Titanomachy

Twilight

"Um, Luna? the purple mare tentatively asked from her circle of reddish light.

"Yes?" The dark alicorn looked up from the dark, craggy surface she was busy picking her way across. When she met Twilight's eyes, she smiled warmly.

"We should talk."

Luna's head turned to the side, "Now? Here?"

"In case something happens before we get out of here; its important."

"In that case, of course. What do you wish to talk about?" Luna replied.

Twilight had thought the implications had been clear, "We need to talk about...stuff."

"Very well," Luna pronounced. Twilight then waited patiently for Luna to start, given that she sounded so confident. The moment stretched into an awkward silence. Finally Luna spoke, "Twilight, what is 'stuff'?"

Twilight tried to facehoof mid-stride and stumbled. She managed to catch herself but the movement was far from graceful. Recollections of how frustrating talking to Luna could be started to work their way back into her mind. With a sigh, she tried again, "We need to talk about us, about what we are."

"Oh, yes. I can see how that is important to discuss before anything else happens, " Luna replied with enthusiasm.

"Finally," Twilight commented to herself. "So, what do you think?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"Oh," Twilight's heart fell. "I suppose its only right for me to accept and respect that."

"Do not be so morose, Twilight. We can certainly enjoy the process of finding out. Think of all the experimenting we can do!" Luna's frank answer and enthusiastic tone caused Twilight to blush deeply.

"I- I'm flattered but I'm not that kind of mare, Luna. I don't want to do that first."

"But Celestia told me that you are practically insatiable and are likely the best at it in all of Equestria." Luna said, her confusion growing.

"WHAT!?! NO! I never, ever! Celestia?!? Why would she say such a horrible thing?" Twilight's flush displeasure under the emotional impact of hearing this slander spread by her mentor. Tears started gathering at the corners of her eyes as her knees started to shake.

Luna was staring at her with shock and horror in equal measure to her own.

"I've never- not even once!" The tears were streaming down her cheeks now. "I've never even dated, not really."

"Twilight, what are we talking about?" she asked, cautiously.

"What?" She asked in return, snuffling and hiccuping.

"I had been talking about the fact that you appeared to take on the form of a flaming alicorn whilst you were freeing me."

Twilight looked up from her misery in utter disbelief, rage building like a volcano.

"Celestia said that you were the best experimental researcher she knew of."

"Ghaaaaaaahhhh!!!" She screamed while hoping on her hooves. "I can't believe that-. You thought I was-. You-. Researcher?!? MmmmmmmmBaaah!" She gathered herself while panting, "You know what, Luna? Just forget it. Forget I asked you anything. Let's go."

Luna followed quietly, apparently deep in thought while Twilight's posture and tail eloquently expressed extreme frustration. A few minutes of silence later Twilight heard from behind her, "Ohhhhh."

Twilight whipped her head around, shame and anger still burning within her eyes. "Seriously? Now you get it?"

Luna's eyes and lips were round in an expression of shocked discovery. "I...Well.. Um...But...Oh, dear." the goddess stammered.

"Right, that's great. Just great." She shook her head and went back to walking.

The sound of hurrying hooves approached her from behind. "I...Twilight, I...just had not considered."

"You hadn't? Well, that makes things very simple. I won't have to bother you about it then." Her tone clipped and sharp.

Luna kept trying, despite Twilight's warning tone, "It's just that it's...very complicated."

The unicorn stopped in her tracks. "Is it?" The short question lay between them like a rotting fish.

"You see Tia, she said that-"

"You, you're going to try quoting Celestia again? You know what, I love her like a mother but I don't give a damn what she says about this. Either you feel something, or you don't. Either you want to do something about that, or you don't."

Luna's jaw hung open, speechless.

Twilight exhaled a puff of a sigh, "I swear to everything that's ever called itself a god, I'm like, five words away from just leaving you here." She stomped off towards the exit with Luna following as quietly as she could.

Minutes passed. The quality of the silence between them shifted as they moved from chamber to chamber. At first it was the roaring silence, so loud that nothing could be heard above it. Next it changed into the fragile silence, feeling so delicate and brittle that the slightest noise would be unthinkably destructive. The awkward silence came afterwards, the silence taking on the properties of a vacuum - begging to be filled but each not finding anything to fill it with. Eventually, Luna succumbed to the pressure and spoke.

"Twilight? I would like to talk again." Luna's voice reminded Twilight of Fluttershy.

"What is it?" she replied in a tone that did not invite conversation.

"I like you, romantically." Luna continued despite Twilight's tone.

"Praise Discord," sarcasm flowed thick around those words.

"I'm serious."

"Sure you are."

"Really, I am. And I'd like to do something about it."

"Great."

"With you."

"Be still my heart."

"Twilight!" Luna complained in a hurt tone.

"Sure, OK. Let's go on a...date or something when we get home. OK?

"I'm sorry."

"Don't!" Twilight snapped, surprising the both of them with the harshness packed into that single word. "I mean, don't apologize. Not like that. Please. It reminds me of how you were when I found you. It really upset me...because I like you too. Romantically." Twilight realized that Luna looked scared of her. "I'm sorry."

The awkward silence ruled Tartarus once again.

