Nightmare Family

by Smrrt

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Original Character, Princess Celestia, Human, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 9862

They thought I was gone, but they should know that the elements don't kill. They gave me a real chance in life and a family. Life was good. Until Celly and Lulu tried out a new teleportation spell.

Now with COVER ART, made by the amazing: Grammar404

07/21: Featured? After I released a rather...not so well done chapter? It certainly has to be a glitch in the system. Somebrony call the agents Smiths.

Nightmare Moon was enjoying her new life as a high school student, pegasister and future overlord of our world. She had a family, friends and overall a decent life. She didn't plan on going back to Equestria, knowing she wouldn't be accepted back there.

Yet one day Celestia and Luna try a new teleportation spell. It didn't work as planned and now Nightmare and her family are stuck there for the time being.

Published 2015-06-23 15:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-12 08:29:32 UTC

Not as planned

Author's Note

Hello everybrony. This is one of those ideas, which won't leave your mind until you put it to paper, so to speak. Sadly my time was only enough for this short chapter. If this story finds a decent amount of followers, I can arrange it in my schedule to update more often.

I hope you enjoy it.

Not as planned

Well, that didn't go as planned. Celestia thought to herself as she and her sister examined the results of their test. She and Luna had tried a mass teleportation spell over a very long distance. In order to not endanger anypony, they decided to use rocks instead of real life ponies. Also instead of going the long distance directly on the first try, they simply teleported from one parts of their gardens to the other. It didn't work.

Instead of teleporting any of the alicorns or rocks, right in front of them in a flash of light appeared a group of four bipedal, Minotaur like creatures, all lying unconscious on the ground. Two male and two female, a family. The older man had a dark brown skin and was wearing a suit. His black hair was cut short and there was a silver suitcase lying next to him.

His wife, assuming they really were a family, if the rings on their fingers weren't any indicators, had a brighter colored skin, but it was still dark. She had long brown hair and was wearing a dress, with flower motives all over it and on her feet she wore flip-flops.

The next was a young male, again with dark skin. His hair was longer than that of the older one, but was still kept short. He wore a black leather west, a black t-shirt under it, some kind of blue trousers Celestia had never seen before (jeans) and black shoes.

The last one seemed to be a complete enigma, compared to the rest. She had long black, slightly blueish hair and completely pale skin. It was like she hadn't seen the sun in ages. She wore a black t-shirt, jeans and also flip-flops (Celestia would learn the name another time).

"These are....rather unexpected results." Luna spoke slowly.

Celestia nodded dumbly. "Yes. Unexpected, indeed."

A few guards, who had been on patrol, happened to be witnesses of the failed (successful?) teleportation were approaching their leaders, carefully eyeing the bipedal beings in front of them. At first glance they didn't seem to be dangerous, but so did ponies. The Element of Laughter came to mind. Unknowingly to most ponies, she was under 24/7 watch.

"Your highness'" one of the guards spoke up "what should we do with...our visitors?" he asked.

"Bring them to the hospital wing and station two guards outside. If any of them wakes up, inform us immediately."

"Of course, your highness." The guard gave a salute and afterwards immediately called for unicorn backup in order to transport them safely.

Doctor Thin Needle (a beige colored unicorn, with a blonde mane, green eyes and a syringe as a cutie mark) was an experienced doctor, who visited a university in Manehatten in order to get her doctor title. She worked for 10 years in Canterlot General, before Princess Celestia herself made the doctor an attractive offer to work as a royal physician. The princesses each hoofpicked their own physicians and nurses, so it was a great honor and at the same time a great responsibility, working for them. The job from time to time also included taking care of other species, ambassadors, dukes, duchess etc.

Still, this one assignment took everypony working in the hospital wing off guard. The guests the Dr. Ponies and Nurses had to take care off, were from a foreign species, which has never been heard of in the entirety of Equestria. Even the princesses had no idea what the four might be, except that they might be somehow related to the minotaurs. Of course the doctors couldn't take any chances. As a result, they all started from scratch, while using any kind of analyzing method that was known to ponykind, with Doctor Thin Needle as the head of the...let's call it "project".

"Well Doctor, what are the results?" Princess Celestia asked, nibbling on her tea. It had been already 3 hours and none of the visitors has shown any signs of waking up anytime soon. Princess Luna still intimidated the poor doctor a little, but she was used to rather tense situation, so she managed to keep her calm.

"I must remind you your highness's, that these are just the initial results and nothing final. Despite this, we were able to make a few discoveries about our patients. Our analyzing spells showed that these species have a similar DNA to minotaurs, further strengthening the theory that these two species might be related to one another in some way. Some of my colleagues speculate about a random mutation, but that's just theory at this point.

By analyzing the teeth we have discovered that these species is capable of ripping flesh apart, which is quite different from our Minotaur friends, as you already know. However, we're positive that this isn't a requirement, as these species DNA has also a great similarity to those of apes. A diet of fruits and vegetables, which are rich of protein are enough to satisfy their needs. You can see the exact details of our results here." She levitated a stack of papers over to the princesses.

"Interesting..." Princess Luna muttered to herself, looking over everything.

"Yes, however there is one more thing, something me and my colleagues are worried about."

Immediately the attention of the princesses was back to the mare in front of them.

"You see, our scans for magic potential ended up three times negative and one positive. The...we assume she is a mare of her species, the one with the pale skin, her potential was off the charts, so to speak. We had multiple tests running to make sure we weren't mistaken with our results. Right as we speak, we're running some additional tests to make sure the results weren't disturbed by something we may have overlooked in the anatomy of our guests. But if we're correct, then the magical potential of the subject easily rivals the potential of Twilight Sparkle, your majesties."

Luna's face immediately went from intrigued to serious. Celestia was more intrigued to this sudden revelation. True, that were only a hooffull of beings who are capable of rivaling Twilight's magic, but it wasn't completely unheard of and with some of them Celestia was good friends. Luna was always the more cautious one of the sister, resulting in her first thoughts of the guests being a potential thread. Potential, but not necessarily enemies.

