[Attack!] The Party Ends (Open)

[PyroBlaze]

Flux sighed in relief a bit as she got her leg free of Megin's horns. She stuck her tongue out at him, blasting him with a large amount of energy again and again until she ran dry. It amounted to about four attacks, but it didn't matter too much.

"Meanie! Why are you so mean, Meggy?" Flux said, watching the caribou. Her answer didn't come though, as she was suddenly distracted by the huge dragon-like thing that had just arrived. Wow, he was big. And mean, apparently. She cringed slightly as he ate one of the caribou, looking back to Megin.

"You know, that thing eats caribou... Maybe we should take care of it..." She said, looking between him and the large creature. Why were things that looked like that dragon-thingy usually so mean? Was it a rule or something that you were mean if you looked like that? Or were they mean because others were mean to them? Hmm... something to think on later, she supposed.

[DerpRavener]

Naj was able to get the berzerker's attention, but only for a moment. It lifted a leg to strike, but before it had the chance Naj was grabbed out of the air. So focused had she been on the berzerker that she'd lost track of the caribou behind her. As such, she had only limited awareness of his tackle. She had just enough to notice it happening, mentally bracing for the pain but didn't have time for any other action.

Pinned to the ground, Naj watched forlornly as she lost the berzerker's attention almost immediately. She'd failed, and as a result of her failure others were now in danger. Foals, in fact, were now the subject of the creature's aggression.

"You will not run from me coward! I am your opponent now! And, for what I've lost, I'll end this now!"

The viking's shouting, right next to her ears no less, brought the return of her focus. It was him. This vile idiot, who would happily butcher civilians who'd done nothing to him, and then the moment somepony fights back he blames them for his losses, for defending themselves. He didn't even have the decency to be self interested, being apparently too stupid to realize where the real threats lied. He realized what the mage was to him, and yet still he was too narrow-minded and sadistic to attack any of the real threats. No, instead he made it his life's mission to sabotage her efforts at protection.

Naj's rage rose to a fever pitch. She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to watch him bleed. If he died now, she would almost regret it, as it would mean she couldn't hurt him any more. Almost, as her little voice of reason reminded her that time she wasted on this garbage was time she couldn't spend trying to turn this whole disaster around.

The viking lifted his sword, intent to plunge it into Naj's head. She was ready however, and as he reared up she writhed one of her forelimbs free, and brought it up to block the viking's swing at the hoof. The impact sent a spike of pain through the injured leg, but for the moment that only drove her on.

Still, fuelled by rage as she was she couldn't match the raw strength of the caribou, and keeping the sword from plunging downward was the limit of her abilities. She had one last changeling trick however, and this one wouldn't require any freedom of movement. Seething, she hissed “Die for your your crimes!” before she opened her mouth, fangs bared.

As Naj understood it, there were essentially two ways for a changeling to feed. There was the passive method, which she usually favoured, which was subtle, slow, and most importantly gentle.

This was not that method. Naj wasn't hungry, if anything she expected she'd feel sick after this, but she wanted to hurt the caribou. She needed a weapon. His love was limited, but still there. Love for his brothers, or perhaps some code of honour. Naj could only guess at specifics, but she cared little. It was there, and she was going to rip it out of the viking.

With neither one of them easily able to move, with Naj being pinned and the viking needing to keep her pinned or he'd risk her escape or counterattack, she began to drain him. She'd seen what could happen as a result of overfeeding, and for once was hoping to invoke it. Incapacitated, dead, in her current state Naj didn't really care what happened as long as she knocked the viking out of the fight.

[Bramble Rose]

Purple Haze gazed upwards at the giant serpant flying through the sky with horror in her little eyes. What... what could stand against this?! Where were the princesses? She swallowed nervously, momentarily paralyzed with terror. Then her heart started again, and she turned. "Nae mind that!" she cried, "comon, intae th' box!" She scrambled up the stairs, dragging her two besties along with her, and the three little fillies hid behind the Prince and Princess' double throne.

Purple Haze took a few deep breaths to steady herself. That thing was gonna take a LOT of scaring.

She grabbed the bellows from Sunrise and stuck the end into the mouth of the sack, tying it up nice and tight. "All right!" she said with far more confidence than she felt, "Help me inflate this! It's harder than it looks, and we gotta keep it going for a while!" With the three of them pressing on the bellows, the sack quickly inflated. It was rather bigger than Purple was used to, and she left her two besties to run the bellows as she pinned the sack to the back of the throne, and took the recorder in her hooves. Then she leaned into the sack to squeeze it.

It had been centuries since the song of the bagpipes had sung out through the frozen northland in any force - the first time, it had signaled the arrival of the Fet Loch reinforcements, led by the famous Fet Loch lord, Altostratus McCloud. It was a stampede of pegasus and earth pony warriors who had claimed sky and land for Equestria, turning the tide of battle, joining the beleaguered army already there to beat back the invading forces. Thereafter, the sound had been a terror, and according to the story Purple had heard, at least once it had scared away an entire legion of foes without a single arrow fired.

Now, it sounded again. A long, ghostly croon sounded over the battlefield, not entirely unlike the wail of a Windigo upon the frozen north winds - surely a noise to give pause to any northern warrior, seeing as it was their hate that best fed the beasts. It was joined by a second, then a third wail, as Purple adjusted the three flugelhorns acting as her pipes, bringing them to bear. The acoustics in the royal box were indeed excellent, and bounced all around the fairgrounds, making it difficult to tell exactly from where the spectral noises were originating. They seemed to come from everywhere.

Then Purple played her hooves over the blowholes in the recorder, and the tune started. As her besties kept the bag inflated, she kept leaning into it to squeeze the air out, keeping up the ghostly wail. Silently apologizing to her ma for all the times she'd complained about her practice, Purple started off with the song she knew best - the stately March of Fet Loch. The crooning tune sounded as if from invisible, ghostly throats, the martial tune suggesting the arrival of coming forces, but Purple knew that wasn't going to be enough. After a minute or so of that, she let the tune trail off in preperation for a creshendo, letting any listeners know that something... SOMETHING was about to happen.

This had been a fair to recharge the Crystal Heart - powered by feelings of national pride, of love and friendship, and of swelling confidence and joy. As much as the Princess was rumored to hold those in magic form, Purple knew that nothing made the heart swell like music - and she'd heard the National Anthem of the Crystal Empire at least twenty times since she'd arrived in the fair. She leaned extra-hard into the bagpipes and started into those joyous, stately noises, and grinned at her besties as she let her gratefulness for their friendship and reliability swell through her, feeding all of those positive emotions into her music. These huge bagpipes would carry this ghostly tune for miles, swelling over the sound of any battle. She didn't care where the Crystal Heart was - it was about to get a supercharge.

​

[RedCedar]

Red smiled to Tourmaline Glass as she asked him to be careful. "I will be," he assured her, even as he had doubts about how effective he was going to be at keeping that promise. "Remember, stay down, and out of sight." he added, as he crawled to the office door and sneaked away.

Going back out the door of the building he came in through was almost certain to be suicidal, so lacking a better plan other than the element of surprise, he crept towards the back of the building instead, out to a rear laneway, where he could move between buildings somewhat without being observed. Still, there were some things even he couldn't be made unaware of - such as the resounding voice of some huge being that didn't sound like it was here for the faire.

Red wanted to try to make his way towards the rest of the faire's pavillions, hoping to find something he could use before sticking his muzzle out into the thick of things, but regardless of how wise a course of action that might have been, his thoughts were of Naj first, riding on the caribou berserker as she had been. He had to make sure she was all right long enough for him to get that far. Staying close to the side of the building he peered out around the corner.

What he saw almost made him scream. Naj was on her back now, pinned to the ground by an irate caribou who was intent on finishing her off. Only Naj's hoof on his sword arm and her fangs in his wrist kept her alive right now, but there was no telling if that would be enough.

Red's mind raced. At first he just wanted to gallop out there and protect her, but what good would that do but leave him open, and vulnerable, and unable to do much? Then his eyes trailed down again, to the body of the decapitated viking, laying between him and where Naj lay struggling. The caribou's head lay on the ground to one side, and his forgotten sword on the other.

