> Father
>  by Craine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Dreaded Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Father





By Craine


It had been nearly a week.

Six days, seventeen hours, fifty-three minutes, and thirty-eight seconds. Counting the time didn’t make it any more bearable for Adagio Dazzle. For that matter, neither did sitting in the living room, staring at her shattered pendant. Did that stop her from doing just that?

No. And, evidently, it didn’t stop her fellow sirens, Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze, either.

The shattered pendant glowed red again, like it had been that entire week, spilling a bloody-red light onto the apartment walls. Adagio’s ears caved at the organic beat that followed. Again. At least, while she was packing, she could drown out the sound, if not the light.

The eldest siren gave short glances to her sisters. Sonata, with her pink boots removed, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees tight. Aria, scowling tiredly at the pendant, her hands tucked between her cris-crossed legs.

Adagio stared at her own fists pressed down on her bare thighs.

The crystalites glowed again, and the three women shifted.

“It’s getting worse,” Sonata mumbled from behind her knees. “He’s… he’s getting worried.”

Aria scoffed. “‘Worried.’ Right.”

Adagio lifted her stare to the pendant again, all but shuddering at the eyes that lifted to her.

“Maybe I should just…” Adagio was actually afraid to finish that sentence.

Aria scoffed again and rolled her eyes. “Maybe if you stopped hesitating.”

Adagio whipped a glare at her. “Maybe if you quit stopping me.”

“Maybe if you actually finished packing. Not like we can take anything with us.”

“It’s called decency! Look it up!””

Aria opened her mouth with a breath and a raised index finger. She stopped and offered a guilty frown. Adagio adopted the look. Sonata just sat there, hugging her knees even tighter.

“Sorry…” Adagio mumbled.

Aria tucked her hand back between her legs. “Yeah…”

A phone rang beside the youngest siren. Sonata whipped her head to the glittered, blue device and reached for it. She saw the name on the screen and stopped. With a slight frown of her own, Sonata returned to hugging her knees.

“Are you ever gonna answer that?” Aria asked.

“Mm-mm.”

Adagio raised a brow, and Sonata tried to hide further behind her knees. The eldest siren tightened her fists, pressing harder on her thighs. She reached for the pendant.

“No!” Aria shouted, slapping a firm grip on Adagio’s wrist. “Not yet!”

“When, Aria?!” Adagio shouted back. “If not now, then when?!”

The purple siren released her older sister and held a fist to her own forehead. “I don’t know, okay?!” Her fist fell to her lap. “Just… just not now.”

“He’s been calling us all week,” Sonata muttered from behind her knees. The older sirens turned to her, a little surprised. “If we don’t answer, he’ll come looking for us. And if he finds out we’ve been avoiding him…” She started shaking.

Adagio stared down at her thighs again. “I can’t believe I’m saying this―”

“Oh, please don’t say it,” Aria said with a frown.

“―but Sonata’s right.”

Aria hung her head with slumped shoulders. “The universe has gone to Hell.”

“We failed him, Aria. And one way or another, he’s going to figure that out,” Adagio said.

Aria brought both palms to her face and leaned on her ankles. “I know.”

Adagio took a softer tone. “Then why are you so afra―”

“I am not afraid!”

The pendant glowed again, and they all shivered. Adagio glanced at it again, then back at Aria, who kept her face buried in her palms.

“This is all your fault,” Aria muttered.

Adagio couldn’t look at her anymore. “I know.”

The purple siren’s hands fell to her lap, and she shot up to her feet. “Whatever…” She skulked from the living room and turned into the hallway. “You two do what you want…”

A slammed door was her only parting gift.

Adagio’s stare lingered on the shattered pendant a while longer. A quiet sob broke her reverie, and she looked up at a trembling, crying Sonata.

“Stop it,” Adagio ordered with a frown. The quiet sobs continued. “Sonata…”

The blue siren sniffed and tended to her tears, but more tears fell with every wipe. She held her sobs, but shook even harder than before. Adagio’s heart sank, and she couldn’t help but crawl forward, over the pendant.

The moment Adagio settled next to her younger sister, a pony-tailed head burrowed against her shoulder.

“What if he doesn’t give us another chance?” Sonata whispered through her shudders. “What if he doesn’t forgive us this time?”

Sonata’s phone rang again, and she frowned through her tears. Adagio reached for the blue device and read the screen―fifteen missed calls from Pinkie Pie. Her brow furrowed in pity.

“Sonata―”

“I don’t wanna talk to her…” Sonata hissed. “She had no right to yell at me. It's my choice to go to school, or hang out, or whatever. Not hers." 

Adagio brushed a finger along those blue bangs. "You know that's not why she yelled..."

Sonata closed her eyes. "Doesn't matter. All she did was make this easier.”

The pendant glowed again. The phone stopped ringing.

Adagio lifted her arm, letting Sonata’s head rest on her chest. She held the shaking blue girl, eyes glued to the pendant.

“I can talk to him… if you don’t want to,” Sonata said.

“No, you can’t.”

Sonata didn’t argue with that. The pendant glowed again, bright that time, its pulse louder. Adagio swallowed dryly and reached for the pendant. A blue hand fell over her arm.

“Please, Dagi,” Sonata whispered. “Please don’t tell him about our friends?”

Adagio wrapped both arms around the frightened girl. “I won’t. I promise.”

The eldest sister held Sonata a moment longer, then released her. She lay on the carpet, her head resting on Sonata’s lap. The blue woman nodded solemnly. Adagio turned her head to the jewel. As though diving into cold water, she inhaled deeply, reached out and took it.

All faded to black.





Adagio was swimming.

It was strange, though; the sensation―as familiar and welcome as breathing―felt alien to her. Perhaps the unending darkness around her was responsible. Or perhaps the distant waves of blue and violet dancing across the horizon.

Or perhaps she just wasn’t used to being in her old body.

She stared sadly at her yellow, cloven hooves, then down over her scaly, finned tail. She narrowed her eyes and sighed, watching barely-visible bubbles ascend to an unseen surface. A yellow light shined in the dark, and she swam to it.

For minutes she swam, wondering how she could possibly keep her promise to Sonata. All thoughts left her when she arrived before a tall mountain, curved and sharp. She swam further and passed the mountain.

She descended along the curved superstructure, stopping only when she reached the bed of this dark ocean.

There she waited, staring up at the yellow light that guided her there.

The mountain behind her moved, and Adagio suppressed her yelp. Her stomach caved as the ocean bed lifted toward the light, taking the mountain with it. Four other mountains came into light. They surrounded the siren, all curled in her direction.

She trembled, rested on her curled arms, and wrapped her scaly tail around herself.

The yellow light brightened, almost blinding the siren. Then there were two. Staring at her. Blinking at her. Dwarfing her. She gulped and bowed her head respectfully. The voice that followed made her ribs cave from sheer pressure. She hid her labored breaths.

“You are alone, Adagio? Where are your sisters?”

Adagio lifted her eyes to meet the gargantuan lights above. “We… have something of a complication.”

The lights narrow. “Are they alive?”

Adagio’s eyes widened. “Y-yes, of course. I’d never let anything happen to them.”

“Indeed,” the voice agreed. “That is why I trusted you with their safety. And with your task. Which brings up another important question…” Adagio trembled harder and huddled more behind her tail. “Where are my Equestrians?”

Adagio tried and failed several times to speak.

“Have I not given you the tools to succeed?” The voice asked. “Have I not allowed you the time?”

Adagio’s eyes fell from the light. “Y-yes. Yes you have, but―”

“Why, then, do you come to me alone with empty hooves?”

“I...I―”

“Look at me, whelp.”

Adagio obeyed.

“Now… I gave you those pendants to circumvent the side effects of those magically barren bodies in which they trapped you. What could have possibly stopped you from restoring your power and returning to Equestria?”

The siren gulped again. “We… we were overwhelmed. We came so close. We had the powers in our grasp, and so much more just waiting to be taken, but…”

“Speak.”

Adagio’s dorsal fins raised in terror. “The Elements of Harmony defeated us in battle.” She brought her hooves to her mouth.

The five mountains shifted and bent around her, and tiny bubbles rose from her eyes.

“Please don’t be angry―”

“The Elements of Harmony? Used by humans?!”

Adagio nearly swam away, but fear locked her fins solid.

“How is this possible?”

The siren gulped for the third time that day. “There was an Equestrian with them. And another―a princess.”

The giant lights grew. “They gave humans magic…” Adagio said nothing. “Have you not sung your song? Have you not turned the tide?”

Now came the hard part.

“Our pendants… The ones you gave us…” Adagio was quite sick of gulping by then. “They’ve been shattered.”

The yellow lights narrowed, and the mountains curled and grumbled.

“They’ve rendered us voiceless.”

A powerful growl echoed through the dark waters.

“Our powers are lost to us―”

“Enough!”

Adagio flinched like a scolded child, her ears folding back.

“I entrusted you, my eldest, most capable offspring, to enslave Equestria, and you return to me with nothing but excuses?”

“But I tried―”

“And what of these humans? They interfere with forces they cannot possibly understand! For what purpose?!”

“Please don’t be angry with them! They only did what they thought was right!”

The yellow lights flashed even brighter, and Adagio turned away.

“They robbed you of your ability―your birthright! They condemned you to die on a magically barren wasteland! Why do you defend them?!”

Adagio lifted her eyes back to the blinding yellow light. “BECAUSE THEY’RE OUR FRIENDS!”

By the time she realized what she’d done, the ocean bed was rising toward the already-unbearable lights. An enormous reptilian snout, gridded with metallic fangs, emerged from the darkness.

“Is that right…”

Adagio could only shake her head. “No, I didn’t mean―”

"How long?" he asked. Adagio blinked. "How long have they fed you their lies? How long have your pendants been destroyed?"

"J-just a few months."

The yellow lights narrowed. "And when were you going to tell me?"

Adagio could only gibber. A jet steam of bubbles left the giant's nostrils and pelted a gasping siren.

“Friends. Have you forgotten who gave you life? Have you forgotten your duty to me? To your home?”

Adagio just shook.

“If these friends make you forget your heritage―if they poison your mind with lies and complacency…”

“Please!” Adagio cried. “We deserve punishment! Not them―”

“I will kill them all.”

Adagio choked on her tongue.

“These humans you’ve adopted… They will perish.”

“But, you can’t!” The siren whined.

“And when their land crumbles, when magma consumes them, when their sky is eaten, you and your sisters will be condemned to the Great Sleep. Until I say otherwise. This exchange is over.”

Adagio began sobbing. “Don’t do this…”

Loud rocky grumbles erupted around the siren, and the shadows cut through the yellow light.

“Father…” Adagio whispered. “Please spare them?”

The mountainous digits closed down around her, but she did not swim away. She stared back up into those ageless yellow eyes with nothing but fear and respect. Before his fist closed around her, he whispered back.

“No.”





Adagio twitched to life, her lungs hacking water. Her eyes shot open as she turned aside, coughing and sputtering more water. A gentle palm patted her back until every drop of water left her lungs.

Adagio slowly rose to sit on her knees. Cold sweat cascaded down her face, her shaky hand rubbing the back of her neck.

She turned right and saw Aria trying to look disinterested. She turned left and saw a frightened Sonata. Adagio almost immediately turned away.

“Dagi?” Sonata peeped, shaking like a leave. “What did he say?”

Adagio saw the phone her youngest sister had been avoiding. She lunged forward on her hands and knees, and grabbed it. She settled back on her knees and stared long at Sonata.

She shoved the phone into Sonata’s chest. Blue hands cupped around the phone, her eyes wide and confused.

“Call her,” Adagio said, her voice strong. Sonata tilted her head. “Just… just do it.”

She slipped that time, her voice wavering. Sonata started shaking again, and she frowned through fresh oncoming tears.

“You told him…” That wasn’t a question.

Adagio tried and failed several times to speak. She watched tears fall on that phone, hands squeezing and shaking, more quiet sobs wracking her chest. 

"You told him. And now he's going to kill them, isn't he?" Adagio couldn't look at her. "Isn't he?!”

Adagio reached out. Sonata slapped her hand away.

“No! Get away from me,” she hissed.

Against her better judgment, Adagio actually tried to get angry at her younger sister. She failed spectacularly. She blinked her own tears away, shot to her feet, and marched past a stunned Aria.

Adagio tried to ignore Aria rising to her own feet. She failed at that too.

“Hey,” Aria called. Adagio stopped mid-stride. “Is that true? Is he really coming?”

No. Adagio refused to cry. But if she stayed their any longer, she’d could add ‘never cry’ to her growing list of failures.

“We should finish packing…” Adagio whispered, if only to hide the tremors in her voice.

Adagio retreated to her room, shut the door, leaned back against it, and slid to her bottom. She pressed her hands hard against her ears. She hoped, if she pressed hard enough, she could've drowned out Sonata’s loud sobs.

She failed that too.

> The Coming Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skin flakey and dry. Muscles sore and weak. Hair frayed and split.

The last three days were not kind to Adagio. Normally, if even a skin cell was out of place, she’d shower for two hours and obliterate the electric bill blow drying her hair. Now, she didn’t care. There was no need.

Three days of darkness, pacing around her bed, and staring at the only other thing she hadn’t packed: a picture of her and her sisters, smothered by twelve constricting arms.

All smiling, even Aria, who had so clearly tried not to.

She sat at her bed’s edge, a smile tugging her lips, tired eyes sweeping across it. Strangely, Adagio never paid attention to all the details before. The glaring sun, that Rarity worried had ‘destroyed the quality’. The huddled, unprofessional posses that, again, Rarity fretted over.

Even though she was the one holding two fingers behind Rainbow Dash’s head. Adagio’s smile broadened. Then a drop of liquid hit the picture.

With a small gasp, Adagio wiped the tear from her cheek and dropped the picture. She groaned quietly and lay on her queen-sized bed proper, arms and legs lazily spread.

Knock, knock, knock.

Adagio threw her forearms over her eyes, expecting harsh rays of light. Her door opened, and in came soft footsteps.

“Close the door,” Adagio said

It was gently closed. Those footsteps came closer and stopped at her bed.

“Dagi…?”

Adagio didn’t respond, she just shifted a little.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

The eldest siren let her arms flop, and she turned her head to a bedraggled Sonata. The wringing hands, untied hair, and dried tear streaks did something to Adagio. It always did.

“It’s oka―”

“No it isn’t,” Sonata insisted, hands still winging. “You were only doing what Father asked. I know you wouldn’t tell him about our friends on purpose. I shouldn’t blame you, ever.”

Adagio shivered at the memory of seeing her father again, and suddenly remembered how lonely she’d been the last three days.

“Come here.”

Sonata did something she hadn’t done in over a week. She smiled. She walked over, lay in bed, and pressed herself almost desperately against her older sister. Adagio squirmed only a little, and wrapped an arm around Sonata.

“Where’s your sister?” Adagio asked.

“Studying.”

Adagio blinked. “Hold on. What? Her?”

“Yeah. She said it helps her forget.”

Adagio blinked again, but settled back down with a smile. “So that’s why she’s been flunking social studies?”

Sonata smiled back. “Nah. Pretty sure it’s because she hates everyone.”

Adagio had almost forgotten what laughter felt like, yet there she was, trying to quash it down in her chest. She pulled Sonata closer, and the blue girl nestled her head beneath her sister’s chin.

There was silence for a time.

“I called her, Dagi,” Sonata mutter.

Adagio looked down at her. “Did you? How did it―”

“I hung up before it rang, though...”

“Ah.”

Sonata shivered in Adagio’s grip. “I…I wouldn’t know what to say. I don’t know how to talk to her anymore. We used to talk all the time, but now…”

“Pinkie Pie only yelled at you because she cares. You know that, don’t you?”

Sonata sighed. “Yeah… I know.”

The door flew open, and Adagio hissed at the light bursting into the room.

“Am I interrupting?”

Adagio craned her head up with squinted eyes. “Close the door, Aria.”

Aria took a long hissing breath through her nose. “No.” And with that, she sauntered in.

The eldest siren’s head flopped back down in defeat, and Aria stopped beside the snuggling pair. Her eyes fell to the floor. She bent down and took a familiar photo in her hands.

Her stare lingered on the picture.

“So this is what you’ve been doing the last three days?” Aria asked, walking around the other side of the bed.

Adagio smirked and said, “Well, I could’ve wasted my time preparing to fail another social studies test.”

“Bite me.”

Sonata giggled.

The bed bounced when Aria sat. Adagio turned her head to the second eldest siren, only just noticing her hair―also untied. Aria stared at the picture in silence.

“You know, there’s a ‘take a picture’ joke here somewhere, but that’s beneath me,” Adagio jeered.

Aria whipped her head around and frowned at her sister. That frown immediately crumbled into a tired pout, though.

“Shut up and make room.”

Aria lay in bed, rolled closer, and nestled viciously against the yellow woman. Adagio’s breath hitched for but a moment. She relaxed, opened her free arm, and let her sister nestle in closer.

There the three lay, the eldest holding her sisters close. Their breaths quiet, synchronized.

“We should go back to school.”

The younger sirens shot Adagio a look, both seeming prepared to protest. They relaxed back into her embrace.

“What’s the point?” Aria muttered. “We’re probably suspended for being gone all week.”

Adagio said nothing.

“Besides,” Sonata added, “we’d be up to our necks in makeup work. And I’ve already been skipping algebra. Did I ever mention how much I hate math?”

Adagio closed her eyes. “That’s not what I meant, girls…”

Again, it was quiet, both Sonata and Aria tensing in their sister’s embrace.

“You think...you think we should tell them?” Sonata asked. “About father?

“No,” Adagio replied.

Aria frown into her sister’s chest. “Then I reiterate; what’s the point?”

Adagio realized, right then, that she hadn’t thought the proposal through. At all.

“Today. Tomorrow. Weeks. Months. Decades? We don’t know when he’s coming, and neither do they. They’re… happy. And they should stay that way until…”

Sonata looked up at her sister, nestling more into her chin. “What are you saying, Dagi?”

The yellow siren closed her eyes. “I don’t know.”

Aria kept her frown at Adagio’s chest. “You want to spend time with them before they die. That it?”

Adagio opened her eyes and glared at the ceiling like it was to blame. “That’s not what I meant.”

Aria grabbed her sister’s white T-shirt and squeezed. “Might as well, ‘cause we’re never gonna see them again.”

Adagio felt Sonata’s breaths quicken.

“Don’t say that, Ari…” the blue girl whispered.

“Oh, wake up.” Aria said. “You heard Adagio; he’s gonna kill them all and take us away. Even if, by some miracle, they survive, we’ll be long gone, stuck in the Great Sleep for who knows how many eons. Again.”

Sonata started to shake, and Aria slumped even further into Adagio’s embrace.

“We’ll never see them again…” she repeated in a whisper. “Quit being so naive.”

The moment she saw Sonata frown, Adagio stifled a sigh.

“At least they still call me,” the youngest siren argued.

Aria squeezed tight on her sister’s shirt. “That’s because some of us have the stones to pick up, and tell ‘em to lay off.”

“Yeah?! Well―”

“Enough!” Adagio barked with a jerk of her arms.

The younger sisters jolted from their squabble with wide eyes, then relaxed.

“Tomorrow may very well be the last time we see them,” Adagio said. “We’ve avoided them all week, packing our things and dreading to answer father’s call. We owe them at least a day.”

Aria closed her eyes. “We don’t owe them a damn thing,” she muttered.

“Then let me say this in a way you’ll actually understand, Aria.” The purple siren rose from her sister’s grip,and scowled down at her. Adagio stared back tiredly. “What the Hell else are gonna do?”

Aria scowled until it became obvious how hard she tried to keep it. With a gusty sigh, she fell back onto Adagio’s chest, and dropped a fist on her ribs.

“You’ll thank me later,” Adagio said.

“Whatever…”

The yellow siren turned to Sonata and asked, “Are you in?”

Sonata just lied there, holding her sister, her eyes staring at nothing and everything at once. She silently nodded, and Adagio smiled.

“Good. We’ll all go tomorrow morning.”

With that, the sirens remained in each other’s arms. In time, Adagio’s smile grew contagious, and her sisters smiled too.

“Hey, Dagi?” Sonata peeped.

“Hm?”

“I just realized something.”

“What?”

Sonata’s smile curved. “You really stink.”

Something like glass broke in Adagio’s head.

“Left the door open for a reason,” Aria said, her own smile curving.

Yellow arms flung out and tossed two yelping siren to the floor. With brows furrowed and face burning hot, Adagio marched to her bathroom to wash three-days-worth of filth from her body.





“We’ve really missed you girls.”

Those words meant more to Adagio than she could ever admit. Yet, it tightened her chest with a guilt she didn’t know she could feel.

She leaned back on the stone stairs she sat on, and turned to girl sitting beside her.

“Sunset, we didn’t want you to worry―”

“Tell that to Pinkie Pie,” Sunset snapped. “Do you have any idea what this past week has done to her? I’ve never seen her so scared.”

Adagio looked away. “Sonata just… needed time, was all. And it all worked out didn’t it? Principle Celestia allowed us to return with only week's detention to make up our absences. And Pinkie forgave Sonata in a heartbeat. Though, I still wonder how Sonata survived such a hug. Thought I heard a few ribs crack.”

Sunset shifted closer to the siren, her tone gentler. “What did she need time for? You never really explained what happened.”

Adagio looked up at the blue sky, the afternoon sun shine over the houses, cars, and people. There was but one dark cloud in the sky. She ignored it.

“Beautiful afternoon, isn’t it?”

Sunset crossed her arms. “That’s the fourth time you’ve changed the subject, Adagio. What’s next? Puppies? Wall Street? The Apocalypse?”

Adagio offered a woefully forced laugh. “Apocalypse. Oh, you’ve still got it, Sunset Shimmer.” The former unicorn stared flatly at her, and she looked away again. “Look… it’s nothing alright?”

Sunset shot to her feet, arms uncrossed and locked at her sides. “I was here for ten days―ten days―wondering what happened to you. I had to watch Pinkie Pie write hundreds of apology letters just to rip them all up every time Sonata ignored her calls. I had to think of advice I couldn’t even validate just to calm our friends. I couldn’t get in touch with Princess Twilight. I had to listen to everybody thinking you quit school, or moved away, or died, or…”

Adagio sat right up, unable to look away from Sunset’s moistening eyes.

