“No.”

It is such a simple word, a simple phrase, one used to try to deny a situation. As if to say, this is not the case, or this did not happen. Its definition varies depending on the context of the situation, and often the user. For foals, they would often scream it as a response to something happening that they did not like, or in response to a comment from their parents about something they should be doing that they did not want to do. Adults tended to be discreet about it, although it would not change the meaning. They would use it as a way to stop a conversation, to negate, deny something asked of them, or something that was happening.

For Shimmering Night, she said it in response to the wall of death that was heading their way. It approached her group of three at such speeds that there was no hope of avoiding it. With the sheer velocity her group was travelling at combined with the speed Ataxia shot her fire at them, Night did not have time to cast even a basic spell.

All she had time to say was that one word. “No.” In the context that Night used it, it was in simple denial of what was occurring; it was in denial of the magic fire coming to claim their lives. As if to say, ‘No, this is not happening’. Night was in denial, she could not believe that she had made it all the way here, and found out everything she had learned, only for it to end like this.

For anypony else, it would have been the last word they said. Their lives were forfeit as soon as the fire made impact. For the Demigoddess of Magic, it was all that she needed to say.

Ataxia’s dragon fire, the very fire that burned with enough heat to kill other dragons, creatures that took baths in boiling hot magma, creatures that were practically immune to all forms of heat. Her fire was able to do all of this due to the magical properties laced in it. Shimmering Night denied the very existence of that magic.

The magic fire simply stopped being.

It disappeared, almost as if it never existed in the first place. That was the very case, as Shimmering night, the Demigoddess of Magic, the pony who commanded magic itself, declared it to be such. Her thoughts, her emotions, they were all focused on that one task.

Both Rainbow and Ataxia looked on in stunned silence as the fire that rushed to claim the lives of Rainbow’s daughters, simply stopped being. Ataxia actually ended up dropping Rainbow, whose natural instincts took over and caused her to hover in place.

“How did that…” Rainbow was not even aware she was free; she simply hovered in place as the purple energy sphere completed its thousand-mile journey. When it disappeared, Rainbow saw her two daughters flying there with a strange griffin she had never seen before.

She was stunned into inactivity. “Aurora, Night, how the hey…” Rainbow said to herself.

“Mom, get out of there!” Aurora shouted. She was in complete disbelief that Rainbow was still flying within claw reach of Ataxia.

Realization dawned on both Rainbow and Ataxia with that shout. They were both caught unaware that Rainbow was now free. Ataxia went to recapture Rainbow with a quick swipe of her claw, but she was far, far too slow for such a feat. Rainbow’s natural reflexes kicked in as she blasted away from the dragacorn at speeds Ataxia could not hope to match.

All Ataxia ended up with was a sonic rainboom in her mouth for her trouble.

Rainbow paused between her two daughters, coming to a dead stop as she simply felt that this was the best place to be. She could not explain why, but Rainbow felt something different about this situation. It was as if a paradigm shift had occurred that caused everything to simply be different. She felt that, even if there was no logical reason she could think of for why, with Night’s arrival, for the first time that night, Rainbow just knew that they finally had the upper hoof.

………

Twilight Sparkle felt it, too. Even with all the magical energy they were throwing around outside, she simply knew that something fundamental had changed with the battle. No pony had to tell her that it was something that completely rewrote the balance of everything that had happened.

She cast a spell to insure that the spear would never leave Icarus’s claws, she did not care that it was something the doctors had complained about having to work around. She left them with the distinct impression that if they removed the spear from his claw, they would suffer her wrath in return. Still, she did not trust them to keep that thought in their heads when she left.

Twilight turned to Radiant. “We should get outside.”

Radiant simply nodded. even with his low level of magic energy, he felt it too. Even Radiant understood that something was fundamentally different. Twilight led the way, with Radiant right behind her. They both wanted to see just what had occurred, or more precisely, who had arrived.

…

Up on floor five, room twelve, the outside immediately drew in Cadance’s attention. Something that got Firestar's curiosity in a big way as it interrupted Cadance telling her the story of when Radiant first learned to walk.

Cadance looked all around the room for some way to see what was going on, she finally spotted a folded up wheelchair in the distance and opened it up with her magic before teleporting herself to it.

“What's wrong?” Firestar asked with a cautious tone in her voice, as she was not sure if she actually wanted the answer. Her heart could not take much more bad news.

“I don’t know.” Cadance answered honestly. She rolled herself to the window to have a look outside.

………

Night’s eyes never left Ataxia’s. Before her was the second largest dragon she had ever seen in her life. Ataxia’s body told the tale of a long series of fights, of the destruction and mayhem that she had wrought upon others, and that they had dealt to her in turn.

Ataxia had become a creature that focused on one thing and one thing alone. She was a being that dedicated itself to the destruction and death of others. She was the living embodiment of hate itself. She simply existed to hate… to hate, and to kill those she hated.

Ataxia stared at the final newcomer, the last of the creatures she had to kill, the only one who had not fought with her that night. She hated this creature with all her being; she wanted to see it, and the other two dead. Ataxia did not care about anything else other than that one singular goal. In the sea of boiling rage that was her mind, she only registered that the last of the three dots had arrived.

Night tried not to see any of that; she tried to see her friend, the mare she finally admitted that she loved. ‘Follow your heart.’ That is what Aurora had told her anyway.

When she looked at Ataxia, she did her best to picture the mare that she had known all of her life, the one she grew up with, the one she played alongside as a little filly. She tried to see through her visage as the terrible and mighty dragacorn, the weapon of fate.

Night forced a smile as she did so, she told herself that despite all of the destruction and death that surrounded her, that Ataxia was still in there, she was still that very same mare that Night had known, the one that she grew to love. All Night had to do was reach out to her. She knew not how to do that, but she would try anyway. It was the least she could do for the mare that meant so much to her.

At least, that was what she told herself anyway. ‘Follow your heart.’ Night repeated her sister’s words to herself. It was so easy to say….

Once more, she tried to force herself to see past the scary visage of the dragacorn, to see the mare that was beneath it. She tried to force herself to see the true soul of the one she now stood before.

It really did not work. The images, no matter how much Night would try to overlap them, no matter how much she wanted to connect the two, they simply would not go together. The dragacorn and the mare, try as she might, could not be merged in her mind.

The dragacorn roared in response, her scream carrying with it all the anger, hatred, and rage of one scored. Of one betrayed by all of those that they loved, that they trusted. In that one scream, Night knew that something had happened to the mare. Something beyond what had occurred a month ago. She felt… she knew that Ataxia felt betrayed to her core by those she loved.

It did not matter what was true at that moment, for now, all that mattered was ending it. One way or another, it had to end here and now.

Shimmering Night’s gaze finally took in the battlefield as it stood; she took in the dead, the dying, and the blood. Everywhere she looked, she saw blood.

“I’m sorry.” Night said with utter conviction in her voice. “I’m sorry it went down like this, I’m sorry I’m to blame for everything that had happened. If I had done it, better… if I was honest with myself…. No, it does not matter now, what matters is what we do going forward. I cannot allow you to hurt anyone else, Ataxia.” Night said the words aloud to herself.

“What are you going to do?” Rainbow asked. She wanted to know where this ‘new’ daughter had come from. Night never before spoke with such conviction. Something fundamental had changed in her. However, that had to wait; Rainbow knew from personal experience that they did not have long before it all started up again. Ataxia would not sit by forever while they debated their options.

“I’m going to do what I have to do.” Night said. Her eyes shortly left the battlefield to look at her mom. It was then she noticed Rainbow’s missing hoof. She did not need anyone to tell her what had happened to it. She felt her heart grow cold with the realization that her best friend in the world had done that to her mom. “I’ll stop her.” Night’s head jerked back to glare at Ataxia. “Whatever it takes, I’ll stop her.”

Before Night could do so, she had to know just how bad it was. Night cast a spell… she commanded magic to let her know what had happened to everyone else. Remembering the old Dragon King’s words, “You have never cast a spell in your life. Everything you have ever done has been you willing magic to do your bidding…. I suspect up until now you have merely been acting on instinct, your strongest emotions forcing their way to the forefront.”

She sought to make that idea manifest. She wanted… she needed magic to tell her everything.

