"And now, Equestria, look at where your Princesses stand, now!" Tirek shouted, as Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadence, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna all four stood on the top of a recently-built platform with four trapdoors that stood below their hooves. Around their necks, thick ropes were tied in a noose knot.

Swarming the ground levels of the city of Canterlot were evil shadow-like ponies that all had red, ruby-like eyes. They all wore pitch-black armor, and were staring at the four princesses, and some were even mocking them.

Around the walls, tons of Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi watched in horror, as their rulers were about to be hung. Amongst the crowd were five mares, each of which cried relentlessly, as they watched their friend, Twilight Sparkle, look at them, and shed a tear towards them.

"And now, I shall give them their last rites!" Tirek shouted, before walking closer to Twilight Sparkle. The next thing she knew, she felt a painful sting on her right cheek, where Tirek slapped her. This caused Rainbow Dash to retaliate in the distance, only to be held back by some of the shadow knights.

"And now..." He turned to Celestia, and stretched his hand back. Then, with the same amount of force, he managed to slap her across the face, which caused the crowd of Ponies to gasp.

"Finally..." He then turned to Luna, and smiled menacingly. "I still believe you have yet to find subjects who will honor you, after what you've done to them so many years!" With that, he slapped Luna across the face, only this time, he didn't stop there. "And to think... all I had to do was possess Discord, then curse you with the 'Black Heart', and you lose your entire kingdom! Tell me... how does it feel to face death, knowing that NOTHING even loves you, and won't even mourn for your loss?!"

From the distance, Applejack lowered her head, and began to cry, until she turned to her left, and saw her grandmother, Granny Smith, reach inside a saddlebag. Her grandmother wasn't even shedding a single tear, and wasn't even paying attention to the events taking place!

"Granny Smith! What in Equestria are you doing?!" Applejack silently asked, unable to hide her feelings of extreme rage and confusion that built up within her veins.

Granny Smith, however, gave her a glare that caused her to back up slightly... she hasn't seen her grandmother give that kind of look before. In her own words, she would say that it 'Beats Fluttershy's stare by a land-slide'.

Silently Granny Smith pulled, from the saddlebag, a small, dark blue music box with a golden trim along the edges. Engraved in the center of the top of the music box, a picture of Princess Luna's cutie mark could be seen.

After placing her hooves on top of, and below it, she closed her eyes, and began whispering something incomprehensible for Applejack at the time.

Finally, after winding the music box five times, she gently placed it on the ground, while an eerie tune began to play from it.

As the music began to play, Applejack looked around, and noticed the scenery begin to slowly change... almost like the fog was starting to turn gray.

Tirek noticed this, and glared at Granny Smith, while the music box continued playing its music. "You, there!" He shouted, pointing at Granny Smith. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Granny Smith merely smirked at him, and replied, "You wouldn't know... would you, Tirek?" This statement caused Applejack to gasp in horror, while she tried talking her grandmother out of whatever she was doing.

Tirek was about to respond, when he looked around, and began hearing the sounds of very thin objects flying through the air. As he heard those sounds, he gasped when he saw his shadow guards slowly falling limply on the ground.

Then the double doors to the gallows area swung open, revealing one figure... a tall, bipedal creature that was cloaked in a dark blue hooded robe.

Tirek's eyes widened when he saw just what this creature was. "Y-you... it can't be! I've already killed your entire race!"

The figure merely walked forward, ignoring any words that Tirek said. Then, once the shadow guards began running up to him, he merely continued walking, while the guards fell to the ground by arrows coming from all directions.

Applejack stared wide-eyed at the events that were unfolding, and when she looked up at the giant walls that separated the gallows from the main city, her jaw dropped open at the next sight that she saw. The sky was turning pitch-black, with dark blue clouds moving at an unnervingly fast pace.