Red took a deep breath, hoping beyond hope no other had noticed him there, and galloped, fast as his hooves would take him, pausing only long enough to snatch the dead viking's sword in his hoof. There was no yelling, no screaming, nor battlecry for this one, just the intent to get that caribou off his special somepony. Still at full speed, he thrust the sword at the side of the caribou's ribcage, and only after that did he allow himself the satisfaction of making his demand perfectly clear.

"Get away from her, you wretch!" he spat.

[Blueblood]

"Well, when this is over I hope you'll continue to be a good and loyal changeling and report to your Hive, your Queen and any other changeling who will listen that there is at least one pony in Equestria who is willing to help and sustain changelings without the need to be kidnapped or invaded."

Kahz threw his impromptu medic a mock salute in response. "You can be sure of that!" Silently, he continued his thoughts, *Though on what Her Majesty will do with that information, I make no promises.* It was a good way of beating lie detection, since it got around the emotional dissonance that prevarication instilled in one. And at the end of the day, Chrysalis set the policy, and the Loyal obeyed. One only got around this fact by acting in advance of orders, which you only got away with if you could bring back good results.

This particular example of such proved to be mixed, at best. With Red gone, he was left alone with Tourmaline, technically defenseless should any caribou break in. Wobbling on three uneven hooves, he hobbled over next to the filly, tentatively nuzzling her in an attempt to comfort and reassure. "I think I still have a little magic left. If worst comes to worst... I can try an invisibility spell." It would be a long shot; he hadn't fed in a while, and love was in short supply on this battlefield.

With the curtains drawn, the noise outside became more mysterious, and more frightening. The roars of battle were drowned out by a roaring voice, with barely distinguishable words. Kahz caught enough to know that it was bad news; no doubt in in his mind about what the 'feast' was to consist of. It sounded bleak....

...But what was that other noise? Appetite whetted by hunger, the changeling almost thought he felt a pulse of love, even as the winter winds blew in. What was it, patriotism? The love of home? One's clan? The Hive? They all seemed mixed, spreading out to all who could feel any....

*Something must have happened with the Crystal Heart.* Kahz knew of that magical artifact, no one could come into the Empire without learning of it, but he was largely blank upon it's true nature. It was connected to the Empire and what it's citizens felt about it, and that was the limit of his knowledge.

​

[brianblackberry]

Sunrise Beach stopped in mid-gallop, dropping the bellows and lance as she stared in awe and terror at the flying wingless dragon as it snacked across the sky. She wasn't prepared for staring death in the face like this, she was just a filly, a silly young filly who cleaned helmets and lances for a living, attended some little school in a little town and spent the rest of her time on frankly trite adventures with her friends. This though, this… It was supposed to be a fun little faire, running around with her besties, eating crystal berries and candy, flirting with her dreamboat, not running for her life avoiding creatures who want to kill her for simply existing; she's never done anything to them! It just isn't fair!!

Only the voice of Sunrise's bestie, Purple Haze, rallying the trio to the royal boxes managed to snap the young unicorn out of her panicked state. "Huh? Yeah…like, uhh, right behind you, Purple!" Sunrise focused on following her friend, carrying the lance and bellows once again, determined to focus on the small trek ahead in a vain attempt to block out the frightful chaos around her. Fortunately they weren't far, and Under the shadow of the large thrones, Purple began to put her contraption together.

At this point Sunrise was running almost purely on adrenaline fueled by mixture of fear and hope. She couldn't help but admire her friend who stayed strong and focused despite what was happening around them, maybe Purple's plan would work after all. It certainly was audacious enough. Sunrise began to pump the bellows while looking at Marzipan with puzzlement, "like, this has to be the craziest idea we've come up with, and, like, we have come up with some real doozies!" That wasn't exaggeration and if this worked somehow, it would be one hay of a tale. She couldn't help but wonder if anypony would believe them.

There were no words in the turquoise filly's vocabulary to properly describe the eerie, disruptive, and loud sound of the bagpipes other than perhaps 'unique.' She had never heard anything so strange and crazy that was somehow defined as a tune. Sunrise wanted to plug her ears with her hooves but had to use them to keep pressing the bellows that allowed Purple to conduct a song of some sort. She'd never heard music like this before in her life - she could see why Purple thought it would scare enemies away! If she hadn't known who was playing it, she'd have been trying to get away from it, too!

But there wasn't much to do while pumping the bellows, so she found her gaze wandering around behind the thrones. The princess stuff around here was a lot different from back home! Even if Twilight also had a crystal castle, the entire atmosphere was completely different. There was only one book to be seen back here, and it looked like it might be dusty from disuse. There were a few boxes - one of which was labeled "Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious's Fireworks."

Oooooo. Fireworks. That sounded perfect! One hoof continuing to pump the bellows, she floated the box over with her horn. Opening the box, she saw it was indeed full! Tubular! She gave Marzipan a quick grin of excitement, showing her inside the box. Then, using her young magic, she floated the box around the throne and down into the sand of the jousting arena. Now came the hard part. Lighting them ... Twilight had been trying to teach her to light a candle, but her success was ... spotty at best. But this was IMPORTANT! She peeked around the throne, staring hard at the box full of fireworks, and wrinkled her forehead as she concentrated. Just ... just ... needed ... a ... spark ...

The whistle of fireworks shrieked through the moaning bagpipes, and then erupted above the fairgrounds in giant explosions of colorful sparks, some of them taking the form of giant crystals in the sky.

[Elderflower]

Drat! The twitchy-eyed unicorn had managed to make it out of Ryx’s grasp by stumbling back out of surprise, of all things. And worse yet, she had failed to interrupt his casting. With a rumbling thunder that shook her to her very core, coils upon blood red coils of draconic worm began to spill out from the portal in the sky. Its voice was terrible, and the scholar felt fear tingling over every inch of her body. She had adventured and faced some impressive foes in her time, but all were foes she could get rid of with a body slam or a rake of her claws. In other words: she had faced foes that were impressive for a scholar to defeat. Dragons of any sort were not on her list of defeated enemies. Fylkir, as the unicorn had called him, would be hard to take down.

Finally Ryx was startled out of her awe as a familiar figure charged into the scene, rushing to assist her with a hammer held ready for the attack. It was the caribou from before, so she had stirred him into action-

Before he could reach the black gryphon and the sorcerer, the old warrior was plucked from the ground and swallowed whole by the wingless dragon. Anguish flooded Ryx, who struggled against the urge to let out a furious shriek. She would not give the unicorn that sort of satisfaction. Sorrow and rage and desperation filled the fierce predator, who stood bleeding and panting as the wind grew cold and snow began to swirl around her body...wait! Snow? Had the heart been stolen!? The gryph felt at a loss until suddenly an instrument she had not heard in many months crept its way across the battle - no, it was finding its way across the entire Crystal Empire, she was sure!

The bagpipes began the March of Fet Loch, a song well-familiar to one who made her living off of researching and understanding the world’s cultures. It was then followed by a song she only barely recognized from earlier that morning - the anthem of the Crystal Ponies! And there was such heart put into that song, such an overwhelming rush of love and of joy, of every positive emotion one could feel!

Invigorated, Ryx offered the sorcerer a beaky grin.

“Hear that, cretin? You’ve already lost,” she nearly chirped, unfolding her wings and taking off into the stormy skies before she could give him a chance to reply. Ideally she’d take the time to engage him and get him tied up, but it was time for one last push to save the Crystal Empire, that was what mattered now! Time to add a dragon to her list!

The gryphoness flew seemingly away from the fight, the music soothing her pain as she darted away from the dragon. But then she flew up, up, up - way above that draconic fiend. The cold air was hard to push up through, and the air grew thin with every powerful flap of her massive wings, but Ryx needed the height. Once she was high enough and way out of sight came the angled dive, one that would bring her right over the massive dragon’s head!

With the storm and the cold now in the Crystal Empire, even amongst the white snow she would be hard to see. Dark clouds had covered the sun, after all. Her dive was silent, deadly, and though she doubted she could make a blow to seriously harm Fylkir she did know that slashing open his eyes was her best bet at putting a stop to him! So the eyes of the beast were her target, and if all went well she’d be able to zip by, drag her talons across at least one of his eyes and then blind him before levelling out and flying up for her second assault.

