The four of us and the six ponies ran down the pass. I needed to stop at the command tent. If Luna was going rogue to save the kingdom Celestia would want to know. "Atari lance, status report."

"Missile ammo at half, a.c. ammo at half, and a shiny new sword," Big Bear chuckled, "left arm armor is scratched."

"Roger."

The sword was no longer on fire. I filed that away under very important things to ask about later. Rolf was still running fine and that meant we had one assault still ready to tango.

"Both arms damaged armor, scratched everywhere, leg actuators whining about hard landings," Ninja reported.

"Roger. Take it easy on the flying."

"Left arm internals are damaged, five a.c. shots and six srm shots fired. And my left arm hurts."

"You're the best Reaper." Two mostly functional assaults, and my scout at half armor. "Half srm ammo spent, left arm critical and two ppc's dead, center armor critical," I reported, then cut my mic and sighed as i tried to figure out what our next move was.

This fight was going on way too long. The Tiger and the Kodiak were still fairly fresh though. As long as we didn't have to handle many more demon incursions we would be ok. And as long as our support ponies were still running. I keyed the speaker. "Twilight Sparkle, how are you girls holding up?"

Twilight looked up at me and disappeared in a purple flash. An accompanying flash above my cockpit told me what happened.

"I'm scared, Chris,” her voice said clearly. “The last time we saw Princess Luna like that was when we got the elements of harmony in the first place, when Luna was Nightmare Moon. She banished Princess Celestia."

"She showed me in a dream. So far it seems like she's still firmly on our side."

"Yeah," Twilight agreed after a moment of hesitation, "She's just...ruthless."

"Try not to worry about it right now. We have a battle to finish. How is the harmony spell holding up?"

"I don't know if we can do that again. It takes focus, and we are all kinda shaken now."

"Well you've been amazing so far. Tell me if you can't use the spell against Atlas and we will take him out."

Twilight looked conflicted, then nodded uncertainly. "Ok Chris."

"It's Omega until we're done with this."

"Why don't I get a code name?" Twilight asked with a bit of her snark finding its way back into her voice.

"Because you're a legendary hero. I could call you archmage."

"I'm not an archmage." Twilight seemed almost mad that I would suggest it.

"Twilight, you just teleported rather than talk louder. You are the personal errand girl for the princesses in all matters of end-of-the-world calamities. You're an archmage."

"I just studied hard."

"And I'm just a businessman." She looked rather conflicted about that too. "Look, it's just a silly name. Hiro isn't a ninja."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Powerful, but fragile, I reminded myself. "Sorry this is so rough. We get through it."

"Thanks Omega."

"Any time Archmage."

She grinned at me through my cockpit glass and teleported off of the top of my stalker.

"You really just do that to handle her," Reaper observed.

"No different than keeping you in line."

"Ouch," Ninja butted in.

"I meant all of you."

"Ouch," Reaper mimicked.

---

We marched down the path in formation. The three minute run was nervous. I kept looking over my giant metal shoulders for demons and teleported invisible titans. The battle at the foot of the mountain was winding down. The royal battle casters and the royal guard were mopping up the remnants of the cultists, Shining Armor leading the charge. I saw two demons we had missed and one hydra that might have been coaxed back, but they seemed to have things under control. The siege line was a smoking ruin and their lauded titans were gone.

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were both fine and at least Celestia was still fresh. Luna...she still seemed to be showing restraint and on the side of the kingdom, old speech and ruthless fighting notwithstanding. I was more worried about her being tired.

The sun was beginning to near the horizon as we got to the bottom of the mountain. The most beautiful sunset over the distant ocean highlighted the clouds. All the more impressive was knowing that Celestia was doing this herself. I glanced back as we got off the path and headed for the road east to the gates of Tartarus, to see the harvest moon beginning to rise. I came to a realization a moment later that it had only been a good seven hours since breakfast. Midnight's clock confirmed my suspicion. This place had an exact twenty four hour day.

"Twilight, what time is it?"

"Just after... noon, why..." she yelled back between breaths. Her expression slowly went to terror as she looked at the sunset.

"Princess Luna!" She began looking around madly, searching for something. Probably the princess of the night. The others caught on and started looking equally panicked.

"What's going on?"

Twilight flashed again. "Princess Luna controls the night, and she can make the moon rise whenever she wants to! She might be turning back into Nightmare Moon!" The words poured out of her rapid fire from the top of Midnight. "She wanted to declare eternal night and rule equestria and she's going to banish Celestia and throw her in a dungeon in the place that she banished her to and then she's going to find US-"

"Twilight!" I interrupted her. She startled and stopped panicking, at least vocally. "The sun is still up. Whatever is going on, Celestia is still here. Probably."

Twilight considered that, then nodded.

"So what does that mean?" I prodded her.

"Well I guess I don't know..."

"But what could it mean?"

She looked down. "The only time that the sun and moon are in equal balance is between sunset and moonrise, or usually known as twilight, so it could mean that the princesses are trying to share power right now."

"Twilight."

"Yeah?"

"No you said that right now is twilight."

"Yes. So?"

I wasn't the magic prodigy, so I didn't speculate further. The name coincidence seemed too big to be chance though. "Let's just get to the princess."

“Okay." She rode Midnight the rest of the way.

Celestia stood outside of her command tent staring wistfully at the sunset.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight teleported off of Midnight and ran to her mentor, and they shared a heartfelt looking embrace. I didn't catch the short conversation that followed over the sounds of our footfalls. The Elements of Harmony all embraced the princess, who spread her majestic wings over the group. I stopped as close as I dared and keyed my mic.

"Celestia, your sister..."

"She is exercising her power, yes Chris." She looked past us at the sunset again. "This time she has left room for me. But now is not the time to worry about that."

She looked up at me expectantly. I nodded, grinning for a moment. This had to be what clicking felt like. Still, I knew that as an immortal sun god she was probably dumbing herself down for me.

---

I took a breath and went back to business. "Luna believes the next location is the gates of Tartarus. Atlas activated some kind of magical necklace that made him disappear."

"Which means that she was able to identify the target of the spell." Celestia nodded. "Was anypony with him?"

"Maybe a unicorn or two, and we have no idea who is there waiting."

"There is a royal guard detachment stationed at the gates for defensive purposes, but they cannot be expected to handle a titan."

Crap. "Then there's no time to lose. We will march out and meet the demons halfway."

"And leave my sister alone with Atlas? No. We all go. Colonel, you can handle the rest of the fight yourself?"

The colonel smiled and saluted. "Send them back to Tartarus, Princess."

"Yknow Omega, when the contract said 'to hell and back' I didn't think that would be literal," Reaper said.

"Yeah well hazard bonuses and all that."

"You seriously pick th-"

"Shut up." I was trying to limit Reaper’s damage to company morale, but he wasn’t having it.

"Hey guys, remember the time Omega literally got us a mission to go to hell?"

"Yeah, well I only lost an arm. And my soul," Ninja deadpanned.

"Your petty suffering amuses me, mortals!" Big Bear growled with more gusto than usual.

"Good old Rolf the Fleshflayer," Reaper laughed.

"He's really lightened up since he got possessed," Ninja added, still devoid of emotion.

I keyed the external speaker. "Celestia, my group of babies is worried about losing their souls while being driven mad."

Celestia didn't seem as amused. "I did not intend to have your unit help with this. If it is beyond your capabilities, then please hold the line here."

Reaper spoke up after a moment. "I didn't say that."

"I'm sure whatever is there is worse than what we've seen," I said, recalling the balrog we killed.

"Bullshit, can't be worse than three clan dropships unloading over the Draconis Combine capital."

"Orders?" Big Bear asked.

