The Darkest Hour

Peace was brought back to the Crystal Empire once King Sombra was vanquished by Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor. Emotions began to resume their rightful positions inside of the crystal ponies. The depressive and gloomy atmosphere was replaced by something more positive and cheerful. The residents of the Crystal Empire began to speak to one another without fear of being oppressed or punished for even muttering a single word. A new monarch had risen out of the ashes from the defeated king.  This new form of political and social governmental body was something that respected the citizen's wishes and needs. It tended to the ones who were broken, mentally and physically. They received treatment for their conditions and quickly recovered within a year. The new Queen and King of the Crystal Empire were two ponies from Equestria, a distant monarchy, named Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. Shining Armor was head of the Equestrian Royal Guards, but was promptly named the Crystal King after the previous kings defeat. Princess Cadance was the wife of Shining Armor and the princess of Love. She was promptly named the Crystal Queen as well. They ruled over their new kingdom happily, making sure that every one of the citizens were happy with what they did.

Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Magic, was their younger sister. She had only recently been announced as a princess, but was doing an exceptionally good job at it. By far, Twilight Sparkle was the brightest mind that Equestria has ever seen. Her doings spread far and wide from trade negotiations to forming alliances with other nations. Truly, life was well and easy for the three of them and Twilight had received days where she had a chance to relax her mental and physical state. She decided it would be wise if she were to visit her brother and sister-in-law.

The train to the Crystal Empire was slow. It seemed to move at a slower rate than usual. Twilight could only let out a quiet groan as she sat in her private compartment and gazed out the window. The journey may have been excruciatingly passive, but it was full of beauty. She could see trees of all kinds, even ones that she couldn't recognize. Their leaves varied in shape, size, and color. The bark that made up the trees were all of different colors and patterns. Some looked smooth to the touch while others looked as if they would splinter if you even got close to them. A soft smile grew across her cheeks as she enjoyed these views.

These trees aren't indigenous in Equestria. I'll have to look into seeing if we can plant these in the garden...

There was a sudden tiredness that slowly crept up on the purple alicorn. She let out a soft and quiet yawn before resting against her velvet seat. It was surprisingly comfortable as her exhausted body was pressed into it. Twilight had just finished counseling a group of colts and fillies about magic and how it can be used for many, many purposes. She gazed out of the train window one last time and noticed a raven black tree with silver leaves. The tree was about the same height as her, maybe taller by just a few inches or so. It gave off a chilling and ominous presence as her eyelids began to slowly close. Just then, she saw a figure that moved from behind the tree. It seemed as though the darkened figure glared directly at Twilight. When the train began to pass by the tree and more of the sun was shining on the vessel, it strangely resembled Twilight. She had a purple coat, but it was extremely darker than Twilight's, almost to the point of being black, and her eyes were a deep crimson. Twilight simply brushed this off as an illusion from her being sleep deprived. After all, she does tend to go a bit crazy at times.

She awoke with a jolt and a chill that went down her spine. Her first reaction was to view her environment, but saw nothing. She was surrounded by darkness as the temperature was reaching extravagantly cold feats quickly. More-so than it being winter in Equestria. She could see her own breath as it formed in a very dense cloud of smoke in front of her. Her horn glowed softly as she attempted to illuminate the area around her by casting a light wisp spell. Unfortunately, it didn't work at all. Nothing worked. She couldn't even feel magic coursing through her body. It were as if she were void of anything relating to the word "magic". Her heart began to panic and rash thoughts invaded her mind.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit..!

Twilight had begun to panic violently. The reasoning behind this was because each princess was named a princess because of a certain element that they possessed. Princess Celestia was the Sun, Princess Luna was the Moon, Princess Cadance was Love, and Princess Twilight was Magic. Magic was the very essence of all Unicorns and if Twilight had somehow lost control of this element, chaos would erupt all over the world and only Discord would know what exactly happens after that catastrophe. Twilight lifted her left arm above her head to see if she still held a horn, in which case, she did. Her panicking began to slowly die down as she realized this.

"If I still have a horn, then why can't I do magic...?" the purple princess asked herself.

She began to examine possibilities as to why her magic isn't being used while scanning the darkness around her, still trying to find a hint of where she was.

Maybe I'm too exhausted to use magic, but that still doesn't explain why I'm here... Discord could just be messing with me again... Still, he's suppose to be attending to the Princesses today... Her mind trailed off as a distant laughter could be heard.

The laughter was somewhat distorted and muffled, as if it were behind walls or being covered. Twilight turned around and noticed that the raven black, silver leaf tree was there, illuminated by a source of light that she couldn't find the origins of. Reluctantly, she stood up from her sitting position and carefully approached the tree. The light was warm and soft as it heated up the vicinity around it. Twilight lifted her left arm up and slowly moved her hand towards the tree.

"I've seen this tree before... What's it doing he--"

Twilight suddenly sprung awake by the train coming to a sudden stop. She was nearly thrown out of her seat as the intercom went static for a few moments, then proceeded to give out information.

