“What do you think happened?” Taz asked Nighttide.

“I… I don’t know. It looks like someone just forced their way into Tartarus.”

Taz’s face turned into a smile, he only knew of two ponies that could make something like that happen, “Mom’s here,” he said without intending to.

“Indeed she is,” a voice spoke from behind the two ponies. Nighttide and Taz both turned back to look at him. Somehow, Red had entered his room without even opening the door. The stallion continued, “I’ve already sent Timespire out to ‘welcome’ our guests. Nighttide, it’s time.”

“Red!” Taz shouted with a stern warning on his muzzle.

Red simply smiled, “Relax, he knows not to kill any of them. They all do.”

“All?”

“Understand something, Taz. This is the first step to getting the sands. It will not come without bloodshed. But, per your wishes, there will be no loss. After all, I keep my word. Now, why don’t you pass over those two essence stones.”

Taz looked down at the bracelets he had on his hooves. He considered – and not for the first time – of smashing them to bits before passing them over. However, such actions would be juvenile and simply put everypony’s life in danger.

With a sigh, he took them off and passed them to Red. The unicorn simply opened his satchel and indicated that Taz was to drop them directly into it, “Nighttide, go join Mindsink,” Red said after Taz dropped the bracelets in his satchel.

“I’m going with!” Taz shouted as Nighttide made to leave. She took one sad look back at him before rounding the corner. Her necklace lightly moved on the chain around her neck,

“I think you’ve already enjoyed my daughter enough,” Red said with a smirk.

Taz was taken aback by that, he looked down at the floor with a blush, “We… I didn’t do anything.”

“Really? Shame,” Red simply shook his head, “We only get so much time, Taz. You need to learn to take pleasure in what little time you got.”

“She’s not some tool to use for my self-pleasure!” Taz shouted in her defense.

“How naive. Taz, that’s all anypony is. We are either their tools for others to use, or we use them.”

“You’re wrong! I don’t really know what she is to me, yet. But there is something I do know. She’s not just a simple object to satisfy my needs. She’s way more than that and I will stay at her side. You want to get in my way? Fine, try it,” Taz replied, putting the danger of upsetting Red far from his mind.

Red’s expression turned surprised. It wasn’t the way he had thought it would go, but at this time, his plan was way too far advanced to be interrupted. On the other hoof, he needed Taz at his side right now, “Taz, you can’t. I simply need you at my side, trust me, she can handle herself, even in her current 'state'.”

“You said I have power over you! You have to let me go!” Taz shouted, in his opinion Red’s promise written on a piece of paper was not worth the paper.

“You have, but if I let you go with her it will ruin everything we've accomplished so far. Is that what you want? Do you want to ruin everything we've done so far? Everything we've sacrificed for, do you want to ruin the chance to see your family alive after all this?”

“I… I….” Taz was at a loss about this.

“It’s almost over, Taz. I only need you to do this one last thing for me, then you can go home, you and your brother can go back to your family and forget that this ever happened. Stay by my side, stay out of the way, obey my orders, and you will have saved them all. You will have done that without raising a hoof in violence.”

“But… Nighttide,” Taz was almost in tears now. Red had a way with words that made what he wanted you to do seem like what you wanted to do. It was maddening at best, so he focused on the one thing he could that did not fit into Red's nice neat plan.

Red laughed, “I tell you what, after today I’ll have no use for her. You want her after this is over, she’s yours. Take her, use her, love her, whore her out, I don’t really care.”

“She’s your daughter!” Taz shouted at such a casual dismissal of a family member.

“Your point?” Red said with a frown.

It was the coldness of his voice that caused Taz to shut his mouth. He could not think of a single thing to say. They were talking on different worlds, with different understandings of what family meant. There was no use trying to get him to understand, because, conceptually, the word just did not have the same meaning. To Red family was just a tool to use and discarded as he saw fit, “If you don’t give her the family she needs and wants, then I'll do it! I'll be her family, her foundation, and her cover from every storm, maybe even more. That’s the meaning of family, something you seemly will never understand.”

“As I said, I don’t care what you do with her,” Red said as he gestured for Taz to follow him.

