As the second civil war of Equestria neared its climax, another battle for the fate of world raged on its lunar satellite. The pale moon shuddered as the Khthonic powers of death and primordial darkness exchanged titanic blows within the increasingly ruined Bastion of Nightmares. Their duel had long since left the statuary theater and had taken them through halls, galleries and chambers alike. The latest visit in their lunar destruction tour was an ornate chapel dedicated to the Lady of the Stars; possibly the only being in existence that Moon’s sororicidal ego allowed her to respect. Such reverence was lost on the two combatants as they effectively desecrated the small temple in their melee.

“That armor can only do so much, Hidden One!” Suneater roared as he slashed at the Dark Lord with his claws only for them to be repelled by his abyssal plates. “Not even the masterpieces of the cyclopes are infallible!”

“It serves its purpose, Shifting Darkness!” The Necroarch boomed as he ducked another slash and countered by driving a hoof into a knuckle. “Which is more than I can say for you!”

“Ragh!!” The Black Dragon rumbled as he withdrew his claw and snapped the now crooked digit back into place. “And who are you to say what my purpose is, upstart?”

“Your King!” The Khthonic Theoi shouted as he forced the dragon prince to the ground by slamming the blunt end of his bidet into one of his kneecaps. “Now take a knee, wyrm!”

The Primordial snapped at his foe but only got a mouthful of his billowing cloak of tenebrous shadows. The Dread Lord grabbed hold of the dragon’s scaly neck just behind his head and half dragged half shoved his enemy. Suneater let out a sharp hiss of pain as his snout plowed through Moon’s artistic representation of her benefactor.

“I will still have Night Sky to deal with after this. She may prefer acting through puppets but that does not mean she is completely helpless in a fight.” The Silent King thoughts as he repeatedly drove the dragon’s head into a rapidly crumbling wall. “So long as the sun still hangs in the sky, she will be weakened and I might be able to-!”

His moment of inattentiveness was punished by a colossal uppercut from Suneater that sent him through an elaborate petroglyph of the constellations on the ceiling and into another section of the complex. The armor granted to the Dread Lord by his skull-face helm creaked under the immense stress but held, sparing its wearer the worst of what would have been crippling pain. The King landed on all fours in what appeared to be the roof of one of the Bastion’s many halls. He looked back at where he had been sent flying to see the Black Dragon emerge from the structure and leap after him using his wings to keep balance in the airless skies of the moon. The Theoi adopted a defensive stance and waited for his Primordial foe to reach him.

“I’ve closed the strength gap with this armor but as long as we are in darkness he still has the advantage.” The Necroarch thought as the dragon’s low gravity leap gave him time to plan. “Maybe if I lured him over to the sunward side of the moon- what’s this?!”

The Dark Lord reflexively shielded his eyes as the starry void was suddenly sundered by solar fire. A beam of raw concentrated sunlight passed dangerously close to the Bastion on its way to Equus chasing away the normally permanent shadows in its path. Unable to change course in the apex of his leap, the Lord of Darkness could only duck his head as the flare disintegrated his wings in its pitiless light. His roars of agony were lost in the soundless vacuum of the moonscape.

“Celestia must not be holding back anymore.” The Silent King thought as the Black Dragon tumbled toward him in an uncoordinated mass of flailing limbs. “Good for her, better for me.”

The Dread Lord sidestepped out of harm’s way as Suneater landed roughly on his side. The ancient dragon prince had to dig his claws into the roof to prevent his momentum from carrying him over the side. In his clumsy attempt to regain his footing, the dragon inadvertently exposed his underbelly to his opponent. With bident at the ready, the Overlord charged his traitorous friend.

“If he adopted the form of a dragon, then it stands to reason he also took their weaknesses.” He thought as he closed the distance as fast as his heavy armor and weakened body would allow. “Then again, thinner scales won’t mean much if there is nothing vital under them.”

Seeing his foe approach, the dragon prince shot off an inaccurate blast of nether fire only for the Silent King to let it glance off his armor. The dark Theoi drove his two-pronged staff into the Black Dragon’s scaly hide. Unfortunately for the pallid stallion, if there was something important under the weaker scales, his weapon did not penetrate deep enough to hit them. Before the King could follow through, a mass of tenebrous tendrils burst forth from the smoldering stubs of Suneater’s wings and ensnared him. The benthic limbs yanked the stallion and his staff away from the Primordial before they whipped around and slammed him upside down into the base of one of the spires that formed a perimeter along the massive crater. The writhing limbs held the Theoi in place for a moment before they released him and retracted toward the now recovered dragon. They went rigid like bones as a nebulous darkness flowed up from the dragon and across them. A moment later a new set of wings graced the dragon prince’s form.

“Well that didn’t last long.” The pale horse thought bitterly as he righted himself.

The Silent King had barely gotten to his hooves when Suneater lunged at him with jaws opened wide. It was all he could do to prop open the dragon’s palate with his staff, jamming the bident between the serpentine tongue and the roof of the mouth. The Primordial ignored the hindrance and pushed against his foe, threatening to dislodge the staff and allow his powerful jaws to close around the pallid pony. The Theoi maintained his grip to both stop himself from being eaten and preventing the Black Dragon from simply lifting his head and robbing him of his weapon. This contest of strength went on for an agonizing amount of time until the Lord of Shades noticed the tell-tale glow of nether fire begin to well up within the dragon. At this range, it would be impossible for the beast to miss.

“I am beginning to regret ever freeing him from under that mountain.” The pale stallion thought as his forelegs strained against the might of the dragon’s slavering jaws. “Wait…”

The armored King felt the moonstone of the looming spire against his tail. It was not a mountain but it would serve for what he had in mind. Bracing against the still lodged staff, he brought both his hind legs up and drove his abyssal plated hooves into the structure. With the spire’s base already weakened by Suneater slinging his foe into it, the force of the Theoi’s kick was enough to reduce a good chuck of it into moon dust. The edifice swayed precariously as its center of mass shifted before it finally lost the fight with gravity and began to collapse inward toward the rest of the Bastion. The first tongues of Khthonic flame were just about to leave the Black Dragon’s mouth when he noticed the impending fall. The reduced gravity of the moon slowed the spire’s fall to an almost dramatic effect and gave the Primordial more than enough time to catch it in one of his claws. Unfortunately for him, he did not take into account that while he was more than strong enough to stop the massive spire of solid rock, the roof they were standing on was not. The ground gave way beneath their claws and hooves and they fell back into the Bastion along with the spire. The sheer mass of the structure fell atop the two like an avalanche that buried both of them under heaps of pale rubble.

“Physics; the original earth pony magic.” The Silent King thought coyly as he dug himself out of his self-imposed tomb. “Now I know that only stunned him for a few moments at best. I need to come up with a real plan.”

With a metallic grunt he shoved a table-sized chuck of rubble out of the way and climbed atop the miniature mountain of debris with his dusty but still intact bident. They had landed in and subsequently demolished another one of Moon’s statuary halls. Even so, the magic inlaid in the walls of the room was still intact and the sound of rubble shifting replaced the oppressive silence the Theoi was just getting accustomed to. It also allowed the two combatants to speak once more.

“Did you conjure that solar beam?!” Suneater’s voice echoed about the room. “I know you and the Lord of the Sun used to be friends but-!”

“If I could draw power from the sun we would not be in this mess.” The non-solar Lord replied neutrally. “No that was the current Herald of the Sun defying your consort and her minion.”

“I see.” The Primordial rumbled along with the rubble.

The Silent King prepared for the renewal of their duel as the pile of moonstone shifted. Rather than the scaly form of the Black Dragon, tenebrous darkness spewed forth like a flood. The nebulous form of the Lord of Darkness filled the hall, making a point of destroying the surviving statues as to avoid another arduous game of seek and destroy. While it now lacked any discernible facial features, the Theoi could tell his Primordial foe had refocused on him.

“You are more of a challenge than anything I have face before, little god, I will admit.” Suneater’s disembodied voice said from all around the room as the first being to ever emerge from the primal Air of Khaos loomed over the Dread King of the Dead. “But do you truly think you can stop the coming of my new Dark Age?!”

“I escaped the Domiciles of Khaos by breaking the walls of reality itself!” The Lord of Shades retorted as his billowing cloak began to smolder with the embers of Tartarus. “I can sure as the Nine Hells break you!”

A dark mass of tendrils, claws and teeth surged forward just as the former voidian Lurker was imbued with the eternal fires of the Pits. Absolute darkness clashed against the torturous flames of perdition as the duel between the Khthonic immortals intensified.

The rapid clip-clop of hooves on marble scored the heroines of Equestria’s hurried gallop through the palace halls of Canterlot. With most of the remaining Solar Guards and Solarii deployed closer to the front of the palace to repel the invading thestrals, they had not yet encountered any resistance. After a harrowing and nearly fatal journey into the city, the six friends were relieved to enjoy this small reprieve.

“Not to jinx our luck but you would think there would be a few patrols around.” Dash said as she kept an eye out for said patrols.

“Ah think the horde of bat-ponies scratchin’ at the door has their attention.” Applejack logically assumed. “Come to think of it, do we need to worry ‘bout the Solar Guards attackin’ us?”

“They did shoot us down.” Rarity said with an indignant huff. “It may have been an accident but I would rather not take the chance.”

“Same here.” The Alicorn agreed. “I doubt Daybreaker is even aware of us but I don’t know how much influence she has on the guards. Some could be friendly or they could be as bad as the thestrals.”

