Gleaming Topaz was at the window of her throne room, her eyes focused on the once glorious city that was the Crystal Empire. Despite the crimson magical shield that surrounded the azure keep, she could clearly see the flames breathed out of the dozen massive wingless dragons consuming the crystalline buildings, cleaning them of their inhabitants and furniture while the smaller drakes were chasing the citizens that didn’t make it to the palace before the shield was up.

She knew that her King had waited as long as possible to have his apprentices conjure the shield to allow the population of his realm to take refuge here. But only a third of their citizens had made it there before Water-Dragon Frey stopped crushing the walls with his serpentine body, thus creating more gates for his sister’s soldiers, and tried to charge the Crystal Palace.

If Hindel’s own dragon fire hadn’t managed to hit Frey in the eye, slowing the Thane in his advance, his thick, deep blue skull would have slammed against one of the four pillars that maintained the keep up instead of the red diamond-shaped dome that had appeared in the mean time.

There was nothing that could have been done differently since the Dracan horns were heard from afar, yet Topaz couldn’t help but to feel not enough was done. As she didn’t find any answers, the queen started to cry a bit before turning her gaze away from the window.

Now, waves coursed along the shield’s surface much alike the one of a pond disturbed by a heavy rain. Waves that were accompanied with low impact noises. Impacts provoked by Dracans and their pets trying to break the shield down. Each blow caused a wince of pain from the twenty enchanters that kept the shield up, but they were holding up.

Those enchanters, along with their rulers and Sombra’s other apprentices were the only ones in the throne room. For the shield to be cast, it had to be conjured from runic circle in the throne room which is said to have been drawn by Clover the Clever after the construction of the palace.

“Stand still, my lady!” One of Sombra’s apprentices whispered firmly to Mane as Hindel and Shadow were holding her and her hair down.

Topaz looked in their direction, hurting at the sight of Eponian’s bloodied right leg. The explosion of the well by Frey had caused her to be crushed under debris and among her fall, three shards of crystal had pierced throughout her leg. Topaz would probably remember forever how livid Daring was when she managed to bring Mane through the balcony, just a few seconds before the shield was up.

Extracting the shards had been quite a trial for the healers, due to Mane’s hollers of pain and her hair frantically whipping anyone that touched them. Even Daring who was hugging her and whispering soothing songs that always appeased her in the past couldn’t keep her from freaking out.

“It’s almost done, cub,” Daring whispered in a shaky, teary voice, holding Mane’s hand in her right while the left was holding a strap of leather in her mouth. “Just a little more….”

The cyan light coming from the enchanter that had ordered Mane to stand still had already healed the great deal of the wound by accelerating that regeneration of the muscular tissues. Though the process was putting a lot of stress on Mane’s leg: she had the feeling that countless of burning needles were poking her flesh repeatedly.

Topaz’s attention was turned away from Mane’s choked screams when she felt a small tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see her handmaiden, Radiant Shimmer, looking at her with concern and fear in her eyes.

“Your Grace, I have opened the passage to the old mines as you ordered me to,” Radiant said with a short bow. “A unit of guards is evacuating the citizens as we speak.”

“That’s good, Radiant,” Topaz answered matter-of-factly before focusing back on the healing of Mane’s leg. “You should go now, dear.”

“Highness, I must ask you to evacuate the palace with the refugees,” Radiant stated calmly. “Would you please follow me?”

“If the ship sinks, I’d sink with it,” Topaz replied with pride. “Just like my husband would, should it come to that,” she added, glancing at Sombra who maintaining the shield up with his apprentices for a brief moment.

“Highness….”

“I have made my decision, Radiant, and I’d like you to respect it,” Topaz interrupted her handmaiden with strength.

“In other circumstances, I would,” Radiant admitted softly. “Though, on this day, I ask you to reconsider your decision.” When she saw Topaz frowning at her, she decided to say something more. “May I remind her Highness who she’s expecting soon?”