Taz could only nod and follow, ‘I’ll save you from this hell, Nighttide, I promise you’, the thought caused a single tear to fall from his eye. Over his life Taz had made his fair share of promises, some big, others small. However, at this moment, only one mattered to him. Only this one.

‘I love you', he cried again as the thought came unbidden to his mind. The truth of it cut him to his core, he did, and he really, really did. He only wished he had one more moment alone with her, so he could tell her directly.

This time, unlike with Aurora, he knew that she loved him back. Somehow, that knowledge just made the whole situation worse.

...........................................

Blaze whimpered as he slowly started backing up into the others. The red pegasus in front of him was intimidating in every aspect of the word. The visible aura around his body spoke of somepony that simply wanted to hurt others, that wanted to cause pain, and death.

Blaze glanced back when his flank backed into something soft. Flash was standing right behind him. His twin brother gave him a curt nod while never taking his eyes off of the pony in front of him, “Who are you?” Flash asked as he glared at him.

Blaze could only look at his twin in admiration. All the fear and hopelessness he felt, he expected Flash to feel the same, and yet Flash displayed none of those things, at least not visibly. This was not the same pony of the last three months; this was the pony before that. This was his older brother, the strong one.

“The little foal wants to know my name, brother,” the red pegasus said with a smirk.

“Oh yes, introductions. How droll. Very well, my name is Ice. My brother over there is Fire. We will be your captors for the next few years,” the blue pegasus grinned at them.

“Why?” Ana asked.

“Why? Because this is what we were created to do, what we were ordered to do. You see, you six are here as nothing more than bait. Our masters have plans for your parents and they need to, how do I say, thin the herd a little,” Ice said with a smile.

“You lured us here? That whole scene in Canterlot was staged just to get us to come here?” Starlight replied, shocked.

“Indeed. You made it so easy to, so desperate for any information for dear lost Taz. All we had to do was put out the smallest of baits and you came running.”

“Where’s Taz?! What did you do to him?!” Ana shouted.

“Do to him? What makes you think we did anything to him? You all are the ones that hurt him, the ones that drove him from his home. We simply took him in,” Fire said with a grin.

“No we didn’t!” Ana wanted to run at him and punch him in the gut for even saying that. The only thing that prevented her from doing that was Starlight’s touch. Her sister placed a hoof on her back, seeking to calm her nerves.

She did not run forward, but she did not let it stand either, “Where is he?!”

“He’s with our masters, not here. Not that it will do you six any good, being our captives and all,” Ice said with a smile. He loved torturing others, and nothing was more tortuous than the truth.

“Sis, what’s a captive?” Dayspring asked from Vela’s back.

“Something we’re not,” Vela said with a growl.

“You don’t have a choice, young empress,” Fire replied.

“Wait… how did you two get into Canterlot? Grandma’s protection spell was going strong.”

“Indeed it was, and it did delay us for quite some time. However, all good things come to those who are persistent. All we had to do was transfer from body to body while two ponies were crossing the barrier.”

“So you couldn’t find your own way through such a simple, basic spell? Wow, you two have a lot to learn,” Starlight said with a smirk. She knew every part of the spell Twilight used, having studied it extensively. This was nothing more than poking the bear. The spell itself might be basic, but it was powerful, beyond powerful.

Two things affected the strength of a spell, the complexity of its casting, and the pony that casts it. Any spell cast by Princess Twilight Sparkle was nothing to scoff at.

“Somepony’s got a mouth on her,” Fire said as he took offense.

“Calm down Fire, we can’t kill anypony, remember?”

“True, but maiming is not off the list,” his form seemed to combust as his power overtook him. The pegasus lit up like a phoenix protecting her young, encompassing the entire area in heat, “Let’s see what happens when I barbecue the little one for a few seconds.”

“I’m scared,” Dayspring whimpered into his sister’s coat. Every part of Vela wanted to place her little brother on the ground and charge forward. To make them pay for scaring him.

Starlight beat her to it. The young unicorn blasted out magical energy at him. Fire laughed as he expected it to do nothing. He was in for a shock. Starlight was a genius when it came to magic. Trained by her grandma and her mom, she was easily the best magic user of this generation. She was smart too.

She combined her magical blast with a water spell. The water doused the inflamed pegasus while the magical blast slammed into him with all the force of a point-blank shot from a party cannon. The kinetic energy alone slammed him back against the wall, his bones cracked with the impact. A sickening breaking sound echoed through the cave.

“Run!” Starlight shouted at the group.

They did not need to be told twice. Vela ran out first with Dayspring on her back, Blaze followed close behind with Flash flying over the group, watching to make sure that everypony made it without issue.

Not a one of them made it up the ramp. Vela skidded to halt right before she was about to slam beak first into an ice wall that crashed down in front of them.

“Move out the way!” Ana shouted before she directed her own magical energy at the wall. She created a heat beam to melt the ice so they could escape.

While Starlight was impressive at magic, Ana was not. Despite her tutors, her magic was no more powerful than a normal unicorn’s. Sure, she knew several advanced spells, but she had no hope of breaking through a revenant’s power.

Starlight wanted to help, she could knock down the wall in five seconds, but that was time she did not have. Fire was getting back up, “I do believe this one is playing for keeps, Ice,” he said with a smirk as his coat lit up in flames.

All the while Ice slowly approached Ana with an evil smile, “Oh, I think we will have some fun with them. Too bad we can’t kill them. But he never said anything about not hurting them,” with that his eyes glared in a scaring blue, just mere moments before a stalagmite of ice shot down at Ana.

Flash saw it all; he flew directly at the mare and pushed her out of the way. The impact slammed her against the wall of ice with a sickening thud. That noise was nothing compared to the scream Flash let out as the stalagmite pierced his hind leg.

“Flash!” Blaze shouted as he tried to pull the large chunk of ice out of his brother’s leg. Every time he moved it the action only caused his brother to grunt in pain.

“Don’t touch it!” Starlight yelled. She had no doubt that he would bleed out if they tried to remove it.

“Bad mistake, little pony,” Fire said as she took her eyes off him. With a blast of heat, Starlight was engulfed in his fire. She screamed as her coat caught alight in his flames.

“No!” Ice said as he coated her in ice crystals, extinguishing the flame, “Remember brother, we can’t kill them.”

“Ruin all my fun,” Fire pouted.

Vela found herself in the most awkward position in her life. Starlight was down, burns covering most of her body. Ana was most likely unconscious from slamming into the wall of ice, and Flash was wounded. She felt the one thing she had never felt before in her life: Fear. She was afraid, not for her own safety, but for her brother's. Little Dayspring was holding onto her coat for dear life, shaking in fear, “Sis, please save them,” he cried out.

“Somepony, please save us,” Vela did not even recognize the words when they left her beak.

...........................................

“Which way?” Cadance asked as they rounded yet another corner. Rainbow grunted at the question. She had only been here once some sixty plus years ago. Even during that time she had a guide. It was not like she had a bucking map that said ‘the bad guys are here, your son is here’, on it.

“That way!” Twilight shouted as she made to head down the right corridor. Rainbow did not even question it. Twilight said to go to the right, so they went to the right. It was as natural as breathing to her by now.

“How do you know where to go?” Radiant asked as he ran a few paces behind them.

“Simple,” Twilight said between breaths, “I’m just looking for the dead spot.”

“Prince Taz’s power!” Luna shouted a little louder than she intended, “Curious though, why not just teleport by his side?”

“Last time we teleported down here we ended up in a pack of hellhounds.” Rainbow said with a smirk, “It’s just not worth the risk.”

“You teleported us outside with no problem.”

“And gave our position away, I think that’s how Timespire found us,” Twilight replied.

“Ah, best to avoid confrontation if we can.”

“Luna, I’ve never known you to back down from a fight,” Cadance raised an eyebrow.

“My sister used to have a saying; when God’s play, mortals lose. Make no mistake, fair Cadance; we play in the realm of Gods now.”

“How right you are,” a voice came from their left. The sudden unexpectedness of it caused the group to stop and look. The hallway led to a rampart outside. Sitting in the gateway was a green pegasus with a sky-blue mane staring at then. However, while Luna, Cadance, and Radiant eyes were drawn to him. Rainbow and Twilight could only look at the mare next to him.

“Nighttide?” they both asked in stereo.

The young mare was glaring at one of their party; the venom in her gaze spoke volumes about the hate she felt. Twilight looked back to see that she was staring directly at Princess Luna.

“Oh, you haven’t put the pieces together yet? She works for us, she’s always been working for us,” the green pegasus said with a smile.

“Who are you?” Rainbow asked.

“The names Min-”

He never finished that sentence, Fourteen magical blades slammed into him from the front. The blades Radiant hit him with embedded themselves in his eyes, ears, neck, chest, hooves, and head. The impact sent the pegasus flying backwards, out the doorway, and onto the ramparts behind him.

Radiant ran forward at full steam. As soon as he said that first syllable, Radiant knew he now faced the one responsible for Firestar’s death, “I’LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!” his shout echoed down the hallway.

Before he could do anymore, Nighttide’s glare switched to him, causing him to slam into the wall with her magic. It hurt her to assist her uncles like this, but right now she had no choice but to help her family.

“Why, Nighttide? Why are you doing this?” Twilight asked, “I saw you with my son, I know how you truly are, so why?”

“I don’t have a choice!” Nighttide shouted back, “I want something back and to have Taz safe. I have to do this or everything, every tiniest bit of my work would’ve been for nothing.”

“There’s always a choice,” Rainbow cut in, glaring at the younger mare, “That’s the only constant in life, the only thing we get for sure.”

“No, not for me….” her gaze focused on Rainbow, “I love him. Despite everything I’ve done, I love him. He will be safe and you will be too; as long as you surrender now and don’t fight us that is,” with that she focused on Luna again, “I’m afraid you won’t be that lucky though.”

The night princess looked taken aback by that, “Me, I’ve never even met you before?!”

“You stole her from me!” Nighttide shouted. The force of her scream caused the walls to bow outward from the magical pressure released by the young mare.

Twilight's eyes went wide. She had never seen a pegasus with raw magical abilities before, it was unheard of.

Cadance ran forward to help her son. In his current state of mind he was liable to get himself killed. Rainbow and Twilight made to follow her but a black hoof placed on Twilight's shoulder caused her to stop, “Leave them to us,” Princess Luna said.

Rainbow shook her head. Luna just sighed in response, “You have to get your son back. After all, that’s the whole reason why we’re here.”

“She’s right, Rainbow,” Twilight said with a frown, “Stay safe, Luna.”

“You too,” Luna said as Twilight made her way back down the hall. Rainbow hesitated for a fraction of a second before she followed.

“Now about you, young filly,” Luna said as she turned back to Nighttide. The young mare gave the princess a death glare worthy of the vilest traitors imaginable.

...

On the ramparts, Mindsink picked himself up from that last attack. It came out of nowhere and left him with no time to even defend himself. ‘Oh, I like you,’ Mindsink thought with a smile as he pulled the sword out of his brain.

Radiant quickly made his way back to his hooves. Even though the filly had hit him, he did not give her a second thought. His world was the pegasus in front of him, his very being dedicated to one thing and one thing only: Killing him.

He would avenge his wife. It mattered not if he would die in the process; it was a price he would pay, willingly.

Cadance saw all of this written on his face and more, she teleported right next to him, but even with the speed of instant transmission, she was far too late to stop what occurred next.

…

Nighttide continued her glare at Luna. The Princess of the Night looked at the young mare and made a mistake. She hadn’t seen the mare for what she truly was, for her true power. She underestimated Nighttide by a mile.

Nighttide raised all her anger, her fear, and the desire in her. She focused it, causing it to power her abilities like never before. With a scream, a ball of shadow made its way to Luna, who just had time to teleport away, but just barely.

With a curse, Luna reappeared several hooves away from the incident, the place where she had been standing was burned black and a several hoof deep hole left in the wake. Her tail was smoking and she focused on Nighttide with a surprised expression, “You’re one of those foul creatures! How can you even say you love somepony? How can you say that you will keep him safe? You creature, do not know the definition of love!”

Nighttide did not want to explain anything to her but when she denied her love for Taz like that it was far too much for her to keep quiet. With a growl, shadows formed around Luna’s legs and kept her in place, “How dare you! How dare you say that my love isn’t real! Just because I’m one of them? What right do you of all ponies have to judge me?!”

Luna tried to wiggle free but the shadow’s grip was just too tight. She formed a blast and pointed it directly to Nighttide. The blast came close, but Nighttide concentrated her power while glaring at Luna. The princess was sure she would score a hit, but suddenly the blast reflected on a mirror shield, and went into a new direction: Luna's.

At the sight of her own spell reflected back at her, Luna tried a desperate act and teleported. Luna reappeared some inches to the right, just to be grabbed by smoke and immediately thrown back to her former place. A second later the blast hit her straight in her chest. She screamed her pain out loud while the power burned through her fur, luckily the mirror spell was the work of somepony without experience in casting it, and it drained a lot of the spell’s power after being mirrored.

“Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to you?” Luna screamed, as much as she tried, she could not think of a single reason why this young mare would hate her so. She knew she had never seen her before today.

“The fact that you don’t know simply makes this sweeter,” the anger and hatred in Nighttide’s voice told Luna that for her, this was personal. Luna knew that she had to get serious or this mare would kill her.

She never wanted to hurt that mare, but she had no choice. She just hoped that Prince Taz could forgive her actions. Focusing on much stronger magic, Luna connected her power to her source, the heavenly body that she had always controlled. With that, bright magical spears appeared in the air, glowing as they were powered from the moon itself. They all shot forward, directly at Nighttide.

“So you’re finally fighting with full power. This will be fun,” Nighttide said as shadows rose from her hooves, forming various blades. They were much bigger than the spears, but stayed at their position. As the spears came closer all of them were just shredded by Nighttide’s blades.

Luna stood, jaw nearly hitting the ground, “How can you defend against the power of the moon itself? This is impossible! Nopony has ever stood against this power of us!”

“Don’t let my young appearance fool you; I’m several hundred years older than I look. I know more about the true way of power and fighting than you would ever imagine,” Nighttide said, as the blades stirred; moving towards Luna.

…

Cadance teleported to her son just in time to catch the afterimage of his teleport. She spun around upon hearing the cry of pain coming from the pegasus. The sight before her was unlike any other she had ever seen, wanted to see, or wished to see again.

Somehow, the green pegasus was still alive. He looked to have been pulling out the swords from his hooves when Radiant teleported above him.

What she saw Radiant doing disgusted her to her core. Her son, Prince Radiant Star, the last physical thing she had of her husband, Prince Shining Armor, he was skinning the pegasus alive.

Ten small blades worked under his coat as they sought to remove it in one clean cut. Radiant looked down at the mulling wretch in utter disgust at his presence, it was the look normally reserved for a pile of excrement lying on the ground.

However, it was the slight grin on his muzzle that sent a chill down Cadence's back. ‘He’s enjoying it.’

Cadance’s heart almost broke seeing her son be so cruel, so callous about causing the suffering of another. In her time she had seen much, even fought a God with hatred and anger in her heart, but this was not that. This was pleasure from somepony’s pain.

‘If he does this, he’ll be gone, forever’, Cadance thought.

She surrounded the stallion in a aura of magic and lifted him off his prey. He growled at her, seeking to get free, to get back to the one that had hurt him more than he ever thought possible, “Radiant Star!” she yelled at him.

His gaze focused on her. For that second she saw not her son, but a vile pony that saw her as something standing between him and what he wanted, “You’re better than this.”

Her words cut deep into the fog that covered his mind, but not deep enough, “I’ll make him pay for what he did!” Radiant shouted.

“What would Shining say if he saw you now; or for that matter, Firestar?” Cadance asked the wind.

That cut all the way through the haze of his mind. He stopped struggling; the red fog that outlined his vision disappeared. He looked down at his hooves; they were red, blood red. The body below him was half flayed alive, a pool of blood leaking out, “I… I…” Radiant tried to say something, nothing came out.

Cadance saw the change and teleported her son to her chest, “It’s okay,” she cooed softly into his ear. Radiant could not respond, tears started pouring out of his eyes at the dishonor he almost did to the memory of his family.

Sadly, when fighting a Demigod, the one thing you do not do is to give him a chance to recover.

…

Luna focused her power as that of the moon, she tapped into her own personal reserves and created a shield in front of her, not for the purpose of blocking, Nighttide was too powerful for that. Rather, she simply angled it so the mare’s spears would strike the shield at an angle and deflect off.

Nighttide looked on in shock as the image of the moon suddenly flashed before her eyes, “You think that will save you?!” she yelled. Luna noticed something then, there was a small necklace hanging from the mare’s neck, one in the shape of a crescent moon. ‘That may be the source of her power!’ she thought. It was a small hope, but it might be true.

She resolved to change tactics. Nighttide was expecting a direct attack, but if her target was not her, but her necklace. she would not be expecting that.

Luna imagined a small teleport followed by an attack in her head and then spread her wings, rushing forwards. Nighttide was prepared for just such an event but then Luna teleported away, just to appear on Nighttide’s right side. The blast of her horn shattered the chain holding the necklace.

“No!” Nighttide shouted as she made to grab the fallen medallion in her hooves. Luna was faster; the alicorn captured the moon medallion in her magic and levitated it up and away from the young mare.

Nighttide turned and glared at Luna, “You… you dare?!”

“With this taken from you, you will be nowhere near as powerful,” Luna said with a smirk.

“My power doesn’t come from that,” Nighttide growled as she let loose a point-blank blast into Luna’s chest. The Alicorn of the Night was ill prepared for such an attack and thus could not defend herself. She slammed through the castle walls and outside. The hit stole the wind from her chest and she could not even bring herself to cry out.

Nighttide followed; at the apex of Luna’s trajectory the mare had dropped the medallion, no longer able to hold it in her magic. Nighttide caught it in her hooves and brought it to her chest as she might a lover.

‘Taz’, the thought of the stallion came to her mind unbidden but quite wanted. ‘He wouldn’t want this, he wouldn’t want me to hurt her, but...’, the paradoxical nature of her desires conflicted in her mind. Nighttide found herself torn between two very different, very powerful desires in her heart.

Is it worth you having to break your own heart?

Dayspring’s words came back to her mind. Try as hard as she might, she could not forget them. They were always there, always playing like a damn broken record that she simply had to listen to.

She wanted her past back, everything her father had promised her. But there was an aching in her heart. At least she thought it came from her heart. It told her that she could have a bright future. A bright future with Taz.

The fight between those desires hurt. How long had she longed for her mother back, how long had she prepared for it? But the thought of Taz shattered the image in her head, replacing them with her and Taz on a bed, the stallion snuggled upon her, their love and emotions carried on the air.

“What do I do if they’ll both break my heart?” Nighttide asked the wind, clutching the medallion tighter to her chest. She expected the action to bring her some relief, to answer her burning question. It did not. To her it was everything she needed, but not what she wanted. She wanted to feel Taz’s coat pressed against hers, she wanted to feel his lips, to know him, to taste him, to take him, and to love him, forevermore...

A tear fell from her eye, followed by another, then another. In the middle of a battle against her sworn enemy, all she could do was cry, cry over all the various feelings in her. What shocked her most was that even though the feelings from her heart were making her cry a lone spark somehow shot through her.

She somehow knew what the spark meant. No matter how much she longed for her mother, and the past, the spark was stronger. She, everything she was, everything she would ever be, all of her wanted Taz… no, it needed Taz, and she needed him forever. Something that collided with her goals about her mother.

She suddenly knew what was most important. Not which one she wanted, not which one she needed, but rather, which one she needed and wanted. she had the answer, and it was not the medallion in her hooves. She looked down at it and smiled. “Goodbye,” her voice rang out before she went to throw it away, forever.

A magical shot punched through her gut before she got the chance. Nighttide looked down as blood started to pour freely from her chest. A glace to its source confirmed what she suspected. The broken Princess of the Night was glaring at her, her left forehoof was broken at two separate places, her horn smoked with the power of the spell she had just let loose.

Nighttide knew what it meant, but somehow she wasn’t sorry for herself. She was sorry for Taz. She looked at Luna one last time. The look on her face and the words that followed shocked the Princess of the Night. “Please, tell Taz that I love him,” she said before falling out of the sky.

At that moment, Nighttide knew she would not be able to heal. Her entire focus, the one thing that worried her to her soul, her heart, and her mind, was Taz. It was the thought about a life without him that broke her willpower; it was that thought that kept her nature from being able to heal her.

Nighttide slammed into the ground with a sickening thud, unmoving, and bleeding out from the hole in her chest.

Author's Notes:

When you fight for those you've lost, you have to make sure that you don't join their ranks.