//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: The Princess and the Empire 
// by Princess Starflight 
//------------------------------//

A few months after the events of The Princess and the Unicorn...

Izzy Moonbow admitted her love for Pipp Petals and asked if they could be marefriends. Pipp, who also loved Izzy, agreed. They lived happily for a while until...

One day, Sunny Starscout went on a mission with her four friends and uncovered a kingdom hidden in the snow. It was the Crystal Empire! Sunny remembered it from books she had read with her dad long ago. The Crystal Empire was supposedly protected by something called the Crystal Heart, which was fueled by love and light. But there was none.

After a few days of cleaning up the Crystal Empire, Sunny and her friends got a text (yes, on Pipp's phone) from Queen Haven. The queen said to come immediately. When Pipp texted her back, asking for more information, Haven didn't reply.

So Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp hurried to Zephyr Heights and left Zipp and Hitch in charge of the Crystal Empire. There, they realized the Changeling queen Chrysalis, who was thought to have disappeared from Equestria forever, had impersonated Queen Haven and already took over Zephyr Heights! She was also the one who had texted Pipp.

Apparently, Chrysalis had tried to take over Zephyr Heights (which used to be a unicorn city called "Canterlot") many, many years ago. But she had been defeated twice, and the second time, the her hive had been destroyed. Then, she teamed up with two other villains, a filly and a centaur. But once again the trio was defeated by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and they were turned to stone. How Chrysalis broke out of her prison, she did not say.

Chrysalis demanded to know where the others were. But neither Sunny, Izzy, or Pipp gave her the information she seeked. So Chrysalis threatened to kidnap Pipp and bring her to her hive.

But it was just at that moment that Zipp and Hitch did something, in the Crystal Empire. Nopony knows what they did to this day. Neither the pegasus nor the earth pony said a thing. Legend says they met a crystal pony who re-activated something. This has not been proven yet.

Anyway, the thing that Zipp and Hitch did connected to something inside of Pipp. The pegasus had a brilliant transformation which included a lot of bright lights surrounding her, and lifting her up into the air...and then something emerged out of her forehead. When it was over, Pipp had a horn. Her white, fluffy wings were now faintly streaked with light shades of pink, blue, and purple. She, Sunny, and Izzy teleported together out of Zephyr Heights and back to the Crystal Empire to make a plan...