~Crystal Empire: Months after Sombra's Banishment~
It was months after the defeat of the tyrannical king, King Sombra, did they first hear of it.
Rumors of the past, when the crystal ponies were under his slavery and iron hoof. At first it didn't seem so threatening and just rumors but, there was one rumor that caught their ears. One that does not seem to be a rumor at all after finding the right evidence.
The Crystalline Caverns
While there were caverns underneath the kingdom, it was what the rumors entailed that caught the attention of the Princesses and Prince.
"King Sombra kept going down to the caverns for whatever reasons, I hear that he hid a special secret weapon down there"
"I heard it was a monster of crystals and blood!"
"No, it was a demon of magic and rock!"
"It's a book of forbidden magic! One that even King Sombra hesitates to use!"
"A creature of power and destruction!"
....
There were many versions of that one rumor but it always involved King Sombra going deep within the Crystal Caverns and a weapon of sorts.
And that alone brought wary, suspicion and more to the Princesses and Prince.
The rumors entailed on how Sombra would go within the caverns alone, always alone and not even his closest guards were allowed so deep within the cavern, and spend from hours to days to weeks in the cavern before coming back out with rarely any change of face. But there were times where he came back frustrated, scaring the ponies as he would always lash out to them because of it, or he came back satisfied, sometimes they rejoiced when he did as he was less harsh on them because of it.
And so, Princes Celestia enlisted the help of the Mane 6 to find out what Sombra had been doing within the deep caverns. Though she did not send them out with no protection, no she sent Prince Shining Armor and a squad of highly specialized guardsmares and stallions with them.
Thus bringing us to the current moment.
"Twilight! I think we found something!"
Said purple unicorn turned to the sound of her dear friend, Rainbow Dash, who flew towards them with a few pegasi guards behind her.
"What did you find Rainbow?"
Rainbow urged them on "Come on! It's right over here!" she said as she flew back towards the direction she flew from, the others following her quickly. They followed her as she zigged and zagged through the maze that was the cavern and they came upon a huge crystal double door that had black, jagged crystal chains and locks covering it.
"Now 'f that's not screamin' evil and suspicious Ah don't know what is" Applejack deadpanned as they examined the double doors.
Shining Armor stepped up, horn ablazed with magic as he looked at the doors with narrowed eyes "Stay back, this thing should be rigged for any trespassers. Whatever we're looking for is clearly behind these doors" they stepped back but Twilight went to stand beside him, the former Captain sent her a frown but Twilight silenced him with a look.
Both siblings seemed to sigh before focusing on the door, horns glowing with magic as streams and tendrils left the unicorns and poked at the door.
"Woah, this things got a lot of spells on... *grunt* it..." Twilight panted as she and her brother worked side by side to take down the spells that enchanted the door. It was very hard to do so though, the magic was very dark in nature and was very old but luckily the magic worn down from the fact the kingdom was away for more than a thousand years and because Sombra wasn't there to reinforce the spells once more.
Many minutes later the chains shook and broke apart as two fatigued unicorns stopped their spells, reassuring the others that they were okay and were just tired from using magic to unlock old and powerful spells, even if the spells were worn down from their original glory.
"Careful everypony, whatever lies beyond those doors is something that Sombra wanted to keep under very very heavy protection... Anything could be in there" Twilight warned after resting for a bit "Those spells were meant to keep everything out here out and whatever's in there in" Shining continued as the pegasi and earth ponies had their hooves on the door and their weapons.
The Mane 6 were in defense and were ready, except for Fluttershy who whimpered and hid behind a guardstallion and her mane but Rainbow sent her a comforting glance slightly helping her, to attack if need be.
The guardsponies grunted and pushed the huge crystal double door, the door groaning and creaking as torches within lit automatically and hooves were heard entering and echoing around the room.
The ponies faltered however at the sight of the room and it's contents.
The giant room itself was a soothing dark violet with torches lighting up the place, pillars of clear crystal reached the high ceiling as a giant diamond chandelier hung from the slanted roof. There were bookcases on one side of the room with a comfortable sofa and pretty crystal table with it but not any of these caught their attention nor were they the cause of their falter.
They stared at the sight of a crystalline statue that stood at the very center of the room, wrapped in black chains that were connected to a row of black crystals that were embedded into the floor. The chains roused many things within the ponies minds but it was the statue itself that occupied their minds.
It was a bipedal creature. Dressed in a tailcoat that reached to the back of its knees, its lower half had formal pants and its weird shaping 'hooves' were covered by knee-length boots with intricate designs on the side but what took most of their attention was the 'crown' on it's head which had its 'mane' braided, eight deer-like antlers fanned out with four on each side.
Rarity was the first to break the silence with a small "Oh my..."
Twilight shook her head before determination sparked in her eyes "We need to inform Princess Celestia about this!" she said to them, shaking them from their silence before they went into action.
Meanwhile, back with the statue who was in fact not an actual statue, the figure encased within crystal snored and dreamed in their mind. Not waking at all from the commotion from the outside world and would only wake later on when the ponies set the figure down in the throne room with a thud.