"Thank you doctor." Celestia spoke up, after a few minutes of consideration. "If there is nothing more to add, you can-"

The older sister was interrupted, by a guard entering the throne room. "Excuse me your majesties, doctor." the stallion nodded. "One of the patients has woken up. We managed to calm him down and he's now ready to speak with you."

Celestia and Luna gave each other a look. "Art thou ready sister?" Luna asked.

Celestia nodded. "This should be interesting."

Waking up

Author's Note

Well, overall a good feedback. I had a lot of free time today, but sadly only because my friends are all away for vacation :fluttercry:

I'm not confident I did a good job at the end of this chapter. Also I need some help with princess Luna's dialogue, since this is pre-season 5.

Okay, everybrony. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm open for suggestion and I'll see you next time with: "A nightmare awakened"

Waking up

When the royal sisters entered the hospital wing, they found the older man sitting upright on a chair and looking down on the older woman and holding her hand. He must have heard the hoofsteps, because the second the sisters stopped, the man got up, turned around and bowed deeply. "Princess Luna and Princess Celestia I presume?" the man had a deep, firm voice, yet it was also kind. "It is an honor to meet the both of you."

Neither of the sisters expected this kind of greeting, but also neither of them showed their surprise. They were expecting him to be a bit more distressed about the situation he was put in. Yet here he was calm and collected, smiling at them. Most likely he learned both their names, while one of the royal guards was talking to him.

"The pleasure is all ours mister...?" Celestia trailed.

"Ah, forgive me princess. My name Jack Daniels, your majesties. As I was already asked y the doctors, my species is called 'human'."

"Greetings, Mr. Daniels." Luna greeted formally. "We must say, we art quite surprised to see thou calm and collected, among a new species."

Jack simply chuckled. "Oh ponies are nothing new to me. Now, I'm sure you have at least a couple of question, I know I have a dozen of my own, but at the same time I suggest for the rest of my family members to wake up, so we don't have to repeat ourselves."

"A wise decision. Pray tell, thou do not seem to be overly worried. No offense."

"None taken your highness." Jack glanced over. "Maybe I'm just too used for these kind of situation. When you have a magical gifted daughter, things tend to go south, so to speak. Especially during the time, when we first discovered her special talents. I lost count as to how often I needed to replace the doors of our home." he chuckle, getting a nostalgic look on his face.

Celestia nodded. "I think we're going a little fast. How about we firstly try to get to know each other over some kind? If you insist on staying here Mr. Daniels, I can have the servants bring us some tea and cake."

Luna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Typical Tia, always looking for an excuse for cake.

"Well, since you're offering, I will accept your generosity, your majesty."

15 minutes later a huge tray with a teapot, cups and three different kinds of cakes was brought into the room. Jack raised an eyebrow upon seeing Celestia taking a rather huge piece of the strawberry cake. And a chocolate one.

Deciding to dismiss the actions of the princess for now, Jack made it himself comfortable on a chair and took a sip from his tea. Cushions were brought in for the princesses to sit on, forcing them to look up to the human. They didn't seem to mind.

"Now first off, Mr. Daniels, do you remember anything before you woke up?" Celestia asked.

Mr. Daniels took a sip from his teacup and then placed it on a free nightstand. "As a matter of fact I do. I was actually getting ready to go to my office. You see your majesties, I'm a lawyer. A rather successful one if I'm allowed to brag a little. My children prepared for the last day of school before summer vacation and my wife was busy holding my daughter back to turn her brother into a frog yet again. She enjoys it a little too much, being the only family member capable of using magic."

"Yes, we noticed. Excuse us, but we had to make sure nothing was wrong with you and we discovered that your daughter is the only one capable of using magic." Celestia explained.

"No need to apologize, but princesses? If I may be so bold, let's not beat around the bush anymore. I know this was supposed to be a little chat in order to get to know each other better, but I'm afraid I cannot hold back my curiosity anymore. Do you know how exactly we landed on this world?"

"This world?!" Luna exclaimed. "Thou art saying, thou art from another realm? How can thou be so certain?"

Jack kept his calm before the princess. "It wasn't hard to figure out. My daughter" he gestured with his hand "is the only magic user alive on my world. We're doing our best to keep it a secret, since magic is only myth. Not real."

It took a lot to surprise the sun princess, given her experience. Figuratively speaking, this took the cake. Both sisters wanted to say something, however they were interrupted by the human raising his hand. "Excuse me, but I ask you to let me finish. We kept it a secret, in order to protect my daughter. Imagine your daughter being a living powerful weapon. Several governments would do anything to "secure" and "study" the weapon."

"I...see." Celestia nodded slowly.

"It must be quite the burden." Luna commented. Jack shrugged.

"We learned to live with it. Luckily her magic abilities first made an appearance, when she was smart enough to keep a secret, if necessary. Which doesn't mean there weren't any close calls, but I'm getting off topic. Another indicator were talking, sentient ponies. No offense, but ponies are animals in my homeworld." He smartly left out the part where ponies were used as a means to ease labor work.

Luna refilled her cup and drank everything shortly after.

"Finally, I know how a teleportation feels. My daughter has done it often enough and I know for a fact she wasn't using magic as it happened."

Celestia processed the information she had been given. Although it threw her out of a loop, she managed to calm herself down. "To clear things up, my sister and I were working on a new kind of teleportation technique. Our first test didn't go as intended and you and your family appeared."

Luna nodded. "We wish to apologize for your...little mishap." Jack couldn't suppress his snort and even Celestia smiled a little. However, Luna's face remained stern. "There is something we need to address. If thou daughter is the only one of your kind capable of using magic, how did she learn to cope with her talents or learn new spells?"

