And…I’m back in Canterlot. Home sweet home I suppose. “Alright Luna, I’m back in the capital where are you all at? Also do you guys have the diamonds ready?”

“We’re…we’re in the royal section of the castle’s medical wing. It's right next to the area where you and Shining Armor were healed after your spar. How many bits do the diamonds need to be worth again?” She sounds conflicted. Did Harmony snitch already?

“500 bits or more, also singular diamond. One per pony. I’m on my way now.”

As soon as the telepathic message leaves my mind I can feel my entire body sag like it’s tied down with several tons of weight. I feel like I have lead bones. I’m so tired.

All of the purple lines have dulled completely and I can’t see that stupid thing poking out of my forehead. Guess that means I’m all out of energy. Still got spell slots though, thankfully.

It’s surprisingly quiet as I walk through Canterlot towards the castle. I suppose it is night time. The moon came up around the time I used True Bladesong for the first time, so it’s probably a little after midnight now. That would explain it under normal circumstances, but the city is still a wreck. Where are half of these ponies even sleeping tonight?

Wait, what’s that noise? It sounds like a commotion a few blocks away…oh that’s where they all are. It’s a massive party in the streets right in front of the castle. I guess those chose to celebrate since they couldn’t sleep. Still seems strange to me to throw a party when we still lost hundreds of ponies in Canterlot alone. I shouldn’t be too surprised though, the ponies at camp after the Summit were the same way.

They’d all rather look at the bright side and celebrate the things worth celebrating instead of grieving over the things lost. Or, maybe they’ll just grieve about it on their own? Who knows, but I should stop wasting time…….

“Woah there, mister Knight…sir. Did you have too much to drink as well?” I appear to have passed out for a few seconds. I’m on my knees leaning over but there’s a pony under my left armpit holding me up. She sounds innocent.

“No. No, I haven't had anything to drink. Thank you for catching me, but I have a meeting in the castle I’ve gotta get to. Don’t get too drunk, miss.” Am I even going to be able to make it through both of these revival spells? They’re gunna take an hour each…yeah I can do this.

It takes a few minutes longer than it probably would take normally, but I eventually find myself standing in the middle of a familiar white room lined with beds. All of the beds are occupied by patients of differing levels of severity and there’s no shortage of groaning in the room. “Excuse me, where is the royal section? Luna is expecting me.”

The nurse that I don’t recognize nods and silently turns and walks out of the room. Shrugging my shoulders I follow her down the hall for a few doors that are all marked with the same green crosses until we reach an unmarked door. This is it? I guess it’s inconspicuous. That’s probably best considering the level of secrecy we’re using for my reviving capabilities. “Thanks.”

Opening the door I was expecting to see three alicorns and several ponies. Instead it’s just Luna, Celestia, and Shining. Wow, not even Cadence is here? Strange.

They all turn to look at me but before I can register any of the emotions on their face I can feel my breath catch in my throat. Time seems to slow down. There she is, Harmony kept her word. I didn’t think her regular alicorn form would also have purple hair like this…I like it.

“Ignis.” I hear the solar alicorn call out my name, but when I turn to look at her she stops herself and her face shifts a bit. She looked angry, but now she just looks pained. “Nevermind. Perhaps now isn’t the time for that discussion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you give such an innocent smile.”

Oh she was going to scold me? I guess whatever expression I’m making while I run my hands through Nightmares mane was enough to dissuade her. “No, now is okay. I know that most of you, no, all of you probably don’t approve of what I did. I understand that. By all rights I could even understand if you tell me that it was evil. I’d have no argument against that logic.”

“Then why did you do it? How could you even come up with such an idea? To use…my student as leverage? You’ve made me angry so many times in our short time knowing each other, but this is probably the first time you’ve actually hurt me. I think I’m just disappointed you’d stoop so low.”

“Because it was Harmony. I knew if I just asked her with nothing on my side of the table she’d shoot me down in an instant. When she went out of her way to personally request that I revive Twilight? I was already going to try what I did, but when she asked that I knew it’d work. She might be an uppity hypocrite, but I know on some level she’s somewhat of a good person. She’d never let Twilight stay dead for such a simple and easy demand.”

“Were you bluffing?” Turning towards the masculine voice I find Shining Armor giving me the same glare he gave me just an hour or so ago.

“No. I’d have gone through with it, but I knew I wouldn’t have to. When I mentioned that my original plan was to hold all six of them hostage though, that was a bluff. She could probably tell it was a bluff, but that was just another layer of reinforcement to my threat. After that she knew what it looked like when I was bluffing. I needed her to believe with 100% certainty that I wasn’t bluffing. Only then could I be sure she’d have followed my demands. I am truly sorry Shining and Celestia, but I imagine if you were in my shoes captain you might’ve considered the same idea.”

