Pandemonium. It was the only word to describe the flurry of activity currently spreading through the hastily-constructed tent camps. There were shouts to apprehend all Sanctuary soldiers, while others bellowed to retreat to the sky-wagons.

Cacophonous, thundering sounds tore through the clamor, making some members flinch momentarily. Ponies, Dogs and Griffins were tackled and pushed away, complete chaos taking reign of the situation. And over and over, a synthetic voice repeated, "By the order of Sevilin Jacobs: retreat to the sky-wagons."

Several more of the thundering explosions made their rounds, some ponies being scattered by the weapons from AMA. A high-pitched screeching sound soared into the sky, trailed by twelve red lights. The crimson orbs fell back to earth, lighting an entire Equestrian squad alight and scattering them across the battlefield.

The Praetorians pushed against the Equestrians, securing pathways to the sky-wagons for the rest. Wounded troops were loaded into the wagons, followed by soldiers. The sky-wagons filled at a consistent rate, taking off while griffins and pegasi battled to keep the Equestrians away.

AMA began firing on the enemy sky-wagons, blasting the wooden carriages to splinters. Speeding blue javelins tore into the wooden structures, easily tearing them asunder with massive explosions.

Several carriages were saved with the help of Equestrian unicorn troops, shielding their transportation from the mechanized onslaught. Sevilin himself stood at a sky-wagon, ushering his troops in hastily.

Several panicked cries and confused shouts were tossed his way, which he could only reply to with 'I don't know'. The Praetorians darted to their respective sky-wagons and the doors slammed shut. With the sky-wagons taking off in dozens, Sevilin got inside one himself. "Go!"

BoBo and AMA flew alongside the sky-wagon containing Sevilin, protecting him from any incoming attack. As the carriages flew away from the Crystal Empire, the Princesses burst into the skies after them.

AMA began firing on Celestia, whose shield batted away the blasts with ease. "Sevilin!" Luna roared after him. They had begun catching up to the sky-wagon, their large wings and extreme endurance more than enough to give them an advantage.

A blue flash came from the center of the city and Sevilin watched in awe as a massive field of azure magic closed the Princesses off from the sky-wagon by inches. Sevilin's troops flew away from the city, while the Equestrians stared after them in stupor.

Celestia and Luna lit their horns together and teleported back to the center of town, where the Crystal Heart was churning out copious amounts of magic. The Crystal Ponies, amassed in the streets and at the Heart, glared at the Princesses.

"What have you done, my little ponies?" Celestia asked of them.

One stallion, his coat returning to its crystalized state, came forward and stared up at Princess Celestia. "You're not our Princess." The crowd of Crystal Ponies shouted in kind and shook their hooves in the air at them, voicing their displeasure.

"You attacked him! You attacked him!"

"What did he do to you?"

"Sevilin is the one who saved us from Sombra!"

Things were getting out of hand in a hurry, with the crowd getting itself riled up from the shoving, yelling and general tension. A stallion fought against three soldiers that pushed him back from the Princesses.

Hearing his cries, several more Crystal ponies came to their brother's aid, throwing the troops away from him. More guards surrounded the rowdy ponies, which rallied more Crystal ponies at the site. The two groups shoved one another, angrily shouting at the other.

"Get off of us!"

"Leave our city!"

"You're not welcome here!"

"Agh! He stabbed me! He stabbed me!"

With that last shout, the Crystal ponies exploded into a riot, finally overwhelming the soldiers and throwing them on their backs. The crystalized equines rushed every aggressor short of the Princesses, bowling them over and taking the brunt of their weapons.

Glancing blows from bladed weapons did nothing to the Crystal ponies, their gemstone hide able to reflect sloppy swings. Celestia and Luna both attempted to speak, but even the booming Royal Canterlot Voice proved futile amongst the rancorous ponies.

"PLEASE, CALMETH THINE HOCKS! SETTLE THYSELVES IMMEDIATELY!" The fighting continued, the sounds of swords scraping stone and cries of anger and terror.

Chaos had struck the heart of the Empire.

Some time later, Sevilin's carriages landed. Immediately everyone poured out in a rush to see family and friends. Sevilin, however, had more pressing matters to attend to. The man sprinted past the crowds and leapt over a few citizens in his rush, making a beeline for his quarters.

Pushing through the doors and startling more than a few attendants and guards, he finally reached his room. Two doors suited to his height awaited him and he pushed them open quickly.

Sevilin moved to a wall on his right, grabbing a dagger in the process. Jamming the dagger between the stones, the wall slowly fell backwards. The stone bricks folded into one another, pulling back and retracting to the side as Sevilin walked inside briskly.