The human took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked over to his daughter, a sad frown on his face. "I told her to be careful, but what do you expect from teenagers? She experimented, whenever she had the chance. She taught everything herself and wrote down everything she learned. More often than not, she would end up hurting herself or her brother if he volunteered to help her. We warned her, we punished her..." he let out another sigh. "I'm just glad that she never overstepped her limits. We must have been really lucky that no one ever noticed anything."

There was a moment of silence among the three, before Jack spoke up again. "But enough of this. She learned to handle her powers and only uses them for pranks among the family or provides help. She has also a talent of what she calls "magic art"."

"Intriguing." Luna commented. "Yet, we recommend her to be taught the basics of magic rules."

"I would be grateful if you could arrange this."

Luna waved off. "Tis the least we can do, for the trouble we caused thou and thou family. In the meantime, we will work on a way to send thou back."

"Thank you, your highness."

"No need to thank us." Celestia smiled. "If you allow my curiosity, do you mind telling us a little about your species?" she asked.

"Of course. Uff, where to start?" Jack crossed his arms, looking at the ceiling, thinking. "We share the same evolution family tree with the apes. Over time our species learned to walk upright and our brains evolved to bigger ones. With the new-found learning capability and the lack of magic, we built tools in order to survive in the world. We lost our fur, we made clothes. We couldn't climb on trees as good as apes, we made shoes in order to protect our feet. We had no claws, we developed weapons.

On a social standard, we like to fight. A lot. Nowadays it's better, but humans are greedy, no matter how you look at it. We had so many wars among each other, almost too many to count. We have our good sides, but it is often overshadowed by our darker nature." the man frowned.

"Don't put your species so low." Celestia stated, seeing as the man was taking a break. "In the earlier days, war seemed to be around the corner all the time. Dark magicians, racial prejudices..." Celestia shook her head. "There were times where I almost lost hope we could ever live in harmony."

"I guess I can only hope that someday we learn to overcome our faults."

"Tis a long process. We ponies are still learning ourselves to overcome some of our wrongdoings."

Subconsciously Celestia wrapped a wing around her sister. Jack smiled at the display of affection. His attention was taken away from the princesses, by some moans coming from one of the beds. Looking behind himself, he found out that his wife was waking up. He quickly made his way towards the bed, grabbing the hand of his wife.

"Mm...Jack?" the woman spoke slowly. "What happened?" she got up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"How do you feel Nora?"

"Urgh, I have a headache? Did Sarah have another one of her teleporting mishaps?" the woman asked, looking up to her husband, who shook his head.

"Not our daughter for once. Nora, I want you to stay calm. This...might be a little overwhelming at first."

The woman frowned. "What are you talking about? Where are we?"

Jack stepped aside, giving view to the two rulers of Equestria's. Nora's eyes went wide and she almost forgot to breath.

"Oh...my! They're....beautiful." she stammered.

"Why thank you." Celestia smiled at the comment.

"I have seen it all."

After Nora finally calmed down, she too was now holding a conversation with the princesses. The tea was really helpful and the cake was simply divine in her opinion. She was quickly brought into the loop as to what had transpired, causing her to shake her head.

"Sometimes I wonder if our family has been cursed by some higher being, experiencing all those magic incidents, just so someone can have some good laughs."

"Nonsense." Luna disagrees. "Magic isn't a curse. It is a blessing. Tis simply unfortunate that your daughter never had somepony who could tutor her."

Nora chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you're right princess. At least she's still studying hard, even with the magic she possesses. I simply wish her brother would take his studies as seriously as she does."

"Still a better cook than you mom!"

Everyone turned towards the bed on the far left, where they found the son of the family sitting under the covers and looking over to them. "And just for how long have you been awake, John?" Jack asked his son sternly.

"Eh, ever since they put the needle in my arm." he rubbed his arm, where a sticking plaster was located. "I glance over to the ponies, when they were talking among themselves. Figuring I didn't need to go to school, I thought I might as well sleep a little more. Only I couldn't fall asleep, but then again, I didn't feel like getting up."

Celestia and Luna shared a smile, while John's parents gave him a stern look.

"Anyway" John got up from his bed "I don't feel like lying anymore. So, uh...you're the princesses? Well I didn't elect you, that's for sure."

Celestia wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because that aside from her family, nopony else had spoken to her so casually in a long time, maybe she was simply too used to the boredom of day court. Whatever was the case, she burst out laughing, almost dropping the cake onto the floor. Luckily she still managed to hold on with her magic grip. It would have been simply a waste.

John's parents in the meantime weren't sure whether to be embarrassed at their son's behavior or relieved that the princess of the sun took the comment so well.

"Ow my sides...ow...how long has it been, since somepony hasn't addressed me by my title?"

"Tia, we art afraid the past thousand years have taken its toll on you, sister dearest." Luna spoke carefully.

"Yeah, check your purse. Wouldn't surprise me if they have taken your money as well."

"John!" Nora exclaimed.

"You're right, that wasn't funny. Maybe I should try my new burp song?"

"Please excuse my son." Jake despaired a little. "I'm afraid he's a little...disrespectful at times."

"Oh it's no problem." Celestia reassured. "It's rather refreshing to have somepony...somehuman to talk to casually for a change. Besides it isn't like he outright offended me or anything."

"Princess, please don't tempt me." the teenager replied with a smirk.

"In any event, art thou feeling alright?" Luna asked.

"Eh, have been through worse." the boy shrugged. "Though my limbs feel a little stiff. Thanks for the concern." He stretched his limbs and placed himself on a bed closer to the rest. "So, anything else you wish to know about the human race? Or do you want to hear more of my terrible good jokes? By the way princess, what is a mare you meet at night? A nightmare!"

Double facepalm.

A nightmare awakens

Author's Note

Still no 3000 words, but I haven't updated in a while and I'm out of time again. I'm very busy at the moment. Sorry.