Everything goes blurry as I drop to one knee. The only response I got was a hoof to my gut. “Alright, that’s the only one you get for free. Next time I’m grabbing you by the horn and throwing you out the closest window.”

Shining starts to respond and I look up at him from my kneeling position to see his horn is ignited.

SMACK.

My eyes widen in shock as a blue foreleg comes from nowhere and slaps the unicorn across the muzzle. “Get out, Captain Armor. We’ll send for you when your sister wakes up.”

“Wha-, but-!”

“Lulu!”

Luna ignites her horn and the door opens. “As a Princess of Equestria I am ordering you to get out. I know you’re angry. I’ll even admit that you have a right to be angry. But, Ignis did not kill your sister. It’s quite the opposite actually, you only have the opportunity to see her again purely because of him. I won’t have you continue to assault him when he can barely even stand. You’re lucky he’s even kind enough to do this. Hundreds of brothers lost their sisters today, and you’re the only one getting his back. Maybe take some perspective while you’re out there waiting.”

Celestia is staring at her with wide eyes and I’m pretty sure I’m staring at her with heart eyes if those are real in this universe. Her words are apparently good enough because her sister offers no further argument, but Shining does continue to stand there silently. His nostrils flaring as he huffs and puffs.

“This is the last time I’ll say it, colt. Get. Out.” Shining looks to Celestia for some defense but she offers nothing but a sympathetic tilt of her head. Finally the unicorn leaves the room.

Once the door closes I stagger to my feet and when Luna turns to face me again I lunge forward. After a brief second of intimacy I’m gently pushed back with a hoof. “Don’t think you’re in the clear either, Ignis. I understand your logic, I understand why you did it, but there had to be another way. I cannot condone what you did, and I’m not even sure if she,” Luna gestures towards Moonie. “Will condone it either. Once this is all over and we’ve all had time to rest and heal we need to have a serious discussion about this.”

What is this feeling? Why does her disapproval and disappointment in me feel like this? This must be from the elven side, Ignis would train night and day to prepare for the Moonblade ceremony because he was so afraid of this feeling. I can see why he was afraid of it, I hate this.

I just give Luna a slow nod as my gaze falls toward the floor. “I only had a few more days to figure something out. I knew this had an overwhelming chance of success, but if I opted to not take this route I would’ve only had a few more days to figure out a solution. The most powerful revival spell I have access to at the moment has a time limit of 10 days. Anything beyond 10 days and there’d only be two spells that could do the trick and both of those are far beyond me at the moment. I was desperate.”

I involuntarily let out a sigh of content when I feel soft feathers brush against my back. “I know. C’mon let’s finish this up and we can go get some well deserved sleep.”

Placing the diamond on Twilight's corpse I pull out my Staff of the Magi and channel the Mizzium Apparatus one more time. Raise Dead is 5th level so it’ll be a DC of 20 to cast the spell, but I have four levels of exhaustion so it’ll be at disadvantage. I do have a +15 bonus to Arcana though so it should be fine. The Staff of the Magi is in my other hand so if I fail the check and misfire a spell I can use the Staff to absorb the spell. Wait, that only works if the spell is a targeted spell that’s fired specifically at me…aw well.

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 20)

Check is passed automatically due to being the Element of Magic.

“Raise Dead.” Well that’s convenient. I don’t have manasight anymore and I don’t feel that omniscient feeling of enlightenment coursing through me. So, I thought the other benefits wouldn’t be there anymore either. Unless I was actively using the element.

“As soon as the spell completes she’s more than likely going to be in shock. Even if the wounds are closed, purely because of how traumatic the incident was. I’m saying this because when I say the word I need one of you to restrain her until I cast follow up healing magic on her. If she flails about and hurts herself she could easily kill herself.”

Celestia and Luna both give me a nod and I start to mutter the long series of incantations I’ll be repeating for the next hour. Green light shines on the walls of the room as wind from nowhere starts to whip about in the closed space. After a tense hour passes I nod towards Celestia since I’m still muttering incantations, but she understands what I mean and ignites her horn. I see a golden aura completely envelop Twilight’s body as the green light from the spell grows brighter and wispy smoke starts to appear that gets siphoned into the unicorn's body through her eyes and mouth.

Twilight's eyes snap open and she starts screaming for help and sobbing. What the fuck did they do her? The sight actually breaks my heart, remembering how naive her and her friends were just a couple of months ago. This event might just break the poor girl.

“Cure Wounds.”

+42 Hit Points.

Her body glows and any scars or wounds that remain close up completely. Her breathing finally starts to slow down as she gets quieter and quieter. The glow from the healing leaves her and her eyes flutter closed as she falls asleep. Glancing up it seems Luna and Celestia both have the same emotion in their chest as me.

Status Update: Title Removed.

