Awakening of the Rogue Gods

by Israel Yabuki

Rating: teen
Tags: Thriller, Science Fiction, Adventure, Drama, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 31199

Tirek is back, but unaware of a power that even HE can't absorb

Life in Ponyville had been a little peaceful in the 3 months that the guys proposed to their mares, but sadly, duty was calling them forth as they find out that the evil Lord Tirek had broken out of the Tartarus prison once again. But this time, the Main 6 along with the Rogues had plenty of back-up on hoof.

Warning: The following story contains language, blood, and one death.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2017-02-06 00:07:44 UTC

Escape and Evacuation

It was a quiet night in Equestria. Out in the desert terrain where not a single creature was in sight, a strange dark vortex appeared under in the ground. Out of that dark vortex came a dark red claw as it sank into the dirt ground with an iron grip. Followed by it was another red claw, grabbing the dirt ground just as tight as the other. Then, a strange skinny figure climbed out of the vortex as quickly as possible and was soon bathed in the light of the moon. This skinny figure was known as Tirek. However, his powers were still weak but he ventured forth into the night in search of ponies.

In the town of Ponyville

It was a beautiful sunny morning, with the Rogues and the Main 6 were enjoying a nice quiet day enjoying a little breakfast a few of the girls and the guys had made. They had a nice breakfast outside near Twilight's castle. They enjoyed the food they made and started conversing with each other about their usual routines and recent events.

"So you all proposed to your girls? I'm impressed." Eternal Flames says before drinking his water.

"I couldn't wait. Twilight's special." Heat Wave replied.

"From what I heard from Rarity, she knew that he was going to propose to her that day, she was really excited." Hurricane Blitz said before taking a bite out of his hash brown.

"If you think she's excited, you should've seen AJ, she slammed her lips on me." Ground Dasher said.

"That makes two of us, bud." Spark Wave says.

"Try getting smooched in the mouth by two mares and the same time. You'll know exactly what I mean when you've experienced it for quite some time." Shadow Force says.

"Well, I for one couldn't help but admire the pure passion Red Heart and I shared when we kissed in the town square, after I proposed to my lovely lady." Tidal Wave says.

"If anything, we've all got our work cut out for us. Once we all get married, things are gonna get pretty interesting, but for some reason I feel this strange sting in my gut like something is going to happen." Eternal says.

"Why do you say that? Have you developed something similar to Pinkie's "Pinkie Senses?" Tidal asked.

"No, it's more like a "Rogue's Hunch" type of thing. Maybe I'm just going crazy. Either way, it's probably nothing. So, how are things with you and Fluttershy, Hurricane?" Eternal asked.

"Well, I feel like she and I are becoming one with nature. Although, it's tough to be around her friend, Discord, since he's always breathing down my shoulders like I might hurt her." Hurricane says, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, that's what we'd expect from the 'Lord of Chaos,' since he's been her friend for quite a long time. I'm surprised that he holds back his powers when he's got limitless amounts stored away in him." Eternal says.

"No kidding." said all the guys, before they continued eating.

However, with the girls

"Going through those mood swings can be quite a pain, huh, Sunset?" Twilight asked.

"You have no idea, I'm surprised Eternal was able to last out this long." Sunset replied.

"Oh darling, that just means he truly loves you and no matter what obstacle is in his way. He does this for your sake and well as for the little darling inside here." Rarity says, gently poking Sunset's slightly swollen belly.

"But...maybe I should've waited until after the whole 'Thunder Drum Incident' was over, because I feel like I forced him to take a step further at his ripe young age. I feel like I failed him as his marefriend." Sunset says with tears forming in her eyes.

"Don't you understand, Sunset? He loves you. You said you wanted a child, and he didn't deny of you at all. He didn't care if he was going to be a dad at an early age, because all that matters was your happiness, and I know he's very grateful to see that you were able to be blessed with your little bundle of joy." Fluttershy explains.

"She's right, sugarcube. Ya got one heck of a stallion who looks after ya with love and compassion. The same goes fer the rest of us gals, even though all o' his friends didn't choose us. But the fact is, we all love our special someponies and they all love us. So be proud o' yerself, no matter what, sugarcube." Applejack explained.

"Thanks girls, that means a lot." Sunset replied.

"Come on girls, group hug!" Pinkie implied. The girls all huddled together hugging each other. They then broke free and continued to enjoy their meals.

Their breakfast picnic went on smoothly with a litte bit of the girls giggling a bit at some of the guys as some of them started arguing who was the prettier mare. Sadly their laughs were cut short when some of Princess Celestia's royal guards appeared asking for the Prince of Equestria and the Princess of Friendship. Eternal Flames and Twilight Sparkle went along with them and were escorted to Canterlot where they both met the Royal Blaze, Eternal's father, who had recently become an alicorn, and Princess Celestia, Eternal's mother, and Twilight's former friendship teacher. But what was surprising is that Discord was with them as well.

"Mother, father, what did you need?" Eternal asked.

"I'm afraid it's very serious, my son. Discord has informed us about a magical disturbance." Royal Blaze says. "He's informed us that the evil Lord Tirek has escaped from Tartarus and is now robbing the ponies across the land of Equestria of their magic. From what Discord has told us, he's doing it again."

"Yes, and this time, he's not going to fool me again." Discord says, lifting his head up with his arms crossed.

"What are you talking about?" Eternal asks with a quirked eyebrow.

"Well, he promised me something better than friendship, and instead I was betrayed by him since he was strong enough to 'take over all of Equestria' and said I was no use to him anymore." Discord explains.

"That's evil overlord 101. They always dump their minions when they have all the power they need. But back on the subject at hoof, why would he escape again when he knows he's going to lose?" Eternal asks.

"We're not sure why, but nevertheless, you and Twilight must be on your guard. Even if he's tried taking over Equestria countless times, he's still to be considered dangerous." Celestia implies.

"Where is Tirek right now?" Twilight asked.

"Appaloosa, but so far, he's already drained the entire town and he's now moving towards Manehatten." Discord replies.

"Oh great, if we chase him down, he'll probably be long gone by the time he's finished draining one town. I don't even know how we're gonna take him on." Twilight says.

"Maybe I do." Eternal says. "Twilight, you and the girls stay here in Ponyville while the guys and I will scope out all over Equestria trying to find where he's at. From what I know, he's able to drain pegasi of their flight abilities, earth ponies of their physical strength, and of course, unicorns and alicorns of their flight and magic. Because of this, we have no choice but to evacuate the citizens here and in Ponyville someplace safe."

"Eternal, Tirek could easily drain you of YOUR physical strength. You'll end up at his mercy, which I doubt he'll be. Maybe we should provide you with some backup." Twilight says.

"There's no need for that. When Tirek once attacked Rogue Mountain, our powers acted as a barrier to prevent the tyrant from draining us of our strength, so there's no need to worry about me and the guys becoming a target." Eternal explains. Twilight didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, but for some reason, she believed him.

"But still, how are we going to evacuate everypony from Canterlot AND Ponyville? By the time, if we miraculously got everypony gathered, Tirek'll probably absorb their energy in one big gulp!" Twilight says.

"Why don't you leave that to me? After all, it was you who said I had limitless amounts of chaotic powers. I can easily make an underground safehouse for everypony to stay in." Discord says, proudly.

"You scare me sometimes, Discord. But in a good way." Eternal says.

"Why, thank you, kind stallion" Discord says, taking a bow before standing straight up again. "Now if we're all done stradegizing, I think it's safe to say that we should put our plan into action." Discord says

"Discord is right, we need to act quickly if we're to triumph against Tirek." Celestia says.

"Very well then, Twilight, Discord, let's go." Eternal says, turning towards the door, but is caught by surprise by Celestia as she teleported in front of him.

"Be careful, Eternal, you and your brothers are my pride and joy. I don't want to lose you, my son." Celestia say, before giving him a hug and a peck on the forehead.

"I'll make sure I don't end up like last time, mom. Just promise me you'll keep Heat Wave safe." Eternal says, hugging his mom.

"Now, go on forth...my "Strongest Guardian of Equestria." Celestia says, letting her son go along with Twilight and Discord.

The citizens of Appaloosa were lying on the ground with without even a single ounce of strength in them. In the far distance, Tirek was leaving the town, much bigger and growing stronger than ever before. His height reached that of Discord and became a bit bulkier than how he was when he arrived back in Equestria.

"Once I've found that wretch of a princess, Twilight Sparkle, I'm going to drain every last ounce of her magic until she can never move anymore, as well as those pathetic little rogue wretches! Watch yourselves, my little ponies, because once I've regained my full power, I will rid each and every last one of you ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!!" Tirek shouts before laughing evilly out loud. "Now to venture forth to the city that never sleeps: Manehatten."

Back in Ponyville

"I wonder what mom and dad wanted to see my brother and Twilight for? I hope it's not too serious." Heat Wave says. "The last thing I want to worry about is my brother going into battle and coming out barely alive."

"Relax, champ, I'm sure everything'll be fine. It's probably a false alarm." Shadow says, reassuringly.

"How is getting called in by Celestia via the Royal Guards a 'false alarm?' If I may recall, the last time they did that was when we had a certain traitorous Rogue trying to-" Tidal Wave is cut off.

"Can we not get on the subject of that guy, seriously." Rainbow says, slightly annoyed.

"I agree, there's just no sense in bringing up bad memories of that dreadful day." Rarity says.

"But the question still remains: why did the princess need to see Eternal and Twilight?" Hurricane asks.

"I'm not sure, but from what I can tell from the escort, it's not going to be pretty." Sunset says.

"Oh, you're quite right on that, my dear." said Discord from behind Sunset, making her jump.

"Are you trying to lead me to a miscarriage?!" Sunset shouts at Discord.

"Now now, let's not get hostile. But I do have some bad news."

"What?" Everyone asks.

"Tirek...has returned."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!"

Moments later, Eternal and Twilight arrived just in time to hear their reaction.

"He lies to you not. Tirek is back and he's out for blood this time. It's going to take every last bit of strength from all of us if we're going to take down that bastard once and for all." Eternal says.

"But at the rate he's gradually increasing his strength, we have to act quickly, so here's the plan: 1st, we evacuate the citizens of Canterlot AND Ponyville to a place where Tirek won't even begin to look. Then once that's done, the girls and I will stay here and wait for Tirek while the guys spread across Equestria searching for Tirek. If he arrives here, I'll need Discord to alert the guys to come back to Ponyville so we can all regroup and take him down." Twilight explains.

"How are we going to evacuate the citizens? There's loads of them all around Ponyville and Equestria." Rainbow says.

"Leave that to me." Discord says. Discord then snaps his fingers and causes a giant trap door to appear underneath their hooves and he opens it up revealing a secret hideout.

"Ooh! nice work, Discord, but what if everypony gets hungry when their down there?" Pinkie asks.

"That's no challenge for me, I got just the thing." Discord snaps his fingers again and spreads the hideout wider and makes food supplies appear out of thin air.

"Perfect, now all we gotta do is get the citizens. But who goes to Canterlot and who stays in Ponyville?" Ground Dasher asks.

"You guys can head over to Canterlot and warn the citizens, we'll stay here and evacuate all of Ponyville." Twilight says.

"Alright, sounds like a plan. Okay boys, LET'S MOVE!!!" Eternal shouts. He and the guys then used their phoenix good powers to form artificial phoenix wings on their backs and flew off to Canterlot.

"Come on girls, let's hurry up. The faster we evacuate the town, the better everypony will be safe." Twilight says.

"RIGHT!" shouted the girls.

Discord had followed the girls to the town where they all tried to gather the citizens to the town square, but they had some difficulty trying to convince the citizens to evacuate without causing a panic about Tirek escaping Tartarus.

'I should have anticipated this." Twilight thought to herself.

"How are we gonna get these ponies to believe us without causing a stir? If we tell them that Tirek is back, they'll just end up getting all chicken and run wild and panic." Rainbow says.

"SSSHHH!!! Not so loud, partner!" Applejack says.

"Even if they do run wild, I can always easily stop them in mid air." Discord says.

"Um, Discord, I think that'll frighten them even more." Fluttershy implies.

"Oh, goodness, sometimes I guess even if my powers are limitless, I can't win 'em all." Discord says.

"Why don't you leave that to me? I can try to convince them." Heat Wave says. The girls were shocked and skeptic about Twilight's coltfriend having that kind of ability.

"If you say you can do it, babe, then we'll be by your side." Twilight says.

"You got it." Heat Wave says confidently. He then proceeded to leap high onto the top of the fountain and looked over the town before taking a deep breath.

"ATTENTION CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE! I HAVE RECIEVED A MESSAGE FROM MY MOTHER, PRINCESS CELESTIA WITH ORDERS TO EVACUATE EVERYPONY IN PONYVILLE! THOUGHT THE REASONS ARE CONFIDENTIAL, YOU MUST FOLLOW ME TO SAFETY!" Heat Wave boomed as loud as his aunt Luna, making Twilight and her friends' ears ache.

"Well, I guess he really is Luna's nephew, what an interesting young stallion." Discord mutters to himself.

Strangely, everypony in town heard him and followed him with the girls and Discord by his side.

"I don't know how you do it, but thank goodness you also share similar traits with Princess Luna, darling." Rarity says.

"Thank you very much, Heat Wave." Twilight says.

"No problem, although, shouting that much really stings my throat." Heat Wave says, stroking his throat.

Soon, everypony in Ponyville followed Twilight, Heat Wave, and their friends to the secret hideout behind Twilight's castle where Discord lifted the giant trap door open with ease.

"Please step right this way everypony." Discord says, happily. Soon all the citizens made their way inside the hideout safely.

"Discord, I'm going inside to let them know the news and whatever you do, don't open the door until I say so. Do you think I can trust you with this simple task?" Heat Wave asked the draconiquis.

"But of course, your highness." Discord says, bowing.

"HEAT WAVE, what are you thinking?!" Twilight asks.

"Don't you see yet, my dear Twilight? Now that everypony is gathered in a safe zone, Heat Wave can break the news about Tirek and they'll be reassured that they'll be safely out of his sights and his grasp." Discord says

"I...wow, okay. Alright, go on Heat Wave." Twilight says, nodding.

"Will do." Heat Wave then made his way into the hideout where everypony was gathered as they were chatting, mostly about why they were being evacuated into such a spacious place. "ATTENTION CITIZENS!!!" he shouts, getting their attention. "Now most of you are wondering why I brought you here, well if you want to know, here it is: The evil Lord Tirek has returned." The crowd starts shouting and screaming in panic after a few seconds of silence. Most were trying to escape, but to no avail. "ENOUGH!!!" he shouts again and then returns to a calmer voice. "You must not panic. We've made this hideout to keep you all away from the tyrants grasp, in fact my brother and his friends are evacuating the rest of the citizens right now, this way, no pony will get hurt and you can rest assure that we'll do everything in our power to stop Tirek once and for all! Have faith in us, as we have faith in you all." The crowd was silent for a good whole minute until finally they started cheering for him and his reassuring speech. "Stay safe, everypony. I must head out and wait for the others." Heat Wave then knocked on the trap door, signaling Discord to let him out. The door flung open and Heat Wave stepped out. Discord then closed the trap door while Heat Wave dusted the dirt off of him.

"So, how did it go? I heard a lot of screaming down there." Fluttershy asked.

"It's alright, I gave them my word that they'd be safe down there for a while." Heat Wave says, reassuringly.

"Sometimes, you amaze me partner." Applejack says, tipping her hat to Heat Wave.

"Now we just have to wait for Eternal Flames and his friends to evacuate all of Canterlot." Twilight says, looking near the direction of where Canterlot was at.

Eternal Flames had a little help from his mom as she sent her guards, as well as one of each of Eternal's friends, to each and every pony in Canterlot to evacuate the citizens. It wasn't that hard to convince the citizens as some of them questioned why, which were met with an answer such as "that's classified until further notice." Shrugging it off, everypony was gathered to Princess Celestia's castle. Since it was going to take a long time for the citizens to travel to Ponyville by train, she instead used her magic to teleport all of the citizens to Ponyville, along with some of her guards.

'I wish you all the best of luck.' Celestia thought to herself.

"We should prepare the rest of our troops, my dear. If Tirek stops by here, We'll have to try our best to at least slow him down or weaken him just little bit." Royal Blaze says, looking determined.

"You're right, honey. Luna, alert Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. We must prepare ourselves." Celestia says sternly towards the midnight colored alicorn mare on her left side.

"As you wish, sister." Luna replies. She then levitates an pen and a letter writing down the following:

Dear Princess Cadence and Shining Armor

Tirek has returned once more and so far, we're unsure of that the tyrant is up to this time. All I can say is that my sister and I need you get the ponies to safety before Tirek targets them next. We must act quickly. The fate of Equestria rests in our hooves.

Signed

Princess Luna

Princess Luna then rolled the letter up and tied it in a red ribbon with a gold moon seal and sent it via magic.

The citizens of Canterlot were all conversing in disgust seeing as how they didn't like staying in a 'simple environment' as most of the snooty rich ponies put it. But shortly they got cut off by the Prince of Equestria.

"If you're all done whining about why you're here, I have orders from mother to carry you all to safety. Now follow me, the evacuation spot is not much further." He says loudly and sternly. Everypony then stopped and followe Eternal and his friends.

"I'm glad we weren't born in Canterlot, the way they whine like that is just plain childish." Shadow says unamused.

"Don't I know it." Eternal implies.

They then reached the back of Twilight's castle where everypony, except the rogues, were caught off guard by Discord lifting up a giant trap door leading to a secret hideout.

"Oh, Celestia no. I will not step into such a filthy establishment and dirty this new attire, good day to you sir." said one of the ponies, only to get stopped by a giant wall of fire. The citizens followed the source of the problem only to find out it was Eternal Flames who set it up and he was looking very tense.

"This isn't an optional decision. This is a "have to" type of situation. As I said before, these are my mothers orders and I do not plan on backing out on them today. Now everypony is to enter the hideout and I will follow you all close behind." Eternal explains, pointing over towards to the hideout entrance. The citizens kept silent and a bit frightened and decended down the stairs with Eternal following them close behind until it was time for Discord to close the door. Once everypony was gathered, Eternal called out to the citizens.

