Book 1: Rise
Act I: Diamond

Chapter 1: A Somber Meeting

The Crystal Empire: a land of light and harmony, a haven for the peaceful ponies of the Earth. In some parts of the world, this utopia only exists in myth and legend for its peace and glory. A land where all is good, and there is no need to worry about threats from the outside world. It was too good to be true.

The shining streets were bustling with commotion and activity. Street venders and activities at every corner visited by the crystal ponies who, on this day, seemed to shine a little brighter than usual. It was that time of the year again: the Crystal Fair.

This year, however, it would not take a trained eye to notice that the largest crowds were not visiting flugelhorn or hatstands, or even watching the jousts. Rather, it was the newscolts who attracted the largest crowds.

“Read all about it! Return of the ancient enemy: Maredor’s declaration of war! One-hundred dead!” The newscolt’s high-pitched voice pierced through the veil of commotion radiating through the fair. Dozens of worried crystal ponies gathered around the newscolt, taking papers and leaving flecks(1) at his hooves.

Towards the town square, beneath the palace and surrounding the empire’s sole-defending Crystal Heart was the most expansive crowd, containing scores of ponies overwhelming a group of four newscolts. A single guard stood behind the colts, holding back the crowd, a copy of the day’s paper resting in his saddlebag.

In the midst of the chaos, a dark, a robed figure muscled its way through the crowd. The crowd, consisting heavily of priests and nobles, would oftentimes make room for this suspicious figure to move about, unaware of its purpose.

The figure moved to the thinnest part of the crowd, where a figure of similar nature, but adorned in brown vestiges contrary towards it’s onyx-colored counterpart. The slender cloaked pony raised a hoof, carefully pulling back the hood of the cloak revealing a white face, a horn, and a few locks of her long, scarlet mane protruding from the shadows of her attire, her purple eyes glistening just as brightly as her crystal coat.

The other hooded figure simply casted off the hood with an upwards flick of its head, revealing a Unicorn stallion with a black horn, a dull black and gray coat, a short jet-black mane, and a pair of eyes with horrendous red pupils. The two excitedly rushed towards one another and embraced in a passionate, warm hug.

The alicorn mare was the first to speak. “Thank Galactica you’re okay! After the attack I was so worried, I know you live near the outskirts so I would’ve come, but–”

The other pony gently placed a hoof towards her mouth. The mare stopped, looking down at it. The black stallion lowered his hoof, smiling at her. “I can fend for myself. Besides, last night I came here thinking I’d have to save you.”

Jokes. She wasn’t exactly a fan of this stallion’s humor, and right now certainly was not a time for joking. This was the greatest disaster which the empire had seen since the second age!

“Somber! Do you have any idea what’s happened!? How many lives were lost!? This is... it’s–!” She was at a loss for words. Never in her life had she contemplated a threat to the Empire, the idea in of itself was alien to her, and there were even some who could barely comprehend what had happened. Was Somber one of these ponies?

“Woah! Take it easy!” pleaded the black stallion. I should have known she’d respond this way. Stupid! You don’t want to get on her bad side now. “I was just trying ease the tension. It’s like this all over the empire.” He observed the crowd, noticing that there were not many guards watching over the masses. “But it does bother me, what happened yesterday, and especially hearing that Maredor’s behind the attack. If they can hit us like that, right out of the blue and massacre nearly a hundred ponies, how vulnerable are we? I doubt they only sent that group here.”

The mare looked out towards the northern horizon, where great mountains covered in snow and ice reflected the sunlight towards the imperial city state. “The mountains. The Maredorian forces hide in there. We surprised them, apparently our weapons are still superior technologically, and they never anticipated us to actually train our soldiers–”

"I know, our military's been just for show. This is the first time we've really needed it."

Somber stared out at the horizon, the mountains which loomed over them, the wall into the unknown. “Maredor beat Cirra. We may have taken their front lines by surprise, but if they fought against the most powerful nations in history and won, then," he turned to the mare, "Gloriana, how long has it been since the last time the empire actually went to war?”

“Hundreds of years, when Spiritus reunited the empire and saved Crystopolis. That was the only time Maredor had ever lost a war.”

Somber chuckled softly, nuzzling the mare. “Ehh, we had a little... alicorn magic in our arsenal.” Gloriana put a hoof to Somber’s horn, pushing him back, nearly causing him to lose his balance as he clumsily regained his hoofing. She giggled at the sight of Somber practically dancing on his hoofs, nearly tripping over himself, he glared at her as she giggled. Sheepishly, he regained composure, brushing the dust off from his coat.

Somber looked out again towards the mountains on the horizon. “Is your mother going out there? To stop Maredor, just like Spiritus back in ancient times?”

