"Ugh... I had the craziest dream," Shining Armor groaned with his eyes still closed. He was still feeling weak from whatever it was that was ailing him. He rolled over and snuggled against the mare next to him, kissing her. "I dreamed that Tirek took over Equestria and sent you to Tartarus, and I went home, and Mom..." he trailed off and blinked his eyes open at last, looking at the mare he was kissing and stopped immediately. "Mom!?"

"Huh!?" Twilight Velvet woke up next to him on the couch. Shining climbed off the couch in a panic, finding that he, she, and it were all covered in a sticky mess. The whole room reeked with the heavy musk of sex.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! It wasn't a dream! That really happened!" he panicked. "Tirek! Cadance!" The shock of losing Cadance hit him again. The looming end of the world barely registered to him. He stumbled and lost his footing for a moment. Velvet shifted on the couch, moving to help him not fall. As she rolled onto her side, her belly shifted and several more ounces of her son's semen gushed from her marehood.

"I can't believe I did that!" Shining blanched. "I don't know what came over me! Mom! I'm so sorry!" He staggered and fell to his knees. She caught him as he stumbled and held his head in her lap, stroking his mane.

"Shh, shh, it's okay," she cooed, calming her scared colt. "I love you, Shining. It's okay."

"What? How?" he asked. "Tirek won. Cadance and Dad are gone. And I- I'm literally a motherfucker! How is anything about any of this okay?" He was nearly in tears.

"Well, I don't know about Tirek, the princesses, or your Dad," she said, trying to stay calm for her son's sake. "But you're okay. We're okay."

"But I- we-" he stammered.

"I know. But if this is the end of the world? What does it matter?" she asked.

"Mom, am I going to go to Tartarus?" he asked.

"No, Shining. You're a good pony," she said. "And this... neither of us were thinking clearly. We were both scared and... I don't know. But if it makes you feel any better, it's not like this is the first time we... you know."

Shining looked at at her, and then looked away again.

"Yeah, I know..." he said. "Hey Mom, there was something that's been bothering me for a while," he said. "I know me and Twilight were home-schooled, but... but I know that isn't how home school teaches sex ed."

Velvet looked away this time.

"No, I don't imagine that's how it's usually done," she said.

"Why did you... and Dad do it like that?" he asked.

"I don't recall you complaining at the time," Velvet said.

"I was a colt! I didn't know any better!" he said.

"You weren't that young," she said.

"But you and Dad definitely did know better!" he said.

"Yes. We did," Velvet said. "Maybe we were wrong. But we had our reasons. At the time. But... what does any of it matter now?" She looked at her son. He looked back at her. "Maybe we are all going to Tartarus."

Shining felt a new wave of conviction rush through him. It might have been to late for his wife. But he would be damned if he would let his mother befall the same fate. Damned if they were just going to hide in their home, waiting to be snuffed out like bugs. He cleaned himself up and got dressed in his armor.

"What are you doing?" Velvet asked.

"If we're all going to Tartarus, there's one I'm going to send there first," he said. "I'm going to kill Tirek!" He moved the barricade aside and opened the door.

"Shining! Don't go!" she begged.

"I'll see you soon, Mom. One way or another."

Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest, Tirek had managed to acquire Alicorn magic and was in the process of carrying out his 'no tree left behind' plan, laying waste to the area.

It was a gambit that paid off as Twilight Sparkle got her friends back, and the sixth key from Discord. Without magic or flight, it had still been a decent trot to get to the Tree of Harmony, and the magic, six-lock chest. They opened the chest and rainbow magic came out.

"Rainbow magic," Discord said, watching from off to the side. "Wow. Groundbreaking."

The rainbow magic activated the Elements of Harmony, still sitting right there in the Tree of Harmony, as they had been the entire time Tirek was running amok. The magic reflected back from each of the Elements to each of the corresponding ponies. Together, they levitated up into the air to face down Tirek, now roughly the size of a castle.

Tirek fired an arcane blast at them, but to no avail.

"How is this possible? You have no magic!" he yelled.

"You're wrong Tirek! I may have given you my Alicorn magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!"

"Oh, oh! She's gonna say it..." Discord said. "The magic of friendship." He snapped his fingers to give himself a beer for when the drinking word was said. But Twilight never said the last part. She and her friends just focused their rainbow magic on the centaur and blasted him. They took back all the magic he stole, causing him to shrink back down to his original size, and then they sent him back to Tartarus.

"Looks like he just got... Ti-wrecked!" Discord said. The six ponies had already flown away to redistribute the Equestrian magic. "Great job, Discord," he grumbled to himself. "The funniest thing you'll say all day and nopony was around to hear it."

Shining Armor headed back into the castle. He would need weapons to slay the centaur. On his way in, he was back on the bridge where he'd had his magic stolen. The concussive blast of magic that defeated Tirek shook the very foundations of the world. Shining stumbled and fell onto the bridge walkway.

When he stood back up, he found that he was stronger. His eyes were no longer cloudy. He felt his magic return to him. Tirek had been defeated. He regretted not being able to do the deed himself, but he was relieved nonetheless. But who could possible have defeated Tirek when three alicorns together could not? He looked behind him. Twilight Sparkle was standing there.

Of course it was her.

Thank goodness she was still alive, let alone the savior of the world. Again. His sister was standing there, along with Rarity. He couldn't help but smile and laugh at how ridiculous she looked. The elemental magic made her mane wavy with bright streaks of glowing color running through it. Rarity's looked similar, but that mare made it work.

"Twilight! Cadance and the other princesses-" he said.

"We're saving them next!" Twilight said as Rarity flew off on their way to returning unicorn magic to the world. "But I wanted to save you first," she said. She leaned in to kiss him but he stopped her. Her smile faltered.

