Disclaimer: All MLP:FiM characters belong to Hasbro and DHX Media. I do not own any of them except my OC.

Previously….

King Zachary: I can't wait to go home! It's hard being the ruler of Equestria.

Pinkie Pie: I've been super busy. I would stay around and chat, but I have more work to do.

Fluttershy: I need to go treat him.

Rarity: I have to get back to work. I have a load of clothes that must go to Manehattan by the end of the week.

Applejack: I need to get back to work though. These apples aren't gonna buck themselves.

Rainbow Dash: I would like to stay and chat with you about cool stuff, but I need to go see the Wonderbolts about weather patterns. Sorry I couldn't hang around longer.

Twilight: Anyways, I need to write these findings about ancient magic to Princess Celestia. She wanted me to find if it mentioned anything about the Alicorn Amulet.

King Zachary: I can't BELIEVE IT! My friends have been ignoring me all day. They have a little bit of time to talk to me, then they say they have to go "do something." YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME! BITTER BETRAYAL. EQUESTRIA THERE IS A NEW KING IN TOWN. THE PONY OF SHADOWS! AND ALL WILL BOW TO ME! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Castle of the Two Sisters was completely converted to the Castle of Shadows. There were dark crystals on the walls, there were Ender Dragons guarding every hallway, and in the throne room, was the Pony of Shadows. Outside there were lightning and thunder going off every five seconds. The Pony of Shadows went outside to view the Everfree forest.

Pony of Shadows: Ahh. It feels so good to be in this form again. I've missed it so much. I am so much more powerful when I'm in this form. Hmmm, where should I strike first? Ahhh. I know. PONYVILLE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Meanwhile, in Twilight's castle….

Twilight: Hmm…. I wonder where Zachary is. I haven't seen him since yesterday. He just teleported away with a bit of sadness written on his face. Let me check his castle. Zachary? Zachary? Nope. He's not anywhere in his castle. Let me go back to mine.

Twilight leaves King Zachary's castle and returns to hers. When she goes in the library, Spike burps out a letter from Princess Celestia saying Starswirl has some bad news.

Spike: Did you find anything Twilight?

Twilight: Nope. That's strange. It's a Saturday. He should be at home not in Canterlot.

Spike: *burps out letter*

Twilight: What's this? A letter from Princess Celestia?

Spike: What does it say?

Twilight: WHAT? Starswirl says he has bad news and he wants all of our friends to be in the castle. I'll be right back.

Twilight flies out of her castle and gathers all of her friends. They come to the castle and they wait for Starswirl. He arrives along with the rest of the Pillars and they all are meeting in the throne room.

Twilight: Starswirl. What's happened?

Starswirl: My dearest Twilight: I'm afraid that a mighty foe has returned.

Twilight: Who?

Starswirl: None other than the Pony of Shadows.

Twilight: No. That can't be. He was banished to Limbo after we freed Stygian. He couldn't revert back could he?

Starswirl: Don't worry, it wasn't Stygian who turned back into the Pony of Shadows. It was somepony else.

Twilight: How did you know of this Starswirl?

Starswirl: I was sitting on a balcony in Canterlot when I heard yelling from afar. I looked through my telescope and saw the King angry. He fired magic at the old castle in the Everfree Forest and turned into a shadow and disappeared. Next thing I know, the castle was converted into a castle full of dark crystals, dragons, and thunderstorms.

Fluttershy: Why would Zachary be angry?

Flash Magnus: From what we believe, we think that his friends didn't care about him and therefore turned to darkness and is now the Pony of Shadows.

Rainbow Dash: Of course we care about him. I don't know why he would think that.

Twilight: I think Rainbow, that he just wanted to hang out, but we were too busy, so it pained him and made him gone mad.

Starswirl: We must go to the Everfree forest to at least reason with him first. If not, we might have to banish him. Celestia and Luna are coming too and will catch up with us at the castle.

The Mane Six, Celestia, Luna, Starlight, and the Pillars walked through the Everfree Forest and came to the Castle of Shadows. What they saw was horrifying to look at. There was thunder and lightning everywhere, the castle was covered in dark crystal, and there were dragons flying on the castle grounds.

Rainbow Dash: So this is the Castle of Shadows. Looks pretty darn creepy to me. *lightning strikes down near her* woah. That was a close one

Celestia: Indeed. We must be careful not to get struck by lightning because what we are seeing here is very dangerous.

Luna: Not even the scariest of my wrath can come close to this. He is one mad pony.

Twilight: You can say that again.

Starswirl: PONY OF SHADOWS! SHOW YOURSELF AND FACE US!

Pony of Shadows: *laughing evilly* *lightning striking everywhere* *teleports everypony to his throne room hallway*

Rarity: I know it's supposed to be an evil castle, but must it have a bunch of sharp dark crystals everywhere?

Twilight: Rarity, we don't have time to talk about castle decor. We must find the Pony of Shadows and try to reason with him. Here it is.

Pony of Shadows: *saying with an evil tone* Welcome to the Kingdom of Shadows. This used to be Celestia's and Luna's old castle, but I turned it into something better.

Starswirl: Cease this madness. You must return everything back to normal.

Pony of Shadows: Return everything to normal? HA NEVER! You dare to even reason with me when I am much more powerful than you? NOT A CHANCE! *lightning goes off again*

Twilight: Why are you doing this?

Pony of Shadows: Hmmm. BECAUSE I CAN! YOU HONESTLY THINK I WOULD CARE ABOUT FRIENDSHIP WHEN YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TURNED YOUR BACKS ON ME!

Twilight: *with a worried tone* That is not true. We did not turn our backs on you.

Pony of Shadows: ENOUGH! YOU WILL ALL BOW TO ME! AND YOU WILL PAY! *blasts dark magic* HAHAHA! TRY TO STOP ME IF YOU CAN! HAHAHAHAHA!

Starswirl: READY OPEN THE PORTAL! NOW!

Everypony opened the portal to limbo. The Pony of Shadows saw it coming so his ponyself tried coming out to get the portal closed.

Starswirl: Twilight! Push him in!

Twilight: *Charges up horn* Huh?

Pony of Shadows: *King Zachary sticks his head out*

Twilight: There's a pony in there. *Flies in* Zachary, why are you doing this?

King Zachary: Don't even try reasoning with me. It won't work.

Twilight: Do you honestly think that we would turn our backs on you?

King Zachary: I tried hanging out with you and your friends, but you all had something to do. So why even bother trying? You cannot fix the hole you and your friends carved into my heart.

Twilight: You can't automatically assume that just because we are busy, that we don't care about you anymore.

King Zachary: SILENCE! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS! THE DARKNESS WILL NEVER END! *blows a magical explosion throwing Twilight out of the Pony of Shadows*

Pony of Shadows: I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS! *closes up portal to limbo with his dark magic* DRAGONS! GET THEM! *dragons use fire breath*

Suddenly, the elements glowed and knocked away the dragons. They then fired the laser beams at the Pony of Shadows. He fought back with his dark magic, but the Elements were too strong for him.

Pony of Shadows: NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP IT NOW! *fights the laser beams with dark magic* I WILL NOT LOSE! AGHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Elements banished the Pony of Shadows into his own castle carpet in the throne room. Everypony was at a loss of words. For Celestia and Luna, they just lost a ruler. For the Pillars, Starlight, and the Mane Six, they just lost a very valuable friend.

To be continued…..