Outside the borders of Equestria, laid a veil of darkness, an endless storm spanning around the borders. This was the Shadow realm that was home to the beings dedicated and made from the Dark Arts. Pacts with Shadows and Shadow Ponies populated the cursed land, though through fire, flame and an iron fist, they were brought under one banner, one kingdom, and one Queen.

This was the home of Queen Umbra as her castle was at the peak of the Shadow Realm’s obsidian mountaintop, allowing her to watch over the shadow ponies and maintain order through her rule. Right now though;

“Ah, I needed this,” a large, dark mare said, reclining into her bath.

The mare in question was immense, standing over eight feet tall with grey fur and a black mane and tail, her red, curved horn poking through her mane from her forehead. As she laid back, she spread her voluptuous thighs and caressed the soapy water over her large, HH cup breasts, lathering them thoroughly.

“I hate having to deal with those damned creatures,” she said, “always mouthing off about how they need gems and slaves. As if some mangy mutts can stand against me? How dare they.”

She carried on, grabbing a brush to scrub her thighs. Raising a leg out of the water, she spread soap over herself and started scrubbing.

“Hmm, that summit’s also coming up soon. Much as I despise that upstart little Luna, thinking she owns my shadows just because she’s the ‘Princess of Night’,” she mocked with a high pitch voice, “I should still attend. It’d do no good if I keep Shaded Hallows from the world at large. Besides… it means I get to spend some time with Princess Celestia,” she added with a fanged smile. “I can’t wait to-”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“My Queen, a messenger has arrived with news from the Eastern Vanguard,” one of her guards said.

Her leg crashed to the water with a splash, groaning as she got up from the tub. Her hooves clanked against the marble tiles as she approached the door, opening it to glare at the guard and the messenger.

“What?” she growled. “I do not enjoy having my private time interrupted, so make it quick.”

“M-m-m-m-m-my Queen,” the messenger stuttered, “Madam Umbra, oh great-”

“If you wish your eyes to remain in your head you will keep them pointed at mine.”

“Yes! Yes, a million, trillion apologies! The Eastern Vanguard reports they’ve found an ancient temple buried dozens of kilometers beneath the surface!”

“I see,” she said, crossing her arms under her chest, as if daring the messenger to look. “And what about this find is important enough to barge in on my bath?”

“Th-they’ve found symbols that identify it… i-it’s from the last Age of Strife, the Tomb of the Shadow King.”

Umbra’s eyes went wide, before narrowing and grabbing the messenger by the neck, throwing him into the bathtub. When he panicked and gasped for air, she grabbed him by the back of the head and forced him back down into the water, holding him there for a few seconds before pulling him back up.

“Look at me!” she screamed, turning him about.

She peered into his soul, her eyes wafting with purple smoke as he shivered in pure terror. Umbra checked every corner of his mind, her gaze softening as she set him down.

“I see. You’re not lying nor are you caught under Their influence,” she said, levitating a towel and wrapping him up in it. “I apologize, but one can never be too careful of the influence of the Dark Gods.”

“I-I unders-stand my Queen,” he said. “They w-warned me of this, but I-I had to deliver the message. You have to know.”

“So, you were willing to let me kill you for delivering this news?”

“Y-yes, my Queen. My life for the Kingdom.”

“Hmm. Very well, I will allow you to gaze upon me as I ready myself.”

The messenger shook his head as his eyes nearly bugged out of his head, finally gathering the courage to look below her neck. He stared upon his Queen, drinking in her beauty as she walked out of the room. As she walked out, her horn glowed red as she encased her entire body in magic, drying herself off before she left the bathroom. He got up and followed, watching as she entered her personal armory. She pulled on a pair of black panties, followed by a belt that held a pair of armor plates that covered her red-crystal cutie mark on each hip. She strapped on some black stockings and armored them up with silver plates, followed by elbow-length gloves that were strapped with silver plates. Finally, she took out a wrap for her breasts and slowly stuffed them into the wrap before clamping down a silver armored chestpiece, followed by a neck brace and her crown.

“I’ll be on my way then,” she said, nodding to her guards. “Messenger, you are to be examined by the royal doctors and after that, you may go on your way.”

