We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge

I've Let Myself Become You, I've Let Myself Become Lost Inside These Thoughts Of You, Giving Up a Part Of Me, I've Let Myself Become You

Luna was not the only one who would encounter the chaos in Canterlot that day, and it was a duo of mothers who would soon cross her path that were forced to wade through it. Maiev stumbled as a pony rushed past her away from the conflict, their body bleeding from a gaping wound that looked to be caused by some kind of impalement while their yellow fur appeared singed by something else, likely a magical blast. In anger she kicked the noblewoman who had just partially collided with her in the leg, snapping one of their legs, which appeared to be pre-injured given how brittle it was.

The woman snarled at the sight of the fleeing pony, having just seen them get up from a pile of ponies who were assaulting the castle. As a servant, albeit an estranged one, of Loki and his family, she would not allow these equines to put up such an insurrection, “Who are these equines, and why are they rebelling?”

Her companion, a blue Unicorn mare, coughed up some blood as she fought to stay in step with the Night Elf, “Given their mindlessness, I would assume mind control…”

As she moved towards the castle bit by bit, Miaev continued to fight the pain in her body from the utter thrashing she received from Thanos while spying on him, “I…”

She fought the urge to throw up the hospital food she had taken to eating upon awakening a couple days prior, only to have small bouts of consciousness since. She forced the doctors to release her with brute force, only to have the other patient in the room request to come with her.

The mare, Trixie’s mother, coughed and wheezed for a moment before questioning how Maiev was slumping over in pain. She winced as she kept walking, her own body in extreme pain because of the months and months she had spent limp and idle in bed as she suffered the same comatose fate her daughter had previously.

“Are you sure you desire to come?”

Maiev scoffed at the question, seeing it as an affront to her strong nature, “Of course, equine. Are you revealing your own doubts and weakness?”

She did not know it, but Lulamoon spoke words that would have made her daughter proud then as she retorted, “Anything you can do, I can do better, even if I can barely stand.”

The castle’s front gates were woefully underguarded, and so each of them managed to stumble right in. They had decided upon leaving the hospital to see what was going on that was causing such racket that it had awoken them both, as well as caused an influx of patients to the hospital. It didn’t take long to find out the source of the madness, Canterlot Castle, but by the time the two injured women arrived the conflict seemed to be over from outside the structure.

Still, things could be going on inside despite the seemingly diffused situation outside, so the two didn’t give up on going. One was worried that perhaps their daughter had come to harm, while the other was seeing it as an opportunity to gain favor with her current employer which would help her own familial situation, “Perhaps…”

Maiev coughed up more blood than she had in days, her lungs tightening and making it difficult to breathe. If not for how her body had been healed after returning, Maiev would have died from her wounds. Nearly all of her bones were broken or twisted when Thanos caught the spy, the man capable of seemingly seeing that which was invisible.

Ignoring the blood dribbling down the front of her silver and green armor she retrieved from the hospital storage, Maiev continued to sputter as she talked to this relative stranger, “Perhaps if I prove myself, they will find a way for me to speak with my son…”

“You have a son?” Trixie’s mother asked, now finding that she had some common ground with this woman. They each seemingly had some form of estranged offspring from the sound of things…

The hardened warden kept her voice level as she recalled the necessary memories, her mind so distracted by these that she did not even notice as they entered the main hall of the castle without anyone stopping them. It seemed like just anyone could walk in at this point, given that the guards were all distracted or wounded.

“He died before being born because of dark magic…” Maiev clenched a fist to try and distract herself from the pain in her body, given that not having received nearly as much healing as Lulamoon had given that she was just a pawn to the others. They didn’t care much that she was harmed, and while this was callous she could not blame them. Loki had a poor opinion of her from their time in Hel, and he was using her as a tool. As a tool she had been broken, and he didn’t need her as a result. It was the way things worked, “Now I learn he lives on, though I do not have a way of finding him…”

Lulamoon closed her eyes as she thought about the last time she spoke with Trixie. Of how Trixie had shouted at her for being so terrible…had finally let out her emotions after a lifetime of having suffered because of Lulamoon’s actions.

“My own daughter won’t even talk to me…” she hung her head as her self-pity began to disappear, with self-loathing replacing it, “Then again, I don’t suppose I deserve any affection from her. Any I did deserve I lost the right for by everything I put her through.”

Maiev paused, beginning to sense the same kindred feeling as Lulamoon was. Neither of them were mother material it appeared, yet each of them had a child. How twisted was the world that some who desired children were deprived of them, while others unfit or unwilling to have them were given them?

