“Twilight, that’s too far!” Aurora protested as her sister was banished from Canterlot for however long it would take her to find her missing brother and bring him back home.

Twilight just turned her head and looked at Aurora, Aurora shut up as soon as she saw the tears in Twilight’s eyes, “I don’t pretend to want to do this, but it has to be done. We’re a family,” she glanced at everyone in the room, pony, griffin, and hippogriff, “We stand or fall together. It’s been a decade and a half since we’ve been through an event this tragic,” Twilight looked at Radiant and Cadance when she said that.

“A lot of you have never known this level of tragedy, we have to be united to get through this, we have to stay together. It’s the only way to see us through this threat.”

No one could meet her gaze, they all looked away or took what comfort they could in each other, “Aurora and Icarus, can you make arrangements to stay in Canterlot? Radiant, I’ve already made arrangements for an extended stay for you and… and your family,” Twilight almost broke down at that, the memory of the dead mare still weighing heavily on her mind. Firestar had not gone easy, the stab wounds, the blood, all of it, it… it….

She felt a wing wrap around her, Twilight looked over to her left and saw the mare she loved more than anything else in the entire world press her muzzle next to her own. Somehow, with that one action, Rainbow gave her a reason to keep going. The cyan mare’s very presence gave her that strength.

It was all she needed, “I will protect you all; however, I need you to look after each other too. That's why Ataxia had to go with Night. I may have had to banish my daughter, but she’s still my daughter. She’s strong, but one pony can only do so much. I know that with her wife by her side she’ll be safe. Ana, Starlight, I’m sorry.”

Ana looked up, she was still running a hoof down Flash’s back. The poor pegasus was still crying into her coat. There were tears falling from her eyes, but not from the banishment of her moms, these were due to the empathy she felt for her cousins.

Starlight walked over and sat on the other side of Flash; she wrapped a hoof around both of them and squeezed as hard as she could, “You two are victims in all of this, but you’re not alone, no one is alone,” Twilight looked around as she said that, “We’re all here for each other, we must come together… we must,” she paused as her gaze fell upon Radiant, Cadance, and a confused Blaze.

“I shall send a letter and assemble our forces,” Icarus said as he pulled out his spear, whoever did this just declared war on the Griffin Empire, the Crystal Empire, and Cloudsdale. Our mutual defense pacts stand. We will get revenge for these actions,” as if to put further emphasis on this point, Icarus spun the large spear in one claw. It was an action that left a trail of power from where the point of the spear cut into the air.

A clear indication that Siros approved of his son’s words.

Rainbow nodded her head in agreement. She was sure that when everyone found out what happened to their rulers there would be hell to pay from Cloudsdale, the Crystal Empire, and the Griffin Empire. Equestria would not simply sit idle; the entire continent was now at war. Only one question remained: At war with whom?

“We appreciate any help you can give, Icarus. However, keep it small and elite. I doubt whomever we’re up against has an army behind them, as such they will be mobile, we have to be able to respond in kind. Moving an entire army around would be a logistical nightmare that we can ill afford to deal with,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. It was simple logistics, sure they could bring up an army, but without a dedicated target it would be nothing more than a drain on resources. Never mind the state of panic it would cause in every country.

Icarus nodded to Twilight’s words but said nothing. In truth he wanted every one of the soldiers under his command up here to kill whoever had attacked his wife. However, there was wisdom in keeping his forces small. He grinned at that, there was an elite guard he could call upon, one that no one knew about yet. They were soldiers ready for just such an event.

They were a new creation he came up with five years ago, similar to Luna’s guard: The Shadow Knights. The Shadow Knights were griffins that trained with spears and shields, and much as their name suggested, they were experts in fighting in shadows. The first year of their training required every member to be blindfolded while going through the hardest training that Icarus could come up with. To date two thousand griffins tried out for it, only ten had passed. He would order them to stay in teams of five and shadow his family.

