Changeling Empire

"What are you planning to do? Bore me to death by glaring at me?",Blast Bomber jokes jabbing his fork to a brown food and eats it savagely much to the princesses disgust with Blast quietly muttering. "Not enough blood."

"How does it feel to be locked up once again?", Blast asks finishing his meal.

"You will not prevail, Blast.", Celestia said.

"Funny, didn't you say the same thing to Tirek?", Blast asks. "But that's right. Tirek didn't prevail, because of Twilight Sparkle and her friends along with the aid to that snake Discord. But that won't matter as the Mane Six are now prisoners of the Empress."

"You seem confident, you may have the Elements but there are other ponies, like Starlight who are able to prevail against threats.", Luna points out.

"Perhaps, but I doubt they'll prevail against this.", Blast said conjuring up a sphere showing the princesses what is going on in Canterlot. Celestia is more surprised to the fact that Blast, an Earth Pony, is able to use magic.

"That thing is unstoppable!", Starlight screams jumping away in time as the Steel Beast fires another fireball. Seeing that this is going nowhere the Steel Beast side cannons take aim and fires. Instead of fire balls the side cannons fire small fast magical blasts.

It fires at a pillar where Discord is hiding behind quickly shredding it to pieces. Discord panics and run.

In the air the Wonderbolts could only watch helplessly.

"Nothing is working!", Fleetfoot curse. "It possess the durability of a large dragon and the firepower of an alicorn."

Soarin looks down noticing where the Steel Beast is heading and gets an idea.

"Lead it to the castle!", Soarin said before taking off. "I've got an idea and it's our only shot."

"It would appear that 70% of Canterlot has been demolished and the Steel Beast is making it's way to the castle. Once the castle falls the symbol of Equestrian will be crushed and the other kingdoms will see how weak this land has become.", Blast said turning to the princesses. "Your friends are no match for the Steel Beast as it was originally intended to defeat Tirek."

"What do you mean defeat Tirek?", Cadance asks.

"Tell me this, how did Cerberus escape?", Blast asks. "It's because Gold Star let him loose along with many others."

Gold Star stands before hundreds of cages prisoners inside Tartaros among them is the bandaged Blast.

"Greetings my fellow brothers and sisters. I see you're all feeling down hoping to escape you're confines. Well you're in luck for I'm am in need of muscles. Here's the deal start fighting in you're cell and those of you who survive will be free and join me.", Gold Star announce.

Hearing that Blast grabs a unicorn and strangle him. During the fight Gold Star walks to Tirek's cell and opens the door before leaving.

"Gold Star intended to use Tirek as a pawn for his plan to take control of Equestria. Tirek would defeat and humiliate Equestria's defenders and Gold Star will move is and defeat Tirek with the Steel Beast. Doing so will give Gold Star the political advantage and have the public support. Unfortunately it didn't go as plan.

From a distance Gold Star watches Tirek blasting the landscape after absorbing the alicorn magic. Gold Star makes a satisfied smirk and leaves to get the Steel Beast. Just as he return he sees the Elements of Harmony defeating Tirek and sending him back to Tartaros.

"No! No! No!", Gold Star screams in rage and he draws his sword and starts cutting down trees. The Changeling Troopers were passing by only to see Gold Star having a tantrum. They then walk away to avoid confrontation.

"Realizing that the Elements of Harmony are the only obstacles to his path to power Gold Star decided to get rid of them first.", Blast explains. "And now that they're gone nothing can stand in our way."

"And what will you get in any of this?!", Celestia asks.

"Simple after I defeat Shining Armor, Gold Star will show up, "defeat me and the Steel Beast" and win the support of the public. Once that is done I will be "exiled" out of Equestria free to do whatever I want.", Blast explains. "I'll start by blowing up a village and watch villagers burn."

"You won't get away with this!", Celestia yells.

"And whose going to stop me?", Blast asks. "Three all powerful Alicorns, who lost in less than a minute against a broken horn unicorn? Or got captures by simple Changeling Drones? Give their magic away to a rookie alicorn rather than use it to fight Tirek?"

Blast then removes his robe revealing his body to the horrified princesses. Most of his body are covered with metal plates that included a glowing red eye on the left side of his face. A pair of metallic wings and a horn shock them even further.

"He's here.", Blast said with an evil grin.

Soarin bucks open the door of a closed down house and enters. To his relief he finds several barrels at the corner of the room.

Shining Armor approach the area where Blast suffered his burns. A magical blast as fired and explodes behind Shining Armor, but the unicorn remain unfazed from the attack. Blast laughs as he reveals himself.

"Very impressive, Shining Armor.", Blast comments clapping his hooves.

"Why did you miss on purpose?", Shining Armor asks.

"To defeat you so easily would be boring. The scar you gave me is throbbing... You made me lose everything in life!"

"Don't bullshit me! You who have eiliminated hundreds of lives have no right to say that! This time, by this horn, I will finish you!"

