The reality of the situation weighed heavily on Radiant’s mind. ‘My… my mom is gone…’ the thought sent a cold chill down his spine, penetrating him to his core. Yes, she had found a way to say goodbye, but that did not change the fact.

The fact was she died; Princess Cadance took her own life rather than bring any harm to her son. To her, death was the preferred choice.

How she did it, he would never know. He did not want to know either. It would not change the fact. Nothing could do that.

“He, he, ha, ha, ha,” the sound of laughter was like a dagger in his back. He did not move, not yet. There was nothing to move against. Radiant Star grabbed onto his rage and held it close in a lover’s embrace. He would release it, but only when the time was right.

“It’s amazing how well things work out sometimes,” the voice was cocky, so sure of itself.

“You bucked up,” Radiant replied, his voice spoke of the venom he now felt.

“Oh, how’s that?” Mindsink asked, his form still hidden in the shadows.

“You were told not to kill any of us,” Radiant said sternly.

“I know. That’s why this was perfect. You see, I didn’t kill Princess Cadance, she killed herself. I’m off the hook.”

Radiant tasted copper in his mouth as he bit into his tongue. Somehow, he did not say a word. He merely sat at the last spot his mother occupied.

“She sacrificed herself for nothing, you know. I wasn’t going to have her kill you, not like she killed your wife. Her death is on her own hooves, not mine,” Mindsink teased as his form reappeared behind the white stallion.

Radiant released that rage and burst into an attack, he rolled over and sprang to his hooves, three magical blades appeared on either side of Mindsink, they chopped as one, set to take his head clean off.

Mindsink’s form became shadows again, he laughed as the blades cut into nothing but air, “There’s that killing edge! Impress me Radiant Star and maybe I’ll let you be my personal lapdog when this is over.”

With a scream of rage, Radiant charged forward, his horn started glowing with power as he created three wide-faced molecular blades directly beneath the shadow. He shot them up, bisecting the area with ease.

“Impressively foolish,” Mindsink laughed.

“I’m not done!” Radiant yelled as he created another set of blades and then another. Mindsink soon found himself in a cage of sharp edges.

“You know you can’t cut a shadow, right?” Mindsink grinned.

“Do you know what happens when two swords clash? Sparks appear,” at that the two largest blades clashed with each other directly over the shadow’s form. The sparks it let off lit up the cage, the magical sparks reflected upon the edges of the magical blades, the entire cage soon begun to glow. “When fighting a shadow, all you have to do is shine a little light on the situation.”

Mindsink grunted in pain as the magical light was reflected upon magical blades. While it had not been intentional, Radiant's tactic multiplied his magical power by a factor of ten. Mindsink grunted in rage as he felt that power flow through his shadow form. It did what all light does best, it dispelled the shadows. In this case, it dispelled his shadow.

The swords blew out in every direction from Mindsink’s anger at being so hurt. Radiant deflected each blade with ease. “Now you’ve pissed me off,” Mindsink growled.

“Now you know a fraction of my pain, let me introduce you to the rest,” Radiant replied as he glared at the pegasus.

Three blades shot at the pegasus’s unguarded flank. Without even looking back, Mindsink deflected all of them with shadow spears. “Pain? You haven’t even begun to experience pain. You face a Demigod! Or did you forget?”

Radiant felt his back hooves pulled out from under him. He was flipped onto his back by the sudden pull as Mindsink grew tired of this little cat and mouse game. Radiant tried to cut himself free, but his blades were met by Mindsink’s and deflected away.

Then he felt the pain, shadow spears shot out from either side of him and cut into his skin, just deep enough to get under his fur. Slowly, with practiced precision, Mindsink begun cutting off the unicorn's fur. “I can’t wait to skin you alive, don’t worry, I’ll re-attach it later. Then you’ll forget all about me doing it. Rather, you’ll believe those I want you to kill did it to you. The look on your son's faces when you go to claim their coats will be priceless.”

Radiant screamed out, not in pain, but in rage.

“Scream all you want, nopony is coming to save you,” Mindsink said as he made another cut.

Just then a blinding light of pink magic appeared between the two. The light alone dispelled all the shadows and lit up Tartarus in a way it had never known before. It was a soft light, gentle, and full of love.

The spears holding Radiant down and the ones under his fur vanished when they were touched by the light’s embrace. Radiant felt nothing more than warmth and love, his body felt like it was covered in a lover’s kisses. Each and every one of them healed his wounds and his soul. Mindsink howled in pain as the feelings he was washed over with were the exact opposite of Radiant’s.

Radiant looked directly into the light as he started to make out the form of a pony. That pony soon did the impossible; they walked right out of the light. His eyes told who it was, his brain told him it was not true, that his eyes were playing a trick on him, but his heart told him that it could be nopony else. She was a pegasus mare with a tan coat and a light blue and white mane. Her eyes matched the light blue of her mane, she spoke no words, but she did not have too.

So much was said in those eyes alone. All the love she felt, all the sorrow at having been gone for so long, at having to spend so much time away from the one she loved the most. She took a step forward, her form translucent, created by pink magical energy.

Radiant could not stop himself, without intending to; he said her name, “Firestar.”

…………………………………….

Icarus's blows rang down faster and faster against Ice. The revenant did his best to dodge and block what he could, but it was all for naught. He was losing, and badly. Each swing of the spear took its pound of flesh from his form, a pound he could not easily grow back.

“We have to use it,” the voice came to him. He knew what it was; Fire’s essence was still around. The spear did real damage though. It sounded weak, almost like it was barely there anymore. If Icarus got one more hit against his brother Fire would be no more.

“You know our orders!” Ice hissed in pain as he lost a limb to Icarus’s next downswing.

“We’re dead either way,” Fire said in his ear, “I’d rather die knowing we got one of them.”

Ice smiled, Fire had a way of making everything sound simple. He supposed that was the point. “Alright, let’s do it.”

Icarus saw his chance and bisected the pegasus in two. With one swing of his blade, Ice’s top half fell off his bottom half; both sections fell to the ground with the sicking sound of spilling meat. He did not spare the poor pegasus another look. He knew it should not have been that easy, his opponent had let him do that.

And he was right.

Two clouds of magic formed at the end of the cave, each a different color. One of them was light blue, the other dark red. “Your true forms?” Icarus asked.

“Yes, and it’s the last thing you will ever see,” The dark red cloud of magic hissed. At that they started to merge together, becoming one.

Icarus watched in fascination, “What’s that supposed to do?”

“We're opposites, our natures cannot exist with each other. I’d say you have about six seconds left until we explode and this entire place becomes your tomb. Sadly, it’s nowhere near enough time for you to escape,” Ice answered sarcastically.

Icarus laughed, “Why escape? My father will protect me.” Gripping Siros’s Vengeance with both claws, he forced the blade tip into the ice and held on tight. He knew it was not a simple boast. He had less than four seconds before this entire place would explode, but he also knew the spear would protect him. After all, it carried the essence of his father.

And what father would not save his child?

……………………………...

“Firestar,” the revealment shook Radiant to his bones. A mixture of every emotion one could feel flowed through the stallion. He was so happy, so full of joy at the sight of his wife again, but another emotion filled him at the same time, an emotion that had no place in his heart: Fear. He did not know why, but he was afraid.

Every step the pegasus took radiated with magical energy. The vibrations of her hoof on the ground sent shivers through his spine. He felt everything she did in his very soul. Warmth spread through every cell in his body. A warmth he had only known when she held him in her embrace. The sight of her brought back the feeling of her kisses on his fur, followed by memories of the touch of his lips on hers.

When she was but a hair’s breath away, he could feel her energy penetrating him, it radiated through him, merging with his very essence. He wanted her to grab him so that he could feel her touch one final time. He wanted to caress her, to hold her with all his might, and never let her go again. Every part of his being wished he had spent his life doing that and only that. He wished that he had spent his life holding her during every second of every day. However, it was all for naught. He knew that he could have held her, kissed her, loved her a million, no, a billion more times and it would have never been enough. It would never fill that hole her absence left in his heart. That did not stop him from wishing for it. He wanted all of that and more, so much more; even if he could only have it just one final time.

Sadly, it was not meant to be, the pegasus did not reach a hoof around her love. Rather, she did something better, she leaned in and pressed their lips together.

His jaw went slack and his mind blank. The fear he felt was utterly destroyed in his mind. That one kiss became everything, it became his world. Nothing else mattered to him at that moment, not their mission, not the twins, nothing. That kiss was the sum total of all the times they had kissed before.

When one falls in love, they never truly know if the one they love loves them back, not in the same way they feel it. Regardless of what you say or do, your partner is always left with a lingering doubt, a small nugget of uncertainty that maybe, just maybe, their love is not returned.

In this kiss Firestar poured all her feelings for the stallion she so grew to love, the one she married, the stallion that she had a family with. In that kiss he knew her, he truly knew her, he knew everything about her. How she felt, all of it. It was all shared with the stallion.

Radiant saw in her feelings a reflection of his own. He truly knew, without a shred of doubt in his mind, that she loved him; that she loved him with every fiber of her being.

The mare transferred more than just her feelings with that kiss. Radiant felt it, he felt power, a power unlike any he had ever known… no, that was not true. He had felt this power once before, almost sixteen years ago when the Titan was about to fall on Firestar. He felt it then and he felt it now.

Only this time it was not a quick source he could draw upon to do the impossible, this was a reservoir of energy. He felt the true source of power, the power that is imbedded in everypony from the moment of their birth, the power, and the strength, of love.

Love of a foal for their mother, a mother’s love for their foal, a lover’s feelings for their special somepony, the love of others, the love of brothers, sisters, family, friends, and finally... finally, his love for his wife.

It overrode his body. He knew what to do without having to be told. His entire coat lit up with pink magic. Firestar, the mare he loved more than his own life, stepped to the side. She had a smile on her face as she got to watch her husband go to work one final time.

A blade formed in his mind. The physical world copied it, it reached up out into the heavens radiating with pink magical energy. The energy his wife shared with him.

“What’s that going to do?!” Mindsink hissed as he saw the blade forming.

Radiant did not say a word, words were meaningless right now. He let his feelings take control. With one downswing of the massive blade, he cut the Demigod in twain, but the blade did not stop there, it cut through the castle. The blade bisected it in half with the magical energy of its creation.

The castle shook, the ground shook, and Tartarus itself shook from the destructive power Radiant unleashed upon his enemy. He unleashed that power on the being that took the two mares he loved more than any other away from him. He attacked the entity that claimed both his wife and his mother using the gift Firestar gave him.

The shriek that filled the heavens echoed throughout the destruction of Tartarus's Castle. A full half of it fell into a crater caved into the body of a God. In that one moment, a Demigod met his end.

Mindsink was gone, forever.

After the worst of the shaking had passed, Radiant looked up, just in time to see the beautiful smile of his wife directly in front of him. “Firestar… is that really you?”

Yes.

The voice wasn’t spoken, not with words. Her sweet voice echoed in his head, seeming to come together from his memories of the mare. It did not matter to him, he heard it as clear as day. To Radiant it sounded like she was whispering sweet nothings into his ear as he held her tight at night. He would never forget that voice, he could never forget that voice.

He could not stop himself; tears fell freely from his eyes. Never in his life did he think he would hear her voice again, not anywhere else but his dreams.

“How is this possible?” he asked, cursing his mouth for questioning this small, wonderful gift.

Eros visited me. She asked if I wanted to help her save you. Of course I agreed. She gave me a gift for you, a gift she said she owed you. With her power, she broke me free of my Elysium and sent me to you so that you could finish off the one that hurt you so much, my dashing prince.

“Thank you, both of you.” Radiant buckled under the weight of his body and fell to his knees, weeping openly in front of his wife.

There is no need to thank us. I love you, even if I still think that you’re an idiot, at least sometimes.

He knew he would never forget the smile Firestar had on her face as she said those words.

Radiant, you’ve made me so proud of you. I’ve seen everything you’ve done, everything you will do, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have known you, to have been your wife.

Firestar paused to look into the distance; her eyes went wide as she saw something only she could see. Her ears twitched as she heard something only she could hear. When she looked back at Radiant, there was sorrow in those eyes.

I have to depart soon. You’ll never know just how much I miss you.

“Then let me go with you! I can’t take it,” he sobbed out loud, “Being here without you, having to go on, I can’t do it. The days are killing me; I can’t live this life without you! Please let me go with you and spend an eternity by your side!” Radiant pleaded, tears pooling at his hooves.

Radiant, that’s not my wish.

He felt the touch of her magical form as she placed a hoof on his chin, wiping the tears from his eyes with the kind gesture. Every second they made contact, it felt like the greatest gift and the greatest curse Radiant had ever known. He loved that touch, but he knew that it was temporary. That knowledge was a pain unlike any he had ever experienced before. This, living this life without her, it was the truest form of hell he could think of.

I want you to stay with the kids. They’ll need their father. They’re my gift to you, the last bit of me that you have. Please, protect them and yourself as you would me. Live your life to the fullest; even now that Cadance isn’t here anymore. Please, please promise me that you will stay alive as long as possible. When your time does come, I’ll be waiting for you, we will have our eternity. I’ll wait for you forever, Radiant, my dashing prince.

Her voice sounded unsteady now.

Radiant wanted to rage against it, he wanted to jump off the side of the castle so he could go with her, so that he could be with her. Yet… the knowledge that she did not want that; that she wanted him to stay with their kids, to be there for them, to be their father, it stayed his hoof.

This, this was the hardest thing he would ever do in his life. He knew it would break him at times, it would test his willpower to the max, it would force him to do the one thing he never thought possible. He would have to live on without her. Yet, the fact that it was her wish, it meant that he could do nothing else. She wanted him to do it, so it became his drive. At that moment his new mission in life became to fulfill her last wish, the last thing she would ever ask of him.

“I promise you! Once my time has come… I’ll look forward to that day, but I’ll also do my best to stay alive, for our kids… for you. I love you, Firestar. I will love you forever. I just... I just wish I could hold you one final time,” he whimpered, looking down as more tears fell from his eyes.

There was a bright flash of light and Radiant had to shut his eyes. Soon, the light faded and he dared to open them again, not caring if it blinded him. If his light sight was of his wife, so be it. However, that was not the case, in front of him, like she was alive again, stood Firestar. This was not some magical outline of her body, this was her true body. The one he had known, the one he had loved.

“Radiant. Eros can only give me a few seconds in this form,” Firestar said as she started to cry and unfolding her wings. He heard her voice, her true voice, it was easily the loveliest thing he had ever heard in his life.

Radiant did not need to be told twice. He rushed forward and straight into the wings of his wife. He met solid flesh, flesh covered by soft fur. She was really there, even if it was only for a few seconds. When she wrapped her wings around the stallion they both broke down in tears and shared a long, passionate kiss as they held each other one final time.

It was not his lips pressed against a magical form, it was his lips pressed against hers. A fact that made all the difference in the world.

“Please, never forget me Radiant. I will wait for you, forever.” Firestar said before her form started to glow with magical energy.

All too soon, Radiant felt her fur and flesh fade away; slowly it was replaced by pure magical energy. He looked up at his wife with tears in his eyes. “Thank you, thank you for a life full of happiness and love, a life of family. You gave me a reason to live, Firestar. You saved me from a life spent in meaningless sorrow; a life wasted chasing after my father’s legacy. Until the day I die and our souls are finally reunited, I swear I’ll never forget you and I will keep my promise, I’ll ensure our colts grow into the strong, confident stallions I know they will become. I’ll do it for you; I’ll face the future with my head held high. Know that everything I do from this point on will be done with you in my heart. I’ll prove myself worthy of the love you gave me in life so I can look you in the eye when I join you in eternity,” he sobbed, blurring the words out, but Firestar heard them all the same and nodded, giving him a last, warming smile.

My prince, you still don’t understand. It was I that was unworthy of your love.

Her voice echoed in his head once more as her form disappeared into the wind, leaving Radiant alone on the ground, sobbing in sorrow, but also in happiness over being able to see his wife.

One final time.

…

Shimmering Night watched Timespire heal on the ground. Part of her wished more than anything else that she could stop that ability. She tried, whatever let him do it was a part of him, she could not take that away. Worse, he was getting really good at it. Every time she saw him do it, he would heal that much faster, no doubt something that was attributable to the dead magic he was eating.

“You should really stop doing that,” Night said again.

“Shut up,” the earth pony growled as he got to his hooves, shaking in rage. “How… how are you beating me?!” he had never expected the fight to go this way. Timespire had been alive for eons, and he had all the experience to match. Only one had ever bested him, and that was his big brother. For this mare to be wiping the floor with him was unthinkable.

“Let me ask you this. Why do you fight, Timespire?” Night said in all seriousness.

“What type of question is that?!” Timespire yelled.

“A simple one, one I don’t think you have an answer to,” Night said with a frown.

“I fight because it’s fun, because I enjoy taking lives.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t be down here right now. You’d be up there,” Night said as she looked up, Tartarus was not in a physical place, rather it occupied a separate dimension. Still, Timespire got her meaning. “You’d be up there right now reaping a harvest of lives with your power.”

“Red won’t let me!” Timespire growled out, part of him was shocked how easily he took to using his brother’s new nickname.

“You’d really let him stop you? If that was what you really wanted, you’d have found a way to be doing just that.”

“What do you know!” Timespire shouted at her, “You haven't been alive for a fraction of a fraction of the time I’ve been and you dare lecture me?!”

“You’re right, I haven’t been alive for nearly as long you,” in truth, Night had no idea just how old he was, but she heard the truth in his words.

“Then you admit you know nothing,” Timespire hissed.

Sighing, she re-asked her original question, “I may not know much, but I can answer that most basic of questions. Let me ask you again, why do you fight?”

Timespire was surprised by that, he could not deny it though. He did not have an answer, not a real answer anyway.

Night paused when the stallion begun coughing up blood. She knew he would just write it off as his body still healing, but she also knew that it was more than that. He was dying, slowly, painfully, and with each time he drew upon the power down here he would simply speed it up. True, while he was here he could just draw upon more and more to heal himself, but each time would last that much less, until, at last, even the power he gained would not be enough to save him.

“I fight for those I love, for my family, and my friends,” Shimmering Night looked up into the sky when she said those words. There was nothing there, but for a second, just a split second, she thought she saw starlight shining down upon her. Thinking about starlight caused her to think about her daughter. Thoughts of her daughter filled her with warmth. She wanted to hold her in her hooves again, to line her face with kisses up and down her snout. She knew Starlight would hate it, but she did not care.

“You get your strength from family?” Timespire looked up at her, wiping blood from his mouth with a hoof as he did so.

“You misunderstand, they are my strength,” Night said with a smile.

“Hey Night, you bucking suck!” Ataxia yelled as made her way back to her wife.

A look passed between Night and Timespire. Night’s eyes grew wide in fear as she saw his intent clear as day. “NO!” she shouted, but it was too late.

Timespire disappeared and reappeared right next to Ataxia and wrapped her in a hoof. Before she could even register what was going on, his cutie mark started spinning backwards.

Night could only stare in shock as years began falling off her wife’s frame. Ataxia felt every bone shift in her, every muscle change position as it was forced to adjust to her new age. It was physically painful to the unicorn. Her body fought against every change that was forced upon her.

“Transform!” Night yelled at the top of her lungs. It was the only way Ataxia could get free. She knew Timespire was playing with her, he was going this slow on purpose, he could regress her age in an instant if she tried something. The decades he aged and regressed the rocks in the blink of an eye let her know that much.

Despite the pain, the look of fear in Ataxia’s eyes was undeniable. The mere thought of becoming that ‘thing’ again was abhorrent to her.

Timespire noticed this too and took his hoof off her muzzle, letting her speak.

“Ataxia, please, you have to transform!” Night sobbed as she watched her wife get younger and younger. She was already a teenager again, about Ana’s age.

“I… I…. I can’t. I can’t do that, not again,” Ataxia cried out. The memories of last time, all of the ponies she had hurt, and all of the lives she had taken, all of it. It all weighted too heavily on her mind. Whatever happened, even this, she could not bring herself to do that.

“Surrender, Demigoddess Shimmering Night,” Timespire said as he held a little foal in his hooves.

“If I do, you will turn her back?” Night looked at him pleadingly and he simply smiled.

“Easily, reversing what I do is simple, easier than taking candy from a foal. Surrender and you’ll have your wife back. Otherwise, you’ll be married to a little foal,” Timespire said, grinning while the foal continued to get even younger.

“Okay, you win… please, please change her back,” Night’s hooves were tied. Even if she were to free Ataxia and beat Timespire, age spells were not permanent. Timespire had regressed her and only he could undo it.

“Not without some fun first” Timespire laughed as dozen of spears impaled Night, cutting through her body with ease and lifting her up into the sky.

Shimming Night spit up blood as she was impaled a dozen times over. Her wings, her hooves, and her stomach, all of it simply hurt. While he had avoided hitting any vital spots, he knew how to cause pain; lots of pain.

Ataxia cried as she saw it all, she cried as she was tossed unceremoniously at the base of the shadow spears that held her wife.

“What a disappointing ending,” Timespire said as he shook his head, “You think your family gives you strength, I’m sorry… you think your family is your strength. I hope this proves to you the folly of that line of thinking. Family is not strength, it’s a weakness.”

“You think so? Maybe you think like that because your family only gives you death. Because your family made you use that dead magic that will kill you soon,” Night spoke through gritted teeth as she sought to hold back cries of pain.

A spear shot up out of the ground, it stopped inches before piercing her lower jaw. The sharp point forced the alicorn to keep her head raised less she wished to impale her mouth upon it, “I didn’t believe your lies then and I won’t listen to them now. Check the scoreboard dear niece, I won, you lost. That should tell you everything you need to know.”

Night keep her muzzle up and tried to speak. “I may have lost this small fight, but you lost everything. You’re hopeless.”

Timespire laughed as loudly as he could before turning to leave, “Be lucky I’m not allowed to kill you, else you’d already be dead.”

“My wife!” Night shouted, afraid that he would not live up to his promise.

He looked back, “Oh, I almost forgot. It’s hard to remember all the ants you step on.” With that, his cutie mark began to spin the other way, ageing time for everything around him. Ataxia’s form regrew to normal age in an instant. “Dead magic, as if,” Timespire said before fading into the shadows, leaving his foes to wallow in their grief. Timespire was so caught up in his victory that he did not pay attention as blood starting to flow out of his nose.

Ataxia is the Avatar to Chaos, God of Creation. As with anything Chaos does, it’s, well, chaotic. This went doubly true for Ataxia’s magic. With tears in her eyes and a wave of her horn, she transformed all the shadow spears holding her wife in the air into pillows.

Night fell onto the pillows and cried out in pain, the fall itself didn’t hurt but the movement did. The fight had taken almost all her reserves, with what little magic she had left, she concentrated on healing, on preventing herself from dying from blood loss. In Equestria these wounds would be simplicity itself to heal; she could just command the ambient magic all around her to do her bidding.

Here, it would be a death sentence.

Ataxia ran up to her wife with tears in her eyes, “Night, I’m so, so sorry!”

Night looked up; she could barely speak, not now. Staying conscious was taking everything she had.

“Take my magic,” Ataxia said as she nuzzled her muzzle into her wife’s coat. “Heal yourself, please, for me.”

Night saw the look of conviction in her wife’s eye. Without transforming, it would drain Ataxia, and at best she would only be able to close the most severe wounds. However, Ataxia demanded this, she would not take no for an answer.

Night lowered her horn. Ataxia followed suit and they touched. Ataxia felt her magic leave her body and flow into her wife’s. It was the equivalent of running ten Running of the Leaves at once, but not once did she pull back. It was her fault Night lost.

It was all her fault.

When Ataxia collapsed in front of her, Night stopped. She pulled her head back, relieved that her most severe wounds had healed over. “Are… are you okay?” Night asked Ataxia, concern in her voice.

Ataxia laughed at the absurdity of the question, then stopped when it started to hurt, “You know, it only hurts when I laugh.” She started to giggle again before grunting in pain, “Night… I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Night said between deep breaths.

“It is!” Ataxia sobbed. “My transformation, all those I killed, and now you. All this pain, losing to that bucking prick, it’s all my fault. I’ve hurt so many ponies, and now I hurt you, again. Can you ever forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive… because I don’t blame you, Ataxia. I shouldn't have put you in that position. I know how you feel about transforming. I’ll get him… next time.”

“What if there isn’t a next time? Night… that moment he aged me back… I felt so helpless. I felt like I would stop existing at some point and never see you again. I know, I’m mostly rude and overbearing on you, but I love you dearly Night. Nothing will ever change that,” Ataxia said as she looked down at the ground. She hated this type of conversation, but she could not stop herself from saying the words, not now.

“Shh, as long as we’re together everything will be fine. And I know how you are, I wouldn’t want you any other way,” Night replied with a smile and gently kissed her wife’s muzzle.

“Night, I love yo-” Ataxia cut off her own sentence as she saw something in the distance. “What…” Ataxia tried to find the words as she watched a little filly get blasted out of the sky from a dark-blue magical energy shot.

“What’s wrong now?” Night asked. She could barely move her head, much less fight somepony else.

Ataxia just responded by gesturing over to the distance. The pair of them watched a heavily injured Princess Luna walk over to a prone body that was lying still on the ground.

…

Princess Luna cautiously approached the prone body of the little filly. In truth, she had not expected to win. Nighttide matched her step for step, blow for blow. As much as she hated to admit it, the little filly was stronger than her. When Nighttide paused in the air, Luna jumped on it, it was the only opening the night princess needed.

Still, she did not fully believe that the fight was over. As she approached Luna expected some final subterfuge, she expected the filly to jump up and finish the job she had almost completed. Luna knew she was on her last legs, literally as the case may be. She could not fight anymore, not in any serious way at least.

However, she could not bring herself to just ignore the little filly either. Even if she was not what she appeared, it did not matter. To Luna she was what her appearance showed her to be. It was not in her nature to ignore that.

When she got right above the filly, Luna almost jumped out of her fur. Nighttide sucked in a deep, painful breath of air, “You… you’re still alive?” Luna asked the rhetorical question.

The only response was another painful breath, followed by another, and then another. The filly was alive, but only just. The gaping holes in her chest and back bleed out profusely. Each breath she took drained her life that much more.

Something, some small part of Luna that she did not understand made her do what she did next. Maybe it was because of the last words Nighttide had said, maybe it was to save Taz the pain of losing her, or maybe it was something deeper, something instinctual. Luna couldn’t call it. She lowered her horn and pointed it at the filly’s chest. With the last of the magic she possessed, she healed the filly’s wounds to prevent her from dying, “I was wrong to question your love for Prince Taz,” Luna admitted as she channeled the power.

When Luna opened her eyes, she saw it, the moon medallion that the filly clutched to her breast. “What was so special about it?” Luna asked. Again, she expected and got no answer.

She wanted a better look at it but the filly’s hooves were wrapped around it. Princess Luna raised a hoof to lightly scoot it out of the filly’s grip.

As soon as she made contact, the area was overcome with a dark blue funnel of magic, magic that stood out in stark contrast to the column of pink energy that shot above the castle.

Author's Notes:

Living on without the one you love is the greatest trial you ever face.