Shimmering Night opened the door to her bedroom. She could already hear the shower going in the bathroom. ‘No doubt Ataxia is going for another record’, she thought with a smile. The mare had her father’s habit of using up all the hot water that was available.

She slipped quietly into the bathroom and smiled upon seeing her wife in the shower. Ataxia seemed to be enjoying herself. The mare had her muzzle held up to the showerhead with a smile on her face. Water was dripping down her body and off her coat. Her magic held up a loofa that was working in and out of her nethers. No doubt it was something else that she was enjoying.

Oddly, Night found herself a little jealous of said loofa. She frowned upon seeing what Ataxia was doing with it. With a devious smile, Night entered the shower and teleported the loofa to the moon at the same time.

“Hey!” Ataxia complained, her first awareness was the lack of something scrubbing her pussy clean, and the missing feeling of enjoyment that came with it.

“That’s my job,” Night said matter-of-factly when she stepped into the shower.

Ataxia turned and grinned at her, “Well then, better get to work.”

Shimmering Night smiled as she looked around. With her magic she levitated several bottles of shampoo up and squirted them out on her wife’s coat. Using her hooves she began massaging her wife’s shoulder blades, paying close attention to the joints and tense muscles that surrounded them.

Ataxia collapsed onto her flank at that. She always loved her wife’s massages. The tender way her hoof caressed all the right spots. The feeling of her lover caressing her fur and moving up and down her back was just… just bliss. She closed her eyes and purred like a kitten as her wife’s hooves moved down her flank and to her cutie mark.

Shimmering Night smiled, it mattered not that she was only giving pleasure right now. Her happiness came from seeing her wife happy. She reached under her wife’s flank and gently started to wash her breasts. Caressing each nub as she did so.

Ataxia rolled over to give her wife better access. In all reality she was more than clean, but this was not about washing up. This was about their connection to each other, showing each other that they were trusted and loved beyond a shadow of a doubt.

When Night started lightly going over Ataxia’s nipples, she said, “I remember how much you enjoyed breastfeeding Ana and Starlight.”

That was the wrong thing to say, Ataxia’s face grimaced at that, “Did you have to remind me of her?”

Night’s eyes went wide as she stopped her ministrations, “Oh, sorry I didn’t want too...”

“It’s ok,” Ataxia said with a sad smile. That had been the hardest part of this ‘banishment’; Ataxia missed her daughter so much at times that it hurt. She would still write to her, but it was not the same. She wanted to pick Ana up and never let her go.

Both of them missed their daughters, but Ataxia and Ana had a special connection, one that went beyond the normal. One that was broken apart by this punishment. Several times over the past few months Night would catch Ataxia crying. She would tell Ataxia to go see her and each time Ataxia would refuse.

Ataxia’s reply still held a special place in Night’s heart: “I love our foals more than I thought possible, but they’re not the most important ponies in my life, you are.”

Night felt the same. She smiled again as her hoof moved lower on Ataxia’s extremities, past the rock hard nipples and to her mound, where slowly, ever so slowly, she began rubbing. Up and down, up and down her hoof moved with the tender caress and experience of somepony that knew what she was doing.

Up and down, up and down.

She leaned her muzzle down and took her wife in a kiss. When she pulled back Night smiled as she saw the look on her wife’s face. The look on Ataxia’s face was one of purest trust and love, it was the look of somepony that truly loved her. Under the shower head, with the water hitting Ataxia at just the right angle, Night swore she had never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

Up and down, up and down.

Ataxia closed her eyes as her wife’s hoof continued slowly rubbing her to orgasm. Up and down, up and down; it never stopped, never slowed down. It just felt… it felt right; it was so different than doing it herself.

Up and down, up and down.

Knowing that it was somepony else, that someone else loved her enough to give her pleasure without any thought of their own; it was a bliss like no other.

Up and down, up and down.

Soon Ataxia felt that all too familiar feeling building up to a crescendo inside of her. She closed her eyes and road out the wave of pleasure that accosted her body.