“So don’t sit there and tell me this is nothing!”

This was the exact opposite of what Adagio wanted. When they stood before Canterlot High School that morning, the day had so much promise. Pinkie and Fluttershy nearly killed Sonata with love. Aria was tackled to the ground by Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Adagio herself was serenaded with relieved chatter from Sunset and Rarity.

It seemed they could all spend their moments―indeed there final moments―in peace and happiness.

Then they asked what happened, and everything fell apart.

Adagio was running out of subjects to change to. In fact, she didn’t even know why she brought Sunset outside alone.

“I’m sorry…” Adagio whispered.

Sunset finally relaxed and wiped her eyes dry. She sat down and gripped her own arms. “Just…just talk to me, Adagio. Please, just let me be a friend.”

Adagio sighed and looked back to the sky. That little dark cloud had grown just a skosh.

“We got a call last week.”

Sunset twirled her wrist.

“It was… someone close. We hadn’t spoken to him in ages.”

“Who was it?” Sunset gently pried.

“Someone close,” Adagio said with some warning in her tone. Sunset jerked back a bit, then nodded. “He’s… decided it’s time to leave.”

That is not what she meant to say.

“Leave? But… I don’t―”

“It’s his decision. That’s all.”

There was pregnant silence between them, Adagio watching the passing cars and trying her damndest to ignore Sunset’s prying eyes.

“You’re leaving us?”

Adagio frowned at that shaky tone. “Don’t do that. Don’t talk like we wanted this.”

Sunset frowned back. “Well, didn’t you? Sure as Hell shut everyone out, no problem.”

Adagio whipped her head to the other girl with narrowed eyes. “That’s not why―”

“Save it. I know exactly why you waited until the last minute to tell us,” Sunset replied. Adagio grit her teeth and gulped. “What, you thought this would make it easier, huh? Show up like nothing was wrong, give us one last rip-roarin’ good time, and bale before we even knew what happened?”

Adagio’s jaw dropped, she barely recovered. “You don’t understand.”

Sunset looked away. “Yes I do.”

“No you don’t!”

Sunset flinched and whipped her eyes back to Adagio.

“We can’t deny him! We can’t disobey him! One way or another he’ll come for us, and we’ll have to go with him!” She cursed her welling tears. “We just didn’t want you to be afraid.”

When Sunset raised a hand to her own lips, Adagio knew the tears had escaped her completely.

“I never wanted this! I never wanted any of you to worry, to feel anything but joy before we left! Before Father came to this world and… and…”

Finally, after holding it for ten days and nights, Adagio cried.

She swiped her tears away like they were acidic, and stared at her hands like they were alien to her. She tried to quash her sobs, but they hacked out of her like knives through paper. More tears fell.

“I begged him not to,” Adagio continued. “I asked him to spare you but he won’t. He’s going to kill you all!”

Strong arms snaked around her and didn’t let go.

“Adagio, stop it,” Sunset whispered. “I’m sorry―”

“I tried to save you, Sunset,” The siren’s face fell into her hands, tears soaking them. “I tried.”

Adagio couldn’t tell how long she’d cried. Her sobs came deep, every convulsion zapping her strength and numbing her heart. She was barely aware that Sunset was even there never mind holding her.

After shushes, caresses, an eternity of regrets replaying in her head, Adagio finally calmed. She stared straight ahead, stared at nothing really. There were no more sobs, only tears falling on Sunset’s arm. The fiery haired girl released Adagio and dried those tears.

“You okay?” she asked gently.

“No.”

Sunset nodded and remained silent for only a minute longer.

“What you said about your dad…” Sunset rubbed her own elbow. “Is he really coming to…”

Adagio closed her eyes. “How much time do we have?”

Sunset rolled up a leather sleeve and glanced at her watch. “Lunch ends in five. Everyone should be heading to class by now.”

Adagio straightened her magnificent hair, stood on her feet, and turned toward the doors. “Let’s get the others. We have much to discuss.”

With an urgent frown, Sunset jumped up, marched up the stairs and through the doors. Adagio turned back to that little storm cloud in the sky.

Except it wasn’t quite as little anymore.





“Well, we’d better head back,” Aria said.

“What? But you practically just arrived, dear,” Rarity replied. “We have much of your absence to make up for.”

Aria scooched from the round table and rose. “Personally, I can’t believe you, of all people, could stand for a tardy.”

“Guess we’re all makin’ sacrifices today,” Rainbow Dash said, leaning back on her chair.

“Well, that makes five of us,” Aria replied taking her tray. “Come on Sonata.”

“Aww! Pinkie and I were about to play I Spy!” Sonata argued. “Do you have any idea how fun that is in a lunchroom?”

Applejack frowned. “Last time y’all did that, the cafe broke out in the first food-fight since freshmen year.”

Fluttershy tapped her fingers on the table. “But, Applejack, didn’t you, um, you know… throw applesauce at Octavia?”

Applejack threw her hand up. “Oh come on! Uppity tramp threw an orange in my soup. An orange! It was self defense.”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Didn’t stop you from flipping the table over and pelting everybody with melon slices.”

Applejack crossed her arms. “Self. Defense.”

Aria scoffed. “Well, you won’t have to worry about that today. Let’s go, Sonata.”

“No fair, Ari! We’re having so much fun and… Wait, I thought you had Social Studies after lunch.”

Aria took a hissing breath through her nose. “I do.”

“Then shouldn’t you be the last one out like every other time?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Quit making this difficult.”

Pinkie and Sonata shouted in unison, “Quit hating people!”

Everyone but Aria broke out in laughter. And despite her formidable attempts to frown, a smile pulled at her face. She shook her head and turned to leave.

Her almost-smile vanished when she saw a frowning Sunset Shimmer and a tired Adagio. The laughter stopped, and all eyes found them. Aria stared between the two for a few seconds, eyes narrowed.

“You didn’t…” Aria hissed. “After all that big talk?”

Adagio’s eyelids fell lower than they already were. “I know what I said.”

Sonata’s smile completely vanished. “But Dagi… I thought―”

“I know what I said!” Adagio took a breath, fist against her forehead. “But there’s no use hiding it. There never was.”

With a tired sigh. Aria turned back to the table, set her tray down, and sat.

“Uh, what exactly are you three talking about?” Rainbow asked, leaning forward now.

Adagio took another breath and approached the gang, Sunset on tow. They took the two reserved seats. The yellow siren crossed her legs and folded her hand. She looked up through the large cafeteria window, her eyes narrowing on the storm cloud she most certainly recognized.

No longer dark, but pitch black. And growing evermore.

“Father’s coming to visit.”

Lighting and thunder were all too happy to clap.

> A Father's Devotion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy’s cottage was many things. Welcoming, for its earthy color scheme and scent of flora. Spacious for guests large and small. Clean, miraculously, despite all the animals skittering and flying within.

And before Discord, it was quiet. Not that the whiley spirit’s presence was a problem―far from it. His jokes, antics, tastes in culinary delights, and experiences shared through his eons of life, brought a different kind of life to that cottage, even the owner.

Especially the owner.

Days that often stretched into the night bustled with stories and pleasant laughter. Foods and teas Fluttershy had never tried―and was pretty sure never existed until Discord conjured them―were consumed. Talks about rare creatures, both thriving and long expired, rang through those wooden walls. It was life, pure and simple.

That day, however, Discord did something he often didn’t do. He stopped mid-sentence and dropped his tea.

Fluttershy’s eyes, once bright with intrigue, fell with worry. Even their guest, Tree Hugger, set her own tea away with lifted brows.

“Discord?” Fluttershy offered gently. “Are you okay?”

Discord didn’t answer. He sat in his seat, mouth agape, eye twitching, mismatched hands frozen in place. He glanced at the shattered plate and teacup and, unlike usual, didn’t instantly fix it.

Tree Hugger’s eyes soon matched her host’s.

“No,” Discord whispered. “Not now…” 

Tree Hugger shifted in her cushioned chair. “Dude, your aura is all over the place. More than usual, “she said.

Discord’s hands fell to his sides, both limp on the couch, mouth still agape. His head spun around to the window behind him, and stared outside.

“I…I gotta go,” Discord muttered.

Fluttershy pushed herself off her seat and onto her hooves. “But―”

He vanished in a flash. Fluttershy remained still, head tilted, brows furrowed.

“Whoa…”

Fluttershy turned to Tree Hugger. “What?”

“Were we, like, in for some heavy stormin’ today?” Tree Hugger asked.

That’s when Fluttershy finally noticed the black clouds outside. Her brow furrowed harder.

“N-no. Not that I know of. In fact, Rainbow Dash guaranteed clear skies for a week.”

A monstrous lightning bolt struck the land. Fluttershy squealed and zipped behind her earth pony friend. Tree Hugger remained still, staring hard in the clouds. Then her eyes swelled.

“Oh.” She stumbled back. “Oh.” She began to shake. “Oh, man…”

“I-it’s okay, T-Tr-Tree Hugger, “ Fluttershy stuttered. “Just a little lightning.”

Tree Hugger fell to her haunches, her face now mirroring Discord’s before he left. “We are so being watched.”

Fluttershy stopped her own shaking, and was confused for the third time in the same five minutes.





Princess Celestia could hardly remember the last time she stared at the sky for so long. No. That was a lie. She used to stand on that same balcony, and stare upward all the time during the cold centuries after Princess Luna’s banishment.

But that’s not why she stared that day. That’s not why Luna herself stood right beside her and stared too. And certainly not why Discord had joined them only minutes before.

Finally, after nary a greeting or word between them during those minutes, Discord spoke, “So… I’m not the only one who noticed.”

Luna scrunched her nose. “Why here? Why now? This world is still so young. It teems with life, still grows." Her lips twisted into a scowl. “He has no business here.”

“And yet, he darkens our doorstep,” Celestia said, her face stoic and thoughtful. “But in exchange for his physical form, he agreed never to tamper with thriving worlds.”

Discord stroked his beard. “That agreement can only be broken if he were directly effected by one's actions. Or he just changed his mind, perhaps.” He frowned into the sky. “Or has something drawn him here.”

The three immortals stood silent again, watching bolts lash and whip about in the black clouds, some even striking their land.

“Does Princess Cadance know?” Luna asked quietly.

“I received her letter before you arrived today. She’s rallying the Crystal Guard,” Celestia replied.

Discord scoffed. “And why does she even bother?”

Both alicorns shot him a frown, then looked back to the blackening sky. “I don’t know…” Celestia admitted. “It’s best if pegasi steer clear from the skies.”

“We…we should do something,” Luna said. “Find a way to communicate, perhaps.”

Discord hummed. “Who’s to say he won’t try that himself?” He ignored the eyes turning to him again. “If he planned to devour this world, why hasn’t he done so already? He’s just…”

“Watching.” Celestia finished. She narrowed her eyes. “What do you want, Sky Eater?”





Stupid. Twilight Sparkle was unutterably stupid.

She thought that to herself as she galloped toward her castle, a wheezing, coughing pegasus draped over her back like a rolled carpet, and equally limp.

“Hold on, Dash,” Twilight said between exerting breaths.”Just hold on!”

“Twilight, slow down!” came a voice not far behind.

Yes, Twilight was aware she wasn’t alone, aware that her very best friends had seen Rainbow Dash nosedive from the sky. And yes, Twilight was even aware that she was running when she long-should’ve teleported.

Rainbow Dash groaned in agony. Twilight ran faster than she could even remember herself capable.

“I’ll fix this, Rainbow,” Twilight muttered again, ignoring the tears sprinkling from her own eyes.

Finally she arrived at the castle doors and barged them open. The resounding crash made her teeth clench, but she didn’t care. She galloped down the carpeted corridor, banked left, and stumbled into one of the many, many spare bedrooms the castle offered. She gently set Rainbow Dash on a soft bed.

“I’m so sorry,” Twilight whispered, her horn pointing and glowing at Rainbow’s withered and charred wing. “I should’ve flown up there with you.”

Hoofsteps clapped toward the room, and in came Applejack and the others.

“Landsakes, Twilight!” Applejack shouted. “What the hay just happened?!”

Twilight’s horn glowed brighter, and white smoke rose from Rainbow’s wound. Everypony flooded toward the two, crowding them, assaulting the alicorn with question after question. But Twilight could barely hear them, her memory replaying what Rainbow had stuttered right before she passed out.

Scales. Teeth. Everywhere.

When the memory sank in, Twilight knew she couldn’t do this alone 

“Spike!” Her shout silenced everypony in the room. “Spike, I need you!”

It was only when Rarity’s hoof fell on her shoulder did Twilight realize how much she was shaking.

“Darling, please calm down,” Rarity implored.

If Twilight weren’t so focused on healing Rainbow’s wound, she may’ve brushed the unicorn off, maybe even yelled at her. She didn’t.

“It’s my fault,” Twilight said. “She was struck down and I let it happen.”

Applejack stepped beside Rarity. “Sugar, what happened? First we heard of it, Dash gathered the weather team to investigate the storm outside. But then…”

Twilight frowned, her horn glowing brighter. “I authorized it. I knew it was a bad call. I knew it wasn’t safe, but I let her do it.” The others waited for her to continue. “She just… flew up there, all of them vanished behind those clouds. Seconds later, they all flew back down, screaming. All of them except her. She was the last to come down, but when she did, she was… like this.”

Twilight wiped a stray tear from her face and refocused on soothing Rainbow’s wound.

Fluttershy’s averted her eyes, then stepped forward. “Earlier today Discord seemed very upset when he saw those clouds. Even Tree Hugger wasn’t quite herself. What…what did Rainbow see, Twilight?”

Scales. Teeth. Everywhere.

“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted again, startling her friends. “Where are you?!”

Rarity prodded her ear with a grimace, then smiled at the distressed princess. “There, there, darling. I will find our little dragon. You remain here and tend to Rainbow Dash.”

With that, Rarity trotted off, calling for Twilight’s number one assistant.

Applejack approached the alicorn and sat beside her. “Is there something we should know, Twi?” the farmer asked.

Twilight’s frown suddenly seem more tired than focused. And perhaps even a little scared. “We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia. Soon.”

Fluttershy’s ears wilted and she gulped. “W-why?”

Twilight finally sat down, her horn still focused on Rainbow’s steadily-healing wound.

“If this is what I think it is, then we’re in a lot of trouble.”





“Spike? Twilight summons you, darling. Oh, Spiiiiike.~”

In all honesty, Rarity was growing a tad impatient. She searched hall after hall, room after room, and still couldn’t find him. Worse, the caste carried sound remarkably well, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t hear somepony call.

Maybe he was ignoring her…

Rarity scoffed at the notion. “Nonsense.”

Still, it was odd. He wasn’t in the room he shared with Twilight. He wasn’t in the kitchen cooking. He wasn’t in the Hall of Friendship―as so enthusiastically named by Pinkie Pie. He was simply gone.

There was nothing to worry about, obviously. It certainly wasn’t like Spike would leave the castle knowing there was a pony-frying lightning storm blowing outside. And an emergency siren blaring through Ponyville. And winds billowing so hard they started to shake the castle walls.

“Spike?” Rarity called a little louder. “Spike, darling, where are you?” Before she knew, her trot graduated to a canter.

Then she checked the library, and released a breath she didn’t know she held, or for how long she held it. Worse, she felt sweat drip down her limbs. There he was, standing at the library’s end, his back to Rarity.

“Oh, Precious Scales, don’t do that. You had me worried sick.”

Spike said nothing. There was no clue if he’d even heard Rarity. He just stood there before a particular mirror, a mirror decorated with gadgets and gizmos courtesy of Twilight Sparkle. Spike ran a claw softly over its smooth surface.

Rarity smiled.

“Oh, dear, dear Spike,” she said, slowly approaching. “I’m sure you miss your friends on the other side. Here, I have a proposition for you; come with me, and we can talk Twilight into opening it for you, huh? Would you like that?”

Spike’s claw fell from the mirror, and Rarity stopped mid-stride, only a few feet away from him, and shivered. Her ears wilted, her limbs locked up, her hair stood on end, her blood ran cold, and suddenly it seemed like boulders were tied to her neck.

“S-Spike? Spike aren’t you c-c-cold in here? M-my word...”

Spike tilted his head a bit, his breathing slow, calculated. He turned to Rarity, and the unicorn gasped at the piercing yellow eyes that replaced the young dragon’s. No longer were they kind, innocent and young. Now they were cold, wise.

Ancient.

“This one… serves as my voice,” Spike said, his tone as cold and deep as the eyes that so clearly weren’t his.

Rarity’s breaths became short and heaving, sweat now cascading down her face.

“S-Spike, what...what’s happened to you?”

Spike smiled. “You mentioned Twilight Sparkle, this one’s caretaker,” he said. “Perhaps you’d do me the honor, Generosity, of bringing her to me.”

Rarity stumbled back, her legs shaking uncontrollably. “I...I don’t―”

Spike’s smile dropped. “It is not you to whom I wish to speak. Bring me this one’s caretaker.”

Rarity managed her strongest frown, which really only made her look like she swallowed a snail.

“S-Spike, if this is a joke, I find very little humor in it.”

Spike’s face remained blank, a quiet breath leaving his nostrils. “Well then… I will just have to summon her myself.”

He lifted his claw, and Rarity seized up, her pupils shrinking. Spike turned his palm up and curled a finger. Rarity began walking forward.

“Ack! What is this?! Spike, how are you…?!”

She fought it. With grunts, squeals, and a stumbling pace, Rarity tried to fight the unseen binds pulling her forward, reigning her in. Before she knew, she was mere inches before Spike. He balled a fist.

“Wait!”

Spike swiftly swung his arm down, and Rarity’s chin somehow crashed into the crystal floor. Purple claws gently found her muzzle, and slid to her now-teary cheeks. Those claws forced her to look up at their owner.

“Who...who are you?”

His eyes glowed an even more piercing yellow. His claws curled and burrowed slowly into Rarity’s face, and he grinned so wide he showed fangs.

“Now you’re catching on.”

Rarity’s scream echoed through the castle.





Twilight whipped her head toward guest room’s exit.

“Rarity?!”

Applejack frowned and tipped her hat up. “Yup, that’s her, alright! Come on,Twi!”

Twilight’s eyes darted from Rainbow Dash to the door and back again. “But…but―”

Fluttershy’s gentle hoof found her cheek. “Twilight just go. I’ll handle things from here.”

Twilight’s horn lost its glow altogether. “Are you sure?”

Fluttershy smiled. “If you only knew how many times Dashie’s actually herself hurt, and how many times I’ve had to nurse her back to health… Well, she’d probably be mad at me for telling you that much.” Her smile wavered a bit.

Twilight gave a short laugh and a hug. “You’re a lifesaver!” She pulled away and faced Pinkie Pie. “Can you watch over them?”

Pinkie saluted. “Yes sir, ma’am, sir!”

“Twilight, we gotta skedaddle!” Applejack shouted, turning toward the door. 

Without another word they darted off for Rarity. It didn’t take very long to find her. They needed only to follow the uncontrollable sobbing. Twilight and Applejack skidded to a stop at the library’s entrance.

What they saw dropped both of their ears.

“Rarity!” Applejack yelped. “You okay?”

Surely the tears and blood streaks on the unicorn’s face should said enough. But Spike was there. Perhaps he was helping her up. By pinning her down to her side. With claws pointed at her jugular. 

“Spike! What in Equestria do you think you’re doing?!” Twilight demanded.

Spike looked up, yellow eyes narrow. “You…” he muttered. “So you finally show yourself, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight took one look at those yellow eyes and her wings flung open.

“You’re...you’re not Spike,” she growled, horn sparking to life.

Spike allowed a tiny smirk. “Hm. Caught on quicker than she did.” His claw jabbed at Rarity’s neck, and the white mare squealed.

“Let her go!” Applejack ordered.

“No. There is something you must do for me,” Spike said.

Twilight’s glare hardened, but her horn lost its glow. “What do you want?”

Spike turned his head to the left. “That portal behind me. You will open it.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “How did you…?”

Spike allowed another smirk. “This one holds all the knowledge I needed from the get go. I know that this portal was created by Starswirl the Bearded. I know it opens once every thirty moons. Or, at least, it did before you came along, princess.”

Twilight glared again, listening.

“I know that there is another world locked away behind this mirror. I know that my children were left to die there.” Spike’s dropped his smirk. “And I know you played a hoof in their fate, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight’s glare crumbled. “Children?”

Spike grit his teeth. “Their voices―their heritage―gone, because of you, and the humans they’ve grown to love.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped. “C-children?”

“Open the portal.” Spike’s claws jabbed harder at Rarity’s neck.

Applejack stepped forward with a feral growl, but Twilight’s arm barred her back.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, perhaps more gently than she’d meant to. “What’s your name?”

Spike stared hard at Twilight. Then his eyes glowed that piercing yellow. “I have many names, truth be told, labels created by long-dead worlds to give voice to their destruction. Storm Rider, Tide Bringer, Sky Eater. Call me what you will.”

Scales. Teeth. Everywhere.

Applejack looked hopelessly lost, but Twilight looked as though she stepped into a burning library. “You… But I… I thought―”

“Open the portal.” His demand came harsher, more punctuated.

Applejack’s eyes darted to her friend. “Twilight, do somethin’” she whispered.

Still, Twilight gawked, her wings deflating but a little. However, another cry from Rarity brought her back, and those strong purple eyes hardened again.

“Let her go,” she commanded.

Spike’s eyes narrowed. “What was that?”

Twilight stepped forward, her chest held out. “If you are who you say, than threatening her is useless.”

Those eyes lost their piercing yellow glow.

“That was the deal, wasn’t it? To keep your physical body, you leave thriving worlds alone? That means us. That means my friends, our families, all of Equestria is off limits to you.”

Spike’s claws drifted away from a sniveling Rarity.

“Let. Her. Go,” Twilight repeated. Spike’s face twisted into a scowl. “Now!”

The dragon stood straight, his arms limp and harmless to his sides. Rarity scrambled to her hooves and galloped to her friends. Applejack stepped in front of her shivering friend.

