A few weeks have passed since the Royal Wedding. In that time, the Crystal Empire had return along with its inhabitants. Through the efforts of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and their friends, the evil unicorn, King Sombra, had been slain and the power of unity was able to be reflected across Equestria. Not only were the Crytsal Ponies safe, but harmony was able to return to the troubled citizens of Equestria. The ponies saw how determined the Regal Alicorns Sisters were to save the Crystal Empire, and they saw how quickly they reacted to the situation. Also, the Sisters had increased security throughout the kingdom to help prevent another invasion from the changelings. This renewed the faith of the citizens in their leaders.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends were doing better, too. Their nightmares had ceased, and Spike had seemed to overcome his feelings of uselessness. Being declared a hero can do wonders for one’s self esteem. He has even stopped scratching his back. However, his itch has developed into a throbbing pain on his back that comes at sporadic intervals, and his appetite has increased. Twilight wanted to take him to see a doctor, but she doubted that they could help due to the incident during Spike’s birthday. Despite this, everything else seemed to be returning to normal and everypony was happy.
Well… almost everpony.
A gray, spectacled unicorn was pacing back and forth in a highly decorated lounge in a Canterlot mansion. His wife, a pale olive unicorn, was reclining on a sofa trying reading a newspaper. However, her husband’s nonstop pacing was getting on her nerves.
“Jet Set! Would you please sit down!? You’re making me dizzy,” she complained to her anxious husband. Jet Set didn’t seem to notice Upper Crust’s complaint and only seemed to pace faster. Another unicorn was standing out on a balcony observing the night sky, seemingly not to be paying attention to the social climbing couple.
“What are we going to do now!?” Jet Set growled. “A few weeks ago, everypony was calling out for Celestia’s removal, and now, their worshipping her again! Our plan is ruined!”
“Calm yourself, Jet Set,” called the unicorn that was standing on the balcony. “Our plan isn’t ruined, it’s just… altered.”
“But, everypony loves Celestia again! This whole Crystal Empire business seems to have covered up the Changeling Invasion. Did everypony just forget about that!?”
“Ponies are simple minded foals. They are quick to worship their heroes during the good times, and quick to abandon them at the first sign of fault.”
“But what are we going to do now?” asked Upper Crust, looking up from the newspaper. “I mean, we can’t use our connections with the press now. If we say anything against her now, we will lose any support that we have left.”
“Just you wait, just you wait,” reassured the unicorn the balcony. “True, their victory in the Crystal Empire has changed things, but our plan isn’t ruined. They have just have been altered a bit. In fact, we are almost ready to take the step.” Almost on cue, the door opened and an earth pony butler with a balding mane and a moustache walked in. The unicorn on the balcony turned to see the new arrival and smiled as soon as it noticed that the butler was carrying a package. “Ah, right on time.”
“This just arrived for you from your agents in the north,” the butler announced as he placed the package on the coffee table in front of Upper Crust. The wealthy mare looked at the delivery with curiosity and set her paper down to take a closer look.
“Thank you, Manesworth. That will be all,” dismissed the unicorn as it walked in from the balcony.
“Very well,” said the butler as he bowed and then exited the lounge. Jet Set had ceased his pacing and joined his wife on the sofa. Their host now stood by the table and grinned with triumph over the package. The package glowed with a magical aura as it was lifted from the table and the wrapping was removed.
“What is that?” Jet Set asked as he saw the box open, revealing its contents.
“This, my friends, is the key to Celestia’s downfall,” gloated the host.
“Yes, but what is that thing?” asked Upper Crust, looking quite disturbed. “I-It looks like a…”
“A horn,” finished the host as it levitated the object in the air, admiring it. The horn had once belonged to a unicorn, and it disturbed Upper Crust to see somepony’s severed horn floating in front of her. Also, this horn was unlike any other she had seen. It was red and it was curved.
“This is the horn of the late King Sombra of the Crystal Empire,” explained the unicorn levitating the horn. “Ever since I learned about the Crystal Empire, I researched as much as I could.”
“But who was this King Sombra?” inquired Jet Set. The host just rolled its eyes.
“Honestly, doesn’t anypony study history anymore?” the host huffed. “Over a thousand years ago, King Sombra used his dark power to enslave the crystal ponies and their empire in the north. He was overthrown by Celestia and Luna, but not before he made the empire vanish. As you know, the empire returned, and so did King Sombra. But, Cadance was able to use the Crystal Heart to channel the love and unity of the crystal ponies and destroy him.” The couple listened with amazement at the story, but they had questions.
“Wait, how does this King Sombra’s served horn help us?” questioned Jet Set.
“Ah, I was getting there,” continued the host. “I was told that King Sombra was shattered into oblivion when struck by the power of the Crystal Heart. Funny, this is the first time that I can think of when somepony who was threatening Equestria was killed. Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon and then stripped of her dark powers when she returned. Discord was imprisoned in stone both times he plagued Equestria. The changelings were simply expelled from the kingdom.” The unicorn took a moment to ponder this, but soon brushed it off. “Anyway, I also learned that a piece of King Sombra’s horn had begun to overcome the Crystal Empire, even though it was separated from the rest of him. When I learned that he was shattered across the Artic North, I sent my agents to cover what they could find.
“What they had found at first wasn’t useful at all. They were only finding shards of his dark crystal magic, which was quickly evaporating into nothing. Any pieces of King Sombra himself also were fading away. But, I knew that if even a piece of him could survive, it would be his horn. A few days ago, they informed me that they had found it, but it was embedded in dark crystals that had formed around it and that it would take some time to free it. But now, it’s finally mine. Those foals. By destroying him, they practically delivered the instrument of their downfall to me.” The rich couple looked to each other, unsure about the other unicorn’s intentions.
“So what do you plan on doing with it?” doubtfully asked Jet Set. “Do you plan on using its dark magic to take on the princesses? You just said that King Sombra was originally overthrown by them. So how are the remnants of his power going to overthrow them when the whole of him couldn’t?”
“As mighty as he was, he was also foolish,” explained the unicorn. “His power is over misery, hate, and fear. Yet, he only used it to drain the will from the crystal ponies. He was so focused of dominating that he neglected to gather supporters and relied only on his own power. Because of this, he was alone when was challenged by the princesses. However, we will use its power to once again sow discontentment amongst the populace.”
With this revelation, Upper Crust and Jet Set were immediately excited. They looked at each other with devious grins of renewed hope in their scheme. Their host carefully inspected the horn.
“So, how do we use…” Before the mare could ask her question, the host had stabbed the curved horn into its own heart. Jet Set gasped in shock, and Upper Crust shrieked in terror, but, to their surprise, the unicorn didn’t show any signs of pain. No blood fell from the wound. In fact, the unicorn didn’t appear to be injured at all. The horn seemed to be melting into the body of the unicorn. The unicorn was using its magic to merge the horn into itself. After the horn had been completely enveloped into the unicorn, the unicorn staggered a bit. Its face with contorted with discomfort. After a moment, the grimace of discomfort changed into a grin of sinister delight. Black energy crackled around the horn of the unicorn, and it opened its eyes to reveal that they were glowing green with red irises.
“I think it is about time for us to hold another charity ball,” the unicorn menacingly chuckled.