Glimpses

by Pen Stroke

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Anthology, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Nightmare Moon, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 41335

The power to ask “what if,” can be a source of great amusement… but for some, the hypotheticals are haunting reminders of what could have been.

When pursuing Starlight, Twilight and Spike experienced variances of Equestria, and saw how the river of time could have been different. Now, Starlight has moved in with Twilight, Nyx, and Spike and has begun her studies in friendship. To thank those who have helped her embrace friendship once more, Starlight has created an enchantment that allows the castle’s map table to let anyone glimpse other variances of reality.

The power to ask “what if,” can be a source of great amusement… but for some, the hypotheticals are haunting reminders of what could have been.

Published 2016-08-26 20:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-08-31 20:31:19 UTC

Core Chapter - Displeasing Constants

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Core Chapter

Displeasing Constants

====================

In celebration of Past Sins’ fifth anniversary, please enjoy the one-shot story contained in this “Core” chapter before going on to indulge in the more hypothetical, and far less canon, “Variance” chapters.

Thanks so much for five great years of friendship.

Sincerely
Pen Stroke

“It is so good to be home.”

Twilight pushed open the doors to the private apartment of her palace, smiling as Nyx and Spike trod in behind her. Spike was stifling a yawn while Nyx nearly stumbled into one of the reading cushions near the door. Their exhaustion was a little more intense than what Twilight felt, but that was only thanks to the tea she had enjoyed on the train ride back. The caffeine, however, was starting to fade, and Twilight knew it wouldn’t be long before she’d be stumbling off to her own bed. “Go get cleaned up, you two, and get to sleep.”

Normally such an early bedtime would rouse very vocal complaints from both Spike and Nyx. Nyx tried to resist. She shook her head and opened her mouth to protest, but all she managed to utter was a yawn. It was a sight that made Spike chuckle. He nodded his head to Twilight, and gently nudged Nyx towards the hallway that lead to their bedrooms. That was enough to break her resistance. Nyx and Spike wished Twilight a sleepy ‘good night’ before walking out the living room.

“I guess that’s what they get for not taking a nap on the train.” Starlight Glimmer stepped into the room, setting down a few of her own bags in the hallway outside.

Twilight nodded as she watched them go to their bedrooms. “It’s been a long couple days for all of us. I never thought Flurry Heart’s Crystalling would be so… eventful. All that trouble, and it wasn’t even anypony in particular causing it. Just a matter of circumstance.” Twilight flopped down in one of the reading cushions, stretching out her wings and letting a sigh escape her lips as she sank into the soft fabric.

“That or Discord, though I think he learned his lesson after that road trip he sent you five on.” Starlight said as she remained standing, though she did move a bit closer to Twilight. “Can’t believe it took so long to get back to Ponyville, though.”

“The snowstorm messed up a lot of train schedules. We’re lucky we didn’t have to wait to take the train tomorrow morning, though I couldn’t really complain about spending more time with my niece.” Twilight smiled, squirming in her seat. “I still have trouble believing it myself when I say it out loud. I have a niece. I’m an aunt, and she’s so adorable. She’s also an alicorn, which raises numerous concerns and questions in its own right, but at the moment, I’m going to focus on the how cute Flurry Heart is.”

Starlight nodded. “Yeah, she’s cute, though she is going to have massive wings when she gets older. I’ve never seen a newborn foal with wings that big, and they will only grow bigger. Also, that horn. I don’t know about you, but I feel bad for Princess Cadance.”

Twilight winced. “If what I heard from the doctor is true, that horn almost poked his eye out when Flurry Heart was being born.”

Starlight stood still for a moment, head tilted to one side before she grimaced and brought a hoof to her eye. “You’d never think you could lose an eye delivering a baby.”

“Just like you’d never think a crying baby could break a millennia-old artifact, or that my student’s first friendship lesson would be so crucial to fixing it.” Twilight gestured for Starlight to sit as she smiled. “Still, I am just as glad to know your first friendship lesson went so well. When do you think you’ll send your first letter to Sunburst?”

Starlight moved over to one of the other cushions and sat down. “Probably in the next few days, if not tomorrow. I’ve got his address, but I realized when I was talking with him that I don’t know the castle’s address. Does this place even have an address?”

“Technically, the palace’s name is the address. That’s how it works for Canterlot Castle, though it doesn’t help that this place’s name is still in flux.” Twilight used her magic to fetch some glasses of water from the kitchen. “I believe the first, and most common, name is ‘Friendship Castle.’ I’ve also heard the variation ‘Castle of Friendship’ a few times. Another one I’ve heard is ‘Ponyville Palace.’ I’m not particularly fond of any of them, but I imagine one will eventually stick, and that’s what it will be. Still, if you’re worried about the mail getting lost, Cadance knows how to send and receive letters from Spike. You might need to bribe him with a cupcake once in a while, but it’s one of the fastest way to sends letters across Equestria.”

Starlight gave a thankful nod as Twilight passed a glass of water into her own levitation spell. “I don’t think I’d want to inconvenience Cadance. She’s going to have her hooves full taking care of Flurry Heart, even if she has a castle filled with servants to help her.” Starlight laughed to herself. “And look at us; we tried to talk about mail and my friendship lesson, but I’ve managed to bring it back to talking about the new baby.”

Twilight giggled as she waved her hoof. “It’s okay. I imagine most ponies in Equestria, especially the Crystal Empire, will be talking about little baby Flurry Heart for a while. Even if they have some more sleepless nights to endure, I know Shining and Cadance will make good parents. They’re in a lot better position than I was when I had to help raise Spike.”

“You helped raise Spike? I didn’t know that.”

After finishing a sip from her glass, Twilight nodded. “Yes, haven’t I told you that story? I had just started at Celestia’s school when the princess showed me the little baby dragon I hatched during my entrance exam. Then she told me that I’d have to help take care of him. During the first day of school, Princess Celestia made me Spike’s primary caregiver. I had to feed him and try to calm him when he was crying.”

A bittersweet smile formed on Twilight’s face. “It was murder on my schoolwork. I was overwhelmed, especially considering I was still a kid myself. I even shouted at poor Spike in my frustration before I managed to realize why Celestia gave me the responsibility. After that, it got better. Before long, Spike was talking and sleeping through the night. He grew to be my friend and number one assistant—a younger brother. It’s only recently, since our crazy trip in the Rainbow Range, that I’ve been feeling our bond shifting back to something more… maternal. He’ll always be my Spike, no matter what.” Twilight smiled warmly as she took another sip of water.

“I guess that’s one reason you were so good with Nyx. As AJ might say, it wasn’t your first rodeo.”

