The cycle never ended. No matter how hard he tried, how he approached it, what strategy, military strength or leadership there was. It was never enough. Guardian watched helplessly as the the citadel tipped over onto the ground, possibly crushing a little under a hundred ponies beneath. The Empire had fallen within hours.

That is how Denthar operates. Remember, some worlds fell within a single day.

"How...there were several missile stations on the outer perimeter that should've at least kept it at bay."

Oh you remember. Clear as day.

"I thought for sure she would've come through."

You forget my "prophecies" are extremely accurate.

He was still falling through the air. He tucked in his extremities and somersaulted forward. He began falling diagonally, landed on the ground and took the head off an unsuspecting Hallowed soldier with his swords. He blasted his way through the lines, bolts of lethal energy spewing out his hands. He had to reach the fallen castle.

It will take a miracle to last that long.

"I put the call in about ten minutes earlier, if we can last long enough for reinforcements to arrive we can push them back."

That's a very big "if".

---

Celestia had given the order. Twilight and her friends were headed for the Crystal Empire along with several hundred other squadrons. A whole fleet of drop ships had departed from Cantorlot along with several tank battalions from stations positioned at the base of the mountain.

The drop ship wasn't exactly comfortable. Six seats were set along the interior walls, with only the door to the cockpit and the bay doors. The ship rattled and shook, the noise from the engines was so loud they had to speak over the radio.

"So how long we got?" Asked Applejack.

"Shouldn't be too long. I think our rear forces should be directly below us." Replied Twilight.

The atmosphere was tense. Everyone was shaking in anticipation for the coming battle. Since Cantorlot never saw any real action, this would be the first time to fight the enemy face to face.

Little was said on the trip. Twilight's concern for Pinkie Pie was ever growing. The formerly cheery pony hadn't breathed a word since the memorial. Not to mention the rest of her friends also being unusually silent. The pressure of the war had reached a deadly peak.

Twilight had tried to prepare as best she could for what they might face at the Empire by studying the First Encounter, but every time she tried talking to somepony who was there she earned little success. Soldiers, air ponys, and operators alike had refused to speak of the battle. Many she had spoken to had been drowning themselves in whatever alcohol they could get their hooves on. The sober were even worse. She manage to catch that most soldiers who returned were immediately relieved of duty due to PTSD or crippling injuries. The survivors in the military spoke of unimaginable horrors,

---

"They burned my eyes..." Grumbled the tan earth pony, "Black, monstrous claws. They put something in my head. Can't get it out."

Twilight sat bewildered. She found, from some poking around, that the pony before her had been in the First Encounter as they called it.

She had been searching for somepony who fought in the battle when the Hallowed had first entered Equestria. So far her efforts had met with little success. But after some asking around and digging through records she managed to find sompony that survived and was still in service.

Noting the empty bottle of whiskey on the floor, Twilight concluded he was drunk but she had to try.

"Major. Lemon Drop, I need to know what exactly happened during the First Encounter."

"Tis but lies," he drunkinly replied, "make us feel all safe an cozy. Butter us up and serve us for dinner."

Twilight looked around the barracks she was in. Most of the other ponies were trying to keep as much of their attention away from her conversation as possible. Realizing she wasn't going to get help from them, she tried changing the subject.

"So uh...Lemondrop...where might a pony get something to drink?"

He just looked at her blankly, her words going in one ear and out the other. This was going absolutely nowhere. All she could do now about Lemondrop was alert his CO of his condition and have him discharged.

Twilight sighed. She thought talking to the survivors would've been more helpful than reading some written report, but that had proven to be more trouble than it's worth. She would have to resort to finding some report of the battle.

---

Those field reports were horrifying. The ponies that wrote them had been driven mad by what they saw. It was mostly indecipherable scribblings, but what she could make out terrified her more than helped her. She was contemplating whether to tell her friends about her findings when a commanders voice came on the radio.

"All squads prepare for drop in two minutes."

It could wait. Her friends were already stressed as it was.

"All right girls, here we go." Twilight said, the unease clear in her voice.

They all double checked their gear, prepared the release mechanism on the seats, and faced towards the rear bay doors. The ship suddenly lurched to the side and spun around one hundred-eighty degrees and stopped. The noise died down as the engines were cut and the ship fell through the sky. Twilight felt like she was going to turn inside out.

Finally the ship lurched upwards as the underside engines fired. It came to a slow descent and as soon as it touched the ground Team Harmony launched out the open doors and into the fray.

Tanks and other squadrons were rushing alongside them as they galloped towards the battle. They came upon the outer perimeter were several missile and artillery stations were set up. They weren't anything spectacular just a one by one meter control box with either an artillery cannon or missile turrent set on top.

Jets and pegasi fought against dragons for supremacy in the sky. In front of them was the astronomical black mass of beasts. Beyond that was the Crystal Empire with a massive, ominous airship looming above it.

They galloped through the battle, each wielding their own unique weapons.

Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack used raw magic and strength, the farm pony had retractable spikes on the bottom of her hooves. Rainbow Dash had blades made from refined magic that materialized into extensions of her hooves. Pinkie Pie possessed a rifle that clamped onto her foreleg and lobbed explosive orbs of plasma, she named it Pow-Pow.

The monsters were in a small cluster that was separated from the main force, a good kilometer lay between Harmony and the city.

They cut, slashed, and blasted their way through the Hallowed, eventually killing all of them. They all paused to catch their breath. Twilight looked around at her friends, each one of them was breathing heavily and had a bewildered expresion, but they were otherwise largely unscathed.

