It is the midst of the battle. The Royal Enchanter, and your acquaintance, Ginger Spice, managed to construct a massive structure called “Crown Pillar”: an enormous crystal construction rising all the way through the sky. The dark magic inside the crystal formation is slowly starting to overtake the clouds above you, crystallizing the pure softness. The Pegasus ponies, many of who are experienced fighters and war veterans, as well as the elite whom call themselves “Wonderbolts”, are doing their best to destroy the pillar and all other of Sombra’s forces together with it.

In a mystical but convenient way the pillar possesses a massive spiral stairway, which you and other warriors are currently climbing. You manage push through the sudden attack of the two annoying Cloudsdale soldiers; it is not your fault they ended up smashing against each other. You stop, noticing some of the Pegasus ponies charging at Ginger Spice. For a moment, you consider turning and helping the blind companion of yours. Thankfully, it appears that won’t be needed. Mudbrick, the Royal Centurion, appears just in time to protect and fight the assault over there.

You put your hooves upon the final steps of the crystal spire; what lies ahead is a thick, crystallized mess of a cloud. You push through despite the annoyance that is the crumbling ground beneath you. Very soon the spire is going to fall like a cut tree on top of Mudbrick’s forces; Spitfire is going to make sure of it.

You pause as soon as you enter the cloud terrace. It seems you are able to stand on the crystallized, ebon parts of the cloud. Sadly, that only makes about half of it strong enough to support your weight. The moment you raise your head you spot about a dozen more ponies waiting for you up here. One of them is wearing a very brutal and, at the same time, elegant helmet that is hiding her face. She has a blue skin and long, spiked blue hair. The moment she turns towards you, she immediately lifts herself into the air. Her wings are replaced with robotic counterparts.

Behind them lie two bodies of the ponies you recognize: Lunar Meridian and Golden Shield. They are chained.

>What would you like to do now?

>>27744694
Be prepared because that blue pony is likely a high ranking officer

>>27744694
Pull out all that the stops. Break two beads and charge them cast flash to blind them and use TK on the Wonderbolt. We're so close to getting Shield out.

You prepare yourself for the likely encounter. You throw another look at Golden Shield and Meridian; it appears that they both had a fight of their own. The chain that is surrounding Golden Shield is much different from the cheap, make-shift one currently covering Meridian’s body. It is specially made for him out of some high-quality metal.

The Pegasus head turns towards you; you keep your crystal eyes upon her figure. Unlike the other Cloudsdale soldiers in her rank, she’s not one to react immediately. She is gentle, as gentle as a breeze. Despite the mechanical look of her wings, her movements are quiet, barely audible. She flies back to the two of her prisoners and, with a swing of her wings, raises both of them into the air with a magical pressure inside a twisting tornado.

The dozen of her soldiers follow the silent command of their obvious officer. All at once they smash their hooves into the cloud beneath them. The surface begins to evaporate under their pegasi touch. The crystallization process stops as soon as the cloud vanishes into the thick, mountain air. They made a massive chasm between you and Golden Shield .The pegasi soldiers do not allow you any time to think. All at once, they charge towards you.

You spin the Vizier’s necklace around your ankle. With an immediate twist you break two of the beads within your hooves. The amount of black magic released before you is staggering. First, you concentrate on magical spell of pure brightness. The cold, dreadful orb of a sun explodes in front of you forthwith. Not a single one of your attackers manages to cover their eyes in time; all of them are blinded. Some of them are able to stop mid-way while several are forced to smash against the crystallized surface of the “Execution Cloud”. You are forced to dodge one of them.

The blue Pegasus is waiting patiently. She is simply watching you, awaiting your further actions. You take the dark magic of the second release under your immediate control. The moment you finish drawing the needed symbols inside your mental canvas the dark essence surrounds her. Now all you have to do is surround her in your-

It is not that simple. Somehow, in some way, this pony manages to evade your dark magic. The wind that follows her pushes the net that is your telekinetic grasp away from her. With a simple, gentle glide she escapes your trap. Despite this setback, you are still in control of your telekinesis. You attempt, yet again, to surround her. Like an annoying moth she somehow manages to escape your powerful magic yet again. She’s fast and agile.

>What now?

>Inventory:
[Crystal Necklace (Alicorn ‘Dark’ Magic %3/7)]

>>27745770
If we can't grab her... then we grab Shield and yank him over to us!