~~Element of Magic~~

My bracers light up white and after a bright flash they’ve returned to normal. Guess I was just a temporary stop gap, huh? “Should we wipe her memories of this event? I think she might be…broken. If a changeling tricked her and then attacked her she might not trust anypony ever again. I could even see her never leaving the library or her bedroom for that matter. As soon as her eyes opened that was a deep and primal fear I could see in her pupils. She’s going to be scared for a long time.”

“That might be the best choice. It seems like Ignis is no longer the Element of Magic, but if it’s returned to Twilight it’s highly likely she’ll be too traumatized to even use the elements.” Luna agrees as we both turn to Celestia.

“I’ll discuss the option with Shining and we’ll ask Twilight for her own opinion. If she wants to forget…then I’ll do it for her.” I don’t think I’ve seen Celestia like this. She’s quite somber. It seems seeing her student in that state was too much for her. “She’s fully healed, yes?”

I give her a nod and the solar alicorn lifts Twilight up off the table in her telekinesis. “I’ll take her to my room and go find her brother. Thank you, Ignis.”

The little unicorn is gently lowered onto Celestia's back and it’s quite adorable the way she instantly nuzzles subconsciously into her neck and her legs just dangle from the alicorn's barrel. Luna and I watch the two of them leave before turning towards Nightmare. “Alright, let’s do this one more time.”

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 20; Disadvantage)

12 and 19. 12 +15 = 27.

“Raise Dead.”

It takes everything I have not to pass out in the middle of this hour long spell. My eyelids are so heavy and apparently it’s late enough into the evening now that my Exhaustion has gone from level four to level five.

My head and torso start drooping forward as I hold my hands over the diamond on top of Nightmares chest. Suddenly something solid is resting against my chest and I realize Luna has laid down to support me from falling forward. I can’t thank her due to the incantations but I lean forward and push into her in acknowledgement. Come on Ignis, the pain she and Luna went through to revive you was far worse than this. I’m just tired, this is nothing.

The light glows brighter just as it did with Twilight and the alicorn's eyes snap open.

“Yes yes it’s mahogany, it’s a nice desk, can we PLEASE- wait what?” Nightmare Moon looks around a bit confused at the dimly lit hospital looking room. Laying on her back is a bit uncomfortable as she feels exposed. Before she can ask any further questions though she feels two warm arms wrap around her.

That’s followed by someone's head resting against her chest. Hearing quiet sobs she finally glances down and sees a familiar elf crying into her fur. Glancing to the right her eyes widen as she sees Luna looking at her a bit misty eyed as well. Instantly she realizes she’s not in Luna’s body, she’s in her own body.

“I-...I thought I lost you…forever!” Nightmare smiles at the elf before igniting her horn for the first time. All three of them pop out of existence and reappear in the large bed in Luna's room. She rolls onto her side and wraps up the elf.

Nightmare starts to ask Ignis a question but when she glances down she realizes he fell asleep the instant he got embraced. She instead turns her attention to Luna who’s laying on the other side of the elf.

“This feels a bit surreal.” Nightmare quietly mutters not wanting to disturb Ignis. That’s when she notices the conflicted emotions on Luna's face. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“You died, that's what’s wrong. He fell into such despair he became somepony else entirely, just like I did with you and my sister with Daybreaker. When he finally snapped out of it he was determined to bring you back. Twilight Sparkle died before we could confront Discord and Ignis became the Element of Magic. We defeated Discord.”

“Then he revived Twilight and found a way to revive me? The beginning of the story is quite tragic but the ending doesn’t seem like something that would cause you to make that face. Or sound quite so melancholic.”

“He confronted Harmony. Harmony requested he revive Twilight, but he used her as leverage. Wouldn’t revive her unless Harmony gave him your body so he could revive you as well. He also would’ve accepted having your soul placed into him so you could possess him, but Harmony conceded and conjured your physical form. Only after that did he revive Twilight and then you.”

Nightmare makes a shocked expression. “He did that? For me?” She looks down at the sleeping elf and gently strokes his head with her wing. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Not quite the reaction I expected you to have. He’s angered and picked a fight with the reigning supreme deity that rallies our entire kingdom in the name of everything that is good.”

“Exactly! He did that for me. How could I be anything but grateful?”

“While I understand what you mean, Nightmare, this is extremely problematic. The actions he took has him starting down a dark path. The same path we once traveled. You cannot encourage him to do evil acts, use ponies as leverage, or even outright kill innocent ponies if it means saving us. I don’t want to see him go down that path.”

Nightmare hums a bit in thought. “Hm, I think that’s just who he is, Luna. If you don’t want him to burn the world down trying to save you then perhaps you should get stronger. We should get stronger. Strong enough that we don’t need to be saved. Besides, do you really think an evil villain would collapse onto somepony and start bawling while hugging them? I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

That gets a chuckle out of both of them. “I suppose you might be right. Perhaps I am overreacting. There is still one issue though, Nightmare. As you know Tia is a devout follower of Harmony. She’s spent thousands of years spreading her teachings to the entire kingdom. The problem is that Celestia is completely aware of what he did. Things were already tense between the two of them and I don’t know what’s going to happen the next time they see each other when both of them are fully recovered.”

