Standing at the top of a hill, looking down, Serenade stood proudly with a large group of ponies, all clad in armor that she had pillaged from the royal armory. Blades at the ready for most, other various weapons in the hooves of others. She had massed an army large enough to challenge the prize down below, the Crystal Empire.

By the look of the city limits, from where she stood, she knew they were prepared to meet her. Serenade stood with a smile as Arax arrived at her side, in a custom suit of armor she had tailored to him, Serenade wearing her own, and perched atop of her golden mane was a familiar crown, the crown of Princess Celestia.

Arax bowed as he came to his master’s side. “Master… Everything is prepared…” He stated, as he reached forward and took her hoof to plant a kiss upon it.

Serenade didn’t even bother looking in his direction, her focus entirely on the empire before her that she would soon claim as her own. “Thank you, Arax… Tell me… How many warriors do we have at our disposal?”

Arax came to a stand and nodded. “80,000 lives, ma’am.”

Serenade grew a smile and nodded. “You’ve done excellent work then…”

Arax adjusted himself and spoke again. “By my calculations, we shall have the city taken by nightfall…”

“And the magic of Cadence and her husband shall be mine…” Serenade said, practically drooling at the thought.

“What is the plan, master?” Arax asked.

“Two flanks… One from the west… One from the east…” Serenade instructed, her eyes not leaving her desired prize as she gave her orders.

“Ma’am… That sounds like it would take heavy casualties…” Arax inquired.

She waved her hoof dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. By the end of tonight… We shall have plenty of new soldiers to replace them… Besides, it’s merely a distraction for my true plan…”

“Which is?” Arax raised a brow.

Serenade looked over at him and smiled, reaching forward and rubbing under his chin with her hoof. “Patience, my pet… You’ll know soon enough. You’re going to learn very much today about tactics… The most important rule of battle… always be several steps ahead of your enemies…”

“I’ll do my best to learn from you, master…” He bowed.

“That’s a good pet… Now… Let’s begin, shall we?” Serenade nodded.

He nodded back at her and stood up tall giving a salute. Turning toward the army before him, he cleared his throat. “Alright! Listen up! Half of you will attack from the west, the other half from the east! Your top priority is to make as much headway as you can… Casualties are a minimal concern.”

The entire group standing behind Serenade and Arax all raised their hooves and gave a salute in unison. They had no control over their actions, they would serve blindly and do as they were told without question, for Arax and Serenade it was a beautiful sight to behold, to anyone else, it would be a nightmare come true.

“Move out!” Serenade stomped her hoof.

With that command the entire group burst out from the hill at full speed, coming down to begin their assault.

Serenade stayed behind with Arax and smiled. “Today… Is going to be a historical day, Arax… Today… Is the next chapter in how I conquered Equestria…”

Shining Armor was walking down the halls of his castle barking orders left and right to guards that came for direction on what to do and where they should be during this battle. At their gates, Serenade’s army had already arrived, fighting ruthlessly and without a care of life or death. It wouldn’t be long before morale fell too low to sustain a victory, Shining knew he had to expunge the problem as quickly as he could.

“Sir, the east and west entrances are being hit hard! We’re holding strong on the west side, but we don’t know how much more we can take!” A guard huffed as he ran up to Shining.

Shining shook his head. “Fortify with extras from the castle. Any non-essential guard should be at the west entrance.”

“Sir! Yes, sir!” The guard saluted as he ran off to give the message.

Sure enough, just as soon as one problem was solved, another came about. Another guard arrived and gave a quick salute before raining down more bad news. “Sir, the east entrance has fallen. We moved back to keep them from advancing any further into the city, but at this rate, they will break our formation… The citizens are in danger…”

Shining bit his lip, trying to think of a good plan. Realizing his options were limited, he shook his head and begrudgingly gave his command. “Move all citizens closer to the center of the city… Anypony willing to fight with us… Give them a suit of armor and a weapon and have them help push the enemy back…”

“Sir! That’s… Unprecedented!” The guard shook his head.

Shining turned away. “Pressing times call for drastic measures. We must hold them off long enough for Serenade to show herself… We take her out, and this madness stops… I’m willing to wager her patience is low and that means if we continue to hold out, she will grow impatient and show up herself.”

“Yes, sir…” The guard nodded slowly.

“You have your orders, now go carry them out!” Shining growled.

With those words, the guard saluted and ran off. Shining sighed and shook his head as he moved toward the throne room to see his wife. The barrier she had erected to keep the invaders out had fallen, and she was exhausted. So much of her strength had been used to buy them more time, but Shining ordered a group of eight guards to keep protection over her while she recovered.

It had been a good hour since this fight began, and Shining was confident that there was no way it could continue on like this. Serenade may have had brainwashed slaves to do her fighting, but even she would run out of bodies eventually.