All Tartarus had broken loose. In the time it took for Sugar Star to knock out one of the three remaining caribou, an accursed dragon rained from the sky. Or snowed from the sky, considering how cold it had gotten. So the heart had been stolen, hm? Rather than get discouraged, Sugar felt confident and fired up. She had read enough dramatic comics to know that battles always got worse right before they got better. At least that’s what she told herself. She turned to face the other two caribou, but they were distracted. One of their own was...wait, one of their own was rushing Slippy! Confusion gripped the specialist, but just as quickly it was replaced with a lance of phantom pain as she watched the dragon swallow the caribou whole.

Sugar Star turned to Spot when he addressed her, her expression determined. With a caribou helmet atop his avian head and a shield strapped against his chest, the gryphon made quite the ridiculous sight. To Sugar Star, however, he was as valiant a champion as any fairy tale knight - every pony and gryphon battling here today was. The pegasus mare offered the catbird a salute with the tip of her wing and watched him fly off before turning her head in every direction in hopes of finding another large shield. Aha! There was one more, resting not far from the unconscious caribou who had once wielded it. The specialist dragged it over to Soarin’ and leaned it over him. It wasn’t much, but it was the best she could do. There was still a fight to finish and she couldn’t just stay idle in order to protect him…

Shame and regret flooded the soldier. It was her duty to protect, and here she was about to leave Soarin’ mostly defenseless. She just didn’t know what else to do. With a sigh, she let out a soft apology to the unconscious stallion and turned to the remaining two caribou to find they had returned their attention to her as well. There was a pregnant pause as they all faced each other. With the dragon’s shadow falling upon the trio, the specialist sensed that they all felt this was the end, no matter what happen. It was clear now that the dragon and Slippery were both a threat to them all.

Bagpipes filled the air, first playing out a familiar march then quickly falling into a song the mare did not recognize. It did not matter, though, because she did recognize what the song meant: victory. Whoever played these pipes spread their courage, their love, and their hope straight to the hearts of all who heard it. Sugar Star’s breathing fell even and she straightened her bruised body to stand tall. Somehow, the music eased her hurt. This was it.

The pegasus went into the sky, dropping down hard on the first caribou with her hooves, shoving him into his battle partner as she flew away to avoid the deadly swing of an axe. The first was seriously winded and the second staggered. Sugar flew to them again, this time grabbing the second’s antlers and tangling them with the first’s. While they busied themselves trying to get free, she slammed the flat of her blade against the second’s head, then the first’s. They were down.

Time for the last push against Slippery - she had to get him wrangled and tied up to deliver him for questioning. Without another moment’s hesitation she went after him.

[RarityDash]

Tourmaline nodded to the injured changeling. She felt safe with him. Perhaps something about his presence did recall to her Prince Bathos. The roars of the monster outside made her tremble terribly with fear. She stuck close to Kahz and said little beyond, "Thank you... for keeping me safe..."

On the battlefield, Hersir Megin's eyes went skyward as his opponent pointed him toward the scene. He watched, as everyone watched, as the great lindworm Fylkir made short work of Drengr Frjáls. "Well, if that don't beat all. That wizard went and summoned up a lindworm of all things, and now that poor old fool of a Drengr went and got himself eaten..."

The sight of it shook the hardened warrior from his rage. Frjáls had still owed him money for a bet they made back in Barn. Megin was not a nice fellow, but to see it all unfold, it did sort of seem to him like overkill. "Frjáls was a good fellow, but that there is a lindworm. Fiercest of fierce beasts who live along the Spine. Legend has it they were born from the World Serpent himself. I can't see any of us being of use against the thing. No, we'd just wind up sitting next to Frjáls' shattered bones in its belly."

Fylkir was indeed a staggering foe, and he was on a rampage, destroying buildings right and left as he looked for tender morsels to devour. He made a quick snack of some crystal empire sheep in a pin and then went looking for larger prey. That would be prey, found him. His eyes settled on a very succulent looking griffoness, large and meaty. His bloodied teeth smiled at the sight of her as she rose in the air and dove to attack him. The griffon was powerful and determined, which was enough to see her scratch the dragon's massive eye before he grabbed her in his flaw.

"You are bold to attack me head on, little creature..." boomed Fylkir, as he held the griffon before him and looked at her.

On the ground, the male griffon and the pegasus guard battled vikings and hawks, and as the battle march began to play on a little one's bagpipes and great crystal fireworks showed overhead, the tide began to turn in their favor. Quickly their foes were either disarmed of dispatched until few loyal to the dark wizard remained.

The viking called Saell too was stopped from exacting the first part of his revenge. The pinned changeling began to sap him of his love for his fallen brother and then, just as he was losing his strength, the red stallion came at him with the same brother's sword and stabbed him in the side. He dropped his blade and staggered back, grievously wounded. He collapsed nearby, unable to move. "Do it! If this is how it must be, then finish me!" he shouted bitterly, as his wound pooled with blood.

Then there was the berseker, who kept moving ever closer to the three little fillies, massive blade in hoof. She got to them just as the earth pony of the group began to play the march on her bagpipes and raised the sword high over her head, intent to finish them all in one dire swing.

But there was something in that music, in its volume and in its spirit. Something formidable. Something that could not be denied. It shook the armored warrior to her core and in the process something broke, and it wasn't just her eardrums. The music reached the cursed warriors heart, and soon it was beating at a normal rate. The magic misting from out of her eyes evaporated to nothing and soon they instead reflected a pleasant silvery blue. She became conscious of things once more, starting with the bruises and cuts on her body and face, and then quickly afterwards the great weight of all that she wore and held. She dropped the massive blade and shook her head, looking all around in front of her.

Where exactly was she? Last thing she knew, she had been pursuing a certain criminal scum aligned with the infamous Red Jarl in Barn and had come upon them meeting with envoys from a certain shadowy organization called WRAITH. She had moved to eavesdrop, only to be blindsided by a hammer strike. She couldn't remember anything at all after that point.

Just in front of the caribou cow there were three children. One was playing the music while another set off fireworks. "It's a strange instrument, but the song is a sturdy and triumphant thing, which would not be out of place blaring for us all in the Grand Meal Hall back home in Heil," she said in a hearty and robust voice, smiling despite the strange pain her body was in.

Her head tilted aside. "None of you little ones might happen to know where it is that I am and what it is I might be doing here, would you?" she asked, completely at a loss.

Cyprianus, blinded, stabbed, punched and generally beaten, stomped at the sound of the triumphant music and the fireworks. His forces were wearing thin and now even his berserker had been freed from his spell...

No! He would not let them win. He could not disappoint his true king. He still had Fylkir at least, and he could have more. There were more lindworms to summon from the Spine, bigger and more terrible ones even than Fylkir. He would do this yet.

"I will not let you fools have your victory! I am Cyprianus Rune, scourge of Kastrot and feared necromancer of the Wilds! You will not see me beaten!" he shouted and soon he was set to reopening his portal.

​

[PyroBlaze]

Flux watched the large beast as Megin turned and began talking about it, calling it a lindworm, or something like that. The changeling tilted her head to the side as she watched a griffon attack the beast to no effect. Well, it certainly seemed to be tough. Soon enough, the sound of music began drifting through the area, making Flux smile and sway in time with the music somewhat. It made her feel good, she liked it. Something was different about this music though. It didn't make her feel good like some other songs, it made her feel good on a deeper level.

"Wow, this music is great!" She chirped, smiling widely. She looked over at the bad unicorn as he started yelling about who he was. He looked like he was trying to do something magicy, so that probably meant he should be stopped. There was already a pegasus heading after him, so she decided to help the mare with that, lifting into the air with a buzz of her wings before zooming off towards the unicorn stallion.

"See ya later, Meggy! Maybe next time we meet we can be friends!" Flux called over her shoulder, giving the caribou a friendly wave before looking back to the unicorn and continuing her flight towards him.

