Defender Prime LEAPED with speed something his size shouldn't have had, the ground beneath his massive robotic hooves shattering as he did so, before punching the corrupted elder dragon right in the snout much to its own anger. To show this anger it tried to claw at Defender Prime's chassis, and spat corrupted flame onto the machine, in return Defender Prime grabbed the dragons throat and began to headbutt it over, and over, and over, before the dragon managed to toss Defender Prime off of it and into the wall, further damaging it while umbrum flooded in through the large hole in the wall.

The dragon roared once again, in return Defender Prime let out a roar of its own, a deep, rumbling mechanical roar of several missile salvos with M45 tactical nuclear warheads. The warheads slammed into the dragons face taking out one of its eyes and causing it to roar in anger and charge Defender Prime, which was exactly what the robot wanted as a long plasma blade sprung from one of its hooves and raised it just as the dragon slammed into the massive machine. The blade being made of plasma shaped by a magnetic field it was hot, very fucking hot. The blade sliced through the dragon scales and crystal as if it hadn't existed in the first place, the dragon roared and clawed at Defender Prime's face but only managed to damage its left eye, which being robotic didn't hurt it, however it did piss Defender off as it lifted a hoof to the now broken eye before its right one narrowed onto the dragons face, flaring red with anger. "You shouldn't have done that." Prime lifted the plasma blade to the dragons face and jammed it through its right eye socket and dragged it downwards, slicing its throat apart like a fish being filleted.

-----------------------------Behind the walls---------------------

Former Chief of Police for the town of Raspberry, Johnson Aberdale checked his old uniform, he may no longer have been in charge of the police department but he was going to be damned if he let his new home be attacked and not do his duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, as such when he told the androids he would be staying to fight he was handed an AER-11 with a scattershot modification, turning it into an automatic laser shotgun. He stood with several other species, each one armed with some energy weapon, while an Akun chopper flew overhead, a Heavy Plasma Machine Gun mounted out of its door. They where closer to the inner city, the first wave of umbrum would be taken head on by the fancy robotic soldiers this Empire had, he was rather impressed by those.

Vomo, a member of the Akun species stood with Johnson Aberdale holding what looked to be a plasma rifle with the stock cut off. "I fear the coming battle, for we are but flesh against shadow." The Infantrymale's snout beginning to turn blue.

Johnson patted his shoulder, having to bend down. "Don't worry friend, we'll make it through this, one way or another."

Vomo waggled an eyeturret. "Indeed, I thank you for the kind, if foolish words my friend, if I am to die this day, know I am glad to have found a friend in you."

Johnson grinned. "As am I, Vomo, As am I." He went silent and made sure his AER-11 shotgun was loaded with a boosted core, which would give em 1050 shots if he remembered correctly.

Just inside the walls the umbrum swarmed like flies, only to encounter something in which they hadn't expected, strange beings of metal and wire, but the most terrifying of them had long energy blades for arms, and glowing red eyes. The Nightmare Androids looked at the Umbrum, and let their jaws fall slack, and let out a a unanimous wail that may as well have been the damned themselves for the noise was unholy in nature, before charging the umbrum along with assaultrons and sentry bots, even the older Mr.Gutsy's being pulled out of storage for this.

The network of hearts began to turn black, each heart connected to the network going corrupt one by one, before the main heart was reached, and the corruption met resistance at last, Crystal, what the main sapient crystal heart named itself, screamed in agony as the corruption began trying to eat away at her very core, with much effort she stopped it, but her outer core was now covered in black crystals with a sickly green purple blow pulsing like the meaty veins of a real heart, the corruption was attempting to push deeper into her very core and erase her from existence itself, leaving nothing but a husk. Crystal growled and fought against it with all the might she had, the love energy stored within herself bursting forth and forcing the corruption out, but she had to keep all focus on keeping it out, otherwise she'd be corrupted to the core, and there was no telling if she could recover from such a thing.