It pained him to think that innocent ponies were being massacred by his guards, but he reminded himself that if they did nothing, then the situation would be far worse. The entire empire would be mass slaughtered as they stood there doing nothing to stop it. He hated the position he was in, but it was part of the many burdens that came with being the captain of the Royal Guard. This was exactly what he signed up for.

Shining sat down on a bench in a hallway and removed his helmet, setting it aside as he wiped his brow.

The news of Celestia’s defeat had come quickly to the Crystal Empire, and as expected, panic began to sweep the streets. Ponies everywhere were beginning to worry that the protection offered by the royal family would be inadequate to keep them safe from the coming dangers of an army of brainwashed warriors controlled by an all-powerful demon.

It had been told to Shining that the demon managed to get Celestia’s power as her own, and thus her magic ability and battle fortitude would naturally be increased tenfold. This meant she went from being a dangerous demon siren to an extremely dangerous demon siren, and she now had her sights set on the Crystal Empire.

He couldn’t let her succeed, he needed a way to slow down her advance and come up with a plan. At the rate things were going, the Crystal Empire would belong to Serenade by the next morning. He couldn’t just keep throwing fighters out there to stall, as Serenade would eventually break through, he knew he needed a bigger master plan than to just stall Serenade as long as he could, for that though, he would need a moment to breathe.

Looking out the nearby window of the castle, he could see the battle taking place just a few miles from where he sat. The view from the castle was enough to see the entire kingdom, and normally he relished that fact, but today he was met with nothing but a tinge in his heart as he watched the bloodshed take place down below. How he wished he could be down on the battlefield, aiding his guards, but he knew that was out of the question. His top priority was to command and keep his wife and child safe. The days of him being on the front lines were long gone.

While he had become a leader, Shining still missed the days of being a follower, that feeling of doing something noble and risking everything for it. Truthfully, he wasn’t much for the fact that he now sent ponies out to do the fighting for him, especially knowing that there was always the chance that they would never come back. He had attended so many funerals for his fallen comrades that he had almost grown numb to it, but such was the duty of the captain and of the Prince of the Crystal Empire. Every pony down below looked to him for guidance and he couldn’t let them down.

Taking one last breath and look at the city-state down below, he stood up and decided it was time to face his wife to see how she was faring.

Wandering toward her bedroom, he braced himself for the likely sight of a very haggard mare, exhausted from repeatedly trying to keep the barrier protecting the empire from Serenade’s army, eventually giving in and being unable to continue. Instead, she retreated to her bedroom to watch their child, ready to protect her if necessary.

Opening the door, he saw Cadence leaning over the crib of a crying baby, trying everything she could to calm the child, to no avail. The sounds of fighting outside were muffled by the castle walls, but still easy to hear, and they clearly were disturbing a young Flurry Heart.

The mare herself looked sleep deprived, her mane a colossal mess, and her eyes bloodshot. Her usual shining coat seemed to lack its usual luster today, and she looked about ready to collapse. Noticing her husband enter the room she turned slowly and gave the most gentle smile that Shining had ever seen as she gave him a nod of acknowledgment before slumping to the floor on her haunches.

“Oh… Hello, dear…” She managed to get out after a yawn.

Shaking his head, Shining approached the mare and used his hoof to help her up, aiding her over to the bed in the room for her to sit upon. “Sweetie… Maybe you need some rest… Flurry will be fine…”

“Nonsense… No one else is resting… So I can’t either…” Cadence disagreed.

Shining sighed at his wife’s stubbornness. In a way she was reminding him of his own sister, the two had more in common than he realized at times. “Sweetie… You’re no good to anyone if you burn yourself out. Take a small nap, leave the rest to us… I’m working on a plan to stop Serenade as we speak.”

“What plan would that be?” Cadence asked.

Biting his lip and blushing, Shining averted his eyes. “I… I’ll let you know when I think of it…”

Cadence rubbed her eyes and then spoke up. “I’ve been thinking… It may be possible… To reverse Serenade’s spell over the ponies she controls…”

“You think? How so?” Shining asked.

“Well… If I can regain my strength… We can lure her into a trap, and I can use my magic to do a counterspell, this will make all that she controls to turn on her instead. Sort of like making her own magic work in reverse, you know?” Cadence suggested.

Shining blinked, before reaching forward with his front hooves and grabbing his wife’s cheeks pulling her into a quick kiss before leaning back with a grin on his face. “That’s brilliant! We just need to get you rested up and then we can lure her out! With this many ponies against her, even with her power, she will be outnumbered!”

“That sounds like a great plan!” Another unfamiliar voice filled the room.

Shining felt the blood leave his face as he turned in horror to see a mare standing at the doorway. The first thing that he noticed was the shining red pendant on her neck, followed by her luscious yellow hair with red tips as she stepped forward.

“There’s only one tiny problem with it…” She said.

With those words, a black tendril came out of her body and snagged Shining, pinning him to the wall with a thud. Despite his struggles though, he couldn’t break free, the siren’s hold on him was far too strong for him to break from. Quickly he tried casting a spell only for Serenade to shake her head, causing another black tendril to jut out of her and grip his horn, blocking him from doing any magic.

