Gods and Monsters

by Revel Montaro


Chapter 21: Crossing Field

The first things that hit Sunset Shimmer’s senses were the smells of grass, earth, and trees. Her hooves hit the soil and she stumbled a moment, still blinking the blinding flash spots from her eyes. When they finally came into focus, she found herself in a familiar forest clearing that she had seen twice before. This time, however, Sunset found herself surrounded by the other’s who had been in the throne room with her.

Twilight stared in awe at their surroundings. The sky was dark as night yet plenty of ambient light lit the clearing as if emanating from the trees themselves. She could not see through the forest beyond a meter or two before the thicket underbrush became impenetrable. The grass was finely manicured to the point it seemed unnatural, which when she thought about it, it probably was. As real as it all was, it was also too perfect. It reminded her of a Zen garden she had visited in the Kirin territory, calming yet artificial.

Flurry Heart continued to hold Celestia taking little notice of the surrounding environment beyond just lifting her head then lowering it again, closing her eyes. Tempest Fury gently set Gauge down in the grass and whispered to him while stroking the side of his burned muzzle. If the thestral was still alive, Sunset could not tell from where she was standing and while it broke her heart to see her friend in such a state they had potentially bigger problems. Luna, who had just finished putting a sleep spell on Isabella to ease her pain, growled at their surroundings completely unimpressed.

“Are… are we dead?” asked Twilight, her curious yet worried eyes turned to Sunset who shook her head, brow furrowed in anger.

“No,” Sunset said, looking around for their host, “I know where we are.”

“As do I,” added Luna before stomping her hoof to the ground and shouting out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “GET THY PLUMP HIND QUARTERS OUT HERE THIS INSTANT, MOTHER!”

The sound of wings flapping turned their attention to the star filled sky. The large black and white alicorn seeming to materialize from the stardust, which she very well may have. She touched down with the grace of a dancer and folded her wings, stopping on the opposite side of the clearing. Slowly, she approached the other ponies without leaving a single hoofmark on the grass of her private domain.

Twilight took in every detail from her pristine white coat to her black socks, ears, and black diamond in the middle of her muzzle. Even her cutie mark was as described, a sun and moon swirling in a balanced circle with additional black sun rays and starbursts on her flank. Judging by what Sunset had told her some time ago, standing before the ruler of Equestria was a goddess, a true one. Twilight did the only thing she could think of, she bowed deeply.

Sunset and Luna did not.

Aine’s expression of respect and appreciation evaporated as she regarded her daughter and granddaughter. “I warned you, Sunset Shimmer, and now instead of dealing with one dangerous threat all four have been free. Worse yet, I had to intervene. The consequences of which are not yet known, but rest assured, there will be consequences.”

Sunset pointed to where Celestia lay and hissed through her clenched teeth, barely keeping her voice level. “The consequences of you doing nothing are quite obvious.”

Aine grimaced, stepping past the angry alicorns without a second glance and looked down at Flurry Heart and Celestia. The shadow cast over Flurry caused the youngest alicorn to snap out of her shock and look up with pleading blue eyes.

“Can… can you save her? Can you bring her back?”

Aine reached out and touched Celestia briefly, gently stroking her daughter’s face before turning away. “No. Celestia’s soul had moved on to the Golden City and there it shall remain. To do otherwise would be profane. Let her have her rest. At least until the end of the world, which thanks to all of you, may not be that far away.”

“Oh, don’t you DARE try to lay this on us!”

Twilight sucked in a breath, “Sunset!”

“No, Twilight, we tried, we tried everything short of just killing Flurry to stop this and what did she do? Not a damn thing!”

Aine ignored Sunset and stepped over to Tempest and Gauge, her expression one of curiosity and disarming compassion. The large alicorn knelt down next to the pair.

“Amazing," she whispered with the hint of a smile, "he is in tremendous pain and suffering yet refuses to leave his vessel. I sense he does not wish to leave… you especially. Such spirit of life is endearing.”