Twilight swallowed and let out an uneasy chuckle. “That’s true, though I never realized how much taking care of Spike would prepare me to take care of somepony Nyx’s age. Well, Nyx’s biological and mental age, anyway. Technically speaking, she’s only about a year and a half old at this point. But biologically, she’s just as mature as Apple Bloom.” Twilight’s tone grew hollow and her eyes wandered to an empty corner of the room. “When we threw her first birthday party this past spring, we used Apple Bloom’s age. It… it seemed appropriate.”

Starlight tilted her head to the side before speaking gently. “Twilight, are you alright? You sound... disappointed, and you were pretty quiet on the train as well. I watched you brush your hoof through Nyx’s mane for what must have been a half hour while she was reading that book from the Crystal Empire’s library.”

Twilight cleared her throat and tried to make eye contact, but couldn’t seem to meet Starlight’s scrutinizing gaze. “Oh, that… you don’t need to worry about that. I was just feeling a bit clingy, that’s all. That level of concern, however, is exactly what I’d expect from a good friend. Yes, that was very good, Starlight. Maybe we should make next week’s lesson about—”

“Thanks, but I’m not letting you change the subject to another friendship lesson. I want to hear why you were being ‘clingy.’”

Twilight chuckled softly at how Starlight had managed to see through her attempt to shift the conversation. “I guess… I don’t know. Flurry Heart is such an adorable baby. As she grows up, Cadance and Shining are going to be there for every moment. They’ll hear Flurry’s first word be ‘mama’ or ‘dada.’ They’ll get to see her go to her first day of kindergarten. They’ll get to help her learn her ABC’s and 123’s. They’ll even get to clean her stinky diapers and stay up all night rocking her to sleep when she’s fussy. Cadance and Shining will get to help Flurry Heart every step of the way as she grows up.

“But with Nyx and Spike… I missed some of that.” Twilight’s smile faded. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to change what the three of us have. We are a family, but on days like today, I can’t help but feel like I missed out on something.”

Twilight used her magic to form some basic geometric shapes in the air, which she assembled into depictions of Spike and Nyx. “Spike grew to be mostly self-reliant faster than any foal. Nyx… she was never a foal. She just completely skipped that part of her life.” The geometric shapes gave happy little waves in Twilight’s direction before fading away as she ended her spell. “I feel… maybe I’m a little jealous that I missed out on some of that.”

“I don’t know. If I was going to have a filly or colt of my own, I wouldn’t mind skipping a bunch of stinky diapers,” Starlight said lightheartedly, before her voice shifted to an understanding tone. “But I can see where you're coming from.”

“I think I’d be happy if I could just know, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s my inquisitive nature betraying me, but being able to at least see what Nyx would have been like would be nice.” Twilight lifted a hoof to her mouth to cover a yawn before she arched her back and stretched her wings. “Anyway, I didn’t mean to keep you. It’s not just Nyx and Spike who could use a good night's sleep after everything that’s happened. Do you need help finding your way back to your room?”

Starlight shook her head. “I know the way from here. This place and my bedroom are about the only two rooms I really know how to find in this castle of yours.” She finished off her drink with a few quick gulps then set the empty glass down next to Twilight's. She began to head out of the room, pausing just before her hoof touched the hallway.

“Starlight… is something wrong?” Twilight asked.

“Nope.” Starlight turned around, wearing a big smile and shaking her head. “Just got lost in thought. Have a good night, Twilight.”

