It was a bright and sunny day in Equestria. The pegasi hadn't let a single cloud stay aloft in the sky, the winds had been blowing with a relative frequency, keeping anyone from dying of heat. The cool breeze keeping the land fresh and bright, everypony was working hard at the castle during this day to make a surprise for Luna. Decorations were being hung everywhere and hidden from view with magic, while foods of such smells that even the pony who never ate would demand twenty-thirds were being cooked in the castle kitchen. Despite the princess asking for the meals eaten by the common pony in order to become "closer" to her subjects, the finest of Equestria's cooks were there today, and they were working together with little experiments as long as they were together.

An honored privilege given to the Cakes of Ponyville was to make pastries for the moon princess. Therefore, they were also in the kitchen. Pinkie Pie was told to take care of the babies, which she did surprisingly well. It even went to the point where they would cry when she was gone for more than an hour. As for Twilight, she was asked by Celestia to make a letter that would sound terrible and would bring the moon princess out early in order to trick her into the surprise. Twilight had too much to do, so she wouldn't be at the party, much to Celestia's disappointment. The others also had many things to do. Rarity had several dresses and suits that need to be done in two days, Rainbow Dash had her weather job, Fluttershy had a family of moles to watch, and Applejack needed to harvest the zap apples.

Oh well. At least Luna would be with those she knew, and she'd have the food of several regions. Celestia walked up to the guards and servants putting up the decorations and confetti blowers in the castle yard.

"So? How is everything?" a guard turned around and wiped his head after Celestia asked this. He was standing on a ladder.

"Everything going fine on our hoof m'am. We might finish this early. I suggest you go to the kitchen 'n see what they be doing. I don't want them to end up creating somethin' that'll end up sickening your sister."

"Some good advice." Celestia said with a concerned face and a rubbing of her chin. "I'll see you later then."

"Good day to ya, m'am." the guard responded with a head bow.

Walking within the castle, the sun princess could see that the decorations were coming along well. Many of them were coloorful, but quite a few had the impersonations of the stars and the moon. The sun princess smiled and reached the kitchen. Her mouth watered just by staying in front of the wooden doors decorated in food carvings. As the princess opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of several of her servants rushing everywhere with pots and trays, while others were cooking many foods. A gryphon chef was looking at a rather large oven, and scratched the side of his head while staring blatantly at it.

"So? How is it?" asked a rather deep voice.

"It is ready." the gryphon smiled.

"Good!"

The minotaur chef tore open the oven door and pulled the dish out of its heated world. After slamming it onto the tables, the two chefs smelled it, then each took out forks and dug into the pot pie. They chewed it quite abit, letting the flavors roll around on their tongues, before spitting it out in disgust.

"Well that was disappointing." the gryphon said with a scrunched up face before flicking his fork away.

"I'll say. Hm? It's princess Celestia."

Everypony stopped what they were doing to stare at the white entity standing in the doorway, with the only thing flowing through the air being the bubbling of pots and stews. A mare with the chef hat stomped towards Celestia and started to push her out of the kitchen.

"No, no, no. You will see the dishes that we have prepared later. It is bad luck to interrupt a chef when he or she is in the process of creation."

"But-"

"This is perhaps why their pot pie ended up tasting terrible."

"How-"

"I am sorry, but you cannot stay here. Until later."

The mare closed the door on Celestia, who was still stunned in surprise and shock. Brushing the event off, she decided to go see what those who were organizing the party activities were doing.

However, beneath Canterlot, no one was preparing for fun. Quite the opposite. The crystals beneath the castle were showing several thousand images, all different. Some showed what Twilight had been doing when she didn't have anything to report to Celestia, others showed what Pinkie Pie would do with her parties; and even more showed the dragon migration. A strange voice that began with some sort screech echoed upon the crystal walls, who vibrated and shone darkly in response. Two eyes of the most white purity shone brightly within the darkness. These white eyes were pupiless, yet they could see surprisingly well in the dark.

As an image with Chrysalis being defeated by her own element ran across several of the crystal growths, the creature watching frowned and growled in anger. It then slammed whatever belonged to it into the crystal, shattering something "indestructible" outright.