I keyed the external speaker in lieu of responding.

"We are contracted to defeat the titans, and we will Celestia."

The princess nodded. "Prepare yourselves." She spread her wings and began glowing like the setting sun.

Reaper sighed into the mic. "See you all in hell."

---

We found ourselves at the foot of a mountain surrounded by dark forest. The setting sun lit the area in deep red and oranges, making the already fall leaves seem that much redder. In the side if the mountain was a wide gate, still closed. Nightmare Moon stood on a ledge above the gate, staring at the surrounding area.

"Atari lance, we require your scouting expertise," she bellowed.

"You heard the princess, fan out. Ninja, take the mountain."

"Roger!"

"Kay!"

"Moving."

"Rainbow Dash, sky patrol."

"Roger!"

I moved back to the closed gates with Celestia and Luna. "He's not here."

Luna shook her head. "He is. I know not his plan."

"Could it be a feint?"

She shook her head again. "Nay, the guard can stop him, and he would know that. He cannot stay in Canterlot with the spell that Shining Armor has. All intelligence points to Tartarus. He waits for us to make a mistake."

"Like spreading our forces-" I cut myself off and keyed the radio, "Reaper, Bear, fall back, on me!"

"Kay!"

"Joining."

Ninja cut in. "Omega, movement in the grove!”

"Eyes open, might be a feint."

Rainbow Dash dropped from the sky screaming something, slammed into the Tiger, and shot back to the rest of the elements. The Tiger roared into the air from its perch, just as several large boulders from the other side of the mountain slammed into the rocks where he had been standing. Two groups of cultists charged, one from either side of the mountain. A small group of demons charged from the grove of trees. No sign of Atlas.

I began barking orders. "Atari! Demons! Elements! North side! Celestia, Luna, south! Keep them from the gates!"

The Elements of Harmony organized quickly. The six were a formidable force, and not just due to Twilight Sparkle and her preposterously strong magic. The purple bubble over the six marched forward, Applejack and Rainbow Dash keeping away those eager enough to charge in. One or two would slip by to be greeted with a giant pie to the body or the pink party cannon to the face and get thrown back. I stopped worrying about that side for the moment.

The goddesses of the sun and moon simply stood in the path if the group of cultists from the other side of the mountain. They towered over the ponies, horns glowing and wings spread, and the charge stopped. As much animosity as they had for the alicorns, they didn't want to challenge them in open combat.

The line breakers were the force of demons. A couple big ones, a couple small ones, some fliers. They walked into the open, formed ranks, and postured.

"Atari, diamond," I barked.

They were in position, but expecting a disorganized charge from the west. We were in position to defend, but tired and spread thin. This was a standoff for the moment.

"Hit the big guys before they charge."

"Marking and shared, target alpha," Ninja added. The demons popped little letters above their heads. Lasers from the Kodiak and Reaper's atlas fired. I put on a show of firing the ppc's. The lasers seemed to slightly irritate the big demons. My two ppc's hit the demon, throwing it back into the trees. Suddenly they were accurate.

"Lucky shot," Reaper said in awe.

"No kidding."

Two more demons began charging us. I fired and hit again.

"Ok, what the hell,” I blurted out.

"Oh, sure, now they go where you aim," Reaper ranted.

I shook my head. The next few shots I fired went wide, but not as wide as they had been. "Looks like I'm support again."

“‘Bout fuckin’ time,” Reaper added.

"Bravo," Ninja barked. We fired, one of my ppc's hitting with several lasers.

"Keep it up," I called. This was going too well. My attention was drawn to the grove where the rest stood waiting for something.

"Charlie."

"Eyes on the grove, they're hiding something."

As if on cue the trees bent over as two giant hands parted the grove, bending a half dozen trees like blades of grass.

A demon almost twice as tall as Atlas stepped out with a predatory grin. His red and black leathery skin was covered in scars. He was naked but for a sash of skulls he wore across his chest, absolutely nothing hiding his blister-covered manhood.

