Axel Rehgen: Crystal Hero

Chapter One

Thrown to the Past

It was a sunny day in the Crystal Empire. No problems have been seen since Sombra was defeated once and for all. Everything seemed perfect. Especially for an earth pony named Axel Rehgen. Most ponies thought that his profession was a lost one, Repairing and fixing axes. He was a professional.

Since the Crystal Empire returned to the world, he was making a great amount of bits fixing up the old guard weaponry. He originally planned on retiring early until Princess Luna came to him personally and asked him to go. She always spoke to him with such sadness, like she knew he was going to have a tough future.

At first he thought it was useless to go. Most guard use spears and swords. Apparently, a lot of the Crystal Guard used axes as well.

Axel was a well-built pony. Not too muscular but not too scrawny. He had a dark lime coat as well as a red spikey mane with black tips. His cutie mark was that of a twin headed axe. Everypony knew he was good with his eyesight because he had a rare trait. Dark purple eyes. For most, this would seem as just a rare eye color. What none knew though, was that it meant enhanced eyesight. It was rare for Unicorns and Pegasi, but Axel was the first Earth pony to have it since the hero of the first war against Sombra.

The name was lost to time.

Axel was done for the day, having fixed a good amount of weapons with his coworkers who were all shoved into the same forge. They all complained about the out of date equipment but Axel held to his roots. His family was always gifted with smiths of all types. His ancestor was the one that made the armor for the Crystal Hero, as he was called these days.

He started loading his cart with the weapons. The unicorn he worked with helped him to make sure that nothing got damaged again. After that, he was on his way to the palace. He passed by several shops and a small farmers market on his way. Any guard that he strode past would nod to him. He was well known for his love to the old ways and his dedication to his work.

“It appears that everything is in order, Mr. Rehgen. Before you leave, Princess Cadence would like to speak to you in her personal chambers.” Shining Armor said. Axel just nodded and walked off. He never picked up his payment when he made a delivery. It was added to his payment at the end of the week.

‘I wonder what the princess would want me for. Maybe to personally thank me for helping with her guard? Maybe get a kiss on the cheek? I don’t know. Hopefully it won’t take long. It’s Taco Tuesday!” He thought to himself when he got to the Princesses chamber door. He knocked twice.

“Come in!”

He opened the door to see Princess Cadence at her desk, writing something on an old looking parchment. He came up next to her and bowed. “Captain Armor said that you wanted to see me?” he asked as he got back up. He watched her finish her letter before rolling it up and sealing it closed.

Cadence finally turned to him and gave him a sad look. She looked at him before turning to the closet and used her magic to pull a full length mirror out. “I am in need of your services in the matters of the Crystal Empire.” She stated before putting a set of really old, mercenary style saddle bags on him. She set the letter in one as well as a small sealed box. In the other, she put in a gracious amount of gems and bits. “I’m sorry to do this, but you must partake in this journey. I don’t know when you will return. I don’t know if you will return.”

With that, she shot a beam of magic at the mirror. It started to change colors. It looked like a kaleidoscope. She materialized his personal axe onto his back. He started to panic. “Princess! What are you doing!? Are you insane!?”

Before he could run, he was lifted by her magic. “I’m sorry. Hopefully you can forgive me.” She said before he was thrown at the mirror. He closed his eyes, expecting to just hit the mirror head on and end up with shattered glass everywhere. He opened his eyes back up to realize that he was thrown into a portal.

He saw the tree line and fell right into it, hitting branches and knocking leaves down as he went. When he finally fell to the ground, it was head first. The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was hearing somepony ask what that sound was.