“Sleep well, Starlight.”

~~~

“So, does anyone know what Starlight wanted to see us about?” Rainbow asked as she led the group of friends through Twilight’s castle. They had all received invitations that morning to some sort of unveiling. The nature of the thing being unveiled was a mystery, at least to the five mares now climbing the steps of the castle’s central trunk.

Pinkie bounced to the top of the stairs, then turned around to smile at and wait for the others who were moving at a more casual pace. “I don’t know, but it sounded like good news, and it’s for everypony. It’s good news, everypony! Do you think it’s a party to celebrate saving the Crystal Empire?”

“Maybe it’s something to celebrate her first friendship lesson,” Applejack said as she and the others caught up with Pinkie and began to move through the castle hallways.

“Both are equally possible, I’d say, but I imagine we shan’t have to wait too long to find out.” Rarity gestured to the throne room door, where Twilight was waiting outside with Spike. The duo greeted the quintet with waves. “I presume you got an invitation to Starlight’s mysterious event as well.”

Twilight nodded to Rarity. “I found it slipped under my bedroom door this morning. Do any of you know what’s going on?”

“Unfortunately, we’re all just as mystified as you are.” Rarity went up to the throne room door and placed a hoof on it. “Have you tried going inside?”

“Spike tried to take a peek about an hour ago, but Starlight shooed him out.” Twilight opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by the sound of the latches on throne room doors clicking. As the doors opened from the inside, Starlight’s smiling face came into view.

“Thank you all for waiting. I had to put on the final touches.” Starlight stepped back, letting everyone step into the throne room. All eyes searched around, seeking what had been changed as they naturally drifted toward their individual thrones.

“Final touches on what? I don’t see anything,” Spike said. He didn’t sit in his seat, but instead stood on it like a stool so he could see over the map table more easily.

“A new spell.” Starlight’s horn lit up as she levitated a clipboard sized chalkboard. Its frame was composed of crystal, bearing a striking resemblance to edge of the nearby table. “I wanted to say thanks for everything you’ve done, for the second chance you’ve all given me. I’ve been trying to think of a good way to express my gratitude for a while, and last night, Twilight gave me an idea.”

Starlight set the small chalkboard down on the table. The crystal map gently glimmered to life, though instead of showing a map of Equestria, it displayed a sea of swirling, pastel colors. “What you’re looking at is the map table’s natural aura of temporal magic. Without this unique property, my time travel spell wouldn’t have been able to function.”

Starlight took a piece of chalk that had been clipped to the chalkboard and began to write. “I don’t know where the magic comes from, but I have a feeling I know its purpose. The map table sees the past, the present, and maybe even a bit into the future. It then uses that knowledge to give you friendship missions, sending you where you are most needed and can do the most good. For example, have any of you wondered why or how the combinations of ponies sent to solve problems are always ideal for the situation?”

“Well, I’ll admit, I’ve never pondered it myself,” Rarity said, her words drawing nods from most of the others seated around the table. “I’ve always just trusted the map, like we would trust the Elements of Harmony or each other.”

Fluttershy gently brushed her hoof across the table, as if petting a friendly animal. “We haven’t been given a reason not to trust it, and it has let us help a lot of creatures.”

“I can personally attest to that,” Starlight said. “Now, while I was working with the table these last few days on my gift, I discovered a few things. One, having so much natural temporal magic makes the table something of an anchor in the event reality is altered. Even in instances where the present was vastly different from the world we know, the table still existed. It was why Twilight was able to travel back in time again and again to keep trying to stop me.

“Two, you may not be getting sent to fix any friendship problems for a while.” Starlight used a hoof to point at the table. “The swirling colors you see are indicative of the problem. The first time I cast my time travel spell, the magic of the table was very constant. The aura from the table was just a simple blue. Now, as you can tell by all the swirling colors we see, its magic is far more erratic. Twilight and I will have to take some time to figure out how to, for lack of better phrasing, put the map table back into focus before it will work normally again.”

Starlight paused from her writing to give the chalkboard a quick, dramatic spin while smiling at the group. “But, at least for today, its current, erratic state is to our advantage.”

“How can having a broken map table be to our advantage?” Rainbow asked.

Starlight finished writing on the chalkboard and set down the piece of chalk. “We can briefly adjust the table’s focus. With a simple request, the table can use its magic to show us possible variations of Equestria. For example…” Starlight’s horn glowed, casting a spell on the chalkboard that caused the gems around its frame to glow.

The swirling colors on the map table shifted, starting to stabilize until it showed a picture. It showed a familiar mare flying through a muddy, red sky. The mare had a colorful, rainbow mane, but the differences were as visible as the similarities. She bore a scar over her eye. There was a chunk missing from her ear. Her left wing was not of flesh and bone, but of steel and magic.

“Whoa,” Rainbow leaned forward in her seat, putting her hooves on the table. “Is that—”

“That is the you of another time, another place, another variation of our world where things are similar but different.” Starlight said as the others craned their necks or leaned in, trying to catch a glimpse of the other Rainbow Dash that was being displayed by the map table. They, however, didn’t get to look for long. Starlight erased the chalkboard, causing the image on the table to dissipate back into swirling colors as she wrote something else. “Here’s another one I came across, one that isn’t as drastically different.”

“I need a hayburger in my belly right now.”

Rainbow Dash’s muffled voice came from the table as the colors refocused, showing the six friends gathering around the fountain in the Ponyville town square. The events progressed quickly, Twilight finding a scroll in the statue’s mouth, and then getting giddy about a scavenger hunt. The whole time, the alternate Pinkie Pie was acting strange, even for her. She was impatient, even snapping at Twilight about her love of books.

“I don’t recall ever going on a scavenger hunt, at least not with everyone here,” Twilight glanced up from the map table and looked at Starlight. “But this seems like regular, normal Ponyville. It’s not some dystopian world where a villain took over. Is this something that happens in our future?”

“Not the future. This is another possible present,” Starlight said. “It’s the first thing I managed to get into focus when I was working on the spell last night. It’s a variation of reality where Flurry Heart isn’t born yet. This scavenger hunt we’re watching is a game Shining Armor put together to tell you about Cadance’s pregnancy. In this other timeline, I’m still… well… I’m still trying to formulate my time travel spell. Some events happened, some didn’t, and others are happening in a different order. You found out the news about the baby during last year’s Hearth’s Warming because Cadance got pregnant sooner. Thus, this scavenger hunt never needed to happen in our present.”

“But what’s different?” Twilight asked as she went back to watching the map table. Their view of the alternate reality now showed her and her friends going to the Ponyville schoolhouse.

“It’s part of the reason why I’m glad Nyx had plans with her friends today. As far as I can tell, this is a world without Nyx.” Starlight let her words hang in the air. Many eyes in the room moved to Twilight, who was herself staring down at the table. The only noise came from the ponies on the other side of the polished surface continued their search for clues around Ponyville.

Starlight eventually broke the silence, clearing her throat before continuing. “It’s hard to say what would have to change to make this world happen. Maybe the pieces left behind after Luna’s purification either weren’t gathered, were destroyed, were never delivered to Spell Nexus, or perhaps just didn’t have the same potential. Maybe Spell Nexus never became ‘blessed’ and never formed his cult. Whatever the cause, no one tried to resurrect Nightmare Moon, and thus Nyx was never born.”

Applejack sat back in her throne and scratched her head. “But how in tarnation would that have affected when Princess Cadance got pregnant? One sure don’t seem related to the other.”

The seven mares and dragon glanced around at one another, pondering the question before Rarity sat up a bit taller in her chair. “Perhaps Twilight raising Nyx as a daughter inspired Princess Cadance and Prince Shining to start trying to have a baby earlier, or perhaps it had something to do with Shining being enthralled as a soldier for the Children of Nightmare.”

“But what about the other things that are different. Like, why would Nyx not existing help you figure out your time travel spell faster?” Rainbow asked.

Starlight was silent a moment, pondering the question before her eyes lit up. “A book. During Nyx’s rule over Equestria, the Children of Nightmare started moving books from Canterlot to Night Stone Castle. Of course, all that had to be undone when things were put back to normal. There was one particular book which I needed to find in the Canterlot Library to get my spell to work. I found that book right where the card catalog said it would be. Maybe, in a timeline where Nyx never existed, that book got misplaced and I lost weeks trying to find the information I needed.”

Twilight used her magic to project the image of a river into the air. “Zecora… or rather, the Zecora in the world where the changelings took over, described this concept really well to me.” Next to the river, Twilight manifested an image of Zecora as she had been in that timeline: a wise tribal leader with an impressive, princess-quality mohawk. “Time is a river where even the tiniest changes can lead to a cascade of effects downstream. To phrase it more simply, a small change can have big consequences. On the other hoof, I imagine a big change can just as easily yield numerous additional small consequences.”

“Different paths on the river of time. That’s what the table can now let us see. It lets us ask ‘what if?’” Starlight erased the chalkboard again, letting the table lose focus and return to a pool of swirling colors. “I realize this could be a very dangerous spell. Being able to see ‘what if’ scenarios could drive ponies mad or even provide some with dangerous information. Still, this spell will likely stop working once we fix the map table’s focus permanently. In the meantime, I’m turning the chalkboard over to Twilight so she can decide what should be done with it.”

“What should we do with it?” Rainbow leapt from her seat, hovering above the table and gesturing towards it with her hooves. “Are you kidding? We should see some more awesome versions of me.”

“And more super silly party pony versions of me,” Pinkie chimed in.

“I can’t say seeing parallel realities wouldn’t be fascinating, Rainbow, but we do have to consider the side-effects of such a spell.” Twilight used her magic to gently push Rainbow towards her throne. “After all, I doubt Starlight could have predicted her time travel spell would knock the table out of focus in the first place.”

“But Twilight, darling, surely a little peak into the other possibilities couldn’t hurt,” Rarity said. “I personally would love to see how fashions change as we gaze through to these other worlds. It might very well be a wonderful source of inspiration.”

Applejack smirked. “I can’t say I ain’t curious, but I’ll trust Twilight and Starlight on this one. They’re the ones who went time jumping, not us.”

“If something goes wrong, we can always just stop, can’t we?” Fluttershy asked. “It’s not like we’re hurting anypony, right?”

“All right,” Twilight said, smirking as she glanced over her friends and eventually focused on Starlight. “Looks like the vote is basically unanimous, Starlight.”

Starlight returned Twilight’s smile. “I promise, we can stop the moment we see any negative side-effects. But for now, I hope this spell properly demonstrates how much I appreciate what you did for me. You helped me not only see but live in a future where I have friends again. This spell seemed like an appropriate way to express my gratitude.” Starlight picked up the piece of chalk, giving it a small twirl as she smiled at everyone. “So, what do we want to see first?”

“Oh! Oh! I know! What if Applejack was a giant, like three times as tall as an apple tree? Or what if the princesses had a super huge pillow fight? Or what if both those things happened at the same time?” Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing out of her seat. “Or what if I found a talking plant from outer space? Or what if me, Rarity, and Applejack had to go on a super epic adventure beyond Equestria to save Twilight when a spell backfired and her horn started to rot? Or what if Celestia secretly hated tea? Or what if the embodiment of death took a holiday? Or what if Fluttershy was the actual Equestria-wide champion of being quiet? Or—”

“One thing at a time, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity said. “That all sounds wonderfully fascinating, but I think we should take turns. That, and perhaps brew some tea and get some light snacks. I imagine we may be enjoying Starlight’s gift for a while.”

