Prologue: Fall of an Empire

The defense of Alicropolis is going poorly. Umbra's forces are nearing the command post, and the Storm Furies are nearly spent. It's probably time to think of abandoning the city. I sigh as I realize that I may very well have to retreat from even this last bastion. My birthplace.

'Sir, you and I both know that Umbra's got the city surrounded and the D-Gates blocked off.' Right. I turn my head to face the silver and red unicorn psykik next to me. I suppose that I'm just trying to cling to some form of hope.

The mare mentally chuckles while remaining outwardly stoic. 'Hah, there isn't much, General.'

Better to have hope than to simply lose it. In any case, it might be best to start getting the civilian population into the crystostasis pods in the heart of the mountain and sealing them in. At the very least, they'll be safe… Suddenly, the good sergeant gasps and her knees start to buckle.

I frown. "What's wrong, Sergeant Song?"

She slowly turns her head to face me, tears beginning to form on her eyes. "S-sir… Galaxia has… G-Galaxia h-h-has…" Oh no…

"…The capitol has fallen, hasn't it?" She nods with tears now more clearly visible. I solemnly close my eyes. Faustus guide those weary souls to your great pasture, where no sorrow or pain can exist.

"Did anyone make it out?" Ah, it would seem that Cloud Streak has come back. I open my eyes again and am greeted with the sight of the entire command post staring at Wind Song. The soldiers in heavily enchanted crystal armor, some with various magicraft melee weaponry and others using magebeam crystal laser rifles. The XOs in Magicraft armor, for the largest part thundrite, with their weapons sheathed on their backs or barrels.

Song sniffs. "H-hold on… Yes; there are about five-thousand pegasi, nine-thousand earth ponies, one-thousand unicorns and… no…" At whatever the no stands for, which is sadly not that hard to guess, tears start slowly down her face.

"What is it?" I say softly.

She sniffs again. "Five alicorns. Th-that's all that survived." Her tears start flowing more quickly. "Galaxus, Hayola, their daughters, and a s-sole surviving Palikaen guard." The Emperor, Empress, their progeny, and a Palikaen. Sad, that two young mares will likely grow up on the run from an inescapable horde. Even more so, that a city that housed over a million ponies and other species been almost totally lost, leaving only thousands. I know enough about my psykik messenger to know that neither of those is the reason for her tears. She, as well as countless other psykiks, could count many alicorns as living ancestors or even adoptive parents. Galaxia always was a center of kindness and equality. Now… No. You know exactly what must be done. Plan Zero must be initialized. Ironic, considering that the Sentients aren't even close to slipping through their seal.

"Then there is only one thing left to do." Eyes all across the CP turn to look at me. "Cloud, gather everyone into the crystostasis chamber and wait there." Streak nods and flies with incredible agility to begin herding civilian and military personnel toward the chamber. I look at Song again. "Song, It hurts, I know it does. But I need you to contact the other Psykiks and tell them that Plan Zero is in effect." Plum nods, tears still evident in her face. Wait, is everypony still… Oh come on, you would've thought they got the hint by now! "Well, are the rest of you waiting to say 'hi' to a Chaosbred? Move! Grab everything you can carry and get to the Stasis chamber!" THAT got them moving.

I waited until the demolitions experts set charges to collapse the CP, during which Wind Song finished relaying the message and galloped out herself. I pride myself on ensuring that nopony gets left behind, which is why I'm the last one out in every circumstance. The demos' light the proverbial match, and we run. What we use as explosives isn't the normal kind, no, these explosives don't actually 'damage' anything. They do, however, create a mass of nigh-unbreakable crystal. Being the Bearer of Magic certainly has its benefits.

We race down the hall. A sharp sound, very much like shattering glass, comes from the ex-CP. They went off… Good. We keep moving, galloping down the now dimmed crystal halls. Sadly, even our magically-powered generators can be disabled with an overload. Though I did not predict Umbra himself choosing to 'grace' us with his presence. I honestly should have known he'd come after me. With the history between us, I suppose the wish that he would go for a grandiose show at Galaxia was just that, a wish.

