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[Attack!] The Spire Burns (Open)


SteelEagle

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Bulk, it seemed, was once again behind the times too much to do anything. Growling as he watched the Jarl manage to slip away to a waiting ship, and only wishing it were so damaged as the last one that he could replicate his trick with the powder charges, he had to admit at this point that the only thing left to do was to run. As it was, most ponies had slid to safety aboard a waiting airship, and only one remaining caribou and pony were left standing. As he was left contemplating his few remaining options, the female caribou seemed to give up on life and charged her pony opponent.

Bulk simply drew back and heaved the spear he carried at the cow. Even if it didn't connect or injure, it might be enough to throw her off and keep her last charge from seriously injuring the remaining pony.

His one weapon spent, he couldn't deny it any longer. The Spire, or a good chunk of it, was coming down, thanks in part to him, he noted dourly. Though there was one pony remaining, he didn't think being here was safe any longer. With that, he ran to the edge of the building and lept, diving for a few seconds before beating his wings furiously and pulling out in a graceful, if slow, arc to fly around the building and alongside the airship.

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The throw was off. Be it from the unstable wobbling of his opponent or the shifting of the tower beneath his feet, the axe failed to meet its mark, instead embedding itself in one of Bryti’s antlers. His enemy still standing, Alistair swooped in, axe swinging. In spite of her crippled state, the caribou cow still managed a passable defense, letting only glancing blows through. With a predatory screech, Alistair slipped past yet another spear thrust, viciously shoulder-checking the cow into a crumbling support pillar as the strains of Equestrian pipes and drums wafted up to the balcony level.

He placed the blade of his axe against her throat and growled, “It’s over. Equestrian reinforcements are here and your little party in the spire has been thoroughly crashed! Do you yield?”

Alistair shouldn’t have expected anything else. **** my own common courtesy, he cursed under his breath as the cow slammed her forehead into his own. As the griffon stumbled, Bryti slammed the haft of her spear into Alistair’s stomach, launching him away, charging at him with one last desperate warcry.

Alistair grunted, barely recovering in time to deflect the incoming thrust with the flat of his axe blade. The spearpoint dug into the debris on the floor, becoming stuck fast. The griffon seized his opportunity. Axe blade flashed quickly, cleaving the spear in half, rendering it useless. As Bryti stumbled forward from the sudden lack of support, Alistair grabbed the second axe handle still embedded in her antler and pulled. The caribou cow tumbled forward. Alistair used her forward momentum to flip her over himself, using a swift kick to finally send her sailing off the spire into the beyond.

The griffon marine rose to his feet, battered axes in hand. He’d won. But the sudden tremors under his feet didn’t leave him time for respite.

“Bollocks, the entire tower is coming down!”

There was little time to act. Alistair dropped his weapons and bounded to the edge of the hole blasted in the tower, leaping out of the tower as the floor fell away beneath him. Alistair stretched his wings and glided out, sparing one forlorn glance back at the once stately tower.

That is, until he collided with something cold and dense. The griffon squawked in surprise and scrabbled with his talons to gain footing on the side of the new obstacle. It took many feather dropping flaps and many sparking talons to bring him up over the railing, but eventually, Alistair managed to claw his way up onto the airship deck, where he rolled onto his back, panting.

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The breathing was coming hard and slow. Ice Storm knew how tremendously tired she was. there was no denying it, and there was no denying how much she hurt right now. She had already done way too much as it was and try as she may, and even as strong willed as she was, she could hardly even make an aura appear over her horn to even attempt to use magic. She wanted to stay and help defend the princess. It was her job at this point. Of course she didn't know the status of the guards, and how many of them had recovered from the brainwashing, but she had to presume that there weren't any. The fiery unicorn whose name she never did get came up to her. She told her that she had already done more than her fair share and that it was apparent to everypony that she was running on fumes. this of course, was becoming more and more apparent to herself as her legs began to feel like lead. Moving anything seemed like a momentous occasion for her.

The the zebra came over to her. She was going to at least give her a chance to continue fighting, or at least to fight through the stinging pain the cut in her side was causing her, making movement in general that much harder. She pulled out a bottle of some sort of ointment or something, she wasn't sure what it was, but she heard Java and Pressy both tell her that she needed to rest herself. If it was that apparent that she was no longer in any condition to fight, then perhaps it would be best for her to take Twilight down below decks. That was, if she could even make it down the ships stairs herself. Of course, any thought that she had of moving quickly evaporated as she felt the zebra start spreading the ointment on the wound, electing a long string of mouth sealed screams and whimpers as she felt stinging, burning, and piercing pains all at once. She thought the zebra said it was supposed to numb the pain! This certainly wasn't getting any number! Only then did she realize what she meant when she might feel some pain. Some, she felt, was a very large understatement.