The frown on Topaz’s face vanished instantly before she followed her handmaiden’s sight down the large bump of her dress. The attack had come so suddenly that it made her forget about her unborn child. She rested her palm on top of her belly for a few moments.

“Now, will you come with me, your Grace?”

“.....Y-yes,” Topaz replied softly, earning a short nod from Radiant.

The Queen followed her handmaiden toward the exit of the room, passing in front of now healed Mane who had stopped struggling against her two friends and the three healers that had relayed each other. Daring was still holding the green-haired woman’s hand in her own while her other was gently caressing the wounded’s forehead to move her hair out of her face.

Shadow and Hindel stopped trying to hold Mane on the floor, while the concerned party was panting heavily, slowly but surely catching her breath back. The blacksmith took notice of the Queen heading toward the exit after she almost called for Sombra to let him know she was leaving. But, as her King was completely focused on maintaining the shield with his apprentice, Topaz had opted for not disturbing his concentration. Too many lives depended on it.

“I’ll let him know you’ve evacuated, your Grace,” Snowdrop told Topaz as she walked past her by the threshold. “It’s what he would have wanted you to do,” she added when Topaz didn’t reply.

“I know, but…..” She took a deep breath and turned toward Snowdrop. “It doesn’t make it less difficult…”

“Stay safe, Queen Topaz,” Snowdrop whispered as the queen continued her pace.

Topaz barely had taken two steps out of the room when a loud cracking noise came from the outside of the palace. It was immediately followed by the sudden, pained shouts of the enchanters keeping the shield up; Sombra’s being the loudest of them all.

Topaz spun around, ignoring the large crack on the crimson, magic surface that slowly repaired itself and focused her gaze on her husband’s pained form. He was grunting and cursing, one hand on his temple while his apprentices were holding theirs with both hands.

“What the hell is going on?!” Shadow shouted in a voice laced with fear and confusion.

The glow of the runes on the ground started to change color. From deep crimson, it was passing to the darkest shade of purple, just like the shield who had troubles to keep its shape. Tendrils of a violet and green, bubbly magic emerged from the runes and wrapped themselves to all the Titanians in the circle.

Everyone was frozen in shock as the tendrils all joined themselves around Sombra, tying him up tightly and leaving only his face and the amethyst scepter that controlled the golems that were now guarding the doors of the Castle. Tendrils snaked around the gemstone, as Sombra moved his head to face his friends and his queen.

“......R-run!”

The tentacles of magic retracted towards Sombra, pulling glowing balls of light out of the nineteen apprentices in the runic circle before they all fell lifelessly on the ground. The dark magic stormed around the Crystal King, masking him from everyone’s sight as Topaz yelled his name before Radiant pulled her away from the room on Snowdrop’s order.

There were four doors to enter the Crystal Palace, and they were all heavily guarded by the remains of the Crystal Guard and the forty-eight last golems Sombra had created. Until now, it had been a mere precaution as the magical shield was up and running, and they would evacuate the place as soon as all citizens had left the citadel.

But, when they heard a loud crack coming from the outside, Captain Sentry immediately peaked through one of the few arrow loops of the building. He blinked in shock as he saw an armored Dracan woman standing just in front of a small hole in the shield.

The woman had ripped off a fistful of the magic dome with her bare hand and was studying the magic trapped inside it with great attention. As the wall started to regenerate itself, The woman brought its magic to her mouth and drank it like it was fresh water.

“What in the world…” Sentry let out in total confusion as the woman seemed to savour it like the sweetest wine there was, her head thrown back with her eyes closed and an expression of pure bliss on her face.

He gulped uneasily as he managed to hear her moans through the rest of her men trying to ram the shield down and through the huge serpentine dragon who had his head lowered next to her. Sentry saw that a small trail of red magic was rolling out the corner of her mouth before the claw of her armored gauntlet pushed it back where she licked the metallic surface clean almost sensually, making him even more uncomfortable than before. Much like her closest soldiers who were all looking elsewhere with a growing blush while the Water-Dragon seemingly rolled his eyes at her.

