I run out of my room immediately, and when I get to a balcony I find that the blue shield around the Empire is flashing. I can see those black crystals that he was talking about, and ponies running towards the Crystal Castle for safety. The problem is that somepony has probably worked out by now that nothing will work without the Crystal Heart, and they have probably gone looking for it.

My time is up.

I get to the throne room, and my suspicions are confirmed when I discover that somepony has already worked out how to access the staircase. I fly down, because trotting would take extra time, but I find that the door at the bottom has also been opened, although recently: Sparkle's voice still can be heard, coming from the second staircase. I can't just fly up to the top and take the Crystal Heart, because everypony will see me.

Instead, I follow them up quietly, until Sparkle casts a gravity spell. She goes wheeeee all the way up, and cursing Celestia's name, I cast a gravity myself and slide down - or up, depending on which way you think about it - the underside of the staircase. As I go, I see that the crystals are spreading further, until suddenly, the protection spell fades completely. Sombra's darkness cuts holes in the blue shield, and then I see his cloud apparition float towards the Castle. The crystal ponies start screaming and running towards the Castle too, in the vain hope of finding safety. I have no pity for them. What are they running from?

Just as I reach the top of the tower, Sparkle and the baby dragon take a step too close to the beautiful blue Crystal Heart. Lo and behold, black crystals appear, creating a large cage. Twilight jumps around, trying to get to the Heart but only trapping herself further, and her magic has no effect on the crystals.

"Wait. Is that Moonlight Shade?" she asks. Snap, she's spotted me. "Spike, Moonlight, don't move!" she yells.

I calmly stand still, while Spike tries to balance on one foot. Sparkle says, "Ok, you can move, just not towards me." I take a few steps towards the Heart, but Spike just puts his clawed foot on the floor. Unfortunately, he's still closer to the Heart than me.

"Which one of you is closest to the Heart?" Sparkle asks us.

"I am," Spike realises. Dammit!

"You have to give it to Princess Cadance, Spike."

"What about Princess Celestia's test, Twilight? You'll fail!" So they're being graded for their skills in saving ponies from anypony Celestia doesn't like? She probably wants her dear student to become a princess too at some point. Why am I not surprised?!

"I won't be able to get out of here on time, but you might, Spike. Protecting the Crystal Empire is more important."

He grabs the Crystal Heart. Sombra's black crystals writhe around him, and I have to dodge them in order to get closer to Spike. He is knocked off of the side of the tower, and the Heart goes plummeting with him. I dive after him, shouting, "I'll save you, Spike!"

The cloud of darkness vanishes and King Sombra appears, a huge black crystal lifting him off the ground. I know that he is going to try and grab the Heart, but he might not catch it. I see Princess Cadance, weaker than ever, on a balcony. Shining Armour scooping her up in his forelegs, her spreading her wings. He's planning on throwing her like a javelin so she can catch us. I am freefalling, but I know that everything will fall apart if I don't act now.

I close my wings and dive straight down, past Spike, and grab the Heart with both hooves. I hold Spike in my magic and spread my wings to slow myself down, then hover, halfway between King Sombra and Cadance, who is perched on one of the balconies. It looks like I will save the day when I send Spike over to Cadance and Shining, and everypony is about to cheer. It all depends on me.

How pathetic when I never wanted to save them, and that I have a more important mission: to save Sombra and expose Celestia's lies to the rest of the world. Apologies, Celestia.

I fly towards Sombra, land on the piece of black crystal, and focus all of my hatred of Celestia and desire to rule the Empire with Sombra and longing to see the Crystal Heart destroyed so that Sombra can complete his goals, on it. Black spikes grow out of its side, and the ancient magical artefact shatters. The Crystal Heart is rendered useless... by my own dark magic.

Everypony stares at me, aghast at what I have done. Sombra, though, he looks like a proud parent at a school rewards ceremony or something equally hilarious considering the situation.

"Well, done, Moonlight," he says, and fleetingly kisses me on the cheek. That's just... It feels amazing to have earned his respect. "Now stay out of danger while I scare out the scum from Equestria and make this our Crystal Empire."

