A massive explosion rocked through the deepest pits of the diamond mines, far below the Crystal Empire. For the past seven days, the bloodiest war in the Empire’s history had been fought; a rebellion lead by Insurgent General Scarlet Quartz, uprising against their enslavement at the hooves of the evil King Sombra. Today, like many others, had consisted of nothing but Crystal Ponies galloping through the seemingly endless maze of tunnels, setting off countless explosives to destroy to control the movement of the enemy forces.
“Upper tunnel forty-five A has been breached, sir!” A blue-green coloured stallion with a buzzcut mane and a three-pronged joker hat for a cutie mark yelled between coarse, heavy breaths; skidding to a halt just short of his commander. “Squad Delta-Six has been completely over-run, no confirmed survivors.”
“Dammit!” Scarlet swore, bucking the tunnel wall in frustration, leaving a deep hoof print in the rock. Scarlet Quartz stood a full head taller than most ponies in his makeshift army, his grizzled features and messy mane reflecting his obsessive dedication to freedom fighting. Likewise, his dented, silver chest-plate had completely lost its shine to the ruthless underground warfare. The only thing about him that wasn’t weathered by combat was his cutie mark – a shield shaped quartz gem which represented his namesake. “There’s just no end to those bucking Black Crystal Guards! Teal Jester, what about squads Delta-Four and Delta-Eight? Do they have enough ponies alive to reform at the intersection of lower tunnel forty?”
“Yes, sir, I’ve already ordered them to do so, sir…” Teal replied, though the pause at the end of his sentence told Scarlet this was only half the story.
“And?” Scarlet replied with a harsh glare.
“And they’re doing their best, sir,” Jester reluctantly continued, though Scarlet couldn’t tell which made the teal pony’s voice quiver more – the black guards, or fear of his own authority. “But I can’t guarantee they’ll be successful. We’ve killed at least a hundred of Sombra’ soldiers, possibly more, and still we’re outnumbered! We’ve lost three full squads in battle over the past day alone. At this rate, we’ll have to give up our position if we’re to have any hope for survival.”
“You know as well as I do that we can’t surrender,” Scarlet spoke with a deep, serious tone. As much tactical sense as it made to abandon the area, he was aware that the Crystal Insurgency had lost most of the ground captured from when the revolution began. “If we give up now, then our entire rebellion will have been in vein. Or have you forgotten about the quantity of resources contained in the rocks surrounding us?”
“Of course, I’ve not forgotten! How could anypony forget?” Teal’s fear turned to anger as he slammed his pickaxe into the tunnel wall, ripping out a cluster of diamonds. “Why do you think King Sombra went mad in the first place? Anypony with half a brain can tell you it’s got buck all to do with the onyx amulet he wears around his neck!”
“Then you’re aware of why these pits have the highest working population of slaves,” Scarlet added, gritting his teeth to keep a lid on his building annoyance. “If we surrender our stronghold on the diamonds now, we may as well have never started the rebellion at all.”
“So, you keep insisting. But riddle me this, oh glorious and brave leader. How can we fight for the freedom of the Crystal Empire if there are no ponies left to defend them?!”
That last remark earned Teal a swift hoof to the face. “Don’t you dare take me for a bloody fool! I’ve known the risks from the beginning. Many a good pony has died before my eyes to get as far as we have. This is war! Everything we do is a bucking gamble.”
A brief silence was shared between the two ponies, their eyes locked as they both refused to back down. “Tell me, Scarlet,” Jester said following another explosion from above. “Do you experience love? Do you have a special somepony?”
“What relevance does this have-”
“You know damn well why this topic is relevant! We’re fighting for everypony who’s ever lived in the Crystal Empire! Ponies of every age and every gender, some of whom are my family. If I get myself killed because of your Celestia-be-damned hero complex, then who will be left to fight?” Tears of rage began to roll down Teal’s face. “So many ponies have died from this revolution, and what do we have to show for it? In the end, what’s the price of a mile to you? If I die, then there will be nothing left of my family. Sombra will wipe out my entire bloodline; centuries of family history, erased from existence. All because you don’t know when to give up. It’s time you got it through that thick skull of yours that nopony will remember you as a hero. In the end, you will be the one who drove the Crystal Pony race to extinction. If we surrender now, then maybe there will be a chance Sombra will consider being merciful to us.”