As she smacked her lips together for a few seconds, she straightened her head to face the keep. Sentry frowned at the black smoky shadow that was coming out of her closed eyelids. His frown deepened as they opened slowly, only to be replaced by surprise and terror when he saw brilliant green eyeballs and deep red irises looking in his direction with a feral and deep hunger glowing in them.

The shield that started to vanish into thin air as the upper floors of the castle shook strongly. Sentry gasped when he saw the Dracans cheering loudly and waiting for the shield to be completely gone to charge against the caste doors.

“The shield is gone!” one of his men shouted in panic from another arrow-loop.

“What are we going to do?!”

“That Snake-Dragon is going to flatten the palace to the ground!!”

“Easy, men,” Sentry called, turning away from the thin window. “The Palace was built by Platinum and Clover’s magic! It will stand, as we will all do when they will try to pass those gates!” He pointed at the thick doors behind him with a dozen of Golems facing it in silence. “We are the guards of the Crystal Empire, Equestria’s Gem! Our resolve is as strong as diamonds!”

“Yeah!”

“We will stand our ground against every foe that comes marching our way!”

“YEAH!”

“We will fight for our peo…”

He was suddenly interrupted by a the sharp end of a huge, turquoise blade pierced the left side of his stomach. The soldiers gasped in shock as the blade lifted their Captain a few feet off the ground. Sentry turned his head to see a nine foot tall swordsman made of a blue crystal impaling him. While coughing blood, he noticed that runes on the golems were shining in a mix of deep purple, green and black glazes instead of a light amethyst one.

The offending golem tossed the Guard’s captain against the wall with great strength before marching slowly towards the shocked defenders, quickly imitated by ten others. As they were attacking the closest Equestrians, the twelfth golem lifted his sword high and then cut the beam keeping the door closed in two, in one heavy swing.

While the guards struggled to push back the rebelled golems that were methodically taking a huge tolls on their forces, the doors were slammed open by a small group of drakes that rushed forward, aiding the crystal giants in their fight against the defenders. Behind the beasts, columns of Dracan raiders stormed in, chanting numerous, victorious war cries.

The human invaders’ progression inside the western pillar was stopped by a chain of thunder and lightning that coursed through them, burning them to cinders in passing. Sentry, the one responsible, stood up with a series of low grunts, his electrified hand cauterizing his wound after shocking the Dracans. Conjuring his wings to help him stand in the corridor, he drew his twin maces off his belt and gave them a little spin of the wrist.

Despite breathing heavily due to his wound, the Captain of the Guard parried the first spear that came at him with a strike from the left and immediately counter attacked with his right weapon right to his opponent’s face. Dodging an axe that almost hit his head, Sentry replied with a strike right in the crotch, hearing his opponent whimper like a dog before he silenced him for good with his other mace.

The Dracans kept pushing forward against the sole fighter to no avail, realizing that it wasn’t for nothing that Valiant Sentry was Captain of the Crystal Guard. Whenever one of his weapons stroke, it would hit its mark. Wherever it stroke, it would crack armor and shatter bones. One of his strikes nearly beheaded a Dracan soldier, after the latter had managed to scratch his arm with the blade of his spear.

Noticing that the soldiers weren’t following their advance, one of the drakes ran back to the combat sounds it had heard behind it. Hissing loudly, it lunged on the Jupitarian’s back and bit the base of his right wing, while its claws were trying to peel him from his back armor. Valiant bellowed in furor and pain, causing lightning bolts to storm out of his entire body, frying the beast on his back and the nearby raiders to death.

As the dead beast fell off his back, three Dracan spearmen plunged their weapons deep into his stomach and chest. His eyes bulged at the impact, and his knees started to give up on him while his wings fell heavily toward the ground. Valiant could feel his throat burning as he tried in vain to catch his breath with one of his lungs perforated.

Puffing slowly and heavily, his right mace flew toward the right spearman’s face, ending its course in a sickening crack before his left one did as the right one. The last remaining Dracan impaling the Captain was about to pull his weapon out when the captain’s light orange wings wrapped themselves around his body, blocking his escape completely. Valiant blinked a couple of times as his sight became blurrier at every passing second, before he slammed both his weapons against the poor Dracan’s face.