“Now leave Spike’s body and never come back,” Twilight growled through clenched teeth.

Of all the reactions she could’ve seen, Twilight didn’t expect a smile.

“You think you have control, don’t you? You believe just because you know so little of me that this is over. It’s not over. You will help me guarantee that.”

“I’ll never help you,” Twilight said.

“Your compliance is irrelevant,” Spike countered. “You will open the portal. There is absolutely no way you’re leaving this room without doing it.”

Applejack stomped her hoof. “I don’t think you can hear all that well. Get! Go on back to where ya came from, and leave us be!”

Twilight’s wings became fully erect, her horn glowing once again. “You have no say here, Sky Eater. And nothing over me.”

Spike laughed. Loudly. “Either you’re incredibly blind…” He flexed his fingers and extended his claws. “Or you truly don’t care about this one.”

He lifted those claws to his own neck. Twilight’s posture completely shattered.

“What… Stop! What are you doing?!” the alicorn shouted.

“I will kill this host,” he said.

Twilight’s horn glowed again out of sheer reflex. “You can’t! All life on this world in out of your reach! Let him go!”

Those claws pressed into his soft scales, digging beneath them. “Hm. If you knew so much about my agreement, you’d know the circumvention.”

Twilight showed her confusion for merely an instant. “There is no circumvention!”

Spike smiled widely. “The living―worlds that thrive, that teem with life―I cannot touch. But if they act against me, if my sanctity is violated―” 

“We’ve done nothing to you!” Twilight roared.

“OH, BUT YOU HAVE!”

Twilight flinched.

“You trifled with the natural order! The sirens were never meant to squander eons in darkness, never meant to wither away with no voice!”

Twilight suddenly couldn’t find her words.

“You come into my affairs! You destroy my plans! You have my children―my children―bow down to YOU?!”

“Th-they would’ve never stopped! They’d have enslaved every human being if they weren’t stopped!”

“That wasn’t your decision to make! It was their nature, their purpose! You took that from them!”

A purple hoof stomped the crystal floor with a loud crack, and Rarity recoiled behind Applejack. "Then your quarrel's with me, not him!"

"Hah! I can see beyond this one's flesh. His memories, his thoughts. If not for him, you never would've been able to disgrace my daughters."

Twilight squared her jaw, biting back her tears. “We only did what had to be done.”

“Then surely you can understand, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike’s scales cracked apart and fell, and blood finally dribbled down his arm. “As a father, so will I.”

“STOP!”

With a blinding burst of magenta light, Spike did just that. He was held in the air, a powerful blanket of magic binding him.

“You’ll never take him! I won’t let you!”

Again, of all the reactions she expected, smiling wasn’t one of them. And neither was laughter. “I told you. I told you were going to do it, Twilight. Nothing can stop me now.”

“What are you―”

A stabbing pain ripped through her horn and forehead. She yelped and she crumbled to one knee.

“Twilight!” Applejack yelled. Her furious eyes shot up at the cackling dragon. “You! What are ya doin’ to her?!”

Swirls of magic―Twilight’s magic―spun and converged onto Spike’s hands, until the blanket that bound him withered away. He landed on the floor and faced the mirror with a toothy grin.

“No!”

Spike fired Twilight’s magic at the portal, and the library illuminated with flashing lights, grinding clicks, and turning gears.

“To be perfectly honest,” Spike began, sauntering toward the churning machine, “Finding them alone would’ve proven an insurmountable task. May’ve even taken me centuries.” The bright light shot from the book crowning it all and shot into the mirror. “But now, thanks to you, princess, I can be reunited with my family.”

The portal was finally opened.

“And I know of some filthy, disgusting humans who are just dying to meet me.” His eyes glowed. “Follow me, if you dare.”

With a skull-splitting shriek, a thick white fog spewed from Spike’s mouth and eyes. As the young dragon fell unconscious to the floor, that fog went right through the portal.

> He's Here...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours. They’d been standing beneath those black clouds for hours. Watching. Waiting. Adagio Dazzle, for reasons that escaped her, often wondered what her sisters were thinking. It was stupid to think that, for she already knew.

Aria broke that thickening silence. “At what point did telling them seem like a good idea, Adagio?” she asked.

The eldest siren didn’t really have an answer, and even if she did, speaking it would fall woefully short, for Aria already knew the answer. So she did what she’d been doing for the past hour since lunch; stood outside and let the ripping winds carry her thoughts away.

Surprisingly, Sonata was the one who answered. “They were going to figure it out anyways.”

Aria frowned into the sky. “I could’ve handled that. I just…” Her tone dropped. “Maybe I didn’t want to scare them either.”

“I thought you didn’t care,” Sonata said.

Aria’s frown crumbled, and she blinked back her tears for the fifth time in that hour. “I...I don’t.”

A swift bolt of lightning brightened the rooftops of Canterlot High School, and neither siren flinched.

“Liar,” Sonata whispered.

Aria said nothing to that. Silence wedged between them again, another handful of minutes floating by.

“It almost feels like he’s right here,” Adagio murmured. “Like he’s floating above us, watching right back. But he’s not.”

Her sisters continued to stare, and more minutes expired.

“Do you think they’ll ever wanna speak to us again? For keeping it a secret?” Sonata asked.

Aria and Adagio were both silent.

The wind picked up, whipping the girls’ hair across their faces. 

“He’s so close,” Aria said, removing her starry hairclips.

Adagio slowly reached up and undid her own clip, letting her golden hair cascade to the back of her knees. “Yes. It won’t be long now.”

Sonata’s hairband followed, tossed carelessly on the ground. “Maybe there’s still a chance to change his mind. Maybe we can convince him to let them live.”

Years of practiced self-control and patience kept Adagio from telling Sonata just how wrong and stupid she was for saying that.





Rainbow Dash had bounced that soccer against the hallway trophy case for perhaps the four-thousandth time. That wouldn’t have bothered Sunset Shimmer all that much if her mind wasn’t racing. After all, how could anyone think of ways to prevent their impending doom without complete, total, absolute, unhindered concentration?

The soccer ball slammed against the glass and bounced across the hall.

“This is stupid!” Five pairs of eyes whipped to Rainbow Dash, then slowly peeled away from her. “I mean, come on! Are we really just gonna sit here and believe all that nonsense?!”

Fluttershy took a lock of her pink hair and stroked it. “They seemed awfully convincing to me.”

Rainbow threw a hand up. “Oh, right! If this is the real deal, if some giant freaking lizard is coming to kill us―and they knew―don’t you think we could’ve used that information days ago?!”

Sunset crossed her arms and leaned against the wall beside Pinkie Pie, her brow furrowed in thought.

Rarity looked up from her nails. “Darling, I agree with you, I do, but... surely they meant well.”

“Meant well?! By keeping it from us?!”

Applejack grunted tiredly and pressed a fist against her forehead. “Simmer down there, Rain―”

“No, screw that!” Rainbow shouted. “How could they keep something like this a secret?! What, it wasn’t enough that we forgave them after everything they did?!”

Pinkie pressed her index fingers together. “To be fair, we…we weren’t exactly honest with them either.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to protest, then clamped it shut with a defeated frown.

“Girl’s right, ya know,” Applejack added. “That mirror outside? It’s just as important to‘ em as it is to Twilight.” She surfed a hand through her blonde hair. “It’s their only way back to Equestria and they have no idea. We kept it from ‘em.”

Rainbow Dash skulked to the wall, pressed her back against it, and slid to her bottom. “Well...they didn’t exactly ask about it.”

“And we didn’t exactly ask about their family. Not really,” Rarity said.

A pregnant silence fell over the girls. Pinkie’s eyes locked to the floor she was sitting on.

“We’re terrible friends…” she said. No one argued that comment. 

More pregnant silence. Pregnant with triplets. Somehow, despite inwardly begging for it, the silence nearly drove Sunset Shimmer mad.

“Sunset?”

Her eyes whipped to Fluttershy, and she realized she was biting her thumb just a little too hard.

“You’ve been awfully quiet since our little meeting at lunch,” Rarity said.

Applejack turned to look at the fiery haired girl. “You did go mighty pale when they talked about their dad.”

“I know him…” All eyes locked on Sunset like magnets to metal. “Th-that is, I know of him. I’m sure of it.”

Rainbow Dash leaned forward. “We’re listening.”

Sunset Shimmer’s teeth found her thumb again. “The way they described him, it couldn’t be anything else. Their father has to be…the Sky Eater.”

Another wave of silenced washed through the halls.

“O...kay?” Rainbow said with a hiked eyebrow.

Sunset pushed herself off the wall and began pacing. “In Equestrian lore, the Sky Eater was a magnificent creature, who swam across the cosmos on oceans of stars. Legend has it that he shared the Eternal Throne with Equestria’s very creator. As it was hers to bring life and new worlds, it was his to destroy and return those worlds to the dust from which they were forged.

It was balance at its most basic; Creation and Destruction. But one day, the Sky Eater threatened to destroy a world in its infancy, a world that the Creator loved dearly, with life she crafted in her image: Equestria. He declared Equestrian life intolerable, that it would become far too close to the Eternal Throne one day.

If the Creator didn’t stand up to him, and defeat him in battle, Equestria wouldn’t exist. As punishment for his crime, the Sky Eater was banished from the Eternal Throne, and forced to spend the rest of eternity floating among the stars, bound by his duty, bound to destroy dying worlds.

To ensure that every world wouldn’t fall to him, the Creator enchanted the Sky Eater. Should he ever devour a world that still teems with life, his body would be utterly destroyed, and he’d be cursed to wander the cosmos as a harmless spirit.”

Sunset Shimmer realized she’d closed her eyes, and when she opened them, everyone was staring. Her face grew a tad too warm for her liking.

“I-I read a lot when I lived in Equestria,” she said, scratching behind her head.

Rarity gave a nervous laugh, “Darling, are you implying that the sirens’ father is some kind of… divine beast? A god?”

Sunset shrugged. “Truth is, I don’t really know. I didn’t really believe any of that stuff when I read it. At least, you know, not until now.”

“Okay, back up,” Rainbow said with a raised palm. “So this Eye Skeeter―or whatever you called him―can’t even do anything without screwing himself? Then what have we been worrying about?!”

Sunset started pacing again. “I don’t know. If the legend is true, then we shouldn’t have to worry.” she cast her gaze to the floor. “But the sirens, they… I can’t help but think that I missed something.”

The silence returned for only a few seconds. “Maybe Princess Twilight will know,” Fluttershy offered. “She knew about the sirens, maybe she knows about their dad. Maybe their legends are connected somehow.

Sunset suddenly remembered her backpack was on. She unstrapped it, took out her old magic journal, and stared at it.

“I’ve been trying to reach Princess Twilight all day today.” Sunset’s brow furrowed. “She hasn’t written me back yet.”

Pinkie shifted in her seat. “Well, being a princess and all, I bet she’s super busy,” she said.

Sunset’s gaze lingered on the book for a while. “Maybe…”

A loud boom of thunder rattled floor and walls, this one louder than the ones before.

“Not to alarm an o’ y’all,” Applejack stood to her feet, “but that there storm ain’t leavin’ us anytime soon. And it’s gettin’ worse.”

Sunset glanced at her wrist-watch. “And the last bell rings in ten minutes. If ‘daddy’ shows up as their all leaving―”

“It’d be quite a show,” Rarity finished with a grimace. “Indeed…”

With a huff, Rainbow Dash lifted off her rear and marched away.

“H-hey, where you off to in such a hurry, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“To get my guitar, of course,” Rainbow replied, never looking back. “If I’m goin’ down, I’m goin’ down fighting.”

The girls all exchanged unsure glances, but nodded all the same. They set out to follow their athletic friend, to retrieve their own musical instruments.

The front door flew open, and the girls whirled back to the noise. It was Adagio, Aria, and Sonata, their hairpieces abandoned, clothes wrinkled from the howling winds outside. The six girls all stared at them, and they stared right back.

“So…” Sunset said.

“So…?” Adagio repeated.

More silence.

“Crazy weather we’re having, huh?” Everyone shot Pinkie a glare. “Well, someone had to say it!”

Rainbow Dash looked away with crossed arms.

“Look,” Adagio carefully began, “I know we shouldn’t have kept it a secret, but―” Rainbow Dash gave a throaty ‘hmph’ “―but surely you understand why. Don’t you?”

Sunset stepped forward, her eyes uncertain, lost. “We do, and we have no right to blame you, Adagio. Truth is… we haven’t kept you completely up to speed ourselves.”

“Sunset, no.”

The former unicorn turned to a frightened Rarity, but turned right back to the now-confused sirens.

“You were honest with us. So, naturally…”

“What are you talking about?” Aria asked.

After a final, unsure look to her friends, each of them with varying degrees of compliance, Sunset faced the former singers and took a breath.

“The statue in front of the scho―”

“Attention all students.

All eyes whipped to the intercom speaker above.

“This is your principal speaking. Due to worsening weather conditions, you are all instructed to stay inside the building until further notice. Thank you.”

A symphony of muffled groans and complaints buzzed down the hallways. Sunset felt eyes on her again. She looked back at the sirens, and they were staring at her.

“You were saying?” Sonata asked with a tilted head.

Suddenly, Sunset wasn’t too sure of her choice.

“Well… You see, I… uh…”

A louder boom of thunder roared outside, this one the very loudest. Eyes wide and frightened, the sirens ran back to the door, their hands pressed against the glass. The others followed. When they looked outside, all of them gawked.

The sky was ravaged, whipped and torn by lightning bolts. The winds shook the cars outside, alarms going off here and there. A greater bolt struck the statue in front of the school. The horses eyes flashed yellow, and the mirror glowed dimly.

Another bolt struck the statue, this one blinding.

Moment passed, and the girls unshielded their eyes. Sunset squinted through the door window, leaning closer. The winds receded a bit, and the lightning stopped, but the clouds remained.

“Wait. Who is that?” Sunset asked.

The other girls finally recovered and peered through the glass again. Someone was lain on the ground outside, right in front of the statue.

“He…he wasn’t there before,” Rainbow Dash said. “Was he?”

“I don’t think so,” Fluttershy replied. “It doesn’t look like he’s moving.”

“Maybe we should help?” Pinkie suggested.

The body twitched to life, and well-sized arms craned up. Those arms shook as he lifted himself. He fell back down, his elbow the only thing keeping his face from hitting the floor. Seconds passed, and the stranger rose to his knees.

He remained on all fours for a time, then rose to kneel, one hand on the ground, the other raised to keep balance.

His limbs shook beneath his white robe, the wind wafting the straps around his waist. He rose further, but fell back down, kneeling again. His raised hand closed to a fist and he tried again. He stood on his own two feet and stayed there.

He looked up at the sky, his armored chest held out, spiked, grey beard moving with the wind

He inspected his hand, observing the sharp metal that covered every finger and knuckle. His eyes combed the rest of himself. He ran an armored hand across his face, through his spiked beard.

He raised a hand to the sky and waved his wrist. The clouds waved with it.

He brought his hand back down and clenched it. He nodded and began observing the campus.

“Those eyes…” Adagio whispered. “It can’t be.”

“Of course it can’t,” Aria said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

The final school bell rang, and the man’s yellow eyes flashed in their direction.

Sonata gave a loud gasp, her hands shooting up to her mouth. “It’s… It’s him. I know it’s him.”

“Hang on,” Rainbow said. “I thought your dad was huge! Like, cover-the-sky huge. Doesn’t look so tough from where I’m standing.”

Sunset Shimmer started to shake. If that man was indeed the sirens’ father, and he came through the portal, then something was wrong. Something was definitely, horribly wrong.

Adagio’s hands slid off the window and fell to her sides, her eyes blank, disbelieving. “We must go to him.”

Even Aria didn’t argue with that, despite her earlier doubts. Sonata bit her knuckle and her eyes never left the newcomer.

“We have to be sure,” Adagio said.

The man began walking toward the school, his steps unhurried, patient. The sirens turned to the six girls just as the expected tide of displeased students flooded the hallway.

“Listen,” Adagio began. “I...I’m not really sure what to say, except...I wish things could be different.”

“It’s been fun, all things considered,” Aria added.

“Maybe we can, you know, get him to let you off the hook,” Sonata finished with a forced smile.

Soon, it became obvious hard hard the sirens tried to look at them, and their eyes wondered to everything else. 

The six friends didn’t even have words, each of them looking like they’d say something, scream something, anything. But neither of them did. Sonata exchanged Pinkie Pie a look, and immediately looked away.

“Sonata?” Pinkie gently called out.

The blue siren choked on a sob and turned around completely. Her sisters turned around too.

“Thanks for the memories, girls,“ Adagio muttered.

With that, the sirens shoved the doors open and walked out of Canterlot High School for the last time. The roar of the student body followed almost immediately.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?!”

“How come they get to leave?!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands justice!”

As the shouting tide approached the door, Sunset Shimmer and her friends barred in front of the door, facing them.

“Everyone just settle down,” Applejack said.

“They have… somewhere to be right now,” Pinkie Pie sadly added.

“Well, we have places to be too!”

The crowd roared in agreement, and Sunset grimaced.





The sirens stood outside the door, their hair once again thrown about by powerful winds. The man stopped marching and stopped several feet from the staircase.

His yellow eyes locked on them and narrowed. With a synchronized breath, the three sisters joined hands and walked down the stairs. Every step brought weight to each of their shoulders, but they remained tall, never looking away from those commanding yellow eyes.

They stopped before him, and remained silent.

His eyes dilated for only a second, then softened.

“My children,” he said.

There was no more question. The sirens cupped their hands to their own chests, and knelt before their father, heads bowed, eyes closed. Cold iron gently fell on Adagio’s head, and she gave a tiny gasp.

She opened her eyes and saw her father kneeling as well, looking at her―no, looking right through her. His hand slid down to her cheek.

“What is a father to do?” he asked.

Adagio’s eyes fell to the ground. That cold iron hand left her, and those knuckles gently touched Sonata’s cheek. The youngest siren squeaked and jerked away.

“I put all my faith in you three, and you produce only failure.” His hand found Sonata’s other cheek, but she didn’t jerk away that time. She leaned into the cold touch, shivering, her eyes still closed. “You produce only reasons for me to worry about you, to wonder if I pushed you too hard.”

His other hand smoothed Aria’s purple bangs aside.

“I granted you freedom to enslave Equestria however you chose. You lost it. I gave you the means to do so again. You squandered it. And now…”

Adagio felt a much larger forehead press against hers. And she didn’t even try to stop her tears.

“Now, your voice―your birthright―is lost.” He pulled the other sirens close. “What is a father to do when he fails as a teacher? What is he to do when his children do not learn, when they fail again and again?”

Adagio’s sisters shed their own tears, but neither made a sound, or could even look their father in the eye. Two suffocating arms bound them all together and wrapped gently around them. Perhaps by obligation, or perhaps by instinct, the sirens returned the embrace.

“What is a father to do?”

“He can forgive us…” Aria whispered.

He pulled away from them, his strong eyes shifting from one to the other. “Yes. Yes he can.”

The smallest smiles found the sirens’ faces. Sky Eater rose to his feet.

“Now then.” His seasoned face darkened with a frown. “Where are they?”

They bowed their heads again and said nothing.

“These humans that dare defile you. Where are they?”

Again they said nothing, and the armored man shook his head.

“Still, you protect them? Still, you’re blinded by their lies? Their ‘friendship’?”

Again they said nothing, but they started to sweat and shake. He looked up at the school once again. “Are they in there?”

“Please…” Adagio whispered. “Please just let them go.”

Sky Eater flicked his wrist. The three girls yelped as they were flung aside into a heap of tangled limbs. He strode forward again, armored legs peeking through his white robe.

Sonata tore herself from the heap and stood. “Father, no! They don’t deserve this!”

He didn’t stop. “You forget your place, whelp,” he said. Sonata flinched and fell back to her knees. “You three are to wait for me beside the portal. We will leave when I say.”

The three sisters exchanged confused looks. “What...what portal are you talking about?” Aria asked.

Sky Eater stopped right in his tracks, eyes wide with disbelief. He turned his head to the left. “The portal from which I entered.”

Sonata tilted her head, Aria shrugged, and Adagio just shook her head. Their father stared straight at the school again.

“You didn’t know?” he asked quietly. “They didn’t tell you?”

They asked in unison. “Tell us what?”

Sky Eater’s armored back remained to his daughters, an unseen smile growing and growing.

“Interesting…”





Applejack fell back against her locker, gripping her bass guitar. “Land sakes, that was bad.”

Rarity polished her piano guitar. “Thank heavens for Principal Celestia . If not for her gifted speaking, we’d have had a riot on our hands.”

Rainbow Dash tuned her guitar. “I think that’s the least of our worries right now, girls.” She frowned at her frets. “‘Case you forgot, the sirens left, and we’ve gotta date with ‘daddy’.”

Sunset strapped her own guitar on her shoulder. “Yeah…”

Fluttershy stopped spinning the tambourine on her finger and looked at the former unicorn. “I know this is a silly time to ask, but… are you okay, Sunset Shimmer?”

“No! I’m not okay,” Sunset snapped. All eyes fell on her for the fourth time that day. “He came through the portal. That beast came here from Equestria!”

Pinkie’s hair sagged a little. “Oh…”

“Yeah, big ‘oh’.” Sunset leaned on the locker beside Applejack. “Is that why Twilight hasn’t written me back? W-what if something happened? What if… what if―”

“Now you just hold your horses, pony-girl,” Applejack said with a strong pat on her friend’s shoulder. “Twilight Sparkle can handle herself. We’ve all seen it. Plus, if everything you told us about this feller’s even remotely true, he wouldn’t touch her, or anyone else in Equestria, right?”

Sunset bit her lip and squeezed the neck of her guitar.

Rarity strode beside her. “Just try not to think about it, dear.”

Sunset shook her head with a sardonic laugh. “It’s all I can think about.” She pushed herself from the locker, and walked aimlessly down the hall. “I swear, if he’s done anything to her, to Celestia, or my parents, I’ll…”

She stopped in her tracks

“I’ll…”

She blinked several times before she finally realized someone stood in her path. Sunset stared straight at the robed abdomen. Her eyes slowly trailed up―jaw falling open―until she saw glowing yellow eyes.

