flag, pride of the founder of the kingdom, pride for this and that."

The King and Queen, surrounded by generals, are entering into a stage while an announcer is speaking: "The King Swift Rise is entering into the Crystal Stadium, followed by his wife, the queen Amor Candente, and the members of his ministry to enter into the festivities of the Week of the Motherland." - Numerous ponies, griffons, minotaurs and dragons started to march in front of the King while saluting him by extending their arms to him (except the earth ponies and unicorns who couldn't because of their walking cycle. Meanwhile, griffons and pegasi extended their wings to make their salute).

"The great parade is begun by the thousand troop elements who're marching in their sport uniform". Then the scene cuts to the students dancing in the stadium like it was shown in a previous scene, the marching was continued with some fireworks. Suddenly the observers are transported to the rooftops of the city where it can be seen from above the march done by the civilians.

"For a moment, The Crystal Kingdom looks like it were transformed into a big parade."

A Pony is seen transporting a flag with his mouth while the mares are marching in uniforms.

"Public employees are obliged to march. Who isn't marching must stomp in celebration."

In the roofs a bunch of ponies are seen stomping to congratulate the mares.

FM: "Those from the Ministries had to go on white silk clothes AND the private industries that liked the government also made their workers to go on white silk clothes as well."

LPG: "That's why to many important figures, marching in the week of the Motherland was just another invention of Swift Rise to indoctrinate the civil conscience of the citizens of the Kingdom."

The King is looking at the streets from above.

LYP: "One of those days, I agreed with Doctor Well Care when, watching the marches, he said 'Apparently it's easier to militarize the civilians than civilize the military'."

Colts, fillies, hatchlings (both dragons and griffons), pups and young minotaurs, all of 16-18 years old, are watched marching, the music starts to distort.

CC: "I think everybody liked that kind of parades and the schools prepared very well for those kind of parades."

The young ones are now marching in military uniforms.

LYP: "The week of the motherland was a mandatory thing for the students who disputed against other schools with their music bands, they competed to see who had the best music bands or something like that. We in the underground went against it, we even tried to sabotage one of those parades and we got clubbed by the very students."

The students are watched from above marching, the scene is switched back to one of the unicorn colts (of about 16 years old) using his magic to touch a drum. The scene ends with a 4 year old colt marching happily while the music completely distorts.

The scene goes back to the King, who's being followed by a Changeling queen, a diamond dog wearing a crown and a dragon using royal garments.

"Swift Rise likes to be surrounded by other rulers during this celebrations and show them the firepower of his Military Forces, equipped with systems that revolutionize the way of making war."

A machine flying through the air is shown throwing something to the ground, when said thing touched the ground it exploded. A group of ponies are shown charging a big stick held by two wheels, the ponies cover their ears and the stick quickly explodes on the top, sending the charge through the air (Twilight would later remember them as the cannons that Pinkie tend to use for her parties). The Guards are shown shooting with their Sword Gems to the frontier along other heavy guns. The kings are shown to be very surprised at this.

"And each night is met with an emergency drill of attacks to the Crystal Kingdom."

FM: "The attack drills were a sight to behold, a great attraction."

JJ: "Everybody where on their houses, you had to turn off the lights."

FM: "When Sirens started to sound, they announced that the government has found an enemy trying to invade the kingdom whether through air or land and anyone who was outside must find cover."

JJ: "You couldn't even light a match because that was forbidden."

FM: "You couldn't even light a candle because that was anti-Swiftist." - He then started to laugh at this.

JJ: "You would hear sirens making WAANNNNNGGG, and all that stuff, for all of us that was like a movie." - She said smiling.

FM: "And the sirens you heard weren't close yet."

JJ: "And the plains would pass"-

FM: "And the reflectors would shine the plane as it passed and you would hear the cannons."

JJ: "They moved like if they were light attacks."

A big amount of weaponry starts shooting to the air, once the shooting finishes the announcer started to speak: "The sirens pass and the drills are done. Just another event in the Week of the Motherland".

LYP: "Who would try to attack the Crystal Kingdom? What they were trying to prove with that? By the way those planes passed so low to be reflected, it looked more like a circus act." - He started to smile at the ludicrousness of it. That was a complete farce.

Once again, the citizens are shown marching through the whole kingdom.

"Definitely, the militarization is part of the celebration of their nationalism, but the sirens weren't for nothing."

LPG: "I still want to know what were his tricks, he always knew what was going to happen."

"The notice is done by Stray Stone (the Speaker of the Ministry of Interior) who, with his elegant voice, decides to announce the event that changed the way the kingdom moved."

Stray Stone is shown in a locutor room talking to the mic.

Stray Stone: "An invasion attempt from Sombra's forces has been thwarted by our military. The Ex King Sombra tried once again an attack to recover the throne of the Crystal Empire by using many griffon tribes, dragons and other species that were loyal to him", - he then started to smile and proceeded, - "The Crystal Army, led by our King Swift Rise and with the help of his generals, managed to stop his forces swiftly and with the total use of our firepower."

"The battle was as fast as a sneeze: Sombra's army came with 8.000 soldiers of various degree but with poor weaponry and a bad leadership while the Crystal Army had 2000 soldiers equipped with the best weaponry that the kingdom could produce and with a perfect coordination of the armies. It was a flock of sheep being sent to a pack of wolves."

Stray Stone: "And, as a sign of goodwill towards the other tribes that followed Sombra for necessity rather than loyalty, the King decided to give them amnesty on the condition of working for the kingdom." - His smile grew a bit more.

"The other tribes had to choose between subordination or being destroyed by the weaponry that reduced their number to 2000 in less than an hour. But that wasn't the only thing that changed that day."

Stray Stone: "In other news, the other kingdoms that surrounded the Crystal Kingdom (The Changeling Hive ruled by Queen Artemis, the Diamond Dog Tribe ruled by King Nerum and the dragon brethren of Julius II) have all decided to become a part of the Crystal Kingdom, under this conditions, the King Swift Rise has decided to change the name of the Kingdom to Crystal Empire among other things".

The King is shown signing a text, followed soon by the other kings and Queen who doesn't look too happy with the resolve, the camera shifts toward the generals who, with the exception of Golden Strike, look very happy with this new development.

"Through power, he augmented his subordinates and through fear he expanded his control to other kingdoms (The kingdom no longer went to the west coast and the feet of the northern mountains, but now they reached beyond the frozen tundra and touched the West coast. But to make sure that everybody got benefited from this, he promised that the diamond dogs would stay in their mountains, the ones who wanted/had to go to the city would be treated as equals and all the pups would be educated with the best the empire could offer. The Changelings would be fed with the power of the Crystal Heart (powered by the love of everybody in the kingdom) and they would have to work (any type of work) to make a living in their new home and, finally, the dragons would be a part of the new industries that the king was still designing (so the dragons became the new entrepreneurs of the kingdom)."

The camera looks back at the king Swift Rise who start to look back at the camera and smiles in victory. Then the scene fades to black.

The camera turns on again, the king is wearing his white armor and is being accompanied by his wife, entering a building.

"It's Gala Night in Equestria's Embassy of the Crystal Capital, Crystalium, The King Swift Rise receives the Condecoration of Harmony (the highest honor that you can get in Equestria) in it's biggest class".

An Unicorn is shown giving the medal to the king and putting it on his chest.

"The ambassador, External knowledge, put the medal on his chest under the gaze of the Crystal government. It's a ritual that he accepts and looks like he enjoys. Receive National or international decorations doesn't make him more endearing."

The King is looking at the swords and talking to other ponies in the embassy.

"The King it's still a distant character, more worried by efficiency and of low friends."

CC: "He was a pony of very little communication. That was one of his problems, sometimes you had to take the words out of him with pincers."

PP: "One of the ponies that took care of him, Solid Clay, once told me 'I can meet you up with him but don't touch him because he doesn't like to be touched' to which I said that I don't like to touch stallions," - he then started to laugh at his own joke.

FM: "He was a very shy pony. He was the kind of pony that when he got excited, he started to tear himself up."

The King is shown with a pregnant Amor Candente.

"He's married with Amor Candente, daughter of Loving Garnet and they're expecting a foal. 'Lady Love', as she's now known, accompanies her husband to official acts and make tours inside the empire."

The Queen is seen cutting bows and talking to the news reporters and other journalists.

"She is more talkative than her husband, but she doesn't have the voice of a concert singer. She leave a stelle of elegance wherever she goes as the Queen of the Empire."

The Royal couple is shown blowing off candles in a cake that has dolls of the two of them dancing, symbolizing their anniversary.

"King Swift Rise never misses the family parties"

The King is shown playing some sports with his, very few, friends and he's even shown a wearing swimming suit.

"He doesn't shy away from practicing sports and even swimming in one of the beaches."

A big airplane is soaring through the kingdom.

"But his major passion is flying, during his free time, he flies a plane above the countryside in a Silver Plane that was given to him."

FM: "Swift Rise was a big fan of airplanes and racing in general. And Swift Rise, with his silver plane that allowed him to go very fast, would go sometimes from one extreme of the empire to the other in his plane 'The Silver Bullet'."

A Silver airplane is shown soaring in the air, piloted by a king that was using a pilot helmet, in the backseat, you could see a very frightened queen and the plane was being followed behind by Golden Strike and other pegasi.

A Magazine is shown, with the king in the portrait and, in this portrait, the king is shown as a brown coated pony with a dark mane and dark brown eyes, from what could be looked, he had a white armor with golden shoulderpads.

"This is one of the things that are mentioned in the very long article dedicated to him in the Life Magazine that has his face in the portrait."

Now more planes are shown soaring through the winds being followed by other pegasi, griffons, changelings and dragons. Many citizens are shown in an open space preparing for the show.

"He can be found in the Calmy Plains making races or air stunts with some pegasi that are more nimble to move around, always competing against his friend Golden Strike or Fast Flight, the new champion in air racing"

The Pegasi are now making air stunts (that Rainbow Dash would recognize as the first stunts ever done by the Wonderbolts).

"Each weekend, the citizens goes to the plains to watch the races and cheer for their favorite racer. The speed is imposed as the symbol of the time and the king, in his silver bullet, it's the incarnation of it."

The flyers are shown racing each other with the spectators cheering excited to see who would win this time, the excitement can be seen and felt by everybody who's watching the event. The scene fades to black.

The King is now crowning a beautiful, pristine mare and that looks quite happy of wearing the crown.

"The King also has another ritual, he crowns each year the queen of the military circle and later in the party, he dances with her."

The king takes the mare to the dance floor and starts to dance with her. Some foals also decides to copy the adults and start to dance with each other, but wearing a serious face, typical of the young ones of their age.

A Carnival is being celebrated by the citizens of the empire.

"The carnivals are an old tradition of the empire that is rejuvenated by the new king who promotes them on his favor."

FM: "The Carnivals in that moment were sponsored by everybody in the ministries endorsed them. Which then changed to an official party, indirectly endorsed by the regime."

The "queens" are shown in big float parades as everybody are celebrating the moment.

JJ: "They were fantastic carnivals, they were beautiful and one always had fun making those and then going through all the streets and avenues while everybody shouted 'over here, over here'."

RQ: "It was a time of rest for everybody, including those on politics and opposition who just wanted to have a rest from time to time."

A group of miners (ponies, diamond dogs and dragons) are shown taking out gems over and over.

"Another sound done, this time monotonous and boring, is the one made in the mines."

4th year of Swift Rise's reign

"The mining factory has now doubled its production in gems and now the empire is producing food (from fruits to vegetables) and electricity. Making the empire the first exporter of the world. The kingdom is recognized as the most successful and the one with the biggest progress in the continent."

New products are now being produced by workers of multiple species (ponies, griffons and changelings are the ones working the most).

"The new industries are now producing the products of high demand in the ever changing market but the empire is already marked as a port market: they export gems in exchange of other goods (like food that they cannot produce in the empire) with Equestria as its main importer."

The king is shown with construction workers talking about the building located behind them.

"The Empire, meanwhile, it's using it's resources to expand its infrastructure, the expansion for the electrical plant, the chemical plant, the nature department, hydroelectric plants or the like, progressively, the Crystal empire expands"

Crystalium is once again shown with new buildings.

"But the face of the regime it's still the capital, which has its buildings being demolished and rebuilt to keep the modernization of the country. The results of The New Ideal Kingdom are being used for publicity and expand the popularity of Swift Rise."

Audience

Twilight Sparkle and Cadence (primarily) were looking at Celestia and Luna with a very angered face while the latter were looking at the rest of the audience with an ashamed smile, now they had to figure out a way to explain why they were the biggest supporters of that dictatorship.

Chapter 6: The Birth Of A New Age

View Online

The Distant Past

A young colt was trying to find a new job in the Crystal Empire, he wasn't sure where to go or what he would need to obtain a job. He wanted a job so he could help his mother. She was trying to give him a good education through the money earned by her job to pay for it, but being uneducated as well, she had to find her own school to have a license to work properly. She didn't have enough time and money to properly raise her son and he wanted to pay her back. Some of his friends told him to go to the mines because they paid well, but he wasn't sure if the mines would give him a proper treatment on his well being. He heard that the army was always accepting new recruits (and they paid schooling and had a good health program) but they were always active in the borders and he didn't wanted to be 5 years in the borders at the risk of getting attacked by rogue gryffons or a dragon. There was the police, also known as the KP, they never had an age limit and they could give him a good job that didn't require much work and (no matter what happened) he would have the money to go to school and help his mother in the house.

He went to the KP Center close to the pristine and beautiful Crystal Palace. The center looked neat, in order and it shone like at testament of how strong it was in the fight against injustice and crimes, the music surrounding the center gave it a sense of friendliness and safety (as if nothing wrong could happen there) and embracing anyone who came there. Its wooden doors shone thanks to special wax applied to it, the windows were made of a beautiful glass that reflected the citizens that passed by, the plaque that had the name of the center was made of gold and its letters were made out of rubies. The citizens, sadly, that passed by were always hurrying and never paid attention to the beauty of the buildings, grown ups never paid attention to details, but the colt did payed attention and now he was going to knock the door and ask for a job there as soon as he surpassed the nerves the door was giving him.

The colt looked at the door with anxiety and, after a few minutes of deciding whether or not to try, he knocked the door. After waiting a few minutes, the door opened and he was greeted by a crystal pony with a black coat and a red mane that had yellow at the tip (giving it a fiery theme), the crystal pony had black eyes that, whenever they were watched directly, would give the sense of being dead on the inside. The colt recognized him as Scorching Charcoal, the front neighbor pony that would always smile at him and give him a candy whenever they met, always smiling and telling him what to do with his life and encouraging to find a job quickly, now he looked like if he never knew him in his life.

The colt was shaking, afraid (for some mysterious reason) of the pony that he has known for so long, he felt like if some strange force was starting to surround him and stop him from asking for a job, the colt wanted a job, he needed a job and he was going to ask him for a job there, how bad it could be? After all, it was just a job as a desk jockey or a messenger. But before he could even say a single word, Scorching Charcoal quickly said to him in the coldest and most distant way he have ever been talked to by anyone that has ever met him:

"What are you doing here you stupid colt? Stop wasting your time, leave and never return here if you know what's good for you... and send my greetings to your mother."

He then closed the door in front of the colt before a response could be made. The colt was looking at the door with expectations, he never saw Mr. Charcoal acting that way and he was sure that it wasn't normal. He decided to look again the KP center and he started to notice a few cracks in the walls, the windows looked dirty and the music didn't allowed him to hear what was going on inside and, for a brief moment, he thought he heard a ghostly scream inside. The building no longer looked comforting, now it looked like a wolf waiting for its prey to enter and the colt's senses were telling him to run. He looked at the grown ups passing by and the colt noticed that the citizens always avoided the looks whenever they passed the building, as if they were passing through a deadly trap. The colt, now awaken to the reality of where he was now, would listen to his neighbor's warning, not realizing the danger he has avoided, and left the building, not knowing that this would be the last time he would ever see Scorching Charcoal again and, as the young colt was leaving, a group of ponies, gryffons, minotaurs with a few Crystal Guards as protectors, led by a pinkish red unicorn and a monochromatic pegasus general were entering into the building.

A few weeks later

The Crystal Empire was shaking from its capital to the borders. Reports of corruption and heinous crimes has been spreading like wildfire ever since a group of delegates lead by Amor "Lady Love" Candente, General Golden Strike and a few of their most trusted friends were allowed by the King Swift Rise to investigate the Kingdom Protection departments. Nobody understood why the king allowed the investigation to go on when he was so close to Stray Stone, although rumors went that the King allowed the investigation because he believed that nothing would be found, although most of what was said about the KP that came from a bunch of angry ponies that didn't liked the king's policies. He thought that (while the KP could be a bit harsh sometimes) it was false considering that he never found anything unusual from the reports given by Stray Stone; some say that the king allowed the investigation for pressure from his wife. The king believed (and made everybody believe) that the KP was clean, he was wrong.

The amounts of money that were embezzled were staggering, nobody could figure out where it came from and where it went (neither if so many zeroes were possible in a single number). Some say that the money came from deals with the Mining companies who traded, through the black market, the gems for a quick gold; some say that the king was the mastermind behind it and he allowed it because of his trust to Stray Stone; some say that the Stray Stone abused of his position and acted behind the king's orders to keep the money. The list of who got benefited from this went from the KP to the military and the government itself; multiple congress representatives, senators, mayors, governors and even close ministers to the king were inside this huge embezzlement, it went to the point that the biggest mystery was how it was possible for the king not being involved in all of that instead of who else was involved. The empire wasn't sure who to trust now and they wanted of all that money to be returned to the empire.