Up and down, up and down.

Ataxia’s sudden intake of breath and vibrations let Night know what was happening even before she felt the squirt come from her wife’s pussy. She smiled as she continued rubbing her wife. Even now, with the job done, she did not give up.

Up and down, up and down.

Ataxia continued riding the wave of pleasure as her wife would not let her get off, for five, fifteen, thirty seconds she felt that high as her wife continued her hoof work. This was not a sudden explosion of pressure, this was not a quick wave of release. This was gradual build up from somepony that knew what they were doing, from someone that loved her.

When it was over and she was able to open her eyes again, Ataxia felt – for the lack of a better word – content. Every muscle in her body just felt right, relaxed, and well used. She opened her eyes just in time to see her wife bring her well-lubricated hoof to her mouth and stick out her tongue.

“Hmm…” Night said with a smile, “So that’s what a recently fucked pussy tastes like.”

“I’m guessing it tastes like cherries.”

“How do you know?” Night asked.

Ataxia laughed as she gestured to the cherry-scented shampoo bottle, “No reason.”

Night saw it and facehoofed, “I should’ve known.”

“Your turn?” Ataxia asked as she made to get up.

Night shook her head and pressed her wife’s body back to the floor of the shower. She laid down next to her and snuggled up, letting the warm water wash over both of their bodies at the same time, “Trust me, I’m still good, and a little sore if I’m being honest.”

Ataxia laughed at that, “You know, you normally have to pay good bits to be satisfied like you were last night.”

“Or be married to someone like you,” Night said with a smile as she leaned in for another kiss, one in which Ataxia was more than happy to return.

“Are you still mad at me?” Ataxia asked as she pulled back and looked Night in the eyes.

“Oh I was, but you’re you. I could no more fault you for being you than I could stop loving you.”

“And you’re cool with fucking your sister?”

Night hit her in the gut with a hoof, an action that earned her an ‘ugh’ from her wife, “Never mention that again.”

“C’mon, it wasn’t all bad, was it?”

“No…” Night mumbled.

“You had fun?”

Night glared at her, she did not confirm it, but more tellingly, she did not deny it either.

“I know things might seem strange for a while, but it’ll pass in time. Although you may never be able to look her in the eye again.”

“Thank you for ruining my relationship with my sister by the way.”

Ataxia got serious, “Night, it’s only ruined if you let it be. If you let this define you two, or if you try to deny that it occurred. However, if you embrace it, if you accept it for what it was, you two can move past it. You can be stronger for it.”

Ataxia picked up the bottle of shampoo and began rubbing it on Night’s coat. She did not have the skill Night did when it came to massaging, but it was the thought that counted, “It’s only if you fight against it, or try and deny what occurred that you will hurt each other.”

“Hey mom, my sister and I fucked. What’s for dinner?” Night said sarcastically.

“Hey sis, that was a great gangbang, let’s do it again sometime!” she continued.

“How about, hey sis, I’ll admit it was a lot of fun last night, let’s go catch a movie like we used to?” Ataxia said.

“What, you think I should ask her out on a date before trying to tap that ass again?” Night joked.

“Well, she is a refined mare; you should probably get her chocolate and flowers before asking.”

“Think Icarus would mind me rutting his wife again?”

“Well, you’ll probably have to let him watch or join in,” Ataxia said with a smile, “Me too,” she added.

Night laughed, “We can have weekly orgies!”

“What just weekly?”

“Nightly?”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Ataxia said as she started rubbing a little lower. Night’s nipples were as hard as her own, but when she went a little lower the response she got from Night was a sudden tensing as she hit the all-too-sore spot. It seemed Night had not been joking when she said she was still sore from last night. ‘A pity, although there’s one place that she’ll still enjoy’, she thought.

Ataxia pressed on the joint just below Night’s left wing, an action she knew from experience would cause it to extend out to its fullest. She paused for the briefest moment to admire the wing, pegasus wings were always impressive to her, but an alicorn’s wings put them to shame.

