Finally, I’m don’t with this one. This took me weeks to finish and look at it! Scaling is off, the ponies are either too big or too small and nothing looks right. Still, I’m actually done with this. Woo!

***

So this is a long time coming. This takes place sometime after Shining is rendered heartless, though what little emotion he has left is surging through him at this point. His desire to rid himself of the shame of being tricked by Chrysalis has led him to violently purge Equestria of all the Changelings hiding among ponies. While their queen is gone, the changelings are still a threat that could create strife.

At least, thats what Shining claimed.

Mainly, he really just wanted to do something and this was ‘something’. This purge lasted weeks, with Shining and his guard invading villages left and right to capture and imprison those suspected of being a changeling. Even if there were none in the village, many were taken prisoner for ‘testing’. In this village, Shining chooses to use his shield spell to trap the townsponies so that it’s easier to round them up.

The few changelings that did escape, fled to the Crystal empire, the only safe haven in Equestria. Somehow, a deal was made and they were allowed to live in the Empire, safe from the violence led by Captain Shining Armor. This lead to further divide, as their alliance led to Shining be able to justify his actions by claiming he was attempting to prevent such a thing. The populace believed him though Celestia was unsure if doing this was wise.

All in all, the Empire gained an dangerous ally and Equestria justified a near genocide.

***

For those who don’t know, my Dark Star AU is my take on the Crystal war Timeline. In this timeline, Twilight was picked up by Sombra and ends up as one of his chief advisers (and consort). She works alongside him against Equestria. Shining is a broken stallion with (literally) no love in his heart due to being attacked my Chrysalis and Cadence is a traumatized mare after being imprisoned by Chrysalis under Canterlot for over a year. NMM decided to join forces with Celestia after getting her ass beat by Twilight and Sombra. Celestia is just trying to get through this war without losing too much of both herself or her citizens.

Note, I kind of wanted to make this darker, by adding some blood and stuff but I felt it wouldn’t fit. It’s not like ponies wouldn’t get killed in this AU, just that here, the point was to capture, kill or purge so blood would be much. IDK if that makes sense.