The Crystal Eclipse

It happened within seconds. The five elements bearers and the dragon assistant Spike were worrying about their friend Twilight Sparkle as the darkness of the world around them from the Solar Eclipse allowed them to watch the destruction that befell Canterlot.

Then the foundations began to crumble and the city fell off the mountain. The ponies of Ponyville swore they heard screams of horror for even a few seconds as it crumbled to the ground below. Everypony stayed in silent shock. Unable to believe that they had just witnessed the fall of the Capitol City of Equestria.

"No-No. There is no way..." Rainbow Dash was the first to speak as she lowered herself to the ground and tears prickled her eyes. "That-This is just a bad dream..."

Pinkie's mane instantly deflated and she collapsed to the ground in sobs. Applejack pulled down her hat to hide her tears, think about how just a few hours ago everything was normal in Equestria. Well, other than Celestia's disappearance. Rarity pulled a sobbing Fluttershy into a hug and buried herself into her friend's mane to avoid the others seeing her makeup run down her face as grief overtook her.

Spike took a few more steps in the direction of where the former Capitol City of Equestria once stood proud. He didn't know what to say or do at the sight or thought of a pony he considered his older sister to be dead. He didn't want to believe it. He refused to accept it.

Suddenly there was the sound of somepony screaming for assistance. The ponies who weren't able to witness the destruction of Canterlot peeked out of their homes and drew attention to the frantic nurse Redheart galloping towards the five elements.

"T-Tw-" Redheart paused to breathe as Applejack rushed over, trying to calm her down. Pushing back her own emotions for the sake of others. Redheart took deep breathes of the air and laid a hoof on Applejack's shoulder.

"C-Calm down, Sugarcube. Tell me slowly..." Applejack insisted as Redheart studdered as if she had seen something so awful that she couldn't express it in words.

"Twi-Twilight S-Sparkle and Pr-Princess Luna are in- T-The Ponyville General H-Hospital!" Redheart finally blurted out. The elements perked up immediately with Spike and rushed over to join a stunned Applejack. Rarity knocked Applejack over and pressed both her hoofs on Redhearts chest. Causing her to stumble back.

"Alive!? A-Are you sure, darling? Absolutely sure?"

Redheart had nodded and finally gained enough air to speak normally again without wheezing or pausing to breathe some more.

"They teleported in a few minutes ago. Princess Luna was severely injured and Twilight had overused her magic to teleport from, I assume, Canterlot. Tw-Twilight passed out and we started to move her into a room when she briefly woke up and muttered to get her friends and baby brother dragon. I immediately thought of you ponies and...Erm...Dragon. Then galloped over here. Come, she might wake up again..." Redheart said. The group immediately started to gallop to the outskirts of Ponyville where the hospital was.

(An hour after the fall of Canterlot)

Cadence was pacing and panicking. Pacing and panicking. Bini thought she looked pretty good for somepony who just figured out that her aunties were lying to her and now had to explain to an empire full of confused crystal ponies why the moon was blocking out the sun.

She looked briefly up at the solar eclipse through the large crystal windows then back to Bini and Arone.

"When did Celestia say she was going to kill Sombra?" Cadence asked with a shaky voice.

"A little more than a week ago. She planned on leaving as soon as her injuries from a...The recent battle in the badlands healed." Arone said. Being careful of his every word. Bini leaned into Arone's ear as Cadence became distracted once again by the situation.

"You should just tell her the truth." She whispered. Arone drew back from her and scowled before whispering into her ear.

"You don't even know the whole truth. We kept the truth from Luna for a reason and I am not going to give up Celestia's secrets all because the moon blocked out the sun. For all we know, this could be Luna's doing."

"Luna wouldn't dare turn into Nightmare Moon again, knowing what the elements could do to her. Besides she was willing to risk our mental health to figure out what happened to Celestia. For all we know, this is Celestia's doing! And if she planned on doing it when her injuries healed...Then will all her medical knowledge, she should have had them healed right about now or earlier."

"You are jumping to a conclusion that we have no proof of." Arone snapped a bit louder than he would have hoped. They both looked up to make sure they weren't being heard. Cadence had moved to the entrance of the throne room to talk with her husband. Arone and Bini bowed their heads again to whisper into each other's ear. Bini discreetly pointed to the solar eclipse.

"There are only two ponies in our life that can move those big things in the sky. One of them is missing. The other was clearly terrified for her sister and took whatever action she could to bring her back. She didn't come back. Celestia is either still missing or-"

Bini stopped talking and her ears perked up in alarm. Arone looked around, then back at his friend with narrowed eyes.

"What is it?" He asked. Then tried to listen for any unusual sounds other than the sound of distant galloping echoing across the halls thanks to the Crystal material of the castle. "I don't hear anything."

"That is just it." Bini muttered. "We don't hear anything. We should be hearing Princess Cadence and Shining Armour still arguing near the entrance."

They looked towards the entrance of the throne room and noted the absence of Princess Cadence and Shining Armour. All that was left was a scroll on the ground. Bini and Arone approached it slowly as if it was some sort of trap. Bini picked it up and began to read the letter out loud.

"Dear Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armour of the Crystal Empire,"

Bini paused and looked up at Arone for silent confirmation that it was OK to read the letter. Arone nodded and urged her to go on. Her eyes shifted back to the letter and she took a deep breath before continuing.