Curious, and secretly hoping to possibly gleam some motherly intuition and feelings she could use for her own interaction with her son, Maiev pressed on, “And now?”

That…that wasn’t very complicated for Lulamoon, but it wasn’t easy to think things through. Every detail hurt to process and realize, since it all pointed back to her own mistakes and the pain she brought to Trixie. She was worried…first for Trixie’s health, and next for how Trixie would react to seeing her again.

“I’d like to make things right between us, and so I am worried for her given all the chaos. I may hate her father, but I love her.”

That was something Maiev knew well. There was no-one she hated more than Illidan, but that did not change who happened to be the other half of the equation concerning her child, “My son’s father is a man who I loathe beyond reason, though I realize that perhaps some of that hatred is unearned. He never intended for us to have a child, nor did he intend to spend ten thousand years locked away with me as his warden,” Maiev remembered how bitter she had felt at how, even when with her, Illidan had thought of another. Forever tormented to love the woman who had wed his brother, he was forced to endure a feeling of love and resentment not unlike her own, only his was split between two people instead of one, “His heart belonged to another, and it was only through emotional manipulation that our tryst managed to come about. I regret it, but with that much isolation…”

Lulamoon picked up when Maiev trailed off, not wanting this conversation to come to a halt. It felt…good to let out some of this, since it was something neither of them really would talk about with others. Lulamoon had no-one else, while Maiev had lost every one of her own friends on her path for vengeance either through death or through losing their trust and friendship.

“My daughter comes from a man who took advantage of me years back. I’m barely older than her. I wasn’t ready to be a mother, and now that I’m dying I suppose I never really will be…” she was unaware that Trixie had healed her of her diseases, which would become important later, though that is merely speculation on the part of many historians and those who were there at the time about her coming actions. She let out a sigh before shaking her head, her mind suddenly going to a dark place as it thought about the cause of her own misery (other than herself), “I killed him for what he did years later though. I don’t think what I did was right, since he honestly deserved to rot in prison for eternity, but I would do it again…”

The further similarity between the two made Maiev smile sadly, “I killed Illidan, my son’s father…” she did not want to add that after killing him she had chased him into death itself, only to find herself unable to continue exacting her vengeance in that world. It gave nothing to her, no real release from the pain, just as Illidan had so wisely warned her, not that she’d ever admit it to him, “The revenge did nothing for me. Not even the knowledge that he is suffering for eternity in a hellish realm does anything to soothe my mind. I just feel empty now, which is why I…”

Maiev stopped as the two finally found someone to help explain what was going on inside the castle, though that person was someone who was not exactly about to help them.

Standing before them, blood spattered on her blue fur coat, was Princess Luna. She had just left a room and appeared about to do some magic of some kind from the glimmer of her horn. She stopped that though as soon as she saw the two, though in reality her mind was just honed in on one of them.

“You,” Luna snarled at Lulamoon, who instantly took a half step back in fear before she managed to steel herself. She wasn’t as worried so much that she would be harmed so much as she was worried she would be killed before she could apologize to Trixie for everything. Trixie deserved that much, even if they never spoke again after that point.

“I came because of the riot…” Lulamoon tried to explain, only for Luna to growl and menacingly approach her, seemingly ready to chase the other blue mare out of the castle from sheer anger at her past crimes.

Before Luna could do anything else, Lulamoon spoke up again with urgency, “Wait, please, I came for Trixie…is she okay?”

That stopped Luna in her tracks as her brain went back to the crisis at hand, a crisis that ought not to involve any unnecessary baggage, “No. She is in danger, danger I will now save her from.”

Maiev bowed before Luna, her own stomach clenching and feeling as if it had been struck with a searing blade. This was an opportunity to make up for her failure and perhaps convince Loki to aid her more urgently in finding her son, “Take us with you. We can lend you our aid.”

Luna cast doubt on the prospect of the hobbling duo being able to contribute anything, though she did acknowledge that Maiev was a warrior and that Trixie’s mother had at least killed someone before. Still, both of the two appeared about to fall down in miserable piles of pain, “You can barely walk.”

“I have died before. This is nothing,” Maiev responded without a beat, determined to salvage the only glimmer of hope she had in her life. Her friends and family she had left behind despised her, but a son she had secretly wept for for years…

Both Lulamoon, who stood stiffly with determination in her eyes, and Maiev appeared serious, so Luna thought again about the issue. She personally would not cry if either of them perished, and perhaps seeing Lulamoon come to harm would drive Trixie to a feat of strength as great as her encounter with the Ursas.