>>27745795
He's behind a tornado and chained up, so it's going to be hard to grab him or Meridian.

>>27745770
We can throw the pegasi at her and try make her fly into the net

>>27745770
Fast and agile. This entire battle has been our weakness.

>>27745876
Or drive her close to us so we can attempt use our strength.

Not wishing to waste the telekinetic magic on somepony you are unlikely to catch; you devise another plan of action. You are swift to pick up one of the Pegasus ponies lying nearby you. With a powerful thrust and a swing you throw the stunned body of a pony towards her own officer. The blue pony glides away from your throw, as expected. As you attempt to follow her chaotic pattern of movement, you raise the telekinetic field right behind her. Still, the pony manages to swing one of her wings before the weakened field and completely destroy it with a single push of wind. Then, with a simplicity and grace of an eagle, she catches up to the falling body of her companion and adds him to the tornado that is currently holding both Lunar Meridian and Golden Shield. She looks at you with a raised chin.

Some of the blinded pegasi appear to be recovering. Several of them are already soaring through the air above you.

>What will you do now?

>>27746059
Fuck. We're shitters. We should have made sure they stayed down. Again, I am stumped on how to defeat an enemy who can just flit about outside of our reach.

The good news is that our infantry should be getting here about now.

>>27746059
they are preparing an attack, try and take out some of the one who are recovering to reducse the numbers

Hey guys, I'll continue tomorrow and will try to have short sessions daily during the next days. Sorry for cutting it here; thanks for joining and playing!

I really missed you Vince.

>>27746168
At the very least, I came up with something for if we can grapple rainbow dash- if nothing else, we can possibly use a concentration of magic to make her heart explode as long as she's close enough and not in motion. As for dealing with her in motion or any of the others though, I'm still trying to think of a good strategy.

>>27748620
Holy shit that's brütal. Also it's good to see you again, Vince.

>>27748620
Rainbow Dash has only one metalic wing.

>>27749029
... and how would that interfere with making the heart explode?

>>27750632
I'm saying that's not Rainbow Dash.
So I don't mind her being killed.

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>>27751065
Well don't I feel silly; I thought it was a typo for some reason

bump dammit

With annoyance, you twist your head in her direction. The silent Pegasus mare is certainly not amongst those who rush into their battles mindlessly. Unlike the lightning pony, and Spitfire herself beforehoof, she’s in control of the situation; or so you think. Then, you spot something very peculiar about her: there’s a golden necklace of sorts adoring her neck with a red crystal of her cutie mark, a wind breeze, in the center of it. The situation is this: the gap between you and her is not big enough to pose a problem, but wide enough to make your body jumping above it troublesome. She points her hoof towards Golden Shield and lowers it towards the ground. She wants him dead.

You do not allow yourself to be intimidated or aggravated. Instead, you quickly deal with the pegasi that are still lying beneath you. The three ponies that are crawling back on their hooves are swiftly dealt with; without a moment to waste your body grants you your wish and knocks them off the crystallized platform with a powerful buck. While the distance between the cloud and the ground is enough to leave nothing but a wet spot from them, you are more than certain that the pegasi currently fighting Mudbrick and his forces will save their friends and comrades in time.

While your quick actions did shorten the overall amount of your current enemies, it was still six ponies against one. Thankfully, that is not the case for long; you are soon joined by the ponies who were following your on the crystal spire. Amongst them are two crystal golems who share your painful, amber color on their crystallized skin. In addition, there are also four regular soldiers of Mudbrick’s army. Only one of them is without a Fidelity Helmet. He’s a rather young colt with surprisingly gentle muzzle; it is rather obvious that this battle is amongst the first in his life.

The moment they enter the scene, the crystallized cloud starts to crumble and crack down. Then, a long and powerful crack spreads across the entire battlefield. The “Crown Pillar” breaks into dozens and dozens of massive, crystallized chunks. With a shatter like no other, the remains of the pillar begin raining upon the army beneath it; they don’t discriminate between Sombra’s army and Cloudsdale soldiers. The entire battle falls into chaotic discord.

Thankfully, you do not fall back to them. You and your small army are left standing on the cloud. The blue mare and her squadron are preparing for an obvious charge. Your soldiers stand prepared as well… All of them, excluding the helmet-less stallion who is barely managing to hold his spear in his hooves. What an easy target he will be…

>What now?

>>27748002
>>27748891
Thank you for the warm words!

