“And now, Celestia you will bow before me!” the bug like Chrysalis roared as Celestia lay beaten at her hooves. The white alicorn groaned and her horn sparked futilely in the bright mid afternoon air. All around them, the reception had gone silent as ponies stared at their defeated Queen in shock. The unthinkable had happened... Queen Celestia, the Immortal Goddess of the Sun had been bested by... by... by a bug!

“Hahahaha, you know, I’ve been planning this day for months now,” Chrysalis continued, bending down to whisper in Celestia’s ear yet keeping her voice loud enough for everypony assembled to hear it. “All my plotting, all my planning, all it really hinged on was you being too stupid to fail to recognize the fact that your own daughter had been replaced by an imposter. And it worked!”

Celestia made another feeble noise but other than that was unable to put up any form of defense to the taunting bug.

“Look at you, you’re nothing but a pathetic weakling,” Chrysalis said before kicking Celestia in the jaw and then walking over to Shining Armor. She then kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Shining darling, as your wife I’d like to request you dropping the barrier now sweetie.”

Shining Armor nodded his head stupidly and his horn flashed once. The massive force field erected around Canterlot fell in a single solid movement and the thousands strong force of changelings fell upon it in a black tide, destroying buildings and attacking ponies.

Or... that was what Chrysalis was expecting to happen. The reality was... rather different.

Instead of reaching the city... the changeling drones slammed head first into another invisible barrier. There was a moment of confusion that spread through the swarm. There was supposed to only be one barrier! The confusion turned to certain dread as one looked up to see another new barrier above them... they were trapped!

“What? What is this?!” Chrysalis raged in equal parts confusion and anger.

“This is what happens to those who attack my ponies,” Celestia’s calm and regal voice said from above her. Chrysalis’s head whipped back to see that Celestia was not only back on her hooves, but that the alicorn was also standing directly behind her, staring down at her with merciless eyes.

“I-but-how?” Chrysalis demanded in absolute shock. “I just beat you!”

“No. You did not,” Celestia stated, her face a mask of neutrality except for her eyes. Those purple orbs glared at Chrysalis with the fury of the sun itself and the Changeling Queen suddenly felt a new emotion. Absolute fear.

With little to no effort, Celestia’s golden aura wrapped around Chrysalis’s head and forced it upwards to stare at her children caught between the two force fields.

“Now you will bear witness to the punishment for your crimes,” Celestia informed her before glancing over her shoulder at a black coated pegasus. “Captain Tornado Kicker, please give the order.”

Tornado snapped a quick salute before turning over his shoulder and shouting. “Light them up boys!”

As she struggled in Celestia’s unflinching grip Chrysalis’s eyes widened at the command and a wordless cry left her mouth as the space between the shields suddenly exploded in a flash of bright blue electricity. For Chrysalis, who was simultaneously connected to each of the drones other than those on covert missions, the effect was horrendous.

Her body tried to contort in agony, wanting to twist in on itself as her children were killed in the thousands by the magical storm now raging between the two force fields. However, she was unable to. Celestia’s magic had taken hold of her entire body and held her still, forcing her to stare at the consequences of her actions. All that Celestia allowed was control of her lips and throat, both of which were too busy screaming out in unimaginable pain to do anything dangerous.

When her children were finally no more, the top forcefield dropped and a team of pegasi flew over, raising a large wind which then swept away the ash of obliterated changeling bodies. It was going to be used to help fertilize the fields of the nearby farming communities.

Still, Celestia did not release Chrysalis. She held her there in the air and slowly turned her back to look into her eyes which were still hot enough to make Tartarus look like a frozen ocean.

“I am Queen Celestia of Equestria. You are nothing but a momentary annoyance with delusions of grandeur who seems to think that I am a fool,” Celestia said, each of her words sharp enough to draw blood. “You sought to enslave my people. Make them nothing but mindless cattle from which you could siphon love,” Celestia said, her eyes burning into Chrysalis.

“You thought you could impersonate and enslave both my precious daughter and my son-in law. Two beings whom I have known since their foalhood. You had the audacity to ‘hide’ Cadence within the well mapped out caverns beneath my city,” Celestia continued, her voice becoming even sharper, each word becoming a fiery brand.

“Apparently, you also forgot about my sister,” she added with a hint of pride entering into her eyes. “Your little ‘coup’ was over the very second Cadence fell asleep in those caves, you arrogant insect.”

