The story begins in the Everfree Forest, where Flash Sentry is taking a hike without his guard uniform.
"I do appreciate Shining Armor and Princess Cadance giving me a day off today, but there's so much work I need to do."
Then, all of the sudden, Flash heard noises. He walked towards the source of it, and he began to hear it clearer. It was a group of ponies shouting "Long Live Xerxon! Down with Celestia! Long Live Xerxon! Down with Celestia! Long Live Xerxon! Down with Celestia!"
They continued to shout that horrible phrase. Flash snuck into the bushes, and he saw the source of the voices: they were all unicorns of different genders dressed in regalia that resembled grey gothic nightmare versions of Princess Luna's royal regalia. In front of the group was a unicorn stallion dressed in similar regalia, only it was an ink black. He had a white coat, a white slick-down mane and tail, red eye pupils, and a cutie mark that resembled an emblem of a shadowy demon face.
"Lord Xerxon!" a yellow unicorn mare shouted to the white stallion as she arrived.
Apparently, the white stallion was called 'Lord Xerxon'.
As for the yellow unicorn mare, she was filthy. She was covered in dirt, mud, and water. She was also out of breath as she arrived.
"Dark Blossom" he shouted. "You're late for our meeting, again!"
"Sorry my lord, but I've got something important to tell you!"
"Go on?"
"I found a stallion, and he's-"
"Oh please, if you're going to talk about love, then talk about it to some-pony else."
"It's not like that. I found him literally trapped in a bubble in the Everfree caverns. It also has an emblem of Princess Celestia's cutie mark on it."
"Could this be true?"
"Indeed."
"Well then, maybe you could be useful after all. But I hope you're telling the truth, otherwise you'll not only be no longer a part of our secret organization, but I will destroy you."
So the group walked away, and Flash took the bush he was hiding in to secretly follow them.
He followed them to the entrance to the caves in the Everfree Forest, a different cave than the one the Tree of Harmony was found in.
They went inside, and it grew darker and darker the further they walked in. But then, they saw a light in the distance. They ran towards the light, and they saw that it came from a glowing multicolored bubble with emblem embedded on it that resembled Celestia's cutie mark. Inside the bubble was a grey unicorn stallion with a spiky black mane and tail with orange stripes on them, purple eye pupils, no cutie mark yet, and a gold necklace with a metal black heart on it.
"Who are you" Xerxon asked the stallion in the bubble.
The stallion in the bubble said "My name is Shadow Night."
"I've heard stories about you. You tried to to destroy Princess Celestia, correct?"
"Yes"
"What is this bubble you're inside of?"
"It's not a bubble, it's a forcefield. It was set up by Princess Celestia."
"Can you come out of that forcefield?"
"No. Only Alicorns can control the forcefield."
"I see."
"What is your name?"
"I cannot reveal what my name is, but you may call me Lord Xerxon."
Xerxon turned around to face his subjects.
"I suppose now is the time we finally perform my ascension."
"Ascension?" Shadow Night asked.
"My subjects, assemble the ingredients!"
One dark blue unicorn stallion took out a pouch and said "a pouch of zebra magic powder."
The dark blue unicorn opened the pouch and spread it on the ground to form emblems of several cartoon arrows pointed at Xerxon, it's located on his view of the East, West, North, and South.
A unicorn mare took out a glass jar of clear slime and said "the drool of Discord."
She opened the jar and splashed it on Xerxon's face.
Flash Sentry, who saw the whole thing, thought to himiself "how did they manage to get that?"
It turns out, that one time, Pinkie Pie was showing off a delicious cake made by Mr and Mrs Cake, and it made Discord drool, allowing the unicorn mare to collect it in the jar when no-pony was looking.
Back in the present, a unicorn stallion took out a plugged jar filled with an out of control black, red, and green energy inside.
He said "and finally, the essence of dark magic."
He held the jar to point it's top at Xerxon's face, and opened it. The essence of dark magic flew into Xerxon's face, and it tried to escape. However, all of the unicorns used their magic to create a forcefield around the zebra magic powder arrows, along with a drool-covered Xerxon, thus trapping the dark magic inside.
The dark magic went into Xerxon's body, and black lightning came from him. The lightning hit the arrows, and the arrows started to give off a cyan glow.
