“Mercy, mercy!” The Prophet pleaded.

The Eldest Daughter had none.

“If I didn’t know better, Celestia - I might think that you had the hots for me.”

Celestia circled Discord’s statue slowly, inspecting it heavily. Her eyes wandered over his every inch, her horn beginning to glow with the outline of a golden border.

“For the being that you once were, I am often more lenient with you. For the fact that you did not harm my daughter-”

“What need would I have? She certainly did the job hers-”

”Silence.” Celestia’s voice was the Sun, and even Discord took a momentary pause. “For the fact that you did not harm my daughter, I have not condemned you to a worse fate. I am not a cruel pony, my old enemy. I am not a fool.”

“You know, Celestia - we Children rather avoid having family reunions. It usually ends up in a needless amount of destruction. There’s a certain pecking order to things - we stay out of each other’s way, and everyone stays out of my Eldest Sister’s path.”

“I have little patience for your games, Discord. Get to the point, quickly.”

“I fought against her, Celestia - for you. I fought so viciously, so hard against a foe greater than myself - the only foe greater than myself.”

“And for that, I am thankful - but you have repaid your debt with your share of madness.”

“It is within my nature to change. So I abandoned my post at the Edge of the Beyond, far before the Deerfolk first stepped out on Aezilan. If any of my kin had stood in the same place as I - they would have left, and let her destroy you.”

“Your. Point.” Celestia hissed.

“Hm. You truly did not feel them, did you? Well - Celestia. Allow me to cut to the point. Of the eight children - five of them are on Aezilan.”
Celestia’s eyes widened.

“Why do you think that is? Why is it, do you think - that six fillies were born at the same time? Why is it, do you think - that five of the Children, as well as the lowest and most base of all the creatures I fought at my post have come here? Why?”

“...Twilight,” Celestia spoke softly. Six, she noted in the back of her head.

“So you’re not a fool - just slow.”

“Who? Who, of the Children, are here?”

“Why, moi - of course. My Eldest Sister. Fate stepped hoof here, for a moment. Just a moment. Conquest’s rotting carcass has been here for a long time - one of your ponies just happened to step hoof in it.”

“His carcass. So - he is dead?”

“He might wish that he was. He attempted to betray my sister, you know. She was not very pleased with that. Void came here, a bit before Fate - he’s still here. Faint, after his little scrap with the Iampex - but still here. And lastly - Soleil’s attention has been drawn here. I can feel her approaching by the minute - and believe me, Celestia. She is far less kind than I.”

“The Iampex. I have - never encountered anything like it.” There was a hint of fear in Celestia’s voice.

“The smallest of the Things at the edge of the universe. A small scrap, barely a child! Comparing it to the rest of its kin would be like comparing you to me - there is no comparison to be made at all. It is incapable of death - yes, my sister has no power over it.” Discord was silent for a moment. “I am sorry that you had to encounter it. I would not wish the Things upon my worst enemy - and you are my worst enemy, Celestia.”

“...Thank you, Discord.” She said softly. “You - saved my daughter. Maybe even all of Equestria. There is goodness within you - and I hope, one day, that I may call you a friend again.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” Discord snarled.

“Then for who?”

There was no response.

“Wake up, Twilight.”
Twilight’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She let out a soft whimper as the world in its entirety came rushing over her - a hundred whispering voices, the screams of those in the streets being slaughtered, the ground underneath her beginning to chip away and rot - atoms were swirling around in her gaze, the world overwhelming -

“You don’t need your eyes to look, Twilight. You never have. Don’t lie to yourself.”
Twilight shut her eyes, and when they opened - she saw the world as it indeed was. It was beautiful - a fragile thing of stardust and aether, held together by Will and Blood. She saw the souls of the nurses that dotted around her, whispering words that she couldn’t focus on above the din of information her ears were receiving. She looked at them, seeing the threads that made them up - how they connected, how everything connected with such vibrancy.

“Find her. Focus on her.”
Twilight’s senses wandered - until she found her. She was approaching her steadily - ba-dump, ba-dump. The soft pounding of Celestia’s heart - she focused on that, on solely that - and slowly, the world came into order.

“Leave us,” a voice rang out. Twilight’s gaze snapped up as she saw a gray soul with a white brand seared into its side. Her soul filled her body - spreading out from her center into the rest of her. There was a splotch on her back, though. An ugly spot of absence where her wing had once been.

“It’s rude to stare.”

“Sor-ry.” Twilight whimpered.

Steelshy shook her head. “Sorry - I was just...teasing. But I shouldn’t. No, you’ve been through a lot.” Steelshy sat down by her bed.

“What - hap-pened? Flutter-shy? Apple-jack? Rar-ity? Celestia?” Twilight whispered.

“...My kid’s a trooper. I like to think she gets it from me. All the rest she got from her dad.” She shrugged. “Fluttershy is fine. Scared out of her mind - but fine. She’s sleeping right now. Same with Rarity.”

