“Heir of Space, what does that mean?” Luna asked

“I was going to get into this later but, whatever. It has to do with the magical abstraction framework that I was talking about, it sort of... assigns those that use it a Class and an Aspect in the form of ‘Class of Aspect’. Meaning your Class is Heir and your Aspect is Space”

“Can this scan ability be wrong, I feel I would be aware of being part of some magical abstraction.”

"There is other evidence that you are part of it. Things like your personality, your past, and your… abilities”

“My Past?” she asks

“It ties into the personality part. One’s Class is largely defined by their personality. You see Heir’s really like their freedom or their ability to do as they see as the best course of action. They are natural born leaders, or have the potential to be leaders. There is another aspect that more fully embodies freedom more than Space, but I digress.”

She seems to be following so I continue

“By your past, I am referring to Nightmare Moon.” I say bluntly

Her curiosity was immediately replaced with hostility. I continue regardless.

“I bet that more often than not, you cannot help but see the throne as anything but a cage, a gilded cage I am sure, but a cage none the less. You are a natural leader, but the throne? It suits you ill. It carries far to many constraints, too many restrictions for you. Those who fight their nature will suffer terrible consequences” I finish

“Nightmare moon is gone and she is not going to return. Ever.” She states with finality

“Consequences. Plural” I state “It will not be like Nightmare Moon, it will be different. But something like that will happen”

“What are you saying?” She asks dangerously

“How long can you run, when you run from yourself?” I ask neutrally

She just glares at me for a while, but I can tell that she is thinking of what I said, trying to find flaws in what I said.

“Continue your story” She finally says

As I reentered the ruins I sent a message to Umbra

‘Umbra, I’m back at the ruins, how did the escape go? Were any darklings seen?’

‘No boss, we got away before she even got close to us. We needed head in the opposite direction, but we are heading to the ruins now.’

I take a minute to lean against a wall and think over everything I just learned.

Ok, ok, ok. I now know that this is an anthropomorphic version of Equestria. First thing to do is find out when this is, and how close to canon this world is, anthropomorphism notwithstanding. The Mane 6 have the elements, so it’s obviously after Season 2. I believe that is when Celestia allowed them to keep the elements in Twilight’s library. Or was that mid Season 3?

I sigh wishing I had payed a little more attention. Then feeling stupid for thinking I could have prepared for this situation.

Moving on… Luna was at Nightmare Night, further proof that it is after Season 2. However her speech wasn’t archaic. Does that mean it’s somewhere in Season 3? Twilight is not an alicorn so it must be somewhere between the start of Season 2 and the end of Season 3. That is of course assuming that this world follows canon...

I need information…

‘Change of plans I want a few darklings to go back to that village and keep an eye on the village and I want four of you to follow the one I was just fighting. She will not remain in the village for long, when she leaves follow her. Your main objective is information gathering. I need to also get some information on the current events, specifically look for any mention of a being called Discord and a kingdom called The Crystal Empire. Oh, and anything about a Royal Wedding.’

I stop and think of what else I could be having them do.

‘To the ones that are following the royal blue pony, while following her she should meet up with a large white pony that also has a horn and wings like she does. When you see this other pony split up and follow both of them, one for each, the other two should go out and explore the castle and the city. Understood?’

I received a chorus of ‘Yes Master’ from the darklings

What else, what else? I think trying to figure out what I will need.

More darklings! I need more eyes and ears, information gatherers

I searched the ring to find how many darklings I actually had at my disposal. I had not made anymore since summoning that first group, it was time to change that.

Seventeen underlings and Umbra. So I have eighteen darklings under my control right now. Umbra said there was a limit on how many I can have summoned simultaneously, let’s find out what that limit is.

‘Umbra, when I summoned you and the others, it was a heat of the moment thing. How do I summon more darklings?’ I said to Umbra

‘Focus on our ring and think of summoning more darklings to your side. More will come, Master.’ He replies

I focus on the ring and soon I feel a pressure building similar to the first time. I think of having more darklings and the pressure begins to release, though, the first time was like a balloon popping, this was more like a smooth and constant release of pressure. This continued for a few seconds until the pressure stopped dropping and begun to increase again. I stopped focusing on the ring and the pressure faded entirely.

Ok, let’s see what the limit of darklings is… 51? Wow that’s more than I thought.

‘New guys! I want you to explore the ruins, I know there is a library somewhere in here. It still should be in good condition, well the books anyway. Find it’ I said to the new darklings that were just summoned

After I got a confirmation I began to think of what I should be doing now.

If I’m going to deal with the princesses I am going to need to get serious. That means I’m definitely going to need to do more alchemizing

‘Ok I want a few of you to return to the village and, if I remember correctly, there should be a pony in the village who is a photographer. I need some of you to steal a camera and a photo enlarger. Hmm, and try to find a painting easel too. I have an idea.’ I said to a few that were near Ponyville.

I got an ‘Understood, Master’ from a few darklings.

Ok, time to sit down and actually look through what mutations the darkling’s can unlock. It’s time to plan.

Gone! How could he have disappeared so perfectly! I cannot even find a trace to follow.

It had been about half an hour since I had realized that the commotion was simply a ruse.

“P-Princess Luna?” came Twilight Sparkle's voice

I turned to look at her and see some of the populous of the town behind her.

“Yes Twilight?” I ask, having calmed down over the last few minutes

“Is… Is it gone?” She asked, some worry permeating her voice.

“For now, he managed to escape by making a diversion in the town”

“What do we do now?” she asks

“I will talk to my sister about having a Royal Guard presence brought to Ponyville. The being is very fast, but it does not appear to be very strong. It did not even attempt to attack me. I believe he knew he could not defeat me and fled, with a presence of the Royal Guard I doubt that he will terrorize the town again” I tell her, raising my voice so that everypony can hear me.

They seemed to brighten at this announcement.

“For the time being, return to your homes.” I continue

“Yes, Princess!” Twilight sparkle says, as well as a general murmur of assent from the townsponies.

As I turn to speak to my Night Guards I feel a tug on my tail. I look down to see a small foal in a pirate costume.

“Um... Princess Luna. I know there's not gonna be any more Nightmare Night, but do you suppose maybe you could come back next year and scare us again anyway?” the foal asked

I was honestly speechless for a few moments.

“Child.” I began as I remembered to use the Royal Archaic Form “Art thou saying that thou... likest being scared?”

“It's really fun! Scary, but fun!”

“It,” I start, completely confused “is?” I finish lamely

“Yeah! Nightmare Night is my favorite night of the year.”

“Well then. We shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!”

With less horrors from beyond the veil I thought

“Whoa! You're my favorite princess ever!” he says to me before turning to a group of foals behind him “She said yes, guys!” and rushes off to join them.

I couldn’t help but smile maybe this festival wasn’t all so bad

As the townsponies begin to return to their homes, I call my Night Guard and begin my trip back to Canterlot. Using the time to preparing for the conversation I must have with my sister.

I will need to talk to Tia about the Shadow Corps. We must find him before he can attack again.

‘Master, we found everything you asked for’ came a call as three darklings exited the shadows, holding a camera, an easel, and a photo enlarger.

‘Excellent, put them over there and help search the ruins with the other darkings’ I replied.

Good, now I can make upgrades to the Alchemiter, make a capachiroid camera allowing me to captchalogue a ghost image duplicate of an item, and possibly make a new modus that will be very helpful. Well is potentially very helpfu-

‘Uh, Master? That... thing is back, it’s above you’ one says, interrupting my train of thought

I looked up and to my surprise I see my prototyped sprite had returned from wherever it fucked off to after it was prototyped.

Perhaps it’s time to prototype it again? Although I really don’t want to deal with harder enemies just yet… I think as I try to think of everything I knew about the kernelsprites and prototyping.

If I remember correctly, only tier 2 prototypes can talk and be helpful. Also, from what I saw from Homestuck the greater the emotional bond to the second thing you prototype, the more helpful the sprite will be.

I try to think of what I have an emotional connection to, that will be more willing to help me and bend the rules and help me more than it really should.

Then it hits me.

‘Umbra, you said that I can use our connection to look at your memories, or learn everything that you know, right?’

‘That is correct Master, why?’

‘Can I do that with any darkling?’

‘Technically, if you try to, it would go like this. You would connect to me then I would connect to them, you would basically be using me as a proxy.’

So if I use a darkling I can theoretically exploit the telepathic connection and learn everything that the sprite knows, without all the puzzle shit and vague or unhelpful answers. But, do I want the underlings getting the powers of a darkling? They already seem to enjoy ambushes, if they had the abilities of darklings as well… That could be a big problem.

As I was thinking of the pros and cons of prototyping a darkling, a certain darkling Boss decided to make that decision for me.

‘Jeranimo!’ I heard from Umbra

I look up just in time to see Umbra doing a cannonball from a hole in the roof, directly into the sprite.

The result?

I couldn’t stop myself from staring at the new Umbrasprite. Pre prototyping, Umbra had midnight blue skin and yellow slitted eyes that could glow if he wanted them to. Post prototyping, Umbra now had pitch black scales with red accents and his eyes also glowed red with black dragonic pupils. He also inherited draconic wings as well. All and All?

He looked BADASS!

“Umbra… what the hell?” I asked in exasperation

“Apologies Master, I live to serve you the best I can and this was the best way to do that. Also only tier 1 prototyping powers up the underlings, so no underlings will be granted darkling like abilities.” Umbrasprite says

“Did you know that before you prototyped yourself?”

“Ah, no Master. I did not”

I sighed

“Well the cat’s out of the bag already, so lets move on. What can you tell me about sburb?” I ask

“It seems there is something prohibiting me from just outright telling you things. But I cannot find anything that would stop you from using the telepathic link to get the information.”

I searched for the link to Umbrasprite and sure enough, there it was. So I decided it was time to get some answers.

Author's Note

The lesson I personally learned from the episode was not to make assumptions about things you don’t understand.

Luna saw Nightmare Night as an insult or a cruel joke, whereas I see it as Celestia using it as a sort of immersion therapy for the foals and adults so they would lose their more irrational fears of the night/dark.