Night’s wings were massive, one of them alone could easily wrap around a mare and cover her completely. Both could cover three or four other ponies. ‘Just like she did last night’, Ataxia thought with a smile.

Her first experience with another mare had been with a pegasus, twins in fact. Needless to say, Ataxia was more than skilled with all the right ways to illicit pleasure from somepony’s feathers.

She started by a simple telekinetic spell, one that ran lightly across the tips of each and every feather in the wing. Lightly at first but then with just a tad bit more force. Night cooed softly when the felt the tender caress of her lover’s magic on her wing.

Ataxia’s magic pressed a little harder as it ran across the primary and secondary feathers, starting at the ends and working its way inward. Even with the water beating across the wing the touch felt heavenly to the large alicorn. Slowly, ever so slowly, she made her way to the quill of each feather. adjusting each and every one, one at a time.

“Hey,” Night said as she looked back at her wife, “Not with magic.”

“I know,” Ataxia replied with a smile. Night enjoyed being preened, but she had an aversion to magical preening for some reason, “I just wanted to get you in the right mood,” with that she reached out with her mouth and lightly nibbled at the tip of Night’s outermost primaries. She concentrated a minor bubble over the wing to prevent the water from falling onto it.

“What you do that fo-” Night’s question was cut off when Ataxia lightly blew on the calamus that held her feathers in place. Her warm breath caused the water laying on it to lightly flow down the length of the wing. The sensation was akin to lightly running a hoof across the tips of your fur. Ataxia stuck out her tongue and lightly licked the membrane, causing the smallest amount of oil to seep out of it.

She did not really care for this part, but the effectiveness could not be denied. She lightly coated her lips with the oil and started to straighten and adjust each and every feather. Starting with the largest one at the end and working her way inward.

Each one was individually done, one at a time. Albeit it was the least efficient way to do it; however, it was by far the most effective. At least for her purposes anyway. Night’s lower extremities might be sore right now, but there was more than one way to skin this pony.

Given, after her and Icarus’s ministrations last night, there was not much left to do. But this was not about making her wings physically better, it was about making Night feel good. When she got to the most secondary coverts she lightly nipped at the calamus holding the quills.

The sudden pain only served to heighten her pleasure. The dam in Night's mind burst as her body released all the endorphins that had been building up. Ataxia watched with a smile as her wife arched her back when she was overcome with waves of bliss.

“Time for the other one,” Ataxia said when Night opened her eyes and smiled at her. She said not a word but simply replied by closing her left wing and opening her right.

…

When it was over, Night lightly ran a hoof down her chest, she basked in her wife’s ministrations and just how ‘right’ every part of her body felt. However, when her hoof reached her stomach, her smile left her when she remembered the ‘other’ thing she needed to do with her wife. It was something that would cause her little joy to discuss, “Ataxia, I need to tell you something."

“Oh?”

“About last night.”

“Night, I don’t care that someone else fucked you, I was there for it, remember?”

“No, not that, well, about that actually. Icarus… Icarus may have.... Sweet Luna how do I say this?”

“Just say it,” Ataxia said as she stopped rubbing shampoo into her wife’s coat.

“Just like that, huh?”

“Not everything has to be complicated you know.”

Night laughed, “I supposed that's true. Ataxia, last night Icarus didn’t use protection.”

“I know, trust me I got enough of his cum in my ass to remember that.”

Night rolled her eyes, “I went into heat yesterday.”

“So?”

Night facehoofed, “So, I might be pregnant.”

“Nah, he shot it out on your chest. I know it, I licked you clean,” Ataxia said as she licked Night’s muzzle just to emphasize that point.

“Ataxia, you do know that ‘pulling out’ is not an effective contraception?”

The blank stare Ataxia gave Night told her everything she needed to know, “Ataxia,” Night sighed, “You can get pregnant even if they don’t cum inside you.”

“Really?”

“Yes Ataxia, really.”