Without any hesitation, she dispersed her body into a cloud of black smoke, followed by the four Guards with her, and surged upwards, through the roof, carrying them to the Eastern border of Shaded Hollows.

\\\//////

When Queen Umbra and the Shadow Guards arrived at the dig site, she was pleased to see the camp taking proper precautions to the find. Walls were erected around the camp, signs of purity and nullification wards on each barrier. The guards that were assigned to the site had everypony lined up and were routinely checking each and every worker with a thorough examination.

“Report,” Umbra demanded, her arms crossed under her bosom.

A shadow coalesced before her, a Shadow Guard kneeling before her.

“Ma’am, one of the excavation teams unearthed an ancient tunnel that had collapsed some time ago, and when they did, we found traces of Their taint upon them,” he said. “It was as it was told, they started speaking of the Gods and stripped not only themselves, but others as well.”

“I see. Were they dealt with accordingly?”

“No, my Queen. They were holed up in the main chamber. With the King’s Sarcophagus.”

“That… is troublesome, but then they’re all gathered in one place, so it makes it easier to clean up. We’ll be taking it upon ourselves to clean this problem up. Are there any maps you can spare?”

“They’ve not finished a map yet, and the cartographer was one of the ones who were caught by the magic traps. However, the Tomb’s fairly straightforward, the Sarcophagus is a straight walk in from the entrance.”

“I see. Very well, return to your post.”

The Shadow Guard nodded and turned to smoke before flying back to the camp.

She knew better than to disrupt the process by showing herself to the workers in the camp, her appearance could distract the workers and let some corrupted individual sneak out.

“It’d be best if we went straight for the temple,” Umbra said to her Guards. “Let’s move.”

The five Shadow Ponies turned to smoke once more and flew over the camp to the dig site, a massive indent at the base of a mountain that dug nearly a full kilometer into the ground, with the Tomb of the Shadow King at the center of the site. The entire thing was immaculate, as if time itself didn’t dare touch the red crystal pyramid, nor the pillars that led to its entrance. At the base, they returned to their physical forms and walked into the tomb on hoof.

They walked in, and as they did, Umbra shuddered as the ancient magic of the tomb crushed her senses, dulling her abilities and making the Guards tremble.

“This power… there’s no time to waste, hurry!” Umbra said, ushering them in.

They ran inside, fast enough that by the time the temple’s entrance slowly shut, they were too deep in to notice or stop it.

\\\//////

For days, Umbra and her Guards were lost in the labyrinthian structure of the Tomb. Despite what the Guard from the camp had told her, she couldn’t find the Sarcophagus ahead of the entrance. It was only a dead end, and when they tried to retrace their steps, they ended up finding a split in the path that should have been where the exit was.

“I curse the Cartographer,” Umbra said, her fingers digging a symbol into the crystalline wall, “and this temple. What should have been a simple hour’s walk in and out has lead us to Sol knows where in here. Of course the Tomb of the Shadow King would be cursed with moving halls and rooms, he created it!” she screamed, punching the wall.

It was enough to shatter straight through to the other side, a tactic that Umbra had taken quite fondly to so she could exercise her frustration with their predicament.

This time, however, she had found their goal.

“By Faust’s grace, we’ve found it!”

Inside, there was a massive sarcophagus, a pure white marble coffin easily sixteen feet long and twelve wide. It was adorned with dozens, if not hundreds of gems of all kinds, and atop it rested a necklace. Despite being thousands of years old, the grave was spotless, with no signs of aging or dust on the surface or the amulet.

In the back of the room, however, were several naked ponies in a bath, waterfalls running down their bodies while they engaged in an orgy.

“My Queen?” a Guard said, brandishing his blade.

“Hold, I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet,” she said, holding a hand out to stop them.

Truth be told, she wanted to put an end to their fucking and drag them out of here, but something compelled her to watch. Several mares were engaged tongue wrestling with one another, groping each other and grinding up together while they bathed. A lone stallion stood amongst them, his dark fur drenched as he hammered into the mare who was bent over before him. She moaned and screamed as she was being plowed, Umbra fixated on the sight of such a massive cock spreading her, glazed with the mare’s juices and being shoved back in without mercy. The mare looked up and locked eyes with Umbra, and the Queen gasped as she realized she was gazing upon herself.

