Author's Notes:

Chapters that happened in between Chapter 12 and Chapter 13:

Max's universe:
Chapter 38 - Unexpected Visitors
And the next one:
Chapter 39 - Mending a broken Bond (There will be Sex in here. Ye be warned)
Next:
Chapter 40 - Revelations and Giving a Hoof
Another one:
Chapter 41 - Send offs and Pirates and sex - OH MYYYYY~! (Sex duh!)

In the last one, Sephiroth actually appears twice. At the beginning she heads back and that is where this Chapter starts. This and the next chapter take place before Sephiroth appears for the second time in Moon_Fire's 41st one.

So I'd recommend not reading through the whole 41st Chapter before reading Chapter 13 and 14 of One winged Angel, first.

Stepping out of a portal framed by wisps of intervening, flowing strands of pale green Sephiroth was greeted with an empty room in the burmecian palace. Nightmare and her new suitor seemed to have left already and that was fine by her. Looking over her shoulder she observed the portal fading into tiny dots of light before disappearing altogether. She was very glad that she could help Max, even if she herself was not integral in the removal of the being that possessed her. The very being that was reincarnated right now as Nightmare’s foal.

With a sigh, she shook her head and sat down on the bed in the room, her eyes growing distant as she recalled everything that had happened since her release. She was so furious and wanted nothing more than drawing blood in revenge for the betrayal. A betrayal that never existed to begin with.

Discord had never turned on her and he had loved her back. Slowly she lifted a hand to look at her palm, lighting it in a gentle and warm shade of pale green. Max had showed her how to use magic, she already had but never knew of. Magic she gained from Discord and Nightmare due to her Jenova Cells absorbing and implementing it into her very being. She smiled and admired the beautiful sheen of her aura, reveling in the thought that, through her, a part of him would never die. It did both, hurt and relieve her at the same time. Having lost him had been easier when she thought that he had betrayed her, when she could hate him.

And then there was Max.

Her cheeks burned with a bright blush and the aura enveloping her hand vanished, while her eyes grew distant once more. Together they had overcome her fears and when they had united in intercourse, consensual this time, she had fallen for the other woman. She hadn’t noticed right away and it took a shared memory of her mumbling in her sleep to break her denial. Despite realizing her love she was afraid more than anything. Max was spoken for, after all. Not only that but she was already engaged with another Displaced and albeit they having agreed to an open relationship, a three way one was a whole other thing. The other woman had essentially promised her to propose, no, to include her in the marriage if her fiance gave his consent. She even had created a ring out of pure sun- and moonlight right in front of Sephiroth’s eyes.

The silver haired woman sighed and then grimaced, putting her hand above her heart. She had hidden it from Max but she was in pain, still, from cutting off a portion of her very life. There had been no choice, she had to. After sharing her Cells with one of Max’s daughters, Golden Spark, in order to regrow the forelegs the child had lost due to an assassination attempt and to cancel the remnants of the curse still lingering inside her, it was unavoidable to infuse her with some of her own life, so the Cells would accept the filly as their rightful host and not kill her from the inside out. It would take time for the wound in her essence to heal and no spell would be able to alleviate the pain it caused her, but it was so worth it.

Shaking her head she drew on the new knowledge of using her magic to create a shield, effectively sealing the room she was in, before closing her hand in front of her. Like every time she had done what she was about to, an overwhelming feeling of dread, danger and wrongness flooded through her and when she opened her fist again there was an unnaturally black sphere resting in her palm. It sucked in the light around it, giving it the appearance as if it was actually glowing black. How could she have been so blind? This was what the being in Celestia was after, this and- She closed her other hand and repeated the process, but this time when she opened it, there was a pale green orb. In an instant the sensations from before vanished, countered by the new spheres own powers. For a few moments she indulged in the urge to just look at them.

The Black and White Materia.

How the being had found out about them was beyond her but everything made sense. In a moment of weakness it had seized control over Celestia, because it was unable to possess Sephiroth herself and then proceeded to try and break her. Agitated she closed her fists and tried to crush the things that were responsible for everything. She knew that it was futile and that she couldn’t so much as scratch the spheres but it did help her feeling better.

They were gone by the time she relaxed her hands again, not destroyed but merely back, hidden beneath every ounce of her essence she was able to pile on top of them. She would rather die than let the Materia fall into the wrong hooves, hands, claws, paws or whatever.