"I could never do that, Sombra. I have to fight by your side."

I leave the huge piece of black crystal where I had perched and lunge towards Cadance. Shining Armour throws her out of harm's way so I jump towards him and hold him down. Guards run to his aid but I send a simple blast of dark magic their way. It knocks them unconscious immediately. Somehow, using dark magic is so natural for me, when I have heard that some of the greatest unicorns have had trouble mastering it. Maybe it's because I'm a bat pony.

"Why didn't you listen to me?" I snarl at Shining Armour, who squirms under me.

"You have no idea how much of a monster he is." He tries to lift me off of him.

"You have no idea that Celestia is the real monster. She never gave him a chance, and neither did you. You're her servant, you've been lied to." I pause for a moment. "You could stop being her servant and live under Sombra's rule, and I'd vouch for you. Say the word and I'll tell him to grant you amnesty."

"Never." He and I kerfuffle for a minute, each trying to overpower the other.

I throw him off of me and hit him with a spell. He falls over the railings of the balcony and all the way down to the ground, where his sister Sparkle and the Element Bearers are gathered. I panic for a moment and think oh my goodness what have I done I've just accidentally killed another pony what do I do? Thankfully. he isn't killed, because he gets up, but I can see that at least one of his legs is severely broken. The guards have recovered from the magical blast, but I merely cast them aside with my powers again. I don't even have to use dark magic.

I waltz through the castle, not encountering any guards for they are all busy outside, fighting Sombra in vain. I go down to the place where the Crystal Heart would be if it were powering the Empire's protection spell and start firing dark magic at the very centre of the snowflake design that runs throughout the entire Empire. I don't know why I do this, but it feels good to channel all of my emotions into something.

The dark magic spreads across the snowflake pattern, covering every road through the Empire, corrupting everything in its path. I can't help but laugh a little at the destruction that I have caused, and stand in the very centre of that snowflake, as the Crystal Castle above me turns from ice blue to jet black. I've done it. I've just gone and done it. Everything that Celestia always said about me is right, and I'm happy with that.

I move to one side a little and make room for Sombra to stand next to me when I see him approaching. He does, and whispers, "I think you may have just fulfilled Celestia's definition of evil."

"Probably."

"I hereby declare that you are the Captain of the Crystal Guard, Commander Moonlight Shade."

I gasp, "What? Me? Running the Royal Guard?"

"Relax, fellow warrior." He lifts my chin with his hoof so I look straight into his glowing red eyes. "I will teach you what you need to know. Then we can get this place into shape and teach a few ponies to be nice to us."

"Sounds like a plan, Your Majesty."

Despite what everypony now thinks of me, I am not heartless. Eventually, I get to work, bringing civilians to the safety of the Crystal Castle. I am far less kind to the guards, Shining Armour, Cadance and the Elements of Harmony. I round them up and make sure that they can't escape from the Empire, mainly because I want Celestia to worry about them for a while, even if I do eventually send them home. It will probably be up to Sombra to decide what to do with them.

When I meet up with him later, he is impressed. "I see that you have the crystal ponies all nice and safe. Even if you made the place look a lot more menacing, you seem like you are going to be a good influence on me."

"I want them to see that we have hearts, even if we don't let our soft sides show often."

"Believe me, I will be showing mine a lot less. Only you, the new Captain of the Crystal Guard, will get to know my softer side."

The auburn sky would frighten anypony else to death. For me, it marks a new era in the Crystal Empire, a new life as Sombra's top Royal Guard, and maybe, in the future, something more. First of all, though, Sombra and I have to make our mark on the Crystal Empire, and show the world that we are its leaders.

After the battle, I walk through the streets of my new home. Every Crystal Guard is dressed from head to tail in black armour with spikes along the back and on the shoulders. None of this worries me, save the helmets. They cover each pony's entire head, with a few small holes on the front so they can breathe, and glowing green slits where their eyes are. The mark of dark magic and the mind control spell. It makes me panic, and I make a mental note to speak to Sombra about it before moving on.

Apart from the guards, there are few ponies on the streets, and those who see me cower in the shadows. Fear. One of the strongest emotions. I don't know whether anypony would have had time to alert Celestia and Luna, but if they did then by morning everypony in Equestria will fear me. I don't know how to feel about it. Sombra would want me to be proud, but I don't want to be a fearsome ruler. I just don't want Celestia to say he isn't allowed a second chance.

I pass a few foals playing out on the street. One of them trips over all of a sudden. I hold out a hoof to help her up, but she shies away from me.

"It's ok, no need to be afraid."

"B-b-but you're working for him!" She points at the Crystal Castle.

"I'm sorry, I have to."

The foal jumps onto her feet. One of her friends says, "Did he use that nasty mind control on you too, huh?"

"No."

"Then why'd you have to help him?"

"Because he was nice to me."

"Tell him to be nice to us then," mutters a little colt.

"I will. I already have a few things I'm going to talk to him about."

"Will he listen?"

"I think he will."

"So... why does he listen to you and nopony else?"

"For the same reason I listened to him."

"You were nice to each other?" the first filly says dubiously.

"Yes. As long as you're nice to him, he's nice to you as well, I promise. Even if he isn't nice to all of you at first, I'll make sure he changes."

"With that freaky mind control? Ugh..."

"No, but I'll try everything else."

I leave the foals, and begin to wonder what he did to earn such a reputation. Doubts begin to creep in. Should I have helped him? Is he just using me and planning to discard me like a piece of rubbish now he has what he wants? I shake my head. He won't do that. How do I know? We're nice to each other. We're friends. Maybe I'm stuck with a pair of rose-tinted spectacles, but my instincts tell me that I've made the right choice.

Author's Note

Bonus: A Note About Chapters 1-10

As I write this, it is late March, 2021. It's been a while since I first wrote these chapters, and I've revised them recently, for a couple of reasons. I reread everything I've written, and I realised that this part of the story made little sense, and a few parts of the story later on didn't either, because I hadn't included enough detail in certain areas. So I've amended the mistakes I made, and now it flows a lot better than it did.

There's still a few mysteries. I haven't unveiled my entire plan for the story. But I've made them easier to solve by adding a few extra parts where you get to read about Celestia and Luna's viewpoints. These first ten chapters might not make complete sense, but the idea is that those gaps in your knowledge will be filled later on.

Now, a bit about why I started writing this in the first place. I'll jump back to August 2020. It was the summer holidays, but I was stuck at home due to Covid-19. I'd made my Fimfiction account, published a couple of silly stories, testing my writing skills. Two of those landed on the front page in the Featured box, which made me feel pretty good about myself. So I decided I wanted to write something a little longer.

I had a few ideas in my head. A rewrite of Equestria Girls if the Mane 7 were Sirens. A crossover of some sort with one of my other favourite franchises. A story about Twilight discovering why Luna became Nightmare Moon, in a lot more detail. But I had no motivation to write any of those.

Then, two ideas hit me at once. I thought about writing a story in which King Sombra actually succeeds in taking over the Crystal Empire, and re-watched the Season 3 premiere to find all of the variables that could have led to him winning. At the same time, I was thinking about what FiM would be like if Luna had a foal. These two lines started to merge, and I thought of a mare with an odd name constantly teetering on the edge of being a good pony or a villain, a mare who found herself admiring and helping King Sombra, a mare with close ties to NMM. Little did I know at the time that I was teetering on the edge of making a Mary Sue or a Villain Sue, or that OC x Canon stories are usually of really poor quality and get a lot of downvotes and nasty comments. I was walking into a death trap, and was going to get myself a bad reputation as an author before I'd even started, really. I was blissfully unaware and...

Nothing happened. Everypony seemed to like what I was writing, and it spurred me on, even when I learned what a close shave that was.

My plan was that the story would end after 10 or 12 chapters. But as I was writing the first draft for the chapter you have just read, it hit me that I'd created a whole universe that I could explore. I suddenly realised how much fun I could have. And hoo boy, writing this story has been a lot of fun so far. At the time of writing this message, I still have a long way to go, but I'm enjoying it. I hope you are too!

~ Angel