Several months ago, Shimmering Night and Twilight Sparkle had opened a portal to Tartarus in the middle of Whitetail Woods so they could launch a rescue attempt to retrieve Twilight’s youngest son, Taz. Shimmering Night directed the magic in the surrounding area to keep it open for however long it took them. This was only achievable by having it drain the magic from the surrounding woods.

When they were defeated, they limped back to where the portal should have been, only to find it completely closed off. They knew they had taken too long. The portal sucked the magical energy from the forest dry; leaving it completely and totally dead, barren, and empty.

It was in this ghost of what was, in this tribute to the cost of life, that Ana teleported to. She looked around with tears in her eyes before spotting something she needed, a place to cry, a small cave.

She ran to the cave with tears in her eyes. Her sobs were the only living sound that could be heard for miles around. Dry, dead branches crunched under her hooves, and dead tree limbs cut into her coat, tearing into her skin just enough to cause more pain, but not enough to cause her to bleed.

She cried for her hatred. She cried for her anguish. She cried for her lost friendships. She cried for how she could never ever face them again. How she never wanted to face them again, any of them.

“I hate you!” Her shout echoed around the cave and out into the woods themselves.

She truly did. Ana hated Nighttide for everything she was, everything she had stolen from her. She hated her sister for her lies, she hated Vela for getting someone, she hated Flash and Blaze for being so bucking stupid, she hated Dayspring for his innocence, and she hated Taz. For the first time in her life, she hated him with a passion for not being able to see the truth.

“What is it that I hear? The sweet sound of one’s hate growing so fast and strong.” Ana’s grief was interrupted by a voice, it was so sweet, but sent a cold chill up her spine.

She looked up to see a midnight-black alicorn walk closer, smiling at her. “Your friends left you alone. They betrayed you. They just used you and then set your own feelings aside.” There was a pregnant pause as the words settled before Nightmare Moon continued. “I can make you feel better. I can give you the power to make you better and them regret everything they’ve ever done to you!”

Ana looked at her in anger, rage, and hate. “Y-you… it’s… it’s… Nighttide, she’s your—”

“My mistake,” Nightmare Moon admitted sourly. “My daughter, my mistake. I never meant to have her. I never wanted to have her, I could never love her. I thought I had killed her, I failed there too.”

“I hate her… but I don’t want to kill her,” Ana replied.

“Oh? There you’re wrong.” Nightmare Moon grinned as she stepped closer, wrapping a wing around Ana. “Look inside yourself, search your feelings. Think about everything you felt when she betrayed you, when she tried to prove she is better than you. She. Is. Not! Everything she did was through cheating and lies. And with that, she took your stallion right out of your hooves and now your place at your friends’ side.”

“How… how is she using Taz like this? I-I don’t understand.”

“She is my daughter, I know her powers. If she wants to, she can control a pony with her shadows. They are a solemn toy in her hooves once she is done with them,” Nightmare Moon lied smoothly.

“So Taz doesn’t really love her?”

“He… thinks he does.”

“B-but, Taz can’t be affected by magic…”

Nightmare Moon laughed. “That’s true, but not only does Nighttide have her shadows, she has her… feminine wiles. She seduced him, as mares have done to stallions since the dawn of time. Just as she was ordered to.”

“What?”

“My dear husband ordered her to seduce him, to make him hers.” The alicorn laughed. “It worked perfectly, but not in the way we intended. He didn’t just lust after her body, he really clung to her.” Nightmare Moon smiled gently at Ana. “Everything Taz thinks he knows about Nighttide is a lie. And only you can stop it.”

“She… she admitted to that. About her orders.”

“Of course she did, it’s all part of her ploy. After all, the best lies are the ones interlaced with the truth.”

Ana looked up into the dark alicorn’s face. Nightmare Moon was smiling at her, the kind of smile one might expect from a corpse, but it was a smile nevertheless. “You’re just trying to use me, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” the alicorn said with a grin.

“What in the world could you possibly want from me?” Ana asked. “I’m nopony but a two-bit princess that can’t do magic to save her life. Unless you want your mane styled that is.”

Nightmare Moon grinned, her white fangs shining in the darkness. “I want nothing. But I’m giving you the chance to help me with something we both seek.”

“And that is?”

“Nighttide being gone. And then, then Taz will finally be yours.”

“He’s just a dumb colt, he deserves her!”

“Oh? Is that how you really feel?”

