How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.

The pain between Moonstrucks ears deepened as they popped onto the top of a convenience store at the far end of Westton, which was something of a shallow box canyon between the mountains, and a low chain of hills that ran north to south, eventually meeting up with the east-west hills that ran along Crystal Creek. The ash was not falling here yet, for which she was grateful.

Moonstruck let out a breath and stared up at the tower, not surprised to see that the eye was gone. She was too far away to see if anyone was up there yet. The rest of the city was in rough shape, black smoke billowed out of numerous neighborhoods. Westton looked to be largely intact, and many ponies were milling around in fear and confusion, but not outright panic. She vaguely recalled this area hadn't been subject to Lucenas haphazard urban planning, so they were in decent shape.

"You okay?" Joseph asked, startling her out of her brief inspection of the immediate area.

"Yeah, shoulder hurts, ear stings, head hurts – you know the drill." She smiled tightly at him.

"Maybe I should come with you." He frowned.

"It's alright, I can always call for help." Moonstruck shook her head. "I dunno how much that protection charm can take, to be honest."

Joseph's frown turned into a scowl.

"Go, I'll be fine." She nudged him with her wing.

Joseph sighed heavily, then reluctantly teleported away.

Moonstruck teleported back to their apartment. She hobbled into the bathroom for a first aid kit, and took some willow bark in pill form, then frowned down at the trail of blood she was leaving behind. Making a mental note to find a mop later, she limped out to the balcony, then slipped into stealth mode. She took wing, flew out beyond the alcove her balcony rested in, then swept around to circle the tower, gradually gaining altitude to spiral up to the top.

Now that she was in the heart of the city she could get a better idea of how much damage they had to deal with. It didn't look bad, all things considered; no mass panic, lots of pegasus and flying machines buzzing around moving ponies and equipment, or scouting and spotting for ground crews. She'd enchanted an entire fleet of wagons, and she was thrilled to see that they were gliding along precisely the way they should, not sagging weirdly the way the Roanamian flying carriages often were with their weak and faulty spells.

Moonstruck reached the top of the tower, confirmed that Lucena hadn't appeared yet, then continued circling, spiraling up to about three hundred feet over the tower. Just as she'd settled into a flat glide, Lucena popped into view. She shuffled over to the great crystal embedded in the center of a very complex transmutation circle etched into the platform, leaving a trail of bloody hoofprints. She kicked the crystal. It didn't do anything.

Moonstruck canceled her spells, then tucked her wings and tilted her nose forward, dropping into a steep dive. She opened her wings and pulled up just ten feet above the platform, buffeting Lucena with the wind off her wings before settling lightly onto the crystal, causing her to fall and slide partway across the platform.

"USURPER!" She screamed, scrambling to her hooves and firing off a magical blast.

Moonstruck calmly projected a shield and began dabbing at the gash on her shoulder with a clean, damp cloth.

"Oh give it up, you're out of power! Ow."

"You killed him! You killed my love!" Lucena fired again. This time the spell was so weak Moonstruck didn't even bother blocking it. It tingled a little when it hit her.

"Yeah, and?"

Lucena let out a guttural snarl and fired again. The spell fizzled out half way.

"Why… why isn't it working? Why am I stuck in this wretched form? Why isn't everyone panicking? WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?"

Lucenas knees were weak, she shook, was practically cowering. It looked like the bite on the back of her neck was more serious in her natural form, though the gashes on her flanks seemed more shallow, and she was covered in fine paper cuts. Moonstruck didn't really know how injuries sustained while transformed translated to ones natural state, so it was a little fascinating to see where all of the wounds ended up.

Moonstruck lifted an eyebrow and unrolled some gauze. "Well lets see. You're out of power. No seriously, you're out of power. There's a massive evacuation effort underway, and because alicorns are notoriously durable, as you well know."

"Those were rhetorical questions!" Lucena snarled.

"That I happened to have answers to."

"And I'm not out of power!" Lucena stamped a hoof.