A look at Radiant and Cadance told him that Twilight was right, privacy be damned. He was not going to lose his wife, son, or daughter. He COULD not lose them. He would do whatever it took to make sure that did not happen.

“There is one more order of business,” Twilight said as she looked around the room of crying faces. She lowered her horn and shot a beam of magic directly at Princess Cadance. The Princess of Love yelped in surprise as her horn regrew to its full length.

She looked up at Twilight with a pissed expression on her face. Twilight met her sister-in-law’s gaze glare for glare, “I don’t care if you don’t like it Cadance, we need everyone to look after each other. I will not risk anyone’s safety on you wanting to carry a scar of this travesty.”

Cadance made to interject when a voice interrupted her, “She’s right mom, what if Blaze’s life was on the line and you needed magic to save him?” Radiant’s voice was full of sorrow; however its truth was undeniable. Cadance turned from her son and glared back at Twilight, but said nothing.

“Have you been able to locate this perpetrator?” Luna asked.

“If she had, do you really think we’d be here having this conversation?” Rainbow growled the words. It was true; Twilight and Night had spent an hour on separate scans, looking for any sign of the power Twilight described. They found nothing on this continent or any other.

“I’ll keep looking,” Twilight looked down at that, she was doing her best not to cry, “I got to keep looking for them. I will keep looking for them, I… I….”

“Oh no, egghead. We’re going to bed! Consider that an order,” Rainbow flew above her wife.

“How can you sleep at a time like this?” Twilight asked.

“I can’t, however you can cast a sleep spell. We’re both getting at least eight hours of sleep before we do anything else.”

“We agree,” Luna stated, “It’s almost time to set the sun anyway. I think we can all agree it has been a trying day for all of us?” Every head nodded up and down at that comment. No one would fall asleep that night without a sleeping spell; however, they had plenty of ponies that could cast such a spell.

“Luna?” Radiant asked.

Luna looked over at Radiant. “Yes, dear prince?”

“No… no dreams tonight. I… I can’t,” he held his head to his mom’s coat. He was worried; he was worried he would see her in his dreams. Such an action, seeing her face right now… it might cause him to do something that could not be undone. Radiant did not know if it would break his heart or save it, he did not want to know either.

“I understand, prince,” Luna could not bring herself to fake a smile; it was simply beyond the mare right now.

“Luna?” Twilight asked, she turned around to look at the princess, “You’ve been up for quite some time, are you going to make it all night by yourself?” There was some worry to her question, for the past fifteen years Luna had company at night, now that was gone.

“Tis’ not my first long shift, I’ll be fine.”

Twilight nodded at that, but said nothing. Without warning she took one further precaution. With a sudden buildup in magical energy, she duplicated her brothers shield spell all around Canterlot, “That should at least give us some warning,” it was not her most powerful spell, but those spells kept everyone and everything out. She did not want to isolate the ponies that lived in Canterlot from the outside word. Not unless she had to anyway, “I’ll leave the city in your hooves for tonight.”

Luna nodded as everyone started making their way out of the throne room. Twilight watched them all go with a sad smile. There would be some room changes as well; she lost another tear as she saw Cadance and Radiant leave with the twins in tow. She did not envy them having to explain to Blaze what happened with his mom.

Twilight suspected his crying would be heard all through the palace once he understood.

And she was right.

Ana and Starlight left next. Amazingly Starlight looked worse than her sister. For lack of a better term, Ana seemed like she just did not care. Like all her bucks were simply used up and she was out of fresh ones to give. Twilight suspected that she would have to keep a closer eye on her granddaughter. Even if she did not care about her mom’s banishment, she would take Taz’s absence hard. Ana might try to run away to look for him herself.

Starlight should be able to stop her; the two of them were now magically connected. Of course, that’s assuming Ana does not convince her sister to go with her.

That was something Twilight figured had a fifty-fifty odds of happening.

Vela placed her young brother on her back and led them out of the throne room. She had to pry the little hippogriff from her mom’s hooves, something only Vela had the tenacity to accomplish. It had been a tossup with who to attach little Dayspring to. Twilight won the argument about putting him with Vela. While she had no doubt that Aurora or Icarus would give their lives to save his, no one would go to the length Vela would go to for his safety. That was the bigger worry, she might endanger her partner’s life to save his.

Aurora and Icarus followed their kids out of the room with a sad expression on their faces. Twilight was sure that Icarus had his own plans for the future, things she would have to take into account for. However, he was giving up a lot to be here, whatever he decided she would just have to adjust her plans for them.

Before she was even aware of it, there were only three ponies left in the room: Rainbow, Twilight, and Luna. Luna walked up and placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, “You would have made her proud.”

Twilight looked down with a frown on her face, “I thought these days were done.”

“Twilight, you would do well to know that these days are never done. In the thousand years I watched from the moon there was always some crisis, always the next event around the corner.”

“So we’re doomed to repeat these events over and over?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes,” Luna responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“How?” Rainbow asked.

“You must answer that for yourself,” Luna said as she walked to the window with Twilight, both princesses were getting ready to move the sun and moon around in the sky.

As Twilight started lowering the sun, Luna turned around and looked at the cyan mare, “Think about everything you’ve been through, the good and the bad, then ask yourself that question again.”

Rainbow watched as Twilight finished lowering the sun. She did as Luna said, she thought about everything she had been through, everything her family had been through, the good and the bad. She thought about it all.

By the time Twilight finished lowering the sun, she had her answer. It was worth it, all of it. The bad sucked, but it was only awful because of the good. The good made the suffering through the bad bearable.

When Twilight turned around, she was greeted by a set of lips pressed against her own. She quickly overcame the surprise, shut her eyes, and returned the kiss, finding strength in it as she did.

When they broke apart, Twilight opened her eyes and was greeted with her wife’s eyes looking into her own, “We’ll find him Twi, I promise you that.”

“I know you will, Rainbow,” Twilight said with a real smile, the first one she had had since breakfast. Watching everyone leave like they did, she felt awful that she almost, almost envied them, even Cadance and Radiant. None of their kids were missing, her son was. It had affected her more than she cared to admit.

Rainbow’s promise, she could take that to the bank. All of Rainbow’s promises were that way; she had never failed to live up to a single one of them in almost sixty years of being married.

“Come, let’s put everyone to bed,” Twilight nodded at her wife’s words. They would visit each room and cast a sleep spell on whoever wanted it. She knew that they all needed it that night.

…………………

Nighttide shot up when she came to. She looked around, taking in stock of her situation and soon as she did she knew things had not gone to plan, that much was obvious. The bar cells told her that much. Dayspring must have failed. She was now a captive.

That alone was strange; if they lost she should have been dead. They lost, yet she was not dead. She was still alive, the pain in her body told her that much.

“Taz?!” Nighttide shouted into the darkness. She did not expect a response, but she got one anyway. It was just not the voice she wanted to hear.

“You really do love him, don’t you?” Her father’s voice carried through the wind.

“Why am I still alive?”

“Because he loves you back.”

Nighttide’s heart fluttered in her chest at that, “What?”

“My daughter, the hopeless romantic, its so cliché I could kill myself,” the unicorn said sarcastically.

“I wish you would,” Nighttide looked away from the voice’s location.

“I bet, you know you owe him your life, he made a pact with me that no one he loves will die, that included you.”

“He doesn’t love me.”

“He does,” the unicorn said as he walked into sight.

“Why are you telling me this?” Nighttide glared at him.

“Because, you did follow orders. Sure you betrayed me, betrayed us, but I cannot accuse you of failure. I can forgive betrayal, just not failure.”

“I’m not working for you anymore,” she grunted and faced the other way.

“You’ve never stopped working for me, besides, don’t you still want your mother back?”