"We regret to inform you that Twilight Sparkle and Princess of the Moon Luna were admitted to the Ponyville General Hospital. Twilight Sparkle presented with severe symptoms of magic overuse. Princess Luna's throat with sliced deeply with battle wounds. She is currently in Emergency Medical care and it is too soon to tell if she will survive.

According to Twilight Sparkle, during her brief time of being conscious, she informed us that Canterlot had fallen. Which was confirmed by numerous eyewitnesses in Ponyville that watched the Capitol City of Canterlot crumble from its mountain mid-afternoon today.

Recuse teams from Manhatten and Ponyville are headed to the remains of the city to search for survivors. By order of Princess Celestia, if Canterlot was to fall. The Crystal Empire was to be the temporary capital of Equestria until a new one could be established.

May the sun and moon be on your side.

-Ponyville Medical Association (PMA)"

Bini let the letter fall out of her grasp and they both stared up at the solar eclipse once again.

"We are so screwed," Bini muttered and Arone started to twitch nervously. This was getting to be too much for him. He was in way over his head. "W-What are we going to do?"

Arone moved around erratically. Hoping that looking at the decor of the Empire would stir some sort of emotion or plan for him to answer her. After a tense few minutes of Bini following Arone as they trotted through the castle with no true destination.

"Well? Answer me!" Bini barked. Arone spun around to face her with aggression.

"I don't know Bini! I can't be the one that always finds the stupid little plan that moves our lives along! Which, to be honest, usually don't even work so really everything is screwed. As you said, we are screwed. We failed and there is nothing else we can do."

"There are other things we can do. W-We can try..." Bini's voice faltered and trailed off as she couldn't come to a conclusion. "Well, there has to be something!"

Arone scoffed.

"Yeah. Come up with a plan that would ACTUALLY work and then come back to me." Arone said and then galloped off. Looking for Cadence and Shining Armour. Bini turned around in the corridor and spotted a guard near her. Trying to pretend with a straight face that he didn't just hear their argument. She sighed and sat beside the guard.

"What would your plan be?" She asked in a weak attempt of humour because she is well aware that the guards never respond.

"I have no clue what the context of that argument was about but I suggest go to the reformed Lord of Chaos." The guard replied with a completely straight face. Bini was too emotionally exhausted to even muster up a surprised reaction at that response. She simply gave him a tired look then looked back down at her hoofs.

"That's too easy."

Bini hurried off to the Library. Which took longer than she expected to find. She wasted another hour and a half of her life before she found the biggest Library in her life. Her heart tightened at the thought of her former job. Sure, the Canterlot Library wasn't the best but...It was like a second home to her.

She shook the thoughts away and brushed away her tears. She talked with the Librarian and was soon delivered a map of Equestria and its borders. She grabbed a bunch of books about fighting, different armies in the past and Alicorn magic. Bini began reading her books as she headed back to her room followed by a guard. She shut herself away for many hours. Arone hadn't found Cadence and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He headed back to his room. Occasionally stumbling because of his Changeling form. Thanks to the ring on his horn he wasn't allowed to change form at will. Pretty creative. He paused when a guard handed his armed guard a scroll. He looked it over and then handed it to Arone.

"Meet me at 9 pm. I have a plan on how to stop this. -Bini Filters"

9 pm passed and went. Arone was a good 30 minutes late to Bini's meeting in her room.

Bini tapped her hoof impatiently as Arone entered. Rocky and Chocolate were looking over Bini's crazy rantings and Arone looked around Bini's guest room to see scrolls littering the floor and parts of the bare wall.

"What is this? The ravings of a mad mare?" Arone commented. Bini rolled her eyes and grabbed the papers Rocky and Chocolate were holding.

"Why were you late?" Bini asked with a sideways glance. Arone moved to sit on the bed next to Bini and Rocky and Chocolate lounged on the pillows on the floor.

"Doesn't matter. What's the plan?" Arone asked. Bini sipped her Hot Chocolate and circled some of her notes around her.

"We are going to-"

They all screamed as an explosion hit the castle. It vibrated across the crystal structure.

"WHAT THE BUCK WAS THAT!?"

The window shattered as a bright-line flashed outside and more explosions were heard. The group piled into each other as they stuck their heads out the window to look at the city below. They saw two Alicorns fighting in the air near the crystal heart. The snowstorm had been worse when the eclipse happened but it had somehow gotten worse. The streets started to fill with snow. They watched the pink Alicorn being flung across the ground and slammed into the castle.

They saw a white alicorn, that blended into the storm flap their powerful wings towards the Princess.

Rocky took out binoculars from...Somewhere. Bini, Arone and Chocolate were too interested in the fight to notice. He put them on and zoomed in on the mysterious Alicorn. He slowly brought them down with a terrified look.

"It's Celestia."

Arone immediately grabbed the binoculars and flowed his action. Then gasped. They were given to Bini, then Chocolate. The circle was complete. Princess Celestia was attacking the Crystal Empire.

"You really should have seen this coming." A male voice spoke between the shocked silence. They screamed in surprise and turned to see Discord on a lawn chair, looking over Bini's notes with glasses and a magnifying glass. He looked over to them and tilted his glasses down slightly.

"You didn't actually believe I wouldn't figure out this was going on, did you?"

---End of Chapter Two---