As his now dead opponent fell on the ground, Valiant’s knees finally reached the ground, only remaining sort of straight thanks to the three spears in his body that were preventing him to fall forward. He let go of his weapons without even realizing it, as his tired eyes glanced around him.

The dozens of dead bodies, most of them being those of his adversaries, around him starting to be nothing but a mix of colors and odors without any sort of distinctions possible. Before him Valiant saw a indistinct shadow coming closer to him. The shadow was holding a thick stick with two hands high above itself. As the blurry weapon came down to his head, Valiant closed his eyes peacefully and his world became black.

“SOMBRA, STOP THIS!” Daring shouted, dodging a deep black shard of crystal hurled at her by her friend.

After those black tendrils of magic had killed the shield casters, they somehow had merged with Sombra. The king had stepped out of the twirl of dark magic with his eyes glowing in sick hues of green and red, and started to attack his friends, apprentices or subjects still in the room. Any attempt to reason with him was met by a magically amplified roar and a burst of dark magic.

Snowdrop tried to restrict him in a ice coffin, only for him to morph into a shadow and reappear in her own, nearly impaling her on a black crystal-made spear. Hindel parried his second blow by grabbing it in his scaly, dark crimson fist before the cursed shard touched Snowdrop’s shoulder.

The Dracan lifted the weapon and its bearer and cast them both away with strength. Sombra growled as he crashed against the wall right next to the balcony of the throne room. As he pulled himself up in a low, threatening groan, the Council of Harmony saw Frey’s dragon head delicately landing on the balcony in question before his sister hopped down on it.

"Længe tid siden, eks-kommandør Hindel!" [Long time no see, ex-Commander Hindel.] Freia called for the bearded man as she stepped in along with her brother, who more slided in while reducing his size to fit entrance.

“... That woman,” Mane let out, her nose sniffing the air, while Hindel growled in response. “She reeks just like Sombra… She’s the cause of all this!” She growled like a lion as her hair suspended her in the air to not put too much stress on her leg.

“... And here I thought you were the dumbest of this whole Council thingy,” Freia remarked in a perfectly accented Equestrian after blinking in surprise. “You’re right. Your friend’s under my control. He shouldn’t have been casting the shield… Though, I’d not have tasted his succulent magic if he hadn’t,” She added while caressing Sombra’s cheek with a tenderness that made Mane want to puke. “Easily the tastiest I ever had!” She cooed softly.

“Tsss, the magic-eating shit was actually literal,” Shadow commented with a frown.

As her friends started to argue with Freia while Frey was growling at them furiously, Snowdrop had remained silent. She kept facing the female Thane, feeling sick just by glancing in her direction. If she could consume their magic and had managed to possess Sombra that easily, Freia couldn’t possibly be beaten. At least not by her.

“Daring,” Snowdrop called softly, causing all gazes to fall on her. “Hindel and I are going to take care of Fish-dragon over there, while Shadow and Mane will try to restrict Sombra.”

Her instructions brought a great confusion to the three dracans in the room.

“You, on the other hand, will have to take care of that nauseating woman,” Snowdrop continued softly, pointing in Freia’s general direction.

“...Excuse me?!” Freia asked in a growing anger.

Daring blinked in surprise at the instructions before she smirked knowingly. She opened her shirt a little, allowing everyone to see the strange tattoos on her upper chest that formed a the outline of an animal. She gave it a tap on the head of the tattoo that started to glaze for a few seconds.

The air around Daring turned heavier before a massive, dark blue arm appeared above her. The newly appeared limb slammed its fist against the ground before the rest of its body surged from the empty space above Daring. Towering the Explorer with at least four feet, the apparition shouted in anger as all the Dracans took a fearful step away from it.

They had come to fear anything related to the Lord of Chaos that ravaged their lands years ago, and that creature stank of Chaos magic. Its tail-hand banged against the floor as his forearms bent down to bring his long, predatory head to Daring’s level.