>>27753082
Prepare for the charge, I guess. Stay next to the new guy.

>>27753082
That mare is one of the element of harmony, we got to remove her troops for her to start going after us.

>>27753556
How would you like to do that?

>>27753859
Get into a defensive position as prepare to knock those bird horse down to the ground.

>>27753082
Can't believe I missed so much already. Break off a fragment of the crystallized cloud and toss it onto the crystallized portion that they separated to see if it'll continue spreading.

>>27754370
*uncrystallized

Bump m p

>>27754370
>>27754850
sounds like a good start to the plan, the more cloud we can maneuver on the better

>>27756370
>>27754370
Agreed, that might be a good idea and we should see if it's going to work. Also, as much as I'm all for reducing the edge, I'm not sure if we should split our attention between newbie and the mare that may possess the Element of Harmony, and finally Shield. Prioritizing targets and all that. If we will manage to avoid getting him killed, it's nice, but for now we have at least two other more important things to care about.

>>27756659
At this moment we have to worry about the next attack. Since flying enemies rely on their momentum to generate force, we could use the golems to take the brunt of the attack and have the helmeted soldiers strike before they get a chance to recover. We could just have the colt stand in the back.

>>27756712
Good enough.

>>27753082
>He’s a rather young colt
>helmet-less stallion
How old is he?

“Hey you,” you yell at the helmet-less stallion, “Get behind me!”

There’s an obvious confusion over his face. With a simple, pathetic nod the young pony follows your command and swiftly hides behind the rest of the troops. It appears the pegasi are no longer willing to waste any of their time. Within a blink, a pair each charges towards the newly arrived crystal golems. With a hollow impact they are met with a resistance of a heavy, crystal-solid statue. One of the crystal golems manages to catch his opponent in a tight, painful grip and smash him against the crystallized cloud. With a painful moan the pony is send flying down.

Truly, the design of the “Crystal Golems” is one of a construction filled with dark, relentless power.

On other hoof, the second pair manages to push another of the golems towards the edge. Thankfully, they are stopped and forced back with the help of Sombra’s soldier. The “Fidelity Helmet” wearing stallion, bright green magic twisting in his eyes, rends the face of the pegasi with a powerful swing of his spear. He then barely misses with his throw. The Pegasus pony hovers back, soon rejoined by her other companions. They appear to be less cocky now.

You break off several of the dark, magical pieces off the edge of your cloud and then you toss them towards one of the Pegasus ponies before you. She simply hovers away from your toss. Thankfully, your intention is not to hit her. As soon as the remains of the “crown pillar” touch the surface of un-crystallized cloud, they swiftly carry on with their corruption. It is not as fast as you hoped; it will take time, time that you certainly do not have. Cursed Tartarus.

“Gliding Wind…” you can hear one of them mutters towards the Element of Harmony, “What are your orders?”

The blue Pegasus meets her eyes with yours. She then turns her head towards Golden Shield and thrusts her wing with a powerful motion. The tornado around her spews the “Legate” into the open air. Golden Shield is now just another falling object. With a commanding attitude she exclaims: “We are starting the execution early then! No Sombra is going to help them now; we sent our message across clearly. For Cloudsdale! For Equestria!”

The soldier nods back at her, salutes and joins the five remaining pegasi. You have a troubling sensation that the chaos beneath you will soon be over and the giant army underneath will join this “Gliding Wind” in your fight. The officer is quick and agile enough to fly beneath you. With a swing of her wings she creates a tornado beneath the crystallized cloud. The tornado is not strong enough to force the other two crystal golems, as well as you, into the air; you are simply too heavy. The four soldiers, the young stallion included, are not so lucky. As soon as they are lifted into the air with no chance to control their movements or direction, they are attacked by the remaining pegasi.

Golden Shield, on other hoof, is plummeting towards the ground.

>What now?

>>27757595
Grab Meridian and rip the chains off of her then trow her to golden shield.

>>27757595
Save Shield at all costs. Use TK maybe. I know it'd only open us to attack but it's all we have.

We're just kinda all around fucked.

>>27757595
>>27757949
This, we need to save him. Do we have pegasi in our ranks? Maybe they could catch him while enemy would be distracted and get the fuck out of there with him? Meridian's still in the tornado I assume, because only Shield is falling. If we couldn't yank him out of there, how we're going to try the same thing with her? Unless we can get to her somehow, I don't know if the crystallization will reach her location in time.