“Oh, no, please,” Sky Eater said, “do go on.”

> Defiance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seconds, minutes, hours, days? Sunset Shimmer forgot how to tell them apart as she gawked up at those crushing yellow eyes. She’d forgotten many things right then; that she was in the school hallway, how to talk, how to blink. Thankfully she remembered how to breath.

At least, she did before Sky Eater spoke again.

“You know why I’m here, don’t you?” he asked.

Sunset regained enough sense to close her mouth and nod.

Sky Eater’s fist clench at his side, his metal-clad digits crunching into his palm. “Then I suppose formalities are unnecessary, Sunset Shimmer.”

The former unicorn gulped, and reached in the deepest recesses of her mind to remember how to talk.

“How did you get through the portal?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed. “Irrelevant. All you must know, is that your actions were unforgivable. You will pay for what you’ve done to my children, unicorn.” He glanced at the other startled girls. “And don’t think I’m leaving you out.”

“No. Leave them out of this,” Sunset demanded with what little strength she could.

Sky Eater’s fist clenched harder. “Was it not all of you who disgraced my daughters? Was it not all of you who tore their voices out like meat from bone?!”

Sunset stepped back, and she did not mean to.

“Yes, I know all about you’re little showdown, your ‘Battle of the Bands.’ You thought there would be no reckoning. You thought you could walk away unpunished.”

Sunset squared her jaw and stood up straight. “They didn’t leave us a choice.”

The armored man crossed his arms. “Perhaps so, but it’s by far the worst choice you’ve ever made.” One of his white eyebrows arched. “I have a question for you, though.”

Sunset offered a sideways stare. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

Sky Eater uncrossed his arms, and the girls gripped hard on their instruments. He point to a backpack on the floor, leaned against a locker.

“Are you ever going to answer that?”

Sunset’s eyes brightened, and she glanced at the backpack―her backpack. The glowing and vibrating only meant one thing. The fiery-haired girl shot a suspicious glare at the now-smiling man.

“Please,” he said with a polite gesture. “I am nothing if not patient, believe me.”

Sunset kept her suspicious glare, even as a frowning Rarity retrieved the backpack and offered it to her. The former unicorn took the pack, opened it, and took the vibrating book. Truthfully, she was over the moon to be getting a message from Twilight. When Sky Eater came through the portal Sunset feared the absolute worst.

She glanced at the book, then at Sky Eater, then back at the book. She opened it and read carefully. Seconds rolled by, and her eyes grew and grew.

Sunset Shimmer! Danger! Equestria in state of emergency! Sky Eater is no legend! Contact imminent! He used the portal! You have to run! RUN!

After the fourth time reading it, Sunset realized her hands were shaking.

“Good news, I trust.”

Sunset whipped her now-sharp eyes to Sky Eater. “What have you done?”

“Pardon―”

“What have you done?!”

Sky Eater’s smile dropped. “Curb your tone, unicorn.”

Sunset throw the book to the floor. “Don’t toy with me, dammit!” Sky Eater scowled. The smaller girl marched right up to him and prodded his abdomen. “You better not have done anything to Twilight, or I promise you―”

Curled fingers shot forward and clamped around Sunset’s throat. She reached up and pulled at the giant’s cold grip in vain.

“I’ve done nothing to your precious friend, Sunset Shimmer, and she wasn’t foolish enough to follow me.” Sky Eater tightened his grip, and Sunset’s eyes rolled back, her tongue lolling out. “Fortunately for her, she won’t see what I’m about to do to you.”

“Hiii-YAH!”

A booted heel dropped on Sky Eater’s wrist. With pursed lips and a muffled grunt, his grip loosened and Sunset fell to the floor gasping and coughing. Rainbow Dash stood ready between him and Sunset.

“Hands off, bub!” Rainbow shouted, gripping her guitar. “Touch her again, and you’ll regret it!”

Sky Eater didn’t acknowledge her, he was too busy examining his now-trembling hand, twisting it, turning it.

“This form is… fragile,” he muttered in wonder. “How the bones can bend and break. How the sinew ruptures. Fascinating.”

Fluttershy and Applejack helped Sunset Shimmer to her feet. The former unicorn stared horrified at Sky Eater, caressing her sore neck. She frowned and gripped her own guitar.

“Alright, listen up!” Rainbow shouted again. “I don’t care if you a god, demon, or whatever! You got no business here! You have what you came for! The sirens are safe and sound, so amscray and leave us alone! Or we’ll do to you what we did to them!”

Sharp, yellow eyes whipped to the blue athlete, and for whole two seconds, she paused. Sky Eater gave his wrist a few quick turns. Snap. Pop. He brought both arms to his side and stood tall before the Rainbooms.

Rainbow Dash allowed a daring smirk. “I think he wants a demonstration, girls.”

Sky Eater watched as they scurried to position. Sunset stood beside Rainbow. Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy flanked them, and Pinkie Pie sat behind them all with a fully...assembled… drumset.

“When did you even…?” He narrowed his eyes. “Questions for later.”

Pinkie Pie clacked her drumsticks together in a quick tempo.

“One, two, three―”

Sky Eater raised his index. Both guitars, the bass, the tambourine, the piano guitar, and even the drumset flew clean out of the girls’ grasp, straps and all. The instruments floated before them, swirling in a figure eight.

Sky Eater clenched a fist and the instruments smashed into a head-sized ball of metal, wood and string. The ball hit the floor with a loud clank and rolled to Rainbow Dash’s feet. The Rainbooms stood in place, neither able to close their jaws.

“But you… he… I… What?!” Rainbow screeched.

“Heed me well,” Sky Eater growled. “Know that I did not lie; you will all pay.”

He glared directly at the girl who dislocated his wrist, and she stumbled back in disbelief and horror.

“H-hold on a second,” was all Rainbow could offer.

Sky Eater put a hand on his hip, and the other over his spiky beard. “Hmm… Taking into account that you are at a disadvantage here, I will allow you one chance to live. All you have to do is answer my favorite question.”

The girls huddled together, their nerve all but gone. They all gasped when a large, iron-clad palm lifted to them. Red light radiated from his hand, painting the lockers, walls, and ceiling tiles blood-red.

“Why should I spare your life?”

He received only a few terrified shrieks, and some glares.

“Typical,” Sky Eater said. “That’s about the same answer I usually get.”





It wasn’t the first time Adagio had to sit there and watch Sonata pace. It became something of a sport, in fact, to see how long it took for her to wear a groove in the floor, or start complaining and ask why her feet suddenly hurt, or even forget why she was pacing to begin with.

Now, Adagio was tempted to pace with her, and she knew Aria faired no differently.

“Sonata, sit down already,” Adagio said, leaning off the statue she sat against.

Sonata didn’t stop.

Adagio groaned and massaged her temples. “You’re giving me a headache. Just take a breather, will you?”

Still, Sonata didn’t stop.

With a frown, Adagio rose to her feet and sauntered to her younger sister. She grabbed Sonata’s arm.

“Hey―”

“No!” Sonata yanked her arm out of Adagio’s grasp. “How can you just sit there and let this happen?! Either of you?!”

Adagio stepped back, her shocked eyes riveted to her sister’s.

“We can’t let him do this!”

The eldest siren’s frown returned. “We have no choice. You know that.”

“That’s a lie! We’ve always had a choice!”

Adagio’s arms pressed to her sides.

“We chose to drive them apart, chose to steal their magic, and then we chose to be their friends!”

Adagio’s shoulders tensed.

“We chose to avoid them when Father called. We chose to hide the truth―to hide what he planned to do just to keep them happy―”

“Oh, what?! Honesty’s the best quality?! Is that what you’re getting at?!”

Sonata flinched at her sister’s venomous tone.

“Well, I guess that makes us even, because they sure as Hell didn’t offer us the same courtesy!”

Sonata glanced at the portal behind them.

“‘Always had a choice.’ So did they! They could’ve told us from the start what this statue was, they chose not to! They could’ve left us to our affairs, let us return to Equestria and go to Father ourselves, they chose not to! If they were half the friends they pretended to be, none of this would’ve happened! SO MAYBE THEY DESERVE WHAT’S COMING TO THEM!”

By now, Sonata was reared back, wrists curled to her chest, tears falling off her chin. Adagio blinked and quickly swatted her own accursed tears away.

“Just… do as Father says,” Adagio said, suddenly too tired to be firm.

Sonata’s lip quivered, and her frightened eyes darkened with a frown. “Liar.”

Adagio had often wondered how someone can stop right in their tracks even if they weren’t moving. Mostly because Sonata somehow had that effect on her. Before the eldest siren could stop herself, she’d already snatched Sonata’s collar and yanked her face to face.

“What did you say?”

Sonata turned her head away, squeezing her teary eyes shut. “You don’t believe any of that.”

Adagio raised her hand. Sonata winced harder and the eldest siren hesitated.

“No one who stayed awake for three straight nights could believe that.” The blue siren’s voice became more and more pitched.

Adagio’s raised hand shook. Then a cold grip found her wrist. She looked back to see Aria. The second eldest siren looked her right in the eye and shook her head. Adagio hesitated a moment longer, but released her now-trembling sister. She stared blankly, and Sonata opened her eyes and stared right back, wiping her tears.

“You’re the worst, Sonata.”

“Oh, god!” Aria screeched.

Oldest and youngest looked at Aria, who was gawking at something ahead. They turned to blood-red light beaming from the school.

Adagio’s eyes darted to Sonata, and she was right to do so. She threw her arms around the frantic blue girl just as she ran for the school.

“No!” Adagio yelled. “We can’t stop it!”

“Let me go!” Sonata wiggled and writhed against that grip. “Let me go!” The red light brightened until it turned a hot white. “FATHER, NO!”

Aria lunged forward and wrapped her own arms around Sonata. Blue knees buckled, and they all crumbled to the ground. Adagio and Aria pressed themselves protectively over their sister.

The entire front end of Canterlot High School was obliterated.





“What’s going on?!”

“Somebody call nine-one-one!”

“We’re all gonna die!”

Sunset groaned as the voices echoed in her head. The darkness cracked, blurry colors entering her vision. The pungence of smoke and masonry filled her nostrils. She groaned louder, trying to lift her arms.

A stabbing pain snapped her vision clear.

Her eyes darted side to side. Her ragged, frantic breath hissed through her teeth. Her lungs burned from all the smoke she’d undoubtedly inhaled. Her eyes broadened. 

Sky Eater, she thought.

She tried to sit up, but the back of her head crashed back down to shattered tile.

“You! What have you done?!”

Sunset recognized that voice. It was Principal Celestia. She doubled her efforts to sit up, and failed just as miserably. 

“No…” she groaned with closed eyes

“I’ve not harmed any others. Only the six. Now stand aside.” 

Her eyes shot open when she heard his voice.

“No.” Sunset groaned louder.

With pain tearing through her muscles like scissors through cotton, Sunset finally sat up. She cried out and fell back on her elbows. The destruction before her nearly made her pass out again. Lockers littered the broken tile and jutted from the walls. Sparking wires and ceiling lights hung from above. Pieces of masonry crumbled from the now ovular foyer.

But worst of all, Principal Celestia stood shakily before the approaching giant responsible for it all, Canterlot students cowering behind chunks of rubble.

“You leave them be.” Sunset wanted to scream those words, but she could only murmur. 

Sky Eater’s eyes rose from Principal Celestia and settled wide onto Sunset.

“Inconceivable!” Sky Eater declared. “How are you ali―” He stopped himself, his eyes shifting aside, then narrowing. “Right…”

Principal Celestia stomped her foot and flung her arms out protectively.

“I’m warning you! Leave this school at once, or I’ll call the authori―”

Sky Eater waved a finger to the woman’s face, and she collapsed to the destroyed floor.

“No!” Sunset finally managed a shout, however weakened it was.

Frightened chatter burst among the students. Sky Eater stepped over the unconscious woman and sauntered onward to the former unicorn. Instinct gripped all of her senses and dragged herself back. Even while crying out in agony, she didn’t stop. She couldn’t help but glance at herself, her limp and broken body, the blood she trailed in her retreat.

His shadow cast over her like night over the land.

“Doing this…w-will only destroy you,” Sunset grunted through her pain.

Sky Eater’s head tilted oh so slightly. “Is that what you think?” He shook his head. “Foolish mare…”

His giant, armored foot swung back, and before Sunset could even brace herself, it crashed into her belly. A breathless howl escaped her as she tumbled out of the gaping hole in Canterlot High School and down the broken stairs.

She lay sideways in charred rubble, her eyes shut tightly, holding her now-burning stomach. She dared to open her eyes,and immediately wished she hadn’t. Her jaw slowly parted as she reached for Rainbow Dash.

And tried not to look at the shard of glass protruding from her thigh

“Dash?” Sunset weakly called. “Dash?” Her voice cracked, unrestricted tears trailing the side of her face.

The fallen athlete groaned, her closed eyes wincing. She opened, and Sunset offered a scared smile.

“Sunset?” Rainbow whispered dryly. “Did… did we get him?”

“Shhh…” Sunset hushed. She gently touched Rainbow’s cheek. “Just stay down, Rainbow. Relax.”

Rainbow’s eyelids slowly lifted, her irises darting about. “What happened? Where’d all this smoke come from?”

Sunset stroked her cheek. “Dashie, please. Just―”

“I can’t feel my leg.”

Now, Sunset was pressing down on Rainbow’s cheek with what little strength she could muster. “Don’t look. Just don’t.”

Rainbow began to struggle, her breaths quickening. “What did he do to me?”

She moved her legs and shrieked in pain. Sunset pressed down a little harder. Their eyes met again, and Sunset couldn’t remember seeing the leader of the Rainbooms so scared. So vulnerable.

Sunset mouthed the words, ‘Don’t look.’

Rainbow’s lips quivered and she nodded.

“The magic of Friendship, was it?”

Sunset’s eyelids halved, both from exhaustion and despair. She saw Rainbow’s eyes riveted above.

“A power great enough to defeat my daughters. Power great enough to protect you from my wrath. Power that doesn’t belong in this world.”

Sunset’s hand fell from Rainbow’s cheek, her eyes still lidded.

“Yes. The young dragon had all the knowledge I needed for this task, enough to ensure victory, to ensure your demise.”

Sunset continued to stare at Dash, though she didn’t really see her anymore. She heard and felt a large knee fall to the ground behind her, and her lidded eyes narrowed at the cold iron tucking her hair behind her ear.

“But I am not without mercy. Your companions that lay broken all around you… you can all go together. Become apart of the growing void.”

The wind picked up, and Sunset’s ears caved at the crack of thunder. Suddenly all was silent. Or, at least, she couldn’t hear anything. She saw Rainbow, eyes livid and wet, shouting obscenities she couldn’t hear. She felt those same cold hands weight heavy on her cheek.

When she saw Rainbow’s eyes widen even more and lift higher, she knew she knew Sky Eater was preparing to strike her down.

And yet, through it all―through every memory that rattled her mind, through every loose end she never tied, through every instinct shouting for her to move―Sunset stayed right where she was.

She closed her eyes and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

She opened her eyes and saw Rainbow Dash gawking. Then she noticed something else. Arms. Around her face. A soft chest pressed down on her head, a warm body curled protectively over her.

Sky Eater’s mighty roar echoed through the stormy sky. “What is this defiance, Sonata?!”

> Persecution of The Righteous
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In hindsight, it was a rash decision. But then, Sonata hadn’t really made a lot of those. She followed directions. She did what she was told with little to no question, and did it happily most times. It was a lesson she’d grown over the eons to know: respect her elders. It was why she listened to Adagio with perfect posture and open ears, why she heeded her father down to his every whim.

But when she pried herself from her sisters’ grip, sprinted toward the remains of Canterlot High School, and threw herself protectively over Sunset Shimmer, Sonata Dusk hadn’t a clue who she was anymore.

“What is this defiance, Sonata?!”

A heart-swallowing pit opened in her chest―a feeling she came to know all too well, the feeling she got when she knew she’d done something wrong.

Sonata curled herself tighter around the bloodied and broken Sunset Shimmer. “You… you can’t do this, Father,” she said. “You have no right.”

At first, Sonata couldn’t imagine where those words came from, then realized if her eyes weren’t closed―weren’t helplessly locked on her father’s―she likely wouldn’t have said them. There was no rebuke, though. No shouts, no curses. Nothing.

She dared to peel one eye open. Her father just stayed where he was, kneeling beside both girls, his arms deflated to his sides.

“Sonata,” Sky Eater said, his tone low and firm. “Move.”

Listen to your elders, Sonata thought.

She shut her eyes again. “No.”

Sonata nearly puked when she said that. She heard her father’s low growl and curled even tighter to Sunset.

A dry, groggy voice came from below. “Sonata―”

“I said, no…” Sonata whispered back to Sunset.

“Father!”

Eyes still shut, Sonata frowned at the frantic footsteps patting toward them. She opened her eyes, looked aside, and saw her two sisters dashing toward them. They slid to a stop and fell to their knees.

“I’m sorry, Father,” Adagio said. “I tried to stop her, but―”

“Silence.”

Adagio flinched at Sky Eater’s deep command.

Sonata’s eyes went wide, feeling her limbs being pried apart. She looked up at her father, his fist held forward, fingers uncurling ever-so slowly. 

“No!” she cried. Her muscles strained and cracked as she fought against it. “No!”

“For too long, have you been trapped in this world.” Sky Eater’s fingers opened more, and his daughter’s wails went ignored. “For too long, have we been apart. Your minds are poisoned, bursting with their lies and clearly their habits. For you to disobey me…”

Tears of sheer effort poured from Sonata’s eyes, her limbs still unfurling from a trembling Sunset.

“They helped us, Father! They accepted us after what we did, helped us keep a home! Why can’t you give them a chance?!”

Sky Eater scoffed. “Helped you? Yes, by keeping the portal a secret. Oh, they held you in such high esteem, such trust.” His fingers straightened completely, and Sonata’s arms and legs flew open. “They are not worthy of a chance, nor do they deserve it!”

Sonata cried out against her father’s power, sweat drenching her skin. “Father, please. Please forgive them!”

“It is over, little one. You will understand, one day, why they had to die. And why their entire species will soon fall in line.”

Sky Eater flicked his wrist, and Sonata was cast aside, exposing Sunset Shimmer, who still lay weak on her side. The armored giant took Sunset’s arm and rolled her to her back. Her still-lidded eyes slowly shifted to him.

He raised his fist again, prepared to strike the fallen teen down.

“MOTHER WOULDN’T WANT YOU TO DO THIS!”

Sky Eater completely stopped, his yellow eyes fraught with amazement, one of them twitching. He turned to Sonata, who offered only a weak glare, sitting on her knees. He extended his hand again, and the yelping siren slid forward.

Enormous, iron-clad fingers clamped around her face.

“Father, don’t!” Aria screamed.

“Your mother? Your mother?!” Sky Eater roared in the siren’s face. “She is the reason you and your sisters have squandered eons in darkness! She is the one who cursed me to rot in this universe for all eternity! You do NOT speak of her!” 

He threw his daughter on her rump, but she rose to her knees yet again, her glare stronger.

“This isn’t about that, Father! It’s never had to be! You respected her way! You used to watch life evolve and grow old with her! You actually cared! Now? Now, all you do is hate!”

Sky Eater’s eyes glowed bright. “Hate is what kept you three safe! Hate is what kept you strong and fed, what kept you alive! That is why these six must pay for taking your voice!”

Sonata’s resolve began to shake. “B-but it’s not that simple!”

Sky Eater gave a combination of a sigh, a laugh, and a grunt. “Retribution is not simple? SONATA! WAKE UP!” The youngest siren’s glare was now gone, her head sunk between her shoulders. “These creatures have no respect for the pain they’ve caused, for the songs now lost to the cosmos, for the paradise they’ve taken from your reach! And still, you defend them!”

Sonata began to shake. “I… I…”

Sky Eater’s eyes lost their glow, suddenly wide with disbelief.

“What is your mission?” he demanded.

Sonata jerked back like he’d swung at her.

“I… What?”

“Your mission, whelp. What is it?”

Sonata’s mouth opened and closed several times, words escaping her in tiny squeaks. Sky Eater’s fists tightened, his shoulders rattling beneath his white robe. His growl rumbled the fissured ground, and the sky growled in tandem with quiet thunder.

Sonata wilted back, biting her nails.

“Leave my sight at once!” Sky Eater bellowed.

His hand shot forward yet again, and Sonata was flung away screaming into Adagio’s waiting arms. This time, the eldest siren refused let go. Sky Eater hunched over, shoulders still tremoring.

He lifted his head toward the sky and roared. A terrible, echoing thing that carried through Canterlot City and ignited the lightning above. His eyes went piercing bright yellow again, this time thrown at the now-horrified Sunset Shimmer.

“You! You did this!” Sky Eater was now kneeling completely over her, teal eyes couldn’t look away. “You self righteous naives! Offering my children nothing but falsehood! You made them forget their roots, their role in the cosmos! You stole their voices, and even a piece of their very souls?!”

He raised his fist. Sonata screamed and buried her face in Adagio’s chest, as if it would make it all stop.

Sky Eater’s fist hammered down, the blunt connection of flesh and iron. Sonata’s fingers curled onto Adagio’s quickly-wrinkling shirt. She felt those slender arms wrap tighter around, and a chin pressed down on her head.

Flesh and iron met again. And again. And again, even as Sunset started crying out. The assault continued, and Sky Eater’s words flew from his mouth with every strike.

“Weak! Trifling! Waste! OF FLESH!”

Sonata rocked back and forth, wailing and cursing. And yet, for reasons that she’d never understand, she looked back to see. Sunset’s head was turned away from them, her arms spread out to her sides.

She gave a twitch, then a cough.

Sky Eater snatched the collar her torn leather jacket, and yanked her up. Sonata squealed at her friend’s now-bruised and beaten face.

“I’m going to take great pleasure in making you all pay for this!” Sky Eater roared.

He hoisted Sunset off the ground, ignoring her crackling bones and raspy shout. With a frown dark enough to eclipse the sun, he raised his other hand and five more bodies ascended to the air, each coated with red, crackling light.