"New target," I called, "end him."

The Kodiak closed to missile range quickly, ignoring the first demon he crossed and cleaving the second in half with his flaming sword. Reaper's autocannon barked. I expected the anti tank cannon to do great things to the demon. The demon snatched the shell out of the air.

"You aren't from around here," he commented in a rich baritone, full of mirth as he examined the shell. "This might actually be fun."

I fired my two ppc's as Big Bear fired his autocannon and Reaper fired again. This time he ignored the shells and the ppc's missed.

"Die fucker," Reaper called through the speaker. The demon waved his great hand and stood up straight as a wave of magic washed over all four of us. Suddenly I couldn't move. I felt my mouth start moving and I heard myself speak. The four battlemechs stopped running.

"I will not die," I heard myself and my teammates say in unison though the speakers as the demon spoke loud enough to be heard by all, "I will live forever!" The magic left us as he laughed. "The same cannot be said for you."

I still couldn't move. Whether by magic or paralyzed by fear I couldn't tell. None of my teammates moved either. I prayed to Luna in my head. If the ponies were frozen as well, we were truly fucked.

Both the sun and the moon began to shine more brightly. I saw the glowing wings of Celestia dart over the top of us. She landed in front of Big Bear with horn glowing. I felt the fear fade from my mind as rays of the sunset pierced through the scattered clouds and into my cockpit. "Kemmeran the Destroyer, you do not belong to this realm," Celestia bellowed in her soul-voice. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, then I realized that the demon himself was frozen. "Really Atlas, demon lords? You are desperate indeed," she called to the sky.

The response was a boulder half the size of the Tiger thrown at Celestia. The boulder bounced off of a black sphere. Luna's work, though she was nowhere to be seen. Good. I was able to move the joystick again after what seemed like an eternity. I turned Midnight to watch the sun goddess stride slowly up to the frozen demon.

---

"Really, how did he convince you that this was a good idea this time? I know your name. I rule the day in this realm now. It is you who is powerless." Celestia looked up and around at the unit of demons behind him. "Yet you are here anyway, which means...Luna, are you busy?"

The response was Atlas flying backwards away from the gates, landing and rolling in a limp heap in front of my cockpit. Luna landed gracefully next to him.

"Just a diversion, dear sister, nothing more."

Celestia shook her head. "Kemmeran, how have you fallen so far?" She seems almost genuinely concerned.

"You cost me a seat on the council, Celestia," he spat.

"And you learn from this a lifetime wasted on vengeance. How typical of your kind."

The demon glared powerlessly at Celestia. Atlas twitched as he regained consciousness. This seemed pretty well under control. I glanced back at Twilight Sparkle and company to see the six horrified by the sight.

"Elements of Harmony," Celestia commanded. "Send this lord back home." She spared a moment to glance up at my cockpit and then went back to looking around with haughty boredom.

"Atari, everyone with me?" Now I was getting that funny feeling.

"Reaper, yeah."

"Big Bear, good."

"Ninja, good."

"Eyes open, there's something else going on."

The unit gave a chorus of rogers and I went back to watching.

The swirl of magic around the elements of harmony seemed less like a jetstream and more like a babbling brook. I wondered if that was due to them getting tired or facing a mind controlling demon lord. Eventually the magic lashed out, wrapping the demon up and disappearing in the same way it had before. The demons behind him either looked terrified and froze or fled entirely.

"Yeah you better run," Reaper yelled.

The cultists were milling, frightened at a plan that had fallen so far from how it was supposed to go. Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony looked exhausted and horrified as they walked over to the princesses and the crumpled body of Atlas.

I recovered my breath and finally felt calm again. The demons had left. The titans were routed. The princesses and the elements were in good shape, if tired. The city had held.

"What do we do with the idiot?" Reaper asked over loudspeaker.