Tempest looked up as Aine dipped her head, the tip of her horn touching Gauge. Tempest pulled him back and closer to her chest, a protective glare on her face and horn beginning to glow with a prepared attack.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Faith, child.” Aine’s horn touched Gauge again and he was instantly cocooned in bright light so intense Tempest had to shield her eyes. When she looked back, she found a fully healed thestral in her forelegs blinking his clear yellow eyes, his expression nearly as dumbstruck as hers.

“Fog?”

“I am…” Gauge looked at his forelegs and quickly stood, examining his wings and the rest of his body. “I am... alive and feel fine.”

Tempest launched herself at the thestral tackling him to his back before kissing him passionately. When the vermillion unicorn finally detached herself from him, she wiped a few tears away before clearing her throat and growling, “Never do that again, you idiot.”

“I will strive to do better, captain.” Gauge turned his attention back to the black and white alicorn who had just the slightest of smirks on her face. “Um… thank you… I do not believe I was given your name.”

Aine stepped over to Isabella and performed the same healing miracle. Once she was satisfied the griffon was fully healed, she glanced back at Gauge and nodded politely. “You are welcome. And you may call me, Aine, child.”

“Isa!” Twilight rushed over and hugged the griffon who could only take the affection with a look of unfathomable wonder. Finally, after a moment of flexing her claws and wings again, Isabella returned the hug.

“If you are quite done wowing the mortals with miracles, we have much to discuss, mother. First and foremost, why could you not save my sister and where are our foes now?!”

“The latter," Aine began, "the Athanatoi have temporarily been banished out into the cosmos. It will take them time to return even with their vast well of power. It is also likely they may hesitate to attack again if they believe I will interfere again. We have two days at most. The former, I could not save my daughter because such was beyond my station. Falling instead to the power of Fate.”

“Fate? FATE?!” screamed Sunset, “Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

“The universe is held together by a delicate balance, granddaughter. Though I may have created Equuis I am not the only driving force that keeps all of us from being consumed by the void. That balance must be maintained. I have tried in the past to assert complete control over my creation and I saw my beautiful masterpiece destroyed. Why you ask? Because of balance. Remove Fate, Destiny has no purpose. Create Life with no end, Death gets angry. Perfect Harmony and all you get is jealous Chaos. All things must be in balance. It is how the current world has lasted as long as it has even if it is not how I wanted it. The struggle is not to win, but to survive without succumbing to the darkness beyond the rim and preparing those after you to do the same, but never truly ridding the universe of all that is considered evil, because it cannot be done. I know, I tried.”

“So, they were telling the truth,” said Twilight, her eyes downcast. “The other alicorns, your first children said that you had created the world before and failed so you tried again with their help.”

Slowly, with a great sigh, Aine nodded. “This world is a unique creation. When you look out your telescope, Twilight Sparkle, onto the stars you can see those other far off places, more than you could fathom. Their life giving stars born of cosmic gases coalesce into great balls of burning molecules with planets and other large objects orbiting said stars. Billions upon billions of examples of this beautiful dance of scientific nature at work. But not on Equuis. Equuis has no neighboring planets or celestial objects other than the moon. Equuis does not spin, does not move, does not revolve around its sun. This unique world sits at the original center of the known universe as everything else moves away.

“It is why the sun and moon, both created by me, can be raised and lowered at will. It is why creatures have to contribute to the changing of the seasons and the weather. Why you ask? Because here, in the center is where all the magic is, literally. Throughout the cosmos there are miracles and traces of the magic that embodies all things. Energy flows outward through unseen magical channels or ley lines, but only here is it concentrated. Only on this little blue marble of my making is it at its strongest. And because of that, all other aspects that make up the universe want a piece of it.”

“And I assume that is intrinsically tied to souls, cutie marks, and why the other four alicorns did not have them?” Twilight inquired further despite Sunset continued seething.