"Hmph. Pathetic changelings." the voice said as steps were heard echoing across the dead and lonely tunnels. "I have absorbed enough darkness, and my kin has been entirely eliminated. Only I remain, and I shall exact revenge upon the ponies and minotaurs who unjustly killed us off. I will succeed were even the 'great Discord' failed. That buffoon cannot compare to those who have existed before he, to those who have lived for several thousands if years, to the embodiment of pure shadow.
The changelings fell victim to their own powers."

The crystals showed Chrysalis flinching right before the shield created by Shining armor and Cadance blew all the changelings away into the Everfree forest.

"No right being who feeds on 'love' can truly be defeated by it. These fools know nothing of combat, of elemental usage. They know nothing of tactics and infiltration. They can morph into anything, yet they prefer to act foolish and reveal themselves immediately. One with true intelligence could have easily dissuaded Twilight Sparkle of her suspicions, even in the face of certain defeat. Nightmare Moon..."

The crystals shone brightly once more before showing the mare in the moon being engulfed by the elements of harmony and returning into the form of Luna. The creature stood up in strength as some sort of cloud akin to the mane and tail of Nightmare Moon floated towards the minerals, before pushing against them and creating cracks upon their surface.

"You possessed the moon princess, and you failed once in defeating Celestia. You returned after a millenary and banished this pseudo-goddess to her own celestial object, and claimed the world as your own, bringing with it eternal night. I was about to reach the surface, but you were defeated by six mares simply because Luna was holding you back and keeping you from utilizing the proper way of disposing of trash. A true being of darkness would have been more than capable of suppressing these so-called immortals and have submitted all to its rule with an iron hoof. You are as pathetic as the rest.
And Discord."

The biggest crystal of all showed the petrified Discord as a statue in a protected bunker. He seemed bored.

"You are too pathetic to bother speaking of. A lord of chaos whose own power did not reach my domain, and who was also defeated by the six mares. You deserve to remain within that stone prison."

The starlight shroud waved like a hand, showing Celestia sending the letter she received from Twilight to Luna, and getting ready to hide with her soldiers and servants.

"Hmph. These 'gods' actually perform within mundane tasks, and find it amusing. If only my emperor were still alive...I shall uphold his will and conquer the world of light, and bring with me shadows and crystal. They shall fail when they try to counter me, and I will become the new emperor. It is time."

The creature closed its eyes quietly. Nothing happened, until the ground began to shake and lift him through the ceiling. This creature was accompanied by the many crystals that grew underneath the castle, and vines of darkness dug through the earth like roots.

Luna flew into the yard with a look of concern on her face, and she spun around violently as she tried to find everypony.

"Sister? Where are you? I have received your letter. Where are you?"

Luna continued to walk while looking around, until confetti cannons blasted their contents into the air, causing the hidden decorations to reappear and everypony who was hiding to jump out of their hiding place.

"SURPRISE!" they roared.

"What-"

"Happy anniversary Luna!" Celestia shouted as she popped out from the bushes.

"What?!"

"Yes! We're celebrating the anniversary of your return to us. I hope you'll like everything we have prepared for you. We have many things in store."

"I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anythin' princess. We'ze got some great things fer ya," a guard said.

This day was quite enthusiastic for the moon princess. Despite her initial confusion, games of foam boxing and wave surfing created by magic brought much amusement to everypony there. Luna was even pranked by a few servants with cream pie to her face. Celestia laughed whole-heartedly, and, with some removed face-cream, became a bit more vanilla than white. Everything soon turned into a pie war as everypony grabbed the pastries closest to them and tossed them high into the air.

Soon after that, everypony sat down as the servants brought out the magnificent dishes of the chefs. There were mountains of salads that were decorated to look like mountains, a wide and flowery plain, and even Canterlot castle. Some tomato sculptures took the form of Luna and Celestia. All the ponies dug into this magnificent feast of gods that was deposited on the most modest of king-length wooden tables.

After this, the desserts came in. Four of the chefs decided to carry their gigantic cake on their backs and placed it gently in the middle of the table. It was a five-story chocolate cake with diverse garments of star and suns, and a mini-Luna statuette upon the top-most part the cake. They then bowed and backed away. Celestia thanked them. With a clearing of her throat, she lift a fork with her magic and spoke:

"To my dear sister Luna, who I have not seen for one-thousand years. I've missed you, dear sister. I hope that this day that we have prepared for you was fun?"

