Three
In the darkest, cold corners of Equestria, was an empire. A criminal empire, of which no "princess" had any control, ruled by an organization of pure cruelty, greed and corruption, the Hoof Clan, led by a unicorn stallion of grey fur and black mane and tail, both of which were cut short. The unicorn wore armour of pure iron, and had a long and sharp horn. His cutie mark was a knife.
As the wind blew outside, cold and bitter, an earth pony stallion entered Shredder's small training dojo with a message from the sentries.
"Master Shredder." The stallion bowed low before his master, trying to suppress his fear. "Splinter has been located."
Shredder looked down on the earth pony before him. Earth ponies. Ugh. They were weak. Pegasi were stupid. How an earth pony like Splinter could have defeated him all those years ago was beyond Shredder. It fueled his anger. The embarrassment. And then, for his own daughter to run off with a pegasus stallion. And for what? Love? Pathetic.
"Where?"
"A village near Bridlewood, sir."
Shredder chuckled, a dark sound that caused his messenger's fur to stand up on end. "Finally. After all these long years. Assemble the Hoof Clan. We'll burn this village to the ground."
Unicorns were the superior ponies, and when Shredder gained enough power to take Equestria from the alicorn "princesses" by force, unicorns would finally rule over all of Equestria, as they were meant to do.
It was a dark and cloudy night, as Splinter sent his five foals up to their rooms for bed.
His sons were teenagers now, 17 years having flown by. The four colts were growing into bright and kind young stallions before his very eyes. Splinter couldn't be more proud of them, or young Flickerspell, who was already 11, already old enough to start discovering her own special talent.
He sighed. He was worried about her. Despite being born an alicorn, the most powerful type of pony, her magic had not grown much. She could barely get herself off the ground with her wings, and the strongest magic she could muster with her horn was a flickering light. The same flickering light magic she had been able to do since the day Splinter had found her in the middle of the woods.
At least she hadn't been named in vain.
As Splinter himself was getting ready to settle down for the night, something caught his eye. Through his window, he noticed a movement in the shadows, something- or somepony- had darted across the path from his cottage to the village marketplace.
Splinter flattened his ears. Something very bad was about to happen.
"Boys! Flickerspell!" He called, and just as the foals came trotting back downstairs, the first fireball hit the tallest building in the village, and chaos erupted.