“Souls are not unique to this world, but they are still extremely rare. They are pure life energy, creation magic at its’s most complex and most powerful. It gives all uplifted creatures a sort of immortality even after their living vessels have expired. It is also a conduit to your life force magic, essentially making them one in the same. The cutie mark is a visual expression of this magic, a physical representation of the soul itself and of a great and unique part of one’s self. Unique only to ponies because they were my chosen, but all creatures have their own magic and souls so to speak.”

“This is all incredibly fascinating, but it does not change the fact that my mother is dead and you are offering no solution on how to help fix this? You are not even explaining why you imprisoned the other four instead of just doing away with them to begin with!”

Aine scowled darkly. “Could you have killed your children, Sunset Shimmer?” Sunset stumbled back as if she had been slapped. “Could you have slit their throats one by one and watched them die just because they did something you did not approve of or betrayed your trust? Maybe they were influenced by an outside force while you had your back turned, trying to keep the universe from imploding? Do not judge what you do not understand.”

“Then help us understand, Mother. No games, no dodging, speak plainly and tell us what happens next. Otherwise, I am with Sunset.” Aine shot Sunset another glare who returned her own with just as fiery scorn.

“Unfortunately, the options are quite limited now and the stakes just as high as they were before. After Chaos and Death corrupted the minds of my children, I had them imprisoned under the hope that maybe the isolation would do them some good, on that, I was mistaken. Immortals become quite set in their ways. When I chose to step back from direct control of the rotation of the celestial bodies, I also needed to transfer the life-lock of their prisons. That burden fell to Celestia without her knowledge.

"It was unfair, but I wrongly assumed I had more time to come up with a better solution. Fate chose to intercede because I was and still am incapable of taking their lives even though they had plans to access the Well of Souls, which is unacceptable. If they were to do so two things would happen. The Well would be corrupted, possibly spreading that corruption to the ether of the universe as a whole and worse still, as empty vessels they would be able to consume many powerful souls giving them unfathomable levels of power. They could, theoretically, tear down the very walls that separate the multiverse. This universe, and possible others would collapse in on one another until only the void remained. Creation itself would have to start over, if that is even possible.

“As a last resort, to prevent this, I would be forced to destroy The Golden City and the Well. If such a thing is even possible at this point, but better to lose one world than all of them. I could save as many lives as I could, but still, the cost would be incalculable.”

The ponies waited for her to continue and when she did not Sunset’s anger flared again. “That’s it? That’s the only option we have left? You won’t lift a hoof against them, but you will gladly destroy the world so they can’t have access to souls. Do you realize how absolutely ridiculous that is?!”

“I will NOT kill my children.”

“I thought all creatures were your children, guess not. Even gods can play favorites you… hypocrite! Well guess what grandma, if you won’t kill them I sure as hell will! Show me the damn exit. I would rather go down fighting than sit back and wait for you to destroy the world. Can you even understand the amount of pain and suffering you are willing to cause because of your selfishness!”

Aine scowled, snorting smoke from her nostrils like a dragon, eyes glowing white. “You know nothing of pain, spoiled brat of a grandchild.”

Twilight Sparkle stepped between Aine and Sunset, attempting to intercede. “This is not helping! However, and I apologize, but I have to agree with Sunset. There must be another way!”

“I know nothing of pain?”

Twilight’s blood ran cold, hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She had turned her back on Sunset and could not see her dear friend, but she knew that voice. She had had many a nightmare for years following the encounter with a flying demon cackling madly just before throwing a fireball of death down upon her and her friends. When she looked back Sunset was shaking violently, her wings blazing like a furnace to the point that the other ponies had to step back from the heat. Two eyes opened with black sclera and the glowing teal irises turned red, her mane flickering about like an out of control flame.

“Sunny,” Twilight pleaded, hoping it would calm her as it had before.

“I’ll show you pain.” Sunset’s front hooves took on a crimson glow as she flashed white fangs, rushing forward and clamping the sides of Aine’s head with her flaming forehooves.

