CRYSTAL PALACE, CRYSTAL EMPIRE

10:02AM

“C’mon, honey. Can you at least give me a hint of what the surprise is?” Princess Cadance asked her husband, Shining Armor who was leading her through the halls of the palace, while she was blindfolded.

“If I did that, then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise now would it?” Shining replied with a slight chuckle.

“No. I guess it wouldn’t. But I don’t know why there would be a surprise for me today. I mean it’s not my birthday or anything; and that our two year anniversary was last month.”

“Well I know that, dear. But sometimes I just like to spoil you too much.”

Cadance giggled and blushed a bit.

“Oh you're too kind, but you really don’t need to do this.”

“But I want to,” Shining argued playfully. “Plus, we’re almost there anyway.”

“Alright then,” Cadance said, now playing along. “I can’t wait to see what the surprise is--or to be able to see again.”

The couple both laughed at that statement.

When Shining got his wife to the destination of interest, he used his magic to undo her blindfold. When she could finally see again, she discovered that Shining led her to the grand dining hall, and that the table in front of them was dressed up with fancy dining cloth and candles. Platters of scrumptious food were also added to the scene.

Cadance’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open in surprise. This was the reaction that Shining was expecting from Cadance.

“Well? What do you think?” he asked.

“I’m amazed, darling. Did you do this all by yourself?”

“Well...sort of,” Shining said sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head with his hoof. “I had some of my men help out with the festivities while the cooks made the food. I just designed how everything would look. I hope that’s okay.”

“Why of course,” Cadance said now practically laughing. “There’s no way on Equis that anypony could do this sort of thing by themselves. Besides I would never expect you to cook anyway.”

“Hey. I could learn if I had the time,” Shining shrugged and pulled out a seat for Cadance. “After you?”

Cadance just smiled and took her seat. He then scooted her in before he took his own chair.

“So? What’s the occasion for all this anyway?” Cadance asked.

“Well. I just figured since I got a day off from duty, I should do something special for you and me. The best I could come up with was an early lunch for us.”

“That’s so thoughtful of you, dear,” Cadance stated with an approving smile, then glanced at the entrees displayed on the table in front of her. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start anywhere,” Shining encouraged. “I am waiting for you to take the first bite or sip anyway.”

Cadance just nodded and looked at each of the servings; but before she could at least make a choice, one of Shining’s men, Flash Sentry bolted into the room without asking for permission.

“Captain,” he said, nearly breathless.

“Lieutenant Sentry? What’s going on?” Shining asked a bit surprised, and a little irritated by the interruption.

“Sorry for barging in, sir, but there’s some kind of massive object heading directly for the kingdom. It’s causing grave concern for the citizens,” Flash reported.

Shining raised a brow and hesitated for a bit, but decided to investigate what this was all about. He excused himself which Cadence allowed, and made his way to the main balcony which overlooked nearly the entire kingdom.

When he looked down below, he noticed that all of the citizens have gathered in the streets pointing their hooves into the sky. They also appeared to be murmuring conversations in between themselves. Shining couldn’t make them out, but they were definitely mixed with curiosity, and anxiety.

When he looked at the sky, he could see why Flash was urgent to get to him.

Shining’s jaw practically hung wide open as an enormous alien ship with a bulky, but oval-rounded and hooked bow slowly, but menacingly approached the palace.

The bow was connected to a narrow but aerodynamic neck which arched at an upward angle before it ended at the backend of the ship which appeared to be slightly smaller than the front.

What in Celestia’s mane is that? Shining thought to himself.

***

“What is that place?” Dzen asked, indicating to the large white crystal structure.

“That’s the Crystal Palace,” Chrysalis replied proudly. “Where Sombra once ruled with a solid hoof.”

Chrysalis then formed a dreamy look on her face and eyes, and spoke like a mare with a school-filly crush. “I wish I could’ve been his queen,” she sighed. “We could’ve ruled all of Equestria together.”

“Fascinating I’m sure,” Dzen said, clearly not interested in Chrysalis’s fantasy. “But let’s stay focused on what matters most here. Does the princess keep secret of any valuable artifacts, or have the knowledge of the locations of any Forerunner tech?”

“I don’t know about the forerunner part, but if you're looking for something truly valuable to this empire--try the Crystal Heart. It’s the main source of all the kingdom’s revolting happiness and magic, but it definitely provides the love that my changelings need. I’m pretty sure there could be other items of interest, but I’ll leave that to you and your minions to figure out,” Chrysalis explained.

“Very well,” Dzen said and turned to one of his officers. “Give the green light for all troops onboard to leave the carrier. One unit focuses on the palace to obtain the princess while the other is to find this Crystal Heart.”