“I told you to never summon me, Daring Do!” the beast growled in a deep, baritone voice. “DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL YOU?!”

“Save it, Ahuizotl! You’re not fooling anyone!” Daring chortled softly before she scratched the chin of the Demon like she would to a good dog.

“Wh...What is that thing?!” Hindel asked in the same time as Freia while Frey hissed threateningly at Ahuizotl.

“Daring’s Guardian,” Shadow replied as she readied her weapon.

“More of a parasite than a Guardian!” Mane frowned as she glanced at Ahuizotl.

“Silence, kitten!” The Demon snarled at the green-haired Eponian.

“Now, you two behave!” Daring ordered as Mane’s hair was encircling Ahuizotl’s third hand, both trying to crush each other's extra limb.

“A little something Daring found during her travels,” Snowdrop specified slowly as she readied her crook, facing toward the Water-Dragon. “A relic from a tribe that worshipped Discord in the past. Not that it matters right now, right?”

Freia answered by conjuring more of her dark magic in her fists, causing the demon to bring his attention on her, letting go of Mane’s wild hair. Ahuizotl bared his teeth in a low, menacing hiss while taking a ready-to-pounce stance as Daring pulled out her golden rings from her pockets.

“That’s what I thought…” Snowdrop smirked before she and Frey lunged at each other, chanting the name of the Moon Princess and roaring fiercely, respectively.

They were soon imitated by the Council members and the two other Dracans. And so began the strongest clash of power to have ever occurred in the Crystal Empire entire history.

Above a small island in the middle of the ocean,

The original plan of the ten Thanes was to divide their two opponents so that they couldn’t be much of a threat together. In the past, the Twelve had discovered that a group of powerful beings working together could pose much more of a threat than one individual immensely stronger than each of the former case. It was how they had driven Discord away from their shores, decades ago.

Now that herself, her brothers and sister had tested the Alicorn Princesses’ power first-hand, Vigdis the Raven couldn’t help but to think that it wasn’t their power, or their fighting prowesses and strategy that had chased the Avatar of Chaos far from the lands. The Draconequus mustn’t have even taken them seriously when they showed up against him, freshly transformed from mere humans to Dracans, and had left of his own accord.

Their battle against Discord had lasted for a full month, without any break of any kind, and on this day the two Equestrian Princesses had already claimed many of her brothers’ lives in less than two hours.

Hring had been the first one to fall, his hybrid-form head ripped off his body by Celestia’s casual shove: It had looked like she was slamming a chest of clothes shut. Even from the air, Vigdis had felt the island quake at the impact caused by the monstrous, fire-haired woman before she cindered his headless body.

The first bloodshed of one of her fellow Thanes had marked the start of the end for them, Vigdis had sensed it. It had brought back a notion they had all started to forget after battling Discord: fighting for their survival, and not for their own personal gains. Also, they had all since long realized why this fight was different than the one with the Avatar of Chaos: Discord had come for his own amusement to Draconia; Celestia and Luna had come to avenge their people.

What they realized too was that their barely a century long existence, for the oldest of them, couldn’t even begin to be compared to the nearly four thousand years of life and fighting experience of the two Alicorn Princesses, even more so when those two were dead-set on killing them.

While Celestia fought on the ground, the five other Thanes, including Vigdis, thought they could take care of Luna in the sky. They had been so wrong about that. At first, they had to use their nose to spot her through the thick clouds she had conjured to obscure the setting sun, leaving them in the nearly complete dark. Then the sky started to fight along with her, as thunderbolts surged from every cloud to try to zap the transformed Dracans.

Hali’s blue draconic form had been Luna’s first target after he tried to burn her with his long and powerful fiery breaths. The Moon Princess turned out to be too fast and too agile for him to aim properly in full dragon size, but he never got the chance to change back to his human size. When the thunder started to growl, a dozen lightning bolts landed exactly on the base of his wings, instantly cutting them off.