[brianblackberry]

Sunrise Beach was impressed and ecstatic! Not only had Purple Haze’s plan worked, but it was going even better than the trio had hoped! Sunrise liked to think that her impromptu idea of the crystal fireworks helped some too. Indeed the sky was brilliantly lit among the clouds by the continued assault of colors and brilliant crystalline shapes that exploded among the flyers above. It was a good thing Spike was such an aficionado of fireworks so to hoard so many of them; once that initial spark lit the first ones, it has been a non-stop cascade.

One caribou warrior jumped off his giant hawk hammer in hooves ready to charge Purple as she played her ad-hoc bagpipes, determined to stop the ponies’ “secret weapon”. No way royal page Sunrise beach was going to allow that to happen to one of her best friends! But she had to keep her hooves pressing the bellows! Fortunately she remembered she had dragged along that lance, better still; she was used to carrying lances with her magic as she regularly attached them astride the guards as they practiced their jousting. Granted this time she was the one using it as a weapon, and although she still didn’t have the abilities to swing it about skillfully, what choice was there?

Fortunately for Sunrise the caribou ignored her and Marizpan and focused solely on Purple, ignoring the lance floating in a pink aura entirely. Sunrise didn’t need fighting skill when she could do the sneak attack! Just as the bull raised his hammer about his head, standing on his rear legs, the thick end of the floating crystal lance whacked him right on the top of his noggin! Staggering him backwards just enough for him to drop his own hammer upon his helmet and knocking himself unconscious. Sunrise had the biggest, proudest smile upon her face, “like, did you see that Marzi? I’d totally took that caribou out! That. Was. So. Righteous!!” Bet the captain of the guard would have been proud. Even better though she knew the bull would eventually regain consciousness and recover, she didn’t really want to hurt him, she didn’t really want to hurt any of them, as terrible as they were, just stop them.

Stopping the attack appeared to exactly what was happening. Even the berserker halted her attack. Sunrise was glad to discover she was indeed alive now she was freed from whatever evil spell was cast over her. Better still, it sounded as if she wasn’t a willing part of the attack. “Um, hi, like uhh, welcome to the Crystal Empire Crystal Spire… Like, home to the Crystal Heart and all that cool junk. Uhhh.. as for why you are here, you were like under some kind of spell and sent to attack us! Pleeeeease don’t attack us, we like, so totally don’t mean you any harm!”

[RarityDash]

((ooc: Didn't post that long ago, but thought I'd help to move this along to its conclusion. ))

The armored caribou gave a hearty laugh as the unicorn of the group answered her. "A spell you say? Haha! Bewitched and sent to attack young ones. Of all the miserable and low deeds imaginable... Just who is responsible for this madness?" she started, almost humored by the terribleness of the truth. She turned around to survey the scene behind her, but her eyes were immediately drawn to Fylkir. "Never you mind that, what in the name of all gods is a lindworm doing here in this city?" she shouted.

"No... I find the explanation for that doesn't rightly matter. If there is a lindworm in this city, only one thing needs to be done!" she said with a light-hearted nod. "Be safe, young ones."

The caribou cow hefted the massive sword once more and this time went charging right at the massive drake. She leapt mightily upon the creatures back and drove her giant sword clean through its scales until it was pinned to the ground. It howled in terrible pain, its grip loosening upon the griffoness it held in the process. The caribou kept the creature pinned with her sword then. Standing over it and with all her great strength keeping it down.

"Ponies of the Crystal Empire and all others assembled here today, hear me and hear me well!" she called out to them in a booming voice, the lindworm still squirming violently under her, angry and pained for how it was pinned to the ground. "I am Randgrid of Heil-Barn, daughter to Dragonsong, High King of Whitescar! I have subdued this killer beast, but I cannot defeat it all on my own! Come now, and help me to stop it before it destroys more of this fine city!"

"Accursed wretch..." Cyprianus muttered as he put his all into his portal nearby. Overhead, the claw of some gigantic beast, five times in scale to Fylkir could be seen grasping at the rim of the portal, but it was not yet big enough for the thing to pull through, and both the guard and the cheerful changeling were coming right at Cyprianus, who was otherwise defenseless.

​

[PedestrianWolf]

(OOC: Darnit Rarity! You always post at the same time as I do!)

The griffon had taken cover in the second story of a partially smashed building. Looking around, it seemed to be an apartment. He wondered what had become of the occupants. He wondered what would become of all of them. Derecho was tired. He had been beaten and bloodied. And for what? The caribou were one thing. A superior fighting force, but at least they were his own size. The giant hawks, well, they were just brute beasts under the control of a merciless master. But the dragon had been the last straw. How were they going to go up against that? He felt despair chill his blood. And so he had come here, to hide. Because he could not fight anymore.

When he heard the ghostly wail of the bagpipes, he thought it was coming from the portal. It sounded otherworldly and horrible. But then the wails began to become a tune. A recognizable tune, one he may have heard before, when he was young. He listened, enraptured. When the song was done, another one began. This one he did recognize, the crystal anthem! He began to feel his heart swell. He burned with passion, with love! Love of country, love of homeland, love of family and friends and neighbors. He loved these ponies, with the fierceness of a bear protecting her cubs. Yes! He must fight, and continue fighting! Not just for himself, but for all griffons and ponies across the world!

Derecho swooped out of the window, and stopped short. The dragon had the black griffoness in his claws! He had to help. But how? Flying in blindly would only get both of them eaten. What to do.... ah! Fireworks started exploding overhead, catching him off guard. But they gave him an idea as well. Searching the surrounding area, he found what he was looking for. A cafe, with a small bar. Diving in through the open door, he began gathering bottles of spirits and opening them up, taking a sip from each to test the proof. He grabbed a tablecloth and ripped it into strips, soaking them with the alcohol and stuffing them into the necks of the bottles. He then found a box and filled it with his special 'cocktails', stuffing straw in between the bottles to keep them from spilling. Lastly, he snagged a box of matches from the bar, and headed back out to the square.

Many of the vikings had ceased fighting, either by choice or because somepony else had taken them down. The griffon dragged his box to an open spot where he had a good line of sight with the wurm and the wizard. Quickly, he lit the cloth wicks in the bottles. As they burned, he grasped the box with his good hand and started spinning, like he was competing in the hammer toss at the summer games. He whirled faster and faster, spinning on his heels. One turn, two, three, and heave! The flaming box flew through the air towards the dragon's head, exploding in a fireball upon impact.

Marzipan had been doing her level best to ignore the giant dragon thingie. If she didn't look at it, then it wasn't really there. And if it wasn't there, it couldn't devour her in one gulp, right? Instead, she concentrated really hard on helping Purple with her contraption. When it started to make those wailing, moaning noises, she nearly stopped pumping the bellows. But a poke in the side from Sunrise got her back on task. She kept going, pushing air into the bag to keep it inflated as Purple leaned on it to force the air out the horns she had attached. Marzipan watched in fascination as the earth filly started playing a tune. "A strumento musicale?!" This was their secret weapon? She seemed doubtful, but soon the filly began to notice a change in the atmosphere. Something intangible, but it made her heart beat quicker, stronger. She pumped the bellows with renewed vigor.

Marzipan didn't even notice that Sunrise had found a box of fireworks until they started exploding overhead. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the first boom. But looking into the sky, and seeing the bright patterns they made against the gloomy sky, she laughed with joy. She did a little dance, swinging her hips and shaking her tail as she pumped the bellows. At this very moment, regardless of what was happening around them, the little filly was happy to be alive.

As the song ended, before Purple could think of another one to start playing, one of the caribou approached the trio. ""None of you little ones might happen to know where it is that I am and what it is I might be doing here, would you?" Marzipan squeaked in surprise. Sunrise was a little more composed, and answered her. “Um, hi, like uhh, welcome to the Crystal Empire Crystal Spire… you were like under some kind of spell and sent to attack us!” The pegasus filly nodded her head and responded, "Si! You came here in ships! With Him!" She waved her hoof in the direction of the wizard unicorn. "He tell you to attacco, and you do!" She was starting to get indignant now. "This was a party! A fiera, celebration! And you ruin it! Look!" The filly waved her hoof at the destruction wrought by the viking horde. "You smasha things, you destroy all!" She started to hover at eye level with the caribou, glaring. "You hurt small foals! What kind of monstro are you? Ia accuso!" She spat expertly at the hooves of the confused viking. Turning away, she started to shake. She had just yelled at an adult! One who could hurt her, badly, if they wanted to. She felt very brave, and monumentally stupid at the same time.