The seal on the room stayed in place as she didn’t really feel up to the task of interacting with anyone. Despite that her gaze wandered to the place where her portal had been and a strong longing filled her, accompanied by fear. She had tried so hard to keep her distance, emotionally speaking, and now here she was, afraid of rejection. Afraid that she lost her heart to one who could not keep it. Sure, she had said that she didn’t want for them to break up over her, that she was content just being Max’s sister and nothing more, but… Would it be enough?

With a frustrated groan she shook her head and jumped to her feet. She could do nothing about that at the moment, except waiting for the time she would be summoned again and they could talk it out. There was no use in dwelling on it and she had other things on her mind that she actually could do something about.

Cancelling her shield she walked out of the room and made use of the new knowledge again to conjure up a scrying spell and track down Nightmare. Which she promptly regretted as she stumbled and planted her face on the floor. Deciding that the cold stone did wonders for the raging blush on her face she just remained there for a while. That things like this kept happening in Max’s universe she could chalk up to some machinations not known to her, but now she just had to peek in on Nightmare fucking her new consort. Even worse, it alerted her to an aching need in her own nethers. “Of course Max somehow infected me with her addiction to sex.” She started hitting her forehead on the ground. “Of fucking course.”

After hearing an ominous crack coming from the stone beneath her she finally stopped and lifted herself up off the ground, seeing that she had hit her head hard enough to make the floor snap. “Uhm…” She then sighed. “I have to stop damaging this castle. I already ruined a room, bashed Max through a wall, destroyed several doors after the incident with Kat, flew straight through the dome of this city and now this.”

With Nightmare… occupied, she had to kill some time before they could begin to plan the attack, which would hopefully lead to the two of them subduing Celestia and ripping that thing out of her. Groaning she placed her head in one of her hands. “Great. Nightmare is pregnant, so I have to beat Celestia on my own and hold her down for her to exorcise the being.”

Deciding that she would just practice her newfound magic she changed course to find a guard or servant to ask for directions to some kind of training field.

A boulder twice her size flew right at her and she grinned in exhilaration. Not budging an inch she just drew her fist back and proceeded to smash it right into the oncoming piece of rock, pulverizing it without gaining so much as a bruise. Magic was fucking awesome! It coursed through her veins and muscles alike at the moment, actively enhancing everything about her body. She was already stronger than any dragon and more resilient too, but with this magic she didn’t even feel it when one of those boulders hit her full on. And it was really thrilling.

Almost hopping around in excitement she shouted over to the rats occupying the katapult which had launched the boulder at her. “COME ON! THAT ALL YOU GOT?!”

The training grounds were littered with rubble of varying size and covered in a fine layer of dust from her latest pulverization of the projectile. She had gradually increased the amount of magic she poured into her muscles to test her limits but she felt like she hadn’t even scratched the surface as of now. To her utter disappointment the guards at the katapult nodded thunderstruck, signalling that she wouldn’t be able to further her experiment. She couldn’t hide the pout on her face when she drifted back to the ground. Feeling the magic flow through her was something she couldn’t even begin to describe, but it left her with an abundance of energy that just begged to be released, making her squirrelly and tickled nicely. Breathing deeply she cut off the flow and was relieved that she felt herself calm down without having to force it.

Her attention was drawn to the entrance of the field by a clapping of hooves and her eyes fell on a black alicorn. “Impressive. Exerting enough force to grind such a boulder to dust with just one punch and not even breaking a sweat. Seems that you’re taking to magic like a fish to water.”

“Nightmare.” Sephiroth walked over to the mare, a serious expression on her face. “I think it’s time to confront Celestia. I already was stronger than her and with this new power I will have little to no problem besting her.”

The alicorn nodded but held up her hoof as to stop her. “That is likely. But have you decided what we are to do with the being? Due to Max’s version of it we know that we can not give it its own body so our only options would be obliteration or reincarnation. And I don’t plan on inviting another life into my womb, making it triplets I would be carrying.”

The woman’s expression grew dark. “This thing has forfeited any right on a second chance. I’m not as forgiving as Max. I just hope I can make its demise as painful as possible.”

“Alright. I will respect your decision.” Nightmare rose to her four hooves and we began to walk, leaving the training grounds. “Any idea on how we would be able to lure it out without endangering others?”

“Actually, I have.”

Breathing deeply she enjoyed the sensation of the wind gently caressing her face and stroking through her hair, kissing each and every feather in her wing. It brought a heavenly calm with it like nothing else could. Sadly it would be the calm before the storm. She opened her eyes and let her gaze sink on Everfree City below her, causing her to cringe. A whole portion of the town was erased from existence and the rest of it didn’t look all that good either. Only a small part went completely unharmed but there were already signs of reconstruction. She lingered for a bit and bowed her head slightly, paying her respect to the fallen. “I will make Kat answer for her crime. Rest now.”

After that she straightened her posture again and took out the Black Materia, filling the area with its sickening aura. She didn’t have to wait long before a white figure appeared before her in a flash, wearing a triumphant grin on its face. “Ah~. So you have come to surrender finally.” Sephiroth stayed silent, watching Celestia approach, the grin turning into an almost hungry stare as her eyes were fixed on her prize. Just when she was about to reach the thing she had lusted after for so long, Sephiroth snapped her hand close and let the Materia vanish again, making Celestia reel back in surprise.

Now it was her turn to grin. “Who said anything about surrendering?” And proceeded to slam a glowing fist into the mare’s face, launching her with an audible bang. Not waiting for the being to catch itself she was enveloped in a red aura before disappearing only to intercept its path and reversing its direction with another punch, actively putting more and more distance between them and the City. She appeared in its path again but when she attempted to bash it even further away her fist was met with an unassumed resistance, which caused pain to explode all the way up to her shoulder and she only succeeded in halting the alicorn.

White coat tinted orange and heat blasted into her when the being in front of her literally erupted into flames, making her jump back. “Fuck.”

A strangely distorted chuckling came out of the ball of fire and it flickered out revealing the tall figure of an glowing orange mare with hell - or was it sun - fire as her mane and tail, fully clad in a heavy looking full plate armor that had several sharp looking edges to discourage direct blows, lest the aggressor would want to hurt herself. Along with that came a gigantic warhammer, which the being hefted on its shoulder like it weighed nothing. “Fool. Do you really think I spend the last thousand years just sitting on my flank?” Without further ado it dashed forward, swinging the hammer in a wide arc to crush her under it. Reacting quickly, Sephiroth drew her sword out of nowhere and lifted it to block the blow, but was overwhelmed by the sheer force behind the attack and launched like a bullet. The world flew by in a blur and she tried to catch herself but before she could she crashed into the ground hard enough to be buried deeply. She broke out of the ground with a challenging roar but froze when she heard panicked screams behind her. Looking over her shoulder she saw that her flight path had ended on the outskirts of a rather small town, whose inhabitants were now in a panic. A sense of danger overcame her and she turned around barely fast enough to block the next blow, prepared this time to stand her ground. Growling into the being’s face with gritted teeth she cursed herself.

This just had to spiral out of control, now had it. She just wanted to subdue Celestia and hold her down but now she had a whole town of ponies behind her and had to do everything in her power to prevent even a single one of them coming to harm. Pushing their weapons apart she striked at the pony’s legs to incapacitate it, but it brought the hammer around way faster than should be possible, blocking her blade. How could the being be so strong all of the sudden? Roaring again she launched in a flurry of strikes and swipes trying, and failing, to land a single hit, while the being just grinned and slowly forced her in the defensive instead. Back and forth their weapons flew, connecting with growing force and frequency.

Frustrated, Sephiroth poured more and more magic into her muscles but for every raised ounce of strength she was met with an equal amount of resistance from her opponent. Their blows created tangible shockwaves, each accompanied by a sound that could be mistaken for a cannon, but neither gaining ground. By the time she felt like she was making progress, the first windows on the edge of the town shattered, breaking her concentration long enough for a devastating strike to hit her right in the stomach, katapulting her into the air and forcing the same out of her lungs.

When she managed to catch herself she had to spring into action without a chance to get her bearings as Celestia was instantly upon her, swinging its hammer down with a roar on its own. Sephiroth met the blow with raising her sword, supporting its blade with her second hand, only to be almost deafened when the resulting shockwave hit her. Her ears rang painfully but she had succeeded to stop the hammer in its path only for something to slam in her back, hard. Having forced the air out of her lungs a second time she was about to whirl around and strike at whatever had hit her but her sword froze in mid movement, resting on the neck of a snarling and furious looking cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane.

Broken out of her concentration again she never saw the hammer coming as it slammed into her side and send her flying with an explosion of agony where it had hit. She flew straight across the town and was embedded into a mountain near it. This time she coughed up blood. Fuck. The whole reason for luring it out was to prevent innocents from getting involved.

Freeing herself from her makeshift hole, she spotted the being dashing towards her, but what worried her more was that she couldn’t see the pegasus. Without chance to look for it she prepared to intercept the being, dashing forwards herself and readying her sword behind her to get more force behind her next strike. If she couldn’t get around the hammer, then she had to slice through it! But before they crashed into each other something struck her on the top of her head, snapping it downwards and disturbing her balance, but giving her a view of a rainbow contrail that rushed past her. That fucking pegas-

Her vision flashed when a crushing blow connected with her from above and caused her to plummet into the ground, leaving a sizeable crater behind. Every attempt to get to her feet again was quickly discarded as four armor clad hooves impacted into her chest and stomach hard enough to widen the crater, forcing a swell of blood out of her mouth and made her sight go blank for a moment. She felt how the alicorn lowered its body down on her and speak, but it was hard to make out the words over the consistent ringing in her ears. “Surrender already.”

Sephiroth just spat a glob of blood in its face and gained another blow with the hammer that crushed the arm holding her sword, shattering her bones and coaxing a high pitched scream out of her. The being frowned down on her in agitation. “What are you even fighting for?! You have nothing! Even your so called ‘love’ betrayed you!”

The woman forced a shaky smile on her lips. “No he didn’t. I know the truth. You will never break me.”

If the alicorn looked agitated before, now it was downright pissed. It lifted the hammer again and brought it down hard on her other arm, shattering the bones in it, too, eliciting another agonized scream. But the being wasn’t satisfied, not in the slightest. Raging it began to slam its armor clad hooves into Sephiroth’s face, again and again. “We’ll see about that! I have all of eternity to torture you! Where are your friends now?! You have nobody! You have nothing!” With another resounding roar it drew its head back only to slam it back down on Sephiroth’s already blood soaked face.

It was about to do that again when a terrified shout interrupted it. “STOP!”

Confused both of them turned their attention to the voice. The lavender alicorn stood at the edge of the crater, tears in her eyes, which were intently staring at the being incredulously, turning into fear instantly when the being launched a searing fireball in her direction, melting the ground in its path with its intense heat. But in doing that it was distracted enough for Sephiroth to slam her head into Celestia’s, lifting her off of her with the force behind it - and cracking her own skull further - before she was enveloped in a red glow and instantly appeared between the miniature sun and Twilight, taking the blow full on, vanishing in the resulting explosion and consequently kicked up cloud of dust and smoke.

When the smoke cleared it revealed the still standing, albeit slumped and smoldering, form of Sephiroth. Her breathing was strained and ragged, blood pooling out of several wounds and dripping on the ground beneath her. “I… won’t let you hurt… any more children.” When the being readied itself into a stance the woman shouted over her shoulder. “Get away from here, now! That is not Celestia! She has been possessed!”

That finally got the lavender mare moving and she teleported away in a flash. Relieved, Sephiroth turned around to face the being again, blinking in confusion when she saw her sword fading into a sphere of light and flying away in a seemingly random direction. “The fuck?”

Before she could continue wondering, though, the being had had enough and launched itself at her. Unable to use her arms anymore, Sephiroth dodged the hammer and spun herself around in the movement, kicking it in the side of its head and sending it crashing into the ground a few feet away. She had to get away for a bit and use her abilities to heal her arms. Like she was now she didn’t stand a chance. Whirling around she jumped and then flew to put some distance between them, but just when she thought she could risk beginning to heal, she felt the disturbance in the air caused by the hammer swinging through it and ducked under it in the last moment.

She backed away but the being followed up with more blows, forcing her to keep dodging. Sadly she didn’t get any more openings to counter and her evasions grew closer continuously. And again she cursed herself for her own arrogance. Max would have certainly helped her if she had just asked her, maybe she could have called upon Kat or any other Displaced. But no, she had to do this on her own and was now paying the price. A resigned smile pulled at the corners of her lips when she thought about how this would probably spare Max from potential heartbreak right before she misjudged and another devastating blow smashed into her side, planting her firmly into the ground once again.

She did not cough as blood pooled into her mouth this time, running out of the corners of her lips while she kept her smile. The being rushed towards her and she just closed her eyes, thinking what she expected to be her last thought.

I’m sorry… Max.