Tirek was not one for careless damage, especially damage to the castle he wished to use as his seat of power. Unfortunately, Tirek was big. Many of the doors in Canterlot castle were... re-sized by... unconventional means. With its integrity compromised, it suffered quite a bit from the cross-fire and deflections of Twilight and Tirek's Battle. Fortunately, ponies don't build castles on the sides of mountains without thinking of natural(or not so natural) disasters.

The castle was built with a break-away system in place. When key walls or support beams get damaged that section, usually a tower or hall, would collapse and crumple into pieces and fall onto the royal labyrinth. There was a reason the princesses built such and extensive, forbidden place. This system was not the only, and certainly not the first, line of defense the castle architecture had. In addition to a keep and several small storm-holds, every staff wing had an arcane teleport chute that lead to the Royal Guard Barracks, were ponies would be escorted to safety from there.

It was these things that left Celestia's court room empty when the Harmony Rainbow waved through all of Equestia and some land beyond. After the wave however, the room contained six ponies.

"Mom, what just happened?" asked the crackly sounding filly.

Since the pink alicorn seemed to go catatonic, Thermos took it upon himself to answer his sister.

"We were teleported, Static. I don't know who did it or how they did it, but we're in Equestia now."

"Yay, we're home... Can it be home if we've never been here before?"

Thermos just shrugged and walked over to his mother, who was still sullen. As this was happening, Kinetic had been looking around the room as if he were searching for something and Celestia had made her way over to Cadence.

"Cadence?... Cadence, are you alright?"

Her head slowly turned to Celestia.

"Auntie, what is that?"

Her voice was deadpan, but in the worse possible way. The action Cadence preformed during her question caused eveypony to go quite. Thermos and his mother went into the back office of the court room, to both give and get privacy. Kinetic, who was looking over the door at the time, dipped his head and left. Celestia simply frowned and closed her eyes at the fact. Static was still hovering in front of cadence, but was now sagging as she noticed the pink hoof directed at her.

"W-what do you mean? I mean, no, I'm not a pony, I'm technically a shape-shifter, but that's not that important right. I'm still part you, I'm still you dau-"

"No, don't say it. You just-"

"Cadence, don't say anything you'll regr-"

"No, Auntie she just- I mean, it just assumes I'm its mother when there is no way I would..." Cadence seemed to trail of without a way to put her feelings into word.

"No way you would what, Cadence? Berth her? Nurture her? Care for her? What is so impossible that it prevents you from having such a relationship?"

"Love!"

Again everything went quite, but not for long. Eventually, the sound of wet drops followed by the slam of the main door caught everyponies attention. With it, came the realization that Static had made them. Silence returned for a moment or two, just enough time to realize you forgot to breath.

"What is wrong with you Cadence? This isn't the mare that watched and played with my student all those years ago. What do you have to-" Celestia started to rant before she saw what Cadence was doing.

She was holding her breath, only to let it go and hyperventilate after her face turned red. Her hooves were pressed tightly to the sides of her head as she charged her horn. Celestia had seen her niece like this before. She was having a panic attack. It hadn't happened in a few years, but with something like this, time has no real hold on it. Celestia knew that she had to calm her down before her horn fully charged. Past experience told her that if left to her own devices, Cadence would purposely overload her horn for a magical surge.

Celestia's first encounter with these attacks happened just before she took on Twilight. She had learned of her connection to the Crystal Empire and was told to do a report on the region for school. She seemed fine at first. Whenever asked on her progress on the paper she would respond calmly that she was getting it done.

Nopony suspected a thing until her teacher asked to see her progress on the paper two days before it was due. After confessing that she had not even started on it, her teacher was sympathetic and tried to help, but he could only do so much and pass her. while she handled herself calmly in front of her teacher and on the street walking home she could not calm down.

Celestia came in to check up on her only to witness her fling across the room in a self-induced surge. When calmed and asked what had happened she explained that even though she fully understood the situation and had several options, she could not calm down, which frustrated her, which upset her more, which frustrated her even more... Eventually Cadence came to Twilight's lessons, particularly the ones on focus and breathing. From then on they were inseparable.

"C-Cadence! Cadence, calm down. Breath, Cadence breath..." Celestia put a foreleg around the pink alicorn.

Finally listening to her aunt, Cadence started to breath in shuddering breaths and calm down. Her hooves were still on the sides of her head, but they were no longer pressing her skull in. Do to her niece's still confused state, Celestia decided to slowly ask some questions to get the conversation back on track.

"Cadence, Why can't you care for Static? You don't have to answer right away. Take your time."