"Alright, now hear me out. For those of you unaware of why you're here, I must tell you now that the evil tyrant know as Lord Tirek, has broken out of Tartarus once again, and he's out to exact his revenge." Eternal explains. Slowly, only the Canterlot citizens started screaming in terror and fear and tried to flee towards the entrance, but Eternal Flames stomped his hinde hoof to the ground, causing a fire wall to appear behind him, blocking the stairs. "NO! Step one hoof outside, and you'll end up at Tirek's mercy. We built this hideout for the safety of everpony in Ponyville and Canterlot. Now listen, since everypony is now safe and sound down here, my friends and I are going to are against Tirek to put a stop to his evil ambitions once and for all. Once he is defeated, you may all be free to leave. For those who live in Canterlot, my family and I will provide the train tickets for your trips back home. Any questions?" Eternal asks loudly. But there was no response, just the citizens shaking their heads left and right. "Very well, I am trusting you all to stay here and stay safe." Eternal says, after getting rid of the fire wall with the stomp of his front hoof and walked up the stairs. He knocked on the door to signal Discord to let him out. Discord did so, letting Eternal outside and closed the trap door behind him.

"Well, now, what do we do?" Hurricane asks.

".....We find Tirek." Eternal says with a serious look.

To Be Continued...

The Hunt Begins

"Now that we've gathered the citizens to safety, it's time to get down to hunting Tirek." Eternal says to Twilight.

"Alright, and if Tirek shows up, we'll have Discord come and get you guys so we can fight him together." Twilight replies.

"Hey, bro. If you or any of the guys see Tirek, show him no mercy!" Heat Wave says.

"You don't have to tell us twice, bro. But just be sure to keep yourself safe. I'm not about to lose my younger brother to that bastard and I'm certainly not gonna lose you any other day." Eternal reassures Heat Wave with a pat on Heat's back. "Now listen up, guys, Tirek may only be one villain, but he grows stronger with each and every pony he drains of their magical energy, and if we don't take him down now, Equestria is doomed for eternity. It's not just about defeating Tirek, it's about making sure Equestria and all the ponies who still live to this day survive another day. That's why we're taking him down...PERMANANTLY! Does anypony have any questions?"

Of course, no pony said anything and instead, the rogues surrounded themselves in their powers ready to take off. Eternal Flames nodded and stepped forth surrounding himself in his own powers.

"LET'S RIDE!!!" Eternal shouts. Then the Roges created their artificial wings and took flight across Equestria and began their hunt. Eternal Flames and Shadow Force flew off to the Crystal Empire, Ground Dasher set off to Appaloosa, Spark Wave went to Manehatten, then Tidal Wave and Hurricane Blitz searched the Dragon and Gryphon Kingdom.

Eternal Flames and Shadow Force

The two were still soaring in the sky off to see the Princess of Love and her husband. But while they were heading over there, Eternal Flames started to think of the pros and the cons with the search.

"Hang on a second, if we keep flying off to different places, we're gonna use up all our powers. I think it's best if we stop at one place for a to regenerate our strength and powers while in the meantime, we'll wait to see if Tirek is coming. If not, one of us will take off into another place to look for Tirek while one of us stays behind to guard the Kingdom." Eternal explains.

"You got a point there. But who's gonna stay behind and watch the Crystal Empire? From what I can see, we've both got the same amount of strength and power in us. But I got a feeling it ain't gonna be a warm welcome." Shadow says.

"Either way, we still gotta make this work. First, we'll consult with the Princess and then we'll search the perimeter to scout out the tyrant and if he's not there, one of us will search another place. It'll give us advantage to find Tirek easier."

"Sometimes that war-based mind of yours scares and impresses me. But I shouldn't be surprise. Listen, how about I look after the Crystal Empire and guard it if Tirek shows up."

"Are you sure, Shadow? The ponies already know that your grandfather is infamous for enslaving the Crystal Empire, are you sure you're comfortable with this?"

"I gotta show them that even though Sombra is my grandpa, I'm nothing like him and I'm going to prove it to them that by guarding the kingdom and making sure everypony is safe."

"Very well then. I trust you."

Ground Dasher

Ground Dasher was still high in the sky, traveling towards where his marefriend's cousin lived. His mind was filled with different thoughts and different emotions.

'That bastard will never learn. I have a feeling that he's after something more than just taking my pals down. But what is it? It doesn't matter right now, I gotta check up on the Appaloosians, they need my help. I won't let you down, AJ, not while I'm still breathing. Tirek is gonna regret the day he ever messed with me and my fiance and her family.' Ground Dasher thought. "Hold on tight, Appaloosa, you won't have to worry too much because Ground Dasher is coming to your aid."

Ground Dasher had arrived at Appaloosa only to discover the ponies were lying on the dirt ground outside of their town, with no strength left in their bodies to even lift a hoof.

"Holy crap, Tirek really did a number on these guys." he said to himself. He proceeded to help the citizens up on their hooves and carried all of them inside a local restaurant.

"Who are you, partner?" asked one stallion weakly. Ground Dasher looked to see who it was and sees a stallion with light yellow fur, emerald eyes that were a lighter color than Applejacks and a golden mane.

"My name's Ground Dasher, I'm gonna look after you guys while my friends travel across Equestria searching for the bastard that took away yours and the others' strengths. Who are you, are you related to AJ?" he asked back.

"Braeburn, I'm her cousin. But how do you know AJ?" Braeburn asks.

"She and I are engaged to be married. But listen, you guys need to take it easy for a while. As long as that prick, Tirek is still on the loose, I'm gonna stay here until I meet up with the gang to take him down."

"Well...if ya...see cousin AJ...tell her...I said...congrats." Braeburn says, panting.

"I'll give her a message, but right now, I gotta keep you guys safe." Ground Dasher says. He started getting to work on caring for the drained citizens by feeding them some of the food they made. At first, he fed them apples from their apple orchard. Braeburn told him the location of where it was so it was easy to locate it. Of course, there were some fresh apple pies for everypony to munch on. With Ground Dasher occupied with feeding te citizens, he couldn't travel anywhere else and hope for the best from the other guys.

Tidal Wave

Tidal Wave had arrived at the Dragon Kingdom only to get stopped by Garble and a group of 5 other dragons.

"Now just hold on a second here, shrimp! What makes you think it's okay for you to just show up at our turf without even so much as a message or a letter or something like that?" Garble asked, staring down at the aqua blue stallion.

"If you want an explaination, then here it is: Tirek has broken out of Tartarus once again and I need to know if you guys have had an early encounter with the tyrant." Tidal explains.

"Tirek? You mean that damn giant red magic-addicted freakazoid? No freaking way. But I've having this itch in my scales to beat the crap outta the guy for quite some time now." Garble says.

"Very well then, but I'd like to speak to the one in charge of the kingdom if that's alright with you." Tidal says.

"Normally I'd say "get lost" or "go buck yourself" but since you caught me and the guys in a good mood, I suppose I can let you see Dragon Lord Ember." Garble says with his arms folded.

"Very well then, where is she?" Tidal asks.

"I'm right here!" shouted a female voice.

The dragons, along with Tidal Wave looked up at the sky to see a blue female dragon. She had golden armor covering her body, save for parts of her legs, wings, tail, and her face. She had blue scales and red eyes.

"And there's no need to tell me what's going on. I already know Tirek is on the loose and he's out for revenge. Just let me gather the dragon troops and if he shows up, we'll take him down." Ember says.

"Lord Ember, if I may ask, have you fought this tyrant before? He's not that easy to take down." Tidal asks.

"Same was said when your pal trashed our previous leader: Dragon Lord Torch." Garble retorts.

"Wait...speaking of Torch, where is he?" Tidal asks again.

"Unfortunately...he died some time ago. He suffered a brain hemorrhage a few weeks after the alliance we made with your kingdom back where you live." Ember explains.

"I'm deeply sorry for your loss."

"What are you apologizing for, pipsqueak? It's nothing new. We all have a day we're born and die." Garble says bluntly.

"His words may be cruel, but he's right. Daddy may be gone, but I'm not going to let that stop me." Ember says with a determined expression on her face.

"Very well. But let me aid you and the others in case he shows up." Tidal says.

"No way, you're gonna get outta here and let US rough up that scumbag." Garble retorts, pushing Tidal Wave back with brute force that it makes him fall on his back.

"Forgive me, but it's best if we handle this on our own. I know we're allys, but we still have our honor to uphold. You should focus more on scouting Equestria, looking for the tyrant." Ember explains, helping Tidal up.

"I understand, but know that if you should need us, we'll help you in any way." Tidal says before taking to the sky.

Hurricane Blitz

Hurricane Blitz was still soaring in the wind, looking for the Griffon Kingdom. At first, he was a bit lost since he never went to there or even heard of it, but he slowly remembered where it was and how to get there, thanks to a little flashback of when Pinkie and Rainbow Dash explained to him and his friend where it was and how to get there. Hurricane became more determined to find this place, and set off and blinding speed with the wind guiding him.

"It has to be here somewhere. If memory serves me right, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie told me there would be a worn-out, gloomy village over a hillside." Hurricane says to himself. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to find the Griffon Kingdom, but at the last minute, he was able to find it at the corner of his eye. Immediately, he soared towards the village only to get stopped by a female griffon who was bigger and taller than he was. She stared down at the mint green stallion with a look in her eye that said 'You're not getting any closer' only without looking too intimidating but stern. Her feathers from the top of her head to the bottom of her neck were white. Hey eyes and front talons were golden yellow and the rest of her body was brown.

"Where do you think you're going squirt?" She asked. "This is the Griffon Kingdom, it's not where you live."

"I know that, but listen, I came her on an important mission. I was sent by Princess Celestia, along with my friends to search for the tyrant known as Tirek." The moment Hurricane mention Tirek's name, the griffon girl's eyes flung wide open and immediately got a more serious look on her face.

"Damn that bastard!" She growled. "When I get my talons on that bastard...I'LL TEAR HIM INTO SMITHEREENS! I'LL TEAR HIS SMITHEREENS INTO SMITHEREENS FOR DOING WHAT HE DID!!!" Hurricane got a little scared and moved away from her so she could blow off some steam and calm down.

'Remind me not to get on her bad side.' Hurricane thought to himself. "Um...might I ask what your name is?" he asks. The griffon was still a bit tense, but Hurricane waited patiently for her to reply. Finally, she calmed down after a minute.

"Gilda. That's my name." She said.

"I'm Hurricane Blitz."

"Well, if you're looking for Tirek, you just missed him. He drained the strength and the flight out of the griffons. At the rate he's absorbing all of the magic energy and other abilities, you're probably going to be too late." She explains.

"Damn it! Well do you at least know where he's at right now?"

"Nope, he knocked me out of my line of flight when I wasn't looking. I'm surprised he didn't take my strength or my flight abilities when he had the chance. But I'll tell you one thing, even if I did knew where he was, you'd end up getting your ass handed to you...wait, this just occurred to me just now. How is it that you're able to fly? You're not even a pegasus."

"Long story short, I have powers from an ancient phoenix god from my ancestors."

"Huh, well that's a new one."

"Yes, but listen, what do you say I help out the griffons? They're in pretty bad shape from what I can tell by the looks of things around here, as well as the look on their faces."

"Thanks, but no thanks, I got this. I may only be one griffon, but I got loads of strength on me to care for these guys. I learned how to be loyal thanks to a friend on mine. Now why don't you go head out and look for that tyrant bastard and give him a good thrashing for me!"

"Alright then, take care Gilda." Hurricane thought he should insist on helping out, but judging by Gilda's words and the look in her eyes, he could somehow tell she wasn't bluffing. He could also tell she wasn't just all talk. Taking her word for it, he took to the air once more in search of the enemy of all Equestria.

Spark Wave

Spark Wave had arrived at Manehatten without much complications. Upon arriving, he could tell that most of the ponies in the city were on the ground, barely able to move. It was obvious a sign that Tirek had recently been there. Spark Wave decided to help most of the ponies and carried them on his back to get them to shelter in order for them to recover and stay out of harms way in case Tirek shows up again and finish them off. Spark had to use up his powers to get practically get every single citizen indoors. Eventually he felt drained himself and decided to rest up in one of the hotels he gathered some of the citizens in.

"It may only be temporary, but at least they're safe now." Spark says to himself. "He's working fast, I'll give him that. But he's not going to get away with this for long. I hope the other guys had any luck with finding the guy."

"I...I s-s-saw him." Said a mare. Spark Wave was caught by surprise and quickly turned around to see who spoke, but the room was filled with mares and stallions all drained of their energy.

"Who said that?" He asked.

"I-I did." Said the same mare, and luckily, Spark found who it was. She had an orange fur and magenta eyes, along with a purple mane which she had done in a ponytail using her light green, fuzzy scrunchie. She tried to sit up a bit, but Spark eased her by lying her down on one of the couches in the lobby.

"Take it easy, miss. You're not fully recovered yet. Now, just answer me these simple questions: Was the guy who did this to you a four-legged creature with red skin, black shirt and white beard, and if so, where did he go now?"

"Y-yes...h...how did you know?" she asks between pants

"Let's just say I had a recent encounter with him in the past." he replies

"B-but...I...don't know where...he went."

"Damn it! Well, at least you and the rest of the these ponies are safe. If there's anything you and the others need, just let me know. I won't be traveling anywhere with my own energy drained." He says. 'Not to mention the fact that my powers won't return for another solid hour, unless I fuel up my stomach. But that'll only reduce the time by half and these guys need their strength a lot more than I need mine.' He thought to himself.

"Well...c-could you at least...tell...tell me...your name?"

"My name is Spark Wave."

"Oh...I'm...P-Plaid Strips."

"Pleased to meet you. Is there anything else you or anypony else needs?" he asks.

"J-just...w-water." Plaid repies.

"Alright, I'll even get a few water jugs and a water dispenser so you won't have to worry about being thirsty. I won't be long." Spark Wave walked outside the hotel and into the empty streets of Manehatten where empty shopping bags were tumbling against the pavements and empty carriages were scattered. He didn't have to search for far too long since he came across a store that had a few empty water jugs, some plastic cups and one last water dispenser like the ones that were found in local office buildings, which he decided to pay for legitimately, instead of taking them without paying. He loaded the stuff onto a carriage one by one and pulled them back to the hotel where Plaid Stripes was resting in. He saw that she was trying to get up, but he rushed over to lay her back down.

"Y-you came back...where are...the water jugs?" asked Stripes between pants.

"They're outside. I'll get them unloaded as soon as possible."

"Thanks." She says with a warm smile.

Spark Wave got the stuff unloaded from the carriage one by one and into the lobby without any complications. It took him a few seconds to take one of the jugs and attach it to the dispenser. He gave Plaid Stripes, along with the other ponies in the hotel a cup of cold water, which they slowly, but eagerly drank. Spark had a drink himself to give himself a power boost.

"Tell me...why....are you...looking for...that monster?" Plaid asked.

"Because my friends and I are going to put a stop to him once and for all. He's hurting way too many ponies and if he continues this for far too long, he might end up enslaving or destroy all of Equestria. Tirek has left us no choice: He must never live another day. It'll be a heavy loss for his brother, Scorpan, but I hope he'll understand that we're doing it for the sake of Equestria and saving the future."

"Violence...is never...the answer." she replies weakly.

"I know that. i don't like doing this as much as the others do, but like I said before: i don't have a choice. You see, Plaid. There are certain beings here in Equestria that words alone can never reach. Tirek is one of those beings. Though fighting never solves anything, it is not a sin to fight for the right reasons. For instance, you and everypony around the world are working every day to make a bright and better future, and Tirek is out to try to destroy it, and if this world lost you so soon because we didn't do our job, we'd feel like failures. That's why my friends and I are putting our lives on the line. You and everypony else deserves to live another day. That's why my friends and I will protect you all with our lives." Spark explains.

Plaid Stripes didn't say a word but instead, she smiled and gave a nod with a tear in her eye. Spark smiled back at her warmly so as to reassure that what he told her was true. Spark then turned to look outside the hotel entrance and had a more serious look in his eyes.

'I promise you all, including you Rainbow Dash, we WILL defeat Tirek once and for all!' Spark thought to himself.

A Helping Hoof from the King and Queen

The streets of Ponyville were all empty and unsound with the exception of the wind blowing. Twilight and her friends had been scouting the town from her castle balcony while Discord was trying to sense the direction of where the magical disturbance is at. While the girls were scouting the town from above, Twilight was slowly trying to formulate a plan. She wasn't exactly sure what she could do since Canterlot had to be guarded as well. At first she thought about sending Discord to Canterlot to guard Princess Celestia and Prince Royal Blaze, but she quickly found out that Discord has to keep an eye on the ponies they hid in the hideout Discord created. If Discord were to leave and Tirek arrived and found the hideout, Tirek would end up with enough magic to stop him. She became a bit frustrated and felt lost. That is... until Heat Wave placed a hoof onto her back.

"Twilight, whatever it is that you're thinking about, you have to think it through calmly. We have my brother and his friends looking for Tirek and we have Discord on our side to make things work in our favor. We'll think of a plan, somehow." Heat Wave explains.

"Thanks, Heat Wave." Twilight replies.

"Well, despite being Princess Celestia's youngest son, you've got quite the words of wisdom, young man." Discord says. "I'm surprised you weren't the oldest son born."

"That's because Blue Blaze is the oldest. He carries my father's words of wisdom just as much as me and Eternal Flames put together." Heat Wave explains. "But back onto the subject of Tirek; We need to formulate a plan. We might have Ponyville well-guarded, but Canterlot could be under threat, even though mom and dad are two of the most powerful alicorns out there."

"Well we could just have Celestia's and Luna's parents to guard Canterlot." Discord suggests.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asks.

"Well since you don't know, Princess, I might as well explain. You see, Princess Celestia and Luna both have the same parents who control the and entire galaxy and the entire cosmos. Since they're in charge of this task, they hardly have enough time to spend with their daughters, but they are the most powerful alicorns that exist." Discord explains.

"I didn't know they were still around! Do you know their names, Discord?" Heat Wave asks.

"Why, yes I do. They don't call me the Lord of Chaos for nothing, you know. Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's parents' names are Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos." Discord replies.

Twilight and her friends soon all got a shocked expressions on their faces after hearing of the names of the two most powerful and beings in the entire universe.

"I've read a book about two powerful beings that could even surpass Celestia and Luna's powerful magic, but I always thought they were just mythical legends from the stories! But I never expected they were the mother and father of Celestia and Luna!" Twilight exclaims.

Heat Wave didn't even say anything and instead looked down with a shocked frown on his face. Twilight saw her fiance having his own mental breakdown after finding out the truth.

"Heat Wave? Are you okay?" Twilight asked.

"I...I'm fine Twilight. I'm just surprised as all., and a bit disappointed." Heat Wave calmly says. "I just never knew about mom's parents...or should I say...my grandparents."

"You can worry about never knowing about them before later, but right now we have to worry about how to guard Canterlot, otherwise they're going to be at Tirek's mercy." Sunset explains.