She got her wish, the ambient magic all around The Crystal Empire responded to this singular desire. It reported directly to Shimmering Night everything that had happened to everyone in the past hour. In that one instant, Night knew the pain, suffering, rage, hurt, and death of every soul that had fought and died against Ataxia.

That knowledge left Shimmering Night physically ill. She knew what had happened to Luna, Cadance, Icarus, Rainbow, Radiant, and even Twilight. She knew everything, all the pain, all the deaths… she knew it all.

It was too much; she felt the deaths of Icarus’s royal guard, all of it. The suffering of all the others caused her vision to become cross. After all, it is one thing to see the suffering others go through and quite another to experience it for yourself.

The fake image she placed over the dragacorn disappeared. Night could no longer hold the image of the fun, energetic, bat-shit crazy Ataxia. She only saw the dragacorn. She only saw the creature that had inflicted more suffering than any other she had ever known. She only saw a creature that lived, breathed, and embodied pure, unadulterated hate. Her pathetic attempt to bridge the two beings together was gone, shattered into a million pieces.

Shimmering Night found herself hating that creature. She hated it for everything it had ever done, everything it stood for, everything it existed for, and most damning of all, everything it took away. The dragacorn took away her friend, her love. Shimmering Night wanted her back, whatever the cost.

Night felt her heart freeze at that revelation. No longer was she facing her friend, she was facing a monster. However much she might wish it not to be true.

Ataxia had enough. She did not understand how this one insect was doing this, how it was canceling out her magic like this, but she had dealt with this sort of situation before with the one that looked similar. Ataxia knew this was one of the creatures she wanted dead more than anything else, and that was precisely what she would do. She would kill it, eat it, and then move back to the others.

She let out another burst of dragon fire at the large group that had gathered so nicely in front of her. They were considerate insects, gathered together where she could finish them all off in one blow.

“Stop.”

The word, it only came from one location but it reverberated throughout everywhere. It was a command, one that the world itself was unable to ignore, or more precisely, the magic of the world could not ignore.

The dragon fire Ataxia just released, it simply stopped… it stopped being. The fire put itself out, all the way back to her mouth; it was as if the fire just lost any ability to be. The command affected more than just the fires she spewed. The fires burning all around The Crystal Empire, they stopped too. The magic that kept them lit no longer existing, no longer keeping the blaze burning. It all simply stopped.

Ataxia’s lower jaw snapped shut with a snarl. She had not been expecting that. The dragacorn let loose with another burst to end this. Nothing came out; she tried a third time, then a fourth, still nothing. This was new, new and unexpected, but fire was just one weapon in her arsenal.

With a mighty roar, Ataxia flew straight at this creature. While she did not know just how this alicorn was responsible for the loss of her fire, every fiber of her being told Ataxia that she was indeed responsible for it. Ataxia lashed out with her claw, seeking to kill the creature with one blow.

Shimmering Night, may be the Demigoddess of Magic, but she can only respond to something she saw coming, something she was actually aware of. She was expecting the fire breath; Shimmering Night saw that coming. However, even with the knowledge and pain of all the events that took place during the battle, seeing a creature the size of Ataxia move that fast was very unexpected. She had not been expecting that. No pony could blame her as a creature the size of Ataxia should not be able to move that fast. Such a sight would surprise anyone.

Ataxia swung her claw down with all the force necessary to cut The Crystal Palace in half. She sought to end Night’s life with that attack, an attack that Night could never hope to avoid. Fortunately, it never made it that far.

While Ataxia’s speed might have caught Night off guard, Rainbow Dash was more than used to it. Having fought Ataxia longer than anyone else, her instincts were poised to react at a moment’s notice.

That instinct saved her daughter’s life; to Shimming Night, Rainbow just appeared directly in front of her as a wall of golden magic energy. Ataxia’s claw came down and met the golden magic that made up Rainbow’s wing.

The sudden obstruction was sufficient to stop Ataxia from hitting Night; however, it did not do Rainbow any favors. The force of the impact was enough to send Rainbow careening towards the ground. She rolled with the impact, but still ended up with several new cuts and bruises.

Night looked on in shock, shock that quickly turned to anger as she saw her mom injured once more at the hands of this creature… this creature that had almost ended her life.

“Enough!” Night shouted the words. Her every thought turned towards the stopping of this creature. She could not lie to herself anymore; she could not pretend that this creature was the same mare she once knew. Night admitted the truth to herself. There was only one way to end this, and she would have to take it. Night wanted this done, and now.

Night wanted Ataxia immobile, and that is what she became. Ataxia soon found herself trapped in a sphere of purple magic, one much larger than the one Night had used to get the group from the Dragon Kingdom all the way to The Crystal Empire.

Ataxia raged against the cage Night put her in. Every single eye watched as the dragacorn clawed, punched, bit, and swiped at it. It was all for naught. The sphere was indestructible.

“Dragacorn,” Night refused to call this creature by her friend’s name again, not after everything she had seen, all the pain this creature had caused, most of which Night experienced first hoof. She was no longer Ataxia, not to Night at least. “The world is done with you, I’m done with you. I strip you of your magic.”

Night willed… commanded the magic in the dragacorn, all the magic in the dragacorn to leave her. She focused her rage, her anger, and her hatred for this being that had hurt her family and friends to that one objective.

The magic embedded inside Ataxia, it had no choice but to obey as the demigoddess willed it. However, it did not want to leave, fate did not want it to leave. As such, it fought tooth and nail every inch of the way against Night’s command as she forced the magic to leave every cell of the dragacorn. It was not a painless process, more akin to having your teeth ripped from your mouth one at a time by a brute with nothing more than a pair of needle nose pliers.

Ataxia screamed. She screamed in pain as she began thrashing against her prison, her cage. Her cries… only once had Twilight heard something similar, that was only when she had stuck her hoof into the River Styx and destroyed the souls living there. This cry… it was the pure, unadulterated rape of a soul.

When Tirek took a pony’s magic, he stole what was rightfully theirs; however, the magic always had a way back. The magic still belonged to the pony. The bonds between pony and magic still existed. When Night commanded the magic to leave Ataxia, it broke those bonds; it broke the only thing connecting her to it.

No one in five miles could mistake those screams for anything but someone in excruciating pain. Pain unlike anything most had ever heard, or could ever go through and hope to survive.

In those screams, that pain, that anguish, it was in all of it that Night’s resolve shattered. Her heart could no longer stay frozen. No one who heard that scream could do anything but feel sorry for Ataxia, and Night was no exception.

Worse, it brought back the one memory Night never wanted to visit again. The memory of Ataxia’s cry of anguish when she found out Rarity had passed away. This scream and that one, they were far, far too similar. It was a cry of pure pain.

It was In that pain; that anguish, that Night’s heart finally connected the dragacorn to the mare.

As soon as she made that connection, as soon as Night realized she was causing that level of pain to her friend all over again, she stopped it. Night could not go on, not like this, it was just… just wrong.

“Night?” Rainbow looked at her youngest daughter. She flew over and hugged her as she saw the tears flowing down her eyes. Shimmering Night collapsed into her mom’s embrace like a little filly.

“I… I… I can’t do it!” Night sobbed out in her mom’s coat. “I can’t hurt her like that, I can’t.” Night said through muffled sobs.

Rainbow just rubbed her mane, letting the tears flow freely. At that time, at that moment, she had never been more proud of her daughter in her life. Anyone who could go through with that amount of suffering on someone else and not be affected by it… she never wanted to meet someone like that.

“It’s ok, we’ll find another way.” Rainbow cooed softly into her daughter’s ear. “I’m proud of you, more so than I can ever say. I always will be as long as you follow your heart.”

“There is no other way! Night, you need to finish it while you still can!” Fey Light yelled.

Rainbow stared daggers into the griffin until he backed off. She had no idea who this griffin was, but he needed to shut the bucking hell up right this second.

Ataxia’s roar brought them all back to the moment; the dragacorn was mad, madder than ever. Night looked up at her mom. It was in those eyes, eyes of pure love that something clicked in Shimmering Night. She finally understood what everyone had been trying to tell her all this time. “I… I know what I have to do.”

‘Follow your heart.’ The words stuck in Night’s head. They replayed from a dozen different sources.

Rainbow simply smiled and let her daughter go, it took her a moment to compose herself, but Night was finally connecting the dots. More precisely, Shimmering Night threw the drawing in the trash altogether.

“Night, you promised!” Fey shouted.