A lump built in her throat at that, “What… what do you mean?”

“Like I said, I can forgive your betrayal, dear daughter. So as far as I’m concerned we’re still good, we can still bring back your mother, if you still want her back that is.”

“I… I… I-”

“Taz has agreed to help me, he’ll be staying with us for the time being. So it’s your call, if you like this dungeon that much, you can stay here for the rest of your long, long life. If you want to be around Taz, if you want your mother back, you can join me.”

“I hate you,” Nighttide said with tears in her eyes. Her decision made, not that there was much of a choice to begin with.

“I know,” the unicorn said as he unlocked the door to let his daughter out, “Your uncles are not as forgiving as I am, I’d do your best to stay out of their way for the time being.”

“Where’s Taz?”

“He’s sleeping, I doubt he’ll want to see you though, he knows that your true purpose was to make him fall in love with you. Such deep betrayal is hard for anyone to forgive.”

“It was your orders!”

“You’re still the one that carried them out. You’re still the one that went on camping trips with his family all the while having exterior motives. I only told you to make him love you, how you did that was all your call.”

Nighttide looked down at that, it was true, she was the one that did it, “You can still have what you want,” he said.

“What?”

“The amulet is fully charged, if you still want your mother back, I’ll give it to you. You and Taz can continue this little game of yours if you want.”

“It’s not a game!”

“If you say so. Personally I don’t understand what you’d see in someone thirteen years old.”

Nighttide glared at him, “If you got to know him you wouldn’t say that.”

He thought about that for a while, “Based on what he said to me, the reason why he agreed to help, I think I can understand that,” he smiled, “It will be interesting talking to him again.”

She glared at him, Nighttide would give her right hoof to keep them apart, “Saving others, that would be the only reason why he’d ever agree to work with you. Are you going to keep your word?”

“Have you ever known me not to?”

Nighttide did not want to give him the satisfaction of answering that question, so she said nothing.

“I won’t even ask you to fight them, well, not until it’s time anyway.”

“Time for what?”

“Time for you to get your mother back, of course.”

She glared at him again, unsure if she should trust him again, if she could trust him again. He merely smiled with a grin that showed too many teeth, “There's no reason for you to fight me on this, Taz is with me, he’s doing it to save his family. If you want to get your mother back, if you want to be with the stallion you fell in love with, then you want to be on my side. It’s really that simple.”

“There’s no way you’ll take them, they’re stronger than you give them credit for.”

“I know how strong they are, and I know you’re right. However, I’m more than prepared for them.”

“How?” Nighttide asked.

“You forget who you’re talking to,” the red unicorn smiled and directed his power to the other side of the room. Magic energy coalesced from around the room. It gathered together into different colors that were easily visible in the darkness. One color formed into red, the other blue as the unicorn poured more and more power into them.

Nighttide watched as shapes began taking forms, eyes and teeth became visible in the clouds of magic. Her father cut his power and the shapes became self-sustaining energy, “Welcome to life, Fire and Ice,” he said as he created two new lives in the blink of an eye.

Nighttide had never seen her father give life to revenants before and she never wanted to again. Luckily it was something he could only do once a year as even his power had limits.

“Fine, I’ll follow you again,” she gave her word, however, she did add a caveat, “Only as long as Taz is with you, the second he’s had enough of your shit, I’m going with him. I’ll always stay by his side.”

She thought about something, “How… how long until you can get it?”

“With Taz’s help, I’ll be able to retrieve the key during the summer sun celebration, in three months time. I take it we've got a deal?”

‘Three months until he can get the key, then six until the gate opens…’ Nighttide thought about it for a while, she finally made up her mind, “Deal.”

……………………….

“Night, I’m bored.”

Shimmering Night turned around and glared at her wife with venom in her eyes, “Ataxia turn your head the buck around.”

Ataxia did as she was instructed. The palace was right behind both mares, “It’s the palace, so?”