“That problem, of course, is that you won’t have the time necessary to execute such a plan… Besides, I doubt it would have worked anyway…” Serenade chuckled as she set her eyes on Cadence who was retreating backward on her bed to try and put as much distance between Serenade and herself, even if that distance was minimal.

“Why so frightened?” Serenade asked. “You’re about to be a part of history…”

“Why’re you doing this?” Cadence asked.

“So you think understanding my motivation will give you some kind of leverage over me do you?” Serenade chuckled.

“You’re murdering my subjects… The least you could do is tell me why…” Cadence pleaded.

Serenade stood silent for a brief moment before nodding. “Alright… I’ll tell you… Your kind disgusts me… You mortals sitting on your little throne over the world acting as you own it… Like the entire world is just your plaything. You’ve lived so high and mighty for so long and left those you deemed undesirable to dine in the dirt… Surely you didn't think it would last forever, did you?”

Her voice slowly became filled with more and more malice as she continued speaking. “I loathe every last one of you… Consider this… Retribution. The age of mortals is going to come to an end… This will be my kingdom soon enough…”

“Even if you get the kingdom… It won’t make you happy… I promise that… No happiness can be obtained by murdering innocent lives…” Cadence attempted to reason.

Serenade chuckled and shook her head. “That’s where you’re wrong… When I killed my first mortal… The rush I felt… The energy… It was…” She paused and took in an excited breath. “Unreal…”

“That feeling will wear off… Evil is like a drug, eventually, you’ll need higher and higher doses to get the same feeling you once had… Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you can’t go any higher…” Cadence warned.

“I didn’t come for a lecture… I came for your magic… Now… Hand it over…” Serenade smirked as another tendril came out of her and reached toward Cadence.

Thinking quickly, Cadence cast a spell swatting the tendril away. “Stay back!” She commanded.

Serenade nodded and stood her ground. “So, you still have a little fight left in you… That’s good… Too bad it won’t help you now…”

The siren’s eyes moved around the room until she noticed the crib sitting there. Looking back at Cadence, Serenade’s smile grew and showed the dark intent in her. Cadence’s eyes widened as she reached in that direction, but her efforts were far too late. A long black tendril slithered around the crib and gripped it tightly, pulling it just out of Cadence’s reach.

The Princess of the Crystal Empire gasped along with her husband who shouted from his pinned down position from the wall. “DON’T YOU DARE HURT OUR BABY!”

Serenade chuckled. “That is up to you… I suggest you cooperate or I can’t promise this baby will be returned to you safely…”

Cadence bit her lip but lowered her head in defeat. “Fine… You can have my magic… Just… Leave my baby alone… Please…”

Another long tendril came out of Serenade’s back and levitated over Cadence, looking much like a viper ready to sting its prey. “Wise choice, Princess…”

The tendril zipped at her with cat-like reflexes and gripped her horn. Cadence could feel the energy leaving her body and traveling through the tendril toward Serenade. Within a matter of seconds, the princess was completely drained, falling onto her back as she panted, unable to get up after the ordeal.

“Excellent… Now, what should I do with this baby?” Serenade tapped her chin with her hoof as the baby from the crib was picked up by the tendril and held in an air-tight grip.

“You promised you’d leave her alone!” Cadence panted as she pulled herself up.

“I did no such thing… I merely said I could not promise she would be returned unharmed if you didn’t cooperate… However, I can sense this baby has exceptional power… To leave that at your disposal would be foolish of me, wouldn’t you say? I think it’s probably best if I take this power for myself as well while I’m here…” Serenade nodded.

Cadence was too weak to do anything, she couldn’t stop the siren even if she wanted to. Instead, she watched in horror as the tendril performed the same thing on her child that had been done to her. Energy leaving the baby’s body and entering Serenade quite visibly as the tendril lit up while it absorbed Flurry Heart’s power.

“You know… I should kill this child… Just to send you a message… However, I can think of a far better torment for you… You shall spend your days in a dungeon… Far away from her, not knowing if she’s alive or dead…” Serenade grinned.

Cadence collapsed, defeated and outmatched she found herself pleading quietly with her face in her sheets. “P-please… Don’t… hurt her…”

“Do you think anypony would have adhered to the same pleas when it came to my sister?” Serenade asked as she got close to Cadence.

The princess was unable to answer, instead, she just laid there, completely exhausted.

“I didn’t think so… Now… For your husband…” Serenade turned her attention to Shining who was still pinned against the wall struggling to get free but failing miserably.

Shining locked eyes with the siren and stared at her for a solid moment before she took a triumphant step forward, her voice filling his ears as she spoke. “You didn’t think I’d forget you, did you?”

Shining gave the mare a smirk. “I’d be insulted if you did… Are you sure you even have room for dessert after that two course meal you just had?”