Night looked back at the griffin. “And I’ll keep my promise. All of my promises.” She said the last part to her sister.

Aurora just smiled back at her, she had no idea what Night was about to do, but from the looks of her, Aurora believed that Night finally understood what she had told her. Night flashed a quick smile back and turned to her friend.

She flew down and landed next to Ataxia, far closer than Rainbow would have liked to see her, but that was the point after all. This is where her heart told her to be, not in words, but in simple feelings.

Ataxia noticed her in an instant. She swiped at the alicorn with her tail. Shimmering Night held the tail in place as she commanded the dragacorn back in to holding. “Ataxia,” Night used her friend’s name for the emphasis it placed on the moment. “I want to say something, something I should have said a month ago… years ago. Then, I’ll let you go.”

Rainbow’s eyes went wide.

“You can do whatever you want after that, but know this,” Night shut her eyes and concentrated. When she finally opened them, they were pure white. “I've just tied all the alicorn magic to my own. You finish your task with my death. Kill me and there will be no more alicorns left in the world.”

‘Night, what are you doing.’ Rainbow thought to herself.

Ataxia seemed to understand; of course, that understanding came in the form of increased attacks at the alicorn that held her at bay. She roared at her, seeking to end Night’s life. In her mind, she saw all three dots; this single one tied them all together. Ataxia knew that if she extinguished this one dot, the other three would go out.

Night flashed her horn once; a large set of steel magical ropes tied the dragacorn’s mouth shut. She did not want Ataxia interrupting what she had to say.

“I’m sorry.” Night started off. Every set of eyes were staring directly at her, some far more intently than others. “I’m sorry my actions led you to this. I don’t know what happened to you after we were last together. But it doesn’t matter now; whatever happened, happened. There is no changing that.” She paused to wipe a stray tear from her eye.

“I can feel your emotions, you feel betrayed and angry. You have become hate itself, regardless what I say or any of us say or do you have become the physical personification of hate, and I think… I know that you chose this, didn’t you?”

Ataxia’s only reply was to struggle at her bonds, trying in vain to break them.

“The Dragon King, he told me you are fated to this destiny. That Discord fated you too rid the world of all alicorns. However, mom said there is no such thing as fate.”

As if talking about her was enough to bring her out, Twilight flew up next to Rainbow Dash at that moment. Rainbow placed her one remaining hoof on Twilight’s mouth, a clear indication to not interrupt.

“I think… I know they’re both right. Fate is a funny term, it implies something predestined to happen, predestined to occur regardless what anyone does to stop it. However, that’s not true, I think… I know that you know it too.”

Ataxia’s struggles intensified tenfold.

“Whatever happened to you… you chose this; you picked this fate, didn’t you? You chose this all because of what I said, me, and my big mouth.” Night found herself chuckling at that.

“I… I’m sorry I led you to this, I’m sorry I wasn’t smart enough to see the writing on the wall. I’m sorry I rejected you as I did, at your greatest time of need I wasn’t there for you. All because… because I let the opinions of others matter more to me than my own feelings. I can never, never forgive myself for that one.” Night paused to catch her breath.

“You see… I do love you, Ataxia. I think… I know I always have. Therefore, whatever you’re going to do to me, do it. Because if I have to choose between my own life and hurting you like that. Well… it’s not much of a choice. I choose this fate for myself.” Night paused, as she finally understood the true meaning of the word.

“Fate is that which we choose for ourselves. Others can limit your choices, but in the end, it is, and always will be your decision. So tell me, what will you choose? What will you choose, Ataxia?”

At that, Night released the bonds that held Ataxia in place. The dragacorn roared up on her hind legs, looking down at the one that had tried to rip her very being away from her.

Night smiled as she looked up. She saw Ataxia again, just as she had been all those times before. Gone was the visage of the dragacorn, all she saw was her friend.

“I love you.”

Night said the words one last time before the claw came down.

…

Ever since her transformation back at the cave, Ataxia’s mind was a sea of boiling hate and rage. When she agreed to take on her fate, she became the living embodiment of hate. It was an all-consuming desire to hate all of those who had betrayed her, who had left her for dead. The hate became everything to the mare, an impenetrable blackness that she was drowning in; nothing could ever hope to pierce the swell of hate that made up her mind.

“I love you.”

The words did not belong; nor did they fit. Her mind was a swirling nest of hate and rage, of pain and loss, betrayal and vengeance. Yet, against all reason, they were there. “I love you.” Three little words, somehow, they found the mare awash in that sea of hate and rage, they were a life jacket cast to someone who was drowning in herself.

Ataxia saw those words in her mind; she latched onto them and held on for all her might. It was small, simple, yet it was all she needed. Her mind constructed a small raft, a boat, a ship, and then finally found her way through the storm of raging hate.

For the first time since it all started, the skies of her mind cleared and the hate receded. She saw the shoreline and swam to it with all her might.

“I love you.”

Three little words, yet they saved her from her own worst enemy: Herself.

…

The blow never landed. Right before it would have crushed the young alicorn. Seconds before her claw would have made impact with Shimmering Night, Ataxia’s form underwent a transformation back to the unicorn mare she was. She fell out of the sky, right into the hooves of the mare she loved. She fell right into Shimmering Night’s hooves.

…

She was in some pony's hooves.

No pony needed to tell Ataxia that much, for it could not be anything else. Memories flooded her mind of times when her mom used to hold her like this, her head propped up in her lap, with Rarity lightly stroking her coat. It felt… nice.

Her fatigue had become a living, breathing entity in her mind. She felt more tired than she ever had in her entire life. Every cell, every bone, and every molecule in her body felt exhausted beyond all belief. She wanted nothing more but to give into that exhaustion, to fall asleep and never wake up again. The soft stroke of a hoof on her mane gave her reason to fight against it. That and one little thought.

That one thought kept playing through her head, three little words that changed everything, that reached her when nothing else could, when thoughts of rage and hate, of pain and betrayal clouded her mind.

It took a supreme effort of willpower, but Ataxia managed to open her eyes. Each lid felt like they weighed a thousand tons to the mare. The sight she saw when she opened them… it made the effort worth it a thousand times over.

“Hey.” Night said. The mare looked down into her friends eyes. She could lose herself in those big green eyes.

Despite everything, Ataxia still did not fully believe it, or more precisely, she could not bring herself to believe it. It still seemed unreal to the mare. After all, how often do you get the one thing you want most in the world?

“Did… did you mean it?” Her voice came out as barely a whisper. Ataxia wanted to raise a hoof to Night’s face. However, that one action was far, far too much for the mare right now. Her hoof never left the ground.

“Yes, I love you, Ataxia. I always have.” There was no uncertainty in her voice, no doubt remand in those who heard it, as it simply was. Night spoke with a calmness that told of a mare that had no reservation about the truth of her words. For her, it was the truth. The sky was blue, the sun and moon raised and lowered according to the will of the princess, and Night loved Ataxia.

Those three words made Ataxia’s eyes shut, she cooed softly into the night sky. “That’s what I thought you said.”

Night held her friend’s head in her hoof and brought it in closer to her own. Ataxia had stolen their first kiss one month ago. She wanted the next one all to herself. Night pressed her lips to her friends, enjoying the feeling of the connection to the one mare in the entire world that she truly did love, the one she wanted to be with for the rest of her days.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, days even. Night and Ataxia only broke apart when Ataxia quit returning the kiss. When Shimmering Night opened her eyes to see why, she saw that her friend had finally given into blissful slumber. “You big dork.” Night said jokingly. “That’s fine, go ahead and sleep it off, I’ll be there when you wake up. Consider it a promise.” She ran a hoof through Ataxia’s mane, lightly brushing the blue hair out of the way of her face.

She saw tears falling onto Ataxia’s face; it took Night a second to realize that they were her own. Using her other hoof, she wiped them off her friend’s face before wiping her own eyes clear.

Night brought her muzzle up to look around for the first time since she confronted Ataxia. A small, small worry crossed her mind that everyone would judge her; that they would make fun of her for loving a mare the way she did. It was the same worry that she had been harboring ever since she was a little filly.

That thought died a horrible, horrific, and well-deserved death as she looked around. Everywhere she looked, Night saw only faces of love and respect. Her parents, Twilight and Rainbow, they were standing next to each other. Rainbow had her wing wrapped around her wife in their customary way. Although, it might have been more for Rainbow’s benefit as it was tough for her to stand on the ground with one missing hoof.

