“I’ve got to find her!” Grubber yelled, dashing off toward the massive field of smoking debris that resembled a massive exclamation mark of destruction punctuated by the bloody remains of Tirek’s massive body. The explosion of Tempest’s ship and its gasbag had nearly destroyed the centaur’s upper chest, leaving the savaged head attached to his body only by the remnants of his spine.

Tirek’s centaur body had survived only long enough for it to finish bleeding out before going completely still for the last time, collapsing to the ground with his severed arms lying on either side like an obscene parody of a pair of wings. Silence began to fall on the scene as everyone present simply stared at the massive body, with the occasional splat of a portion of flesh being the only interruption.

One thing that didn’t happen though, was the return of the stolen pony magic to those who’d had it ripped away from them.

“I’ll go keep an eye on him,” Dashiel offered. The pegasus had been witness to more than one scene of devastation in her life, and Tirek’s end barely made an impression on the soldier mare. Twilight was confident the captain of her guard would keep Grubber from doing anything too rash.

“Thank you,” Twilight said, giving an approving nod before turning to Trixie. “Can you make sure everyone here is okay? I’m going to retrieve this world’s princesses from Tartarus.”

“144 hears and obeys!” Trixie declared, smiling as she bowed deeply to Twilight.

“Don’t get too used to that name,” Twilight cautioned, taking a moment to force Trixie to look her in the eye. The unicorn tried to break eye contact but Twilight held her there until Trixie realized she was securely held and stopped struggling. “Dashiel might want to keep you like this, and I just might let her.”

“Yes, my Princess,” Trixie responded, cheeks heating.

“I’ll be back,” Twilight replied, releasing the showmare and taking to the air.

The location of the Gates of Tartarus were well known, and a combination of flight and teleportation found Twilight flying over an ineffective Cerberus roughly an hour later. A moment after that and the alicorn was able to pick out the shackled forms of Celestia, Luna and Cadance, lengths of chain tethering them to posts hammered into the ground.

“TWILIGHT!” exclaimed Cadance, as she touched down. “How?”

“This cannot be Twilight,” cautioned Luna, her mane a single long sinuous band of stars and nebulae. “T’is but a trick of our gaoler, meant to tease and torture us.”

“I am Twilight Sparkle,” stated Twilight, looking at the three chained ponies with some concern. Where Luna and Cadance were both animated and excited, Celestia remained listless looking and silent. A defeated, broken pony if Twilight had ever seen one. “I’m just not your Twilight Sparkle.”

“What dost thou mean?” Luna asked, frowning in thought. “Art thou Twilight Sparkle or are thee not? Speak plainly. What are thy intentions?”

“I’m from an alternate Equestria. One where Tirek was defeated by myself and the help of my friends. I came here to do just that,” stated Twilight.

“And is Starlight Glimmer one of your friends?” Celestia asked, speaking at last while keeping her face looking down and away from Twilight.

“The Starlight from my world was… is my friend. But the one here isn’t,” Twilight answered, pausing before adding in a grim tone, “your world’s version of her tried to kill me, and was killed in the process.”

That made Celestia’s head snap up, surprise in her expression for a microsecond before the elder diarch narrowed her eyes with suspicion.

“Oh really?” Celestia asked.

“What? What makes you think I’m lying?” Twilight asked, bewildered.

Celestia’s only reply was to tug uselessly at the chain connecting her forehooves together and their tether into the nearby rock.

“OH!” Twilight exclaimed, and an embarrassed second later all three alicorns were free of their shackles as Twilight burst them apart. Cadance looked like she was barely holding herself back from leaping onto Twilight in gratitude, while Celestia simply nodded wearily.

“T’is true?” Luna asked, wonder in her eyes. “The fiend that has hounded us for years is finally dead?”

“Starlight? Hounded you? How?” Twilight asked, casting a brief diagnostic spell she had picked up from Ponyville General. All three native alicorns were physically fine, but their mental states obviously varied wildly.

“After she… killed you,” Celestia began, speaking in the dead tones of someone who had seen hopes torn away from them time and time again. “She appeared in my private chambers with your dead body. I incinerated her on the spot, but it didn’t take.”

“Didn’t take?” Twilight repeated, mind whirling.

“She reappeared beside her own ashes a few seconds later and told me that not only had she perfected time travel, but that she had set up a failsafe that would bring her back to life if she was killed,” Celestia continued. “And then in a perfect imitation of my own voice called in one of my guards and proceeded to unmake him in front of me by ensuring he was never born.”

Twilight Sparkle was not only a polymath, but the Element of Magic as well, so while the how was something she could reason out in moments it left one question unanswered.

“If what you’re saying is true, then how was Trixie able to kill her?” Twilight mused aloud, rubbing her chin in thought.

“It doesn’t matter,” Cadance said, finally giving into her urges and sweeping Twilight into her hooves before kissing the lavender alicorn with deep passion. The kiss went on for several moments before Cadance broke away in embarrassed confusion at Twilight’s lack of response.

“You… you really aren’t my wife, are you?” Cadance asked sadly.

“Sorry, but I’m not,” Twilight replied compassionately, before looking at the other two alicorns for confirmation.

“Cadance was injured during the battle to retake the Crystal Empire from Sombra when he returned,” Luna explained. “She was rendered unable to bring a foal to term, so you… or rather our version of you, volunteered to be a surrogate broodmare for your sister-in-law.”

“You and I became lovers while you were carrying Flurry Heart, and after she was born we were married and became a herd with Shiny,” Cadance finished sadly. “I can only hope that they survived this.”

“So Starlight Glimmer is really dead?” Celestia asked, cutting short the explanations.

“Very,” responded Twilight.

“Good,” replied Celestia, and Twilight could see the alicorn straighten herself, as if a great weight had been lifted from her. “We owe you a debt of gratitude we can never repay for killing that monster. Do you have any idea why you were able to put her down while we couldn’t?”

“I’ve got a fairly solid theory on what happened. I’ll explain while we go to Seaddle and the rest of my ponies,” Twilight answered, receiving enthusiastic nods from the princesses.

“Yes, I have seen enough of this place for a lifetime,” confirmed Luna. “Let us be away.”

The four ponies leapt skyward, only for three of them to crash back to the ground again.

“Our magic hasn’t come back,” Celestia noted, with a frustrated set to her jaw. “Is Tirek defeated or not?”

“He’s very dead,” Twilight replied, clenching her jaw against a wave of nausea as she remembered the scattered gore and viscera of the giant centaur. “I’d hoped at least your magic would have returned, but–”

“It seems not,” Luna finished, with a grim nod. “Perhaps in time. You shall have to carry us, I am afraid.”

“No problem,” Twilight assured the trio, and after gathering them up in her lavender aura took to the skies.

“So, how were you able to stop Starlight when I failed, repeatedly?” Celestia asked, in a hard voice.

“If I’m right, I basically got lucky and a lot of It comes down to timing and how the time travel spell that Starlight stole originally worked,” Twilight replied, drawing Celestia a little closer with her magic so she didn’t have to yell over the rushing wind.

“Explain,” ordered Celestia, frowning as she looked down at the ground rushing past beneath them. “This is not the way to Seaddle.”

“I want to see if my theory is right,” Twilight replied, lowering her voice as she asked, “Why are you so angry? You should be happy, or at least not angry.”

“I’m angry at myself more than anything. I failed to stop Starlight Glimmer. I failed to stop Tirek. I relied too much on our version of you and once she was gone I… I realized how terrible of a princess I’ve been,” Celestia replied, in a voice like three day old coffee with no sugar in it. “I should have kept fighting, no matter how useless it was. If I had I could have—”

“There it is!” Twilight exclaimed, interrupting the ruler of Equestria.

The town of Ponyville came into view, or rather what was left of it. From Sweet Apple Acres to Fluttershy’s cottage, the entirety of the township had been smashed flat. Not a single building had been left standing, not even Twilight’s castle, which had been reduced to scattered mounds of crystal shards.