"Well, like I said, we could get Galaxia and Cosmos to guard Canterlot. They'd never deny the idea of helping their daughters if I explained the details to them and why their daughters can't do it on their own." Discord suggests happily. "I'll only be gone for a few minutes, but in the meantime, one of you has to watch the hideout."

"OOH, OOH, OOH, I'll DO IT!" Pinkie blurts out.

"No, I can take care of this, no problem." Rainbow says confidentally, pointing to herself.

"Whoa, there, sugar cube, Ah think it's best if Heatster over here goes down there. He's the only pony outta all of us that can't get his magical energy absorbed by Tirek in case he shows up." Applejack suggest.

"Darling, are you sure about this? You forgot that Heat Wave has a thing against violence. Sending him out there would be like asking the poor dear to commit suicide." Rarity says shockingly.

"It's true that I never fight back, but the least I can do is put up a defensive fire wall around the castle. As my father once said to me: Sometimes defense is the best offense." Heat Wave says.

"Are you sure? You're just one stallion and Tirek is a centaur. We don't want you get hurt." Fluttershy says, concerned.

"I've watched my brothers risk their lives countless times defending our homeland when I was just starting out as a teenager. I'm tired of standing around like a coward, watching from the sidelines. Now it's my turn to defend this town...no...this entire kingdom as a proud prince, just like my brother did!" Heat Wave explains with a determined look on his face.

Twilight could see that Heat Wave was serious about this. She wanted to protest against it, but there was no amount of reasoning to stop her fiance from doing the thing he feels is right for himself and others. Twilight walked up to Heat Wave and hugged him. Heat Wave was caught by surprise and then hugged Twilight back.

"Then you have my full support, hun. Just be careful." Twilight leaned in and planted a kiss on Heat Wave's lips. After that, Heat Wave got Discord to teleport him outside to the back of the castle. Discord then vanished into thin air in search of the king and queen. "We're all counting on you, Discord."

"Don't worry Twilight, he'll find the king and queen soon." Fluttershy reassures.

"Yeah, and since Discord won't try to backstab us like he did last time, we're sure to kick Tirek's flank." Rainbow says confidentally.

"What do you mean by that?" Sunset asks.

"Well, darling, when Tirek escaped Tartarus last time, he manipulated Discord by promising him something "far better than friendship," causing Discord to turn against us. But when Tirek fully regained his strength back, he disposed Discord. Discord felt like his spirit was broken after Tirek betrayed him. After looking over what he did, he gave Twilight the key to taking down Tirek and sending him back to Tartarus completely drained of his magic." Rarity explains.

"Oh, now I get it." Sunset says, finally getting the idea.

After arriving at the Crystal Empire, Eternal Flames and Shadow Force had decided to pay a visit with the Princess of Love, Cadence. But she saved the trouble of walking for the boys by approaching them, along with her husband, Prince Shining Armor, and their daughter, Princess Flurry Heart. Of course, they didn't show up on their own as they had royal guards with them, whom immediately pointed their spears at the boys, specifically, Shadow Force.

"WHOA! What gives?!" Shadow asks, surprised.

"Silence, Sombra! After what you did to our empire, you're not welcome here!" retorted one of the guards.

"Sombra?! Why the hell would you mention my grandpa's name, much less, refer to me as my grandpa?!" Shadow asked in a rather furious tone, causing his eyes to turn green with purple smoke coming out.

"Calm down, Shadow. Showing off your powers like that will just add fuel to the fire." Eternal says.

"And who are you? Are you Sombra's right-hoof stallion?" asked the guards.

'Looks like they didn't bother to hear what he said.' Eternal thought to himself before speaking out loud. "No, I'm afraid you're all sadly mistaken about that. I'm Eternal Flames, I'm the son of Princess Celestia. This is Shadow Force, the son of Princess Luna, but even though he's Sombra's grandson, he's on our side." Eternal explains.

"Wait, did I hear you right? Did you say you're Princess Celestia's son?" Cadence asked, approaching the boys.

"Yes, I am." Eternal reassures.

Cadence nods and backs the guards off with a reassuring nod, showing that the two stallions meant no harm. "I apologize for their hostile behavior earlier. They have a sharp memory of when King Sombra returned and tried to take over the Crystal Empire."

"It's alright. We understand the situation. However, my cousin and I are here to on an important mission and I'm afraid it's worse then you might be able to anticipate." Shadow explains.

"What might that be?" Shining Armor asks.

"If you're familiar with Lord Tirek, than we need to tell you that he's escaped Tartarus and he's planning on exacting his revenge on the ponies who foiled his plans of taking over Equestria." Eternal explains.

"Uh-oh, we'd better get the citizens to safety. Tirek could be on his way right now! Guards, gather all of the citizens and bring them into the castle right away! Leave no pony behind!" Shining Armor ordered. The guards wasted no time and spreaded out to the entire kingdom, gathering each and every pony to evacuate them into the castle.

"Good, that'll save us the trouble of alerting them ourselves. But let us stay here and help you guys defend the Crystal Empire. As your husband said before, Tirek could be on his way right now." Eternal asks.

"I can't allow that. It's too dangerous to let you boys join the fight. You and your cousin need to head back to Canterlot with Princess Celestia and guard the city. If Tirek shows up, we'll hold him off long enough for you guys to reunite with Twilight and her friends. Remember, Tirek has the power to not only drain magic, but also flight and physical strength." Cadence explains.

"That's true, but we're not like other ponies. It's hard to explain, so to make a long story short, we once had a battle with Tirek back where my cousin and I lived. He tried to absorb our energy, but something prevented him from doing so." Shadow says.

"Like what?" she asks.

"Like he said, it's hard to explain...or rather too long a story to tell and we're on a time limit. So please, let us help you! We've already evacuated the citizens of Ponyville and Canterlot into a safe place with a little help from Discord." Eternal explains. Cadence let out a sigh, seeing as how there was no reasoning with the boys.

"Very well then, when he shows up, what will you both do? You're not unicorns, pegasi, or alicorns." Cadence asks.

"When the time comes, we'll show you just what we're talking about. Like i said earlier, we're not like other ponies." Eternal reassures with a confidentally warm smile.

It's been 10 minutes since Heat Wave had been guarding the hideout. While he was guarding the entrance, he started wondering about his brother and if he successfully wore Tirek down. Although he wasn't exactly sure if he encountered Tirek just yet. He was also doing some deep thinking on whether or not he should actually step up and even go on the offense like his brothers did in the past. He had some 2nd thoughts however because he wouldn't go against his own principals.

'I'm not much of a fighter, but I'm not going to let everypony down. Not my brothers, nor my parents!' Heat Wave thought.

Discord then reappeared right behind Heat Wave.

"Well, I think it's about time to introduce you to somepony." Discord says, making Heat Wave jump.

"Discord, can you try not to sneak up on me like that?" Heat asks with a hoof over his heart.

"Oh terribly sorry, young stallion. I just thought you'd like to see your family."

"Wait, do you mean?"

"Yes, young stallion, that's what he means." echoed a deep male voice.

Heat Wave started looking everywhere to see who was talking, but he only saw Discord in front of him and the grasslands. But he then saw two bright lights behind Discord. One of them revealed an alicorn stallion who was midnight blue all over from his eyes, the tip of his horn, wings, all the way down to his hooves. His cutie mark resembled that of a star that shined in space. The other was an alicorn mare who had white fur, her mane and tail were were a combo of midnight blue and apricot. The tip of her horn and wings, as well as her eyes were apricot colored as well. Upon seeing these two powerful beings, Heat Wave bowed before them in order to show them respect. The alicorns smiled at the young stallion's respectful manners.

"Relax, young man, there's no need to be so formal." Said the female alicorn. She had Heat Wave stand back up.

"Well, either way, it's an honor to meet you both. I'm Heat Wave, Celestia's youngest son." He greets the two alicorns.

"I am Queen Galaxia." She replies warmly.

"I am King Cosmos." Replied the male alicorn.

"It's an honor to meet you, grandson." The king and queen said in unison.

"It's an honor to meet you too. Um..." Heat Wave was unsure of whether or not to call them by their royal titles or grandparents.

"You do not need our permission to call us your grandparents." King Cosmos reassured.

"Okay, thanks, grandma and grandpa." Heat Wave says.

"Yes, it's nice to see a family reunion, but it's time to get down to business. Tirek has returned and we're low of reinforcements to keep Canterlot save, even though Celestia and Luna are there. Of course, you'd both be surprised at what Celestia's husband looks like and let me tell you, he's quite the looker." Discord jokes.

"I thought you implied that we should get down to business, yet you joke around about our oldest daughter's husband. My dear, we mustn't waste any time we have left when the tyrant, Tirek arrives." Cosmos says, seriously.

"You're right, honey, let's waste not waste anytime we have with left." Cosmos proceeded to make his horn glow, along with Galaxia with hers as they teleported to Canterlot in a flash of blinding lights.

"You're quite the lucky stallion, Heat Wave, I wouldn't be surprised if your brother reacted the same way you did if he meeted his immortal grandparents for the first time." Discord complimented.

"Thanks, but now we have get back to work. Since you're here, how about we stand guard and defend the entrance. We'll have the upper hoof when Tirek gets here." Heat Wave implies.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Heat Wave. I've already gotten a hunch on what Tirek is planning." Discord said seriously.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever heard of this thing called the Tree of Harmony?"

"I think so. Twilight told be about it in one of her adventures when we were still just casually dating."

"Well the Tree of Harmony was the source of magic power that Twilight and her friends used to defeat Tirek. Now that he's out. He's probably going after the tree right now and destroy it."

"WHAT?!"

"It's only just a hunch, but it's a strong one at that."

"I don't need a lie detector to know that what you say is true. Discord, you have to let Twilight and the others know of this plan. It could help us gain a counterattack stradegy."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Discord then snapped his fingers and teleported to the castle balcony.

'I just hope Tirek isn't really planning on destroying this Tree of Harmony. But if he is, Eternal and the others will use every ounce of strength they have to destroy Tirek.' Heat Wave thought to himself.

The citizens of the Crystal Empire had been successfully evacuated into the castle while Eternal and Shadow stayed outside alongside with a couple of guards to aid them by order of Cadence. She ordered them to obey their commands while she and her husband guard the castle from the inside.

"What are your plans when the tyrant appears?" Asked one of the guards.

"You guys guard the castle premises while Shadow and I guard the outer part of the kingdom. Should he somehow get past our defenses and flee the kingdom, we're going to follow him, that'll be the signal for you guys to retreat into the castle and alert the Princess. She'll let you know of what to do next." Eternal explains.

"YES SIR!!!" The guards shout in unison.

Eternal and Shadow sprinted towards the outer part of the empire. 5 minutes later, the boys felt a strong sting inside them and looked out towards the distance and saw a tiny dot. The boys hunched back, ready to attack. They witnessed the dot get bigger and bigger until finally they caught the sight of the evil centaur. They saw that he had reached his 3rd form. He wasn't at full power, but they could still feel the immense magical energy emanating from him.

"Yes...the Crystal Empire is almost within reach!" Tirek exclaimed to himself. "WHAT'S THIS?" Tirek then witnessed two stallions approach him and to his surprise, he recognized them. "You again! Get out of my way, you little midgets! The citizens' magical energy are mine to take, and I won't let anypony stand in my way of achieving victory!"

"You talk big for a two time loser! You're not taking another step into this kingdom! This is as far as you go!" Shadow says.

"We've defeated you once before, we can do it again! Besides, with the amount of magic energy you stole from the innocent ponies around all of Equestria, you're not even a challenge to the two of us!" Eternal says, trying to bluff him.

"PAH, didn't your father ever teach you to neveer underestimate you opponents?" Tirek retorted. "If you won't get the hell out of my way, I'll knock you out of my way by FORCE!"

"We'll just see about that! Shadow Force, get ready!" Eternal exclaimed.

"Right behind you, Eternal Flames!" Shadow replied.

The two stallions surrounded themselves in vortex of fire and darkness. Shadow's eyes had yet again became green with purple smoke coming out of them as he stared down the red centaur. Tirek summoned an orange magic sphere and launched his attack and the two stallions but they jumped out of the way and charged straight at Tirek surrounded in fire and darkness. They shot tiny bullets from their signature elemental powers towards Tirek, which he blocked by summoning a magic shield. Shadow Force zipped behind Tirek and proceeded to launch another dark blast a Tirek from behind. He shot his attacks at a rapid pace. Tirek was caught off guard and knocked forward towards Eternal Flames whom sent him flying using a fiery eruption when Tirek landed close enough. The two stallions leaped into the air and soared towards Tirek.

Tirek shot an orange magic beam towards the stallions and ended up missing them both. Tirek continued his assault and kept shooting at them and every time they dodged his attack.

'Hah! Eternal was right! Tirek hasn't gotten on his A-game! This'll save us the trouble of using our full power' Shadow thought to himself with a confident smirk.

'What the hell is Tirek planning? It's almost like he's trying to...WAIT!!! THAT'S IT!' Eternal thought to himself. "Shadow, hold on! Something isn't right here!" Eternal exclaimed towards his cousin.

"SAY GOOD-BYE, TIREK!" Shadow shouted, launching his strongest attack towards Tirek. "DARK DESTRUCTION BLAST!!!" Shadow Force had launched a large wave of darkness and it collided with Tirek's own attack. Shadow Force had to stop in mid-air in as Tirek's attack started gaining more power and force. "W-what's going on?!" he says to himself.

"HOLD ON, SHADOW! I'VE GOT HIM!" Eternal exclaimed as he rushed towards Tirek, still shrouded in fire.

"TOO LATE!!!" Tirek shouted, launching a more powerful blast at Shadow Force, neutralizing his attack and sending him crashing into the hard ground down below.

"YOU BASTARD!!!" Eternal shouted, picking up speed. He soon landed a strong attack onto Tirek's face with his right forehoof. Tirek had taken the hit and had his head blown back. "I'LL REDUCE YOU TO ASHES!!!" Eternal was lost in his own rage and started launching fireballs at Tirek left and right, shouting. He was so blinded by his rage so much that he couldn't see what Tirek was doing.

'You fool, do you think I'm going to be affected by a pathetic little firework display? I'm not to be taken likely with this. Now watch as I take you down just like your pathetic little friend' Tirek thought to himself with a confident smirk. Tirek teleported behind Eternal Flames and trapped him in a levitation spell. Eternal snapped out of his rage and looked behind him to see Tirek grinning at him. Before he could even try anything else, Tirek slammed him to the ground with his cousin causing a crack in the ground. Tirek let out an evil laugh. "You fool, is that the best you can do?! If it was, then I should have no problem taking care of your other friends as well! Now there's nothing you can do to stop me from taking what is rightfully mine!" Tirek said as he slowly floated down towards the injured stallions.

"Y-you...bastard!" Eternal grunted.

"Silence, you fool!" Tirek retorted, using magic force, trying to sink him deeper into the ground, causing him to shout in pain.

"Et-ternal...no!" Shadow grunted in pain.

"I'm wasting my time, I got some more magical energy to obtain! So long, young prince." Tirek proceeded to advance towards the Crystal Empire where he absorbed the guards' magical energy from them, rendering them vulnerable.

"Shadow...are you okay to stand?" Eternal asked grunting.

"Believe me, cousin, if I could, I'd have done it by now." Shadow grunted.

Eternal struggled to stand up, and managed to do so by sheer determination and luck. "We have to chase after Tirek before he finds the citizens and drains their magical energy!" Eternal says as he carries Shadow on his back. But the extra weight, was getting rather unbearable since he wasn't fully recovered from his and Tirek's last attack.

"Easy, cousin! You're not fully recovered yet either." Shadow grunted.

"Then how about I make it easy for the two of you and at least heal your injuries." Said a male voice.

Eternal looked towards where it came from and see the Lord of Chaos, Discord.

"Good to see ya again, Discord." Eternal said with a slight smirk.

"Always a pleasure to help out." Discord snapped his fingers and lifted the pain off of the two stallions. Shadow then got off of Eternal's back and they both thanked Discord. "You're very welcome, now hurry up and follow Tirek, I fear he's after more than just the magic."

"RIGHT!" Shouted Eternal and Shadow

Ambush: Overpowered by the Centaur

Once Tirek had drained the guards of their magical energy, he searched the entire kingdom for anymore wandering ponies. So far, Tirek had no luck, but he wasn't about to stop until he drained the magical energy of all the ponies of Equestria. Eternal Flames had chased after the evil centaur in order to make sure he didn't locate where the citizens were at. However, Tirek had shortly found them after blasting a giant hole in the wall, explosing the ponies all cramped up inside the castle with Cadence and Shining Armor.

"NO!!!" Eternal shouted. He took flight and headed inside the castle and put up a fire barrier on the hole in the wall. "Cadence, we have to get out of here while we still have the chance, I can't hold this barrier up for long!"

"I can't! Even if I did have enough magic energy to teleport us all out of here, it'd be too late!" Cadence replied. "But there is one thing we need you to do."

"What is it?" Eternal asks.

"We need you to take our daughter, Flurry Heart, to a safe location, she's too young and vulnerable to defend herself. It's all up to you to take her to a safe place until you've stopped Tirek!" Shining Armor explained.

"WHAT?! But where am I going to keep her safe?" Eternal asks.

"Mom and Dad should be able to look after her. They live over in Canterlot, but I just hope they haven't been drained of their magical energy." Shining Armor says.

"There's no need to worry, they're safely hidden. I'll give Flurry Heart to your mom and dad for safe keeping. Once Tirek has been defeated, I'll go get Flurry Heart and bring her back." Eternal explains.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadence didn't object to his idea and finally gave the little pink baby alicorn to Eternal. They then instructed him to head down the castle and exit from there so Tirek wouldn't catch him through the hole in the wall. Eventually, the fire wall barrier had died down and Tirek came into full view once again. The tyrant wasted no time in absorbing all the magic from the citizens and the rulers of the Crystal Empire, which in turn made him grow in size and power.

Eternal Flames managed to escape with Flurry Heart safely tucked in his forehooves as he headed off the Ponyville. Shadow Force and Discord followed him, in order to make sure Tirek wouldn't catch up to him and stop him. They weren't aware of why he was heading back at first, but after getting close enough to Eternal, they saw why, since he had baby Flurry Heart.

"At this rate, Tirek is just gonna pick us off and Flurry Heart's just gonna be an easy target!" Shadow implied.

"You got a better idea?" Eternal asked.

"OH, I forgot, I can just easily teleport us out of here." Discord says, facepalming himself. He then snapped his fingers and instantly brought the four of them to Ponyville.