Only a few moments later, she saw Frostlace using the slide and reaching the ship before it had parted away from the spire. Of course, she was more concerned with the guard that was on her back. The guard didn't seem to have that look in his eyes anymore, but she still didn't feel right. What if the guard was just playing them to get their guard down? This could all be a ploy to get back to Twilight! She was going to say something but then Frostlace began speaking, her thick accent stopping her in her tracks. There was just something about it that made it to where she could listen to her speak all day and be happy. Well, all day when there wasn't a bloodbath and beyond taking place in the Empire. She explained that he had good head now, and she doubted that Frost would be so quick to trust something that had previously been a threat

That said, Frost wasted no time finding her either, and quickly noticed her condition and sped over to her to give her somepony to lean on. A sentiment that she not-so-graciously accepted as she almost immediately slumped against her trying to ease some of the burning that was coming from the cut on her side. Frost added that she had told her to be careful to which Ice gave a small smile. "Ehehe... that happened before you told me that," she sad weakly, just barely louder than a whisper. It was more than apparent now she didn't have too much left in her and when Frost said that she could get her patched up rather quickly, she nodded. She was going to say something about getting down to the lower decks, but Frost seemed to have that covered already as before Ice had said anything, she felt herself being lifted up, with Twilight still on her back, and carried down the stairs into a not so large open room with a few cots already set up by the crew. Frost brought her and Twilight over to one of them and laid her on one, Ice Storm sliding Twilight off next to her. As of right now at least, their mission to get Twilight to safety had been a success. "Thank you, Frost. Oh, and the name's Ice Storm... sorry... for not mentioning it sooner," she said weakly.

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It did not feel right for Flash Sentry to have to be carried to safety by the injured mare, but he wasn’t in any realistic position to protest. At least she found it in her heart to forgive the guard for his unwilling acts of betrayal; Flash just wished that in time, the rest of Equestria would offer its forgiveness as well. That would all have to depend on whether the Royal Guard believed that he’d be brainwashed by the Enemy. If it didn’t... well, maybe he’d get to live out the rest of his life in the brig instead of on the Moon, or in Tartarus.

Flash Sentry and his savior made it to the airship just in time, where the stallion was left to lay down below deck along with the other heavily injured or exhausted ponies, Princess Twilight among them. From his safe vantage point by a window, the young stallion saw the Spire’s final moments. A big crack present around the middle of the structure grew wider in a matter of seconds, its top half leaning and leaning more precariously. After several more seconds, the fragment bent so far that the middle snapped, sending the top careening down into the remains of the downed viking longship from earlier during the crisis.

Fortunately, the Spire’s lower-half remained intact, and it didn’t look like anypony down below caught crushed by the top portion. Breathing a sigh of relief, Flash Sentry looked away from the window; strangely enough, he saw crystal coats appearing on everyone in the airship; the Crystal Heart must have been reactivated by the crystal ponies below, and the Dark King must have surely been driven off. The invasion had been stopped dead in its tracks!

The guard stole a glance at a blue unicorn beside him, his memories of his forced servitude to King Sombra slowly coming back to him. That mare had been Twilight’s protector during the ordeal, and Flash Sentry... charged straight at the two during that dark hour. The stallion may not have been in control of his own actions, but the ice unicorn deserved an apology nonetheless.

“Ex-excuse me ma’am,” Flash remorsefully attempted to get her attention; “You may be hating me right about now, and you’re probably right for doing so.” The guard sighed before continuing; “But if there’s anything I can do to make up for my actions... let me know. I’m- I’m sorry. But even though my memories are still fuzzy, I do remember that you served Princess Twilight. Speaking as a royal guard,” Flash allowed himself to flash a tiny smile; “You did a pretty **** good job out there, miss uhhh...?”

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Maud did as told, observing as Rose enacted her escape plan. It was a cleverness to use the slab of stone to slide down the ice slide was the sort of thing Maud might think of. The gemstone was just the right smoothness and density to be used for that sort of thing. She enjoyed the ride on it with Rose as the speed built up through their momentum. She could just picture how excited her sister Pinkie might have been to be there at that moment, convinced it was some kind of fun theme park-esque attraction. She recalled all the violence she had seen that day then and hoped that wherever Pinkie and her other friends were, they were safe.

As they came to the end of the slide, Rose used her strength to break the ice behind them. Maud meanwhile slammed her hooves down in front, to help bring them to a still. As Rose fell over, exhausted for her efforts, Maud nodded to her. "Just stand still. I'll handle it." she said as she lifted the other mare with her head and draped her over her back, carrying her safely out of the crumbling spire.