This time Twilight broke first. "I talked to your mom." She kicked herself for blurting that fact out. She had been planning on telling the alicorns after their escape from Tartarus. The world did not need Luna running back into the depths of this prison.

"That seems unlikely, Twilight. My mother died long ago."

"I know, she was still dead," she replied in a casual tone.

"There are many creatures here that can trick the mind and eyes, Twilight. Is it not more likely you talked with some deceiver?"

"I know how she died, I know what she made you and your sister do. I know who the changeling queen is."

Luna looked near emotional collapse, "Twilight. My mother is still down there? We can save her?"

"No, Luna. She's dead, been so a long, long time. She can't leave."

"But I can go see her? Talk to her?" Luna's dangerous excitement was growing.

"She asked me not to bring you." Twilight tried to come up with a way to explain Harmony's motives.

"She doesn't want to see me?"

"She doesn't want you to see her, like she is. It's not...pretty."

"I didn't want to...do-"

"I know Luna, I know and so does she." Twilight put away her anger and frustration and came over to the distressed alicorn. "She doesn't blame either you or Celestia. She still loves you and says that she'll see you 'at the End.'" She draped her neck over Luna's, a hug while maintaining her footing.

"Did- did she say anything else?" Luna's voice came strained and thick from behind her own head.

"There was one thing. She called me something funny."

"She made a joke? Her sense of humor was always terrible."

Luna's reply was literally stunning. Twilight's mind reeled while trying to imagine jokes that Luna would find bad. "No, I mean strange. She called me 'Cherry-Gi Lamp-oo,' She said it was my name."

"Charay'ghi Lampu," Luna restated with the proper pronunciation. "Wow, I haven't even thought of that language for eons." Luna was quiet in thought for a time.

"Luna?"

"Oh! Yes. Goodness, that is so 'Mom'. It means the light you get when you change from day to night, or vice versa."

"So, Twilight Sparkle?" She said in a sarcastic tone.

"That, but also Dawn Glimmer or Shine or whatever synonym you want to use in modern Equestrian."

"She said that it was important, why?"

"Knowing her, it likely has something to do with you bursting into flames and wielding god-like powers."

"Oh...that. I kinda forgot about it after our...fight."

"At some point we are going to have to talk about that too." Luna said as she backed out of the hug. Her eyes were sad but she was smiling a little.

"We do?" Twilight pleaded.

"We do, all three of us."

"I'm not going to end up banished or anything, am I?"

"Over my dead body," Luna assured her. "Come on, we should get out of here."

"Ok," she started walking side by side with Luna, the color of their horn-lights mixing together. "I'm actually surprised that we haven't run into anything awful yet."

"Hush, Twilight. Don't jinx it."

Luna

She was sure of it now, Tartarus was messing with them. While Luna wasn't overly familiar with the most ancient god's capabilities, she remembered her mother telling her during that last journey that the draconequus could still control his topology and geometry. "In layman's terms," she thought to herself, "he's leading us in circles." She knew that you could force the realm to take you where you wanted by keeping one's mind completely focused upon their destination but that wasn't going so well since she and Twilight had their talk.

A surreptitious glance at the purple mare, the subtle noises she made as she walked,or even stray wafts of her scent all shattered Luna's concentration every few minutes. Her heart beat faster at the memory of their conversation; joy, shame, grief, and nearly lethal embarrassment washed through the alicorn like a succession of waves. Sighing, Luna brought her attention to the branching and spiraling tunnels in front of her and noted that they had likely shifted once again.

Next to her Twilight yawned and in a voice raspy with dehydration she asked, "Do you think we are getting close, Luna?"

She worried for her mortal...friend. The needs of her body could undo her. Luna, herself, ate and drank because she hungered and thirsted but she knew from horrible experience that those needs could not actually kill her. Sleep, too, was a luxury rather than a requirement, for a goddess. Luna's mind was drawn to morbid thoughts of Twilight's eventual mortality and her blood ran cold. She knew that between the three of them, they had an amazing amount of power but she also knew that nothing could stop the ravages of time upon mortal flesh. Her sister had warned her about this, about the grief that would inevitably follow once an alicorn allowed herself to love. Thinking about the passion her sister put behind the warning, she wondered: "How many times had Celestia known that grief?"

"Luna? Did you hear me?" Twilight asked again, her breath coming in dry pants.

"Fie! The tunnels!" Again she dragged her mind back to their current situation. "It can't be much further now," she lied.

"Do you think it would help if we coordinated our thoughts?" Twilight asked in return.

"Have you already mastered a spell for telepathy, Twilight?" She asked with some amazement. Such spells were notoriously difficult to maintain, especially without maintaining physical contact.

"Um, no. I was thinking we could just say 'the gate out' together again and again. Do you think we'd need telepathy to do this?"

"Stars above, Twi! That is so simple, its brilliant. No, we don't need telepathy, your idea is perfect. Let's start."

"The gate out." They chanted together as they walked.

Following Twilight's suggestion, they reached the exit in less than an hour. Despite their concentration, Luna was sure Tartarus was still trying very hard to stymie the two travelers. The tunnel had begun to slant downwards. Additionally, the flooring had changed from the dangerously sharp and irregular obsidian that was commonly encountered into dangerously slick and smooth obsidian that offered no purchase for a hoof. Twilight had to use her telekinesis just to stay in place and Luna found herself involuntarily flapping her wings to maintain her balance.