“I miss the days when the baddies were easy to spot.” Pinkie lamented as her mane deflated slightly.

“Me too.” Fluttershy said as she gave her pink friend a sympathetic pat on the back.

“We can get back to those days once we knock some sense back into Celestia and Luna.” The prismatic pegasus reassured them with a confident smile. “So how much further to the throne room, Twilight?”

“Not far.” The Alicorn answered. “We could cut through a courtyard or go through the visitation area. Both lead to the throne room but we are likely to encounter guards either way.”

“If we take the courtyard, we will probably be spotted by fliers.” Rarity mused aloud. “So I vote for the- oh my goodness!”

The group paused as they came upon an open air corridor with a spectacular view of the city. Beyond the ongoing battle, an incandescent pillar of light had split the conflicted sky and touched down on the entrance to the city. The gatehouse and the Night Guards stationed there had been vaporized instantly as the purifying flare advanced steadily up the city reducing everything in its path to sterile ash and dust.

“How crazy is Daybreaker?!” Dash asked aghast. “Her own dudes will be caught in the fire!”

“Something tells me she doesn’t care.” Sparkle felt whatever hope she had of bringing Celestia back begin to wither. “Our time frame just got a lot smaller so I suggest we forget sneaking and take the direct route.”

“Would this work?” Fluttershy asked as she stood before a fresh hole in the wall.

The heroines joined her to see that there were a series of holes running from one side of the palace to the other. Down one end they could see open sky and a trail of slain guard equines and Solarii. The other way was illuminated by the tell-tale flashes of lunar and solar magic.

“Moony cheated!” Pinkie decried. “We had to sneak in and she just blew straight through!”

“Well at least she and Daybreaker are in the same room.” Applejack said as she began to gallop through the path the Usurper had created. “Twi’s right though; double time it y’all!”

The group abandoned all pretenses of stealth and galloped off to the throne room. As the Princess of Magic had initially cautioned, their trespass did not go unnoticed as several Solar Guards cross their paths on their way to the front. However none of them accosted the mares and a few appeared outright relived that they had arrived. It was not like any of them wanted to get between two, soon to be three, battling Alicorns.

“I don’t know about Day but Moon will not be happy to see us.” Dash said with a tinge of worry as the throne room drew ever closer. “We might not get the chance to talk to either of them before we’re dodging fireballs and moonbolts.”

“I know.” Sparkle said as they arrived at the demolished entrance to the heart of Equestria. “Which is why if any of you want to turn back, tell me now. There is still time to get out of the city and regroup in Ponyville. We could-”

“We’re with you all the way, Twi.” Applejack encouraged her friend before she overthought the plan. “Just like always.”

“I’m not missing this party.” Pinkie added firmly. “Even if the sun is about to deep fry us like hay fries.”

“I don’t care if it means I’m forced to be a secretary for either one of them.” Rarity stated as she joined them. “We will stick together, darling.”

“You know I’m not going anywhere.” Dash smirked. “And Discord isn’t around to screw with my head so you know I’m genuine.”

“We’ll see this through to the end.” Fluttershy smiled softly.

“I love you crazy mares.” Sparkle beamed as her resolve was strengthened. “Alright. Here we go.”

The six heroines crossed the blasted threshold into the throne room. After having been rocked by no less than three disasters, the place was a ruin. The walls and roof were all but gone and the floor was littered with rubble and fresh pot marks from wayward magical bolts. The group looked about for the fallen Princesses until Fluttershy spotted contrails of flame and night against the twilight sky.

Flashes of solar and lunar light ripped across the air above the palace as Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker’s duel took to the air. Their battle was punctuated by thunderous booms each time the two clashed in a joust. The latest charge resulted in the two locking horns in midair in a contest to overpower the other.

“I see that banishing you to the moon was too kind.” Daybreaker sneered maliciously as their horns burned against each other. “Better to just kill you and spare myself the thousand year headache.”

“Ha! As if you could muster the power to do so without the Elements!” Moon laughed scornfully. “But I agree that banishment is only a temporary solution!”

The two broke away in a burst of their respective magic. The Solar Alicorn inhaled and fired off a stream of flames like a dragon as she put some distance between them. The corrupted Lunar Alicorn twisted out of the way of fire and was about to return the favor expecting a shootout when her fire-breathing foe suddenly charged her. Daybreaker rammed into her like a comet and knocked the air from her lungs. Before they slammed into the mountainside the midnight mare conjured a sphere of magic around herself that knocked her fiery foe away. After taking a moment to catch her breath, Moon sent a few slashes of magic at the mad diarch who responded with lashes of fire. The two flew thought each other’s barrage and clashed once more in a melee of wings and legs that tumbled down to the palace. Moon managed to get Daybreaker under her so that she bore the brunt of the landing that cratered the floor beneath them. The Usurper pinned her hated sister beneath her talons and aimed her glowing horn between her eyes. The Solar Destroyer forced a fore hoof under the Night Mare’s chin and pushed her head up just as she fired the lethal beam. The teal spear blew apart a section of the wall above the entrance and rained debris on the equines standing in the doorway. When she saw just who they were, Moon’s slitted eyes shrank to pinpricks.

“WHAT?! STILL ALIVE!? HOW?!?” She all but shrieked in shock. “I WATCHED YOU DIE!!”

“Surprise!” Pinkie said with a poof of confetti.

While the fallen Princess stared mouth agape at the once dead Element Bearers, Daybreaker got her hind legs under her and drove her armored hooves into the Usurper's underbelly, bucking her into the air. She followed up with a fireball that sent Moon into the far wall and exploded in a flash of blinding light. The stunned and smoldering Lunar Alicorn fell to the ground in a heap along with a load of rubble that buried her. The Princess of the Day got to all fours and composed herself.

“Impeccable timing, my little servants.” She said imperiously as she trotted toward the pile of debris. “I had thought my sister had wiped you all out but now we can put an end to her once and for all.”

“Celestia, wait!” Sparkle called out as she galloped after her former mentor. “This has to-“

“Ah! It is Daybreaker now.” The Solar Destroyer corrected curtly. “I suggest you forget about my weaker self.”

“Never!” The youngest Alicorn shouted defiantly as she got between the two diarchs. “Celestia, you have to stop! This isn’t you!”

The eldest Princess paused as Twilight’s friends stood beside her. For the briefest of moments, her fiery golden eyes turned a shade of pink as a long silenced voice tried to make itself heard.

“Listen to her!” A miniscule part of her shouted from some dark corner of her mind. “She is our best student! The one we raised like the daughter we never had!”

“No!” Daybreaker seethed past gritted teeth as her eyes flared up again. “Stand aside, peons. She must die!”

“Nightmare Moon is a fiend but your sister is still in there!” Sparkle protested as she ignored the heat radiating off the taller Alicorn and braced against her burnished chest plate. “You’ve never given up on her. Don’t start now!”

“She’s right!” Applejack concurred. “Killin’ Moon only helps one pony and it ain’t you!”

“You two have helped each other through the worst of times as sisters do.” Rarity added knowingly. “She needs your mercy not your wrath.”

“We know she can be saved!” The tiny voice pleaded. “We pulled her from darkness before!”

“I thought she could be redeemed. I also thought the Crystal Empire could be redeemed but now look at it!” The blazing Princess grimaced in frustration. “Mercy is the tool of fools! Death is the only justice she deserves! What all traitors deserve!!”

The increasingly incensed Diarch shoved her former pupil out of the way and advanced on the now trembling rubble. She ignited her horn until it was an incandescent flare of sunlight and was about to melt the pile down into slag when a barrier of magic cut her off. The Alicorn rounded on Sparke with a venomous snarl.

“I am running out of patience, Sparkle!” Daybreaker said dangerously.

“So am I.” The Princess of Magic said firmly. “You are about to cross a line there is no coming back from.”

“Princess, you’re about to flash fry thousands of loyal soldiers!” Dash said urgently. “Not even Luna did that when she dropped the hammer on the Empire.”

“We just want our old Princesses back!” Pinkie gestured to both the Solar and Lunar Alicorns. “This whole ‘power mad tyrant’ shtick is no fun at all.”

“We know what Blueblood did to you was wrong but you don’t need to punish the rest of Equestria for it.” Fluttershy added with surprising confidence.

“For Faust’s sake, do not throw away everything we have fought and bled for!” The last speck of decency in the fiery Princess screamed plaintively. “Our harmony may be beaten and tarnished but it is not beyond salvation.”

Daybreaker could only let out some inarticulate snarl as she fired her charged spell into the barrier and burned it away like paper. She now stood before the seemingly immobile Usurper with wings flared and horn ablaze. In once last effort to reach her former mentor, Sparkle jumped in front of the eldest Alicorn with her own wings and horn primed. The Solar Destroyer glared down at the scholarly mare but the youngest Princess could see the conflict in her fiery eyes.

“Celestia." Twilight matched her gaze with unwavering conviction. “Please. Let us help you.”

“It is not too late!” The trapped voice cried out. “Step back from madness or we will live in the same Hell as Nightmare Moon!”

“You know nothing of Hell!” Another voice, scorched and twisted by the fire of the Pits, screeched. “But its prisons will echo with the screams of all who dare oppose me!”

“Twilight Sparkle.” The Alicorn of the Sun said slowly. “You disappoint me.”

Faster than she could blink, the lavender Princess was enveloped in a wicked crimson aura. Daybreaker lifted her into the air and slammed her face first into the floor. Before the rest of the Element Bearers could act, the hellish horse used the dazed and limp Sparkle to batter them aside.

“All that potential wasted because you fetter yourself to some outdated notion of harmony like a sycophantic zealot.” The mad mare sneered contemptuously as she tossed her former pupil over her shoulder like a used rag. “At least Sunset Shimmer had some ambition.”

Once more the Solar Destroyer stood before the rubble pile containing her corrupted sister. She could hear pained grunts and see bits of debris shifting; signs that her foe was not completely beaten yet. The Princess decided that another raw blast of sunlight would see to that.

“After I am finished with this recurring night mare, you and your pitiful friends are next!” Daybreaker spat at the recovering heroines. “My star will shine the brightest in Equestria and it will shine alone!”

“No. It will not shine at all!” Nightmare Moon’s reverberating voice shot back as a flash of ethereal light illuminated the rocks.

Suddenly a blast of concentrated dream magic blew the Alicorn of the Sun off her hooves and through the opposite wall. Sparkle just barely managed to roll out of the way as the ground beneath the beam was unmade by powers not of the waking world. The Usurper emerged from her piecemeal prison and loomed over her former vanquishers. Her teal eyes shone with the otherworldly power granted to her by Tantibus, casting a pall of horror over the throne room.

“I do not know how you managed to escaped the Silent King’s clutches, Sparkle.” The corrupted Princess intoned menacingly. “But at least I will have the great pleasure of sending you and your friends back to him one screaming piece at a time!”

A comet of solar fire rocketed back into the room and slammed into Moon. The two fallen Alicorns took to the air as their duel violently resumed. As sun and moon light clashed above them, Pinkie crawled toward Sparkle while nursing a wound on her head.

“Has anypony ever told you that you have a really hard head, Twi?” The party pony said with a slight slur.

“I think our intervention failed.” Dash groaned. “Now what do we do?”

The youngest Princess glanced up at her embattled elders. It was now clear to her that whatever evil had seized the Diarchs would not be expelled by words and kind thoughts. Luna was lost to darkness and Celestia was not far behind. With the total destruction of Canterlot growing ever closer there was really only one option left open to them.

“The one thing we can do.” Sparkle answered quietly as the weight of what had to be done fell on her shoulders. “It is our last, best hope.”

Outside the battle scarred palace, the ongoing civil war had devolved into chaos. Battle lines had broken down into scattered skirmishes between the forces of the mad Solar and corrupted Lunar Alicorns. The inexorable advance of the solar flare had already reduced the market district to cinders and those trapped within to shadows scorched into the sterilized ground. Thus did the Night Guard desperately fought less for victory and more for an avenue to escape destruction. The Solar Guard fared little better as they feared the wrath of their Princess did not discriminate between invader and defender and sought their own ways to avoid obliteration. Only the zealous Solarii and fanatical Umbrals seemed to be concerned with achieving victory in the face of mutual annihilation. One such elder thestral was flying just above the residential area looking for equine in particular.

“There you are!” Countess Dunwich bared her fangs as she spotted the Solarii commander.

Said Luminous leader had compiled a few of her fellow elites into a strike force and were steadily pushing the thestrals back to be consumed by the flare. The Umbral folded her leathery wings and dove on the unsuspecting officer. She spread her wings just before she hit the ground and pulled up into a glide just behind her target and sank her talons into her golden armor. The two lifted off the ground with the Solarii shouting in protest and her troops firing precise shots at her abductor. Dunwich made it as high as the rooftops before a shot struck her between the wings and forced her to drop the commander and land roughly on the roof of a high-rise hotel.

“You wish to face me alone, heretic?” The Solarii shouted imperiously as she rolled to her hooves. “That will be your last mistake!”

“Come then!” The Umbral challenged. “So me what passes for fury among your misbegotten kind!”

The commander fired off a barrage of solar bolts that Dunwich avoided as she closed the distance between them, age having not dulled her agility. The thestral pounced on the empowered unicorn and instinctively went for her neck with her fangs but could find no flesh beneath the gilded plates. The Solarii slammed a hoof into the side of the Countess’ head until she released her neck and rolled off.

“We have transcended the iniquity of flesh, parasite!” The commander spat as she ranked Dunwich’s side with a flurry of magic.

“Then you are as hollow as you cause!” The Umbral ignored the fresh pain coursing through her and resumed her assault on the Solarii.

Where the elite of the Solar Guard excelled at range, their melee capabilities were comparable to that of an armored earth pony’s. The commander was immediately on the back hoof as the thestral hacked and slashed at her armor. Dunwich let out an enraged shriek as her talons found purchase in the Solarii’s back and tore a large gash in the golden plates. The elite fired a panicked unfocused blast into the thestral’s chest and knocked her away. As raw solar energy shone out from the breach, the Solarii focused on mending the wound before her destabilizing body detonated.

“And you accuse us of being cursed.” Dunwich spat contemptuously.

She tried to take a step forward only to sink to her knees. The elder thestral looked down to see the blast had pierced her old armor and bit deep into her chest. The Solarii looked at her stricken foe and then to the advancing column of fiery death. The building across from them was already ablaze and the street below was starting to melt.

“Your judgement is nigh, cur.” The commander said shakily. “Join the rest of your ill-bred ilk perdition.”

With that, the elite turned her back to the mortally wounded thestral and headed toward a damaged section of the hotel to look for a way down. Dunwich forced herself to all fours and flared her wings. With the last of her failing strength, she catapulted herself through the air and tackled the commander from behind. The two tumbled into the hotel and became entangled in the debris of what appeared to be a balloon. The Countess trapped her foe in a deadly embrace that forced both of them to face their impending doom. If the two opposing elites had anything more to say to each other it was lost in the deafening roar of the solar flare as the hotel and entire block were engulfed in a purifying conflagration.

“Right behind you Sev.” Dunwich thought just as the blinding, painful light gave way to a cold, comforting darkness.

As the Countess of Hollow Shades met her end, her children were engaged in an aerial duel of their own. Ex-captain Flash Sentry proved to be a formidable combatant even without the powers and abilities granted to the elites by the sun or moon. The fact he was outnumbered two to one only highlighted this but he knew the fact he was not dead yet could not be attributed to his skills alone. His knowledge of the layout of the city plus the fact he was relatively fresh while the thestrals had been fighting for hours could not be understated.

“Not to mention sheer dumb luck.” Sentry thought as he dodged a charge from Vengeance and deflected a strike from Knight.

“Damn it! Hold still!” The far more aggressive half of the Night-Captains snarled as she shot toward the pegasus’ back with fangs bared.

The orange stallion responded with a kick that caught her in the chest and sent her through one of the lower floor windows of the nearby hospital. With the aggressor temporarily disposed of, Sentry grappled with Knight in mid-air there feathery and leathery wings beating furiously to stay airborne.

“Your heart is not in it, Knight!” Sentry grunted in exertion. “You know as well as I do this is wrong!”

“I have no choice, Sentry.” The thestral shook his head. “I either serve a tyrant or be incinerated by one.”

Before the former Solar Guard could respond Knight drove his helmed forehead into the pegasus’s nose. He then grabbed Sentry by the barrel and slammed him through the same window Vengeance had been kicked into. They landed on an empty bed amidst a mess of curtains and medical equipment left behind during the evacuation. Sentry managed to roll Knight off of him but barely had time to sit up when the other Night-Captain wrapped a length of rubber tubing around his neck and pulled it tight.

“I got him!” Vengeance shouted excitedly. “Grab a knife or something and cut out his heart!”

“Is that really necessary?” Knight asked warily.

A harsh glare from the Umbral told him to save his objections. The thestral found a scalpel and advance on the choking Sentry. The Pegasus reached desperately for something that could ward off his impending open heart surgery and found it in the form of a bedpan. He swung the lump of metal at Knight and knocked the scalpel out of his fetlock. He then reached behind him and struck Vengeance with a solid thwack, forcing her to release her hold.

“Gah!” Sentry gulped down a lungful of air as he pulled off the length of rubber. “I’m getting real tired of your shit, Ven!”

“I’ve been tired of you-OOF!” The Umbral was cut off by a hoof slamming into her gut.

The pegasus followed through with another hoof to the side of her head that knocked her to the floor. Her brother countered by driving his hind legs into Sentry’s ribs with a sickening crunch. The ex-captain was knocked back through the door to the room and into the empty halls of the hospital. Knight paused to help his sister to all fours and together they followed their foe who was struggling to stand.

“Stay down, Sentry.” Knight said flatly. “You’re not Solar Guard anymore and we are not targeting civilians.”

“If you hadn’t attacked Princess Sparkle and her friends, I might believe you.” Sentry grunted as he stood but favored his midsection. “I may not be a guard anymore but I swore to protect her.”

“How romantic.” Vengeance rolled her slitted eyes. “I’ll be sure to tell her how her favorite colt toy died if Mistress Moon hasn’t already killed her.”

That struck a nerve as Sentry snorted angrily. With a quick flap of his wings, he dropped a shoulder and bodied the bat-pony into the wall hard enough to crack it. The pegasus then threw her to the ground and began laying into her with his hooves. Knight jumped onto his back and locked his forelegs around his neck and pulled him off his sister.

“Hold that bastard tight, Knight.” The Umbral sneered as she ran her tongue over her fangs. “I’m going to bleed this light-dweller dry.”

“Like you tried to do to Fluttershy?” Sentry choked out.

“Wait, what?” Knight pulled Sentry away from the vampiric thestral. “You bit the Element of Kindness? I thought she was injured in the balloon crash!”

“Of course I did!” Vengeance spat impatiently. “Sparkle’s cronies are the enemy!”

“No!” The Night-Captain tossed Sentry away and confronted his sister. “The Solar Guard and Solarii are our enemy! Princess Sparkle and Sentry are neutral at best! We can force a surrender, yes, but we don’t need to kill them!”

“That’s the thing, you spineless foal.” The Umbral shoved her brother aside. “I WANT to kill them!”

“Damn it, Ven!” Knight grabbed her tail with his mouth. “Don’t- ARGH!”

The bloodthirst thestral kicked her sibling in the muzzle and stalked toward Sentry. The pegasus groggily got to his hooves and made sure not to expose his neck. Before their duel could progress any further, an explosion rocked the hospital. All three looked to see the opposite end of the hall be consumed in the inferno of the solar flare.

“Oh shit!” Sentry exclaimed as the wave of heat hit them. “Forget this! We need to-AH!”

Vengeance pounced on him and sank her fangs into his shoulder. Instead of draining him of his blood, she began to rip and tear at his flesh going for a messy and far more painful death. Before she could hit something vital, Knight grabbed onto her leathery wings and pulled back hard. The Umbral shrieked in pain and released the pegasus from her lethal jaws.

“Get out of here, Sentry!” Knight shouted as he and his sibling rolled across the floor.

The ex-captain half galloped half limped to the window opposite the oncoming solar flare. He got one hoof on the sill before he looked back at the Night-Captains. Vengeance had gained the advantage and was beating Knight to a bloody pulp with her talons. While part of him wanted to escape the hospital and find Twilight, the soldier side of him ordered him to assist a brother-in-arms. Pushing through the fresh pain radiating through his body, the orange pegasus flared his wings and launched into flying kick aimed squarely at the Umbral’s jaw. His hoof connected with a solid crunch that knocked away Vengeance in a burst of blood and teeth including one of her fangs.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, you ill-tempered bitch.” Sentry gasped as he landed beside a prone Knight. “Come on, Knight. We’re leaving!”

“Ugh.” The thestral groaned. “Behind...”

The ex-captain had not anticipated the rate of recovery Umbrals possessed and paid for it with a razor sharp talon between the ribs. The pegasus fell to the floor as Vengeance stood above both stallions, blood leaking from her mouth and murderous rage in her crimson eyes.

“I guess I have to kill you both!” She sneered as she placed her talons against their necks. “There is not room for weakness or doubt in Mistress Moon’s new order.”

Just as she was about to deliver the killing blows, the entire hospital shook as the flare burned through enough supports to collapse a wing. The Umbral lost her balance and stumbled off her prey. With the building’s imminent and fiery destruction fast approaching, Vengeance took one look at the stallions and made a break for the only avenue of escape. Battered and bloodied, Knight and Sentry mustered enough strength to get to their hooves and follow after her. The building continued to shake as the flare tore through it. Cracks spread through the burning walls and floor and rooms collapsed as the hospital’s integrity was compromised. The Umbral thestral just reached the window when the ceiling caved in, dropping a burning support beam on top of Sentry.

“Ven! Wait!” Knight called out as he skidded to a stop. “For Luna’s sake, we can’t leave him here! If there is any decency left in you-”

“Eat a dick you prick!” The Umbral already had a leg out the window. “This whole city is about to be razed! If you want any hope of getting back in the Night Mare’s good graces, leave that bastard!”

The Night-Captain looked from his sister to the injured pegasus struggling to free himself. He looked back at Vengeance whose expression had softened to something akin to silent begging; some part of her still saw him as her brother and wanted him to come with her. Knight’s mind began to race. It was not the first time he and his sister had fought and they always patched it up later. They made the Equestrian night considerably safer as a team. Princess Luna told them as much but now she was corrupt and so was their duty. Instead of protecting Equestria the terrors in the dark they had become the monsters they once hunted. The indecision in his face eventually settled into a firm frown of determination as he turned his back as his co-captain and rushed to the orange stallion’s aid. He only wished had come to this realization sooner.

“Knight? What are you doing?” Sentry grunted as he tried to shift the beam off his bruised back. “You need to get out of here!”

“Like you, I swore an oath to protect Equestria.” The thestral said as he lifted the beam high enough for the pegasus to crawl out from under. “That includes you, civil war be damned.”

The former captain let the Night-Captain support his weight and the two trotted as fast as they could toward the window. Sweat beaded across their brows as the solar flare closed in. Vengeance remained in the window, hurt and betrayal written across her features.

“Ven! It’s not too late!” Knight called out again. “We can still get out of here together!”

The thestral stared forlornly at her only brother before her red eyes darkened and her lips peeled back in a bloody snarl. She pointed a cloven talon at the two which forced them to instinctively halt.

“You’re dead to me.” Umbral Night-Captain Vengeance stated with more hatred and contempt than any one equine, vampiric or otherwise, should possess.

The next moment she disappeared over the edge, leaving the two stallion’s to their fate. They watched her go until the rest of the ceiling gave way and part of the floor above them came crashing down. Through the smoke and cinders, they could see that the window was now blocked.

“Trapped.” Knight said plainly. “Looks like this is it, captain.”

“We’re not dead yet.” Sentry coughed. “We could try…”

He trailed off as an ominous groan filled the ash-choked hallway. The stricken floor beneath them sagged a fair distance before it opened up completely. The pegasus and thestral fell to the story below only for its floor to fail as well. Their staggered descent came to an end when they dropped into a dimly lit room filled with vacant tables.

“Where are we?” Knight asked as he noticed tools that seemed for like instruments of torture than medical devices. “A dungeon?”

“Autopsy.” Sentry answered as an idea dawn on him. “Which means…there!”

The orange stallion pointed to a steel door across from them. As quickly as their injuries allowed, they unlocked the door and opened it to reveal a cold room lined with small steel panels and illuminated by a single blue crystal lantern.

“The morgue.” Knight said simply. “Not quite a bunker but it might work.”

“There is solid rock between us and the building above, this room is lined with solid steel and enchanted to absorb heat to keep it cold.” Sentry rattled off as he checked the freezers for unoccupied space. “I don’t know if that will mean anything to the raw power of the sun but one can hope.”

“Agreed.” The former Night-Captain nodded as he and the former Captain of the Guard climbed into a pair of empty freezers. “And Sentry? It has been an honor.”

“See you on the other side.” Flash Sentry saluted his nocturnal counterpart before them both closed themselves up and prepared for whatever came next.

Outside, the hospital lost the fight with gravity and collapsed into a cloud of dust and rubble. The manifestation of Daybreaker’s wrath washed over the last of the residential district and approached the final area of Canterlot before the palace. All the while the Umbrals and Solarii fought on heedless of their approaching doom. They had abandoned reason long ago and now knew only war.

Piercing spines, rending claws, crushing jaws and flaying tendrils all assaulted the armored Silent King in an ever shifting blur of darkness. The hellfire anointed Theoi did his best to deflect and counter where he could but the majority of blows landed. His armor had protected him thus far but he knew it was only a matter of time before even it failed. As Suneater had so loudly proclaimed, not even the masterpieces of the cyclopes were infallible.

“He’s probing for weaknesses.” The Dread Lord thought as he swatted away a set of jaws only for a claw to rake across his back. “The obvious one is knocking off the helmet but he seems to be looking for conventional armor weak points.”

As focused as he was on fending off the Primordial’s attacks, the Lord of Shades had the wherewithal to look for weaknesses as well. Granted there was not much to see in a tenebrous mass of sentient darkness but he did notice one crucial and ironically familiar element. Suneater was incorporeal in his primal form but still had to solidify bits of himself in order to attack.

“I wonder if this is how Stone Skin felt when he ‘fought’ me.” The former Lurker recalled his attributes as a disembodied animus. “Physical attacks were futile but there was one thing that vexed me right up until I was reunited with my vessel.”

Before he could exploit this perceived weakness, he had to meet Suneater’s next attack with the cold iron and ebony shaft of his bident. It was as if an unstoppable meteor met an immovable mountain as the collision cracked the floor beneath them and split the walls. Black miasma and abyssal plates strained against each other as their owners refused to submit to the other. In their struggle the Theoi failed to notice a particularly long claw manifest under him until it sunk deep into the joint between his upper foreleg and chest. The gap was protected by the more articulate but weaker mail and thus failed against the piercing claw.

“There, a palpable blow!” The Dark Lord grunted as he squeezed his leg to his chest and trapped the offending claw against his body. “Allow me to answer in kind!”

Turning the blow he had blocked with his bident away, the King gathered a hoof full of his blazing cloak and cast it like a wave of fire at the limb lodged in his chest. The miniature inferno took to the writhing shadows and burned it away like paper. The Primordial let out an agonized roar as he withdrew from his foe slightly and smothered the flames.

“Good to know that works but I don’t have enough hellfire to burn him away completely.” The Theoi thought as he used the lull to yank out the dissipating claw. “There has to be a weakness somewhere in that mess.”

“A clever trick, Hidden One!” Suneater rumbled as he surrounded the Dread Lord. “You seem to possess an inexhaustible supply of them!”

“I did not bring the Sunless Lands to heel with honeyed words alone, Shifting Darkness!” The Overlord reminded the ancient entity.