[PyroBlaze]

Flux hummed to herself as she sped towards the unicorn. Her humming matched the notes of the song being played fairly well. This music was great! She even swayed a little bit with the music, though that only decreased her speed by a little bit. She was used to multitasking like that. Granted, that was usually while bouncing around or walking, but it wasn't too much different for flying. As she got closer though, she stopped swaying and sped up her flying to as fast as she could go, sticking her forehoof out and flying directly towards the unicorn's face.

[DerpRavener]

Naj blinked as the viking staggered off of her. So far she'd been mostly ignored by her allies, which was understandable their own challenges, but it still left her not expecting any help. And focused as she was, she was at most dimly aware of her surroundings outside of the 'duel'. As such, she wasn't ready when Red came to her aid.

It took Naj a moment to recover, and which point she rolled onto her hooves and stood shakily upright. She stared at the viking as he shouted for her to end the fight. Much as she still hated what he'd done, or at least supported, she could hear the defeat in his voice. Just now, he'd lost everything: his family, his honour, and even his chance at revenge for losing them. Naj wasn't quite sympathetic, but she abhorred needless cruelty. This one had been punished enough.

Moving quickly, to avoid giving Red a chance to react, she snatched the sword from him. With a single heavy blow the the caribou's head, it was over.

Now that they found themselves in a moment of relative peace, Naj slumped over and coughed, feeling drained. Aside from the rampaging wurm overhead, the battle was finally turning in their favour, Naj let her tiredness show. She could still fight if she needed to, she wasn't spent yet, but the consistent fighting was wearing her down.

Dragging the sword, Naj half-hobbled over to Red and looked at him with a mournful expression. She'd been hoping to spare him from all of this, as much as she could, but it seemed that wasn't to be. How much that was her fault and how much it was simply inevitable she hadn't figured out yet. “You shouldn't have done that,” she said, sighing, “but...thanks.” She appreciated the intent, even if she thought the action shouldn't have happened. A part of her still hoped he'd turn back here, but she doubted that was a possibility. Besides, she hated to admit that they still probably need all the help they could get, even if she didn't want it from this particular source. She set the sword in front of him. “If you're really intent of fighting, you'd probably need this more than I would.”

With that done, Naj looked up to where the great beast had paused his rampage to grab a griffon out of the air. Naj sat down, wracking her brain for some way to deal with the creature, but not coming up with much. “...Seige weapons maybe...” she muttered, putting it out there but not knowing what to do with it. She didn't have much familiarity with such things, and even though she might be able to work around that without knowing where they might be in the Crystal Empire the suggestion wouldn't do much good. She slumped down again, feeling helpless.

It was just as she turned to Red, hoping against hope that he might have come up with something, when she heard the tail end of a conversation between...the berzerker and the three fillies? Naj blinked again. She'd seen a similar sort of magic to that before, but this was the first time she'd ever seen someone recover from it. Today was just full of surprises.

And yet another one, the former berzerker cut the conversation short to leap at the wurm and more than that, actually managed to pin it. When she called for aid, Naj's first reaction was to sarcastically mutter, “...yeah, because it sure looks like you need the help.” But she knew better. Just because the caribou could kill the thing didn't mean she was guaranteed to, and certainly didn't mean she could do so without injury or (even more) collateral damage. If they worked together, collectively they could put it down quickly. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Flux and a guardspony running down the mage, so Naj could focus her full attention on the pinned beast.

“Put it down quickly, then we can rest.” Naj spoke aloud, though she meant it mostly to motivate herself. Half-hobbling over to where she'd been pinned, she picked up the second sword that had fallen there. She needed something sharp and expendable, and she wasn't willing to disarm Red. Gripping the sword a little awkwardly in her hooves, she grunted, straightened out and then rose into the air. For the last time today, she hoped.

Naj gained some quick height, hoping to use gravity to do most of the work for her. Aiming for the eye, the point where she thought she could do the most damage, she held back for a moment as a lit box of firebombs was thrown at the creature. As the box detonated, Naj followed it in with a dive, holding the sword out in front of her.

[Elderflower]

Many things happened on the short flight to the twitchy-eyed, sniveling unicorn. First, the cold was chased out by a balmy breeze full of life and love and warmth, indicating the return of the Crystal Heart to its rightful place. Secondly, some kind of beautiful energy seemed to pulse within the Crystal Empire, one that seemed to carry with it a resonant joy and love so proud and so true that Sugar felt as though she was buzzing with it herself. Thirdly, a caribou cow named Randgrid cried in a booming voice to all ponies, changelings, and gryphons present through the shrieking draconic wails of the downed wyrm that she had come to their aid. It was their turn now to help her, and while Sugar wished to go aid them she had another important duty to attend to.

It seemed as though Sugar Star wasn’t the only one set on making Slippery pay for his deeds, though. Another pony - no, a changeling was approaching the unicorn as well, hoof outstretched to strike a blow. Excellent! Sugar veered sharply off course, shredding yet another banner open to assist her with her final act in this struggle. She waited for the changeling to reach the vile, wicked sorcerer in the midst of his second summoning and took full advantage of her strike to approach him from behind, brandishing her sword with one hoof and yet another bundle of fabric in the other. From behind him, she moved to smash the hilt of her blade upon his head to knock him out cold, and if all went according to play she’d have him tied up and at her mercy in no time. And her trusty, glitter-covered bow was nearby as well! She’d definitely have to wrap this unicorn package up in style with that!

The specialist had no idea what had happened throughout the rest of the Empire, but there had to be somepony here, whether REA or Royalty, who would know what to do with the fiend until he could be questioned. Until she could transport him to a higher level of authority than herself, however, she would stand guard over him to make sure nopony tried to land a finishing blow. Whatever information they could get from Slippery would be vital.

----------------------------------------------

Well, Ryx, what a spectacular arse you’ve made of yourself. Very heroic.

The gryphoness’ thoughts were rather clear and snarky for a bird clutched in the clawed hand of a massive dragon. Perhaps that was the sort of clarity that impending doom brought upon one, though: sarcastic clarity. The high that the anthem of the Crystal Empire had graced her with was rushing out quickly, though neither fear nor panic replaced it. Instead, a slightly exasperated calm filled the massive predator from beak to tail tip. Every Blackbird had her time to go, she supposed.

Just as Ryx took a deep breath to steel herself for the inevitable, stinky journey to the belly of the beast, though, the berserker from earlier leapt atop its head and brought it down with one fell swoop. Now that was heroism. The dragony thing’s crash to the earth left the black gryphoness rather rattled, though she took in everything Randgrid said with a beaky grin as the monster’s grip on her loosened. Well, whether or not the real damage had been done by Ryx, she still had enough energy and determination left from a final burst of adrenaline to finally add a dragon to her list of defeated foes. It helped, too, that the warmth had crept back into the battle scene. Victory seemed to be everywhere at once. First the music, then the destruction of the dragon and the return of Randhild’s mind, and then the return of warmth and this flood of tingling joy that seemed to crackle in the air.

This would be a good victory for all! For all…

The bird sighed as a little twang of anguish twisted her stomach. Poor Frjáls...after all this was said and done, she would make it her duty to track down his family. It was finally time for the vagabond gryph to journey to the Whitescar, hopefully there she could let that old bou’s family know just how valiantly his end had come.

Ryx finally wriggled out of the dragon’s loosened grip and looked up at the fireworks overhead, beaming. The spotted gryphon was on the scene throwing rather exciting cocktails at the beast to aid Randhild, and now it was the Blackbird’s turn. With a triumphant, avian shriek she grasped a massive crystal shard from the ground and heaved her sore and bleeding body skyward. Up she flew once more, into a dive that would carry her crystal shard down through the dragon’s back, hopefully to pierce its heart.

“That is for the Crystal Empire, you monster,” she cried, “And this is for Frjáls!”

With one final heave, she shoved the shard deeper into the dragon and twisted.

[RedCedar]

"Do it! If this is how it must be, then finish me!"