"Thanks Discord, now, come on. This little foal needs to be kept safely out of harms way until the smoke blows off." Eternal says. Since they arrived in the middle of Ponyville, Eternal and Shadow had to run towards Twilight's castle to where the hideout is. They had to reserve their remaining strength after being briefly defeated by Tirek. They made their way towards the hideout where Discord had no trouble teleporting to as well. He lifted the hatch and had the two stallions walk down the stairs where they say everypony from Canterlot and Ponyvillle conversing with each other. Some of the ponies were just chatting, the others were arguing.

"ATTENTION!!!" Shouted the two stallions, gathering everypony's attention.

"We are looking for the parents of Shining Armor, if you are here, please step forth at once." Eternal says.

Immediately, there were to unicorns who showed up in front of the stallions. One was a blue unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane with yellow eyes and a cutie mark that showed a small cresent moon inside a big cresent moon. The other unicorn was a light grey mare with a purple and white striped mane. Her cutie mark was three dark purple stars and had light blue eyes.

"That would be us, my name is Night Light." Said the stallion

"And I'm Twilight Velvet. Is something wrong? What happened to our son and daughter?" Asked the mare, all worried.

"Twilight Sparkle is going to be alright, but Tirek got to Shining Armor and Cadence, as well as the rest of the empire. We were ordered to bring Flurry Heart to you by Cadence and Shining Armor." Eternal explains. He showed them their granddaughter, who was reaching out to them with her goo-gooing and wide smile.

"Oh dear! Well, we're grateful that she's alright, but please, don't our children languish our there!" Twilight Velvet said.

Eternal and Shadow gave them a reassuring nod before giving Flurry Heart to them.

"Don't worry, we're not going to let that happen as long as we're still around." Shadow says.

The two stallions walked back up the stairs and knocked on the door. Discord opens it and the two stallions walk out.

"Hang on a second, we have to work the other guys about this! What if Tirek got to them as well? I know they can't have their powers absorbed, but Tirek is still strong to take on alone!" Eternal explains.

"Crap, you're right! We have to go find them!" Shadow implied.

"How? You two obviously used up a lot of your powers,from what I can tell and since your powers aren't exactly classified as magic, I'm afraid I can't restore you both to full strength." Discord implies.

"That's alright, we can restore them easily by getting a bite to eat, or just simply rehydrating ourselves. It's kind of like exhausting your stamina and strength after finishing a workout session and when you eat, your body takes in the nutrients and your muscles slowly regain their energy. It's the same thing with our powers." Eternal explains.

"Well, I suppose even as the Lord of Chaos, there are some things even I have yet to learn." said Discord. "Well, I think you two should eat your fill and save your strength for the fight later, I'll go and check up on your friends." Discord, once again, vanished into thin air while Eternal and Shadow took the Lord of Chaos' advise.

Tidal Wave was still out trying to find Tirek. However, he was in the desert terrain searching by hoof. At the pace he was going, he wasn't going to get anywhere, but it was his only option in order to save every last ounce of his power in case he had to fight Tirek by himself. He was only 66% sure that Tirek might pass by. He stayed vigilant, scanning every nook and cranny of the terrain as he marched forth.

5 minutes go by and finally, he heard and felt a rumble in the distance. He could feel the intense magical energy closing in on him while at the same time he felt his own body get hit by a little jolt. Finally he heard a loud and hard landing from behind him which made the ground underneath his hooves shake. He turned around quickly and saw that Tirek had regained mostly all of his power.

"Hmm, you don't seem like to me, but every little bit helps!" Tirek said, grinning, he opened his mouth and tried to extract the energy from Tidal Wave, but a dark blue aura surrounded him making his energy stay where it was. His powers kept a strong hold of his magical energy even though Tirek was at 90% of his full power. Tirek stopped trying to absorb Tidal Wave's energy and started thinking that he had the same resistance like Eternal Flames. "Well, well, well. Seems like you have the same immunity just like your pathetic little friend did. But that is of no concern to me."

"What are you talking about, Tirek?" Tidal asked with a low growl.

"What I mean is, even though you and your friend are protected from having your energy drained, I was still able to crush him under my hooves with effortless ease!" Tirek gloated.

"Liar...Eternal Flames never goes down so easily! He's stronger than that!"

"Believe what you want, little stallion, but my truth still stands. Eternal Flames has fallen, so has the grandson of Sombra. I expected no less from a pathetic weakling." Tirek boasted before laughing. Tidal Wave grew pissed at Tirek's boasting so much that steam started to eminate out of his body. Soon he surrounded himself with water as it gradually rises higher with each passing second.

"You son of a bitch! I'LL DROWN YOU!!!" Tidal charged straight at Tirek with great speed, surrounding his entire body in a coat of water and began to shoot water bullets at the centaur. Tirek, however, moved quicker and dodged his attack. Tidal Wave then formed the water around him into a phoenix that quickly reached Tirek's height. He charged at him yet again, this time, instead of Tirek dodging, he caught the water coated stallion by the water phoenix's wings. Tirek used his magic to cease Tidal's attack. He then levitated Tidal Wave with his magic and slammed him multiple times on the ground and then threw him 32 feet away from him. Tidal Wave coughed up blood as soon as he felt the solid impact of the ground. He was covered in bruises all over his body, unable to move.

"You call that a fight? You're nothing but a weakling, just like your puny friends. It looks like my plans to rule Equestria are finally going according as I planned. Although, I wasn't able to erase them, but that'll change sooner than you might think. Oh, but don't worry my little pony, you'll be joining them too." Tirek says before laughing evilly.

"Damn you.....bastard!" Tidal grunted, before passing out.

Moments later, felt like his body was back to normal and he heard a voice calling out to him.

"Tidal...Tidal...TIDAL, WAKE UP, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Shouted the voice. Tidal opened his eyes to see the white stallion with a red mane, and sapphire eyes and scar like birthmarks under his eyes, Tidal could clearly tell it was Eternal Flames. He also looked around and saw that they were in Twilight's castle. The Main 6 were out in Ponyville scouting each part of the town so as to be prepared for Tirek.

"What the hell happened?" Tidal asked.

"Discord found you lying in the desert terrain and brought you here after he healed your injuries." Eternal explains. "From the looks of things, I'd say that Tirek found you and he got you."

"You're right, he has gotten stronger. I was overcome with my rage that my powers were used against me. I'm such a fool. I should've controlled my anger better." Tidal says, frustrated.

"It's alright. What you need to do now is get some rest. You're lucky he spared your life. Otherwise we'd have been too late. The others are still traveling around Equestria trying to find Tirek and Discord left a little while ago to get the others." Eternal says.

"I just hope Discord makes it in time." Sunset Shimmer says as she walks in on the two stallions. "From what you guys are saying, it's going to take all of us to beat him."

"Sunset, I can't take the chance of having to lose you and our unborn child. If I lost you both, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, nor would I be able to forgive myself." Eternal says sternly and then sincere at the last part of his sentence.

"I know, Eternal. I don't want to lose our child either, but as long as I got some fight in me, I'll take down Tirek with you by my side."

"You've really picked yourself a winner there, Eternal." Tidal says.

"Yes, but I still have my reasons for wanting to make sure we all get out of this alive." Eternal replies.

Twilight had taken Heat Wave over to the Everfree Forest in order to show him something that has the key to defeating Tirek like Twilight and her friends did the last time. Heat Wave was unsure what she was talking about, but from what she has told him, Heat Wave was certain that she was being truthful and confident about her decision. Eventually they came across a secret place where Twilight shows Heat Wave a glowing, magical blue tree with Twilight's cutie mark symbol on the front of the tree and her friends' cutie mark symbols on each different branch of the tree.

"Heat Wave, this is the Tree of Harmony." Twilight says proudly.

"Is this what you and your friends used to defeat Tirek before?" Heat asked.

"Yup, and we're going to do it again."

"Well, apparently, my brother and his friends have other plans."

"Like what?"

"Well, you see Twilight, because of Tirek is dangerously growing stronger and the fact that half of our friends were defeated by him, he's only left with one choice: He's planning on..." Heat paused.

"Planning on what?"

"Destroying Tirek."

"WHAT?! That's crazy! Why would he want to murder Tirek?"

"He told me in his own words: "Tirek is a living nightmare who delights it at every moments. He's not even going to shred of decency or mercy and now he has to learn the hard way. He has to know what it's like to have his life taken away against his will." I could that he actually meant what he said."

"But if he does murder Tirek, he'll end up like Tirek himself!"

"He's fueled by revenge because back when Tirek once attacked our hometown, he killed some of our citizens."

"That's terrible."

"It is. We're planning on talking it out of him as a group so he won't make a regretfull choice." Heat explains.

"You truly are a prince...Heat Wave." Twilight says softly before hugging Heat Wave. "I hope he does reconsider."

"So do I, Twilight."

Hurricane Blitz was gliding in the sky using his wind powers. He wasn't sure where he was going, but he could already tell that was way far away from home. He stopped to take a breath as he felt his wind powers dying down. He then decided to land for a quick drink of water, but the only source available was a roaring waterfall the crashed down near a beautiful river. His old Rogue instincts kicked in as he started to drink from the river by leaning his head down while standing up. It was unusual to those who were use to drinking from a cup. But to him, he had no other choice other than to drink the water like he's doing now.

'I really need to get my strength back. Who knows where Tirek is and if he's close, I'd better fuel up in case he jumps me. I just hope the others are alright.' Hurricane thought to himself.

After about a minute and a half, he finished rehydrating himself. But he then felt the urge to use the bathroom. Since there were no bathrooms where he was, he had to go behind the bushes. After he was done, he got ready to fly off to a different place, only to feel a rumble from above the waterfall. He decided to check it out and climbed the rocky slope with effortless ease. But his eyes were widened when he saw that on the top of the waterfall was the evil tyrant known as Tirek. Tirek gave the minty green stallion an evil grin and chuckle as if he was ready and waiting for him.

"Thank Celestia I've gotten some of my power back." Hurricane said to himself.

"Only you'll end up like your other friends, runt." Tirek said.

"We'll see about that." Hurricane then caused the wind around him to swirl like a vortex. Tirek readied his attack as well as an orange sphere appeared between his horns. The two fired their shots causing both of them to be blown back. But when Hurricane got blown back he was falling to the bottom of the waterfall near the ground, but he caught himself using his wind powers. He took to the sky again meeting Tirek once again face-to-face. Tirek fired more shots at Hurricane Blitz, but he managed to dodge them all. Hurricane was attempting to close the gap between him and Tirek by heading straight at him, but at the last minute, he circled around Tirek and fired a few wind bullets at him, causing Tirek to shout in pain and get knocked onto his knees.

Tirek quickly got back up and turned around to fire more shots at Hurricane but he wasn't there anymore. Instead, Hurricane fired his wind bullets at Tirek from above which landed at the top of Tirek's head. Tirek let out another shout of pain. Hurricane was moving at breath-taking speed trying not to get caught in one of Tirek's traps. So far, he's landing a few good shots at Tirek from every direction as he circles around him while Tirek is trying to block his attacks. Tirek is getting annoyed and angered at this so much, that he end up causing a magical surge wave which knocked the wind out of Hurricane Blitz. He landed onto the ground behind Tirek and quickly got up to try to face Tirek again, but Tirek caught him with a levitation spell and brought him to close Tirek's face.

"You little son of a bitch, I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer!" Tirek said. He then grabbed Hurricane Blitz into his palms and slammed him into the rock slope below his hooves. But Tirek didn't stop there. He then started punching Hurricane Blitz deeper into the slope and Hurricane could feel each blow and the solid impact. Tirek's last punch made him cough out blood. Once Tirek had finished, he let out an evil laugh and stared down at yet another fallen foe. "4 down, and 2 more to go." Tirek then took off at blinding speed, leaving Hurricane to think that he was dead, but Hurricane was still alive. But he could feel himself losing his conciousness until finally everything went black.

All of a sudden, Discord and appeared in front of where Hurricane was and could tell that Hurricane really took a beating. He wasted no time in teleporting himself and Hurricane back to Ponyville

Ground Dasher had finished feeding the citizens of Appaloosa and decided to head over to Manehatten in order to check on Spark Wave and see if he had any luck. Even though Ground Dasher had plenty of power to use, he chose to walk to Manehatten.

"He'd better say his prayers because I'm about to whup his sorry-ass flank for what he did you those ponies! YA HEAR ME, TIREK?! YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU NEVER CROSSED US IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!" Ground shouted. He continued ranting on about getting even and wanting to strangle him with his own hooves, but he slowly took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He then kept moving forward and decided not to say another word until he would reach his destination. But he was stopped and blinded by a flash of lightning. He backed up a bit, trying to adjust his eyesight.

When his vision came back, he was dumbstruck by the fact that Spark Wave had found him instead.

"Wait a second, I thought you were in Manehatten, what are you doing out here in the dessert?" Ground asked.

"I finished caring for the ponies in Manehatten and decided to regroup with the others. It was only a matter of finding you guys. Speaking of which, I'm still hoping they're alright." Spark says, concerned.

"I'm sure they're alright, but even I have my doubts." Ground replied.

"If only the villains would all just give up on their "Take Over Equestria" plans and just find a better hobby." Spark says.

"Easier said than done, pal." Ground said, unamused.

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" said another male voice.

Ground Dasher and Spark Wave were caught off guard and looked for the guy who said that. But there was no pony in any direction, that is until they both looked upwards to see Tirek, smiling down on them. He slowly levitated down towards the stallions. Both Ground and Spark were having the backs hunched, ready to attack. Spark had a calm and determined look on his face, while Ground had a grin of his own but was all pumped up for some action.

"You looking to start something, ya big-ass magic hungry bastard?" Ground asked, still grinning like Tirek.

"Remember not to let him psych you out, Ground and be careful, he's more powerful than you may think." Spark says, without taking his eyes off of Tirek. "Now, first off, what exactly are you planning? There's got to be more than just wanting to take over Equestria. I can tell from that look in those cold, dark eyes of yours."

"Well, since you won't live for much longer, I might as well grant you your last dying wish. You see, after that lavender alicorn princess and her lacky friends defeated me, I've decided that after I'm done ridding this place of you and your friends, I'm going to destroy that so-called Tree of Harmony they so cherish and protect." Tirek explains.

"Not if WE have anything to say about it!" Spark says.

Ground Dasher surrounded himself with a sand vortex while Spark Wave had surrounded himself in a coat of lightning.

"Get ready..." Spark said.

"Get set..." Ground said.

"ATTACK!!!" Both stallions shouted. Spark launched a full-on lightning bolt at Tirek, causing him to become paralized. The attack also injured him enough to slow him down. Ground Dasher stomped his hooves onto the ground causing stalagmites to appear under Tirek and piercing through his underbelly. Tirek felt the pain and shouted in agony while coughing up blood.

"Come on, we have to get out of here, while we still have the chance!" Spark said.

"Right!" Ground replied.

Spark Wave then formed the lightning on his back into the form of phoenix wings. As soon as he does, he grabs Ground Dasher from underneath his forehooves and lift off to head to Ponyville. Tirek struggled to get the stone spear out of his underbelly, but the more he moved, the more he felt his body start to burn. But then he used a teleportation spell along with some healing magic and immediately sealed the wound shut, but it left a heavt scar. Tirek then took to the sky and followed the two stallions, able to catch up to them so he could finish the job he started.

"You're going to pay for that!" Tirek said to himself with a low growl. "If you think a measily pebble is enough to make me kick the bucket, then you got another thing coming!"

Tirek finally cut off the two stallions after reaching them at blazing speed. He then swatted them to the ground. But before they reached, Ground Dasher used his earth powers to make sand from the ground rise up and felt cushion their falls. Tirek immediately slammed back onto the ground on all fours. He grabbed the two stallions by the necks and slammed them both into the ground, too quick to cushion the fall like Ground did before. Tirek shot rapid fire magic at both of them to the point where they lost conciousness. Finally, Tirek ceased his firing to savor the sight of the fallen Rogues. He then took off laughing evilly.

"YES, THE ROGUES HAVE BEEN DEFEATED!!! NOW MY PLANS WILL SOON BE COMPLETE!" Tirek shouted.

While he took off, Ground Dasher and Spark Wave were still motionless...until Ground Dasher started to twitch. He felt his blood running down his mouth. He opened one eye to see Spark Wave is still breathing. But he couldn't see Spark moving an inch. The only thing that was moving was his chest moving up and down. He could tell that his breathing was faint, but stable. Ground Dasher summoned what little strength he had left to crawl over to him.

"Don't...give up...on me." Ground grunted a he reached for Spark Wave. But his vision gets cut off by a pair of mismatched feet and a long slender draconiquis, more specifically, Discord. That was the last thing he saw before losing conciousness.

A Plan of Attack

Discord was able to rescue Ground Dasher and Spark Wave from certain death. During the time that the two were recovering from their battle with Tirek, the gang decided to wait for them to wake up. But during the time they waited, Twilight confronted Eternal Flames about his gruesome plans that Heat Wave had told her about. Eternal just gave his younger brother a straight-faced look, he wasn't mad because he knew it would come out eventually. He then turned to Twilight and gave her the gruesome details of his scarred past.

"Alright, Twilight, since you know why I have these ambitions, I might as well explain." Eternal began. "You see, back when I was probably about 15 or 16, Tirek had tried to take over our kingdom once before. However, mostly all of the citizens were immune to having their magical energy absorbed because of their powers they inherited from our ancestors, most of them ended up getting killed in a most gruesome way."

"Wait, was Tirek already at full power?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, he was. During the war against him, he ransacked our towns, our cities, and some of our homes. But the worst he did that really ticked me off was some of the citizens he murdered. Some were stomped, some were strangled until they couldn't breathe or until their they felt their bones crushing their internal organs, sometimes both. It tore me apart inside. I was so mad that I wanted to give him the same kind of suffering he gave all those innocent ponies. I couldn't live with myself for letting him get away with such a heinous crime. Eventually, though, we overpowered him with the help of my older brother and my dad. I wanted to deliver the killing blow, but my father instead sent him back to Tartarus where apparently he broke out a couple of years later." Eternal explains.

"Oh dear...I...I didn't know you went through such an ordeal when you were still that young. But surely there must be another way to stop Tirek without killing him." Fluttershy says.

"She's right, darling. There's just no sense in committing a crime that you'll regret later." Rarity says.

"We know you're hurtin' inside, Sugarcube, but murder'll just make matters worse. That's not what the Prince of Equestria would do in order to save the lives of everypony and all of Equestria." Applejack says.