But what got the whole empire in rage was the abuse of power from the KP on the prisoners and the empire as a whole. The KP was supposed to be a law enforcer and protector of the citizens inside the empire but, instead of that, they were used to shut, silence or disappear anyone who dared to talk against them or the government (and they didn't cared who it was: pony, griffon, minotaur, changeling, etc. They were all took down). The reports of abuse were as big as the reports on embezzlement in the empire, the citizens were already sicken out of them and they wanted a response from the government on this.

Surprisingly, the place where the tension was felt the most was in the Crystal Palace itself but the citizens knew it not for rumors, as most would have thought, but rather because they could hear the tension whenever they got close to the palace. Anyone close to the Palace could hear the Queen's screams as she was throwing her legendary rage on the king; some said that her screams were so high that the Palace was crumbling and that even the borders could hear her as a deafening thunder impossible to define or understand. Inside the palace, the maids and guards were wearing earplugs or using spells to not hear the sonic volcano in action throwing wave after wave of heated words capable of burning through the thickest armors and melt the coldest souls. Many leaders heard of the queen's rage and the few who has witnessed it would feel sorry for the poor soul that dared to summon such rage.

Golden Strike was at the entrance of the throne room, he was waiting for Amor Candente to finish her judgement over the king. Golden Strike knew he better stood aside when she said (in the coldest, yet angriest tone) "I'll take him first" and he wasn't going to risk his life. That and, luckily it looked like it was getting close to finish:

"How come that you allowed this to happen? I thought that this kind of thing was going to be avoided when you told me 'I'll honor your father's memories and never allow the same abuses Sombra did', and DON'T even dare to use the building or any of your projects as an excuse. 'No more repression' you said, 'No more corruption' you said" - and the following line was said in a tone so sad and heartbreaking that anyone who knew Lady Love enough would understand how heartbroken she was - "'No more lies'... you said. You have lied to me in all that. Now I don't know if I should trust you. Tell me, did you knew about it? Did you knew of the marking? Did you allowed those ponies to be exiled? How many did you threw away just so you could concentrate power on yourself?... Did... did you killed Pure Diamond?..."

Golden Strike was listening intently at the conversation, expecting a response from his old friend. But if he was going to respond, he was never given a chance, for right in that moment the door opened up and a very broken mare with red and watery eyes was leaving the door and simply said: "I don't want to see you again."

After she left, avoiding any type of glance, Golden Strike looked at the throne room and didn't saw the stalwart pony he has known for decades, capable of withstanding the harshest difficulties that were thrown at him, he didn't saw the crystal pony that took a ruined city and turned it into an empire with multiple cultures that was the epicenter of both immigration and tourism, he didn't saw a pony confident of his moves. What he saw was a broken stallion with eyes devoid of any type of emotion, that didn't knew what to do right now with the empire. Golden Strike didn't knew what to say to him, even in the barracks he was so distant and now he was even more distant. Who would have guessed they would be in this position? One was a king and the other was his general, he never aspired to such position (maybe be a general, but never one of such category). How much has changed from those early years for two recruits wanting to rise through ranks, now in position that very few could only dream about but, instead of celebrating together, they were even more distanced from each other. What to say to him when everything has already been said? After reflecting on this,Golden Strike could only say one thing:

"You know? You have changed so much from those days under Sombra, that I don't even know if you'll do the right thing. But if the pony I knew it's still in there, I hope he does the right thing."

With that said, Golden Strike, the General Division of The Imperial Royal Army of the Crystal Empire, Commander of the Crystal Division and Chief in Charge of the Tactical and Technological Division, left the throne room and left his old friend alone, devoid of any type of friendship or companionship, devoid of any type of satisfaction of so much power and suffering of the one thing he never thought he would have to face again in his life: solitude.

How he had come to this? He never expected this in his life, he never wanted this in his life. All he ever wanted is to never be alone again and make sure that he (and those surrounding him) would never have to face the things he had to face both here and on his original home. All he wanted was to give everybody a good life, was that a bad goal? Or maybe it bad when you searched for it at any cost? What was the limit of all this? Was all of this an illusion? Was this the real life or was this just fantasy? What should he do? He wasn't sure of it. He turned and saw himself in the mirror, but he didn't saw the human he used to be neither the pony he became when he got into this magical land, he didn't saw a pony filled to the brim with medals, royal regalia or with his white armor. He saw two figures on the mirror, one was that human that he admired for the right reasons but was more similar to him for the wrong reasons and the second figure he saw was one of the figures he hated the most with his red eyes, black coat and mane and with a look that was the same look he had in that moment. He saw the truth and now he had to choose what to do with it, the right thing or keep everything?

A Few Months Later

The entrance of the Crystal Palace was being filled to the brim with news reporters with their cameras and notes (all of them eager to know the following decision from the king but still annoyed on the fact that they wouldn't be allowed to talk about it), Royal Guards (following their code of conduct and making sure that nothing wrong would happen, worried of the popular tension that may broke very soon) lead by a very disinterested General Golden Strike. The center podium had 6 seats surrounding it, filled by their respective members: The 3 at the left with the presidents of the High and Low Chamber of the Congress and The Chief of The Supreme Court; of the 3 seats at the right, only two were filled, one by the General of Division Golden Strike and the Queen Herself (who just wanted the ceremony to end quickly so she could go back to her business). The place was surrounded by all the regalia and objects that would make this a splendor of moment and all the citizens witnessing the following event were curious of what was this for.

Curiously, only two ponies weren't in the event: One was Stray Stone, Chief of the Kingdom Protection units, who issued a letter stating that he had to rest in his home for something he ate; the other pony who wasn't there was the one who made the summoning himself, the king. His absence was causing tension, why he wouldn't show up to the ceremony he himself made?

The mystery was solved when the King appeared, not surrounded by his soldiers neither wearing his white armor or the royal regalia, he was wearing a very well made black tuxedo and had his hair groomed to the right and the sun made his brown coat have a glow that mesmerized everybody in the vicinity and made them forget for a moment who were they looking at for a moment. The King went to the center podium, took off a scroll containing his speech and started to talk with a skill and ability that nobody has seen in a long time. His voice was entrancing but not distracting, taking everybody surprised by the content of the speech, moved in their hearts but never taken away of the reality it held inside. When the King ended his speech, there wasn't a single pony, changeling, minotaur, griffon or dragon that wasn't shocked by what they were told, the first one who managed to overcome the shock was Golden Strike who (realizing what the empire would do very soon after hearing the king) quickly went to the king and said, in front of everyone, the words that would be recorded in the history of the Crystal Empire:

"King Swift Rise, you're under arrest for embezzlement, violation of the law and sentient life rights, you'll be hold under house arrest until your trial is made and then you'll be subjected to the sentence done by The Supreme Court."

He looked at the crowd and realized the real reason for the absence of his nemesis, he looked at his soldiers and gave the order he wanted to say ever since Lord Crystal Amethyst was murdered:

"Soldiers, go to the residence of Stray Stone and arrest him for embezzlement, violation of the law and sentient life rights and bring him to the Crystal Jail."

His soldiers saluted, obeyed and left the place quickly. The Reporters started to take pictures and told their viewers and listeners what just happened, the citizens started to agitate and mobilize. Golden Strike had to move quickly before this went out of control.

At The Next Day

Jewel Joy was locked in her house, she was afraid of what was going on. She looked again at the streets and saw how there was fire, rubble and blood everywhere. She didn't understood how this was possible, everything was fine yesterday, how and why would everybody go so ballistically insane in just one day? What happened to those citizens she knew for so long and were always so calmed and kept to the civics ways of life?

A sound in the streets, she looked through her window and saw a very afraid stallion wearing a torn down tuxedo being chased by an angry mob. The stallion was running with all his strengths but it looked like the mob was faster and reached him, they surrounded him and the rest was a maze of hoofs and stomps on the figure. Jewel Joy couldn't watch anymore and went back to the safety of her house, she was afraid, where was Obsidian Edge? Was he fine? What if they got him?

In that moment the door opened and quickly shut, Jewel Joy looked in fear and quickly changed her emotions to relief and happiness as the pony she was in love was right in front of her. He was wearing the typical black tuxedo that his job required and managed to keep it clean and ordered (even though there was so much commotion outside), she was wearing a white dress that she always used whenever she had to leave and it was clean and pristine as she would always love to wear it. When they exchanged looks, they decided to forget for a moment all their troubles and share a hug and kiss of their love and passion surviving this endeavor, then they heard the words of terror:

"There's one of them over here!!!"

The ever gripping terror took them both again and saw how the door was getting struck over and over, Jewel Joy's father went outside and tried to calm the mob with promises that the young stallion was innocent, but the mob was merciless and didn't wanted to forgive anybody. The Joy family was afraid of what was going to happen to them, the mob wanted the (very terrified) monster that was running away from the (somehow justified and noble) mob desiring of bringing justice by their own hoofs and they were going to take down any obstacle that dared to side with the monsters. But, before they could do anything, Obsidian Edge decided to surrender himself (as his last form to protect his love from harm) to the mob and before giving himself away, he shared a final kiss with the love of his life and asked her to never forget him, to enjoy life and that "if the day comes and you meet a stallion that loves you, protects you and swear to be loyal to you even more than I ever could, do not reject him on my memory. You're young and beautiful, do not waste it away when you can still find love on your life and be happy", he gave her a small box as a present and went outside, the door closed as Jewel Joy saw the civilized mob surround the murderous stallion (whose charges were never found to be true). The door held the sound of rage and savagery that is common of the wild animals on the frontiers as they were eating their prey, a few seconds later the sounds subsided and the mob went to somewhere else. When Jewel Joy opened again the door to her house, there wasn't a single trace left of the mob or the stallion they decided to take with them, not a single piece of blood or clothes were there, as if the hunger for justice was so high that there was nothing to spare. Jewel Joy opened her present and felt her heart break as she saw a beautiful golden ring with a piece of ice surrounding a pinkish heart in the middle.

For the following days, she would be wearing a black dress, a hat that covered her pain with a veil and her tears would be used in the trials to come.

The Present

Chrysalis was flying with her hive over Equestria, gazing at the land that now represented a failed dream. The vast, fertile, living and green plains of Equestria, surrounded by beautiful mountains, with towns all across the land from coast to coast. Citizens of multiple cultures and species, from ponies to zebras and griffons, but no changelings.

Chrysalis always wondered how it would feel to recover what she lost so many years ago, she used to have a life where changelings aren't looked down upon neither chastised for their diet. It was so long ago that the memory itself was painful to have, it was better to forget what would never be recovered, and whenever she remembered anything regarding it would only bring mixed emotions.

She saw the ever changing clouds and remembered the day her mother made that contract, she was a nymph at that age and never understood what her mother was doing, all she could notice was that she didn't had to go into hiding, she could play with other children and be looked with awe whenever she shapeshifted, she wasn't looked as someone distant by them, she was looked as part of them and all she knew was happiness. All she knew was that it was thanks to her mother and the pony king that treated her so nicely, that emperor that was nice and fair to everybody, that taught her how to be a good nymph, taught her of empires and emperors, of rulers of multiple kinds who were loved to no end by their subjects for how much they dedicated of their life to bring a good life to their citizens... it would be years later that she would understand the immensity of who was that pony, and once Chrysalis understood who he was and the meaning of what he taught her, she would aspire to become like that pony. When she grew up, her points of view of the world changed and she started to loathe her mother for letting the changelings to enter into submission to another ruler, she felt conflicted between love the Emperor that was her idol but made her species his subjects and hatred towards her mother who accepted submission on the benefit of bringing safety and peace to her species problems. She raised her flight.

Chrysalis would always fight with her mother for her decision and she would never rest until she became queen and, in the midst of her mixed emotions, banished her mother, thinking that it would ease her emotions and mind. - Her eyes started to bring her pain -. It wouldn't be too long until she started to feel guilt over treating her mother that way, sentencing her to that terrible world that would never accept changelings because the one pony that ever tried was now gone.

She saw in her journey the great castle in Canterlot, beacon of the great power that the humble queens held onto their subjects. She clenched her teeth, Chrysalis wanted that, to be loved, respected and feared, she was tired of living in the shadows, she was tired of throwing her own discomfort onto her own subjects, she wanted to stop worrying over things and just bring her subjects that life that she once had and that they never experienced but would enjoy to. She was hasty in her approach, even though she had the power, the plan, the move, everything, she lost for her overconfidence and hastiness. How could she have ruined that in such a way? Years of planification, planning the new rule, planning to bring back that empire that she always wanted to live in again, so close and she ruined it. All of it ruined for a beautiful memory, a beautiful and torturous memory.

After that failure, Chrysalis thought that it would be the end of it - she frowned her face - but a new hope has arise, and if it worked, it would bring peace to her species, even if it meant to sacrifice her own dreams of that great empire, - she started to feel the coldness of the northern territories - of being the generous ruler that would bring a new order to a kingdom that's very undeveloped compared to that empire she lived in... it would be now just a beautiful and painful dream, dumped together with that beautiful and painful memory.

She started to see in the distance the place where it all began, it looked like the shadow of what it used to be, and the place where it would end.

The audience

Celestia and Luna were facing one of the hardest moments in their life as regents. They weren't facing an insurrection, a coup attempt or a mythical enemy from a millennium ago that was back to invade them all. They had to save face and explain why they had to support a tyrant that treated so bad his ponies.

The furious and disappointed look on Twilight and the other ponies gave a fatal blow to both Celestia and Luna, they thought that this moment of their juvenile and rookie life as diarchs was going to be forgotten by history, and even the royal sisters forgot about it, but apparently, somepony decided to take its time to make sure that nobody would ever forget this, something that was found both good and bad at the same time. After looking at each other for a while, Luna (being the one with the least connection to everybody) decided to speak up first:

"Twilight, Element bringers, everybody here. It is understandable that you may think in a negative way of us for trading with the Crystal Empire during Swift Rise's tyranny, but, I assure you, we had good reasons to do so." - Twilight decided in this moment to start her reprimand on the princesses, one of them being the pony she admired the most, by rejecting her claims -. "Yeah? You have a good reason to allow such a cruel pony to abuse of his power and subdue and terminate so many living creatures? What would you need from him and why would you award him? He was awful and you allowed it, what made him different from Sombra? Why...? Just, why...?" - What Twilight didn't realized, is that her speech was getting filled with tears as she demanded to her second mother for answers.

With the idea of Twilight thinking that her role model wasn't as good as she thought of her, Celestia felt in pain for disappointing the daughter that she never had, after all, she have made some mistakes before, but never to this level. How could Harmony be brought when you were allowing somepony who only cared for power and ignored his citizens? Celestia saw Twilight's concern and, thus, decided to be open to her:

"Twilight, I don't want to say the 'we were young' argument because it doesn't hide or fix the mistake. But I will say that when we were facing Discord, we needed help and the Crystal Empire was our main supporter by bringing us supplies to fight him. They even sent researchers to find the Elements and a way to stop Discord by helping Clover the Clever and Starswirl's researches." - at this, Twilight became confused, why would Swift Rise help to stop Discord? The question, though, was made by Applejack. Luna simply answered -. "Discord was a threat on a global scale, nothing was safe from his chaotic magic. When we came to stop him, Discord started to focus only on Equestria so many other nations or territories started to have time to rebuild and recover. The Crystal Empire was, not only, the first one in recovering, but also it was the first one that started to send us resources to go against Discord, knowing that if we failed, then Discord would go again into a global scale." - The final part was added by Celestia, giving a huge shock to Twilight for how ironic it was - "The Crystal Empire was also the first nation that helped us to become what we were, Queen Amor Candente was a good friend of us and taught us the struggles of ruling a nation with her own experience, but she never told us what was going on in The Crystal Empire, she was the one coming to us whenever we asked her for help and we never heard of the Kingdom Protection or Swift Rise by the time we finally had time to visit the Empire."

The last part brought a few concerns to Cadence, who promptly asked around the dragon mail and if they knew what happened to her potential ancestor, Luna only answered that the Dragon Mail was discovered by dragon researchers that went to Equestria in a special program made by Amor Candente to help Equestria progress as well. They only got a few things, whether through actual constructions or blueprints, but the program was stopped when Sombra invaded and destroyed everything in the Empire and, again, they never knew what happened to Swift Rise.

The Minotaurs and Griffons were more reserved on their reasons, but still decided to voice it (while saying that they understood the princesses), they had their own share of tyrants in the history of their countries, all of them followers of Swift Rise ideals or, in paper, used his image to justify their repression. Anna Romanov briefly mentioned Blood Hawk and how he almost destroyed the Romanov family in the Griffon Kingdom while the Minotaurs talked about how the one Minotaur that unified them all into the Republic they know was (of all things) a Tyrant known by the name of Titanium Powder. All of this tyrants had something in common, they either fooled Equestria or managed to keep their facade in place so nobody could or would ever lay a hand on them (although the minotaurs mentioned that Titanium Powder caused some trouble with the other species) but they were a tale for another time.