There she found an airship, on which the others who had escaped the tower had boarded. She took to climbing onboard herself, readily, and once on, put Rose down to rest. "We're safe now..." she said.

As she moved toward the others, a sudden brightness surged out from the plaza below the spire. Sombra defeated, the Crystal Heart's power was now radiating out at its maximum, filled with the light and the love of the crystal ponies. It was a phenomenon Maud had read about, but she had not truly understood it until that moment, when her coat as well as that of everypony else gathered there, turned translucent and shimmering like that of a crystal pony.

"Does anypony know if Twilight is safe?" she asked as she stepped to the others, hopeful that her friend had been recovered safely.
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Sunrise watched the icy mare go below decks with the help of the other ice unicorn, then turned her attention to the coffee-colored stallion, Voronoi, she was pretty sure that was his name, as he jumped off the ship, connected by some kind of wire. He went down to retrieve a couple mares from the spire, bringing them on board. One was unconscious, and the drab earth pony mare asked if the princess was alright.

"Yes, the princess is safe below decks." Sunrise answered, pointing to the stairs that the two icy mares had gone down. She hadn't noticed the change in the coats around her until just then, and she looked around in slight confusion as everypony seemed to be a crystal pony now. Then she looked down at herself and smiled at her own crystalline form. It certainly looked pretty. That must mean the heart was back in it's rightful place, and, judging by the lack of any more violence as far as she could see, ponies had won the day. She smiled slightly at that, looking out at the horizon with her chin resting on her hoof as she leaned against the railing.

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Ice Storm found herself laying on one of the beds next to Twilight after Frost had set the two of them down. She looked over to the princess and found that thankfully she was still alive. Her breathing was slow, but she could still notice. That was the good thing. The wound on her side was finally started to die down in terms of the pain that it was releasing into her. The salve that the zebra had given her seemed to have finally started working so that she could now start to relax herself. Although now that she was laying down, she could feel even more now how tired she actually was and knew that it wouldn't be too long before she herself passed out.

As she began to like look around at the interior of the ship, more and more cots have been set up for all of the other ponies that started coming down the steps as well. It seemed that a vat majority of them, other than being shaken a bit were unscathed. A few of them had some minor cuts but all and all, Ice Storm felt that the rescue mission that she, and her fellow ponies had embarked on was a success. However, she did use what bit of energy she had left to scoot next to Twilight a bit more as the guard approached them, still not trusting him too much. As he began speaking, she could hear the remorse in his voice and she could tell that he was genuinely concerned about the both of them. If he was acting and just trying to Twilight to finish the job he had started, then he was doing a really convincing job of it. He told her that if there was anything that he could do to make up for his actions to let him know. She huffed at this. He told her that he had remembered her as the one that served the princess and how she did a heck of a job.

She began to speak, the words that followed, even though were soft, here hard and heavy. "While the fault is not that of your own. There is no amount of actions that can undo all the lives that were lost today from this invasion. This event will leave a stain on not only the Crystal Empire, but the entire kingdom of Equestria as well. I'm just thankful that with the help of my friends, I was able to get Twilight and the rest of the ponies that couldn't fight out without losing any more lives than needed. I just pray there weren't any ponies in the landing range of the top of the spire when it fell. I also hope the guards are at least aware of the circumstances that lead up to this event so that they can be aware of what to look for should this type of situation occur again they can be ready and attempt to fight off any outside forces in their minds trying to control them," she stated.

"As far as serving the princess, I was only doing my job. In the lack of the Royal Equestrian Army and the Royal guards the responsibility and the duty to protect the princesses fall upon those who are able to do so. Therefore, when you and the rest of the guards were brainwash, it became out job to ensure the safety of our princesses. A job that I was more than willing to see through, recardless the cost or effects that it would have had on me. Know this, no pony, deer, viking or anything was going to get to Twilight while air still filled my lungs, and if it came down to it, I would have killed any guard that tried if I had to if it meant keeping the princess alive or myself getting killed," she told him flat out. "I would speak more, but I am already greatly tired, and my wound is still very sore, so I would like to rest as much as I can before I'm needed once more."

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As Bulk Biceps swung around, hovering next to the airship, he happened to glance down at his hooves. His entire form had taken on a crystalline sheen, as though he were one of the crystal ponies himself. Smiling, he looked below to see the reason - The Crystal Heart spinning above its pedestal, back where it belonged.

Bulk couldn't help himself. He flew upwards again and positioned himself with his back to the bright sunlight. He did what he did best - struck a pose, letting the light refracted through his body cast rainbows in the shape of his body, cast against large swaths of the Empire.

"YEAH!" he exclaimed.

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