“Twilight! What did you do!?” Spike yelled as he ran to the fallen mercenary, books and loose papers littering the ground around him.

“Oh Faust, I’m so sorry!” Twilight scrambled to the man on the ground. “I thought he was a robber!”

“No, he was like our escort or something!” Spike started lightly slapping the man’s face, to no avail

“How was I supposed to know!?” Twilight waved her hands in the air in exasperation. “I just saw some guy behind you and panicked!”

“I hope you didn’t give him a concussion.” As Spike worried about his health, Tyrian was already regaining consciousness, and with consciousness came pain. Stabbing pain, right above his left eye, where an edge of a hefty tome had made its mark.

“Ohhh, why didn’t I just die?” He groaned as he writhed in agony. It wasn’t the worst pain he had felt, not by a long shot, but one tends to forget things like that, especially Tyrian.

“Well, he’s talking, so that’s good.” Spike sighed in relief.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know who you were and I’ve really stressed and I’m sorry!” Twilight tried to explain as he woke, holding his head with his right hand.

“What did I do to deserve this?” Tyrian rolled a little on the ground until he stopped to think a bit. “...Oh, yeah, a lot of things” He said under his short breaths.

“Conscious and full sentences, doing good for getting knocked out.” Spike laughed a little at the pain the mercenary was experiencing, remembering the fiasco with his canteen a few minutes ago.

“You attack everybody new, or do I have a face that makes people want to hit me?” Tyrian winced, his own movement exacerbating the already tear-inducing pain.

“Hey, you don’t get to talk about attacking new people.” Spike said with crossed arms.

“Hey, I apologized!” Tyrian mumbled as he sat up. “...Wait, did I? I thought I did. Maybe I didn’t.” Tyrian’s musings were interrupted by a panicked Twilight.

“How do you feel? Any nausea, fatigue, or delirium? I’m assuming delirium, considering.” Twilight conjured a small ball of light on the tip of her finger. “Follow this light as best as you can.” With a grunt, Tyrian pushed her hand away and tried to stand up.

“I don’t have a concussion for Faust’s sake, it just hurts.” Tyrian said, slightly concussed. “And chill the hell out, you’re hyperventilating.”

Twilight felt her chest rising and falling in an erratic way, her breath shallow, making her dizzy. Focusing her mind, she forced herself to take slow and deep breaths, just as her mother had taught her. Somewhat gathered but breathing steady, she stood up alongside the now stretching man.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Twilight asked as she brushed some dust off her skirt. “You don’t look like one a Solar Guard.” She gestured to his slightly tattered apparel.

Tyrian flexed his arm in discomfort, shaking out the pain from a lone book that had dug into his shoulder. “I’m your bodyguard, your Princess hired me to make sure nothing happens to you while you’re out of the castle.” The scruffy mercenary said.

“Bodyguard? Why would I need a bodyguard when Princess Celestia has guards by the hundreds?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Now that is a question you should ask her, ‘cause I’m still trying to figure that out.” Tyrian touched the spot where most of the books hit him, wincing at the touch.

“Are you sure you don’t need a, like, ice pack or something?” Spike questioned.

“No, I’m fine. We need to go, anyway, our train will be here soon.” Tyrian began to walk, albeit with a slight stagger, to the stairs leading down, expecting footsteps following him.

“No.” Twilight said firmly.

Tyrian stopped dead in his tracks, his hand still on his head as he turned to the student. She stood still, rooted in her spot, albeit with a glance away now and then.

“What?” Tyrian felt a twinge of anger rise in him.

“No, I have something to research right now and it can’t wait.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the increasingly frustrated man.

“Research? What is more important than listening to your Princess? She said to leave at four o’ clock and it’s three-thirty, we’ll probably not even make at this rate.” Tyrian shifted his gauntlet back, allowing him to show her the watch on his wrist, not noticing it had broken some time ago.

“This takes priority, I’m sorry. It’s about the Elements of Harmony. A set of magical artifacts that were said to be Equestria’s greatest defense. But I keep getting just bits and pieces of what they were.” Twilight explained, much to the confusion of Tyrian.

“Why would Celestia’s student want to learn about some old weapon that probably didn’t even exist?” Tyrian said, the pain in head fading quickly. The question lit a spark in the eyes of the young woman.

“Celestia’s student can learn about whatever she wants, thank you very much.” Twilight glared.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Tyrian sighed as he tried to rein in his sass, not wanting to make his job any more difficult than it needed to be. The paper-thin apology did not sate Twilight, but she let it go with a sigh, her reason far more powerful than her spite.

“Anyway, I wanted to learn about the Elements after I read an old story about two rulers, one of the light and one of the night, obviously a summarized retelling of the Nightmare Conflict, a war that happened a thousand years ago.” Twilight explained. “Once I started digging into it more, I found idealized versions as well as fairly melancholy ones, but every time, the Elements of Harmony are always a part of it, and yet, all the information I can find about said Elements are in ancient tomes in dead tongues or half eroded paintings.” Her hand movements became increasingly erratic, and her body seemed to vibrate with excitement.