When Twilight went to Anna Romanov and asked her about Blood Hawk, the Harpy griffon only answered - "I would rather show you what he was on a better moment. As of now, you should now that Swift Rise was an angel compared to him" -.

In the end, after comparing Sombra and Swift Rise, everybody in the room realized how easy they had it for fighting enemies that were so obvious in their position as bad guys instead of enemies that hid away their danger with a mask of friendliness. Twilight wondered if she would be capable of doing something if she ever found them and hoped that she would be capable of dealing with them when the time comes. She looked at a very tired Spike (who has been taking notes instead of Twilight in all of this time) and promised to herself that she would train herself to be a good princess and never allow tyrants of any kind to be in power, no matter what, something that her friends decided to take into account with her.

After all that, they decided to seat again and continue the video, for it would respond to the great mystery of what happened to the fake pony and how did the Crystal Empire ended up in its current situation.

Movie

A Delegation of generals start to enter into a cabinet, connected to a cable that led to the mountain, the scene is then followed by the camera showing inside the cabinet how it went from a town nearby the capital into the mountain.

"The transformation of the physical media touted by the New Ideal Kingdom, achieves a propagandistic success with the conquering of the Crystal Mountain."

The Crystal ponies, on color images, are shown looking with curiosity the sights provided to them by the cabinet while ascending into the mountain.

"Thanks to the teleferic and the Beauty Sights Hotel that dominates the the landscape from its peak."

The image switches into the King being carried by the royal chariot while the image now says "December 12th".

"In December 2nd of the third year of his reign, the King presents two innovative ideas that has a huge urbane impact. The first being the creation of a new calendar to bring order to the weather system implemented on the Empire and help to stabilize the lifestyle of his citizens. The Second idea-"

The King is shown getting close to a ribbon and cuts it with a pair of scissors.

"-Are the super blocks, tall buildings of 15 floors surrounded by buildings of minor heights to house ponies. The group of building has the name "December 2nd" and the Regime sells it as an idea to eliminate the ranches on the Empire."

The citizens start stomping the ground, mostly with looks of confuse and not understanding what was so great about those buildings, not long after that, they start to go into the buildings to live inside of them. If you payed good attention, you could notice some Crystal Guards watching the situation, following their duty.

"And on the East, new buildings start to cover the few free lands left while the hills are deforested so the new emergent groups can build their houses."

The landscapes are filled with houses being built, then, the image changes to inside a building.

"This are houses financed by the banks, which haven't stopped growing in this years, agencies and branch offices are being increased constantly."

Lord Yellow Pyrite: "Under all of this Public acts that they were doing, there was a horrible repression, the jails were getting filled with political prisoners, there wasn't a respect of Living Rights, torture was practiced, there was no labor freedom, there wasn't a good education system there wasn't a social policy from the government, it was just a government dedicated to make big buildings."

The King is shown cutting more ribbons.

Audience

Twilight Sparkle was, at this point, very tempted to burn the film to the ground. Her scholar spirit were screaming at her to try to stop somehow the injustices being done, she looked at Cadence and she was also showing the same angry on her face, but for respect to Celestia, they were going to keep watching.

Movie

"All of this transformation is done under a silent blanket: Fear."

The ponies are shown sweating and very nervous around the guards.

"Fear that the government has rooted on the citizenship, the crystal citizens have learned by force to either consent or to shut."

A group of ponies, pegasi, unicorns and griffons are being moved around by the police as they tell them to leave the area.

"Politics isn't talked about, not even inside the houses, for the firm believe that there are listeners in every corner. Or worst, Spies of the Kingdom Protection."

A family consisting of a Crystal Pony and an Earth Pony are gathering on their houses, but they look at the keyholes to make sure that nobody is listening. A Minotaur is building a newspaper from a nymph and a young Griffon.

"Of course, the newspapers are highly watched and they self censor to survive. The Interior Minister, Peace Maker, and Stray Stone, Director of the Kingdom Protection, represents the political, and repressive front of the regime although everybody knows who had the last word."

A Guard got close to another pony and gave him a paper while Stray Stone gave him a hoofshake, Swift Rise was right in between them, the scene switches to a group of KP lined up.

"Sometimes, Stray Stone called the media to talk about some success from his police."

Stray Stone started to talk to a microphone, never stopping his smile and always talking with a fine voice.

"There has been knowledge that Free Quill was preparing from across the sea, and with the help of a government over there, an assassination attempt against the Emperor General Swift Rise during the commemorative acts of the Week of the Fatherland. Calm Berserk was the one in charge of organizing said operation."

"It's another failed attempt by the newly political party "Wealthy Action" and thwarted by the Kingdom Protection. Stray Stone doesn't stop at just the political field, he also pressure the workers so they can finish on the stipulated time."

RQ: "Stray Stone's secret weapon, was the elegance besides the ridiculousness of certain sectors of the Crystal Empire's High Society."

FM: "And, actually, he wasn't illiterate as many imagined. He chose the empire's politics, rather than the police, and he put under his service a good part of the capital's society."

RQ: "Certain mares of the high society called him Peter". - He said the last word in a sensual way to emphasize the way the mares would refer to Stone.

FM: "I have always thought that the military regime didn't had other choice but to use Stone and destroy any Political Party that could be formed for the simple reason that if they didn't destroy the parties, they would destroy the regime".

Lord Polished Gem: "The Dictatorship was, simply, Terror on the State. And the instrument for the Terror of State was the Political Police, that in this regime was the Crystal Guard. But the one that caused the political repression was the Kingdom Protection, who acted as a civic police. There was no freedom of the press but everybody knew because, I think, the Kingdom Protection allowed the people to know the type of penalty they would face if they got caught. The Combination of Terror and the Crystals Bouyance was deadly."

Moving images of a Pony being carried by black figures into a prison cell, with the sound of rusting cells being opened being herd. The Prisoner is dropped into the Jail and, before he could raise, he got stomped in the head by the guards.

"The Kingdom has grown into an Empire, true, but that cannot be appreciated in the jails. The prisoners never know when will they get out, because there's no trial, they're just detained."

Images of many ponies and griffons are shown.

"If many can't get out, others can't come in, those are the citizens expelled into other lands. The exiles tries to get as comfy as they can, sharing stories and helping each other. Denouncing in other places the monstrosities being done in their homeland. They're out, yes, but paying attention to what's going on inside and trying to make contact with their loved ones."

PP: "And Soft Voice would always convince me to bring letters from the exiles. Should they have discovered me I would have been punished but I still did it". - He then started to laugh -. "I hid them in my bags, under my clothes..."

LM: "I was once found by a guard that said to me, 'Buck, we've been looking for you ever since three years ago'."

LYP: "What we heard on the jail was the music on the windows of a nearby brothel that was located in Coastal City, so in the nights we would hear some music, but there weren't news of any kind."

LM: "When I reach the jail of Sombra, I'm taken into the jail in a grave state of health."

FM: "We had to make all the duties: cleaning, making order, because it was a common jail."

LYP: "Some would play cards, others dominó. You would never get a philosophy book. I had a book that accumulated so much sweat that even now, years later, it cannot be opened for how much stinks."

FR: "I lived in a world and then there was that other world. But that didn't meant that families weren't affected, fathers had to leave and many suffered from it."

FM: "I got burned in my penis with a lit cigar". - He said it with a stone face, as if he didn't cared, he kept his face and proceded -, "I got burned, you don't say that kind of stuff."

Soldiers are found marching, a date is showed: April, fourth year of reign.

"Today he celebrates 4 years of "legal" mandate. But he actually has 7 years in power in front of a Congress without dissident voices and now he has to make his yearly account rendition."

The King enters into a great chamber where everypony stomps their hoofs as he rises into the high chamber to speak.

"The construction of Public Work is the beef of his speech."

The King started to talk.

"I'm happy to present myself in front of you. During the previous year, it was completed the greatest amount of buildings that are, so far in the history of the empire, that are by a total amount of 1.704.007.000.000 of gold coins, distributed this way..."

Everybody started to stomp (but not showing any type of emotions).

"But behind all that triumphalism, there's a problem scaring the regime: By the end of this year, there has to be elections as the Constitution establishes. Not a minor detail. There's also the problem that half of the population lives on rural zones, there's a 40% of illiteracy on the growing empire and only 30% of the Young Population goes to the 6 universities the Empire has. There are some social problems, but this problem, the poverty, can't be talked about, shown in theaters or on TV."

A bunch of foals are seen going around in what society now calls nudity, living in houses made of wood and badly built. A mare is shown breastfeeding her foal while living in poverty. A group of Diamond Dogs are dancing in mud and living in their own filth. The scene is switched to the king marching with an group of generals and commanders.

"The media also shuts about a certain rumor: The corruption in the commissions and the public works made by the regime."

A Super Block is shown and it starts to zoom in a particular apartment.

"In the apartment of the journalist Inked Press, political leaders are gathering in the clandestine. They agree in putting aside their differences, it's time to work together. And for that they create the Patriotic Joint and put Doctor Welfare in the head of the party, but first, they must convince their followers. They go to the National Theater and make a speech."

LM: "I still remember that, when Doctor Welfare asked for a minute of silence for all those the regime either exiled or murdered, and then everybody raised white handkerchiefs."

LYP: "And then it was a sea of white handkerchiefs."

LPG: "And that was an unity from top to bottom."

A large amount of ponies, griffons, minotaurs and dragons are shown raising white handkerchiefs while a pony in a raised platform is rising his hoofs in victory.

LPG: "And that way, all the political enemies of the regime united. First it was the Power to the Ponies together with the Democratic Union, then it was followed by the Wealthy Life and, finally the Freedom Action joined them. With the Patriotic Joint, we would focus on beating the Regime in the next parliamentary elections and depose him from inside the government."

A pony's shade is shown being thrown to jail, the door is locked and the pony grabs the bars looking in the camera's direction.

"But before the election time came, Doctor Welfare was arrested so the regime could rest in peace for another five years. Everybody thought that this was it, but something unexpected happened":

A Newspaper Clip is shown saying in the Headline: 'Corruption discovered: The Queen discovers a rotten truth of the KP'.

"The Queen and Golden Strike, hearing the rumors of corruption, decided to make a delegation to investigate all the petitions that has been sent to her to investigate the most recent claims against the Kingdom Protection and the other branches of the Government."

RQ: "What the regime never expected was that Welfare was a very good friend of the Queen, so when he was arrested, the queen went to see him and then, everything was uncovered." - He then started to smile.

CC: "Golden Strike was very happy to finally has the evidence to go after the KP, Stray Stone was being protected by Swift Rise, but it was still a hit for him."

"The Queen was probably the first one on protesting against the monarch, and very soon, the problem went beyond that."

FM: "With everything uncovered, everybody started to realize what was going on, and it was in that moment when we all decided to mobilize. We started to ask the citizens to protest, to make a worker strike, to rebel until there was a change in the government."

LM: "We started to pass the papers to all the citizens so they could become a part of this."

LPG: "It started with small protests in the slums of the capital."

LYP: "Then it started to spread towards the houses of the elite, people striking against the dictatorship."

RF: "Then it went into the borders, before the end of the day, the whole capital was in disarray."

CC: "Some of the citizens were starting to murder, so we had to put order back into the empire".

LPG: "I remember some of my friends shooting magic spells at the Guards, I didn't join but I saw it all."

GC: "I saw from my house how everybody was protesting against the King, it was very surprising."

"By the end of the night, it all calmed down, everybody was wondering what was going to happen. Then, it happened, the cadets started to protest against the king, more and more soldiers where ordering him to leave the office. Before everybody knew it, the King made an official announcement in front of the Crystal Palace: He quit."

FM: "Just like that, we had to wait months, but he did. It was one of the happiest moments of our lives."

LM: "And the rebellion won against the Tyranny, we proved that tyrants would never be accepted."

The News Paper showed clips stating: "End of the Tyranny: The King has left the office"

RQ: "I was in Equestria, celebrating with the new princesses the defeat of Discord."

FM: "I was in the capital when I was sent a Dragon Mail saying that Swift Rise resigned, at the beginning I didn't believed it."

GC: "I remember that i was with my clan hearing the news on a radio."

LYP: "I was in the Plains Jail when I heard the news."

RQ: "I said that I had to go back home and left the princesses on the spot."

Audience

By this point everybody was in a mixed state of happiness and shock, for while they were happy that the tyrant resigned, they didn't understood why. While they all the audience was trying to understand the situation, certain princesses remembered said event: The pony was going to Celestia in the Solar moment to ask for a petition when he was rushed by a young dragon who whispered something to his ear, the pony shouted in happiness and immediately left right when he was congratulating her and her sister for the defeat of Discord. The other sister met that pony a year later when she visited the Crystal Empire. Both Princesses wondered what happened to that pony.

Movie

LYP: "I shouted that the dictatorship was gone and, very soon, students came to the jail demanding the release of the prisoners and we were released."

"The Queen quickly takes command and makes a new Ministry, including various civilians and Golden Strike, to restore order to the empire and make the adjustments in the Government that everybody were asking for. The Empire finally wakes up."

The Citizens are shown running with joy on the streets, dancing with everybody, not making distinction on race or social class.

"Until what point was the transformation of the public ways over the will of the population? Of manifesting itself?, of living without fear? And living with liberty?"

LPG: "I was really surprised of seeing all that happiness and the citizens going around so happily and shouting hooray for freedom and democracy."

LYP: "The January 23rd was an event that nobody saw coming, so much individuals shouting with happiness and celebrating together."

Magic shots are heard and watched

"Everybody starts to surround the quarters of the Kingdom Protection, determined to release all of its prisoners, the last vestige of the dictatorship."

LPG: "First were the prisoners going out, then the vultures, as they were called, started to come out and they were shot. We all recognized them and they were chased down. That kind of stuff are sad but it happens."

Pictures of citizens of all races: ponies, griffons, minotaurs, dragons, diamond dogs, changelings. All of them celebrating and being together on the moment.

"This are moments that nobody could predict, this are hours of happiness and celebration, of looting and excess, of retaliation, of hope, of fraternity. What happened in the capital goes into the interior of the empire and the political prisoners are released. Exiled are rejoined with their fellow patriots. The Amnesty given by Queen Amor Candente is what fixes the damaged democracy."

"Times of dictatorship: a moment when great wealth and investment on infrastructure gave great power to the State and its governors."

"The regime, on its many faces, governed in the name of the military."

"They modernized the Crystal Guard, but it were its own guards who asked him to leave."

The King is shown walking with a delegation

"He never had a political party neither searched for one. By the time of elections he managed to win the elections. He never tried to convince or negotiate with his opponents. He simply silenced them with repression."

A fearful pony is looking at the audience

"There was so much safety on the streets as fear on the houses."

"With the help of a migration source, we developed like never before. But we did it without liberty and with the silence of the majorities. Maybe partners of the circumstances. Maybe victims of fear."

"Times of Dictatorship, times hard to forget, times that not everybody remembers on the same way."

RQ: "A parenthesis of order in an ambiance of cruelty in all the history of the Cristal Empire."

LM: "Times of Courage, times of moral and ethics, times of dignity."

PP: "Because it definitively was a time of struggles and triumphs."

LPG: "It was a time of intense politics and participation."

SO: "Times of prosperity, of freedom."

GC: "It were times of much experience."

JJ: "It were times of art."

LYP: "It were times of fear, of great intensity."

CC: "They were of Dictatorship but they, also, were times of much progress and much national work."

FM: "IT were times of infamy, times of terror for the country."

RQ: "It were terrible times, it was the destruction of freedom."

The film ends with a group of citizens of all kinds and places, very happy being together, holding charts that read "NO MORE DICTATORSHIP"

The screen faded to black with only text being read:

ON DECEMBER OF THAT SAME YEAR, QUEEN AMOR CANDENTE REMADE THE CONSTITUTION TO ALLOW MORE FREEDOM TO THE CITIZENS OF THE EMPIRE.
STRAY STONE FLED THE EMPIRE AND HE WAS NEVER FOUND
SWIFT RISE WAS CHARGED GUILTY, HIS POSITION AS KING REMOVED, AND SENT TO THE FRONTIER IN A FORM OF EXILE, NEVER TO RETURN TO THE EMPIRE

The rest of the film showed the credits

Audience

Everybody was feeling great from that film, they were all starting to gather up when Pinkie Pie pointed out:

"Wait a minute: that said that it was the last dictatorship. How come Sombra was here?"

This brought up a lot of realizations, many of the buildings listed on the film never appeared or have been shown when Twilight and her friends came to the Crystal Empire. So what happened here? It was quite clear that Sombra did something, but what? In that moment a pony interrupted the debate and went directly to Princess Cadance and said to her: "My apologies Princess, but I have been ordered to inform you that my Queen is coming here".

Before anyone could react, he changed and revealed his origin as a Changeling, to everybody's surprise and horror, and remained stoic to the public, raging for demands on it. Celestia, in a calmed rage common of a volcano, went to the Changeling and asked him when would Chrysalis come, the answer was responded by a big scream in the outside of the Crystal Palace. When everybody came out of the Palace, they saw a huge cloud of eyes looking at them with an unknown intention and right in the middle of them, was the very queen that, not too long ago, tried to conquer them.