Sky Eater threw his empty hand forward, and the rest of the Rainbooms converged and floated before him.

“Now, truly suffer…” he growled.

He tossed Sunset forward, and she remained floating with her friends, caught by an unseen web. Sky Eater’s armored fingers slowly curled, and in seconds, the girls were all screaming, the red light crackling even louder.

Sonata still couldn’t look away. The moment she started shaking in Adagio’s arms, the eldest siren’s gloved hand loomed over her eyes. Sonata gladly accepted and finally turned back to her sister’s chest―away from the brutality.

“I’m so sorry,” Adagio whispered. “I’m sorry I told him about them…”

Sonata peeked aside and saw Aria staring straight at it all, trying to be strong. The cascade of tears completely gave her away. The purple siren started shaking. Eventually, she turned away too.

The screams grew louder, and Sonata turned to Adagio’s chest again.

“Open your eyes, my children,” Sky Eater said. “Open your eyes and look.”

Sonata refused and the pain in her chest doubled. Respect your elders, her mind echoed. She turned away from Adagio’s chest and looked, tears blurring her vision. She knew her sisters were looking too.

“With their blood, I give you freedom,” the bearded man said. “Look now, not that you may remember these humans, but that you may forget them. And may you never waste another heartbeat trying to be them.”

Respect your elders, Sonata’s mind echoed again. Then she saw Pinkie Pie. Her clothes torn and bloodied. Her skin cut and bruised, pores crying with blood. Her eyes open… staring right at her. The blue siren absently shook her head, her mouth trembling open.

Pinkie’s bleeding hand reached out. It curled back as she screamed in another fit of agony.

Sonata didn’t turn away. “Forgive us…” she whispered.

Then there was light.

Blinding light.

Piercing light.

Scorching light.

The sirens yelped and shielded their eyes. Sonata’s pupils roamed behind her eyelids, yellow and purple spots blending in the darkness. Her closed eyes tightened, then opened. Meek little dots swam in her vision like tadpoles in a pond. She gasped and turned back to her suffering friends.

They were all gone.

She turned to her father, who had barely recovered from the flash himself, shaking his head and blinking firmly.

Sonata frantically searched her surrounding. “W-where did they―”

“No way... “ Aria muttered through clenched teeth. “There’s just no way.”

Sonata looked to her sister, and shrank back at the dark scowl directed at the portal. Which didn’t make any sense, because Sonata was more than used to those. This was different, though. The youngest sister looked up at Adagio, who harbored the same look.

Sonata finally turned to look. A lone figured stood before the portal. Six bodies scattered around this figure. Armor gleaming. Magenta eyes narrowed and focused on them. Hair dancing and flowing with windless air. Sonata’s eyes went wide.

“You?” she shrieked.

Sky Eater stroked his great beard, his yellow eyes narrowing. “Unexpected…”


**********

Different. Everything was different.

Princess Celestia knew it’d be a long shot―adjusting to two legs, that is―and truthfully, standing with such a straight posture again was slightly nauseating. True, this wasn’t the first time Celestia had stepped through Starswirl’s portal. In fact, seeing how ‘modern’ everything looked, she actually thought she was transported somewhere completely different.

But when she saw exactly what she feared she’d see, when Sunset Shimmer and her friends were being torn apart by a man much too tall to be human, every ache, imperfection, and dizzying sensation was forgotten.

Now she stood firm before the statue of Canterlot High School, her gold battle armor weighing heavy on her new body. She stared ahead at the monstrous man, her eyes narrowing at the sizzling atmosphere around him.

He is as strong as I feared…

A weak grip found Celestia’s ankle. She looked down at Sunset Shimmer’s pained eyes and nearly broke down into tears right there.

“Is… is it really you?” Sunset whispered, trembling.

Celestia knelt down. “Hush…”

She raised a glowing fingertip, and streams of white like swam from it. Like glowing eels, the streams circled Sunset Shimmer and her friends. Slowly, bones reattached, wounds closed, skin cleared. Within seconds, the damage was reversed.

Sunset carefully rose to sit, and massaged the back of her neck. Her eyes went wide, then riveted to her former teacher with a gasp.

“E-Equestria! Twilight! My parents! What’s going on over there?! Has he hurt anypony?! Has he―”

Celestia smiled and silenced the former unicorn with a raised palm. “Sky Eater hasn’t harmed a soul in Equestria.” Her smile dropped. “I only just recently discovered why he came in the first place.”

Sunset released a breath, wiping sweat from her forehead and face “How did he know about the portal?”

Celestia frowned. “He possessed Twilight Sparkle’s assistant, Spike, and reaped all of his knowledge. I suspect that’s how he knew where to find you.” She cast her eyes downward. “He tricked Twilight into opening the portal.”

Sunset sighed and squinted in Sky Eater’s direction. “Of course he did…”

The armored princess rose to her feet and turned toward the distant opposition. “Stay here,” she said.”

Sunset shot to her own feet, her hands laced together. “Wait! Where are you going?”

Celestia now faced the opposition completely, her vision sharp, muscles tense. “To have a little discussion with our friend over there.”

Sunset stumbled forward, timidly reaching out. “But princess! He’ll… he’ll―”

“No. He will not harm me.”

Celestia stepped forward, and Sunset stepped after her.

“How can you say that?! You saw what happened, what he almost did! If the Sky Eater’s still enchanted, he wouldn’t risk killing us, or you, or anyone! But he did!”

Celestia slightly turned her head. “Watch, and you will understand.”

She fully expected another fit of rebukes. To her surprise, there were none. Celestia turned her head more to glimpse at her old student. She saw a frown with which she was shamefully well-acquainted.

“Why don’t you ever listen to me?” Sunset muttered.

The second she saw the gleam of tears in Sunset’s eyes, Celestia turned away completely, and walked toward her mission without another word. As the distance grew, the sun princess could hear the chatter behind.

“Sunset. Was that…?”

Celestia didn’t hear a response to that. With a bitten inner cheek, she hardened her eyes ahead and marched on. She saw Sky Eater stand in the exact same spot, three young girls kneeling beside him.

Her eyes met his.

A robed arm swished aside, and the young girls scurried away. He marched forward as well. The atmosphere around him only sizzled more the closer Celestia got. Every step forward became something of a chore, as her shoulders suddenly felt heavy.

For only a split second, Celestia peaked at the destroyed building behind Sky Eater, and the young humans slowly emerging from the gaping entrance.

Celestia stopped walking.

Sky Eater stopped as well.

There―amid the destruction, the black clouds and lightning, the gateway between two worlds―the Ruler of Equestria and the Destroyer of Creation stood before one another.

She leered up. He leered down.

“So…” Sky Eater began. “To what do I owe this intrusion, Daybringer?”

“A mere proposition, if you will hear it.”

He raised a white eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

Celestia’s leer hardened. “Leave this world and its people alone, and you will be spared.”

Sky Eater’s eyes went wide for only a second. Then he chuckled as though he’d been told a very dry joke.

“You ponies have the most refreshing sense of humor,” he said. “Surely you didn’t come all this way with only a few vapid threats.”

“What I tell you is no threat, but a guarantee, should you carry out your plans.”

Sky Eater chuckled again, a grin baring his teeth. “You cannot stop me, Daybringer.” He spread his arms out triumphantly. “And I don’t see an army rallied behind you.”

Celestia’s eyes remained solid. “No, Sky Eater. I come alone.”

A thick silence cluttered the air.

“Fool…” Sky Eater growled. “On what grounds could you possibly justify your stupidity?”

The armored princess clenched a fist. “The senseless deaths of innocent human beings and a pony very precious to me.”

Sky Eater frowned. “Innocent? Those hooligans? Clearly you are misinformed, alicorn.”

“Be that as it may, while I stand in your path, you will stay your blade.”

That time, Sky Eater threw his head back and laughed. “You are something else. I’d expect nothing less from her creation. But riddle me this, Daybringer.”

Celestia said nothing as an armored palm lifted to her.

“What if I permanently remove you from my path, and I take the retribution my children so richly deserve.”

Celestia tried her damndest to ignore Sunset Shimmer’s distant cry.

“You won’t,” she said. 
Sky Eater’s palm crackled with power and blood-red light. “Give me an excuse…” he growled.

Celestia remained stony and impassive. “How about the enchantment that plagues you to this very day?”

Sky Eater’s eye twitched.

“True, many ponies know not of the circumvention. Not many know that the inhabitants of young worlds are beyond your reach―that they need only affect you directly to be in any real danger. But I know, old one.”

The red light faded.

“I know that the Creator’s enchantment binds you evermore, and that until I provide a reason to do otherwise,” Celestia’s eyes glowed white, “you are beneath me.”

Sky Eater’s hand lowered, but his scowl could melt glaciers and evaporate entire oceans.

“Twilight Sparkle takes quite a lot after you, Daybringer.”

Celestia smirked. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You shouldn’t. Because she’ll be dead before I leave Equestria with my children.”

That smirk fell like an asteroid. Sky Eater’s own smile surfaced.

“Nothing to that, hm?” he prodded.

“Actually, that brings up the other half of my proposition,” Celestia said.

“Oh? Enlighten me.”

Celestia pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “The portal back to Equestria, back to the body that still covers Equestrian skies, back to the sirens true forms…”

Sky Eater grinded his teeth, his glare wide-eyed and scorching.

“It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

“You. Wouldn’t. Dare.”

Celestia’s smirk returned. “I wouldn’t, no. But the ponies you so foolishly antagonized would do it in my stead. I gave them an hour. If I’ve not returned to Equestria in one hour, all bets are off. The portal will be destroyed. Your children will forever remain here, as will you and I.”

Sky Eater’s teeth ground harder, a bead of sweat falling down his forehead.

“I… I see,” he muttered. He relaxed and adopted a calm face. “That’s quite the proposition, Daybringer. Might I ask what you demand in return?”

Celestia’s arms crossed over her armored chest. “I ask that you leave this world, leave Equestria, and continue your role in the cosmos.”

The bearded man raised a brow.

“You call me ‘Daybringer’, old one. That name defines my very purpose, as the destruction of dying worlds defines yours. I would not have the great balance broken, nor would I have you force that upon me.”

Sky Eater remained silent, and Celestia closed her eyes.

“I ask that you take your children and leave. Do not come back until the time is right. That goes for both worlds.”

Still, Sky Eater remained silent. For minutes, magenta and yellow eyes were locked, gauging, calculating. His brows furrowed in thought, eyes now searching the ground. Celestia’s heart drummed in her chest; she thought she could actually feel it beneath her chestplate.

Blaring sirens shattered the silence.

With a start, Celestia spun completely around. Red and blue lights flashed, reflecting off the surface. Well over a dozen strange creatures, each adorned in gleaming black and white hide, came to a screeching halt around Canterlot High School.

Humans garbed in blue attire poured out from these metallic creatures, each of them diving behind the statue, or the creatures’ flat, metal arms. Celestia heard several clicks and clacks ring in the air.

“ALRIGHT, BIG GUY! STEP AWAY FROM THE LADY! HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, AND ON THE F**KING GROUND, NOW!”

Celestia’s breath hitched as her eyes grew and grew.

“Well then,” Sky Eater said with a grin. “It seems your little human friends have other plans for me.”

Celestia whipped back to her adversary. “No! There’s still time! Just take the sirens and leave!”

The bearded giant grinned wider.

> The Greatest Threat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Celestia was frozen.

Not often did her limbs lock up on her, even in her most frightening circumstances, like when her sister transformed into Nightmare Moon, or when the Changeling Queen invaded Canterlot and overpowered her. But when she saw Sky Eater face the distant, blue-clad humans with a predatory grin, movement was all but impossible.

“You know, Daybringer,” Sky Eater began, “If you want my personal opinion, these humans came at the right time. Maybe now I can educate you on something.”

Celestia became maddeningly aware of her own skin and the sweat running beneath her armor.

“That wasn’t part of my proposition, Sky Eater,” she said. “Leave them be.”

Sky Eater’s grin remained strong. “But, of course. In fact, I think I’ll just take my leave right now, save us all some grief.”

One armored foot stepped forward, and another chorus of metallic clicks and clacks rang into the air.

“Freeze! I said hands on your head and ON THE GROUND!”

Sky Eater stopped, his grin widening. “Oh, my. Quite the dilemma in which I find myself, it seems.”

Celestia clench a fist. “Enough! Why do you antagonize them?!”

“Antagonize? My dear, dear alicorn, I’m merely trying to respect your proposition―to leave this world and not return until the time is right. I’m certainly not hoping they’ll do something we’re all going to regret, and force me to… exercise extreme measures. Heavens, no.”

He took another step forward.

“Alright, ass clown! Not another step, or we WILL open fire!”

He stopped again and chuckled deeply. Celestia dashed forward and stood in his path.

“Do you think me fool, Sky Eater?!”

The robed giant crossed his arms, grin never fading. “Well, of course I do, but that’s hardly the point. My choices are rather limited, wouldn’t you agree?”

Celestia’s eyes darted side to side, biting her bottom lip. She looked back up at Sky Eater with a resolute frown.

“Let me talk to them,” she said.

Sky Eater scoffed. “Surely you jest.”

Celestia stood her ground. “If I can convince them the move away from the portal, then blood needn’t be shed.”

He held his grin. “And if you fail?”

Celestia stared hard at the bearded giant.

“Lady, get out of the way! Take cover!”

Sky Eater’s grin sharpened. “Diplomacy is a foolish option here, Daybringer. It is worn out. Old news, one might say. But my option is just dying to be abused.”

Celestia kept her hard stare. “You cannot harm them. Doing so will only destroy you.”

“Hm. I speak not of violence, alicorn. According to your little dragon’s memories, the youth of this world refer to it as ‘trolling’, and as a warning from one friend to another, it’s not getting old anytime soon.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “And what exactly is this ‘trolling’?”

“Shouldn’t you be trying to negotiate with those savages right now?”

The former alicorn’s nostrils flared.

“Proceed. I will remain here and squeeze as much out of this as I can.”

The wind picked up, and Celestia’s already-flowing hair whipped about. She looked up and saw more strange metallic creatures, soaring toward them with spinning blades, bright light beaming from each of them.

“You’d better hurry,” Sky Eater said.

He crossed his robed arms and lowered his head. His eyes lost their glow and closed gently.





Rainbow Dash grunted and shouted as five pairs of arms held her back.

“You backstabbing, ungrateful bitches!”

Sonata winced, Aria frowned with crossed her arms, and Adagio remained impassive.

“You enjoy the show? Huh?! You get off watching us die?!” Rainbow’s curled fingers reached for the sirens, but her friends held fast.

“Ugh! Back off, Dash!” Applejack shouted, yanking at the athlete’s torso.

“Listen to her!” Rarity chimed, pushing against Rainbow’s chest alongside Sunset Shimmer. “We’re in enough trouble as it is!”

Soon enough, with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy constricting both legs, Rainbow ceased. The blue girl stood her ground, shaking, heaving, and glaring at the sirens.

“Why?” Rainbow asked. “Why did you just stand there? Why didn’t you try to stop him?” Neither siren gave her eye contact. “Why?”

“We just…” Adagio began, still unable to look at Rainbow. “We can’t. He’s our father. It’s not our place to interfere.” Her magenta eyes whipped to Sonata and frowned. “Or to disobey him.”

Sonata wrung her hands together and stared at the ground.

“That’s not good enough! We’re supposed to be friends!” Rainbow argued.

Aria threw a menacing glare at the colorful athlete. “Guess we’re square then, right?”

Rainbow frowned harder. “What are you talking about?”

“The better question is, why didn’t you tell us about the portal?” Aria growled.

Rainbow’s glare crumbled away.

Adagio chimed in, “The gateway to Equestria―to our true selves… Why did you keep it from us?”

Rainbow couldn’t find words. Sunset Shimmer stepped up beside her.

“I tried to tell you earlier, girls,” Sunset said.

“And how does that count for all the months you didn’t tell us?” Aria demanded, her tone raised a bit.

Sonata’s sad moistening eyes slowly rose to Pinkie Pie and stayed their. “Didn’t you trust us?”

The averted eyes, rubbed elbows and bitten lips said it all. 

Adagio glared. “Helping us keep our apartment. Acclimating us to Canterlot High. Sitting with us for hours, listening to our stories. Helping us write new songs. What exactly was it all for? To keep us blind, deaf and dumb? To keep us on a leash?”

Sunset glared right back. “That’s not fair. With everything that happened with that whole ‘Battle of the Bands’ thing, we couldn’t be too careful. We had no idea if you’d gain your powers back if you left. Worse, we couldn’t be sure if you’d leave Equestria in peace.”

Each Siren looked as though they’d been slapped.

“Is that what you really thought?” Sonata said, her own frown finally forming. “That we’d just throw everything we’ve learned with you away? That we’d try to enslave Equestria again?”

Sunset narrowed her glare. “Would you have?”

Sonata gasped with a hand to her chest

“Sunset!” Pinkie admonished.

“If your father never knew about all this, and I told you about the portal, would you have spared Equestria?”

Long seconds of silence curdled the air. Adagio stared. Sunset stared right back. The latter won that contest, and her brows knitted.

“Look… I’m―”

“Stop.” Adagio rubbed her forehead with her thumb and index. “It doesn’t matter.”

Sunset stepped forward. “Yes it does.”

“No it doesn’t...” Adagio turned away and stared sadly at her father. “We’d have had no choice. One way or another, Equestria would’ve had to fall by our song.”

There was another tide of silence.

“Your mission…” Sunset muttered, brows still knitted. “The one your father was talking about―’your role in the cosmos’... That was it, wasn’t it?”

“No,” Aria answered. “Well… not entirely. It’s complicated.”

“Don’t give me that,” Sunset snapped. “With everything that’s already happened, and what we’re up against, we’ve earned a straight answer from you.”

Each siren turned to look at the fiery-haired girl.

“You want the truth?” Adagio asked. The Rainbooms nodded. The eldest siren turned back “Right. The truth...”





Whispers. Loud, unending whispers.

It had started only minutes ago, yet Twilight could’ve sworn it’d been longer. At first she merely ignored them as she sat on her throne, a sleeping Spike curled on her lap. Then the whispers persisted, growing louder, like thousand of needles scraping at a chalkboard.

She’d already levitated her little dragon to Rarity. The unicorn may’ve indeed asked what was troubling her, but Twilight couldn’t hear her. Instead, she began pacing around the rotunda. Eyes narrowed and lips pursed, Twilight focused on the whispers, on what they said.

Many times she very nearly shouted ‘Shut up!’, or ‘Does anypony else hear that!’, but surely Applejack and Rarity would’ve thought she’d lost her mind. Ironically, Twilight was very close to losing her mind.

Everytime she came close to deciphering one whisper, the rest intensified, and she’d be right back where she started.

“Leave me alone…” Twilight couldn’t tell if she’d whispered that, or shouted it.

She looked to her two friends, and of course, they were staring at her. Applejack hopped off her own throne and sauntered toward her. Twilight paced a little faster.

The whispers exploded with ringing and screeching, and Twilight nearly planted herself to the floor and shoved her hooves in her ears, but she narrowed her eyes and held fast, still dissecting what she could.

Hear me, Twilight.

Look to the sky, Twilight.

You’re letting her down again, Twilight.

Twilight.

Twilight.

“Twilight?” Applejack’s voice cut into the voices, and silenced them completely. “I asked if you was alright.”

Twilight didn’t stop pacing. “I-I’m fine. Just a little stressed.”

She wasn’t looking at her, but Twilight just knew that Applejack’s eyes lidded.

“Sugar, Princess Celestia’s barely been gone ten minutes. We gotta have faith that she knows what to do.”

Twilight stopped pacing, glanced blankly at her friend, and started pacing again. Anything Applejack may’ve said was drowned out by the returned whispers. This time, they were concise. Clear. And she recognized the voice all too well.

Celestia will fail you.

And you will fail her all the same.

“Gah! Shut up!”

Twilight’s eyes widened at her own shout. She turned around and saw a shocked Rarity and Applejack.

“D-darling, I was merely saying we should check up on Rainbow Dash.”

Dwell in joy, Twilight.

While you can.

Twilight could feel her eye twitch and her teeth clench. “You’re… you’re right, we should check on her.”

“Check on who now?”

The mares turned left and saw a smirking Rainbow Dash with a bandaged left wing and splintered left arm.

Applejack shook her head and laughed. “Leave it to you to get hit by lightning and walk it off,” she said.

Dash’s smirk widened. “Heh. Barely felt a thing.” Her left wing twitched. “Ow!”

Fluttershy walked up behind her. “Oh, I told you I should have tightened your bandages.” She reached for the singed wing. “Here, let me―”

“No!” Rainbow shrieked, jolting back from the yellow hoof. “I-I mean, you know, there’s no need.”

Savor their presence, Twilight.

Applejack rolled her just before she noticed something amiss. “Say, where’s Pinkie Pie? Wasn’t she with you two?”

Both pegasi shared a worried glance.

“It was the strangest thing,” Fluttershy began. “She hardly said a word while Dashie was uncon―”

“Ra-HARGHM!”

Fluttershy’s eyes lidded. “While she was resting her eyes, that is. She just… stared out the window, looking at the clouds.”

Savor it.

Rarity raised a hoof to her chest. “Heavens, I do hope she’s alright.”

Rainbow frowned. “Um, hello? Struck by lightning here.”

“Whatever Miss ‘Barely-Felt-A-Thing,’” Applejack teased. She smirked at Rainbow’s low grumbles. “I’ll go and check on he―”

“I’ll go.”

All eyes whipped to Twilight. Before Applejack could even protest, the alicorn was already trotting past them all.

“I need something to occupy myself, anyway.”

“But… I… Alright then?” Applejack muttered.


**********


Twilight knew Pinkie Pie.

As such, she knew that a quiet Pinkie Pie was usually a bad sign. The alicorn wasn’t sure how long she’d stood at the door, watching her friend stare out the window. She wasn’t even sure if Pinkie had noticed her come in.

Twilight walked forward. Pinkie’s ears jolted up, then relaxed again. Twilight sat beside her in momentary silence.

“Hey,” Twilight said.

“Hey,” Pinkie replied.

Yes. Something was definitely eating at her.