A nightmare awakens

The teenage girl let out a groan, as she finally woke up, barely remembering the morning. It had been an unusual morning, even for her standards. It started already with multiple little magic surges, thanks to the solar waves the sun decided to give off today. Even though she had a deep connection to the moon, doesn't mean that the sun had no affect on her. Especially since there was no alicorn who "reserved" or better put, claimed the sun as her own.

When it seemed like things were about to get better, they of course got worse. Feeling someone else's magic at work, Sarah instinctively threw up a defensive shield, which was supposed to stop the for some reason very familiar magic, only it overwhelmed her. The last thing she knew, was the feeling of being teleported to another location.

Noticing the smell of disinfectants, Sarah slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times in order to get her eyes used to the bright light. When they finally did, the human, actually not so human, looked around. It was like someone put a hospital room inside a medieval, no renaissance (she wasn't that good in art history) styled castle. There were other beds in the room, three of them seemingly being recently used.

Throwing off the blankets, Sarah was still fully dressed for a regular school day. Her watch said it was 11 o clock already!

Wait, I was out cold for around 4 and a half hours? Where the hell am I anyway? Shit, I hope the rest is okay. Maybe they were on the other beds.

Deciding that lying around wouldn't get her anywhere, Sarah stretched all of her limbs, before getting of the bed and heading towards the door. She stopped immediately, when she saw a yellow magic glow surrounding it! The handle went down and then the door opened, revealing Dr. Thin Needle and Princess Celestia.

In an instant Sarah tensed up, her brain going into overdrive. Celestia?!?! How the fuck did she find me? Does she even know who I am?! Better safe than sorry! The girl extended her arms and prepared a spell. As she did so, her two hands started glowing in a blue light. The doctor pony took a few steps back, while Celestia's eyes widened ever so slightly. Reacting quickly, she raised her hoof and said: "Wait! We won't harm you Sarah."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "How do you my name?"

"Your family told us your name. They're in the guest quarters and we can bring you to them immediately."

"Why did you teleport us here in the first place? Don't try to hide it, only an alicorn has the power to pull that off." Okay, Discord too.

"It was an unfortunate accident. What is more unfortunate, for the time being we can do nothing about it, but me and my sister are working on a solution already."

...

...

...

...She...really has no idea who I am? It could all be acting...nah she wouldn't do that. She would have subdued me already or blasted me to pieces, when nopony was looking. Heh, "nopony". Never thought I'd use that term again.

Sarah relaxed her stands and at the same time released her magic. Taking in a deep breath, she spoke up again: "Yeah...sorry 'bout that. I am not a morning person and...didn't have the best of mornings."

Celestia smiled. "I understand of course. I would be suspicious too at first, although I expected a little more excitement from a pegasister, such as yourself."

"Whaaaa-? HOW THE FRIGGING FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" Sarah exclaimed in utter shock.

Celestia herself only giggled in response. "Oh, your family told us all about what is going on in your world."

As Sarah found out, her father couldn't keep his mouth shut and called the princesses by their actual names, before they could introduce themselves. Later, when everyone else, except Sarah herself was awakened, they of course explained as best as they could the show to the diarchs of Equestria.

"This is...awkward." Sarah stated. "It's every fans dream to finally meet you and the rest and then you find out...well, that."

Celestia nodded. "At first I didn't belief it. But then your brother described in detail the events of the last Grand Galloping Gala."

"Oh yes, the one episode I forced him to watch. Uh...is it okay for her to be listening to us?" Sarah pointed at Thin Needle, who had been standing on the sidelines this entire time. She felt a little offended being spoken about, as if she wasn't there.

"It's alright. She already knows about everything and has promised to keep it a secret from everypony else. That said, I expect of you to do the same thing." Celestia said sternly.

"Sure thing." Lying and deceiving is second nature to me anyway. Only some people seem to relate the element of honesty with me although Luna is or rather was, the actual bearer.

"This also includes future events. Your mere presence might have change important events of our history already. Please do not try to "improve" the future or shape it in any other way."

"You really want Twilight to fall in love with you?"

Celestia's left eye twitched. "Very funny."

"I mean it. Well it doesn't happen naturally, someone just messed or will mess with her head and enjoy the show from afar, while Twilight does every stereotypical thing to win your heart. And of course she does it by the book, with checklists, it's quite hilarious actually, especially when the press starts to print papers about how you're actually a stallion." Celestia and Luna weren't the only beings who mastered the art of a poker face. Okay, mostly Sarah had the experience from Luna's memories, although normally she was way more open with her true emotions than Celestia.

Said princess in the meantime desperately searched for any kind of deception in the girl's face, however she didn't found it. Since overreacting wasn't appropriate for a princess, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I...well...I mean, I simply can't risk the timeline being broken for a little discomfort on my part. But as I said, please do NOT disclose any more information about the future anymore."

Sarah shook her head. "Sorry princess, but I will just do that, in case I noticed I or one of my family members accidentally changed something, especially if it is for the worse."

The sun princess put a hoof under her chin, thinking. "That actually sounds reasonable. Yes, that will suffice. Now then, shall we go to your family?"

"They...WHAT?!" Celestia exclaimed. Oh Sarah was so going to get bitten back by this, but she just couldn't resist. Thin Needle had insisted on doing another magic scan for completion, before they headed out. The doctor couldn't come with them sadly, due to her job and so it was only Celestia who heard the most infamous fanfiction stories of MLP. And Sarah was enjoying every moment of it. Just because she regretted her action, didn't mean she did not held a grudge against Celestia. One thousand years stuck on the moon did this to you.

"Yeah, those kinds of stories come up, when 90% of the fandom are guys. Not to mention the ones where you and Luna and sometimes even Nightmare Moon have sex together for...whatever reason."

Celestia had a hard time not throwing up.

"Alright I had my fun. I'll only tell you about the good stuff alright?"

"I'm not sure if I want to hear any more of it." Celestia stated as they turned around yet another corner.

"This one's actually pretty good. It's called "Past Sins" made by a guy who calls himself Pen Stroke. He wrote a story about how Twilight got abducted and used for a ritual to bring Nightmare Moon back to life."

Celestia's ears folded against her skull. "I'm still not sure I want to hear where this is going."

"Well, the ritual fails, because you safe Twilight, but in a way no one expected. She walks back to where she has been used, because she lost a book there" Celestia rolled her eyes. That sounded like something Twilight would do. "and meets a tiny version of Nightmare Moon, who has no memories whatsoever."

At this Celestia's ears perked up.

"She then raises her as her child, using camouflage spells to let Nyx, the name she gave the filly, look like a normal unicorn foal, tries to hide her identity even from her friends and Nyx in the meantime makes some friends of her own."

"This sounds like an interesting premise."

"Better than Nightmare Moon falling in love with a random human and having sex about a few weeks after they met." Sarah grumbled. "I swear, don't let the internet happen in Equestria. It's just-"

"GUARDS!" The sudden scream interrupted Sarah and got the attention of both the alicorn and the human. Sarah didn't hear the voice that often in the past, but she recognized it immediately, as the owner of the voice played a significant part in one of her favorite episodes of MLP.

Celestia inwardly groaned. "Please excuse me for a moment." Celestia said, before she headed off. Not heading any of her words, Sarah followed the mare until she found herself with two ponies and her brother in front of said ponies, one of them being Prince Blueblood. since Luna was banished before Blueblood was born, she had no idea whether he was actually blood related to the princesses or if it was just a title he gained somehow.

Sarah resisted the urge to facepalm. She was to 70% sure her brother was somehow at fault for the stallion calling out the guards, if only he pissed him off with a dumb joke or something.

"What is going on here?" Celestia spoke up, resisting the urge to groan. Stuff like this happened with her nephew all the time. And it was always for minor reasons.

"Auntie!" Blueblood exclaimed. "You need to lock...this...this naked monkey-"

"Still wearing clothes." Sarah's brother interjected.

How can he still be himself in this kind of situation?! At this rate he's going to get himself killed.

"This monster insulted me in the gravest matter!"

Your hairstyle? Sarah thought to herself.

"And what matter pray tell did our guest insult you?" Celestia emphasized the word "guest".

"I said he should do some workout exercise in order to get rid of some of that extra weight." John replied before Blueblood could say anything.

"He called me fat!"

You ARE fat. Okay not fat, but dude, give it a few more pounds and those cheeks of yours will look like those of Molestia.

Celestia resisted the urge to rub her forehead and instead focused on the situation at hoof. "Blueblood, you can't simply accuse some...human without any kind of proof, especially if you insult them in return!"

"B-but-"

"Now go! We'll talk later." the princess told the prince. Blueblood shot James a glare before he left the hallway.

"I'm terribly sorry about Blueblood."

"Eh, I was tactless." the human replied shrugging. "But then again I always aA-A_A_A-A-AMMMM!" he shouted as all of the sudden he was levitated from the place he was standing, hold in a blue magic aura and stopping mid-air right next to Sarah.

"Oh, hey sis. What's up? You feelin' alright?"

In return his sister just gave him a stern look. "What?"

"You know exactly what." Sarah growled, showing her real eyes for a split second. Her brother however was much too used by it to be intimidated anymore.

"Oh come on! We've talked about this a bazillion times."

"And I'm gonna change you into a mouse a bazillion more times, unless you finally learn some good behavior!" she shouted him right in the face.

James just grinned his idiotic way, like he always did. And just like it happened every week, Sarah raised her hand and started to channel her magic through it. Once the spell was ready, she released the energy in form of a blue beam and transformed her brother into a mouse yet again. A small black one.

Celestia watched the display with amusement, a small part of her being amazed how much control the girl had over her magic. She raised an eyebrow as she felt Sarah charging up yet another spell. Confused the small mouse saw as Sarah surrounded herself with a blue light and started shrinking. It didn't take long for the transformation to be completed and soon in front of the mouse stood a black cat with blue eyes.

The mouse let out a tiny gulp. That was new. The mouse gave a salute before making a mad dash into the other direction, running between Celestia's legs. With a loud meow Sarah gave chase. The alicorn looked under her belly, seeing the two animals running around the corner.

Two moons

Author's Note

I am finally back. I also have the feeling I'll never be able to hold my 3000 word count promise.

Two moons

If anyone would have told Nora a week ago that she would be drinking tea and eating cake with the princess of the moon, she would have believed them. After all, her daughter was the "evil twin" of said princess and as a result, neither her nor her husband were freaked out anymore by being in another world. It didn't happen the first time after all. Only last time it was one they thought was actually real, namely the Venus.

Yes, living with a goddess as a daughter had you practically prepared for almost any kind of situation. Preventing your own daughter from eating her younger brother didn't even fall under the top ten. How did this situation occur? Nora wasn't sure. She and her husband had been having a nice talk with Princess Luna, when suddenly a mouse came running into the room. It was followed by a cat with blue glowing eyes. The two "animals" had been running around in circles, until the man grabbed the cat, causing it to meow in protest. The mouse used the opportunity to climb up the woman's leg and hide inside her protective hands.

"Sarah? Would you please turn your brother back to normal?" Jack asked his transformed daughter.

Princess Luna looked dumbfounded as the cat rolled her slit eyes and then all of the sudden her entire body began to glow in a blue light. The body of the mouse soon followed and in a matter of seconds, Luna witnessed the "cat" performing a very complex transformation spell from mouse back to human. It ended with John sitting with his knees on his mother's lap. She simply shoved him to the ground. The cat in the meantime meowed and jumped off her father's lap.

Luna watched the cat walking over to her gracefully, not even once breaking eye contact with the princess. The cat stopped in front of Luna and eyed the pony for three more seconds, before bowing towards the princess. Before the alicorn could comprehend what was happening, the cat glowed again and soon turned into the human, who was still unconscious only an hour ago.

