-In the Crystal Empire-

Rarity stands outside the castle in the center of the empire, her super form glows gently as the specks of shadow creatures fall and disintegrate on the ground. Her coat is now tinged silver, as her indigo to violet gradient mane has become a dark purple to dark blue gradient. Her once blue eyes have become a hot pink. She looks up as the sky turns pitch black, she stares at the inky blackness and mutters to herself, "Come on, Twilight clear this darkness…" and as she says this the stars start blinking brighter in the sky making everything visible, "Thats what I was hoping to see from her." Rarity says with pride, "Perhaps I should go check on the princess," then as she's walking, she stops, "or I could sit here and bask in the praise of my simply divine new color, I do think this form suits me perfectly."

She reconsiders as she sees all the cowering citizens, the crystal ponies hiding in their homes, no one injured but still scared. "Maybe I should check on the princess after all."

Rarity turns around and sees Shadow and Rainbow Dash both just teleporting in, Rarity squeaks in fear first then scolds them, "My dear sweet Celestia, you cannot just appear wherever you want! I do not need more stress marks!"

Shadow ignores Rarity and looks over at Rainbow Dash, "Did the refugee camp take any casualties Dash?"

Rainbow Dash confidently shakes her head, "Nope not a one, those shadow monsters never stood a chance."

Shadow then looks at Rarity, "I just came from Manehattan, creatures scoured the city to cause mayhem. Do you know where everyone else is, Rarity?"

"Well, darling I believe, Twilight is in the Everfree Forest, Applejack was in Appaloosa, Fluttershy was patrolling Canterlot, Amy stayed in Ponyville, Silver went to Fillydelphia, Sonic went to Applewood, and Pinkie went to Rockville. I haven't heard from anyone yet, but this enemy is indeed attacking us from very vulnerable angles, hometowns, places of sentimental value and even military value. This is just as we predicted during our training." Rarity says this with pride, then she remarks, "We should check on Cadance, poor girl must be mortified."

They enter the castle and see Cadance running over, "Rainbow Dash! Thank you for visiting us- me, under these circumstances, and you must be Shadow, right? Twilight told me a bit about you and the other, um, 'Mobians', it's nice to meet you!"

Shadow nods, "Likewise to you. I too apologize that we have to meet under these unfortunate circumstances, our group has halted an invasion of sorts, we fear this place may have a target on its head."

That's when all four of them feel a deep and dense malice spread all the way from Canterlot to the room they're standing in, Shadow then says, "That was their Master's presence, what the hell is going on in Canterlot?"

Shadow says this and he looks to Cadance as her eyes go wide, while she mumbles, "Shining, please be okay."

Shadow then feels something else his quills stand on end, he sprints to the balcony of the castle, he looks up and he sees a black rift open at the end of a road. He looks toward it as Cadance, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, look at it as well. "Shadow, dear, what am I looking at right now?" Rarity asks in fear, Shadow then responds, "A portal. I don't think the Master came here alone." Rarity then says, "I thought so, I was hoping I was wrong." Shadow then looks down at Rarity and says, "You're the reason we could train for as long as we did, we are prepared for this."

Something quadrupedal steps through the portal, a mechanical Alicorn, with a dark blue chassis, a black gem embedded in his left flank in the shape of the sun and moon intertwined. His horn is red and curved in a way that resembles King Sombra much to the fear of Cadance and the crystal ponies, their mane and shifts through all seven colors of the rainbow as it bellows around it like smoke. Like other members of the Metal Series, he has red pupils with black monitor-like eyes. As he walks, the Alicorn keeps his wings folded, he is taller than Celestia by a foot.

The portal closes and his shadow gets closer to the castle as he slowly trots through the streets, Shadow, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity stand in his way. "Name yourself and state your business, machine." Shadow says with a chaos spear in hand, the machine then responds, "I am Prism, the last seraphim of Master Mephilzo."

"So that's your master's name, huh? Mephilzo, finally got a name to the face I'm going to beat in." Rainbow Dash says excitedly, then Prism's robotic voice gives way to a zealotry-induced rage as he says, "You, foul light bearer, dare to disgrace the name of Master Mephilzo in such a way, in front one of his angels. Your gore will glisten before the dying fires of the lights above. I will begin my judgement on all of you," their horn glows with Sombra's dark magic and their eyes glow green with black smoke. "Creatures of light, your crimes against those who embrace darkness will never be forgiven. Your sentence," A green ball manifests above his head, "is death."

The orb expands exponentially it condenses in seconds, then he aims his horn at the trio, it booms and sends a thin green line of concentrated energy at Rainbow Dash who blocks the beam with her hooves, it pushes her back but then her aura flares out and she diverts the beam, it veers off and detonates in the frozen wasteland, lighting the sky green with the explosion.

Rainbow Dash looks over at Shadow, "Can I use my ability on you Shadow?"

Shadow grimaces, "Yeah, just don't overdo it, last time it gave me a migraine."

Rainbow's eyes glow and she smirks, then Rainbow Dash's cutie mark appears on his cheek, Rainbow almost laughs but keeps her composure, then she looks forward, "Let's go."

Dash bursts forward with her hoof wound-back, Prism doesn't look impressed then his eyes focus when Dash's hoof wraps itself in a rainbow cone, when her hoof flies forward it creates a small Sonic Rainboom, and it makes instant contact with Prism. a small shockwave blasts out from impact as Dash sends Prism flying into the frozen wastes at light speed. Prism's wings expand and he uses the speed himself. Blasting off, creating a streak behind him that changes colors, Rainbow Dash accepts the challenge and follows after him.