“Yes, shipmaster,” the officer nodded.

***

“What do we do, sir?” Flash asked Shining while he continued to stare in awe at the extraterrestrial ship.

Snapping out of his trance, Shining faced Flash and said, “Notify all guards in the palace to be prepared for an engagement. Celestia knows what that thing could be capable of.”

“Yes, captain,” Flash saluted and trotted as fast as he could back into the palace.

When Shining turned around again to glance at the ship, he noticed a swarm of flying objects leaving the underbelly of the ship. The objects could not be identified because they were too far away for the moment, but he noticed that this swarm was breaking into two separate routes. One was descending down toward the town, and the other one was heading straight toward the palace!

As a few of the objects drifted closer, he noticed that they had a sleek and aerodynamic wing structure, and that the noise they made was an eerie wailing sound that literally sent a shiver up Shining’s spine.

Just then and without warning, all three of them fired an individual ball of bright green projectile of light which travelled fast like a meteorite towards him!

Reacting just in the nick of time, Shining lit up his horn and projected a magical force field around himself as the projectiles collided and exploded against the force field. However, the combined explosion caused the field to falter; and the strong impact shockwave knocked Shining off of his hooves and on to his side.

“Aah!” he cried as he hit the ground.

Hearing the cry of her husband, Cadance quickly hopped to her hooves and trotted out to the balcony.

“Shining? What happened? Are you okay?” she asked, worry deep in her tone. She then noticed the massive alien ship, and the swarming alien crafts that were now causing the citizens of the empire to panic and flee.

“What’s happening?!”

“Get back inside, Cadance!” Shining finally replied. “We’re under attack!”

“By what?” Cadance was know near hysterical.

Before Shining could answer, he noticed that the same aerial crafts have circled back for another bombing; but this time, the flanking crafts performed a strafing run while firing out a series of blue bolts that burned spots on the floor of the balcony. The center craft however fired another green projectile.

This time out of fear for her and her husband’s sake, it was Cadance’s turn to project a protective forcefield around her and Shining.

The blue bolts bounced off with ease while the green projectile detonated on impact with yet another forceful shock, but Cadance managed to hold her ground, and her shield was still intact.

***

“Shipmaster, this is Bvem ‘Zule of Banshee Squadron Delta. We have a sight on a winged and horned equine that is producing a stronger barrier around it, and its compatriot. Our weapons didn’t have any affect at all,” the pilot transmitted to Dzen.

“Show me,” Dzen ordered.

A first-person view of the pilot’s Banshee HUD displayed the real-time footage of what Bvem was seeing. Sure enough, the equine that Bvem mentioned showed up on his HUD for both Dzen, and Chrysalis to see.

“That’s Cadance right there!” Chrysalis announced, pointing with her hoof.

“Understood,” Dzen said and turned back to the COMM terminal. “That winged and horned equine is our primary target. Do not kill it, but don’t let it get away. Clear?”

“Yes, shipmaster,” Bvem replied.

***

When Cadance saw that the hostile alien crafts were making a retreat, she brought down her shield in hopes that it was safe for now.

“Are you hurt?” she asked him.

“No. I don’t think so, but I have to get you somewhere safe and link up with my men,” he replied and led her back inside the palace; but not before magically locking up the balcony door behind them.

As Shining and Cadance entered one of the palace’s corridors, they were greeted with the sight of all the palace guards quickly sprinting to their battle stations with their unit leaders shouting orders over the thundering of hooves.

“What’s going on, gentlemen?” Shining asked one of his guards that were passing by.

“A group of unknown hostiles are trying to break through the main entrance to the palace, sir!” the guard replied. “We’re trying to barricade it now with magic, but it’s not going very smoothly!”

“Understood, lieutenant. Listen. Can somepony please find an escort for my wife and lead her to a safe room?”

“I won’t leave you, Shining!” Cadance pleaded. “Please let me stay with you!”

“I can’t let you come to harm!” Shining insisted. “This kingdom needs you to be safe. I need you to be safe! I swear by your Aunt Celestia that I’ll come back for you. Right now I need to to go with my men to a safe room. I’ll be okay; I promise.”

Cadance hesitated for a good few moments with small worried and scared tears running down her face. She wouldn’t know what she would do if she lost the only stallion she ever loved. She knew however that she would never remarry if he was ever killed in battle. Despite all these facts, Shining was right. The ponies of this kingdom needed their princess if they survived this sudden and unannounced attack by unknown intelligences.

“Okay,” she finally said and brought Shining in for a farewell kiss which he passionately embraced. “I love you, Shining.”