“SUNSET, DON’T!” Sunset did not hear Luna’s last second plea. She did not care. She had committed to her action and nothing was going to stop her. When her hooves made contact with the larger alicorn both their eyes blazed white and they both screamed into the sky. The ground of the private sanctum began to shake violently. Isabella clung tightly to Twilight while Gauge lifted Tempest up in his forehooves bridal style and hovered. Flurry clutched Celestia close with wide, panic filled blue eyes.

Long ago, Sunset had experimented numerous times while in the human world on what were the limits of her geode's powers. Such experiments were necessary to help her learn to control the unknown magical power and prevent accidental readings, which had on more than one occasion been… awkward. Especially after learning that the geode not only revealed the memories of the person she touched, but also the emotions they were felt at the time as well. One such moment of accidental reading involved Lyra and her girlfriend, Bon Bon, after they had enjoyed an afternoon quickie in the sports field house.

While said incident had been slightly uncomfortable and embarrassing, it had gotten Sunset and Twilight thinking about the emotional transference with the memories and if it was possible to send emotions and feelings instead of just read them. As it turned out, with practice and sheer will, it was.

Sunset gathered up all her anger, all her hate, all the pain of loss of loved ones and friends and focused it all back onto Aine. The feedback from Aine’s mind was like standing before a dam the size of the Hoover as all the water was released at once. Sunset could barely fathom the vastness that was Aine’s mind. Her memories, the ones that she could comprehend, were old and stretched on beyond the astral horizon. Sunset could feel her own consciousness being sheered apart by the overwhelming torrent of memories, emotions, and information. She was being torn apart from the inside out and there was little she could do to stop it. Sunset knew she was going to die a brain dead vegetable and had no one or pony to blame but herself and her own short fuse. She had let the demon out on purpose and even with all that extra fuel it was nothing compared to the power of a living goddess’s mind.

“Stay away from me!”

Sunset’s eyes flew open, her mind’s avatar body reassembling itself at the last moment, drawn by the sound of the familiar voice. Sunset scrunched her face and focused on the voice only. Her pony body continued to reassemble piece by piece, then she further defended herself by donning shining white and gold dress armor with a billowing white train and lilac accents. Her wings grew back as glowing appendages of pure golden light and her horn grew longer and also burned as a golden beam of light. Once she could feel again Sunset launched herself towards the dot that called to her in the distance field of stars.

No… don’t look. It will only bring you more pain.

When Sunset looked back over her shoulder, she saw her demon floating there with her claws tearing into a massive astral pony made of stardust. Demon Shimmer glanced back at Sunset and smirked, flashing a quick thumbs up before sinking her claws in once more and breathing fire at her target. The pony cried out in pain.

Sunset nodded and took off towards the shimmering purple dot leaving a glowing afterburn streak across the mindscape from her wings. As she approached the pulsing purple sphere Sunset recognized it as a memory, but more than that, she could feel a familiar presence resonate within her soul like an in-tune instrument. Without hesitation Sunset dove in.

Sunset’s hooves came down on nothing, but somehow the memory mindscape interpreted it as ground. All around her were swirling and billowing clouds of dark blue and purple. Nothing had a distinguishable shape or location yet still there was a lingering tug at Sunset’s heart that spoke to her of familiarity.

“Stay away from me!”

Sunset turned and her heart stopped. There, no more than an arm’s length away was her deceased wife, dressed in simple navy blue sweats and a white lab coat. Sunset reached a hoof out to her and breathlessly cried, “Twi.”

The purple skinned woman in black framed glasses ran by, her face one of fear and panic. She was swiveling her head, stopping every few seconds to look about. Sunset only had to wonder what was wrong for a second when she heard swooping wings cutting through the air. A shadow passed over then dove and tackled Twilight to the ground. The attacker sat on Twilight’s lap and shoved her shoulders to the astral plane with brutish force. Had there been real ground it would have likely broken bones.