~~~

Nyx struggled to contain her laughter as she watched her friends’ expressions. At the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse, the five core members—her, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Twist—had gathered for a matter of utmost importance. It was something that simply could not wait another day: the selection of a single photo for a rare honor from the few dozen that were spread out on the clubhouse floor.

Nyx was having her friends help her choose which picture of her new cousin Flurry Heart would go into her treasure book back at the library.

“I still think this one is the best,” Sweetie Belle said, holding up the picture that had been her personal favorite for a while. “Look at her. That teeny tiny yawn of hers is so cute, and Princess Cadance is holding her in this photo too.”

Apple Bloom looked up from the three photos she was holding in her hooves. “Can’t say that one isn’t cute, but it doesn’t really capture all the crazy stuff that happened. It’s just a cute picture.”

Twist held another photo that had, so far, been overlooked by everyone. “Both those are good, but this one of Princess Flurry Heart with her mom and dad is way cuter.” It was of Shining and Cadance hugging Flurry Heart together while the foal appeared to be squirming and giggling from the attention.

“Oh my gosh, how did I miss that one?” Sweetie Belle dropped the picture she had been favoring and took the one Twist had discovered.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Apple Bloom just said it probably shouldn’t be just a cute photo. I like this one the best. It has a picture of everyone after the Crystalling next to the Crystal Heart. You can even see Starlight Glimmer and that… not-a-wizard-but-still-smart stallion. What was his name again?”

“Sunburst,” Nyx answered. “And I’m not against putting more than one of these in my treasure book; I just can’t put all of them in. After all the amazing stuff we’ve done together, my book is getting full.”

Apple Bloom chuckled. “Well, that’s easy to fix. Just get a bigger one.”

“Or get a second whole book,” Twist suggested.

“You can take my school textbook and cut out the pages if you want,” Scootaloo passed her favorite picture over to Sweetie Belle before looking back down at the pile. After a few moments, a frown formed on her face. “Hey, why aren’t there any pictures of the good stuff? You said the princesses were fighting the storm and the Crystal Heart was shattered. Why didn’t you take any pictures of that?”

“I was with Spike most of the time. We didn’t even know the Crystal Heart was broken until we got back and saw everyone at the library, trying to find a book to fix it.” Nyx raised the flap of her saddlebag and used her hoof to tug it closer so she could look inside. Her magic nudged a few things around before she found another, smaller stack of pictures. “I did try to take photos of those things, but we were in such a rush that they came out kind of bad.”

“I don’t care about blurry. I just want to see awesome,” Scootaloo said as she quickly snatched the photos as soon as they levitated closer to her. She smiled at the picture on top of the pile, which showed the princesses shooting blasts of magic into the looming storm clouds. The image was a little blurry, off kilter, and the princesses themselves were very small. The photo had been taken at a distance without any sort of zoom. “See, even if this isn’t the best picture, it should still be considered because of just how awesome it is.”

Scootaloo passed the first of the new photos to Sweetie Belle. She then looked to the next, and her smile quickly fell into a frown. “Oh come on! She’s flying already!?”

Nyx got up from her place in the photo circle and took a few steps to one side so she could look over Scootaloo’s shoulder. The Scootaloo-irritating picture was of Flurry Heart flying around, dragging Pinkie Pie along as the mare failed to keep Flurry on the ground.

“See?” Scootaloo complained. “What the hay is that?”

Nyx studied the photo, trying to suppress a giggle at the expense of her flightless friend. “You know, foals do sometimes have bursts of magic and flight. Twilight tells me it's an old defense mechanism from when we ponies were wild, roaming herd animals. Something to let little foals protect themselves from predators.”

“That doesn’t make it fair.” Scootaloo passed the photo and continued to look through the stack. “Still, she’ll never be a fast flyer with monstrously big wings like those.”

Apple Bloom sat at the end of the sharing circle where she received photos from Twist. She took a close look at the one with the princesses fighting the storm. “I don’t know about that. The princesses have pretty big wings, and they can still fly pretty fast. Maybe not as fast as Rainbow Dash, but they’re not slow either.”

“It would be interesting to see them race. You know Rainbow Dash would be up for it,” Nyx said before starting to grin. “All that aside, we’re getting close to the end of the pile. So, I have to wonder, did you girls bring the things I asked for? I mean, I appreciate all the help, but we did have an agreement. You got to see foal photos of my new cousin. Now I get to see pictures of… a similar nature.”

“Y’all don’t have to beat around the bush. I brought mine.” Apple Bloom got up from her place in the circle, moving to her saddlebags near the front door of the clubhouse. It took a few moments, but soon she had fished out what looked to be a photo album. She placed the album on her back before returning to the circle.

“I got mine too,” Sweetie Belle and Twist said in unison. When they returned from their saddlebags, they were just carrying single pictures instead of a whole album. Scootaloo was the last. Nyx watched her for a time as her friend remained focused on flipping through the blurrier pictures she had taken.

When Scootaloo didn’t respond to the events going on around her, Nyx cleared her throat and tapped her hoof a few times. This finally drew Scootaloo’s attention, though it was hard to tell if she was simply absorbed in the photos or deliberately ignoring the question.