The princess inched forwards down the 45-degree slope, cautiously sticking her muzzle out into the cavern. She could see that they had finally reached their destination, the shimmering blackness stood against the far wall. Silently cursing Tartarus, she also noted that their tunnel entered the chamber near the ceiling, several hundred lengths above the floor. Subsequently cursing herself for the time they lost due to her mental wandering, she noted that both Grogar and Erebus were in this chamber, working together on something involving the gate.

The mass of semi-solid darkness had formed a platform on the end of an extended pseudopod. Grogar stood upon the limb as he was lifted to the stone edging the membranous gate. She was too far away to see details, but Luna could see Grogar feeling the stone, searching for some detail with his hooves. As she watched, he found what he was looking for and tilted his head forward. Luna was transfixed by the sight of Grogar pouring molten stone onto the sole of his right hoof while crying out in pain. Lifting the smoldering limb to the wall, the maimed god spread the congealing stone onto whatever feature he had found.

Luna's eyes sprung wide as she felt the 'twang' of a massively powerful spell shattering and she scrambled back up the tunnel to where Twilight perched awkwardly. "Discord's bloody bowels!" Luna swore in a whisper. Twilight blushed at the sheer profanity of the curse. "Grogar and Erebus are at the gate, breaking the wards and they are almost done. If they finish, everything down here could just walk out."

"Grogar and who?" Twilight asked.

"How could she be down here and not know this?" Luna thought with shock. "Erebus is the Hungry Dark, a primal demon from the ancient world. It snuffs out light and life in equal measure and was banished here by my sister and me so that life could survive the night."

"Oh, that. Is it really that dangerous? I got it to leave me alone with a simple light spell."

"I do not think it was even aware of you then, let alone trying to kill you. It it one of the most dangerous things in here. It nearly killed me while I was looking for you."

Twilight's eyes widened at the thought. She had been under the impression that Grogar and his chains were what had so badly savaged Luna's body and soul. "Then how do we fight it?" she asked.

"We don't. Twilight you are the most accomplished unicorn I've ever met but I am very, very hard to kill and it nearly did me in. I can not stand the thought of losing you, not so soon. Perhaps I can distract..." Luna trailed off as Twilight's expression broke through the divine mare's obliviousness.

Roughly translated, Twilight's face was saying: "Don't you dare patronize me oh goddess of the night whom I saved from eternal torment while she was trying to 'rescue' me from the dangers of Tartarus against which I was doing just fine on my own."

"Um, may I try again?" Luna asked Twilight, who nodded in reply.

"So, Twilight. Do you have any ideas about how we should handle this?" The emphasis upon 'we' was subtle but quite deliberately detectable.

Smiling once again, Twilight replied, "Tell me about these wards and how he's breaking them. Oh and Luna?"

"Yes Twilight?"

The purple unicorn kissed the goddess' indigo cheek. "You're cute when you're learning."

Luna's heart was full of fear as they dropped out of the ceiling to do battle. She was facing two fell and eldritch beings from the world's dawning, both of whom had recently defeated her on their own. Adding to her fear was her concern for Twilight- as a mortal she was so fragile. She thought back to the vision she had of Twilight as a burning alicorn while she was freeing her, and hoped that the strange sight wasn't just a hallucination brought on by the chain's torments and her own hopes.

Twilight fired beam after beam of intense magenta light at the limb with which Erebus was supporting Grogar. She missed with about half as her aim was slightly off due to clinging to a flying alicorn's neck. Luna added her own lances of pale blue to the attack and the pseudopod finally collapsed with a keening scream that seemed to emanate from the whole of Eerebus' formless body. Grogar tumbled from a height of at least 10 lengths above the sharp floor and his roars of pain added to the cacophony shaking the walls. Luna landed upon the dark stone and Twilight dropped off of her back and ran.

Luna brought up a shimmering shield of light while peppering the titanic mass with short bursts of light. She kept to Twilight's plan and reminded herself that while Erebus wouldn't win any prizes for science or philosophy the Hungry Dark has a cunning which had bested her during their last confrontation. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her mare ("Where did that thought come from? Stop it! Concentrate") charging Grogar while he was still struggling to his feet. Her quick, short bursts seemed to be working and tone of Erebus' keening changed from one of surprise and pain to one of fury and impending revenge.

As the goddess watched Erebus launched its full weight against her, she kept her eyes wide for the blind-side attacks that had undone her last time. An instant before the black tidal-wave crashed upon her, Luna dropped her shield and released her hold on her body. Gaseous shadow mixed with the liquid darkness as it fell upon her and two gods of the night occupied the same space at the same time.

Luna flinched as she came into contact with Eerebus' mind. It was a terribly simple thing: Burning cold hatred for all life consumed the creature. Her's was the night of sweet dreams, a lover's embrace, and primroses blooming in her moonlight. Erebus night was that of the vacuum: Burning and freezing at once, blood boiling while you suffocate, and unfiltered starlight irradiating the life out of a world. Luna would have gasped had she a body, her mind trying to do so and failing was most disconcerting.