"Pff, show off."

Sarah gave her brother a quick glare before resuming to look towards Luna's hooves. "Princess Luna, I apologize for the behavior the two of us just displayed."

"Tis..alright, Miss Daniels." Luna assured. "We art rather impressed at though magic display and control of said magic. It takes decades for the greatest of our unicorns to learn what though displayed with ease."

Sarah looked away. "Under the circumstances I grew up, I had to either learn it myself or ignore my talents. As much as my parents would have liked it to be the latter, I simply was too tempted."

"You blew up uncle Joe's barn, when you were eight. Best firework I have ever seen." John gave Princess Luna a thumps up. His father however quickly grabbed the arm and pulled it down. Both older humans glared at their son, but he just shrugged them off and yanked his arm out of his father's grab.

"Ahem, well" Luna tried to find back her composure "We apologize everyhuman, but we wish to talk with Sarah. Art though alright with this?"

"Of course your highness." Nora replied.

"It's no problem at all." was Jack's reply.

John however gave Sarah a quick look, who gave a quick nod in return. You wouldn't have noticed if you had not been paying attention.

Sarah was more than a little twitchy being next to the one that acted as her host for a good thousand years. If Luna noticed the nervous hand shaking or the glances, she wasn't showing it. The alicorn led her guest to the royal gardens.

"Wow." Sarah commented at the wide range of flowers.

"My sister chose the wide range of flowers. She loves to spend time with us here a lot."

"Mhm. The last time I tried any gardening, I ended up creating a human eating plant." Sarah scratched her head while saying this. "My best friend got almost eaten. And well, I had no choice but to tell her about everything going on. She took it well...after she recovered from her shock that is."

Luna snorted.

"Is it difficult? Being the only one of thy kind who can use magic?"

"You're switching between thou/thy/us and you/me/she a lot." Sarah commented.

"Forgive me...us. We have difficulties adjusting to modern speech."

Sarah smiled. "It's no problem at all. And to answer your question, well sometimes it's hard. It especially gets hard when your "friends" " she made the air quotes with her fingers "start demanding stuff from you or even try blackmailing." Sarah kicked a stone. "Yeah, right. As if anyone would belief them. I have at least a few friends who support me."

"We...I see." Luna nodded.

"By the way, did my parents tell you about...the specialty of this world?"

"Specialty? Ah yes, indeed." Luna nodded, her face showing mixed emotions. "Truth to be told, we are rather...disturbed about the premise of aliens watching our every movement."

"Only 22 minutes, normally." Sarah replied. "Besides, last time I checked you're about three times as popular as Celestia and Cadance together." and at least double as popular as I am. Hey, not my fault I didn't get enough screen time.

"W-what?" Luna asked.

"I mean it. Probably because there are more episodes about you than Celestia. And seriously, stop the crap with the Tantabus before it gets out of hand. I know I promised Celestia not to intervene with the timeline, but really, stop it. It wasn't your fault, it was Nightmare's and the fault of the ponies from the past."

Sarah didn't notice Luna stopping in her tracks, until she was a few feet ahead of her. Turning around, the girl found the princess staring at the ground.

"Thou do not understand." she said in a depressed tone.

"I...don't understand?" Sarah repeated.

"It is...easy for us, for my sister to blame our subjects for what transpired on this fateful night. Celestia blames herself for not noticing the signs earlier. But ultimately, it was us who accepted the Nightmare into our soul, it was us who let her corrupt our very being, it was us who wished to bring eternal night upon Equestria, knowing full well everypony would die in a matter of years." Luna's voice was calm, but shaky.

Sarah bit her lip, desperately trying to hold back her own emotions. She tried to lift up the spirit of the night princess, but her method, namely being casual about everything and blaming someone else for what happened, backfired immediately.

Great job, Nightmare. You always know how to make things worse. she growled to herself, while walking up to Luna determined. The alicorn of the night looked up just in time, as the human wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm sorry Luna." Sarah whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"Tis...alright." Luna tried to find her composure back and wrapped her wings around the back of the girl. "We know thou simply wanted to ease our pain...art thou crying?" she asked, as she felt something wet dripping on her fur.

"Sorry. I...got something in my eye."

Luna had already forgotten her own sadness, as she was simply confused why the girl all of the sudden was reacting the way she was. Sarah for her part, pulled back from the hug and wiped her eyes with her arm. "I am sorry princess. That was...I...a spurt of emotion..." she stuttered. The girl shook her head clear.

"A-anyway, there was something you wanted to talk about with me, right?"

Luna didn't pry into the business of the girl anymore. She filed the little mood swing away in her head for later and decided instead to get to business. "Yes, indeed. For you see, somepony...forgive me...for somehuman or someone in general, it is highly unusual to have this fine control of such vast amounts of magic, without proper training."

"I see..." I don't like where this is going.

"Truth to be told, we're rather unsettled by this revelation and ask thee to perform some tests in order to see how fine thy control really is and if necessary provide thee with a tutor in order to not risk any accidents in the future."

"...Makes sense." Only that my control of magic is as good as yours and I am not afraid to use dark magic to my advantage. "So, are you and Celestia going to supervise me or is it going to be one of your unicorn guards?"

"Nay." Luna waved off. "We thought of somepony of expertise in the field of magic. And while my sister and me are certainly experts, we do not have the time to properly test you. So instead, we have thought of giving you chance of meeting the Elements of Harmony."

Sarah's eyes went wide at this revelation.

"Y-you want T-Twilight Sparkle to test me?"

Luna nodded. "And teach you about the various theories and thesis' of magic. Understanding the basics will prevent future accidents, as we already stated, as well as provide you with understanding your gifts a little more."

...Is this a dream coming true or a nightmare?

Luna excused herself afterwards. One of her guards approached them and had whispered something into her ear. Sarah could see that the Night Princess suppressed a groan.

