Prologue
"Secrets can bring either good, or ill. For not everything that is locked is meant to be unlocked.
Trixie let out a yawn as she used her telekinesis to pour herself some strong coffee. Normally she added cream and sugar, but she needed pure black coffee this morning. The discovery of an enormous jade deposit had drawn a large number of ponies to Coltoma from across Equestria. And as a result, the small town was prospering. She had even heard talk of members of the Apple clan looking to start an orchard.
The Apple clan... That made Trixie think of a particular earth pony from Ponyville. She had counted her blessings when she learned exactly who she had bucked with not once, but twice. She counted herself lucky to have not gotten a one-way trip to the moon for messing with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony like she did.
That line of thought in turn led to thoughts of a particular unicorn. Twilight Sparkle. She remembered what a nasty shock she got when she learned that she had made an enemy of the personal student of Princess Celestia. Even though Twilight had forgiven her, she still didn't think she was worthy to be called Twilight's friend. So she started traveling around Equestria to find herself, and now found herself in Coltoma in the wake of the jade discovery. She had volunteered to help mine the jade with her magic. Seeing as the population was mostly earth ponies, they had accepted the help. In the month since then, Trixie had made a number of friends, and had even stopped referring to herself in third person.
She was broken from her thoughts by a knock on her door. Carrying her coffee with her magic, she drank from it as she answered the door. Waiting for her was a light brown earth pony with a shovel for a cutie mark. "Good morning, Digger. What brings you here so early?"
"We found something weird in one of the new shafts. It just screams magic. We need you to take a look at it," Digger said.
"Alright," Trixie said, downing the rest of her coffee and setting the mug aside. "Lead the way."
Trixie looked over the metal plaque in the floor of the shaft. A perfect circle with what looked like a strange creature's face emblazoned on it. "I've never seen anything like this before," she finally said. "It seems to be a cover for something." Her horn lit up as she tapped her magic. "Let's find out what," she said as she lifted the lid, a great deal of black smoke escaping and floating upward seeking to escape. After setting the lid aside and using a spell to disperse the smoke, Trixie, along with everypony else, noticed something rising from the hole. Everypony was silent as the object revealed itself to be a black orb a bit larger than a full grown pony, and it was held in a metal dragon claw.
"What in Equestria is it?" Digger asked as he slowly approached the orb and reached out to lay his hoof on it. Once said appendage came within a few inches of the orb, an electrical discharge jumped from it to his hoof and ran through him for a moment before throwing him back onto the floor of the tunnel.
Trixie was by his side immediately. "Digger! Are you alright?!"
Twilight's day had been going great. She was currently enjoying a picnic with her best friends and Spike, who she had come to think of as something of a son. They were all laughing at Pinkie Pie's antics while enjoying some of her cupcakes at the moment, feeling as though nothing could go wrong. Boy was she wrong.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" a familiar voice called as its owner landed a few steps from them.
"Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked, noticing that her teacher seemed worried. "Is something wrong?"
"You must act quickly. Equestria is in grave danger," Celestia said.
"Danger from what?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"10,000 years ago, an oni, a powerful demonic sorceress at that, tried to shroud the world in darkness," Celestia said. "And she very nearly succeeded."
"What became of her?" Rarity asked as they all stepped closer to their princess.
"Mine and Luna's parents, aided by a group of human warriors, imprisoned her and buried her deep underground," Celestia said.
"Humans?" Applejack asked. "Ah thought they were an old pony's tale."
"Humans did in fact exist," Celestia said. "But now the prison has been accidentally uncovered. It must be returned to the depths. Before it is opened, and the Queen of Darkness is released."
"Oh my..." Fluttershy muttered, hiding behind her mane a bit.
"Is she anything like Nightmare Moon?" Pinkie asked. "You know, since they both tried to bring eternal night?"
"No. The Queen is much, much worse than Nightmare Moon," Celestia said.
"You can count on us, Princess," Twilight said.
"Use extreme caution, my little ponies," Celestia said. "You are dealing with an evil greater than any you have ever faced before."
Trixie looked over the orb while keeping a safe distance. Digger had been injured by the electricity, but he would be okay. It had been about three days since the orb was uncovered, and she had figured out that it was hollow. And that there was something in it. "Question is: What?"
