In Canterlot Celestia is pacing back and forth wondering why she has yet to hear back from Twilight. She writes another letter that read, "Princess Twilight, I sent you a letter before but maybe you did not get it. Applejack is here with news that the Crystal Empire has fallen. I need you to gather the rest of your friends and get here immediately. Sincerely, Princess Celestia."
Celestia sends the letter. Spike is over visiting Fluttershy telling her about Twilight's odd behavior when suddenly "Belch", a letter arrives from the princess. Spike and Fluttershy read it and Fluttershy says, "Oh no! What are we going to do? Don't we have to have Twilight with us when we go up there?"
Spike replied, "Fluttershy, we don't have time to wait for her. She will get her flank there when she gets there. We need to notify the rest of our friends and get up there, with or without Twilight."
Fluttershy and Spike go and let the rest of their friends know and they all head to the train station and catch the next train to Canterlot. Once they arrived they headed towards Canterlot Castle. The royal guards see Spike and his friends and one of the guardsponies says, "Hi Spike! I am guessing you need to see the princess? Go on in, you know the way to the throne room."
"Thanks guys! You have a great day." replied Spike as they ran into the castle.
They rushed into the throne room and Celestia said to Spike, "Where is Princess Twilight Sparkle? Does she not know how important this is?"
Spike replied, "I don't know where she is. She woke up early this morning and wasn't quite herself. She said she had business here in Canterlot but took off and sped towards the south."
Celestia was shocked that Twilight would head south for any reason, as there isn't much of anything in the southern region of Equestria. Luna had an odd look on her face and said, "You don't think she went to try to defeat Chrysalis do you?"
Celestia was not even aware that Chrysalis lived in that realm. Celestia said, "Wait, you mean to tell me that Chrysalis is still in Equestria?"
Luna replied, "Big Sister, I have tried to tell you this on many occasions but you always just brush me off. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one of us that actually pays attention to what is going on."
"Ok Luna. I get it. You are the one who pays attention and I sit here in my own little world. There is no reason to rub it in my face." said an irritated Celestia
Applejack said, "No disrespect your Majesties, but shouldn't we be focusing on what brought Accurate Aim here in the first place, the fall of the Crystal Empire?"
Luna replied, "Yes dear Applejack, we need to address this."
Celestia continued, "Well given that Cadence and Shining Armor have been taken captive, they are probably in green ooze cocoons and separated. Since the crystal heart has been eaten, I am not sure what can be done for the Crystal Empire. We will be lucky if we can rescue the crystal ponies and just let Sombra have the empire."
"What about Cadence's magic? If she is freed she could use her magic to protect the empire for a while." said Rarity
Accurate Aim then entered the conversation and said, "I don't know if that would help, Sombra put some sort of spell on her that made her magic unusable. He covered her horn with black crystals."
"Oh horseshoes." said Luna, "Now her magic will never work given the conditions that exist. No crystal heart exists anymore to cleanse those off of her and Shining Armor's horns. Celestia is probably right. We just need to get the crystal ponies out of there and cut our losses."
Accurate Aim said, "Sombra has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 dark unicorns in his service. They are fierce guards who won't let anypony get into the empire without being punished. I am sure Sombra has given them orders to guard the crystal ponies at all costs."
Pinkie added, "Even worse, Twilight has the sixth element in her crown so we can't use the elements on them. The other five won't work without it."
Rainbow Dash looked stunned as she was thinking to herself that was the smartest, most well thought out thing that Pinkie has ever said in her whole life. She then stated, "Pinkie is right. I don't know what options we have now."
Celestia replied, "I am at a loss of words still. I don't know where Twilight is, for all we know she could have defected and joined the side of Chrysalis and Sombra. I doubt it, she is very loyal to Equestria and maybe thought she could take down Chrysalis on her own, but she has to be here if we are to have any chance of repelling threats from the Crystal Empire."
Luna said, "Celestia is right. We need to do what we can right now and I think that we should sit down and eat. Perhaps it will calm our nerves."
In the far north of Equestria, Twilight and her army approach the Crystal Empire. She orders her army to stop and gather together. She points her horn at them and recites, "The unseen shall now be seen, with their friends being present, hiding only shows resent, those who have disappeared, shall now appear." Her army of changelings are now visible. Twilight says to her general, "General Green Haze, we are heading in."
Green Haze replied, "Don't worry my queen, I know Sombra and he will be happy to see us."