"Yes. It was. Thank you for this marvelous party everypony."

"Huzzah!" they all yelled.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Take a piece of the cake!" Luna shouted.

As a knife was grabbed by the griffon chef who eagerly approached the cake, a massive quake rocked Canterlot in its entirety. Before anypony knew it, those sitting in front of the princesses were covered in chocolate cake. Most were irritated, but others started to fork the pieces on them and smiling with delight as they placed this refined substance upon their taste-buds. Another quake, much more violent than the other, shook Canterlot once more, and both guard and alicorn started to look around, determined on finding the source of the quakes.

Suddenly, one of the guards still standing watch on the walls flew towards the princesses with grave news:

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, there are strange crystalline growths coming from below Canterlot, and weird trees of shadow are following!"

Another quake shook the land, followed by an explosion and the sound of roaring.

"Quickly! We must go to Canterlot and evacuate the inhabitants there. Before-" Celestia was cut off by the castle exploding in several different areas as gigantic crystals of varying colors grew forth from the walls and grounds. Following these massive constructs were tendrils of shadow that swirled forth from the new craters and spread into the air, dropping several thousands of shadowy creatures upon the grounds.

"What? Oh no. If these things are here, then that means that..." Luna turned around to hear the sound of screaming and buildings being crushed and destroyed beyond the castle walls.

"Concentrate, Luna! We must destroy whatever these things are. Only then will we be able to help the others." Celestia pleaded.

"Right." Luna responded with a nod.

The guards all screamed from the top of their lungs as they charged at the shadows who seemed to be taking many forms. Some just had a body with needle legs and arms with claws, while others literally took on the form of a drake. Many of them flew through the air, and the sight of the pegasi fighting these things, only to be tossed through the castle walls, or into a crater within the ground only served to enrage the surviving troops. In Canterlot, gigantic beasts of shadow were stomping throughout the area and blasting everything with some sort of beam coming from their hands. These things had no heads, only white eyes analyzing their environment, and their bodies looked like wide and thick blobs of black smog.

As the guards each fought the demonic creatures with combat techniques and a wide assortment of spells, the princesses were flying around through the air while avoiding strikes from the other shadows and blasting them away with their own magic. Luna had even trained and developed a type of magical shock wave that blasted everything around her away. More explosions were heard, and one of the towers of Canterlot fell off its resting point and slowly landed a few stories lower, throwing up dust and rubble despite the distance.

"What is going on? Ungh! What are these beasts and where are they coming from?!" Celestia screamed as two of the flying creatures grabbed her with their teeth, only to be slammed into a wall.

"I dun know princess, but I believe that them crystals are the reason behind these things' coming here." the country guard replied after impaling two of the shadow beasts on his spear.

"Then we'll need to destroy them. Come Luna."

Both princesses approached one of the giant crystals that trickled and ebbed with a dark magic. Gathering massive amounts of magic, the two princesses united their magic to blast the thing away with a magical blast. The ensuing explosion gave way to an ear-piercing scream, and the darkness within the crystal blasted out almost immediately, throwing the princesses onto the ground. More explosions, coming from Canterlot this time, rocked the area. As the princesses turned their heads for barely a second, the sound of pained yelling could be heard as the crystal began to reshape itself.

"What?! But how?" Luna wondered as panic began to strike her face.

"I don't know what these things are, but they can regenerate. We don't have time for this."

"INDEED YOU DON'T!" some sort of crystalline voice blurted out within the minds of everypony in Canterlot castle.

From the highest point of the castle, some sort of being erupted, throwing stones everywhere. It spread its six wings, similar to a pegasus', widely across the sky as the entire world seemed to become engulfed in swirling clouds of darkness. The creature flapped its wings once more, casting out a veil of pure darkness that started to carve through the castle towards the fighting guards. While the shadow creatures dissolved and were sent back into the emerging crystals, the guards were "eaten" by the shadows, and spat back out as darker and more evil versions of themselves. Everything changed, and they looked up evily at the two princesses who had avoided the wave by flying higher than they already were.

"Pathetic! There is no point in trying to flee Abstract the dark."