“So?” Tyrian shrugged. “They were probably just propaganda Celestia made during and after the conflict to keep morale up. An ultimate weapon tends to do that, you know.”

“You see, that’s what I thought at first! But then I realized, if they were real, and if they were used during the conflict, there would be military reports! So, with some convincing, I got into the Solar Guard’s ancient documents, sealed off from the normal populace, and I hit a gold-mine. Some of the things I’ve read even suggested they were the things that stopped it in the first place!” Twilight went over to her desk at the end of the room, dozens of loose papers were thrown into the air as she looked for the one document she needed. Tyrian was beginning to worry about the sheer excess of loose papers that were in this otherwise pristine library.

Spike, who apparently had left during Twilight’s lecture to get a snack, walked up chewing on an emerald as he watched his adoptive sister get into her classic ‘Professor Twilight’ mode. Tyrian was amused at the sight of the manic researcher, who had seemingly forgotten they were there.

“Is she always like this?” Tyrian said in a hushed voice.

“Sometimes, but only if she’s really into what she’s talking about. You better get comfortable, seeing as you’ll be standing for a while.” Spike said picking a stray piece of jewel lodged in his sharp teeth.

“A-HA, found it!” Twilight raised a book into the air triumphantly. With a wave of a hand, a spare table was pulled into the middle of the room, various papers and miscellaneous wrapped scrolls littered its surface. Stepping up to said table, Tyrian grabbed an important looking document, only to put it back down when he saw it was just detailing the eating habits of manticores.

Twilight’s hand glowed ever brighter as numerous papers and manuscripts floated upward, and, at a glance, all shared a familiar symbol, one that anyone with a shred of knowledge of Equestria’s history would know.

A crescent moon, the regalia of the Nightmare.

Twilight glanced up from her manic reading of the book of Prophesies to see the look in the mercenaries’ eyes, a look of curiosity she knew all too well. Tyrian reached for the one page that caught his attention the most, grasping the aged parchment through the shimmering purple field. His eyes began skimming the information laid out in front of him, focusing on the most worrying part, the fact that the Nightmare Conflict had been prolonged long after the actual fall of the Nightmare due to the existence of a group of powerful individuals, a Cult, in service of the Nightmare itself. Near the end of the page spoke of their motivations, and how there was none. Only the loyalty to their patron was known, everything else was up in the air.

“Children of the Moon, huh? What is with cults always being ‘the children’ of whoever or whatever they believe in, anyway?”

“A fair question, but there’s something far more important about these papers.” Twilight spoke ominously

“What would that be?” Tyrian laid the paper down slowly.

Twilight held up the book she had retrieved earlier, one of prophecies and predictions, with one chapter singled out.

Nightmare Moon’s return is said to be a thousand years after her imprisonment, or, more specifically, tomorrow.

“Oh shit, seriously? Tomorrow?” Tyrian recoiled slightly at the new information.

“Yes, the Summer Sun Celebration is the day it’s supposed to return, and I doubt it’s a coincidence.” Twilight placed the book down and brought up a large canvas bag with what seemed to be her emblem on its side, though this one had a silver shield behind it.

“Spike, you got the bags packed?” She spoke as she packed the various papers and the large tome into the canvas bag.

Spike took one last chomp of his emerald and nodded as he chewed.

“Good, bring Tyrian and have him help carry them. I’ll get the bags you guys don’t.” Twilight latched the bag closed and wrapped it around it her back, it hanging from a strap across he chest.

“Woah, I didn’t agree to bag carrying duty.” Tyrian raised his hands in mock surprise.

“Yeah? What contract did you sign? Twenty-five-C? Because if so, you did agree to bag carrying duty, specifically subsection nine-two.” Spike spoke dryly as he went a side room to their left, grabbing two large wheeled suitcases, both with green stripes along its sides.

“Wha-...How did you-...Fuck.” Tyrian slumped his shoulders in defeat and went to lug some of the stacked purple striped cases in the back

Pulling them out with a bit of effort, Tyrian grunted as Twilight slid in front of him.

“I’ll take the top one if you want.” Twilight pointed to the case awkwardly positioned on top of two others, almost identical in design.

“Oh, uh, sure.” Tyrian grabbed the top suitcase and brought it up, positioning it so the wheels could roll. He handed the grip to the smaller girl, who grasped it with her skinny hands, which Tyrian had just noticed were adorned with three bead bracelets, all with different color schemes, the forefront being white and purple, with the same emblem from her bag. The others were a deep blue and a lighter shade and the other a very light grey with a few lilac and white beads complementing it. Tyrian had guessed these were family, considering the similarity of the symbols they used, two sharing the design of a magenta star. For some reason he could not understand, the sight of the bracelet and his subsequent analysis had stunned him, his stupor not going unnoticed. Twilight pulled the case from Tyrian’s hand, and with a slightly concerned smile, turned to the stairs down, where Spike was struggling slightly with the incline and his stubby arms.

Tyrian shook his head, clearing his mind of the fog clouding it. Out of some compulsion, placed his hand on his neck, where an absent weight had made itself known for the first time in a very long time, causing some unsavory memories to try and surface.