Ana looked down; she couldn’t bring herself to even look the alicorn in the eye. “N-no…”

“So tell me, why did you say you don’t want to kill my daughter?”

“S-she’s carrying his foal.”

The alicorn had to resist the urge to laugh. “That can be changed, you know. You could carry his foal.”

“W-what?” Ana asked. The thought was morbid, terrible, horrible, and yet…

“Magic, it can do a lot you know. I have it, I have it in spades. Red has it, your grandma has it, your moms have it, and your sister has it.”

“So?”

“Do you really think you were somehow left out? That everyone you’re related to has all this power, and you don’t?”

“I-I… I have power?”

“Yes, real power that, even now, is starting to wake up. If you assist me, if you help us, I will help you unlock it. With it, you can finally take revenge and get what should have been yours all along.”

“What are you saying?”

“We will bring my dearest daughter towards the last spark of her life, then we transfer her foal into you before finishing her off and freeing you and Taz from her continued existence.”

Ana looked up into the smiling alicorn’s face. She gave me a choice, but is it one? Really? If I said no she could just kill me now. But… what she said, I… can I even do that? Ana placed one hoof on her stomach. Imagining, just for a moment, what it would feel like, what it would be like to have Taz’s foal growing there. He’d hate me, even with her gone he’d hate me. He’ll never be mine, not in the way Nighttide has him. But… this way, this way I could have a part of him. But… that’s so horrible… I… I…

“I’m afraid there’s a time limit on this offer. I need an answer, now.”

“W-what would I have to do?” Ana asked, unsure if that’d be taken as a yes and not knowing why she kind of hoped it would be.

Nightmare Moon grinned. “All you have to do is stand there and open your mind and soul for what’s about to come.”

“You won’t kill me?”

“No,” the alicorn said. Not yet. “I’m using my power to extend yours, to make you more powerful than even Twilight Sparkle could imagine.”

Although Ana seemed hesitant, Nightmare Moon pressed the issue. “You will have power, real power, the type of power that hasn’t been seen for decades. You will be able to get revenge on Nighttide, Shimmering Night, and your so-called friends. The ones that lied to you, the ones that used you, the ones that belittled your love, that call you a freak behind your back.”

Ana looked shocked. Do I really want that? Do I want to become a Monster? No, in their eyes I’ve already been a monster… Just Starlight…

Ana glared at the alicorn. “I want a promise from you if I agree.”

“I will consider it. What is your condition?”

“You will spare Starlight, my sister.”

“And why should I do that?”

Ana grinned. “Because, maybe you noticed it, I just used my magic and powered a spell that will warn everypony, including Twilight about your plan if you do not agree, including my exact location. You don’t want that I assume?”

“Mhh, you’re a cheeky little filly. I like that.” Nightmare Moon laughed. “Consider it a promise, once you joined my side.”

There was a voice inside Ana’s head that told her to stop. It was screaming at her. Seeking to reach the little thirteen-year-old filly and tell her she was about to make the worst mistake in her life.

It caused her to hesitate.

For a second anyway.

“Let’s do it.”

Nightmare Moon, the dark alicorn, the revenant-possessed-Luna, smiled.

In a flash of magic, a huge cry of pain could be heard echoing around the remains of Whitetail Woods. It was a cry of hatred, a cry of rage, a cry of innocence forever lost, and a cry of agony. It lasted for a moment, a moment that would forever live in infamy, before it was followed by a different sound altogether. the sound of a roar, a dragon’s roar. A sound that echoing down from Canterlot Mountain.

Echoside heard it first. Her enhanced hearing picked up on the dual cries coming from locations both near and far. They were of different pitch, varying volumes and maturity, but one alone was enough to have every hair on her coat stand up on end. Both? That was simply overkill.

“W-what is it?” Starlight asked, still sobbing.

The sounds hit next. The dual cries echoed around the chasm and into the cave. Echoside dropped her chest to the ground and covered her ears with her hooves. Starlight, Taz, Flash, and Blaze gasped in surprise and amazement. Dayspring cried out in fear as Vela held him tighter to her chest. Their necklaces resonating with each other from being so close.

The sound lasted much, much longer than it should have. Taz had to do a double take before he realized that it had passed. He looked over to Starlight to see her trying to attend to her marefriend. “Starlight, what was that?”

Echoside responded. “That roar could only come from a dragon.”

“D-dragon?” Dayspring asked.

“And the other one?”

“It was close, but it sounded more like something crying out in... hatred.” Echoside shook her head. “To me it sounded like someone just got their life crushed.”

They looked around the cave at each other. No one wanted to state the obvious. Why those roars came at almost the same time, why they sounded so similar, and why they were all thinking only one name for that second one: Ana.

“Something’s going down, now, isn’t it?” Vela asked as she unsheathed her spear from her back.

“If I had to bet,” Blaze said. Flash and Nighttide just nodded in agreement.

Taz growled, “I don’t want to bet, I want to know. Starlight, I need to know. I need you to run a scan.”

“Scan? You want me to scan all of Equestria‽” Starlight asked. “Taz, that’s advanced magic, like… really advanced.”

“And pulling a pony from the shadows was what?” Vela asked with a smile.

“That’s different, I’ve never even stud—”

Echoside silenced her with a kiss. When she pulled back, the bat-pony was grinning at her. “I know you can do it, Miss Element of Magic.”

“Call me that again and your flank is mine,” Starlight whispered with a glare before concentrating on her magic.

“And you were worried,” Nighttide said with a smile as she walked up to Taz and wrapped her wing around the stallion.

“Yeah, yeah,” Taz replied as he melted into her touch. He saw it now, he saw how much Echoside liked Starlight, how much effect she was having on Starlight, how she was changing her for the better.

“I think… I think…”

“You think what, my love?” Nighttide asked.

“I think I’ll go to bat for them.”

“What?”

“When she tells Shimmering Night. I know Ataxia won’t care. Well, other than threatening Echoside if she breaks her daughter’s heart. But my sister is a different story. She’ll pounce on the age difference. But… if enough of us stand up to her, then she might just—”

Taz’s eyes went wide as Starlight began to channel even more magic into her spell. Here, right next to the tree of harmony, the Element of Magic around her chest, she had a near unlimited supply of it she could use.

The mare started to levitate. Her eyes were shut and her form was surrounded by magical energy. Her horn shown with the light of a sun. She stole the attention of everyone in the cavern; until, just as quickly as it begun, it ended.

The blue unicorn fell to the ground, hard. Echoside rushed to her side and wrapped a hoof around her as soon as she could.

The rest ran up and gathered around, alerted to something being very wrong by one simple fact: Starlight was crying.

“Starlight, what is it‽” Vela shouted.

“Starlight, what’s wrong?” Flash asked.

“Who hurt her?” Dayspring said.

“I’ll buck their teeth out,” Blaze said, earning gasps from those around him.

“I felt them… Ana… Ataxia, and Luna. But it was different.”

“My… mom’s presence feels different with Nightmare Moon controlling her,” Nighttide whispered.

“It’s not just her. Ana… she feels… her presence feels like Nightmare Moon’s, there’s just barely a whisper of her own self left,” Starlight choked out.

“Teleport us to her, we can talk to her, we ca—” Flash’s comment was cut dead when Starlight shot him a look.

“We can’t, my sister has to wait. That’s not the only thing I felt. Taz, Nighttide, it’s… it’s Red.”

Taz growled a bestial sound more at home from a timberwolf than a pony.

“What’s my father doing?” Nighttide asked, her voice dripping with disdain.

“He’s trying to use the Key of Ages. And he’s more than close to doing so,” Starlight replied.

“Then Ana’s got to wait,” Taz said.

“Taz, no, we’ve got to!” Blaze shouted.

Taz glared at him. “She’s got to wait, we can find her, we WILL find her, after, promise. But for now we’ve gotta deal with Red.”

“Taz...” Starlight stared as another tear fell.

“I know Starlight, I understand, more than you can know. Please, believe me when I say this isn’t petty vengeance on my part. All of this was to stop Red, and there’s no point going after Ana if we don’t stop him before it’s too late.”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Starlight cried out. “Ana, she’s… she’s with Red, now. The last thing I felt was Nightmare Moon teleporting themselves to him.”

“What‽” All eyes stared at her in bewilderment.

“Teleport us there, now!” Taz growled.

“I-I I need a minute.”

“Starlight, we have to go there, now!”

“Give her a minute to breath!” Echoside growled at him, her wings flaring in anger.

Taz raised his hoof in defence. “Alright, alright, we wait a bit.”

“Good colt,” Echoside snarled before focusing back on Starlight, comforting her with small kisses.

Starlight leaned into Echoside’s comforting embrace, feeling more than grateful. Channelling the magic of the elements and learning all she had, it had taken a lot out of her.

“We’ll stop him, Taz, I know we will,” Nighttide said as she comforted her stallion.

“It’s just a question of whether or not we’ll be too late,” Taz replied, eyeing his niece.

Fire, the great equalizer.

Fire cares not for age, status, power, or wishes; it just burns.

Ataxia’s fire.

It’s flame is greater than any natural fire could ever hope to be. Embedded with Chaos Magic, it burned with an intensity and heat that was unmatched in all the land. Over the years of her using it, nothing had been able to extinguish the fire. It burned without regard to oxygen. Its only requirement was fuel.

The flame found its greatest source of fuel in the dying alicorn’s body. It latched on, chaos magic versus death magic. The very magic that had lead to the alicorn’s death served as the greatest challenge for the magic imbued in the fire. For once something is dead, it can no longer change, it will no longer be anything but dead, and yet, everything changes. Those are the two immutable laws of the universe, and they hate one another with a passion.

In Celestia’s Palace, in the room that used to belong to Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash—then was given over to their wounded and dying daughter, Shimmering Night—that battle was fought out yet again. And, just like all the times before, the two opposing forces, well, they simply annihilated each other.

For Shimmering Night, it was a trial by fire. She felt herself boiling alive, the pain of being incinerated as soon as the fire touched her. Then, just as suddenly, she felt more alive than she had ever been in her entire life. It was the equivalent of a soothing touch by a long lost loved one that suddenly returned. Her magic, Equestria’s magic, flowed back into her, responding to her will and her subconscious desires.

When the last of the chaos magic destroyed itself against the death magic in her room, Shimmering Night never felt more alive. She blinked her eyes open, unsurprised to see the entire room burnt and scarred, yet, her own body was untouched, pristine.

Her eyes locked on the dragon’s head still poking into the room. “A-ataxia… y-you did it.”

The dragon’s head started to shrink, to transform back to its… other form. The large body of the dragacorn all but disappeared, only to be replaced with a purple crying mare suddenly appearing in her room. “Night!”

Night held out her hooves and Ataxia jumped on top of her. The bed creaked in protest at the extra weight, but, at that moment, the two of them simply had no bucks to give about anyone other than each other. Ataxia’s lips locked themselves onto Night’s, her hooves wrapped around her wife’s body, and she, for the first time she could remember, cried. She cried openly and willingly, she cried and cried, not caring what the world thought. For right now, the world simply didn’t matter.

All that mattered was the mare each held in their hooves, the heat coming from one another, and the feeling of their lips pressed against the other’s. As such, Night didn’t even notice as her face was peppered with Ataxia’s free-flowing tears.

A loud crash resonated around the room as wave upon wave of unicorn guards blasted open the door and barged in, prepared for whatever fate had befallen the stricken princess, well, almost. They weren’t prepared for the sight of two mares making out on the bed.

“P-p-princess?” The lead pony asked.

Shimmering Night broke the kiss and looked over to the remains of the door, just to blush at being caught. Ataxia looked over with a very different expression on her face. “Unless we’re going to have a big fucking orgy, get the buck out!”

The guards looked at each other, most ready to bolt, some wondering if that was a real offer or a joke.

“Move before I transform back and burn your asses!” Ataxia growled.

They quickly left.

Night chuckled. “Never change.”

“As long as I have you, I have no reason to.”

“H-how did you do it anyway?” Night asked.

“Heal you?”

“Well, yeah, but I mean, you… you were a dragacorn again. You haven’t done that in almost twenty years.”

Ataxia closed her eyes at that memory. “To be honest, I almost didn’t. It had me, Night, it had me dead to rights. We… we hunted down the sphinx and I kinda… stole the question from everyone to learn how to heal you. She said chaos magic was the answer, my dragonfire. I teleported back and forced the transformation. It fought me… it fought me tooth and claw for possession, and it almost won.”

“Almost?”

Ataxia nodded. “Almost. Then, right at the end, something strange happened.”

“Oh?”

“I heard Starlight’s voice. Like she was there talking to me. Our daughters are so smart, so talented, I supposed I have you to thank for that.”

“You sell yourself short.”

“I don’t think so. Anyway, she reminded me why I was fighting, what—who I was fighting for. That if I really wanted you, if I wanted to help you, I had to fight harder, that I couldn’t lose, it just wasn’t an option. I found my… r-res—”

“Resolve?”