Enjoying the playful banter, Serenade took another step forward and nodded. “Don’t worry… There’s room in me for all the magic I’ll need…”

“Serenade… I am sorry about your sister… However, I promise you that what happened to her wasn’t because she was a siren…” Shining began.

Another tendril came out of Serenade and slapped him across the face, silencing him quickly before he could finish that thought. “I don’t want to hear it… I’ve heard your mortal sob stories before… Nothing but lies intended to deceive those who are foolish enough to believe them. You won’t be fooling me, however…”

“No tricks, I promise…” Shining shook his head.

“Promises from mortals mean nothing…” Serenade chuckled as she came within a foot or two of Shining, her tendril ready to drain him for all the magic he had.

“Maybe we can negotiate? There might be a way to make things right… What is it that you want?” Shining asked.

“What I want?” Serenade laughed. “It’s funny that no one cared what I wanted until I held Equestria in my hoof… Now suddenly everyone is interested in what I want. No one gave a damn when I was weak and powerless… But now… They are listening quite adamantly aren’t they?” She came inches from Shining’s face. “I want my mother and my sister back… But you can’t do that, can you… When your kind killed my sister, I felt a great pain… That pain brought me back to Equestria to investigate, and that is when I found the truth in your royal archives… Your kind had her put to death…”

“Maybe there’s something else we can do?” Shining asked.

Serenade nodded. “Yes… You can all die… See… The only thing I want now… Is for mortals to become extinct…”

“You do that and there won’t be anything for you to rule…” Shining pointed out.

Serenade laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you all alive for a time… After all, I need ponies to build my empire. You’ll be my slaves until I am done with you, then… I will bring in all the immortals such as sirens like myself and Equestria will belong to us… Just imagine… a true paradise free of the scorn of mortals…”

“Sounds more like a nightmare to me…” Shining looked away.

“That’s typical for your kind… You lack vision… Perhaps you will learn it when you’re serving me…” Serenade laughed.

Not wasting another second, the tendril around Shining’s horn began to glow as it sucked all the magic out of his body. The process was exhausting and painful, causing him to clench in agony until it was done. Finally, after only a few seconds, she dropped him to the floor, freeing him of the tendril’s grasp. He gasped for air and struggled to stand, ultimately giving up and choosing to lay on the floor panting instead.

“Y-you…” He began, huffing as he tried to get the words out of his throat. “You’re… a monster…”

Serenade scoffed and kicked him in the chest, causing him to grip himself to try and soothe the pain. “When this is over… You all can take a long look in the mirror… Then you’ll know who the real monsters are…”

Shining was panting, but he managed to get a few more words out. “Your plan… it will… never succeed… Luna will… stop you…”

She laughed and shook her head mockingly. “One princess is supposed to stop me? I have the power of two, a prince and a child princess on my side, combined with my own power… She is no match… Instead of wasting her time on fruitless dreams such as defeating me, she should enjoy her freedom while she has it…”

Looking over at Cadence, Serenade grinned as she marveled at the three prizes she had managed to steal if she counted the baby. Already she had ideas of what to do with the lot of them, each idea popping into her head more sinister and evil than the last. “As for the two of you… Your freedom has already come to an end… Welcome to hell…”

The siege of the Crystal Empire was not a very long one. After Serenade had infiltrated the castle and taken Shining and Cadence’s magic from them, she made mincemeat out of the remainder of the city, attacking from the inside directly. Within a matter of minutes those who were not killed surrendered to the siren. The Crystal Empire then became the next jewel in Serenade’s crown.

Wasting no time she had set her sights on Manehatten where Princess Luna was said to be holding out, hoping to fortify her defenses enough to keep even a demon as powerful as Serenade out.

Serenade would spend the next few days marveling at the spoils of her successful conquest of the Crystal Empire, and of course, adding new slaves to her army to do her bidding. With the conquering of the Crystal Empire she would have fresh bodies ready to lay down their lives at her word, ready to die when she saw it appropriate, and of course, at some point later down the road, construct monuments dedicated to her against their will.

They would spend some time planning and then they would initiate their big assault on Manehatten. Arax was trusted to make sure the finer details of her plan fell correctly into place, and as a result, he often spoke on her behalf to her underlings when his master lacked the time or patience to do so.

He was sitting down in the former war room of the Crystal Empire, now under their control as he looked over a scroll with various instructions from his master on it.

Sitting across from him was an orange unicorn was fiery red spiky mane. His golden eyes shined even in the brilliant lighting of the castle. Naturally, he was sporting a cloak that matched Arax’s own as he was recently accepted as the newest member of their order.

“So, Blaze Snap is it?” Arax asked as he looked up from his scroll.

The unicorn nodded. “Sure is, totally stoked to light some fires too! By the way, when do I get demon powers?”

“Patience, Master Serenade must achieve her ultimate power first, and then we all shall ascend to demons…” Arax explained.