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 1: The Distant Past)

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The Castle of the two Sisters, Equestria

Princess Celestia and Luna were now debating what to do right now as her best friend was sitting in their guest room. The Pink Unicorn known as "Lady Love" was crying desperately, worrying over what could have happened to the Empire her husband made, worried for her citizens, worried for all the subjects she swore to defend with law, rights and strength. She only had 3 years ruling over the Empire, Princess Celestia didn't know why her husband wasn't ruling (a subject that Lady Love always avoided for some reason) but, from what she understood, he decided to stay in the Empire to try to stop Sombra from taking over, they hadn't heard any news whatsoever.

Celestia and Luna agreed that The Tyrant known as Sombra had to be struck down, who knows what kind of monstrosities he has been doing in the last couple days. But they weren't sure how to attack, Luna said that they should go all out with all the Equestrian military to show what happened when a friendly neighbor was attacked, but Celestia thought that only the royal sisters should go (since it was just one overpowered Unicorn. This debate was what made them take so long on doing something, which increased Queen Candente's desperation, she knew that, the longer Sombra was on power, the more her subjects would suffer. She couldn't do anything in terms of strenght for only a group of guards, led by Golden Strike, scorted her to Equestria but all the soldiers stayed in the Empire in an attempt to stop Sombra. How did he became so strong when he was exiled hornless? It was a mystery whose solution neither her or Strike would live to see responded, what they would live to see was the disappearance of the Empire they worked so hard to build and stabilize, almost shattering their souls, and wondered what to do now.

When Celestia and Luna came back from the, now gone, Crystal Empire, they couldn't do anything but feeling defeated, they struck down the tyrant, but at the cost of losing the Empire. They never understood why would Sombra make such a desperate move to take away the Empire with him but the princesses only hoped that the Empire would, one day, come back and become once again the model of great government that the princesses looked up to copy on Equestria.

Now they had to choose what to do with the Ex Queen, her 5 years old daughter, the soldiers that scorted her and the few citizens that fled to Equestria. Luna asked for the citizens to use their knowledge for the betterment of Equestria but Celestia retorted that they should only give them a house and, if they wanted to share their knowledge, they could ask them for what they knew. In the end, the princesses decided for the latter and gave houses to the new Equestrian citizens without asking anything from them, although a few of them would share the knowledge of Trains and architecture that would be applied a few centuries later in Equestria. Meanwhile, the guilt for not doing anything on time, being neglected by her sister and rejecting of her ideas, among many other mistakes made by Celestia unaware of her sister's condition, would be the beginning of Luna's decent into the monster known as Nightmare Moon, stopping any progression in Equestria for the following centuries for Celestia had to stabilize everything while making sure that any type of progress she brought wouldn't cause any type of chaos (for, if Discord ever returned, Celestia wouldn't have any means to stop him again).

Meanwhile, Amor candente was wondering what to do now, she had no empire, no husband, nothing to use her knowledge on. She saw at her little filly, she was so young, and wondered how could she help her daughter to grow into a great mare. Drop her schooling was a foolish idea, they had no power but they were still nobles, they had knowledge and Amor Candente would never allow her family to become in the same rotten elitist that allowed Sombre to come to power on the first place. It was decided, Candente would raise her daughter as a Princess preparing for ruling (perhaps with the help of Luna and Celestia as models for actual rulers) and would teach her all what was needed to know for a princess to properly rule over her citizens. Her daughter would then teach her own daughter, and her daughter's daughter, and so on and so forth until the day came for the Crystal Empire to come back and, thus, rule over the Empire that was destined to be a great stronghold of society and integrity. This habit of teachings, while it would decline, would reach a young Cadenza who, under the tutelage of Celestia (who rose her as someone of her own family) became into the first unicorn who transformed into an alicorn, something that Amor Candente would be very proud of, for the last member of the Royal Crystal Family became in the most capable member to lead the Empire and turn it into the great kingdom it was supposed to be.

Golden Strike was wondering what to do now, he never found Stray Stone (and if he was alive in the Crystal Empire, then Golden Strike wouldn't be alive to see him in jail), he failed to his nation when he wasn't capable of stopping Sombra, he failed in keeping the army in line. He never had the same abilities as General Swift Rise, Strike wondered for the rest of his life what he could have done to save the Empire, but he never found the solution to that problem. In the end, he decided to join Celestia's Crystal Guard to modernize them as much as he could. His help was primordial after Nightmare Moon, for Golden Strike managed to keep the Lunar Guard on hold, fused both armies as one and made sure that no civil war could have happened. Due to Celestia's fear of Discord Returning, Strike was never capable of modernizing the army to the same levels of when he was the general of The Crystal Guard, but he did managed to bring order to the previously known Solar Guard, now Royal Guard, and made sure that no general would ever try to take over the government through a coup (even if said coup would have to fight an alicorn). But the greatest achievement of the General Golden Strike (besides the many books that became the structure model for the Royal Guard, even if, over time, it deteriorated over the course of time) was the creation of a special division in the air force capable of making shows for the citizens (idea brought by Swift Rise himself), that way, the Air Force would always be practicing their stunts and be prepared for the day they would be needed against an invasion, this division would be called "The Blue Thunders".

After his death, Golden Strike was buried with all the military honors that he deserved. The Royal Guard and the few Crystal militaries that managed to escape with him to Equestria took his corpse to a place close to the Crystal Empire, whose location was forgotten by history, and in a final honor to his memory, the division he created made a last change to its name. This new name was made in honor to the memory of Golden Strike and the legend that, on his youth, he was capable to go as fast as lightning, this new name its still being used today and is one of the most respected and admired part of the Equestrian military to this day and works as a perfect reflection of what Golden Strike sought in the creation of an air force capable of being prepared for the defense of the nation and still being part of society: "The Wonderbolts".

Somewhere on the north of the Crystal Empire

Golden Claw was now wondering what to do with his clan and her wife's clan. On one claw, he could try to survive with his clan on the mountains on the north, an idea so dangerous that he could be considered mad for even thinking on it, but Sombra survived and came back stronger, he could do it as well. Besides, the other option was trying to go to Equestria crossing the Crystal Empire, it meant going to Sombra and that was a risk he wasn't willing to take.

"I know you said once that you fought the adversity of the mountains," - Said his wife, the Leader of the Blood Wings -, "but I never expected you to return to them after having such a cozy life". By this point, the changes in both griffon clans were more on the inside than the outside. They no longer thought that brute strength was the answer and that, in the case of fight, strategy was the key in having a successful victory (the lesser numbers down, the better). - "I know, neither did I, but such a good life was something that the most greedy would never allow. Now, we have to leave". - "So, what do we do now? Going to the mountains until Sombra is gone?" - Golden Claw thought it, he knew that, as more as he didn't like the idea, Sombra may stay there for a long time. He had to be prepared for the worst and think on what to do then. The choice was obvious -. "Dear, we'll have to stay on the north until Sombra is gone, our other option is to build our own homes in there".

"But how are we going to stay in there for so long?" - She asked concerned around that possibility, she worried for her future children, how would they raise them in such harsh conditions? Who knew how long it would take them to adapt in that environment. And that's not even counting the griffon bandits and the savage clans that preferred to stay as warmongers. They were civilians now, how could they return to those ways? She looked into the eyes of her husband, she saw that same fire she saw that night in that bar, a fire and determination capable of doing the unimaginable, eyes that said "we'll do it" and her husband said the words that made her know that everything would be fine:

"We'll fight the elements if needed. But we'll recover our life back, even if it take us generations".

The Griffons then departed and went into the frozen mountains in the north, the first weeks were made of murdering winds and freezing assassins, the once prosperous clan would suffer of a fifth in their death toll. The savage clans would be their biggest nightmare for decades until the son of the leaders, founder of the Golden Wings, started to take down each one of them, either fusing them to his clan or pulverizing them until nothing was left. with each passing generation, more and more territory would be annexed, conquering even the pole and going from one side of the mountains to the other. This leader, filled with the knowledge and bravebury of his parents, would start the formation of a griffon kingdom, creating fortifications, libraries, citadels both inside the mountains and higher than the mountains. He would envision himself as that leader from the mythical Crystal Empire and would always strive to recreate that paradise his parents always talked to him about. With each passing generation, each leader would become more and more ambitious until the territory would be too much for them to handle. Civil Wars would be made and the final war would have as a victor a Griffon so heartless, that the world evil would be too little to describe him (among a society that never knew of Sombra, Tirek, Stray Stone or creatures of the like).

This dictatorship would pacify the now Griffon Empire at the const of destroying the royal family that created the Griffon Empire, they would try to survive for the rest of the dictatorship. The Blood seeking dictator (peaceful to his family and friends, silent to his people but deathly to his enemies) would create multiple royal families that would become the ruling parties in the Congress of the Empire. After the dictator's death, the rule of the Empire was decided through the royal families and the family with the most power in the Congress would be the ruler until the emperor's death, then the new congress (decided each 5 years, in honor of the congress created by the legendary ruler of the mythical empire made of crystals) would choose the next ruler.

The founder's family, now stigmatized, would be fighting for the following centuries to recover the empire it once lost by having the support of the empire it once conquered. This glossed over a lot of their history, including how the young Romanov is planning to use her link to the original family to try to rise to power, but it was told to show how influential can be someone (or something) to the creation of a cvilization and how leaders that existed could have been easily been forgotten by time, until all that's left of it is the legend and the myth which future generations will use to model themselves in the search of a better lifestyle.

Another group that suffered from Sombra's attack, were the Diamond Dogs, Minotaurs and Dragons.

The Diamond Dogs, a species that was abused by Sombra under false promise, was among the least helped during the new age in the Crystal Empire. Very few got the education and good treatment they deserved, this, resulted in the diamond dogs finding a big despise towrds the ponies that only abused them for gems. For the lack of unity among themselves, they would never be capable to become an actual nation or a group capable of develop themselves into what they could have been. This also resulted in the Diamond Dogs finding a liking for the gems (if the ponies wanted them so much, then they must have some worth) so they would always search for the gems, becoming in slaves of the treatment they always got.

The Dragons would be among the ones who suffered the most for, while they didn't liked the idea of being subjects to a pony, at least they got diamonds and they were part of the economics of the empire. They were allowed to make as many enterprises as they liked (and if they empire was wealthy, they were wealthy. SO when the Empire fell, it meant the end of a paradise (no more money, no more riches, no more society, no more gems). They would still live on Equestria, but they would never become what they used to be.

The Minotaurs took a longer time to develop, they preferred to become a confederacy rather than an actual nation, with a confederacy assembly that was controlled by the strongest states. It took a Minotaur form the weakest state to conquer them all with a dictatorship that would create a central government and unite all the states against it. After this, the states would create a republic with all the laws based on the ones made by the Crystal Empire and bringing 500 years of peace for the new Country, a country that survived poisons like corruption and populism (by small inches).

Somewhere South of Equestria

Chrysalis was trying to understand what was going on, why where they fleeing their new home? She really liked it here and she didn't wanted to leave, she would rather stay in her new home instead of returning to the caves. Here she could play with her friends, she wasn't treated like royalty and she could have friends. Her subjects were flying with her. She looked to her sides and watched how her changeling subjects were running away from the beautiful city, she felt their fear and panic, what made them so afraid?

"But mom, please, let's stay. It is nice in here" - Chrysalis begged to her mother, she then felt a spike of anger, her mother turned to see her and responded - "Don't you ever repeat that again, if you ever say that living in there was a good idea I'll banish you". - Chrysalis detected the lie in there, but she didn't understood the reason of her mother's anger.

Chrysalis looked back and saw again the Crystal Capital in its glory, she could feel the chaos and anguish in there, she could feel all of its citizens wanting to run away but she couldn't understand why. In the end, her questions were answered with a huge black cloud that swarmed the whole city. While the cloud was swarming the city, Chrysalis could feel the anguish and fear increasing exponentially. This was bad, she knew it, but Chrysalis felt powerless to do something. Why her mother wasn't helping? Why they weren't, at the very least, trying to help them? Chrysalis saw the cloud and detected how it was taking the pony she admired the most. It was taking him into the city. Chrysalis was trying to ask her mother to stop, to fight the mean cloud, but she didn't wanted to listen, nobody on her swarm wanted to listen. When the cloud swarmed the city, she saw how the pony she looked up to saw her (she sweared for the rest of her life that he looked at her) and smiled before being engulfed by the black smoke, after that, Chrysalis stopped detecting emotions, as most as she tried, she couldn't detect anything. Not a single mother searching for her child, not a family asking for relief, not a foal crying for her disappeared parents, Chrysalis was incapable of detecting anything inside that smoke and that mixture of anguish, fear and despair would haunt her for the rest of her life any time she remembered the happy times she lived in that city.

After that, Her life would be filled with a love-hate relationship with her mother (too complex for this story to handle) that would end with Chrysalis exiling her mother to the unknown and trying to make that Empire she used to love and treasure so much. She would always search to bring back that shining era, that she always loved so much, in multiple occasions (and some attempts would be more successful than others) and, over the course of time and after historians understood how much story she lived, she would be known as "The Last Enlightened" for being the last living creature that came from that era of enlightenment and prestige and the studying of her life would be as controversial as the leader she always looked up to.

Somewhere in Equestria

A Gray Earth Pony was ending the buyout of his new land, he didn't liked the fact that he had to run away from his homeland but this was a better choice instead of facing jail, he was sure that he wouldn't survive that, and at least nopony knew him here. Still, he would miss all that power and control. He adjusted his clothes, covering his cutie mark, and combed his hair once more to stay as straight as possible, he wasn't going to lose the style and dignity on exile, so he could finally give the land a proper analysis and give it a proper investment.

It didn't went for too long when his son came back with two more ponies, the Gray Pony recognized the first one: It was another earth pony, pink coat and puffy hair. He used to work on The Crystal Empire as a soil specialist, maybe he could help the gray pony on the land (and he only had to hope that the ore specialist didn't recognized him), though he didn't recognized the second pony. His son introduced the two ponies, Special Ore and his daughter, and went to his side, meanwhile, Special Ore got close to him (he would have recognized Stray Stone if it weren't for the fact that (ever since Stray Stone left The Crystal Empire) he wasn't smiling neither using the fine clothes he used to wear back home) and engage into business with him:

"Hello fine gent", - he said on a cheery tone -, "I'm glad to see that you decided to ask me for help here. My family has been historically working with rocks and other types of ore over the course of our time. Tell me, have you planed what kind of ore are you planning to make here?" - Stray Stone looked at him, and after some thinking, responded to him - "Indeed, I think it would be helpful to create rocks, said rocks could be used for construction workers. So my plan is to farm rocks to sell them to construction workers, considering that this kind of job would never end, I can create a job that could sustain my family for centuries. What do you think?"

Special Ore gave this a thought, he was capable of making many other types of ores, but the pony was right, rocks were very useful, easy and fast to make and easy to sell. A sustainable project (as long as no other farm decided to do it) so he had no other choice to agreed:

"It sounds like a good deal, Mr..." - Stray Stone looked at him, wondering what kind of name he could make up and avoid detection. After some thought, he responded simply by - "Holder Cobblestone, I've been planning to make this farm for a long time." - Special Ore looked at a huge boulder in the middle of the future farm and asked - "Including that?" - the new Holder looked at the boulder and simply shrugged - "sure, why not? Its part of the land it will stay here".

Both ponies shook their hooves and started a deal that would last for over a millennium. Stray Stone managed to escape from jail, but he suffered from something even worse: Exilement from his own country. A punishment that would destroy anypony's will and would rather choose death over that. In the end, the exile squashed Stray Stone's soul, disintegrating him until he died form depression (never smiling again in his life), depression that went over to each generation, being showed in their gray (or dull colored) coats.

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Empire was swallowed by a huge cloud not too long ago, the smoke was starting to degrade the pristine buildings (once white, clean and with enough strength to stand several years, now they were being demolished slowly by the physical embodiment of fear and hatred) and the souls of the crystal ponies that decided to stay in the Empire for either loyalty or hope that everything would be fixed soon, their strong souls were being demoralized as long as they would be smelling the toxic smokes. In the middle of all of this, the only place that was holding out was the Crystal Palace, housing the two generals that affected the empire the most in the recent years.

Sombra was looking at the pony he despised the most, he was on the ground, contorting from the pain caused by him. Sombra never felt so good on years: He was finally getting back all the pain and humiliation caused to him that day 10 years ago and he was going to enjoy it by punishing this stallion, this ungrateful freak that dared to betray him. Every electric charge that Sombra sent to Swift was a new series of screams that sent joy to Sombra's ears and with every shock that was sent to Swift it was a new series of orgasm that Sombra felt on his spine, he was going to take care of the others that fled from his attack and he would send his thanks to those that decided to side with him when he decided to return to his rightful throne, he was extremely glad that (at least) he now had a bigger territory to control, he used to be a king and now he was going to be an emperor. Sombra was about to send a new wave of torture to Swift Rise but, before taking that moment of self indulgence, he was going to make some fun to him (psychology was also, one of his skills, so some psychological torture would be good for him) so he got close to him and started gloat:

"Tell me: How do you feel for being such a failure? How does it feel to know that all of what you have done was either useless or being taken over by me? After all, you haven't done anything, all you've done is making me angrier and more powerful. Everything you have done will be destroyed and you'll be forgotten by history because that's what you are: nothing, just a little speck on this world that doesn't know how to stay down. Once I'm done with you, I'll chase down all the things you pointlessly love and terminate it with the precious little toys you have now developed for me, and after I conquer all the land, I'll have you to thank for taking all of this problems. Now, before I finish your insignificant existence from this world that doesn't deserves you, do you have anything to say?".

