Metroid Prime: Into Darkness

I am Shadow -Makuta Teridax

The Royal carriages and train raced to the distant northern city, it was of the utmost importance that the ponies get to the northern city of the Crystal Empire, for whoever controlled the Empire could reflect either love or hatred across Equestria.

Then the snow storms started to disrupt their path. The pegasi tried effortlessly to ride though as the train carrying the ponies plowed through the snow. Twilight looked out the window as the empire's tower came into view.

From what Shining Armor described, there had been multiple reports of portals opening and closing, and every time one would open a bolt of dark energy would strike an area of the city; the more they fired, the more violent and destructive they became.

Thoughts began to rise in Twilight's mind, was Nightmare Moon really behind all this? Did Luna's envy really create a dark version of Equestria, and if so why attack now and not before Twilight was less powerful?

Then another theory crept into Twilight's mind, sometime before the Crystal Empire was restored, a race of dark, shadowy creatures called the dark forces tried to attack Ponyville by possessing Rarity as the new Nightmare Moon. Luckily they where able to defeat their adversaries and free Rarity from the forces of evil, and the Dark Forces have not been seen since.

But the recent attacks and the creatures that called themselves the 'Ing' did not resemble the Dark Forces in any way.

So who was the one behind all this?

Those thoughts where thrown away as the train came to a screeching halt.

"We're here!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

Twilight looked out the window. True to his word, the Empire was in bad shape. A dark cloud loomed over the Empire as dark portals opened and a bolt of dark energy flew from them demolishing a building or two.

The Elements got out of the train, where they were eventually joined by the Princess and her brother.

Celestia looked at the state of the Empire. Since her last visit it was a peaceful place, now it's erupting in chaos.

A thought crept into her mind, and Twilight's eyes widened.

"Shiny, wheres Cadence?"

Her older brother gave his sister stern eyes,

"She went ahead into the castle, she said she would and use her magic to enforce the Crystal Heart and try to lift the ponies' spirits in hope that the crystal heart would repel the attacks.

"That went well," Rainbow said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"So what's the plan?" Applejack asked.

Celestia stepped forward looked at the empire.

"Since the ponies are in fear, they cannot power the Crystal heart and repel these attacks. Our best shot is that we use the Elements of Harmony on the heart to charge it, which could hopefully repel these attacks."

"Do you think it'll work?" Twilight asked.

"It is the only option," Luna said.

The guards bought forth a chest and Celestia used her magic to open it, and the Elements each floated over to their respective Bearer.

"Okay girls, let's do this," Twilight said.

Then they started off towards the chaos.

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The Emperor watched as his soldiers fired dark bolts from portals and into the Empire. From what his new 'soldiers' told him, as long as the Crystal Ponies were in fear and doubt, the Crystal Heart that protected the Empire would fail and the Ing would be able to invade, but so far the Ing were limited to firing bolts of Matter-Antimatter. The ponies' fear was creating a dark cloud and blocking the sunlight. The cloud had to cover the entire city for the Ing to invade and finally posses the pitiful species that would oppose them.

"Emperor."

The Emperor Ing came back to reality and found himself before his adviser.

"Yes?"

"More creatures that we have possessed have been looking through the memories of the ponies and found information that is most promising."

The Emperor nodded in acknowledgment.

"Bring them in."

The servant-class Ing gestured for the doors to be opened.

And when they did, they reveled a bunch of shadowy creatures.

Before they invaded Equestria, a group of Warriors went to the planet's moon and possessed the creatures there, and it turns out that they already had dark forms prior to the Ing's arrival, making them much easier to manipulate. Upon possession, they reverted back the their evil forms while becoming puppets of the Hive.

"So how goes the storming, master?"  a possessed Shadowfright asked.

"It has commenced, my troops are striking fear into the hearts of these ponies, and if what you say is true, then once the Crystal Heart looses its power, then my troops will be able to invade and take over."

"Indeed, the heart gets its power from the love of the Crystal Ponies, once it becomes powerless, the Empire will be vulnerable to attack," the Shadowfright said.

Emperor Ing signaled his troops to begin the assault.

"Emperor," a Warrior said.

"What is it?"

"The six who played a role in the Empire's rebirth are advancing with the Elements"

"Let me see."

A portal opened to reveal six mares running with their Elements to the center of the Empire.

At first, the Ruler of the Ing was going to try and stop them, but a better idea popped into his mind.

"What are your orders?"

"Let them get to the center, and prepare a portal."

________________________________________________________________

Luna was almost certain that these attacks where the work of the dark forces, but for some reason the matter that kept attacking the city with was not familiar to her, almost like it was alien.

But for now she had to deal with these impending shadow attacks.

The Royal guard fought to protect the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony, but the shadow bolts were hindering their progress.

Shining Armor watched as another pony was hit by a dark blast, putting him out of the fight, but another volley of dark bolts took out an entire squad of pegasi.

"Keep going! We must protect the Princesses!" a squad commander shouted as he led his team to the heart of the empire. Just then, another portal opened in front of him, and he quickly raised a shield to protect himself from what ever came out.

But instead of a shadow attack, a black and orange fog came out and floated towards him.

Twilight watched as this fog 'attacked' the helpless royal guard and immediately something began to happen. His features, once white and regal turned black and fearsome, his tail turned a dark purple and Twilight could have sworn she saw black puddles forming at his hooves, but instead of leaking, the liquid was being absorbed by the guard.

When the event was over, a nightmarish version of the bravo squad commander stood before his men.

Luna looked in awe as this royal guard bore his yellow eyes at everypony, then made a weird noise and then just... disappeared.

But for some strange reason, that reminded her of Nightmare Moon.

When the dark guard somehow vanished  from existence, the ponies were dumbfounded.

"What was that all about?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight didn't know the answer, what ever happened to that poor guard must have been the work of whatever was behind these attacks.

"We'll worry about that later, where almost to the Crystal Heart!"

Wasting no time, the ponies sped towards the center of the empire dodging bolts and watching as more black fog entered the realm and attacked the ponies.

Finally, they arrived at the center of the Empire where the Crystal Heart stood in its place.

Twilight looked back, Celestia not far away gave the nod to use the Elements.

"Go ahead. You know what to do."

Wasting no time, Twilight activated the Elements, the rainbow magic swirling around the heart in a manner most peculiar. The Elements responded from the desire of their bearers and fired on the heart.

...Only for a very painful feedback to occur.

The ponies where blown away by the power of the shockwave sending them all a few feet back.

Twilight struggled to open her eyes as she saw another black puddle form around the Crystal heart. Twilight got up and tried to walk to it.

Only to be stopped by Darkling Tentacles.

The heart was consumed by darkness as a giant monster with a huge head looked down upon her; its tentacles lashing out everywhere.