"Of course you are. You know what the shield does." Moonstruck rolled her eyes.

"Like you know." She scoffed.

"Yeah, actually." Moonstruck chortled. She folded up a piece of dry cloth, held it firmly against her shoulder, then began wrapping gauze around and around, barely sparing a glance at Lucena as she did so.

"You've been living under it the longest – of course you'd run out of power eventually. You know we need to recharge just like anypony else, and with the country cut off, and the shield actively using up all of the ambient magic you haven't really been able to do it. And – heck – I bet Magmanus had the same problem. That's why he was so easy to kill."

"I knew it. I knew you weren't what you seemed!" Lucena spat.

"Pfff, no you didn't, you thought I was an airhead." Moonstruck laughed, then regretted it. That willow bark could kick in anytime now. She wasn't using much magic, but the pressure was starting to feel like she was juggling boulders. She blinked a few times as she thought she was hallucinating a rainbow on the horizon. On every horizon.

"Oh hardly! I knew all along you were up to something." Lucena finally straightened up out of her crouch and threw her head back arrogantly. "I just wanted to see what you did when I uncovered Maximus's plot."

"Didn't figure I'd be in on it." Moonstruck grunted. She finished wrapping her shoulder, then realized she still had extra rolls of gauze and bandages. She rolled them over to Lucena.

"Oh please, Maximus can't strategize himself out of a paper bag! You clearly used his silly plot as cover!" Lucena said before she gave the roll of gauze a strange look as it came to a stop at her hooves. The bandages wobbled and flopped over a short distance away.

"What's this for?"

"You're bleeding all over the place." Moonstruck drawled. "And for the record, my plot was to get out of here as soon as possible. We got pulled into Max's plot after I rescued that pony you tried to sacrifice, and you blew up Windmare Bay for funzies."

Lucena sneered at the gauze and kicked it off the tower. "You didn't rescue anyone. I was there for the exam, the pony was very much dead."

"The pony was very much an enchanted sheep carcass Swiftclaw happened to have on him when I teleported the pony away." Moosntruck snorted a laugh. "Pulled that one off right under everyone's noses." She was still a little proud of herself for that.

"Impossible!"

"Difficult, but not impossible. Her names Lindsey. Turns out she's Max's second in command." Moonstruck dabbed at her forehead with a fresh cloth. Oddly enough that wound had stopped bleeding. Usually even minor head wounds bled for an inordinate amount of time.

"Max, my aren't we familiar!" Lucena sneered, then glanced to the side. She turned her eyes back to Moonstruck and curled her lip up in disgust.

"I suppose with a little tart like you around to give him ideas he could theoretically come up with a half decent plan to overthrow me."

Moonstruck lifted a brow. She'd been called a lot of things in her time, but little tart was a first. She'd be amused by it, if her headache wasn't escalating. It was starting to feel like she had a head cold, going by the pressure in her ears, and the way her voice echoed oddly to her. The rainbow was getting closer.

"He's been planning this for years, you know. Mostly he just needed someone with a full arsenal of spells and enough magic to cast them." And the confidence to actually put plans into action, but Lucena didn't need to know that.

"Oh please. He might make plans, but he'd never have the guts to overthrow me properly. He's always been a disappointment." Lucena rolled her eyes.

Moonstruck gave her an odd look. Did she… actually want Max to take the throne for himself? Lucena glanced out again, fixing her gaze on the horizon.

"Oh good, you can see it too." Moonstruck grimaced. She shook her head, but it did nothing to stop the pain, nor the pressure. In fact, it seemed to cause a strange buzzing.

"See what? There's nothing out there." Lucena snapped, glaring at Moonstruck.

"Can you feel that? I wonder if that's the rainboom coming back after it bounced off the shield. Oh yeah, where is the power source above ground? We still haven't figured that part out yet. Found the underground version." If her ears didn't pop soon she was pretty sure her head was going to explode.

"Ha! Why would I tell you that?"