Sombra was expecting for him to cry, he was expecting him to scream in pain, he was expecting him to stay on the ground (at the very least), but what Sombra didn't expected him to do, was to laugh. Swift Rise started to laugh with a lot of strength, with each second that passed he was laughing harder and harder until it was resonating in the whole throne room. This infuriated Sombra to no end, why was he laughing? He demanded an answer and, right before Sombra lost his patience, Swift Rise decided to answer him:

"You think you'll make me cry with that petty speech?" - He proceeded to laugh a bit more before continuing his response -. "Please, you always abused me with speeches like that when you kindly recruited me into your army. But you're committing a huge mistake if you think that your petty speech will make me feel meaningless after all of this. You say I'm nothing when I managed to stage your overthrowing, I manage to run this country on its most precarious moment, I managed to raise it from the slump you had it in, I deflected every single one of your attacks and the only reason that you won this was because of that traitorous scum that WILL ALSO betray you once they realize that you're a worse choice to the kingdom they used to work for. You act like if nobody loved me, like you used to tell me when you kindly raised me (after taking me here by force mind you), but I got married, I got a beautiful daughter, I'm one of the most respected generals and pony on all of this empire, and speaking of it, I MADE this empire. I managed to, not only, make this kingdom be respected, but also, fear it to the point that other tribes and nations accepted to become subjects to my kingdom AND EVEN STILL I treated them hundreds of times better than you ever could".

"You claim that I'll be forgotten by history, but this empire will only forget me if you manage to magically erase me from their minds, erase all the news, statues, buildings and other works I did AND EVE STILL you would have to try my memory form the other tribes and citizens that fled from you." - From this point, he got a bit more relaxed and said in the coldest tone he could ever muster before laughing again -. "Even still, if you manage to erase me from the face of history, you'll still remember me, you'll always remember me and how I managed to coup you (when you were an Unicorn with me being an earth pony), I managed to become a better king that you'll ever be and you'll always be there to remember me and how I was superior to you in every way possible". From this point on, he started to laugh with all of his strength.

Sombra could not stand this, his anger couldn't hold any longer and blasted Swift Rise with the strongest laser spell he could cast. Swift Rise was disintegrated while he was making his final laugh. In the end, nothing was left of Swift Rise on the room but Sombra was still hearing his laugh, he could still see him laughing, he could still feel his resistance. He could still remember how, even after all of those years of torture and humiliation, that mud pony was still looking at him with defiance and anger. He couldn't stand it, he couldn't stand how he was still haunting him. He never understood him, how could he managed to stand him? He was the only pony he ever met on his life that ever dared to defy him or even challenge him, a true mystery that, with luck, would stay as the only one ever doing that. But Sombra was surprised to see himself wrong. Even with his smoke deteriorating the crystal ponies, they still rebelled him in protest, they didn't wanted to stand another tyrant, they preferred to die trying to rebel against him rather than living on another dictatorship, Sombra tried to induce fear on them by telling them of Swift Rise demise and use it as an example, but that only enraged them even more, in the end, Sombra would have to erase their memories so they could forget their bravery, but that also lead to the erasure of everything that was made by Swift Rise so nopony could use his memory. This lead to another coup attempt by the military who didn't wanted to lose all the goods that were made for Swift Rise (which lead to Sombra disintegrating them as well), both the Congress and the Supreme Court were also murdered so only Sombra could hold power.

The greatest irony was that, even after doing everything to concentrate power on himself again, he wouldn't even got the chance to enjoy the power again, for the princesses of Equestria would come, just when he finished his job, and defeat him. Sombra then decided to use the a forbidden spell to disappear the Empire (in a desperate attempt to not lose his power over it) along with him so he could reclaim it once he had enough power to come back. And what made the irony even greater was that after all of that, Sombra still didn't managed to regain his power, for he was defeated by another alicorn. An Alicorn that was pink (like that princess that he never managed to capture) and held some familiar, defiant eyes, eyes that Sombra quickly recognized. Sombra was defeated once and for all, by the descendant of those two ponies he never managed to defeat.

And now, let's make some comparisons. Sombra and Swift Rise were quite similar if you think about it, they were both generals that came to power through military coups against a corrupt or inefficient leader, they both tried to hold onto power through the military but the high military command rejected them when they became something they dissapproved and, even though they tried to chase down their opposition, they never managed to hold supreme control over the minds of their subjects. But the similarities ended there, where Sombra tried to focus the power on himself just to fuel his ambitions on the expenditure of the kingdom he controlled, Swift Rise would try to create a better system so, after his death or whenever he stopped having the control, everything he worked for could be used by the next leader and improve the nation. Where Sombra violate the lifestyle of his subjects, Swift Rise would try to give them something to help the nation. Where Sombra would try to hold to power until the very end, Swift Rise gave up his power to maintain the stability of the nation he believed in. Both Ponies were so similar in their backstories (except with Swift Rise origins, that have already been debated to no end by other authors of great renounce, who decided to uncover him to understand what made him who he was, said debates are things that won't be discussed on this source but you can search for them if you want to know more) but so different on everything else, this two ponies are a perfect comparison of how influential you can be and how does that influence will affect the history around you.

The biggest difference remains on how they are remembered: While Sombra is remembered as one of the worst things that could have ever happened to the Crystal Empire, Swift Rise (not only) managed to survive the test of time, but he also managed to become a figure for those who want to learn about government and military for, while he was a dictator, he was more than a simple dictator, he was "The Great Dictator".

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 2: The Present)

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Cadence was prepared for this, she knew that (whatever Chrysalis wanted) it couldn't be good and, thus, she would be ready to attack her with anything she had on her arsenal. Cadence felt ice crossing her spine at the speed of lightning as Chrysalis came down to the floor with the grace of a butterfly in the search of a place to rest, the pink fury noticed that the changeling swarm stood in the air, perhaps as a potential reminder of who had the temporary advantage, Cadence saw her husband and, just by looking at each other, Shining Armor went to prepare the troops against a potential invasion. Chrysalis started to move to Cadence wearing a stone mask that made sure that nobody could detect her motives of this potential pre-invasion. Cadence, even though Chrysalis would follow through, decided to use a stone mask as well to stay as neutral as she could, she wanted to show to her scared ponies that she was capable of dealing with an enemy, she wanted to give an example of how leaders should act in front of other representatives, she wanted to prove everybody that the pink mountain was capable of facing the swarm and not be shaken. Both enemies faced each other out through a sort of staring contest, waiting to see who would be the one breaking the iceberg between them. In the end, Cadence would prove herself to be the one breaking the ice through a move that would make many political leaders nod in approval, for she said:

"Hello Queen Chrysalis" - Cadence lowered her head to grant her a physical salute - "I apologize for not making a proper preparation for a welcome designed to be on your level and that would have showed you how much we would have enjoyed your visit to our Empire" - She raised her head and looked Chrysalis to her face, never breaking the sight and always keeping her stone mask, and leveled her tone of voice to much more welcoming one - "But, considering that one of your citizens decided to give us a warning that you were coming, we thank you for taking the bother to advise your visit even though it could have been much earlier so we could have given you a proper welcoming" - Cadence broke her stone mask and made a little smile - "But now that all of that has been said, please tell us what are the reasons of your visit here, for you must be aware of your condition with us and how are our opinions with your species and we would like to make this encounter as brief as possible".

Chrysalis saw around herself, she noticed all the guards and princesses preparing themselves to fight her and her changelings, she understood perfectly what Cadence meant but she wasn't afraid, she knew what to do, she kneel down to Cadence and started her speech:

"Salutes, regent of the Crystal Empire, I humbly apologize for my abrupt travel to your domains, but as I realized that you were investigating the distant past of this kingdom, I couldn't hold myself from traveling here and giving you a series of petitions that you would find, for the most part, very useful to your kingdom".

Cadence kept her composure, but incredulity was overwhelming her right now. After her last attempt at her wedding, Cadence wasn't feeling very trustworthy to Chrysalis and her changelings, she wasn't going to refuse to listen to her, but she wasn't going to believe her petitions for that matter.

"On the first place: I've come here to tell you that I'm aware of you, discovering the existence of the Tyrant Swift Rise, even though I never saw him as a tyrant, as many of his opponents would claim, I do think that you would find (not only) interesting (but also) useful to know that I was alive at that era and, if you would like, I can tell you all I can remember of those times so you could start a quicker rebuilding of all that was made there. Thus, I offer to you my services".

"On the second Place: I've come here to ask you to allow my changelings to live under your protection, as it was stipulated on the Protection Treaty of Mutual Services signed between the Emperor of the Crystal Empire, King Swift Rise, the Dragon Lord, Kaiser Mondragon, and the previous Chagenling Queen, Queen Aneptydis, my mother. Said act would make both the Changeling and Dragon species subjects to the regents of the Crystal Empire, and being subjected to all the laws and rights it carried out, on exchange of being treated as citizens of the Crystal Empire and equal to all its other subjects. I'm aware that you have no reason to believe in my person, but I can assure you that, in the memory of my mother and my honor as a Queen, I will make sure that my subjects will abide to the Treaty and that they'll help your subjects in whatever type of job you can provide".

"On the Third Place: To prove that I will honor you on my promise that my subjects will accept you, I will let you and your fellow monarchs of Equestria to judge me (in exchange of all the crimes that my subjects could have committed) for the Invasion attempt made a few months ago in Canterlot, Equestria. I'll let myself to be judged by courts of both Equestria and the Crystal Empire, whether you use the current judiciary system or the one implemented on the times of the regent Swift Rise will be at your discretion. I hope you find all of this of your liking and if you don't, we can fix everything for a better deal".

Chrysalis kept herself on her knees, never looking at Cadence, and waiting for a response. Cadence, on the other hoof, was in shock to this series of proposals, stone mask still being kept. She wasn't sure what to do, she wasn't sure if she should press for more, she wasn't sure if ignore Chrysalis or accept her deal, so she decided to ask for three days to give the deal a better thought. Chrysalis accepted her terms and took all her changelings to the exterior of the Crystal Empire, under the promise that she, along all of her changelings, would be waiting for her and, in two days, Chrysalis, with her hive, would go to visit her and hear Cadence's response.

That day, Cadence summoned a special committee to discuss the terms requested by Chrysalis. This committee was made of various experts on multiple subjects, like historians, generals (the few they could find) common workers, etc. The most known on this committee were Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence; General Shining Armor, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. This committee's first decision was to determine first the course of action (and ignore Rainbow Dash's initial plan of kicking the changelings out), the committee would first research all the information gathered so far (both in the Crystal Library and the newest information discovered on the secret chamber that housed everything respecting Swift Rise) and tomorrow, they would start the actual debate.

That night, both Princess Cadence and Queen Chrysalis struggled through the same issues: Was this a good idea? Should she do something that could affect her subjects in unknown ways? Will the other monarch abide to her word? All of this were questions that were invading their heads and wouldn't let them rest.

Chrysalis, on the little camp made for her subjects to pass the night, was now remembering the old days where she would constantly plot to remake that empire she always wanted to hold. The griffons were saved for the mountain environment they lived in, impossible to invade (especially on winter) and impossible to infiltrate successfully. The minotaurs always managed to detect her changelings so an invasion was downright impossible, the dragons were too strong and the diamond dogs were too hard to get. She felt the coldness of the night and let the crickets and sounds of the night to soother her. She looked at the Crystal Palace, still as beautiful as she remembered, being a wonder that nopony could even understand how it was built. Chrysalis remembered those days where she would go to the palace to watch the hallways and let her nymph mind dream of her one day working there and being a part of the government, being loved by everybody and always working for the rights of her fellow citizens. Eventually the dream became a memory of a more innocent time where she thought the world was simpler and easier, she remembered the day she banished her mother into exile for, what she thought was, treason for allowing her changelings to be subjects of another king (Oh, the irony behind that) and, to make it more ironic, she banished her under the crime of "ineptitude" and "lack of ruling" when she was the one that had to find a home for her hive and a way to sustain them. Chrysalis now wondered how much wisdom did she threw out at the window when she banished her mother, she wondered everyday.

As the cold breeze passed through her straight hair, Chrysalis remembered when she first searched for the remnants of The Crystal Empire (or any memory of it) and how little she could find around, what she saw as, the greatest empire on earth. It chilled her the idea that her most precious memories couldn't be found, that she could have been delusional over that. That her mother's silence over said kingdom was because it didn't existed, now, Chrysalis could rest in peace knowing that she didn't imagined all of that and she could better focus on her most recent problem: The resignation of her subjects to Cadence.

Chrysalis got huge amounts of disagreement over her decision, her Changelings were now calling her a traitor and weak queen, that she shouldn't be holding the throne among other familiar attacks she has already heard from a different mouth. Chrysalis now understood that the hardest thing for a regent wasn't doing what her subjects wanted, but rather, what they needed even if they didn't wanted. But was it so hard to desire to do the right thing and still be recognized? Was it so bad to desire respect from others? All that Chrysalis desired was to be looked the same way she looked at her idol, her role model, was it so bad to ask for respect? To be capable of imposing one's will and be respected for it? She wondered if she would ever be remembered in a good way in history, but that was a long dream already dead. Now, all left for her changelings was resting at the hooves of the Princess residing in the palace Chrysalis used to visit when she was a little nymph.

Cadence was wondering what she could do with this predicament, she never expected that she would have to face with the decisions made by her ancestor neither that Chrysalis would be so accepting to the idea of her being arrested and trialed, what was she up to? Cadence wasn't sure. Perhaps this was a way to make her lower her defenses and, that way, the changelings would have an easier way to invade the Crystal Empire; perhaps she was trying to give her species a second chance so they could survive. Cadence wasn't sure and all she could do was look at the Moon and hope that some of its silver shining, filled with the wisdom of history, could provide her of the answers she wanted to know.

Cadence spoke with her husband before sleeping, they talked about the many problems this could convey and how they could be sure that Chrysalis wouldn't try anything dangerous on her little ponies. Shining Armor asked Cadence about her discovered family, was she affected by the knowledge of being a descendant of a tyrant? Cadence didn't knew what to do, every time she tried to think about it she would feel conflicted:

On one hoof, She was sure that Swift Rise committed horrible deeds and that he might have been a horrible pony but, on the other hoof, why would Amor Candente marry such a horrible pony? Cadence had to hold herself on multiple occasions so she didn't ended up destroying the only piece of visual evidence of what happened to the Crystal Empire a 1000 years ago. Cadence wanted to know why would a pony so respected by her political aunt Celestia, join a pony that had no scruples to send many ponies to exile. She would have to wait until tomorrow for the next meeting on the special commission to assess whatever information they could gather so far.

Shining Armor was on his own problems. He never expected that the general that would create the basics of how the Royal Guard would carry out its job, actually worked for a Tyrant; Shining Armor always dreamed that General Golden Strike was a General that was so prominent because of his loyalty and desire to modernize the Equestrian military, never because he actually worked for an even better general that made the foundations for a professional army. Now, after discovering Equestria's military origins, he was wondering if there was a way to change everything. How could he rest knowing that Equestria's history was tied up to a monster? Eventually, talking with Cadence would give him a comfort never thought before, knowing that somebody else was going through the same problems as you (even if the other one had it worse) allowed you to rest under the idea that you were not alone and, as such, the couple was now capable of make each other feel better.

Princess Celestia and Luna were spending the night debating how much they could have done to help and how much would have changed if they hadn't spent the first days debating how they could have helped they're good friend Candente, both Princess weren't sure of it and discussing it only brought back the old grudges that they both thought were eliminated back when Twilight used the elements on Luna. This recent events, to the surprise of the sisters, brought them the chance to amend their old problems through the lenses of understanding, experience and foresight as they now understood that the best way to fix their past mistakes (or, at least, one of them) was bringing their help on the matters at hoof, they would rest soon (after doing both the rise and lowering of the Sun and the Moon) and on the next day, they would give their best to defeat the ghost that still haunted them to this day.

Of all the ponies that felt conflicted that night, Twilight Sparkle would be the one with the most curious version of conflicting emotions. Typical of every young and naive pony, she mostly remembered the parts of great infrastructure done by Swift Rise and wanted to do the same for Equestria, but she felt as if it was unnecessary to be so cruel on the subjects. She didn't understood how monstrous was the Rising Regime and how much it undermined the freedom of the individual, Twilight would be searching on the Crystal Library and the Secret Vault during the whole night (with her tagged friends) to try and give her best understanding to Swift Rise work and what was needed to help on the new circumstances brought by Chrysalis. Twilight felt conflicted because, on one hoof, she wanted to be a princess capable of bringing a new age of enlightenment to Equestria through all the modernization that could be brought through a great and modernizing program that brought back to light all of those great equestrians that were forgotten by history; on the other hoof, Twilight couldn't deny how horrible and tyrannical was Swift Rise through his political force (KP) and how much it undermined what were basically the elements of Harmony.