Red stood over the prone form of the caribou he'd just charged at, burrowing a hole in the warrior with another's sword. The tactic had worked about as Red had hoped for, perhaps better, but what separated Red from any other soldier was the aftermath. Any soldier might have been quick to react to an enemy falling, either by finishing it off or quickly moving to the next foe in line. Red took the time to survey his handiwork, instead, amazed at how much blood flowed, and so easily, from what was almost certainly a fatal wound, but the caribou still had life enough to taunt him into finishing what he started.

For the gentle pony Red normally was, however, it didn't look like he needed to be pushed very hard to make up his mind. Where Red might feel regret at slaying another, this caribou would feel empowered. Where Red might be haunted, this viking would feel justified. Where Red might feel the need to target only combatants, this viking would kill anything that moved. Any pony. Any griffin. Any foal. Any changeling.

Even Naj.

Red began to raise the sword again, but Naj quickly put an end to any possibility of Red regretting himself later, snatching the weapon from him and finishing the caribou herself. And where he was certain any caribou would have felt anger at being denied the final blow, Red felt relief.

“You shouldn't have done that,” she said, sighing, “but...thanks.”

Red smiled a little. Even now she was thinking he should have kept his head down. Maybe she was right, with that giant creature looming still, but even so, he said "I'll try not to make it a habit,"

Red picked up the sword she returned to him as she sat down. He curled one hoof around her shoulders even as he stayed alert for what was around them, ready to defend her if needed. She was exhausted, that much was obvious, and almost beaten as she looked mournfully to the lindworm, wondering how to tackle it next. Red was trying to figure out what it would take to get her to safety herself, even if he had to physically carry her, unwilling and squirming, as she looked to be in no condition to keep fighting now. Even he could only stare. He'd never seen anything like it, nor had he any idea of how to deal with it.

Thankfully, though, it seemed somecaribou with a lot more experience with the creatures did have an idea. Red watched in amazement as the berserker, finally free of her mindless trance, proved to be much more agile than before as she tackled and pinned the creature down. It was all she could do to hold it, however, as she called for anypony else to finish it off. “Put it down quickly, then we can rest.” Naj said, and Red couldn't help but agree.

As Naj took to the air with her assailant's sword, ready to bury it in the worm's skull from above, fires burst around the creature's head and a griffin dove to drive a sharp crystal into the beast, Red felt the thing was probably already suitably distracted and likely well taken care of. Still, this being had also destroyed buildings, so he wasn't about to take a chance that these attacks alone would be enough. As the caribou kept it pinned, and the others kept it distracted, Red brought the sword up beside the beast and gave a swing, burying half the blade into the creature's side as it lay on the ground. Back on his four hooves again, he gripped the sword's handle in his teeth and began to press forward, muscles straining, as he dragged the blade through the creature's flesh as far down its length as he could.

[RarityDash]

Explosions going off in his face from what the griffon threw at him, stabbed by swords from the changeling and the earth pony stallion, and the giant piece of crystal the griffon held, the dragon with a taste for blood stopped struggling under Randgrid's massive blade. Fylkir was no more. His long, serpentine body lay motionless there along the main empire throughway. Randgrid took a heavy breath and nodded in respect for the powerful and terrible creature, before removing her sword from its back. She jumped from off of it, just in time to observe as a robed unicorn was struck in the head by a changeling and a guard's sword and then bound in pretty fabric. He was not dead as the beast was, but he was very much not awake. Above him, the sound of the massive beast on the other side of the portal could be heard howling in disappointment as it pawed at the swiftly closing gateway.

"Marvelous work, my new friends!" Randgrid said boisterously as she looked to the four who had taken part in Fylkir slaying. "Each of you can now claim to have brought down a lindworm. That's worth a free drink in any of the best of Barn's taverns," she joked, gleefully unaware of any of the things they had been through.

The mighty caribou in the armor gave a rye laugh, just as a certain magic pulsed powerfully through the air. The Heart was back where it belonged, Sombra fully defeated, the crystal ponies charging it to the full extent of its power with their light and love. All at once, everyone in the area, be they pony, griffon, changeling or caribou, became as if crystal in body--well, everyone that is, save for Cyprianus, who's heart held no light or love. It was a shock for Randgrid, who had never seen anything quite like it.

"So if what those children say is true, this is the second time this day my body has been beset with strange magic," she laughed at the sight of herself, armor and all translucent and shimmering. "Strange though it might be, I suppose it's a finer thing than some wicked spell that has me scaring young ones."

Her eyes began to survey the scene further. She found she recognized the face of Hersir Megin, a high ranked member of the Red Jarl's Clan Olin there along with some other scoundrels of the same clan. There was also the bound unicorn, no doubt the same one who had cursed her. "You and everyone else here will answer for your crimes, Hersir Megin," she said as she looked at the Hersir, pointing her sword his way. "Normally it would be in my father's courts, but it is this nation's lives and livelihoods you have assailed this day. I will see that you are all presented to the Crystal Princess and made to pay as she sees fit!"

Megin, himself gone crystal, looked at Randgrid and at Cyprianus. They had lost. It was a rout. All the vikings were either dead or incapacitated, and there didn't seem to be an opening for them to regroup with the Jarl. With the Valkrie of Heil breathing down his neck, he certainly wouldn't be able to get very far. "Fine, princess. I can concede defeat," he said, ready to be made a prisoner. "It was a more spirited sort of warrior who came to this empire's defense, than likely the Jarl or that king had been prepared for..." said the Hersir, looking for a moment toward the changeling opponent who had kept him busy before rushing off to finish Cyprianus.

"Excellent," said Randgrid. She looked toward the others all about, "If it's not too much to ask then, could I find some assistance in rounding up these caribou raiders who still draw breath and seeing them to the proper authority?"

"You there, griffon. You look like you'd be especially good for it," she said, nodding the the large griffoness. "All of you fought so well, but the way you shoved that crystal through the beast's heart deserves only the deepest of respects!"

​

[PyroBlaze]

Flux beamed at the mare as she tied up the now unconscious unicorn in some fabric and even a pretty bow! It just mad her smile, the way he looked now. She giggled at the sight before turning towards the large creature just in time to see it die from the multiple wounds inflicted upon it.

She began bouncing in place in excitement as she saw herself and everypony else, aside from the unicorn, get a shiny, crystaly coat. It made them all look so shiny, she couldn't help but get excited from it. She looked over as Megin surrendered and looked over at her. She smiled widely, giving him a friendly wave before bouncing around again in excitement.

"Yay! We won!" She chirped happily, still bouncing. She paused momentarily, looking like she was deep in thought. "At least I think we won..." Then, she turned towards the mare that had tied up the unicorn, giving her a questioning look. "We did win, right? I'm pretty sure we did."

She continued staring at the mare for a few moments before her face lit up and her smile came back in force. "Hi! I'm Flux! Who're you? I don't think we've met." She chirped happily, pausing again and walking around the mare, looking at her a bit closely. "Hmm... Nope, not ringing any bells, though there is some sort of drum solo happening in here." She said, tapping her head for emphasis. She squinted slightly before her eyes went wide again. "Wait, were you in that circle earlier? I think I left before you gave your name! Sorry about that!" She said, giggling somewhat.

This was a bit more crazy than she normally was, but between the aftereffects of that music and the crystal heart, she was feeling very happy and giddy.

[PedestrianWolf]

Derecho sat down with a thump as he watched his flaming box fly into the face of the dragon. The explosion seared and blinded the beast, so that the black griffoness could skewer it with a shard of crystal. A female caribou stood triumphant on its corpse, declaring victory. He shook his head. There were too many dead and wounded for this to be a win in his book.

A curious transformation came over the griffon. He began to glow from inside, and his feathers and fur became translucent, and crystalized. How wonderful! It would look much better with the dirt and blood washed off. Even the caribou gleamed. It seemed that the crystal heart did not take sides.

The former berserker called for the remaining vikings to be rounded up and taken prisoner, but the griffon had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Limping over to where the fallen Wonderbolt lay, Derecho moved the heavy shield that had been laid over him. He pulled aside the pegasus' tattered uniform to check for vital signs. Under the cloth, Soarin's coat was crystalline, and the griffon could detect a slight pulse. Thank the Sisters, he was alive! Unconscious and gravely wounded, but alive. He heaved the blue stallion awkwardly onto his back, and shifted until he was comfortable with carrying the weight. Turning towards the three fillies by the royal box, he called out to them.