Johnson watched the Akun chopper float off to the front line of the fighting, and could see the green flashes as the gunner, a member of the akun species of course seeing how their machines inside where just too damned small for anything but a ten year old human kid to fit in, as the heavy plasma machine gun fired its volley of scorching hot death at the umbrum, only to be struck in several locations by beams of dark magic which grew crystals wherever they struck. Within mere minutes of taking fire like that the choppers engines crystallized, and with a sound like a dying motor the helicopter keeled onto its side midair and slammed to the ground causing a decent sized explosion as the fusion plant within was destabilized after being punctured by crystals, then slamming into the ground. He swore, mostly to himself, it wasn't the only aircraft to be hovering, but they couldn't all be up at the same time or too close, but several more akun helicopters took off, lifting from the ground and flying forward.

A few minutes later, they appeared, horrific in how they looked, the akun and other species using long range energy weapons fired first, Vomo blasting away with his plasma rifle with the skill of a marksman, which was impressive considering it was an automatic weapon he was using, several grenade launchers went off, their payloads being plasmatic and normal plasma grenades which went off doing significant damage, before a few moments later close ranged energy weapons began to go off, mostly plasma shotguns and laser shotguns blasting huge chunks out of the hoard when combined with several HPMG's mounted onto the barricades that had been erected.

Johnson was swearing, not only to himself, but sort of just screaming swears at the shadows who dared to attack his new home, shooting for all he was worth, his Scattershot AER-11 bucking with each shot, and with each shot five beams of death where spat from the barrel killing or injuring any umbrum hit by them, unluckily for him one umbrum managed to get too close and before he had knew what hit him, Johnson Aberdale's weapon fell to the cement, as did his husk which made a crunch noise as it landed on the ground. Vomo had seen this and his snout turned red with rage. "MAY YOU HAVE AN EMPERORLESS AFTERLIFE!" He screeched swinging his plasma rifle over and peppering the umbrum whom had killed his friend with deadly plasma shots. From that point in the battle Vomo was running on pure unfiltered rage at the death of his only friend so far on this new planet, his plasma rifle spitting shot after shot of pure hot green plasma.

Michael glared at the shadows as Franklin looked back at him, and the umbrum standing in the doorway, his makeshift shotgun being useless against them, before he looked to Franklin. "Do it." He threw a makeshift molotov cocktail, keeping them at bay for just another few precious seconds.

Franklin gave a bitter laugh. "For what its worth homie, its been good knowin ya, I'll see you in hell." He pressed the detonator held in his hand, blowing the various makeshift bombs that had been set around the buildings base and supports. The skyscraper lurched to the side before falling over, taking several dozen more with it in a domino effect as one falling would cause another to fall, before finally it stopped after 15 buildings destroyed, all of them thankfully empty.

Soldiers in Tesla Power Armor hefted up large energy weapons that had been plugged into their armor, and mowed down any umbrum that tried to get close, making way for the medics to take care of those whom had been injured when several buildings fell down one after another like a stack of domino's, Jinks was one of the medics carrying an Empire Standard Military Medical Kit, and injected one minotaur with a cocktail of Med-X, and a super stimpack. The Umbrum trying to invade the western half of the Empire, which was one massive military base, fared far, far worse than those trying to take the civilian section of the Empire they had been in, they managed to get in, and damage several vehicles, aircraft, and kill several dozens of soldiers, but for every one they killed, a dozen of their own was the price, this was only counting organic soldiers, not robotic ones, the robots fared well against the umbrum when they had an energy weapon of some sort, for instance the assaultrons head laser and secondary weapon an automatic laser rifle in the arm.