With their mutual weaknesses revealed, the two resumed their duel at a more measured, cautious pace. Suneater took every opportunity he could to strike at the Theoi’s joints while the King kept him at bay with both his staff and hellfire in equal measure. Unable to land another critical blow as he had before, the Primordial tried a new tactic. He stabbed at the Dread Lord with a few spines until he sent up another wave of accursed flames. Allowing his spines to be painfully annihilated, the tenebrous mass surged toward the pale horse from the sides before his foe could resume a defensive stance. Two massive dragon claws closed around the stallion and held him up in the air, the black scales smoldering but holding against the fires of Tartarus. Countless spikes manifested within the palms and stabbed deep into the gaps in the King’s armor like a sentient iron maiden. The Silent King’s armor groaned in protest as he struggled against the torturous hold. Even as his immortal flesh tore against the spines, he managed to free the foreleg holding his two-pronged staff. He raised it into the air to stab at the Primordial only for a mass of tendrils to ensnare the weapon and leg. The boneless limbs attempted to rip the staff away from the Theoi along with his leg but the stygian stallion did not give up his symbol of authority easily.

“Khaos’s blood! You take an eternity to die!” Suneater roared in annoyance as he crushed the pallid pony in his grasp.

“My immortality is not so easily compromised!” The Lord of Shades boomed as he mentally commanded the last of the hellfire. "Let us see how you fair!"

Tongues of flame snaked up the King’s leg and gathered within the bident, transforming it into an incandescent lance of infernal power. The tendrils evaporated instantly freeing his blazing weapon and allowing him to drive the prongs into the Primordial’s left wrist. The scales shattered and broke as the piercing ends bit deep into Suneater’s primal form. A moment later and an explosion of hellfire tore through the claw and severed it from the rest of the mass. The Lord of Darkness let out a distorted cry of pain and rage as the sudden influx of power temporarily destabilized his amorphous body.

“What is…!” Even with the impaling spikes still embedded in his flesh and the Primordial thrashing about in agony, the ever observant Theoi noticed an anomaly. “By my Throne!”

Barely discernible amongst the semi-corporal tenebrous mass was a core of light. Not the illuminating light of a star or fire but a primal gleam that could have only been forged in the blackness before time itself began. To the uninitiated, the core would appear to merely be a sphere of baleful power but to one who had spent eons in the Primordial Air of the Void, there was no mistaking a divine spark of creation.

“A fragment of Khaos!” The former voidian exile smiled devilishly beneath his helm. “At last!”

In his frenzied flailing, Suneater inadvertently released his foe and sent him flying through the moonstone roof once again. The Silent King shot through the vacuum of space toward where his arduous duel had begun. He smashed through another column and rolled across the floor of Nightmare Moon’s Orrery.

“The transition through defenestration is getting old.” The Theoi thought as he remained prone to give his battered and bleeding body a chance to mend itself at least to the point where he could stand. “At least it will take some time for Shifting Darkness to reconstitute himself.”

The plated pony eventually righted himself and got to all fours. Before him was the metallic contraption he and the rest of the turncoat immortals had used to scry the stars for their Lady. The device was still keyed to Equus and its satellites currently in eclipse. As the Silent King looked at the floating metal spheres, the gears in his mind began to churn out a plan.

“Moon said meteoric iron takes to magic.” The Dark Lord mused as he withdrew the twinkling fragments of the dream stone. “These are more or less crystallized magic. Hmm…”

The Lord of Shades approached the scale model of Equus and set to work. He embedded the faintly glowing slivers of the dream stone into the iron sphere at key points and then used his bident to etch the most potent rune of amplification he knew. All the while he recited a Khthonic mantra that coxed the ethereal power within the tiny crystals into the meteoric iron. His efforts were rewarded by the rune glowing a vibrant teal and an aura of the same hue surrounding the metal ball.

“Huh. All the key points of the rune match up perfectly with the capitals of the world.” The King noticed the odd coincidence but did not have time to dwell on it.

A section of the domed room exploded inward as Suneater caught up with his foe. The Primordial had resumed his black dragon prince form and was clearly none too pleased with the Theoi’s last trick. He narrowed his baleful eyes at the pale horse as tongues of nether flame wafted through his bared teeth.

“That is it! No more games! No more plots!! No more tricks!!!” The enraged Primordial roared. “You die NOW!!!”

The Theoi said nothing as he gripped the glowing sphere in his hooves and wrenched it free of the mechanism. He spun around once before he hurled the metal ball at the advancing dragon. Suneater let out a grunt of surprise as the sphere flew toward his face like a fastball. He reared back on his legs and swatted the sphere back at the King with a claw.

“Okay we’re doing this now.” The exasperated pony thought as he hefted his bident and batted the incandescent ball back at the dragon.

Again, the Primordial returned the metallic Equus only for the Theoi to do the same. They volleyed the orb back and forth at a steadily increasing rate, neither combatant having the presence of mind to dodge or knock it away. The King, however, had something else in mind.

“This worked for Lulamoon.” He thought as the prongs of his bident left a mark on the sphere as he returned it. “Fates willing it will do the same for me.”

After a few more volleys, the stygian stallion had crudely carved a second rune in the meteoric iron. One last time he batted the sphere back at the unsuspecting dragon and pointed an armored hoof at the rune as he uttered a single Khthonic word that carried with it all the authority of the Overlord of the Underworld. The smaller glyph burned an angry crimson that caused the sphere to splinter and crack. The orb exploded with an ear piercing screech just as it reached Suneater. Superheated shards embedded themselves deep in the dragon prince followed by the otherworldly magic imbued within each fragment surging through his body.

“AAaaAAAaaAaARGHAhARA!!” The Primordial let out a warbling roar of pain as the magic arched across his draconic frame.

The architect of his agony did not squander the opportunity he had created. Even as his own body cried out for respite, he charged the stunned dragon and leapt as high as his armor allowed. The Theoi plowed into his foe like a freight train and knocked him onto his back. As the indiscriminate magic of the dream realm wracked his form with waves of torment comparable to being obliterated by the Crystal Heart, the Dread Lord pushed through it to the Lord of Darkness’s chest. There he upended his bident and took aim at a mark above where the dragon’s heart would be; a tell-tale scar left by the one mortal who wounded what none could slay. With all of his remaining strength, the Silent King cracked black scales and splintered ancient bone as he drove cold iron into the very core of the Primordial’s being. Suneater’s screaming was silenced in an instant. The Theoi met the dragon's white eyes and saw what he set to achieve: Pure, unadulterated fear.

“Never forget this, Shifting Darkness.” The Silent King ordered his subject as he delivered the coup de grace by twisting his bident.

Cracks opened up across the draconic being’s chest as the timeless light of Khaos shone out of its eldest son. The power of creation tore apart the ancient dragon’s body in an explosion that blew the domed roof off the Orrery and opened up fissures across the surface of the moon. The Theoi was blasted across the room and into Moon’s throne with bone shattering force as his armor reached its limit and fell away like dried mud. All across the universe darkness and shadows became ephemeral and faded as if something had lit a candle within them. Far below on Equus, spectating Lady of the Stars felt a gravely chill she had not felt since the Cosmomachy creep down her spine.

“Something terrible has happened.” The stellar being whispered to herself as she glanced skyward toward the benighted moon.

Back on the shaken satellite, the Dark Lord slouched in the Lunar Throne. His weakened and battered body refused to move due to several broken bones and a coursing pain his erudite vocabulary had trouble describing. It took every ounce of willpower just to move his unbroken foreleg up to his helm and push it up past his face. What was left of his abyssal armor transformed back into a simple tunic. With his helm perched atop his head just in case, the Theoi let his head list to one side and spat out a disgusting mix of black ichor and bile.

“I think I’m due for another soak in the River of Lamentation.” The Lord of Shades thought as he noticed the weeping wounds across his legs and barrel. “Maybe crack open a casket of the good wine. Get some private time with Trixie. Nine bloody Hells! I just want this to be over.”

The caliginous cleric remained in the moonstone throne for a few moments while he waited for some modicum of his strength to return. In time he was able to lift his head and look around. In the center of the ruins of the Orrery was a large pool of pitch black primordial ooze surrounded by cooling and impotent meteoric iron. Within this mess was the core of Suneater’s being with the bident sticking out of the sphere of Khaos like a fork. Small tendrils of darkness moved across the shard of creation in a protective manner while others tried futile to remove the offending cold iron staff.

“I know I can’t kill a Primordial. Not even the Protogenoi could.” The Theoi thought as he straightened up in the throne. “But that is probably as close as I can get.”

“*Ahem*Now then...” The Silent King cleared his throat as he addressed the tenebrous morass. “…will you listen to reason or shall I continue?”

“Blrrgurgle…” Came the disembodied reply from the benthic sludge.

“I will take that as a ‘yes’.” The Dark Lord sighed as he gathered his thoughts. “Before I was so rudely interrupted, I cannot allow the Khthonic conquest of the mortal world because it will be doomed to fail.”

“…?” Rather than gurgling a response, a pair of unfocused white eyes appeared near the far end of the pool and regarded the seated Theoi with what he assumed was a quizzical look.

“Context is important so let me provide some.” The learned Lord explained. “You know of the Fate of Heroes, correct?”

“…fight…win…tragedy…die…” The words were distorted but understandable if one strained their ears.

“Evil attacks, heroes rise to vanquish it and the day is saved, the heroes fall in many definitions of that word and then inevitably dies.” The King listed off neutrally. “It is a story repeated and retold throughout time immemorial often with different characters and settings.”

“A cycle.” Suneater said more clearly but still with difficulty.

“Correct.” The Dread Lord nodded. “Now what role would Khthonic gods such as you and I invading the Overworld to exterminate all light dwellers and plunge the land into darkness play? We would be the baddies in that story.”

“Unless we won.” A misshapen mouth appeared in the ooze allowing the Primordial to better articulate. “History is written by the victor as I have often heard.”

