Who was I?

Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle were in shock, they just saw Sombra kill a pony before their eyes.

"So Mr. Armor, I suggest you take me and my queen to the palace in order to work out a stallion's agreement. Don't you think?" said Sombra.

Shining was stunned and turned to his sister.

"Just do as he says Shining!" exclaimed Twilight, concerned for her brother. "Please! I don't want you to get hurt."

The white unicorn stallion felt bad for his sister, "Fine!" he reluctantly exclaimed. "Follow me." he turned around and lead Sombra and Twilight to the Crystal Palace.

"You are smart after all, this whole time I thought it was Cadance that had the brains while you were nothing but a pussy whipped stallion." smirked Sombra as he followed Shining.

Shining found it hard to not say something, but kept his mouth shut...for now.

"Ugh...my head." groaned Cadance as she woke up, only to see that she was back in her room. "Huh?"

"Oh good, you're awake. It was about time you did." said a voice. The pink alicorn saw the cloaked pony from earlier at her bedside.

"YOU!" she gasped with surprise. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

"I just healed you...now I must take you and your baby to a safer location." explained the cloaked pony as she got everything ready.

"Safer location? Why? What's going on? I refuse to leave my kingdom." Cadance really had no idea what was going on.

"It's Sombra...he's here."

"....WHAT?!" Cadance was in shock.

Sombra and Twilight were escorted through the city by Shining Armor and his guards. All the crystal ponies gathered around at the sight. They stood in fear, many of them have ran back indoors and locked their doors and windows from his presence alone. Sombra just smirked at their reaction. "Still got it..hehe."

"What's the plan now Sombra?" asked Twilight, she was afraid of what might happen next. She loved and slightly supported Sombra's mission, but she did not want to see her brother and his wife harmed in any way. She just wanted the whole thing to be done and over with.

"We reach the palace and me, your brother and Cadance will work out a truce with favorable terms for me." explained Sombra. He may have been a ruthless tyrant, but he was a shrewd negotiator and diplomat as well, he can read ponies and he was ALWAYS in control of the situation.

Sombra soon spotted a black crystal sticking out of the street. "Hmmm..." he stopped on his tracks to inspect it. "Not bad of a job if I do say so myself." he said.

"We need to continue on to the palace Sombra." ordered Shining.

"Oh...of course...sorry...just admiring my work." apologized Sombra. He stroked the crystal with his hoof before he continued on to the palace as told.

As the group continued on, the black crystal Sombra touched turned bright red in color.

Celestia stood in front of her bedroom mirror as she got into her old battle armor with her magic. "Never thought I would ever wear this again." she said to herself.

"Uh...ma'am." chimed Flash Sentry.

"Yes?" she turned around.

"You are in no condition to do this."

"I know that Flash...but it is my duty to safeguard my kingdom and to save my student from Sombra's influence...I lost too many students to the dark forces...I promised myself it will never happen again, and to do whatever it takes to not let it happen." she explained with some emotional pain in her voice.

"But-"

"If I don't make it...I want you to declare your undying loyalty to whomever replaces me on the throne and serve that pony...no matter who it is." she sternly ordered.

"But ma'am." Flash was in total shock.

"I order it as your commanding officer!" snapped Celestia.

"Uh...yes ma'am." he nervously saluted.

"Good...I'll have half of my guards accompany me on this mission...you and the rest will stay here and get everything ready for my potential replacement if anything happens to me, understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Flash Sentry marched out of the room. Celestia returned back to stare at the mirror, she noticed dark circles around her eyes. "I'm getting old..." she mumbled knowing that even she cannot live forever.

Sombra, Twilight, Shining and his guards finally arrived at the Crystal palace. Sombra kept a knowing smirk plastered on his face since the brief stop to see a dark crystal. Twilight saw that.

"Sombra? I have a feeling you have something sinister planned." she whispered.

"Oh...just a back up plan in case anything goes wrong." explained Sombra. "Which it will...because even I know Shining and Cadance will NEVER give me a deal that is favorable to me...so I might as well let their subjects force them too."

The now red crystal started to glow brightly as it suddenly emitted a large red light that spread across the city. All the Crystal ponies, even those indoors, suddenly stopped in their tracks and dropped what they were doing as they got caught in the red wall of light.

The entire city was at a literal standstill, every Crystal pony frozen with black looks on their faces.

After a minute of stillness...the ponies started to move again, but this time, slowly march out of their homes and towards the Crystal palace like zombies.

Celestia was on her pagasus drawn paladin as she lead her guard, who where in chariots themselves, towards the Crystal Empire to defeat Sombra once and for all. The alicorn had a determined face on her, fully ready to do whatever it takes to defeat the monster.

Twilight and Sombra are escorted inside the palace. "Sombra, you will follow me and be escorted to the Adviser Meeting Room where we'll settle an agreement." Shining turned to Twilight. "I want you to get Cadance and explain everything that is happening to her, understood?"

"Understood...lead the way." said Sombra.

"Understood." nodded Twilight, not exactly looking forward to seeing Cadance again in these circumstances.

Twilight made her way upstairs Cadance's bedchambers. only to find the door slightly opened. "Huh?" Twilight slowly entered the room, only to find it a mess, items broken on the floor, bed covers littered all over the place, it looked like a struggle happened. "Cadance? Cadance?"

She spotted a discarded cloak on the floor...it defiantly did not belong to anyone she knew. "What's going on here?" the lavender alicorn said to herself. "What happened to Cadance?!"

TO BE CONTINUED...