"I dunno, it was worth a shot. Augh!" She closed her eyes and massaged one temple with her good hoof. "Seriously, you've got to be able to feel that!"

"I feel nothing!" Lucena hissed, but she was grimacing as well. "There's nothing to feel! The past is in the past!"

Moonstruck very much wished she could send her eyebrows as high as they could go, but the pain was so bad she couldn't budge them out of the grimace she currently wore. Lucena was sweating, shaking, panting a little… Moonstruck was tempted to offer her a paper bag to hyperventilate in to. She reluctantly lifted her gaze higher. The rainbow was practically on them, and she realized that sitting up on the tower like this might actually be the worst place to be in a few seconds. Unfortunately, she was in too much pain to move.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Lucena shrieked as the ring of multicolored light converged on the tower.

When it hit, it all made sense. It was the first cool breath of autumn after a long hot summer, and the first truly warm day of early spring. It was laughter and it was serenity, and it smelled of the forest, and the sea, and honeysuckle, and fresh green moss. It washed over Moonstruck in a gentle wave, and a stiff breeze that ruffled her mane and tail. And when it passed it took the pain in her head, and a hundred other little aches she'd grown so used to in her time in Roanamia she didn't notice them anymore.

Moonstruck laughed as the wind died down, then breathed in the fresh, deliciously cool air. She opened her eyes and stared straight up into a clear sky now free of smog, and ash. She turned to look back to the west. Not only was the ash cloud completely gone, the volcano was quiet, say for a bit of lava trickling down the side of the somewhat diminished mountain. A mountain she could see with amazing clarity now that the air had been scrubbed clean.

"Magic's back!" She laughed again, stamping her good hoof on the crystal. "Max said the ancients told him the shield was already weak, and just needed a little nudge – I bet the rainboom brought it down! Wow I feel better!"

"No… NOOOOOOOOO!"

She shifted her gaze over to Lucena, then did a double take. The magic had not been kind to the old alicorn, whom was an alicorn no more. An ancient pony with a faded red coat, no cutie mark, and an iron gray mane and tail was crouched where Lucena had been mere moments before. The pony, had no horn, no wings, and no aura of strength about her. She turned her yellow eyes to Moonstruck and shook her head in a strange, jerky motion.

"How… why… why am I being punished!? Y-you lied! You cheated! You killed!"

"Pretty sure I stole something too, but I can't remember what." Moonstruck half closed her eyes.

"It isn't fair!" Lucena wailed, then collapsed on her rump when a violent cough shook her fragile frame. The cough subsided after a few moments, then she went back to glaring.

"You did everything I did! Everything!"

"Pff, hardly. For one thing, your body count is way higher. For another, I didn't do any of it for myself." Moonstruck rolled her eyes. "You know why I did all that? So that other ponies wouldn't get hurt. Everything you did, everyone you hurt or killed was for you and only you."

Lucena growled, seemed about to reply, then whipped around to glare at something behind her.

"SHUT UP NADIA! I DON'T NEED TO HEAR IT FROM YOU TOO!"

Moonstruck frowned.

Lucena began to cough again, it was a deep, rattling cough that was concerning even in such a horrible old mare. Moonstruck pulled her ears back then gazed out over the city. There'd been a few fires burning here and there from the earthquakes, but they looked like they'd been blown out when the magic came back. Although there was still a flurry of activity, and she could see that the lahar had made it to Dirtton, it was oddly peaceful down there.

With the pain in her head gone, she realized how tired she was. Not just from the fight. From months of low-grade pain, of sleep deprivation, and all of the horrors she'd seen – horrors that were barely scratching the surface for the ponies whom had lived their entire lives here. Heaving a sigh, she linked her nodestones up to the main network and settled in to babysit Lucena for a while. If someone needed her they could always call.

"Need me anywhere?" Max asked as he surveyed the city, searching the wreckage below for Glenda.

"We just cleared the last pony – we hope – and they just opened the flood gates." Glenda replied as he spotted her gliding a short distance away.