After several minutes of chaos from within the unicorns' forcefield, Xerxon stopped shooting black lightning as the powder arrows were blown into a tornado-like position around Xerxon. The tornado closed around him, and he absorbed it. Then, he started to give of a red glow as his body was cracking. Then, an explosion occured, shattering his body as well as the unicorns' forcefield.
However, out of the shattered body, a small red orb was floating there. It was Xerxon's essence. He grew and expanded into a red glowing silhouette of a bipedal animal. He descended towards the ground, and his glow faded. He now appeared as a bipedal creature with a humanoid furry white torso and arms with furry white dragon-like claws, furry white centaur-like legs with black hooves and a green lizard's tail, a green lizard's head with yellow eyes, red eye pupils, a white unicorn-like horn similar to Celestia's horn, and two long white fangs, and long white hair on his head. This was Xerxon's new form made of zebra magic, chaotic magic, and dark magic. Xerxon also had an emblem on his chest that resembled his former cutie mark.
"Xerxon" Shadow Night asked, "Is that you?"
Xerxon pointed his claw at Shadow Night and said "that's Lord Xerxon to you!"
"I'm sorry, Lord Xerxon."
"Thank you."
Xerxon twisted his torso, put his claws behind his back on his right side, put his claws at a short distance in front of each other, and charged a ball of dark magic in his claws. Then, he moved his claws, and the dark magic ball, in front of him, and the ball became a beam of dark magic energy that shot at Shadow Night's forcefield.
Xerxon stopped firing his beam of dark magic energy at Shadow Night's forcefield. Then, cracks were formed in it, and it broke.
Flash quietly gasped and jumped back. But Xerxon and his servants heard the gasp, along with Shadow Night.
"Whose there!?" Shadow Night asked.
Flash ran away, but no-pony could see him because the cave was too dark.
"After him!" Xerxon shouted. "Don't let him escape!"
Everyone ran after Flash Sentry, except for Xerxon. Even Shadow Night ran, but Xerxon levitated him to stop him, and he said "hold on".
"Yes, Lord Xerxon?" Shadow Night asked.
Xerxon said "Shadow Night, I have plans for you."
Meanwhile, Xerxon's servants ran out of the caves, but they could not see Flash Sentry anywhere.
"Where did he go?" one asked.
"Keep your eyes peeled" another said.
Little did they know that Flash Sentry was high in the clouds above them, flapping his wings. Then, he flew away and said to himself "I have to warn Princess Celestia about this!"
Meanwhile, back in the caverns, Shadow Night was walking with Xerxon as Xerxon raised his claw finger and contained a red glow on the tip of that finger.
"What do you want to tell me?" Shadow Night asked.
Xerxon answered "Shadow Night, I heard that you destroyed half of Canterlot as a foal, and had a fight with Celestia herself, correct?"
"Yes."
"Well, I have to admit, I'm impressed that you had that kind of magic at such a young age."
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that we're part of an organization called the Eye of Xansun, and we aim to overthrow Princess Celestia and take control of Equestria. I was thinking that, since you also have a strong hatred for Celestia, you'd join us."
"I don't know. I hardly know anything about you."
"What's that necklace on your neck?"
"It was given to me by Black Heart, an organization I knew."
"Black Heart? I've never heard of it."
"It's rarely been heard of."
"Is there a reason why you hate Celestia?"
Shadow Night thought for a moment, then he said "I don't want to talk about it."
Then Xerxon said "but wouldn't it help me understand why you don't want to join us if you just told me why you hate her so much?"
"I didn't say I didn't want to join you, I just don't know about it. Maybe I should start. Why do you hate Celestia?"
"She banished me from Canterlot, because of my red eye pupils. That was when I was a foal. Ever since then, I've hated Celestia, and I've wanted to see her kingdom fall, and for it to be reborn as my own kingdom. Now that I've transformed myself as well as my magic, that dream shall become a reality. I would like you to be by my side when that happens."
"You must hate her that much. But it doesn't sound like her to banish you because of how you look."
"We don't know much about Celestia. For all we know, she could be a power-hungry tyrant on the inside, while compassionate and wise on the outside."
"You may have a point. Very well, I'll join you, on one condition: I have permission to destroy Celestia."
"You have my permission."