“Your friends fought back as best they could for as long as they could,” Luna commented. “But in the end, they were as much a match for Tirek as any of us was.”

“AHA! I was right,” was Twilight’s response, doing her best to hide the pang in her heart as she heard how her friends in this world had tried to carry on without her.

“What were you right about?” Celestia asked, looking around. “All I see is a reminder of my failure.”

“Look there,” Twilight replied, aiming a hoof at where a round group of shattered stones sat within the confines of a gigantic hoofprint. “That explains everything.”

“What is it?” Cadance asked, squinting. “It looks sort of like that table you… your other told us about.”

“That’s because that’s exactly what it is!” declared Twilight. “The time travel spell Starlight used needed an anchor to work, and it looks like she used the map table in my castle, just like she did in my world.”

“But the table is—Oh, I see,” Celestia replied, catching on. “When Tirek destroyed the table he destroyed the spell’s anchor, along with any contingencies Starlight had attached to it. Once it was gone she couldn’t time travel and undo things anymore.”

“And with Tirek still roaming around the countryside hunting down sources of magic she didn’t dare try to anchor it to anything just in case he caught her by surprise while she was doing it,” Twilight added, frowning for a moment before bending their course toward the northwest. “Which also explains why she let herself get captured by Tempest. It was the best way for her to stay away from Tirek and eventually get away from him entirely. Once she was clear, all she would have to do is cast the spell on a new anchor and she could undo Tirek’s attack.”

“She was ever a resourceful pony,” Luna added. “Skilled and powerful, but utterly ruthless and uncaring of what she did to others. But who is this Tempest you speak of?”

Over the course of the next hour, as Twilight flew the others to Seaddle, she told the other three alicorns the story of who Tempest Shadow was, how she had returned to Equestria, and how she had given her life to end the threat of Tirek once and for all.

“A storm from the shadows of the Storm King,” mused Celestia. “I think as my last official duty as Princess I’ll have her posthumously knighted.”

“Last duty sister?” Luna asked, “What dost thou mean by that? ZOUNDS!”

Luna’s exclamation was echoed by the others as the remains of Tirek’s body came into sight. By this time the remains were nearly covered by a blanket of feathers from the hordes of carrion birds feasting on the rotting remains of the giant centaur. The birds barely stirred as Twilight overflew the corpse, aiming herself toward a waving latex clad unicorn.

“Are all dimensional travelers dressed like that?” Cadance asked, with a smile that spoke of buried hungers.

“144 is like that because of an accident,” Twilight explained, wanting to keep Trixie’s identity hidden for a moment. “We’d originally meant to capture and contain Tirek, but when that failed…”

“Thee and thy companions fought valiantly against a true monster,” Luna said, noting Twilight’s discomfort at having actually killed a sentient being. “Thou shouldst not feel guilt for bringing a deserved ending to one who has chosen their path.”

“Twilight!” Trixie yelled, waving the alicorns in, and the ponies around her began to cheer as they saw the return of their princesses.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, touching down and just barely dodging the mob of ponies who joyfully engulfed the diarchs and the head of the Crystal Empire.

“You’ve got to see this! C’mon!” Trixie continued, tugging on Twilight’s shoulder.

“What? What’s going on?” Twilight asked, even as she allowed herself to be led off and away from the joyful throng of both survivors of the Scirocco and nearby Seaddle who had come to see the body of the creature that had ripped away their magic.

“You know how Grubber went to find Tempest?” Trixie chirped happily, leading her liege to where a line of bedrolls and cots had been set up. Twilight could see a crowd gathered around one corner of the area and could feel her heart speeding up with hope and anticipation.

“Is she… Is she alive?” Twilight dared to ask, as the crowd parted before her.

“Nothing can kill my captain!” proudly declared Grubber, as he sat on the ground with one paw gently resting on Tempest’s upper left foreleg.

“Prin-cess,” Tempest managed to grind out.