“The others are worried about you,” Twilight said. “What are you thinking about?”

“What you said before the princess left through the portal. What he planned to do?”

“Yeah?”

Pinkie raised her hooves to the windowsill. “I don’t want anypony to get hurt, but that’s exactly what he’s going to do, isn’t it?”

Suddenly Twilight could feel the bags beneath her eyes. “Not if Princess Celestia has anything to do with it.”

“Yeah. Well, I was just thinking that…” Pinkie sighed. “I get it.”

Twilight turned to the baker with a hiked brow.

“The things he said he’d do to your friends on the other side? I… I get it.”

“Pinkie, that’s―!”

“I’m not saying I agree with it!” Pinkie snapped. She curbed her tone. “I’m just… When you told us what he was, what he’s done―you know, like how you did with the sirens―I felt the same way about him that I did about those three.”

Twilight tried to cool the burning lump in her chest with deep breaths. “What did you feel?”

“That he was a big, dumb meanie-pants that needed more rainbow lazers in his diet.”

Twilight snorted with a crooked smile.

“But then you said he was their father, and all I could think was ‘I get it.’”

The burning in Twilight’s chest grew. “Why? Surely you’re not justifying his actions…”

Pinkie turned to the other mare with a sad frown. “When a momma duck leads her ducklings from pond to pond, she doesn’t do it because she thinks crossing busy roads are fun or exciting. She does it to take care of her babies. When a momma lioness sees a antelope that’ll feed her cubs for a week, she doesn’t hunt it for sport or pride. She does it to take care of her babies.”

“What are you getting at, Pinkie?”

The earth pony sighed. “I don’t know. I just…” She pressed her forehead against the window pane. “I can’t stop thinking about what I’d do if someone ever threatened Pound Cake or Pumpkin Cake. I know they’re not mine, but I’ve been with them since they were born and just the thought them being hurt makes me so... “

Twilight gave a cautious look to Pinkie’s now-shaky hooves.

“I get it. That’s all.”

Pinkie’s hooves left the window sill, and she resumed her thousand yard stare into the blackened sky.

The whispers returned in kind, and Twilight was barely aware of her own pained grunt. She massaged her temple, and stared out the window too.

Stand and face me, Twilight.

“Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

Twilight pushed the window open, the wind whipping her mane about like leaves in a hurricane.

“Don’t tell the others I’ve gone.”

She didn’t wait for a reply. She spread her wings and darted toward the sky.


**********


Twilight was no stranger to peril. From rancid hydras to three-headed hell hounds, one could say that she was an expert on the subject.

But if someone ever told her she’d be riding upwind through webs and webs of sky-shattering lightning, she laugh them right out of Ponyville.

Yet, there she was, dodging and deflecting said lightning with sharp eyes and bared teeth. She needed only to reach above the clouds, and she’d be… relatively safe.

She did reach above the clouds, and what she saw nearly clamped her wings shut. For mile―hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles―the sky was practically embraced a serpentine body. Her jaw fell open as she watched the slithering rollercoaster of dark-green scales.

She looked up to another layer of clouds; impossible by normal means, but they were there. From those clouds, a titanic hand descended.

Directly toward her.

She very nearly darted away, but held her position with a resolute frown. The hand stopped, turned up, and opened. The invitation was almost painfully clear.

Before she knew it, Twilight was shifting on her hooves, the scales beneath her burning and freezing both at once. Though, she may have been just the slightest bit worried that those mountainous fingers would close and crush her.

She started to regret this decision.

“And so we meet again, Twilight Sparkle. Face to face.”

Twilight’s ear and eye twitched at the deep echo in her skull.

“Err! I’m right here before you. Get out of my head…” she muttered through clenched teeth.

“This way is best. Heed me when I say that speaking aloud is…”

PROBLEMATIC

Twilight’s ears caved and wilted, her head pounding, losing her balance and stumbling to her knees. With shaky legs, she stood straight again, sweat dotting her now-worried face.

“My words are forces of nature, young one. Every breath a hurricane. Every syllable an earthquake. I am far too close to this world to speak.”

Twilight stopped the insufferable shaking in her legs, and locked onto eyes that dwarfed her castle a thousand times over. “What do you want from me?”

“A little of your time, princess,” Sky Eater said. “I surmise that it’s fair to enlighten you on current events, and what is in store.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Save it. I already know what’s in store. You’re going to leave my friends, and both our worlds in peace, or suffer the consequences.”

For a moment, Twilight thought it a tad excessive to stomp her hoof at her last word. The rumbling beneath her and the gargantuan fingers curling and twitching only affirmed that.

“I will never understand how you ponies think you can talk to just anyone like that. Least of all, you.” Sky Eater’s fingertips sparked like lightning rods. “Death’s gaze falls squarely on you and those who dare defile my beautiful sirens, and you would assume that tone with me? I could crush you like an ant, Twilight Sparkle. With an honest-to-God smile on my face.”

Twilight swallowed, but she didn’t gulp. That was a faux pas she could ill afford.

“But you won’t… will you, Sky Eater…?”

“Do not misunderstand. Your time will come. The humans will fall.”

Twilight glared at those eyes shining above the clouds.

“But as I told you, I wish only to enlighten you on current events, and what is to come,” the titan said. “Right now, your mentor stands between me and retribution. I imagine her being there in your stead is a ‘safeguard.’”

Twilight scoffed. “You figure that out all by yourself?”

The sky was hammered with ear-splitting thunder, and the landscape-like palm jumped and twitched. Twilight face planted into a diamond-hard scale. She picked herself up and stared into the sky again. That time, she couldn’t help but gulp when an enormous reptilian face pushed through those clouds.

“Tread carefully, alicorn. You try my patience.”

Twilight said not a word.

“Hm. You two are so much alike it’s almost frightening. Makes me wonder why you’d promise to destroy the portal with her on the other side.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up as though she’d been caught stealing. From above, the giant face grinned.

I would’ve never imagined you to agree to that. You, whose very life and destiny was shaped by her hooves. You, who would’ve never known companionship without her intervention. Yet you would condemn her to an eternity in that ape-infested world?”

Twilight hesitated.

“I-if it means stopping you…”

Sky Eater’s grin remained. “You’re as cold as ice, Twilight Sparkle. Do you know that?”

Her teeth caught her bottom lip, now staring at the scales beneath her.

“Tell me. Did you also agree to let my children and I go? To return to this dimension and ‘continue our role in the cosmos?’”

Twilight’s eyes lidded.

“Then let me ask you this; do either of you truly know our role in the cosmos? Do you know how Equestria plays a part in that role?”

Her eyes hiked up, and she threw her eyes back up at his.

“When my sirens first came to this world, their goal was simple: enslave, manipulate, conquer. It is their nature, their purpose, and they’ve become… quite proficient over the eons. Many worlds became slaves to their whim, and just as many tore themselves apart by their command.”

“But why?! Why divide and conquer?” Twilight demanded.

“I serve the Great Balance of the universe, alicorn. Such has been my task since the beginning of time. The power to destroy… But, as you already know, your Creator limited that to some degree. Even after my banishment from the Eternal Throne, I could only devour worlds that could barely sustain life. In come my offspring.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “You… you can’t mean…”

“With every note, a community splintered. With every lyric, a city crumbled. With every melody, a country divided. War, destruction, and chaos followed every single time. When all was said and done, when resources were drained to fuel those wars, when populations decayed from famine and pestilence, my role could then be fulfilled.”

Twilight could no longer feel her legs, and she fell back on her haunches, jaw hanging open.

“My presence has darkened the sky of every dead world. On my roar alone, their continents would crumble and sink into the oceans. Magma would burst to the surface and burn the plants, poison the air. Tidal waves would cleanse what remained, and I would devour my prize. Rather efficient, if I do say so myself.”

By now, Twilight eyes were shifting side to side, processing, dissecting the information. Her heart raced. Her limbs numbed. Her breath became thin and heavy.

“How many… How many worlds?”

Vertigo threatened to cripple the young alicorn. G-force weighed on her back as the hand she stood on ascended. She was closer now to Sky Eater’s hideous face then she ever wanted to be.

MILLIONS…

Her ears caved again, and that time she was almost certain they were bleeding. Even then, she could hear it―the deep, distant crumble of earth. It now took everything in her just to stop shaking. She failed.

“So that was your plan all along,” Twilight said. “That’s why the sirens were here. Because of you, so you could destroy us.”

The serpent snorted, and the clouds swirled and parted.

“Don’t be so simplistic. Why would I want to destroy the key to my children's’ salvation?”

Twilight felt a headache coming on. “What?”

“The Eternal Throne… That is where I belong, where my daughters belong. Paradise made real. A realm so far beyond suffering few can even imagine it. Their mother… she denied them that, as she had denied me.”

“Mother?” Even though she felt it, Twilight couldn’t stop her eyes from widening. They widened so much that it actually started to hurt. “That… that can’t be.”

“I speak only the truth. That said, it is proper for me to tell you what will happen next.”

Twilight cursed herself for gulping yet again.

“Your mentor will let my children and I go free, and we will return to the darkness above. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not a thousand lifetimes from now, but one day, their voices will be restored. We will return to Equestria and they will sing the songs of ages past, to do what they were born to do. And upon their success…”

Twilight could feel her coat bristle and her teeth bare.

“The gates of the Throne will open, and after eons of hiding, the wench who cursed me will finally come out to protect her little pet project. And she will fail.”

Twilight growled.

“I will take her precious creation and twist it, mold it, degenerate it into a dark, lifeless tomb right before her eyes. Then I will destroy her just slowly enough for her to realize what she will lose. I will devour her as I should’ve done billions of years ago, and her legacy will become mine.”

“You… you’re insane…”

“I will return to the Eternal Throne with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata. The power to create… the power to destroy. With both at my fingertips, my children will sing to the symphony of destruction that will start the cosmos a new. Countless worlds will die, and from them will come countless others.”

Twilight’s horn glowed, and she had no idea what she was going to do with it.

“Life will start again, and the generations will know of the one true creator. But most importantly of all, my children can live the rest of eternity in peace―”

“HORSE APPLES!”

Sky Eater reeled back like he’d caught an unpleasant stench.

“Are you even listening to yourself?! Do you even know why you’d do such a thing?!” Twilight shouted.

Sky Eater’s eyes narrowed. “What I do, I do for the good of my family.”

“I don’t believe you! You talk like you do this out of love, so the sirens can have a better life?! NO! You’re doing this for you!”

A low growl rumbled the sky.

“Your daughters have a better life! They have friends who care about them, people who stand for them, who nurture them like they were their own! You! You want to take that away just to get back at their mother?! You don’t care for them at all!”

“Choose your next words very carefully, alicorn.”

By the time the red faded from Twilight’s vision, she noticed the mountainous fingers much closer than they were before. Suddenly, breathing took a considerable amount of effort.

“Listen to me. You’ve roamed through Spike’s mind, I know you’ve seen it too. The things we’ve been through, what we’ve learned, the obstacles we’ve overcome. How we’ve gotten on each others nerves. How we can’t seem to stop teaching each other one thing or another.” Twilight held back a smile. “Family―my family―in this world and the other... “

Sky Eater’s eyes remained narrow.

“If you truly care for your family―if you understand the sacrifices one makes to protect them―then how can you threaten to kill somepony else’s?”

Silence followed, filled only with distant thunder and chilling winds. Sky Eater uncurled his fingers, and Twilight wiped away tears she didn’t even notice until then.

“Time is short,” Sky Eater said. “You can end this one of two ways; you can return to your castle, disobey your mentor and destroy the portal prematurely, or…”

Twilight knew exactly what he was suggesting. And it was stupid.

“Heed my warning, Twilight Sparkle. If you would protect your own―if you would thwart my intentions―your next move… is critical.”

Sky Eater flipped his hand over, and Twilight screamed as she fell through the clouds. Through her spiraling descent, she saw land again. She opened her wings and hovered just below the swirling black clouds. Lightning lashed within those clouds, a web of chaos raging between her and the Destroyer of Creation.

“I trust you’ll make the right choice.”

As the clouds swirled to a close, Sky Eater’s eyes lost their glow and closed. 

Twilight’s ears drooped as she stared down at Equestria―her castle. The choice she had to make... she knew that choice would be the right one. It had to be.

It just had to...

> Pretty Little Lies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Look, for the last time, lady, we can’t just let him go. I don’t know what rock you’ve been livin’ under, but that’s not how the law works.”

Balance.

Yes, that’s why the Princess Celestia―Ruler of Equestria, Tamer of the Sun, Commander and Chief of the Equestrian Army―was standing there trying to reason with a man a sixty-fourth her age.

Balance also happened to be why she kept a solid face and didn’t frown. Balance is why she hadn’t told him or his comrades what she was―what their adversary was, for that matter. More importantly, balance is what kept the man standing upright, instead of writhing beneath Celestia with a foot on his throat.

Celestia gave a tiny wince at that last thought.

“Please, forgive my trespass, good sir,” she apologized. Again. “I realize you’re only doing your job. You make a fine soldier.”

“First off, I’m no soldier. Military’s a joke. Second, if butterin’ me up the last four times didn’t work, why are you still tryin’?” 

Balance. She needed only to remember the stakes, and the sensitivity of those stakes

“I am only being cordial, sir, “Celestia said.” Now, as I said, the situation is well under control, but I can only keep it that way if you and your comrades leave. I cannot guarantee your safety otherwise.” 

The moment the brash young man laughed, and soiled her unblemished, unstained, maintained-for-centuries battle armor with spittle, Celestia considered slapping him in front of his men.

“Okay, lady. No matter how many times I try, I can’t see the logic here. You’re telling me that after breaking multiple laws, all of which are actionable offenses, we should just... let this psycho free?”

“Yes.”

“And we should all just ignore the ramifications of that? Big bad terrorist over here blows up a civilian learnin’ facility, threatens six students of that facility, and rattles not only the neighboring residents, but the entire damn city, and you―some random lady wearin’ armor she bought from Party-F**kin’-City―has it ‘well under control?’”

Right. Gauntlet on, or gauntlet off? Celestia thought with a deep, nasally breath. 

“Yes.”

The officer stared up at her with crooked lips. “‘Kay. So, you gonna piss in my ear and tell me it’s rainin’ too? Ooh! Even better: you gonna tell me the magical girls with wings, portals to different dimensions and the talking-goddamn-dog on the internet are the real deal?”

Oh, so help me... By now, Celestia was all-too aware of her own now-hairless flesh. 

“Sir,” she unclenched her jaw, “consider this; if the criminal in question had no intention of complying in anyway, why is he waiting for us now?”

The young man arched an eyebrow. Celestia remained passive.

“He could’ve taken any moment we’ve been speaking to carry out his acts, or even attack you and your men. He didn’t.”

The policemen leaned aside and glanced at the stock-still, cross-armed freak of nature standing peacefully still far behind Celestia. Head inclined. Breathing slow and rhythmic. Almost like he was… like he was―

“Is he sleeping?”

Celestia raised a brow and turned to look. Sure enough, a light snore came from Sky Eater’s direction. The former alicorn frowned.

Why in Equestria is he―? No. This could be my only chance.

Celestia tucked her colorful hair behind her ear, and corrected herself back toward the officer with a breath.

Screeching static bored into the princess’ ear. Her eyes squeezed shut, lips twisted together. Muffled chatter followed.

As if on instinct, the policemen unclipped a strange black device from his blue vest and spoke.

“Copy that, HQ. We have a confirmed 10-80, 10-70 in progress. Over.”

More of that ear-grating, static-y voice. The policemen blinked, then frowned at the device in his hand. He brought it to his lips again.

“Didn’t copy that. Over.”

More static-y voice.

The young man blinked again, this time with his eyes lighting up in disbelief. He brought it to his lips again.

“On whose orders? Over.”

More static.

His arms fell limply to his side, mouth agape. He spoke into it again.

“That’s a 10-30 from Hell, HQ. Please confirm. Over.

A minute passed. Then static, but with a different voice. One that Celestia recognized. She knew she did. The man began squeezing the black device so hard it cracked. He brought it to his lips again, looking about ready to roar into it. He turned his head with a breath, and corrected himself.

“Copy that…”

He cast the device to the grass like a hot stone, and massaged his forehead. 

Celestia hesitated with a raised brow. “Is… everything―”

The young man turned around and shouted, “Stand down, men!”

The surrounding officers―weapons still drawn―looked at their leader, confused.

“You heard me!” The young man sighed. “Stand down…”

Celestia just stared at him. Then he spoke again, his tone weakened. Defeated.

“Take your boyfriend and get the Hell outta here.”

The alicorn’s eyes went wide. “Wait. My wha―”

“Look. I just took the hardest low blow in the long, sad, sterilizing history of all low blows with that last call. But orders are orders, and you need to go.”

“I... don’t know what to say,” Celestia muttered.

“How ‘bout, ‘bye’,” the young man retorted.

Just as Celestia felt another hard frown coming on, a female voice called out behind the policemen. The new arrival marched right up to him, sweat tinting her aqua-colored skin.

“Captain, what’s going on? Half our squad’s already out for blood. Why are we―”

“It’s out of our hands, Fleetfoot,” he said. “This came straight from the top.”

Fleetfoot’s eyes went wide. “No way. No way! Spitfire wouldn’t do that!”

The Captain hesitated, searching the ground. He looked back up at Fleetfoot. “I know…”

“So what are we doing?! We have confirmed witnesses who saw this asshole blow up the school! And we’re just letting him―”

“Lieutenant!”

Fleetfoot stood at attention.

The Captain sighed. “Rally all units and prepare to evacuate the school. We’ve still got work to do.”

“I… Yes sir!” the white haired woman saluted, turned tail, and jogged toward the other policemen.

Celestia had realized, just then, that she was staring. And that her mouth was slightly agape. The Captain turned to her with a tired frown.

“You’re still here?”

Celestia didn’t hear him at all. She was far too busy trying to keep her mind from packing its bags and moving to the Everfree Forest. The longer she looked at him, the clearer it became―the more she knew him.

And she was sure she knew him. The pale skin. The messy hair, blue as the deepest ocean. And his eyes. Those deep, tired emerald his. Eyes of one tried by all walks of life. The eyes of a soldier. Of a young stallion she’d seen more than once alongside two other mares. It was him, but it wasn’t him.

Yet it was.

Finally, Celestia snapped from her reverie and smiled. Even as the Captain had turned and began marching away, she smiled.

“Thank you… Soarin.”

Balance.

Yet again, that word echoed in the former alicorn’s mind when the young man stopped mid-stride, head slightly turned.

Yet she continued to smile, even as she turned to walk away herself.

“Hey.”

Celestia slowed to a stop, back still turned.

“Orders are orders. I said that, and something tells me you understand,” Soarin said. “But if this guy tries anything on the way out―anything―we’re takin’ him down.”

Her smile waned only a little.

“He won’t.”

“And how can you―”

“He can’t. I will not allow it.”

However much longer Soarin stood there, or even anything he may have said, was lost to Celestia as she sauntered toward the slumbering giant ahead of her.

Her smile faded as she approached, once again tensing as gravity increased with every step. She reached him, and he was still snoring. She cleared her throat, and dull yellow light flashed between his closed eyelids.

He blinked once. Then twice.

Sky Eater awakened, and greeted Celestia with a tired smile.

“You have returned, Daybringer… alone?”

Celestia kept her steely expression. “They’ve agreed to my terms.”

It was only for a moment―if she blinked she would have missed it―but Celestia saw doubt in Sky Eater’s face.

“Then my children and I are…”

Celestia nodded. “You’re all free to go. Unrestrained.”

“How very fortunate for us all,” he said, uncrossing his arm.

Celestia’s fingers shifting at her side. “Yes. How fortunate indeed.”

Once again, the Ruler of Equestria and the Destroyer of Creation stood before one another. She leered up. He leered down.

Then he smiled.

“A deal… is a deal,” he said with a slight bow. “A code that all sentient creatures should embrace.”

Sky Eater turned around and scanned the area. Celestia did the same. When she saw her former student and her friends safe and sound, she smiled. Then she saw the sirens standing with them.

“I was beginning to worry you’d grow impatient, old one.”

The two beings walked together toward the distant group, eyes forward.

“I promised you the time to reason with those savages, and that is what you received. Question my acts as you will, Daybringer. But do not doubt my integrity.”

Celestia offered the grass an incredulous glance, and mouthed the word ‘integrity.’

“You’ve given me several reasons to both,” Celestia said.

“Have I?” Sky Eater held his arms out. “Just look at us, alicorn; you and I walking the same path with a mutual understanding and a clear-cut future.”

“Does that trouble you?”

“No. In fact, I’m slightly relieved.”

“And why’s that?”

Celestia saw her counterpart smile in her peripheral.

“Simple. I no longer have to dirty my hands. Which is exactly what would’ve happened if the humans didn’t listen to you. And I can’t very well assume you’d have let that happen,” Sky Eater said.

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “You are beyond correct.”

“Indeed. But, if we’re honest, I’m rather fond of you. At least enough that I wouldn’t… Well, we can just put this whole thing behind us.”

That’s when Celestia stopped. Sky Eater didn’t seem to notice as he marched on.

“I don’t think I like what you’re implying, Sky Eater,” Celestia said, her tone strong and even.

“Hm. I’m not implying anything.”

“Then what were you going to say?” Celestia couldn’t lie to herself if she tried; she felt disturbed. Challenged.

That’s when Sky Eater stopped as well, eyes closed. He turned to Celestia, and the alicorn was torn between insulting him, and driving her knee into his jaw.

“Princess Celestia Sol…” His eyes opened, but there was no yellow. No. His eyes glowed a thick, murky, blood-red. “I would’ve completely decimated you. Mind. Body. And spirit.”

Celestia said not a word. She returned that timeless glare with her own, neither flinching, neither faltering.

The ground between them cracked.

“However…” Sky Eater’s smile returned, eyes returning to normal. “This is for the best. It is time we go our separate ways.”

Celestia did not return that smile. Instead, she released her glare, glued her eyes forward, and marched on. Side by side again, the two proceeded in complete silence.





By all accounts, Sonata Dusk should’ve been used to the silent treatment.