Before either princess could even think of a spell, they found themselves pinned to the now brown and withering grass of the castle grounds. They both looked at the crystalline hooves standing on them, and let their eyes slide up to see the creature pinning them down. It looked like a male alicorn made of a very dark crystal. Within this crystal seemed to flow a dark cloud. The only true difference between both "alicorn" types were that this "Abstract" character had six crystalline wings, and two horns on its head. It also had no mouth, letting Celestia and Luna wonder how it could speak.

Unfortunately, this creature was crushing their throats, but immediately lift them up and threw them against a piece of Canterlot castle and let the vines of darkness attach them against the broken stones. He slowly approached Celestia and formed some sort of dark "tongue" and slowly approached the sun princess with it. As she tried to move away, the creature lashed out at the air around her and let the tongue dissipate. The sun princess was confused.

"Mmmm. The magic of your essence tastes of purity. You thought that the Crystallions were dead, but we still exist."

Abstract spoke highly as his white eyes closed in superiority, and the crystals of his body seemed to contract and twist in smiles along with the shrouded sky.

"What are Crystallions? We have never heard of them." Luna spoke out in calmness.

Abstract's joy faded away and gave way to anger. Even his body twisted and cracked as the shadows in his body started to spin wildly. The same starry shades of Nightmare Moon erupted from cracks in his body and slammed right next to both princesses as the Crystallion stared at them with his eyes full of rage.

"How do you not know of the Crystallions? The crystal wars? Our destruction at the hands and hooves of pony and minotaur?"HAVE WE BECOME SUCH A BURDEN THAT YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN US?!"

Abstract's furious yelling manage to destabilize another portion of Canterlot castle's walls, causing a piece of it to crumble down and let its debris roll down the hill side like playful children. Both princesses shook their heads, letting the Crystallion's left eye twitch.

"Then I will tell you." he said as he backed off and started to "pet" his starry mane. "The Crystallions are beings of pure darkness and righteousness who feed off of the darkness of the underground caverns that you used to mine in. It was ten thousand years ago, and even then, your kind had disturbed us with their incessant chipping at our crystals. You, however, allowed us to reach the surface and begin to claim our new lands for our people. However, back then, we were weak, and an alliance between your kind and the minotaurs of the Cretan islands somehow brought about our destruction. I alone, survived, and I fled to the mining caverns beneath this crumbling castle. You soon blocked it off to prevent any of us from returning, but I was always there.

Through your crystals and your windows, I watched. I watched and studied everything as I absorbed more and more darkness. Now, I have the power to destroy everything!" He said as he lift a hoof to the sky.

"And what do you want with us? Are you going to be an old fashioned searcher for revenge and claim one of us as your queen or do you need a h-" Luna was interrupted.

"No! Crystallions have NO NEED for females in order to reproduce. We used the crystals to send our gene templates and messed around said templates with our shadows in order to make an entirely unique looking child. Unfortunately, my new powers have devoid me of such abilities."

Abstract lowered his head in sadness, but stood back up and looked menacingly at the princesses.

"However, you two are more of a nuisance than anything else, and the magic of your essence could allow me to create an heir. Perhaps two, even. Now then, do not move."

"What are you doing? Let us go! Let us-"

Once more, Celestia had been cut off by the Crystallion as it opened large portions of its body and let the shadows engulf both princesses. Their magics were drained away, and, when all was done, the princess fell limply upon the floor as the vines released their prisoners. Luna struggled to move, even to speak, but she was too tired. Somehow, she was the only one capable of staying conscious while her sister was out cold. Abstract cleared his throat somehow, and summoned one of the fat giants from Canterlot, only to have it pick up both princesses. This giant stared at Luna with its beady eyes, allowing Abstract ample time to speak to her:

"There is no point in trying to stop me. The elements of harmony are hidden now. While you were fighting my minions, I hid them everywhere and nowhere! Have fun being mere ponies with no magic. Throw them."

"N....no!" Luna faintly squealed before passing out.

The giant chuckled, its rumbling voice causing the air around it to vibrate. With a pull-back of its massive black arm, it let out a crack, and the princesses found themselves being cast at extreme speeds towards the darkening horizon. As Luna mourned the loss of her powers as her horn began to disappear, she slowly faded away to sleep as the simple air pressure knocked her out slowly.