"This isn't what they'd want you to resort to, babe. You're better than this. Tirek may be evil, and it's true that he's taken countless lives of your citizens back home, but they wouldn't want you to murder a villain in cold blood just for their sake. They'd want you to fight for the real right reasons now that you're a prince of higher stature. Don't you agree?" Sunset explains while holding her fiance's hoof.

Eternal's eyes flew open after hearing what Sunset just said. In all his years as a prince, he never once thought about what the deceased citizens would think if he killed Tirek to avenge their deaths. He started to think it over very carefully while Sunset just watched him turn his head to the ground with his eyes closed. Eternal then opened his eyes and took a deep breath and  finally spoke.

"Maybe you're right, hun. It just wouldn't feel right if I killed Tirek." Eternal says, calmly. Sunset looked at him with a warm smile and hugged him tightly while he hugged her gently. "We'll send that monster back to Tartarus."

"Only one problem." Rainbow said. "That monster creamed you guys and you need to save your strength. Just leave it all up to us and we'll have Tirek's flank sent back to Tartarus in no time."

"Hang on...babe." grunted Spark Wave, as he slowly walked towards her. "I got some bad news."

"What is it?" Eternal asked.

"Tirek spoke to me about the Tree of Harmony before he left us thinking we were dead. He said that now that we're out of the way, he's going to destroy the Tree of Harmony and then he's coming after you girls!" Spark explains

"WHAT?!" shouted the girls.

"But that means we can't enter our rainbow powered forms and if we don't have our rainbow powered forms, Tirek won't be sent back to Tartarus and he'll take over all of Equestria!" Pinkie rapidly said.

"Then let's not waste anytime. We must form a plan of attack!" Eternal proclaims.

"But you and your friends aren't at full power yet." Twilight says, concerned.

"That doesn't mean you guys can't work together to formulate a plan." Heat Wave says.

"Hang on, you guys go on ahead, I gotta stay here with Ground Dasher until he wakes up. From what I can tell, Tirek really gave him a beating even though he's been treated of his injuries." Eternal says.

"No, Sugarcube, it's best that Ah look after him. Y'all can go ahead without me." Applejack implied.

"Very well then, but when he wakes up, hurry on over to the map." Eternal says.

"Ah will."

"Take care."

With that said, the gang followed Twilight into the room that had the Map of Equestria while Applejack stayed by Ground Dasher's side, waiting for him to wake up. Applejack gently stroked his mane away from his eyes. She could see that he's peacefully asleep, even though he wasn't smiling.

"Please wake up, Ground Dasher, sugar. We all need ya. More than anythang in the world." she said, softly. "I'm so sorry, Ground. I shoulda went with ya!" Applejack began to tear up and bury her face into Ground's neck. She quietly sobbed on him. It was shortly after that Ground Dasher began to twitch a bit and slowly opened his eyes. He felt something wet on his neck. He lifted his head to see his fiance, Applejack, sobbing on him. He decided to wrap his hoof around her to comfort her and start stroking her mane. Applejack soon looked to see Ground Dasher wide awake, giving her a warm smile.

"I ain't kicking the bucket just yet. Not while I have a promise to keep." Ground said, softly and confidentally. Applejack lunged at Ground and hugged him tightly. Ground hugged Applejack gently to keep her comfortable. "It's alright, AJ, just let it all out."

"Ya had this gal worried sick! Ya could've been killed out there hadn't Discord yound y'all!"

"We got careless, AJ. But we're alive and still kicking. As long we got breath in our lungs, we ain't gonna let that bastard get away. Only this time, we're gonna need your help. If we fight Tirek, we fight him together!"

"Alright, Ground. Let's head over to the Equestrian Map with the others, they're waitin'."

Applejack gave Ground Dasher a little lift over there, even though he could walk fine, he still felt a little wobbly from the aftermath he felt earlier during the fight. They made it to the room where the gang was waiting for them.

"Welcome back, Ground Dasher. We're glad you're alright." Hurricane said.

"Thanks, bud." Ground replied.

"Alright, now that everypony is gathered around, let's get to work." Eternal says, seriously.

"Right, so what do we know so far?" Twilight asked.

"Tirek had already absorbed enough magical energy from pretty much almost every place on this map." Hurricane said.

"During the time when we split up to search for him, he found US instead and ambushed us, overpowering us." Ground says.

"Yes, however something doesn't add up." Spark said.

"What do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked.

"When Tirek first invaded Rogue Mountain, even at his strongest, we were able to overpower him, even if we were only fighting as individuals when we barely had any experience in battle. But now, this time, he took us down without even using more than 3% of his power at the time." Spark explains.

"I could definetely tell when we fought him over at the Crystal Empire. When he and Shadow Force were locked in a battle of dominance between a magic blast wave and Shadow's "Dark Destruction Wave," Tirek's magic blast had more force and concentration. It almost seemed like it had more force than even alicorn magic." Eternal explains.

"But the only creatures that could produce concentrated force in their attacks are..." Twilight paused and then gasped.

"You must know, too, huh Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah." Twilight replied.

"Dragons." Twilight and Sunset said in unison. The others had the look of shock on their faces, minus Tidal Wave.

"It's just as I suspected. Then he must've absorbed the dragons' energy at some time after I left the Dragon Kingdom in order to gain the upper hoof so he wouldn't have much of a problem handling us." Tidal explains.

"Tirek is really using his head, that's for sure." Rainbow says.

"There's also the matter of him going after the Tree of Harmony." Fluttershy said.

"And if he destroys the Tree of Harmony, along with the Elements of Harmony, the magic'll be lost forever. Not to mention the fact that chaos and destruction would fall upon Equestria!" Heat Wave says.

"We've got only 2 alternatives. One: We guard Ponyville while you girls head over to the Tree of Harmony and fortify yourselves. Or two: We all escort you over there. This way, in case he arrives, we'll have a better advantage." Eternal implies.

"It's too dangerous for you guys to guard the town on your own. So the only option is for you guys to come with us." Twilight implies. "This'll prevent you guys from getting another surprise attack."

The Rogues didn't object to Twilight's suggestion and just nodded in approval.

"The princess has a point there, chief. The next time we meet Tirek on our own, he's really gonna kick our ass. But I got a feeling that with the help of the girls, we're gonna overpower Tirek." Ground explains to Eternal.

"Yes, from now on, when we face Tirek, we face him as a team." Eternal says.

"Then what are waiting around for? Let's get going!" Rainbow says, hastily.

Meanwhile

Tirek had arrived at the city of Canterlot only to see that it's completely deserted. But he wasn't too worried about it since he feels like all the citizens will be in the castle. He wasted no time and flew up to Princess Celestia's castle. Upon arriving, he was struck by a fireball the size of his entire body. He blocked it with ease using his arms in a cross-arm block style. He lowered his arms to see who fired at him and sees a group of not only the princesses of night and day, but an alicorn with orange fur, red mane, and sapphire eyes. But he also saw that there were two other alicorns beside them. Both were taller than the princesses and the fiery alicorn.

"Who the hell are you three!" Tirek exclaimed

"Why don't I enlighten you a little bit so you'll remember." said Royal Blaze. He summoned yet another fireball onto his horn and shot it at Tirek who quickly countered it with a magic blast of his own.

"Well, I certainly remember you, Royal Blaze! But I'm not worried about you or your pathetic little son, now that he's out of my way for good, Equestria will be mine for the taking!" Tirek boasted. Royal Blaze, rather than look shocked, he gave Tirek a confident smirk and a light chuckle like he was amused. "I guess you're amused that he's gone. Pity!"

"Maybe I should give you a little lesson in Rogue history. Whenever a Rogue passes away, we can't sense their powers anymore, whether they're ones of our own element or somepony elses. As of right now, I can still sense his powers, which means my son, Eternal Flames, is far from dead, he's very much alive." Royal Blaze explains.

"WHAT?!" Tirek shouts in disbelief. 'No matter, I'll just finish the job once I find them again. Then I'll destroy the...' Tirek's self talk in his mind is cut off by one of the bigger alicorns.

"...Tree of Harmony. Am I right, or not." asked Queen Galaxia.

"What the?! Just who the hell do you think you are?!" Tirek asked, irritated.

"Queen Galaxia." she replies.

"King Cosmos." says the male midnight blue alicorn. Tirek then looked more interested after hearing their names.

"So, you're the legendary parents of the princesses of night and day. Wonderful, this'll be interesting." Tirek said to himself.

"You want our parents, you have to go through me!" Royal Blaze said as he stepped forth.

"Honey, be careful, he'll absorb your energy!" Celestia shouted.

"There's no need to worry, my dear, as long as my Rogue blood and my powers run within me, I can't be absorbed. It's one of the basic facts that Tirek overlooked when he ravaged my kingdom long ago." Royal Blaze said with confidence. He soon engulfed himself in a ring of burning blue flames, stronger than his oldest son's natural blue flames. All Tirek did was burst out laughing.

"Your little firework display isn't going to do you much, Royal Blaze! I hold only 95% of Equestrian magic, and if I can get a hold of the king and queen's magical energy, I'll take over the entire UNIVERSE!!!" Tirek boasted.

"What a shame. Now I understand why Scorpan wanted you to be stopped." Royal said

"SILENCE!!! I DON'T EVER WANT TO HEAR MY TRAITOROUS BROTHER'S NAME EVER AGAIN!!! He's dead to me!" Tirek says in anger. "Now enough of this talk, I'm going to destroy you once and for all!" Tirek then charged straight at Royal Blaze, who also did the same in which the two collided with each other.

As they collided, they took to the sky and started launching their attacks at each other. Neither the centaur, nor the former Rogue king could connect their attacks at the speed they're going at.

Over at the castle, the King and Queen never took their eyes off the battle, but it didn't stop them from asking their oldest daughter this one question that sparked interest in them.

"Tell us, Celestia. That stallion. Who is Royal Blaze and why did you call each other pet names?" Queen Galaxia asked.

"He's my husband, my dearest mother." Celestia replied, still gazing at the battle in the skies.

"As with me, dear mother, I was never married, but I was blessed with a child who's just as powerful and just as precious as my dear sister's own three sons." Luna adds.

"We're well aware of the situation of being grandparents, but we weren't aware that we have a total of 4 grandchildren. But we can say we're very proud of you both." King Cosmos says.

Royal Blaze and Tirek were still trying to launch an effective blow on each other but were moving too fast. Fireball after fireball and magic blast after magic blast, the blasts landed in on most of the buildings and the city grounds. Countless amount of damage and destruction laid in the city of Canterlot. Royal Blaze and Tirek weren't getting anywhere and decided to rely on their physical strength and charged at each other once again. It seemed like they were evenly matched, but Tirek gained the upper hoof and lifted Royal Blaze over his head getting ready to launch another magic attack. Just as he was about to fire, Royal Blaze teleported behind Tirek unharmed while Tirek had let his guard down, which in turn gave Royal Blaze the chance to launch another fireball at him. This time, Tirek took it at full force and was knocked down into the ground below.

Royal Blaze kept lauching fireballs until it looked like Tirek was unable to move. It seemed like he was in the clear, so he descended towards the ground level where it looked like Tirek was unconcious. He couldn't see straight with all the smoke. As he got closer, one of Tirek's claws got a hold of Royal Blaze's neck. Tirek had gotten up on his hooves once again.

"You've certainly gotten stronger." Tirek said, calmly with a smirk. He then tossed Royal Blaze up into the air and blasted him back into the castle with so much force and speed. "But you're not strong enough."

Royal Blaze had crashed into the entrance head first and had bruises all over his body. Celestia and Luna saw this, along with their parents and went to go get him.

"Oh dear! Quick, we need to get him out of here as soon as possible!" Celestia said in a panic.

"What, and ruin all of the fun? Not until I get what I've come here for!" Tirek said as he arrived shortly after.

"Don't you dare lay another claw on my husband! You'll have to go through me!" Celestia said, angerly.

"With pleasure." Tirek replied. He wasted no time in absorbing Luna's and Celestia's magic energy, but he was quickly interrupted by a magic blast from both the king and queen, sending him straight out of Canterlot.

"No pony absorbs our daughters' energy! Not even you, Tirek." King Cosmos said, with a serious look on his face. "My dear, we have to get them to safety as well."

"I know, but where can we hide them?" asked Galaxia. Immediately afterwards, Discord had reappeared in front of them,

"Why don't you two follow me, there's a secret hideout right behind the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville that you can all take shelter in until all of the smoke blows over." Discord implies.

"Are you sure we'll be safe there, Discord?" Cosmos asked.

"But of course, it's the safest place to be."

"Alright, we'll follow you."

"Splendid!" Discord snapped his fingers and teleported all the alicorns with him to Ponyville behind Twilight's castle. At first glance, there was nothing there, until Discord lifted the giant door up from the ground. The king and queen were a bit impressed and proceeded to carry their daughters and son-in-law down towards the secret hideout. Once they were out of sight, Discord lowered the giant door until it was fully closed and well hidden. "There, all taken care of."

Twilight and her friends had made it into a certain part of the Everfree Forest where there was a tiny chasm. There was a tiny pathway leading down into where the Tree of Harmony was. The gang walked down and surely enough, they found the Tree of Harmony, still flowing with a lot of magical energy.

"So this is what the Tree of Harmony looks like. It certainly is a sight to behold." Eternal said. "Alright, Twilight, you and the girls should take the time to turn into your rainbow powered forms. I'll go back up and see if Tirek is coming. But before you jump to conclusion, I'm not going to fight him on my own, I'm just going to shout out to you guys letting you know he's here."

"As long as you know what you're doing, I won't try to stop you." Twilight said.

Eternal nodded and headed back up to the surface. He looked over towards the open grass field. It was all quiet at first...a bit too quiet, it kept Eternal at the tip of his hooves. He never stopped scanning the area around him as well as the areas far out of his reach. 'He has gotten stronger as well as used his head. This could be one of the toughest challenges I've had to take on. I won't let you down, Equestria, no, WE won't let you down, Equestria.' Eternal thought to himself.

While he was scanning the area, Discord had poofed in front of Eternal. he looked up at the draconiquis slowly after he arrived thinking he might have something to say.

"I'm here to alert you of the sudden events that took place in your beloved mom's castle. Tirek has just left from there after a grueling battle with your father. Let me tell ya, he sure put up an amazing fight. My eyes could barely keep up with him." Discord explains.

"My father fought Tirek?! Is he alright? What about mother and aunt Luna?!" Eternal asked all worried.

"Don't worry, young prince, your parents are still breathing. So is Luna and your grandparents." Discord reassures.

"Phew, thanks for telling me, Discord. I was worried tha-" Eternal stopped himself and looked at Discord with dumbfoundedness and confusion hearing that one word echo in his mind. "Wait, did you just say my "grandparents?" he asked.

"Oh, did your brother forget to tell you?"

"Discord, my grandma died when I was barely 4 and my grandpa died when I was 15. How can they still be alive?"

"Oh you must be talking about your father's parents, the ones I'm talking about are your mom's and aunt's parents. As far as I can see, they are very much alive and well. Not to mention that they rule the entire universe. If you don't believe me, you can meet them later on after the fight with Tirek is over." Discord implies.

"I'd be most grateful if I had the chance. But you're right, we have to take down Tirek first."

"Speaking of Tirek, he's almost here. I can sense his magical energy and he's regained his full power back 100%. Are you sure you can take him on all by yourself?"

"No, I'm not fighting him all by myself this time. This time, the whole gang and I are going to take him down once and for all. I might not be the strongest in Equestria, but it doesn't mean I won't go down without a fight. This is our home!" Eternal says, sounding serious. "I'm going to alert the guys and the girls. It's time!" His facial expression turned into a look of anger and determination. He sprinted back to where the others were and saw the little gap in the chasm. He could see the Tree of Harmony and the gang. Without so much as a thought, he jumped through the crack in the chasm and landed near the gang, startling them and landed on all fours.

"You could've used the slope behind us to approach us!" Shadow Force implied in surprise.

"There's no time to argue, Shadow, I just got word from Discord that Tirek is near! We have to come up with a stradegy if he gets here before we have a chance to attack him at full throttle." Eternal said.

"He WHAT?!" Shouted all of the girls.

"This'll be bad, it's going to take us a solid 10 minutes to get our rainbow powered forms! I can't believe I have to say this, but you'll all have to create a distraction for us!" Twilight implied.

The guys looked at each other to see if they all had any objections, so far, they all nodded in agreement and jumped out of the crack of the chasm and landed onto the surface.

"Just like the old times back in the Rogue Kingdom, huh, cousin?" Shadow Force asked with a grin.

"You know it." Eternal Flames replied, also grinning.

"I was hoping it didn't come to this, but there comes a time when evil just won't sleep." Hurricane Blitz says.

"This could be one of our toughest challenges yet." Tidal Wave says.

"This time, we're not gonna take this lightly!" Spark Wave says.

"I've been meaning to give Tirek a healthy dosing of whoop-ass! Let's nail the bastard!" Ground Dasher says, grinning.

The Rogues stood their ground, waiting for the evil tyrant centaur, Tirek to show up.

The Hidden Powers Awaken in the Battle

The Rogues had stood their ground for a few solid minutes until they not only felt the ground rumble beneath their hooves, but they also saw the blue sky turn blood red. They immediately saw the tyrant in their line of sight and got closer and closer within minutes. Tirek landed straight in front of the guys. He looked down at them with an agitated expression.

"I should've finished you boys off when I had the chance. No matter, I'll make sure I correct that error and erase you off the face of the earth and then move onto the Tree of Harmony!" Tirek said.

"Keep dreaming, Tirek, because that's all it'll ever be. A dream, nothing more and nothing less!" Tidal Wave said.

"You may have defeated us once before, but this time, we won't be caught off guard!" Ground Dasher said.

"You've taken the lives of countless Rogues when I was a teenager, and you've stolen the magical energy from almost every innocent being in all of Equestria and now your time has finally come. We're going to FINISH YOU!!!" Eternal shouted.

All of the Rogues soon engulfed themselves into their elemental powers. Eternal's fire powers, Tidal's water powers, Hurricane's wind powers, Spark's electric powers, Ground's earth powers, and Shadow's dark powers. After they fortified their powers, they charged at Tirek in different directions firing bullets of each of their elemental powers. Tirek dodged some of them and blocked some of the others, but there were a few that made contact with him, making him wince in pain a little. Out of nowhere, Tidal Wave shot a water spear at Tirek from behind while giving it a drilling motion to sink into Tirek more effectively.

Shadow Force had surrounded Tirek in a void of darkness where Tirek got confused when he caught sight of the darkness. At the corner of his eye, he caught sight of two red eyes covered in a green aura with purple smoke coming out of them. Shadow gave Tirek an evil grin and launched a barrage of black massed spears at a rapid pace.