“You can’t run forever from meeee, Twiiiiiiiliiiiiight.”

Sunset ran over and tried to blast Midnight Sparkle off her wife, but the beam just continued through as the scene played out. ‘Duh, Shimmer. This is a memory, but why is she here in Aine's mind?!’

You don’t want to see this, please, turn away.

“Show me. I need to know,” Sunset replied as evenly as she could, pushing down her rising anger and dread.

Sunset felt the taller alicorn sigh as she solidified and stepped up next to Sunset with no signs of battle damage other than her wings were hanging limp and ears flat. With one more sigh she nodded. “As you wish.”

“Whyyyyy did you stay behind, Twilight?! I can’t feel her magic anymore! I neeeeeed it, you need it!”

“Because I figured it out!” Twilight spat. “Every night you take a little piece of Sunset’s life, just enough to try and stay undetected. Every night you make me forget, but I kept thinking about, piecing the clues together until I refused to forget. Then, after the last time we came back from Equestria I felt how much more control you were exhorting over me. I was losing control because you figured out how to harness the magic again even from within the cage I put you in!”

“You ungrateful bitch!” Sunset flinched as Midnight struck Twilight across the face. “You would be dead and dust, rotting in the ground next to your kids if not for me! Your youth, your long life, even some of your scientific breakthroughs are all because of me! And you would throw all that away because you don’t want to let me out to play once in a while!” Midnight struck Twilight several more times, each blow making Sunset flinch and shake with helpless anger.

“Never! You’re a monster! I would rather die than let my greatest sin out into the world! You will never see Equestria again, not as long as I live. The harm you would do there…”

“Pffft, such a martyr you are. Fine, if I can’t have Equestria, I’ll just settle for the Equestrian when she gets back. I will take such a massive chunk of her life that the last of my bonds will be broken and then you’ll be the one stuck in a cage! It won't matter if she noticed because she would never hurt her precious little 'BFLOML!'”

Sunset could only watch in horror as the scene played out. Sunset knew Twilight still struggled sometimes just as she did to control her inner demons, but never realized it had been so literal. After they had all worked together to defeat the manifestation of Midnight Sparkle that had been the last Twilight had ever mentioned her darker half. Instead, Twilight had only locked the magically created persona away and tried to throw away the key. It may have even worked if Sunset had not ascended and gave Midnight access to more magic to regrow.

Sunset trembling legs gave out and she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. The brilliant glow of her wings and horn dimmed considerably. “Why didn’t you tell me, Twi? We could have worked together to find a cure, something, anything.” Sunset shuddered and then looked up into Aine’s teal eyes that were, for once, filled with genuine sympathy. “How did you even know about this?”

Aine pointed towards the sky with her chin.

The clouds broke open and another Aine flew through on a beam of rainbow light, coming to a stop a few feet from the young woman and her demon. “Away from her you foul abomination!”

Sunset gasped in horror as Midnight’s features transformed. Her smile grew too wide and was completely full of shark teeth. Her arms grew longer and gangly as did her fingers, each now pointed and deadly sharp spikes. Then her maw opened and a long, snake like tongue licked her dark purple lips as she hissed, “Maaaaaaaaagiiiiic.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide behind her black framed glasses. “Get out of here! She feeds on magic, you’ll only make her stronger!”

Midnight flapped her raven wings and launched herself at Aine. The alicorn took to the sky and fired down at the demon who deflected the blast with her palm. Midnight cackled as she swooped under then over and finally landed on the alicorn’s back and sunk her claws and teeth into Aine’s fur and flesh. The goddess of creation screamed in pain, her body becoming ashen for a second before finally teleporting out from under Midnight. She landed next to Twilight and the wounds closed, her normal color returning, but the damage had been done. Midnight cackled again, licking the glowing golden blood from her claws.

“Soooooo puuuuuure. Deeeeliiiicious! I NEEEEEED MOOOOOORRRRE!!!!”