In all of her time researching, Twilight would try to find sympathy on her friends, only finding the response of the harsh truth: Swift Rise was a Tyrant that (whether he actually believed it or not) used an idealism to make himself popular and stay in power, it was impossible to deny the great works he did just as much as the tragedy that it was the destruction of said progress at the hoofs of Sombra, but a monster was a monster and one must never search progress through the force and authoritarianism. In the end, Twilight understood that the search of said progress through an honest work that allowed everyone to work for what they believed was right, the worry of those who suffered and never forgetting to treat even your enemies with kindness, being generous even to those who don't deserve one's goodness, staying loyal to your own ideals, celebrating what must be celebrated and an everlasting friedship were the key to a rule that would bring the best results to a kingdom. During the rest of the night, Twilight would be searching all the documents she could find to bring them over to tomorrow's meeting.

The next day's meeting went in a very different way compared to yesterday, instead of a complete bickering and a lack of move, everybody was capable of bring forth all the evidence they could find and tried to make the best of it.

Twilight was the one that helped the most by bringing all the acts, laws, treaties, books and memoirs that they were capable of finding both on the Crystal Library and the Secret Vault. Celestia and Luna helped too by giving their memories of those days and how were the deals done with the Crystal Empire to get funds to defeat Discord and (subsequently) stabilize Equestria. Shining Armor brought all the military registries he could find (including books wrote by General Golden Strike and how they founded the modern military guard, even if they have gotten out of touch with said teachings).

Through said research, they managed to find Queen Amor Candente's documents on how much did Swift Rise embezzled, how many ponies were tortured and exiled, how much was spent on infrastructure and much more. The most surprising part was the amount of money was gained through the exportation and how much was spent into the Military branch.

-"This is amazing"- said a dumbfounded Rainbow Dash, this was complemented by a business expert Applejack - "How did this stallion got away with this? I've never seen so many bits being moved on my life". - Pinkie continued with a desire to use all of that on parties while Fluttershy wanted to use that on helping the poor animals. In the end, only Cadence, Luna and Celestia were capable of focusing on the Changeling issue. They managed to find the documents regarding the Act mentioned by Chrysalis and confirmed its veracity. The Changeling were (technically) still under the effects of this treaty and when Chrysalis abide to this treaty, now Cadence had to choose whether or not she should accept it.

This decision quickly melted the committee with Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Rarity going on the idea that the Treaty must be respected to help the changelings while Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor were against the idea of befriending them. Both sides argued with strong ideas. One side said that the best way to prove to her strength was by kicking the changelings out while the other side argued that diplomacy would show that the Crystal Empire was being ruled by a wise regent. The Discussion went so high that Cadence had to shut down the committee once more and decided to make the choice the next day to make sure that everypony would accept her choice.

The first day of waiting brought only nerves to Chrysalis, she wasn't sure of how she could wait another day, she could feel her changeling's pressure and the idea of being betrayed deteriorated her mind. She just wanted to secure her changelings to, later, find a way to bring back her ideas of how to properly rule a kingdom. She wanted to live in a palace and be looked as a model, she wanted to be what she never was on her whole life and each second that passed was a second that made her doubt of her choice. Did she took the right choice? Would she be betrayed? Was there another way? She wasn't sure and now all she had left was the idea of defeat for she would never be able to bring her dreams into reality.

Cadence spent the whole night trying to think on a way out of this, no matter what choice did she wanted to do, she would lose something. She had to choose between losing the respect for her fellow monarchs or to lose the respect of her citizens. After a torturous hour of thinking, Cadence decided to go and read the few documents brought by Twilight to see if there was something that would help her out. From a diary made by political prisoners to a book of poetry decrying the death of a dictator, Cadence now was tying up her choice to the ghost that Swift Rise represented. She always thought that the past was in the past and that it would never affect her, that she wouldn't be under anyone's shadow in the Crystal Empire for Celestia and Luna were now on Equestria and she was now free of being her own princess, only to realize that the Crystal Empire had its own shadow that was looming over her, not only as the new princess but, also, as the descendant of said shadow.

The never ending pressure eliminated any possibility of sleep and all Cadence could do now was to search among the information found by Twilight in the hopes that she could find something that could clear her mind. She started to read all the documents wrote by Swift Rise and his ministers, She thought that she would find anything that could show her the monster that he was, but all she could find were notes regarding better ways to improve the life of the Crystal Citizens. Cadence then went to read all the notes regarding Swift Rise's political enemies (who surprisingly were aviable) and all she found were complains about things that, on the grand scheme of things, looked irrelevant (how could a highway connecting the City to the sea be only for the rich?). Still all this comparisons allowed her to see what was Swift Rise hiding and what were his real goals or, at least, she hoped that she was seeing them now.

After hours of reading, Cadence found 3 documents that she found very relevant for herself: the first one was a piece of an interview between The General Golden Strike and a reporter for a Diary.

Brave Quill (BQ): Sir, if I'm not wrong, you were among the soldiers that supported the coup made by the Ex General King, Swift Rise, but you were among the few Guards that dared to ask him to quit from his position. Tell me, what made you change your mind in those years?
Golden Strike (GS): The answer isn't too complicated actually but, before that, I want to clarify something: Swift Rise it's still a general, for there's no such thing as a retired military, so I would like to kindly ask you that any future mention to his or any other military figure to mention him with his title. With that said, I will explain to you the simple reasoning. Back then, when I helped the General Swift Rise, I was still a young soldier. I didn't understood what was required to become a real soldier or what was supposed to be our job, I only thought that we only needed power and that was it. It was over time and thanks to the professional program devised by General Swift Rise and General Pure Diamond that I started to understand that the main job of an army was to defend the citizens of its kingdom. After I understood this, I saw that General Swift Rise was starting to go away from the ideals that he represented, thankfully, he listened to me and decided to quit from his position before blood could be spilled.
BQ: Thank you, now this also bring another questions. There were, and still are, rumors that you were planning a coup to get rid of Swift Rise if he didn't quit, are this rumors true?
GS: That's Preposterous, there's no such thing as a "good coup". Coups of any kind are dangerous to the Institutions and the livelihood of a kingdom. Making a coup would have only caused an even deeper crisis and it would have been just another repeat of history, this time at my, or another general's, hoofs.
BQ: A return to the era of Sombra or another Swift Rise?
GS: Probably another Swift Rise, we worked very hard to bring professionalism to the Crystal Army (including the future integration of other species into the army) and a return to the era of Sombra would be a severe step back in the life of the Crystal Empire. With that said, a coup would have just split down the army between those loyal to Swift Rise, those loyal to the Crystal Empire and those loyal to the general behind the new coup. As I said, a deep crisis.
BQ: And you aren't worried under the possibility of a future coup from those loyal to Swift Rise to come back to power? It's not a secret to anybody that Swift Rise has a lot of followers among the Crystal Guard.
GS: Very unlikely, he resigned to his position and made that speech for a reason, it was to keep said loyal guards in line and to make sure they won't try to revolt. It also helps that his wife is now in charge. A coup against her would be a coup against Swift Rise. Now, who could make a coup attempt? Those would be the greedy ones, the ones who wants to recover the power they had during Swift Rise's reign but weren't strictly loyal to him, but they're a minority and, unless a powerful general comes and promises them the same power they had under Swift Rise's reign, they won't try anything too drastic.
BQ: And you're not worried by Queen Candente's decision to eliminate the Crystal Guard's right to vote through the new Constitution?It's not something to take lightly.
GS: Absolutely not. The Crystal Army must stay apolitical and ideology free so they can defend all the citizens equally. The right to vote endangers that possibility.
BQ: Alright, this reminds me, what about the Kingdom Protection? We all know that you and Stray Stone never got along, are you glad of his disappearance and that the Kingdom Protection is being reformed?
GS: The idea behind the Kingdom Protection was good, but that kind of power should never be given to a civilian, only military and police officers are capable of leading that kind of force without being too tempted by corruption. And speaking of Stray Stone I'm...

That was all Cadence was capable of reading, but the insight given by it was very useful to her. The Second Document that she found was a report sent to Swift Rise regarding the Crystal Heart, it said everything she already knew about the Crystal Heart (how it was tuned to the Crystal Ponies and how it was capable of protecting them when they were brave), but it also said that future experimentation was going to be developed as, apparently, it was capable of "projecting the desires of those who really needed the help of clarity". She took the information with her, surely Twilight would find it very fascinating.

The third, and most important, piece that Cadence found was the personal diaries belonging to Queen Amor Candente, which managed to give her the information she needed to, at least try, to understand the mindset of the complicated pony that was Swift Rise. Perhaps her ancestor would give her the information she needed.

Entry 23
Dear Diary: It has been days since my father was murdered by that treacherous Sombra, I've been in the shadows ever since. I can't believe that I must live on the streets! I miss my old room, but alas, now I'll be able to meet those my father's counselors called "the low life". Oh! Before I forget, today happened something very interesting. I was hiding behind huge stacks of straw when, suddenly, a guard noticed me hiding. I thought I was going to be arrested and killed but, instead of trying to arrest me, the guard let me escape. This guard was a very peculiar one, he had a brown coat and lacked a cutie mark (what I remember the most about him), perhaps he was loyal to my father?

Cadence decided to skip some pages that only depicted the hardships of going through the kingdom undetected and the countless amount of times she managed to escape the guards and only focused on the parts that interested her.

Entry 44
Today was a day that I never thought I would see on my life. Sombra was dethroned, I'm just so happy now! I never thought that this was possible, maybe I'll finally be able to go back to a public life. I really hope that I'll be allowed to go back to the palace and rule as the Princess I'm supposed to be.

Entry 46
Well, I went to the Crystal Palace as I was called by the new government (I can't believe I'm not allowed to rule my legitimate position as a Princess of the Crystal Kingdom!) and, so far, it wasn't so bad. I've been allowed to work in the government as an administrator and counsel to the new Joint. But I'll also mention that one of the Guards in the Joint looks very similar to the pony that let me go a few years ago, could it be the same pony? If so, what does he have to do with all of this?

Entry 50
It been a few weeks since my last entry, I've managed to get used to my job and I've been told that I could be promoted to become a minister (I don't know of what though), if everything goes fine, this will be the closest I'll ever be to the position of princess. Something that I'll keep in searching is about that Stallion (Swift Rise I think he's called), I find him very suspicious. He's too reserved and he doesn't seem to be very smart (he only receives orders and obeys, speaking of mindless drones) and whenever I ask the staff, or other guards, about him they seem to avoid the questions, they only mention that "Sombra brought him here". I'll see what was all about, he might be dangerous to all of us.

Cadence kept reading until the diary was ended, the rest of it only talked about details of her job and a few random encounters that she had with Swift Rise because of her job. Nothing that could reveal how she fell in love with him or what did she saw on him. After that, she went to the next diary.

Entry 101
Its been a few days since my last entry but I had to find a new diary quickly to record this. This was unusual, Swift Rise, for the first time, questioned Pure Diamond (I never thought that it was possible, he always looked so obedient and calm) when talking about a potential opposition to Pure Diamond. I don't know where it went (Nobody is ever allowed to the meetings inside The Meeting Table whenever the Joint is talking about how to rule the kingdom) but I do know that, for the first time, Swift Rise and Pure Diamond had a fight. I'll keep a watch on that Stallion a lot more now, I've heard rumors that the Crystal Guard is switching their alliances to Swift Rise instead of Pure Diamond. I think Swift Rise may try to kill Pure Diamond.

Entry 104
I can't believe it, Pure Diamond has been murdered a few days ago. I've just come back of the mourning and decided to, finally, update this thing. I've heard that Swift Rise was behind the murder attempt, but I won't say anything until I find strong enough evidence to support it. I've also heard that Sombra's ponies were behind the attack, but I also need evidence to support that idea. So far, I'm going to keep a watch under Swift Rise, it looks like he'll try to become the king of the Crystal Kingdom and, considering his close relation to Sombra, I think he may try to get Sombra back to power.

Entry 107
Swift Rise is an enigma, whenever I try to predict him, he throws a curve ball towards me. I thought that he was going to bring Sombra back and he ended up cementing his exile, I thought that he was going to start an inquisition and he actually opened up the meetings so all the ministers, counselors and those close to the government can actually hear and talk about the direction the Kingdom should take. I've also taken a look into his idea of a constitution, I'm very skeptical to it, including the idea of letting the ponies vote, so I'll be prepared.
To be fair, I think I may have underestimated him, now that I've been able to hear him talk, I've been severely impressed by his capacity to talk and think. How did that Pony ended up under Sombra's command? Where did he came from? I think I'll have to start to get close to him to figure out. I wonder if he likes pink mares...

Cadence was actually surprised by this, she never thought that it was her ancestor the one that made the first move. By the looks of it, she thought that Swift Rise was the one who started to get political gain, what else was away form what she thought as the reality?

Entry 110
I've managed to have a few more encounters with Swift Rise recently, I never expected him to be so eloquent! No matter what subject or theme I tried to talk about with him, he always managed to stay on the conversation, and he was so charming and silly (he never knew, until today, that I was the daughter of the previous king. Just when he realized, he immediately blushed and started to call me by my old title, he was so cute. I hope I can get more meeting like this, I've found him very interesting (again, where did Sombra got him out from!?)

As Cadence read, she found that her ancestor saw on the king a different stallion that the documentary made it look like, Candente made him look like a normal pony, not a heartless being (or, at least, not as distant as she thought he was). Cadence hoped that this would bring her the answers she was looking for.

Entry 134
It's been a long time since I started this diary and I started to record my findings on Swift Rise. I never thought I would be dating the pony I was the most suspicious about 5 years ago, under Pure Diamond's administration. I decided to write again, after so many months, because I finally figured out Swift Rise origins, it was so hard to convince him of speaking to me about it and now I understand why. I still cannot believe he's from another planet, and that he's a different species of all things (now I despise Sombra even more). The things he have told me of his home planet and his original country, a planet filled with both evil and good, I wish I could describe in a better light the way he spoke about his home, he looked so happy, so alive. No wonder he has been trying to find ways to go back, but now I'm worried, will he leave us now after so long living here?
Its ironic that I'm doubting the idea of him leaving, a few years ago I would have been very active on that, I would have even pushed him more on that idea, now though... I don't know... he has done a very good work as a king (Stray Stone aside, I really don't trust him) and I've never felt so close to somepony with so much knowledge and not be a stuck up pony know-it-all that only wants to brag about his knowledge. What to do, what can I do? I need to think about this a bit more.

The more Cadence read about her ancestor's impressions on Swift Rise, the more she became interested on him, she found it very fascinating that most of his ideas came from his world and that, basically, Swift Rise was just bringing his ideas to this world. Now Cadence wondered, how advanced would have been the Crystal Empire if his ideas weren't have been destroyed? Was there any chance for her to bring that? Was the first step for that accepting the deal with Chrysalis, or she was it the wrong idea? She needed to know and, for that, she kept reading.

Entry 156
Its been a few months since I've been married to Swift Rise (or should I say [REDACTED], I can't believe he actually told me his real name!, I feel so happy he trust me this much!) and I've never been so happy on my life, he has been so supportive of me and he has made me feel so complete. Now, I only wish he stopped with his idea of going back to his home. Does he understand that he has no reason to go back? He has friends, he's a king, he has a family now, why does he wants to go back? Not only that, it even looks like he wants to go back even more than before. I suppose his mind its still a mystery to me, even when he has opened to me so much.

After that, Cadence kept reading until she got to the moment when the corruption was discovered, from that, it looked like she was heartbroken (and surprised when he decided to quit from his position), so after a long read, Cadence got to the final entry on the last dairy

Entry 456
I can't believe it, I'm the queen now.
I find it so ironic that, after so many years of ambition and activity so many years ago, I've finally become the Queen of the Crystal Empire. Right when I don't care any more about that. All I want now is to have a life with a husband I can trust, I want my filly to have a father that will rise her like only a father could do, I don't care for any of this (this Empire could burn for all I care) but, my husband did his job and acted with dignity when he decided to quit, and so shall I.
The job of a queen, ruler, anything is to work for its people, never for itself and its very egotistic from my part to deny any of this responsibility when there's no one else capable of doing this. Sometimes it looks like the you want to take the easy route but, most of the time, the best choice is the one you want to take the least for there has never been a decision with good short time repercussions that will stay that way on the long run. Most of the time, a short time decision that looks bad will have a good long term effect. I decided to take the choice I wanted the least by staying as a queen to work for my empire and tomorrow I'll have what probably will be my final conversation with the stallion I love the most.
My dear, I'll always love you, even after all the wrongs you did, and, as such, I'll never write here again until the day I can see you once more. So I can fill this and any future diary I write with my love and happiness that only you have brought me. Te amo.

That was the last entry on the last diary Cadence could find.

At the next day, Cadence went outside with the committee and waited for Chrysalis and her hive to meet them and hear their decision. That day, the sun was calmed, there was no wind but it still felt fresh, the ponies could feel an invisible pressure over them as the changelings started to gather around, Chrysalis never looked so imposing (even if she was going to hear a potential sentence that would put her on prison for years) neither Cadence looked so prominent and powerful (even more than Celestia and Luna). The Crystal Ponies could feel the power and determination on their princess, they knew that, whatever she has chosen, it was a decision that would define the Crystal Empire's history.

The Griffons and Minotaurs were there, watching, they decided to stay on the sidelines for they wanted to see if the Princess of love (as the old saying goes) "fitted the shirt" of a monarch, they were prepared for anything she could decide.