Blaze blew a raspberry and looked away with a pouting face. “Why doesn’t she just give us the powers now? Sounds like we’re going to get screwed on this deal…”

Arax banged his hoof on the table creating a loud thud. Blaze jumped and looked down the hole filled hoof on the table and then back up the angry face of the changeling that it belonged to. “The first rule of this order is to never question the master… You must display unquestioning, unbreakable loyalty newbie…”

Blinking, Blaze nodded. “Yeah… Okay… Still though, it just seems like…”

“Enough! Your lack of faith is already getting on my nerves… You should be spending your thoughts on preparing for your first true test…” Arax stated.

“T-test? What for?” Blaze tilted his head.

A smirk came to Arax as he unrolled another scroll. “You didn’t think you’d simply be let in without a challenge, did you? This order is only interested in the strong, weaklings will be weeded out quickly… You are going to need to prove your strength to us… While I found your abilities with fire to be impressive… The master will need more convincing…”

“This is bullshit!” Blaze growled as he stomped his hoof.

Arax just shrugged at the gesture. “If this is not to your liking, I suppose you could be turned into one of those puppets if that is more preferable?”

Blaze twitched and took a step back. “No way! Alright, alright… I’ll do it… What do I need to do exactly?”

Nodding, Arax looked back at the scroll before giving his newest recruit their orders. “You are to gain control over the town of Haybale. You may bring a handful of minions with you to get the job done… Succeed and you will gain an audience with the master, fail… Well… Let’s leave that one to the imagination, shall we?”

Blaze blinked as his memory recalled where Haybale was. He squinted as it dawned upon him. “Haybale? That’s a little hick town out in the desert… There can’t be more than eight hundred ponies that live there. Why the hell does Master Serenade want to conquer a place like that?”

Arax raised a brow. “What did I just tell you about questioning the master?”

Bowing his head, Blaze looked to the ground. “Right… Sorry…”

“Anyway… If you must know, it’s a strategic setup. That location is far out there and thus most ponies would consider it likely not a target… By crushing even a small town like that, it will strike fear into citizens across Equestria that nowhere is safe… Eventually, this will cripple morale and give us a significant advantage in battle…” Arax explained.

Blaze stuck his tongue out. “Bleh, psychological warfare is so lame… I’ll leave that crap to you… So long as I get to burn some stuff… I’ll be happy…”

“I’m sure there is plenty for a fool to destroy out that way…” Arax rolled his eyes.

“So I’m authorized to kill whoever I want?” Blaze blinked.

Arax sighed and nodded. “You may use whatever means necessary to get the job done, now get out of my face before I tell the master you’d be better suited as a puppet…”

Blaze held up a hoof and shook his head. “Hey, no need for threats, I’m game. Consider it done. I’ll go wipe that little town off the map for you, just don’t turn me into one of those things…”

Arax grunted in response, which Blaze took as an order to get moving. Without any more hesitation, the unicorn saluted and made his way out the door, ready to go carry out his new task.

Looking down at the scrolls in front of him, Arax sighed and shook his head. “Soon, it will all come together…”

Serenade trotted through one of her holding cells where Princess Cadence had been transported to. Stepping up to the cage that the freshly drained princess was taken to and chained down, Serenade smiled and decided to remove the blindfold she had been given.

A tendril appeared out of her back and reached between the bars of the cell and removed the black blindfold off of Cadence and dropped it on the floor before the appendage retreated into Serenade’s body.

Cadence looked around and then down at her hooves noting she was chained to the floor, then she looked back up to see Serenade standing there smiling. “Isn’t it a bit redundant to chain me up if I’m already in a cell?”

“It’s called not taking any chances… Those chains are enchanted, they won’t open without my magic… So I’d get comfortable if I were you, as you’re going to be wearing them for a long time… Don’t worry though, they look fabulous on you…” Serenade smirked as she tormented the mare from outside of the cage.

“Where are we?” Cadence asked with a raised brow.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Sorry, but I can’t tell you that. Your location is a secret, after all, I want to reduce any and all chances of you escaping, that’s why your husband and your little brat are being kept somewhere else…” Serenade explained.

Cadence attempted to thrust forward but was stopped by her chains. She hissed and spit through her teeth as she kept trying to jerk her body in Serenade’s direction. “DON’T YOU LAY A HOOF ON HER!”

Serenade rolled her eyes. “You should be more worried about yourself… And your precious kingdom… Soon it won’t be yours at all, but mine.”

“Please… Don’t hurt her…” Cadence calmed herself, her words now dripping with sadness.

Serenade stared at the girl before scoffing and looking away. “Don’t look so weak… You think what you’re going through now is so difficult? You haven’t even seen what I have gone through…”

“I can’t see what somepony would have to go through to become as wicked as you…” Cadence spat.