His sharp hurting shrieks only came to a stop when he crashed head first into the ground below. He had shaken it clear before he tried stand up on his four, trying to ignore the huge pain on his back as his wings fell at his sides.

A loud boom rang through the air before a ring made of the colors of a rainbow chased briefly the clouds away. Hali’s dragon head met the ground with a surprised, instinctive yelp as Luna landed on top of it while her momentum allowed her blade to penetrate the dragon’s skull as if it was warm butter. Hali roared in reflex as sparks of electricity came from Luna’s hand, followed the blade and fried his brain from within until his body stopped twitching all together.

Ragnarr had been the third Thane to fall under the Princesses’ blows on that day. After a long game of chase, his draconic form breathed a strong bolt of blue lightning right in Luna’s right wing, causing her force her landing on a nearby hill with a wince. Invigored by seeing the Night Princess put a knee on the ground, he brought his massive body toward her, ready to crush her under his weight.

He let out a low chuckle, which sounded like a very deep growl in his dragon form, when he saw Luna duck on the ground, as if that was going to save her. He only saw the burning white flare coming his way when it was too late. The pure white fireball flew just above Luna and exploded right between his chuckling jaws.

The solar fire consumed his tongue and teeth in a matter of seconds before it started to attack the rest of his mouth. Had his vocal cords been spared by fire, Ragnarr would have bellowed in pain before his body crashed on the ground, spreading the raging inferno around him as his facial scales turned to dust. Luna angrily glared in her sister’s direction before flying back up to her three other opponents, as Celestia focused back on her armed duel with Arrogon, Arnbjorn, Astri and Harald.

The assassin’s blades cut the monarch’s skin many times during their fight, yet the poison he had applied to them didn’t seem to have the smallest effect on her, just like the wounds he had inflicted which were healed instantly by the golden vines on her skin. Same could be told of Arnbjorn’s axe and Astri’s sword, her other one had been shattered by a punch from the Sun Princess. Despite not giving her any sustainable harm, the latter had decided she had enough of those.

With one swift blow of her glaive, Celestia cut Arrogon’s right claw off when he tried to attack her face. Then she shoved the other end of her weapon into Astri’s stomach when the Lord Thane stepped back, holding his burning stump with a wince. The Dracan woman was sent against the nearby rocks while Celestia grabbed Arnbjorn’s axe before he could swing it down on her. He barely had the time to blink before she headbutted him away, her forehead sturdy enough to break the spines on his half-man/half-dragon form’s head.

Harald hesitated in attacking the Princess while she was looking at Arnbjorn falling backwards, both his hands up his forehead, but the assassin didn’t get enough time to make a decision: Celestia made it for him by plunging the blade of Arnbjorn’s axe deep in his hip.

In the sky, Luna, infuriated by her sister stealing her kill earlier flew straight at the hybrid forms of Hrothgar Islandburner and Folkmar the Red. They had both changed to a much smaller size in hope to gain in mobility to dodge Luna’s attacks and in speed to match her own. The white Dracan conjured an fire chain from his mouth while his red counterpart drew his short sword out of its sheath as a raging fire started behind his half-closed jaws.

Luna closed her eyes as she came closer to them, her hands glowing in a deep blue aura. Hrothgar threw the fire chain at her and Folkmar breathed a torrent of brightly red flames in her direction, while Vigdis, who had chosen to take her full human form with the exception of her black leather wings that kept her in the air, flew a bit in retreat compared to them, hooking an arrow to her bow string.

The archer Thane was taking her aim and had almost pulled the string completely when Luna opened her eyes. A wave of darkness emerged from the Princess’ now black eyeballs, a wave that surrounded the sky, capturing the three flying Thanes in it. Even with her eyes that could see through the night, Vigdis only saw the pitch black before her.

Despite their intensity, she couldn’t see the light of her comrade’s fires. Despite holding it in her hand right in front of her, she couldn’t see the outline of her bow. She couldn’t hear the tension of the string, nor the wind that blew through skies. Vigdis didn’t even hear the beating of her own heart for a moment.