“She didn’t mention the other one.”

“Apple-jack?”

Steelshy turned her head to the side. “...Applejack - was hurt.”

That hung in the air for a few heavy moments.

Twilight’s soft weeping turned Steelshy’s gaze back to her. Steelshy’s eyes went wide as the child wheezed, hiccuped, and whimpered - tears slowly falling down her cheeks. “My fault...my fault,” she whispered. She was a bad monster - she had hurt ponies, and Celestia hadn’t told her to.

“It’s not your fault,” Steelshy spoke - but her words were echoed by Kesmera, with a soft hint of gentleness in her voice.

“You didn’t hurt Applejack. You didn’t hurt me, either. Tartarus - if it wasn’t for you, everyone would be hurt a lot worse. Some ponies might be mad at you - but don’t listen to them, okay kid?” Steelshy reached out and scratched between Twilight’s ears.

A radiant voice that stilled Twilight’s heart rang out from the doorway. Her soul was beautiful - where most souls filled the body, hers pushed out at its very edges. She was a piece of the True Sun itself, and her voice brought with it all the melodic splendor that you’d expect. But it was slightly more challenging than usual. “Steelshy.”

“Celestia.” Steelshy stood up and saluted. She quickly brushed past the mare, leaving the mother and daughter alone.

Celestia promptly sat down on her haunches by Twilight’s side, raising a hoof up and running it through her hair. “My little star,” she whispered. “Are you alright?”

“Of course you’re alright.” Kesmera scoffed.

Twilight nodded slowly.

“Did - Master-Commander Steelshy say anything? I am aware that she may be an abrasive mare at times. If she hurt you-” the temperature of the room raised slightly.

Twilight shook her head. “N-no. She’s - nice. Good.”

Celestia let out a soft sigh of relief, pushing her muzzle into Twilight’s neck and nuzzling her.

The two sat like that for a long, long while - until the day turned to night.

In the Iampex’s bombardment of Canterlot - only eighty-six had died, sixteen of them being among the ranks of the Royal Guards and the Judicators.

The official story was planted on a somewhat troublesome group of miscreants that had been giving the Royal Guard a bit of trouble, as of late. As the gang had called themselves, the Butchers were framed to have planted explosives all around Canterlot - including a chaos magic explosive device at the base of Canterlot, which had resulted in an abomination that Celestia had promptly destroyed.

The true story was that Steelshy would be lucky if she was to ever fly again - and that Applejack had lost her back right leg. Celestia, who had suffered the most grievous wounds, was blessed with a divine form of regeneration - letting them heal before the absence of the Iampex had been able to set in.

For Steelshy and Applejack, the absence had spread like a cancerous growth - and it was only through Twilight’s sheer magical power that Steelshy had a chance of flying. Applejack’s leg had to be amputated - which meant that no healing magic would be able to restore it.

Steelshy was coping with the situation. Her daughter was fine - and she was still holding out hope that she would be healed, eventually. But she was a battle-hardened veteran.

Applejack - a filly, on the other hand, was significantly less prepared to deal with the news that she would be forever neutered. The loss of a limb meant the loss of a very part of your soul, and with that - a very part of your magic.

She wept for hours in her father’s hooves.

“Can’t - you...come - with me?”

“No, Twilight.” Celestia shook her head. “You have to do this by yourself.”

“What a stupid reason. Hmph. I’ll be here if you want. You always have the option to finally give in and kill everyone, after all.” Kesmera’s eye roll was audible.

“No thank you,” Twilight turned down Kesmera politely, as Celestia taught. She hadn’t informed Celestia of her presence in her head again - not that she wanted to keep anything from Celestia, but Kesmera’s voice in the back of her head was - soothing, almost.

Twilight nodded, let out a soft sigh - and opened up the door.

Applejack was lying down in the bed on her side. Rarity was peacefully asleep by her chair, and Applejack looked like she was just beginning to barely doze off herself. Twilight’s presence caused her to shift slightly as she closed the door behind her.

“I don’t blame you.” Applejack said, and a weight lifted off Twilight’s shoulders.

“Don’t mean I’m really happy right now. I lost a part of me. That - I’m gonna need - time, by myself. My daddy is - well, he’s furious at you. He thinks it’s your fault. But that don’t matter because I know it wasn’t yer fault. Sure - she came after you. But you didn’t know that. Did you?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Good. Then I ain’t mad at you.”

Twilight shut her eyes and let out a soft sigh. “...thank...you…”

“Look. Yer - kinda weird. Yah’ speak funny, and I could tell that my daddy was spitting a whole lotta hooey when he was telling me the “official story.”” She held up her hooves and rolled her wrists to simulate air quotes. “But - yer’ honest. So maybe - once I get my...prosthe...my leg, we could be - friends?” Applejack extended a hoof out towards her.