Twilight’s heart leaped as her eyes took in the badly battered and torn body of the unicorn. Nearly her entire body was wrapped in bandages, some with bloody blotches where wounds of one type or another had almost soaked through the dressings. Both the airship captain’s rear legs were in splints and nearly her entire mane and tail had been burnt away, but for all that, the unicorn did her best to sit up a little straighter.

For that matter, Grubber himself bore the wounds of his frantic dive into the wreckage, with his uniform torn, tattered and scorched in a dozen places, and with almost more cuts and scratches than that of Tempest herself.

“You’re alive! How?” Twilight demanded, immediately casting a healing spell on the unicorn. Twilight wasn’t a medical pony, but she knew the theory of curative spells enough for her magic to be able to close up most of Tempest’s bleeding wounds.

“Tempy was on the biggest part of the ship that survived that big boom,” Grubber said, and his smile was that of someone who had seen their hopes realized. “She got tangled up in the gas bag’s rigging and it was like a big net, holding her in place and absorbing most of the shock when the quarterdeck hit the ground.”

“Got lucky,” Tempest added, wincing as she tried to shift a bit on the cot she was lying on. “The doctor said I broke most of the ribs on my left side too. Looks like I’m not going to be able to wear that collar of yours any time soon.”

“Are you sure you want that?” Twilight asked, the others around them going quiet as they sensed something was in the air.

“You are the only pony I’ll ever kneel to,” Tempest answered, her voice lacking its usual power due to her inability to deeply inhale, but for all that they carried the power of truth and an earned devotion. “I was a slave to anger and my lost horn. I can be a better pony as your slave. I will be a better pony if I belong to you.”

“Everyone heard her?” Twilight asked, looking around and catching the eyes of every pony and being present until they nodded in acknowledgement. “This is what Captain Tempest wants. She is not being forced into this, but if I do this, if I make her mine, I need all of you to help her in following my orders. Can you all do that?”

A murmured chorus of assent rose from the crowd, having grown from the original few ponies who happened to be nearby to a large number of the former crew of the Scirocco, many of them wearing their own splints and bandages. But for all of that, they bore their wounds like badges of honor, standing as straight and tall as they could.

“By the power vested in me as a Princess of Equestria. I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, do hereby grant the petition of Tempest Shadow—” Twilight began solemnly.

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, actually,” Tempest interjected, blushing furiously. “Tempest Shadow is just the name I used after I left Equestria.”

“Hereby grant the petition of Fizzlepop Berrytwist, also known as Tempest Shadow, to be my bonded slave. Bound to follow my commands and orders until such time as I deem fit,” Twilight amended, pulling magic to herself until her horn glowed with a lavender light. “Do you accept my Mastery and Dominion over you?”

“I do,” Tempest answered, without a moment’s hesitation. “I will serve you until death and beyond.”

“So be it,” Twilight intoned, releasing her magic in a burst of light, and as the burst of light cleared there appeared on Tempest’s chest a hinged circle of gold that was emblazoned with Twilight’s cutie mark.

“My first commandment to you is that you heal and regain your strength,” Twilight ordered, in a gentle, caring voice. “When you are healed, and not before, you can put on the collar, if that’s what you really want.”

“After that?” Tempest asked, gently lifting up the slender circle and examining it from all angles.

“When you put that on, I’ll know and I’ll come to you as soon as I can,” Twilight replied, with a bit of a sly smile, before turning serious again. “But Equestria is going to need outside help getting back onto its hooves and you know at least some of the other nations around Equestria. You can act as a go-between.”

“Indeed,” stated a voice over Twilight’s shoulder, and the young alicorn turned to see the serious face of Princess Luna. “I came as soon as I was able. Thy suggestion is a good one, Princess Twilight, and as senior princess I fully endorse your idea.”

“Senior princess?” questioned Twilight, at the turn of phrase.

“My sister has attempted to abdicate the throne due to her failures to protect our ponies, and were times not so dire I would let her,” Luna explained from a face filled with storm clouds. “However, Cadance and I have allowed her to step into an advisory role, requiring me to seat the throne alone, with Cadance as an allied princess.”