"Twilight, I haven't changed my mind about us," he said.

"I- I know," she said, looking down at her hooves. "I love you."

"I know," he said back. "And I'm grateful for you, you know, saving the world and all. Again. And me. But could you please go save my wife now?" She nodded and looked away as he walked past her. She took of and flew after Rarity to help finish restoring magic to the rest of the world.

Shining Armor ran as fast as he could back to the castle throne room. The princesses weren't back yet. It had been quite a while by that point.

"Where are they?" he asked out loud.

"Probably down there," another guard said, standing by a window. Shining walked over and looked out the window, down at Ponyville. The was a new, massive crystal castle that seemed to have just sprouted up out of the ground.

"Huh. On any other day that might seem strange," he said. He trotted down the hallway to Celestia's chambers.

Princess Twilight toured her new castle with her friends and the other princesses.

"... so then I said, 'Looks like he just got... Ti-wrecked'!" Discord said to Celestia. She didn't find it as funny as he thought. In fact, she still looked fairly steamed about the whole thing. He gave her a bouquet of flowers. "Sorry about the whole, you know... treason thing," he said. "I promise, I was planning on betraying him all along." Celestia narrowed her eyes at him. "I mean it!" Discord said. "What kind of fool do you take me for to trust Tirek the Betrayer?" Celestia opened her mouth to answer. "That was a rhetorical question!"

Spike belched a green flame and a scroll materialized. It was one of Celestia's scrolls, but Celestia was standing right next to them.

"Who could that be from?," Twilight asked.

"It's addressed to Cadance," Spike said, giving her the scroll. Cadance opened it and read.

"Oh, wow. I gotta go," Cadance said. "Shining is sending me some pretty high-maintenance stuff. He's worried sick." Cadance vanished with a flash of magic.

"And apparently, sending my enchanted scrolls my chambers," Celestia said, also teleporting away, leaving behind Luna with Discord. He looked at the six and a half thrones in the central room of the castle.

"Seriously, where's my throne?" Discord asked.

"OH! Don't even get me started about who does and doesn't get a throne," Luna said.

"Oh geez, here we go," Twilight muttered.

"Even Spike gets a throne!" Discord said. "What did he have to do, show up!?"

"Hey!" Spike objected.

"You can always just make your own," Luna said. "I can't. I have to time-share the one in Canterlot. Unless I'm needed during the day. Then Celestia let's me stand next to hers."

Twilight moved between them to deescalate things.

"Guys, the world almost just ended. Are we really doing this right now?"

Cadance appeared beside Shining Armor in Celestia's chambers. He practically pounced on her and they tumbled together onto Celestia's bed.

"I thought you were dead!" he said, hugging her tightly and kissing her all over her face.

"Not yet," Cadance gasped. "But if you keep squeezing me I might be." With a flash of magic, Celestia teleported behind them. "Or you might be."

"Whoa! No no no!" Celestia scolded. "I applaud the newlyweds' effort to produce an heir, but not on my bed! Out out!" she yelled, shooing them out of her room like cats.

Back out in the hallway, Shining and Cadance kissed back and forth as they tried to walk together.

"I missed you so much!" he said.

"I was only gone for like, a day," she said.

"It has been... a hell of a day," he said.

"Let's just go back to the Empire and take some time off," Cadance said.

"I like the sound of that," Shining said with a playful grin. "When we get back, I am going to bend you over that bed and-"

The two of them bumped into a crowd of ponies emerging form the basement stairs. At the head of the group was Night Light.

"Dad!?" Shining said.

"Shining! I'm glad you're okay!" he said, hugging him.

"Me too, Dad! I thought you were dead! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to the castle to warn the princesses about Tirek but by the time I got here, it was already too late," Night Light explained. "So I took everypony down into the castle dungeons- er, basement to shelter in place."

Shining smiled. "Once a guard..."

"Always a guard!" Night finished. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get home and check on your mother," he said.

"Oh shit!" Shining gasped.

"What?"

"I forgot about Mom!" Shining said. "Cadance, can you teleport me over there to check on her?"

"Sure!" Cadance said. "We can all go."

"Wait-!"

In a flash, all three of them were outside the Canterlot house. Shining practically tackled his dad out of the way and rushed to the front door. He threw it open and looked inside, ready to incinerate the couch. Night Light trotted in behind him.

"Hey, I missed your mom too, you know. But there's no need to shove!" Night said. "Ah, there you are!" he greeted Velvet. She was on her knees, scrubbing the last bit of the couch clean. She got up and rushed over to him, hugging him tightly.

"I thought you were dead!" Velvet said.

"Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately," Night said.

"What are you doing?" He asked. "The world almost ends and your first instinct was to clean? I told you to barricade the house."

"I did!" Velvet said. "But when I moved all the furniture, I noticed how dirty everything was. So when I got my magic back and I realized the the world wasn't ending, I started cleaning things. And you know me once I get started on a cleaning spree!"

"You started cleaning the house... but you thought I was dead?" he asked. Velvet glanced at Shining briefly. He stood still in shock, looking whiter than usual.

"Maybe I was just coping," she said. "But until such time as the world ends..." Velvet said, prompting her husband.

"... we will act as though it intends to spin on," he said. She hugged Night Light again and waved away the other two.

"You know, that Zesper is still in my system," Velvet whispered into her husband's ear. "What do you say we make the most of it?" Cadance smirked and led Shining outside to head home themselves.

Sitting in their private caboose car on the train ride back to the Crystal Empire, Cadance leaned over, kissed Shining while she whispered, "So... you were saying something about bending me over the bed?" Cadance asked.