They were both smiling at her with tears of joy rolling down their faces. Rainbow gave her a small nod of approval as liquid pride continued to fall from her eyes.

Radiant was standing next to Aurora. They were both grinning at the young alicorn. As Aurora’s younger sister, and Radiant’s little cousin, neither of them could be prouder of Shimmering Night than at that moment.

Captain Fey Light stood next to Aurora. He looked pissed to all hades.

That caught her off guard. In a sea of smiling, warm faces, his stood out as the only one that was not happy about this new development. To make matters worse, he knew she was looking directly at him too.

His rage boiled over until he could no longer hold it in. He lashed out at the mare with a tirade of barbed words. “You stupid mare, all you had to do was remove her power! Yet you risked everything on this dumb idea! Do you even know what you’ve done?!” Frey yelled out at her, anger dripping off every single word he spoke. “It was so simple! You dumbass fillyfooler! You ruined everything!”

Every set of eyes turned to the griffin. All their accompanying jaws hit the floor as they heard exactly what he just said to her. Aurora was the first to speak up. “Captain, you’re fired! I’ll see you in the stockades for this.” She said with no small amount of bile in her voice.

Fey looked at her, his empress, and smiled. A thought occurred to him as he considered this new turn of events. With a speed that should have been impossible for anyone but Rainbow, Fey gripped the pregnant pegasus in his hooves and kicked Radiant squarely in the face. The blow sent the unicorn sprawling to his side from the sudden onslaught. Blood fell freely from his nose.

With a claw held to Aurora’s throat, Fey smiled a vicious smile at the alicorn. “You remembered what you promised me, right?” Fey Light said in a voice that was not his own.

Night did not know what was going on, but she could not sit by and do nothing. One glance behind her told Night that Rainbow was about to snap. She shook her head at her mom, an action that Rainbow begrudgingly obeyed. It was true, she had promised to keep her sister safe, and to do whatever it took to see that happen.

“I remember, Fey.” She gingerly lay her friend’s head on the ground and stood up. Night whispered a silent “no” at Rainbow, who Twilight was only barely holding in place. While she had no doubt that Rainbow could do something. She also knew that Rainbow was not at one hundred percent. If that recent display of his speed were any indication to go by, Fey Light could easily kill Aurora before Rainbow could stop it.

“Well, I hold you to that promise now, remove Ataxia’s power or I will kill your dear sister.” He pressed the tip of a claw into Aurora’s throat, an action that almost drew blood.

‘That voice.’ Night thought to herself. ‘I recognize that voice.’ Gone was the voice of Fey Light, the Captain of the Griffin Royal Guard. Whoever this creature was, he had no need for that disguise anymore. Night knew she heard that voice before but she could not exactly place it.

“Who are you?” Night asked him.

“Who indeed.” Fey grinned.

“You’re the night revenant.” Twilight stated. “I would recognize that voice anywhere. I lived with it in my head for some time. You’re the one that caused me to become Twilight Night, the one that killed Princess Celestia, and the one that almost caused me to kill everyone I love. I… I destroyed you.”

Night’s eyes went wide at that. Fey just smiled. “Yes, yes I am. As far as how I live, well, I’ll keep that little tidbit to myself.” He grinned at his former mistress before turning back to Shimmering Night. “Back to the business at hoof, I present to you a choice, Princess Shimmering Night: Remove Ataxia’s power right this second, or I will kill your sister. What’s it going to be, your friend’s power, or your sister’s life? Not a difficult choice if you ask me.” With the disguise dropped, Grim Night removed the limitation he had placed on his own power. Gone was the griffin he had been pretending to be, in its place stood a unicorn covered from horn to tail in black magic. One hoof wrapped itself around Aurora Flash; the other transformed into a blade that he had pressed against Aurora’s throat.

Rainbow recognized that blade immediately. Her face went from mad to pissed in an instant. It was something that made Grim’s smile even brighter. “Now, now Rainbow. If you thought Blood Dawn was fast, you should see me in action. After all, I do have you to thank for giving me all his magic after you killed him.”

“It was you! You sent him to Warclaw!” Rainbow shouted the words. Twilight had to fight even harder to keep her wife in check; a task she knew was only possible in her current state by Rainbow’s extreme fatigue. A task that was made even harder when Radiant stood back up and wanted his own form of revenge. Twilight had to keep his magic under control and stop her wife from flying into a bloody rage that would likely see Aurora dead.

“Yes, yes I did. You see, for the spell to work he had to drink the blood of the innocent, but I would never simply give him all that power; after all, he might use it against me. Therefore, I led him to believe that only by drinking your grandson’s blood could he actually succeed, knowing that you would be the one to kill him and I would be the ultimate beneficiary.” Grim Night said with a smile. “If I did it myself you would have come after me, so how do you say, two birds, one stone?”

Aurora increased her struggling ten-fold at that, her mind balked at the very idea of the being that was directly responsible for her son’s death holding her against her family like this. She stopped struggling as soon as she felt a trickle of blood falling down her neck. The realization that this creature might kill her, and in doing so her unborn foal, held her in check. Aurora found herself looking up at the last pony she thought she would turn to in this sort of situation. Her gaze was not at Twilight or Rainbow; it was at her sister. She looked at Night with pleading eyes.

With his limitations removed, the feelings Night had fought against the entire time she had been with Fey returned ten-fold. Night finally understood just why he had rubbed her the wrong way, why she felt like there was something off about Fey Light this whole time. She had been sensing… feeling the dark magic that made up this creature’s power.

“I will keep my promise.” Night said with no doubt in her voice. Every set of eyes immediately turned to her, all but one in shock, as only Grim Night was happy about this turn of events. Her eyes never left her sister’s eyes. She would do whatever it took to reassure her sister in this time of crisis.

“Smart move.” Night said with a smile. He left the blade pressed against Aurora’s neck.

“Whatever happens, I won’t let you get away with this. As soon as I can, I’ll turn the entire planet inside out looking for you.” Twilight said. “And when I find you I will finish what I started.” Twilight’s wings shot out, each emblazoned with magical energy.

“You’re welcome to try, mistress.” Grim stated. It might not have gone to plan, but everything was working exactly as he wanted. Soon he would have the power of the dragacorn, than he would be free to claim the God magic in Twilight.

Night shut her eyes and concentrated. She had to be very, very careful about this next part. ‘What had the Dragon King stated? It responds to your most extreme emotions, it’s been reactionary until now, simply responding to what I want most at the time.’ Night focused everything in her body to that one single thought, to the one thing she desired more than anything else at that moment. The one thing she wanted more than any other… no, the one thing she needed more than any other.

Grim Night’s first clue that something was off was when Shimmering Night opened her eyes. The purple hue was gone, only the white remand. He took the blade deeper to Aurora’s neck, seeking to draw a trail of blood to illustrate his point. ‘Somepony needs a reminder of what’s at stake here, that I’m not playing around.’ He thought to himself with a sneer.

Nothing happened.

The blade did not move at all, his hoof did not move at all. In fact, he could not move a single part of his body. Well… except his mouth. Night let him keep that.

“What are you doing?!” Grim yelled.

“Keeping my promise.” Night stated as she levitated a few hooves in the air. “I promised I would do anything it took to keep her safe, to protect my sister. You see, creature, I knew there was something off about you. Ever since the first time we met next to Ataxia’s statue in Warclaw, I could sense something, something you could not hide even through whatever spell you were using. I finally figured out what that was.”

“Stop it, you stupid bitch!” Grim tried to counter whatever spell Night was using to keep in him place. It did not work, simply because there was no spell to counter. This was not Night’s will versus his own. This was magic turning against him. It was the magic of the world responding to her command.

It was a bad, bad place to be for a creature made of magic.

“You, night revenant, you are made of magic.” Night said the words with a voice that was several octaves below her normal one.

Grim Night’s eyes went wide at that. The power he had taken from Tirek, Tirek’s victims, Dayspring’s knowledge, Dayspring himself, and finally Blood Dawn’s power greatly enhanced his own. It all combined to make him the second most powerful being on the planet. Only Twilight had more power than he did.