She solemnly shook her head, looking back up at the palace above them. “Mother refuses to go. She says the royal family’s too small and the nation’s too scared for her to do anything.” She turned to look at the horizon with Somber, and bitterly added “She doesn’t want me going either.”

With a smile, and remarking upon her hot-headed nature, Somber gently bumped her with his hoof “You’re just going to let her stop you?”

“If only it was that easy... There should be a guard at my door ‘supervising’ me.” The mere thought of it seemed to make the royal Alicorn sick with embarrassment.

Somber couldn’t help but laugh at her plight “A little old to be foal-sat, aren’t you?”

Nobles were notorious for never being able to swallow their pride, and even Gloriana was no exception.

“I can see it now, teenage fillies gossiping in the marketplace ‘Who’d you foal-sit this week?’ ‘Oh, Princess Gloriana, HEIR TO THE BUCKING THRONE OF THE EMPIRE!’” He erupted into a fit of laughter. Despite the two having known each other to the point where she no longer took great offense towards the fact that a peasant, a peasant of foreign descent at that, could make such remarks about her, she still flattened her ears in embarrassment, hastily scanning the crowd to see if any nobles were nearby. “Sshh!” She pleaded to her coltfriend, hoping nopony would pick up on the conversation.

“It’s okay” he assured her. He decided to change the subject. “We have that few guards left here? I thought the palace was always under high protection, especially at a time like this!” It was odd. Even in a time of crisis a good defense had to be maintained, and if the royal palace itself had hardly any guards then that was a bad sign. Though he was already aware of this predicament from the paper.

She stared into Somber’s gaze with her large, beautiful expressive eyes “We’ve hardly any guards left here to protect the Kingdom, and our military strength is the lowest it’s ever been in recorded history. The warring tribes during the Dark Days gave us an edge in military might, but compared to Maredor–”

Somber grimly finished her statement. “We’re like a mouse fighting a manticore. A mouse with sharp teeth, but still just a mouse.” He averted his gaze to the ground, tracing small circles on the crystal floor with his hoof. Now’s the time, Somber. Is it? Yes, you’ll have to break it to her sooner or later. With a deep sigh, he looked back up at his mare, deep into her longing, worrying eyes, she knew what it was about. “Gloriana? There’s something I need to tell you.” As Somber had guessed, she was worried.

She placed a hoof to her heart, feeling it beating faster than it ever did. In the brief moment which felt like an eternity, she tried to deny it, it had to be something else. Is this one of his jokes? Would he seriously be joking about this? He has to be! Oh please, Galactica, don’t let it be, anything but–!

Without waiting for a reply, Somber cut off her racing thoughts. “I’m joining the Crystal Legion. We’re outnumbered, and aside from you and your mother, I’m the only pony here with magic, we need something like that if we’re going to fight Maredor.” It wouldn’t be enough convincing, there was no way in Tartarus she’d let it go that easily.

Desperately, she tried to turn him away, “But you’ll die out there! Magic or no magic, you’re still only one pony. They have thousands of unicorns, they have strange creatures seen by not even the likes of the ancient tribes from the North!”

“And I should just let Maredor come down on us again, this time with all their might and no mercy? They were overconfident and thought they could bring us down with that small attack party yesterday, and they were wrong. Now that they know better, if they get here then we’re all dead!”

She had hoped and she had prayed to Galactica all of last night that it wouldn’t come to this. “I know, Somber. I know.” She felt it coming, like somepony had just rammed her heart with a jousting lance. Nonetheless, she did her best to hold back the tears as Somber rushed to her, holding her close to his warm, muscular chest. “I don’t want you to go, Somber! You’re everything to me,” she looked up at his comforting eyes. It was impossible to believe that anypony could remain calm and assuring even at a time like this. “You’re the one Stallion I could ever love, y-you showed me so much more, things that are better than the luxuries of palace life. If you go, then–”

Sombra gently stroked her long, smooth red mane with his hoof. “You won’t have to worry about being seen with a peasant all the time. And if I don’t go and do this, then there might not be any life to live. Even if the Dark Lord spares us, I can’t imagine the life we’d be forced to live. You’d be a slave, tortured daily by Maredor’s motives. I may be one soldier, one unit, but if there’s anything I can do to protect you, to protect my friends and family, then you can guarantee I’ll do it.”

Somber let Gloriana go, she took a deep breath, regaining her composure. She scanned her surroundings, putting the hood back on. “We’ll meet again tonight? Before you leave for training?”

Somber adorned his black hood, casting a long shadow over his face, his read eyes penetrating the darkness. “I'll get to you throughPalace garden. Same way as usual.”

Author's Note

1: Flecks are hexagonal sapphire coins used as the currency for the Crystal Empire. One fleck is equivalent to two bits.