"Hail! You there! This pony needs help. I take him to Crystal Castle. You come with me, as escort, yes? Come!" He waved his talons in a come along gesture, and turned towards the castle. Surely there would be a doctor or healer of some kind there. It would not do for one of the Heroes of Equestria to be left alone ingloriously, covered in filth.

Marzipan still had the shakes from coming down off her adrenaline high. She had yelled at a caribou warrior, one who had tried to kill her and her friends, and nothing bad had happened! The berserker had instead gone and slain the dragon that was rampaging through the square. Did that mean she was one of the good guys now? It seemed so. Magic was a curious thing.

Magic! As soon as the dragon was down, the snow stopped falling, a warm breeze blew in, and everything began to shine. The little filly marvelled at her new crystal coat and mane. She shucked off the too-big armor she was still wearing and twisted and turned, admiring herself and her friends. Wow! Wouldn't it just be awesome if they always looked like this? "Ai, we are cristalla! Molta Bella!" She squee'd and did a little flip in the air.

A booming voice grabbed her attention. Hail! You there! This pony needs help. She spun to see the spotted griffon from earlier waving to her and her friends. He had a pony on his back. A blue.... oh no! It was the Wonderbolt, the one that Sunrise had such a huge crush on! He was hurt, and needed their help. "Madre de Celestia! Come, we must go with il grifone!" Marzipan grabbed her besties by the hooves and started dragging them towards the griffon and the castle. Inside, she was sure they would find a nice soft bed they could lay the wounded pegasus down on, wash the dirt off him and wrap his wounds. He would come to, and be so grateful for their assistance! Sunrise Beach might even get a kiss!

[Blueblood]

Was that... affection? Kahz looked down in some surprise at Tourmaline leaning up against him. It seemed that he had indeed made something like a friend with the crystal filly. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, he supposed, given how much time and effort he'd dedicated to becoming a personable and genuinely likable fellow, but this was the first time that absolutely no deception or ulterior motivation involved at all.

They stayed huddled for some moments, but eventually the noises from outside, and the pulse of the Crystal Heart was too much. "I've got to see what's going on out there. Hang on a second..." Experimentally hovering with his thankfully intact wings, the changeling went over to the window and peeked out.

Oh, hello Mr. Dragon. He got there in time to see pretty much everything involving the lindworm, from it's eating the first caribou that charged it, to the final blows struck at it by the restored berzerker and her new allies. "Attagirl! Now, where's the other..." Ah, there Naj was, having with her paramour's help finished off the caribou warrior. Hm, perhaps it might be worth putting in a word or two for her back at the Hive? They couldn't afford to lose out on a fighter like that, so close to what was coming...

And then, the cold that had been seeping into the Empire was banished with a wave of warmth and light. It passed through Kahz, leaving his chitin tingling and shiny. "Whoa! I... that's something. I didn't... think we could do that!" He began to feel fizzy and jumpy inside; his injured leg no longer hurting. "I think they've- we've won. Let's see!"

With a sudden leap, he burst out the door, to find that, indeed, the battle for the Empire was over. What a report this was going to make, back at the Hive! They'd never believe it, not in a thousand years. *I'm not sure how well this bodes for our own invasion. A tremendous change in approach seems to be necessary...*

​

[Elderflower]

The dragon had stopped moving and Slippery was out cold and tied up (rather tightly) at Sugar Star’s hooves. The Specialist finally took a moment to breathe, her last burst of energy oozing out of her quickly while she looked about at the destruction. Countless buildings had now shattered thanks to the lindworm and there were many still bodies cast about, but most of those belonged to giant hawks and unconscious vikings. She didn’t want to admit it, but as the cow who had felled the lindworm made a final call to action for those who were able to assist in rounding up the last of the cariou, she knew she didn’t have it in her to chase any more of their foes down. Each wound that had been opened on her body where her armour failed to protect her was brutally sore and had been bleeding quite freely from the first strike. The specialist was exhausted.

She was snapped out of her reverie by the excited babbling of...a changeling? The winged mare looked at the happy creature, a little perplexed. She had never seen one so...cheerful! Or friendly, or...crystally! All the changelings she had ever come across were much more ‘Grrrr! Hiiiiisssssss! For the Queeeeeeeen aaghh yagh yagh!’ This was a pleasant alternative to that sort of mentality!

Wait, crystally? Blinking, the winged mare held out a hoof and looked at it, noticing that she, too, held the appearance of a crystal pony! Eeeee! She looked just like Sailor Mare in the third arc of the series when she had released Tuxedo Mustang from the clutches of evil with a kiss, causing them both to sparkle and turn into crystalline ponies and Sailor Mare even grew wings and defeated the forces of evil! Oh, but - ahem. She was still talking to the sparkling changeling.

“Looks like we won,” the golden mare said with a smile, ruffling Flux’s mane, “And I was in the circle earlier...my name is Sugar Star. Specialist Sugar Star, of the Royal Equestrian Army. Thank you for your help today, Flux - I never expected changelings would help out any ponies so readily, but there were a few of you on the field of battle today it seems. Thank you.”

Without another moment’s hesitation the pegasus made her way back to the hastily-covered Soarin’ who lay sparkling under a large shield, just to discover that Spot was back at his side! He still seemed fairly unconscious, but he was thankfully alive. Sugar Star heaved a sigh of relief and looked around, hoping to spot a crystal filly with a bright orange mane amongst the wreckage before she spoke. No luck...hopefully Swirly had managed to hide herself well!

“Good fight, Spot. You were impressive out there! And you are now, too! I’ve never seen a crystal gryphon before!”

The specialist smiled on as he summoned three ponies, one of whom had been quite taken with Soarin’ earlier, to join him in bringing the Wonderbolt someplace where he could get help.

“I have to stay behind and make sure Slippery and his crew find their way to the Princess once Randgrid and the others round them up, so you all take good care of him. I think getting eaten has taken its toll on him…”

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Ryx blinked at Randgrid, whose coat had turned quite a lovely shade of crystal. For one who had just been under the grips of cursed mind-control magic, she was quite a jovial caribou. It was a little infectious, in fact, and the large catbird offered her up a wide, beaky grin and a wink. She wondered how silly that must look, a grinning crystalline gryphon...hah!

“I would be glad to help. My size has no use to me as a scholar, so I try to make it count when I do get to make use of it. Though lifting a giant spike and crashing into a beast with it is hardly so impressive as downing it with a single strike...my attempts at bringing him down involved making myself into a meal!”

With the strange, avian laughter only a gryphon could make rolling out of Ryx freely she readied herself to move skyward before she noticed the changeling from earlier, the one who had ordered Randgrid to attack the vikings.

“You,” she called, well aware that the cow could hear. If Randgrid wished to address the issue, she could, “I will say one thing: you were eager to assist in battle, and for that we are all grateful. But to let desperation to save and protect others drive you to take advantage of another’s mind so callously as you did...You took control of one whose mind had been robbed from them and ordered them to kill. That is not heroic. Learn from this.”

It was ever a scholar’s duty to lecture, wasn’t it? Ah well, it was time to round up the remaining caribou! So that’s what Ryx did, without bothering to wait for a response. Frankly she did not wish to linger around the changeling, and there was work to be done in any case. One, two three caribou she wrangled and brought to place next to the vile unicorn, whom the REA mare seemed to have tied up with a bow. Cute!

Ryx readied herself to go after a fourth when something caught her eye: a hammer! Quickly she lumbered over to where it lay near the dragon and recognized it immediately - how could she not when she had been threatened with it earlier? The gryphon lifted Frjáls’ hammer and approached Randgrid once more to say, “I fought one named Frjáls, who wielded this hammer. In his last moments he knew what he did here was wrong and turned against the sorcerer, just to be eaten by the dragon. Do you know where his family is? I would see this hammer returned to them, personally.”

[RarityDash]

Tourmaline's ears perked up as the changeling said that they had won. "A-are you sure?" she asked. As hopeless as it had looked, she had had much doubt about their chances. She had been sure the day would end with them cast in bonds by Sombra once more.