"All passengers with the destination of the Crystal Empire, we have arrived and are awaiting your departure. We will be resuming our schedule within 15 minutes or until the passengers leave the train. Thank you for your co-operation and we hope you had a fantastic ride on Railings Express." The pony who had spoke this was very monotone, enough to the point of making Twilight want to fall asleep again.

Shrugging off her tiredness, she grabbed her luggage and walked down the aisle of the train to exit. The other passengers kindly said their 'hello's' and bowed to the newly assigned princess. A faint blush grew on Twilight's face as she had still not grown accustomed to this kind of treatment. However, her nervousness and embarrassment quickly faded as she witnessed the glorious beauty of the Crystal Kingdom. Everything within the left and right were sparkling like diamonds. She couldn't help but smile wide as she looked around in amazement. Finally, she arrived here and would soon meet Shining Armor and Princess Cadance.

Twilight couldn't help but feel embarrassed as she walked through the city and saw its citizen's. She immediately noticed the difference in apparel. The mares were simply wearing formal dresses and sun dresses while Twilight looked like a schoolfilly that just got out of class. Each step they took was precise and held gracious elegance that was most likely honed before King Sombra's rule. Twilight simply wore a black buttoned shirt, a white tie that extended down to the last button that was held in place by a tie clip, and a dark pink skirt that extended down halfway to her knees. She carried her purple-ish leather bag across her shoulder and began to pick up the pace towards the castle. She felt that she was truly out of place here with not only her apparel, but as well as her bag. There were scrolls of many shapes and sizes that stuck out of the leather holding. Twilight was too stuck up in thoughts that she didn't even notice that the citizens were greeting her with glee and some even stopped what they were doing to bow in respect. After all, she was a big help in purging their kingdom from Sombra's reign.

After an agonizingly slow and mentally painful walk down the city district, she finally made way to the entrance of the castle. It was even more glorious when you stood in front of it. The walls shone brightly against the sun's rays and it easily stood over all of the other buildings. Twilight couldn't help but look up in awe. Such a building belong to her brother and sister-in-law. Jealousy began to creep up on her. She wished that a castle as magnificent as this belonged to her, but quickly shook the thought away. She learned that loathing and jealousy only brought back bad results. Mustering up her confidence, she approached the guards at the gates.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle and I've come here to--" Twilight was promptly, but politely, stopped in her tracks as one of the guards simply raised his hand as they proceeded to open the crystallized gates.

"No need for you to waste your breathe, Princess Twilight. King Shining had told us that you were coming to visit. Please enter as he is currently awaiting you in the throne room." The stallion spoke in a very soft and kind tone. Each move he performed showed off years of practice that would be tested towards royals and nobles.

Twilight smiled softly at the middle-aged stallion. She walked through the gates and heard them swiftly close behind her. The long trail leading to the castle doorway was made from a finely smooth cut stone. There were no bumps that stuck up from the ground or any cracks that your shoe would get stuck on. Twilight observed the garden that stood on both sides of the pathway. There were trees that were aligned perfectly followed by pink and red flowers Twilight had never seen before. Although, they were beautiful and she immediately knew that Cadance was the one who must have ordered them to be planted. The combined trees and flowers gave off a home-like feel. It were as if Twilight were walking back to her old house in Ponyville. Since her coronation, she hasn't visited the old tree. It really put a depressed feel into her. She loved being surrounded by all of the knowledge. Granted, she's read all of the books that the library stored more than once and expertly memorized every bit of detail.

Twilight quickly shook off this depression. There was no reason for her to be sad! She was here to see her family. Struck with new-found confidence, she walked into the castle and down the halls that lead to the throne. Twilight was shocked at the surprising lack of guards being stationed in the castle itself. Canterlot's castle had the Royal Guards stationed nearly thirty or so feet away from each other, but there were rarely any guards at all.

Shining's most likely the cause behind this. After all, he was the head chief of the Royal Guards... Twilight smiled at the thought of seeing the two of them. They hadn't spoke nor seen each other in over 2 years now.

Twilight opened the wide doors of the throne room and graciously walked inside, showing proper respect to the owner of this palace.

He may be my brother, but he's the king of the Crystal Empire. It'd be rude of me to not show proper respect.

The moment the purple alicorn walked through the crystal doors, four arms were around her. She yelped in surprise from the sudden feel of two bodies pressed against her. Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were both tightly snuggling their little sister.

"Twily!" exclaimed Shining. He proceeded to remove himself from her, but Cadance kept a tight grip.

"We haven't seen you for so long, Twilight!" Cadance reluctantly let go of her and backed up to stand next to Shining Armor. Twilight felt even more embarrassed now. Cadance had dawned on a red dress with an elegant golden lining that connected the fabric at the sides. It was a dress made from the same clothe, but was cut and re-sized specifically for Cadance.

"Y-yeah, it really has. How's it like being the rulers of an empire?" Shining simply guided Twilight over to a three person couch that rested on the right side of the throne room. They sat on the couch with Twilight in the middle and began to tell Twilight everything that happened within the past 2 years, in detail, and how the Crystal Empire has developed since their arrival. Twilight couldn't remember a time when she was happier than being right between her brother and sister, talking and laughing not as a superior, but as a family.