Twilight and her army flew through the protective bubble and left the arctic cold and entered a realm with brown skies and black crystals. They headed towards Sombra's black tower.
Sombra was standing on his balcony and saw the massive army approaching. He saw Twilight and he first said, "General Dark Night, we are under attack! Stop them, kill them!"
Twilight landed on his balcony and said, "King Sombra, we are not here to attack you. I have just met with Chrysalis and she said that I need to come meet with you so that everypony in our alliance is on the same page."
King Sombra said, "Wait a minute, you are part of our alliance now? I have another question, are those your changelings?"
Twilight looked a bit irritated but said, "Yes, I am part of the dark alliance now and yes these are my changelings. This is my highest military officer, General Green Haze."
The general landed next to Twilight and said to Sombra, "Yep, we are loyal to Twilight and the rest of the alliance now."
Sombra smiled and said, "So you got a promotion, eh Green Haze? It is about time! It seemed like you shouldered most of the burden for Chrysalis."
Twilight then suggested that they need to go and have a meeting on what their next plan of action is since the first phase of the take over plan has succeeded.
Twilight asked Sombra, "I know I am new to all of this, but I need to get a tower built in Ponyville but we don't have sufficient labor and I don't want my changelings to have to shoulder all the burden of that, they deserve better."
Sombra sat there and thought for a minute, and then replied, well Princess...."
Twilight interrupted, "I am Queen Twilight now. The title princess makes me sound weak."
Sombra replied, Ok Queen Twilight. As I was trying to say, you have a large number of changelings and I think there is a city that you can raid and take plenty of ponies from to be your slaves. I would suggest you launch a raid on Fillydelphia as it is not that far away from Ponyville."
The new queen told Sombra that is a splendid idea. She also told him that she will need to double the size of her army to do this.
Sombra replied, "And how do you plan on doing this? I don't know how many of my unicorns I can spare."
Twilight replied, "Don't worry about it. I know a duplication spell that I could double or even triple the size of my military."
Sombra looked shocked, he very soon realized that he needed to not even think of stabbing the new queen in the back, as she has the power to create an army so powerful that she could crush any enemy that got in her path.
"Wow, that is amazing your Majesty. I am wondering if I needed it, if you could do that with my army as well?"
"Just call me Twily, as I consider us friends and strong allies. I can't stand the overly formal situation. It is something that Celestia has always had in place, all the way back to when I was a filly and long before then I am sure."
"Aright, just call me Sombra like you have been. I think this would be a great point to launch your attack on Fillydelphia to round up the slaves you need to get that tower built."
Twilight proceeded to ask Sombra, "I do have another question. Could you help me get a new crown and some true body armor? The crown I have now is too girly and I need actual body armor, not just a simple chest plate. I want to have armor like you have."
Sombra replied, "Oh we can do that. We can make you look like me, look powerful, strong, fearless and have that fight to the death look. What specifically do you have in mind?"
Twilight went on to tell Sombra how she would like a crown made of black iron that would make her element stand out more and that she wanted stainless steel body armor. She also asked Sombra if there was anyway to get a robe like his but in dark purple as that fitted her personality better.
"Sombra replied, you bet we can get that done. You want perfection and that we can easily get done."
Later that day Sombra came to Twilight with some armor and a black iron crown. "Is this what you were looking for?"
"This is perfect." said Twilight. Twilight put the body armor on, the crown on and the dark purple robe. "How does this look on me?" asked Twilight
"Well take a look in the mirror. I think you look like a true leader, but it is up to you."
Twilight got this evil grin on her face and said, "This is beyond perfect. This is what the ponies of Fillydelphia will see as they are taken off to their new home and build my tower!"
"What about the books in the library Twilight, what do you plan on doing with them? asked Sombra
Twilight replied, "I am moving them into the tower with me. I can not have anypony having any access to knowledge whatsoever. Allowing them access to such knowledge is not in the best interests of our alliance. Their ignorance shall be our bliss."
Sombra looked at Twilight with an odd look on his face and said, "I like your way of thinking. No wonder you are an Alicorn and I'm not!"
Twilight looked off towards the southeast and realized that she will need to head to Fillydelphia tomorrow to round up her new slaves.
It was getting late in the day so Twilight and Sombra headed to the dining hall and ate supper as they discussed how they are going to do this and how Chrysalis will launch her attacks from the south. After that Twilight headed to the VIP sleeping quarters and hit the hay. Sombra stood out on his balcony and thought to himself, "This is turning out even better than I could have ever imagined."