Tyrian forced them back down, back into the void they had come from, and where he needed them to be.

“You coming?” Tyrian’s head snapped up, seeing the waiting forms of both Twilight and Spike at the top of the stairs.

“Yeah, thanks for waiting.” Tyrian brushed off the thoughts and followed his new wards down and out, the trio heading out to their ride out of Canterlot, with a bit of haste occupying their movements as they heard the sound of the train horn in the distance.

~ ~ ~

Celestia sat in her study, occupying her mind with the menial tasks she had as the monarch of Equestria. Many requests of loans from the Royal Treasury that had to be redirected to the banks, a few letters from desperate nobles hoping to become suitors that had to be burnt, and a few actual ones that demanded her attention. One was a treaty for the Griffon Kingdoms to begin a unification process for the shattered nation of Equestria’s once great ally, a plea for an end of the war between the two splinters, now that the fighting had finally died down.

A diplomatic visit would be the best choice, a summit in neutral ground, likely in Equestria itself. Celestia turned her head, taking in the beautiful night.

Celestia sighed, letting her tense shoulders relax in what had seemed like days. This, on top of her sister’s return, had Celestia in a tailspin. The planning had taken decades to fall into place, her foresight being an immense boon to her efforts to bring her back. Celestia smiled as she thought of her sister, her face hard to recall in its entirety. Celestia felt a twinge of despair invade her mind, but it was washed away by anticipation.

‘It will be nice to see you again, dear sister. Oh, how you swatted at me when I called you by your childhood name.”

Celestia’s smile grew wider as she imagined her and Luna, sitting side-by-side in their throne room, sitting down for lunch and speaking of their desires and secrets, a day they crashed some nobles party just for the looks on their faces.

The strongest memory she had, the one she held onto the most was the day of their rise as the diarch’s they were destined to be, and how proud Luna was that day. Her smile had been the brightest she had ever seen as she waved to their people, relishing in the love and joy permeating the air around them. She had been the one who held Celestia up in the times of anger, madness, and hate that had plagued their lives since the day they ascended. She had been the one to reassure Celestia that they were destined to be the heroes that the world needed, that they were to win. On that day, all of those hopes and dreams Luna had carried for the both of them had come true. For the millennia to come after, she knew Luna would be the one to carry that hope, and that she would be alongside her.

‘Lulu, my best friend, how I miss those days. When we were one and the same, two sides of the same coin. When we were invincible.’ Celestia felt the pain of her memories overtake the laughter in her thoughts, a tidal wave of anguish flooding her dreams and recollections. Her face dropped and tears began to form.

“When you were Luna.” The tears fell freely, as they had countless times before.

‘How will I face you after all, I have done? Am I even deserving of such a thing?’ Celestia felt her body shiver as she remembered the Nightmare her sister had become. The serpent eyes, the pale skin, and the void that had replaced the light in her, drinking in all that shone brightly around her. Her sword from that day had been put on a mantle, one that Celestia had visited every year, a reminder of what she had done. Of what Celestia had done.

She didn’t even know if she could use them alone, Luna had always been so Loyal, and Honest, and those ones always responded to her touch, while Celestia found her self drawn to Kindness and Generosity. Magic and Laughter had always been both theirs, constantly rotating between them, never choosing a favorite, never picking a sibling as their true vessel.

But as soon as she touched Magic, she could feel them all respond in tandem with her own magic. In her panic and pain, she could only say what came to her dazed mind.

She wanted it all to stop, and the Elements made it so. Luna, Nightmare Moon, was gone, placed into her responsibility as the Lunar Princess as an apparent form of irony, her visage carved into the celestial entity.

She had become the legend all mothers and fathers told to their scared children, in reassurance that should they not be around at night, the Woman in Silver Rays, her sister, would always be watching over them, protecting them as she would before her change.

Celestia had spent many years planting the idea of Luna being a protector of her people, not the destroyer she had become, in perhaps a desperate bid to absolve her of the guilt of imprisoning her.

It did not work.

Every moonlit night, Celestia cried at the sight of the only family she had ever known, so far away.

Celestia felt tired, her body exhausted from the grief, as she raised her head from her damp desk.

‘I promised to get you back, to save you. I know it isn’t you who vowed to black out our sun with our moon.’ Celestia rose from her chair, shuffling over to her bed, falling in lethargy onto the extremely comfortable bed, but not feeling the softness, only the emptiness in her world.

‘When you wake up tomorrow, it will be time. You have to do this, or it will all fall apart.’ Celestia steeled herself before the pull of sleep took her, dreading the silence of her empty dreams.

Her eyes drifted to the moon and the silhouette of the woman in it.

“Goodnight, Luna.” Celestia said quietly as her eyes fell.

Unbeknownst to her resting form, the moon shimmered like water, and when it stopped, the visage of her sister was gone.

The Nightmare had woken up, and it laughed.

Author's Note

Holy crap, that was a long chapter.

It felt good, though. I think I'm going to try and make them as long or longer as this one from now on. I don't know, it feels right somehow.

Also, I found out coffee is really good.

I may have made a terrible mistake.