“Yeah, I’ve got it.” Scootaloo set down the stack of Nyx’s pictures, went to her bags, and returned with a single photo.

Nyx received her friends’ part of their agreement, and couldn’t help but smile as she looked over the pictures. The deal had been simple. She was letting them see baby pictures of her cousin, maybe even letting them keep some if they really wanted. All Nyx wanted in return was to see their baby pictures, too.

“You are all so adorable.” Nyx gushed. “Though… Scootaloo, where’s your mane?”

Scootaloo’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Some babies are born bald, okay? It happens. My super sweet purple mane started growing in after about a week.”

Sweetie Belle raised her hoof, as if they were sitting in Cheerilee’s class. “Ooo, I want to see bald Scootaloo.”

“Me too,” Twist chimed in.

“Yeah, keep it up. I don’t have to give you a ride home.”

Scootaloo’s weak attempt at a threat did manage to have an effect. After she finished looking them over, Nyx let her friends all see the collection of baby photos. Sweetie Belle’s photo was of her making a mess while trying to eat some mushed carrots. Twist’s was of her infant self sleeping with a candy-cane colored teddy bear. Apple Bloom was pictured in a pile of red ribbons. She had taken one and was trying to chew on it as a hoof from off-camera reached to stop her.

“Why did you have so many bows even when you were a foal?” Twist asked as she got her turn to look at Apple Bloom’s photo from the Apple Family album.

“Well, these ribbons haven’t always been mine. My mom used to wear them in her mane,” Apple Bloom said. The smile on her face had weakened. “It’s something my family does, I guess. We like to wear some of the things our parents did. Mom wore these ribbons, and Dad wore a cowpony hat and yoke.”

“So you’re wearing their old stuff?” Scootaloo asked.

“We don’t really wear the originals,” Apple Bloom continued as one of her hooves reached back to fluff her ribbon. “We keep those in the attic in a trunk so they stay safe, but Big Mac wears the same brand of yoke Dad did. Applejack’s hat is just like Dad’s too. My ribbons are the same color and size Mom used to wear.”

“So they’re similar but not the originals. I guess that explains why you’ve always worn such a big ribbon in your hair, and why Applejack doesn’t get super mad when her hat gets trashed,” Sweetie Belle said. “Still, that’s really sweet, Apple Bloom.”

“I guess.”

Eyebrows arched around the sharing circle as the other four fillies all looked at Apple Bloom. “You guess?” Nyx asked.

“I like my ribbon, and I understand what it's supposed to mean, but… I don’t really remember them.” Apple Bloom paused, the last of her smile fading into a frown as her eyes wandered over the photos spread across the floor of the clubhouse. Nyx noticed the clusters of pictures that drew her friend’s attention the most were of Flurry Heart with one, if not both, of her parents.

“I was pretty young when they… I know what they looked like. Granny Smith has plenty of pictures of them. Some of them are even in this scrapbook. But… I don’t remember what their voices sounded like or who they really were as ponies. I don’t know if they liked to sing songs or if they would have read bedtime stories to me. They’re just… two ponies in a bunch of pictures, and one of them happens to wear red ribbons like I do.”

“Oh Apple Bloom, I’m—” Sweetie Belle’s attempt at comforting words was caught off by a knocking at the clubhouse door.

Normally, whoever came knocking would just open the door, but this time the door stayed shut. The girls glanced at one another, then back at the door. Had it just been a bird or the wind? The answer came when the door finally swung open to reveal Applejack.

“Hey there, Sugarcubes. Sorry to ruin your fun, but I have some chores I could use Apple Bloom’s help with.”

A collective “Aw,” escaped the lips of the group.

“Now don’t go fussing. You five have been playing together since before lunch. I think that’s more than enough for one day,” Applejack said, though her voice lacked the usual playful firmness it had when she came to say it was time to go home.

Though there were a few more complaints, the girls obliged. Nyx returned the baby photos of her friends to their respective owners before quickly gathering up all the pictures she had taken. Soon, the whole group had departed the clubhouse. Apple Bloom’s friends all put on their helmets and hopped onto the wagon, which Scootaloo pulled behind her scooter.

“See ya later girls,” Apple Bloom said with a wave as she and Applejack stood at the foot of the clubhouses ramp.

“Yeah, see ya later,” Sweetie Belle echoed as the rest of them waved.

Nyx heard the buzz of Scootaloo’s wings and felt the lurch of the wagon as they began the relatively short trip back to Ponyville. She looked back at Applejack and Apple Bloom as they were pulling away. The elder sister of the Apple Family was standing very close to Apple Bloom, even keeping a hoof on her shoulders.

~~~

“Are you sure you don’t want to just dismantle it? I won’t mind, especially since there still might be some yet-unseen consequences of this kind of spell even existing.”

Twilight shook her head as she carried the gem-studded chalkboard that was the cornerstone to Starlight’s new spell. They were descending the spiral staircase of the central library, eventually departing the stairs for one of the landings. “We can argue the philosophical dangers of your spell later, but for the time being, I think the best course of action is just to lock it up for safe keeping. That and you did such a wonderful job casting and anchoring the spell, I’d hate to just destroy all your work.”

“But how can we lock it up?” Starlight asked as they walked between the stacks of books. “Your palace doesn’t really have a dungeon or a vault, right?”

“No, but it does have these.” Twilight came to a stop and turned her gaze to an empty glass case in one of the many alcoves of the library. Within the many similar cases, artifacts from Twilight’s friends and their adventures were preserved for future generations. Nyx’s helmet, Fluttershy’s Mare-Do-Well costume, and the friendship diary were just a few of the items on display.

Starlight leaned in, scrutinizing the display before looking back at Twilight. “You have a glass case in a library that’s open to the public during the day. Wow, you really are trusting.”

“Not that trusting.” Twilight opened the case, fluffed the pillow inside, and then gently set the chalkboard down on the soft fabric. She then closed the case and tapped it with her horn.There was a small glimmer along the seams. “The palace is quite strong from the outside. It’s not going to get blown up like the Golden Oaks Library. However, after you managed to sneak in and reach the map table, I realized a few things. One, I really need to start talking to Princess Celestia about at least getting a few royal guards of my own. Two, that there may be other ponies in the future that will try to sneak into my home to do nefarious things. Three, that I should apply my magical prowess to protect my home.”

Starlight nodded her head as she lifted a hoof and pressed it against the case. “I understand now. You cast defensive spells on these cases.”

“Not just the cases. I also cast spells on most of the doors. It’s a suite of charms developed by one of the greatest locksmiths in Equestria’s history, Locked Secret. In fact, one of the spells I used—Fouling Felonious Fiends Profoundly—is the same spell Princess Celestia used to protect the Elements of Harmony from Discord when we were first trying to reform him. Really, I am quite proud of this setup.”

“I couldn’t tell,” Starlight said with a roll of her eyes.

Twilight smiled at Starlight as the pair turned and began walking back towards the central staircase. “Trust me, no sneak-thief or villain is going to be able to get in here and steal anything easily. All the cases in the library have a level one security. That means only ponies that can open them are myself, my family, my fellow princesses, and my friends. I’ve got plans for higher stricter security levels, but there’s nothing that dangerous in here yet. So, it's still on my to-do list.

“Still, I can show you my advanced defensive matrix. It’s the central control mechanism for the defensive spells in the castle.”

“No, it’s okay, I believe you.”

Twilight licked her lips, and her wings twitched, like she had been about to take off when she was suddenly told she couldn’t fly. It was enough to draw Starlight’s attention and make her chuckle under her breath.

“Though, if you want to show it to me anyway, I wouldn’t say no,” Starlight said.

Twilight’s smile bounced back. She jogged up to and past Starlight, climbing up the stairs at an impressive pace. “Come on then. The central spell matrix is up in my bedroom. Oh, this will be so much fun! The only pony I can really talk to about magic is in Ponyville is Rarity, and complicated stuff like this isn’t her usual cup of tea. Oh, I should brew some tea too! What variety of tea is best when two magically minded mares will be discussing a complex defensive spell matrix?”