As of now, Sarah was left alone in the royal gardens with the animals, which avoided her on sight. The idea of causing a second animal stampede came into her mind, but that was something she would only do if she was drunk. Which she was not. She was scared.

The good news was, Twilight most likely didn't know her magical signature and once Sarah got away, she won't have to conceal it anymore. The bad news was, she was almost paranoid of the Elements of Harmony. You certainly don't forget getting your mind forcefully shoved out of the body you have been inhabiting. It had been painful.

Afterwards she didn't remember much. For a long time she didn't even know that she was Nightmare Moon, until the first time she used magic. It had not been a very pleasant experience to say the least and wanted to forget the day she-

"Hey sis." the voice brought her out of her own thoughts. Turning around, she saw her brother approaching her.

"How'd it go?" asked.

Sarah let out a sigh and crossed her arms. "Could have been worse. Luna wants Twilight to test my magic abilities. She's afraid I might cause some freak accidents, because I never got some proper training."

"Twilight? Wasn't that someone important? Eh, doesn't matter." her brother shrugged. "I've been at the barracks and the guards got some nice toys over there. Wanna spare?" he asked.

Sparring was something they did occasionally. Sarah was very skilled with her blade and battle ax. One day her brother had been watching as she was training with her summoned weapons and immediately wanted to join in. She tried to convince him otherwise, not wanting to be a bad influence on him, but he had been a little kid. At this age almost all little boys wanted to be a hero. Eventually he used his cute little brother charms (something he was lacking these days) and managed to convince her to teach him how to wield a couple of different weapons. Her parents never let her hear the end of it. At least until they both participated in their first tournament.

"Sure, I could use a stress reliever anyway."

Just a little violence

Nora had to admit one thing: she was lost in the huge castle of the rulers of Equestria. All she did was use the bathroom, which strangely enough was very similar to those of a human's, and simply wanted to go back. That didn't happen.

She had asked for directions countless times, be it either stoic (or bored) guard or the ever busy servants. None of them could really help her. Some of these ponies were even a little wary of her. Perhaps it was their natural instinct telling them that there was a predator in front of them.

The woman took yet another turn, when she found herself in front a pair of opened doors. Screams and shouts, as well as the sound of metal hitting metal could be heard. Curious, the woman stepped outside and found herself of what seemed to be the castle training grounds.

Various ponies were doing all kinds of drills: an obstacle course, hoof to hoof combat, even sword fighting, either with the handles in their mouths or the weapons were being levitated by magic. In a corner was a white unicorn stallion in purple armor and with a blue mane, shouting at a group of soldiers, who were lined up in front of him.

"-are counting on us! Canterlot, Equestria counts on you!!! Do you want to make Equestria proud!?!?"

"YES, CAPTAIN!"

"Then you newbies can start with 100 laps around the grounds. What are you waiting for?!"

Nora watched with mild amusement, as the recruits started galloping, some of them startled by the suddenness of the task.

Ah, boot camp. Reminds me of my time in the army. Stupid Sergeant Tucker.

The captain of the royal pony guard turned around and noticed the unexpected guest. He trotted up to the hyu-mane or whatever she was called.

"Ma'am." The captain greeted her. "Can I help you?"

"I'm sorry, Captain. I'm afraid I got a little lost while looking for my way back to Princess Luna and my husband."

"I see." the captain. "I can order one of my guards to escort you back, if you want." he offered.

"That would be nice, thank you."

"It's no problem, Ma'am. It always happens to house guests."

"Oh please, drop the ma'a already." Nora chuckled. "I only managed second lieutenant during my time in the army."

The captain raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting the woman to be the military type. She didn't look particular muscular or trained for that matter. "Well then, Lieutenant." the captain smiled. "Let's-huh? Oh these are your children, aren't they?" the captain pointed with his hoof behind Nora.

Indeed as she turned around, she found Sarah and Jake approaching, the latter having his arms crossed behind his back. The two carefully avoided the galloping recruits, as they made their way towards the woman and the stallion.

"Hey mom!" Nora's children gave her a casual wave with their arms, before they stopped in front of the stallion.

"Captain Armor." Sarah greeted with a short bow.

"Yes, can I help you?" he asked.

"We wanna ask, if ya got any spare swords." Jake said, still in his leaning back position. "Sis and I wanna beat the living shit out of each other."

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, while Nora and Sarah both let out a sigh.

"Yes, as my brother mentioned" she shot him a quick glare "we kindly ask you, if you will allow us to practice a little with your swords. I know a spell, which can make the blade dull, until I release it, that is."

"Boring! OW!! Ohh....mom, not cool." Jake fell to the ground, holding his most likely no longer existing balls.

"Do you want to cut each other's head off?!" Nora shouted.

"Ohhh, it hurts. Come on, mom. It was just a joke. OW!! That's child abuse!"

Sarah led Shining Armor away from the rather pitiful scene. "I'm sorry about that. Mom and Dad are fed up with my brother's antics and thus tend to get a little aggressive, when he says something really stupid."

"I...see." Shining Armor replied. "Excuse me a moment. What are you doing, soldier!? You can slack off, when you're dead! That's 20 push ups, after you're done! And don't think I'll forget it!"

Shining armor cleared his throat, as he turned back around. "Now, back on topic. I'm honestly rather averse to the idea of handing weapons over to civilians."

"Oh don't worry. We're very skilled in sword fight and even fought in national tournaments a few times." Sarah assured him.

"That's nice and all, but, I'm sorry. I don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself." the captain replied.

The girl in front of Shining Armor rolled her eyes and got closer to him. He instinctively crouched a little down, when she got close to his ear and whispered something to him.

About two minutes later, Sarah and Shining Armor came out of the armory, with the human holding a sword in each hand. Jake, who at least partially recovered, grabbed himself one of the swords and made a few test swings. It was only a short sword, with a silver handle. Leather was wrapped around it, so the guards without magic could bite in, without hurting their teeth. In case of humans, it made it more comfortable for them to handle the swords.