Through the clouds, she was able to see a pair of glowing white eyes, followed by another four pairs, and then, before she knew it, the entire top of the walls that surrounded the gallows was covered in shadowy figures that had glowing white eyes. She, of course, wasn't the only one who noticed them.

Tirek's eyes widened, as he sensed a power that he couldn't even comprehend within each and every one of these mysterious figures. "It... it can't be!"

After balling his fists, he looked down at Shadow, who was merely walking towards him, as more of his men continued to drop dead before even getting near him. "THIS ISN'T OVER! I HAVE ALREADY TAKEN OVER EQUESTRIA, SO DESTROYING YOU WILL BE MORE THAN EASY!"

He then drew a longsword with a pure white blade, and a golden handle that parted both ways, then lifted it over the rope that held the trapdoors up. "AND I WILL START BY KILLING THESE PRINCESSES, SO NOBODY WILL RULE THE THRONE, IF YOU WIN!" With that, he cut the rope, right as the four Alicorns began falling below the trapdoor.

Before they could land, however, Shadow already anticipated this move, and threw four wide-tipped, sharp knives towards the ropes, which cut the four princesses free. This infuriated Tirek even more, before he glared at Shadow, and yelled, "NO!"

The next thing he knew, Shadow held onto his hood, and lowered it behind his neck, revealing his long, center-parted brown hair, along with his long beard that lowered to the upper half of his chest. Over his eyes, a blue blindfold was tied tightly.

Behind his waist, he drew two light blue Longswords, and held the one in his left hand backwards, while the one in his right hand was pointed towards Tirek. "You have a lot of crimes to pay for, Tirek... and we shall see to it that it is paid in full."

Tirek merely spat on the ground, and replied in a calmer manner, "We'll see about that, Human!" He motioned for two shadow knights to go towards the human. "Kill him! He's a Child of the Night... an Assassin!"

The two knights nodded, before shape-shifting into human knight's bodies, while one held a longsword, and the other held a spear. Then they both walked towards Shadow, who merely continued walking. Then, with his reverse-gripped left sword, he deflected the lunge by the knight on his left that held the spear, before using his right-handed sword to clash with the other knight's sword, before spinning his left sword's blade across the throat of the spear knight, and crossing the swords, as the sword-wielding knight did a downward swing, which led to its stomach getting cut open.

When his two targets were on the ground, Shadow sheathed his swords, and ran towards Tirek, while behind his sleeves, he held a black, circular object that was concealed in a glove.

As soon as he was within reach, Tirek tried to decapitate him, only for his sword to get caught by an oddly shaped pair of blades that Shadow drew from his sleeve. The blades resembled clamps, but instead of merely clamping onto something, they also appeared to be able to pierce into something, and open it widely.

Shadow then pulled Tirek's sword out of his hand, and released it from the clamps, before jumping into the air, with the clam-blade in his left hand. Then, before Tirek could even react, he soon found his lips impaled by the blades, while Shadow pressed a button on the handle that forced his mouth open. Finally, Shadow jammed the black object inside Tire's throat, and closed the clamps. When they closed, they left a metal sheet in-between Tirek's lips that sealed his mouth shut, much to his fear.

Turning his head from the sight, Shadow said, "Back to Tartarus with you, Demon!" While Tirek roared in a mixture of pain, defeat, and fear. Then, in the matter of seconds, his entire upper body was blown to pieces.

The minute the deed was done, the shadow knights, and their corpses, all vanished, while the ponies' eyes began to glow their normal color again, prior to their paled states.

Out of the wooden floorboards, the four princesses slowly rose from the trapdoors, and stared wide-eyed at the scenery before them.

"How..." Was all Twilight could say, before her eyes locked on the figure that towered over her by two and a half times her height.

Then the figure turned towards Luna and, while the dark clouds quickly faded from the sky, walked towards her, and held his arms out, while she began to cry, before she, too, ran up to him.

After a thirty second hug, Shadow looked Luna in the eyes, and smiled, before saying three words that caught the entire city by surprise.