~~~

“Good night and sweet dreams.”

Those words had been uttered just about an hour earlier. Night had fallen, dinner had been eaten, and all those who resided in Friendship Castle were snuggled into their beds. They were all supposed to be asleep, preparing for a new day.

One filly was resisting the welcoming embrace of dreams. Nyx hid under her covers, a small point of light glowing on the tip of her horn. She had pulled her treasure book with her, and was fiddling with the items within. She just needed to figure out the best way to add the photos of Flurry Heart her friends had helped her pick out to her treasure trove without them getting damaged.

Nyx rubbed her eyes as she removed everything from the book to try reorganizing it again. The girls had been right; she really needed to either get a bigger treasure book, a second treasure book, or start using something other than a hollowed out book to keep her mementos.

Picking up a few things with her levitation magic, Nyx began to fill the book up again, but stopped for a moment. She glanced up, even though all she could see was the underside of her blanket, and remained perfectly still. A few moments passed, her ears listening. When Nyx heard nothing, she shrugged and focused back on her book. She managed to put a few more things into the book before having to stop again.

This time, she was sure of it. She had heard a noise.

Nyx quickly stuffed all of her treasures back in the book. The cover wouldn’t close all the way, and her kazoo stuck out haphazardly, but it was good enough for the moment. She slipped the book out from under the covers and set it on her nightstand, then cut the light spell coming from her horn and poked her head out from under the covers.

She tried to fake sleep while keeping her eyes cracked open to watch her door. Sometimes, when she stayed up past bedtime, Twilight would catch her. Nyx’s first instinct was to think the noises were coming from Twilight moving in the hallway. She had been caught staying up past bedtime more than a few times just because Twilight decided to poke her head into the room. Yet, even as the noises continued, the bedroom door never opened.

Maybe Twilight was just staying up late to read a book. She’d do that sometimes, but she usually didn’t move around so much. The hard floors and walls of the castle tended to let any noise echo clearly to neighboring rooms, and Nyx was fairly certain the noises she was hearing were hoofsteps.

Trying to ignore it, Nyx closed her eyes, mentally vowing to finish figuring out what to do with her treasure book in the morning. She snuggled into her pillow, pulled up her blanket, and tried to calm her breathing. Yet, the sounds lingered.

Step… step… shuffle… step… step… shuffle… shuffle…

Was Twilight looking for something in the living room? It sure sounded like somepony was looking for something. Maybe it was Spike? Maybe he left a jewel or something somewhere. He did like having a small gemstone of some variety before bed. Or maybe it was Starlight. Nyx didn’t know why Starlight would be in their private part of the castle so late at night, but that was another possibility.

Or maybe it was somepony she didn’t know.

Nyx sat up in her bed, the quiet noises still teasing at her ears as she tugged her blanket closer to her chest. The thought of an intruder was unnerving, especially considering the over-the-top rivals and enemies her mother tended to attract. Worse, if she was asleep, Nyx doubted the noises she was hearing would have been enough to wake her. The intruder was being stealthy enough to be undetected by sleeping ponies, doing unknown evil deeds in—

“Stop it,” Nyx whispered to herself as she pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed. “It’s probably just Twilight. Just go look and see for yourself that it's nothing bad.”

She walked to her bedroom door and nudged it open, peeking out into the hallway. She expected to see either the light from Twilight’s horn or the glow from a candle spilling from the living room, but the light was unfamiliar. It flickered inconsistently with a weak, yellowish glow. It took Nyx a moment to recognize it, but it looked like the light from a firefly lantern.

No one in the castle would use a firefly lantern.

Nyx retreated back into her room, pulling the door closed to leave only a narrow crack to see through. She could still see the light, and she watched it for what felt like an eternity. Should she go get Twilight? Was she sure the pony in the living room wasn't Twilight or Spike or someone else she knew? She bit her lip. Even if she was just having a strange dream, Nyx knew she couldn't just go back to sleep. She had to do something, but what?

If it really was a stranger, she'd have to get Twilight or Spike. If she got Spike first, he might try to confront the intruder. He could scare some ponies off with his fire, but he could also get himself hurt. So, it was better to get Twilight, but to do that, Nyx would have to get to Twilight’s bedroom. Unless she dared to try flying outside the castle to reach the correct window, there was really only one path to Twilight’s room. She would have to climb the stairs in the living room.

There were some benefits to the plan. If she saw it was somepony she knew, then she could go back to bed. If not, she just had to climb the stairs and get to Twilight. There were also obvious dangers, but Nyx chose not to focus on those as she took a deep breath to brace herself.

Opening the door again, Nyx silently slipped out of her bedroom and into the hallway. She went one hoof at the time, moving as if she was walking on eggshells. She’d put the tip of her hoof down first, then gently ease the rest of her leg down. Each step brought her closer to the living room, and she began to catch glimpses of the pony’s silhouette against the dim light cast by the lantern. Nyx, despite her ability to see fairly well in the dark, couldn’t get a good look until she reached the end of the hallway and dared to peek around the corner.

The pony was clad in black from head to hoof. Nyx could tell it was a mare, but the intruder’s mane and tail were tucked into her clothes. She even wore a pair of goggles to obscure her eyes.