Gathering her will, she pushed back against the other, filling the darkness around her with herself. Once she had spread herself out as far as she could she ripped herself from the strange union and forged a new body out of the syrupy darkness. The sound of fear greeted her newly-made ears. Erebus wailed desperately as it fled from her in horror. Her body was huge now, half-again the height as and thrice the weight of her sister. Her coat was the ebon non-color of the void between the stars and her mane burned with the blue radiance of the Milky Way while billowing in ethereal winds. This body was familiar to her, seductively beautiful and powerful but tainted by the tragic memories it brought with it.

Luna turned to seek out Twilight, to see how the unicorn had fared against Grogar. The mare was incandescent, Luna was proud to see. Magenta sparks of power were dripping from her horn, hooves, and back while she focused power into the remaining wards. Tendrils of the same color reached from the gate, seeking Grogar's bloody but hulking form. Twilight had effectively re-sealed the gate, Luna could feel the pressure of the wards pushing against her own divine essence. "That might be a flaw in our plan," she thought to herself. "If we must remain trapped here, at least the world is safe from these two. And at least I'm not alone this time."

She turned her attention back to Erebus. The Hungry Dark had backed away from her as far as the chamber allowed. Luna's lips curled in a feral smile she hadn't used in over two years. She could see now how foolish she had been when she last fought this demon. Again, she relegated herself to being a pale imitation of her sister. She had fought Erebus with moonlight where Celestia would have fought it with sunlight. She wasn't just the younger sister of a god, as she so often defined herself, she was god in her own right. The truth scratching its way out of the depths of her mind was that being an alicorn was as much of a facade as anything else about her body. She was the moon, she was the dark, and this sad relic of ages gone could never have hurt her had she not allowed it to do so.

She reached out with her mane and tail and tore great rents into the creature, stealing its mass as well as its strength. It tried to flee down the tunnels Tartarus opened near his child. Upon witnessing he desperate act of a parent to save their child, a small flash of pity crossed her rapidly changing mind . She paused in her assault as the sight tickled old memories of her own. In that moment she heard Twilight grunt in pain and felt the power flooding the wards falter. Rage was an emotion intimately familiar to this body, it flowed down the well-worn channels and flooded her mind. As she turned towards Grogar her soul asked her to move with the intention of saving Twilight while the mind attached to this body bared fanged teeth and focused upon the utter destruction of Grogar.

She saw Twilight speared upon the serrated floor and Grogar standing over her. She knew his eyes were sightless but as a god there were other ways of seeing. She smiled as his jaw dropped and he paled in horror, relishing the fear that she inspired in him. She recalled the memories she had of the pain Grogar had inflicted upon a previous body. She savored them, examining them as a jeweler would examine a diamond. They would be her inspiration. She would raise suffering up to a form of art for the old goat and he would be her canvas. A voice, scared and small, tried to remind her that tending Twilight's wounds was more important than revenge. She laughed at both the voice and the pitiful little goat-god, Twilight was dead, she would be avenged, and she would enjoy every second of it.

The old goat pawed the floor, setting up to ram her. She smiled as she said in a deep, dark contralto, "Oh good, I hoped you would put up a fight." Menace dripped from her words. She summoned her power, readying a strike that would at once deflect the ram's charge and stun him - she wanted him alive. With a final lung Grogar suddenly turned and threw himself through the gate, ignoring the red sparks of rebounding magical flux.

A second passed, "NO! Come back here and face me you coward!" she demanded of the now absent god. Her wrath was such that she had totally forgotten Erebus before a rush of darkness surged across her feet, dragging them out from underneath her. As she toppled, she saw that Erebus was following Grogar's lead and passed through the crippled gate and into the mortal world.

Perhaps Tartarus had shifted and sharpened the spines of his floor while she wasn't watching. Perhaps she was just unlucky with how her added mass landed upon the spiked floor. Twisted blades of obsidian tore into her flesh as she landed, blood gushing forth from severed arteries in a black spray. Luna blinked in shock, her vision narrowing as her body begged for the blood lost to the growing pool on the cavern floor. She turned her now-massive head so that she could see Twilight. The mortal mare was ran through by several spines, her own blood spreading from underneath her in a crimson pool. As Luna lay there, she watched the spreading tides of black and red touch and begin to seep into each other.

Celestia

The moon lay sullenly upon the western horizon. With neither princess currently able to set it, the moon was simply stuck there. In the aftermath of Celestia's defeat by the Changeling Queen, unusual and unstable astronomical events had become the norm. After the initial bouts of rioting the populace had come to begrudgingly accept a degree of chaos in the heavens. When the moon suddenly turned blood-red, however, everyone decided that enough was enough and that it was time to give rioting another go.

At that moment the remaining princess of Equestria was having pancakes. She and Applejack had been negotiating "the little details" of the legal framework within which emancipation was to take place through the entire night. Despite Celestia being a goddess and technically not requiring sleep for her survival, the accursed orange earth pony was obviously more chipper and awake then the alicorn. Roosters crowed in the background, seemingly delighted to be proclaiming the night over and Celestia's chance for sleep gone.

Pancakes were brought out along with the fourth coffee service of the night (or morning) and while they were delicious, Celestia only ate them to provide her stomach some protection from the acidic coffee. "Section 47b - Impact upon universal primary education." Applejack read out aloud between sips of coffee.

"What about it?" Celestia asked, a small fraction of her annoyance beginning to leak through her serene facade.

"Would calves receive free primary education? And if so, would they do so alongside foals in the same schools?" The farmpony asked

"I don't see why not. If they are citizens of Equestria then the are due the same rights and privileges as any other citizens. Much like the resident griffons, I'd think."

"I'd avoid sayin' it that way, if I were you, Yer Highness. Given any excuse, the pegasi would try to git rid of that as well."

Celestia sighed, "Very true, Ms. Applejack. However, in all of that I did not hear that you say that you were opposed to the idea."

"Tha's correct, Ma'am."

Celestia regarded the 'simple farmpony' under half-lidded eyes. She was able to negotiate (cuttin' a deal, as she called it) better than most of the lords in Parliament. If Applejack revealed herself to be any more 'simple' she was going to end up the ambassador to Griffonheim, whether she liked it or not. "And likely solve all our border disputes within a week," she added to herself.

"Very well, next item."

"Section 47c - Inter-species marriage and implications for adoption."

"Good gods, please deliver me from this purgatory," Celestia prayed silently to no one in particular since praying to oneself was generally futile and in bad taste.

A pegasus guard burst through the door, "Your Highness! It's an emergency!"

"Thank you." Celestia mouthed silently towards her anonymous benefactor. "What is it sergeant?"

"It's the moon, Ma'am. Its gone all red."

Celestia pursed her lips as her joy melted into a puddle of guilt. "And the patrol I requested over the gates of Tartarus?"

"They haven't reported in yet Ma'am but they are only about ten minutes late."

That was enough to worry Celestia, "Gather everypony we have here. All of the guard pegasi, we need to move fast." She turned back to Applejack, "I'm sorry Ms. Apple, this is something I have to see to personally."

You want the Elements to come with?" Celestia noted with genuine affection that there was no hesitation on the part of the earth-pony. No matter how bitterly they had been fighting last night, the offer to run alongside her headlong into danger was genuine.

"The artifacts are still locked in their vault in Canterlot and we cannot spare the time to go get them. Gather the Element Bearers and be ready to help in case things go badly. Ponyville is the closest village to this crisis and if I cannot stop what's happening then I'll need you to help everypony here evacuate to Canterlot. Once there, you'll be able to access the Elements if they are needed."

"I guess it turned out pretty good that Twilight stayed behind in Canterlot."

Celestia kept her face perfectly neutral while reassuring herself that noone knew where Twilight was besides herself and Discord. If her friends found out, they'd run straight down Tartarus' throat in a fruitless attempt to rescue her. Equestria couldn't afford to loose all of the Elements, so she lied. "It seems it did. I'll see you here if things go well. Otherwise, I'll see you in Canterlot."

Applejack's eyes went cold but Celestia didn't notice. "OK then, Ma'am. And good luck out there."

"Thank you, and to you as well." The alicorn then strode to the hall's door and leaped into the air.

The flight to the gate was a short one for a normal pegasus. For an alicorn and war-trained pegasi the trip could be made in under ten minutes. She and her escort flew in a “V” with her at the point and skimmed the treetops at full speed. This approach gave no opportunity for an enemy to ambush them but it did limit their own visibility. They wouldn't know what was happening until they were on top of it.

Celestia was feeling terrible about her innocent wish back in the town hall, if anything had answered her prayer it certainly wasn't a "Good god." No one else alive could know what the red moon might portent but she remembered. When Luna succumbed to the Nightmare she had turned the moon that same bloody hue. Celestia didn't know what that color change meant this time but she'd bet her tail that it wasn't anything good.

As she flew to the west, she could feel the moon begging to set and the sun to rise. It bothered her nearly as much as the itching in her damaged horn used to. Thinking about the magical appendage, she focused upon it, assessing it for use in the coming danger. It no longer felt strangely numb, nor did it really itch so much anymore. It just felt strangely congested, like a full sinus during a cold. It was an odd sensation but not overtly painful or acutely bothersome. She felt that she was mending and hoped that that would allow her to confront whatever it was that was waiting for her in that dreaded clearing.

Celestia's cohort ripped through the air at just a hair under the speed of sound and as they passed above the clearing that held The Maw she only got a glance before the scene was out of sight. She pulled that moment from her stream of consciousness and examined it while she and her escort banked and slowed. She saw an obscenity she had hoped that the world would never have to again endure. Darkness vomited forth from the gate in a horribly organic torrent. Blobs, tentacles, and pseudopods were harrying the great hound Cerberus from all corners. His three heads were all slashing and tearing at the living darkness but still it surged over him, drowning the noble dog in its filthy touch.

She recognized Erebus, the Hungry Dark. It was supposed to be bound to its father’s realm, unable to enter this reality ever again. Celestia had no idea how it had managed to break back into this reality but she was willing to bet that her sister and Twilight had something to do with it. She had defeated it once before, but only with the help of her sister and while at full strength. Together, they had retaken the night from its grip and forced the thing down its own father’s gullet. The thought of fighting Erebus alone worried her. The thought of fighting it alone while crippled terrified her. But the thought of Erebus back in the living world was unbearable.

