Many years ago, King Sombra attempted to overthrow the Diarchs of Equestria by subduing the Crystal Empire. The actions of three of Equus' greatest champions stopped him, but not without cost. Now, forces that had long been buried were working to bring him and his army of darkness back. Two ponies, whose past actions had elevated them to the forefront of the fight, would come to find their own connection to these past events.

Can Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, perspective Wonderbolt Captain, and heroine of Equestria, rise up to the challenge of a new destiny? And, can she do this alone, or will she have to risk possible heartache with a certain adorkable librarian-turned-princess in order to do so?

All characters except for OC's belong to their respective parties. This fic complies with all free-speech and use laws.

This fic is a prequel/parallel fic to my fic Princess of Shadows, Darkness, and Light. As such, each chapter will help to explain some of the details not covered in the sequel.

Also, the Mane Six will be featured, but I can't tag them on account of the five-character limit.

This fic and its companion/sequel are my first major attempt at writing FiM fan fiction, though not fiction in general; I have done other work, nothing published. What I'm doing here is trying to explore an Equus that is both larger and smaller than the people know. That's the major reason why nothing of Season Five is making its way into the fic, and why it has the AU tag. For more details, look for my various blogs on the subject.

Please Note: I'm in the process of trying to find cover art, as I think that's one of the reasons why this fic has so few views. If you know of any way I can get some, or have some talent in drawing, please PM me. The only problem with commissions is that I have no way to pay; if I did, I'd hire someone to get some cool cover art.

Edit July 22nd, 2016: The rating and addition of the Gore tag is due to the fairly graphic scenes that will be in an upcoming chapter. The scenes are not going to be excessively bloody, just more graphic than usual. There will be a tagged warning on the chapter in question. At this point, that will be the only chapter with those scenes.

Edit August 6th, 2016: Sex tag now added due to the nature of some of the subject material in the last chapter. Spoiler tags will be removed from this edit note when the chapter in question is posted.Story is now complete.