After a few shuddery breaths, Cadence tried to voice her thoughts. "She was... bor-brought into existence, I guess, through a means absent of love. She is here because she is the byproduct of a deal. That... that's just not right."

"So, your holding that against her...?"

"No... I... I just..." Cadence started breathing heavy. "She should not have called me mother. Shinning and I have been trying so hard for foals... and then we get one... through a deal? Its not right."

Some lights were starting to turn on in Celestia's head. "Are you saying its not right because its not fair to her?"

"Well, yes mostly," Cadence muttered as she fidgeted with her hooves.

That was the one thing Celestia hoped and feared she would hear. She then grabbed her niece by the shoulders and leaned in. With a small frown on her face and a sternness in her voice, Celestia lectured.

"Cadence, listen to me and listen carefully. It doesn't matter how she got here, you should know this. You will learn to love her as if she were your own without any problems, simply because that's the mare you are. However, none of this matters right now, because right now there is a filly who thinks that the one she shares her very essence with hates her, a filly that thinks her mother and only family refuses her purely for who she is," Celestia gave a small smile and continued, "a filly that needs you."

Cadence froze. Like throwing a torch in a dark tunnel, her mind light up. That nervous cloudiness that she was afraid of left. How could she have been so inconsiderate?

"I-I... I need to go." Cadence rushed over to the door. Before leaving she turned to her aunt and shouted, "I have a daughter to apologize to!"

After the door slammed shut for the second time in the past five minutes, Celestia smiled, proud that her niece had put the pieces together. After a moment of thought alone in the room, Celestia frowned then looked around.

"I better go find my new son before I look like a hypocrite." and with a laugh she left.

"Auntie, what is that?"

That was Thermos' cue to leave.This was going to get ugly quick, and not the good kind of ugly. Instead, he decided to go have a talk with his mother. He knew exactly why she was upset, he had about seventy percent of her knowledge and memories, but he also had knowledge from his father. That knowledge contradicted the assumptions and ideas of his mother. He had to try to get that knowledge to her, but because his father left out memory magic, he had to do it the old fashion way.

"Mom, can we talk?"

Luna was apprehensive for a few reasons, but none of them stopped her from nodding. She brought him into existence, ergo she was responsible for him.

"Mom, I... I know how you feel. You feel like Aunt Celestia tricked you out of your punishment. Like... Like you finally got a fate that fit your guilt, and she took it from you. I know this, but I also know that you were wrong." He went up to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "And I think you know it too."

With her paradox of mind and heart spoken out loud, she wept again. Not the hard, frightened tears she had in Tartarus, but quite, soft ones that were held back for a long time.

"You keep setting up rules for yourself and your sister breaks them down. So, lets make one she can't stop."

Luna looked into his orange eyes. They were shimmering with determination and hope. She was confused by his last sentence, but also very curious.

"I'm going to be leaving."

"What?" Luna may not have known him for long, but he understood and cared for her in the past two minutes more than her sister had in the past two years. She was suppose to be his parent, guardian, and mother, but he was giving her care. It didn't feel right.

"I'm going to leave and stay away, but not far and I'll keep in touch. I'll be in Ponyville, that's the place you had that Nightmare Night, right? This will be your punishment. Come find me, but only after you've forgiven yourself."

"Thermos, I... No, you can't do that. I-I... We..."

"Mother, Aunt Celestia had to wait a thousand years for you. I don't have that much time. I'm sure she missed you the minute you were on the moon. I won't leave yet, but I will."

"How do I forgive myself for almost dooming Equestia?" Luna ask flinging here hooves to the side.

Thermos smirked... then shrugged, "I don't know."

Cadence rushed down the hall, eager to fix her mistake, but ran into an impasse. The hall forked. Standing next to a crumpling wall was a Guard and Kinetic. while the guard was at attention facing the way Cadence had come, Kinetic was Scrutinizing the wall, or what was left of it. As she approached, Kinetic turned to face her and the Guard saluted.

"Have you seem were Static went?" Then she turned more to the Guard. "A small grey pegasus filly?"

The Guard's eyes lit with recognition as he pointed out the hole in the wall to his left. At the same, Kinetic walked up to the left of the Guard and, do to his height, pointed to the right by sticking his foreleg over the Guard's head. Cadence stared in confusion At the two of them.

*Creeeeeak, Crack. fwush-BAM*

A broken section of ceiling came loose and would have crushed the Guard had it not been for the fact that it had impacted Kinetic's foreleg and busted into dust. The Guard flinched and had to suppress a cuss for the sake of the Princess in his presence. Kinetic didn't move an iota. After the dust had settled, Kinetic grinned and swung his foreleg around to point out the hole in the wall, matching the Guard. With the confusion cleared up, Cadence turned to head out onto the palace grounds(what was left of it, anyway). She looked through the grounds for a minute or two before finding her.

