Prologue
On the Friendship Express to the Crystal Empire
Rarity is looking over her designs again and looking with a keen eye, "OK, these three dresses that Sapphire Shores wants, are going to require a lot of gems but I think the pattern I wanted to give them is right", she puts the three papers with the designs on them back in her bag and brings out five different papers, "Now let's see... this suit would look good with some onyx and sapphires," she thinks out loud while editing the design, "hmmm... and this sui-".
"RARITY!" shouts a high-pitched filly's voice.
"AH!" shouts Rarity while accidentally throwing the designs, quill, fabric, and bag she was holding with her magic.
The door to the room opens up and a filly with a mane colored purple and pink with it curling up, and a coat as white as Rarity's own, "Oh! Sorry sis..." says the filly with a pout.
"Oh... its quite alright Sweetie Belle," Rarity says to the filly while picking up the items she threw, "no harm was done to anything at all... Oh! What was it you wanted to tell me, Sweetie?".
"... Oh! Right, the conductor says that we would be arriving at the Crystal Empire in 3 minutes!" Sweetie Belle says excitedly. The only time she has visited the Crystal Empire was when she, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Spike all snuck onto the train that took them to the Crystal Empire, but even then she didn't get to see much... and still hasn't told anypony else, not even Rarity.
"Alrighty then, go get your things Sweetie Belle while I get my things ready OK?"
"OK sis." Sweetie Belle says and runs off to her room in the next train car over to collect her things.
"Well I've got to say... that filly seems simply ecstatic about visiting the Crystal Empire, in which I don't blame her, I was curious when I first went there, then more and more ponies went there and..." Rarity trails off in thought while putting her things in her bags.
At the Train Station in the Crystal Empire
"Eagle-eye, Hawk-eye, come in." a pony wearing a brown colored cloak that covers the body, whispers, with the voice that could possibly match Pinkie Pie's, into a headset.
"Eagle-eye here, Ground Leader." says a female voice on the headset.
"Hawk-eye here, Ground Leader." says another female, yet slightly more stronger sounding, voice says on the headset.
"Good, Air Support, Sky Leader, come in."
"Sky Leader here." says a gruff sounding yet soft tone male voice.
"Air Support here." says very low male voice (sounding like flutterguy.) comes from the headset.
"Good, Look-Out, Bait, come in."
"Look-Out here." says a youngish female voice from the headset.
"Bait here." says a voice that tells you that she, the pony, is from Canterlot comes out of the headset.
"Good, are you all in position?"
"Yes ma'am." all the voices say in unison.
"Good, Look-Out how much time until the target arrives at location code name: Post Office?" asks Ground Leader.
"One minute, ma'am." replies Look-Out.
"Good. Then we get the target when she least expects it then get what we need from her," Ground Leader says as his eyes going from chocolate-brown pony eyes, into near ruby red reptilian-like eyes, then back to normal three seconds later, "then we revive our dead king, for we are 'The Shadow's Children'." he whispers into the headset. All the ponies on the other ends of the head set start stomping as silently as possible but audible enough to be heard on the headset.
On the Friendship Express at the Crystal Empire's Train Station
"So Sweetie Belle, after I pick up my shipment of gems and get us a room at an INN, What would you like to do?" Rarity asks.
"Hmmm... I would like to go to the spa, that you've told me about, that they have here." Sweetie Belle replies.
Rarity looks at Sweetie Belle with mixture of shock and amusement, "Really? You don't want to go explore the Crystal Empire to see what they have here that maybe unusual?".
Sweetie Belle starts rubbing her back with her hoof, "That would usually sound like a fun idea but at the moment, that train ride put quite a bit of stress into my body." she says while wincing as she continues to rub her back.
"Oh! Yes of course! I'll get us there right away!" Rarity exclaims as she uses her magic to teleport her and Sweetie Belle to a fancy looking building made out of crystal. "You're going to love their crystal mud bath, it is so soothing for your body that it feels like your body melts in with it." she says as she opens the door to reveal the insides of the spa and the ponies who are working in it.
"Well hello there Rarity, its been a while, hasn't it?" says a crystal pony with a light purplish-pink coat and a dark purple mane.
"Why hello their Fleurist, how's the spa business been going?" Rarity asks the crystal pony.
Fleurist uses her hoof to gesture to the somewhat empty area, "Today's been a lazy day, not many ponies want to go to the spa today I suppose..." sighs Fleurist.
"Well... me and my little sister here have come to have one of your best quality spa treatments, right Sweetie Belle?"
