Dark Revelations

Hope for the Crystal Empire was diminishing as the invader made its way closer to the crystal heart.

Princess Cadence glanced at the window adjacent to her throne. She watched as her once beautiful empire, full of love and life, was burning in a display of hell fire, becoming an empire of ash and despair. Her guardians might as well have become old toys that needed to be thrown away, as they only delayed the undying creature instead of stopping it.

This beast had the shape of a dragon. Its scales as dark as charcoal, rigid as the roughest of surfaces. Bright green eyes that screamed vengeance and blood lust. Its claws were sharp enough to lacerate the strongest of defenses. A wide snout that could smell fear from those even with the strongest will. An aura of shadow emanated from its body, poisoning any guardian that got too close. The dragon blew a flame that matched the color of its eyes, which voraciously consumed everything in its path, whether it be people, castles or hope.

For Princess Cadence, this fire was eradicating all three. Once she saw that nearly all her guardians had been killed trying to vanquish the beast, she knew it would only be a matter of time before she would join them. No matter what defense Cadence formed, every counter attack that was made, every strike that was struck when it seemed that the dragon was vulnerable, it was all futile. None of those plans resulted in a single scratch.

There can only be one thing this demon was after, the crystal heart, but why?

There can only be one person that seeks the crystal heart. This carnage must be King Sombra's doing. "He's somehow involved in this," Cadence thought. "Just when I thought I killed that malicious bastard, he always comes back. I will never let him get the crystal heart."

Cadence only spoke words of false hope. Deep down, she knew her death and the theft of the crystal heart would be inevitable. Cadence had no idea how to slay this dragon, or even make it out alive with the crystal heart. Each earth shattering step the dragon takes towards her castle is the clock counting down. She had to think of a plan that wouldn't backfire, and quick.

Shining Armor ran into the throne room with great urgency, each step of his boots clanking on the shiny crystalline floor below. His white titan armor glistened in the bright light of the room. The bulky look created by the sheer size of his chest plate and shoulder pads didn't seem to slow him down. He carried an assault rifle with both hands as he ran, with a paint that matched his armor, accompanied by a red stripe. The way the gun was manufactured indicated that the weapon was one of the newer additions from Suros, only a few of the exotics were ever made, but, a prince as prominent as Shining Armor always made sure he was equipped with the best weaponry.

"Cadence! We have to get out of here," Shining Armor exclaimed.

"How?! That dammed dragon is destroying everything we throw at it," Cadence thought he would be astute enough to know already.

"I'll distract it while you escape with the crystal heart," Shining Armor proposed.

"Are you crazy?! I'm not going to let you throw your life away!" Princess Cadence was disturbed at how quickly Shining Armor thought of that. "Besides, have you seen what that thing did to all those guardians? It can swiftly wipe out ten of them at once, why would you think you would by time for once second?!" Cadence didn't want to lose the person that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

"Do you have any better plan?" Shining Armor responded. He hoped she would refute this plan, Shining Armor didn't want to lose Cadence too.

However, Cadence didn't. As idiotic as his plan seemed, it was something. Every plan Cadence came up with against the dragon so far only resulted in immediate failure. It was like no mortal could possibly slay, let alone keep up with its unfathomable power.

Just as Cadence was going to accept Shining Armor's idea, the head of the beast shattered the glass windows and blew one mighty flame towards the throne room. Shining Armor ran for Princess Cadence with great speed, and grabbed her, his momentum never slowed one bit as he led towards one of the windows behind Cadence's throne. He never planned to stop as he jumped from the window. Fortunately for both, titans had the lift ability, which allowed them to make a soft landing on the crystalline ground.

The dragon followed to their location. Knowing his death was inevitable, knowing after this, he was never able to even see his wife ever again, Shining Armor took of his helmet and gave Princess Cadence a deep kiss on the lips, he wanted to savior the short time they were husband and wife. The warmth of Shining Armor's lips sent chills through Cadence's spine. Then she wrapped her arms tightly around Shining Armor, also wanting to make their last moments fulfilling, but just like that, their kiss was over.

"Go!" Shining Armor exclaimed.

"I don't have the crystal heart. I have to go get it," Cadence would rather die by his side.

"I don't care, just go while you still can! I'll have my ghost send my ship for you," It pained Shining Armor dearly to lose her like this.

On queue, Shining Armor's ghost was released, and called for their ship. It descended to the ground below, the white and blue of the phaeton class ship landed right behind Cadence. She reluctantly boarded the ship, doing her best to hide her tears. This was not how she wanted for him to die, fighting to protect her, not in her embrace. They never got to live the life they both envisioned for each other. The hatch of the ship closed as she walked inside, shutting down a lot more then just the opening of the ship. Shining Armor's ghost set its destination and the ship flew to the sky above.

Shining Armor wasn't alone when he fought the dragon. Realizing what just happened, the surviving guardians from that disastrous front line defense rushed towards the dragon to buy the princess time. Some of the warlocks nova bombed the beast, the remaining hunters activated their golden guns, the defender titans established defenses with their ward of dawns as they all fought their very hardest fighting for the Crystal Empire, no matter how futile it was.

However, the dragon was only slowed by the brave defenders of the Crystal Empire. The creature eventually made its way to the crystal heart, burning and slashing every guardian in its path with ease, and claimed its prize. Completing its brutal strike on the poor Crystal Empire, with one huge flap of its wings, the dragon flew to the mountains beyond.