As Rainbow catches up, she starts spinning herself in the air like a sideways top, generating an electric charge, rainbow colored lightning coalesce in orbs under her wings, Prism sees this and fires lasers of dark magic that Rainbow Dash barrel rolls out of the way of, then she opens her wings charged with energy, holds out a hoof and says, "Rainblast!" the lightning shoots out, zig zagging toward Prism who tries to escape it but Dash adjusts her aim, "Oh no, you aren't getting away from me!" as the lightning twists and twirls to follow Prism's flight.

Prism chaos controls, the lightning fizzles out, and winds his hoof back to bash Rainbow in the face, but he gets his chest pierced by a chaos spear from above, sending the machine to the ground below to explode on impact.

"This machine is based on you Dash, flies just like you." Shadow says while looking down at the new crater.

"Yeah, good choice of pony, but making me an Alicorn feels like a bit much, especially one with Sombra's horn." Then Dash looks at Shadow, "Also I am sick of seeing myself as a robot."

The ground fractures from where they are standing as a sphere of green envelops the crater and green lightning licks the icy ground tearing it apart. At first the two aren't worried, until they feel the machine's power increasing. "Wait. That's not possible. How can this robot go super, without an emerald in sight?! What is this!?" Rainbow Dash yells out.

The pair see the green aura shift to black as the energy spires into the sky, stepping out of the black spire is an organic alicorn with a black coat, vestigial wings covering his eyes, and two sets of wings on his back, his flank has a splotch of dark blue to show the black crystalline cutie mark. His horn now longer and a brighter red and his mane flows like Celestia's mane, but with rainbow colors, "My connection to the Void is absolute. I am the elite of my siblings. I am Seraphim Prism Lightshatter."

Prism uses a chaos control and hovers in front of Shadow, grabbing him with telekinesis, and slinging him down to the ground, Rainbow Dash tries to intervene and gets hit by a blast of black energy, then Prism turns his attention to Shadow as he opens his four wings and orbs of black manifest in the wings, then they all start firing out in a barrage, pelting the ground with rapid-fire explosions.

As smoke rises, and clears, Prism sees a purple shield with Rarity standing in it. Seraphim Prism looks around for Shadow and Dash, then Rarity clears her voice, "Excuse me, Prism, your opponent is standing before you."

"You are not who I wish to kill at the moment, you will die soon enough." Prism turns his back and then before he knows it, he's inside of the shield Rarity had created, while Rarity floats in the air where Prism once was, realizing now that the two swapped places somehow. "What manner of magic was that? You've never used that spell before, according to recently acquired data."

"It's Generosity, darling, not a spell. Ever since my dear friends and I were separated from our elements, they began to manifest within us as special abilities when we are in our super forms. Your 'data' will tell you my element is generosity, mine may be the most complex of any of our new powers. I can give anyone anything of mine, we didn't swap places, I gave you my place and because this ability can't kill me, I get sent to where you were." Rarity smiles, "As you may imagine this ability allows me to get quite creative, I can give people my memories, or my coat color, I can also give inanimate objects qualities of mine. Let's say hypothetically, I used Chaos Control, since I am being slowed down, I could give someone else the effect of 'being slowed down' or make the inside of a shield an enclosed chaos control. If I exploded, I could simply give someone else the explosion. If someone was hurt, I could give them a bit of my good health. If someone needed more power, I could simply give them mine," she gives Prism a side eye while Prism bashes himself angrily against the shield, "Yoohoo, Rainbow, Shadow, he's sufficiently irritated."

Rarity then lets down the shield as Shadow and Rainbow both speed toward Prism ready to attack him, Prism looks left and right and straightens out his four wings ready to cut down Rainbow, a millisecond before impact, Rainbow Dash swaps places with Shadow, the cutie mark on his face glowing as he appears, but he preemptively blocks the attack with his forearms. Before Prism could turn around Rainbow Dash lands a Rainboom laced punch right to his face, sending him flying on the follow through. As he tries to right himself while rocketing through the air, he gets stopped instantly, making his body suffer thousands of Gs of force, crushing a few of his ribs to pieces. he sees Rarity in the air moving her glowing horn in the opposite direction to where Prism was flying. Rarity slingshots Prism back to Shadow, who smiles as he's swapped with Rainbow Dash again, who's in a drop kick stance with her legs coiled back moving blisteringly fast.

Rainbow grits her teeth, "Rain-drop Kick!" her hooves shoot out like shotgun slugs, the impact shifts the color of the atmosphere for a second, and Prism is sent flying so fast, that he exits Equestria's atmosphere in 2 seconds. Prism floats in the vacuum of space, blood erupting from his nose. He tries to move his body, but it doesn't let him. He breathes her last breath while looking at the planet from thousands of miles away. Prism Lightshatter fades to dust as his super form powers down.

Rainbow Dash twists and lands, looking up, she then says, "And she's outta here, man aren't my Loyalty powers cool or what? Just imagine the stuff we can pull off just me and you swapping places, me keeping all my momentum."

"Should I have mentioned to poor Prism that your abilities are the most straightforward?" Rarity says with a bit of a smirk, then Shadow responds, "I disagree, Twilight's element ability, the element of Magic might be the most straightforward."

Rarity narrows her eye, "Yes well, I wasn't counting hers, Twilight doesn't need more abilities, and just having an increased reservoir of energy when super is not only perfect for her, but it allowed her to go a full month in a super form, which blew us all away. I wish desperately to get past two weeks. I would make another one of those Chaos Control Bubbles to train in, but we don't have time anymore."

Dash looks back, "So, should we go to Canterlot? I don't like the feeling I'm getting from there."

Shadow crosses his arms, "No, not yet, we don't know if we're safe to leave yet, another one of those machines could appear here."

The three heroes stand vigilant in the Crystal Empire, waiting with bated breath for a sign to leave the Empire to go help their friends in Canterlot.