"You can fight over there. Just please, be careful."

"You're asking the wrong dude, cap." Jake replied, getting into position.

"Don't worry Captain, I'll make sure not to kill him too much." Sarah said and took position on the opposite side. Some of the guards looked over to them with mild interest. Out of nowhere both siblings began charging at each other, the swords colliding with an audible *CLANG*.

Pushing the opponent away, both swung their respective swords again, Jake trying an uppercut, while Sarah did the opposite. The result was, both took a few steps back, before recovering. Jake decided to go for a more aggressive advance and unleashed a series of slashes against his sister, who easily blocked all of them.

When will he ever learn. she thought before parrying a vicious strike from the left and giving her brother a good kick the stomach, sending him flying a few feet away.

Nora watched with amusement as her son tried to roll like you see in all those action movies, but ended up lying on his face. As much as she loved her children, it was always entertaining seeing the two going against each other. Sure at the beginning she was completely against it, but Sarah being who she was watched out and so far prevented accidents from happening with her magic.

Said girl ran, only to jump into the air, ready to pierce her brother with the sword (she would stop before the metal made contact with his flesh). However, since this kind of thing didn't happen for the first time, Jake knew what to do. He rolled to the side and quickly got up, his sister's sword piercing the sand.

Not wanting to lose her advantage, Sarah began to take the aggression, while Jake was forced to block her ongoing attacks. While Jake preferred brute force, his sister showed grace and precision with each swung she took at her brother. Not being used to handle such a short weapon, Jake received some cuts in his clothing and left arm. He hissed in pain, but kept it together, knowing those wounds were only on the surface.

Looking for a way to break free, he found a little opening and rolled to the side. When he was actually in control, he never failed. Quickly getting up, he swung his sword behind him, but miscalculated the distance and hit nothing. Sarah quickly spun around and decided to play a little dirty. She grabbed a handful of sand and threw it against her brother's eyes. Sadly right at this moment, a slight wind decided to come up, causing the attack to backfire.

"Karma, bitch!" Jake shouted and attacked. Instinctively Sarah jumped back, her jeans receiving a cut.

"That was my favorite jeans." Sarah whined.

"Hey, you agreed to this. Besides, it doesn't matter what you wear. You look like shit anyways. Black. Snooty."

"Oh, it's on!"

If there was one thing Jake was an expert on, it was getting people mad at him. Especially people who he knew very well. The downside in this situation was, Sarah had the magical alicorn advantage. He knew she was way better in sword fighting than him, so he tried to nullify her precision by aggravating her. Of course, it meant the swings were getting harder and he needed to use both hands in order to block the oncoming storm: up, left, neck, knee, up, down, right, down, diagonal, the other diagonal, parry!

Sarah's arm flew upwards. Jake used the momentum to try a diagonal cut from his sister's left shoulder down. Only problem was, Sarah saw the attack coming and found a way to stop it. She kicked her brothers leg, who stumbled a little and needed to find his balance again. Sarah for her part, fell to the ground, since her upper body was already leaning backwards. Using quick thinking, she rolled backwards and got into position again.

Jake was tempted to use his birthday gift, but it was best to let the Equestrians in the dark about that for now. Not having any real strategy, he charged forward and hoped to find an opening somewhere. Sarah didn't let him have the aggression for long, as she parried the upper cut and immediately counter attacked, scratching her brother's skin on his breast region. Nora complaint about how bloodstains are hard to get rid of in clothes.

"You aren't worried?" Shining Armor asked the woman.

"Oh, when they started I was completely against it, belief me. I even grounded the two after they both managed to hurt themselves for the first time. Me and Jack forbid them to ever do this again. But, you know children. When do they ever listen to their parents? They persisted on continuing on, so after a very long debate, we enrolled them to a professional teacher, hoping they would give up after a week or two. And now my daughter has one the world championship and my son managed at least the 16th place."

"I see."

Sarah and Jake found themselves caught in a power struggle, their faces only inches apart from their blades.

"You know, if I would wear my tournament outfit, you would have already lost." Sarah gritted through her teeth.

"The only reason you won that fast, was because I had to sneeze." Jake retorted.

"Really? You couldn't come up with a better excuse?" Sarath grinned and pushed her brother away. Falling on his but, Jake quickly raised his sword on instinct. However Sarah simply kicked the thing out of his hand and pointed with the tip of her own sword against his face.

"You lost."

"Fuck you too."

Sarah laughed and helped her brother back up to his feet. "Come on, return match. I chose the weapon this time."

"If you're so adamant of getting your ass kicked."

Jack shook his head, as he watched from Princess Luna's balcony the whole spectacle. "I don't know what to do with them Princess. Sarah is a genius in every way. She can practically chose any career she wants, yet she's thinking about opening up her own antique shop of all things. And Jake" he sighed. "The boy is smart, but lazy. He only does the bear minimum, except it is fun for him. He say: 'Screw education! I'm already cooking better than mom!'" Jack sighed.

"So, thy sun wishes to be a chef." The moon princess concluded. "Famous chefs in Canterlot are highly respected and admired for their skill."

"Well princess, the labor market on our world is a battlefield. I'll be honest, I don't feel comfortable with my son trying to get such an unsteady job, while having no backup plan what-so-ever. I don't want him to end up as a dishwasher or something similar."

"Hmm." the lunar princess put a hoof under her chin. "Mayhaps thou will trust him more if thy son proves himself."

"Proves himself, princess? I don't doubt he can become a great cook, it's just hard getting a footing by being a restaurant chef. There are so many out there and most end up either giving up or in some mediocre place."

Luna smiled slyly. "If thy son hast truly talent, this shan't be a problem for him. Trust us, Mr. Daniels. Thy son shall cook for us this evening. We will inform the royal chefs immediately."