Spending her life with her sisters had definitely been the most of said treatment. But after the fifth time glancing at a certain pink haired girl sitting beside her, Sonata finally realized how much she hated silence.

“Well?” Sonata muttered, staring at her pink boots. “Aren’t you gonna say something?”

A beat of silence.

“What do you want me to say?” Pinkie asked, her tone calm.

Sonata frowned at her boots. “I don’t know―anything. You could ask me why? You could tell me I’m stupid for ever thinking this would be easy? You could tell me you hate me? You cou―”

A strong grip on her shoulder stopped her.

“Stop it,” Pinkie whispered. “Just… just stop.”

Sonata frowned harder. “You all wanted to know the truth―what we were before we met all of you… We gave it to you.”

“Uh-ha. You did.”

Sonata very nearly shrugged away from Pinkie’s grip. “So why did you follow me? Hell, why are you even talking to me? Why don’t you just go back to the others and leave me alone?!”

“Because you need me.”

Sonata’s jaw fell, a squeaky choke leaving her throat. Just as she turned to glare at young baker, her shoulder was smothered by the puffy, bottomless enigma that was Pinkie’s hair.

“Why are you making this so hard?” Sonata muttered.

Silence.

“Why didn’t you just… die? So I could cry, get it over with and forget you?”

More silence.

“Why are you killing me?”

Pinkie’s head burrowed against Sonata’s shoulder.

“It doesn’t have to end―”

“No! Just shut up!” Sonata shouted, ignoring Pinkie’s stronger, more persistent nestling. “I’m still trying to accept the fact that you’re even alive right now. You were all supposed to die. I didn’t want it, but that’s how it had to be. Yet here you are.”

Pinkie latched both her arms around Sonata’s.

“I thought he was gonna kill me when I protected Sunset Shimmer.” The siren’s voice cracked. “Why did I do that? Why did I let you turn me against him?”

Even still, Pinkie remained silent. Sonata wanted to scream at her to say something, but she probably would’ve just screamed at her to shut.

No. She definitely would’ve done that.

“Why didn’t you just die?”

Pinkie. Was still. Silent. By now, it didn’t anger Sonata as much as it concerned her.

“We’re still here, Sonata. Look.”

And the siren did. She lifted her eyes straight ahead, seeing her sisters huddled together, surrounded lovingly by their friends.

“You told us the truth, and none of us blame you for it.”

Sonata squinted, cursing her now-watery vision. Pinkie wasn’t lying. Sonata and her sisters told them everything. The wars they’d started. The worlds they’d broken. The races they’d driven to extinction. All for their father.

Yet, the first answer to all that was a crying Fluttershy throwing herself around them all in a surprisingly strong hug. Soon, the others followed, and Sonata was the first to break away and leave.

And now, here she was, wishing the that most wonderful people in the cosmos were dead so she could return to a life she didn’t want anymore.

“You’re one of us, Sonata. Dagi and Ari too.”

Sonata’s tears fell, but she did not cry. She may’ve done enough of that to last another lifetime. Maybe even two. She turned to stare at the pink puff ball on her shoulder.

“Don’t hate him…” Sonata muttered. The puff ball flipped aside, replaced by two equally bottomless blue eyes. “For what he is, for what he’s done… Don’t hate him.”

Pinkie stared a while longer. The fuzzy warmth returned to Sonata’s shoulder.

“I don’t,” Pinkie said, a smile scarring itself into her voice. “He’s just taking care of his babies.”

Sonata couldn’t recall when she started fighting it, but soon, she let her own smile win. She rested her own weary head onto Pinkie’s and thought that maybe she could tolerate silence one last time.

“Oh my gosh. Look!” Pinkie cried.

Sonata’s eyes snapped open, and she didn’t even know when they’d closed. Her father and Princess Celestia were walking side by side. Straight toward them. The siren and the baker shot to their feet, Pinkie still holding Sonata’s arm.

“Well, they’re not trying to kill each other. That’s a good sign, right?!”

It didn’t take long for Sonata to notice Pinkie’s old mood return. That alone swelled her heart with as much doubt as it did hope.

“Only one way to find out.”


**********


“Wait. You’re kidding, right?” Sunset Shimmer piped up. 

Celestia shook her head with an easy smile. “I am not.”

]“And they’re just gonna let him go?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “Just like that?”

Celestia nodded. “Just like that.”

Rainbow grit her teeth. “But that…!” She leaned aside and shot a glare of the cross-armed man, who―understandably―kept his distance. “That isn’t right…”

Celestia’s smile waned a bit. “I’m sure neither of you would prefer the alternative.”

Rarity shivered a bit. “Most certainly not,” she said.

Celestia’s smile dropped completely when she regarded the sirens.

“You’re all free to go. None shall be harmed today.”

Aria crossed her arms and averted her glare. “Well… all things considered, I suppose we should thank you.”

“Don’t.” Celestia said. Aria shot her a surprised look. “Please do not think I did this for you. Now go. Your father will not wait for much longer.”

“Hold on,” Sonata interjected, gaining an unreadable look from Celestia. “Father’s never made any deals like this before. You’re saying he’s just… going with it?”

“‘It is for the best. It is time we go our separate ways.’” Celestia saw the sirens’ unsure looks. “His words.”

A smile nearly split Sonata face in half. “He… he said that? Him?”

“You’re wasting time,” Celestia said, hands now on her hips.

Adagio stared up at the alicorn with her most patented blank expression. Then, of all things she could’ve done, the eldest siren smiled.

“Hm. Fair enough.” She turned to her sisters. “Shall we, girls?”

Without another word, Adagio walked ahead, toward her father. Toward freedom. Soon enough, her sisters followed suit. Princess Celestia watched them like a hawk. She watched even as they all approached their father.

“Princess?”

Celestia smiled, and turned to her former student. “Yes, Sunset Shimmer?”

The fiery-haired girl rubbed the back of her neck. “How in Equestria did you persuade him to go along with it?”

Celestia’s smile curved. “Careful Diplomacy.” Sunset raised an eyebrow, and her old teacher chuckled softly. “I will explain everything in detail at another time. For now, though…” Her smile dropped, and she turned back toward the ancient family. “I must follow them when they use the portal.”

Sunset’s eyes drained of hope. “W-what?”

“Call it insurance. I do not fully trust Sky Eater.”

“But… you just got here.”

Celestia held it back, but she smile yet again and fully turned to Sunset.

“Equestria is in a state of emergency, Sunset. But more importantly, Twilight Sparkle will be in grave danger when he crosses over.”

Sunset laced her hands together in worry. “But I thought…”

Celestia’s smile dropped again. “He seems to be a creature of his word. If he is, he may stop at nothing to punish Twilight before he leaves Equestria for good. I cannot―will not―allow that.”

Sunset cast her eyes down, rubbing her elbow. “I… I understand. Your duties come first.”

Celestia’s brows knitted with concern, then her smile returned yet again. “Sunset?”

The former unicorn shot her a hopeful―borderline desperate―look. “Yes?”

Celestia placed her armored hands gently on her shoulders. “Would you like me to―

“Yes?!”

“...return here so we can―”

“YES!”

“...catch up?” Celestia finished with a chuckle. “Very well.”

The sun princess swept her eyes along the gaggle of Sunset’s grinning friends. The wonderful girls she’s heard so much about. She turned back to the sirens and their father. They were already walking away.

Which meant she had just enough time for a question that’d nagged at her for months.

“So… Principal, huh?”





Even as they walked unfettered, even as the path to home was clear, Adagio frowned. Aria shared the same look, both exchanging glances every now and then. Sonata? Sonata just skulked beside her familiy, head lowered, eyes heavy and lidded.

“What troubles you, Sonata?” Sky Eater asked. “Your human friends get a tomorrow. Was that not your wish?”

Sonata perked up like she’d been caught dozing off in class. “Oh, I… I’m happy you’ve decided to spare them. I am, but…” She looked up and behind her, at her father. “I’m not looking forward to the Great Sleep.”

Sky Eater kept his hard, ancient gaze at Canterlot High School’s statue.

“Think of it not as punishment, little one, but as restoration. You will sleep, and your voices will be restored.”

Sonata sighed. “But last time we slept for―God, what was it―a thousand years?”

“How else would you have survived on this world without your song, quieted as it was?”

Sonata said nothing, and the four continued along the path in silence. Then Sky Eater saw his other two daughters frowning.

“Don’t tell me you two are having second thoughts,” the bearded giant said.

Aria exchanged another glance with Adagio and said, “Just… curious is all.”

Sky Eater’s eyes returned to the statue. “What’s there to be curious about? Daybringer gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Therefore, human blood shan’t be spilled this day.”

Aria’s frown remained, lips pursed. “Just like that?”

He nodded. “Just like that.”

Adagio stopped right in her tracks. Her sisters stopped alongside, her father stopped behind her.

“But why?” Adagio asked. “Why now?”

Sky Eater said nothing.

The yellow siren turned and faced the giant. “You’ve never agreed to any terms, any compromise, and now you’re making deals with Equestrians?”

Sky Eater’s eyes narrowed, and Adagio’s frown lifted.

“I-I’m not questioning your decision, Father. I just want to know why?”

More silence.

“‘Anything that threatens us is to be destroyed.’ You said that once and you meant it, I know you did. So why? Why are you letting them go so easily?” Adagio stepped to her father, her eyes pleading. “What are we really doing?”

Sky Eater stared down at his daughter, and eyed Sonata’s now-unsure face.

Wavy light burst from the statue. All eyes turned toward the disturbance.

“You!” Sonata yelped.

Aria scowled. “Oh, what’s she doing here?”

Adagio squinted at the new arrival. “Ugh. Not now…” She looked back up at her father, and raised a brow at his smile. “Father?”

“You three.” All sirens jerked to attention. “Wait here.”

As Sky Eater marched past his daughters, Sonata timidly reached for him. “W-wait! What are you doing?”

Sky Eater marched on and his smile dropped.

“Breaking this deal.”


**********


Sky Eater‘s eyes were hard and cold upon the lavender young girl glaring up at him. “So… you’ve come. Just as I’d expected.”

“Guess I arrived right on time,” Twilight said.

“Hm. Indeed you have. I knew you’d make the right choice.” Sky Eater observed the surrounding policemen. “Though it seems we have a dilemma. I wish to leave, you wish to stop me. Where do we go from here, alicorn?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I think we both know the answer to that question.”

The robed man smirked. “Well, I thought I did, but the bruise on your face is giving me pause.”

With a flinch, Twilight looked away and lifted a hand to her darkened, swollen eye.

“That’s none of your business…” Twilight muttered.

Sky Eater chuckled softly. “Yes… I wondered if you’d be a little smarter than your mentor, and at least bring help. They did offer their aid, did they not? Your friends?”

Twilight kept her eyes averted, and Sky Eater’s smirk widened.

“My, oh my… You were cut loose, weren’t you?”

“Enough!” Twilight barked. His smirk dropped. “I didn’t come here to waste my time talking to you!”

Sky Eater crossed his robed arms “ Is that a fact? Then I suppose you’re just going to waltz right past me, reunite with your moronic friends and vanquish me into the nothingness from whence I came with ‘The Most Powerful Magic of All?’”

Twilight hesitated for only an instant, but her resolute frown returned.

Sky Eater shook his head. “Well, between you and your brother, it’s clear where all the intelligence went. How long will it take you to understand that you’re here because I want you to be?”

“Leave my brother out of this, you snake,” Twilight warned through clenched teeth.

“Yes, you’re right, of course. This is between us, is it not? And you’re here now, so by all means,” the bearded man held his arms out, his armored chest showing proudly, “stop me.”

Twilight balled a fist. “Get out of my way, and consider it done.

Sky Eater’s eye twitched as he inhaled a hissing breath through his nose. “Still you assume that tone with me, you little―” He exhaled quietly. “It no longer matters, and your survival is no longer a factor.”

Finally, Twilight’s eyes settled past her foe, past the sirens, and onto the wreckage of Canterlot High School.

“No!” She whipped her head back up to Sky Eater. “What did you do?!”

Her breath caught in her throat. A scorching heat touched her face as she stared at a huge, armored palm.

“You heard me.” His palm glowed red. “Perish now.”

Twilight yelped and shielded her eyes with crossed arms. Sky Eater frowned.

“Without your friends holding your hoof, you truly are nothi―Gah! What the―”

Sky Eater’s beard was yanked to the left, and his jaw met the broad end of an armored knee. His roar faded as he soared away. Twilight unshielded her eyes just as Princess Celestia landed beside her.

“Father!”

Teeth bared and eyes glowing white, Celestia glared at the three sisters.

Adagio gasped. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Except Celestia would’ve dared. In fact, she dared without hesitation as she held out both glowing palms. The sirens shrieked and fled in the same direction their father flew. 

There was silence, silence that Twilight Sparkle wasn’t sure she was ready to break. But when Celestia whipped her furious eyes to her, Twilight knew she didn’t have to.

“Why, Twilight? I said not to.”

Yes, her tone was calm, her words clean, but the knit of her brows? The crease on her forehead? There was no hiding Celestia’s anger.

Anger. Directed at Twilight.

“I…” Twilight realized she was cowering, knees tapping together, fingers curled to her chin. She quashed her fear and straightened her posture. “I had to.”

Celestia’s frown hardened. “No. We both agreed that this was the only way. The only way to keep you safe.”

“But this is bigger than just me. Bigger than you. We can’t let them go.”

“Twilight, we…” Celestia’s eyes went wide and bewildered.

Twilight nearly asked what she was staring at, then turned away with a tiny gasp. Smooth fingers touched her face.

“What…? When...?” Celestia stammered.

Twilight turned further away from the touch,to hide her swollen bruise.

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight whispered





Sky Eater awakened with a deep groan, his eyes shutting tighter as he was pushed and prodded from sleep.

“Father?! Father, please get up!”

With another groan, he rolled his head from side to side, and his eyes opened. He saw Sonata’s smiling, teary face. He felt his own smile, reaching for his daughter. She took his enormous, armored hand with both of her’s and pressed it against her cheek. Her smile grew and more tears fell.

“Where…”

“Here, father,” came Aria’s voice.

He rolled his head aside and saw his other two offspring. They each took his other hand and cradled it gently.

His smile faded as rose to sit. He felt his daughters hands on his back to steady him.

“I thought, our little sun princess was all talk,” Sky Eater said. He winced at a deep pain in his jaw. “What a surprise.”

He squinted an eye at his own words. They sounded… off. He felt Adagio’s slender fingers touch his bearded jaw line. 

“Father, your jaw…” she said, eyes bright with concern.

Sky Eater smiled crookedly, realizing exactly what’d happened. He grabbed his broken jaw and yanked it to the left. A deep crackle and pop. A grunt of pain. A collective wince from his children.

“This form is fragile,” he said.

He saw his youngest gazing in the portal’s direction.

“We gotta go,” Sonata said.

Sky Eater knew that tone well. Sonata was scared, frantic. Akin to the many times she’d stared up at him when she’d done something wrong.

“They’re all here now,” she continued. “Their power… Father we have to leave.”

Sky Eater’s smile dropped. “Yes. Yes, they’re all here. All in one place.”

Adagio and Aria exchanged another glance.

“That… that is bad, right?” Aria asked.

Sky Eater said nothing, and saw Adagio’s lidded eyes.

“You were never going to spare them, were you?” That wasn’t really a question.

Sonata head snapped to her sister. “Wait. What are you saying?”

A sardonic smile found the elder sister’s lips. “You lied to us.”

Sonata turned to her father, the last of hope slowly falling off her face. She turned back to Adagio.

“Th-that can’t be right,” Sonata said. “He said… he said this was for the best, that we should go our separate ways.” She turned back to him. “You said that, Father, and you meant it, right?”

Sky Eater’s stare softened when Sonata’s voice cracked.

“Right?” 

Finally, he answered.

“This is how you all survive, little one. This is how I keep you safe.”

Sonata fell back on her bottom, fist to her chest, shaking her head. “You… you lied.”

Sky Eater sighed a heavy sigh, a thick black fog bursting then fading from his mouth. “Yes. I did.”

“Why?” came Aria’s low voice.

The robed giant clenched a fist and held it before him. Thinking.

“Daybringer warned me that the portal between worlds would be destroyed if the allowed hour expired before her return. I persuaded Twilight Sparkle to come here, for I knew she’d never let this world fall to ruin. It was simple, really; Equestria wouldn’t stand for losing two princesses―one being an Element of Harmony. I needed only to bring her here, and the rest fell in line.”

“And what about us?” Aria continued, her tone raising just a skosh. “Was lying to us part of the plan?”

Sky Eater’s eyes roamed the ground, fist falling to his lap. “Twilight’s arrival was planned, even intended. But… had she stayed in Equestria...”

Aria crossed her arms and turned away. Sky Eater didn’t correct her.

“Father?” Sonata said. “What if she stayed?”

“We would have left this world, and I would’ve exterminated her. Part of Daybringer’s proposal was that I return to the two worlds only at the appointed time. Likely, the portal would’ve been destroyed in our absence. But the princess of friendship would’ve been dead, and the means by which you’d been silenced would’ve been no more.”

“But I don’t understand,” Sonata continued. “If there was even the smallest chance to leave without a problem, why bring the purple thing here at all?”

Sky Eater shot a glowing stare at the surrounding, distant police officers. “I had no way of knowing these humans would comply with Daybringer’s terms. Had they not, conflict would’ve been inevitable. I would’ve retaliated. Daybringer would’ve tried to stop me. The hour may have expired, and the portal may have been destroyed. I needed insurance.”

“But none of that happened, did it?” came Aria’s now angry tone, arms still crossed, head still turned away. “So what happens now that Twilight Sparkle’s here?”

For a long, long moment, Sky Eater was completely silent, and the thunderous, darkened sky above had quieted to a dull growl.

He stared at Aria for a time, his chest pulling tight. He raised his hand, and the three sirens glowed and raised with it. They drifted before him and were placed down carefully like fine glass. His strong hand found Sonata’s right shoulder, his other found Aria’s left, sandwiching Adagio between them.

“Now I kill them all. None will be left with the strength to oppose us.”

Immediately, Sonata’s tears fell freely, Aria tried in vain to wrest herself away, and Adagio tiredly shook her head.

“As I said, my children, one day you will understand why this is necessary.”

Adagio laughed with no joy whatsoever. “‘Necessary?’ Father, they’re no match for you. They’re not even a threat to you. They―”

His hands left his daughters’ shoulders and patted his armored chest.

“Me? Me―you think I’m doing this for me?”

The sirens snapped to attention.

“How long before the absence of magic would take you? How long before the ‘help’ of these humans ceases to nourish you? How long before you would all…”

The sisters said nothing.

“Sonata.”

The youngest tensed.

“Earlier when you defended Sunset Shimmer… Did you believe I would hurt you?”

Sonata stared up at him, and his chest pulled tighter. She shook her head, and a silent sigh escaped the bearded giant.

“You all have your duty to me, as I have mine to you. I’m going to keep you alive. I’m going to get us through this. And one day, when you’re bathing in the eternal light of home, you’ll all look back on this and thank me.”

And they would thank him. Perhaps not right away, or when he wanted them to, but they would.

Then, the very last thing he expected to happen, happened.

His daughters lunged at him with a powerful embrace. He froze for a time, arms slightly raised, locked in place. He blink once, then twice, then thrice. He swallowed thickly and returned the embrace.

“I will always see to it that no harm comes to you. And now… now I lay you down to sleep.”

The sirens all looked up at him―neither one with dry eyes―confused. He waved a finger from one siren to the last, and each of their pupils faded. With a collective exhale, they fell limply onto him. There the ancient family remained, father holding his sleeping whelps.

Blinking his tears back.

“Fear not, my children, for I am with you. Always.” He bit the inside of his cheek, stroking Adagio’s hair. “I’ve pushed you all so hard. Even for all your failures, you’ve made me so very proud. Your brother would’ve felt the same were he still…”

No. Reminiscing could wait.

His eyes narrowed and focused. With a raised hand, the slumbering sirens floated before him again.

“When you awaken, this will all be but a terrible, terrible dream.”

Sky Eater cupped his massive hands together, both crackling with power. His hands shot forward, and his daughters were engulfed with blue light. The light took shape, then mass, and soon, the three sisters slumbered in a single, solid, translucent rock.

He raised both hands higher, and the rock darted to the sky, high above the city of Canterlot.

Sky Eater gave his daughters a final, lingering stare. He sighed another heavy sigh, another cloud of black fog leaving his mouth.

“I’m… sorry I lied to you,” he muttered. “But it was necessary then, and is necessary again. I will not lose you to these wicked creations.”

Sky Eater finally tore his sight away from his sirens, eyes now dark with resolve. He saw his targets. The whole reason his family had suffered.

He craned his neck to the side. *Crack*

Then the other side. *Crack*

He pressed his fists together, a deep, loud, oh-so-satisfying crackle filling his ears.

“Rest now, children. Your father’s about to put in some work.”
> Wrath of the Destroyer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“He did what?” Celestia exclaimed. Surely, she’d misheard.

“He destroyed our instruments. Like they were nothing,” Sunset Shimmer reaffirmed, rubbing her elbow.

The armored princess gave the ground a sidelong glance. “I don’t suppose you’ve any other means of using your magic in this world?”

Sunset closed her eyes wistfully. “There’s still so much about this world’s magic that we don’t understand. So far, music is the only way we’ve found.”

“I see…” Celestia muttered, her eyes still cast to the ground.

The situation put a knot in Celestia’s chest. If Sky Eater removed the Rainbooms’ only means of fighting back so easily, she shuddered to think what would happen if the Elements of Harmony still relied on trinkets. But that was the least of her worries at present.

She regarded the unusually silent Twilight Sparkle standing beside her. Truthfully, Celestia was still quite upset with the younger princess for completely ignoring the plan they’d discussed back on Equestria: Stay put, stay safe and stay the hell away from Sky Eater while Celestia handled it. Simple.

She couldn’t help but think that Twilight’s swollen eye had something to do with it. She decided it best not to pry for now.

“Twilight.” The lavender girl jerked from whatever trance she was in and looked up at the elder princess. “Sunset.” The former unicorn did the same. “I need you two and your friends to help evacuate the others.”

Both seemed ready to protest. Celestia raised a palm for silence.