Besides, in the best case scenario, Luna could show off what it meant to protect and be there for your children to this poor excuse for a mother. She could demonstrate why she was what Trixie needed, that Trixie’s real mother was nothing and worthless.

With these thoughts in mind, Luna decided to bring them along when she left the castle through teleportation. It did not, however, make her glare at Lulamoon any nicer, “Do not think that this means I forgive you for anything, but I will not deprive you of the chance to see me do your job for you.”

Thanos let out a bellowing laugh as he watched Tirek fall dead, the minor rival for power dispatched so easily with a powerful beam of magic. It seems the man was unable to absorb energy when it was assaulting him, or else it would have just empowered him instead. Trixie had already known this, having studied her foes as much as possible before establishing and developing her plan, and so she ignored Tirek’s now corpse as it fell.

“Oh, the little mare wants to play now. How amusing,” Thanos taunted despite the pain he felt from being struck by two Sunwell empowered Bifrosts moments before.

He had thought about drawing closer to his foes and thus making the pillars of light crushing down on him stop because they would harm allies, but this thought vanished when he also realized that Kael had managed to absorb its powers for himself when he was struck by it. He had an affinity for it, and he did not want to find out whether any of his other foes had the same trait lest they be empowered by it and placed in a better position to fight him. The fact they were not shooting themselves more with the beams would hint at the others not sharing the immunity to their damage, but given that the beams were seemingly more focused on harming him than empowering his foes it could just be that they just hadn’t had a chance to yet.

Trixie sighed as she prepared herself for a deep breath. This was it. Now it was time to make all the pieces fall together, “I’m a lot bigger than you think.”

Thanos gestured towards Kael, who had since sent his army of undead at Thanos to stall him further, “Oh, you mean that soft, Elvish form you have? I repeat, how amusing.”

“Not exactly…” Trixie closed her eyes as she felt power welling up inside of her. It was time to call on her full strength, to use her full potential. She had hit the limit she could sustain on her own, and while she could definitely go higher it would have its…drawbacks.

Trixie, upon feeling the power reach its apex, called upon nearly all of it as she cast a spell she was grateful to have learned just for this specific occasion, “Everyone, stand back and focus on the members of his army. I will handle him alone.”

With that, Thanos found himself no longer on a grassy field but rather on a blank, nondescript floor. Around him was seemingly an infinite amount of nothingness, with only a distinct lack of color or detail anywhere in sight…

Except for the others present, of course. Trixie finished channeling the spell and proceeded to borrow Kael’s gathered power to fill up her own, their bond allowing the transfer to process easily and quickly. This act made him fall down in exhaustion, though it did not stop the skeletal ghouls also summoned to this new place to stop their charge at Thanos.

“This…” Thanos used a quick burst of powerful energy to incinerate the bones sent to assault him, the man not willing to spend the effort and energy required to fight them in any other manner. After all, they were nothing to him, but even nothing could leave an annoying scratch or two, as demonstrated by Loki previously, “Now this is different.”

Trixie smirked at him as she finished gathering herself, one of her hooves gesturing out to the area around her and all of its nothingness, “So long as you are in this place, you cannot harm anyone else. I was hoping to isolate you in this manner, and I am pleased to have you in my grasp once and for all. You have something I want.”

The Infinity Gauntlet…if Trixie could liberate it from Thanos, could somehow take it from him, then this conflict was over. But he still was far more powerful than her, and she had multiple other steps in her still on-track plan to complete.

Thanos could tell what Trixie desired, and now that he was alone with both Trixie and Kael he was feeling far more relaxed. No more interruptions. No more beams of burning light crashing down on him. This place was wholly preferable in his perspective, and he could not understand why Trixie would be so foolish to trap him in a more preferable location.

This, of course, made him wary, though Thanos could not think of a way of returning to his previous location without forcing Trixie to take him back there or by taking the Infinity Gems from her and the Elf and then recreating reality as he saw fit with the power they would lend him.

With his knowledge of Trixie’s desire, Thanos held up his jeweled gauntlet with his smugness returning to his face, “You mean this?” he lowered it as Trixie snarled at him, “Oh, I don’t believe it and I will be parting ways anytime soon. It is the reason I can harness such great power after all, power that will soon include that which you and your Elvish toy currently possess.”