But no, as she lifted her head and looked to him, she noticed the changeling's body now shimmered and shined as hers did. That meant the heart was in its right place, brimming with the power from all the ponies in the empire. Perhaps she herself, with her gratitude and affection for this changeling who stayed with her, had contributed unknowingly to it.

She moved slowly toward Kahz as he opened the door, following after him. Sure enough, the bad vikings were being rounded up. Strangely, it was the armored warrior who had very nearly sliced Tourmaline in two who seemed to be coordinating the effort, seemingly completely different and alive from how she had been before, not even mentioning how she shimmered like crystal as they all did. It recalled to her many tales of possession and mind control from her books and was easy for her to swallow, but it still was a startling thing to see.

More startling was the sight of the fallen dragon, no doubt the source of some of the more terrible sounds she had heard. They had defeated even that? The thought was incredible. Tourmaline had wondered at the start, as she peered onto the pages of Orphic Mystery's book, if she was destined to play the heroine, but when the time come she had been nothing but an awestruck and terrified child. Luckily for all of them, truly heroic souls did seem to be there that day. It made her aware in that moment, that perhaps in many ways she still needed to grow up.

As she became more acclimated to the scene, her eyes started to see more of the detail. She found the familiar faces--the red earth stallion who had been kind to her, the spirited pegasus filly who had spared her life with a timely intervention of pies, the silly changeling she had bumped into in the guise of a unicorn, the guard to whom she had spoken at some link, the famed champion of the sky who the other filly's had fawned over. This last one was on the ground, motionless, which filled Tourmaline with dread.

Tentatively, she approached the guard and the others as some of the other filly's did as well. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked, hopefully, sadness in her eyes.

​

Randgrid laughed merrily at the griffon's remarks. "Aha! Bringing down a lindworm is just the same as anything else--it gets easier, once you've done it a few times!" she said boisterously. "Besides, it's unlikely I'd have gotten the drop on him were his attention not occupied by you."

Her eyes went wide as the griffon went on to offer some critical words to one of the changelings. It sounded like some rather grave happenings had transpired there that day, which only followed since it was a veritable battlefield. "There is nothing but a vast emptiness in my memory from when I was blindsided in Barn to hearing that child's beautiful music, so forgive me if I do not know the story of what might have happened here... but this one's words have the sound of wisdom to me regardless. When emotions run high like this, it is a difficult thing to anticipate the things our actions may wrought, but always we can learn. Form our failures and from our transgressions both, we can take much with us to carry into the future."

Randgrid went back to gathering up the vikings with help from some of the others about. It was a small group, and Megin, most that were awake realized their situation and surrendered willingly. She just about had all of them ready to move when the griffon approached her once more with word of the fallen viking. Randgrid peered at the hammer reflectively.

"The kindness you show for one who came here this day as an enemy is a remarkable and rare attribute, my friend," she said, nodding slowly. "Indeed, I believe I knew this Frjáls. A pair of my father's best bulls and I drank heartily long into the night with him and a few other Clan Olin ruffians one time in Barn, without either party recognizing the other until the night was through. He seemed a good soul, indeed." She paused a moment, closing her eyes in quiet reflection. "Don't get me wrong. Frjáls was on the wrong side of the law, a Clan Olin raider through and through, but in Whitescar such things are not always so black and white as they appear. There are the ideologues like the Red Jarl who truly loathe my father's vision and believe that the Old Ways are in fact the only ways... but there are many more who fall into such a life simply for where they happened to be born and who they happened to have known. Frjáls was decidedly in the latter camp."

Randgrid gave a small sigh. "As for where he made his home, I would start in Saarvagerg, or Saar, as most us know it. It's not a friendly city, and can be dangerous for those unprepared, but it's a place where clans like Olin have influence and where most attached to those clans would make their home--well, those who have a home off the longships at least. I do not recall much of my conversation with this Frjáls, both for the drinks that night and the passage of time, but I believe he may have mentioned having home and family there."

​

[PyroBlaze]

Flux smiled widely, giggling as the mare ruffled her mane and confirmed that they had won. Yay! Flux bounced in place as she listened to the mare introduce herself and thank the changeling for her help.

"No problem! Nice meeting you, Suggy!" She chirped before the mare moved off towards some of the others. Another new friend, that was good. Flux now bounced her way over to Spring, almost tackling her again but deciding against it after a battle like that. Instead, she gave the changeling a light hug.

"We won, Spring!" She said happily, pausing as she looked over the bodies that would never get up again. "Well, we stopped the meanies."

[brianblackberry]

Watching the berserker take down the horrific lindworm was quite the sight, both exciting and terrible, never had she seen anything of the like before and quite frankly she was sure she didn’t want to see ever again. Sunrise Beach was shocked at the level of violence she witnessed today, never in her young life had she ever seen any sentient being killed and here she saw it multiple times, it would forever change her young life.

The sign that the battle was finally over and they had won was marked by a brilliant wave of rainbow color that emanated from the nearby Crystal Spire and washed over everypony, indeed everyone, save the cruel dark unicorn, with a colorful brilliance the young filly had never seen before. Everything shined in a glittery vividness of color, even Sunrise herself when she suddenly realized her coat now sparkled with various translucent turquoises and greens. As she lifted her helmet off her head her mane sparkled in the sunlight in a cornucopia of colors! “Like, check us out guys, we’re like so totally shiny, we’ve been like, Crystalized!! Like look at my crazy, bodacious coat! Ermahcerlesster, this is SO AWESOME!” She twirled around, checking out her flank and tail, the latter now banded in beautiful ribbons, it was so cute! If only the colts could see her now! Sunrise gave a huge smile as she hopped over and gave her two friends a huge hug, more out of relief and a need of assurance than anything else.

Sunrise’s moment of joy was interrupted by one of the griffons, a leopard printing one with a dark feathered head, urging them to assist Soarin’. Sunrise had forgotten all about him in the chaos of the battle, focusing first on just staying alive and then on helping her besties fight back. In the back of her mind she just always assumed he was up in the sky, bravely leading others into battle, she never really looked up herself, partially because she was too terrified to. Now Sunrise followed the griffon and her friends into the castle, her lip quivering in fear, "like will he be ok? What if he isn’t ok?!"

C’mon Sunrise Beach, like get it together!! You’re a royal page, don't go all crying foal now! He needs you!! As the Wonderbolt was laid on a nearby couch, Sunrise didn’t even hesitate to wait for medical help. She levitated the first bowl she saw, a decorative one of crystal and jewels, no doubt meant to be part of the room's fancy décor and ran to the first castle fountain she spotted, dipping the bowl in the cool, clear waters before galloping back with it; now she needed a rag, well tearing a piece of a silk curtain will have to do, hopefully nopony would object, this was an emergency!! She carefully balled up and dipped the cloth in the bowl and levitated it to start cleaning his injuries, desperately holding back the tears in her eyes...

Please be alright Soarin'...

[Bramble Rose]

Purple Haze couldn't believe it was working. More specifically, her big brother was never going to believe all of this when she told him what happened! Doing something about all this, despite not knowing if it would actually work, was making her feel better - but when that massive caribou peered around the edge of the throne, she nearly passed out. Their hiding spot was SO GOOD!

But she was better! Her music had saved her! Purple was grinning madly. The carribou was gone, then, and the sounds of battle continued, but the tone had definitely shifted. Still, behind the throne, she played her little heart out. Even as the cheers of victory sounded, she continued to play, determined not to give up this music... not until the wave of energy washed out over the whole city, shocking her from the music and making her take a step back.

She stared in awe at her two besties, so decked up and shimmery. "You two are *bonnie* indeed!" she gasps. "All shiny an' shimmery, and yer manes' all done up!" She looked down at herself, and wished for a mirror ... touched at her mane, which seemed to have been put up in some sort of fancy knot she never could have duplicated herself... then she stepped out from behind the throne and into the sunlight, marveling at the sheen over her coat.

But alas, even with victory, the aftermath of war was not so simple... she hurried along with Sunrise, determined to give at least moral support to her bestie as they, all shiny and fancy, helped to clean up after the injuries and aftermath of the battle - glad they won, but tired in her heart at what she had seen...

​