The Empire's Shadow

by ValonQuinn

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Original Character, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 1209

The war with the Crystal Empire has come to an end. King Sombra lay defeated by his own assassin. Before the final blow, Sombra escaped through a magical mirror. Now the assassin must follow and put an end to him for Good.

The Great Crystal War, five years of death and destruction is finally at its end. In a bold sneak attack, a small detachment of the Equestrian army's elite assaulted the very capital of the Crystal Empire. This was only made possible by one pony on the inside, only known as the King's Shadow, King Sombra's elite enforcer and assassin.
As Equestria's forces besieged the city, the King's Shadow confronted his master and only barely succeeded in defeating the dark King, or so they believed. As Sombra was dying, he cast a spell and escaped through a magical mirror. The Shadow jumped through the mirror after his master to finish him off, only to suddenly find himself back in Equestria. But things were...different in this Equestria.

This story begins in an alternate world when the Crystal Empire returns and King Sombra takes over. The story will take place four years after season 3 The Crystal Empire-Part 1 and Part 2 episodes but will diverge from canon after the season 5 finale. (Thorax and the redeemed changelings will be present, but with some changes to fit the storyline.)
I'm an aspiring author and this is the first story I've actually concentrated on writing. At least five years were spent idly brainstorming (and working through my own confidence) before it got here. I hope it gets a good reception, and please enjoy!

[I have returned after a long hiatus! Life got in the way, and I never thought I'd get back. But I am now and will spend a chunk of my free time officially finishing what I had started. I will be editing my old chapters and fixing some things that bugged me. I look forward to finally sharing the story I've had in my mind since high school.]

I made the cover art in google drawings, it is temporary. In the future hopefully, a better one will take its place. (gore tag is for mentions of blood and bleeding so don't worry, no doom-level stuff)

Published 2018-09-07 02:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-03-11 21:39:06 UTC

~Prologue~

The continent of Equestria was vibrant, beautiful, strong in the ways of magic, and forgiving to a fault. This country was ruled together by the benevolent sisters of day and night, their reign brought strength, and prosperity to their kingdom as they followed the teachings of Harmony. There were also the Elements of Harmony, artifacts of purity and magic. They were wielded by six ponies who embodied the six elements; Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, and Magic. Together the Element bearers defended the Kingdom of Equestria against many threats, bringing peace.

But alas, a new threat loomed on the horizon.

A unicorn named, Starlight Glimmer a magic prodigy, desired vengeance against the Elements. Starlight uncovered an old spell and used her magic to unravel the very fabric of time and space, allowing her to alter the past so that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony never met. The leader of the Elements, the element of magic Princess Twilight Sparkle, realized Starlight's plan and chased after her through time and space. It is not known how long they battled, for the time was inconsequential. Through dozens of different timelines and parallel worlds they fought, each different action splintering the temporal space, creating worlds with increasingly disastrous consequences. As the two powerful mages fought, Princess Twilight formed the conclusion that there would be no end to this path, they would continue to endlessly pass through time, countering the other, until the end of time. So the Princess approached her combatant and appealed to her heart revealing to her the damage their conflict was causing. The Princess's words cut through the anger and vengeance that clouded her mind. With a desolate landscape in front of her, that was presumably Equestria, the full weight of what she had done dropped, it left her breathless. Wanting to right her wrong, Starlight, along with the Princess' help, carefully dispelled the magic surrounding the old spell. With the magic gone, the timeline returned to the way they once were. Princess succeeded in talking down the wayward magi and also giving her a chance of redemption. With the timeline fixed and a villain reformed, that seemed to be the end of it.

But a shattered cup can never again be whole, even when each piece is placed correctly and glued back together, and covered the seams with paint, the cracks will always be there. What Starlight created would be known as "The Fracture Point", when their world split into many similar ones.

This story is about how one world clashed with the other.

A parallel Sol, 1000 A.N. 2 years before The Fracture Point

The Summer Sun celebration is a reminder of a thousand years of lasting peace, but now marked the beginning of great disaster and destruction. On the eve of the joyous celebration in the streets of the small town of Ponyville, the corrupted goddess of the night and great evil of legend, Nightmare Moon, had broken free of her imprisonment. With her new found freedom she retook her astral domain, and pulled the world into darkness, threatening to cast every living creature into eternal night. Princess Celestia, Sun Goddess, and ruler of Equestria feared the coming of that night. She was unable to use the Elements of Harmony to seal her sister away again. and for the safety of her ponies, she saw no other choice. The solar monarch donned her armor and shored up her resolve as she prepared to do battle with her sister once again.

When they met in ruins of the old Castle of the Two Sisters Princess Celestia tried one last time to reach her wayward sister, to no avail. The only things she saw in the Nightmare's eyes were hatred and envy. There would be no words exchanged, only a clash of blades and magic.

Neither side held back, their battle lasted for three days, but Princess Celestia returned to Canterlot in a victory. The darkened sky parting to reveal the rising sun gave proof to Nightmare Moon's defeat. The battle between the two alicorn goddesses was costly, where the Everfree Forest stood now lies Equestria's Scar, a chasm reaching from the southern edge of Ponyville all the way to Appaloosa. Even fewer ruins remain of the Castle of the Two sisters and the Everfree. The toll on the Princess of the Sun was not any better, permanently sacrificing a large portion of her magic to ensure victory. After the battle, the citizens breathed easy as they thought the danger had passed...but it was merely the start.

Soon after the dust had settled the remaining creatures of the Everfree became even more aggressive and dangerous. This caused harm to the ponies of Ponyville. Many citizens boarded up their houses and left, leaving a sparse few stubborn ponies in a ghost town. The boutique, Library, and even the school were abandoned.

The draconequus statue in the Royal Canterlot gardens remained that, a statue. If only somepony, or ponies, had caused just a small bit more chaos in his proximity.

Several months later, the Changeling invasion of the Royal wedding between Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor took Equestria by surprise. Canterlot, the capital of the nation, was occupied for a week before Princess Mi Amore Cadenza freed herself from the Crystal caverns then she freed Princess Celestia and her fiance. With the strength of their love, the royal couple routed the Changelings out of the castle, sending them into hiding in the badlands. But the damage was done and the worst was yet to come.

In the following year after Canterlot was seized by Changelings, a farmer on the edge of the Frozen North reported seeing a bright flash that lit the night, emanating somewhere within the cold tundra, it was the return of the Crystal Empire. All too aware of what would be awoken, the solar monarch immediately dispatched the newlywed Princess and Captain of the guard with a large contingent of guards towards the city lost to time. Weeks passed, and no contact had been made with the royal couple. Princess Celestia was growing more concerned with each passing day. As she was about to dispatch another contingent of guards she received a report from an outpost town of Neighton near the Crystal mountains. The town was under attack.

With the absence of the Elements, no help came to the royal couple, their magic held the ancient King Sombra back for a time, but in the end, they faltered out of exhaustion. King Sombra then used his dark magic to make the citizens of the Empire become his army, his Legion. They began their march on Equestria. This was the beginning of a four-year-long war, The Great Crystal War.

Author's Note

Thus it begins, a prologue to explain the events that transpired up to the invasion of the Crystal Empire. I hope this will provide you all with the necessary information to catch any questions about why this happened and why this did not. Not all questions will be answered and I'll do my best to answer them pending if the answers may be spoilers. This should be enlightening to some degree. See you all in Chapter One. :twilightsmile: