Laughter.

Laughter chilled the spines of all who heard it. Laughter of a father mocking his son, laughter of a god amused over the struggling of one who sought his favor. It was the unkind, sarcastic laughter of the God of Death, amused at his son’s antics.

Red tried to kick him again, only to be stopped and thrown to the side of the chamber by a wave of dark magical force so powerful Twilight was worried it might shatter whatever the walls were made of and kill them all.

“Why would I tell you anything, you gnat?” Tartarus asked as he started to stand to his hooves. His body, his form was still changing shape, still gathering strength, still accepting that its new role was as a vessel for the reborn god. It was painful, beyond painful, but he was getting used to the pain.

“You’re nothing to me. You’re less than nothing. You’re an insignificant bug neither I nor your mother ever wanted! You’re weak and pathetic. An ant!”

Red spat out a mouthful of blood as he raised his head to look at his father. “Says the god that died.”

Tartarus frowned, then, as if for the first time, noticed that his killer was in the room with him. He cocked his head and stared Rainbow Dash dead in the eye. To her credit—or bullheadedness—she didn’t flinch. She met his gaze stare for stare. He chuckled upon seeing what power she had now, what power her entire group had access to now. “No worry there anymore.”

“Why I oughta…” Rainbow muttered, just for Twilight to hold a hoof in front of her.

“Not yet, there’s nothing we can do right now.”

The fear in her voice caused Rainbow to pause. She’s… she’s afraid, Rainbow thought.

“And if I’m such an ant, why are you afraid of me?” Red asked; a bloody grin on his face.

Tartarus didn’t take the bait. “I think I’ll finally remedy the mistake I made and simply kill you here and now, all of you. I must say, I’m disappointed. Of all your kin, I thought you were smarter than this.”

It was Red’s turn to laugh. He forced himself to stand to his hooves, ignoring his protesting body that was, even now, healing pulped organs and shattered bones. “Oh, I am.”

“No, you’re not. Did you really think I’d be so grateful to you for bringing me back from death, that I’d simply tell you your name? That’d I’d give the one destined to destroy the universe such a gift?”

“No, I never did,” Red admitted.

“So, what was your plan? What could’ve possibly made you think I’d tell you anything, that I’d give you anything?”

“Simple, self-preservation.”

“What?” Tartarus asked.

“Dear brother, you should have stayed dead.”

Radiant immediately felt it. It was the same feeling he had when his wife, Firestar, came to him in Tartarus. Save this time it was a hundred, no, a thousand times more powerful. A pony unlike any other in the entire world appeared by stepping out of nothing. A large pink hoof appeared, followed by another, then a head that instantly made him weep in joy at seeing something so beautiful. Her ethereal mane showed itself next, it was purple and yellow, reminding him of his deceased mother, Princess Cadance.

Her form soon followed: She was taller than Princess Celestia could ever hope to be. She radiated her namesake, her love to all of those around her. Anypony that laid eyes on her pink coat, purple and yellow ethereal mane could never mistake her power, or her namesake. For this… this was Eros, the Goddess of Love.

“Eros,” Twilight spoke without meaning to.

The alicorn goddess turned her head and smiled at the group of ponies. “I’ll take it from here, Twilight.”

“Eros,” Tartarus hissed.

“Brother,” she stated; her eyes harsh and cold. “Your punishment was already handed down. That this situation has come about—allowing you to sidestep it—is irrelevant. If your punishment must be repeated, I’ll do it myself.” Her eyes fell upon her son, and, just for a second, they were filled with sorrow.

As the Goddess of Love started to walk to Tartarus, Twilight saw something she hadn’t expected to see in the reborn God of Death’s eyes: fear. He was afraid of her.

“Tartarus, for trying to kill us all, for threatening the natural universe for your own selfish desires, you have been sentenced to death; all versions of you.”

“No,” he growled and shot several powerful magical blasts right at the pink alicorn. Dayspring knew, without a shred of doubt, that one of those blasts could destroy worlds.

They simply ceased to be when they got within five hooves of Eros. The goddess didn’t even take note of them, almost like they simply didn’t matter to her.

Eros waved her horn to the right and a wave of force collided with the red earth pony. Radiant could hear bones shattering and organs pulping. The off-white unicorn was afraid, and rightly so. “W-w-we should go,” he stammered. “We’re just going to die here.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Rainbow said with a smile. Her eyes locked onto the one-sided battle going on before her. The smile on her lips told how much she was enjoying this.

“Me neither,” Dayspring said.

“Day?” Radiant asked.

“What’s going on here is going to have repercussions throughout this world and every other. How often can we witness something like this? And should the situation turn, we may be needed.”

They all looked up as Tartarus screamed. Eros picked him up in a wave of pink magic and slammed him against the ground again and again. The sound was one of pure, agonizing pain.

The god fought back, but his attacks were weak, simply because he was weak. Tartarus wasn’t a slouch, his power was equal to that of any of his other siblings, but he had just died and been reborn. His power was attempting to return to him after having been dead for almost twenty years. That took its toll. While he was stronger than Red, faster than Rainbow, and more powerful than any mortal could ever hope to be, against his younger sister Eros, he didn’t hold a candle, at least not at the moment.

“What in the world would make you think we might be needed?” Radiant asked, his gaze staying on the two battling gods, or more precisely, the massacre of a reborn god.

“Because Tartarus is not the real threat here,” Dayspring spoke.

Radiant tore his gaze from Eros and Tartarus, just in time to miss Eros sending him a few hundred hooves in the air. Radiant stared at Dayspring as if to ask if he was kidding or not. It was then he realized something strange, Dayspring’s eyes were not on Tartarus or Eros, they were on an entirely different pony, they were on Red.

Tartarus landed on the ground, hard. He felt the rest of his ribs crack and shatter in his chest; and, just as quickly, felt them reknit and rebuild. His face became a frown, and then a scowl. “You bitch!”

A huge weight slammed down upon his back, cracking his spine in at least a hundred pieces and forcing him to cry out yet again, although there was no sound, just blood coming from his abused—still forming—body. “Brother, your death has already been decided, I’m merely your executioner. The short straw, remember?”

The magical energy she slammed into him was removed for a few seconds, granting him a short reprieve. “You think you’re fucking funny, don’t you?” Needless to say, hearing his own words tossed back in his muzzle pissed him off even more.

“I take no pleasure in this, brother. You’re nothing more than a rabid dog that needs to be put down.” At those words, Eros slammed her magical energy into him again, and again, and again. Tartarus cried out at each one, until at last, he no longer could.

In truth Eros had no idea how to kill Tartarus. With the exception of Cronus's Sickle; no god had ever died before. However that would not stop her from trying. Her brother’s form was weak, his power still returning to him. It would take hours, days, or even decades for him to get his full power back. There was no way to know for sure. She felt confident though that all she had to do was cause enough damage, to simply lay into him with everything she had, and that would get the job done.

“Is it wrong I feel sorry for him right now?” Twilight asked as she stared at Tartarus’s broken and crushed form on the ground.

“Yes!” Rainbow yelled.

Twilight turned to look at her wife. Rainbow was staring right at her, tears in her eyes. “Rainbow?”

“Twilight, the only reason I’m not right there skull-stomping his ass is that I’d just get in her way. He killed you; he stole you from me. I will never forgive him, I can never forgive him, and I will not let you feel sorry for him. He deserves all of this a million times over. Don’t feel sorry for him, never feel sorry for him.”

“Rai—”

The sounds of a bone cracking and flesh tearing interrupted them. Twilight and Rainbow’s heads snapped forward just in time to see Eros pick up Tartarus in her magic and rip off his front right hoof. She incinerated it with a magical blast, almost as if she were testing a theory.

The hoof didn’t regrow, or if it was going to, it would take its time doing so. Eros smiled as she brought her brother’s shattered and crushed body closer to her. “We’re about at the end, Brother. I know what to do now. You brought this upon yourself, you chose this fate, and you only have yourself to blame for it.” Her smile broke into a frown as she started at his pushed-in muzzle. “Any last words?”

In reply, Tartarus just spat blood right at her face. Eros scowled once more before tossing his broken and shattered form across the room. “I should’ve known better,” she lamented, wiping the blood from her face with a hoof.

Tartarus awaited the inevitable; he could feel his body trying to heal, trying to fix the damage that had been caused by his little sister. But it was like trying to plug a gushing water main with a Band-Aid. He was simply too weak, his form too broken, and his death too recent. He was going to die all over again, and he knew it. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t feel, and he couldn’t fight back. The only thing he could do was hear.

And that was more than enough, for Red anyway.

“You don’t have to die again, Dad. You can avoid that fate, you can win; you just have to give me what I want. Say my name, my true name, and we’ll defeat her, together.” The red unicorn whispered his promise like a lover whispers into your ear in the middle of the night.

“Stop him!” Dayspring shouted as he saw Red talking to Tartarus.

Eros glanced over to Dayspring before snapping her head over to Tartarus and her son. “No!” She shot out a magical blast that collided with Tartarus’s chest, blowing a hole through it and sending reverberations all throughout the large hourglass room.

She was simply too late.

“Typhon.”

The word was spoken from a body that shouldn’t have been able to speak, from lungs that couldn’t process air, from a throat that was crushed, from lips that were broken, and from a jaw that was shattered. It was a whisper of a whisper, a sound carried on a breeze that even breezys wouldn’t have noticed.

And yet it changed everything. They all heard it, they all felt it, and they could all see it. Red—Typhon—laughed as he finally got the last piece of himself; as his power—the power of the fifth, true god—was awoken inside of him. The god destined to kill the other four, the god with more power than all of them combined.

He howled out in victory as black magic surrounded his form. He could feel his legs double, and then triple in size. He could feel black bat-wings shoot out of his back, fangs grew in his mouth, and his mane became ethereal.

“Brother, even now, you’ve just proven yourself a fool,” Eros said with a shake of her head. “You haven’t stopped your death, you’ve just postponed it.”

“Did you give him any other choice, Mother?” Typhon asked. His voice was a bestial growl that would have sounded right at home coming from a dragon.

“This never should’ve happened.” She looked at him with regret. “But I guess it can’t be helped anymore. So I may as well take you both with me.”

The Goddess of Love extended her wings, pink magical waves shot from every single feather at near light-speed aimed at both of her opponents. She shot with the intent to finish them both, right then and there, using her full power.

Typhon laughed as he deflected her shots right back at her. The pink tendrils were returned to Eros will all the force she had used plus more. In the time it took Rainbow to blink it appeared that Eros had attacked herself, impaling herself with her own attack.

The goddess cried out, her sweet motherly voice echoing around the room in pain as she was impaled with her own attack. Her head hung limply as her body started to regenerate.

Laughter could be heard from Typhon as the Goddess of Love was forced to remove each of the hundred or so spears from her own body and repair the damage she had inflicted upon her own form. Had they been from anyone else, it wouldn’t have hurt half as much. But this was her attack reflected back at her.

Typhon stopped laughing as he walked up to his long-lost mother. “You know, Mother, there’s something I’ve always wondered, something that’s always confused me. How is it that the Goddess of Love, my own mother, could be so callous with her son? How is it that you could simply throw me away like spoiled meat? Tartarus? Sure I get him; he’s an asshole, the God of Death. But you? You I’ve never understood.”

Eros raised her head. “You already know the answer.”

He frowned at her. “No, no I don’t. Tell me.”

“Did you really think, after everything—after all the suffering you caused and death you’ve inflicted on others—that I could still care for you? You think you’re doing a favor for the world, but you are destroying everything that gets in your way. It’d take a sick soul to ignore this, and you definitely showed it more than once to me, and to the others,” Eros cried out.

Dark magic shot from him and wrapped itself along Eros’s right front hoof. He crushed it in his grasp, causing the pink alicorn to cry out once more. “You’re my mother! You’re the Goddess of Love! And you say you don’t love me‽ Your son‽ If I’m so objectionable to you, why didn’t you just kill me‽”

She glared at him. “Why didn’t you kill your daughter?”

Typhon growled and hit Eros with a wave of magic that shattered the rest of her spears and sent her flying against the wall. “You still alive, old man?” He asked.

“Y-yes,” Tartarus growled from his spot on the floor.

Twilight, Rainbow, Dayspring, and Radiant looked over to where Tartarus’s body had laid. The god was already starting to get back to his hooves. The time Typhon had bought him did wonders to help him heal, to help his own power return in greater strength.

“Let’s kill her together. We’ll make it a father-son bonding moment,” Typhon teased.

“Let’s face it”—Tartarus glared at him—“if she wasn’t about to kill me I never would’ve given you your power. So don’t talk to me like that.”

Typhon laughed. “Well, while we’re facing truths, you do know I will kill you, someday, so consider this a gift for doing what you should’ve done a millennia ago.”

“I don’t think this is a gift.” Tartarus spat in front of his son. “And the day will never come where I will just lay down in defeat in front of a bastard son like you.”

Typhon’s laughter increased even more. “Mom, I have no idea what you ever saw in this bastard.”

Eros got to her hooves, her broken one being held up tenderly under her. “What can I say? He was a good fuck.”

For the first time since his rebirth Tartarus smiled. Memories of those times—of being with the Goddess of Love—came back to him. “Likewise,” he stated the obvious. “I think we’ve all made some big mistakes. Ours was to create this fucking idiot.”

Eros sighed. “I don’t agree with your choice of words, but yes. As a matter of fact, I really have to agree. While I don’t regret us, I’ve never regretted anything more than him after witnessing his actions.”

“Agreed,” Tartarus admitted. “Still, the boy does make a convincing argument. And besides, you did try to kill me.”

“Indeed I did,” Eros said with a smile as she faced her two new opponents, powering up her magic.

Tartarus paused and sat on his haunches, smiling at Eros. “Wait.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I’m not your enemy,” Tartarus replied, crossing his hooves. “At least not anymore.” With that, he was gone, reappearing at the side of Eros. “I think we owe our son a small lecture.” The two looked at each other. There was confusion on Eros’s face, and then a smile. One that Tartarus was more than happy to reciprocate.

“You really are a fool,” Eros stated.

“I know, but I’d like to think I’m your fool,” Tartarus whispered.

“You were… once,” Eros said, her expression downcast.

“Did you ever stop loving me?”

“No, not ever, not even after you tried to kill us all.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“About trying to kill us?”

“No, about leaving you like I did.”

At that, Eros wrapped a wing around him and kissed him on the cheek.

“W-what just happened?” Rainbow asked, wide-eyed.

“Tartarus and Eros just ganged up to take on Red together,” Dayspring said.

“You mean Typhon?” Radiant looked more and more confused.

“That’s what I said, now shut your muzzle and look.”

Typhon actually looked amused at this turn of events. “This changes nothing, you’ve just accelerated my plans is all.”

Tartarus laughed. “Again, you prove to be a fool.”

“And that is why, dear Father?” Typhon mocked.

“You forgot something important, again. Your mother is the Goddess of Love. Now guess who's back at her side. And while all of you think we just hate each other, our bond still exists, and it will make us stronger than facing you alone.”

That clearly wiped the smile of Typhon’s face. For a second anyway. “You think this is going to help you? Love? Love is a joke! A silly jest I can only laugh about!” He hollered.

Pink energy radiated off of Eros in waves so thick it lit up the room. The sands themselves seemed to change color, the walls of the room glowed with it. For a moment, had someone in Equestria known where to look, they would have seen a new pink star appear in the sky. It only lasted for a second, but that it appeared at all was tantamount to its power.

“Love is the most powerful force in the entire universe, allow me to teach you that lesson, son,” Eros said as she took a step to him.

Tartarus smiled as he watched Eros at her best, at her full power. Some make the mistake of saying that Eros is the weakest of all the gods, but he knew the truth, Eros was by far the strongest. And this was her at her best.

“What‽ No!” Typhon shouted. “I’ll end this before it even begins!”

Several blasts of magic shot towards Eros, but before they could even reach her, Tartarus stepped in the way, his red magic shielding Eros from any harm. All the ponies gasped as his magic suddenly seemed so much stronger, pulsing with new life. The black bolts froze for a second on the wall of magic he placed up. For a moment they looked like they would destroy it, but just as quickly they were gone.

“No! I’m the most powerful god, I will destroy you all!” Typhon cried, shooting wave after wave of his black magic at Tartarus and Eros.

This time it was Eros who took a step forward. She shot her own magic forward, they collided with Typhon’s. The spot where black met pink burned like the sun, just before both colors faded away.

“This… this can’t be!” Typhon shouted.

Tartarus laughed. “That’s why I called you an idiot. Your plans are always impressive, but you always think they are perfect. What a shame, you could’ve been such a smart son.”

“You never gave me a chance!” Typhon yelled.

“We did, Son.” Eros’s voice was full of lament. “Your father was the only one that could raise you, the only one that could teach you some humility. Had you stayed with me, I would’ve lavished you with everything you ever could’ve wanted. You’d have become a monster. Tartarus could actually give you tough love, something I am incapable of.”

“How well did that plan work out?” Typhon asked with a snarl.

“We had no choice and you know it.” Tartarus shook his head. “You’re just lying to yourself, thinking your own truth would make it better.”

“Truth? Truth? I’ll show you both the truth!” Typhon shouted as his form was overcome with black energy. Magical shockwaves burst from him, waves upon waves, dispersing only hooves away from his body in rings so thick they blocked him out of sight.

Eros took her place directly by Tartarus’s side. “You know if he unleashes everything he has, we won’t stand a chance,” she whispered.

“Then we should give him our best, together.” He smiled. “I know it’s sappy, but I never forgot you. And I was being honest, the bond still exists. I do still love you. Maybe it’s not as strong as it was in the past, but it’s still strong enough.”

“I know, I’ve always known. I can see it, beloved.”

Tartarus laughed silently. “I was just too stupid to find the right way back to you.”

“Indeed,” Eros said. “Shall we do this now? Together?”

“Well, if I have to die, again, I couldn’t think of better company. Even if you did try and kill me just three minutes ago.”

Eros kissed him on the cheek before they both turned to face their son. Their power coalesced into one, red and pink bouncing off each other, their abilities mixed, the pink growing darker, the red growing lighter, and both increasing in power ten-fold.

It shot forth in blinding speed, heading straight for the source of their troubles, the son that they could never truly claim, the monster reborn.

It simply ceased to be at the next wave of Typhon’s dark magic release.

“I think it’s time for you two to die,” Typhon growled as he readied a blast himself.

“Get down!” Eros yelled at the four ponies.

The blast wave that was released almost shattered the unbreakable walls of the chamber of the Sands of Time. The last thing that could be seen was a small sun that was fed by black, red, and pink magic.

Ataxia pulled herself free from her crater. She shook her head, mad that she let her attention lapse against such an opponent. However even after learning the lesson once, she still found herself staring at her wife and daughter.

Ana was literally kicking Night when she was down. Ataxia watched as her fully-grown daughter laid into the alicorn over and over again, shouting her hatred to the heavens. Ataxia’s mind was torn, she couldn’t believe that Night would simply let Ana do that to her; but, on the other hoof, she understood. Ana was their daughter, and Ataxia doubted that she could ever raise a hoof against her, even in self-defense.

“Distracted again, dragacorn? Only someone as dumb as you would make the same mistake twice in a row!” Nightmare Moon shouted as she sent another blast of magic down into the crater.

“Only because you’re a sick fuck that would hurt her own daughter!” Ataxia grunted through blast upon blast hitting her back and neck.

The black alicorn laughed. “Family, such a weakness.”

“And that’s why I’m going to kick your ass!” Nighttide shouted as she slammed hoof-first into her mother’s side. Sending her flying to the ground and skidding to a halt.

Ataxia looked up in shock as she saw the dark blue pegasus hit her mother. “Nighttide? Where did y—”

“Over here,” Blaze said, grabbing her attention. Ataxia turned to see the others emerging from the woods. Taz, Blaze, Flash, Dayspring, and Vela were heading toward Shimmering Night and Ana. Starlight was being supported, her weight held up by a strange bat-pony Ataxia did not know.

The majority of them had on strange necklaces Ataxia had never seen before, Starlight had on armor plating decorated in a tree-like design that matched her cutie mark.

“No! You will not interfere!” Nightmare Moon shouted as she shot up at her daughter.

Next to Night and Ana, Blaze shouted, “Too late!” He laughed before wincing as Ana bit him while Flash and he tried to restrain her. “We need help here; let Nighttide deal with her mom!”

Vela tackled Ana, hitting her with more force than any of the others had done and knocking her off Shimmering Night. The two rolled in the dirt. Ana’s physical strength came as a surprise to Vela, who never thought any more of the mare than a weakling that needed coddling.

A hoof to the gut and another to the face taught her the error of that thinking. Vela was almost thrown from Ana, being forced to her side and knocked to the ground, hard. Flash shot to Vela’s side, helping her stand as the others approached the large mare that, less than an hour ago, they had all counted as a friend.

“Ana,” Taz said, mouth a gasp, “I—”

“No! I don’t want to hear anything. You’re still under her influence!” Ana cried out while kicking around.

Taz frowned and turned to Nightmare Moon who was trying to recover. “What did you do to her?”

“I gave her what she wanted, nothing more.”

Ana simply glared at Taz. “Even with me as a grown mare, you still stick to Nighttide? She really has her claws sunk deep into you.”

“That’s not it and you know it. Besides, you’re still the same filly I’ve always know, she just changed your body!”

Ana grinned as she powered her horn. “That’s not all she changed.”

“Oh bring it!” Vela said with a laugh as she pulled Siros’s Vengeance from its holster.

“Don’t hurt her, damn it! Let me deal with her!” Taz shouted. “We don’t want to kill her!”

“I wasn’t about to kill her,” Vela said. “Just rough her up a bit,” she mumbled.

“Like you didn’t want to destroy the castle?” Taz asked and the hippogriff immediately shut her beak.

“I have power, I have real power!” Ana said as she started to power up.

“So? You can’t hurt me with your magic,” Taz replied as he stood in her way. “And I doubt you will use Nightmare Moon’s trick to try and kill me.”

Her eyes went wide as she took in the situation. She saw Taz start to walk towards her. In her mind she could see the nullness that radiated from him. There was no way to stop him, not without killing him. Her power was useless against him.

“Taz, just take away her magic!” Flash shouted.

Ana’s eyes went wider as she realized that was indeed something he could do, and quite easily at that.

“No,” Taz replied. “She’s still Ana, she still my friend. We’ve just gotta reach her. Show her how much we care for her, how much we love her.”

“Love? Love‽ I’ll show you love!” Ana shouted as the ground beneath her hooves started to shake. Millions upon millions of rocks broke free and started to levitate threateningly behind her. “I’ll make you pay for your idea of love!”

“Taz! Now!” Vela shouted.

“No!” Taz shouted back as he kept walking forward. He kept his gaze right on Ana, his eyes locked upon her’s. “If you want this, if you want to hurt everypony that loves you, everypony that considers you a friend, if you want to hurt me, you’ll start with me. Hurt me, kill me. I don’t want to live in a world where you, Ana, the best friend I’ve had in my entire life, would do something like that.”

“I-I-I… I… Taz…”

“Kill him now! If you want his foal, kill him!” Nightmare Moon shouted from the sky, her voice echoing around the mountain, leaving no one that heard it any doubt about what she had said.

“M-my foal?” Taz asked, shocked, as he looked from Nightmare Moon to Ana.

The last Taz saw of Ana were the tears pouring in waves from her eyes as she teleported away.

“Ana!” Starlight shouted.

“There’s no time,” a voice spoke from the ground, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Mom, we gotta go after her,” Starlight pleaded, her voice weak and horse.

“I want to, I want to with every fiber of my being, but we’ve gotta deal with Red first, and Nightmare Moon,” Shimmering Night said.

As if answering in reply, a yell of pain cried out and Nightmare Moon was slammed to the ground in front of of them. Nighttide flew down, her form cut and bloody, but there was a devilish smile upon her face as she looked over her mother’s body.

Nightmare Moon wasn’t defeated though, not by a long shot. She got to her hooves and looked up at her bragging daughter. “One lucky hit, don’t think you’ve won.”

“Oh, she won.”

The black alicorn looked over to her right to see all the kids gathered around. Shimmering Night stood in the center of the group, staring down at her. To her left, Nightmare Moon saw Ataxia approaching, cutting off any chance she might have had to escape.

“I’ll destroy the Nightmare the same way I did Grim Night,” Shimmering Night said as she started to levitate in the air.

They all watched as the black alicorn’s form was lifted out of the crater and a shadow cloud of pure black magic began to manifest itself from the black smoke coming from the alicorn’s body.

Nighttide stood next to Taz. “Is that?”

“Yes, the true form of the Nightmare revenant,” Taz answered. He didn’t know how he knew, he just… did.

Shimmering Night dropped the alicorn’s body softly to the ground as she held the magical cloud in her grasp, preventing it from escaping. “You’ve lost,” Night stated.

Echoside gasped at the pure power Shimmering Night was displaying. And she was simply… doing it, almost like it came as natural to the alicorn as breathing. Starlight pressed her coat to Echoside’s. “That’s my mom, that’s the other one by the way.” Starlight gestured to the huge dragacorn watching it all with a smile upon her muzzle.

Ataxia and Shimmering Night both shot a glance towards their daughter and the bat-pony, but quickly focused back on the revenant.

“It’s-s-s-s too-o-o late. He has-s-s-s already bee-e-e-en reborn. You’ve los-s-s-s-st…” the revenant hissed.

“Yeah, heard that before,” Night said with a grin as she destroyed the very magic that made up the Nightmare revenant.

A loud pop and a blinding flash later, the Nightmare revenant was no more. Whereas before, the destruction of magic in the universe had knocked out everyone present, this time Night controlled it better. Not that it did anyone’s hearing or eyesight any favors. Everyone present found themselves momentarily deaf and blind.

There was a long, pregnant pause as everyone tried to regain their senses. This was especially difficult for those with more enhanced senses.

However when the first voice spoke, there wasn’t a soul there that didn’t hear it.

“N-Nighttide. My… my daughter?”

The voice was from a very familiar pony, on that they had not heard from for almost six months. One that had been lost since their misguided attack on Tartarus.

“Princess Luna?” Taz asked as he started to make out shapes and colors again. He knew that voice; he had lived with her for his entire life.

He saw her standing to her hooves, staring directly at him, or, more precisely, at the pony that was standing right next to him. Taz looked over at Nighttide, the mare he loved, the one who was carrying his foal, she was staring back at Luna. The expressions on either of their faces was unreadable.

They looked at each other for what seemed like minutes, but suddenly Nighttide rushed forwards, directly into Luna’s open hooves, just to be hugged tight to her chest.

“Mom!” Nighttide cried. She cried in a way she hadn’t her entire life.

Luna smiled, her tears flowing as well. “My dear daughter. Don’t even believe for a second what that monster said, I’m glad that you’re here.”

Starlight walked up to Shimmering Night, only to be grasped in a hug as well as they watched.

“Forgive me, please forgive me, I didn’t I-I…” Luna started to stammer, her voice overtaken by grief as she was reborn once more, this time with her full memories intact; something that proved to be more painful than even losing her sister. The full horrors of what she had done to her own daughter were like knives shoved into her heart.

“Don’t.” Nighttide sobbed. “It wasn’t you, I know that now. But you should know, our family is not yet complete.” She waved to Taz, who walked over, confused. “Mom, meet my fiancée, and the father to your granddaughter, Taz.”

Luna’s eyes went wide before she grasped the colt into the hug the same depth as with her daughter. “Welcome to the family, Taz.” She smiled under tears.

In the meanwhile Starlight, Ataxia, and Shimmering Night were wrapped in a hug as well, while Echoside stood sheepishly aside, not daring to get close.

“Don’t you want to introduce us to your friend?” Ataxia asked.

Starlight gulped. “Mom… friend would be the wrong word to use.”

Shimmering Night’s lavender eyes darted from Ataxia, to Starlight, and finally fell on the bat-pony herself. “W—”

Before she could finish that sentence, Starlight and Night’s head snapped up as they both felt a huge release of magical power that would have been sufficient to destroy galaxies. In the sky a bright flair of pink, red, and black magic lit up the sky as a second sun.

“We’re needed,” Starlight said.

Shimmering Night could only nod, her daughter was right. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Luna looked over. “It’s Red, isn’t it?”

They all nodded.

“Good, I have a promise to keep,” Taz said with a frown as they started to walk to the tear that Red had made.

“Oh I don’t think so,” Nighttide said. “Taz you’re—” she paused, hanging her head low. “You’re going to go no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

“Eeyup,” Taz replied with a smile.

“Then… promise me you’ll stay out of the way, that you’ll stay hidden until it’s all over.”

“I can’t do that. But I can promise you that I’ll always be at your side; for you and our foal, for our family.” He smiled back before leaning in for a quick kiss.

Nighttide pressed her hoof against her stomach. “You’ll stay safe?”

“Of course,” he replied.

“Then let’s finish it,” she replied.

“Yes, let’s,” Luna stated.

“Princess Luna, are you sure you—”

“Shimmering Night, this bastard tortured my daughter for hundreds of years, I owe him this.” The way she said it made Night gulp.

“And besides, we have these now, Mom,” Starlight said with a smile as she gestured to the star stone in her armor.

“And we’re going to have a talk about that, young lady,” Night said. “That and a lot more.”

“I think we will, but not alone,” Starlight smiled and walked closer to Echoside touching her coat, an action that made the bat-pony gulp as Shimmering Night glared at her.

“Let’s go,” said Taz, causing Night to do a double take at being ordered around by her younger brother. Still, even she couldn’t deny that there was something… different about him right now, something that simply caused her to want to follow him.

You’ve grown up, little brother. Shimmering Night thought. Her eyes darted to Nighttide who was walking side by side with him. I suppose we have you to thank for that, don’t we?

“Together?” Ataxia asked.

“Together,” Shimmering Night answered as she followed all the kids into the tear Red had caused.

What they saw inside was a scene of utter carnage.