"What's the matter, Tirek? Can't keep up with the grandson of Sombra? Don't get me wrong, I'm not like him, but I still inherit his blood and some of his magical powers, along with my father's." Shadow explains while still carrying on his attack until he got caught off guard by Tirek unleashing a wave of magic, blasting him out of the way and freeing Tirek from his dark prison. Shadow landed near the chasm with one of his hinde legs hanging over the ledge. "I should've seen that coming, no matter. More where that came from!" Shadow kept charging at him along with the others.

Ground Dasher summoned sand tornados to surround Tirek. He stomped at the ground, causing a rock solid boulder bigger and taller than him to appear in front of him. Without hesitation, he kicked it with his hinde legs causing 3 rock spears to be launched at the other side and head towards Tirek. Tirek took two of the blows, which shredded a small fraction of his black tank top and grazed his skin, making him bleed a little bit. on his lower left side. Tirek teleported out of the sandstorms and in front of Ground Dasher before the last rock spear could reach him and swatted Ground Dasher away.

"HEY! OVER HERE, YA JERK!!!" Hurricane shouted. Tirek turned around to see him only to get punched in the face by Spark Wave from below and is blown back and lands on his back.

"Damn it, I got careless!" Tirek said to himself as he got back up. While he was getting up, Hurricane lifted him off of the ground by summoning a strong gusting tornado that could slice through almost anything. Eternal Flames heled out my launching fireballs at Tirek making it impossible for him to counterattack. Tirek was getting more frustrated and angry with each passing second until finally, he caused a magic surge to erupt, neutralizing the attacks and blasting the Rogues out of his way. "I've had just about enough of you annoying little bastards and your special powers!" he growled. Tirek then started to fire a magic blast wave at the Rogues, but all managed to barely jump out of the way.

"Nothing can stop this guy, we've hit him with everything we've got!" Tidal said.

"Wrong, there's still one thing you guys haven't tried yet." Eternal said.

"What are you talking about? We don't know any other techniques that could beat him!" Tidal relied.

"Then why don't I show you just what I mean." Eternal said, walking towards Tirek.

"Wait, hold up, what are you doing?!" Ground asked. Without even saying anything, Eternal hunched back and prepared to power up again and this time, he used a familiar technique that the guys now knew what he meant.

"PYRO BURST!!!" Eternal shouted, his fur became a darker red than his mane while being surrounded by crimson flames.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!!! THAT'S LIKE SUICIDE!!!" Spark said.

"You got a better idea?" Eternal asked.

"Guys, we don't have a choice, we have to use ours as well. VENTUS BURST!!!" Hurricane shouted. As he said that, his fur became a more darker green while bieng surrounded by silver winds that rose up from underneath his hooves.

"Not this again..." Ground Dasher said. But even he couldn't think of another plan. "Ugh, to hell with it! TERRA BURST!!!" Ground Dasher, became surrounded by an intense sandstorm while having put on a flexible stone armor.

"If this is what we have to do, then so be it. AQUA BURST!!!" Tidal shouted, Soon, a vortex of water shot up from underneath, surrounding him and took the form of a water phoenix.

"I hope I'm not gonna regret this. BOLT BURST!!!" Spark shouted. His fur became a darker yellow while his lightning powers turned from light yellow to silver and grew more intense with power.

"Never thought I'd be using this old forbidden technique again. DARK BURST!!!" Shadow shouted. The darkness around him intensified and his red eyes had disappeared, showing nothing but green magical aura with purple smoke coming out of his eyes.

As the Rogues gathered enough power in their burst forms, they charged at Tirek from different directions. Tirek wasn't just going to stand around and take the hits so easily and began launch magic blast waves at the Rogues, but they were moving too fast to even graze them while they couldn't even get too close without taking a blast in the face. They had to rely on long range attacks, lauching waves of their intensified elements, but each of the Rogues were feeling the aftermath as they were carrying out their attacks. While some of the attacks were blocked by Tirek's own attack, the others managed to get him from below, more specifically, Ground Dasher's attack, and sent Tirek flying into the sky and was caught off guard.

Tirek immediately regained his balance and charged straight for the Rogues. As he got closer and closer, he readied a stradegy to catch them by surprise. At the last minute, he teleported out of their line of sight, leaving the Rogues looking confused and staying alert to see where Tirek will strike, they scanned the area above, below, left and right. So far there was no sign of him.

Eternal Flames felt some heavy magic energy coming towards him and the other guys. "EVERYPONY, JUMP OUT OF THE WAY!!!" he shouted as he spotted a magic sphere being hurled towards them as it skidded across the land. All, except Eternal jumped out of the way as he braced himself for the impact. As soon as he made contact, he tried to redirect the force of the magic blast back at Tirek, but he was sent flying into the sky and landed into the chasm below where the Tree of Harmony and the girls were. Sunset rushed over to check on Eternal, only to see the angry look in his eyes as he slowly got up. He snarled and jumped back out of the chasm at blazing speed. Eternal rushed over to Tirek as fast as he could in order to at least land a punch at him. Tirek hit Eternal Flames with another magic blast with more power and force in it to keep him away from him. Eternal was too stubborn to just give in. Immediately he made a decison that he felt would cost himm dearly. "PYRO BURST TIMES 2!!!" The crimson flames around him intensified and he pushed his way through the magic blast, finally able to land a hard-enough punch on Tirek, slamming him into the earth's core. Eternal followed close behind, but his Pyro Burst had timed out and he returned to his normal state.

The others rushed over to grab him before he hit the ground too hard. Eternal winced in pain as his body still wasn't use to prolonging his forbidden technique, especially when he increases it to times two or higher. They carried over to a safe place away from Tirek's grasp in case he really wanted to finish the job. Shadow stayed behind to watch over Eternal Flames while the others kept fighting.

"You idiot! What the hell were you thinking?! This isn't a game, Eternal Flames! You have to use your head, not your muscle! Now listen to me, Tirek may have the brawn in this fight, but we got the brains and our pals by our side. This isn't like your previous fight months ago, you gotta step it up a notch! GET REAL FIRED UP!!!" Shadow explains.

"I know!" Eternal replied, trying to get up, but the pain was starting to take its toll. Shadow settled him back down

"No, you don't know! Equestria is at risk. If you already knew, you wouldn't have tried that stupid stunt!" Shadow snapped back. As he was lecturing Eternal Flames, he could feel a warm light from behind him. He turned around quickly to see the Main 6 in their Rainbow Powered forms and brimming with intense magical energy. "Looks like it's showtime!"

"You got that right, Shadow." Twilight replied.

Shadow, Eternal, and the girls all made their way back to Tirek where the other 4 Rogues were still soaring in every direction really close to Tirek and kept shooting blast waves of their own elements. Tirek was moving more quickly than he was before, meaning that he about to get serious this time. The girls floated above Tirek, immediately getting his attention. Tirek wasn't dumb enough to get caught in the same magic draining spell the girls casted on him the last time they defeated him.

Tirek flew up high into the sky gathering a large amount of energy into the palm of his claws. The Rogues rush up above to stop him. Each used a restraining attack with rings of fire, darkness, water, winds, lightning, and earth.

"TWILIGHT, HURRY, WE CAN'T KEEP HIM STILL FOR LONG!!!" Eternal shouted. Twilight and her friends immediately launched their rainbow powered magic attack at Tirek. It was getting close with each passing second, the boys holding onto Tirek with all their strengths, but the pain from their Burst forms took their toll on them, reverting them back into their original forms. Tirek broke free with ease and dodged the girls' attack, swatting the guys out of his way and slamming them all into the ground. Tirek then had his eyes locked on the girls with an evil grin and headed straight for them.

"Wait for it." Twilight said. She already had a plan for taking down Tirek. "Wait for it...and...NOW!" Twilight and her friends launched another Rainbow Powered Magic attack. Tirek caught onto the others' attack and teleported out of the line of fire. "WHAT?! That's impossible! He must've had us figured out!"

"What are we gonna do now, Sugarube?" Applejack asked. "We gotta stop Tirek somehow!"

"He's not going to be able to absorb us while we're in these forms!" Rainbow said confidentally.

"Oh really now?" Tirek said, causing the others to jump and turn behind them to see the evil centaur. He opened his mouth and inhaled the girls' magic. Making him stronger than he ever was before. "I...HAVE...THE POWER!!!!!" He shouted. Soon, he blasted the girls onto the ground hard with a magical surge.

Eternal Flames, lifted himself up, still feeling the pain from Tirek's attack and his own Pyro Burst. He saw th girls scattered all over the grassfield in a battered and bruised up mess. 'You freaking bastard! You hurt my pals' fiances! YOU HURT MY PALS FIANCES!!! I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT ANY LONGER!!!' Eternal shouted in his mind. Afterwards, something snapped in him. He let out a shout of anger and spite so loud, even Tirek's ears couldn't stand the noise. Tirek covered his ears and looked down to see Eternal shouting and in the process, he witnessed his fire powers becoming more intensified, yet his fur stayed the same...for the time being. The flames soon engulfed him intensely and entirely, still shouting.

The Rogues and the Main 6 lifted their heads off of the ground to see what was going on and could see that Eternal had completely lost it and could sense the rage deep inside him.

"This is bad." Twilight said in a weakened voice, trying to get up.

"No kidding, Twi!" Rainbow repied.

"Crap! What the hell is happening?!" Shadow asked himself. "He's gaining more power, yet he's not using his Burst form. Could this be some sort of secret technique that he suddenly mastered?"

"I don't know, but one thing is for sure, he's really pissed off now!" Tidal Wave implied.

The flames had intensified for a good whole minute until they subsided, revealing what was suppose to be Eternal Flames, was a completely different stallion. His fur was orange and his eyes were blood red. His scar-like birth marks looked like they stretched a bit farther back, his mane and tail was a mixture of red and yellow, looking like actual flames. His cutie mark had changed from a star inside a burning flame to a golden judgement scale inside a burning flame. What was even more astonishing was that he was an alicorn. The outer part of his wings had the same colors as his mane and tail. But the inside of his wings were orange like his fur. Small sparks of flames surrounded him while he was staring at Tirek from below with a calmed angry expression on his face.

Youtube Video

The whole gang got up and saw this strange fiery alicorn stallion and thought he was another foe they'd have to face, all except for the Rogues because they could tell that it was Eternal Flames.

"Watch out, girls! This might be bad. We might have to deal with this new foe!" Twilight grunted.

"Hang on, princess. That alicorn stallion is Eternal Flames!" grunted Ground Dasher. "He's just awakened his ancestor's spirit and he's taken control of his body!"

"How is that good thing, darling?" Rarity asked, still hurt from Tirek's previous attack.

"Whenever he's called forth his ancestor's spirit, Pyro Judgement regains his physical form and apppearence by taking control of Eternal's body and his mind. The good news is, he'll gain almost limitless ppower as long as Pyro Judgement takes control, the bad news is, after he's satisfied with his fallen foe, Eternal will not only change back to his original form, fully healed, but his powers will have been completely drained out of his system. It's similar to the Pyro Burst, but there's no pain, he'll just end up exhausted and vulnerable to any attack that gets thrown at him." Ground explains.

"WHAT?!" shouted the girls.

"B-but that c-can't be...and how...do you know...all of this?" Fluttershy asked, while wincing in pain.

"The same thing happened to my grandfather before he passed away long ago." Ground says.

"It's the same for half of our past relatives, one of them was my grandmother when she was still my age. She told me about a decade ago before she passed away." Hurricane explains, regaining his strength.

"As much as we'd like to hear that, we gotta take down Tirek! That Pyro dude might need our help!" Rainbow implied.

"I don't think that's such a good idea. Even if we wanted to help out with Pyro Judgement, he'll only say we're in the way! Eternal might fight on his own sometimes, but he knows his limits to who, when, and how he fights. Pyro Judgement is purely a solo fighter. It'd take a miracle to convince him to let us help him out." Spark says.

"That don't sound good." Applejack said.

Pyro Judgement had flown up into the air at blazing speed, surrounded by his immense fire powers which formed into a fire phoenix, letting out a screeching roar. Tirek readied his attack on the stallion, in no time, he fired his attack with so much concentrated force, but he didn't see that Pyro Judgement was powering through it with effortless ease. He got close enough to Tirek and landed a full-bodied tackle in the stomach with a little drilling motion to deepen the damage. Tirek coughed up blood after feeling the sting of his attack. Pyro Judgement didn't stop there and continued his assault by punching Tirek rapidly in the stomach with his fire engulfed forehooves. Tirek was too stunned to move and became more injured to even launch another attack.

'Damn it! How did he accquire all of this power?! It's beyond any magical strength imaginable! Curse you!' Tirek thought. "I won't be defeated by the likes of YOU!!!" Tirek tried to land an elbow blow on Pyro to get him away from him, but Pyro had dodged the last minute without a single scratch. "But...how did..." Tirek was speechless. He never faced anypony who possessed otherworldly magical strength that surpasses all the magic he was able to absorb. He looked in all directions to find Pyro Judgement and found him flying above the very top of his head where Pyro looked back down at him with one of his hinde legs bent back like he was ready to kick. Pyro Judgement kicked Tirek down to the ground before Tirek had a chance to react or dodge.

The impact of the ground had broken three of Tirek's ribs. He couldn't stop coughing blood. He lifted himself up to stand up, but is stopped by Pyro Judgement as he stomped on his face with his left forehoof.

"Stay down, you bastard. Your punishment isn't over until I say it's over and considering how much pain you brought to everypony, I think you deserve to suffer the same pain they did, only this time, I'll give you pain and suffering 10 times more!" Pyro said sternly.

"You monster! You call yourself a hero?! You're just like me!" Tirek retorted, but is stomped in the face again.

"Shut your yap, right now! I've never been like you and I never will be. But just to make sure..." Pyro paused. He still kept his forehoof on Tirek's face and in the process, he ignited Tirek on fire, making him shout in pain. "How does it feel to become a victim, almighty Tirek, my ass, you're nothing but a joke, a phony wannabe ruler. How you escaped Tartarus, I'll never know." Pyro insulted.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" Shadow shouted, catching Pyro's attention. "If you keep this up, you'll be no better than Tirek! Are you seriously willing make Eternal Flames commit murder? You might be borrowing his body, but he's still Eternal Flames! He doesn't want to kill anypony, be they good or evil! This isn't justice! This is madness!!!"

Pyro Judgement justed stared at Shadow Force with a blank stare while he was still keeping Tirek pinned underneath his hoof. "You certainly are the son of Dark Void. Your grandfather's blood may run through your veins, but there is a large glimmer of light inside you just like you mother and your father." Pyro said calmly.

"Wait, how do you know my parents?" Shadow asked, confused.

"I reside in Eternal's body. What he sees and hears, I can see and hear just like him. We're connected. But right now, I have to finish of this tyrant so he'll never..." Pyro paused himself and saw that Tirek had escaped and was back on his feet. Tirek was looking down on Pyro Judgement with an angry expression on his face, most of his upper body had burn marks all over.

"I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU BLEED FOR HUMILIATING ME LIKE THIS!!!" Tirek shouted.

He used a healing spell and recovered from the damage Pyro had done to him. Then, Tirek backed away from the group in order to regain some more of his magical strength.

"Pyro, in order to stop him, we have to work as a team! Please, this is the only best solution to stop Tirek! I know you're a solo fighter, but if you would ju-" Shadow was cut off by Pyro.

"That's how I was when I was still whole. But now I'm a spirit who's borrowing his body. If I were still whole, I'd have said "no," but there's a rule in which me and my comrads always follow now that we all reside in you guys: As long as we reside in the chosen wielders, we put our ways of thinking aside, we abide by your standards. Of course, I almost broke Eternal's promise against his own will. So as punishment, I'll team up with you guys, whether you're in your normal states or in your Rogue God forms." Pyro explains.

"Thank you, Pyro Judgement." Shadow bowed at him.

"Wait...Eternal Flames?" Sunset shouted as she ran towards him in his god form.

"So you're Sunset Shimmer, there's no need to worry, your fiance is letting me borrow his body to stop Tirek. I'd ask you to help, but considering your condition, you have to stand back and stay safe. Eternal Flames would be disappointed if he found out his fiance put herself in harms way, not to mention that he'd never forgive himself." Pyro said.

"I understand, but I've made up my mind! I want to be able to protect Equestria alongside with him, otherwise, how can I call myself a mare if I stood by and watched Tirek take over Equestria? I don't care if Eternal disapproves of my decision, I'm going to fight alongside him, for not only him and myself, but also for our child." Sunset said with determination.

"Eternal is not going to like this, but here's an idea. Your child is still unborn and unprotected, but I have a solution that'll keep it safe from anything that could harm him." Pyro said. His horn began to glow and he casted a spell on Sunset's body, including her stomach in which she was coated with a warm and comforting fire, fire in which didn't harm her. "These flames act like a shield, they'll stay active as long as I'm still borrowing Eternal's body. While you're being protected, your child won't be affected by any physical or magical attacks that could end up leading to a miscarriage. You'll also be able to move freely and flexibly. Luckily for your child, while you're moving, he'll be perfectly fine, feeling like you're not moving at all, except for your breathing." he explains.

"Thank you, Pyro Judgement." Sunset said.

"Alright everypony, let's get this battle underway!" Twilight said with a grin.

"Heh, I'm ready to kick Tirek's ass when you girls are!" Ground Dasher said, determined. Just as he said that, a sandstorm rose up, surrounding him and concealing his entire form. The other Rogues did the same by surrounding themselves with water, lightning, solid gusting tornado winds, and intense darkness.

Twilight and the others still remained in their Rainbow powered forms, but they didn't have any magical energy to drain the magical energy that Tirek took from mostly all of Equestria. However, they weren't going to worry about it much longer as the Rogue had revealed their god forms and stood by their sides, ready to finish the fight.

Saviors of Equestria: The Final Fall of Tirek

The Mane 6 watched as the rest of the Rogues took their Rogue God forms and every single one of the Rogue Gods that took over their bodies were all alicorns. First off, Shadow Force's entire fur coat was a solid black color and his mane and tail was the same color as the purple smoke coming out of his red and green eyes. His mane even moved around in a similar motion like Celestia's and Luna's and his cutie mark showed that of a red demon head with two solid black eyes. Ground Dasher's fur was all burgundy color with a golden blonde mane and tail. His eyes became forest green, instead of emerald green and his cutie mark was a flaming boulder looking like it was falling. Hurricane Blitz's fur and mane colors were reversed, but his eyes were changed from brown to sapphire blue, similar to Eternal's. His cutie mark was a grey cloud with two emerald wings behind it. Tidal Wave's fur had changed into a darker blue, while his mane and tail had taken up the same color as his original fur coat. His eyes changed into a violet color and his cutie mark was an ice crystal inside a drop of water. Spark Wave's fur color was a darker golden yellow and his mane and tail became silver and more spikey like they looked more rough, rather than soft. His eyes remained the same, and his cutie mark was a furocious white lightning bolt.