“Are you finished?” was all Scarlet said in response.
For a moment, Teal said nothing, flabbergasted at Scarlet’s brazen disregard for everything he just said. “Did you even hear what I-”
“I know what you said, Teal Jester! Now I’m asking you something. Are. You. Finished?”
“…Yes, sir.”.
“Good, because now it’s time for you to hear something important.” Scarlet didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to, the weight of his words carrying everything he needed to convey. “Everything you just said? Sombra has already achieved it. Countless moons ago, our Empire was banished from time. For generations, we have served as slaves, invisible to the outside world as our culture was obliterated. Now, for the first time since Sombra revealed his true nature, we have an opportunity to change that. We may fail, but we may also succeed. If we do nothing, then we continue to be nameless to all but each other. You speak of erasure? Teal, we already have been erased. And if you want to return from our nation’s banishment, not as tools for a tyrant, but as free ponies, then I suggest you follow my lead and fight.”
As if on cue, the walls behind Scarlet exploded, heralding waves of Sombra Guards falling to their deaths – crushed under the weight of the rocks collapsing on top of them. Dropping down from the newly connected levels above, squads Alpha-Three and Alpha-Seven formed into loose ranks behind Scarlet. Leading the insurgents, two ponies stood triumphantly over the enemy corpses; Midnight Star and Silver Stream, both of whom wore armour stolen from the Sombra Guards they had slain. The former—a navy-blue coated, transgender stallion with a flat, purple mane and a black, five-pointed star for a cutie mark—held his battle axe over his right shoulder, the blade freshly coated with corrupt Crystal Pony blood.
“Somepony call for backup?” Midnight quipped, looking over Scarlet’s shoulder to the startled Teal Jester. “Looks like you’re gonna need it.”
“Hey, let’s not demand too much of this poor stallion,” the pony next to Midnight, Silver Stream, replied with a wink and a nudge. She was a comparatively young mare, stout in stature and a short, spikey mane, with her cutie mark being the most violent looking of all the rebels; a shining, silver arrow. “Not everypony has the guts to stand up to the Sombra Guards. And if I recall correctly, you were quite the nervous wreck before joining the rebellion, weren’t ya, Midnight?”
“Oh, shut up!” Midnight thumped Silver back, smirking playfully. “Weren’t you the one crying for their mummy all the way through the first night of the rebellion?”
“That’s enough, both of you!” Scarlet commanded, silencing the bickering fighters with a stamp of his hoof. “Now, tell me, am I seeing things incorrectly, or have you succeeded in eliminating the Sombra Guard retaliation from the south-west tunnels?”
“If there are any left, I’ll personally crush their throats with my own two hooves.” Silver hooked her morning star-mace on a leather strap around her hip, voice dripping with sadistic joy at the mental image of the Sombra guards choking to death infront her eyes.
Scarlet had never seen her this fired up before, a perfect attitude which he hoped would carry on all the way to the defeat of Sombra himself. “How many ponies in your squads are left?”
“We haven’t had time for an accurate head count,” Midnight replied, his voice serious in its gruffness, yet still maintaining the underlying optimism which Scarlet always wanted to hear. “But I’d say the odds are still in our favour, so long as we strike back hard enough!”
“Good! That’s what I like to hear!” Scarlet saluted both squad leaders, holding his hoof out to make an additional request. “Now as you may have guessed, I seem to have lost my weapon after my last tactical retreat. Since your raid on the armoury was obviously successful, I trust you’ve brought me back an adequate gift?”