He could only take Twilight’s power; only win against someone like that by becoming even more powerful than she was. He knew he was not yet that powerful, soon but not yet. He just had to find one more source of power, of real power. He found that source of power in Ataxia, but the catch was that he could not just steal Ataxia's power. Tirek had learned that lesson the hard way as fate itself governed Ataxia’s power. He had to use Night to remove that power from her, only then would he be free to take it for himself. Only then could he steal Twilight’s power.

It may have all added together to make him one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. Yet, it did not change the fact that regardless how powerful he might be, he was still a creature of magic. That left him squarely in the domain of Shimmering Night, the Demigoddess of Magic.

Grim Night’s hoof flew to his side. The blade commanded to transform back. Aurora left him in an instant and flew to her parent’s side. Rainbow wrapped a hoof around her oldest daughter and covered her in a wing. Whatever happened, she could at least keep her safe.

“Stop it!” Grim Night yelled out. He tried casting several spells to get out of this situation, ranging from teleportation to killing spells. It was all for naught. Magic, all magic, fell under the command of Shimmering Night, and right now, she commanded it to obey her and her alone.

After all, only another being with God magic could hope to truly fight the will of a God, or Demigoddess for that matter.

“You want me to remove someone’s magic? Let’s start with yours.” Night raised a hoof up and held it in place. Symbolizing exactly where she wanted Grim Night to be. The magic around him obeyed, Grim found his body levitating exactly where she was pointing. Shimmering Night held her other hoof to that spot and slowly, ever so slowly, drew it back.

Night commanded the magic to separate from the body. She commanded all the magic that made up Grim Night to leave its host.

The pain that Ataxia had experienced when Night started doing it to her, the sheer level of power that Grim Night had amplified it ten times over. He experienced the pain of someone flayed alive by an expert with a knife. As if that expert was taking off his skin centimeter by centimeter, only leaving an area alone for long enough for it to hurt that much more before going back over it.

He screamed and screamed, but unlike when Ataxia experienced this pain, no one felt sorry for him. Shimmering Night was slowly, ever so slowly, pulling the magic from his host body one molecule at a time, until it formed a dark cloud that hovered over where the body collapsed in the dirt.

It was a benevolent, dark force, one with a life of its own. When the last of it was free from its host, it tried to escape. Night caught onto its plan with more than enough time to stop it. The magic was going nowhere.

“This is your true form, isn’t it?” Night asked the dark, swirling magic energy.

A demonic visage appeared in the cloud. It was a face that would haunt the nightmares of everyone that looked at it. “Yesss….” The voice came from the cloud; it did so in a deep reverberating tone that spoke of something that simply hated. It hated the one that caused it more suffering than it had ever known in its life.

“It’s over for you.” Night stated the words in no uncertain terms.

The night revenant laughed, it was a laughter that sounded more like a growl than anything else. “You truly think you won, don’t you? You think with my defeat it’s all over and everything will simply go back to normal. Guess again, little pony. Why do you think I wanted all this magic to begin with? I wanted enough power to defeat the beings that created us, the one’s that breathed life into us revenants in the first place.”

“The ones that created you?” Twilight asked.

The night revenant looked up at the fragmented moon. “Beings far, far stronger than I. Beings that were trapped in the moon.”

“Were?” Night asked.

“See for yourself.” He gestured up. Night did not quite trust him, but she did not have too, the magic she commanded to keep him still would not simply stop because she took her eyes off him.

Night saw it when she looked up in the sky. At that moment, another meteor shower started, as more of the debris from Rainbow breaking the moon reached the planet’s atmosphere.

“You’ve doomed yourselves and you don’t even know it. You stupid fillyfooler.”

That was the last straw for Night. “Whatever might be coming, we’ll deal with that in time, but you have no need to worry about it, creature. For you will not be here to see it."

It is said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. This is true, as when Chaos created the universe he did so with a finite amount of energy in it. Given, ‘finite’ was a relative term in this situation, but he did so in order that the beings that would inhabit the universe could never expend it all.

This rule did not apply to the other Gods, and it certainly did not apply to the Demigoddess of Magic. She ordered… she commanded the magic that made up the night revenant to destroy itself. She commanded it to cease to be.

It did just that, and for the first time since the creation of the universe, the net total amount of energy in it decreased. The cloud of magic that made up the night revenant exploded into non-existence. It was an explosion of magical light that temporarily blinded and deafened every single pony in the area. The explosion lit up The Crystal Empire as a second sun.

Grim Night, the night revenant, at that moment he ceased to exist.

…

Twilight and Aurora were the first to recover. On instinct alone, Rainbow had shielded them both from the explosion. The cyan pegasus had not gotten off so lucky. Her body took the brunt of the damage but her golden wings had already started the healing process.

When Twilight looked around, she noticed that Radiant was in similar shape to Rainbow. After a quick check to make sure that Rainbow was ok, Twilight ran to Radiant in order to do what she could for the unicorn.

Aurora’s eyes went straight for her sister. To her, it looked as if Night had gotten away without a scratch on her. Something her eyes verified when a clear magic bubble around Night and Ataxia fell away. Aurora let out a breath she was not aware she was holding as she turned to Twilight. Upon seeing Radiant, she immediately kicked herself for letting her guard down. “Is he?”

“He’s hurt, but ok.” Twilight said.

That one comment relieved both Aurora and Night. Night raised her head and stood up. She suddenly paused, she was not sure how or why, but the alicorn could have sworn she heard three little words in the wind. She could not quite make out what the words said though. It was as if they were simply there. Her mind quickly began to panic that maybe, just maybe there was something else out there, something more they had to deal with. That maybe it was not over, or that the beings the night revenant mentioned were already here.

“Is it over?” Night asked her mom. Unsure if these events had finally been put to bed.

“The crisis is over, but there’s still a lot of work to do.” Twilight’s thoughts were on Icarus and Luna, and whether or not Night would be able to help save them. For Twilight, everything else could wait, with a quick flash of her horn, she teleported all six of them into the hospital.

For some time after, Night could not help but feel like they were forgetting something…

She was right, what none of them thought to look for was the body that Grim Night had inhabited.

………

He ran; he ran through the smoldering debris of The Crystal Empire. He ran as fast as his hooves would carry him. Pushing himself past his breaking point, he willed himself forward.

Every step, every fiber of his being simply hurt. Yet that pain was only physical. He even welcomed it, for it temporally blocked out the pain in his heart. That was the pain that truly hurt him; that was the one that made him want to kill himself whenever it caught up with him.

Ever since Appleloosa, when that creature had brought him back to life, the stallion had been aware of everything that… that creature had done. He lived through all the scheming, all the planning, and all the deaths it had caused. The creature tormented him with it, it laughed at him as it plotted and schemed against everyone he loved.

He watched as his own body and mind were used to hurt everyone he ever cared about. The creature forced him to watch as it came up with the plan to kill his own unborn nephew, as it came up with a plan to use his youngest sister’s love in a plot to steal his mom’s power. It forced him to watch and know everything. It took joy in it, all of it. It plucked memories from his mind and used them all against those he loved.

When he came to, his first sight was of his family lying on the ground, A quick scan with his magic confirmed that they were all alive, just unconscious. Looking at them brought back the memories of the pain he caused each of them in turn... It was all too much, he wanted… he needed to escape it; he needed to escape himself.

You can run from a lot in this world, but the one thing you can never escape is yourself. That would not stop him from trying.

A trail of tears followed him as he ran. His one, his only redeeming thought was that he managed to convince that creature to return his mom’s memories to her. He only managed to do that by convincing the creature that it would hurt his mom more in the long run.

It was a bittersweet thought, one that did nothing to soothe the memories of hurting everyone he ever loved in the worst possible way.

He looked back only once, right as he got to the top of the hill; he looked back and saw his sister standing once more. Tears continued to fall from his eyes as he whispered an “I’m so sorry,” into the wind. Dayspring Gleam turned and ran down the hill. Part of him hoped he would run himself to death, a death stolen from him by that accursed revenant.

………………………………………………………

There were kisses. Small kisses placed up and down her neck. It felt… good to the mare. She smiled at waking up in such a nice and inviting way.

Night tried to play it off. She fought to keep her eyes shut as the kisses continued. It was not until a hoof started to make its way a little further down her stomach then she felt comfortable with that she jumped up and her eyes shot open. “Ataxia!” Night yelled at her love.

Ataxia just sat there, smiling at her marefriend. “Morning, sexy.” She said with an adorable grin.

