Twilight has finished with her latest friendship mission, and boy was it harsh, it was as if the Tree wanted her and her friends to die. She entered her castle to find her brother laying in a bed in the castle hospital, several wounds and gashes covering his body. Cadence was sitting down beside him, she had scars of her own, though they were not as severe on her.

She was sitting there, praying that her husband would live. "What happened?" Twilight said to her sister-in-law. "Oh, its a long story." Cadence said. "No, no, take your time." Twilight said. Cadence began.

Well, it was another Crystalling ceremony, Sunburst was about to fused the shard with the Heart, from what he had told me, the Heart was stolen, everypony, including me, looked up to see a strange being, it defiantly wasn't a pony by the way, nor does it belong to any known sentient species. It was a bipedal figure, not unlike the Minotaurs and maybe even the Diamond Dogs, but that was where the similarities end.

It had a blue, almost metallic skin that had darker blue markings on it. Its 'head' mearly had five 'horns' on it, as it was fused to the torso, and what's even stranger, was that its only facial feature was a single eye. It unnerved me greatly, it was kind of like a cat's eye, and NOT the kind of cat you would like to pet. It called itself 'Naturus' and he destroyed the Crystal Empire, replacing it with his own fortress. He flooded the city with acid, killed off the Crystal Ponies, and nearly destroyed me and my husband, whom he nearly killed. When I found out he was completely immune to magic, I decided to fake our death, so before he managed to kill us both, I cast a teleportation spell on the two of us and here we are, right now, trying to save my dear Shining Armor.

"What a monster he was, I'll never forgive him for-" Twilight was about to finish her sentence when a voice rang through the air.

"I thought you would die for good this time!" a deep, masculine voice said.

"I know you, you're Naturus!" Cadence said. "BINGO! By the way, Sparky won't need her castle anymore!"

As if his words were magic, the castle began to collapse. "Oh no, he found us!" Cadence said as the duo pushed Shining Armor's bed outside the hospital. Hands made out crystal attempted to destroy the three, ranging from slapping to scratching.

They ran past Spike who looked at them and said "What's going on?"

"Lookie here, there's a teenage mutant ninja lizard, I'll rip his tail off and see if it grows back!" Naturus said as a crystal hand attempted to chop his tail off him. Spike saw this coming and grabbed his tail and ran off a jumped onto Shiny's bed, carefully avoiding the gashes that Shining had on him, most notably the bandaged hole. "I feel sorry for you, but right now, look." Spike said as he pointed. The ceilings were getting lower in an attempt to crush them all. "Hurry!" Twilight said as they went through the closing door, just in time to see the last bits of her castle explode like a nuclear bomb, minus the radiation and stuff.

"First the library is destroyed by Tirek, now my castle is destroyed by Naturus, why would this happen!?" Twilight said, sobbing. "You are not the only one who's lost their kingdom to Naturus, heck, the Crystal Empire was lost to him." Cadence said. "We may not know what has happened, but we do know that he is dangerous." Shining Armor said, now feeling better, he still had those mutilated scars, though.

"Aunt Twilight!" a young, childish voice said. "Flurry!" Twilight said as she hugged her niece. Flurry Heart then turned to see her parents.

"Mom! Dad! I missed you, I'm glad you escaped." Flurry Heart said as she hugged Cadence. For Shining Armor though, she was much more gentle on him, due to his injuries. "I thought you were killed by Naturus, I'm so glad you are here." Shining said as he nuzzled his daughter and patted her with his hoof. "Well, she was royalty." a guard said. Twilight looked to see a guard nearby. "Too bad we couldn't prevent Naturus's massacre of the Crystal Ponies, they are now all extinct." another guard said. Twilight drooped her head down, knowing that the guard was right. Naturus was so strong, they would need all the help they can get.

"Yeah, right, as if I will let you have any help. Time to expand my horizons." Naturus said, sitting on his ill-gotten throne, setting his all-seeing eye at the ponies. "I'll give Equestria's vassals a parting gift." he said as he snapped his fingers, eight glowing orbs flew out of the castle, striking some deer, elk, and buffalo vassals. "Without their vassals, they would have to fight me alone." He snapped his fingers and another orb struck Manehattan, most of the population was killed in the explosion. "With them weakened, I can regain my strength, expand my army's diversity, and branch out to invade more soil, and ocean in some cases."

Author's Note

So yeah, it's gonna get EPIC.