The ruins are in place and the candles sit lit at their required positions, Sombra grins at the sight of the ritual that lays before him. Behind him his three new followers slowly stride in to position with their eyes emitting the dark flames. Sombra glides in to the center of the ritual circle and once he dose the runes light up signaling Sweetie belle to chant wile fueling the circle with magic. The other fallow suit one after the other but once the final step is reach the ground begins to quiver from the power the ritual is emitting. The three mares stand ready for candles to go out and each time one dose so it will try and force them out of their circle and if they do fall out the ritual will fail. One candle goes out and they do not as much as quiver, two they as till steady as stone, and the final one goes out causing Sombra to be engulfed by a dark mist that entangles him.

After he is released from the dark mist the mares see him in all his glory. The king had finally returned and more than likely better than ever before, when he open his eyes he sees his followers bow before him and with a grin he puts his horn to use. Shadow warriors are brought forth in to being by his magic, first there are ten then twenty and before to long and to much strain he has a platoon of a hundred shadow warriors at his command. The king allows the mares to rise and join him at which point they marvel at his creation.

"Twenty five troops for each of you. Pegasus troops for you Scootaloo, earth troops for you Apple bloom and unicorn troops for you Sweetie belle." They look at him with glee in their eyes and when he motions for them to go they quickly bow then run down to start commanding their troops.

"You all will listen and obey to your respective Generals understood!"

"Yes my king." The shadow troops reply and they split off in to groups of twenty five and wile Sombra hardly did mush with his right away the others decided to see what these shadow troops could do by putting them through tests. Each test varied on the group but over all it checked the same things. the tests check their strength, endurance, speed, and agility.

"Think they will be able to take on a mission girls?" The sound of this made the girls smile and look to Sombra with full attention wile the troops kept testing.

"We need to shut down the train so access to Equestria will be hard and any reinforcements will have a delay to arrive."

"What are we waiting for then? Let's get started!" Scootaloo called out and her troops cheered in agreement to this sentiment, Sombra nodded to this and so he and the mares decide to make a plan of attack. Night crawls over Equestria and the mares get their troops organized, the three of them walk back and forth in front of the small blocks of shadow troops in anticipation.

"Troops! Tonight we seek to cripple the town of Ponyville but destroying access by rail road, hopefully the dark of night will provide cover to work but be ready for a fight to occur because there are sure to be stationed guards everywhere. Your goal is to deal with the rails if that mean you die so be it because this if for the good of all of us. We are the Shadow Crusaders and we will bring Equestria in to a new and golden age under the Shadow empire!" The troops cheer to show their support for this mission and so the three mares draw their weapons and cheer along with the troops. Above them on an over hang Sombra holds out a scythe and cheers with them.

"FOR THE SHADOW EMPIRE!"

Author's Note

Sorry about the break between the chapters being released had some problems come up but now i am back at it.