The entrance to the chambers should be right about… Here! And there it is, a large crystal disk with the standard of Alicropolis on its upturned door. Normally, it would sit there in this lowest public center undisturbed. To say this wasn't normal would be the understatement of the century. Today, it was upturned, bearing an active dovahzul megaward. The demo techs dive in without a second thought. They believe that the single B-Krystal will be enough.

I know well enough otherwise. If he lingers, it won't take him five minutes to break through it. But this one… I take out the prototype G-Krystal. For the untrained eye, it looks like a large blue and purple crystal shard. For a trained enchanter, they see a defensive spell rated to stop a full-blown megaspell barrage and still stay intact. It will stall him far longer than any normal Barrier Krystal.

I activate the G-Krystal and get into the hatch, sealing it behind me using my magic. The crystostasis chamber is a huge cavern that we found underneath Mount Alicrom. Upon finding it, the original settlers quickly used multiple dovahzul spells to greatly increase the structural integrity of the entire mountain. Its now filled to the brim with walkways, stairs, and crystostasis pods. For the most part, the inhabitants of Alicropolis have all piled in. Precious few are outside of them.

"General!" Oh for Faustus' sake, of course Shuullic Diamond Hoof was waiting for me. I look in the direction of the voice to see the emerald-green-coated and diamond-blue-maned crystal alicorn looking at me. "For what little it's worth, I pardon you from failing your duties as defender of Alicropolis and promise not to press charges on you or any of your troops." He says before entering his own pod. Huh. I-

"Didn't see that one comin', eh Flashy?" Now that is a voice I am more than happy to hear. I turn around to see the owner of the somewhat raspy voice. A pink alicorn mare with a ragged-cut rainbow mane and tail. Rainbow Spectra, Bearer of Loyalty and my marefriend.

"Well, he's never liked us in the first place," I place one of my large wings around her, "I assumed he was going to rant on and on about how I should have just let all the beings in my command die needlessly."

Spectra huffs, and swishes her tail. "If he did, I'd 've hit 'im with a kick at Mach one!" While an amusing thought, there's no doubt she could do it. After all, she was the Queen of the Raceway.

"I don't doubt you would've, my beautiful rainbow. I don't doubt it at all." We sat there a few minutes, silently watching the inhabitants of Alicropolis find crystostasis caskets that fit their size and body type. I suppose that I should ask how many made it…

"I whipped the other civvies into gear and got 'em here first thing when that son of a whorse came here. They're all ok, Flash." I feel relief wash over my shoulders. At least the civilians are alright…

"Good… Good…" A muted sound like shattering ice sounds. Spectra will notice, I'm certain.

She looks up at the seal, then at me. "You… You used it…"

I turn my head to the slightly smaller alicorn and nod. "The G-Krystal. Nothing else would keep us safe. That, I'm sure of."

Her face falls, her eyes filled with sadness. "Yeah, I know. Just wish that we didn't have to make it so hard for whoever finds us to actually wake us up, y'know?" She's right, of course. Umbra will win now, corrupt the Harmonic Forest, take over this dimension and subsequent micro-dimensions, and likely launch a campaign to spread his false 'freedom' across the multiverse. …I'm thinking too far ahead and to far into what Rainbow's saying. Nonetheless, it will be hard to carve through crystal rated for megaspells.

I sigh. "I know."

We sit in silence for a few more minutes, and watch as the last of the military personnel step into their pods. Some of them sent us looks that seemed to say, "It's alright, you did your best." It didn't make it hurt any less that I failed them. This is not the first time I have lost a battle. But regardless of what happens… Alicropolis was the final battle for the Equestrian Imperium.