"Good timing, the lahar should be hitting Upriver at any moment."

"That's what I hear. Where to next?"

"Dirtton. They still have a lot of ground to cover, and not enough time to cover it."

"Right. Are we doing anything about the neighborhoods further downstream?"

"There's not much we can do." Max frowned as he curved towards the northwest. "At least as far as flooding. Once Rose Lake and Cypress Downs are full it should slow things enough that Dirtton shouldn't be hit too hard. From there we can only stay out of its way."

"I was afraid of that."

"Has anyone been able to warn ponies further downstream? I know no one lives by the river when it cuts through Roanham, but what about Banks and Petalburg?" That would be Fern. "Or Jewel Crest in the delta?"

"Good question!" Max furrowed his brow and watched the river continue to rise below him. No one was entirely sure how far the lahars would reach. Bridle-Dur had historically taken the brunt of it, being so close to the volcano, but points further downstream had a more mixed bag. Sometimes the ash and debris flows made it all the way to the coast, others they fizzled out in the floodplains a short ways outside town. Mother had unfortunately decommissioned all of their volcano warning systems eons ago, not long after she started threatening to summon Magmanus as punishment for various things. That was probably around the time she started messing up the cities layout, making it impossible to escape from quickly or easily. It its present state, Bridle-Dur was very much a death trap. He was very glad they'd found ways around that.

"Oh wait..." He tapped his radio headset. "General Markus, have you heard anything from villages downstream?"

"Your Highness! Uh… yes, actually, Banks radioed in shortly after you sent us off. They couldn't get ahold of anyone at central, and had been trying any frequency they could. We told them to get to high ground… was… was that right?"

"Yes! Perfect! Thank you!" Max sagged with relief. "What about Petalburg?"

"Er… I believe we contacted them shortly after. They said they would relay the message downstream."

"Fantastic!"

Dirtton came into view a few wingbeats later. The damage there was bad, and that's where much of the 7th division was focusing their efforts. He could see a number of large cranes moving blocks of stone and concrete either to shore up an area, or dig something out. Too, there were hundreds of ponies crawling among the crumbled buildings. Every few seconds there would be scattered flashes as ponies teleported away.

"Wenchell, status report."

"So far so good. We have the area immediately around the river cleared, but we're having trouble with the core of the neighborhood. Six buildings came down and there are a lot of ponies trapped in there.

"Is my apartment okay?" Geode piped from wherever she was. Hopefully somewhere in the command center.

"I have no idea." Wenchell sighed.

"I always figured I'd be home when this happened." She chirped.

"Yes, we know. Crushed under books."

"Heehee!"

Max smiled as he spotted Wenchell standing on top of a building with a big pair of binoculars. He tucked his wings and dipped into a shallow dive. He landed next to the unicorn and did his best not to kick up too much dust.

Wenchell glanced back at him then pointed at a mountain of rubble ahead.

"That's the problem spot."

Max grimaced. "Any estimate on how many survivors?"

"No. We keep finding ponies alive, but we don't know how many were in there when it came down, so..." he grimaced as well.

"Right."

"Rose Lake team, reporting in." Lindsey said over the nodestone network. "We've got three cranes ready to unpack."

"Awesome, come around to Glide Street, we're trying to move the rubble from some ruins over to shore up some area around, er… the ruins. Well, you'll see."

"Creating an island?"

"Yeah. That."

"Is that Joseph?"

Max and Wenchell looked up. Sure enough, Joseph was gliding in swiftly from the west.

"Joseph, do you copy?" Wenchell asked.

"Yes. Been having trouble with the communication node." Joseph grunted his voice a bit distorted. He spotted them and angled towards them.

"I think Mooney's trick with the rainboom messed it up a little."

"Where is Moonstruck?" Max asked, more than a little worried that they didn't return together.

Joseph landed a few moments later. He had a few cuts and bruises, and his tail feathers were singed and curled slightly at the tips, but otherwise seemed fine.