Once he was in the dark tunnel, the wall sealed back up, leaving him in the dark before an array of blue torches along the walls lit. Sevilin ran at full sprint, even with the light throbbing in his abdomen.

A few twists and turns later, and he found himself staring at a perfectly squared tunnel twenty feet high and twenty feet wide. His footfalls echoed inside the cavernous space, the lights glowing brightly as he approached his destination.

A huge wall of black steel seemed to glare back at him, the eerie blue flames reflecting from the surface ominously.

"Alexandriae, secreta senis dicere divos."

The melodious hum of the inner mechanics working were like war drums in Sevilin's ears. The sharp squeal that followed like the screams of terror he had long since abandoned when he leapt into the Event Horizon.

"Welcome Sevilin. The knowledge of Library Alexandria is open to you."

The Empire's reputation, unfortunately, had come with him.

"What the hay is going on?" Twilight Sparkle stared out of the shattered window, watching Crystal ponies struggle against the well-armed Equestrian forces. It wasn't even a fair fight.

Unicorns methodically placed the Crystal ponies in ethereal chains, tossing them to the side and moving on to the other rioters.

Twilight was joined at the window by Rarity and Fluttershy. No words were said as the Crystal ponies were overpowered. Standing in the midst of the commotion were Celestia and Luna, staring at the chaos with blank expressions.

"This isn't right…" Pinkie mumbled behind the others, gazing at her hooves in a distracted shock. "Something went wrong, somepony flipped a switch." She looked up at Twilight just as the unicorn turned around.

"What is it Pinkie? Who flipped a switch?" Twilight asked, kneeling down. Pinkie trembled, then hiccuped before ending her spasm with a gut-wrenching pain.

"The story… it's going to collapse into darkness."

Twilight grew more concerned. "Story? What are you talking about Pinkie?"

"Dipped in pitch so black it will cloud the minds of everypony. We'll attack first, the others won't listen. Then… Then the peace will be shattered with one thrust from the spear."

Shouting from outside drowned out Twilight's voice while Pinkie continued to mumble incoherently. "Remove the Crystal Heart! Wrench it from its place!" shouted Luna.

"NO!" Cadence swooped down from the top of the tower, landing with a thundering boom. The street cracked slightly beneath her hooves, and her horn glowed offensively. "I cannot let you touch the Crystal Heart."

Twilight looked down upon the scene with frantic worry. The situation was taking a massive dive into panic, and the Equestrian soldiers took a few steps back. Shining Armor teleported beside his wife in a flash of violet, his horn preparing a shield spell in an instant.

"Stand down immediately," he demanded of his troops, many of who were his friends and subordinates. Conflicted, many of the ponies looked between the Princesses of the Sun and Moon and then back to Shining Armor.

"Shining Armor, you are like a nephew to me, now stand aside and give us the heart." Celestia's voice became grave and domineering, her wings ready to launch her into the air while her eyes locked onto Shining's.

Shining closed his eyes and exhaled, then looked to his wife whose face was hard as stone and her gaze as set. "I'm sorry Princesses," he said. "I can't and I won't."

Luna stomped her hoof, sending a spiderweb of cracks out farther than Cadence's drop had. "So be it." With a burst of magic, she appeared behind Shining, hitting him in the back with a stun spell.

Utilizing Cadence's shock, Celestia released a flare that exploded in the younger alicorn's face, throwing her backwards and immobilizing her.

With a violent tug of magic and more than enough anger, Luna tore the Crystal Heart from its levitation pedestal. The cold, howling winds rushed back into the city in a flash, sending shivers down everypony's spine.

However, they couldn't tell if the shuddering was caused by the biting cold, or by the domination of the Crystal Empire.

"Enable all defensive and offensive capabilities. Activate radar and biological threat scanner. Push fabrication and industrialization systems to maximum. Arm weapons system."

The machine hummed. "Determine targets."

A helmet lowered itself down to Sevilin's head, which he fit on and synced the threats to the database. The machine thrummed again and began giving updates on various machinations and apparatuses as they powered on.

"Threats acknowledged. Using information to devise strategy and weaknesses in armor, magic and psyche. Estimated time: twenty minutes. Standby," the deep voice boomed.

Sevilin ran to a platform, which began to glow once his boots made contact. "Fabrication 137E." The platform detached from the floor and zoomed across the factory floor, which had begun to put together ammunition and weapons minutes ago.

The platform landed and Sevilin bolted away. "Access armory!"

"State identification."

"Sevilin Jacobs of the Emancipator! Rank Thirteen Conquistador serving with his Grand Emperor's Imperial Fleet!"

"State Emperor lineage."

"Emperor Nero the Fifty-third! Descended from Emperor Augustine XV, and those before him!"

"Fleet identification."