The pony was checking the shelves, gingerly removing books, cracking them open, and then putting them back. It was like she was checking to see if something was hidden in the back of the shelves. The intruder was also searching the drawers with the same methodology: open, search, and then close. It was strange to see a neat burglar, but the pony’s intent appeared clear. She was looking for something, and she was a stranger intruding in a place where she didn't belong.

Nyx tried to ignore her heart pounding in her chest and the shaking in her hooves as she glanced towards the staircase. The steps ran the perimeter of the room and led to Twilight’s bedroom door just above the bookcases. If she had her full powers, Nyx could have just turned to smoke and snuck up the steps. Then again, if she had her full powers, she wouldn't be scared. Since she was distinctly lacking in that level of alicorn magic, she had to sneak past this pony.

Nyx waited, clinging to the shadows with her back against the corner of a nearby wall. She only moved when she was sure the mare wasn’t going to turn around—when the intruder had her hoof in a drawer. In that moment, Nyx pressed herself to the floor and crawled to the base of the living room stairs. There was almost no sound to her movement, but any little noise made Nyx wince. In the silence, she could hear her belly sliding against the floor. Each time she put her hoof down to push herself further, she was sure the burglar would turn around.

It felt like it took forever to reach the base of the steps, but once Nyx got there, she glanced to see the burglar was still looking through the same drawer. Nyx allowed herself a quiet, haggard breath and even smiled a little. So far, so good, but looking to the stairs, Nyx felt like she still had to climb a mountain.

Nyx glanced over her shoulder once more before placing her hoof on the first step.

A clink, then a loud, sharp noise reached Nyx’s ears, and the rubber band of tension inside her body snapped. She flew up the stairs, flapping her wings and using her legs to push herself off with enough force to carry her forward. It was perhaps the longest flight she had ever accomplished as a child, but she paid no attention to her achievement.

All Nyx could think about was the noise she had just made. The burglar was going to turn around and spot her. And then… Well, the mare would do something. Nyx didn't know what, but the the mare would take some kind of action to prevent herself from being caught in the act. She stayed by the door to Twilight's room, just waiting for the intruder to shout. When that didn’t happen, Nyx glanced over her shoulder. She was sure she’d see someone stomping up the stairs. She held her breath, waiting for the inevitable.

Nothing happened.

A single heavy breath slipped out of Nyx’s mouth before she got a hold of herself again. She glanced around, first noticing that the shadows from the stair’s banister were moving. She followed the lines of shadows to the source of the light. The burglar’s firefly lantern was on its side, rolling gently across the smooth floor.

The intruder had knocked over her lantern. That had been the clinking sound that had sent Nyx flying up the stairs like a bat out of Tartarus. The mare was only just now catching up to her toppled lantern, catching it with a hoof and setting it upright again. She then began to look around, and Nyx had to quickly retreat to the far side of the stairs, using the shadows cast by the banisters to try and hide. For what seemed like an eternity, the burglar watched the room around her, turning her head to listen for any sound. When she finally seemed satisfied that she hadn’t been detected, she went back to her search.

Yet Nyx remained, frozen in place and waiting. She was so close to Twilight’s room, she was almost certain she could hear Twilight snoozing through the door seam. Forcing down a swallow, she dared to stand up. Her horn glowed, and she turned the door handle. Their palace home was brand new. No squeaky hinges. Just a small click, and Nyx had the door open. The burglar didn’t appear to take notice. Nyx slipped into Twilight’s room, shut the door, and then proceeded to pounce onto Twilight’s bed.

~~~

“Are we sure Nyx wasn’t just sleepwalking?”

Twilight stood in front of Spike, Nyx, and Starlight in the living room of her family’s private part of the castle. It was late, the moon was high, and Twilight couldn’t deny that they all looked horrible from being so unexpectedly roused from their beds.

Still, the situation could not be ignored. “Yes, I’m sure,” Twilight said to Spike. “I know it may look like everything is in place, but I know my personal library, and I know when something’s wrong. Just look over here.” Twilight pointed directly below the stairs at one of the bookshelves built into the living room’s walls. “What do you see?”

Spike stifled a yawn. “Books.”

“Yes.” Twilight said with a node “Almost all of them are in the exact order they’re supposed to be in, but take a look at the Encyclopedias of Enhancing Enchantments.” Twilight levitated the six books off the shelf, each one identical except for the number on the sides. It was an older style number system, a combination of V’s and I’s attributed to ancient unicorn civilizations like the lost city of Trot. “What is wrong with these books?”

Starlight, Nyx, and Spike all stared at the encyclopedias, tilting their heads to different angles. This went on for a few moments before Twilight groaned and pointed at the levitated books with a hoof. “Look at the numbering.” The books were stacked in a sequence: I, II, III, VI, V, IV.

“I don’t see it,” Spike said.

“They’re out of order.” Twilight tapped on the spines of two books. “VI is six, IV is four. That means these books were on the shelf in the order of one, two, three, six, five, four. That’s wrong, and I know they were not mixed up last time I did a cataloging.”

“All right, so we have some evidence somepony might have been in here,” Starlight said as she watched Twilight put the encyclopedias back on the shelf in the correct order. “Should we call the police or maybe the Canterlot royal guard?”

“We can send a letter to Princess Celestia, but it may be hours before she can send someone to help. Princess Celestia is asleep, and Princess Luna is likely vising ponies in their dreams right now. My letter might not even get read until morning. We can’t wait that long.” Twilight frowned as she looked at the others. “I engaged a lockdown using my defensive spell matrix as soon as Nyx woke me up. The sound of the magic activating may have been what scared our unexpected guest out of this part of the castle. Still, the intruder is locked in, and we’re going to find where she is hiding.”

“But why can’t we just wait till morning? Why do we have to go out there looking for her?” Nyx glanced at the door that lead to the rest of the castle, taking a step away from it and closer to Spike. “She’s locked in the castle, and we’re safe in here. Can’t we just wait until Princess Celestia sends help?”

“We could, but that mare came here for a reason. If she’s looking for something, I’d rather catch her before she’s able to find it.” Twilight gestured for Nyx to come closer. She trotted over, and Twilight pulled her into an embrace. “I know it was scary, but you were very brave coming to wake me up. Still, we can’t let that pony do whatever she wants in our home.” Twilight took a moment to glance up at Starlight, putting on a smile. “I don’t think we want to take our chances leaving somepony unsupervised in this castle.”

Starlight nodded her head and smiled back at Twilight. “I’m going to agree. Let’s avoid having to jump through time tonight.”

Spike rubbed his eye, not hiding his exhaustion as he tried to stay focused. “So what do we do, just start wandering the halls hoping to find this pony?”

Twilight shook her head. She gave Nyx another little squeeze, then let go of the hug and moved to the small hearth in the living room. Above the mantel was a portrait of their family which had been painted by Discord as a castle-warming present. There were times Twilight was sure she saw the eyes of the painting following her, or that it was making faces behind her back. Still, most of the time it was simply a nice portrait, and considering Discord, that was good enough.

Twilight levitated the picture down and set it against a nearby wall. She then focused her magic on the bare crystalline wall that had been behind the canvas. In the blank space, etchings began to come to life before projecting an image out into the center of the living room. It was a projection of the castle, one which was now glowing a threatening, red color.

“I can use my defensive spells to control the doors of the castle from here,” Twilight said. “I’ll guide you three through a systematic search. Once we’ve cleared a room and ensured the intruder isn’t inside, I’ll seal it off and lead you to the next room. We’ll use Spike’s dragon fire to stay in contact.”

Twilight glanced away from the map to focus on Spike. “I promise, we’ll keep them small and infrequent so you don’t get a stomach ache.”

Spike shook his head, slapped his cheeks, then looked back at Twilight and nodded. “Okay, let’s teach this pony what happens when you wake up a dragon.”

Nyx took in a big breath, then flared her wings and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best to help.”

Twilight smiled and nodded to the two before levitating out a scroll, a quill, and an ink well. She began to quickly write out a letter to Princess Celestia. “Above all, be safe. We don’t know who this pony is, what they want, or what they are capable off. I’d rather have something valuable stolen than hear any of you got hurt.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Starlight said as she moved over to stand next to Nyx and Spike. “I’ll keep them safe and we’ll catch this burglar red hoofed. Just tell us where to start.”