"Lucena jumped us and -"

"WHAT!?" Max yelped, fear racing up his spine so fast he was surprised his head didn't pop clean off.

"It's alright, we double teamed her. She got her rump handed to her." Joseph held his hands up palms out. "She teleported away when she realized she couldn't win. Mooney went after her."

Max scowled so hard it hurt.

"Did you know she could transform into a dragon?"

Max's scowl dropped off his face. "No! Did she attack you like that!?"

"Yep."

"I'm sorry!"

"Hey, if you didn't know, you didn't know." Joseph shrugged. "Anyone seen Glenda? I think the range on this thing has been reduced." He tapped the earring he wore with one talon, then stood up tall to scan the area around the building they were on.

"She should be here any moment."

"Oh, there she is." Joseph pointed off to the southeast. He waved. She tilted a wing and swept towards them, leaving her team to continue on into Dirtton ahead of her.

Max was perpetually surprised by how graceful a flier she was. Her age could not be determined by the way she flew; from a distance she seemed a pony in her prime.

"Max, you still up with Wenchell?" Lindsey asked as Glenda settled to a landing a short distance away.

"Yes."

"We need you down here. Got some heavy lifting."

"Coming." He relayed the message to Wenchell, nodded respectfully to Glenda, then teleported down to where Lindsey was.

"The lahar's in Upriver, moving fast. It should be in Rose Lake in another minute or two." Buster informed them over the nodestone network.

"No pressure." Max grinned at Lindsey. She grinned back.

"The walls are holding up well so far!" Buster added.

That was certainly good to hear. Lindsey and the original Dirtton team directed him where to go, and he was soon pulling two ton chunks of concrete out of the rubble with magic. He couldn't levitate them very far, or very high, but it was enough to either let ponies escape, or let rescue crews in to the labyrinth within the collapsed buildings to search for survivors. The cranes could lift much larger blocks, but they were far less mobile than he was. He was not sure how long they dug, and searched, and held beams in place while ponies darted under them, and they all waited for the lahars to catch up with them. It seemed like ages, and his head started to hurt part way through. He did his best to ignore it and continue working, but by the time they did get the final warning and had to retreat to high ground, it was nearly impossible to ignore any longer and he was firmly convinced it was a pressure headache of the sort that can spring up around a thunder storm.

"Do you feel that?" He asked Lindsey as they retreated to the top of one of the few apartment buildings that still stood. It had probably been a fairly nice place once, with a sliding glass door that opened up into a rooftop patio that looked like it had doubled as a garden at some point. Now it was mostly scorched concrete and cracked doors, with a few broken bits of pottery strewn around inside large stone planters.

"Feel what?" Lindsey gave him a quizzical look. "Are you okay?"

"No! My head feels horrible! I wish my ears would pop!" He pulled a water bottle out of his saddlebag and took a long pull of it in hopes that it would help. It did not. He worked his jaw around a little. Still no.

"Whoa, here it comes!" Lindsey trotted over to the eastern edge of the building and propped her front hooves up on the rail. Max reluctantly followed, shaking his head a bit before squinting down towards the river.

The lahar swept in, moving deceptively slowly down the riverbed. It looked more like a furiously churning wave of debris filled concrete than a river – which is essentially what it was. It had taken longer than they'd estimated for it to get here, which meant diverting it into Rose Lake and Cypress Downs had worked. It'd lost enough momentum that it only nudged their barriers, and splashed over in a few places. It spread out of the riverbed and through the ruined streets, collecting in the lowest areas, swirling for a bit, then moving on down stream, loosing steam as it spread further from the river. It would probably lose more momentum around the base of the Round, and may well fizzle out just outside of town as previous events often did.

Cheers erupted around them as other ponies realized their plan had worked, and the bulk of the neighborhoods nearest the river had been saved, but Max could not join in the revelry. The pressure was at a fever pitch now, and he feared he'd pass out. He gasped and looked up just in time to see a rainbow ring contract right over the city.