Celestia looked up and around at our group, pausing at each of us. "We will banish him. We should take him prisoner for the moment while the elements of harmony recover." She looked back down at Atlas. "I felt as if we are not done somehow."

I looked down at the motionless form of the war leader. He didn't seem in any position of power. However we had been several minutes late in arriving here and I didn't know what he had used the time to do. Celestia seemed to agree with me that there had to be more to his plan.

"Twilight," Celestia asked with all of the gentle grace I had learned she was capable of, "are you able to activate the elements again today?"

Twilight looked scared. "I...don't know princess. We feel tired."

Celestia nodded, and looked at Luna. "The Twilight gambit may be played out, dear sister."

Luna smiled predatorily. "Indeed, sister. It was quite a good move."

"Thank you. All the same, I believe it may be your move."

Luna nodded, though didn't look pleased by this news.

As the ponies stood in shock, the titan twitched. I took a step back. He turned his head, looked until he found me, and grinned.

His army had been routed. Two assassination attempts on me had failed. He was beaten and lying barely conscious at my feet, and still he smiled like he had the upper hand. I aimed my crosshairs at his smug face. I knew one way to make sure the next part of his plan didn't work.

Reaper must have seen what I saw, because the atlas twisted and fired when I fired.

The cultists jumped. The Elements of Harmony gasped as the titan's head exploded from my rocket strike and Reaper’s anti-armor round. They hid from the grisly spectacle of the titan's charred and exploded corpse. Celestia turned and glared at me for a moment, then frowned softly.

I ignored her for the moment. “You saw that too Reaper?”

“Yeah. Smile now, fucker.” I silently agreed.

As much as the chunky smear in a crater made me feel better about how Atlas and his cult had jerked me and my lance around for weeks, Celestia did not seem the type to get angry without reason. I realized I was in no position to be defensive and tried to press her for information. "What’s wrong Celestia?"

Celestia looked contemplative. "You would be counted on to finish the job. He would know that."

"Yes?"

"Killing a titan does not kill them, it merely sends them back to the earth where they may be summoned again," she explained. "This was not an issue during the battle, the summoning takes a lot of preparation and time, and with the cult out of the picture none of them would be accessible."

Shit. That would have been good to know in retrospect. "Unless he had a backup plan in place, counting on my lance being ruthless enough to kill them," I added.

Celestia nodded. "He gauged your reactions early and made plans accordingly. This must have been a possible scenario."

"Which means now he plans on his cultists summoning him."

"Or his brothers,” she added, looking around the battlefield.

"Who are also waiting to be summoned, but where could the cultists be conducting the spell from-" movement made me cut myself off mid thought. Luna looked up in alarm and stared at the gates where the scared remnants of the cultists milled.

Celestia and I looked at each other and came to the same conclusion. "Tartarus!"

Celestia ran to the elements of harmony and Luna stood instantly in front of them.

"Atari lance, prepare for assault from the gate!" I called over the radio.

The gates swung open from inside as if on cue. Luna spread her wings wide. The sun set, and the moon rose over the mountain. Darkness fell.

Kemmeran the Destroyer flew out of the gate at full speed with greatsword drawn and on fire, screaming in rage, barely visible in the moonlight. Two of our killed titans followed him, also yelling, backlit by the fires of Tartarus. The cultists rallied and charged.

Luna laughed, loud and terrible, and absolute blackness covered the area. The flaming sword went flying and impaled itself into the ground. I turned on the thermal vision. Luna stood in the middle of the field, laughing. The two titans hovered in midair. The demon looked around lost.

The demon bellowed, voice echoing in my head. "Where are you Luna!"

Luna's laughter greeted him, disembodied. "Atari, finish this," she commanded with sudden seriousness.

I shrugged, knowing now that killing them wouldn't solve this. "Atari, mark and take them out. Heat vision’s working fine."

Letters popped up over the titans.