"Perhaps I can answer that question," a chilling voice said.
Before she could react, Trixie was lifted in a powerful magic field. "What? Who's there?!" To her horror, the one that stepped out of the shadows was a black creature built like an alicorn, but with a strangely shaped horn, insect wings, and holes near the bottoms of its hooves. "A changeling!"
"Not just any changeling. The changeling queen," Chrysalis said with a dark grin as she was flanked by a number of her subjects. Moving Trixie out of the way, she approached the orb. "Ah... After 3000 years of searching, you are finally within my grasp. And with you, my revenge. Now then... let's break the ice." With that, she leaned her horn down and sent a discharge of magic energy into the orb.
After the energy roamed around the orb for a couple of seconds, the dragon claw slowly released its hold on the orb, which seemed to now be pulsing with energy.
Trixie felt chills run up and down her spine. There was something fundamentally wrong with that orb. As cracks began appearing on the orb, she felt greater chills. And the feel of the thing within, it was alive. Ancient. From neither Equestria nor Tartarus. No. It was something lost between. Finally, the orb blew apart, several of the pieces striking some unlucky changelings that didn't move fast enough, smashing them against the walls of the shaft and crushing them.
Within the smoke from where the orb was, a creature started uncurling. The smoke dispersed to reveal a blue serpentine body leading up to a torso clothed in some manner of black robe with four sleeves. The creature's arms terminated in hands like she had seen on dragons, only instead of claws, they had five spidery fingers each. The creature's face was flat and had a nose that somewhat extended from its face, and it had black hair tied in a bun atop its head, with the face framed by a lock each. As the creature stretched its arms out, it lifted some of its serpent body off the ground to bring its height above that of Princess Celestia, and Trixie noticed that its chest had a pair of rounded objects mostly concealed by its robe. They were about the size of melons and the creature used its lower pair of arms to lift them a bit by crossing them under the mounds. As it finally finished stretching, it composed itself in an unmistakably regal manner, letting out a small sigh in a female voice before opening its eyes, which glowed bright red and pierced the semi-darkness. All in all, this being was very attractive. In a dark sort of way.
Trixie's blood ran cold when the creature's mouth split into a wicked grin that showed a mouth full of sharp teeth. "A naga..." she thought. Any other thoughts were put on hold as the naga finally spoke.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The Queen of the Shadowkhan is back!" the Queen said, her upper set of arms rising in a dramatic gesture, eliciting applause and cheers from the assembled changelings that echoed throughout the tunnels.
"I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings," Chrysalis said as she approached the naga. "It is a supreme honor to finally meet you, Queen Jade."
"How can I ever repay you?" Jade asked, her voice taking on a dark echo, like two beings speaking in tandem.
"Do you recall the names Eros and Thanatos?" Chrysalis asked.
Jade's psychotic grin instantly turned into a scowl. A growl escaped her throat as she began to spread her arms. That growl gave way to a truly unsettling scream of fury as lightning erupted from her hands and arched through all of Chrysalis' subordinates, reducing them to charred carcasses.
Chrysalis remained impassive in the face of this outburst, and only a slight narrowing of her eyes betrayed her fury at the slaughter of her subjects.
Jade breathed heavily as she calmed down and crossed her lower arms beneath her chest.
"Eros and Thanatos are no more. But their daughters, Celestia and Luna, now rule Equestria in their place," Chrysalis said. "In recent months, I suffered humiliation from the ponies because of a particular unicorn. A unicorn called Twilight Sparkle. I want you to help me take my revenge on them."
"I'll do more than that," Jade said. "I will obliterate everything they've built. They will regret the day they dared to challenge me, and they will pay for imprisoning me! Just show me the way to them."
Trixie had heard enough, and tapped her magic, breaking out of Chrysalis' hold and sending a fireball right into Jade's face. "I can't let them leave! Even if it costs me my life!" she thought as the smoke cleared. Trixie gasped when she saw that not only was Jade still standing, she was completely unharmed, and her attention was focused solely on her. Before she could react, Jade moved far faster than her size would suggest and wrapped her coils around her, lifting the showpony up to her eye level.
"You've got heart, little unicorn. I like that," Jade said as she lifted her hand and slowly reached for Trixie's face, the mare's eyes wide with pure terror.