Chrysalis and Cadence shared looks, they knew that this was a pivotal moment in both of their species history and they would have to face the consequences of this moment. Cadence looked at Chrysalis straight to her eyes and said:

"Queen Chrysalis, You're here to witness my decision on whether I'll accept the deal you propose me or deny it. Is that clear?"

Chrysalis looked at Cadence with no fear on her eyes and simply said: "I do".

In that moment, Cadence looked at the horizon and felt the world turning on her, she gave one last thought to her decision and, after seeing all the ponies, griffons, changelings and her friends looking at her, she said the words that would shape history on levels only seen Once in the Crystal Empire and Thrice in Equestria:

"In that case, I hereby accept the deal." - In that moment, many ponies got shocked and tried to understand what her Princess had just said, meanwhile, Cadence continued her speech, never breaking her face - "For now on, the Changelings are once again subjects of the Crystal Empire and Queen Chrysalis will be put on trial for all of her crimes on both Equestria and myself".

The ponies quickly started to protest to her princess, why would she do something like that on a species that would betray them soon? But Cadence understood their worries, she just wanted them to understand her point, what she (and probably Chrysalis) were trying to do, that this was going to be for their good, but how?

In that moment, the Crystal Heart started to glow, feeling the disturbance among the ponies it should be protecting and hearing the plead of the only monarch it recognized as a protector of the ponies, it decided to respond and show what was good to the Crystal Empire as it started to glow like never before. Soon, the light started to grow more by each second and, before anyone realized, they were all engulfed by the light.

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 3: ???)

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The blinding light engulfed Cadence and everybody else for a long while, even though it was swarming everybody, they didn't felt burned or cold by the light, it actually only felt warm and comforting and, while they were surrounded by it, they felt as if something bigger was asking them to listen. When the light finally started to go down and they were able to watch, they all felt surprised at what they were looking, and hearing, at.

They still were on the Crystal Empire, but rather than the buildings that Twilight and her friends found when they first arrived into the empire not too long ago, they found magnificent structures and great buildings. The ponies, of various kind - not only Crystal ponies were there -, were wearing clothes and looked happy. There streets were filled with various species, from griffons to changelings and diamond dogs. and they looked content with their livelihood. The lamps were shining brightly, but not with fire, with electricity and on top of them they had small boxes that were, for some reason, to speakers that were making music. And the more they heard it, the more they wanted to dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RldaIF5Fsio

Twilight and her friends were trying to make up what they were watching. Twilight was trying to choose between understanding how could this happen and enjoying her chance to see, firsthoof, a 1000 years old society at work. Rainbow Dash, at first, was trying to understand what was going on but, after getting the explanation by Twilight, she started to fly away to check out everything from above (although she would later get bored for her incapability to interact/prank with anybody) to see as far as she could and enjoy all the bright colors from above, she would later find the Pegasus Division army making flight maneuvers that she would end up trying later with the Wonderbolts. Rarity enjoyed the prism of glamour, grandiose and etiquette found in the city, even the poor had an air of education barely seen in cities like Canterlot, this felt like a mixture of the high class of Canterlot with the friendliness of Ponyville and the mystifying experience of Manehattan, the clothes the citizens wore would later inspire her to try her own versions back home. Applejack would be the one that would feel the most awkward for this remembered her of her time with her family back when she was a filly but she couldn't sense that mask on this citizens (perhaps because they weren't real, but she would never figure it out completely), she couldn't know if she should either try to see for herself or just go with her friends but, in the end, she would end up going to the slums to see how well did that people lived and be surprised to see that, not even in 1000 years, some things never changed for she would find families trying to do their best to survive but never let sadness and despair to take them over. Fluttershy felt completely out of place, even though she wasn't even a part of this group neither being noticed, she felt in the middle of a crowd that made her uncomfortable but, she would later admit that it all looked nice. Pinkie Pie would be, of all the ponies with the possible exception of Twilight Sparkle, the one that would enjoy the most this trip, she would constantly see and enjoy the many ways the citizens in the city were going to enjoy their life, some of them even looked like if they were in a constant party.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were feeling a wave of nostalgia as they were seeing the capital of the Crystal Empire just as they remembered it when they visited it a 1000 years ago. They could hear the music on the street, the life on the citizens, the energy and love flowing through every step made. It was undeniable, they were back on the city that once celebrated their visit back then and it didn't felt as if they were an illusion. As nostalgia was invading their hearts, they were also invaded by guilt over the fact that they couldn't save this city, they couldn't save their citizens, they couldn't save what they used to see as a model for them. To see this old capital and remembering where they were a few seconds ago made them wish to have the ability to change the past, they wished for a second chance as, perhaps, they could have made a better choice back then and save everybody for the catastrophe. In the end, they wished for a last moment to drink tea with their old friend, long time gone from life, they remembered that they had a new pink and purple friend they could share their life with and, hopefully, to share new moments that they could remember for the rest of their life.

As Chrysalis and her changelings were looking at this, they were being drowned by the huge wave of emotion coming from everybody else. They weren't sure of how to react to all of it, these new emotions were taking them over and sending them into a weird feeling of sickness for the over saturation of them. It got worse as all the ponies were feeling multiple emotions at once and the mixture was nauseating. Eventually, Chrysalis managed to overcome it and used her magic to ease the situation for her changelings, as time went by, and the non-changelings started to get an easier time to gather their emotions, the changelings managed to focus on what they were seeing and started to get their own conclusions.

At first, they were thinking that it was an illusion made by the princesses to distract them but the more they tried to question it, the more it looked like the illusion wasn't made by anyone. After a good piece of time passed, the changelings started to look at her queen and asked her what they were looking at:

"This" -, she said - "is what I have always talked to you about". - She looked at the city and the street lights -. "This", - nostalgia started to fill her -, "is the great city I always envisioned and tried to remake for all of you". - The old memories started to resurface -. "This is where I grew up, where I learned everything that made me a queen and where I learned which was the best way to rule". - She started to remember the games she had and the friends she made -. "This". - The memories started to be replaced by a desire to come back to it that were reflected in the watery substance that started to accumulate in her eyes and, to her luck, nobody else would notice -. "Was my..."

Her changelings saw her queen, a queen known never showing emotions and only being harsh on her subjects, tearing in front of her hive. This was something that they've never seen before and, for a moment, they wondered if their queen went mad but, as far as they could tell, they soon realized that their queen was tearing up because she was finally seeing that place they barely knew, but understood how powerful it was: A place to belong, a place where happiness was abundant and where you were always welcome. A place that Ponies knew too well and, some of them, always wanted to know for at least a moment. A place, called....

"Home".

Chrysalis was now trying to explain her changelings what they were looking at, that they were looking at her long time goal. That this was what she always tried to create in all of her life but the nostalgia wasn't making it any easier to her, it was a big for her to just think and remember this moment of her life. She tried to explain how she wanted to create a Changeling Empire where they wouldn't be looked as monsters and everybody could be equals. Luckily for her, the skepticism among her subjects was quickly dwarfed as they saw changelings on the streets, some of the changelings got the bad eye from the ponies and other adult citizens, but the nymphs were playing very well with the other species and got along pretty well. Eventually, the changelings started to move around to see the dream that their queen always wanted to grant them and decide if whether or not they could give it a try with their queen's latest move.

After her subjects started to explore the city, Chrysalis decided to let her emotions rest and started to go around the city and wonder what kind of illusion she was seeing right now, could this be just a representation of what she was seeing or was an actual event that she happened to forget about? As she crossed a street and saw a couple of griffons enjoying their privacy, she remembered that she always escaped from her home and wandered around the city when she was a nymph. In the middle of the night and in what she always saw as a great party, Chrysalis would always avoid the guards and play with the other younglings in the city (both rich and poor) as they could treat her as something different that weren't a princess and she could steam out the pressure of her school. Chrysalis looked at an old plaza she used to play around with the little colts and griffons, she remembered how they would constantly play games like tag, the story of the bald rooster, hide and seek and sing songs like . Chrysalis looked around at the plaza and noticed that it held a statue of Lady Love's father, now she felt as a fool for not notice that kind of detail, she tried to remember what she was thinking at the time and the answer to that question was quickly reminded when she saw a little nymph with green eyes and the appearance of a changeling queen walking around with a group of colts, fillies, griffons, a diamond dog and a minotaur while talking about a certain game Chrysalis remembered very well:

"Do you want to hear the story of the bald rooster?" - Said the young nymph as she walk in front of the group, as if she was leading it, and not looking back -. "Yes, Lu wants to hear the story of the bald rooster" - then, the young version of Chrysalis turned around and said - "I didn't asked you to say 'Yes, Lu wants to hear the story of the bald rooster', I asked you if you want to hear the story of the bald rooster" - The pup tried to understand what the little bug tried to say and, after a big thinking, he responded: - "Yes" - and as the diamond pup thought that he had her now, the future queen simply smiled (along some of the colts) and responded -. "I didn't asked you to say 'yes', I asked you if you want to hear the story of the bald rooster" - By this time the young diamond dog was starting to get confused and frustrated but one of the fillies, a young unicorn, quickly intervened.

"Chrysalis, just leave him alone, you just can't get enough with tricking everybody with the game of the bald rooster, don't you?".

Chrysalis just puffed her cheeks and simply responded with a quick dismissal.

"Don't be such a silly Clear Crystal, I was just playing with him" - she then smiled, looked back at the young filly and said -, "or, is it, did you want to play with him first?" - Clear Crystal turned her head to the right, wondering what Chrysalis meant with that, and, after dismissing that, she simply responded - "Chrysalis, just stop being a meanie for once and let's just play a normal game, like Hide and Seek".

The young nymph gave this a thought and accepted the idea, and while the children were now starting to play Hide and Seek, the adult version of Chrysalis was trying to remember this moment on her life. She tried to remember this happy moment on her life, but she couldn't, all she could remember was the amount of times her mother would find her and nag her for running away from her house. Chrysalis tried to remember the young children she was seeing right now (probably the Crystal Ponies were still as young as they used to be back then), but she couldn't, all Chrysalis had now was a ghost of a memory and a lingering sentiment that she, in her long time of ambition and daydreaming, she ended up casting away the better moments of her life and now they were unreachable, lost from her mind and making her less of a changeling than she used to be.

Cadence was now looking back at the city that used to be, the city that was now haunting her as "what she'll never reach" as she was now wondering if she could ever achieve all of this: Electric light, great buildings, a professional army capable of defending them under any circumstance, all the species having a great time and many more things that exploded her mind on all the achievements of this mystifying city. Cadence saw every place in the old empire and now wondered how long it would take her to achieve this, to recover this city from Sombra's curse and make it great again. She wondered how big it would be that shadow that she was going to face now, she wondered what kind of figure could be the tyrant that made this city and if he could be in this city. After a thinking about it for a while, Cadence decided to explore her city for a while, she started to walk around and see the citizen's faces and how they were going around.

In her journey, Cadence decided to take a listen to the music, she realized how peaceful it was and how interesting it was to listen to it. The music was fast paced, you could dance to it (the lyrics hinted at that) and hearing it on the streets made it feel as if this was a great party. Everypony was enjoying their life and they could go however they wanted. Cadence wondered if, whether it was made by any of her ancestors, she could ever achieve it.

Cadence saw a pink pony mare with a light blue coat, bright pink and purple mane and tail along with deep blue eyes walking with a purple black coated stallion with a silver mane and tail along violet eye (for he wore an eye patch where his left eye should be), she noticed that the couple was having a nice moment for themselves so she decided to not intrude (whether they were an illusion or not), so she quickly left and moved on.

In her movements, she saw something she never thought possible: a young Chrysalis playing around with children of multiple species. The simple idea was a jaw opener, seeing it was mindblowing. The young queen was asking to a diamond pup if he wanted to "hear the story of the bald rooster", but Chrysalis was apparently just toying around with the pup to not say it. She saw the younglings going to a plaza and the scene made Cadence wonder on the possibility of what kind of changeling would have Chrysalis been if this could have stayed the way it was.

After walking around a little bit, Cadece stood in front of her Crystal Palace and decided to take a look at it from the distance. Cadence couldn't noticed how nicer it looked now than in her own time and wondered what would her ancestors feel if they saw what their empire had become now, Cadence wondered how dissapointed would they feel if they saw her now and tell how unprepared she was to lead the shell of an empire they created. She saw her Crystal Palace and felt as if it was turning on her and, in the middle of her gazing at the Palace, she saw, in one of the windows, a pony. Cadence saw a brown maned pony, a brown maned pony with a white armor, a brown maned pony with a white armor with the companionship of a pink mare unicorn wearing a tiara and a royal regalia.

Cadence realized who she was seeing right now and quickly flew to that window to see for herself those two figures she was thinking about right now. And, just as she was flying, the music ended and a voice could be heard.

Well, that was Swing con Son from the Billos Crystal Colts, a very nice music for this time of the year and to have a nice dance with your couple. It's now very late, so we'll start to play a slower song for all of you little couples that, we know, must be feeling very close right now. From Billos Crystal Colts, Taboga, enjoy

Shining Armor was now exploring the castle, as he was more interested on the differences between the current military in Equestria and the differences with the one displayed in this time period. The current system was created by the General Golden Strike, so why was modern Equestrian military so ineffective?

The military lead by Swift Rise was strong enough to defend itself against multiple surprise attack, compared to that, Equestria wasn't capable of defending itself against the changelings. Perhaps seeing this Crystal Guard would help him out to figure out the difference and where did the change happened.

As Shining Armor passed and examined each guard he encountered, he just couldn't find the difference. They were all stoic and didn't reacted to anything and the ones in private would talk around of their shifts and what would be the plan for tomorrow. As far as Shining Armor could see, there was no difference in the guard. He was going to resign when he found his sister wandering around the Palace.

"Twily? What are you doing here? I thought that you would be going around the city to investigate every littel space you could find to take note of it" -. Twilight looked at her brother, she relaxed her wings, smiled, and simply said: - "Well, I was doing that and, in fact, I found a lot of interesting things about this time period "- In that moment Shining realized he opened a can of worms that should have stayed closed and, now, all that he had left was to listen until an opening could be found and change the topic.

As Twilight talked about the clothes and how all the ponies wore clothes, including on their behind parts, how all the especies used clothes to cover their front parts, how the lamps worked on electricity through a very complex cable system wired through the whole city, how a sewage system was being implemented on that moment, how the schools and libraries were using very modern education (and even a bit advanced) on the children - "6th graders are learning functions, 3 languages at the same time, advanced physics and chemistry. That's amazing" -, Shining Armor found his opening when Twilight mentioned the Crystal Guard and how it was composed of multiple especies.

"Wait, you researched the military?" - after seeing a nod from Twilight, he continued - "I came here to research them as well. I want to figure out how come this soldiers" - he pointed at two soldiers that were guarding a door that led to some room - "even though are the base of modern Equestrian military, they're far better than today Equestrian military."

Twilight thought about it and, while they were keeping on their exploration, she simply thought:

"Perhaps, the difference is the lack of problems". - Shining Armor didn't understood, after seeing his confused face, she decided to explain herself a bit more - "You see, this time period was know for the constant invasion attempts that Sombra was doing, that meant that this guards, not only, had to be prepared for an invasion but, also, had an experience that your guards never had."

Shining Armor gave this a thought and, after reflecting on it, he denied it.

"That's not possible, peaceful times doesn't mean an unprofessional army. This soldiers and our soldiers were just as prepared against an invasion and this ones managed to force the changelings into submission". - Twilight started to think on the possibilities, if this soldiers were so efficient, why today's weren't so prepared against the changelings. Then, a simple solution came to her mind: - "Maybe the Changelings were that good on the infiltration part and managed to take your troops by surprise?"

Shining gave this a thought and had to admit that the Changelings did better than them, maybe it was needed a reformation of the military code for the Royal Guard? This was passing through his mind when he saw a very young General Golden Strike walking around with one of his subordinates. Both brother and sister had to quickly suppress their shock and quickly listen to what he was saying.

"Look, Lt. Crimson, I'm aware that Sombra may return. But all we can do now is to just tighten the security in the borders, right now, nobody wants to join the military and we have enough soldiers to face 2 nations at the same time. and we're developing new items capable of detecting changelings, devices that will allow us to use electricity in our new weaponry and that's not even counting on the new equipment for our griffon, diamond dog, minotaur and dragon recruits".

The Pegasus Lt. (wearing a green olive clothe with a series of yellow lines on his shoulders to signify his position among the guards) looked at his general, nodded and simply asked.

"And do you think its a good idea to bring the General Swift Rise with us? He could-"

General Golden Strike simply dismissed the thought and said that "he's coming with us because of his exile. He'll help on the construction of a new fortress on the cold north and that way, he'll keep on helping the army while staying outside of the Crystal Empire". The Tenant gave this a thought, nodded and moved on. Golden Strike looked back and simply said: "now I hope those two can enjoy their last night together".

Twilight and Shining Armor quickly understood what it meant and decided to move to see if they could find him. After passing through many doors and rooms, they found him on a room that had a wide balcony that allowed him to see the whole city. By the time they found him, Cadence had just landed in there and the music was now starting.

https://youtu.be/aiYjtyG9HcQ?t=1m42s

He was sitting on a chair while moving his torso into the barrier that stopped him from falling into the floor, he used his forelegs to hold his head over the barrier while looking at the city, he was using a military white clothe with all of his ranks being displayed on his shoulders. Even though the three royal ponies were seeing only his ghostly back, they could still feel the power and respect that came from him as they knew and understood (or, at least they thought to understand him) what kind of pony he was. As they were seeing him, each pony wondered what was going on in his mind. Twilight feared that he was thinking on ways to take back the empire, for he was smart enough to do it and he may have been very angry for losing his power; Shining Armor thought that he was thinking on ways to defend the city through his military command and influence; Cadence wished that he was only trying to enjoy the sight with the unicorn that was lying besides him.

