Prologue
Cadence lay resting in her small chamber, waiting for Luna to lower the moon so that she could address the ponies of Equestria come morning and tell her the big news. Her belly swollen, it was obvious that she was soon going to have a foal. While she already had a beautiful son, Midnight Eternal, Celestia had determined that a prince simply could not ascend onto the throne, should another member of the royal family need to take her place. She had said that since there had always been a ruling princess, only a mare would be allowed to take her place as the ruler of Equestria. As Princess Twilight was far too young to become a mother, the duty of producing a worthy heir to the throne rested solely on the Crystal Princess’s shoulders.
Shining Armor was quite upset when he learned that his son would never rule, but seemed to accept the explanation Princess Celestia gave him. But Cadence believed that she knew the true reason why Celestia would not allow the Crystal Princess’s son to take her place on the throne.
While Midnight was an incredible stallion, with brains to rival those of her favorite filly, Twily, and was not too hard on the eyes, he simply did not have the ability to become a good monarch. He had no compassion towards others, blaming the other ponies for inflicting harm upon themselves. And while Midnight was able to perform incredible feats of magic, even at the age of a young pony of 5, his maturity led him to act as though he was an older snob, using his abilities to further elevate himself, instead of helping others in their times of need.
But there was another reason for Celestia to be anxious about the dark-coated prince, one that his mother had sensed since his birth. When Midnight Eternal had entered the world, his coat such a deep blue it was almost black, his mane a smoldering, twinkling, black-purple with thousands of flecks of silver, Cadence had sensed darkness in him, darkness she had only encountered when she came face to face with the evil king Sombra. But here was another pony that must have contained this darkness, one which would explain why Luna ran from the chamber as the newborn prince let out his first wail.
Her son was the embodiment of Darkness Eternal, and she knew it.
* * *
When she woke in the morning, the sun blazing through her window, something began to churn and writhe in her stomach that wasn’t her unborn child.
Something was wrong.
She put on her crown and trotted out her room, knees weak from the strain of carrying her burden. She couldn’t simply fly to the hallway: her wings were useless without the energy that she needed to flap them. No, she had to walk everywhere, and even that was difficult.
Cadence finally reached her door that led into the main hallway. Stretching her neck out to grasp her handle with her teeth, she pushed it down until her door opened. That was another obstacle that came with her pregnancy: no magic. Ever since she had learned that she was expecting a filly or colt, her magic had shut down. Try as she might, her horn wouldn’t glow with her signature turquoise magic, the color the same hue as the Crystal Heart, symbolizing her leadership over the Crystal Ponies. It was like the filly inside her had somehow shut off her mother’s horn into sleep mode, and there was no way to reactivate it. This left much of the protection of the Empire up to Shining Armor.
With no wings, no magic, and nothing to do, Cadence felt utterly helpless.
Still, as she walked into the Main Hall, she maintained her regal appearance, as if to assure herself that she was still a princess. The hall was silent. This made the princess uneasy. Her Hall was never this quiet. She journeyed out of the Hall and into the throne room. She looked upon her throne, to the seats were Luna and Celestia sat whenever they visited, and to the amazing stained glass windows that lined the room. She glanced out the window. The streets of the kingdom were unusually empty.
Something was horribly wrong.
Then the image outside flickered, and Cadence saw what was really happening.
Her city was being destroyed.
***
Flames consumed the buildings that lined the cobblestone streets, and all of her subjects galloped around in fearful disarray. Thousands of shadowy creatures plagued the ponies, and even more tried to bash through the protective bubble that surrounded the castle. Cadence’s breath caught in her throat.
“The Midnight Forces.”
The wind howled at the very mention of the evil name, the label the country had given the forces that had tried to take over Equestria. The name Princess Luna had forbidden from being spoken. The Evil that was destroying the Crystal Empire right now.
At the mention of its army, one of the shadowy figures turned to look through the window at the young mare. It screeched in triumph to its comrades, and soon they all began to pound the window, in an attempt to reach Princess Cadence.
She gasped and quickly backed away from the window.
“Cadence, move!” somepony yelled from across the room.
“Shining Armor!” Cadence cried as her husband raced into the Throne Room, the white and blue stallion’s eyes wild with fear.
“You have to leave!” Shining Armor commanded.
Then the shadows broke through the protection spell and into the mighty room. They howled in triumph and lunged towards Cadence and Shining Armor.
“Now!” The stallion’s horn flashed magenta, and the princess realized that he was casting a teleportation spell, but not on himself.
“No!” Cadence cried, but she already felt herself being pulled to an unknown location, chosen by her brave husband.
She stayed in the Throne Room long enough to see Shining Armor’s eyes flash with love, then turn hard with fury as he faced the shadow creatures.
“I love you!” she cried before she was pulled away into the dark portal of the spell.