“Well, what do you think Luna?”

“Hm?”

“Their entire argument was likely about the balance between the cycle of life and death. You know Harmony vehemently disagrees with the mentality Ignis has about death. He thinks that if somepony did not die of natural causes then they died before their time. Everypony deserves to live all of the years they’re supposed to. So, what do you think? Do you agree with him?”

“Why is that important?”

“Because that’s what this is going to come down to. They might have a real fight to begin with but at the end of the night this is going to boil down to a battle of morals, of core values. So, if you agree with Harmony and think that every death is equal and nopony should ever break that cycle of life and death. Then that means you’re going to take your sister's side in their upcoming conflict. I, for one, agree with Ignis.”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t think that’s my place to decide, I don’t think anypony should have the power to decide if somepony died their correct death.”

“Ignis is going to win the fight, Luna. In fact has already won it. There’s really no need to think about whether you agree with him or not.”

“How so?”

“You said Harmony requested he revive Twilight. That tells you that even Harmony thinks ponies should be revived if they die before they’re supposed to. As long as that pony is important and has a role in her chess game, anyways. Or, maybe they just disagree on what defines an improper death?”

Luna widens her eyes as she realizes Nightmare is right.

Before Luna can process a response to this revelation, Nightmare speaks up again. “Worst case scenario I’ll just marry him and take him with me to the Everfree. He can help me establish my battlemage academy. Then he’ll almost never have to see Celestia ever again, and I get to have him live with me. It’s a win-win all around.”

“M-m-marry?! So fast?! And… before ME?!” Luna gets surprisingly flustered at the sudden pivot in conversation topics.

“Why not? He looks good, he’s strong and intelligent. If you find a stallion that’ll stand up to the Goddess for you why would you not claim him as soon as possible? You won’t find loyalty like that anywhere else, especially in stallions. They know they can always find some mare to sleep with if they want it, so why would they bother being that loyal? That’s not even mentioning the way you go cross eyed when he-”

“OKAY! I understand! I get it! You’re right.” With an embarrassed cough Luna climbs out of bed and starts walking towards the door. “I’ll go figure out how to deal with Celestia and let you two have some alone time.”

Nightmare smirks as she burns the image of the blushing alicorn into her mind and fully lays down on the bed. She starts to hum a soft tune-

“I’m glad you agree with me. Everyone on this planet is too quick to just throw away lives. To just give up and accept death as a permanent unsolvable problem.”

Nightmare freezes as she registers the quiet words from the elf. “You’ve been awake for that long? So you heard all of that?”

He pulls his face away from her floor and looks at her with a tired, but adorable smile. “I did. I’ll admit I was curious how ponies propose to each other since they don’t have rings, but I didn’t think it would be this nonchalant.”

“That wasn’t a proposal! You weren’t supposed to hear that! Go back to sleep, this is all a dream! None of it happened!”

Ignis just scoots up so his feet aren’t hanging over the end of the bed, and gives Nightmare a quick peck. “Just a dream? Well in that case I guess my answer isn’t important since none of this is real. I’ll just close my eyes and go back to sleep.”

In an act of karma Nightmare is now the one flustered and blushing after the exchange. She's conflicted between avoiding the situation and embarrassment entirely while also wanting to know what his answer would be. “Well...indeed, you are correct.... Enjoy the rest of your sleep.”

“Yes yes yes. Of course.” There’s a few seconds of silence as the elf closes his eyes once more.

Then he speaks one last time. “Oh and yes I’ll enjoy the rest of my sleep.”

A confused alicorn glances at him. “What? Then what were you replying to before- wait...YOU CAN’T JUST CASUALLY SAY YES OF COURSE TO THAT!”

The flustered alicorn starts playfully swatting him with her wing. “Help! Where’s Celestia?! My fiance is abusing me~ someone help! How could a royal alicorn treat her husband to be like th-”

“SILENCE!”

"Seriously though, Moonie. I didn't get to respond to you back then, but I love you too."

Author's Note

Ignis has managed to find a situation that causes Nightmare to evolve from a tsundere to a tsuntsuntsuntsun-tsundere. The best part about this is that it's 100% not clear if this is serious or not. By that I mean I'm not sure if I want to make it serious or not and this gives me a way to take it either way :P

This was a fun chapter to write for the most part. I got to write Luna being a bad ass, got to write cute shit with the return of best girl. All around top tier chapter from my POV.

No chapter tomorrow and fair warning next chapter is uhh Probably be NSFW. The timing feels right, ya know?

Thanks for reading! <3