“Yeah, that. I let the bucker eat me, and from the inside, I kicked it’s ass. For you, all for you,” Ataxia replied, touching noses with her love.

Night responded kindly; she could feel herself growing more and more powerful with each passing second. The magic of Equestria was returning to her. It was healing the damage, fixing her body, and... informing her.

“W-what is it?” Ataxia asked. The look that had taken over her wife’s face was more than disconcerting.

“Red’s making his move,” Night said in all seriousness. Then something happened that took Ataxia completely off guard. The alicorn started to smile. “Want to kick his ass? Together?”

“I’ve never loved you more in my life then I do right now,” Ataxia replied with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“She’s joking... right?” Dayspring asked.

Twilight looked at where the sphinx was just seconds ago, “She’s anything but joking.”

“W-what can we do?” Radiant asked.

“One thing at a time,” Twilight replied. “First we have to know where he is.”

Dayspring smiled. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find out, right?”

“Then what you’re waiting for?” Rainbow cut him short.

They all jumped back by the typical sound of somepony teleporting, but whoever it was, it was gone in a blink again.

“What was that?”

“The sphinx?”

“No one is here!”

“Quiet!” Twilight yelled before rubbing her temples and turning around. She stopped dead in her tracks and snapped back as Dayspring gasped while the others laughed madly. “What’s so funny?”

“On your back…”

“What is it?”

“There’s a letter pinned on your flank!” Rainbow laughed.

“What the…” Twilight turned her head and ripped the pinned letter off with her teeth.

You should look at Foal Mountain.

—Kick Me!—

Not the sphinx.

Rainbow fell on her sides laughing as Twilight—on impulse alone—read the letter verbatim.

“Rainbow Dash! It’s not funny!”

“Y-y-y-yes it is!” Rainbow felt like she was busting a gut.

“Why I oughta…” Twilight mumbled.

“Are you sure she’s not a secret friend of Discord?” Radiant muttered as Rainbow continued to roll in the dirt.

“That’d… actually make some sense,” Twilight replied, rubbing her chin.

“Yeah, maybe those two used to date,” Rainbow said, laughing even harder.

Twilight just raised an eyebrow. “Nothing’s impossible, just look at us.”

The cyan pegasus rolled over to her stomach and shot her wife a friendly smile. Directly behind her the sun started to rise over the horizon. “You always did look beautiful in the sunrise, Rainbow.” Twilight said.

Radiant started to say, “Sunrise, isn’t that when it’s supposed to—”

“Found him. Foal Mountain, just like she said. What do we want to do?”

Rainbow looked at him strange. “What do you mean? Let’s go kick his ass!”

“Yeah, but…” Radiant said as he looked at Rainbow and Twilight’s hoof accessories. “I’m up for a good fight as much as anyone, but can we… win?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Twilight said. “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s that you tried. And we’re going to try.” At those words, she nodded to her oldest son.

Dayspring smile back, That’s my mom. Then, in a flash of his horn, all four of them were teleported across Equestria to Foal Mountain.

They appeared in a flash of magic. The four of them completely on guard for any threats that may present themselves. What they saw shocked them.

Almost in a perverted imagery of a family, a large red unicorn was standing side by side with a black alicorn in front of a magical gateway to another realm. Behind them was a white earth pony that was being dragged along the ground in black magic. Twilight recognized Timespire in an instant. He looked dead, save for the ever so slight rise and fall of his stomach.

“Just as you predicted,” Nightmare Moon said with a smile as she saw them arrive.

“Luna!” Radiant shouted, conjuring three blades and readying himself for a fight.

“Oh I’m just an observer in this one,” Nightmare Moon said with a laugh. “I won’t stop you at all.”

Rainbow growled, “I’d end both of you if I had my wings.”

“I’ll do it for you, mother,” Dayspring said as he started to channel power into his horn.

“Ah-ah-ah, as I said, I’m just the observer,” Nightmare Moon scowled.

“It’s me you want,” Red said dangerously. “And if you want me, you gotta follow me.”

“No!” Twilight yelled as they watched Red walk through the portal, his brothers mostly-dead body following him through it.

“Mom?” Dayspring asked, “What do w—”

“Charge!” Rainbow yelled as she took off in a sprint for the portal.

“We need a plan!” Twilight yelled.

“We are the plan!” Rainbow yelled back.

With no choice, the three ponies followed the brash mare down the slope and to the portal. Twilight kept an eye on Nightmare Moon. True to her word, she stepped to the side and let them through.

Somehow, that made Twilight feel far worse about this whole situation. But she couldn’t pause to truly consider it as they ran through the portal together to the chamber of the sands of time.

Nightmare Moon laughed as they disappeared. You truly did have everything planned out, didn’t you, beloved? The thought sent chills down her spine. What are you not telling me though...

Her head shot to the west as she felt something, she felt something coming. “The next wave of guests have arrived.”

“Princess Luna.”

Nightmare Moon growled as she turned to the new arrivals. The first one was lavender alicorn with magenta eyes and a rainbow mane. She would have been striking enough of a figure if not for the other one she arrived with. For the alicorn was standing on the head of a large, fully-grown, purple dragon with a unicorn horn on top.

“Princess Shimmering Night, Princess Ataxia, welcome to my parlor.”

“Let me burn her alive,” Ataxia growled, “It’d be so easy.”

“No need, I’ll take care of this in a snap,” Night said as she jumped off Ataxia’s head and started to walk to the night-black alicorn. “You don’t stand a chance against me.”

Nightmare Moon had to fight to keep the fear out of her body. Shimmering Night was the demigoddess of magic. The command of magic, all magic, fell to Night; and for a being of magic, that put Nightmare Moon completely at the princess’s mercy, regardless of how powerful she was.

However that didn’t stop her from smiling. “Indeed, but I’m not your opponent.”

“Let’s see if you can say that again once I bite your head off,” Ataxia growled.

“Now mother, you know that temper of yours is just going to get you in trouble.”

Ataxia and Night’s heads snapped left as they heard a voice. It was… different than how it normally sounded. It was lower in pitch, bestial, and primal; but even with the changes, neither of them could ever not recognize who it came from.

What mother could ever forget their daughter’s voice?

They watched a tall mare with dark-blue coat and purple mane walked out of the shadows, her piercing, red eyes staring right at them. She looked like their Ana, like their daughter, but at the same time, much older. She looked like a fully grown mare.

“Ana‽” Night gasped.

“Surprised?” Ana asked.

“W-what happened to you…” Ataxia trailed off.

Ana laughed. “Luna helped me grow up. Don’t you like my new look?”

Nightmare Moon laughed as she walked over and rubbed coats with the mare. “Poor little Ana, always taken advantage of, always treated with foal gloves, and always scowled upon for simply being in love. Her friends and her own mothers treated her with such scorn, such… patronizing behaviour. You never let her grow up, you never let her grow into her own.”

“We never!” Ataxia shouted as she reared up.

“Are you going to toast your own daughter?” Nightmare Moon asked.

“No, but I’m going to smash the insect trying to take her from me!” Ataxia shouted just before her claw came down, missing Nightmare Moon by barely an inch as the alicorn jumped to the side at the last moment.

“Well, I guess it’s time to play,” she said with a laugh as she took flight and started sending blasts at the large dragacorn. Ataxia responded with all the rage one might expect.

Shimmering Night stared at Ana, wide eyed. “A-Ana… we… I…”

“You hate me, you scorn me, don’t you, mom?”

“No! I love you! I’ve alw—”

“Oh, just like you loved your brother. Like when you drove him to try and kill himself? Is that your idea of love?”

“Ana, we’ve put that behind us, he’s forgiven me!”

“Well, I haven’t. I won’t. I can’t! You’re nothing but a bigoted bitch that treats her own family like crap! You don’t deserve forgiveness! You betrayed him, Mother! And you betrayed me!” Her voice sounded evil and demonic, much worse than Nightmare Moon’s voice.

“What did you do to my daughter?” Night screamed with tears in her eyes at Nightmare Moon who still fled from Ataxia.

“I just opened her eyes!” She laughed, just to curse as Ataxia flew over to bombard her with her own, more powerful spells.

Shimmering Night wanted nothing more at that moment than to rip the alicorn’s throat out. Night would do it with her teeth; a smile upon her muzzle at what happened to her daughter. But before she could so much as extend her wings, a voice whispered into her ear.

“So, you never did tell me, what was it like to have sex with your own sister?” Ana asked as a lover might whisper in one’s ear.

“W-w-what?” Night said, shocked that Ana knew about that.

“Oh yes, they told me, they showed me. What were your words to describe such behaviour? Sick fuck? Freak? Weren’t those the words you cursed your own brother with?”

“What I did with her was a sign of affection! Something I doubt you understand anymore after the talk with Nightmare Moon. She’s plaguing your mind!”

Ana laughed at that. “Really? Really? So when Taz wanted to have sex with Aurora, he’s a sick fuck, when you HAD sex with Aurora, it’s affection? That’s such a pathetic defence of your crimes, Mother.”

“I-I-I-I…”

“The great Princess Shimmering Night, my mother, the demigoddess, tongue tied. My, how the mighty have fallen.”

“Night! Nightmare Moon transformed her, don’t waste time talking with her! Tie her up and then when we finish Nightmare Moon, maybe that’ll free her!” Ataxia shouted, still shooting blast after blast at the panicking alicorn.

Night glanced up at the battle going on in the air and then back down at her daughter. Ana simply smiled. “Tell you what, mother. I’ll admit defeat and let you do whatever you want if you simply point out one thing. What did I say that’s a lie?”

“I never betrayed you!”

“Really? So when you sent Taz all on his own back into Tartarus to rescue her, knowing how I felt about him, that wasn’t a betrayal? You weren’t, on some level, happy that he had found someone else, you weren’t happy knowing that by doing that, I’d never have him?”

“And what do you think I should’ve done? Not sending him after the one he was truly in love with? We both know he doesn’t love you, so I did the right thing! You, however, you still think you can change it, that you can change him! The only one betraying somepony is you betraying yourself!” Night shouted.

What happened next at that moment came as such a shock to Shimmering Night that she completely failed to react to it. Ana slapped her, hard, right across the muzzle. The blow hit with such strength and such force that it knocked the alicorn onto her side. “He does love me! And I love him! That bitch just seduced him!”

Shimmering Night had to blink her eyes clear of that. It took her several seconds to process that Ana, her own daughter, had just struck her.

“An—” Before she could finish the word, several more blows started to fall upon her chest and head.

“Night!” Ataxia yelled so loudly her voice echoed down the mountain chain. She rushed down to help her wife, exposing the back of her head to Nightmare Moon.

The alicorn laughed as she struck out with a full powered dark magic blast straight to the back of Ataxia’s head. It wasn’t enough to kill her. Truly, she didn’t know if the dragacorn could actually die, but that wasn’t its purpose. It struck with enough kinetic energy to slam the dragacorn into the mountain chain, causing earthquakes and landslides for as far as the eye could see.

Twilight ran through the portal into a large circular room. She quickly took in her bearings: It looked like the inside of an hourglass, which she supposed was fitting. On the outside of the room it looked like Luna’s night sky. Indicating that wherever they were, they weren’t in Equestria. Dead center in the room set a large pedestal with a smaller, but no less important, hourglass. This one was made of solid gold, decorated with gemstones the likes of which would have impressed Rarity.

Next to the pedestal were Red and Timespire, the latter of which Twilight wasn’t sure was still alive.

“What’s wrong, Sunshine, don’t want to have another go?” Red asked with a laugh at the unicorn that was standing right in front of Twilight.

Dayspring and Radiant were standing right next to each other. The latter of which had ten blades conjured and his muzzle full of Rainbow Dash’s tail as he tried to hold her back.

“What do you hope to do with that?” Dayspring asked. “You can’t change the past, and he’s not going to give you your name.”

“Indeed,” Red replied, “the past is immutable, whatever you do to try and change it, it’s already happened, by trying to change it you only cause it. Isn’t that right, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Y-yes,” Twilight replied. Remembering her own attempt to warn herself not to worry about the future, only for that to be the very event that caused her to worry about it in the first place. “You’re not trying to change the past though, you’re trying to resurrect your father.”

“In a way,” Red replied. “My power, it is not like the others. Sure, Timespire here has—had”—he chuckled at that—“the power to control an object’s time. Mindsink had the power of memories, and even your own daughter has power over magic itself. But my power is on another level entirely.”

“It wasn’t that impressive,” Rainbow growled.

“To a simpleton such as you, probably not. But I can create and transfer life. I created the revenants, and while I’ve never used it like this before, I can recreate my father.”

“Y-you can recreate a god‽”

“Yes, and no. I can clone him. At the time of his death I can clone him using the body of one so empowered. That’s where this one comes into play,” Red said as he looked down at the dying body of his brother. “I told him and Mindsink to drink deep from my father’s magic, to empower themselves with it, to… saturate themselves with it. And they did, all too willingly.”

“He’s your own brother!” Radiant yelled.

“Like I care,” Red replied, smirking. “Given, we did make a… half-hearted attempt to acquire a different vessel. Call it… a moment of weakness on my end.”

“You’re talking about Shimmering Night?” Twilight asked.

“Indeed. Your kids are far more resourceful than I gave them credit for. Oh well, c’est la vie.”

“We won’t let you resurrect that bastard!” Rainbow shouted as she ripped herself free and charged at him.

“Rainbow, stop!” Twilight shouted.

Red just laughed before reaching out a hoof and touching the hourglass. A blinding light emanated from it and shot out in all directions, forcing the brash pegasus back up against the rest.

Red closed his eyes and opened them again. The scene he took in was entirely different than where he once was. He was in the ruins of Ponyville, almost twenty years ago. In the distance he could see the Titan Cronus fighting against a swarm of dragons and ponies. However, what really caught his eye was the battle going on a little closer than that.

He watched as a golden pegasus was slammed through the only standing building left in town. Her form crashed through the magical shield protecting the house, through all the walls, and out the other side. Amazingly the pegasus spread her magical golden wings and caught herself mid flight.

“I don’t know how you got so strong, but you still can’t beat me by yourself!” A voice yelled out. Red’s eyes immediately turned to the speaker. It was a huge red pony with bat wings. One he recognized almost immediately.

Hello, father. Red thought as he watched.

The form at his side twitched, once. He turned to it and smiled. “Oh shut up, brother. You were worthless to begin with, and you knew it. Feel proud your life has some meaning. Even if it’s just to serve as a cobblestone for me to step on.”

The pseudo-god turned back to the fight, just in time to see his father take flight. He watched as Rainbow attacked from one direction and Ataxia and Cadance attacked from another. With ease Tartarus simply shielded himself from the gnats and went after Rainbow.

It happened in the blink of an eye: Tartarus landed several telling blows upon the golden mare, forcing her to cough up blood as she was slammed into the ground, right next to her wife’s corpse.

Red smiled as he watched Tartarus’s mistake. The god assumed that was the end of Rainbow, so he turned his back on her to deal with Cadance and Ataxia. Foolish, Dad. So foolish.

While Tartarus was distracted, Red simply watched Rainbow. He watched her stand to her hooves, her gaze taking in the situation in an instant. He watched her whisper a quick few words, grab the sickle with her muzzle, and pull it out of her wife’s neck.

“Eat a dick!” Cadance yelled.

Red chuckled at that, he knew that his Dad was about to eat something far worse. The unicorn grasped his brother’s body and concentrated. He’d have a split second to respond, and it had to be timed perfectly.

He watched as Rainbow covered the distance in the blink of an eye, the sickle aimed perfectly for the back of his Dad’s head. At the last possible second, Red cast his spell. Timespire twitched and cried out in pain, his form under the effect of phenomenal magic at play. Even still, Red didn’t pay him a second glance. True, it was exactly what he wanted and needed, but he wouldn’t miss the scene in front of him for anything.

“I told you I would kill you, and Rainbow Dash always keeps her promises.”

Red grinned as he watched Rainbow Dash yank the sickle up through his father’s head, cutting his skull and brain in half just for good measure.

“That was worth it.” He said to nopony in particular. The unicorn finally looked down to the convulsing, pain-wracked body by his hooves as the form was remade to match the life he had copied.

“Well, better get you back home, father.” Red released the control he had on the sands, sending him and the crippled form of a reborn god back to the present.

“No!” Twilight yelled.

“Too late for no, Twilight. Far too late,” Red said as he reappeared. The four ponies were still facing him, but their eyes were not on him, they were on the form shifting and writhing at his hooves.

Dayspring Gleam was shaking as he felt the full magical power of a god pour into the form. It was unlike any other he had ever experienced in his life. “This… is a god’s power…”

“Stay strong, son,” Twilight said.

“I killed him once, I’ll do it again,” Rainbow Dash growled in rage.

“I highly doubt that,” Red said, then laughed as he kicked the form at his hooves. “Wake up, old man!”

“Who… dares….” the form growled. It was a bestial sound full of pain and hatred, the latter far more than the former.

“Your bastard son. And you’re finally going to give me what’s mine! You’re finally going to tell me my name!” Red screamed.