“He is recovering quicker than I thought.” The Theoi mentally mused. “The darkness of space must be feeding him. I should drive my point quicker.”

“Which brings us back to my first point: we would be doomed to fail and written off as another evil that threatened all that is good and pure and all that trite drivel.” The King said plainly. “Even if I assented to your conquest, heroes would arise to oppose us and the heroines in this story have a knack for pulling victory from even the most adamantine jaws of defeat. Granted, they use magical rainbows as opposed to the classic sword to the face but that is beside the point.”

“Wait. Did you not slay said heroines in Barathrum?” The Lord of Darkness pointed out.

“Only to gain the trust of Nightmare Moon to lead us to your consort.” The Necroarch answered with a tired sigh. “I had my Archmage resurrect them afterward.”

“Say what?” The melted dragon’s eyes widened in surprise.

“While it is true that all heroes are doomed to die and Princess Sparkle and her friends are no exception, the Fates determine when and where that is.” The pale horse explained coolly. “You cannot go against Fate. I know; I have tried in the past and gained this limp for my troubles.”

“But what if they were destined to die against us at this point in the 'story'?” The Lord of Darkness asked but the Theoi could hear the doubt in his voice.

“Alright, let us assume that.” The King decided to run through the scenario. “If recent history is any indication, we would enjoy perhaps a thousand years of supremacy before a new generation of heroes arose and the cycle continues.”

“What if we broke the cycle?” The Primordial ventured. “If the mortals were exterminated and replaced with those who dwell below-“

“The daemons are not mindless drones. They have drives and ambitions just like any other creature. It would only be a matter of time before one of them steps out of line. It could be through resentment, a desire for autonomy, simple lust for power or outright madness.” The Theoi interrupted. “I am worshipped, loved and feared (rightfully, I might add) by countless shades yet even I do not enjoy a hundred percent approval rating. Any one of the wretches in Tartarus can testify as much.”

“Then why not create a new race of mortals? One devoted completely to the Khthonic Pantheon.” Suneater was chasing down every possibility he could think of. “Night Sky’s disciple seemed more than willing to do so with you.”

“Oh yes indeed.” Some rather pleasant memories involving Moon’s voluptuous assets crept into the stygian stallion’s mind before he refocused. “However there are a few reasons why that can’t and won’t work.”

“Your generation of deities avoided this but the children of the divine have a habit of turning against their forebears.” The Theoi said knowingly. “The Titans turned on the Protogenoi, we Theoi turns against the Titans and our bastards lead to our Downfall. I only avoided my kin’s fate because I had no children of my own to turn against me.”

“True. Your nieces and nephews banished you instead.” The Primordial reluctantly agreed. “So is that it? Our campaign was doomed to fail from the start and even if we won it would only be a matter of time before we fell?”

“I think I’m reaching him.” The Dark Lord thought. “Just need to reel him in.”

“I have spent many months learning about the history of the world that formed in our absence.” The learned deity said flatly. “As I said before, the story of good versus evil has changed characters and settings but it always ends the same.”

“Rrrgh…” The ancient entity grumbled some equally ancient curses but did not refute the argument.

“Look, Shifting Darkness. I am stopping you from making a terrible mistake.” The Silent King said genuinely. “The consequences of which end with you trapped under a mountain and Night Sky tossed back into space.”

“And me spending some more quality time with Khaos in the Void.” He mentally added.

“Let us assume all that you said would come to pass. Why would you fight so hard to stop us?” The Lord of Darkness asked in a perplexed tone. “If you know we will fail, you could have just sat out our conquest like you had done with other conflicts in the past and reaped all the benefits. You would get an influx of souls and rule the Sunless Lands alone. So why stop us?”

“Well the mortals would have traced your origins to my realm eventually but that’s an aside.” The Overlord of the Underworld thought.

“Because…” The pallid pony grimaced as he realized just what he was about to say. “…friends do not let friends burn down the world.”

“Friends?” The rough approximation of a head emerged from the primal ooze and looked at the Theoi. “Rahahah! You jest! After everything that just happened that you would still consider us…Air of Khaos, you are serious.”

“I am so glad Sparke is not here to witness this.” The King shifted in the suddenly uncomfortable throne.

“Even the most devoted of companions argue from time to time and this is not the first time you and I have come to blows.” He said candidly. “That being said, we have never gotten to the point where we nearly knock a celestial body out of orbit.”

“Rahah. Do you recall when we first met?” Suneater reminisced with a short laugh. “You had just convinced Night Sky to accept your dominion when I walked in. I thought you were seducing her.”

“I remember going through a few walls then as well.” A ghost of a smile played across the pale horse’s lips at the memory. “Afterwards, once Night Sky pulled us apart and set the record straight, you became one of my staunchest supporters in my campaign for dominion of the Underworld.”

“It is a shame you will not…cannot return the favor now.” The Primordial sighed. “But I do see why.”

“The key word is ‘now’.” The Dark Lord said neutrally as he slid out of the throne carefully. “In the future, tomorrow or a thousand years from now, it is entirely possible the roles in this grand story of Heroes will change. The Overworld could very well degenerate into such a cesspit of depravity that a Khthonic invasion would be deemed a just cause. If and when that day comes, I will not stop you. Perhaps I will even join you.”

“I like how you avoid completely committing.” The disembodied dragon prince said wryly. “You always tried to remain neutral if you could.”

“I’ve been sliding more toward evil in recent months.” The Necroarch thought apprehensively. “I should mind that slippery slope.”

“It has served me well.” He said with a shallow shrug as he stood over the primal pool of blackness.

The two immortals fell into silence for a few moments as Suneater ran over their extended conversation in his mind. The King left him to his thoughts as he kept an eye on the increasingly animated tendrils trying to remove the bident and the solar flares tearing across the planet. After a time, a low rumble from the Primordial demanded his attention.

“I follow your logic and reason, Hidden One.” The Shifting Darkness said seriously. “But if you are genuine in your desire to salvage our friendship, I ask one thing of you.”

“And that would be?” The Theoi made eye contact with the ancient entity and set a neutral expression.

“The truth.” Suneater answered. “There is always an ulterior motive with you; some hidden plan or scheme. Every act of compassion or generosity conceals a pragmatic plot that benefits you. So I want you to swear on the Styx and tell me the real reason why we have had this heart-to-heart.”

“He knows me so well.” The King’s expression remained unchanged as he raised his free hoof into the air. “Very well then.”

“I swear this oath upon the River Styx that what I speak next is the truth and may the Furies rip my tongue from my head if it speaks lies.” The Khthonic Lord recited a mantra that caused the artificial air around them to chill. “I oppose your invasion because the eternal night you endeavor to bring will eventually wipe out all life in the Overworld and thus deprive my realm of its primary and only source of souls. As for salvaging our friendship, you have proven to be a powerful ally in the past and are thus an irreplaceable part of the Underworld and its hierarchy. It is why I went through the trouble of finding and releasing you in the first place.”

“Hrmm…” The Primordial rumbled again as he processed this. “It is a convenient coincidence that whatever benefits the Realm of the Dead also benefits you.”

“I am its god, old friend.” The stygian stallion pointed out with a small smile as he slid his helm off completely and stashed it in the shadows of his tunic.

The primal sludge glared at the Theoi for a few moments before he broke into a smile of his own.

“Rehehe! Fates love you, you silver tongued devil.” Suneater chuckled in good humor.

“No one else will.” The King’s smile actually widened to a friendly grin. “Let us get this out of you, shall we?”

“Please do.” The Primordial said eagerly. “Do not worry about stepping on me. It is numb compared to that thing.”

Minding his hoof placement regardless, the King limped over to his bident and grasped it in his fore hooves. The melted dragon hissed at his touch and he paused.

“Fair warning: this will hurt.” The pale horse warned.

“Better out than innnaaAAAARGH!” The Lord of Darkness let out a deafening roar as his friend yanked out his staff from the core of his being. “I WAS WRONG!”

Free of the offending protrusion, the glowing fragment of Khaos sank into the dark ooze and vanished from sight. The tenebrous pool spiked and rippled like ferrofluid under a magnet before it began to coalesce into a solid form. The shadows of the universe returned to normal as their embodiment pulled himself together. The Theoi shifted his weight to his staff and extended a hoof to help his increasingly corporeal friend up. Instead of a dragon’s claw, a five digit hand reached out and grasped his fetlock. With a grunt, the King pulled his old friend up off the floor as he congealed into being. Before him stood a pitch black bipedal creature akin to the Lady of the Stars only with far more masculine traits including rippling pectorals and chiseled abdominals that one could grind rocks on. He also wore considerably less with his decency protected only by a knee length black wrap trimmed with gold.

“Well, well, well!” The Primordial said excitedly as he looked over his resorted form and ran his fingers through a flowing mane of nether-fire that crowned his sculpted head. “Blowing me apart must have knocked all those shapeshifting kinks loose. Night Sky is going to love this!”

“I am certain she will.” The Necroarch nodded in agreement. “Speaking of, we should go to her as soon as possible.”

“Are you going to give her the same heart-to-heart you gave me?” The Lord of Darkness asked with an arched brow.

“No.” The Theoi answered simply. “You are.”

“What?” Shifting Darkness’s eyes widened at the thought of being thrown to the metaphorical wolves. “Is this for saying we planned to merge the worlds of the living and the dead? I only said that to make you angry and reveal yourself!”

“It worked.” The Lord of Shades fought the urge to slug his friend in his perfect jaw.