“Don’t you mean evening?” Night asked in a playful tone. It was the same routine every single night, well, every night for the past three days. Ataxia had spent the first eight days hospitalized and the three after that sleeping eighteen hours a day. Physically, she had been fine; however, she was beyond exhausted. The doctors had kept her in a medically induced coma to help her recover. It had taken a while for the effects to wear off.

At least, that was the story the doctors told her. Night somewhat suspected that they were shy of letting her get up, it was kept to hush whispers and glances, in hurried conversations and awkward looks, but nopony trusted Ataxia anymore; not that they ever really trusted her to begin with, although, this was different. If Night had to put her hoof on it, she would say that this was outright fear.

Night shrugged it off; well, she shrugged most of it off. She could handle the looks, glances, rumors, and whispers, but the thing that got to her was the mare herself. Not only did no pony else trust Ataxia, but she did not seem to trust herself anymore. The playful mare was gone… well, mostly gone. To the rest of the world, she seemed the same, but to Night, it was the small things, the little things here and there. They painted a bad picture in her mind, one she never wanted to look at.

Ataxia was holding herself back, second-guessing every decision she would make. Almost as if she simply did not believe in herself anymore. Night supposed that it made a certain kind of sense, given everything that happened. Still, she had wanted her friend back, this… this was Ataxia, but at the same time, it was not. Ataxia may not have been the type to blame herself for what happened, but Night could see a fundamental change in the mare, something that she wanted to make go away.

When she had talked to her parents about it, Twilight and Rainbow told her it was just exhaustion, that in time she would be her old self. Night knew that it was partially the case, but that it was also more than that. Some of it could be dismissed by that, after all, for the past two weeks she had spent most of her time sleeping, but there was still something fundamentally different about her, something Night wished she knew how to undo.

She hoped; she hoped Ataxia would simply get over it. Talking to her about it, or trying to anyway, it always ended in failure. So much that Night learned to simply not bring it up because it only seemed to make things worse when she did.

Tonight did seem to be a little different, though. Ataxia had a lot more energy than she previously displayed. Part of Night, a small part anyway, told her this could be a very bad thing. She dismissed that part immediately. If her friend was doing better, she would take it without question. Regardless of what that might mean.

“So, what are we going to do tonight?” Ataxia asked, her words breaking through Night’s thoughts.

“Same thing we do every night, Ataxia. Try to take over the world.”

Ataxia hit her in the head with a pillow. “Not funny.”

Night hit her back. “Really? ‘Cause I laughed.”

“Well get up, Miss ‘Take over the World’, you know Twilight will be expecting you in the throne room.”

“Yeah, yeah. Can we eat first?”

“Nope, you overslept. It’s almost time.”

“Overslept? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“’Cause you looked so peaceful.” Ataxia said with a smile on her face. “I couldn't bring myself to disturb such a sweet moment.”

Night sighed loudly as she dragged her flank out of bed. Unfortunately, she misjudged just how tired she had been. While sleeping, her front right hoof went numb, and when she went to put her weight on it, it gave out.

Night’s face met the floor.

“Oww! Who put that there?!” Night yelled aloud.

Ataxia started busting out laughing at Night’s unintended face-plant.

………

“Are we done yet, Twi?”

“Why, you getting tired, Rainbow?”

“Yes.” Rainbow told the truth. Physically, they were doing nothing at all; physically they had done nothing all damn day. Yet she still felt more drained than after any amount of physical activity she had ever went through, even counting for her time in the Wonderbolts. They were literally sitting on a throne the entire damn day listening to what others had to say. Well, one of them was. Rainbow had spent most of the day as she always did, napping. Yet, for some reason, she was still exhausted. The bureaucracy of a nation was nothing short of boring to the pegasus.

There had been a reason why she never wanted this job to begin with; sadly, they were stuck with it, at least for now anyway.

“Night should be getting up soon; when she gets here we can change the sun out for the moon and go to sleep.”

“And then we get to start this all over again.” Rainbow rolled her eyes as she said the words aloud. There was no small amount of sarcasm in her voice.

Twilight whispered the next part, “Only after you make me just as tired as you now feel.”

A magical shield was all that protected Rainbow’s throne from being cut in three different pieces as her wings shot back from her sudden enthusiasm at her wife’s words. Her golden wings became as sharp as diamonds as a sudden rush of excitement overcame her.

They went through three thrones before Twilight got the idea for the shield spell.

Twilight smiled as she saw the effect on her wife. It always amazed her just how quickly Rainbow’s mood could do a one eighty. Her smile turned to a frown as her eyes fell on Rainbow’s missing hoof.

Night had been able to do quite a lot to help everypony after the battle, but she had been unable to heal the lasting injuries. Those still required Twilight’s magic to undo. Something Twilight was unable to undue in her ‘condition’.

“Princess Twilight, Princess Rainbow, Princess Night has arrived.” A royal guard said aloud from the entrance to the throne room.

“Finally!” Rainbow shouted.

At that moment, Night and Ataxia both walked in. Rainbow smirked as she saw the red bruise on Night’s muzzle. Ataxia noticed the grin on Rainbow’s face and immediately knew that she knew what happened to Night. Ataxia walked over to the cyan mare.

“Face-plant?” Rainbow asked.

“Yep.”

“Blame the floor?”

“Yep.”

That brought an even bigger smile to Rainbow’s face. Night and Twilight were so much alike at times; it was a little scary to Rainbow. For her part, Twilight just walked over and hugged her daughter, making no mention of the obvious bruise. The two of them went to the balcony and began the process of lowering the sun and raising the moon.

“You seem to be feeling better.” Rainbow commented on Ataxia’s condition as the two of them watched the mares they loved at work.

“I am, thanks for noticing.” Ataxia smirked. She had not been quite herself ever since waking up. It was only on Night’s order that she was even out of the hospital. However, tonight was different from the other three nights she had been awake. Tonight she actually felt like she had energy. Something she had every intention of expanding as soon as got the chance.

Looking at Night’s flank as she worked on raising the moon gave Ataxia several ideas about just how she wanted to expend that energy.

Rainbow bumped her on the shoulder. “Go easy on her, for her sake, and yours. It’s been awhile since she last had any and you need to take it easy.”

“How would you know?” Ataxia asked.

Rainbow just glared at her. That one look said it all, ‘really?’

“You’re right. She’s not the type.” Ataxia begrudgingly admitted. “Still, I’m not going to go that easy on her.” A smile crossed Ataxia’s face as she said that last part. “As far as me, well, let’s just say it’s been awhile for me too. I have a few muscles that need a good workout.”

Rainbow just grinned. She knew her daughter was somewhat of a stick in the mud when it came to things like that. ‘You’ll be good for her.’ Rainbow thought to herself. Night definitely needed someone who could break her out of her shell. Although, Rainbow knew that the learning curve for Night would be quite steep. Still, she should enjoy it, as long as she does not fight it. Well, as long as she does not fight it too much anyway.

When the two alicorns finished moving the celestial bodies in the sky and turned back to the mares they loved, Rainbow faked a loud, over-exaggerated yawn.

“Tired, mom?” Night asked Rainbow.

“It’s been a long day, Night. You know with ruling the country and all. It’s time to hit the hay.” Rainbow pretended to wipe sleep from her eye.

“I bet.” Night said with a smirk. She knew her mom enough to spot the obvious lie; no doubt Rainbow had slept most of the day away while Twilight did all the actual work.

“Night.” Rainbow said as she turned and started flying towards their room, gesturing for Twilight to follow.

“Night.” Night said with a grin. She was under no illusion of what Rainbow truly wanted to do.

Twilight gave her daughter one last hug and ran to catch up with her wife. When she got there the two of them started to engage in idle chatter. Until Twilight thought of one thing, one thing she actually wanted to talk about.

“Hey, Rainbow?”

“Sup?”

“Any idea what we should call him?” Twilight said with a smile. Her hoof pressed against a full belly.

“Oh that! Yeah, I thought of the perfect name.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Taz!”

Twilight stared at her, her mind taken aback by that. “Taz? What kind of name is Taz?”

“You don’t remember that dream you told me about the monster living in your attic that likes geometry?”

Twilight thought about it… “Wait, you want to name our son after a dream I had?”

“Yep.”

“No.”

Rainbow smirked; she had expected that answer and knew just how to counter it. “Hey, what was our deal?”

“What?”