Ataxia paused as she considered this new information. She lay her head down on her wife’s stomach as she did so, “I know last night was about fun, but there may be big issues for me because of it,” Night said as she started to stroke Ataxia’s mane, “IF, and it’s a big if mind you, if I am pregnant, what do you think?”

Ataxia rolled her head and looked at her wife, “Do you even need to ask?”

Night looked her dead in the eyes, “No, but I need to hear it.”

“Night, I love you, I love everything about you. When we were pregnant and we both got as big as a house, it was just that much more of you to love. If you are, or if you’re not, that will never change.”

“I love you too,” Night said with a smile at such a touching comment.

“Besides horny Night is the best Night, and I loved the taste of your milk.”

“There’s the Ataxia I know,” Night laughed as she pressed her wife’s head into her chest, “Of course you do know there will be less milk this time around.”

“Can we have Icarus impregnate me to? That way I can feed the foals and you can feed me,” Ataxia asked with a smile.

“You’d get pregnant just so you could have my milk all to yourself?”

“What can I say, I love the taste,” Ataxia smiled.

“Yeah, no. Starlight was five before I finally stopped lactating.”

“Don’t remind me,” Ataxia pouted, “I’m still mad at you for that.”

“Hey, we needed someone to go to the Prance for the meeting, I’m sorry I couldn’t go with.”

“Don’t lie to me, I know you planned it.”

“It was getting embarrassing. When Starlight began asking questions that was the last straw.”

“I hate you,” Ataxia said joking.

“You can’t hate me, you looooooove me.”

“Well…. Okay, you got me there,” Ataxia repositioned herself so she could lie face to face with Night, “So what do you think?”

“About?”

“You know,” she gestured down to Night’s stomach, “If you’re pregnant, knocking me up as well.”

“You’re still asking about that?”

“C’mon, think back to when we were both pregnant and all the good times we had.”

“I remember holding each other’s mane back in the morning.”

“The other times.”

“Ataxia, I’m not Icarus’s slave master, even if I was cool with it, which I’m not saying I am, It’s not my decision to make.”

“So I need to talk to Aurora then…” Ataxia trailed off, trying to play out that conversation in her head.

Night cuffed her on the ear, “Icarus too. He may not want to father a foal with you.”

“Pish posh, like he wouldn’t want another crack at this ass.”

“He’d also have to fuck you somewhere other than your ass.”

“I know that,” she thought about something, “You know… it wouldn’t even take him!”

“Umm, yes it would.”

“We can just create a clone, or we could simply create SC and turn him into a griffin!”

“Well, I could just use that transmutation spell to change him from an alicorn to a-” Night cut off her own sentence, “Are we really thinking about knocking you up or is this just a joke?”

“When have you ever known me to joke?”

“ALL THE TIME.”

“Okay, fair enough, but no, this is not a joke. If you are pregnant, I want to go through it with you, again.”

“You know odds are good I’m not, it was just one time, and Aurora told me that it’s hard for a griffin and a pony to conceive.”

“Odds are good we all should have died a hundred times before now,” Ataxia said matter-of-factly, “Never tell me the odds. We live our lives to spite the odds,” Ataxia closed her eyes at that, the feeling of her wife’s fur was simply too relaxing, even wet.

“That’s true,” Night said as Ataxia laid her head on Night’s chest. Night simply placed a hoof on the nip in Ataxia’s neck.

“How did somepony as wonderful as you ever fall for somepony like me?” Night asked.

Ataxia yawned as the steam in the shower relaxed her even further, “You know, I ask myself that very question every single da…” she fell asleep before she could finish that sentence.

‘You were right Aurora; she is a pretty great wife. Maybe what we did isn’t such a big deal?’ Night paused in her thoughts before remembering something, ‘Taz I’m so, so, so sorry’. A tear fell from her eye at that thought.

…

Ataxia regained her awareness by a little nudge to her side. She felt way too good to acknowledge it though. She merely cooed softly and shut her eyes that much tighter.

