It was not long after the Republic learned of the existence of the False Sun Spell that definitive evidence was found linking members of the New Dawn with secret safehouses based in the Crystal Empire.

After Princess Luna eliminated her sister and seized the throne, she demanded fealty from all members of the family tree. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, more popularly known as Princess Cadance, was the most notable to refuse and, as punishment, had her title stripped from her. Fearing execution, she fled Canterlot with her husband, Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard, in tow and escaped to her home in the Crystal Empire. As Luna had no interest in the Empire at that time, and also thoroughly believed that all would come around to loving her endless night if given enough time, she allowed Cadance to remain there so long as she swore to harbor no enemies of the Republic.

It now appeared that the uneasy truce had been broken.

Word was sent to the Empire that Cadance was to surrender any and all members of the New Dawn under her protection or the whole of the Empire would be snuffed out in a single blow. When Cadance requested that a dignitary be sent to negotiate the release of the rebels, Luna agreed.

In what was seen as an attempt to appeal to Cadance’s familial ties, Luna sent Twilight Velvet, mother to the traitor Twilight Sparkle and the now also exiled Shining Armor, as ambassador.

The true reason for Twilight Velvet’s selection was much more sinister.

The night after her arrival in the Empire, Twilight Velvet waited until her son had left to check on the night patrols, snuck into her daughter-in-law’s chambers, and slid a dagger between her ribs.

Had Cadance been a normal pony, she would have died from the wound. But Cadance was no fool and had taken precautions against possible acts of assassination. Using ancient and arcane magics, Cadance bonded her heart with the sacred Crystal Heart, that powerful relic that protects the whole of the Crystal Empire. She was bonded to it, and no wound inflicted on her mortal body could end her now.

As she later revealed, this did not mean that she could not feel the pain of Twilight Velvet's betrayal.

Her cries summoned Shining Armor and the truth was laid bare; Twilight Velvet’s brilliant mind had been twisted and broken by the magic of the Night Princess, a final insult to the memory of Twilight Sparkle. She had become the very knife that Luna had intended to use to snuff out the pony that she viewed as the last real threat to her reign.

The pony who had once been Twilight Velvet was no more. All that remained was an empty shell, a weapon to be used to break the hearts of those she loved just as much as pierce them.

In an act for which he truly never forgave himself for, Shining Armor ended his own mother’s life that night.

As word spread through the growing rebellion (thanks to Sweetie Belle’s pirate broadcasts) that the Republic had attempted as cowardly a move as this, the news reached Canterlot and was rewritten to serve Lunar Republican needs. In their telling, Twilight Velvet had been murdered in cold blood by her own son.

It was all the ammunition Luna needed to push the next part of her plan for total and uncontested domination. Twilight Velvet was a beloved pony in Canterlot, and her death fanned the flames of rage in even the most reluctant of soldiers.

When word reached him of his wife’s death, the stallion Night Light did the only thing he could; he accepted a position in the New Lunar Army and made a solemn vow to the Princess of the Night herself;

He would bring her the head of the traitor Cadance… and that of his own murderous son.