"Alpha, demon." Hiro didn’t miss a beat.

Lasers from my three lance mates lit up the demon. I fired the ppc's. They hit the demon's head where I aimed. The body shriveled and imploded in a horrible scream.

"Bravo, titan."

The team fired again, and the ppc's hit home again. The titan went flying limply into the mountainside. "The hell?" Reaper called.

"Charlie, titan." Two more titans charged through the gate, one looking suspiciously like Atlas. I fired again and the ppc's hit home again. The second lifeless titan went flying. "What the hell," now Ninja was questioning my aim.

"Less talky more shooty," I reprimanded. Atlas must have seen Luna somehow because he looked at Luna and charged. I grinned at the giant letter E over Atlas’s head and interrupted Ninja’s target calling. "Echo."

Two more ppc's shots. Atlas went flying limply as the demon lord roared out of the gates again.

"Delta." Ninja took over again.

We fired at the second titan, again the ppcs hit home. A quick glance at my heat gauge told me that Midnight could keep this up all night. There was some serious magic bullshit going on now, but at least it was in my favor. Then the demon lord spread his wings and the world turned white.

“Arrogant mortals,” he bellowed in a voice that echoed in my head, “fear the pit lord of Tartarus!” When the night vision turned down, an army of thousands of demons had amassed on the battlefield appeared, flanking from the left.

"Demons on the right!" Ninja called.

"No, left!" Reaper insisted.

"Right side!" Big Bear called.

I could feel the panic, but fought against it. This was not only impossible, but would have been done earlier if they could. "Fall back Atari, this is magic bullshit." I watched the army approach from the left, and the Tiger and Kodiak fire at nothing on the right as they backpedaled into formation. "Luna!" I yelled into the loudspeaker.

I looked back at the mouth of the mountain where a very pissed off Atlas was emerging again. Luna stood, wings spread, horn glowing but otherwise motionless. There were about five seconds of me trying not to panic as we were assaulted by a partially invisible demon army. Then her spell released.

The demon army disappeared. The world turned black again. The demon lord floated in midair, stretched out like he was on a torture rack. Atlas floated similarly near him, and the gates of Tartarus slammed shut with an echoing clang.

Luna strode calmly up to the two, flinging aside a cultist who ran forward with a thoughtless wing. He slammed into a tree and didn't get back up. "Thy forces have had thy chance," Luna bellowed regally as the echo from the clang faded in the distance, to be replaced by the reverberations from Luna’s voice. "Thy forces are routed and we have bested thee in combat several times." She walked in a slow circle around them. "Surely our exploits must be familiar to thee, yes? We bested our sister twice." She looked at the demon, flapped her wings and hovered effortlessly in front of his face. "Thy rule is important, Kemmeran. Begone, and do not come back, lest we be less generous the next time." Malice dripped off of her words. She flicked a wing at him, and the demon was gone. She floated back to the ground with a single graceful flap, and looked at Atlas with a predatory grin. "Long have we awaited this day."

Atlas strained against his magical bonds, glaring at Luna in the darkness. "Thy last assaults took place before we truly learned our power, Atlas of the Titans. We apologize for not being able to give thee thy deserved welcome until now." Atlas floated down to Luna's eye level. "Welcome. We are grateful for the gift that thy followers delivered to this kingdom. The alien mercenaries were most helpful to us." Mockery dripped off of her sweet words.

Atlas's face contorted in rage. Luna looked faux surprised. "What is that, you say, that you are immortal and that we cannot stop you? Oh, but we have had three thousand years to consider that." She circled the captured titan like a caged tiger, impatient to strike.

"We know not what pact has been arranged to summon thee and thy brothers from thy banishment, or what deal was made to escape from Tartarus. So now we are forced to be content with binding thee. Didst thou enjoy the full fury of Midnight?" She chuckled. "The banishment protection on thy necklace was an insightful touch, but I suspect that thy newest replacement body has not had such protection placed upon it? Or should our mercenary friends force thy resummoning just to make sure?" She walked around the titan to face him again. "Twice thou hast now died. Once for our father, once for our mother. Didst thou enjoy thy trip?"