The pink unicorn queen looked just like her position demanded, she was wearing her royal regalia of platinum horseshoes, with a purple dress that covered her legs; she was using a tiara with 7 gems, each one with a specific color of the Rainbow and her horn had a silver spark that made her look pure; it all made her look dignified, proper and remarked her presence, both her political and magical power and her wisdom. As the scene with the royal couple enjoying the music was advancing, the spectators could see and feel how a couple, even if a royal couple, could still be a couple: enjoying their moment of happiness for the empire that was living in their own golden age.

The royal couple, even if they weren't the real one, expelled an essence of authority and transcendence that could only be rivaled with both Celestia and Luna as their backstory lives acted as an aura of superiority that nopony could control. The royal couple was looking at a city that acted as a reflection of their status: the city shone through its own lights and still managed to use and reflect the light given by the moon, the mixtures of lights and colors showed the ever changing life of the crystal citizens, each one of them being a color themselves as they shone on the city as well. The citizens were happy, enjoying their moment, for they weren't sure how long it would last and, thus, they wanted to enjoy it as long as they could. The royal couple was enjoying their moment of peace the same way their citizens enjoyed their moment of happiness, the royal couple received the light and they reflected it on their citizens.

As the music proceded, Cadence could feel the love in the couple she was seeing in front of her. As she looked at them, how they managed to stay together after having gone through so much, after surviving a social unrest, embezzlement and a couple fight that would have broken down any normal couple in Equestria, she wondered if Shining and herself could survive something like that. Cadence looked at Shining and realized how blessed she was of having a husband so loyal and righteous, a husband she could always trust and that would never lie nor hide anything to her. Shining Armor looked at her and gave her a look that simply said 'I love you', Cadence corresponded the look and decided to stay together and enjoy the music.

As both royal couples were enjoying their moment, Twilight was looking at them and wondered if she could ever go through something like that. Could she find somebody that could love you, like Cadence and Shiny? And even if she did, could they survive something like what the ghost couple did? As she thought more on the idea of love, she wondered if she could ever find it, was she even ready for that? She wasn't sure. She only hoped that, one day, she would gain the knowledge to understand this kind of things and find somepony that could see her the same way these two couples saw each other.

The music then, as much as everypony wanted it to last, started to fade and, once again, they heard a voice talking through the city.

And that was Taboga, beautiful song. I hope you've been enjoying this moment with us but we're getting close to end our show through Crystal Radio 'Always with You', so before we put our next song. We'll talk about today and tomorrow.

As for today we're celebrating the 8th anniversary since King Sombra is gone and how much has passed, to think that this day, 8 years ago, marked the first step for us to be free once again and, yet, the city we're living today is so unrecognizable from the one 8 years ago. It leaves you thinking of how many things can change in so little time.

As for tomorrow, is the day the King Swift Rise will leave the Empire to start his sentence of exile for an undefined amount of time. A pony that not many know for sure, but we know that he helped to get us where we are and, although some disagree with the idea of us being free because his wife its still in charge, as I put this song now, I'll leave you thinking: How ca we not be free if we can now say whatever we want?

Thank you for listening, enjoy

Jewel Joy was trotting around the city as she wondered what she was looking into, this looked just like the city she grew up with but it was so vastly different that she could barely recognized it. As she crossed the streets and saw ponies she both did and didn't knew, she wondered why she couldn't remember any of this, she tried to search in her memories if any of this was familiar to her but all she could find was a great headache.

Jewel Joy turned from one avenue to another and saw the multiple species living together and having a nice day, she saw how griffons making bets with changelings and minotaurs making wrestling matches with diamond dogs. The mixture and integration among the species was something that she never thought possible, but now she wondered if it was possible for it to become a reality (or to come back if it ever happened in the first place) and as she was about to go back to her house she found a couple of crystal ponies enjoying their moment together. What surprised Jewel Joy the most about this couple was that the mare looked a lot like her (she even had the same cutie mark) but she couldn't recognize the stallion, did she knew him? Who could he be?

As Jewel Joy went further into the couple to see if she could remember well the stallion, she noticed that the stallion was looking directly at her right in front of her at the opposite side of her location. They both saw each other out and wondered if there was a chance for them to meet again:

"Hi" - said a very shy mare - "My name is Jewel Joy, who are you?"-. The stallion looked at her with his only eye and tried to remember her (to only be met with a headache) and, finding the courage on himself, responded with a lot of fear over a rejection - "Hello, my name is Obsidian Edge".

Princess Anastasia was quickly flying around the city trying to find her ancestor (if she was right about what was she seeing right now), she already had the evidence of her right as true heir and descendant of the founders of the Griffon Kingdom but, by this point, she wanted to see the two griffons that made the kingdom she loved so much, she wanted to see the two griffons that she descended from and were, considered now, legends.

As she passed through the crystal city, she saw how many of the myths revolving the Crystal Empire were true: Technology beyond her wildest dreams, various species living together as equals, everybody wore clothes on their whole bodies, among other things. The Princess saw how the city was so different, and yet so similar to his home. She heard the music sounding from everywhere and saw so much light that darkness wasn't an issue, she saw how the security forces weren't causing fear, but rather, safety to the citizens. She wanted to bring that to her kingdom.

But she also saw how some ponies, the "elite" as they would always call themselves but they never showed the qualities to deserve such term, would give a bad eye to the different especies (even to other ponies) and, while nobody could notice, she was so used to see that look on her kingdom (being used both on her family and the "lower classes") that it was an instant recognition when she saw it. She wanted to get rid of that, she wanted to make a city where all of its citizens were treated equally. Not equally as some of the "higher houses" would imply (who she always saw as populist who only wanted to have the kingdom on their back, but never cared to fulfill their promises) or force through laws and decrees. She wanted to bring true equality among classes by a long and careful planning: educating the children, making a new Civil Code, making laws that doesn't force the citizens to be "united" but rather helps them to be truly united, etc. While the economic classes could never be destroyed (for it would destroy the kingdom as a whole) she was sure that she could bring a kingdom where everybody could saw each other as brothers, she was sure of that. She wanted to bring the same kingdom as the pony that made it all possible.

She was so into her dreams that she almost missed the two griffons she was searching for. They were talking on a restaurant about daily things, to her surprise, they weren't dreaming with forming an empire, they weren't dreaming with forming a clan, they were just thinking on how to end the night and what to do the next week. They were just a normal couple, having a normal life. While this wasn't what Princess Anastasia was thinking about, she didn't mind. This was her only chance to see the two griffons responsible for her current life and family and she would enjoy seeing them as the closest thing she could ever have to a family reunion with her past. She would stay all the time that would last the illusion seeing them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiOY9c-GGE

Back on the Terrace, Twilight, Cadence and Shining were now being taken by surprise for the new song being played. Its rhythm was so different from the previous song that it took them out of their current mindset of calm and were now talking to each other about opinions on what they were seeing now but, before they could say much, they were surprised by a 4th voice that came on the ghostly couple:

"Alright Swift, the song is over. Now, can we please go back on topic?"

The old king made a deep sight and turned back to his queen, when he spoke, his voice was just as Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadence remembered how it sound from the documentary. He looked annoyed but confident, but what surprised the three royal ponies was just how casual he sounded.

"Dang, I was really enjoying the moment. Ok, what were we talking about?" - As the general finished talking, his wife gave him a look that told how she was about to nag him, the brown maned king realized this and prepared for what was to come:

"Well, we were talking about what were you planning to do now while you were on the border?" - The queen then changed her face to a worried one - "We have a foal right now and I don't want her to wonder her whole life where's her father. Aren't you worried that you might never see your daughter again or you think that we'll visit you on that cold rock from time to time?" - The king saw her and decided to give it a thought. After 10 seconds of thinking, he shrugged off and responded -. "Well, yes, it worries me but what can I do? I was trialed, I followed the jury system and nobody is going to want me back on a long time. It really saddens me that I might never be able to come back, but I'm sure the jury may change of opinion later on."

This resulted on Lady Love getting angry, for a moment Swift Rise thought that he was going to experience her volcanic outburst but she then took a deep breath, relaxed a bit, and continued:

"Swift, I'll not be able to change, or renovate, the Supreme Court on at least 20 years. The best possible escenario would be if they decide to resign their position but you know very well that will not happen. After all, you chose them". - She then gave him another worried look -, "I know that you did what you thought was right, but why you chose exile on a rock instead of something like Equestria? The princesses doesn't know you and I'm sure they would like you, you have a very likable personality whenever you're not a cold, heartless stone in front of everybody", - she then frowned her face and remembered him -, "and do I need to remember you where did that overconfidence took you? You thought the same thing of Stray Stone and look at where it took you". - And in a very sarcastic tone, she quoted -, "don't worry about Stray Stone, he looks like a very trustworthy pony, he will do his job just fine. Does that sound familiar to you?"

Swift Rise, somehow, managed to avoid blushing, but the embarrassment was very obvious on him. But he decided to take it all back and gave the reason to his wife, after that, he then smiled and gave a very confident smile and continued:

"Now, to answer your question, I chose that piece of cold rock separated from any type of sentient life because it's the best place where I could run my own experiments" - his wife simply told him with a face that Twilight's parents used to give her whenever she tried to run away from some wrong she did -. "If by 'experiments', you mean wondering how to make an cloud of cotton candy with taste of chocolate, I'll tell you again: That's only possible with chaotic magic and you can't even use magic on the first place". - Swift Rise gave an offended face and simply responded on the hurtful accusation:

"A) No, that's not the experiment I was planning. After the last attempt, I promised to not try again, but I'll assure you that I was really close to do it".

Amor Candente was starting to give an angry face, so Swift quickly changed the topic.

"B) Even if I plan to do it, which I won't, I'll first try to make a super cleaner that can fix you collection and anything that get damaged by any further experiment I try to do".

Noticing how it wasn't helping on his case, he decided to say the big one (while closing his eyes, along Twilight, Cadence and Shining Armor).

"C) My main experiment is trying to find a way home".

Everypony was expecting an outbursts from the Queen of love, but nothing was heard. When everypony opened their eyes, they saw a hurt queen that was looking to the floor with sadness. Before Swift could try to explain himself, she said in a very blue tone:

"So you haven't given up on that, huh?" - Swift looked at her. He was going to respond but, he knew that, the queen was going to continue, so he let her proceed -. "Swift, it has been years ever since you've come here. Why do you want to go back? Don't you like it here?"

Swift turned down and looked away, but the Pink Queen took his face with her hoof and made him look at her.

"Swift, please, look at me. Look at my eyes and tell me: What is it that your original homeland had that this land haven't brought you? You have an Empire, you are rich, you have an army loyal to you, you have a family that loves you. Why do you want to go back? Don't you realize that it hurts me every time you tell me that you want to go back home. You make me feel like if you hate living here, is it true? Please, tell me, why you're so invested on going back to your original world?"

Everypony looked at him. Twilight was wondering what kind of world he lived on if he was invested on going back, maybe it was better than Equestria? Swift took a deep breath and, after expelling the air he was holding, he answered her:

"I've told you of my home country, right?" - She nodded - "Then you must already know why. I want to go back, I have a family there, my country needs me" - Then Amor Candente exploded in rage at him, but he wasn't showing any fear, he was looking calm and understanding as he was losing his eardrums (meanwhile, Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadence were covering their ears although they could still hear the queen just fine) - "But you've told me how bad it is there! That place had tyrants like Sombra, that place has suffered an ice age, you cannot control the weather, your world has faced two WORLD WARS, a cold war (which doesn't even makes sense) and its getting close to face a third world war. That's not even talking about your own country, which is a living hellhole right now! Why do you want to go back to a place like that!?"

Swift Rise looked at her, made sure he still had his capabilities to hear and responded as calmly as possible.

"Yes, my country and world has problems but I still want to go back. Because it won't get fixed until I do something about it, what good is it there to complain if you don't do something about it? I used to live thinking that there was nothing I could do, I wanted to go back just to live in a miserable way complaining about everything and not doing anything but here I realized that if you can do something to stop evil and don't do anything, then you're doing just as wrong. I want to go back and help my country (and world) to fix itself."

He then took another breathe, and continued.

"The other reason I want to go back" - he then took his wife face and turned it to himself - "is because of you". - Twilight, Cadence and her ancestor started to blush at that -. "I want to show you, our daughter and my whole empire everything my world and country has to offer. The beauty in it, its nature, its development, its music, everything (with no exception) because I want you to love it as much as I do and the only way you can love it as much is by seeing it. I want to show you my world because I love you".

He then took a moment to see at the colorful empire he has and then decided to simply tell her on a more casual mode:

"I can imagine it in a few years: This Empire will remember me for my good work, once my name is fixed I'll have statues made on every city of the empire". - His wife simply laughed at that and responded - "Yeah, I can imagine it too: 'This was the tyrant Swift Rise'" - Swift Rise looked offended and counter argued -, "please, I would rather be called a dictator. Dictators at least try to keep society at work, Tyrants destroy freedom AND society. And, I'm still planning if I should have on those statues the name 'Swift Rise' or my actual name". - Everypony looked at him with various degrees of reactions. Twilight was feeling excited for she might know his actual name, Shining Armor and Cadence were curious too, but because they were planning to make sure he weren't forgotten, so they wanted to know his true name, Amor Candente was more on the curious side, for she wasn't sure if his name would be considered normal for pony standards.

"Oh, really?" - Asked a very curious wife, his husband simply smiled and moved his hoof from side to side - "Of course, Vicente Gonzales López Blanco might be a bit long, but I would like for this world to know my name". - They both smiled and looked at each other. They started to feel once again that emotion that they had the day of their wedding, then, after the music was over, the voice was heard one last time.

Well, that was our penultimate song. Now, to end, I'l put you a song so you can enjoy your moment: Frenzy Love, by Soft Voice. Enjoy.

Swift Rise saw his wife and gave her a signal of invitation to dance, she accepted and both prepared to dance once the song started. Shining Armor and Cadence decided to repeat the moment, for they wanted to enjoy this moment for themselves. Twilight decided to leave the two couples alone and decided to move to reflect on what she just saw and heard.

Flame Ruby was wondering what to do with her life, it was quite clear that she had a very important life that she couldn't remember now. Should she try to recover it or stay how she is right now? She wandered through the city as she wondered on this things. As she crossed the streets, she found professor Clearing Onyx right in front of her. Both of them didn't knew what to do, if what the documentary said was true, then she was a loyal pony to the royal family, she should remember all of that, but she couldn't remember anything (not even her past as an spy for the opposition against Sombra), it was very frustrating. Once both ponies decided to talk to each other, they realized that they had more in common than before (including they're forgetfulness of their past), as they started to form a previously forgotten bond they had, they started to hear music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvMoi5jqBd0

As the music started to play, everybody started to feel the reality of what was this supposed to be, what was made before the shadow of destruction came to claim it all. The lyrics of the Soft voice reflected what the Crystal Empire should be like.

Give your kiss to me
kiss me the way that I kissed you

A city filled with passion and love between each other.

Give me Frenzy Love
my madness got you

Love among friends, family, and couples.

Who except for me
taught you love's way

Love that filled each other and helped each other.

Death my pride
when it went to road at your hooves

Love that could fix damages and ignore differences.

I want you to live just for me
and for you to go where I would go
So my soul belongs just to you
Give me your frenzy love

A simple way of thinking.

Give me the light residing in your sight
And the anxiety that in your lips I saw
That madness of live and love
That's more than just frenzy love

A simple concept.

There in the kiss I gave to you
Mercy soul to the heart
And you know in your feels
The same thing I have felt

A simple way to unite a country.

I want you to live just for me
and for you to go where I would go
So my soul belongs just to you
Give me your frenzy love

That was what Twilight thought on as she went back to her friends. While Swift Rise fixed the political, economic and social problems, he lacked of that element that was only brought by his wife (the same element that's as vital as friendship, for love and friendship must always come together for it to work).

There in the kiss I gave to you
Mercy soul to the heart
And you know in your feels
The same thing I have felt

Twilight felt realized at this revelation.

I want you to live just for me
and for you to go where I would go
So my soul belongs just to you
Give me your frenzy love

She knew how to help Equestria.

Give me your frenzy love!

And as the General and his wife looked at each other in her lovely dance, they got their faces close to each other and gave testament to their love as they kissed at each other's mouth, a true reflection at what they felt at each other. a sentiment that gave life and power to the Crystal Heart of the Crystal Empire.

The Great Dictator: Times of Swift Rise

by Time Reaper

Prologue: The Discovery

Chapter 1: The Military Junta

Chapter 2: Pacific Takeover

Chapter 3: It was called KP

Chapter 4: The Ideal Kingdom

Chapter 5: From Kingdom to Empire

Chapter 6: The Birth Of A New Age

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 1: The Distant Past)

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 2: The Present)

Chapter 7: Persistent Legacy (Part 3: ???)

Epilogue: Rebuilding The Future