And then...

"Max! Max! Hey! Look at me! Max!"

He blinked and sucked in a sharp breath. The ringing in his ears faded as his vision cleared, and Lindseys concerned face came into focus.

"Max!?"

"What just happened?" He croaked. Why was he lying on his side?

"I don't know. I heard… felt a weird sorta… I dunno how to describe it! Then this wind blew through and, when I looked back you'd fallen over and… uh… well you might want to take a look in a mirror."

He rolled onto his belly and lifted his head. While he was dizzy, the pain was completely gone, and it felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from his back. He rubbed his right eye with a knee then looked around.

"Is everyone else alright?"

"I think so."

From what he could hear of the chatter over the nodestone network a few other ponies had experienced the same thing. Mostly magic users. A few pegasus had been airborne with the wind hit and had gone for a ride, but they seemed to be in good cheer.

He focused on Lindsey and noticed that she had something on her haunch. He pulled his head back, then had to stare.

"Lindsey. You have a cutie mark."

"What!?" She spun in a complete circle to look, giving him a good view of her other haunch for a moment. She did indeed have the symbol for Pi emblazoned on her upper thigh in rich brown fur.

"What!? WHAT!? When did that get here!? It wasn't there before right? You didn't notice anything? I thought it was just you!"

"No! No that's - that's definitely new!" Max hauled himself to his hooves and turned to look at his own haunches. Two things immediately caught his eye. One: he did indeed have a cutie mark! An ancient looking scroll that was partially unrolled and resting on a trio of red roses now graced his haunches. Two: he no longer had white scales on his back, nor dragon wings. Black feathered wings now sprouted out of his back, and his tail was mostly hair as well. He scrambled to the sliding glass doors to get a better look.

He looked… normal. He had a red coat with black wings, mane and tail like his mother, with some light feathering on his lower legs that brushed past his very average black hooves. He was shorter too, still tall, but not monstrously huge as he had been before. And strangest of all was that he had blue eyes. Sharp, icy blue eyes.

"Oh this is too weird!" Lindsey said, shaking her head as she came up behind him. She turned sideways to take a look at her cutie mark. "I mean, why now. Why do you… what happened to your dragony bits?"

"The shield… the shield must be down!" It was the only logical thing Max could think of. "I think that's why we have cutie marks. As for this..." he gestured at his reflection. "I have no idea."

"What's with that pendant?" Lindsey reached up and nudged a large ruby pendant that rested near his nodestone necklace. It was on a heavy gold chain.

He stared at its reflection, then reached up and nudged it himself. "I don't know, I've never seen it before. It..." he felt something cold settled in the pit of his stomach.

"Moonstruck mentioned that I'm lighter than she thought."

Lindsey gave him a weirdly sly look. "Lighter? How would she know that?"

"Oh, when we were sparring she..." he grimaced, the memory still stung a little. "Well, she said later that she put more force than she needed to when she pushed me, or body slammed me. Because she'd assumed I'd be heavier. Which is why I kept several ice packs with me for several days after."

"What if… the scales and the wings and… what if it was all an illusion?"

Lindseys sly look melted off her face. "That… could be a power crystal, or some kind of… projection crystal, I guess.? If that's a thing."

"Mother does use enchanted crystals. That's how she teleported away earlier."

They stared at one another, the implications weighing heavy in the air without having to be said.

Somehow, thinking of his mother made him realize that he could sense her. And he knew where both she and Moonstruck were. He turned around and stared up at the tower. It was strange to see it without the Eye hovering above it, but also a relief. They'd never have to be under its gaze again.

"Go. I think we've got things here." Lindsey took a step back and waved a hoof to shoo him off.

"A-are you sure?"

"Yeah, go. You deserve answers."

Max nodded then stepped away from the doors. He crouched, opened his wings, then sprang lightly into the air. So lightly that he let out a surprised yelp as he gained altitude and speed almost freakishly fast. Was this what it was like to be in an environment rich with magic?