“It would be better for someone she loves absolutely to talk to her.” The caliginous cleric explained neutrally.

“Ugh, I see a few centuries on the couch in my future.” The ancient pinched the bridge of his nose. “Very well. I still need some time to build up my strength to return to…what is it called now? Equus?”

“Correct.” The Theoi nodded before he looked back at the moonstone throne. “Let me know as soon as you are ready.”

As the pallid pony limped away, his friend stood at the edge of the ruined Orrery and basked in the vast darkness of space. He went over just what he was going to say to the stellar lady. He did not want to sound like he was quoting the Hidden One verbatim but he still wanted to get the point he made across.

“The key point might be that ‘not now but maybe later’ bit.” The ex-dragon muttered. “If the attack on that sun princess is going poorly, I could use that as evidence.”

After a he was certain he had enough power to make the jump from the moon to the planet, Suneater turned to call over the Silent King. He saw the pale horse finish etching something into the floor at the base of the throne and then kneel down to place something beside it.

“What is that?” The Primordial asked.

“A private matter.” The Theoi answered coolly as he approached the Khthonic entity.

"Is it an apology for demolishing her bastion?" The Lord of Darkness looked around at just how destructive their duel was. "And almost dropping this rock on the Overworld?"

"Something of that nature." The Silent King answered simply before he switched topics. “Are we ready to go?”

“That we are.” Suneater answered as enveloped the Necroarch I his being. “This is going to be a bit rough so brace yourself.”

Taking care not to get too close to the solar flares, the Lord of Darkness launched out of the Orrery and arched toward the beleaguered world below. On the snowcapped peak of Mount Canterhorn, the Lady of the Stars was ill at ease. The shadows fading seemed to be the sign that her carefully laid plans were beginning to unravel. Her apostle’s forces were breaking under the assault of the solar flare while the Dark Alicorn herself had not triumphed over her diurnal sister.

“And now the Element Bearers return from the dead.” The stellar presence muttered as she spotted the once deceased pastel ponies down below with Moon and the Solar Alicorn. “What can possibly be next?”

As if the universe decided to answer her, a dull boom turned her attention skyward again. From the center of the eclipse she could see an object trailing darkness and nether fire like a black comet hurtling down through the sky. Shockwaves of shadows accompanied sonic booms as the entity broke through the layers of atmosphere heading toward her. The Lady of the Stars smiled as she felt a familiar and welcomed presence.

“Shifting Darkness.” The Primordial Lady sighed in relief. “Good. Perhaps now we can turn this mess around.”

The embodiment of the stars shielded herself as the black comet touched down in front of her with enough force to shake the mountain to its roots. Through the swirling dust and snow, the Lady saw her consort emerge in a form she found most agreeable.

“Oooh~” She cooed. “And I was just starting to get used to the scales.”

“I could always shift back if you wish, beloved.” Suneater started to smile but set his face in a serious express. “Unfortunately, this is not time for lover’s games.”

“How right you are.” The stellar presence nodded in agreement. “Ever since the Alicorn of the Day called down the power of the sun, the balance of power has shifted. But now that you are here, we can-“

“I am afraid that is out of the question, Night Sky.” The Silent King interrupted curtly.

The Primordial Lady’s mask of regality slipped slightly as the mini-blizzard settled to reveal the Khthonic Theoi leaning against his staff looking a bit worse for wear but not beaten. She looked from the King to her consort in evident confusion. They had returned together but the Dark Lord was clearly still not on their side.

“What is the meaning of this?” The astral being demanded.

“Here we go.” The Lord of Darkness said under his breath as he visibly steeled himself. “My love, there is something we must discuss.”

The Lady of the Stars folded her arms across her chest and shot a scathing look toward the Necroarch. The Dread Lord just ignored her as he trotted to the edge of the mountain to give the two Primordials some privacy. Seeing that the pale horse was not participating, the sidereal entity turned back to her lover and sighed deeply.

“You have my undivided attention, Shifting Darkness.” She said with an obvious edge in her voice.

“It pains me to say it but our campaign is doomed to fail.” The tenebrous Primordial began. “You see…”

While the Lord of Darkness started his harrowing debate with the Lady of the Stars, the Lord of Shades peered over the edge to the besieged city down below. Within the blasted ruins of the palace, he could see solar and lunar magic struggling against each other. He also saw a third power begin to rise against the destructive duel of the formers. The fate of Equestria was about to be decided and he felt compelled to bear witness.

“Twilight?” Applejack asked with trepidation. “Are you sure this’ll work?”

“I have no idea.” The Princess answered honestly as she focused on the two embattled Alicorns. "It could very well destroy us all."

“The way I see it, we’re dead either way so at least we go down fighting!” Dash said confidently. “Just tell us what we need to do, egghead!”

“I know it has been awhile but you all remember what using the Elements of Harmony felt like, right?” Sparkle asked.

“Yeah, like the best cake, cider and party rolled into one!” Pinkie smiled brightly at the fond memory. “But we don’t have them with us.”

“I know but that won’t matter.” The scholarly Alicorn assured her. “Just focus on those memories. No matter what you hear, see or feel do not stop.”

“Well, you heard the mare!” Rarity sounded unsure but was confident in her friend. “Just like we did in the Castle of the Royal Sisters.”

“Good luck, Twilight.” Fluttershy said quietly. “Remember we are right here with you.”

“I could not do this if you were not.” The lavender Alicorn thought as she ignited her horn. “I would not have even made it this far without you girls.”

Running over the details of Starswirl’s ritual, Lulamoon’s additions and her own notes in her mind, Sparkle began channeling her magic. Her rose hued magic flowed off her horn and drifted toward her friends. As per her instructions, the heroines focused on each of their respective Elements. The magic washed over them, causing a few to shift uneasily as the alien sensation reached into their very beings. Once they were all linked, the Princess of Magic reached out to her friends through the ethereal connection. Their souls burned brightly in her mind; almost tempting her to use them as the original ritual demanded.

“It would be so easy.” The thought drifted through her mind like a poisonous whisper. “A few moments of pain and then it will all be over.”

“Twilight?” Fluttershy sounded like she was in pain.

“NO!” Sparkle forced herself to focus. “I KNOW there is a better way!”

The Princess intensified her search. She could hear the grunts and moans of distress from her friends as she probed deeper but her efforts were rewarded when she finally spotted the individual Elements among the many facets of her friends; Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter and, to complete the set, Magic. Even in the face of certain doom, the harmony that had brought them together was still with them as adamantine as the day they first met.

“The necklaces and crown thingy are just catalysts.” Sparkle thought as she linked them together and called forth the power within them. “The true Elements of Harmony are right here!”

A phantom representation of the Elements appeared around each bearer as Sparkle’s magic became streaked with the colors of the rainbow. The six friends floated into the air as the first half of the ritual neared completion. All this was lost on Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon as the two rolled across the floor in manner more appropriate for squabbling siblings than dueling immortals.

“I was always the better warrior, you spoiled harlot!” Moon sneered as she dug her talons into the Solar Alicorn’s sides. “While you were having tea parties and teasing the help, I was scouring the wilderness for bandits and fiends!”

“You were a jealous nag even then!” Daybreaker shot back as she reversed their positions and started raining blows on the Night Mare’s head. “I had friends, supplicants and all the lovers I could ask for! No one wants you, now or ever!”

“That is where you are wrong!” The Usurper shouted as she drove the mad mare back with a blast of ethereal magic. “I have found beings that will revel in my Eternal Night and subjects that worship my greatness! You will be nothing but a bad memory in the minds of dying equines!”

The midnight Alicorn leapt into the air intending to crush her foe’s skull beneath her cloven hooves. The blazing Princess rolled out of the way and countered by kicking out with her powerful hind legs. Moon just barely avoided the bone crushing blow by quickly flapping her wings and taking to the air. Daybreaker joined her and the two took a moment to glare at each other. Both of them were bruised and bleeding to the point that even their empowered forms could not instantly recover. In some unspoken agreement, the two poured every last bit of their power into one final spell. Their duel was at an end and only one of them would sit on the contested throne of Equestria.

“This is my realm.” The Solar Destoryer growled as she glowed like a miniature sun, causing her side of the room to melt and warp. “You will not take it from me.”

“Then it will die with you.” The Night Mare snarled as the area around her twisted and distorted into horrific forms. “It will be all the easier to raise my realm in its place.”

Lunar and Solar magic erupted from the two and clashed above the throne room. The opposing beams struggled back and forth as what remained of the palace began to burn and disintegrate from the raw power each Alicorn was unleashing. Neither of the bitter sisters noticed the building harmonic magic until a shaft of prismatic light shot forward and joined the struggle in the center. A surprised Moon looked over to see her vanquishers in a familiar pose surrounded in an aura of brilliant light.

“No. No! NO!” The Usurper screamed as the familiar rainbow raced down both her and Daybreaker’s magic and enveloped them. “NOT AGAIN!!”

“What trickery is this?!” The Solar Alicorn yelled as they were forced to the ground. “Sparkle! What are you doing!?”

“What I must.” The Alicorn of Magic thought as she reached out to her fallen counterparts.

Immediately she was assaulted with hideous visions of hated, wrath, malice and others that words failed the accurately describe. Sparkle shuddered in the face of such manifest evil but did not relent; a feat she knew would not be possible without her friends behind her both literally and figuratively. The mare pushed through the storm of disharmony as she searched for the souls of the Princesses she once looked up to.

“AAARGH!” Moon shrieked as she strained against the binding power of the Elements. “KILL HER! KILL HER NOW!”