He paused before realizing the oddness of Trixie’s statement that he would be unable to harm anyone else…even though she brought someone with her.

“Speaking of whom, why is he here?”

Trixie moved her hoof to point at Kael and then herself, her eyes never leaving Thanos as she shot him a cold look, “He and I are one and the same. Our fates are currently intertwined, and he would not mind if he participates in this. After all, should we win he can finally be reunited with his face after so many years.”

Her words rung hollow to Thanos, who saw through her lies with his stellar perception, “You use others just like tools. Puppets in your game of life. How can you confront me when you are no better than I am in mind or morality?”

His declaration that they were similar in some way made Trixie nearly blanch she was so caught off-guard, though she was not going to let this moment of surprise stop her from powering up to full once again. She was just glad Thanos was seemingly taking this time to relax after the constant assault he had just been under, which while semi-harmless was still enough to have left some minor marks on him while the deeper wounds healed quickly, “You dare presume yourself to be the same as me?”

His booming laugh returned, “Oh don’t be so offended. If anything, you are the only other one who can understand what this power truly is like. What it is like to be one step from seizing the very fabric of reality and twisting it to your command…”

He paused to look down at the gauntlet, at which point he bellowed again.

“Of course, I have the Infinity Gauntlet to keep my power in check! You have no such buffer, and for that I pity you and your mind. It is quite fortunate that you will not live past this encounter,” he paused to gesture in a manner similar to how Trixie had moments ago, mocking her with his mimicry, “Now, if I may be so rude as to ask, what is this interesting place?”

Trixie saw no reason to not tell him, as every moment in this place was another success on her part, given that it was more time for those outside of it to recover and prepare for the final piece of the plan, “My teacher and her sister can create their own realms…” Trixie found herself growing smug at her own power, finally having the true position as the most powerful and great magic user of all Equestria, “Such a feat is trivial to me now. It is here that we will fight for now.”

At her words Thanos found himself slightly displeased with himself. He had not taken much time to expand his own abilities in what must be decades due to how nothing he came against was anywhere near a threat. Because of this he was lacking in certain areas his foe now excelled, though he was quite sure she could not keep up with him in physical combat, “I have less of an understanding for the arcane than I really ought to, but I have not come this far alone with simple trickery.”

“That’s exactly how I have come this far…” Trixie responded with a sigh, her eyes closing as she thought back to her actions the past year. Their number, their implications, their purpose…

“Oh, I know that. Your traitor of a father is not the only one capable of finding information concerning others. Though, I wonder, how much do they know? You have such a loving family, it must hurt to keep secrets from those angels who would never dare do the same to you,” Thanos continued to mock Trixie, the pain from the Bifrost attacks finally fading from his body as it regenerated further and further.

Trixie felt anger creep into her mind as she took the mockery. She was already unstable, and his words were not helping her maintain her façade of calmness. She was composed and her plan was on point now, but this part called for her more emotional side, and she wasn’t going to keep anything back now.

It was time to work out some stress where no-one else could overhear.

“I have kept them in the dark, and since even you can’t decipher my true intentions it will remain that way,” Trixie glowered. Rage building, she was quite ready to just let loose again like she had with Adagio, just this time it had far more justification and would instead be the required energy to defeat a foe rather than beat someone while they were down.

“Your secrets and lies must be quite numerous then. What an upstanding heroine we have.”

The sarcasm dripping from his words did nothing to stop Trixie from smiling and preparing herself physically to engage in her first attack, “We are the heroes of this story, and you will not interrupt another chapter of our life. I have too much to do to let some evil, vile being compromise our future!”

The fierceness in her voice was accentuated by the opening of what appeared to be two portals on either side of her, at which point Trixie began to calm down and instead let out a small laugh.

“You know, Thanos, if I am to be perfectly honest…I’m not fighting you for them right now. The reason I hate you, the reason I will put you in the ground is not that you are a genocidal monster, not that you’ve harmed everyone I care about in some way or another…”

The portals finished opening, and out of them poured the beams of the Bifrosts. Trixie had used the time they were talking to have them charge back up for another sustained use, not wanting to break the important machines from overworking them, but now she needed them again.

Both beams struck Thanos, and with a whisk of a hoof Trixie sent the portals to quickly move across her created world. They stopped when their beams caught Thanos in a wide X, and as they fired outward into nothingness the man screamed as his entire body was lit aflame under their power. One of them was enough to harm him. Two of them were enough to actually stun him momentarily, and with this opportunity Trixie dropped her polite façade completely and teleported right in front of him while also changing forms to her Elvish body for the hands it granted.