"Who are you all?" Twilight asked. Immediately, all 5 of the other Rogues stepped forth one at a time and introduced themselves to Twilight and her friends.

"I'm Dreaded Shadows." Shadow Force said.

"Meteor Shower's the name." Ground Dasher said.

"I am Silver Ventus." Hurricane Blitz said.

"My name is Sheer Cold." Tidal Wave said.

"I am Lightning Strike." Spark Wave said.

"It's good to see you again, my comrads. Now, because of Tirek draining their Rainbow magic we must lend them our magical strength if they are to ever have a fighting chance against Tirek. Do you have any objections?" Pyro asked, calmly.

"I do not object to this situation. They'll need all the strength they can get." Lightning said.

"Yeah, no way are they gonna go out there unprepared." Meteor said.

They all walked closer towards the Mane 6 (Sunset Shimmer included) and encircled around them. They all made their horns glow, causing a magical sphere to appear above their heads. It then grew bigger and made contact with the girls as it lowered and restored their Rainbow magic while Sunset's magic was enhanced more, making her magic just as strong as Twilight Sparkle. Once this was done, the girls headed towards where Tirek was and became shocked with what he was doing.

Tirek had created a magic sphere over his head with the destruction and capacity to annihilate all of Equestria. This could only mean one thing that everypony feared most: He's going to destroy Equestria along with himself and every living creature if he couldn't have Equestria to rule with an iron fist.

"Uh-oh! Girls it's time to use all our strength! Ready!" Twilight shouted.

"AIM!!!" The other girls shouted.

"FIRE!!!" They all shouted, launching their rainbow magic blast, while at the same time, Tirek shot his destructive magic blast. The girls and Tirek's blast were evenly matched, but they didn't stop firing, they kept on going. Tirek added more concentration to his attack, giving him a slight lead in the powerful wave clash. The Mane 6 struggled to keep up the with Tirek, but they felt themselves slipping. Just when they were about to lose their grip, they started considering all the lives of every living creature. The homes every creature lived in, and all the times the evil had fallen under Twilight and her friends' hooves. With all of their strength, they put extra effort into their rainbow blast wave, evening each of their attacks once again. The Rogue Gods flew towards Tirek and shot their attacks at him at close range.

"RAPID METEOR WING!!!" Meteor Shower shouted. He launched a flurry of giant fiery meteors at Tirek's right side.

"TERROR SHADOW BLAST!!!" Dreaded Shadows shouted. He launched a dark blast wave of purple and black at Tirek from behind his back and got a clean shot. He kept up his attack to weaken the tyrant.

"FIENDISH BLIZZARD!!!" Sheer Cold shouted. His attack made contact with Tirek's left side, causing Tirek to shout in pain.

"VOLTAGE SURGE!!!" Lighting Strike shouted. He connected at the top of Tirek's head, he felt that one as well.

"DUAL TORNADO BLAST!!!" Silver Ventus shouted. With a flap of his wings, he launched to tornados straight towards Tirek's face, loosening part of his grip on the magic blast. But he regained his grip on the magic blast and increased it's furocity, matching back up with the Mane 6's Rainbow Magic Blast. Finally, Pyro Judgement readied an attack of his own. With his horn glowing fiercely, he summoned a flaming phoenix and hurled it towards Tirek who still had his hands full. Pyro's target: Tirek's entire body. Tirek's body had stung from the burning impact of Pyro Judgement's attack.

Tirek's black tank top had burned clean off of his body, leaving only his bare red skin. The energy blasts were still going on strong, both the girls and Tirek weren't giving an inch.

"Guys, hold up!" Pyro said, making the other Rogue Gods cease their attacks. "We're not getting anywhere fast if we're attacking him on our own, we must combine our powers and create the ultimate attack that can stop him once and for all."

"What do you suggest, sir?" Dreaded asked.

"There's only one attack that can do the job, and that attack is-" Pyro got cut off by one of his teammates.

"I know where you're going with this! You're suggesting that attack. Are you sure we can pull it off without killing Tirek? The last time we used it was nearly almost a thousant years ago and the results left a pretty deadly sight to see, and not in the good way. Let's not forget that your chosen wielder has a principle to never take a life away." Meteor implies.

"I'm well aware of that. But it's our only option. But as long as we don't put our entire strength into it, Tirek's life will be spared. Are you guys in this with me, if not, then I'll just aid the girls on my own." Pyro explains.

"Sir, We might have doubts about this, but just as our chosen wielders vowed to follow their leader, we're following you to the bitter end regardless the outcome of the situation." Sheer Cold said, calmly.

"Very well then, we must regroup with the others now, COME ALONG!" Pyro ordered.

"YES SIR!!!" Shouted the other Rogue Gods.

All six Rogue Gods flew away from Tirek while he was still keeping up his relentless attack, he grinned, thinking he was a step away from his so-called "unbeatable victory." Tirek added more furocity to his attack and started overpowering the Mane 6 a little bit.

"Twilight, we can't keep this up forever!!!" Pinkie shouted, struggling to keep up the attack.

"I can feel myself slipping, deary!!!" Rarity shouted, struggling just as much as the others.

"Same here, Sugarcube!!!" grunted Applejack

"JUST A LITTLE MORE!!!" Rainbow shouted.

"It's...too...much!!!" Fluttershy shouted.

"Come on girls! We have to keep trying, we're so close! If we fail, all of Equestria will be destroyed!" Sunset exclaimed.

"Sunset's right! Just stay strong girls!" Twilight said.

Just as they were about to lose their fulll grip on their attack, they felt an immense magical power surging through all of their bodies and their attack was fortified. They saw that the Rogue Gods had combined their elemental phoenix attacks with the girls' Rainbow Magic Blast, turning the tables against Tirek. Tirek was struggling to keep up his attack.

"It looks like it's the end of the road, Tirek. It's a darn shame. When we first fought nearly a thousand years ago, we could sense you were confused about your ambitions to rule Equestria. You were like a naive youth who didn't know any better. Fighting was more of a challenging game to you than anything else. But then when you escaped Tartarus that one time nearly a thousand years later, you were ruthless, you became a living nightmare and you delighted at every moment of it! You didn't even show a shred of decency or mercy. Now you'll have to learn the hard way. You'll have to learn what it's like to have your stolen strength taken away against your will once again!" Pyro explained as he carried on with attacking. "Maybe you'll come back someday...as a better centaur. I'd like that. Perhaps we'll have a little one on one."

Tirek had a shocked look on his face as he heard those words clearly. He had started reminisce about the last time he saw his brother Scorpan before he was first banished to Tartarus.

Thousands of years ago

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In the outlands of Equestria, Tirek was trapped inside a magic barrier, while his brother, Scorpan, a Gargoyle, was siding by Princess Celestia, the princess of day, and Princess Luna, the princess of the night. The centaur was beating against the barrier, trying to escape and try to get a hold of Scorpan.

"LET ME OUT, YOU TRAITOROUS WRETCH!!! HOW DARE YOU GO AGAINST YOUR OWN BROTHER!!! I OUGHT TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE CLAWS IF I HAD THE CHANCE!!!" Tirek shouted. Scorpan, didn't do anything other than walk towards his trapped centaur brother until they were face-to-face.

"My brother, forgive me, but these plans of yours just don't seem right to me. The ponies have done nothing to deserve such suffering so I had to do this in order to save you from yourself." Scorpan said.

"How did I end up with a brother like you? You never were me and you never will be! When I get out of Tartarus, I'll make sure that once I rule Equestria, I will look for you, I will find you...and I will kill you!" Tirek growled.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. But my mind is made up, it's time for you to serve your punishment. I will wait for the day when you wish to return to me as a better centaur who will want nothing more than to set Equestria free from evil." Scorpan said, turning away, trying not to show his tears towards his brother.

"I will never go back on my plans! You'll regret the day you double-crossed me! You're FINISHED!!!" After Tirek's speech finished, a vortex had appeared under his hooves and dragged him in. At the last minute, before he disappeared into Tartarus, he caught the sight of his brother, Scorpan look back at him with a tear in his eye.

Back in the present day

Tirek started thinking to himself 'Pyro Judgement's words have really touched me deeply. Scorpan was right, I've done nothing but cause pain and suffering to the ponies and many others in Equestria. Scorpan, I'm so sorry my brother. I have decided on a new plan... A plan I should've considered doing thousands of years ago.

Tirek undermined his own attack while the gang had their attack enhanced by the Rogue Gods' strongest technique.

"JUDGEMENT BLAST!!!" shouted the Rogue Gods. The attack changed from a rainbow blast to an ultimate beam of light. The only thing Tirek did was extend his arms out and grinned ready for the impact of the attack.

This is it. The moment of truth. I will free the ponies and-' Tirek's thoughts were cut off by the beam of light...striking straight through his torso and passing out of his back. Tirek was blown far back and landed near where the chasm leading to the Tree of Harmony was. After the heavy impact of landing on his left side. Tirek coughed up blood intensely as he felt the stolen magic inside of him leaving him and slowly shrunk to his weakest form.

"Looks like the battle is over...but what a mess." Pyro Judgement said before being engulfed in fire and reverting back to Eternal Flames, along with his other pals. Each of Eternal's friends reverted back to their normal selves. When they were all about to fall, Eternal extended his hinde leg and forehoof in order to catch them. Twilight and her friends reverted back to their normal forms as well since their magical strength was all used up.

"I gotcha, guys. You all did good." Eternal said to his pals. The guys were able to stand on their own after half a minute. Eternal checked to see where Tirek was, but he was shocked to see that Tirek was lying on the ground near the chasm, but that was the least of his worries, the most of his worries was the big gaping hole in his torso. He sprinted over towards the shrinking and dying Centaur. "TIREK!!! Tirek, don't you dare die on me, man! You can't do this!"

"It's too late, little stallion. The damage is done and my time here is almost up. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way, now that Equestria will be safe from me...this time...for good." Tirek strained to speak clearly.

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"What?!" Eternal asked, shocked.

"Listen to me, young stallion. I've made countless mistakes in the past and never once listened to reason, and to make matters worse, I not only took the magic from every pony, I took multiple lives away when I invaded the Rogue Kingdom. My apology can't bring them back today, that's a fact both of us have to live with. Why am I telling you all of this, you ask? Well, to put it simply, it's because of what Pyro Judgement said to me when we were still fightiing. I started to go over my past mistakes and the hurtful words I said to my brother, Scorpan, who was actually the more powerful one." Tirek explains.

"Tirek, you gotta stay strong, you can't die!" Eternal begged.

"The damage was already done...*cough*...don't feel bad...*cough*...about a cold-blooded...*pant*...tyrant. Besides...you didn't kill me...*pant*...you...*pant* set me free." Tirek said. By the time he said this, he had fully reverted into his weakest form. Tirek then coughed more violently since his time was running out, so with the last of his strength, he reached out to Eternal's face like he was trying to get a gentle grip on him, but he wasn't close enough. Eternal stepped forward a bit and let Tirek grab the left side of his face.

"Eternal, what are you doing?!" Sunset asked, worried. One of the guys were about to respond, but Heat Wave showed up from the chasm and told Sunset that made her feel more at ease.

"He's doing what he was meant to do...his job as the Prince of Equestria...and the Strongest Guardian of Equestria...and that job is taking his responsabilities and honoring his first fallen foe's dying wish." Heat Wave explains.

"Now, if you ever see my brother, Scorpan...tell him this: "Tirek has been set free...for good." After saying this, Tirek's eyes slowly shut and his grip on Eternal loosens and falls to the ground. The tyrant known as Tirek...was now dead.

"Your last request...will not be left undone." Eternal said. Without even thnking, he carried Tirek's dead body and walked towards a nearby tree with the others following him close behind.

"Eternal, darling, not to sound rude, but, why are you carrying his dead body? It's unsanitary!" Rarity asked.

"I'm going to bury him...without magic or my powers. Even if I wanted to use my powers, I can't use them. Pyro Judgement used it all up during the fight when he took over." Eternal explains.

"But, how are you going to bury him? We don't have any shovels." Fluttershy asks.

"Correction, we don't have any shovels on hoof at the moment. Applejack, do you have a few shovels at the farm? If you do, then Heat Wave, I want you to go get a few. You've not only got plenty of power, but you're also the fastest runner out of all us guys." said Eternal.

"Yeah, I got some shovels back at the barn. There should be at least six." Applejack confirmed Eternal

"Even though I don't like this idea, I'll do what I can. But you should know something, Eternal: Equestria isn't just your responsability, it's all of our responsabilities to keep it safe. I'll be back with the shovels. I won't be long." Heat Wave said before sprinting off at super speed, leaving a trail of fire on the ground.

"You know, Heat Wave is acting more like an adult than his usual timid self. Did you change him?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No, this is all him. He's learned to be more mature on his own. I know he was scared, but he still has the heart of a Rogue. It runs in his blood as it does in mine and my pals." Eternal says. Soon, Heat Wave returned with a few shovels tied to his back.

"I had to use a rope on my own to keep the shovels from falling off my back, but now I can't untie it." Heat Wave says. Applejack walked over to Heat Wave and untied the knots, making the shovels fall to the ground. "Thanks, AJ."

"No problem, Sugarcube." Applejack replied.

"Come on guys, we can't let Tirek's body rot out here. Grab a shovel and start digging." Eternal ordered.

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The guys grabbed a shovel each and started digging a rectangular hole under a tree. The pace was slow at first, but later on the guys sped up with the digging.

"I've never seen Eternal Flames resorting to things like this. He must feel really really REALLY bad about killing Tirek." Pinkie said. "But now that I think about it, he shouldn't have to do this on his own since we're also at fault here. I mean, he and his friends did combine their powers to increase our attack."

"I think Pinkie's right girls. They shouldn't be taking all the blame for this. We're just as guilty as they are." Sunset says.

"You're right, Sunset. Let's help them out." Twilight agreed.

"Count me in as well." Discord said, after he poofed out of nowhere with a few extra shovels in his claws.

"Thank ya, Discord. Now let's get busy, partners!" Applejack said.

In no time, the gang dug up a hole under the tree big and long enough for Tirek. Eternal put down his shovel and carried Tirek's dead body onto his back once again.

"Now hold on there, young man. You can't just bury him in the dirt, you need this. *snap*" Discord made a coffin appear inside the hole and it was wide open. Eternal jumped into the hole with Tirek in his tight grip. After landing, he carefully place Tirek's dead body inside the coffin, closed the lid, and climbed out of the whole. The gang grabbed their shovels again and shoveled all of the dirt back into the hole. Once it wa finally completely sealed up, Discord made his spare shovels disappear and teleported to Applejack's home with her shovels to put them back where they belong.

"What do we do now?" Heat Wave asked.

"We let the ponies in the hideout go free so they can return to their homes. Tirek's gone, there's no need to keep them hidden from a danger that has left Equestria for good." Eternal said. The others nodded and walked back into the Everfree Forest and down the path back home towards Ponyville. The walk back wasn't long after they were finally out of the Everfree Forest. They hurried back to the back of Twilight's castle where the hideout was in a matter of 7 minutes. Upon arriving, they used up all the strength they can muster and lifted the door up off of the ground. The entire gang walked downstairs, hearing the sound of lots of chattering and arguing. "HEY" Eternal shouted, getting all of the ponies' attentions. "I have some news I would like to share with you all." he paused before finally speaking the truth. "The tyrant known as Tirek has been defeated. You are all hearby released from this hideout and carry on with your peaceful lives. That battle to save all of Equestria is won!"

After 5 seconds of silence, the crowd cheered eagerly with joy. The cheering lasted for a good 3 minutes until the gang helped everypony leave the hideout without cramping each other too much. While they were leaving the hideout, Eternal was looking down at the ground with a disappointed look in his eyes still feeling remorsed with taking Tirek's life. He kept thinking about any ideas on how he could've prevented Tirek from dying.

"My son, what's the matter? You seem troubled." asked Celestia, warmly. Eternal looked up at Celestia with a blank stare in order for her to try not to show her what he has done, but the look of sadness in his eyes was very clear to her.

"It's Tirek...he's...dead. I took his life. I'm suppose to be a Guardian of Equestria, but I went against my own principles and took somepony's life, even if he was evil. I can't even call myself a stallion after that." Eternal explains.

"I can tell you never meant to kill him, even if you had intentions like that at first. But that fact that you show remorse and took responsabilities for your actions, doesn't mean you're a bad stallion. We've all made mistakes in our lives and we've had to live with it, but we kept on moving forward to make up for what we've done. So there's no need to discredit what you've done." said King Cosmos. Eternal looked at him with a confused look on his face, but he did take his advice.

"Thank you, sir. But might I ask who you might be?" Eternal asked.

"Ah yes, I am King Cosmos."

"And I am Queen Galaxia." she said. "It's an honor to finally meet you, grandson."

Eternal's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean...you two are my grandma and grandpa?!"  Both King Cosmos and Queen Galaxia nodded and just like that, Eternal lunged at them and gave them both a big hug. "Forgive me for being emotional, but it's been years since I could address somepony as "Grandma" and "Grandpa."

"I understand, your father told me about your other grandparents and how they passed away long ago. You must've loved them just as much as everypony else who meant so much to you." Galaxia said, holding her grandson in a warm embrace.

"Come along now, son, there'll be plenty of time for that once we've brought everypony back home." Royal Blaze said.

"Yes, father." Eternal replied.

After all the ponies were let out and some of the Canterlot residents went back home, Princess Celestia, along with her husband, Royal Blaze, her sister Luna, and her parents King Cosmos and Queen Galaxia, held a celebration party (with the help of Pinkie Pie) in Ponyville in honor of Twilight and her friends for all of the time and sacrifice they put into stopping Tirek. Celestia held the celebration party in town square where everypony was gathered, having an amazing time...all except Eternal, who was standing by his parents, and grandparents, as well as his own fiance, Sunset Shimmer.

"My son, I know you're still upset about Tirek's fatal fall, but you shouldn't beat around the bush for so long. The past is the past, the only option is to move forward with your head held high. Your actions were no different than mine when I once fought countless dangerous foes back when I was still a prince." Royal Blaze said, sternly. Eternal became surprised when he heard what his father said.

"You took somepony's life once before? But how?" Eternal asked.