The magic that wrapped and stretched Atlas loosened and allowed him to open his mouth. "My world, alicorn, not yours! I will not let you destroy it-" he was cut off by the magic tightening again.

"So that thy rule of fear and power may begin again? No." She glared at him. "Perhaps I shall watch as the mercenaries shoot you until you do not feel like leaving Tartarus." Her perfect regal calm slowly gave way to her anger as she talked. "Perhaps I shall have you drawn and quartered over and over again!" Her shout echoed off of the hill. Celestia walked calmly over to her sister and stayed quiet. "Perhaps after a few days of watching you be murdered I shall be sated. Then we can banish you to the sun for ten thousand years."

"Let us banish him now," Celestia suggested.

"So quick to get back to control over your kingdom?" Luna snapped.

"Our kingdom, sister," Celestia reminded her quietly. The black alicorn turned to the white one with an annoyed glare.

I watched in silent horror as the two goddesses began to stare at each other defensively. I didn't like where this was going and wracked my brain for answers. As I watched Luna stretch Atlas and glare at her sister, I remembered her mentioning to me that she knew anger when she saw it. Maybe I could show her the torture she claimed she wanted, maybe it would look worse coming from someone else. I watched her glare turn to a snarl, and guessed that I didn't have much longer until this turned into a fight amongst gods. I gunned the throttle and steered over to the argument.

"Shit, commander's playing hero again," Reaper griped over the radio. I ignored him and flipped on the speaker.

"Princess Luna, do you require backup?"

"No Omega, you may stand down."

"If you need him murdered a few more times just let us know. Maybe slice his arms off and see how long it takes him to die." I fired my lasers at his outstretched arm. He moaned in pain.

Luna glared at me. "Stop!" For a moment I remembered Ponyville in flames around that face again. I took a single breath and continued.

I faked confusion. "Sorry, I thought we were torturing him."

Her expression shifted from a dissatisfied royal to rage. "You will not presume to act for us!"

I maintained the facade. "Are we killing him and murdering his cultists or not?" I took a few threatening steps toward the cowering ponies by the gate. Luna stayed silent. "Wouldn't take long."

Luna said nothing. Celestia looked up at my cockpit with a hopeful smile. This seemed to be working.

The elements of harmony walked up slowly to the scene. Twilight looked distraught. "Princess Luna, please. Stop. We’ll try again."

Luna looked down at the six and slowly calmed down. For a moment she looked smaller and less threatening. Maybe that was just the way her wings folded up. "No. No my friends, this is for me and my sister to deal with." She looked up at me. "Atari lance, guard us."

"Roger." I moved back into formation with my lance.

“You lucky bastard,” Reaper commented. I silently agreed.

Luna looked down at Twilight. "We, my sister and I, are capable of wielding the elements of harmony by ourselves." Celestia strode up to her sister and the titan. "If that is acceptable, of course."

Twilight nodded and the six looked relieved. Celestia and Luna lit their horns, and the six jewels floated up from over their bearers and began to swirl around the princess sisters.

"Begone from our kingdom, Atlas of the Titans," Luna proclaimed, and the rainbow swirl enveloped the titan. It and he disappeared.

Luna turned and looked at the remaining cultists. "Return to thy lives, ponies. Tell the tales of Atlas and the death and devastation he and his brothers brought to our world, and the compassion shown to you by the alicorns."

The strong willed ones turned and bolted, but most of the cultists cowered at the sight of Nightmare Moon commanding her own titans. She nodded slowly with a pleased smile that still managed to come off as disturbing. "Our kingdom is safe."