“Aww, boss,” Silver quipped with exaggerated sadness. “How could you say such a thing? Of course, I’d never forget about you!” Stepping aside, Silver revealed five ponies on the front rank, all of whom dropped saddle bags filled to the brim with stolen armaments. “Take your pick. I made sure to steal at last one of everything.”
There was only one prize Scarlet had his eye on. A combination of flanged mace and a shield which stretched down from his neck to his hooves. Despite the day’s setback, there was still a chance for everything to work out as intended. Scarlet had expected losses as well as gains.
What he didn’t expect was to see his words to inspire Teal Jester in such a dramatic fashion. The blue-green stallion shoved his way past Scarlet, abandoning his pickaxe in favour of a more suitable weapon. The armoury had once been the centre of the Empire’s defences against outside invaders. Teal remembered countless stories of battles against Trolls, Ogres, and a pantheon of other beasts in a never-ending quest to make the Empire sustainable for life. If only those same warriors had realized sooner that their biggest enemy was one from within. Now it was time to change all that. He knew who the real enemies were now. The only task left to complete was to defeat them.
“Well, well, it looks like the fool of the group has a backbone after all!” Midnight said with heavy sarcasm.
“Scarlet is right,” Teal replied, taking no notice of Midnight’s condescending tone. “If I don’t fight, then I may as well have never existed at all.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Scarlet said, grinning from ear to ear. “Now that we’ve all got what we need, there is only one thing left for us to say. As much as I hate to admit it, Jester is right about one thing. If we lose this battle, then our rebellion is as good as finished. But if we win, then we still have a fighting chance to free everypony ever forced into slavery by Sombra! Either way, this will be a decisive battle which will either be the second coming of our rebellion, or the end of all things. Thus, I ask you all this: who will stand with me for the battle to come?”
The grandiose cheer that echoed through the tunnels came as music to Scarlet’s ears. “Jester, up front with me! Silver, Midnight, you two fill out as much space as you can with everypony else. Let’s show this pathetic excuse for a king what we Crystal ponies are really made of!”
“Yes, sir.” Jester’s response came through gritted teeth and a harsh glare, but Scarlet gave him no more attention. He had a job to do, and nothing was going to stand in his way. Charging down through the tunnel, Scarlet could feel his heart beating in his chest. After years of forced servitude, mindlessly hacking away at rocks below the empire, day in day out, he finally felt alive again. The adrenaline surging through his arteries, the smell of arcane residue from the makeshift explosions mixed in with the taste of blood in his mouth. It was everything he had ever dreamed of.
Moments later, Scarlet and his team reached the huge intersection where the battle took place. The chaotic brawl was a sight to behold, with Crystal Pony insurgents wildly smashing their weapons into the Sombra guards at every chance they got. There was no structure to their attacks, unlike the guards, who stood firmly in their ranks despite the freedom fighters trying to split them.
Scarlet leaped into battle, smashing his mace into the back of a Sombra Guard’s neck. The loud crunch of cracking bone added to his battle lust, unleashing a flurry of blows across the brainwashed servant’s body. There were only two factors which would result in his attack stopping: either the pony in question was unquestionably dead, or another enemy got in the way. In either case, Scarlet’s focus was always directed to his next enemy, never satisfied until ever one of the threats had been eliminated.
Silver and Midnight fought back to back, dodging and weaving through the comparatively sluggish swings of the Sombra Guards’ fist weapons. In such a tight space, there was always collateral damage. Often when the pair dodged an attack, the same swing would strike another pony instead. The results were rarely pretty, as a full force punch of a Sombra Guard was the primary cause of Crystal Pony brain matter being squashed under the hooves of the living.
Silver and Midnight’s attacks always worked in tandem with one another. When Silver sliced high, Midnight swung low, giving their foes little room to dodge – not that there was much room to begin with. The entire area was filled to the brim, with the allied forces slowly pushing their way outwards to surround the Sombra Guards.
Sliding away from each other to pin a Sombra Guard between them, Silver and Midnight slammed their weapons down, breaking the guard’s back in two places, leaving it lying broken on the ground to be trampled over in the frenzy. “Hey, look who it is!” Midnight said, gesturing towards Teal Jester a short distance away from them.