Blinking, Serenade took a step closer to the cell, a long tendril reaching back through the bars and gripped Cadence’s forehead. “Maybe… I should show you…”

Most of the memories that Serenade projected into Cadence’s mind were painful memories of her childhood, growing up, how difficult it was just to survive in a world that loathed your very existence, but the hardest part was the constant asking of “why?” The constant longing for a reason for why the world despised you so much and never being given an answer.

That longing eventually turned to hatred. That hatred grew and grew inside of her, opening her heart to become the demon she was today. The more she hated, the stronger she became, it was a dangerous combination.

Cadence saw through a little girl’s eyes Serenade’s own mother burned at the stake, being called a monster as she suffered.

It all came at her in vivid detail until the final memory came, one from only a short while ago, sometime before Serenade returned to Equestria.

She had traveled to the borderlands decades ago, hoping to find a life away from the discrimination that Equestria had offered. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world outside of Equestria and its allies was far from civilized. The basic building blocks of society existed, but that was it. Mostly, the outer countries were lawless and justice was determined by how well you could take what you wanted and defend what you had taken. No such place was a better example than Dragon Scar.

Dragon Scar had existed since long ago and was considered a nopony’s land eons ago. Very few even traveled there, and even less ever returned. It was given its name by the dragons who ruled over it, though no central government was known. Dragon Scar was said to be a wasteland, but through Serenade’s eyes, Cadence could see just how much the stories were actually underselling how harsh it was.

The land around Serenade was a red desert. The sky red and darkened by the amount of ash in the air. Dragon Scar seldom received proper sunlight, and when it did, the temperature only rose. It was a cold desert, and the winter times were beyond brutal. It wasn’t uncommon to find travelers frozen in place during the winter, dead by frostbite, still hiking their way to the next encampment.

What Dragon Scar qualified as “towns” were nothing more than a group of ragtags who settled in a central area under the agreement not to kill each other unless they had a good reason. What constituted as a good reason was always up for debate, but certainly very flexible.

Serenade covered in a cloak and face cover walked through the windy desert toward the nearest town, a place known as Claw Town where she made her way to the entrance looking up at the guards posted at the gate.

One of them looked down at her, a rather unimpressive looking griffon that gave her a once-over before nodding and opening the gate. When she was let inside, she was met with the same piles of trash that were stuck together for form what could pass as “buildings” in Dragon Scar. Most of which were made out of scrap metal and held together very poorly, but long-term structural integrity wasn’t exactly a high priority of most builders out in Dragon Scar.

As she walked through the streets she could see various griffons, young dragons, wolves and other various species either conducting trades, sharing stories or just gossiping about.

Ponies were scarce out this way, and while Serenade had the appearance of one, she was, in fact, a siren. That, however, did not stop those who would assume she was a pony.

On her way to her destination, a griffon whistled as she walked by causing her to stop and glare in his direction with angry eyes.

“Fiesty, huh? Who’s your owner? I’d pay top scraps for you…” He smirked.

“I have no owner, and even if I did… You wouldn’t survive a night with me…” Serenade commented, her eyes maintaining the same fire.

He laughed and shook his head. “A female pony and she has no owner? You must be a runaway whore then… I wonder what kind of bounty I’d get for bringing you back… That is of course after I have a little fun with you…”

A black tendril reached from under Serenade’s cloak and grabbed the griffon by the neck causing a small crowd to gather as they gasped and whispered while she held him there. “I assure you… I am no whore, and I am no pony… Do not let appearances deceive you…”

“Fuck… A demon? Out here?” The griffon struggled to get out as he tried to pry the tendril off of him.

Serenade released him and dropped him on the ground, causing him to go into a coughing fit. “Fuck… Rough, aren’t you?”

“I don’t have time to waste with a simpleton such as yourself… So it would be wise to leave me alone… You wouldn’t want to make me angry…” She stated as she began to walk away.

The crowd gathered around her all stared for a few more minutes until she flared a series of tendrils from her body to frighten them. The effect was instant as they all dispersed and averted their eyes from the demon siren. Chuckling, Serenade made her way toward a familiar bar that she frequented often, The Broken Talon.

Entering the run down establishment, a group of young dragons only a foot or two taller than Serenade grunted and nodded their heads as she entered. They clearly recognized her from her many visits to this place. Behind the bar though was a face that she had come to know quite often, the bartender and “owner” of this “establishment” whom everyone just referred to as “Scar”, due to the impressive laceration across his face, even going into his beak.

He was blind in his left eye, likely from the wound, but that didn’t stop the griffon from being perhaps one of the most intimidating creatures around. Serenade couldn’t say that she “liked” him, but she at the very least found his company more bearable than some.

With his claw on a tattered old tankard, he raised a brow as he saw Serenade sit down.

“What’s your pleasure, Siren girl?” His gruff voice asked.

“Give me my usual…” Serenade shrugged as she hoisted herself onto the stool.

While she was smaller than most ponies and in the room she found herself in, certainly smaller than the majority of the occupants, anyone who was a regular at The Broken Talon knew that of everyone in the building, Serenade Dazzle was the last creature that anyone wanted to fuck with.