As he flew higher, he realized the ash cloud that had been preparing to rain down on them was gone, and the volcano was quiet, though the sun was still setting red beyond the western mountains. It was also much cooler than it had been, with a faint promise of chill that may well descend after nightfall. Of all the nights, he'd rather this one be warm. Too many ponies would be without shelter for a chilly night. He glanced to the east, heartened to see an entire tent city had been set up around the teleportation beacons they'd placed out there, the white cloth plainly visible against the dull brown of the parched hills.

As he approached the tower, he debated circling higher to assess the situation, but decided against it. Appearing suddenly might be a better idea. So he climbed to right below the edge, then flexed his wings mightily to pop up onto the platform. He landed heavily, then glanced around.

Moonstruck was sitting on the big crystal embedded in the platform that Mother had used to project the Eye. She was injured, but had already bandaged herself up. What appeared to be an earth pony was curled up beneath a shimmering shield half way between the crystal, and the eastern edge of the platform.

He looked questioningly at Moonstruck, then was suddenly nervous. Would she recognize him like this? Lindsey had reacted well, but… well Moonstruck was more laid back than Lindsey – she'd be alright, wouldn't she?

She had turned her head when he'd landed, but was now squinting quizzically at him. It seemed an eternity before she spoke, though Max knew it couldn't have been more than two or three seconds.

"Did you change your mane?" She blurted.

He blinked a few times and lifted his head. "What?"

"You did! You got it cut didn't you!?" She huffed, sliding off the crystal and limping over. Her right shoulder had a thick bandage over it, and he could see a bit of blood had already seeped through, though his focus was mostly on her face, which was also bloody from a head wound. She had a prominent notch in her left hear now, and her mane just below it was clumped with swiftly drying blood from the wound.

"I… ye… yes! Yes. I did. Got tired of it." He stammered, very slow to catch on.

"When'd you have time to do that?" She stopped a polite distance away and scowled dramatically.

"Well… I am the prince." He felt the fear subside and a warm feeling start to grow in his chest as she grinned at him.

The earth pony let out a rattling wheezing cough that he realized after a few seconds was actually a laugh. He glanced at the shield and froze as he saw intense yellow eyes staring at him. There was only one pony in the world who had venom in her eyes. Mother.

"Figures that'd wear off." She grumbled, her voice sounding rough and frail.

"It was an illusion." Max said softly.

"My very best." Lucena sneered. "Even you were convinced."

"Magmanus wasn't really my father, was he?"

"Of course not. Ponies and dragons can't interbreed – no matter how much magic you involve." Lucena rolled her eyes.

"I KNEW IT!" Moonstruck stamped a back hoof. "Also, eww."

"No, your father was in my elite magic corps. He already had an extremely powerful daughter. It takes an exceptional stallion to sire alicorns. Of course, it still took me three foals to get you. And unfortunately you were the only one to survive being bound to dragon magic."

"I have – had siblings?" Max took a small step back.

"Sisters. All unicorns. No real potential if a little dragon magic was too much for them." Lucena stretched languidly. "I wouldn't have bothered with you, you were such a crybaby. But male alicorns are so rare, and you ended up surviving the bonding process. Here I thought I'd have a prized gem of a son, but well, we all know how that turned out."

She shifted her head to the side and squinted at him, more specifically his nearest haunch. "House historian. Of course. Pathetic. Not that you could ever be a proper king, even with the correct cutie mark."

Max was not sure what to tackle first.

"Actually, you do have a half sister. You probably killed her earlier. Or the duchess here did, as I doubt you could kill a fly by accident." Lucena smirked.

"Kyrenai." He said, his mind flashing back to when she'd surrendered, the pain in her sharp blue eyes. Eyes the same shade as his. Her father had been the leader of Mothers magic corps for a long time. He'd been immensely powerful. He'd died before Max was born, but he'd seen pictures. Maroon coat, light feathering on his legs, and icy blue eyes.