“Ataxia, don’t make me do this,” an annoying voice spoke to her. It was not that the voice was annoying per se; rather it was because the voice wanted her to get up. She was lying on her favorite bed in the world, with warm steam all around the place as a relaxing flow of water from the showerhead continued to lightly massage her back.

Needless to say, getting up was not on her list of priorities.

“Okay, I guess you leave me no choice then,” Night shrugged as she reached out with her magic to the control knobs on the showerhead. She really, really did not want to do this to her wife, but she had been trying to wake her for almost five minutes now. They both needed to get up, something was going on.

She turned the control knob from warm to cold.

The temperature of the water lowered forty degrees in an instant. Ataxia shot up as any thought of continuing to sleep left her. She jumped off her wife and away from the cold water that disturbed her rest, “What the buck!” Ataxia shouted.

Night laughed as she turned the water off, “I knew that would work.”

“I hate you!”

“No you don’t.”

“Hey, leave your logic out of my bitching.”

“Get over it; we can’t stay in the shower all day.”

“We both know that’s not true, remember that day in Los Pegasus?”

“I remember the maids coming in and finding us both passed out from dehydration.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it.”

“Shut up,” Night smiled, it had been a lot of fun.

“Why did you do that anyway?”

“Someone’s here.”

“Aurora and Icarus came back for a little more, huh?”

Night kicked her in the gut for that one, “Actually, they’re the only ones not here. Everypony else came, save the kids.”

“Wait, did something happen to the kids?” Ataxia got serious at that, Night as well. Any further conversation was forgotten as with a quick spell Night removed the water from their coats and they quickly left to rejoin the others.

The two quickly made their way downstairs to the middle of the ‘tent’. Rainbow, Twilight, Luna, Cadance, and Radiant all turned to look at them. Notably, the five ponies had avoided the middle of the living area and all the stains that covered the ground. Stains that were far too big to only have been made by two ponies.

Night really, really, really regretted taking such a long shower. She was unable to clean up before her unexpected guests.

“Night!” Twilight yelled, ignoring the smells she ran and wrapped her daughter in a hug. It had been three months since she last saw her.

“Hey mom, what’s going on, are the kids okay?”

“They’ve ran off, but Aurora and Icarus are getting them back, we came here because we might have found a clue, but first, let’s talk outside,” Rainbow said, everypony in the room nodded their heads in agreement.

Ataxia smirked at the leftover evidence, ‘Have fun trying to explain that, Night’, she thought with a smile. It did not matter to her, which was the fun of being who she was, such things were expected. She took one last look around and followed everypony else outside.

“What do you mean ran off?”

“They went to the crystal empire last night, without permission,” Twilight sighed.

“Something for Blaze and Flash?”

“Maybe…” Twilight did not look convinced about that explanation. However, the kids were not the reason why she was here, “Night, have you ever heard of the Key of Ages?” Twilight asked.

“The key to the sands of time, it’s an old legend, said to unlock any door that exists. Why do you ask?”

“Icarus told me his guards found those words written in your tent last night.”

“His… guards… were… in… my… tent?” Night’s jaw dropped and the color started to drain from her face at the thought of some griffin she did not even know having watched her last night.

Rainbow glanced over to Ataxia and noted the rather large grin on her face. Rainbow’s mind put two and two together: She remembered the way Aurora’s answers seemed to dance around the questions asked when she came back, and the odd looks exchanged between her and Icarus. All that plus the rather large sex act that obviously occurred in the tent, the look of utter embarrassment by Night, and the shit-eating grin of Ataxia. It lead her to one conclusion.

Her first instinct was denial, denial that ‘that’ could have possibly went down. However, living with Twilight as a wife for so long, she could not help but connect all the dots and form a hypothesis about what had occurred. ‘Wow’, she mouthed but said nothing out loud.

The look on Twilight’s face was one of blissful ignorance. However, Rainbow knew she was smarter than that, she either put the pieces together and did not care, or she put them together and was tactfully ignoring it so everypony would save face.