Whipping out the staff she had borrowed from Luna, which happened to be yet another Infinity Gem, the mind gem, Trixie brought it forward and impaled Thanos as she seized this moment of opportunity, “Because of you, Princess Luna was forced to confront her wayward lover as Nightmare Moon!” she withdrew the sharp blade and then whipped it across his wounded chest as she shouted vehemently, “If it hadn’t been for you, he never would have betrayed us and forced her to do that!”

This done, Trixie smashed it down across his face, the staff’s powers of mind control weak on such a powerful foe but still enough to help keep him in place, “Her not being Nightmare Moon would have made her kinder!” once she had beaten him across the face Trixie screamed as she then dragged it down to slash across his neck, “She and Loki could have been happier so long ago!”

Thanos tried to move slightly, but the furious assault of Trixie did not cease long enough for him to manage anything. Standing right in front of the current of energy that he was being fried within, Trixie spun around to then stab a momentum fueled staff into his chest once again, the damage from the first strikes already beginning to heal despite the extreme damage being done on him, “A not-Nightmare Moon-Luna would have taken me in!”

Lodged in his chest, Trixie used the staff’s power to fire off a powerful beam like she heard Loki once had while opposing Luna and those in Canterlot, “She wouldn’t be so selfish all those months,” she jabbed the weapon deeper into him as she howled in anger not only directed at him, “She wouldn’t spurn my growing admiration for her because of a single failure!”

Upon letting out another blast she actually saw the blue energy of the weapon pierce through the either side of the giant man, causing Trixie to continue firing directly into him as she continued to chastise him over his influence on her life, “I wouldn’t have fought the Ursas and nearly died!” once a blast blew completely through him and left a hole in his gut, Trixie dislodged the blade and then moved to impale it on his forehead, “I wouldn’t have been put in a coma because of it all!”

The would-be fatal damage done on him rapidly healed as Thanos lowered his head to catch the blade with the top of his armor’s helmet, at which point he growled in anger and reached out to grab her, “I wouldn’t have been taken by you to where that sick monster torments people!” Trixie dodged his grab as she removed his helmet by swinging the blade away, at which point she swung around and impaled him in the chest again, “I wouldn’t have been taught by Hela at the price of having her toy with my mind for what felt like years!”

Thanos brought both arms forward to grab the staff, which he managed to succeed in given how it was sticking through him, but he did not manage to also grab Trixie who jumped back and then threw her hands into the air, at which point a large icicle erupted from the ground and impale her foe in the same place he was already wounded, “I wouldn’t have been able to compete as well as I had in the Equestria Games, I wouldn’t have caught the attention of my mother!”

The fiery rays from the Bifrosts served to melt the ice assault on Thanos, but Trixie did not let up and quickly summoned more and more to continue the job of opening up more and more of his now exposed abdomen, “I wouldn’t have found out my actual father was some sick bastard who raped my mother when she was a foal just old enough to have children!”

Thanos snarled as he began to remove the staff impaled within him, only facing difficulty by how more and more ice pushed it in further and further with each passing secong. All the while, Trixie continued her outburst of anger and emotion, “I wouldn’t have had to protect Luna from the Aether, since she’d have had her children or not been fighting at all!”

He finally managed to take the staff and point it at Trixie, only for her to teleport behind him and bring a blade of ice she formed around her arm to impale him from the opposite side, this time aimed right at the heart, “I’ve had to suffer every moment of this forsaken existence, and I won’t let you ruin it now that I am finally accomplishing something!”

One arm inside him, Trixie drew her arm back and brought up all of her remaining energy to prepare it for a beam attack. In this timespan Thanos snapped the ice impaling him off and spun around, at which point he turned to find himself face to face with Trixie’s most powerful magic.

A torrent of multicolored energy rushed forth from her palm and engulfed all of Thanos to the point he was no longer visible, Trixie’s anger mimicking her power by reaching its own apex, “I could hide why I want to murder you, but I’m sick and tired of hiding everything! I’ll kill you for ruining the best thing to ever happen to me and for driving me down this damnable path I’m walking!”

After her power faded down she had hoped that he would be dead, albeit not entirely obliterated. She knew she had no chance of doing that, but it would ruin her plan if she had somehow succeeded so spectacularly.

The most likely scenario, however, was the one which came true. After the light faded away, the portals closed from Trixie’s exhaustion, and Thanos was left standing with the majority of his armor melted away or otherwise destroyed. His purple skin was just reforming in some places it too had been melted away, and his face was actually amused as he looked at Trixie with his intense red eyes.

“…cute,” was what he said as Trixie took a step back, only to find herself quickly slammed in the gut with his golden gauntlet with the two gems shining on it.

“This world is of your creation, but even here you cannot defeat me. How pathetic.”

Trixie was too out of it then to realize that her overpowering sense of anger, her sense of injustice at the hands of another being, and the utter contempt and seething hatred for others were things she was only once familiar with, but now had adopted from Luna in her time as Nightmare Moon.

For better or worse, Luna had left an impact on Trixie, and it had led her to all of this. The unspoken truth behind Trixie’s yelling had been that while Thanos influenced Luna, Luna had influenced Trixie, and in the end Trixie had not even noticed that she had been crying despite her anger during it all.

Deep down, she knew, even if it wasn’t bubbling to the top of her mind as Thanos prepared to execute her in her own world.

Luna had arrived at the stadium just before Trixie disappeared, and by the time she found the main battlefield it was the second Trixie left with Thanos into her own world. Maiev and Trixie’s mother had trailed behind, though neither of them approached where the battle seemed to be waging. Maiev stopped to assess the situation to gauge what her further actions should be, while Lulamoon felt her heart seize in fear when Trixie disappeared.

It was Luna who asked Loki what just happened, though she was asking more out of concern than actually expecting an answer, “Where did she go?!”

Loki shook his head sorrowfully, “They just disappeared, and I have no idea where they left to,” whatever happened, it was of Trixie’s doing it seemed, so he wasn’t as worried as the distraught Luna, “I think she’ll be fine. What is the status at the castle?”

Luna paused to try and focus herself. She could swear she had seen Thanos disappear just at the same moment as Trixie, and given Loki’s words it seemed that was indeed the case. As she tried to take in the scene around her, Luna began to explain her own adventure since they parted ways, “The foals are fine, but there was a riot I had to put down…”

Loki could sense that was not all, “And?”

Luna shook her head as she finally came to her senses. The entire area looked ruined…just what had happened since she left? “I killed the man who tormented you so that you would serve Thanos. He came to kill Sleep Near and Hela.”

At that, Loki dropped his blades and embraced Luna as she stood before him still in her Alicorn form. Loki kept himself from crying, but he was extremely grateful she had managed to save them. If they had been harmed by that man, he would never have forgiven himself, and to hear that they were saved made his nerves release somewhat. It was then that Loki said something he was unused to saying.

“Thank you.”

Silence fell between them as neither found the words to say. Things were bad, but they were making the most of things for the time being.

“For now, we can only hope and wait…” Loki finally explained, his voice somewhat somber as his mind began to wonder what Trixie intended to do. He still had his own trump card, one which would have been useful for Trixie to know of if things had been a more coordinated effort.

For now though, he had no idea that his own plan to kill Thanos would conflict with hers, and so he held onto the small device in preparation for the moment he could use it and change the tide.

Luna, on the other hand, felt her heart sinking as she realized that wherever Trixie was fighting she could not help her, “Trixie…”

When Thanos moved to outright kill Trixie for her brutal assault on him, it was instead Kael who took the attack in her stead. The staff that might have impaled her head instead slid off his chest despite the broken armor there, as if there was something unstoppable blocking its path, and so Thanos quickly drew the seemingly useless blade back to instead begin punching the Elf man. The first blow knocked him back into Trixie, who stumbled back before they both collapsed. Once this was done, Thanos took no time to begin setting into Kael for interfering with him once again. Brutal hit after brutal hit slammed down into the prone man, and once he stopped moving Thanos began to move onto his next foe.

Trixie tried to get up, only to catch a kick to the gut instead that sent her rolling away. One of her feet hit the prone green orb that lay near Kael, bringing Thanos’s attention to it, and the monster smiled as he reached down to take it. It fit right into his glove, and while Thanos felt exhausted from all the damage he had taken from Trixie, he was now feeling better because of how he now possessed four gems including the one on the scepter.

Trixie once again got onto her knees and attempted to get up, but Thanos ended this attempt with a strong punch right into her spine. Once she was on the floor he slammed the scepter’s base right into her neck, further pressing her face into the blank ground that was now coated with some blood, “You need not humiliate yourself like this. Just expel the Aether from your body and I will end your suffering. I am hitting you both hard enough to shatter worlds. You cannot resist this forever, and you will suffer should you try.”