“We have little time left. I will stall Sky Eater until everyone is safe.”

“Wait. By yourself?” Came Sunset’s much anticipated rebuke. “That’s insane!”

Celestia turned to Twilight, awaiting her retort as well. To her surprise, Twilight merely nibbled on her bottom lip.

“It has become our only option. But you must be quick. I may not be able stall him for very long”

Sunset stepped forward, looking like she’d burst into tears of rage at any moment. An expression Celestia had tried and failed many times to forget.

“We… we can help y— “

“When I came here, the first thing I saw was him tearing you apart. You’re no match for him without your magic.”

“Then why did you insist one confronting him alone?!”

Celestia looked Sunset Shimmer right in the eye. “I never intended to fight the Destroyer, merely to bargain with him. But now that I’ve directly intervened, I am no longer protected by the Creator’s spell. I’m in the same boat as you, now.”

Celestia kept her voice stern to hide her slowly rising trepidation.

Sunset took another step forward.

“Exactly! All the more reason we should help you!”

Just as Celestia felt a headache coming on, a strange sensation enveloped her. She and the others turned toward the source and saw a large glowing stone float high into the sky, high enough to touch the clouds.

Celestia’s nose wrinkled, every instinct sending off nothing but danger signals. Time was running out and she knew it. She turned back to her comrades.

“Go. Assist the evacuation however you can.”

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes were locked on the floating stone’s direction. “Then what?”

Celestia fell silent.

Sunset turned back to her old mentor, tears now gathering in her eyes. “When everyone else is safe, then what?”

Any other time, Celestia would be quite peeved with that tone. But not this time.

“The portal… it must be—”

Thunder and lightning destroyed the conversation. All eyes whipped toward the floating stone’s direction again. But noticed something a little more dangerous striding toward them. It was him, the Destroyer himself, staring them all down with numbing determination. Fists tightened, shoulders stiff, eyes narrowed and focused.

The clouds began to swirl. Winds began to whistle. The air began to thin.

“It truly is confounding,” Sky Eater began, his voice somehow powering through the whistling winds, “how you’ve infatuated my children so, how you’ve reprogrammed them to love their enemy. Out of respect, I should commend you.”

Lightning flashed behind him.

Celestia threw an arm protectively before the group.

“Back down, old one,” she warned with slight hiss. “The path is still clear for you to leave. No one has to get hurt today.”

Sky Eater remained as he was. “Fascinating logic… from the mare who broke my jaw.”

“And you’re still talking…”

Celestia threw a wide-eyed, withering glare at Rainbow Dash, who flinched with a bitten lip

She turned back to their adversary. “I apologize for nothing. Your actions warranted the blow.”

Sky Eater’s eyes glinted. “So, you were just… protecting you own?”

“Without question,” Celestia retorted.

“And you would condemn me for doing the same?”

“By killing the innocent?!”

“Killers, Daybringer,” he corrected. “By killing killers.”

Celestia stepped forward, and Sunset felt herself jerk forward after her.

“Your children are still alive! Moreover, they were happily living their lives in peace before you came!” Celestia shouted.

Sky Eater looked as though the alicorn spat on his robe. “Life? Walking on soil that is as much alive as it is dead? Pandering to the deceitful whores who muted them? Dying from the inside out, starved of magic?” His face shook and twisted with inconsolable rage. “That… is what you call life?!”

Celestia’s outstretched arm sparked with energy and twitched.

“Bite your forked tongue, serpent.” Her voice was low, the warning painfully clear. “No matter what you believe―no matter what you think you know of these girls―they are the only reason you’ve held your daughters today.”

Sky Eater began marching forward again.

“And the only reason these oppressors still live… is you: an obstacle that must be removed.”

“I said back down. I won’t say it again.”

He didn’t stop. “It seems we need to reestablish your place, alicorn. Or have you really forgotten who you’re talking to?”

Celestia frowned. “I haven’t forgotten…”

Sky Eater’s eyes glowed yellow. “Then you will stand aside, so that I may do what is necessary.”

“Don’t do this, Sky Eater,” Celestia said, standing as tall as ever before the giant. “There’s always a better way.”

“No,” Sky Eater growled. “I can’t let something great enough to threaten my children exist. Now stand aside.”

“Listen to yourself, dammit! If they wanted to hurt them, they—“

A sharp echo clapped into the sky. Jaw’s dropped in perfect sync, silence poisoning the very air. Celestia’s head and torso were turned aside, eyes wide with shock, blood seeping from her lips.

Her eyes slowly closed, and, through clenched teeth, she took a single shuddering breath.

“That was your last warning, Daybringer.” Sky Eater lowered his outstretched hand. “Stand. Aside.”

Slowly―oh so slowly―Celestia righted herself, eyes boring furiously up at Sky Eater’s. “No…” she whispered.

Sunset Shimmer took another very brave step forward. “Princess, please wai―”

“Why are you still here?!” Celestia shouted.

The fiery-haired girl jumped back with a sharp gasp, arms raised in alarm.

“I told you to leave! NOW GO!”

Sunset stumbled back, but didn’t argue, frown creasing on her forehead. She started shaking A hand fell on her shoulder. She turned back to Twilight, who shook her head firmly.

“But how can you―”

“Sunset. We have to trust that she knows what to do.”

A biting-cold breeze whipped through the air, and all eyes riveted back to the two ancients. Winds twisted around them, and lightning pierced the sky again.

Sunset couldn’t watch anymore. She turned on her heel and power-walked passed her friends. They quickly followed suit.

Chest quibbling. Muscles solid and tense. Vision blurring from the rage threatening to consume her.

Princess Celestia had completely forgotten what that felt like. Yes, she’d felt something close to this when Sunset Shimmer abandoned her studies, or when Discord betrayed ponykind to join Tirek.

But this…

It wasn’t quite for the fact that Sky Eater wasn’t intimidated by her, that her plan had completely backfired, that he threatened two ponies most precious to her, or even that she’d been slapped in the face right in front of them.

No. That wasn’t true. Every one of those things lit a spark in her chest. Combined, they turned that spark into an inferno.

“You’re as foolish as your Creator, alicorn,” Sky Eater growled. “Surely you know what it means to stand against me.”

“Be quiet, snake,” Celestia hissed, still tasting the blood on her lips.

Sky Eater’s eyes narrowed, power now swirling around an armored fist. “The better question is, do you really think I’ll allow them to leave?” He raised his glowing palm, and aimed directly for the retreating girls.

It finally snapped. The last thread of patience Celestia had mustered for this encounter finally snapped. The insults, the arrogance, the flagrant disregard for her authority, background and love for her people and world.

Celestia was quite finished.

With a raspy shout and glowing white eyes, Celestia expelled her magic and pushed Sky Eater away. He merely slid back a few feet.

“You shall not harm them!” Celestia roared.

Quiet laughter answered her declaration.

“There are things in this universe even you should fear, Daybringer,” Sky Eater said. “You, a mere child with only a few millennia of training and experience… I will make you suffer.”

Celestia took a deep, hissing breath through her nose. Long-buried memories clamored to the surface of her mind, and she became aware of every joint, curve, muscle, and bone of her human body.

She rolled her shoulders, face twitching at the crackle and pop. She swept one leg back and found her footing. Arms raised and fists clenched, Celestia held a solid stance.

She couldn’t help but smile. “You must believe that this is my first time here, that I know nothing of this body. What of you, Sky Eater? How much do you really know about yours?”

Sky Eater smiled back and stood tall, chest out, feet squared and fists only slightly raised.

“It’s time to find out.”

With that, Sky Eater vanished in a blink. Celestia could only gasp before her entire world flipped and cartwheeled about, chunks of dirt and concrete sprinkling her vision. She grinded to a limb-straining halt, armored fingers leaving four seven-meter grooves in the ground.

She rose to her feet… then buckled a bit at the pain ripping in and out of her now-bruised cheek. Of course, he used Archaic teleportation magic. Forbidden magic reserved only for royalty and its elite on Equestria. A cancerous problem in the right hands… hooves… claws…

“Okay,” she muttered breathlessly, fist clenching with powerful magic, “not a good start.”

She realized she’d been knocked off campus and right into the street, and thanked her lucky stars there was no one else outside. This was going to get messy.

“Winded already?”

Celestia’s shoulder jerked and she whirled about-face, stance held solid. Sky Eater was sitting on a car, elbow resting on his craned leg.

“There is no shame in yielding, especially since your death does not interest me. Not yet, anyway.”

Celestia scoffed, and noticed the VERY pronounced frown appear on her assailant’s face for doing so.

“I won’t let you have your way,” she declared.

With creaking and groaning metal, Sky Eater rose from the car, frown held strong.

“No matter how many times I hear that, it doesn’t sound any less pathetic,” he said, clenching a fist. “No matter. I shall accommodate you all the same.”

Sky Eater vanished again, and Celestia felt yet another crunching force envelop her face, and re-experienced a flipping and cartwheeling world. When she regained herself, she was back on campus on her hands and knees, staring hazily at a well-sized puddle of… Was that her blood? Because if it was, this absolutely could not continue.

She staggered to her feet, fist still pulsing with magic. Her haggard breaths sounded horribly strained, even to her.

In my heart of hearts, Celestia thought, I never thought I’d battle the Destroyer so soon.

Her vision doubled as Sky Eater strode towards her, gravity once again weighing down on her. She inhaled sharply and focused more magic in her fist.

But I… I must buy them time. I will not fail them.

Celestia saw Sky Eater’s fist clench from a distance. She inhaled sharply again, eyes now wide and alert. She braced for the impact that most certainly came. This time, she stood her ground, head and torso turned aside with a sharp, gauntleted arm stretched passed her.

Her cheek slid up and scraped against that same arm. With an indignant roar and magical release, Celestia returned the punch in kind. To her surprise, Sky Eater stumbled back, hand over his own bleeding cheek. He looked even more surprised the she did.

His palm slid off his face and he stared at it blankly.

“That’s the second time you’ve lain your filthy appendages upon a god,” Sky Eater growled. Then he smiled. “But I can’t say I’m disappointed. At least you can put up a fight.”

Celestia wiped her bloody lips with a wrist, glaring up at him defiantly.

“There’s a human saying I suggest you heed, old one; ‘there’s no greater mistake than underestimating your opponent.’” Again, Celestia couldn’t help but smile.

Sky Eater regarded the armored princess a bit more gravely. “Hmm… That’s right. It’s you… Yes… I remember now.”

Celestia’s eyebrow slightly raised.

“When my daughters were defeated eons ago, they cursed your name many times. Yet they spoke highly of you. You, who had taken up your sword alongside your sister and that bearded wretch. You, who had fought valiantly, even against your own kind, to uphold a crumbling nation. You even resisted the Sirens’ intoxicating song, right until the end. Your world, marked for death, yet you fought on.”

Even before that last sentence, Celestia knew she was trembling, her stern frown betraying the agony those memories caused her, even up to that very day. The screams, the cries, much of which came the little ponies she had to release from the Sirens’ song. Her fist clenched again.

By now, Sky Eater’s eyes were closed. “Yes, I remember you. I recall an old vow: that when your disgusting, blasphemous world finally withers and dies, I would spare only one—that you alone, Princess Celestia Sol, may bare testament to our vengeance.”

Magic began crackling around Celestia’s fist again.

“Do not mock me, serpent,” the former alicorn warned. “Your victory is far from earned.”

Sky Eater opened his eyes, smile resurfaced. “You misunderstand me. I couldn’t remember why until now, but I truly am fond of you, Daybringer. One as strong as you, able to battle my children with her determination alone… that deserves only respect.”

By now, both of Celestia’s hands were surging with destructive magic she hadn’t conjured since she’d battled the Dragonlord himself.

“And, still, you look down on me?”

“Hah. I wouldn’t dream of it,” Sky Eater said, very much looking down on her. “In fact, I shall heed your pitiful human proverb, if only to see just how deeply you’ve buried those powers of yours. You’re going to need them if you ever want to save those little harlots.” Sky Eater turned his head and snorted. “And Twilight.”

Now Celestia’s whole arms radiated with energy, the ground around them cracking and smoking. As if Sky Eater wasn’t irking her enough, he started chuckling.

“I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to break you so soon. I haven’t smiled this much in literal ages.”

Hate. Hatred, pure and simple. Princess Celestia absolutely hated this creature.

“Though, I suppose it’s fitting we do this here in this ape-infested world. At least it’s fair.” Sky Eater chuckled again. “I suppose.”

With a furious shout, Celestia darted at him.

Of course, she knew full well the dangers of losing oneself in combat. Yet, with every magically charged punch, kick, elbow and knee thrown at her foe, she persisted all the same. Her strikes her blocked, matched and thrown aside. But what really angered her was the lack of reciprocation.

With frustrated grunt and a roundhouse kick, armored shin and armored forearm clashed. The sheer force of collision wafted Celestia’s flowing hair and Sky Eater’s white robe.

An open palm thrusted into her belly. She folded like a lawn chair. She was now back on her knees, one hand steadying her, the other holding her now-burning abdomen.

“Get up,” she heard his grotesquely deep voice say.

Her fingers dug and squeezed into crumbling dirt. With teeth bared, she shot a glare up at her smiling foe.

Enough of this.

She vanished without a trace. She barely heard Sky Eater utter the word ‘what?’ before the oh so satisfying union of metal and flesh rung into the air. Sky Eater stumbled back from that kick, dazed. Celestia landed swiftly and darted at him again. A strike to the shoulder-joint. An elbow to the sternum. A knee to the side.

She heard his pained grunt, leaped back and held her position. She needed to catch her breath. Pace herself whenever she could. Stall him. Stall him…

Sky Eater was still for a few moments, head lowered, hand squeezing his stricken shoulder. Then he started shaking. Then… was he laughing? Again?

He straightened himself, resuming that presumptuous, superior posture yet again.

“This body… it throbs… pulsates with weakness.” He glanced at his hand, flexing it constantly. “If there’s one thing I will credit Starswirl the Bearded, it is his magic. To reduce even I to this pitiful human frame. Detestable.”
 
Celestia allowed a smirk. “Oh? Second-guessing yourself, are you?”
 
Sky Eater’s expression flattened. “Hardly. I’m just reminded that even the weakest among these apes can inflict pain.” His eyes roamed aside. “Like that smart Alek, rainbow-colored shrew that kicked me. Break it over my knee is what I’m going to d— “
 
Armored knuckles met his jaw, and he stumbled back again with a grunt. He glared back down at Celestia, who returned the glare in kind.
 
“I am your opponent, old one. Or shall I convince you further?” she goaded with tightening fists.
 
Sky Eater narrowed his glare. A deep, harrowing roar erupted from him. The force that followed smashed into Celestia like speeding a truck. Her hair flipped and flopped like she was caught in a wind tunnel. She was thrown off her feet. Thankfully, she’d grown used to her vision doing wild flips and spins.
 
Hands gouging into the ground stopped her again, but she couldn’t feel her arms or legs. Her teeth clattered and her body shook, like her very bones and muscles strained to keep themselves from splitting apart.
 
She fell to one knee, numbness starting to set in.
 
What… in Equestria was that? Celestia thought, her breaths even more ragged than before. That wasn’t magic… What did he—?
 
Rumbling footsteps brought her back to reality. She looked up just as a giant palm clapped around her face. Celestia felt her arms and legs flailing about, heavy footstep rumbling on as she was carried forward.
 
“Die, you scum!”
 
The voice was like gravel crunching in her ears. Or maybe that was the concrete she was suddenly slammed and plowed through. It hardly mattered when she was hoisted up, spun around and thrown like a hoof-ball.

***

If Twilight was honest with herself, she’d have to commend the policemen and women for their organization skills.

The students of Canterlot High were corralled together, single file lines strewn along the hallways that weren’t damaged by Sky Eater’s first assault. Static-y chatter and hurried footsteps echoed throughout the building.

At first, Twilight was nervous when the leading officer―whom she recognized as Fleetfoot―refused any ‘civilian’ help. Especially after Twilight had insisted. But when several other students, including her friends, had united, agreed to help and cooperate, Fleetfoot muttered something about fornicating the rules and accepted.

Twilight watched and admired the way Fleetfoot handled it all, waving signals, commanding the other officers with sharpness that rivaled Equestria’s Royal Guard, directing each line of scared teenagers toward the back exit. Turning chaos into order.

The students that agreed to help receded in number as they too fell in line.

Twilight approached the lead-gal in charge. “Fleetf… Officer, if there’s anything else we can―”

A static-y screech and chatter shut her right up.

“Hold that thought, shrimp,” Fleetfoot said with a raised finger. She lifted a black device to her lips. “Affirmative. Evac almost wrapped up. No casualties on my end. Over.”

More static and chatter.

“Still? Did you call the medics? Over.”

Static and chatter.

“Wait, if her vitals are good then what’s the problem?!”

Static and chatter.

“Oh, for fu―I’ll be there in a sec. Over.” Fleetfoot set the black device back on her chest. “Sergeant!”

A similarly dressed young man hurried to Fleetfoot and saluted. “Lieutenant!”

“Keep this train rollin’. I gotta handle this.”

“Yes ma’am!”

After a mutual salute, Fleetfoot marched down the hallway. On impulse Twilight followed Fleetfoot. Several other footsteps confirmed that her friends did the same.

“O-officer, what’s happening?” Twilight asked, her legs already burning from trying to match Fleetfoot’s pace.

“Civilian refusal. My favorite thing in the whole world.”

“Um… Alright then? Is there anyth―”

“I dunno. Maybe you can talk to sense into her. She’s your Vice Principal.”

Twilight eyes lit up, her pace receding for only a moment. She looked back at her friends who weren’t far behind. She looked back up at Fleetfoot.

“Is she―”

“She’s a real pain, is what she is,” Fleetfoot interjected. “Hadn’t budged since we started evacuating. Somethin’ about her sister not wakin’ up.”

Twilight’s eyes brightened again, and she gnawed on her thumb in deep thought. “Please, let us help. Maybe we can talk to her.”

Fleetfoot scoffed. “Hell, it’s not like rules and regulations mean a damn today, so why not?”

Twilight slowed her pace, cringing at the burning in her legs. Sunset Shimmer and the others caught up to her.

“What’s happened to Vice Principal Luna?” Twilight asked.

Sunset gave a shuddering sigh. “It happened before you came. Principal Celestia stood between Sky Eater and I. He… did something to her and she fell to the floor.”

Twilight frowned at that. “Is she alright…?”

“I don’t know…” Sunset replied.

Twilight looked to the others, each with their own determined expressions. With a firm nod, the seven friends picked up the pace. They looked and saw that Fleetfoot had already turned the corner.

A male voice shouted several hallways down.

“Oh, my God! EVERYBODY, DOWN!”

Crashes, crumbling masonry and screams all followed. And before Twilight or her friends could react, something large and screaming burst from one wall and right through the other, barely missing them by a few feet.

With a louder, ground-shaking boom, it was over.

Hacking coughs rung in the dusty air. Twilight blinked several times before she realized she was on the floor. With a mute groan, and a throbbing headache, she rose to sit. She drew a sharp breath, senses now ringing and screaming. The dust settled and she scanned her surrounding, relieved to see her friends recovering beside her.

“Is everypony okay?!” she called out.

Affirmative chatter eased her mind.

Then, a gasp from behind her. “NO!”

Sunset Shimmer was already running toward the gaping hole up ahead. Twilight was just about to stop her when she saw who was splayed on the rubble. Her ears caved, silencing everything around her. She could only see her mentor’s once-flawless features defiled with blood, bruises and cuts. Hair disheveled, perfect fair lips now stained with red.

It was… wrong. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

“Princess!” she shouted.

She couldn’t remember ever moving so fast with only two legs, but Twilight was by Princess Celestia’s side in an instant. Sunset frantically shook Celestia’s shoulders, armor now considerably dented, smudged and cracked.

“Celestia! Celestia, wake up!” Sunset shouted.

A deep, shrill breath and a fit of coughs brought Celestia back. Relief swelled in Twilight’s chest as she caressed the elder princess’ hand. Celestia’s groggy eyes darted side to side, focusing, hazing, then focusing again.

“Twilight… Sunset… You’re…” Her eyes snapped wide open. “No. No! You must leave at once!”

Sunset recoiled a bit. “Princess—”

Celestia strained to sit up. “I have failed! He’s too dangerous! You two must escape through the portal and destroy it befo—”

“Daybringer!”

The three former ponies whipped their attention to the gaping holes left in Celestia’s wake. He was coming for them. Monstrous feet tearing rubble from the ground with every step.

Celestia’s lips pulled over her gums, straining to rise. She soon did, legs barely keeping steady beneath her.

“I told you... to LEAVE!” Celestia shouted.

Twilight felt the oh-so familiar tug of levitation as she and Sunset Shimmer were thrown aside.

A quaking roar and a whistling punch later, Celestia was straining and grunting against her powerful enemy, both her hands pushing up against his single massive fist.

Twilight righted herself just in time to see Celestia’s legs burrow into the crumbling ground.

“Sky Eater! Stop this!”

Another mighty roar followed, and with it, a crushing well of gravity. Celestia screamed in agony as her body sunk another few inches groundward. She fell to one knee.

“Now fall!”

Sky Eater reeled his head back, and drove it down onto Celestia’s. She was immediately chin first in the rubble, body lying flat. She blinked hazily at the armored grieves before her.

Just when Twilight thought she couldn’t watch anymore, she saw a shrieking Sunset charging at the robed giant with a sharp piece of metal.

“Sunset, don’t!”

Too late. Sky Eater swooped down and slapped his crushing grip around Sunset’s neck, lifting and dangling her high. Sunset choked and gagged, her metal weapon futilely stabbing into that armored hand.

The weapon bent like a useless spoon and fell to the ground.

Twilight froze. Every cell in her body felt like they twisted wrung inside her. She felt as though someone injected her with pins and needles. Her legs shook. Her breath stilled. Her sweat grew cold. She looked in horror as Sky Eater’s massive foot weighed on Celestia’s head, and his grip tightened around a choking Sunset’s neck.

He raised his palm to Twilight, a familiar glow reddening the room.

“Now then,” Sky Eater said, his smile returned in full, “…where were we?”