She was so happy to find her. she could set things right. She started to head towards the filly when she noticed that she was talking to somepony. She was concerned and slowly got closer. She heard a stallions voice, but couldn't make out what he said. When she got a good look at him, he was hugging Static. Her concern wasn't justified, but was replaced with a different kind of concern. She recognized the stallion.

It was her husband, Shining Armour.

"Love!"

'She doesn't love me? My own mother doesn't love me... Static's hooves felt heavy. A weightlessness that she didn't even realize was there simply disappeared. With the exception  of her wings, her entire body froze and trembled. It was an unsteady balance that was kept alive by the silence of the room. When her tear had made its way to the bottom of her face it hung for a second before falling. when it hit the ground the balance was broken.

The small pegasus raced out of the room. She headed straight down the hall and out a hole in the wall, the tears in her eyes preventing her from seeing her brother and a guard at the end of the hall. She flew for a while before landing on a tilted column to rest her wings. Her ability to control electrons and store them was based off of the Arcane Perspective Theorem. This is what allows her to technically be in contact with the ground without losing her charge, magic, and soul. Although, this only works to a certain point. Being in direct, undeniable contact  with the ground was dangerous, and the same went for floors and metal poles. But her mind was not on that subject at the moment.

What do I do now?... Like her brothers, she had shared knowledge, from her father and her m-... Cadence. While this was still decades over what a filly her... physical age should know, she had nothing on what to do in this situation. She simply wept.

"Are you hurt?"

Static started for a second before turning to look. In her crying and self-questioning she didn't hear the stallion approach. With the tears in her eyes, she could only make out a white coat and some gold armor. Not wanting to bother the guard to much, she replied while wiping her eyes.

"N-no, I'm fi-." She stopped as she recognized the stallion. "Sh-Shinning Armor?"

"What? Expecting some two-bit guard instead?" Shinning's grin turned into a softer smile as he continued. "And don't tell me you're fine. You wouldn't be in this rubble crying if you were fine. So, tell me what happened... Please?"

With her relationship with Cadence gone, this stallion was no longer her 'daddy' or any sort of relation. While she knew a lot about him, he didn't know she existed yet. 'Half truths. That's what I'll tell him.'

"My... My mom is gone and I'm not sure what to do." She dipped her head and looked away.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but are you sure she's gone? Many ponies got separated these past few days, she might looking for you." Very little casualties were reported from Tirek's attack, but panic and fear caused many to get separated. Shinning knew that it was a possibility, but he assume the little filly's mother was dead.

"N-no she told me she doesn't want to see me."

This shocked him. How could a mare, no, a mother be so cruel to her own flesh and blood in a time like this. Something else had to be in play here. He sighed and walked closer to the filly.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" She shook her head slowly. He sat. "What's your name little filly?"

"Static."

"Static is a very nice name." He paused for a moment. "Do you think your told you that because you made a mistake?"

Not having thought of it that way, she became nervous and started to question herself. "I... I dunno... Maybe?"

"I don't know if that's what happened, but I know that ponies make mistakes. That never goes away. If you made a mistake or not is between you and your mother, but I know for a fact that she made one. No foal should go without parents. So I'll make you a deal."

Static looked up at Shinning as he smirked.

"Me and my wife have been trying for foals for a while, and it hasn't been working. If things don't work out between you and your mother, we could offer you a place to call home. You'd have to except the fact that you might get a little brother or sister anyway, but we wouldn't care for you any less. You can stay with us until we find your mother and we'll try to help you through whatever problem you have and if things don't work you have a family at the ready. What do you say?"

She had Cadences memories of Shinning, but what was happening now proved that he was just as kind and loving as she thought. She didn't care about the consequences of her actions at this point. What he offered is what she wanted. So with watering eyes she dove into his chest and hugged him.

Taken by surprise at first, he hugged her back and smiled. Even in the fillies embrace, his guard training was still working. He heard hoofsteps in the grass behind him. Before he could turn to look, his attention was brought back to the filly as she muttered into his fur.

"Its a deal."

Those words, as quite as they were, were heard by the approaching mare. Shinning gave the filly a small squeeze before looking to find his wife standing their with tears streaming down her face.

'A deal? They made a deal. And I just got done freaking out over the fact that she came to me-no, us as the result of a deal. I'm such a moron.' She took a few steps forward. "S-Static?"

The little filly looked up from Shinning's chest. "Mom...?"

Shinning's eyes went wide. "...Whaaaaat?" Next Chapter: To Ponyville! Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes