“You’re not getting cold hooves, are you Mindsink?”

The pegasus turned and laughed at the shadow that his brother now occupied. “You’re joking right? We’ve spent almost two decades planning this out. Learning everything that we could about this world, and now we get to see all of that come to fruition. I may be shaking brother, but it’s from excitement, not fear.”

The shadow laughed. “Really, you’re not scared at all? Even though it’s your life on the line should you fail?”

Mindsink grinned. “If you’re worried about failing brother, there is one simple solution.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t,” Mindsink’s form disappeared; he faded into the shadows and shot forward like a bullet to his destination, or more precisely, his target.

Timespire impassively watched him go. “So many years and it all comes down to this. Don’t buck it up, Mindsink.”

…………………………………………..

“Aurora!” Rainbow yelled from across the breakfast table, she swooped up and shot over the table to greet her oldest daughter as fast as was safe.

For Aurora, her recognition of what happened was a shout and then a spin through the air as her hooves suddenly lost contact with the ground.

“What brings you here?” Rainbow asked as she sat her slightly motion sick daughter down on the ground.

“Ac-“

“Wow, you’ve grown, Vela!” Rainbow did not even pause before seeing her granddaughter, “and is that… little Dayspring?”

Dayspring hid behind his sister as Vela adopted a defensive position to protect her younger brother.

It was all for naught, she did not have a hope in Hades of keeping the young hippogriff from her doting grandmother. Rainbow easily swooped behind her granddaughter and had Dayspring in her hooves.

Poor Dayspring was at a loss. He found himself plucked off the ground and flown in wide circles as Rainbow took this opportunity to lavish the grandson she had not seen in two years with kisses and hugs.

“Mommy!!” Dayspring cried out, an action that only caused Rainbow to double up on her affection.

Twilight chuckled to herself before teleporting the poor young hippogriff away from Rainbow’s hooves. The little colt latched onto his saivor like she was a gift from above. Rainbow turned to her wife, “You’re no fun.”

Twilight merely held Dayspring tighter as she blew her wife a raspberry.

Vela’s eyes glanced around the room before coming to a stop on Flash. Who met her gaze stare for stare, ‘Hmm, someone’s asking for another dental appointment’.

Flash would not back down, he glared at her, angered about their last encounter and the fact that she was here at all.

“Sorry to come up unannounced, Twilight. We figured this would be a good time to get the family together though.”

Twilight just nodded, “Icarus, you know you’re always welcome. Please, join us for breakfast.”

“After that trip, don’t mind if we do,” Aurora said with a smile as she stole Rainbow’s seat next to Twilight. With such a full table it was the only way she could guarantee that she got to talk to her mom. Also, it ensured that she would get her son back, something she was insistent on. With some disdain, Twilight eventually passed her youngest grandfoal back to her daughter.

Rainbow landed and gave a little pout. “So I lose my chance to spend time with my only grandson and my seat. I see how it is.”

Aurora just smiled at her in response.

“How long can you stay?” Twilight asked the emperor as he took a seat across from her.

“Just for the weekend I’m afraid. It was kind of an impromptu visit.”

“Oh?” Night asked, “Why’s that?”

“Actually, I need your help, mom. I’m not feeling too well and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking a look with your magic?”

“Anything serious?” Rainbow asked as she took another seat, worry for her oldest daughter permeating her voice.

“No, nothing serious, just something I’d like Twilight to look at. In private if you don’t mind,” Aurora gestured to the two boys sitting at the other end of the table; an indication that whatever it was she did not feel comfortable talking about it in front of them.

Rainbow just rolled her eyes about that. Sure whatever it was might make them uncomfortable, but they’d get over it. When it came to family, you should not keep secrets. However, she said nothing. It was Aurora’s call, even if she did not agree with it; she could at least respect it.

“I hear you’ve gotten a lot better with that,” Radiant gestured to the spear Icarus carried with him.

“Let’s just say I don’t slack in my training,” Icarus said with a smile.

“I’ve always wanted to see who could take who; up for a friendly sparring match later?”

“Sure, I’m game.”

“Do it and I’ll cut your wings off in your sleep,” Aurora said with a growl at her husband, who immediately looked down, sheepishly.

“Ahh, come on!” Radiant pouted.

“No, I know you two want a go at each other, my answer is, and always will be, no,” Memories of Icarus’s fight with Ataxia were fresh in her mind, and the way he was after… it still gave Aurora nightmares to think about.

“No fun,” Icarus said with a pout, an action that caused a laugh from his daughter.

Aurora wanted to slap him upside the head for putting on such a juvenile display in front of the young ones; she would have, if not for a voice coming from the other end of the table. “Hey Taz, oversleep?” Starlight asked the black earth pony that was dragging his body down the stairs like a walking carcass.

“Food… need food,” Taz absentmindedly replied as he made his way to the table.

“Well, someone had a late night,” Radiant commented, “Did you at least have fun?”

“I hope they did, I think Ana is still asleep. You two didn’t get home until midnight.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Taz started in on his breakfast as soon as he was served. It was a fun night, but he needed more than six hours of sleep.

“Hey Taz, we got some unexpected company today,” Twilight figured it was better to let him know now and get whatever the stallion would do out of the way while he was still groggy.

Taz looked up and noticed the griffons at the table. His eyes darted to Vela and Icarus, before finally coming to a stop on Aurora.

Aurora held her son a little tighter than she intended when her eyes met her brother’s.

“Oh, hey,” Taz said before going back to his plate.

The table let out a collective breath as the ponies eating relaxed. No one was more surprised than Aurora. Her mind was doing a small jig, ‘Yes! Passive aggressive for the motherbucking win!’ she did not care that he basically blew the news off. The fact that she did not have a mane full of orange juice right now was a huge victory for the mare; one that she was more than satisfied with.

Aurora looked up at Twilight with hope in her eyes. ‘Maybe I can use this momentum for other good news?’ she thought. “Hey mom, would you mind if we talk in private, about it?”

Twilight looked up at her daughter. It did not take a genius to figure out that she was hiding something, something she did not want everyone to know. “Sure, let’s go to my room.”

Aurora got up and passed her son off to her husband. She noticed the look of indignation on Rainbow’s face. “Yes, you can come too.”

Rainbow reluctantly got up and followed them out of the room. Although Night could not help but smile as she saw her mom practically strut out of the room. She knew it was not so much of what they were going to talk about, simply a matter of Rainbow wanting to be included in the conversation. Chances were good that she would get bored halfway through and come back downstairs anyway.

Even with that knowledge, Night could not help but worry. It was her sister after all. Ataxia noticed this sudden melancholy in her wife and wrapped a hoof around Shimmering Night. “Relax alright; I’m sure whatever it is Twilight can fix it.”

Night sighed; Ataxia had a lot more faith in her mom’s abilities than she did. Ever since ‘the incident’ Night had come to see her mom in a different light. Twilight was not the all-knowing mare she thought she was. She was just a normal pony that had to solve problems like everyone else.

Given, ‘normal’ in this case meant an extremely powerful and smart pony, but she did not have all the answers to life’s questions. It was something that became more and more apparent the more Night paid attention to it.

In a way, it kind of felt like that knowledge stole her fillyhood from her.

“Hey, what did I just say?” Ataxia began shaking her when she did not respond.

“That Twilight would fix it,” Night said in a deadpan voice.

“That’s right, so get that look off your face,” Night did not comply with that order.

Ataxia lightly bit the hickey she left on her wife’s neck.

“Ouch! That’s still sore you know!”

Ataxia just smiled as Night punched her in the shoulder. ‘Yeah, but it got your mind off it.’

At the other end of the table Starlight found herself caught in a very awkward situation. When she sat down, it was just to eat. Not thinking anything about it she took the seat right next to Radiant’s oldest son Flash.

Unfortunately, all the other seats filled up. All but the one on the other side of her, the one Vela took.

Awkward did not seem like the right word anymore. Sitting between two immature babes was a new form of hell. She would have just left, if not for the nagging concern that they would start throwing punches as soon as she did. Still, that knowledge did not make the holes they were boring into each other through her any easier to deal with.

“You two should just make out and get it over with,” Blaze said with his iconic smile plastered over his face.

Radiant’s magic was the only thing that stopped Vela from jumping over and attacking him. “Enough you three, you don’t have to say another word to each other as far as I care, but you will not fight.”

That got Icarus’s attention. “Vela, don’t you have something to say?”

“Now?” she looked at him, her gaze full of indignation at the thought of having to do that in front of everyone.

“Now,” Icarus’s tone left no room for disagreement.

“I’m sorry,” Vela mumbled under her breath.

“Vela, if I have to get up,” Icarus left the last part out; there was no need to say it.

Vela sighed, “I’m sorry I beat you up Flash. It was wrong and I won’t do it again.”

Flash did not exactly believe the ‘won’t do it again’ part, but he knew getting such an apology from her was more than he could ask for.

“I accept your apology,” Flash said.

“Why did you two get in a fight anyway?” Starlight asked, she knew what happened, and what happened afterwards, but she never knew the reason why it happened in the first place.

“Vela was picking on Ana,” Blaze blurted out, absentmindedly.

“You were doing, what?” Starlight spoke the words with magic radiating off her whole body. Every set of eyes turned down to them, seeking what had happened that could cause such a reaction from the young mare.

Suddenly Vela did not feel like this was such a good spot to sit. “I… I gotta use the restroom.”

She got up and left with a hurry. Starlight’s power only increased as she finally put all the pieces together in her head. She never knew why a pony as nice as Flash would actually get into a fight with someone. Now she knew, now she took a side, and it was not Vela’s.

“Dude!” Flash glared at his brother. He knew this would lead nowhere good; as such he wanted to keep this from Starlight.

“Oh, sorry, forgot,” Blaze’s eyes went wide as Starlight’s anger became palpable.

There would be a reckoning this weekend. Starlight’s mind was already planning out the little details of what would happen. Consequences be damned, no one picked on her sister.

………………………………………

Princess Cadance awoke with a start. She noticed two separate things right off the bat. As if someone had hit her over the head with them as soon as she woke up. These things were not equal in any way, shape, or form, but she did still notice.

The first thing was that she overslept. She supposed, logically, that it was due to the twins not being in the palace. That made some sense, she overslept because she could oversleep. That thought made her smile. Not that the twins were gone and not here to jump on her bed, make a lot of noise running up and down the stairs, or generally be the big nuisances they could be, but that she finally had a day to herself.

Or she would have if not for the second thing she noticed. This one caused a lot more concern to the mare than simply oversleeping. This one sent her adrenaline running, her heart pacing, and caused her horn to channel magic in it. This one was an issue. She was not alone.

“Who are you?!” Cadance glared into the shadows, she was ready to call the guards, to alert the entire palace that someone was in her room.

“Peace, Princess Cadance.”

A green pegasus with a sky-blue mane walked out of the shadows. He did his best to wear a kind smile.

Cadance was not buying it for an instant. “Gua-“

“Don’t you remember, Princess Cadance, don’t you remember that you invited me in?”

“I… I invited you.”

“Yes Princess Cadance, we had a meeting, remember?”

“Yes… no. No, I…”

Mindsink was taken aback by that, no one had ever resisted before, not at this range. Something in the princess was resisting him, he doubled down, “Remember, Princess Cadance, remember our meeting.”

“Yes, I remember now, “ Cadance felt like her mind was resisting her, she remembered though. She did have a meeting with this pony, she… she told him to meet her here today, in her room, at this time. Why did she have doubts before?

She shook it off, “So you said you had important news for me?”

Mindsink smiled, it was a smile that showed way too many teeth, “Yes Princess Cadance, I bring the truth to you.”

“Truth, what truth?” Cadance looked at him, confused.

“The truth of who is really responsible for Shining Armor’s death, the truth about what that mare is doing to your family, what she plans on doing to your grandfoals.”

“What?”

“Don’t you remember Cadance, don’t you remember? Don’t you remember that Firestar is the one who killed Shining Armor?”

“I… I…”

………………………………………………

Rainbow’s worried expression deepened. Something was wrong, something was wrong with her daughter. With every step they took Aurora’s shoulders would slope that much more, like something was weighing her down, like she was worried about something, something big.

This in turn just caused Rainbow to worry. Which caused her wings to harden; they began growing as they responded to her subconscious will to do damage to whoever made Aurora worry like this, to whoever was responsible for making her daughter feel this way.

Briefly, putting aside everything Rainbow knew about him, her mind considered Icarus. That the griffin might have done something to hurt her daughter, that he might be abusing her in some way, physical or mental, it did not matter. She would flay him alive either which way.

“Rainbow,” Twilight spoke aloud as the scraping against the walls was getting to her.

Rainbow’s mind came back from its vacation in fantasy land. She realized that her wings had started to cut into the palace walls as she was walking. “Sorry,” Rainbow said as she shrunk her wings and mentally facehoofed.