The response was a groan as Trixie clawed at the ground and tried to push herself up, only for him to harshly stomp on her back in payment.

Not quite dead, Kael rushed to his feet and whipped out the blade he had been given by Loki’s people. He drove it into Thanos’s back and it began to glow, though this miniscule damage and pain didn’t even warrant a true response from Thanos as he continued to just wail on the empowered Alicorn-Elf. After Trixie stopped moving though, Thanos rectified Kael’s attempt at interference with a slam of the fist that sent the Elf sprawling away dozens of feet. From there he would have a more difficult time of interfering, and so Thanos was left in peace to focus on Trixie. He was at least pleased that one of his foes thought so little of their personal safety that they would assault him head on despite him holding four infinity gems. It was almost admirable, if it wasn’t so stupid in his mind.

With this done, he lifted Trixie up into the air with the hand he also held the scepter, while drawing the one with the Infinity Gauntlet back to punch her into nothingness, “I suppose I will just have to rip the Aether out of you, since I already possess your other gem.”

“Go and try…” Trixie taunted right as an impossible to see flurry of strikes struck every part of her upper body, her bones breaking and her body crumbling in his hands.

Little did he know, the only thing materializing the realm they were in was Trixie being conscious. Her fainting under his barrage brought them back to the field they had been in, which brought about a slight hesitation in his brutal beating of Trixie.

This however gave Luna, Loki, and everyone else present enough time to view Thanos holding an unconscious Trixie from his hand.

“Trixie!” Luna gasped in shock and anger both. While no longer Nightmare Moon, she was most definitely not about to feel anything but complete and utter fury when seeing such a monster harm her adoptive daughter.

She wasted no time in rushing at Thanos, who actually seemed surprised that the Alicorn was now here and was charging straight at him. Did she think she could actually harm him?

“I’ll kill you!”

To Thanos’s surprise, the sudden glow around Luna’s horn that soon found it’s way into his body did in fact hurt.

He actually gasped as he realized this animal had managed to stab him wholly despite his powerup, something he didn’t believe possible. As her horn sunk in, he tried to voice his confusion only to be cut off by her, “You—”

Thanos balled his fist as Luna let loose a surge of electricity into her foe, utilizing her control over the elements to use the one that ought to have the greatest effect even on a foe more powerful than her, “First you try and kill my son and daughter, and now you harm her?!” she drove the horn even deeper into his thick body as she poured even more of her energy into her attack, “I’ll kill you, you recalcitrant foal!”

While slowed by the extreme pain of the electricity, Thanos still managed to punch her in the side hard enough to send her tumbling to the side. Her horn ripped from his body as she moved away, leaving Thanos to stand there and sit in pain where it struck him as electricity continued to course through him over the next few seconds.

Loki ran quickly to his wife’s side to check on her condition, worried that perhaps the single hit had slain the not-immortal Alicorn.

“Luna!”

When Loki reached her side he could see that she was still breathing, and her barely moving body revealed that she was not even unconscious. Still, having her brought to harm in front of him also enraged the otherwise stoic Loki, who had had quite some time since the last time he felt such an overpowering negative emotion.

“You…how…” Thanos continued to gasp, before realizing too that Luna was not dead. All traces of his composure left as he glared menacingly at her, “You filthy animal! You die first!”

Using the magic granted to him earlier by Kael, Loki called his blades to himself and began to rush at the man who dare hurt his family, “Thanos!”

Loki calling his name made the villain stop in his place, for he realized then that his wounds were not healing as quickly. In fact, he was not healing almost at all, and this left him quite vulnerable. He felt the speed quickening as the seconds went by, but it was not the instant process it had been minutes ago.

Not stunned in confusion was Loki, who instead was busy converting his magical power into a boost for his physical traits so he could rush Thanos and bring harm to the man who had for so long tormented his life.

“You held my mother’s life against me, you forced me to join in on your insane plan to invade Earth, you made me attack this world, you kidnapped me and forced me to endure hell for years in a desolate world, and now you harmed my wife. I have an issue letting things go, and believe me…”

In a move faster than the man could process, Loki flipped over Thanos’s head and impaled both curved glaives into the purple monster’s back.

“For this, you will wish I was more forgiving!”

Even despite the pain he could feel from being impale, Thanos doubted Loki could actually accomplish anything. After all, what could possibly fell him now? “As if you could—”

Loki dislodged the blades to slash them across the unarmored back, only to then dash forward and slash deeply into the purple flesh he passed.