So the two walked out of the caves, and the deal was done.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Later, in Canterlot, Celestia was sitting on her throne, as usual.
But then, Flash Sentry bursts through the front doors.
"Princess Celestia!" he shouted.
"Flash Sentry" Princess Celestia said "Isn't today supposed to be your day off?"
"Yes, but, I'm afraid that I have horrible news. HE has returned!"
"Who's HE? I've dealt with a lot of HE's, so you'll have to be more specific."
"I'm talking about Shadow Night."
Celestia was surprised.
"Shadow Night couldn't have returned. I put a shield around him that only alicorns can control. No-pony could destroy it, right?"
"Wrong."
"But how ... did he escape?"
"He didn't do it alone, a pony who called himself 'Xerxon' used dark magic to free him, and I think he said that his organization was the 'Eye of Xansun', who aimed to overthrow you and conquer Equestria."
"The Eye of Xansun? I haven't heard that name in a long time. And you said that he used dark magic?"
"Not only that, but he used zebra magic and Discord's magic and combined all three magics to transform himself into some kind of monster."
"This is terrible. I have to alert Princess Twilight immediately!"
So Princess Celestia gathered Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity in Canterlot, and Flash was in the room with them.
Princess Celestia told the group "I'm glad you all made it, Flash here told me some horrible news: Shadow Night has returned!"
Twilight and Spike were shocked, but the rest of the group were unaware of the situation.
"Who's Shadow Night?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I've heard of Shadow Night when I was a filly" Twilight said. "I barely saw him, but he attacked Canterlot as a colt. Celestia imprisoned him in a cave in the Everfree Forest after that, but I don't know how he escaped."
"He had help from someone named Xerxon." Celestia said. "I don't know who HE is, but I know he's from an old organization called the Eye of Xansun."
"The Eye of What?" Rainbow asked.
"The Eye of Xansun, a group of ponies who supported a monster named Xansun. However, Xansun was imprisoned long ago, but his supporters still remained. I assume Xerxon was a part of this organization?"
"From what I assume, he's their new leader" Flash told them.
"So what do we do?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know, they could be anywhere all over Equestria. The Eye of Xansun is a secret organization that lurks in the shadows, trying to avoid being seen. We'll have to keep a sharp eye out for anything suspicious."
"What about Shadow Night?"
"I have a picture of him from when he was a colt. Right now he is the same age as Twilight."
Celestia levitates a photo of a younger colt version of Shadow Night, who's looking angry in the photo.
"If you see him" Celestia said "Capture him, and bring him to me."
"We won't let you down." told Rainbow Dash.
But then, they heard a rumble that sounded like it came from outside.
"What the hay was that?" Applejack asked.
The group looked outside, and they saw that Canterlot was under attack by members of the Eye of Xansun.
"Split up" Twilight said. "If we spread out, we can stop more of these goons from attacking Canterlot."
The Mane 6 spread out. Then Flash ran off.
Celestia told Flash "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to fight, too!" he said.
Rarity was running, and he used magic to levitate and throw some Eye of Xansun members she found. However, she saw her store in Canterlot being destroyed by one Eye of Xansun mare.
Rarity gasped, and then she fainted.
Meanwhile, Shadow Night was walking through Canterlot with Xerxon, and they looked around them to see Xerxon's subjects attacking Canterlot.
"What do you need me for again?" Shadow Night asked Xerxon.
"I need you to directly attack Princess Celestia."
"Got it!"
So Shadow Night ran off.
Shadow Night ran past various buildings, and he ran past Twilight Sparkle who was dealing with other Eye of Xansun members. Then, he paused.
One Eye of Xansun member, a stallion, looked at Shadow when he paused.
"What are you doing, Shadow Night?" he asked.
Shadow Night ran back to look at Twilight. He was gazing at her in awe, and he started to feel a little love struck for a moment.
"Who ... is that?" Shadow asked.
The stallion told him "That's Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship."
"I've never heard of her."
"She's one of the newer princesses."
"Wow, she sure is pretty."
"She's not that pretty, and unless I was mistaking, you have a job to do."
Shadow Night pulled himself back to reality, and he said "Oh, right!"
This caught Twilight's attention. Twilight looked at both the stallion and Shadow Night.
"It's You!" she said.
Twilight ran towards Shadow Night and blasted a beam of magic at him.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