Either way, Rainbow could not wait to tease both of her daughters about this. She would not do anything obvious, just little hints and tidbits here and there. It all promised for some fun times later on.

“Aurora had the same reaction,” Twilight replied, “Apparently Icarus did not tell anypony he was stationing them on lookout.”

“They watched…” Night could not-not say the words, as much as she did not want to.

“Watched what?” Twilight asked.

‘Hmm, Twi’s going for option B, playing ignorant’, Rainbow thought.

“We had a rather eventful night,” Ataxia said, “Nothing relevant to this, so what’s this about a key?”

“We believe that the message might have been left by Taz, that he’d be the only one that could sneak in and leave it unnoticed.”

“Taz watched...” Night mumbled, her mind still trying to get around the idea of guards watching her fuck, much less her own brother.

Cadance spoke up, “The key itself was said to be hidden in Tartarus. So we’re going there to see what we can find.”

“I thought Tartarus was destroyed?” Ataxia asked.

“Not the place, but he was,” Rainbow chimed in.

“They’re one and the same, Rainbow,” Twilight replied.

“I know, I was saying the place was not destroyed but he was.”

“Okay, you know what, I don’t care. So we’re going there to see if we can find a key that might have been left for us in a message by Taz?” Ataxia asked.

“Pretty much,” Luna replied.

“Why didn’t you just say that?”

“I thought we did,” Twilight replied.

“Yeah, no. Night you get all of that?”

“Huh?” Night was still brain dead.

“Night, your brother might be in Tartarus!” Ataxia yelled right into her wife’s ear.

Night cringed, “You don’t have to shout.”

“Yeah, I kinda did.”

“So we’re going to Tartarus to get the Key of Ages?” Night asked. Her brain tactfully filed the ‘other’ information in a box labeled ‘shit I can’t deal with right now’ and chose instead to focus on the task at hoof.

“And to find Taz,” Radiant added.

“Um. We can’t all go,” Night stated.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked.

“The sun and moon? We still got to raise and lower them.”

“I doubt it would take that long,” Rainbow replied as she flexed her wings, “We’ll be in and out in an hour.”

“Rainbow, you really don’t remember do you?”

“Remember what, Night?”

“Time moves differently in Tartarus. Every hour there is fourteen here. You spent a day there last time and two weeks passed here. At least according to the report Celestia had on file about the incident. And the summer sun celebration is tomorrow, we can’t just miss it,” Night had made extensive studies of those reports after the Titan incident almost two decades ago.

“Yes we can,” Twilight stated as her eyes began glowing with purple energy, “My son has been missing for three months; I don’t give a damn about protocol right now.”

“But we still have to raise the sun…” Night mumbled as she shrunk away from her mom. Even as the Demigoddess of Magic, Twilight’s power scared her.

“I know what we can do!” Ataxia practically shouted as she put the pieces together.

Every set of eyes turned towards the mare, “What?” Radiant asked.

“SC!” Ataxia said.

Night’s eyes went wide, but before she could stop her Ataxia created SC.

In front of them all was an exact replica of Shimmering Night. Complete with her purple coat, her rainbow mane, her rainbow tail, her horn, her eyes, and her wings. There was just one little problem, she was not a she at all.

She was a he.

“What the…” Rainbow gasped.

Ataxia just grinned, “C’mon Night, just bring it to life with your magic and we can have him raise and lower the sun and moon in our absence.

“Night, Ataxia, what do you use this for?” Cadance said as she walked around the pony.

“Rutting, of course,” Ataxia said with a smile. A glance over to the pissed expression on Night’s face confirmed it for Cadance.

“Can you teach me how to?” Cadance asked.

“MOM!” Radiant yelled.

“Oh, get over it,” Cadance blew him a raspberry.

“I trust we will get an explanation sometime, Night?” Twilight asked.

“Umm, yeah, just not now.”

“That’s fine, later is okay.”