“My Queen!” a Guard shouted.

Umbra shook her head and looked again, only now the room had no bath or orgy. Just the Sarcophagus. Her body was intensely heated, her breasts were sweaty and her pussy ached, crying out to be touched. As she became aware of herself, she noticed her hands were stuffed under her clothes and quickly pulled them out, her right hand slick with her own cum. She turned to her guards and saw that they were blushing like mad from seeing their queen doing that in front of them.

“You didn’t see a thing, understand?” Umbra said through anger and her blushing face. She then turns back to the tomb and is confused by what she did earlier and why she did that and thought the tomb had something to do with it.

Umbra looked at the strange amulet resting atop the grave and stepped forward to pick it up. The moment her finger made contact with it, Dark Magic flooded the room, knocking her back. As the magic washed over her, the Guards were slammed into the walls.

The amulet let out a deep, rumbling sound as it floated into the air, glowing with ancient arcane might. Tendrils of dark seeped from the piece of jewelry, green shadowy eyes appeared out of it and glared at the intruders.

“So you disturb me from my slumber and think it’s a good idea to rob from me, is that right?”

“What are you?” She yelled as she stood up and tried to cover herself after her armor was stripped away.

“I am the Shadow King, and you all seem to be intruding upon my land,” he said in a chilling yet soft tone. “But I see you brought a few servants, as well as a new playmate for me.”

“Playmate?” Umbra growled in anger, embarrassment, and frustration. “You’ll pay for your insolence!” She then charged her magic and aimed at the shadow figure. Firing a beam of energy she hit her target, only for him to absorb it into his body.

“You’re just making this too easy…” He said with a chuckle as he absorbed the blast. Umbra was getting worried now, her Guards blasting the shadow being with their own magic. The shadow absorbed the beams, a surge of red tracking the beams to the Guards and encasing them. The traps forced them to keep their attacks going as their casings were flooded with red power.

“No! Let them go, you fiend!” Umbra said, summoning a cursed blade to her hand.

She charged him and tried to swing for the center, but a furless hand reached out, palm facing towards her, and blasted her back with a wall of magic. Umbra was thrown onto the floor once more and she gasped as she felt her body heat up again, as though she were a filly in her first ripe season. She cursed the magic for making her feel like this, grit her teeth and faced the creature.

The shadowy King’s form was concentrating into a physical body now, and as Umbra watched, she felt fear grip her heart. His robes cascaded and concealed his entire thin body, trailing just over the floor where he hovered. He was easily twelve feet tall, not counting for the foot he had over Umbra while hovering. The strange part of the King was its face, it was a flat thing with no fur on it, only pale white skin with grey eyebrows and a goatee, a few wrinkles etched into his skin as though they were chiseled there.

“What… what are you?”

“I am King Leonardo Danse, the Shadow King… and newly revived emissary to Eris and Cosmos,” he said, his robes opening.

From the red curtains that surrounded King Danse, purple mist rolled out across the floor. Umbra backed away to try and retreat from it, but parts of the mist whipped out at her, slashing at the bonds of her armor and pulling away, stripping her bare. A cool sensation rolled over her as the mist washed through her fur, an intoxicating aroma flooding her senses.

The sound of armor falling apart around her drew Umbra’s attention to her Shadow Guards, who were all stripped of their armor and proudly waving their erections at her. Their horsecocks pulsated violently with a red tint, magic wafting off of them.

“Due to my current limitations, these fine young lads will be my proxy for what comes next,” the King said.

“W-what, what do you- Ahh~!” Umbra moaned, the musk of the room overwhelming her as she got to her knees.

“What comes next? Well, you, of course,” he chuckled.

As Umbra knelt there, the Shadow Guards approached her, and already she could tell exactly what would happen, the thought alone already edging her closer to climax.

King Danse watched as his thralls began doing their part, smiling as the voices of the Goddesses laughed in his mind.

Author's Note

I figured a prologue would be setup to begin the story. I hope this project would begin with a special setting and how my love for sexy adventurers would take off with a bang. Credit goes to Phoenixcolt45, Yoshikage Kira, and wolfman93

We don't have any art for this yet, but we will accept any fanart if this gets enough popularity.