If Shield dies, I'll go full edgelord for the rest of the battle. And they took our kids dammit. I know they're safer far away from the Vizier, but still.

>>27757595
You really love fucking us over every chance you get, don't you? How did the tornado go through the crystallized cloud?

>>27757818
>>27757949
>>27759030
We wouldn't be able to catch him fast enough if he's already in questionable range, even if we were to grow temporary magic wings ourselves, finding meridian and freeing her to get him might be our best chance

>>27759391
I assume the crystallization may not be entirely solid, just enough so to maneuver on

>>27759412
That isn't how crystals work.

>>27759464
Well it's now how clouds work either, I dunno man, I'm not expecting another retcon to occur this time

>>27759485
I thought the clouds were crystalized (solidified) so we can actually walk on them.

>>27759391
The cloud is inside the tornado now bro.

>>27759030
I am inclined to agree. Shield is one of the final threads of hope that Aurora has. If she loses him... we go full edge.

>>27757949
Use our magic rather than the gems.

>>27757595
This is not execution! This is slaughter!

You lower your head in order to lessen the push of the powerful and cold tornado. Even if you jump after Golden Shield now, you’ll be unable to catch with him in time. Despite this, you need to save him! You have to! He’s your friend, your companion. He’s amongst the last few chain links holding your phantom existence together. The pegasi are already assaulting the last of the hovering, lost forces. Two of Mudbrick’s obedient soldiers are quickly knocked out. You crush one of the few remaining necklace shards in your hooves; you act quick, as quick as you’ll ever be.

The dark magic phases into existence like a hungry mythological windigo. Within a blink, it bursts into the second tornado and envelops the heavy, metallic chains surrounding Meridians body. The dark magic is uncomfortably evil to the touch; Meridian gasps for breath and opens her eyes as soon as your telekinetic field sweeps by her skin. Her umber eyes are quickly glued to the situation around her. You break her chain inside your mind and the reality quickly follows. The bat pony opens her massive wings as soon as she’s able. Within a blink, she bursts through the tornado.

“Meridian! The Legate is falling to his death! Do something!” your scream grinds with all your might.

“Not a single word,” she simply grunts in response.

Gliding Wind looks at both of you with obvious annoyance. Meridian, in exchange, offers her a rude gesture. With an incredible charge, the bat pony passes before the Pegasus officer; she leaves her no time to react. Gliding Wind fixates her helmet and, with a twist of her wings, with an incredible compound of grace, style and speed, follows suit. Despite the raging battle, you look under the cloud to see two, blur-like comets flying in a barrage towards the stallion.

Your head is hit with what would be a painful impact. The heavy crack echoes as you grab the leg of the Pegasus pony who dares to disturb you. You toss him across the small, crystallized cloud with an immense strength. It’s not enough for him to be knocked out but… that does not matter, the other two crystal golems soon join his bullying. You can only hope and pray that Meridian is going to be able to catch Golden Shield in time… while fighting Gliding Wind.

You have to re-asses your current situation. You are standing on top of a very high, crystallized cloud that is currently in the middle of a strong and growing tornado. On your side are three crystal golems, you included, and two spear-wielding soldiers who are floating in the air because of the tornado. The other two soldiers are knocked out and are now floating in disarray. On their side, with the element of harmony busy, are only three Pegasus ponies who are trying their best to deal with you and your soldiers. It’s natural to assume that more are coming.

>Inventory:
[Crystal Necklace (Alicorn ‘Dark’ Magic %2/7)]

>Body Changes:
52% [-1] Crystallized Flesh [Crystal]
04% [+1] Crystalline Debris [Damage]

>What will you do now?

>>27761211
SEE >>27759932 GODDAMNIT!

>>27761222
Break off a chunk of the crystal cloud and toss it at one of the pegasai attacking our disabled soldiers.

>>27761305
I thought it was to catch Golden Shield which I was unable to use as I had to choice between the imput to free Meridian or go after Shield. If you want, I can change the "crystal necklace orb" to "dark magic" used.

>>27761222
Work on saving the soldiers. Throw chunks or whatever else needs to be done. Heck, if they're within reach try pulling them out of the tornado.

>>27761331
I'm ok with it.

>>27761331
Please and thank you. The crystals are limited so we should rely on our magic more than them, unless there is actually a benefit to using them.

>>27761366
It drains ourselves and makes us slower, weaker.