“You don’t need her. You don’t need anyone.” Kesmera hissed.

“I know,” Twilight agreed. “But I want them.” And the Eldest Daughter had no retort.

“Friends.” Twilight extended her hoof.

There were few unicorns alive who could duel against the fraction of Celestia’s unicorn power that she could wield in public. There was none in existence that could wield against a fraction of all three of her aspects of power.

Twilight Sparkle was not a unicorn.

In the months since the Iampex, she had grown much. Her mind aged much faster than her body, and her body aged faster than her peers - while still a lanky, gaunt creature, she was almost as tall as Applejack. Considering the danger that the Iampex presented - how Twilight had to tap into some primal part of herself to combat it, Twilight’s training ramped up.

“Fire,” Celestia’s voice called from above. Twilight’s ear raised as she pin-pointed Celestia’s position - listening to the beat of her heart, the air filling and leaving her lungs as the words left her mouth.

The rules of the game were simple. Twilight had to negate or defend against everything Celestia threw at her and then manage to reach her without teleporting. So Twilight considered fire.

To counteract the Sunfire that Celestia preferred, she had a wide variety of tools. Fire was heat, heat was energy, and energy was magic. She could create a shield to defend against it - but she wasn’t confident she could hold up against Celestia’s might. While Twilight had much, much more raw magic - she couldn’t use all of it without entering her more “monstrous” state.

She decided not to take anything out of her own pool. She created an aura around herself and threw all the magic from the field into the space surrounding her. The temperature spiked dramatically - but it achieved her desired effect. The Sunfire smacked down into the mana-drained field, where it was quickly pulled apart by the hungry thaumosphere - desperate to refill the gap in its consistency.

Twilight sprinted towards the base of the pillar as Celestia cried out - “Earth.”

Celestia always opened with fire - but she rarely followed it up with earth. The earth was the aspect that Twilight had the most difficulty with - the one that she had received the most bruises from.

“So break the earth,” Kesmera suggested.

“How?”

“Brute strength.”

Twilight braced herself as she saw a lance of rock jutting towards her muzzle at a breakneck speed. She threw a wave of brute telekinetic force at it, causing the stone to be ground into a powder as the lavender-colored wave carved through it.

She glanced up at the pillar Celestia was on. She couldn’t teleport - if she was to climb it, her ability would be significantly diminished. So she settled on the third option - instead of going to Celestia, she would bring it to her. She threw another wave of telekinetic force from her horn, causing the pillar to crack and shatter as it fell to the ground in a barrage of shards.

Twilight reached towards her, almost able to touch her - but Celestia, this time, gave no warning as she summoned up the air. A wave of air sent Twilight batting to the side, throwing her down to the ground rather roughly - or, almost.

Celestia promptly teleported and caught her daughter in a tangle of limbs, curling her wings and arms around her as she slid to a stop.

“Are you alright?” She whispered softly.

“Of course you are. You’re not fragile like a mortal or a deity.” The disgust in Kesmera’s voice was audible.
Twilight nodded.

“Good.” Celestia smiled. “Again?”

Twilight, again, nodded - and the two took their positions.

An immortal lay in Aezilan, dead, dreaming.

He had a thousand names, but that was the most universal of them all. In the Dragonlands of the west, his broken and shattered temporary corpse lay, his parts scattered haphazardly within the hoard of a gigantic wyrm. His body had been thrown at the wall at such a speed that he was more stain than wolf. While he was immortal, he was not indestructible - and he was able to be knocked unconscious.

His state of consciousness tended to regenerate with the rest of him. As his brain pulled itself back together, most often - his eyes opened, and he woke once more. Things were a little bit different as the Deity of the Night pulled him into an ever-deeper dream.

“Grandfather,” Luna greeted.

“Took you long enough to come and congratulate me. If you’re here to ask me for another favor - fuck off. You got the one. That was it.”

“I did not come solely to congratulate you.” The Diarch of the Night arched an eyebrow as she slowly trotted around him. “Although - I must confess, your grim efficiency leaves little to be desired.”

“Little.” Frost’s eyes narrowed at the subtle insult.

“You did an admirable job at cutting their numbers down to my exact specifications. But I told you to take her mother’s head off and to stick it on a pike, after preferably violating the corpse.” She arched an eyebrow. “Crushing her head with a paw is certainly not that.”

“Jesus, you are my granddaughter. First off, I think I would rather die than fuck a horse? Especially a dead one?”

“And what of Twilight Velvet?”

Frost glanced to the side. “That was - necessary. Please. I’m a mass-murderer by choice, not a rapist.”

“Hm. Regardless, I came here bringing news.”

“Can you get to the fucking point? I was in the middle of doing something violent, or badass.” Frost growled and stood up.

“Your daughter is alive.”

-

Author's Note

Behold! A discord server!