"Kyrenai is my sister. That's why you drag her around with you."

"Whoa." Moonstruck stared off into space, eyes wide. "And that's why she gets to be cranky all the time!"

Lucena clapped her hooves together. "There you go. You've at least murdered a family member. Or borne witness to it."

"Nah, she surrendered." Moonstruck drawled, shifting her weight.

"What!?"

"She requested to be executed, but I sent her off with the 7th division. She's been helping with the evacuation." Max felt a laugh bubbling up, but he clamped down on it.

"Community service. Nice." Moonstruck nodded approvingly.

"Of all the! I – she's supposed to fight to the death!" Lucena snarled, getting shakily to her hooves. "She's supposed to defend me until death! She was supposed to kill you, or be killed by you! AUGH!" She bucked at the shield.

"WHY DID YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!?" She screamed, fixing Moonstruck with a hard glare. "MY COUNTRY. MY LOVE! MY PATHETIC HALFWIT SON!"

"For the lulz." Moonstruck replied..

"And you! By all the ancients! You ungrateful little git! After everything I did for you! You betray me by running off with this tart, then you don't even bother to overthrow me properly! You let her do all the heavy lifting while you hid out with all of your pathetic little friends!"

Max winced and pulled his ears back. It wasn't really anything he hadn't heard before, but for some reason it stung more than usual. Maybe because he was a little guilty that Moonstruck had ended up with the most dangerous jobs. Jobs he really should have been doing.

"Hey!" Moonstruck barked.

"Three foals! Three foals I sacrificed to get you! And this is how you repay them!? How are you ever going make it up to them? How are you ever going to make it up to me, oh noble gentlecolt!? Because you have to! You know you have to! That's what the good alicorns always do!"

She was just trying to get a rise out of him. He knew she was just trying to hurt him as much as she could, while she still could, but no matter how hard he tried to brush off her words, they bored straight through his defenses and under his skin. He gritted his teeth and hunched his shoulders, mentally kicking himself for letting her get to him so easily, which ultimately made it hurt worse.

"Alright, that's enough from you." Moonstruck growled. Lucena still ranted within the shield, but Moonstruck had apparently silenced it on the outside.

"Sorry, shoulda done that sooner."

"It's… it's alright. She's just - just mad because she lost." He was shaking, he shouldn't be shaking, this wasn't a big deal.

"Hey, it's alright."

"I know, I know." He nodded and closed his eyes. "We won. She's just mad."

"You don't owe her anything. You don't have to forgive her."

He popped his eyes open to stare down at Moonstruck, fear twisting through his guts. "You want me to seek revenge!?"

"No, no," she shook her head and waved a hoof. "I mean it's just… forgiveness is like respect. You have to earn it. She hasn't done that yet."

He nodded again, the fear subsiding, the anxiety morphing, changing into something strange as it suddenly hit him that it was over. It was over, and yet, he still felt horrible. He might always feel horrible. He started to breathe heavily, realizing belatedly that he didn't have a paper bag near him.

"Hey, hey, listen, look at me." Moonstruck shuffled around to stand in front of him, reaching out with her injured leg to gently touch her hoof to his knee. He started and looked down at her, meeting her gaze, and doing his best to hold it.

"It's okay." She said. "Whatever you do, you don't have to forgive her. You – everyone – needs time to heal. If you need to be angry, be angry! I know there's probably some buildings that need demolishing. If you need to break down, we can look after things for a while. Then maybe later you can make that choice. But right now? Right now you just do whatever you need to."

He sucked in a shaky breath as tears started to form at the corners of his eyes. Then his knees threatened to gave way, so he lowered himself slowly onto the platform, more emotions than he'd ever thought he'd be able to feel swirling through his head. Try as he might, he couldn't fight back the tears. He didn't know if he'd ever be able to. But Moonstruck shifted around to lie down next to him, and drape a warm wing over his back, and for now… maybe that was enough.