"Right big sis!" she says excitedly while rubbing her back, "Man, my back is killing me... I hope this spa treatment can help with whatever the train ride did to my back."
"Oh I see you just got off the train, did you? Well I think we can fix that." Fleurist says while leading them to the first part of the spa session.
In the back of the Spa
"Ground Leader, this is Look-Out here." says the green cloaked unicorn into a hoof-held radio.
"Ground Leader here, what is your situation?" whispers Ground Leader's voice through the radio.
"I've got visual on the target ma'am."
"Good, where is your location?"
"I'm at location code name: Comfort."
"Hawk-eye, Eagle-eye, target is at location: Comfort."
"Right, I'll be there momentarily." says Hawk-eye's voice.
"Same here, ma'am." says Eagle-eyes voice.
"Good, Look-Out, until Hawk-eye or Eagle-eye have visual of the target, your to not let her out of sight, got it?" says Ground Leader sternly.
"Yes ma'am." replies Look-Out in a low voice.
"Good, let me know anything else you learn while keeping an eye on the target we're going to need all the info we can get."
"Yes ma'am, I'll give you an update in ten minutes, talk to you soon, Ground Leader."
"Good luck out there." says Ground Leader before cutting off of the radio.
~Five minutes later~
"Wow Rarity! You weren't kidding when you said that the Crystal mud bath would be relaxing!" Sweetie Belle happily. "Oh and don't forget about your shipment of gems Rarity... unless you already forgot, didn't you?" Sweetie says while looking at Rarity.
"My... what? Oh... well... we can pick them up on the way to our room, while you took your spa treatment and when mine finished I took the liberty of renting a room in 'Crystal Palace INN', its quite extravagant when it comes to style, but not at all too expensive for me to afford. And it's also a five star hotel, and it being so cheap, thought I might as well because it is good in every single way!" Rarity says excitedly.
"Yay!," cheers Sweetie Belle, "Now nothing can possibly go wrong!"
"You've got that right Sweetie! Now let's hurry and go get those gems."
~Five minutes later~
Outside the Crystal Palace INN
"Ground Leader, this is Hawk-eye here." a black-cloaked unicorn says into a watch-like radio.
"Ground Leader here, anything to report?" says Ground Leader's voice through the wrist-mounted radio.
"Yes it seems like the target is dressing herself to go out to a fancy restaurant and is leaving the little one to have dinner with somepony else perhaps." reports Hawk-eye.
"Alright, where is she going Hawk-eye?"
"Gather everpony behind location code name: CPINN, and then we follow her to ambush her, alright ma'am?"
"Alright Hawk-eye," responds Ground Leader, "Everypony gather behind location: CPINN and we'll ambush the target when we believe nopony is looking alright?" orders Ground Leader.
"Yes ma'am." the other voices say in unison.
In the Crystal Palace INN's Lobby
Rarity is whistling the 'Winter Wrap-Up' tune while wearing vibrant light-blue dress with sapphires on it, it almost seemed to emit the light-blue color. 'I hope this dress is good enough to be seen with Princess Cadence in.' Rarity thinks to herself while walking to her destination: the Crystal Palace. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a noise like the flapping of wings, so she looks up and finds nothing out and about, 'Either I was just hearing things or maybe that was the pegasus patrol' she shrugged it off and continued walking.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!" shouts a mare's voice.
Rarity stops dead in her tracks and looks around frantically trying to find the source of the shout.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!" she shouts again.
Rarity turns to her right to find the source of the shouting came from an alley way across the street from and she starts galloping into it. 'This may damage the dress, but somepony is in trouble! Ponies are more important than dresses!. After a minute of galloping into the alley way she comes to the dead end and finds somepony on the ground and recognizes the pony as Ms. Harshwhinny and finds her to be unconscious. "Miss Harshwhinny! Wake up! WAKE. UP!"
Ms. Harshwhinny starts to come around, "Ugh... Wha..? Oh, Miss Rarity, what's going on? What are we doing in an alley?" asks Ms. Harshwhinny.
"I was going to ask you the same thing, but I it seems you have a very minor case of amnesia, only enough to forget what happened here it seems which I guess you're lucky enough to forget only that." Rarity guesses.
"Well, I am a little sore on my head and my legs are killing me, which tells me that I might have been running from somepony or something."
"Well, let's get you to a clinic, do you think you can walk?" Rarity asks with some worry.
"I.. I think I'll live." responds Ms. Harshwhinney.