She saw a spark of white appearing before her for just a second, then another spark, red this time, appeared a few seconds after. Vigdis gulped before she flew toward where the sparks had appeared, slowly and cautiously. Her bow was still ready to shoot even if she couldn’t see anything to aim at in the pitch black. She felt a brief and small shock above the grip of her weapon and was about to release her arrow when the darkness vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Vigdis blinked in shock as she saw Luna’s silvery sword was a millimeter away from her throat and that the upper part of her bow was missing, as Luna had cut through it during the dark moment. All the sounds came back to her as she heard two thuds coming from down below. The Thane dared to look down, only to see the bodies of Hrothgar and Folkmar both with their throats open on the ground. She glanced back at Luna who wasn’t looking at her at all.

The Moon Princess’ gaze was focused on the horizon to the East, her lips slightly parted from one another in a small gesture of puzzlement and shock. Not far from there, Celestia was in the same position: She was standing above Arrogon, her glaive ready to cut him down, but she had stopped herself to glance with a surprised expression towards the East.

Towards Equestria.

In two chromatics explosions that sent the Thanes in their close vicinity flying away, Luna and Celestia soared through the sky at their maximum speed away from the island, leaving the four Thane survivors to take care of their dead.

“Did you feel it too, Sister?” Luna asked urgently as she flew closer to Celestia. “It felt like…”

“Just like Aunt Platinum and Uncle Clover’s magic, I know!” Celestia snapped, clearly distraught. “But…. something was different… We have to go back to Equestria at once.”

“I’ll go tell Admiral Philharmonica to have the fleet sail home while you’d teleport there!” Luna suggested with vigor.

“No, you go there, I had something planned for the Dracan Harbor…. I’ll join you as soon as I’m done!”

After Luna nodded, the two sisters popped out of existence above the ocean in a respectively golden and midnight blue flash.

Luna appeared out of breath in front of the Eastern wall of the Crystal Empire city-state. Travelling an ocean in a single teleportation had taken its toll on her, and teleporting so far in North from Canterlot immediately after was clearly a bad idea. As she took her breath back, Luna focused her attention on the city before her.

“... Sweet Faust…” Luna let out in complete shock.

Instead of their usual pale red color, the outer walls of the city were black as the night. The crystal wasn’t shiny anymore, it was dull and lifeless. Luna took her envol, and noticed that all the buildings had also turned black instead of the multitude of colors that adorned the city. Then she saw the Western side of the Empire, and brought her hand to her mouth.

The entire district was in ruins, from the outer walls to the buildings next to the Crystal palace. The streets were full of bodies, many wearing the clothes or armors of the Empire, while others were bearing the armors of Draconia. There were also the cadavers of hundreds horse-sized drakes in front of the devastated outer wall. Yet all the dead weren’t shocking her the most.

What troubled her the most were the dozen of terrestrial dragons frozen under a thick layer of a black crystal that stood in the middle of the Western district, and the hundreds of soldier’ statues, made of the same dark crystal as every building around, massed at the keep’s entrances.

With a few strong flaps of her wings, Luna made it to the balcony of the throne room. As soon as she set a foot on the once turquoise floor, Luna felt sick. She felt her very own magic being forcedly pulled out of her body. As her hair stopped waving mystically and fell down her face, Luna was scared. For the first time in eons, she was scared.

She felt wrinkles digging her usually smooth and eternally young visage; she saw her hair grow thin and turn white; she felt her strong muscles stiffen and dry out, making her own armor too heavy for her; she witnessed her eyes getting foggier at every second that passed; she saw that her magnificent royal blue wings had turned in a dull grey and that they were losing their feathers; her breathing became heavy and hoarse, as if her lungs had dried out under a blazing sun.

“LUNA!!!”

That terrorized shriek was the last sound she heard before she lost consciousness.

Later,

“You are absolutely certain it’s what you want to do, Sister?” Luna asked softly in a high-pitched voice, glancing at Celestia with a great sense of unease.

“Luna, taking one step in that castle almost killed you! Had I arrived a second later, it would have been the case!” Celestia argued strongly, looking down at her little sister.

The accident in the Crystal palace had done great damage to Luna’s inner magic, and her body was still recovering from it despite the week she had spent in her bed in Canterlot. Instead of the beautiful, grown woman that had the same figure as Celestia, Luna’s body had changed back to the one of her childhood, thousands of years ago. Her hair was much shorter and of a pale blue hue, and she was barely taller than a twelve year old at the moment.

“I..I know, but Snowdrop and the others were supposed to be there….” Luna argued back, more softly than Celestia had. “... We have to find out what happened! We have to find them!”

“.....It’s too risky, Luna,” Celestia stated with a compassionate, and deeply sad voice. “As for them, if they were in the Empire before whatever it was happened, they...they are most likely….”

“... Don’t say it, Tia,” Luna pleaded in a whisper, letting her head drop forward with sadness. “I’d rather not think about that.”

“It pains me to do so, Lulu,” Celestia admitted as she kneeled to Luna’s eye level. “But we have to do it.”

“...I understand,” Luna responded in a defeated sigh.

Nodding grimly, Celestia stood back up and took a few steps forward. As she did so, her hair turned into flames and the earth resonated to her power by shaking softly. Celestia focused her shining eyes on the black keep and ruins that used to be the Crystal Empire: Platinum and Equestria’s Jewel.

Golden vines appeared on the skin of her right arm as it was lifted high above her head. The magic vines were so bright and so tightly wrapped around her fist that it formed a glove made of pure, yellow light.

Celestia’s closed and glowing hand slammed against the ground in a loud bang.

The strength of the Sun Princess’ fist caused the biggest earthquake that northern regions had ever witnessed before. Deep below the surface, all the ancient caves and mines that coursed through the whole country, collapsed on themselves.

As the earthquake opened a large rift into which the remains of the Crystal Empire fell in a symphony of crystal shattering and cracking loudly, Luna spread her arms and the sky filled itself with huge rainclouds that emptied themselves above the rift. The tropical rains combined to the earthquake caused many mudslides that facilitated the burying of the once richest city of all Equestria, much to Luna and Celestia’s chagrin.

In the months that followed, the Princesses remarked that there hadn’t been any news of a Dracan incursion since their fleet had sacked the port and half of the Thanes eliminated, presumably two third from they had heard from Admiral Philharmonica, recently ennobled by Luna for his great leadership during the campaign, about what had drove the Council of Harmony to teleport back to Crystal Empire when he finally returned with the Silver fleet.

They had clearly came out victorious, but it hadn’t been without many sacrifices. Luna and Celestia knew from their long life experiences that a victory never came without its price. On that day, Luna and Celestia couldn’t find in their hearts that the victory was worth the price Equestria had paid. It probably never would, but Celestia hoped that what she had done would prevent the situation from ever repeating itself.

A raging inferno of white flames was burning the tip of every single building in the ruins of the Dracan forward harbor. The fires were so intense that they merged a bit above the scenery, forming one huge column of fire that would burn endlessly and so brightly that would become one of the greatest naval landmarks in the world; a natural beacon that the ships could use to find a coast to dock to. A dried out, lifeless coast covered in soot and ashes, but a coast nevertheless.

Any sailor that risked navigate into the strait of the now called Sunfire Bay, a message could be read on a giant, polished rock on the starboard side of the strait. The inscription had been carved into the rock by something that had been hot enough to melt the stone. The carved letters had been then filled with the same flames as the one consuming the ruins of the harbors, so that it’s message could be seen clearly even at night.

Author's Notes:

And now is the part two... And Now you've heard the basics of one of Equestria's greatest mystery :p

You realized that the most interesting part isn't there.... but no worries I have plans ;) All shall be revealed later.....

http://youtu.be/qh3H-OwRUUc?t=14s

Once again, thanks to G3K and GWG for editing (and making me notice of their disapproval of that cliffhanger ending)

Mariacheat-Brony out! (gone into hiding to write some GTVS to make myself forgivable)

I thought I had clicked on published yesterday night!