“Not quite, sister,” Celestia commented. Then she turned to face my lance. “It would appear that Atlas has struck some accord with Tartarus. It would be irresponsible of us to not ensure that everything is in it’s proper place before we return to Canterlot. There should be no danger, but would you accompany us into Tartarus as an honor guard?”

“Of course Your Highness,” I replied automatically. I was curious as to what lay inside the gates of hell, but I wasn’t about to go volunteering. We were all battered and low on ammo, but we still looked plenty menacing.

Celestia nodded, then looked at her sister. “Let us go Luna.” They nodded at each other, then turned toward the gates with glowing horns. A quick spell later, and the gates swung open again revealing darkness and flames within. “Twilight Sparkle, please remain here. We should not be gone long.”

“Ok Princess,” Twilight replied with some uncertainty.

My lance was silent as we marched through the gates of Tartarus. Immediately it became clear that this was less a place of eternal torture and hellfire and more of a prison. Long winding paths led to gated pits that contained various types of creatures. There weren’t as many imprisoned creatures as I had expected. The first order of business for the princesses was tending to a tied up gigantic three headed dog.

Rolf laughed into the radio. “Cerberus. Holy shit.” The rest of the lance was quiet. I stared at the greek legend as it rubbed two of it’s heads against Celestia and wagged it’s tail happily. There were so many legends on this planet. My four metal titans barely registered on the scale of ‘awesome things to be afraid of’, and I began to feel the need to leave as quickly as possible.

However, Celestia and Luna led us forward after petting and hugging the dog and scratching behind all six of its ears, assuring him that he was in fact a good boy. A nearby pit contained bound and gagged ponies and imps. Celestia and Luna greeted them with equal compassion, opening the gate and stepping inside to care for all of them in no particular order. The imps seemed as grateful as the ponies and equally respectful to the princesses. Both forces joined in the march forward.

The two titans we had ‘killed’ several times at this point stood in the path after a good five minutes of walking. They glared menacingly, but it was clear that this had not gone how they had intended it to. Celestia’s horn glowed, two nearby gates to pits swung open, and the two meekly stepped inside. The gates slammed themselves shut, with the imps we had freed scurrying forward to attend to the door and bang on the gates tauntingly.

“Oh I get it,” Reaper said with more thoughtfulness than usual, “this was a jailbreak.”

“In greek mythology, Tartarus is the prison for the titans. Looks like this place has more prisoners,” Rolf added. There were more paths than the one we were on. I wasn’t sure how deep the place went.

The end of the path led us to a larger pit. Atlas lay inside, unconscious. A small group of cultists lay on the ground outside, a couple daring to watch us approach in fear, the others simply cowering with their heads down. “Dost thou surrender?” Luna asked. The group nodded as one.

After the gate to Atlas’ cell had been checked, the princesses led us all back out. The cultists were marched out by the formerly captured royal guards. The imps returned to their duties with bowing. As uneventfully as we entered, we left the gates of hell.

Twilight Sparkle and friends looked relieved to see us emerge from Tartarus unscathed. The cultists we had captured were taken to the others, who hadn’t dared oppose the Elements of Harmony. Luna nodded calmly at her sister. “Thou were correct, of course.”

“We both were, the Midnight gambit was an excellent play, Luna,” Celestia said with a pleased smile. I really needed to ask about that later.

“If it is all the same, this reminds us too much of the past. Dost thou agree that the danger has passed?”

Celestia nodded. Luna strode forward into the clearing outside the gates of Tartarus. She spread her wings wide and her horn glowed. The moon set and the sun rose backwards, back to late afternoon. I could have sworn that she shrank and Celestia grew when that happened, but it might have just been that her armor disappeared.

Luna turned around and looked up at Celestia with fear. "I...I'm sorry." The ancient fearless warrior was gone, and in her place was a princess who had come close to atrocities.

Her older sister took a few quick steps forward and nuzzled her. "You were wonderful, you have nothing to apologize for. Let's go home." I dropped back into my seat and released a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.