>>27761378
Only noticeable when we reach 2 casts.

I'm currently busy with something, sorry.
I'll write another reply later. Stupid job.

>>27761442
On base of personal experience I hereby forgive you

Following your intuition, you break off a single, medium-sized chunk of the crystallized cloud. The moment one of the pegasi attempts to slash through one of your soldiers, you toss it towards her. There’s blood and there’s pain. The mauled Pegasus crashes against the thick, crumbling surface of the crystallized cloud. She cries and whimpers as the hoof of one of the “Crystal Golems” lands on top of her back. In a minute, her pain is strong enough to make her lose her conscious. Amore’s Grace, the “Crystal Golems” are not wicked. They do not kill when it’s not needed, it seems.

You catch one of the ponies with a raised hoof. With a powerful push you bring him back on the ground. The warrior turns as soon as he has a proper, solid ground beneath him. The trained soldier is able to meet the Pegasus charge with a powerful blow. The soldier pushes his spear into her face and, with a struggle, forces her onto the ground. Meanwhile, you are able to bring back the other conscious soldier of yours, the stallion with no helmet. With a shuddering whimper he removes his hooves off his face and says, “T-thank you kindly.” He clears his throat,

You answer him with a nod of your own. The last of the pegasi is nowhere to be seen. You quickly reach the edge of your platform to seek the current whereabouts of Meridian and Shield. Instead, you are barely able to dodge away from the, most possibly, painful and powerful impact in all of your life. The orange hoof uppercuts the air before your nose and further into the stratosphere. The cracking, blazing air is emitting an impossible heat. The orange pony flies herself away from the platform and then stops mid-air. She’s soon joined by an entire squadron of “Wonderbolts”.

Their black silhouettes fall on the red, rising sun; the time of execution. Damn it all. Just leave me alone!

“This ends here,” Spitfire tells you once she’s certain you are listening, “Your efforts are fruitless, Warlo-”

And then, something happens. Something crazy happens, something nopony could expect. The sky breaks asunder. The shadow of the rising sun flinches in a mad, chaotic dance. There’s a powerful, screeching birdsong. You can see two massive silhouettes, twice the size of a pony each, flying towards your direction. Their appearance is one a brass bird with an evil, scarlet glitter inside their blood-shot eyes. Their wings are pitch-black, as dark as a starless night sky. Their every movement follows with clockwork grind. The pegasi turn just in time to encounter the horrible, ever-free creatures face to face. They blare is full of horror. You can see Spitfire freezing in place as soon as she hears it.

In fact, the howl of those twin demonic creatures echoes across the entire battlefield. Every single pegasi you spot immediately covers their face in panic and fear; their feathers and skin turns sage-gray. You look at your own soldiers and they, just as you expected, are trembling in fear no less than the pegasi; even the one with the “Fidelity Helmet”.

On other hoof, you and the other two crystal golems are left untouched. No point of making sense of all of this now.

>You have to find a way down. What now?

>>27762337
I have absolutely no idea what's going on.

>>27762439
Something edgy I bet. Let's jump off and catch ourselves with a TK spell. I don't have any other ideas.

>>27762492
I don't think catching ourself with tk would work. I'd rather have some idea of what's going on before we do anything.

>>27762337
Um. Alright? Maybe we can attempt grab Spitfire in our TK while they're she's distracted? That might work!

>>27762651
Why?

>>27762651
One less super powerful enemy to worry about. Also a potential hostage.

>>27762759
Whoops, meant for >>27762710

>>27762772
She doesn't seem interested in us anymore, or anybody else for that matter. Right now everybody seems focused on that bird thing that doesn't seem friendly to either side.

>>27762337
well these new bird are might be killing everyone or just the pegasi, but let ask spitfire is she know what those bird are because we have no clue.

>>27762835
That's the point. We take advantage of that.

>>27762896
See >>27762855 . A hostage is pointless unless we have somebody to use them against and if everybody stops caring about us, than we'd just be wasting our energy.

>>27762923
Then I guess we just wait until the next update where something happens.

>>27762855
Also see if meridian manage to grab golden.

>>27762492
Let's try to find the best point to jump off if it comes to that

fast bump

>>27765246

>>27765344

>>27766673

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Jesus guys I'm sorry, I'm just too tired today and I do not want to write down a half-assed update. Delayed until tomorrow.

>>27770003
I feel like that Sombra is mocking me. Rest up Vincey.