“I’M TRYING!!” Daybreaker roared like a demon out of Hell. “SOMETHING- GAAAH!!”

Sparkle felt the corrupted Alicorns fight against her intrusion but pushed onward ignoring the pain that shot through her skull. After a few agonizing moments that might as well have been years, the youngest Princess pushed through another layer of hate to find two souls in conflict. One glowed like a sun surrounded by a hellish crimson aura that writhed and gnashed like a feral beast. The other was a light-consuming new moon surrounded by a flux of the night sky. Both seemed to be struggling to overpower the other but where Moon’s black soul was completely committed, something very small in Daybreaker’s was holding back. This tiny fragment took notice of the interloper.

“Twilight…” Celestia’s faded voice called out.

“Celestia!” Tears of joy formed in the eyes of the former student of the Solar Princess. “I knew there was still some good in you!”

“Twilight…please…” The Diarch pleaded. “You must… end this…madness…”

“I’m trying.” The lavender mare tried to reach out to the phantom image of her mentor but it was like chasing the wind. “If I can pull you out-“

“No…time…” Celestia interrupted. “I am…holding her back…if I leave…she will… kill everyone… please…take this…”

A point of light broke away from the tyrant sun and floated toward Sparkle, causing Daybreaker to let out a glass shattering scream. The purple Princess knew this to be Celestia’s Solar Magic. She had wielded it once before during their campaign against the demonic Tirek. Despite her familiarity with the celestial power, the former pupil was still hesitant to take it.

“Celestia…” Sparkle tried to say before what felt like a hoof touched her lips.

“Shh…you can…do it…Twilight…” The fading fragment of Celestia said in a soft, motherly tone. “My best…and brightest…proud of you…”

The lavender mare tried to reach out to the elder Princess but she had already returned to her task of keeping Daybreaker in check. With a single tear running down her cheek, the Alicorn took the spark of magic and turned her attention to the dark soul. No whispers greeted her. No figment of the Lunar Alicorn called out to her. There was nothing but an umbral pit of jealously, spite and malice.

“Luna’s gone.” Sparkle realized a terrible truth. “There is only the Nightmare now.”

Where Celestia’s power had been surrendered willingly, she would have to take Luna’s by force if there was any left. The Alicorn steeled herself and pushed into the wretched abyss that was the Equestrian Usurper. She did not get far before the corruption swirled around her, dripping venomous thoughts into her mind and poisonous feelings into her soul.

“Once these two obsolete nags are out of the picture, Equestria will be mine!” An ambitious Queen declared manically. “MINE!!”

“I am the Element of Magic yet there is still so much to learn.” An unfettered Scholar mused. “There are whole worlds out there just waiting for me!”

“No!” Sparkle tried to shake off the rot but it persisted. “This isn’t me!”

“Oh, but it is.” Her own voice whispered into her ear. “Before you were force to befriend those miserable reprobates, that was the real you. Do not deny it.”

“I am not that lonely shut-in anymore!” The Alicorn retorted. “She could have never vanquished Nightmare Moon or reform Discord or-!”

Her mental protests ceased as a vision appeared out of the darkness. A deep purple Alicorn with streamlined violet wings and a teal aura around her eyes looked down on the youngest Princess. Sparkle stared at the alternative her from the crystalline horn that radiated a level of magic she did not think possible to her dark mane that flickered like fire.

“We can do all that and more.” Twilight Sparkle told herself as she extended a regal hoof. “The potential is there it just needs to be unfettered and your mortal sycophants are the weights and chains.”

The lavender Alicorn did not say anything. If this version of her truly was so powerful, there would be no need to further put her friends in jeopardy. Equestria could enjoy another Pax Equus under her reign. She would be free to pursue every arcane secret in this world and others as befits the Goddess of Magic! Sparkle looked back up at her future and slowly raised a hoof to meet it…

…and slapped it across the face.

“I will NEVER turn my back on my friends!” The Princess of Friendship proclaimed as a bright light began to burn through the darkness. “I would rather die forgotten by history than live one miserable moment as you! Now begone! I have a world to save!”

A flash of pure harmonic light banished the smiling phantasm along with the corrupting miasma. In the brief moment of clarity before the darkness surged back in, Sparkle spotted a gleam of familiar moonlight. She seized the lunar magic and struggled to tear it free of its host. Just as the rot was about to close over her, the spark came free with a dreadful wail from the Usurper. Sparkle quickly fled the corrupting influence of Nightmare Moon’s wicked soul and returned to the ether. The Alicorn now stood at a precipice with the very magic of the sun and moon in her hooves. She knew that this was her absolute last chance to turn back; to search for some alternative before she crossed the point of no return.

“This is it.” Sparkle thought as she took the dual celestial magic into her very being. “The event horizon has been crossed.”

The lavender Princess shuddered and moaned for a brief moment before she returned to reality with a gasp, brilliant white light shining forth from her eyes. The purifying light spread to the harmonious rainbow intertwining the Element Bearers and corrupted Alicorns. Moon and Daybreaker could only scream defiantly as the light washed over them. With a thunderous boom, the light expanded throughout the throne room and beyond. Solarii vanished into the light as it overcame them while Umbrals were sent flying out of the city like trash in the wind. The few Solar and Night Guard left in the city were knocked flat as the civil war came to a sudden and abrupt end. The solar flares buckled and dissipated as the wave enveloped the entirety of the castle and what was left of the administration district. On the peak of Mount Canterhorn, the Khthonic trio was forced to shield their eyes and turn away as the light reached them. In the humble village of Ponyville, Spike and Discord along with a number of Tyrian Guards and civilians watched as the mountain was illuminated.

“Is that…” The draconequus pointed his paw at the spectacle as his jaw hit the floor.

“They did it!” Spike would have jumped for joy were he not holding the mismatched prankster’s jar. “Polish my scales, they did it!”

All across the world, from close neighbors to distant nations, creatures meek and mighty watched as a light bloomed in Equestria like a second sun. A scarred minotaur looked on from the deck of a homebound airship. A shackled griffoness peeked out from the bars of her cell. After an extended eclipse followed by columns of fire scouring the landscape, hope returned to the mortals of the Overworld. Even in the stygian depths of the Sunless Lands, the daemons and denizens felt that something amazing had happened.

“Oi, boss?” Fleabag asked Grand Marshall Armor. “Do you feel dat?”

“I do.” The Undying knight nodded with a smile only a proud brother could possess.

The purifying light reached as far as the countryside surrounding the mountain before it halted its progress. Just as suddenly as it had expanded, it collapsed into a single beam that shot out of the palace and into the void of space. As the light neared the eclipsing moon, it split into three prongs like a trident. The two on the sides arched around the pale satellite while the middle impacted the lunar surface with the furious screams of a vanquished usurper. The other two continued on until they neared the blazing majesty of the sun. The beams recombined and plunged into the cosmic inferno, the enraged roars of a banished tyrant and its minions lost among the solar fire along with the gentle sigh of a relieved mentor. The lunar and solar circles, long in conflict, finally ended the eclipse and began to set in the eastern and western horizons respectively. The purifying beam shone for a few more moments and then condensed into a single point within the ruined throne room of Canterlot. Five of the Element Bearers gently touched down on the marble floor while twinkling beads of lights fell around them like fresh snow in the twilight sky. Above the Heroines, the purifying light drifted down to them and took on a new shape. They watched in awe as the radiance faded to reveal powerful gradient wings that went from lavender margins to violet primary feathers. Long, slender legs led to a lithe frame worthy of royalty. A long, magnificent horn stood proud amongst a long, flowing ethereal mane of sapphire and purple streaked with rose and studded with the stars of early dusk. The sole Alicorn of Equestria opened her violet eyes and looked at her awe-struck friends.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

On the snowcapped peak of Canterhorn, the Lords and Lady of Shades, Darkness and the Stars recovered from the purifying wave that threatened to cast them off the mountain. The three looked around to see a clear sky in twilight. All was quiet in the razed city below with nary a sign of the civil war that had been raging not moments ago. A single light illuminated the ruined palace as a new power collapsed into being.

“Your apostle has failed, Night Sky.” The Silent King announce neutrally. “It is over.”

“Yes.” The stellar entity said in a level tone. “It seems that way.”

“This is what I was talking about, my love.” Suneater took his consort by her shoulders and held her close. “Even in their darkness hour, the heroines of this era have snatched victory from your hands. We need to quit the field before you end up back in space and I get another mountain dropped on me.”

The Khthonic Lady frowned as she placed a hand over her beloved’s. She looked behind her at the Dark Lord who maintained a neutral expression as always. Night Sky inhaled deeply and let out a long sigh as she rested her head against the embodiment of darkness’s broad chest.

“I grow tired of this place, my love.” She said defeated. “Take me home.”

“Right away.” Suneater embraced his consort, his happiness almost palpable. “Hidden One, it is high time we departed this accursed land.”

“Agreed.” The Silent King hefted his bident and trotted over but not before he stole one last look down below at Equestria's newest monarch.

“Congratulations, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.” The Dreaded Overlord of the Underworld mused as he joined the two Primordials, the male having already shifted back into his draconic form. “I will be watching your burgeoning reign with great interest.”

Anyone who was watching the mountain may have noticed a colossal black dragon leap off the peak and fly off to the northeast only to be lost in the dusky sky. After years of crisis and disasters, a sense of hard earned peace fell over Equestria. A new age was dawning and the little ponies were eager to welcome it.

I apologize for the delay. Real life made finding time to work on this difficult.