“The promise we made, you named the first kid, I did the second, and you named the third, so now it’s my turn.” Rainbow had her dead to rights on this one.

“Rainbow…” Twilight pleaded.

“Twi, you promised.”

“Why Taz?” Twilight gave up; she knew there was no way out of it now.

“I think it’s a cool name, besides, he’s already a little monster.” Rainbow said with a smile.

“Fine.” Twilight could not disagree with that one. ‘He has already been a lot of trouble; moreover, maybe he will like geometry.’

………

Ataxia and Night were in the throne room for exactly five minutes. Five minutes before Ataxia started in on Night. “Night, I’m bored.”

Night started laughing; she had wondered just how long it would take Ataxia to feel this way. It actually surprised the mare just how long she had been able to hold out. In truth, the two of them had very little to do. Twilight and Rainbow took care of just about everything during the day. If Twilight would leave her anything to do at all, it was usually just forms to fill out, things that required both of their signatures. She could knock those out in three minutes.

Ataxia normally slept all day and night. Granted, she was still recovering, but exhaustion and fatigue kept the boredom at bay. Now, now that had finally passed. Night had been hoping for and dreading this moment in equal measure. “Why don’t you go into the forest, I’m sure there is some monster you can hunt?” It was Luna’s favorite hobby at night. Something she had been unable to do for a while due to her injury. Night figured there would be more than one creature out there that would be rousing up some trouble for Ataxia to deal with.

“No!” Ataxia blushed as she shouted that a little louder than she intended too. Needless to say, it got Night’s full attention. “I mean no, I’m not that bored… never mind, I’m… I’m ok.”

There it was; that part, that was the part of Ataxia that Night had seen these past few days. The part that just was not the same, the part that Night wanted to make go away. “Well, we got an entire night to kill, what do you want to do?” Night pointedly ignored what had just occurred. She would play along, for now anyway.

Ataxia thought about it for a while, as soon as her ears made out a soft moaning coming from down the hallway she made up her mind. No one else heard it, but then again, only one other pony in the palace had her level of hearing, and that pony was quite busy as she could hear every moan coming from Twilight as that pony went to town on her wife. “We don’t have to stay here, right? In this room I mean?” Ataxia did not really care where they were, but she knew that Shimmering Night would.

“No, we can go wherever; the royal guards will alert me to any new events.”

“I got a great idea of what to do. It’s back in our room though.” Ataxia’s playful demeanor returned to her in an instant. It was something that both relieved and worried Night.

“What’s that?” Night asked.

“You’ll just have to trust me. It should be good for both of us.” Ataxia said with a smile as she started walking back to their room, it left no further room for conversation. If Night wanted to know just what she was talking about, she would have no choice but to follow.

Night’s curiosity was piqued as she followed her friend back to their bedchambers. She passed by two royal guards who did their absolute best not to grin at her. It went without saying, but their best was far from good enough.

………

“For the last time, Aurora, let the nurses do it.” Icarus said to his wife. There was obvious frustration in his voice at having this conversation with her, yet again.

“No, you’re my husband; I’ll give you a bath.” Aurora said in a tone that told Icarus to drop it or else.

“Why are you doing this?” Icarus said. In truth he preferred his wife’s touch to some strange ponies, he just did not want to her to have to degrade herself to such tasks.

“Because you’re my husband, I promised I would always be there for you, regardless what happened.” Aurora said with tears in her eyes as she looked at the griffin. Icarus was stuck in bed, a full body cast over his entire body. The battle had broken ninety-five percent of his bones and crushed almost every organ he had.

Only the spear had kept him alive, the one that the doctors had kept in his claw the entire time. With Night’s help, Icarus was able to regain consciousness, but for now, that was the extent of what she could do for him. Her magic… her talent, it may not have any real limits. Over the last few weeks, Aurora had seen her sister do some rather amazing things with it, but she was not omnipotent. From what little Aurora could understand about Twilight and Night’s research, it seemed Night had to know exactly what she wanted to happen in order to make it happen.

It was one thing to want a shield to pop up, or something to simply leave, quite another to want muscles and bones to reconnect to where they were supposed to go. Night simply did not have a fully detailed knowledge of ponies' or griffins' anatomy in order to accomplish something like that.

She had offered to study every single moment in order to get it done. Twilight informed her that the amount of time it would take her to learn all of that would be far longer than just waiting for her baby brother to be born. As such, Icarus was stuck in his full body cast. When asked if he would heal normally, the doctors pointed out that by all rights he should not even be alive.

So no… he would not heal normally, he would simply have to live like that until Twilight regained her magic powers.

That was a bitter pill for Aurora to swallow. She had almost lost it when she found out about Icarus in the first place. It was only Twilight, Rainbow, and Night’s presence that stopped her from killing somepony. Well, that and a little help from Cadance.

Princess Cadance might be confined to a wheelchair, as just like Icarus, there was nothing Night could do for her either, but she took it in stride. With the battle over and everyone she loved still alive, there was little to be mad about. She knew that Twilight would be able to heal her after she had her foal, so her confinement to a wheelchair was not the end of the world, or so she said anyway.

Icarus gave in. “Fine.”

Aurora went to work. She began washing every single inch of the griffin, paying close attention to the more intimate parts as she did so. It was then, at that moment, that Icarus saw it. He saw the one thing he never expected to see on someone so pretty, someone so gorgeous, someone like Aurora.

When she glanced at him, he saw the love she had for him on her face.

It was a look he was quick to return.

………

Firestar rolled over and hugged her stallion for all her worth.

It was a gesture he reciprocated, although he was a little more careful about it, with her huge baby bump, he was always a little cautious about putting too much pressure on his wife’s stomach, something the doctors told him he had no real fear of; still, he held back.

“Thank you.” Firestar said.

“For what?” Radiant asked.

“For making me stay in bed. I know… I know we got lucky, everyone… everyone did what they did for me, for us. I… I just wanted to say thanks. I know I should have said it earlier.”

Radiant kissed his wife’s forehead. He slowly ran a hoof along her wings, an action that caused no small amount of excitement in the mare whose hormones were working overtime. “You have nothing to thank me for.”

“But…”

“No buts. You have nothing to thank any of us for. All of us: Twilight, Luna, Mom, Night, Icarus, and even Aurora, we’re family, it’s what we do. We could no more sit back and do nothing than you could. You know, normally.”

Firestar hugged him tighter. She rested her head on the stallion’s chest. “I hope; I hope they’re just like you.” Firestar’s implication was clear to both of them.

“Luna, I hope not.” Radiant teased. “I hope they’re more like you.”

She looked up into his eyes. He stared back, those big, beautiful blue eyes of Firestar’s were an ocean he could get lost in every single day, something he just wanted to drown in and never surface.

“I love you.” Firestar said to him.

Radiant smiled. Regardless how many times she said it, regardless how many times he heard those words coming from her mouth, it never failed to put a smile on his face.

“I love you too.”

“Boop.” Firestar bopped him on the noise with a hoof.

“Boop.” Radiant returned the gesture. Firestar let out a yawn as the sun was setting in the distance. She rested her head back on his chest and gently drifted off to sleep.

The final words she said put a smile on his face. “You’re still an idiot.”

Radiant smiled as he felt the tell-tale signs of his wife drifting off to sleep. “I know.”

Radiant lightly stroked her mane as she fell asleep. He thought of nothing, for there was nothing more he wanted. Right then and there, he had everything he could possibly hope for. He was a prince who was married to the prettiest princess in the land. He had a loving family and two sons on the way.

For Prince Radiant Star, it was a storybook ending to say the least.

Well, he had to take that back, there was one thing he wanted, one thing he needed to do right that second; it came to him suddenly and without warning.

Looking down at the mare sleeping peacefully on his chest, Radiant began cursing the Gods themselves as one thought kept crossing his mind. It was something he could not just ignore regardless of any amount of mental discipline.

‘I need to pee.’

He started thinking of ways he could use one of his wife’s bedpans without waking her up.

………………………

Luna trudged through the remains of the forest. She was looking for… well, she had no idea what she was looking for. The Night Princess was simply looking. Her rationale for searching the Everfree was simple: Everything bad usually had something to do with this place; so, logically, it was the place she would start with.

Princess… that was a term that technically no longer applied to her. In all reality, she had no claim to being royalty anymore. She was no longer an alicorn, her broken horn saw to that. Still, the others would not hear of it. They told her that in time, Twilight would be able to fix her horn, and Night would be able to restore her magic. Until then, she was simply to take it easy, to relax.