“Hey, Teal!” Silver called. “How’s ya kill streak comin’ along?”
“Not too bad,” Teal said, making no eye contact, instead stabbing a Sombra Guard through the throat with his spear, exploiting a gap in its armour. “Though give it a moment, and you’ll see it skyrocket!”
“Oh?” Silver asked, briefly looking back to Midnight as they broke a Sombra Guard’s legs. “How do you expect to achieve that?”
“Watch and learn.” A sadistic grin grew across Teal’s face. Holding his spear in his front-left hoof, he used the other to pull off the helm of a fallen Sombra Guard, turning towards his two allies and dropping it in front of them. Wrapping both front hooves around the pole of the spear, Teal pointed the weapon at the dark crystal on top of the magic helmet.
In that moment, Silver’s expression turned from one of amusement to one of shock. “Get down!”
“My legacy will be sustained! Glory to King Sombra!” With those final words, Teal thrusted his spear into the gem, releasing the black magic contained with an explosive force. The power of the blast ruptured the ground beneath Teal’s feet. Screams of allied ponies marked the turning point of the battle, with those closest to the epicentre being either burned to a crisp from the hot magic explosion, or crushed beneath the monumental collapse of earth on top of them.
Seconds later, the ponies who had survived the initial explosion came to their senses, only to view a horrific sight. Scarlet was one such survivor. He had been knocked into the wall by the blast, but otherwise suffered only minor injuries due to already being around the edge. His jaw hung open in awe at Teal’s traitorous actions. Most of his insurgence had been wiped out. From a room packed of five-hundred ponies before, now his initial guess was less than one-hundred remaining, if that.
His second in command was a prime example of the damage dealt. Midnight lay on the ground, face half burned from the explosion, cradling the smouldering body of Silver in his hooves. “Damn you, Teal, you bucking traitor!” He swore up to the heavens. “Damn your soul to Tartarus!”
Pulling himself to his hooves, Scarlet broke into a gallop around the area to get the full scope of the damage caused. He didn’t need to look for long. The footsteps of both the surviving Sombra Guards and a new swarm of dark soldiers echoed from every direction, galloping through the tunnels to corral the surviving rebels.
With a heavy sigh, Scarlet placed his hoof on Midnight’s shoulder. “I suppose this is as good a day to die as any. My friend, will you stand with me?”
Wordlessly, Midnight dropped Silver’s body and stood up, brandishing the morning star in one hoof and the battle axe in the other. No further orders needed to be given. As soon as the rebels caught sight of the backup Sombra Guards, they charged. “For the glory of the Crystal Empire!” every warrior cried in unison.
Though they knew the battle was lost, Scarlet and Midnight fought on with nothing left but the berserker rage to keep them going. Furiously hacking away at anything that moved, Midnight bathed himself in the blood of his enemies, cutting and smashing his way through a sea of blackened body parts. Yet for each pony he killed, there were at least five more that took their place, stabbing him with the sharp ends of their fist-weapons again and again. Midnight ignored the pain for as long as he was able, but even his incredible battle lust was not enough to save him. Eventually, enough blood had drained from his wounds that he no longer had the strength to stand up, finally dying to stab through his forehead.
For Scarlet, the remainder of the battle was a blur. The black sea of Sombra Guards seemed to go on forever. Swinging his mace around in circles, he hit whatever came into range, seeing nothing but a mix of splattered blood and pony-shaped figures falling in every direction. He had no idea how many times he had been hit, or how many remaining ponies he had killed. All he knew was that, at some point, he found himself laying on the floor, his breathing heavy and his limbs numb.
“The Crystal Heart…” Scarlet sputtered, spitting out blood. His final words before he lost consciousness were greeted by a bright light shining down from above, and in the centre of this beautiful aurora, Scarlet could’ve sworn he saw the distinctive silhouette of a pony talked about only through legend; an Alicorn.