Celestia stepped away from Chrysalis and her horn glowed dimly causing the Changeling Queen to flinch but all Celestia’s horn did was repair the small black stain which had previously marred it.

“Now then, I know that your species’ Queens can jump from one body to another so long as you have one prepared which I imagine you do, so I won’t pretend that my killing you will be at all final,” Celestia stated as her horn flared, bringing forth a great golden blade from where she’d hidden it in the alter. “But I want you to know one very important thing about me Chrysalis,” she continued as she brought the blade up to hang over the Changeling Queen’s neck.

“What?” Chrysalis asked in a strangled voice.

“For those who harm the ones that I love the most, there is only one thing that I will deliver to them,” Celestia said in a firm measured voice. “Death.”

The sword fell, followed by Chrysalis’s head.

Celestia’s horn flashed and all that was left of the Changeling Queen’s body burned to ash. Then she turned to address the rest of the reception who were staring at her with utter awe.

“Well then, my little ponies, I do believe we have a wedding to attend, do we not?” she asked with a kind smile.

The black haired woman sat across from the man in salvaged power armor. Her dark, oddly shaped eyes scanned him thoughtfully and Ashur just knew she was deciding whether or not to try and kill him. Judging by the modified Enclave power armor she was wearing which had been painted steel grey and embossed with the logo of Lyon’s Brotherhood, he assumed that she probably could if she wanted to.

That of course was before he considered the customized infiltrator which he recognized as having once belonged to Everett hanging on her back and the technological marvel of a sword at her hip, not to mention the large one strapped to her back. All in all, the woman he now knew as Paladin Sarah Summers was not someone who he wanted as an enemy.

Meanwhile, within the woman’s head, an argument was going on.

I should kill him, Sarah thought. He’s responsible for the deaths of more people than I’ll ever know.

While that is true, we caution you to look at the options before you, the other voice in her head replied. Nim, previously known as Nightmare, spoke within her mind in a calm and measured tone.

Oh? Sarah asked with a raised mental eyebrow as she sipped at the water bottle she was holding within one of her armored mits. What are they?

You are already well aware of them. You are simply stalling, Nim replied pointedly. Yet we suppose if we must go over them then we will.

Sarah remained silent and set the water bottle down before moving a finger up to lightly brush a strand of hair from her forehead, ignoring the lingering pain from the ugly wound which had come courtesy of John Bear’s deathclaw gauntlet.

Very well, Nim stated, sounding a bit irritated. Our options are as thus; we either keep Ashur in power which will keep the natives of this place in a state of slavery yet will enable the area to become a superpower where Ashur here will eventually improve their lives. Or we help Wernher who plans on freeing the slaves immediately with no plan for afterwards which in our opinion will lead to the destruction of this city’s infrastructure.

Sarah was silent for a moment longer before she replied. Right... she let out a sigh. And that’s not even taking the child into account.

Were we supposed to? Nim asked. That is your job, not ours.

Sarah frowned and then nodded, turning to Ashur. “I’ll help you, Ashur,” she stated. “But only on a few conditions.”

“Such as?” the man asked her.

“Such as the eventual release of the ‘workers’,” she replied pointedly. “And I want you to make it so that everyone benefits from the success of the research on Marie.”

Ashur frowned for a moment and then nodded. “I’d planned to do both of those anyway,” he told her, shrugging slightly.

“Good,” she stated before running a hand through her hair. “So... I guess I should get to killing that sleazeball Wernher.”

“I’d think so,” Ashur agreed though a small smile crossed his face. “You know... I wouldn’t have thought someone like you would have sided with me.”

“Oh?” Sarah asked as she rose from her seat.

“Yeah... you seem too noble,” he replied.

Sarah was silent as she walked towards the door. As she walked through it, she gave one last parting remark. “I’m not all that noble.”

Luna stood on the balcony, overlooking the ponies celebrating below her. After the commotion of the afternoon it seemed like they wanted anything to take their minds off of how close they’d been to being ‘bug-chow’. Still, Luna smiled down at them. They were her subjects, her ponies, the ones she had dedicated the last two years to serving and protecting with iron hard discipline and the steel of her immortal mind.

With the thought of the last two years came a stab of pain. As happy as she was to be back in Equestria and as much joy as she gathered from the adoration of her subjects... there was still a giant hole in her heart. A hole which could only be filled by the woman she loved.