“I love you too, Cadance,” Shining replied with a comforting smile before nodding to one of his men to lead Cadance to safety.

Shining followed his men to the main palace door where sure enough he saw that most his men were using their magic to barricade the doors which were shaking and bulging violently as whatever was on the other side was trying to breach it.

Shining lit up his horn and did his best to support his men.

With Shining’s magic added to the barricade, his men had a lot of strain taken off of them, and that the doors weren't bulging as badly as before. They definitely had a chance of prevailing now; but then--something unexpected happened.

The crystal interior of the palace which normally glowed with a natural brightness during the daytime seemed to grow a bit dim, as if an overcast blocked out the sun--but it was a clear day outside. Then, all of the crystal guard’s coats lost their sparkle and reverted to a dim and flat characteristic. Not only that, but their magic became incredibly weak that the magical barricade began to severely faulter.

Shining immediately knew that something must’ve happened to the Crystal Heart: the empire’s most valued treasure, and power source of magic for the crystal ponies.

The doors then began bulging again as the hostiles outside began to try and break them down again, but with much more force and desperation.

Flash Sentry bolted up closer to the doors and focused every ounce of power he had to support Shining, since they were the only two unicorns that weren't affected by the sudden loss of power in the crystal magic. Unfortunately, it did neither of them any good.

Finally after one final effort, the crystal doors were finally bashed down, and were flung to the floor where they shattered into a zillion tiny fragments as if they were made of glass.

It was then that everypony saw two large hulking, and bipedal creatures that stood in the frame of where the doors once were.

These creatures stood at a towering height of at least twelve feet and three inches. There were four spikes on it’s back; the front ones appeared to be slightly smaller in height then the back ones. On one arm, these creatures wielded some sort of metallic three-clawed sphere with multiple green bulbs of light sticking out from it. On the opposite arm was a large shield-like appendage. On its head was a helmet with two small green openings which looked like eyes.

Glancing at the gaps between their armor, Shining noticed a cluster of orange wormlike entities moving within the cavity. It was a disturbing sight, but not as what was about to come.

Flash tried to get close to the creature to try and stab it with his spear, but before he could land a blow, the beast brought up its mighty shield, before swinging it down on to Flash and crushing him to the floor as if he was an insect. He was already dead as his blood and pieces of his bones and organs, splattered across the normally clean floor.

Shining felt like he wanted to vomit right then and there at what he witnessed, but strangely he was more shocked than sickened. Whatever these things were, they attacked without a hint of mercy.

The two hulking creatures then parted separate ways to allow room for their allies that were waiting to attack behind them.

The first group of aliens that Shining saw pile into the foyer were short and stocky, and seemed to be wearing some kind of backpack that attached to a mask that covered the area of where the nostrils should be. Tiny clouds of green substance seemed to puff out from the backpack on a common occasion.

Coming in second were reptilian-like beings that displayed both blue and yellow shields; and finally, a tall and four-jawed alien entered behind both parties. It then raised its four-fingered appendaged claw and pointed at Shining’s remaining soldiers.

“Wort wort wort!” it cried.

After that, the creature raised its weapon with his allies following the same suit, and began firing upon the guards with a series of blue and green bolts of plasma, along with streams of glowing purple crystalline shards.

Shining’s men fought back the best they could against the hostile alien invaders, but their armor wasn’t tough enough to tolerate the foreign plasma that melted their armor plates like acid, along with the fur and flesh that lied beneath, and the homing in pink crystal projectiles that imbedded--then violently detonated.

Shining watched in horror as his men fell one by one quicker than they were fighting. soon he knew he would be joining them if he remained there.

Just then, he heard the blood curdling scream of Cadance echoing behind him.

Without a second of hesitation, Shining rapidly spun around and sprinted as fast as he could to find Cadance. Who knows what had happened to her to make her scream like that.

As Shining sprinted through the corridors, he called out Cadences’ name in hopes of hearing a reply. Sure enough, he heard her scream again and calling out his name for help.

When he reached another corridor, he was horrified to find the two bodies of Cadance’s escorts laying in an ever-spreading pool of their own blood. Both of them appeared to be stabbed in the abdomen.

Tracking out of the blood pool were a few three-pointed footprints that led into the bedroom of him and Cadance. It was behind the closed doors that he heard a struggle and muffled screams of his wife.

Using his back hooves, he bucked the door open to reveal three of the four-jawed aliens apprehending Cadance!

One of them had red armor with a four pink dot pattern on its helmet. It was the one that was holding Cadance by her head with one hand, and wielded a glowing blue blade in the other.

His two allies had a different variety.

One donned bluish armor with a dark purple rifle in his hands, and the other had a mix of dark red and blue. On its helmet was a silver mohawk-like design. The weapon he wielded was a dark orange rifle with glowing light green LED lights. This was none other than the T50 DEW/H.

Noticing her husband, she began to struggle and yell for him.

Becoming fed up with the shrill noises emanating from the equines mouth, the Sangheili Zealot lifted her off the floor and headbutted her, knocking her out cold.

Now seeing that his wife was assaulted, Shining’s fighting spirit and bravery kicked into full gear as he yelled and charged at the three Elites.

The Zealot turned to his allies and spoke an order in Sanghelian. Both Elites nodded and faced Shining, ready for battle while the Zealot made his way to the bedrooms balcony, with Cadance’s limp figure dangling in both of his arms.

Shining lit up his horn and fired a beam of magic on to the minor-class Elite whose shields did severely flare since they were not very strong unlike the other ranks.

Unfazed by the impact, the minor shot a few bursts of plasma from his T55 which made contact with Shining’s left shoulder. However, Shining’s adrenaline was severely rushing so he didn’t feel the singeing pain of his shoulder practically being melted off.

Shining lit up his horn again ready to fire another beam on the minor in hopes of finishing him off. But before he could, the Sangheili commander fished a T25 from his hip and charged up a bright green sphere of overcharged plasma before firing it on to Shining’s horn. When it made contact, the horn literally dropped and dripped as if it was made of hot candle wax.

With his horn being struck, Shining finally felt the pain of his two wounds and made him a bit disoriented. He was so out of it that he didn’t notice that the alien that had Cadance was stepping into a column of green light that shot down on the balcony. When he entered it, the Zealot, along with Cadance, were lifted up into the bowels of the hovering ship which was designated by the Covenant as the DP-T56 GS/UH. A Lich to be put in formal terms.

Their objective may have been complete, but the two Sangheili wished to finish off the dishonorable equine that had so foolhardily challenged them.

The commander put his T25 pistol back on to his hip, and re-wielded his T50 which he placed on his back. He then fired a few concussive blasts on to the unprepared Shining which burned his body even more while simultaneously hurling him against a wall.

Shining groaned as he struggled to get up. He didn’t want to stop fighting these things even if he was wounded severely. His spirit was that strong; but how strong was the question? Even Shining himself didn’t know the answer.

Before he could at least get to his hooves, the commander grabbed Shining by his neck and dangled him off of the floor, practically choking him since Shining struggled to pry the Sangheili’s fingers from his neck, and tried to gasp for air.

This time, the Sangheili minor grabbed his own T25 from his hip and closely pointed it at the side of Shining’s head with a charged shot ready to go.

“You were unwise to challenge me and my brother,” the alien said now in Equestrian. “Such a deed by your species should be punished without mercy; but we’re giving you the option for any last words or requests you may have.”

“Kiss...my...flank,” is what Shining managed to gasp out with disdain in his eyes

“So be it,” the commander said and nodded to his ally to fire his shot.

Before the minor could release his finger from the trigger, his shields suddenly popped, and his head jarred as a round of hot lead raced into his head, and through his cranium which killed him instantly. His charged plasma shot headed for the ceiling and burned an indentation above.

The commandeer spun around wildly to see a group of human marines ready in position. The marine responsible for his brother’s death beared a SRS99 with its barrel now pointing at him.

“Alright, split-lip,” the Marine Sergeant stated. “How about you put that pony down and play with us for a bit. Unless your chicken.”

Miffed by the human’s taunt, the Sangheili commandeer huffed and limply dropped Shining on to the floor without a hint of care. Shining fortunately landed on his flank, but he immediately collapsed to his side since he was too weak to hold himself up from the immobilizing pain, and the blood loss.

“Let’s dance then,” the sergeant stated while readying his M395 along with the rest of his squad which had MA5D’s.

Shining didn’t have a good view of the battle between the two different alien species because his sight was blurry and that his disorientation had worsened. At least one thing he could tell was that one of the aliens who shot his assailant was on his side--at least that’s what it  appeared to be anyway. However, it didn’t change the fact that he was mortally wounded.

He knew he may not make it out of this alive. Not only that, but he thought about Cadance, the princesses, his parents, and most of all: Twilight.

He could only imagine the grief she would go through if he died. She would be crying every day and night while wailing his name, and begging for him to come back to her.

Thinking this as consciousness slowly drifted from him, he managed to let one tear escape from his eye as he thought, “I’m sorry, Twiley. I’m sorry, Cadance. I’m sorry, Celestia and Luna. I’m sorry, everypony.”

The world then blackened around him as Shining finally lost consciousness.