And I am the one who lost it. And the day before Spectra and I were supposed to be legally married as well. I suppose that it will have to wait now…

I rose. "Well, we might as well find an unoccupied casket." She nods and rises as well. We begin walking from the glowing blue crystal walkway, going down into the massive cavern designed to hold the entire city's population in case of emergency. The cavern was almost like a crystalline shifter hive: with crystal walkways, inclines, and normal stairs crisscrossing at nearly every angle and interval. The walls and floor are lined with crystosleep caskets, more commonly known as crystostasis pods. The military used the term because, well, someone somewhere thought it was funny to call them that.

Finally, we find two final pods standing side-by-side. It was well-known in Alicropolis that we were an 'item' so to speak, perhaps they purposely left these two for us? Or perhaps it was just luck. Or Faustus, but what are those odds? "Well Flashy," I turn to face Spectra… And run face first into a kiss! …Not that I mind at all, but my wings did flare slightly. I simply embrace the kiss, and Spectra, for a minute that seemed like an eternity. Sadly, we both have to breath. We break it slowly, and look at each other. "G'night." Spectra then slowly walks out of the feathered embrace and into her own pod/casket.

The casket grows an almost liquid layer of crystal that solidifies and seals her in. The caskets were designed so that one would only need to walk in and it would activate. The crystal flashes, and then Spectra is put into stasis, making it seem as though she is nothing more than a crystal with an alicorn-shaped shadow within. "Goodnight, my most beautiful rainbow."

I slowly turn to my own casket and walk into it. The same fluid crystal then seals me in as I turn around, allowing me a glimpse of myself off its reflective surface. A gold-coated alicorn stallion with an electric-blue mane styled like a lightning bolt, the same as my tail. The stormcloud-gray thundrite armor dulling with the effects of the localized magic-suppression field of the casket. My unnaturally large wings, byproducts of loosing the vast majority of my flight magic, are folded against the sides of the armor, their tips coming almost to my horn even then in terms of height. But perhaps most important are the two objects on my back: the scabbard which houses the sole rainbow hardlight mageblade in existence, and a pack with the Prime Elements, the only things that could possibly resuscitate the Harmonic Forest. The pack is enchanted so that it will go into a pocket dimension of my forging in case it was ever stolen.

I draw a breath and close my eyes. Thus falls an Empire. There is a flash and then all is still…

(/\)

Slowly, Umbra's serpentine eyes and dark bacground on the left and Hunter's cabin and bench with himself and Shadow sitting on it. Shadow looks… Less than enthused.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to what is a slightly-

Heavily.

-Revised version of my first fanfic. I didn't post it here on any profile, or even type it at all. No, it was a pencil and paper fanfiction written in a journal. I would like to take this moment to say that while there will be allusions to my other fanfic, Hidden Whispers, that fanfic will not be canonical to this one.

Umbra chuckles, a dark, foreboding sound. However, I must say that I prefer this version simply for how the first arc will go. Who would have thought that particular ritual for making liquid rainbow would have survived the accidental apocalypse?

Shadow lets out an annoyed growl and Hunter hangs his head.

At the very least, you didn't give total spoilers. But yes, those reading should be forewarned that a very certain CP Factory bred from a certain song will be playing a major role in the first arc. To put it bluntly, this story will be far darker and bloodier than Whispers.Do not continue reading unless you can handle gore, horror, and daem-

DEMONS!

…Rude. In any case, you have been warned. But for now I bid you all farewell!

Both sides fade to white.

Yeah, so here's the deal. Hunter's making and kinda rewriting this thing here so that he feels more of a drive to type. Like mentioned above this thing is going to be dark. It will have tourture. It will have death. And it will. Have. Pasta. …What? No Cupcakes, I swear! Seriously though, the only MLP CP here will be the RF. Cupcakes can go find it's own little slice of Hell. Though one of the future ones will involve slim Smooze, if you get the reference to another well-written fanfic. Anyway, catch 'yall later!

The scene fades to nothing…