"It appears we are at an impasse. How about a trade Princess Twilight?" Tirek stood tall in front of Twilight, snapping his fingers once. Six bubbles popped into existence above him, each one containing another of her best friends, and then one for her not-quite-as-best-friend Discord. "Their release... for all the alicorn magic in Equestria."

Twilight gasped, looking up at her friends, trapping in their transparent prisons, all screaming for her not to give in, but could she really risk it? Tirek wouldn't hesitated to harm her friends, she knew.

"What's it going to be, Princess?" asked Tirek.

Twilight's eyes met Tirek's again as she pondered. She needed a way around his defenses, but an attack from any direction would just be blocked. From any direction...

Twilight concentrated, her horn glowing brightly. She could feel him pull all his energy into a shield in front of him, but that wasn't where she was going to attack. In a loud snap of magic, she disappeared, teleporting right behind him, then snapping out of existence a second time. There was a hesitation before her re-appearance, and for a moment one might have thought that she had fled.

But suddenly Tirek began to scream as if striken by a sudden agony. A ball of energy expanded from within his shield, right in the middle of his chest, and suddenly exploded outward as Twilight forced herself to reintegrate inside of him. His chest exploded outward, spraying the inside of his shield with a layer of torn muscle and splattered organs shortly before it dissappated. His body came apart, tumbling to the ground in a wet heap, his head rolling across the ground to end up several meters away.

Twilight floated there in the air for a moment, covered head to tail in a layer of blood and gore, then dropped suddenly to land atop Tirek's remains. There was a shudder as the ground rumbled, and the pent up energy that Tirek had taken cascaded outwards to return to those he had stolen it from. All except the energy Twilight had taken, the energy of the three other princesses.

As soon as Tirek's power was gone, her friends dropped to the ground as well, landing in a series of thumps. Some stared at Twilight in disbelief, some turned their heads away from the terrible sight. Fluttershy turned around and gagged as she tried not to vomit. For a very long time there was silence, the only sound Twilight's heavy breathing as she tried to contain her energy.

"Twilight..." Applejack was the first to speak, "What did you do? You... wow."

"Holy shit that was awesome!" Rainbow Dash blurted out as she hovered back up into the air, "He didn't stand a chance!"

"Guess he really lost his head!" giggled Pinkie.

"This is no time for puns," Rarity murmured.

"Remind me never to piss you off again," Discord commented, edging over to Fluttershy and patting her on the back as she gagged.

"I..." Twilight herself was shocked that it had worked so well, "I need to go... get the princesses out of Tartarus I..." Unable to think of what else to say, she simply shimmered back out of existence as she teleported away.

Twilight found herself at the entrance of Tartarus, simply staring in through the gate, sensing that the other princesses were inside. So why was she hesitating?

She had never felt so powerful. She realized that in this form, with all this power, even beings like Discord would be given pause. After all, Tirek defeated him, and she defeated Tirek. She might very well be the strongest being in all of Equestria now. No, she almost certainly was.

What's more, she had used this power effectively, moreso than any of the other princesses would have done. Especially her mentor, as much as she hated to admit it, was quite useless when it came to these situations. She normally just served as a damsel in distress during these crisises. It was embarrassing how much Twilight had eclipsed her in both power, strategy, and wisdom.

The more Twilight thought about it, the more she considered that maybe she shouldn't give up her power after all. This could very well be her destiny, after all, the reason she had been born, a replacement for their incompetent rulers, one who could keep the ponies of Equestria safe for once. Safe without relying on heroes using necklaces or emotion cannons that only worked at the last moment. With her seated as Queen, the realm would be completely safe.

She made her decision, and made her way into Tartarus.

She found Celestia, Luna, and Cadence slumped on one of the platforms, chains binding them to the ground there. Twilight concentrated, and in an instant the chains shattered, freeing the three alicorns, but not doing anything to empower them. Celestia was the first to look up weakly, eyes glazed over from the loss of her magic, a thousand year old blank flank. She started to speak, then her eyes just went wide. Soon the other two princesses were staring slack jawed at Twilight as well.

It took Twilight a while to remember why they were staring at her. No doubt it was because she was still covered in gore. Twilight concentrated again, and in a flash the blood was cleaned out of her fur, leaving it silky and soft behind.

"Sorry," said Twilight, "Forgot how messy I was."

"I take it this means... you defeated Tirek," said Luna.

"I knew you could do it Twilight," Celestia smiled weakly, and slowly pulled herself back up to her feet.

"We all did," Cadence added.

"Yes, I did it," said Twilight, "Though... not in the friendship way that I normally do it, I admit, though it sort of ... worked. I mean he's not going to be troubling us again, not like if we stored him in ice or stone. He's gone. For good."

"Yes," Celestia sounded somewhat uncomfortable, but certainly wasn't going to scold Twilight for saving them, "Now, we need to perform the spell to reassert our powers. First, we'll need to-"

"About that..." interjected Twilight, "I've... decided that I'll keep your powers."

"W-what." Celestia was completely baffled.

"Twilight," said Luna, "This is no joking matter."

"Oh I'm not joking," assured Twilight, "Face it, I've been more competent with your powers today than any of you have ever done. The fact is, Equestria owes its continuing existence to me, and it has over and over again. It's about time I got recognized." She landed in front of the other three, standing tall before them, "I intend to proclaim myself Queen. Few will question it after I defeated Tirek, even if it means I'm replacing you. Especially if it means I'm replacing you."

"I can't believe this," Celestia helped Luna and Cadence to their feet, "Twilight the power has gone to your head. You must give it back. It is not yours to keep."

Twilight smiled and shook her head, "But it clearly is mine, and I am keeping it. I'm sorry. Now follow me back to Canterlot." With that Twilight turned away from them, trotting down the long ramp towards the exit to Tartarus.

The last thing Twilight expected was an attack. After all, what could the princesses really muster at her at this point? Still, they must have really reached deep, because the blast from behind was enough to throw her off balance so that she tumbled forward. It wasn't enough however, to knock her over. She stood tall and turned back around.

She saw all three princesses, horns lowered and targeting, draining every ounce of energy they could muster into another blast, aiming it squarely at Twilight's chest. Twilight swung up one of her front hooves, snatching the beam of energy out of thin air and knocking it off target.

"Stop it." Twilight said, "I will not go easy on you if you force me to punish you."

They didn't. The three powered up, determined to not let her leave them like this, straining until they were drenched with sweat and barely able to stand. Twilight caught the new beam of energy in her hoof again, knocking it back towards them. The energy zapped right back into their horns where it had originated, causing all three to slump into a pile once again, twitching and moaning from the exertion.

"I am very disappointed in you, Celestia... Luna... especially you Cadence, I would have thought at least you would appreciate this, but no, none of you have," Twilight took a deep breath, then suddenly smiled to herself, "It's clear you'll need to be properly humiliated before you'll cooperate. It's time to put the three of you in your places." Her smile became a sadistic grin, "And I know just how to do it."

Twilight arrived in Canterlot in a flash of bright light, landing herself and her three captives at the palace entrance. She landed gingerly on her hooves, then a follow up flash spit out the three other princesses, all thrown to the ground like meat sacks, collapsing together into a pile.

"Princess!" the nearest guard came running, "What happened to them Princess Twilight?"

"Queen Twilight," Twilight corrected the confused guard, "You will escort them to the dungeon until I am ready to see to them."

"T-the dungeon? I don't understand..."

"They are my prisoners. Are you saying you will disobey me?" Twilight turned and looked sharply down at him.

"I.. I have to I mean... I can't do --" CRACK

The guard's head was grabbed by Twilight's magic and spun around, once... twice.. three times... his neck splintering into pieces until his head popped off like a cork, followed by a fountain of blood as the guard's corpse crumpled to the ground.

"Is there another guard here who will obey me?" Twilight spoke loudly.

The response to her initial attack was for most of the remaining guards in the courtyard to charge her. Twilight rolled her eyes, and took a second guard's head in her grasp. This time she felt resistance, and realized that Celestia was trying to hold her back from her twisting. Twilight kicked one hoof forward, slamming it against Celestia's horn, causing her to cry out and snapping her magic off. The second guard's head popped, and the remaining ones hesitated.

She grasped a third pegasai guard in mid-air. This one she grasped on each end with her magic, spinning his tail end and front end opposite directions until he literally snapped in two, each end raining down a shower of blood as his body flopped onto the ground. Luna stumbled up to her feet and charged Twilight herself, trying to distract her from her slaughter, but Twilight just grabbed her by the head as well and tossed her back into the princess pile.

Surprisingly, she went through about a dozen royal guard before the remainder ceased charging her. The courtyard was a mess of decapitated, dismembered, and otherwise separated pony parts, and no others were daring to come within a dozen meters of her.

"You will CEASE this treasonous behavior," Twilight's voice echoed, "And you will escort the prisoners to the dungeon. NOW."

"Twilight! What are you doing?" a familiar voice called out. It was Shining Armor. He was walking towards Twilight, stepping around the pony parts and organs piles, but still getting blood on his hooves, "What has gotten into you?"

"Oh brother!" Twilight ignored his disapproval and spoke to him as if they were having tea, "I'm so glad you're here. Could you take Cadence off my hooves? Celestia and Luna are going to be my captives, but I figure you'd rather have custody of Cadence. I'll be around to show you how to deal with her later."

"W-what?" Shining Armor, "That's insane I.." Shining suddenly frozen, feeling his head encompassed by her magic.

"Brother, please," Twilight said seriously, "Don't make me, not you."

With Shining it was almost certainly a bluff. Still, he took the opportunity to remove his wife from Twilight's presence before worrying about anything else. He nodded slowly and trotted towards the princess pile; reaching out a hoof to Cadence, he helped her stand and led her slowly away.

"Come on sweetheart, let me get you out of here," he said, then turned to the other princesses, "I'm sorry. I'll... try to think of something."

"Oh we'll think of plenty, brother. You'll learn to enjoy it," Twilight said, then turned to the nearest guard, a bat pony that looked like he might piss himself when she pointed a hoof at him, "You. Escort these other two to the dungeon, chain them up." She then moved her hoof to another guard, a unicorn who looked equally terrified, "You. Organize some clean up and burn the corpses of these traitors. Make sure my other guards know what happens to traitors."

The unicorn nodded slowly, taking the opportunity to turn and trot off to get a further distance away. Twilight assumed he would do as she said and turned to the bat pony. He gulped slowly, nodded, and walked over to Celestia and Luna. Whispering an apology, he helped each of them up and led them into the palace.

Twilight herself went into the throne room first, and only had to dispose of two more traitorous guards on the way there. There she found where Celestia had left her royal attire. Looking over it, she admired the neck piece, leggings, and crown.

They were a bit large for her however, so she concentrated her energy into another spell. She gritted her teeth as her body expanded, bones extending and muscles tearing and reforming about them. She barely kept herself standing during the spell, and rested a minute or two after, but all the same she was able to adorn herself in Celestia's royal attire.

"There... now just a few more things..."