A Heavy Laser tank rolled up to the civilian section and fired, its beam cutting through dozens of umbrum, and its plasma machine gun firing to provide itself support, sadly however it didn't have machine guns on the side, or infantry supporting it, so once the umbrum got inside the crew was each turned into a husk, much to the surprise of the umbrum, once the crew was dead the tank was only silent for five seconds before it fired again, the Basic Combat AI within taking control of the tank, its dead crew rattling around within as it fired another red beam of death, the Umbrum had no possible way to counter something which wasn't alive aside from crystallizing sections of it, so thats what they did. The tanks treads froze up as back crystals formed on them, but it kept trying to move, before the turret was crystallized, the AI inside the tank decided the best course of action was to self destruct and take as many enemies with it. As such it destabilized its fusion power plant and went up like a bomb, also killing several Empire soldiers in the process of killing a dozen umbrum or more, but it wasn't the AI's job to think of such things, it wasn't its job to think of anything anymore, as basic as it may have been.

Something interesting was learned that day, Niriks where immune to the huskification that the Umbrum seemed so fond of, due to the shear heat from the white and black flames being emitted by them, meaning no nirik soldier or kirin soldier, niriks just being pissed kirin, lost their lives, rather they where one of the only species able to harm the umbrum without so much as weapon and just their own bodies being a weapon for use against them.

Crystal screamed with the effort it took to keep the corruption out, but she could feel it slowly seeping in, the other, smaller corrupted crystal hearts beginning to spread black crystal across the entire Empire, causing structural damage to other buildings and causing some to fall, anyone who touched the crystals would have it spread across their flesh in a horrifically painful and agonizing way before they would be killed, their organs growing crystals inside them, and their own brain having crystals pierce their grey matter like magical brain tumors.

The feed to my pipboy activated and a hologram of Crystal began to scream at me. "Lorenzo! I don't know how much longer I can stop this corruption, we need to use the gem!" She screeched, her holographic body becoming staticy.

The gem? OH HOT FUCK THE GEM! I had almost forgotten I had this damned thing! I rushed my way down the palace floors in such a state of hurry that I flat out forgot to even think of using the molecular relay to just teleport, and made my way up to the containment unit that held the heart, it was to prevent theft, and jammed the thing you use on the pipboy to first unlock vault 111 from within, and watched the case pop open. Oh Jesus Christ the heart was covered in a layer of black crystal with what looked like purple veins on it, just as I pulled the gem out of my inventory I was grabbed and yanked back and tossed into the ground. I stood up bringing out my beam rifle to use, and saw a black mare with red slit eyes, fangs, and the same horn you'd see on Sombra any normal day, she was glaring at me. "I can't allow you to do that sweetie, now run along before I decide to use you as a meal as well." She turned around and reached for the heart, causing it to pulse faster, before I shot her.

The shot didn't kill her, but it certainly did get her attention as she spun around and sort of, walked right through me, she seemed rather shocked that nothing was happening, before she tried again, and again, before I shot her in the shoulder and leaped over to the crystal heart, and jammed the white gem against it. There was a bright flash as everything went white, then black.

The Tree Of Harmony's image, a transparent Twilight Sparkle, grinned watching the blast wave ripple across Equis, it could feel the effects of the blast as umbrum where torn to shreds by it, finally the Tree had another spot from which it could influence events and people to suit its needs, along with the needs of Equis. For now however, it would be content to sit in its place as it always had done before, for thousands of years, and for thousands more it would sit, wait, observe and grow, spread its power throughout Equis as a whole, rather than just Equestria, all the world would be united not in name, but in Harmony Itself.

-----------------------------------------------------Three Days Later, King Lorenzo's Point Of View------------------------------

I woke up to the sound of beeping, and opened my eyes to see myself in the hospital room I had constructed to give myself, or members of the herd medical attention if it was needed at any time, rather than go to a public hospital and either get mobbed, or bothered by ponies or other species who wouldn't take a no. Looking to my side I saw a needle in my arm, and pulled it out before injecting myself with a stimpack, and looking over to see Chrysalis next to the hospital bed, she smiled at me before speaking, her tone serious. "Lorenzo, whatever it is you did, it worked, the Umbrum are gone not only from the Empire, but from Equis itself, aside from Sombra, but....I have bad news, several dozen buildings got destroyed in the fight, and we have taken 35 thousand losses, 35 thousand soldiers, each one gone, and 25 civilian casualties as well."

I waited a few moments, before sitting up and rubbing my forehead. "God damn it this could have never been easy, alright I want a memorial for those who where lost in the fighting to be constructed, and I want the ruble cleared away and the buildings rebuilt." I stood up, my legs somewhat shaking due to not having used them for what I assumed, was more than a single day.

Chrysalis nodded. "That's already being done, it turns out two humans blew the building they where in up in an effort to kill the Umbrum attacking them, causing a massive amount of damage as the building slammed into another, then another, you get the idea, this isn't going to be something that can be fixed in a few weeks, this is going to take about a year if the estimates given to me are correct, as well as the loss of life taking its toll on those whom are in the military, many are tired and worn out, some have developed PTSD from this, and have already begun seeing various doctors for treatment for it." She said with a heavy sigh.

I sighed as well. "Alright, anything else?" I asked not wanting to hear anything else horrible.

Chrysalis nodded. "Yes actually the Abyssinians have landed back in their city, and have begun to repair the damage done to it, the damage to the wall is being worked on 24/7 by a fully robotic repair team, the wall should be repaired in a month, at best, two at worst, and aside from this, we got off lightly, Equestria, Griffons, and Diamond Dogs suffered millions of losses because they couldn't evacuate all their civilians like we and the Abyssinians managed, thankfully sealing off the underground superstructure seems to have worked, as its fully operational, so food won't be a problem, nor water and electricity."

I sat down in a nearby chair with a sigh again. "I thank God that we managed to get the civilians out of the danger for the most part, alright, its time to begin the slow process of repairing an rebuilding, once we're rebuilt we can offer aid to the other kingdoms." I looked up, only to see everything was white. "What the hell?...." I stood up and looked behind me, only to see my chair was gone as well, before I heard a giggle behind me, so I turned around to see a tall feral, meaning four legged, alicorn with bright blue eyes, a cherry red mane and tail, and when I mean tall, I mean she was about five times the size of MY Celestia from back on my Equis.

The Alicorn sat down, and without warning a chair appeared beneath me. "Hello Maxwell, or, Lorenzo as you call yourself now."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who are you, where am I, and how the absolute hell did you know my name from before I went to my Equis?"

The Alicorn laughed, bright and bubbly. "Simple my little human, I was the one who brought you to Equis to begin with, I was the one to give you the powers you have, and have allowed you to keep and use, and it seems I made the correct choice in doing so, since you could deal with the Umbrum, you are suited for the task I brought you to your original Equis for."

I tilted my head in confusion. "What task would this be? Also, don't ignore the first question, just who the hell are you?"

She smiled. "I am Faust, as for the task, well you'll find out soon enough little human, for now I must go back to tending the multiverse, but I will be keeping a special eye on you and your universe." Her horn lit up with a bright white magic before everything went black. Faust smiled as she carefully put the Crystal Empire back into its spot in the Frozen North, having to make some more room to fit the additional land Lorenzo had gotten from the Changelings, such a silly little human, always striving to advance, to overcome what hasn't been done before, she smiled again, she had picked well, now it came down to watching what happened.

Author's Notes:

Hiya all! Thus comes the end of this installment of 'a new empire' the next one will happen, so don't you worry your socks about that, so tell me how did ya like this chapter? I'm not good with ending stories, so lemme know what ya think! The discord server will remain open, because when I decide to write the next installment (and there will be one) I will post updates n shit there like I did here, like said before, comment, share, and just generally share this series with anyone ya think might like it.

shameless plug for a friend, check out his story

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/476069/walking-in-shadows

This is why chapters have been coming out so fast lately, I was excited to see the end of this part of the series, but lemme tell ya, I've damn near written myself to death, likely gonna take a break for a short while, a week or two, lol

Here is what the plasma rifles the akun used looked like

once the Akun pictures are finished, I'll post them here in a blank chapter for you all to see! if the others are finished as well, I'll post those too, either way, I hope ya enjoyed this small part of the 'a new empire' series! Never expected to have this many chapters lmfao