That got old for Luna two days after waking up. She began pacing back and forth in her room, and eventually, she simply split. On her own, Luna started taking up patrol missions in the Everfree Forest.

She had heard the stories of Grim Night’s final warning, of the beings that he had spoken of. The ones that had given life to black magic in order to create the revenants in the first place. No pony knew if he was lying or not.

It was under the surface, but they all suspected it was the truth. None of them would let their guard down, not after all that had happened. Luna took it upon herself to provide some form of forwarding to everyone else in case they made their move.

She had to make herself feel useful. It was the least that she could do. They told her... they told her that Night had managed to pull the magic out of her brain. In doing so, she saved Luna’s life. That still bugged Luna, not so much that Night had done what she did, but that she had needed to at all. Luna was not the type who liked to rely on others.

This patrol, like so many before it, would end in failure. Luna would only encounter the odd creature that was sleeping or hunting in the night. Only the first patrol was remotely interesting, and that was only because Rainbow Dash had joined her.

After Rainbow told Twilight what was going on, she had the bat-ponies guard Princess Luna during her patrols, she told them to stay far enough back where Luna would not notice them but not too far back where they could not come to her aid if needed. Of course, Luna always noticed them. It became a game for the former alicorn to try to lose them each night.

Tonight she had set a new personal best, and with her babysitters out of sight, she pressed on. She was looking for something, anything that might distract her from recent events. Just like always, Luna found and saw nothing.

The others might be able to dismiss it, or at least, not worry about it. Luna knew better; her memories of being trapped on the moon for a thousand years told her that there was something there, something that they did need to be wary of. For the life of her, Luna could not quite remember just what it was. It was like a song that you only remembered in the back of your mind. Whenever she would try to think about it, the memory was simply gone. Only when she thought about nothing, or when she distracted herself with some other task would the thought return, to fade just as quickly when she realized it.

So Luna searched, she looked, and she found… nothing.

Unfortunately, something found her. It did not make a move, it simply watched, watched and waited.

It would bide its time, there was much, much to learn before it did anything at all.

Time was the greatest asset for someone with patience, and patience was something it had in droves.

…………………………

Rainbow sighed as she held the alicorn lying on her chest in her hooves. She ran her one hoof down Twilight’s mane, noting with a smile at a few sections that had become matted and a little sticky. There was no doubt in her mind that they were both in desperate need of a shower.

For now, that could wait. Rainbow had made good on her unspoken promise to wear the mare out, something she achieved with all the awesomeness she was known for. Besides, while the room might smell, it smelt of them, and that was a smell that Rainbow would always love.

It had never been Rainbow’s dream to be a princess, but for Twilight, it was a price worth paying.

“Hey Rainbow?”

Twilight’s sudden question interrupted Rainbow’s thoughts. “Yeah, Twi?”

“Night, she looked happy, didn’t she?”

Rainbow smiled. She would never say, but she knew for a fact that Night was very, very happy right now. At least, based on what her magically over-sensitive ears could hear anyway. “I know she is. After all, she changed fate itself.”

“There’s no such thing as fate, Rainbow.”

“You’re wrong about that, Twi. It's just not defined the way you think it is. I think… I know that Night was right. Fate is what we choose for ourselves. We pick our own fate.”

Twilight thought about it. She supposed, logically, there was some truth in that meaning. “You might be right.” It was an over simplistic definition, but it still held true.

Rainbow just smiled. She was far too tired to celebrate those words.

“Rainbow, when did you get so smart?” Twilight grinned.

“What can I say? I’m surrounded by the smartest mares in the world, so I’m bound to pick up on something.” Rainbow lightly bopped her wife on the noise.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

‘Fate is that which we choose for ourselves. Others can limit your choices, but, in the end it is, and always will be your decision. So tell me, what will you choose?’ ~ Princess Shimmering Night

Later that Night

Author's Notes:

It's been over five months... over five months since I started writing this story, my magnum opus if you will. After all that time it finally came to an end. With this completed, twenty chapters of 12.5k words each, I doubled the size of the story so far.

For those playing the home game, the story in whole is now over 524,000 words; approx 2,100 pages if it were a book.

It's been quite the journey to say the least.

Where am I going from here? Well, I left it open, as I always will until I am done, so that I could add more. My current plans are for a Nightaxia clop fic (I think they deserve one) that I will release on Dec 1 for my homegirl Skizee's B-day. You can expect it to be around 3-6k words with a working title of TiM: Later that Night.

After that, I have an idea for a different story, one that will take me out of the TiM universe and into something a lot darker. I hope to write this story as a colab and call it 'We were Friends.' (Little warning, it's not for the faint of heart. It'll be a dark Twidash fic.)

You can probably expect a few short stories randomly here and there, I have a few ideas in my head, but nothing that has solidified though.

After that, I don't honestly know. I've put all my reading on the backburner to finish this story and I want to catch up. I loved everything about writing this story... well, almost everything.

For whatever reason, this story is my most hated (downvotes/total votes)....

It got... hard to keep my motivation going at times, I tried not to let it get to me, but I failed. I'd spend 14 hours working on a chapter (not counting the time the editors put in) post it, and dread logging on the next day 'cause It would lead to one or two more downvotes. Only to repeat the process with the next chapter, the chapter after that, and the chapter after that.

I know I should not let that get to me, by default when writing a shipping fic, I'm going to get people who hate that ship, hate shipping in general, or who hate the idea of two females getting into a relationship (Seriously, I think two people went and downvoted every story in the Twidash folder, every story I wrote and every story I recommended on my wall got two downvotes in 24 hours. If you don't like something, leave it alone. I stay away from appledash stories because I hate that ship, but I don't go around downvoting everyone I see... that's just trollish.). ~Yeah I know, it is the internet after all, it breeds trolls.~

To top this off, as I've moved away from the original cast to my own OCs, I'd get those who hate the idea of original characters (Why they read stories that star them? IDK). I'd get those who don't like series of stories or don't understand a simple read order. (Hmm... Harry Potter looks interesting, lets start with Goblet of Fire, What's quidditch? That sounds stupid. ) Oddly, I'd also get those who don't like my writing, characterization, and/or storytelling, yet did not simply stop at one of the first stories, or did not bother to read the first story... (people are f-ing strange)

Also, it probably did not help things that I added clop to this fic...

I know all of that, but you can only tell yourself that so many times. When you see it go from 14 to 16 in 48 hours, then a week later from 16 to 18 overnight, you start asking yourself what you're doing wrong, 'cause of course they never tell you, that might mean they actually have to defend their position.... (Which would most likely result in them having to admit that they did not read the first stories, and/or they're just trolls.)

In the end, I got through it by reminding myself that I write for me, the fact that so many people enjoy it is simply a bonus, one that I thank you all for.

I know that sounds kinda negative, so to answer your next question; I'm I done writing for this series? Hell no. I love it all too much, haters gonna hate and all of that.

That being said, don't expect me to start a new story any time soon, don't expect it to be this long, or with chapters this big again. Long chapters are a lot of fun, they allow one to go a lot further with the characterization and more in depth with the story. However, they are such a pain to write and edit (two or three times it felt more like a grind then something I actually enjoyed doing). I think I prefered the chapter lengths of BoI, as such I'll keep them at 4-5k words for now on with the option to occasionally take em over.

So for now, I'll be spending my time on those two other fics, catching up on my reading, and going through to edit what I have written so far. (I'm about one fifth done editing BoI. I already did the original and life lived. Although, I'm sure I missed a few things.) When the mood hits me, or I get a really good idea in my head, I'll start writing again.

Ok, I'm done rambling, for now....

Let me end this by saying thank you. Thank you for reading and enjoying my story. Or thank you for reading and not enjoying my story if you're somewhat of a masochist.

As always, feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below. I know it's said a lot, but your comments are what truly help an author. Constructive feedback is key to anyone's improvement, they're also what keeps a writer motivated. Whether you love or hate something, it helps to say what you loved and/or what you hated. A random pat on the back is no more helpful than saying 'this sucks'.

Tell me what you think, not only of this story, but of the story as a whole.

Or say nothing at all, either way, I still thank you all for taking time out of your lives to read my tale.

Until next time,
Twidash on!
~Twidashforever~