“Two shots Dragon Vodka and a Harsh Hops then?” He raised a brow.

“Yeah…” Serenade nodded.

The griffon wasted no time and expertly poured her drinks, looking at the table expectantly as he passed them to her.

She blinked and levitated some small pieces of metal onto the table as payment. He looked at it and counted it up. “Kid, the price has gone up, it’s now four scraps a shot…”

Serenade blinked and looked at the sign where the drink prices were posted and then back at Scar. “You’re a real bastard, you know that?”

“Times is hard for everyone… You got the scraps, I got your pleasure, but I can’t work for free… We’ve been slow lately and the caravans that head this way have dwindled after the recent attack on the town, so business is not picking up… Besides, didn’t you come to turn in a job?” He raised a brow.

She grunted and nodded. “Yeah… I dropped off the bastard’s slave for him. Tell him he can leave the scraps here and I’ll pick them up next week when I come back through this way…”

Scar nodded and smiled, his scratched beak looking somewhat odd when he smiled. “You’re a pretty hardcore gal, you know that?”

“I’ve been told…” Serenade rolled her eyes as she downed the two shots and began to nurse the beer provided to her.

“Slave retrieval ain’t easy… A lot of those slaves usually are willing to die before going back… How do you manage to get them to cooperate the whole way back? A runaway slave usually will slit their own throat before returning to their master…” Scar leaned in with interest.

Serenade shrugged as she took another sip. “I show them a fate worse than slavery… Worse than death itself…”

Scar laughed jovially at her statement. “I like you, kid… Maybe if I were a bit younger, I could see us going well together…”

“I’m definitely older than you…” Serenade rolled her eyes.

“Just how old can sirens get?” He raised a brow.

“Old enough… The short version though is that I’m at least twenty times your age…” Serenade explained.

“A cougar then?” He laughed.

“Are you quite done, Scar? I don’t come here for your pathetic casual flirting… Trust me, I get enough of that… Besides, sirens don’t ‘go’ with anyone…” She rolled her eyes as she looked away.

“Must be a lonely existence…” He frowned.

“Lonely would imply that I actually care for the companionship of worthless mortals…” She rolled her eyes once more.

“Everyone needs someone…” Scar replied.

“Not me. Not now, not ever… The only other creature in this world that I care for is gone… Long gone…” Serenade looked down at her drink before levitating it to her lips and taking a long sip.

At that exact moment, she froze and gasped as a sharp pain shot through her body. It felt like her heart had stopped as bitter agony rocketed through her veins, shooting to every part of her body. The pain was so unbearable she dropped her mug onto the floor, hearing it shatter as she fell backward off of her stool.

Scar quickly hopped over the bar counter to come to her aid as heads started to turn in her direction to see what was up. Serenade couldn’t even get back up, the pain was so unbearable, she could feel something familiar with it though, something that lingered for a brief second before the pain stopped.

She panted and looked over at Scar before looking up at the ceiling.

“Are you alright, kid?” He asked with concern in his voice.

Serenade paused for a moment before the words left her lips. “S-she’s… here… She’s back in Equestria… I felt her…”

“Felt who?” Scar raised a brow.

Serenade looked over at him and spoke calmly. “I need a dragon to take me out of Dragon Scar…”

“Ha, good joke… You know that they don’t usually help anyone out here… Getting in and out of Dragon Scar is impossible for that very reason…” He laughed.

Serenade had a tendril come out of her back and grip Scar’s shoulder tightly. “I said… I need a dragon to get me out of Dragon Scar… Point me to the nearest dragon and I’ll convince him to get me out of this place…”

“Alright, no need to get your claws out…” Scar sighed.

Serenade brought herself to a stand and gave a nasty look to all of her onlookers, making them all avert their eyes and return to what they were doing prior to her fall. She lifted the stool back up and grinned.

“My sister… She has returned…”

Sitting in his new office of operations in the Crystal Empire, Arax was going through file after file, scroll after scroll of various information they had intercepted from The Crystal Empire’s archives. He was tasked with locating anything hidden behind closed doors that could possibly assist Serenade in her conquest. Any secret that could give them even a slight advantage was appreciated by his master because, despite her tremendous growing power, she still was trying to take on the strongest empire in the world, and they were not going to simply let her have it so easily.

Scanning over documents, he heard a tap at his door. “Come in…” Arax grumbled.

When the door swung open, a familiar unicorn stood there, light cyan blue mane dangling down his form, clearly far too long for a stallion, but he was a bit on the effeminate side anyway. This unicorn had a slender figure which was accented with muscle tone and shining orange eyes.

Over his body was, of course, the same style cloak that Arax himself wore, though Arax’s was slightly more decorated, establishing his rank as Serenade’s second-in-command.

Arax nodded at the unicorn before returning to his work, not even making eye contact. “Shield Strong… What brings you here today?”