Luna let out a sigh and turned away from the scenes of revelry, her heart no longer in it. Instead, she flapped her wings and launched herself from the balcony, winging towards the garden. It did not take her long to arrive at her favorite part, the part she’d commissioned. It was a quarter moon shaped plot of dirt roughly the size of her bedroom through which a small stream flowed, a constant trickle of reflective water cutting it off from the rest of the garden.

Sitting in the center of the plot of dirt, on a small piece of concrete was a statue made of solid enchanted steel she had commissioned from a particularly skilled minotaur smith. It was the statue of her love. Sarah’s image had been pulled from her mind and recreated in perfect likeness in this statue, each and every curve of her body, each line on her face, every scar not covered by her rather bulky power armor.

Luna smiled as she landed in front of the statue and looked up at her lost lover with bitter sweet eyes.

“I know that you cannot hear me, Sarah, and I pray now as always that you have not passed yet,” she said, as she always did when coming here. “Today our plans worked. Thanks to myself and several others we were able to stop the Changeling Queen and her ‘children’ before she could unleash them upon our little ponies.”

The statue didn’t respond, it never did, of course. Luna let out a small sigh and lay down on the soft ground, not caring in the least how the dirt stained her coat. She and Celestia had searched for two years to find a way to return Sarah to her side... but it seemed that it was difficult to bring back something that had never been sent away. Their searching had ultimately been a failure and now here she was... with nothing but a statue and her memories.

“Now they are out there celebrating and here we are...” she trailed off and sighed again. “You know, Sarah... there are times when I question myself. Did you know that? Of course you did. You know me better than almost anyone else.”

“Am I the one who knows you better?” an unexpected voice asked from behind her. Luna turned to see her majestic sister walking towards her. Celestia looked radiant even in the moonlight and Luna choked down any resentment quickly, it was not her sister’s fault that she appeared beautiful any time after she’d drunken her morning coffee.

“However did you guess?” Luna asked with a shake of her head as she lifted her wing slightly and welcomed her sister to lie beside her, which she promptly did. Celestia wrapped a wing around her as well and gave the back of Luna’s neck a nuzzle.

“I have my ways,” Celestia answered with an amused and loving smile. It was the kind of effortlessly perfect smiles that would have driven Luna crazy a thousand years ago... but now she only saw the love. “At any rate, I thought I would find you here.”

“Am I really so predictable?” Luna asked.

“In some ways yes,” her sister answered before giving Luna another nuzzle. “Of course... you are also very difficult to predict at other times so in my opinion you are no easier or harder to predict than anyone else.”

“Thank you?” Luna said, her voice a bit confused. “Where are you going with this, sister?”

“Nowhere I suppose,” Celestia said with a grin. “Sometimes I simply ramble until someone shoves a hoof in my mouth.”

“Or a piece of cake,” Luna added with a small snicker. “Just how many did you have today? Ten? Twenty?”

“Fifteen, actually,” Celestia replied, sniffing. “After my little act, I thought I was deserving of a reward of some form.”

“Of course,” Luna said, leaning around to look at Celestia with merry eyes. “You did a very good job by the way. I thought the futile moaning was a nice touch.”

“Why thank you,” her sister replied. “I knew our time with that traveling show would pay off one day.”

Luna simply smiled and leaned against Celestia, allowing her slightly larger sister to take her weight. Celestia did so without comment and rested her neck against Luna’s. The pair stayed like that for several long minutes until Luna began to cry lightly.

“I miss her, Tia,” the younger alicorn said softly. “Every time I turn around I expect her to be there smiling back at me.”

“I know,” Celestia replied, knowing much the way her sister felt.

“And every time I am about to say something foolish, I expect Nim to speak within my head and call me an idiot...” Luna trailed off, tears still running down her face. “I just... I miss them both so much.”

Celestia simply smiled softly and gave her another nuzzle. “I know, sister. I know,” she repeated.

Luna just sighed and leaned against Celestia as her grief washed over her again. They stayed like that until the moon had changed its position in the sky and the sounds of partying had died down to a low growl instead of a loud roar.

“Thank you,” Luna said quietly.

“You’re welcome, sister,” Celestia said as she pulled Luna closer to her with a wing and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll always be here for you.”

“I... I know,” Luna said quietly. Celestia held her close for another moment before rising to her hooves. “Come now, sister. We are both tired and dirty from our day’s struggles, let’s go make ourselves slightly presentable.”

Luna let out a dry chuckle as she got up from her spot on the ground. “So long as we don’t need to share a single bath, I think I can agree to that.”

She spared the statue of Sarah one final look before she leapt into the air, following Celestia.