"It was when I fought against the dragons and I was up against one of Lord Torch's best dragon fighters. I was barely managing to keep up with him when he and I were blasting flames at each other. However, my rage fueled my fire powers and I charged straight forward and coated myself with my own flames...and in the process...I took his head clean off upon the impact. Just like you, I fell into a deep depression when I took that dragon's life. My father explained the same things I've just told you right now." Royal Blaze explains. Hearing this made Eternal Flames feel a bit more at ease and nodded at what his father said and gave him a warm and reassuring smile.

"I suppose you're right dad. I don't like what I did, but I'll keep on moving forward like you said." Eternal said.

"There's the Eternal Flames I know and love." Sunset said, warmly, pecking her fiance on the cheek.

"You were pretty impressive on the battlefield. I should let you fight alongside me more often." Eternal said.

"Sorry, but after that fight, I have to take it easy. Or do you not want to see your child?" she asked playfully.

"You've got quite a strong mind and body when it comes to battle. But you're right, our child is our #1 priority. Just think, once we've been married, that's when our lives really begin for the better."

"Truer words were never said." Sunset replied warmly to her fiance.

1 Month Later

There were a large amount of people in the private garden and Princess Celestia's castle. Everypony (mostly the Canterlot ponies) was chatting about financial business stuff and whatnot, while some of the Ponyville residents were chatting up a storm about how the day had finally come for two young ponies.

In one of the rooms in Celestia's castle, a familiar white stallion with a red mane and tail, sapphire eyes, and scar-like birth marks under his eyes, was fixing up his black wedding tux. Eternal Flames felt the pre-wedding jitters, but he didn't want to show it by putting up his straight face like he's not nervous at all. Luckily, he wasn't alone in his room. His father, Royal Blaze was helping him out with the tux. He could see his son was nervous and chuckled a little.

"I can tell you're pent up. There's no need to hide it. Believe it or not, I felt the same way after I married your mother." Royal said with a reassuring look on his face.

"Sometimes I wish you can't read me like a book. This feels way different from any other battle I've been in, I mean, sure I always showed no fear in the line of battle, but to tell you the truth...I was scared. Scared for both myself and the ponies I've wanted to protect, even the ones who's names and/or faces I never knew. But this...this brings a whole new definition of scared. The reason I'm scared is because I'm afraid I might screw this up." Eternal explains as he looked at himself in the mirror with the same straight faced look.

"It's normal to feel this way, my son. We all go through this faze when we're about to get married. But you shouldn't let that get you down, you're about to be a loving husband to your new soon-to-be loving wife. Think about it, even a bride gets the pre-wedding jitters just as much as the groom does. If you feel stressed, think of something that makes you feel at ease. Like, for me, I always think about your grandparents' warm and loving smile and all the times we spent with each other. Although, in your case, try to reminisce the times you and your friends enjoyed your bachelors life eating out, playing poker and telling stories to your mother." Royal explains. Eternal nodded and did just that, and shortly after 30 seconds, he felt his worries slipping away.

"Thank you, dad. I feel better now. So when do I go out there?"

"Be out there in 25 minutes. But in the meantime, I'll let you be alone so you can relax." Royal Blaze then walked out of the guest room and closed the door behind him. 'First my oldest son is married, now my middle son is getting married. What more could a father ever ask for from his own beloved children. Mother and father, if you're watching all of this from heaven, I'm happy to say that 2 of your 3 grandsons have finally made a big name for themselves: Blue Blaze, the king of Rogue Mountain, and Eternal Flames, the Prince of Equestria and Strongest Guardian of Equestria.' he thought to himself.

Eternal Flames just sat in the guest room, drinking some tea, careful not to spill it on his tux. While he was drinking his tea, he started to think about how his life had been ever since he came to Ponyville. All that was on his mind back then was looking for his mom, who had left his dad, but was for a good reason and aiming to be the strongest guardian of Equestria. Not only was he able to find his mom (but it was really her that discovered him the way he was when she first saw him in that dungeon in his present state), he also got to make so many amazing of his new amazing friends. He started to think that he should thank Twilight for uniting him with Sunset Shimmer when they first met over in the human world, along with the human version of Twilight's friends. But the one thing that always touched Eternal's heart was when Sunset was dared to kiss him right on his lips. He felt a spark eminating from him and Sunset when she did that, even if it was part of Pinkie Pie's game of truth or dare. He chuckled at that last thought and gave a calm sigh.

"Thank you, mother, father, aunt Luna, my brothers, and all of my friends. I wish my dead grandparents could see this." he said to himself, looking out the window from his chair.

Meanwhile one of the other guest rooms, Sunset Shimmer was getting her wedding dress on with the help of her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Princess Celestia.

"Sunset Shimmer, you've really grown into a fine young mare. I can't thank you enough for how much you've made us all so happy, as well as my own son. Although, judging by that expression on your face, you're both excited and nervous at the same time. But you shouldn't worry about it too much." Celestia says, warmly.

"I know, Princess. But what if I end up messing it up? What if he laughs at me? What if everypony laughs at me? Tell me, Princess, have you ever felt like this when you got married to Royal Blaze?" Sunset asked all worried.

"Calm down, Sunset, you need to think positive. But to answer your question, I too was nervous about getting married. I had the same kind of doubts as you're having right now. But I eroded all of my doubts just by picturing me and my husband on a beautiful wide-open beach, staring at the setting sun. No one is going to laugh at you, and if they do, Eternal would probably use this signature move that even my husband found to be quite effective." Celestia explains.

"What signature move?" Sunset asked.

"The same kind that Fluttershy taught herself...the Death Stare."

Sunset then laughed at what Celestia said. "If there's one thing I know, no pony can pull of a death stare better than Fluttershy, but if Eternal's is just as effective, I shouldn't be too worried."

"Well, it's 20 minutes 'till you have to be out at the alter. I'll let you have time to yourself. Take care...my daughter." she said to Sunset before exiting the room closing the door behind her.

Sunset stayed seated and started reminiscing about the time she first met Eternal Flames. The day he first arrived in the human world where she use to live in. At first glance, she thought he was just an ordinary guy only finding out the truth from Twilight that he was actually Princess Celestia's one of 3 sons. The time they spent over at Sugar Cube Corner, chatting over what happened in the past and how they were both able to defeat their inner demons. Sunset only thought of Eternal Flames as a friend at first while they were discussing their childhood, but it wasn't until during his welcoming party, when she was dared to kiss Eternal straight on his lips. She could clearly see the look of embarrassment in him and herself, but she went and did it anyways. The moment she pressed her lips with his for the first time, she could feel something glow inside of her, she couldn't tell what it was at first, but she later figured it out after Eternal Flames and Twilight went back to Equestria that finally knew what she felt: she was in love. But she didn't love Eternal Flames because he was a prince, but because of how everypony meant everything to him and how he'd do anything to keep them out of harms way, even if it involved sacrificing his own life just so they could live another day. Sunset let out a calm sigh, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

"You've really changed me for the better, Eternal Flames...no...we changed ourselves for the better." Sunset said to herself.

17 minutes went by and everypony was gathered together in the private garden. Though they were still talking, they kept it quiet since it was almost time for the main event. Up in the front row, Twilight and her friends were seated with their special someponies: Twilight with Heat Wave, Rarity with Spike, Applejack with Ground Dasher, Spark Wave with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie with Cheese Sandwich, Fluttershy with Hurricane Blitz, Tidal Wave with Red Heart, and Shadow Force with Lyra and Bon Bon.

Eternal Flames was standing at the alter, waiting patiently for his bride to arrive. While he was waiting, he was talking to his best man who happened to be his older brother, Blue Blaze. He had the same fur and eye color as his younger brother, he had the same scar-like birth mark like his younger brother, but his mane and tail was blue. His cutie mark was three blue flames. The two brothers were chatting up a storm exchanging laughs of all the adventures that had over the months.

"He's really enjoying himself up there. He's probably not worried anymore." Heat Wave chuckled.

"You can say that again. I've never seen your brother so happy. It's like he's a completely different pony. He must've gotten that good impression from his younger brother, am I right, stud muffin?" Twilight asked, looking at Heat Wave with a playful look.

"Aww shucks, come on Twilight! You're gonna make me blush." Heat Wave says, blushing.

"Too late for that." Twilight giggled. Their fun was interrupted by Rarity shushing them.

"Quiet, darling. The wedding is about to start." Rarity said.

"In that case, I'd better get on with it." Tidal said. as he got up from his seat.

"Where are you going?" Rarity and Red Heart asked.

"They asked me to play the piano for when Sunset walks down the alter. They have the piano set up right now." he explains.

"Well, I won't stop you. I know you don't need it, but, good luck, hun." Red Heart said.

"Thank you, dear." Tidal said. before he went over to the piano on the left hoof side of the entire wedding. He reviewed the sheet music and began to play a beautiful melody.

As Tidal Wave was playing the piano, everypony stopped talking, Eternal and Blue Blaze stopped chatting and looked at the red carpet where they saw the cutie mark crusaders scattering flower petals on the red carpet. Following them close behind was Eternal Flames' beautiful bride, Sunset Shimmer as they both smiled at each other warmly. The moment Sunset came face to face with her groom, Tidal Wave had finally finished playing and took his seat next to Red Heart again. Wasting no time, Princess Celestia began to speak.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to unite Eternal Flames and Sunset Shimmer in holy matrimony. Their decision to marry has not been entered into lightly and today they publicly declare their private devotion to each other. The essence of this commitment is the acceptance of each other in entirety, as lover, companion, and friend. A good and balanced relationship is one in which neither pony is overpowered nor absorbed by the other, one in which neither pony is possessive of the other, one in which both give their love freely and without jealousy. Marriage, ideally, is a sharing of responsibilities, hopes, and dreams. It takes a special effort to grow together, survive hard times, and be loving and unselfish. Eternal Flames, do you take Sunset Shimmer to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, to honor and nurture through sickness and health, through good times and bad for as long as you both shall live?" Celestia asked.

"I do" Eternal said, smiling never taking his eyes off of his bride.

"Sunset Shimmer, do you take Eternal Flames to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, to honor and nurture through sickness and health, through good times and bad for as long as you both shall live?" Celestia asked.

"I do." Sunset Shimmer said, smiling and not letting her groom out of her sight. Celestia then had Sunset place the hoof band on Eternal's right hoof while Eternal placed the wedding ring on her horn.

"By the power vested in me, in the land of Equestria, I know pronounce this couple husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Eternal and Sunset got closer to each other with Eternal lifting Sunset's wedding veil over her head and kissed her right on the lips nad everypony started cheering for the newly wedded couple. With the girls and the guys, Rarity was bursting out crying, trying to wipe the tears from her face with a soft tissue while Spike held her close. Ground Dasher and Applejack cheered with joy, Twilight and Heat Wave clapped, Pinkie and Cheese were jumping with joy and excitement, Rainbow held Spark Wave in an almost suffocating hug and shook him rapidly left and right, Fluttershy and Hurricane hugged each other while Fluttershy weeped silently in happiness. Tidal Wave and just casually clapped and smiled at the newly weds.

After they said their vows, everypony was gathered everywhere in the castle, enjoying each others company, the music, and of course the food that Hurricane Blitz prepared beforehoof. Eternal and Sunset were sitting next to each other on one of the tables, feeding each other their cake slices.

"Honey, I thought you didn't have a sweet tooth." Sunset said, playfully.

"You're right, but I'm gonna let it slide this time, since it was specially made for the both of us." Eternal replied. The two kept feeding each other their cake slices while conversing with each other. "Sunset, you and I have been together for, what, a few months right now?But now look at us, we're married. If it hadn't been for Twilight, who showed me the human world, where you were staying at, I'd probably be training nonstop while my friends would be enjoying their peaceful lives with their special someponies. But because I have you by my side, my life became a whole lot more meaningful than it already was before."

"I could say the same thing to you as well, babe. At first, I didn't know what to do after I was about to graduate Canterlot High School before I met you, but you're right, ever since Twilight introduced us, I felt I might've found my answer, especially during that little game of truth or dare we played at Pinkie's house." she says playfully to her new husband.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, hun." Eternal said before nuzzling Sunset.

"I never thought you were a nuzzler." Sunset giggled.

"That's because it's you." Eternal replied. The two looked at each other and hugged like there was no tomorrow.

"I love you, Eternal Flames." she said, warmly.

"I love you, too, Sunset Shimmer." he replied warmly.

Meanwhile, Eternal's and Sunset's friends and families were enjoying a little chat with each other in the ballroom. Twilight was speaking to the others of how she introduced Sunset and Eternal to each other in the human world and what happened over there. Everypony began to laugh at what Twilight described in every exact detail.

"So the Prince of Equestria actually blushed?! What a riot, I thought he didn't even know HOW to blush. I think I'll go back in time to see that actually happen, if you all would excuse me." said Discord, before he teleported off.

"Well, he certainly is a loose cannon. Don't you think so, dear?" Royal Blaze said.

"Yes, and to tell you the truth, Discord and I once dated when I was only 18, back then he was just a young draconiquis. Although, due to a few complications of him changing Equestria into a world of chaos, I had to let him off." Celestia said.

"I see. Well, either way, he's certainly changed for the better, even though he likes to goof around sometimes." Royal Blaze replied.

"Sometimes I wish my husband were here to see this. He'd be so proud of his nephew." Luna said.

"I think me and your mother can handle that." said King Cosmos.

"Are you sure? What if he's not the same if he's resurrected?!" Luna asked, worried.

"There's no need to worry. As long as it hasn't been 1000 years, there's still a chance for him to look like how he was before he died, and from what I can tell, he's been dead for a short time of 19 years." Galaxia said. She and King Cosmos then made their horns glow, and after being blinded by a dark purple light, what Luna saw in front of her made her gasp in happiness and sadness. In front of her was a unicorn stallion who had a black mane and tail, grey fur, and red eyes, just like her son, Shadow Force. This...was Luna's formally deceased husband, more commonly known as Dark Void, the son of King Sombra.

Dark Void was checking his surroundings to see where he was at, but his eyes locked onto Luna, who had tears in her eyes. "Luna...is that really you, my dear?" Dark asked.

"Dark Void...YOU'RE BACK!!!" Luna shouted, lunging at Dark Void and hugging him tightly, sobbing in his shoulder. Dark Void felt the pain of her squeezing him which gave him the idea that he wasn't dead anymore...he was very much alive and well. He hugged Luna gently, caressing her beautiful mane.

"It's been almost two decades since I last saw you. Everything is okay now." Dark said, warmly. Luna and Dark Void loosened their grips and looked at each other in the eyes for a few seconds until they finally locked lips. Dark's lips felt warm to Luna, same thing was thought by Dark Void when he kissed her.

"So you're Shadow Force's father, huh? I expected you to be more like your old man, but you're a lot more kinder and honorable then I'd have ever imagined you would be. Welcome back, Dark Void." Royal Blaze said. Dark and Luna broke the kiss and Dark looked over at Royal Blaze and nodded at him.

"Thank you." Dark replied.

Just after they exchanged their warm welcome, Discord teleported back, laughing harder than ever, obviously coming back from the past where Eternal played truth or dare in the human world. "THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WAS PRICELESS!!! I THINK HE BLUSHED SO MUCH, HE BECAME A DARKER SHADE OF RED THAN HIS OWN HAIR!!!" Discord shouted in happiness and amusement.

"Who's the draconiquis and what is he talking about?" Dark asked Royal and Celestia.

"That's Discord, he's ranting on about my son, Eternal Flames and how he first met Sunset Shimmer, his new wife. My son just got married today and so did my oldest son, but that was months ago. If you want, I'll take you to Rogue Mountain one of these days and I can introduce you to my oldest son, Blue Blaze and his wife, Crimson Ruby." Royal explains.

"I'd like that." Dark replied with a nod.

"Oh man, I wish I had been there to see that look on his face! Don't you, Sparkster?" Rainbow asked Spark Wave.

"To tell you the truth, yeah, I wish I did." Spark replied.

"You know, Twily, I couldn't help notice how close you are with that stallion next to you." Shining Armor said as he began to point over at the light yellow stallion with orange mane and tail and magenta eyes who had a timid smile on his face.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Big brother, this is my finace, Heat Wave." Twilight said, gesturing Heat Wave.

"Uh...hi." Heat said.

"So you asked for my sister's hoof in marriage?" Shining asked as he walked up to him. Heat Wave felt intimidated, even after Shining Armor took another look at him. "Well, when you do marry Twilight, be sure to treat her with love and respect. I do the same for Cadance and our daughter, Flurry Heart."

"You don't have to tell him that, Shining, Heat Wave has been nothing but kind to me. He treats me like I'm his whole world and he even cooks for me at home." Twilight said.

"I had a lot of help from Hurricane Blitz, though. He's the best cook out of all of us." Heat said.

"Come on, guys, I'm not that great, I'm just fortunate." Hurricane says.

"Oh, don't be modest darling, why, even the food here you made tastes amazing." Rarity reassures.

"Yeah, I could barely stop myself from gobbling everything up." Ground Dasher adds.

"But ya held yer bad habits in, sugarcube." Applejack said, hugging Ground Dasher.

"Well, since the night is still young, why don't we all have a little dance?" Tidal Wave implies.

"Yeah, I could go for a few. Work has been stressing me out." Red Heart agrees.

"Well then, Rarity. May I have this dance?" Spike asks politely.

"Why of course, my darling Spike." Rarity responds ladylike.

"You up for a little dancing, babe?" Spark asked Rainbow

"Eh, I'm not one for sappy slow dances...but then again, as long as it's you, I'm okay with it. So yeah." Rainbow replies.

"Fluttershy, you want to dance?" Hurricane asked.

"Sure, Hurricane." Fluttershy replied.

"OOH, OOH, OOH, come on, Cheese! LET'S BOOGEY!!!" Pinkie shouted, happily.

"Anything for you, sweetums." Cheese replied.

"You up for a dance, AJ, or do you want to do something else?" Ground asked.

"I'd love to dance with ya, sugarcube." AJ responds, warmly.

"Twilight, would you like to have a dance with me?" Heat asked, extending his hoof to her.

"I say "yes," hun." Twilight replies.

Shadow and his girls, Lyra and Bon Bon had already been dancing for quite some time, but they haven't even gotten tired, while the rest of the gang began slow dancing with each other as the night carried on. There was one slow dance where it involved everypony watching the newly wedded couple, Eternal Flames and Sunset Shimmer, dancing in a wide open circle with a spotlight centered on them both. They never took their eyes off each other as they danced the night away.

Little did everypony know, life in Equestria was about to take an even greater turn for the better.