She shouted across the sky to her wing-ponies, “There’s nothing you can do against this! Get out of here!” Her banking turn was nearly complete now and she streaked across the clearing. Before she could strike she heard a heartbreaking "Yarp!" that only gravely injured dogs could make. She focused upon her anger that the cry summoned, her anger had overcome her horn's injury before. She came around again and released that rage as a ray of golden light. The darkness burned and screamed as her radiant lance raked across its bulk. She thought she saw something scurry out of the way after she passed. She hoped that it was Cerberus escaping from the eldritch horror's grasp.

She decelerated and banked so as to come about for another strafing run. As she slowed she became aware of a burning smell rich with ozone. Her horn was incandescent with pain as it was forced into duties far beyond its current capabilities. She grimly acknowledged the fact that she was damaging herself yet again but this could not wait for her to heal. Erebus was here, now, and had to be stopped before all mortal life was consumed. Gritting her teeth, she passed back over the clearing and gasped as she saw whole trees and boulders the size of houses launch into the air as dozens of black tentacles flung anything they could find at her. She pushed her magic to the limit and raised a shield to deflect the fusillade and passed through with only minor scratches but was only able to fire back with a thin, wavering ribbon of light.

The burning in her skull intensified and a high-pitched ringing began in her head. Her flight wobbled as she grew disoriented and she shook her head in an effort to clear it. She forced her exhausted body around into another pass and dropped her shield. She instead concentrated all of her remaining power to smite the demon and hopefully finish this fight. Spiraling and dodging she managed to pass through the rain of improvised projectiles without any major hits and released all the power she had left into a burning shaft of sharpened sunlight. As she struck home she could hear the screams of the demon and smell the foul smoke its burning released but then her head began to loll as the ringing in her skull redoubled.

The infernal tintinnabulation grew rapidly, consuming her ability to think, to see, and finally to fly. Celestia tumbled through the air at a significant fraction of the speed of sound. The force of the air was enough to rip feathers from their roots and twist the angelic limbs into grotesque knots. When she collided with the forest it wasn't as much of a crash as an explosion; centuries old oaks disintegrated into clouds of splinters and dust. Her tumbling came to an abrupt end against a tangle of pine dead-fall; the moss covered trunks bent and squished under the force of her landing but did not break.

Celestia shook her head and snorted, her nostrils full of the atomized wood. Despite her efforts, the horizon stubbornly remained detached from rest of the world and the ringing continued to grow in intensity. She drunkenly flailed in search of the ground, desperate to regain her feet.

“I’m given to understand that you style yourself a ‘princess’ now.” A voice out of her oldest nightmares rumbled. A shadow detached itself from the forest gloom. Eye-sockets full of nothing but hate burned red in the dark while flaming ichor dripped, smoldering, into the undergrowth. The chaotic scene of arboral destruction was illuminated in shades of blood and fire.

Celestia whimpered and redoubled her efforts to regain her feet. That was when she noticed a crude brass bell gripped between the goat's cloven hooves. It looked to have been crafted in a moment's effort from an over-sized dog-tag with the letters "Cere" still visible upon its surface. It rang with the exact same pitch and tone as her head and Celestia understood what had torn her from the sky.

"Grogar, wait! I-"

"I've waited long enough!" he cut her off, visibly shaking with rage.

Celestia fought with the enchantment, her legs less steady than a newborn foal's.

"Don't you think I've suffered long enough?" He stalked forwards as he denounced her, foam flecking the sides of his mouth as he raged.

"Don't you think I've had time enough to appreciate your 'gifts'?" He whispered into the prone god's ear.

"Please, you have to list-"

"NO!"

Celestia flinched, her horn jerkin towards Grogar's face but only clattering against one of his own, curling horns.

"Heh," Grogar laughed at what he must have thought as a pitiful attack but he did back up a few steps. "I don't have to listen to you ever again, Helia, and for that, I will be eternally grateful." The scarred face crinkled in a bitter smile, "Now, it's your turn to listen."

"I'll hear anything you have to say Grogar," Celestia gasped. "I'll listen, I promise."

"Good," Grogar said as a tendril of unnatural blackness slithered up alongside where he stood. "I've waited far too long to say this, 'Your Majesty'." He placed a familiar hoof upon the dark, amorphous shape. "In the name of justice for my people,murdered, banished, and enslaved, I sentence you to death."

Grogar

"I promised myself that I wouldn't do this again." He stepped out from what the myriads of tiny eyes in the forest told him was shadow. "Stick to the plan, damn it! Why didn't I stick to the plan?"

“I’m given to understand that you style yourself a ‘princess’ now," he said; loving and regretting every word of his taunting. The smell of her fear sent a thrill through him as he heard her scrambling for purchase among the scattered trunks and limbs.

"I was supposed to run." He regretted using Erebus as a distraction but with Luna and Twilight nearly killing them he had to make due with what was available. "I was going to run, let Celestia deal with the breakout, and live. But then I heard the ringing from the hound's three collars. Then I saw how weak she was.." He raised the bell he had made out of the bent brass and let it sing.

She opened her mouth and begged. "Grogar, wait! I-"

"I've waited long enough!" He shouted at her so hard it hurt. Her pleading enraged him. "How dare she beg when she had so thoroughly destroyed me?" He could feel his body shaking, his rage consuming him, he was unable to contain his emotions. "Don't you think I've suffered long enough?" He didn't know if he was telling her, asking her, or begging her for respite from her punishment. As he drew near her, molten tears began running down his cheeks, the pain as acute as ever while the lava burned through the scars. He leaned in close to his personal devil's ear and whispered, "Don't you think I've had time enough to appreciate your 'gifts'?"

Again she begged, "Please, you have to list-"

"NO!" He millennia of rage and pain into that single scalding word. Red-tinged flecks of foam were torn from the edges of his mouth and speckled the white fur before him.

Her reply was to try and stab him. He caught her attack on his own curling horn, saving the arteries of his neck from her strike. He leaped back and panted, out of breath from that simple action.

"I don't have to listen to you ever again Princess and, for that, I will be eternally grateful."

"Run, run and live! Stop monologuing you stupid, old goat!" His bitterness had won out. He was gambling with his hard-won freedom for no possible profit besides immediate emotional satisfaction and he knew this fact. "Now it's your turn to listen."

"I'll hear anything you have to say Grogar. I'll listen, I promise," Celestia voice shook as she tried to placate him. He was savoring her fear. He rolled in it like a dog in filth, knowing that it was wrong but unable to resist. He knew that she was stalling for time, regaining her strength, and he cursed himself for giving in to his baser needs.

"Good, I've waited far too long to say this, 'Your Majesty'." A portion of Erebus slithered up beside Grogar. He leaned against the demon's bulk, grateful for both its bulk to support his shaking limbs and the numbing cold that blunted his aches and pains. "I should let her go. If I let her go, I can still run. If I let her go, she'll hunt me forever. She's weak and hurt, I'll never get a chance like this again. I can't forget them. I can't forgive her. Mother help me, I'm going to do it."

"In the name of justice for my people, murdered, banished, and enslaved, I sentence you to death." It was then that the world exploded.

Grogar couldn't see the rainbow hues of the shockwave that ripped through the forest, he only heard its thunder and felt its impact. The two-ton god was flung into the air like a rag doll and beaten senseless by the trees torn from their roots by the blast. He didn't actually remember landing but when his mind cleared he was lying in a thick puddle of what felt like mud and smelled like blood. He flinched as trees, dead and undetectable to his divine senses, landed in a random array of thudding impacts. He also noticed that his improvised bell had been lost during the explosion.

Upon entering the living world he had used the small, scurrying minds he found in the forest to provide him with an approximation of sight. His perceptions via this method were unreliable and disjointed. With the forest destroyed, its myriad of tiny occupants were all fled or perished. He pulled himself free of the mud with bruised and trembling limbs. "Hopefully," he thought, "Celestia suffered just as badly in...whatever that was." Remembering his opponent, he cast about with his divine senses, looking for her luminescent soul dreading that she might be attacking him in his weakened and truly blind state. Unexpectedly, he instead saw what appeared to be a mortal soul approaching at an equally unexpected speed.

"Awww Yeah! Take that whoever-you-are! Betcha didn't see a low altitude sonic-rainboom coming! Right?" The voice of the mortal seemed pubescent to him, as if it was eternally on the verge of cracking.

The back-draft from her approach and deceleration carried her scent to him, female, pegasus, and again Harmony's scent. "It seems that this is one of Twilight's peers," he thought to himself.

"That'll teach you to pick on the princess!"

"Sonic-rain what?" he asked the mare. His voice was surprisingly shaky sounding, like that of an old man with palsy. Her soul, quite visible in his mind's eye, drew up close to him. She burned with youthful exuberance and pride, he noted, but also saw that her bravado was masking deep insecurities.

"That is my signature move, Ugly! Messed you way the heck up!"

"Indeed it did, but there is something I noticed about your technique."

"What?! You sayin' there's a problem with my flying?" The mare flew fearlessly up to the bridge of Grogar's nose, obviously taking offense at his implied criticism.

"Well, if I you don't want to hear it..." he baited.

"No way bucko! You opened that can of worms now you've got to spill the beans!" she demanded.

Her colloquialism viscerally bothered him, "Were ponies eating worms with beans in this age?" he wondered idly before continuing. "Very well, what I noticed was-" Grogar head-but her without preamble with the force expected of a two-ton ram. The mare fluttered to the ground and lay there as boneless as a sack of cheese. "-that you are an arrogant fool." He then began limping away from his impact site and fallen pegaus.

"What am I even looking for?" he asked himself as he wandered in darkness not much deeper than that of the world. The Rainboom had obliterated the forest for a thousand lengths in every direction, the air was still full of dust and it absorbed what little light there was at what he believed to be a pre-dawn hour. "Do I seek the edge of the forest so that I can run and hide? Should I find what remains of Erebus to join what strength I have left to his? Or do I seek Celestia, wounded and battered, so that I may sate my thirst for revenge." He was deadlocked within himself, he knew what was smart, run; he also knew what he wanted, vengeance; and he also knew what was right, justice. He didn't have an answer to give himself so simply placed one hoof in front of another, trusting his path to the Fates.

They provided his answer within a few minutes. Celestia's clarion-clear alto voice shattered the silence to challenge him. "Grogar, your enchantment upon me is broken and your infernal ally lost to you. Your escape ends now, villain." Without the forest's life, he had only his ears and nose to rely upon. He could smell blood and fear on her, he could hear her panting and the faint tremble in her voice. She was hurt, likely swept along in the rainboom's maelstom as well, but he could not tell how badly from here.

"I won't go back, Helia. I can't go back." he told her.

Her voice was grim in her reply and fell into the stilted measure of mythic speech. "This was your chance to surrender, Grogar. I do not relish this but I will not regret it either."

He wanted no part in legends or myths, he knew how he'd likely been painted by those stories. "Shut-up and just murder me already. If I have to die at your hooves could you at least not torture me with poetry first?"

"As you wish." she lowered her horn, unfurled her damaged wings for balance, and charged.

He could both hear and feel the thundering of Celestia's hooves as she charged across the blasted plain that once was lush green forest. He stood his ground, waiting. He was exhausted, injured, lame, and old; without some sort of trick or assistance he knew what the outcome of this battle would be. He expected to be afraid but looking within, he instead found sadness in his heart. He knew why he was here, about to be killed instead of running through the forest looking for somewhere to hide: his wrath. He knew he had a temper, he knew he had done wrong as well back then, but he still couldn't let it go. He had watched as his people were scattered, cursed, or killed and despite the long years, he could not forgive the pony sisters for what they had done.

Grogar could hear the wind ripping over her wings and the snorting of her breath as she came closer. In response he rose high on his back legs, his hips aching as the weight settled upon them. He had not taken this position since the war and he wondered how much a god's muscles could forget over the eons. It felt strange to him, accepting his own role in his death. He knew that it were anyone else's fault he would rage and bellow and kick. But as he contemplated the doom he brought down upon himself, he felt oddly quiet and composed.

He could now smell her, she reminded him of freshly cleaned linen drying in the sun. He fell forward and released the spring-like tension stored in all the muscles of his legs and back. He curved the path of head and horns, down and to the right, as Celestia's horn sliced through his face, parting his right cheek and passing underneath his ear. In that split second he twisted his head, tearing her lance-like horn free from his flesh while binding her with his own curling horn. The movement lifted the point so it only grazed his neck and Grogar was still alive.

He torqued Celestia's trapped horn and to his shock, the alicorn screamed as if he had torn out her innards. "Thank you," he whispered to the Fates while relishing this miracle. He smiled and snarled at the same time as he increased the pressure on the goddess' surprisingly fragile horn. He used this leverage to drive Celestia face-first into the stony ground as hard as he could, over and over. His mass, roughly twice that of the alicorn's, he used to press his advantage. As Celestia's horn and neck creaked under the pressure, he shouted "Beg! Beg for your life!" It served no purpose, he knew, but by all the gods ever born he felt good to do so.

Perhaps it was the blood that coated both of them or perhaps his enthusiasm for taunting her made him reckless. Regardless of the reasons, the lock holding their horns fast slipped and Grogar's face slid down Celestia's horn towards hers. He could not see the change in her lavender eyes, the hard gleam that took root. If he had he'd have known he was in trouble. She rotated her head with the axis of her horn, bringing her muzzle against his. The sockets of his eyes widened in shock and then re-doubled in pained alarm as he fought and shook to detach Celestia's teeth from his bottom lip. Celestia had worked her forelegs up between the two of them during their struggle and used them to push away from Grogar, without releasing his lip.

The goat god screamed in pain as he fought against her efforts but after a few seconds his howls rose it pitch as the sensitive meat tore free and Celesta's horn slid free from his own. She climbed back to her feet, her face now half-covered in a mask of blood and dust. She turned her head and dismissively spat out the chunk of Grogar's face while he wailed incoherently.

Grogar rose back up upon his hind legs shot forward towards the mare he hated most in the universe. She backpedaled while flapping her wings and twisting to the side. While she couldn't entirely escape Grogar's attack, she scythed her horn across the god's back as he closed. His impact crushed her ribs on her left side her breath blew out in a blood speckled moan. Grogar faltered as well, the muscles and bones of his back were as exposed as an anatomical illustration. A long bloody flap of skin and muscle dangled from his side and dragged in the dirt.

Celestia stumbled backwards and struck Grogar's bloody face with her forehooves, again and again, snapping bones in his nose and cheek. On one attempted strike he caught her limb in his jagged teeth and tore the meat from it like a wolf. Screaming, she buffeted him with her wings but he managed to land on top of her, on the left side of her barrel. Her scream cut off as shards of rib slashed through her lung and her eyes rolled from the pain. Celestia shook her head and clamped onto the tip of his muzzle with her teeth, biting down hard enough to hear cartilage snap and bone grind against bone. Blood and magma sprayed all over Celestia's face, burning her badly enough to make her let go.

Grogar shook his mauled face and smiled toothily. He had felt his salvation arrive and Celestia hadn't notices. "Perhaps," he thought, "she was just too focused on trying to kill me." Erebus slithered underneath the princess and gripped her limbs from behind, pining her legs and wings while also sending a coil around her neck. She was defenseless, beaten, and about to die. "Goodbye, Helia." he croaked.

She struggled but didn't beg this time. She had fought, was still fighting, and never gave up or held back. He looked on her with a measure of pride. She stilled her struggles and her face took on a cast of calm composure. "Goodbye, Grogar." she answered him. Voice clear and strong with no hint of fear or weakness. He reared back for a killing blow, he intended it to be quick and painless. He would give her that, at least.

It was in that moment which dawn broke and the sun rose.