Shield bowed gently before speaking up. “Sir, I have just received word that Haybale was razed… Burned to a crisp…”

“Are there any survivors?” Arax asked, still not giving Shield his full attention.

“A few, the remaining group of eight civilians all surrendered, and have agreed to assist Master Serenade willingly…” Shield informed.

Arax nodded. “Excellent, then I suppose Blaze has passed his first of many tests…”

“But eight is not that much of a gain for us… He could have left more alive…” Shield argued.

Arax sighed and shook his head while he shifted his attention to a new scroll. “Unnecessary… The point of his mission was to establish fear, leaving only a few survivors works well in doing that… Remember we don’t want to simply cripple Equestria’s military, we have to break their spirit too…”

Shield grumbled and shuffled his feet.

“What was that?” Arax asked.

Sighing, Shield shook his head. “Sir… If I may be so bold… Blaze is a loose cannon. He’s a wildfire… No pun intended… But he’ll burn everything in his path… Can we really trust someone like that?”

Arax didn’t seem even the slightest bit concerned on the matter, his eyes still scanned over documents. “Blaze is nothing more than our lapdog… So long as the one holding his lease can handle him, he will do as he’s told… And the one holding the leash is the Master…”

“What if-“ Shield began but was interrupted as Arax finally looked up and met his eyes with his own.

“If he should become unpleasant we can dispose of him. He’s not your concern, though you have little to worry about… The little pyromaniac is harmless… Let him have his fun, so long as he’s having it within the confines we have set for him… If he ever crosses a line, we will turn him into a puppet like the rest and use his power as we see fit…” Arax explained.

Shield sighed and nodded. “Yes sir…”

“Now if you excuse me, Shield… I have a lot of work to do… As do you…” Arax gestured with his hoof for the unicorn to leave him in peace.

Bowing, Shield obeyed.

Starlight bowed to Princess Luna who instantly ushered her to stand. “Starlight Glimmer, now is not the time for formalities. At this moment, I would consider us equals, would you not?”

Starlight blinked and shrugged as she abandoned her formal behavior and spoke to Luna directly. “Yes… Sorry… I came to deliver the new myself, that’s why I rushed here…”

“What troubles you, Starlight?” Luna raised a brow.

Starlight had traveled within a day at top speed the moment a letter had reached her regarding the Crystal Empire. Luna’s fortifications in Manehatten had been so concrete that she had created a nothing in, nothing out system. Only high profile ponies such as Starlight herself were allowed to enter, and the mail system was shut down.

Luna believed at this point that information was critical and any information that could have been intercepted and used against them would be devastating. Her order now was to only have secure information traveling, thus why Starlight had to arrive in person to deliver the news.

The young mare looked down with guilt. “Well… The Crystal Empire… It has fallen…”

Luna blinked in disbelief. “What of Shining Armor and Cadence?”

Starlight shook her head, not wanting to think about their fate. “Serenade has taken them too…”

“This is most terrible… With this much power at her disposal, there is no doubt in my mind that Serenade will come here eventually…” Luna looked out the window of her new base of operations.

“What will we do?” Starlight asked.

Luna wandered over to the only desk in the room and sat down in front of it. She placed her hooves on top of it and leaned in. “The only thing we can do, Starlight… We will put every bit of fortification we can onto this city. All reserve military forces will be moved here… We can’t afford to lose this place too if that were to happen… Serenade would have Equestria… Our shining empire would be lost to a mad mare…”

“We can’t let that happen…” Starlight agreed.

Luna sighed. “What of Twilight Sparkle? How is her training going?”

Starlight bit her lip. “I… I don’t know. Hopefully well…”

Luna sighed and shook her head. “Starlight… I don’t want to admit this, but with the situation becoming as it is… We may need Twilight’s abilities now more than ever. They may even be the key we need to turn the tide of this battle. It is important that you see her training to its completion… From here on out, I am assigning Spike and you to watch over her full time… You are not to leave the Royal Training Ground until you can do so with Twilight Sparkle…”

“Ma’am… Aren’t I more use out here?” Starlight argued.

Luna just shook her head at the mare, a solemn look on her face. “Your new job is to wait for Twilight… And pray she finishes with enough time for us to make a difference… I shall focus on holding out as long as I can… So long as Serenade does not have my magic, she will not be satisfied… It’s clear that her plan requires her to make sure she covers up any and all loose ends. To our advantage… This means she will continue trying to get to me… So so long as she doesn’t have my magic, she will focus all of her efforts on gaining it…”

Starlight nodded. “I pray for your safety then, Princess…”

Luna smiled at the young mare. “Fear not… Twilight Sparkle will not let us down… It’s not in her blood to do so… I have known her for some time, and Twilight does not quit even when the odds are against her.”

The Crystal Empire has fallen, Serenade's conquest continues. Will they be able to stop her?

Fun fact: Serenade's design took a while to finalize.