The wounds were not lethal, but as Loki began to spin around him and cut him in a multitude of places and ways, Thanos felt himself gradually feeling the pain he previously would be able to ignore. He took a hand and began to swing it around at Loki, who personally wished that Trixie was not nearby because her presence on the ground made him unable to use his secret weapon.

As Thanos continued to miss the nimble Loki, who had begun to throw in illusions to aid in his evasion, Thanos grumbled, “Why…why am I so weak?!”

His answer surprisingly came from the ground, where a weak laugh preceded an explanation that made his blood boil.

“I spent all my energy on making my realm…” Trixie coughed as Loki continued his flurry of blows against Thanos, “Instead of making things dark, making a landscape, or anything else, I made everything there more enervating…I also made it so it’s easier to absorb energy…”

It was at this point that Thanos realized why Trixie had taken the effort to bring him to such an odd place…she had done it because she had complete control of the region, and she manipulated the laws of the area to make these things happen. The sheer training, the effort it must have taken her to arrange such a thing must have been extraordinaire, but in the end Thanos felt less powerful than when he even arrived despite having twice as many gems.

Trixie smirked as she slowly got up to her feet, only not being dead because of her own obstinance and her plan sapping the strength from her foe, “Kael was so kind as to absorb that power you shed, as well as anything I lost. When you took his gem, it already had its own power drained. He took even more of your power when you ignored him in favor of harming me. In terms of power we have traded quite well, I would say, but I dare also say you did not.”

“And the energy you left behind was still there…you have gained power in our battle today, but you have also lost it,” she laughed haughtily as she felt her strength flowing back into her, “Now that my world collapsed, whatever was left over I can now use for my own purposes, so I thank you for the donation of power.”

As Loki continued to stall Thanos and wound him, he could not help but snark, “The benefits of having a magic sponge when he’s not choking you.”

Trixie fought the urge to blush at the comment, instead taking this time to point a finger fiercely at the man she had just pulled off a gambit to weaken, “Now, once more we will fight Thanos, and this time you will fall. I am of equal power to you with all of this aid, and I have no more time for games.”

Luna slowly rose to her hooves and joined Trixie silently, her body too exhausted from her sudden defeat to form words yet. Now with three enemies standing before Thanos, Loki found himself actually confident that they could win this. Trixie had managed to pull off a plan like he had thought she was going to, and it seemed to be paying off, “Three on one seems a bit unfair.”

“Are you okay brother? Because I count more than three.”

Loki looked aside to see that Thor and the Hulk had rejoined the fray, now also accompanied by Maiev, and Loki found himself smiling. It was good to be fighting alongside Thor once again, and now perhaps they could each accomplish something other than buy time.

“Hulk smash!” the green monster screamed in its deep voice before rushing straight at Thanos, though the lack of sophistication made Loki semi-doubtful that the Hulk would be all that helpful in a team fight.

“Yes. Just be sure to smash him, and not me this time, Doctor Banner.”

A green fist colliding with Thanos’s jaw was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He began to quake not in fear, but in anger, much like what was demonstrated by those he was fighting mere moments ago, “You…you…”

Thanos knocked the Hulk away before letting out a mighty roar and calling forth the little magic knowledge he had to form a ball of energy in his hands while stretching them over his head.

“That’s it, everyone dies! I’ll pick up the pieces when your entire world is gone, I’ll destroy everything you hold dear! I’ll make sure that there is nothing left in this forsaken existence but I so that Lady Death has nothing to cherish other than my glorious self! I will recreate everything in my own image, recreate you only to then kill you brutally and as painfully as possible! You mortals will not deny me my destiny!”

Loki backed off in his attack to keep from being hit by whatever Thanos seemingly intended to slam down into the ground, but it was Trixie who spoke next in a smug voice while Kael rejoined their group silently.

“I’m sorry, Thanos, but the last part of this stage is your humiliating defeat. Your story ends now, while ours goes on.”

Reaching a hand up, she called out loudly.

“Heimdall, Laufey!”

Once again from the sky two beams slammed down into Thanos, stopping the spell he was channeling and causing him to erupt into even more pained rage.

No longer were they fighting the cavalier competitor who would take their fighting in stride. Now they were fighting a mere monster driven beyond reason and fueled by emotion.

As Trixie had stated previously, her arrival spelled the imminent ending of the day’s long turmoil.