My Revolution - Miracle of Sound
High into the sky, towers of smoke climbed against the sun. The ring of blades echoed down the streets of Canterlot, joined by the crack of wooden barricades beneath the hooves of the invaders. Above it all, Shining Armor watched in silence, his men below racing like ants beneath his gaze. Though the smoke stung his eyes, it was a greater blessing that it hid the ruin of the city from sight.
"Sir! The revolutionaries have broken through the western cordon! You must retreat to the palace!"
He didn't even turn to the pegasai runner as he replied. "Fall back with the others. I will be along shortly."
"But sir--" The pegasus found himself silenced by a single glare.
"Fall back. That is an order." Mutely, the pegasus complied, leaving Shining armor alone.
Through the smoke he could see the violet flags flying high. Like a forest they waved in the wind, strapped to brooms and sticks where spears were in short supply. Equestria's own flag still flew above them, but tattered and torn with scores of arrows, its edges still glittering with the frost of their shafts. He slowly hefted his helm and placed it upon his head, pulling the lever that managed the gate portcullis. It closed shut with a clang that echoed even over the steps of the approaching horde.
Rather than run, he jumped down the far side of the wall, the now sealed gate at his back as telekinesis slowed his fall. Before him, a wall of crystal advanced, some clad in armor, others only in their conviction. He watched as they encircled him, none willing to come closer, but each facing him with firm resolve. From their number, a lone pony emerged, slightly taller than the rest, her flowing hair bound back by her glittering helm.
She might have been beautiful, under other circumstances.
"Mi Amore Cadenza?" was all he asked.
"Captain Shining Armor?" she replied.
When he nodded, she continued. "Will you stand aside, and let justice take its course?"
"I will see justice done, but in Celestia's name, not yours." He lifted a fallen spear from the streets, abandoned by a guard in their flight.
"What is just is freedom. The freedom my people deserve." She lifted her own blade, its length glittering in the light of fire and day. "The freedom Celestia owes us. The freedom we have come to collect."
"I hope the price is worth it." Gritting his teeth, he lunged.
"It is." She knocked the spear aside with a graceful flourish, her wings flaring to warn back her army.
In midst of the horde, they dueled. He advanced and retreated, his spear a thicket of strikes. Her sword was a river, washing away his blows in its sweeping curves. Again and again, he braved the rapids with his offense, trying in vain to find a path to the mare behind, but every time she caught him in her flowing currents and smashed him away. And so it was the two stayed locked in stalemate, spear and blade in perfect balance.
The sun left its height, and the fires spread their smoke, casting their arena in darkness. Sweat poured from both, the entire battle brought to a halt on their shoulders. Their strikes grew sluggish, their parries sloppy, until luck determined as much as skill. It was then that he put all his strength into one final thrust. One final blow to end it all.
He felt the yielding strike of flesh.
He blinked, sweat and exhaustion clouding his eyes. Upon the end of his weapon sat a mare, but not the alicorn he'd stood against. She was just a mare, no real weapon but the battered and bloody trowel still gripped between her bloodstained teeth. As he watched, it fell from her grasp, and she collapsed to the street even as the alicorn rushed to her side.
"This," the mare whispered into the silence, "is not your battle to lose, princess."
As if some great bond had been cut, the horde rushed forward, and Shining could only look up at the tide of cold steel that fell upon him. As he fell to the street, his own blood splashing from their falling blades, his last sight was of the sun above, slowly passing into shadow.
And the flag of the Crystal Empire flying high.
Applejack drew a deep breath. Around her, the broken fields of Equestria drifted in their newfound dance, great mountains of earth lifted into the sky like clouds. Beneath her, the burning red of the raw earth. Above her, the cold blue of the empty sky. Before her, the crackling figure of the castle she'd once called a second home.
Settling her stetson, she began to run, the uneven earth threatening to crumble at every step. In the distance, other fragments of ground beckoned, seperated only by the expanse of open air and the drop that would result. All the same, she never slowed, letting her hooves beat out a steady rhythm as she found her stride. All too soon, the edge was upon her, and she did the only thing she could, the only thing she had to.
She jumped.
Air rushed past her ears and through her hair, snatching away her hat on the turbulent winds. She barely registered the loss as her hooves hit rock, the boulder beneath her beginning to spiral as it bore her weight. Clutching tight, she rode whatever arcane current held the stone in its grip as it whipped about. Around her, the world spun like a top, and her next destination along with it.
She jumped.
The spinning never stopped, the wind whipping its direction around in a whirlwind, her landing point flashing past between worlds of red and blue. She reached out, only for her back to find terra firma instead, the blow lancing through her every bone. Panting, she grit her teeth and rolled upright, eyes scanning the horizon for the gleaming castle in the sky. Settling upon it, she began again.
She jumped.
The time she was ready for the buckling earth. Before her drifting perch could give way, she was already moving to the next.
She jumped.
The wind howled past, but not out of control like before. Now it mirrored her motion, solid, directed. For an instant as the world passed beneath her hooves, she wondered if this was what Rainbow Dash felt like. Then she fell to earth, and felt the solid force of the ground through her hooves as she pressed forward once more.
She jumped.
No, she realized, this was not what rainbow felt. Rainbow was a born flier. With her wings, the air was always in her grasp. For her, there was not truly a sky, not like there was to an earth pony. Everything was her domain. She would never know the feeling of the leap, of the freefall and landing. Of throwing oneself to chance.
She jumped.
It filled her with exhileraton. It filled her with sadness. Rainbow would never know this. To a life always in control, she would never know the risk, the joy, of jumping and falling.
She jumped.
The castle was closer now, but it didn't seem to matter as much. Family, Equestria, they were concerns, but smaller now. There was more to the journey itself. The push of her hooves and the moment of freedom between every step. That instant where all things came down to fate and chance, and there was nothing but experience of that fleeting instant.
She jumped.
Crystal chimed beneath her hooves as branches crackled with violet lightning above. For an instant, she hesitated, looking back at the world she'd so briefly come to know. A world of uncertain footing and constant risk. Suddenly, she had the strangest impression that this was where she'd always been meant to be. And within the crystal castle lay the means to end it.
She lingered a moment longer, then let out a sigh she didn't realize she was holding. She knew what she had to do. Running a hoof through her unbound mane, she looked out once more across this strange new world. She turned to put the crystal castle at her back.
She jumped.