Aine scowled at Twilight who dusted herself off and adjusted her glasses. “Why is my granddaughter married to a creature that plays host to such a fell creature of nightmares?! This is unacceptable. Sunset is too important to the future of Equuis to be in such close proximity to a… succubus or whatever you are.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight whispered pitifully. She frowned before finally squaring her shoulders and widening her stance to defend herself just like Sunset and their college years self defense teacher had showed her. “You must be Aine, Sunset described you perfectly, which is not surprising since she has an eidetic memory and artistic mind. Wow, you are big, like a real horse… wait that’s probably insulting. Just ignore me, I ramble when I’m scared." Aine scowled at Twilight. "Anyhow, if I can get a hold of Midnight, I can drain her and get her back in her cage. That will hold her for a little while.”

Aine spat in disgust. “Very well, I will assist, then I will be speaking to Sunset about ending this unholy entanglement she has with you. No child of my blood shall be in bond with such foulness.”

“No, you need to leave. If she gets ahold of you again, she’ll steal more of your magic and I’ll never get control.”

Aine summoned a glowing spear and took flight. “You misunderstand, human. I am ENDING this.”

Aine waited and listened for her quarry, teleporting away when a bolt of energy pierced the clouds. The alicorn reappeared and sent the spear flying. Midnight appeared behind Aine and tried to sink her claws in again, but the black and white alicorn stopped flapping her wings and dropped below the swipe. Midnight growled in frustration and forgot about the spear that circled back and burned through both of her wings. Midnight screamed and fell leaving a trail of burning feathers. She struck the ground and bounced, rolled and was back on her black boots that now looked more like three toed talons.

Without waiting for Aine to attack again, Midnight lunged for Twilight. Twilight blocked the attacks and backhanded the claws away. Twilight faked left then punched Midnight with a right hook, raised her left leg and kicked down on her assailant’s instep, knees, and finally finished with a swift kick to Midnight’s crotch. While not as effective of an attack as it is to males, make no mistake, it still hurts. Sunset smiled wide as she watched her wife then tighten her knuckles and punch her alter ego square in the nose causing black blood to spray about. Twilight reached down and pulled Midnight up by her hair and quickly switch to a Nelson hold. Twilight grunted as Midnight began to struggle, trying to claw at Twilight with her elongated claws.

“Do it!” Sunset’s smile disappeared as she watched memory Aine break through the clouds with the spear at her side.

“You idiot! She’ll kill us both!”

Twilight tightened her grip and for a brief moment, Sunset felt as if Twilight was looking right at her. “I’m sorry, Sunny.”

“TWI! NO!”

Aine crashed down and the spear impaled Midnight in the center of her chest, through her heart. Sunset could not tell from her angle how deep the spear of light pierced or if it had passed through both of them. Midnight screamed and struggled as glowing golden cracks began to rapidly spread across her body.

Midnight let out one last whimper as black tears streamed from her eyes, the glowing ethereal glasses flickered then burned away. “All my lovely magic.”

Midnight shattered to gold dust and floated away on cosmic wind. Twilight dropped to her knees and balled up, catching her breath. After several seconds of silence Twilight adjusted her glasses and looked up at Aine with a relieved smile.

“She’s gone. I can’t feel her anymore… she’s finally gone. Thank you.” Aine just stared for a moment, what she was contemplating Sunset could only guess, but the glowing spear finally disappeared and Sunset let out a breath. However, when she looked at the Aine standing next to her, much to her surprise, tears began to fall. Sunset’s attention returned to Twilight when she heard her wife cry out and fall back to her knees after trying to stand up.

Twilight uncurled herself and looked down as she bled staining magenta dust from a hole that had appeared in her chest. The ultrafine sand passed through Twilight’s fingers and her surprise turned to rational understanding. She was bleeding the stolen magic that Midnight had been hording.

Memory Aine knelt down to Twilight and pointed her horn at the wound. The tip of her horn took on a white glow, but the power soon faded and the wound remained. Aine’s teal eyes met Twilight’s purple orbs and her usual neutral expression faltered.

“That creature, it… it wasn’t a succubus or an invader, was it? It was part of you?”

Twilight nodded grimly as the sand continued to pour out, now staining her legs. “I once stole Equestrian magic from my friends on accident. I didn’t know what I was doing and as a result my mind and body split apart. To protect myself, my Id or Tulpa, if you want to call it that, took control and all of my deepest darkest desires and emotions took hold. Even after Sunset and our friends saved me, I was never whole again. I never told Sunset. I… I was too ashamed. She mastered her demon, but I never could. The best I could do was lock her away, until she found a way to get ahold of magic again. I’ve been fighting to keep her under control for decades.”

“This, this was not my intention. I sensed an Equestrian power surge where there never should have been and I came to investigate. I knew you were bonded to my granddaughter and thus important to her. And now... I have killed you. I’m sorry child, you are not one of my creations, I… I cannot fix this.”

Twilight sighed. “It’s okay. You set me free. I’m sad, but I’m also relieved because now my Sunny is safe from her.”

Sunset broke down and screamed, pounding her hoof into the unseen ground. She tried to remind herself that it was in the past, that she already cried all her tears for Twilight, but the emotional feedback she had sent into Aine was now crashing back down on her. It was like losing her wife all over again. Aine had been right, it was nothing but pain. Unspeakable, excruciating pain, losing Celestia and losing Twilight. Sunset thought she felt her heart literally tear to pieces inside her chest.

“Will I remember this when I wake up?”

Aine stepped back and took flight. “Parts of it perhaps. It will depend on how you mind wishes to interpret this event. Much of this will feel like only a dream, but without the stolen life magic you will begin to deteriorate rapidly. I do not know how much time you have. I… I apologize all the same.”

Despite it all, Twilight Sparkle smiled through the tears streaming down her face. Then, she faded away. Soon after, Sunset and Aine were pulled from the memory.

Sunset fell back and collapse to the grass. She was her normal, goldenrod alicorn self once more. Carefully, Twilight approached Sunset as she sobbed into the fine grass.

“Sunny?”

Sunset launched herself at Princess Twilight and continued to cry into the purple alicorn’s chest fur. Twilight let out a breath and wrapped her wings around her friend, giving her much needed support.

Aine stumbled back as well and finally collapsed to her knees. The Goddess of Creation was panting and shaking as tears poured from her own eyes. “I… apologize, granddaughter." she whispered through gasps, "It was wrong of me to say you knew nothing of pain. You have suffered greatly, perhaps more than any creature ever should have and I... feel it. I feel the stabbing hole in your heart at the loss of so many loved ones, my beautiful Celestia included. Perhaps though, you understand my pain as well? Empathy works both ways.”

Slowly, Sunset untangled herself from Twilight and nuzzled her a moment, silently letting Twilight know she was okay. Sunset turned and looked over all the creatures that were still standing about. With one final sniffle and shudder Sunset stood tall once more.

“Fine, you’re right. I won’t kill your children, but I’m not giving up on this world either. I owe you that much for helping save Twi’s soul. She was terrified of that bitch and you cut that growing cancer out. In exchange for stopping the Athanatoi and not ending them after all they have done, you are going to take those monsters from this world and never return for as long as I live.”

“And where exactly do you expect me to go or take them?”

“I don’t care. The universe is a big place. Find another nice piece of real estate and try creating a new planet of life for all I care, but I want you and them gone, or so help me, I will find a way to kill you if it’s the last thing I do.”

Twilight sucked in a breath and started to chew on one of her hoof guards. “Sunset! You… you can’t just…”

Luna scowled and crossed her forelegs. “I do not like this arrangement.”

Aine ignored the others and rose once more letting out a sigh. “I accept your terms.”

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “Fine, then take us back. We have a lot to do and not much time.”