"Gloria Romae!"

"State ships allotted to fleet."

"Seven Jupiter-class Annihilators! Fourteen Mars-class Reapers! One hundred and twelve Venus-class civilian ships!"

"State fleet escort."

"Sevilin Jacobs, Marcy Keeting, Henry DeShurio, Lars Panhale, Kendra Hunt!"

"Access granted. Sevilin Jacobs, welcome to Library Alexandria. How may I serve the Spear of the Emperor?"

"Begin preparations for the Conquistador!"

All processes stopped in the Library, a quick pause in production. "Beginning Conquistador fabrication." A chorus of metallic scraping, banging and clanking signified that the suit was starting to take its shape.

"Defensive systems fully operational. Weapons systems fully operational. Radar and biological threat scanner activated. No threats detected." The voice faded out while the factory boomed and clanked in the background.

Sevilin rushed to another station and began typing in pass codes with a great fervor in his fingers. "Locking down city limits."

"What's going on?" Trixie asked, her eyes wide with shock while wounded warriors were brought into people's homes for rudimentary healing. The entire city was in a clamor after the carriages had landed inside.

Chrysalis had sent out her changelings to secrete an ichor that sped up the creation of platelets where it was spread. The substance would triple the clotting speed and prevent those who received treatment from bleeding out.

The Changeling Queen herself flew above the crowds, directing swarms of changelings to those with serious injuries and commanding them to assist with heavy lifting in the case of damaged carriages.

A reverberating bass shook the windows of the city, startling everyone from their tasks. A shimmering, transparent field formed around the walls of the town, sealing off the area and a portion of the mountain from the outside.

The ground began to rumble, and large boxes with cylindrical tubes emerged from underneath aesthetically-placed boulders and from the mountainside.  

The inhabitants began to stir in a cautious fear while the machines clinked and clanked. "Really, what in the hell is going on?" Trixie asked.

"Fabrication of Conquistador del Cielo now completed. Prepare applicant for nerve binding immediately."

Sevilin's stare hardened as he stepped onto a cold platform. The same plastic coating covered his body and seeped into his pores, connecting to his nerve endings and sending electric bolts of pain spiking through his body.

"Initializing link and solidifying," the female voice said.

Sevilin felt his muscles contract and spasm while the nanomites were pumped into his blood stream. His fingers slowly came back under his control, followed by the rest of his extremities and then his torso.

He stretched his neck and blinked his eyes, the transparent film that covered them allowing his eyelids to slide over them easily.

"Attaching Conquistador armor," the male voice boomed.

Huge chunks of shaped osmiridium-plentium alloy came down on massive mechanical arms. Sevilin was grabbed by an arm and raised into the air while the suit was built up around him.

The legs were clamped over his, making him six feet taller than before, while the rest of the abdominal area was quickly enmeshed with the plates of metal. A chest piece larger than Sevilin entire upper body blocked his view of the rest of the process while receivers and transmitters were fixed to his face.

He heard, in the vast swell of darkness, the top pieces of the suit being placed and drilled into place. A pneumatic seal finished the process and Sevilin's world came back into focus with a flash of soft blue light.

The entire Library's system connected to his heads-up-display, showing the startled citizens and the final pieces of the Conquistador being attached outside of his suit.

Two gleaming, golden horns were brought to the sides of hid head and drilled into place much like his suit's shoulders. The two razor sharp implements stuck straight out and curved slightly downwards and around, giving him an intimidating look that was remembered by his enemies.

"Standard armament acquired. Attaching now," spoke the militaristic tone of the male AI. More buzzes and whirs were heard by Sevilin, who watched the plethora of arms being placed and attached to him.

Four Zeus rocket pods, a triple-barrel Ambit heavy repeater on his left gauntlet, two Lacedaemonian Javelin Barrages under his shoulder plates and a single Poseidon Trident attached to his right gauntlet.

"Deploy pole arm?" the detached voice asked him again.

"Affirmative," Sevilin replied, his arm and hand outstretched to receive his signature weapon. Nanomites flowed from his bloodstream and into his suit's Alexandria Communications, allowing the Library to send the weapon to him in a flash of quantum tunneling.

The spear appeared in his hand in a matter of seconds, its heavy shaft weighing little to Sevilin and his augmented physiology. The head of the spear fanned out and tapered off to a length of three feet, its serrated edges designed to tear through foes' armor.

The weapon, crafted from diamond nanorods and the blade coated in osmiridium, felt familiar and comfortable in Sevilin's hands. Giving it a flourish and spin, he let the spear twirl around his robotic hand.

Satisfied, he stored the weapon on his back and made for the entrance of the Library.

"It's time to prepare." Next Chapter: Chapter 15- Consilia Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes