Harmony: Equestria at War

The defeat of King Sombra secured the safety and peace in the Crystal Empire. The citizens of the Empire never forgot the day when Spike and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza used the Crystal Heart and blew the dark tyrant into pieces and never to be seen again.

Since that day, there hadn’t been a lot of threats and crises among the magical land of Equestria. Even Lord Tirek or the second invasion of the Changelings led by Queen Chrysalis, which posed a threat on a global scale, were neutralised eventually. War after war, crisis after crisis, this place had survived whatever that was thrown at her. She had withstood the test of time.

Princess Celestia the Great, who had been in charge of ruling the land along with her sister Princess Luna for over a thousand years, had transformed the Equestrian Government from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. For the first time since the Earth, Unicorn and Pegasi tribes united, the citizens can enjoy democracy and true freedom. Celestia had distributed her powers to her subjects, with her only hold some “reserved” power, only to be used in extreme emergency or constitutional crisis.

With Princess Twilight Sparkle the Wise and her friends’ effort, they had enlightened the races all through Equestria with the ideas of Love and Friendship. These powers brought peace and harmony, and had led Equestria into her Golden Age. Since then, the Government had greatly improved the national security. The Wonderbolts, formerly well-known as an acrobatic flying group that performs stuns and tricks in shows, had become an actual military unit, The Equestrian Royal Air Force (EQRAF). It was their duty for weather control, air patrol, emergency air support and service etc. Most importantly, they were also responsible for national defence.

A couple hundred specialists scattered within Equestria formed a task force in response of Princess Celestia, codename “Sentinel”. Their identity was mostly hidden, and they lived like a normal citizen with nothing special. They were only to be deployed in extreme emergency or crisis, when everything fails and falls around them. The heroes that would save the land from anarchy.

Some said, “Equestria has no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies. She only has eternal interests.” For a land where friendship and love is magic, this statement seemed like nonsense. However, when the cruelty of war started to emerge, it all became clear. When there was no more friendship or love to power the land, physical force would strike in and take over. By that time, neither the Elements of Harmony nor the Rainbow Power would work. Power always finds a place to rest its head.

Some had turned themselves to the good side from the bad. The changelings had overthrown their queen and learnt to share love with one another for greater good. With Thorax the Selfless as the new leader of the changelings, they made a propaganda with Equestria to be allies. For the first time, racism was annihilated from the land, at least for the changelings.

But who knows when will anyone strike the land again? And if they really do, only the strongest, or the smartest could have the chance of the final triumph.
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“Argh!” Spike slipped and fell from the top of the tower with the Crystal Heart. King Sombra, upon seeing his chance closing in, and quickly closed in towards the Crystal Heart with dark crystal growing underneath him. It seemed that victory was within his grasp.

Upon this intense moment, all seemed lost, but Prince Shining Armor thought otherwise. With no options left, his best bet of saving the citizens and the entire nation was his wife besides him, Princess Cadence. He picked her up, and aimed at the direction of the Crystal Heart. Princess Cadence, being held up high by her husband, trusted her husband’s decision and stretched her wings, prepared to fly.

Shining Armor faithfully tossed her wife off the castle balcony like a javelin. With all her husband’s strength and faith, she glided towards the Crystal Heart and caught both the Heart by her magic aura and Spike on her back. She promptly landed on the ground and mounted the Crystal Heart back in place. The citizens bowed down and shared their powers with the Heart, causing it to glow a bright blue and release high amount of love magic. King Sombra, upon seeing his token of triumph was lost, still tried to dash in towards the Crystal Heart for a final all-in-or-nothing attack. Right as he did so, however, he felt a jolt of great pain building up inside him, as if his body was on fire and was ripping apart.

He stared at his hooves, only to see bright blue cracks started forming around it. Before he could even understand what was happening to him, he let out one last roar before his body cracked open and exploded into pieces. The pieces disintegrated among contact with the floor, turning into a pile of black ash. His blood red, crooked horn dropped on the floor in one .

It was a significant triumph for the Crystal Empire, and for Equestria. As everyone celebrated the great victory against King Sombra’s invasion, Cadence and Twilight Sparkle went back to where King Sombra’s horn landed. It was simply too risky to just put his horn up a shelf and just leave it like that.

To safely banish the creature and expel all the dark magic on this horn away from this land, Cadence casted a expelling spell on the horn. With some black smoke and flashes, the black spirit within the horn was expelled and flowed away like dust in a breeze. The crooked remaining of the tyrant turned from a blood red colour to a dim, pale red. Both of the mares felt a great relief, as a major threat against national security had been neutralised, and so they thought.

However, no one had realised that casting the expelling spell on the horn was a mistake. The black spirit formed three separate individuals. The first stallion was alicorn-like, has black fur with neon blue stipe. He was named “Shadestep”. The second stallion was supposed to also be an alicorn just like his brother Shadestep, but his horn was missing. This defected white stallion was named “Eclipse”. After the two stallions’ formation, the remaining spirit isn’t enough to form a whole body, so it took host to a changeling, named “Lunar”.

The three brothers of the darkness were scattered around the lands. Shadestep landed on an undiscovered land far away from Equestria, which he built the “Shadow Realm” on. Lunar stayed in the hives with Queen Chrysalis and his fellow changeling brothers without noticing much change in his life, until he found himself on his path of exile after an argument with the Queen. Eclipse however, due to his body’s defections and limitations of his power, landed within the boundaries of Equestria. His inner dark voice had driven his nature of destruction, and he went rogue very soon. Little did anyone know, the birth of the three brothers would change the lands of Equestria and her history forever.