“Night, let’s go!”

“Ataxia, even if I do this he won’t be around for that long.”

“I might be able to help with that,” Twilight stated, “If we combine our magic it should make him last longer.”

‘Last longer’ was the wrong choice of words at that moment, Radiant, Cadance, Luna, and Night all blushed at that. Rainbow and Ataxia looked ready to fall over with laughter.

“Let’s just do this,” Night grumbled.

Rainbow and Ataxia did laugh at ‘that’ comment. Both ponies were rolling on the dirt as their minds went right into the gutter.

Night just huffed and walked over to her mom, together they concentrated their energy and directed it right at SC. Night brought it to life and Twilight extended the duration of the spell. “That… that should do it.”

“How do we know if he works?” Twilight asked.

“Oh he ‘works’ just fine!” Ataxia yelled from the ground, Night slapped her in the flank with a twig she levitated in her magic aura.

“Oww!”

“You deserve it,” Ataxia said as she blew her wife a raspberry before turning to the SC clone. “Step one hoof forward.”

The clone did as he was commanded.

“Your name is SC, your task is at six a.m. to lower the moon and raise the sun. At six p.m. you will lower the sun then raise the moon. You will continue both of these tasks until we get back. Until then you are not to obey any other order or step outside that tent. I want you to wait inside my tent and only come out to perform your set task. Nod once if you understand.”

SC nodded.

“Good, go wait inside of the tent.”

The clone turned around and went into the tent.

The odd look from Twilight told Night that she needed some sort of explanation now, “He’s a direct clone of me, with all my ability and power, he’s alive just not alive. He’ll only respond to commands given to him.”

She nodded her head in understanding then whispered a question she had into her daughter’s ear, “Ana and Starlight?”

Night closed her eyes and nodded yes.

“Ahh, that makes sense now. Don’t tell Rainbow they work like that.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Night almost laughed at that.

“When’s the last time you created something like him?” Rainbow asked as she stuck her head back in the tent.

“Been about a year,” Night said honestly.

‘So much for that theory’, Rainbow thought. She had thought that maybe her initial idea about what occurred last night was wrong, and the obvious smells were from the clones. Night’s quick and honest answer had conformed that no, she had not been wrong.

"You said we’re going for the Key of Ages right?” Night asked Twilight who just nodded, “We should hurry then.”

“Why’s that?”

“Based on the books I’ve read, it can only be retrieved during the summer solstice. If Taz really did leave us that message, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.”

“Then let’s get going,” Twilight glanced over to her daughter, Night just nodded. Opening a portal to Tartarus was not the same as opening one across Equestria. Tartarus existed on another plane of existence. Such portals required incredible amounts of power to open and could only be done one way. That meant they had to pour enough power to open it and keep it open for their return trip.

Twilight went first. Her eyes turned white as she channeled more and more power into her horn. Her body levitated off the ground and her wings spread wide. All around her a purple aura of power surrounded her, waves of it came off every wingtip and channeled to her horn. She lowered her head and fired.

The shot flew off at the speed of light, it hit the side of a tree and coalesced into a portal wide enough for two ponies to cross at a time, “Night, your turn,” Twilight stated in a voice deeper than her normal one.

Night willed… no, she commanded the magic of the world to obey her will. She forced the ambient magic of the forest to flow into the portal. It became a black hole of magic. Already she could see the tree and ground around it getting a little less bright.

Such was the cost of connecting two planes of existence through a fixed portal. How the pony that took Taz did it was a mystery to her, not one she could concentrate on right now. She did the math in her head, “We have two hours, tops. Any longer and we might cause real damage to Equestria.”

“Let go then!” Rainbow took off and flew through the portal before anyone could stop her. Night and Twilight smiled at each other, as one they lowered their head and raced after the cyan pegasus with the golden wings.

The rest of the group quickly followed suit. Every second mattered too much for them to lollygag any longer.

None of them knew what waited for them beyond the gate, but what they found would change everything.

Author's Notes:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.