World War Equus: Tales of War

The Crystal Empire has a special history when it came to warfare, their infamous Caroleans tore across Griffon and Equestrian lands during the age of Sombra, but when Equestria calls upon her allies in her time of need, who else but the Caroleans will answer the call and drive fear into the hearts of  their enemies? This arc is about the Crystalline War between the Crystal Empire's Caroleans and the Griffon's 4th army and the loss of one of the greatest leaders the Crystal ponies ever knew.

Shining Armor sat in his office looking over the guard reports of the Crystal Empire. The border outposts reports were far more worrisome than the regular reports of noise complaints and drunkards. Apparently a handful of Griffon scouts had been caught outside of the city itself and were being held in the dungeon. Shining was contemplating what to do with these Scouts when a guard entered. "Captain Armor, your presence has been requested in the throne room."

Shining nodded. His wife, Cadence, the Crystal Empires ruler, likely wanted to talk with him about something important. "Thank you private, I'll make my way there now." The guard saluted and left his office. Shining followed and locked his office before making his way to the Throne room. As he made his way there, he noticed some of the nobles and ambassadors that stayed in the castle talk nervously about something. The only words he could pick up were 'War' and 'Doom of the Empires'. This bothered Shining Armor. Sure he heard the reports that many nations on Equus were dealing with ideological shifts and more and more funding was going into military research and recruitment each year, but that felt like a natural part of history, technology advanced and world nations did everything in their power to keep up with the times. Surely this couldn't lead to a large full-scale conflict, right?

He entered the Throne room and could quickly tell something was wrong. The court was in uproar about something and his wife was in the middle of it all. Nothing got the court so riled up ever, even the suggestion to pardon some of Sombra's acts didn't anger them this much. When Cadence made eye contact with Shining she held up a hand to silence the courtroom. All eyes fell upon her as she stood. "At 1:00 PM today, we received word that the Griffon Empire declared war against Equestria. Already, the Griffon army made their way to Stalliongrad where Equetrian forces and local militias are waging a brutal and bloody battle for the city. As an ally of Equestria, we must prepare our response to this action."

Once again the nobles fought. "We should mobilize immediately!" "This is not our fight, we should make peace with the Griffons!" "We were brought back by Equestria, why should we abandon them in their most dire hour?" "We Crystal Ponies are superior to them! We should do as Sombra did and bring both empires to their knees!"

They were all silent as Shining fired a single shot of his service pistol, the M1911, out the courtroom window. He paused for a second before speaking. "The declaration of war made by the Griffons against Equestria were completely unjustified. The Princesses need everyone of their allies to aid them in this time. Equestria would do the same if the Griffons invaded us, so why should we be any different?" A few of the nobles look ashamed while others puffed their chests out in pride. "Either way, border posts are reporting sightings of Griffon scouts throughout the Empire, even as far as here, in the capital." After the small bouts of outrage at this, Shining continued. "We need to mobilize our forces before the Griffons start knocking on our door or by the end of this year, there won't be a Crystal empire." The court once again burst into noise. but this time they were in complete support of aiding Equestria against the Griffons. Shining, however, had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

Shining marched down the hallways of the Crystal Amy's barracks, where he was told to view what soldiers the army had in reserve since their banishment hundreds of years ago. When Shining got near the parade grounds, the last thing he was expecting to hear were organs. He opened the door out of the barracks to see over a thousand crystal ponies in nearly ancient uniforms that fit in more with the age of muskets than with modern military uniforms. They were dressed in blue coats with yellow sashes and white pants with black buckled shoes as they knelt and sang a prayer in their native language. Shining looked on in awe as each soldier stood up and marched into a massive line formation when they finished their prayer. They stood stock still at attention as Shining stepped into the sun. A crystal pony in a more decorated uniform marched up to Shining and saluted. "King of the Empire, I, General Quartz, present the Crystal Empire Caroleans! These soldiers will fight and die as per your orders, to hold up the empire and their faith with their last dying breath, for the glory of the Empire and your will, we give our lives." The general and all of the soldiers took a knee once he finished, presenting swords each one carried at their sides.

Shining gave the gathered army one more look before clearing his throat. "Caroleans of the Crystal Empire! I, Captain of the Crystalline Guard, bring dire news. Our allies, the Equestrians, request our aid in fighting back the Griffon Empire that threaten our borders! For the Honor of the Empire and for our homeland, we march to war!" The Caroleans broke out into a cheer at the end of Shining's short speech. The made way to the armory and gathered the M1 Garands the Equestrians provided the Empire during it's foundation. Each soldier looked over the weapon, loading it and reloading it before the felt the were familiar with it's  inner workings. They then got into the lines they formed before. General Quartz then shouted something at the amassed troops. They about-faced and reformed the lines while facing a blank wall. He shouted once again and the first line of Caroleans took a knee. Shining was confused as to the nature of this drill until the general shouted something one last time and raised his sword. The Caroleans aimed at the wall en masse. The general dropped his sword and gave one last loud shout. The front lines of Caroleans fired their Garands in one massive volley, followed by a second and third. Only when the first two lines emptied their magazines, did Shining realize what still needed to be done.

"Attention all!" He shouted, the Caroleans reformed in front of him and stood still. "It has come to my attention that warfare has changed significantly since your banishment, so we have a lot of training to do before we engage the enemy. But I have the utmost faith that when we meet the Griffons in battle, they will learn to fear the Caroleans!" The cheer he heard wasn't as loud as before, but still plenty loud. These soldiers still had plenty of time to fight in this war, but Shining wanted to know they were 100% prepared to fight as a modern day army than a line regiment during the age of Sombra.