‘Icarus loves Aurora; I’ve seen that first hoof. He’d never do anything to hurt her, he’s not that dumb.’

Rainbow shook her head clear and resolved to just wait to find out.

The three ponies took a right into the master bedroom. Aurora smiled as she noticed a few objects on the floor that the two had yet to put back, but she said nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“I… I don’t know how to say this.”

“Just say it Aurora,” Rainbow smiled as she placed a hoof on her daughter’s shoulders. Aurora looked up and smiled at her.

“Something happened Thursday in Warclaw, something bad. I… I wanted too….”

Rainbow walked over and wrapped her wife in a wing. They both sat back on their haunches to listen to their daughter’s tale. Aurora was a mare used to the spotlight. She had posed in magazines most of her life, this side of her, this… this hesitation to speak about whatever happened… it was unnerving to say the least.

“Hey, breathe Aurora,” Twilight gestured with her hoof; she placed it on her chest and slowly took it away and back, away and back. Aurora smiled as she saw Princess Cadance’s old breathing exercises.

“I guess I should start at the beginning,” Aurora said after a few deep breaths.

“As good a place as any,” Rainbow replied.

“It started on Thursday; we were having a race relations lunch with the Diamond Dog Kingdom. Just a simple platter, nothing too fancy, you know how they are,” Rainbow and Twilight chuckled at that. “Anyway, during the meal, I… I wanted to hurt him.”

“Hurt who?” Twilight asked.

“The diamond dog, it was like a primal need to just inflict as much damage as I can. I wanted him dead mom,” there were tears in her eyes as she said those words. “I didn’t care that he did nothing wrong, I… I just wanted his head mounted on a plaque.”

“You sure it wasn’t just because he stunk?” Rainbow started laughing at her joke; she stopped as soon as she realized she was the only one. Twilight just glared at her.

“Is that it?”

Aurora was fully crying now, she could not stop if she wanted too. “No,” she sniffled out the words. “How I wish it was though.”

“What happened next?”

“I… Icarus saw the change in me. He… he led the diamond dog away before I did something we’d all regret. I… I….”

“Aurora, it’s ok, you can tell us,” Rainbow spoke with all the softness she could. She was legitimately frightened of what would come out next. Not so much what Aurora did, but because of what it was doing to her daughter.

Aurora looked up and wiped a tear from her eye. She did not want to tell them, she was afraid of what they might think of her with the next part, of what they might do. It was unfounded, but fears are almost never grounded in reality.

“I almost attacked my son,” Aurora felt like she would puke when she said the last part. She broke down at that, any semblance of control was gone from the mare.

Of everything Rainbow expected, including the possibility of there being a dead diamond dog in the griffin empire, this was not on the list. That little colt, the little hippogriff she had spun in the air not more than thirty minutes ago, her daughter almost… “No.”

The word came out unbidden; she had no more control over it than the colors in her mane. “You would never… No, not my daughter.”

“Something’s wrong with me!” Aurora shouted the words louder than she thought possible. “I love my kids, I do, I’d never hurt them. Please, please tell me something’s wrong, something you can fix,” she looked up, her eyes pleading with Twilight’s, begging the mare to find something, anything that would explain it.

Twilight was in a state of shock, her mind heard the words, but her brain would not comprehend what was said. It was unreal, too unreal to be true.

Rainbow shook her free, “Twi!”

Twilight blinked twice, “Huh, yeah, ok,” yet she did not move. Rainbow jumped over, landed right in front of her wife, and wrapped her in a hug, the action did wonders to bring her back to the real world.

“You with me, egghead?”

Twilight blinked a few more times, her mind coming back to reality, “Always Rainbow.”

“Good, because we need you here.”

“Yeah, sure,” she shook it off; the news had shaken the mare to her core. “I’ll take a look Aurora, it might be something magical.”

“Please,” Aurora lied on her stomach and raised her head. Twilight hugged Rainbow one more time and walked the rest of the way to her daughter. She leaned her head down and touched her horn tip with Aurora’s forehead.

Rainbow watched as Twilight’s wings became taut. Power radiated from her core, from her very being, from every wing tip and flowed to her horn, so thick Rainbow could see it.

Twilight focused the power on to the tip of her horn, using it she concentrated on her daughter’s amygdala. She was checking for signs of over activity or external stimulation.

She found… nothing out of the ordinary.

Frowning, Twilight refocused her efforts on her daughter’s hippocampus. The books she read on brain function indicating that new memories are stored there. As memories take a while to transfer from short term to long term, whatever happened to her daughter should still be there.

This search was a lot more delicate. She had to use enough power to be thorough but not so much that she could do any real damage. Otherwise she might risk her daughter’s short-term memory.

Twilight’s eyes went white as she channeled this much power. Rainbow stayed right by her side the entire time. She had no idea what was going on, but here were two of the three mares she loved the most in the entire world, there was no place else she would rather be.

The search was taking its toll on Twilight. Sweat began pouring off her brow as her concentration was split. She had to hold back just enough yet ensure that she used enough power for a definitive answer.

Aurora deserved that much at least.

Sadly, it was all for naught.

The power began to dissipate in the room. Twilight slowly backed out of her daughter’s brain, careful not to pull back too fast least she leaves any magical residue behind. “Aurora I-”

“Please.”

Twilight was taken aback by that. Despite her best efforts to do otherwise, her daughter obviously felt some discomfort from this whole event, yet she anticipated her mom’s response. She anticipated what her reply would be would not accept it.

“Aurora, you don’t understand. I checked you aggression center and your short term memory. There’s nothing there.”

“Check again,” Aurora said with tears in her eyes.

“Aurora, I was thorough, there’s no need.”

“Please, you have to find something.”

“Aurora…”

“Please, please, please, please,” it broke Rainbow’s heart to see her daughter crying out like that.

“Hey Twi, you said you checked short term memory?”

“Yes Dash, what about it?”

“Well, is there another memory you could check?”

“Long term? That’s not-“

“Do it,” Aurora looked up from the carpet. Her expression was on that brokered no disagreement.

“Aurora, that’s dangerous.”

“I don’t care; I’d rather something happened to me than my kids.”

There was no arguing with her, no convincing her otherwise, in truth; Twilight could appreciate her point of view. If she was in her daughters horseshoes, she would do the exact same thing.

Still, the risks… if something went wrong here, if she was not careful, she could damage her daughter’s memories, forever.

Twilight breathed in deep and released it in on fluid breath. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Aurora nodded and lowered herself back to the floor; she closed her eyes and relaxed so as not to offer any undue resistance.

“Little warning, this might hurt.”

That was an understatement.

The pain lashed through her body as her mom invaded every single memory the mare had. Twilight saw it all, everything Aurora could remember became something Twilight would forever remember; the good, the bad, and the naughty, all of it.

Twilight focused her power; she channeled more and more of it as she went, shifting through everything and anything that might give a clue as to what happened. Why she would do something like that.

She saw it; it was residual, faint, barely even registering on the charts. A foal had more power than what was left here. Yet it was there, a faux implant, a memory of a memory of a memory. It did not belong and her body was rejecting it. Someone, something had implanted it in her mind.

Carefully, ever so carefully, Twilight pulled it out of her daughter’s mind. She wrapped it in magic to prevent further degradation. When it was clear, Aurora’s head fell back to the ground, the tears in her eyes spoke of the pain she had suffered in her mind.

Rainbow was no longer by her wife side, she had moved over and lay next to her daughter, wrapping her wing around her in a protective gesture to try and save her from as much pain as she could; the action only served to provide emotional support, not physical support.

She noticed the change when her daughter stopped screaming. Rainbow looked up at her wife, “Please, tell me you found something.”

Twilight’s eyes were still white; her expression changed to one of anger, with a flair of power from her horn, Twilight broadcast the memory in the room, letting the degraded thought play for her wife to see.

It was horrible, the memory showed the diamond dogs committing the worst acts imaginable. They were killing old ponies, raping foals, murdering and slaying everyone that tried to stand up to them. Entire families were slaughtered before their wrath.

They used their natural affinity for digging to attack Ponyville. Rainbow saw ponies she knew, ones that helped her raise her foals, she saw them subjected to the very same atrocities.

She saw Rarity taken as a sex slave, she saw Fluttershy barbecued alive, and she saw… she saw… she saw too much, far, far too much.

Twilight canceled the replay.

“Twilight. What. The. Buck. Was. That?”

“That was our daughter’s memories,” Twilight spoke with a snarl.

“That never happened.”

“I know, someone implanted it into her long term memory, based on the state it was in when I found it, they did a crappy job too. It wasn't permanent, it was only held in place by its own magic.”

“But they’re fake.”

Twilight shook her head as she looked at Aurora, her daughter was barely able to raise her head, but overall she looked like she would recover. A quick scan of her magic conformed it.

Aurora had gotten lucky, she was exhausted by the ordeal, but she would make a full recovery.

“Not to her, this memory was buried in her frontal lobe, hidden. To her this was as real an event as the day she started school. She may not have known why, but this is what caused her hatred for the diamond dogs, to her they did this.”

“But that’s not what happened to Fluttershy or Rarity,” Aurora spoke, her voice dry.

Twilight was taken aback by that, she was not aware her daughter was able to talk. “It doesn’t matter; you couldn’t recall details of any of this, could you?” Aurora shook her head, “I thought not. It wasn’t about the actual event, but the emotions that they brought forward.”

“So Dayspring?”

“Collateral, he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Aurora, you would never hurt your children, someone, something did this to you.”

“Who could do something like this?” Rainbow’s mind went into attack stance. She wanted to hurt something.

“I… I don’t know,” Twilight felt just as angry, this was the worst sort of violation, as with this sort of power anypony could be made to commit horrible atrocities that they would never normally do. In the wrong set of hooves, this would be the worst thing ever. “But I’ll find out.”

There was no need to hold back this time, Twilight wanted, needed to know who was responsible. When she went into her daughter’s mind, she had to use a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of her full power. Not anymore, this was a violation of someone’s being.

A quote she had read from Starswirl came back to her mind. ‘To be mortal is to be made of the past, all the moments of what has been piled up to make up the present.’

If that were true, such power could make anyone do anything. Twilight wanted to stop whoever was responsible before something truly bad happened. She HAD to stop them.

It had been years, decades since she last accessed her full power, the power from the God, Gaia. This was not a fraction of a fraction of a fraction like she was used to using; this was her full power, all of it.

With her razor focused mind, Twilight began a search of the entire continent. In the magic realm, her power was a bubble, ever expanding outward, looking for whoever would dare use such power against another, the one that would commit such a violation.

A task what would normally be impossible, unless you knew what you were looking for. Twilight knew just that, the magical residue left on that memory was still fresh in her mind.

In the magic plane, the bubble expanded to encompass the entire palace, and then all of Canterlot. She found nothing; no one was in the city who gave off such power. Twilight poured more power into it. The bubble expanded; encompassing all of Ponyville, still it found nothing.

Her frustration was evident on her face as she increased it even more. The bubble grew even more, until, much like an actual bubble, it burst upon touching The Crystal Empire, or more precisely, The Crystal Palace.

It was not the user, but the aftereffect of the user’s power. Whoever it was, they just finished doing it again, to Luna knows who in the Crystal Palace. She instantly came back to the present, back to the room where her wife and daughter wanted answers, answers she did not have time to give them.

“Aurora, stay here, Rainbow with me,” Twilight spoke, her voice deep and commanding.

“Wh-” Rainbow never got to finish that sentence, Twilight did not have time to answer questions. She teleported them both to the Crystal Palace, they arrived in the throne room with a pop of magic.

“-at?” Rainbow finished the word. Twilight ignored it and looked around, she saw it in the kitchen, something was happening. With a wave of her horn she disintegrated the walls between her and her target while running forward.

Dumbfounded by her wife’s sudden onset of destruction, Rainbow simply ran forward. If Twilight was doing something like this, it was bad, very, very bad. She may not know what had happened, but she knew her wife, she trusted her wife. That was enough for Rainbow.

When they reached the kitchen, they both stopped dead in their tracks. What they saw… it was unreal, it was fake, it could not be.

Mi Amore Cadenza, Cadance, Princess of Love, Twilight’s foal sitter, wife of Shining Armor, mother of Radiant Star, grandmother of Blaze and Flash. She was standing over the bloody body of Princess Firestar, her daughter-in-law. A butcher’s knife held in her magic.

There was blood, everywhere.

Cadance turned to face Twilight with tears in her eyes. “Twilight, I did it, I killed her before she could kill my grandfoals, before she could hurt us anymore. Shining Armor’s murderer has finally been made to pay.”

In the distance, the clock rang eight a.m.

Author's Notes:

There are things, once done, can’t be undone.