“How bad is it?” Twilight asked, adding, “I can’t stay, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I understand. Thou hast thine own Equestria to safeguard,” Luna answered, nodding sagely. “We estimate that as few as five hundred ponies in total managed to escape Tirek’s predation. But not all the news is dire. Word has reached us that newly born foals have their magic in full abundance, neither had Tirek reached the Crystal Empire either.”

“Magic’s not completely gone then!” exclaimed Twilight, as the ponies around them stomped the ground in applause.

“Nay. What is more, my sister and I may be bereft of magic, but some scrap of it endures as we are still able to move both sun and moon. True, the time until the next generation comes of age shall be hard, but with your servant’s aid as an ambassador to other nations Equestria shall continue,” said Luna, focusing her attention on Tempest. “Captain Tempest, when you are able, we would speak to you of these things.”

“As my princess wishes,” replied Tempest, giving a swift glance to Twilight, who confirmed her previous order with a pleased nod.

“Right, time for us to go,” said Twilight, taking a moment to place a hoof on Tempest’s shoulder. “Not until you’re fully healed, understood?”

“Yes Mistress,” Tempest replied, wincing as an errant motion caused her ribs to shift slightly. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know,” Twilight replied, gathering Trixie to her side as she walked off in search of Dashiel.

Several minutes later, the two mages found the warrior pegasus cleaning off her sword by a campfire; a mug of something by her side and a cloth with a multitude of very suspicious stains in her hoof. As the pair approached, the captain of Twilight's guard tossed the cloth into a nearby campfire and resheathed her sword.

“Just cleaning up a bit,” Dashiel explained, with an unreadable expression.

“Dashiel… “ Twilight said warningly.

“What?” the soldier asked, her face open but her eyes unreadable.

“I don’t want to know, do I?” Twilight asked, drawing the now familiar patterns of power to her as she prepared the cross dimensions once more.

“Probably not,” Dashiel replied, as Twilight’s spell took hold, pulling the trio up and away into the dimensional vortex.

Some unknowable amount of time later, between an instant and an eternity, the cyclone-like spell spat the three out back home in what had been the map room of Twilight’s castle.

All three were by now used to the rough landings the spell favoured and were able to land on their hooves instead of crashing to the oddly shock absorbent floor. Twilight looked around the room as she stood up, looking to see if her orders about strengthening the room’s defenses against interdimensional interlopers had been followed.

The room… wasn’t a room anymore. Instead, Twilight and her companions found themselves standing inside a featureless cube of some sort of reflective black material that was roughly ten body lengths a side. The interior of the cube appeared to be lit from within the walls themselves and Twilight couldn’t see a door, windows or any sort of means of exit.

“What the hell?” Dashiel demanded, before gasping out, “GAS!”

“Just breathe,” Twilight ordered. “I told them to knock out anyone who came through from another world. I guess this is what they came up with.”

“Is that… latex?” Trixie asked, poking a wall with a hoof, which dented in obligingly.

“I’m… I’m not sure,” Twilight answered, feeling the cobwebs growing in her head. She could taste the gas on her tongue now. A sour sweetness.

“Thish shucks,” Dashiel commented, wobbling for a moment before falling to the floor. The pegasus’ body seemed to sink into the rubbery floor, disappearing from view.

Twilight was able to remain conscious long enough to see Trixie fall, and a part of her was able to wonder why the unicorn was enveloped by the shrinking cube as well even as her own knees gave out. The alicorn’s eyes lost the light as an ocean of blackness washed over Twilight, pressing in from all sides, and as she finally succumbed to the soporific gas a muffled comment was just able to reach her ears.

“Tell the Empress that Twilight Sparkle has returned.”

And thus ends another arc of the story, an arc I actually hadn't intended to write at first until someone reminded me that we did catch a glimpse of Tirek laying waste to things. I didn't have much to go on with this arc so I just ran with a vision that came to me one night and it came out fairly well.

Not too mention establishing a couple of things for later arcs.

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