"Impudence! I will return the pain you dealt me by a hundred fold! Suffering... suffering... and then finally I will finish you!"

"Sorry, but I don't have time for that."

"You seem cocky for somepony who did no better than the princesses against threat. No matter, you'll be dealing with them first!"

With a wave of his hoof a large number of bipedal armored knights move in surrounding Shining Armor.

"Impressive isn't it? These armors are animated by magic, thus they cannot feel pain or know fear. The perfect soldiers, the Automatons."

Automatons

Shining remains calm and unnerved at the situation. "About a hundred?"

Shining Armor puts on his helmet. "The count is perfect."

With his magic, Shining Armor draws out a swords made of crystals from his side and readies to fight.

"One hundred foul beasts to strike down! The Unbreakable Shield! Shining Knight!", Shining Armor announce with his armor making a brief shine. He then use his magic to draw out his sword charging it with his magic. "C-Sword Vega!"

"As a former member of Caterlot's Paladin. It's only appropriate that you shall have a taste of it."

"Kill him!", Blast orders and with that the Automatons charge. Shining Armor himself charge forward to the large force and starts three down with his first swing with another three with his second swing. He then does a spin slash cutting down fourteen more. One attack Shining Armor from behind, but Shining bucks the helmet off. Shining Armor jabs his sword to the ground and throws a kick on three. He then throws his sword like a boomerang decapitating twenty surrounding him. Six form a line and fire the arrows, but Shining Armor grabs one and uses it's body as a shield. Shining then fires a powerful magical blast from his horn destroying the archers. An Automaton throws an axes at Shining, but he easily catches it and throws it back hitting directly to the head. Ten of them armed with spears and jab their weapon at once around Shining armor in an attempt to skewer him, but stallion jumps and fires another powerful blast. An Automaton armed with a gigantic axe makes a swing on Shining Armor, however he lands on the massive weapons and charge towards the wielder kicking it to the head. He then blocks off a sword strike from another and stabs it to the chest, before pulling his blade out with a swing and cutting down three more. Four manage to grabs hold of the stallion allowing one to toss a large boulder at him, but Shining teleports to safely resulting in the four being crushed instead, before he shoots down the tosser. One armed with a chained, spiked steel ball and a sledge makes a swing. Shining ducks in time resulting in five Automatons taking the blow. The Automaton then swings the sledgehammer downward crushing another Automaton as it tries to hit the evasive unicorn. One toss a black sphere with a lit fuse towards Shining, but Shining kicks it to the one wielding the hammer and ball blowing it up along with three more. Shining then use his magic to extend his sword's blade and makes one final swing wiping out the last seventeen of the Automatons.

"There we go!", Blast applauds. "There's the Guard, who I wanted the face and not his captain persona."

The Steel Beast shoots down the castle gate and slowly approach the castle. Trixie strikes the Steel Beast with a large hammer only to shake violently from the impact. Spitfire and three other Wonderbolts drop a large boulder on top of the Steel Beast, but did nothing to hinder it's progress.

"It's no good! We've tried everything!", Starlight exclaims as the Steel Beast aims for the castle.

"Everypony, lead it to the cliff!", Soaring calls out returning from whatever he was doing.

"Why?", Starlight asks.

"Trust me on this!", Soarin said, before grabbing Starlight. "I'll need your help on the last bit."

The Steel Beast fires, but the fireball disappears before it could hit the castle.

"You may be immune to magic, but your fireballs aren't.", Discord said. "If you want the castle, you'll have to take me out first. Catch me if you can!"

Discord makes a run for it with the Steel Beast following and firing on Discord. Discord makes it to the cliff and spots the Steel Beast charging towards him. Discord teleports away, but the Steel Beast stops before it could fall off the cliff. Soarin looks up and sees the Steel Beast starting to back up.

"Now!", Soarin said signalling Starlight, who is riding on him, to fire a magical beam towards several barrels on the cliff creating a massive explosion. The explosion cause the cliff to crack and due to the Steel Beast's heavy weight the cracks increase until the cliff breaks off from the city. The Steel Beast tumbles down the mountain slowly breaking apart before it explodes to it's fiery demise when it hits the ground. Everyone cheers at their success.

Shining Armor and Blast Bomber dukes it out with both sides evenly match, but Shining Armor manage to gain an advantage and points his sword to Blast's throat.

"Mad Grenadier, Blaster Bomber! Pray for forgiveness! This time, I will finish you completely.", Shining Armor said coldly.

"Hmph! You gonna let them die?", Blast asks removing an invisibility spell revealing the caged princesses.

"Cadance!", Shining screams seeing his wife letting his guard down allowing Blast to make a cheap shot on Shining Armor. Blast deliver move blows follow by cuts from his metallic wings.

"What's wrong? The fuse is almost up!", Blast said as the fuse is nearing the barrels. Shining Armor however simply continues to attack Blast. "Ignoring her? How cold! Shining Armor!"

Blast fires a powerful magical beam from his horn to Shining Armor's chest knocking him to the ground. "You can do nothing. Taste the bitter flavor of failing someone! This time with the cost of lives!"

Blast fires another another blast this time knocking Shining Armor off the cliff. Just as he gets up Blast jumps in and attack with more ferocity. The princesses could only watch helplessly as the fuse keeps burning. Blast knocks Shining to the ground and stomps on the chest.

"You can't even save your wife, while you're sister can! You're a weakling, failure, and a coward!", Blast mocks stomping Shining's chest again. "By now the Steel Beast have destroyed the castle. Add that to the list of failures for you and friends!"

Blast grabs Shining and slams him to the ground hard before throwing him aside. "Can you feel your helplessness? Is this all the stallion you are?"

Shining Armor breathes heavily coughing out silver blood, while getting back up. "Is that all you have to say? If that's all then try killing me in one shot!"

"What?"

"Can you do it? Are you capable of that?"

"As you wish... I'll send you to Tartaros, then I'll stab you're wife with your own horn!"

Shining raise his sword and waits. Blast pulls out a long cylindrical object.

"A perfect opportunity to test this musket.", Blast said pointing the weapon to Shining Armor. "This thing can fire a metal ball at the speed three ties of that of a magical blast fired from a unicorn."

After one minute of stillness, Shining Armor makes the first move charging forward to Blast. Blast sneers at the attempt and fires the weapon. The small metal ball flies towards Shining Armor's chest at amazing speed, but before it could hit Shining stops it with his sword, before redirecting it to the fuse cutting it off and stopping the flame. The three princesses and Blast were appalled at what just happened.

"What?! Dame you!", Blast screams tossing the musket aside. He then fires multiple powerful magical blasts as Shining Armor charge forward avoid each blast. He gets close enough and delivers multiple strikes on Blast's metallic body.

"The burning flame of my heart...", Shining said delivering another strike to Blast. "...has at long last been reignited!"

Shining delivers two more blows to Blast. "Be burnt out for the sake of peace!"

"**** you!", Blast screams charging his horn to overload in his final attempt to finish off Shining Armor, Shining remains calm and sees the others arriving to the scene.

"My friends are here, which means your Steel Beast is no more.", Shining said further enraging Blast. The Wonderbolts, Starlight, Discord, Thorax and Trixie look in awe at Shining Armor besting Blast.

"Mad Grenadier, Blast Bomber! For being responsible for mass murder, in relation to testing unauthorized weaponry...", Shining Armor announce starting with the past crimes. "As well as the crime of kidnapping and attempted murder of the rulers of this kingdom... You're death sentence is reinstated!

Shining Armor raise his sword and creates a circle with it charging it with his magic. A fiery aura surrounds Shining Armor and he charge forward with high speed.

Vega Slash!

Blast was unable to react and Shining Armor cuts off his horn. With no horn to contain the overcharged energy it returns to his body which is unable to contain it. Blast's metallic body begins to spark out of control before he explodes into nothingness. Shining Armor then sheathes his sword.

"Where there is evil I will cut them down."

Shining Armor stands before the princesses giving his report.

"Despite the defeat of Blast Bomber, we have suffered psychologically. With the capture of the Elements of Harmony Bearer, the near destruction of Canterlot and your near execution. We would have lost everything, all because of my failure to uphold my duty as Captain of the Royal Guard.", Shining Armor reports with his head hanging in shame.

"But Shining there was no way you could've known the Gold Star was leading the attack. His cunning know no bounds.", Cadance said hoping to comfort him.

"I have one last thing to report.", Shining Armor said catching the princesses attention. "In light of what has happened, I am... resigning my post."

The audience were shocked at what Shining Armor has said as he removes his helmet and leaves the throne room.

"Shining Armor, wait!", Celestia said putting her hoof on Shining Armor's shoulder stopping him. "I cannot... I will not accept your resignation."

"You must, I was my fault that..."

"No! The fault was mine. For not taking Gold Star's words seriously. I relied too much on myself, Luna, Cadance, Twilight and her friends to protect Equestria that I ignored our own military capability. As powerful as we are, we cannot fight off overwhelming numbers without the support of our guards."

"I was I who failed to make the Royal Guards into a fighting force like how Gold Star would do."

"Will you stop blaming yourselves! You're whining like children.", Starlight said walking up to them. "Instead of brow beating yourselves on what already happened you need to take action to ensure that Equestria is never caught with its guard down again."

Celestia went into deep thought and makes a decision.

"I'll shall by reforming Royal Guard.", Celestia said. "And then form an council with the other kingdoms to help us govern in times of peace and if needed take over in times of war."

"A Council.", Shining said nodding in approval. "Yes."

A white hooded pony walks past the Equestrian border.