Shadow of an Empire

Cadence looked outside of her window to the mayhem that was stirring outside. The outskirts of the Empire now looked like a barren wasteland of darkness. Shining Armor had still not recovered from his battle, and they were losing territory each day. Day by Day, Hour by Hour, Minute by Minute! It didn't matter anymore! What did matter was the fact that ponies were being purged each day! The guards came back one by one dragging the lifeless body of their fallen commrades behind them.

Those who were lucky enough to escape a purging were tattered and had cuts everywhere. Slash marks on their sides that  ran deeper than the crevices in the ice. They looked like they had just run a marathon through barbed wire, with the occasional thorn bush now and again. The outskirts had craters everywhere and bodies of purged ponies littering the once beautiful fields. It was horrid, not a single living thing was out there. Cadence continued to survey the damage, the market district was a decimated. Most of the buildings were on fire and were smashed to pieces.

That wasn't surprising, what was surprising was that there was a lone colt wandering the streets! Cadence saw the colt and had a panic attack. Running on instinct and fear Cadence leaped out  the window and took off at the speed of sound. She was like a missile, and her target? The lone colt wandering the streets. The wind was whistling in her ears and fear pushing her to the edge, Cadence landed with such force that the colt was surprised at first to see her but immediately rushed forward into the princesses forelegs. They didn't notice the growing dark monstrosity before them. They looked up to see the horrifying image before them. A gigantic Heartless had been formed, this one was about one story tall and was surrounded by smaller Heartless. Cadence clutched the little colt too paralyzed with fear to save them both. A tears escaped her eyes as she waited for the end, the colt crying loudly in her embrace. The Heartless made their advance and prepared to strike.

Suddenly, without warning a lightning bolt knocked the giga Heartless off it's balance, crashing into the ground and spraying dust and debris everywhere. A guard jumped in front of the duo, shouting commands and buying them precious seconds.

"Go, NOW!"

The Heartless was starting to climb back to it's feet the other Heartless still stunned from the impact. Cadence nodded and took the colt up on her back and took off into the air leaving the stallion behind. She glanced back to see the guard get winded by the Heartless and collapse onto the ground. And what she saw next, haunts her to do this day.

Two of the Heartless restrained him while one walked up and jabbed his hand through the guards chest, his ear piercing shout of pain echoing in the wasteland. The Heartless started to remove his hand dragging a dark smoke out of the guards body. The guard had stopped screaming but was now shaking uncontrollably. His eyes lost color as they were drained of all life , till they were just white orbs on a soulless body. The Heartless now had his hand out and with it a dark fog, which replicated itself to look like a guard at first, then morph into another heartless. The guard's body was tossed aside like a rag doll, a shell of a former pony.

The Heartless let out a scream that would have shattered the sound barrier and destroyed any pony's hearing if they were within 20 feet of them. They retreated back into the fog and left the body and debris. The young colt was wide eyed with fear, Cadence was terrified beyond comfort. What she had just witnessed, was a purge. The nightmare all too real, Cadnece looked at the colt and saw the fear that had taken place in his mind. She began the fly back to the castle comforting the colt the whole way. Whether or not his family was alive, Cadence made a decision that she would never abandon the youngling, not after what she had seen.

The duo continued their flight, leaving the satanic world in their wake. Wishing that this was a just a dream.

But it wasn't.