"Well that wasn't too hard." Boasted Rainbow Dash.

"We ain't done yet sugar cube." Replied Applejack.

They took in their surroundings. The battle was distant, echoes of explosions and gunfire rang through the mountains.

Around them were the ruins of several tanks and missile stations. Most of them were completely decimated, but one stood out from the others.

"Girls, look!" Rarity pointed a hoof towards a station ahead of them that wasn't too badly damaged.

"There might be sompony alive in there. We have to check it out." Twilight stated.

They trotted over to the station. The outside had blast marks on it, but the rest of it was intact. They slowly opened the door. While they thought they were ready for anything, the sight that greeted them threw them off completely.

A single pony was leaning against the wall with his own entrails spilled before him. He had cuts all over his body and his left eye was gouged out.

Flutters by screeched, Rarity fainted, the rest backed out of the station vomit rising in their throats.

When the initial shock passed, Rainbow Dash went back inside to see if was still alive, which in fact he was.

"Girls, he's still breathing, but I'm not sure for how long."

"The missile..." He gasped heavily, "You have to..."

"Buddy listen it's gonna be fine we'll call for help."

Suddenly a howl sounded, and Hallowed crawled out of the wreckages and began to circle them lack a pack of starving was wolves. None of them had weapons, but had long, menacing claws that glinted in the sunlight.nTwilight counted maybe fifty of them. Although she wasn't sure how accurate that was, it was getting hard to focus with this oncoming headache...

She gasped as her legs gave out and her migraine intensified. The ship over the city was charging the same weapon as the ships at Cantorlot.

"The missile..."

Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy, "Listen to me Fluttershy, your gonna have to get in there and fire that missile ."

"What?!" She replied with shock, "Why me?"

"The rest of us will hold them off and protect Twilight, you gotta stop that airship from firing."

"I-I-don't think"

"Fluttershy!"

One monster pounced on Rainbow Dash who fell flat on her back with the beast on top of her.

The horde charged forward, claws ready to tear them apart. Team Harmony fought back in a defensive half circle around the station.

Twilight had lost it, screaming and flailing around trying to shake the agony out of her head. The rest of the team were occupied fighting off Hallowed. Fluttershy looked back and forth between her friends and the launcher controls.

"Hit the button girl! Launch it!" Applejack cried.

Why her? Why now?

Twilight went still and silent, the pain finally knocked her out. Fluttershy turned just in time to see a beam of light shoot itself from the the ship to the base of the palace.

---

Shining Armor watched in horror as the Castle collapsed with his wife still inside. A line of squadrons had been positioned were the remains of the palace now lay. Concern for Cadence overran his thoughts and he suddenly bolted towards the ruins.

He galloped on and on, when he reached the top of the spire, he searched desperately for a way in. He tried bucking the wall with his hind legs, the surface wasn't even scratched. He then attempted to blow a hole open with his magic, but only managed to scorch the crystal black. He let out a blood curdling scream and began beating the wall with his hooves, tears streaming down his face. After going like that for a while he lost the strength to continue an just collapsed on the ground sobbing weakly. Deep down he knew nopony could've survived through a billion ton crystal tower falling on top of them.

Guardian looked on at the scene, unsure of what to do. When the ship fired the Hallowed and the airship retreated back towards some base camp twenty kilometers away from the city.

Guardian remembered every detail of the Empire's construction, the palace was built to withstand an apocalypse, should it ever happen. So instead of debri and dust, the palace simply laid on its side still intact.

While he knew nothing good could come of it, he drew his swords and moved to the part of the wall closet to the fading life inside. He stuck his blades into the wall and began cutting in a circle, starting at the bottom and going up. When the blades met at the top he withdrew them. He levitated the circular chunk out of the wall and set it on the ground.

Shining Armor immediately rushed into the newly created hole, letting out a cry of anguish a few seconds later. Guardian stepped inside to join him.

Furniture was thrown about everywhere, it wasn't even possible to figure out what room this was. Cadence lay on her back with Shining kneeled down next to her.

The princess was in horrible shape, Guardian analyzed her and saw that her spine had snapped in two, she was paralyzed from the neck down. Her rib cage was shattered, the bone puncturing her vital organs. Her skull was fractured and she had brain damage to the extent were she couldn't speak, see or hear. He stopped there, it was obvious she wasn't going to survive.

Shining clutched her hoof in his, stroking her hair and whispering comforting things in her ear. The stallion was shaking all over and sobs racked his body.

Guardian looked around for the Crystal Heart, and found it a few meters away cracked in two.

"Guardian!" He turned around at his name and saw Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity running in through the hole.

"Lieutenant Dash? What are you doing here?"

The pegasus stopped for a moment to catch her breath, "We...saw the tower fall and I called a drop ship to come bring us here. I had them bring medical supplies in case-" she stopped when she saw the princess and Shining Armor, "Oh Celestia...we're too late?"

Guardian nodded sadly.

"And the Heart?"

"Destroyed..."

Rainbow Dash fought back tears, this couldn't be happening. She had dealt with family deaths before but this...

"Where are the others?" Guardian asked.

"I-In the drop ship." She stuttered. "Twilight passed out when the ship fired, Fluttershy is tending to her. Pinkie is with them."

He nodded and began walking towards the opening.

"This is the worst possible thing." Rarity whispered.

"Believe me Rarity," He said as he walked past her,

"This is far from the worst."