"Good," Rarity turns towards the way out of the alley, away from Ms. Harshwhinney, "just follow me and we ca-" was the last thing Rarity said before everything went dark for her.
In a basement under a crystal pony's house
There is bowl in the middle of the room filled with some broken parts of... something... and sharp and curved horn that is red at the tip and grey at the base. There is a conjuring circle, colored with white chalk, surrounding the bowl and seven ponies surrounding the circle.
"Is our special guest awake?" asks the mare earth pony in a brown cloak.
"Yes ma'am, she has been awake for two minutes." says Ms. Harshwhinney, while wearing a grey cloak.
"Well let's see how she is faring, shall we?" the green cloaked unicorn says while gesturing to door with a lock on it.
Somepony on the other side of the door is banging on it while shouting, "LET ME OUT YOU RUFFIANS!"
"Ruffians? Hardly. We just... need a favor, since you are the element of generosity, Miss Rarity." says the brown cloaked earth pony.
The banging stops, "L-like w-what?" Rarity says nervously.
"Some of your blood is all we need." deadpans a blue cloaked pegasus.
"W-what?! Why do you need my blood?" asks Rarity.
"Well," begins the brown cloaked earth pony, "you could say we are servants to the true king of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra."
"King Sombra?!" exclaims Rarity, "But, he was destroyed by the Crystal Heart! How can you serve somepony who is already dead?"
"It's quite simple, you see," starts a unicorn in a yellow cloak, "if we gather all of him that was lost in his defeat and prepare a spell to bring him back... he will return as if nothing ever happened."
"But if we are to do this," says another unicorn in a black cloak, while opening the door after unlocking it and grabbing Rarity, whom has a anti-magic ring on her horn, "then we must give him immunity to... the Elements of Harmony. But to have the immunity to something is to have the proper DNA... so..."
"And for him gain the immunity at the moment, is to use my blood..." Rarity finishes the sentence.
"Exactly, so you'll not be able to witness his reawakening because you'll be unconscious for the time being... so..." says the green cloaked unicorn as her horn glows a transparent black and the same aura appears on Rarity's head and then she passes out. Then the same unicorn pulls out a dagger and stabs, not deep enough to kill her, but enough to get blood on the dagger, "Alright, we've got what we want, now it's time for our king's resurrection!".
The gather around the bowl and start chanting in Equestrian, all except for the brown cloaked earth pony whom takes the dagger and walks up to the bowl and drops it in.
When it lands in the bowl, the bowl itself starts to move slightly, "Now to add his highness's power..." she says as she gets back into place and starts chanting as well.
When she starts chanting, the three unicorns in the room (excluding Rarity) stop chanting and start using dark magic on the bowl, then continue to chant while using the magic. Then the content of the bowl start to float and come together, the dagger disintegrates while blood remains floating, then starts to circle within the floating pieces, and the pieces slowly start to come together and create a body.
Then crystal pony guards break into the room along with Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, and they both notice Rarity unconscious on the other side of the room, "FREEZE! By the law of the Crystal Empire, you are under arrest!" shouts Shining Armor.
When he says that, the green cloaked unicorn teleports both one of the two pegasi out of the room along with herself, the black cloaked unicorn takes Ms. Harshwhinney, and the yellow cloaked unicorn takes the other pegasus with her.
The guards grab the last remaining pony there, they remove the cloak to find that the pony underneath looks almost like Pinkie Pie, but her mane is yellow, her coat is so light that it looks like its white, but with a hint of yellow in it, and her cutie mark is three balloons that are all colored the same, blue. "What are we going to do with her, sir?" asks the one of the guards.
Shining Armor looks at the pony in question, "Take her to the Crystal Palace's dungeons and keep her there for interrogation... Oh and check her from head-to-hoof for anything she would use to kill herself with. And you two guards," Shining addresses the two crystal guards whom aren't taking the earth pony to the dungeon, "take this citizen," he says while gesturing to Rarity, "to the closest clinic and get her there as soon as possible.". The guards salute and take Rarity on to their backs and start heading out of the building.
"What do you think they were doing down here, Shiny?" asks Princess Cadence.
"I don't know what they were doing down here, Cady... but, it was powerful. I just hope Rarity will know or we can get something from the prisoner." Shining responds.
"OK, I just don't want anything bad to happen to us or the kingdom..." Princess Cadence starts to trail off.
"Neither do I, but right now we have to wait for the answers." Shining assures Cadence
"A-alright, but you do know we have to let Twilight and her friends know, right?"
"Yes, of course, I will have a letter sent off to them as soon as possible."