“We’ve barely bucking left the palace, never mind the city, and you’ve already said you're bored three bucking times. You say it once more today and I’m teleporting your ass back to my mom!”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re cute when you’re angry?”

Night wanted to buck her in the mouth, she also wanted to kiss her for that comment, she went with the latter, this time, “How am I going to survive being banished with you?”

“Consider it… motivation to get the job done,” Ataxia said with a sly smile, “You know it has been awhile since we’ve spent any quality time with just the two of us.”

“Ataxia it’s been a day.”

“I’d call that a while.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Night said with a smile.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Looking at her, Night saw her mane blow in the wind. It highlighted her wife’s face in just the right way to bring a smile to her. Night’s eyes went wide looking at her, a realization just hit her like a ton of bricks, “I know how to find him! Well… how to start anyway.”

Ataxia just glared at her, “I’m guessing you’re not talking about me anymore?”

“No, Taz, I know where to start looking!”

“Well, that’s something I don’t know,” Ataxia joked.

“It’s the wind!”

“What?”

“How do you find the wind, how do you detect that the wind is blowing?”

“I… What?”

“You look for evidence of what it’s effecting! Your mane is blowing in the wind, it’s how you know it’s blowing, you simply look for evidence of it.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Taz’s ability nullifies magic, we just need to track him by the ponies he runs by that are losing their magic.”

“Oh,” Ataxia said with a smile as she followed her wife down the street. It was not too hard to find such reports, and they eventually got a direction. He headed east out of the city.

From that point on things got a lot more difficult. They both soon had to give up the idea that this might be an easy search.

……...

Starlight laid in bed listening to her sister breathing in and out. Twilight had come and gone, offering to put them both to sleep if they needed. Starlight had been grateful for the offer, but she politely refused. She was more than capable of casting the spell on both of them.

Of course, Ana did not want her too, the mare told her sister in no uncertain terms what would happen if she tried. Needless to say, she was not going to go down that road if she did not have to.

That just left the other problem. Starlight did not want to leave her sister up with nothing more than her own thoughts. Such things have a tendency to leave you in a bad place. A place Starlight would not leave her sister in.

Ana was grateful that her sister stayed up with her, even if she did not admit to it, “You gonna be ok?” Starlight asked.

Ana ignored the question and just continued staring up at the ceiling, she wanted to laugh at the absurdity of asking such a stupid question. The crying in the distance was more than answer enough, “He… he must be so alone.”

Starlight sighed; she did not need to ask who ‘he’ was, “He’s tough, you know that.”

“I know, but there is a side to him, one that he doesn’t let everypony see. He needs someone Starlight, he needs someone with him.”

“I know Ana, I know. Mom will find him, I know she will.”

“If she’s even looking,” Ana said as she rolled over.

“I promise you Ana, I promise you with everything I can, every fiber of my being, Night will find him. She won’t stop, she won’t rest until she does.”

“It’s her fault he’s gone.”

“She made a mistake and she’s paying for it. I know it’s hard for you with Ataxia gone too, but it’s for the best. Ataxia would not do well if she thought Night was in danger.”

“So you said,” Ana replied, “Hey Starlight?”

“Yeah?”

“The twins…”

Suddenly Starlight did not feel much like talking, the pain those two felt was on another world, another plane of existence. They lost their mom in the same day Ana lost Taz. However, the girls still had their parents, they just did not have them.

At least for the girls, their moms were still alive, “We need to be there for them, Ana. It’s… it’s going to be hard for them, you know what they’re like, they… they need our help.”

“I know,” Ana said, “I can’t believe something like this could happen,” the sobbing started up again after that, joining the cries echoing down the hallway. It was a sound Starlight hated that she knew she would grow used to hearing as her sister and Blaze cried themselves to sleep night after night.

They cried for the twin's missing mom, and for Taz.

Author's Notes:

One day in your life can change everything, for good, and for bad.