~~~

“Okay, door is locked. Move on to the central library.” Spike read the message from Twilight aloud as they left the castle ballroom behind. They had worked their way down from the royal family’s private quarters to the lowest level of the castle proper. They still hadn’t found the intruder Nyx had seen earlier, but they had found a few more signs. The door to the throne room had been left open, and more than once, the trio was sure they had heard the sounds of hoofsteps in the distance.

As they continued on, Twilight used her defensive spells to lock the doors behind them. Room by room, corridor by corridor, they cleared and secured the castle. The burglar was slowly being herded down into the main library. Once there, they would go ring by ring, descending the multiple levels of the library within the castle’s crystalline trunk. If the intruder tried to use magic to escape, Starlight would sense it with the detection spell she had been maintaining for much of the search. In addition, the open space of the central library made it impossible for any fleeing pegasus to avoid being spotted.

The noose of their search was tightening, and they would soon have the burglar cornered and ready to be apprehended.

The lights of the central library came on just as the door’s lock audibly clicked behind them. They were now sealed in the library with their target, and the sweep began. With Starlight staying at the stairs while keeping a close eye on her companions, Nyx and Spike circled around the ringed landing. They checked the aisles of books, looking down each as they walked the circle, eventually completing the loop and returning to where Starlight was waiting.

Then, they’d take the stairs to the next landing down and repeat the process.

All the while, there were noises. They heard the sound of hoofsteps. They heard single steps and quick gallops. They heard their target constantly trying to stay one step ahead, but the cavernous nature of the main library made it almost impossible to determine where the sounds were coming from. They could only continue their search.

Starlight, Spike, and Nyx reached the middle landing of the seven in total, getting halfway down the palace’s trunk. Starlight assumed her usual place at the staircase, and watched as Nyx and Spike walked the landing. Yet, when they were about half way around the circle, Nyx raised her voice in a shout. “Hey, we found something.”

“What is it?” Starlight asked, trying to crane her neck to see what was going on while not abandoning her post at the stairs.

“One of the display cases is open.” Nyx said.

Starlight watched as Nyx and Spike disappeared down an aisle. Starlight could hear them jogging to the far wall. For a few seconds there was nothing. Starlight glanced around, shaking out a shiver that had crawled up her spine before looking back to where she had last seen Nyx and Spike. “Well, which one is it?”

“Starlight’s Parallel Timeline Possibility Transcriber.” Spike shouted back. “It’s your chalkboard thing. It’s gone.”

This revelation was enough to pull Starlight from her post. She quickly trotted over to where Nyx and Spike were, worry written on her face as she arrived and saw the depression in the display case cushion where the spell-inlaid chalkboard should have been. “No, this can’t be… ” Starlight cursed under her breath. “I told Twilight we should have dismantled it.”

Nyx’s brow furrowed in frustration as she glanced between Spike and Starlight. “Can someone please tell me what you’re talking about?”

Spike opened his mouth to answer, but his words were cut off by the clatter of hooves. Somepony was running, and from the sounds of it, they were going upstairs. Spike, Nyx, and Starlight all bolted, sprinting to the edge of the landing and pressing themselves up against the banister. “Up there!” Spike shouted as he pointed to someone, dressed in all black, that was running up the steps.

“Hey! Stop!” Starlight shouted, and the burglar actually paused.

“Allow me to depart, or suffer my… unending wrath.” The pony shouted back at them, sounding prim, proper, and perhaps a bit snooty. Yet, there was a hesitance in her voice, causing her threat to sound hollow. Starlight opened her mouth to shout back, but the intruder had already turned and continued running up the stairs.

“After her!” Starlight lead the charge with Nyx and Spike following in her wake. Their heavy hoof falls echoed in the interior of the library like rolling thunder. Floor by floor, landing by landing, they pursued the mare until they had reached the doorway at the very top of the library. There, the intruder was struggling with the door handles, trying to get them to open to no avail.

“She’s got the chalkboard,” Spike said, pointing to the gem-encrusted hunk of wood that had been left lying on the floor. The mare, upon hearing his shout, quickly turned her attention away from the door and snatched the chalkboard up into her right forehoof.

“Now, let’s not be too hasty,” the intruder said clearly, properly pronouncing every syllable. “Surely we can come to some sort of meaningful arrangement. I merely require the chalkboard for a brief time.”

“Sorry, but that isn’t happening,” Starlight said, her horn starting to glow. There was a moment’s pause, a stand off as each side waited for the other to make the first move. Then, the burglar acted. She leapt at them, reaching out a forehoof to strike Starlight’s horn, a known way to briefly stop a unicorn from casting spells. Starlight tried to dodge, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Starlight gritted her teeth and braced herself, trying to think of what she would do without her magic.

The blow didn’t connect. Instead, the burglar's hoof made a clinking noise against a small bubble that had appeared in its path. The tiny spell shield was Nyx’s, and Starlight wasted no time taking advantage of the opportunity. Her magic lashed out, levitating the mare up against the door. The chalkboard dropped, and Spike reflexively leapt, arms outstretched, to grasp its edge before it could slip between the bars of the banister.

“Good work, both of you,” Starlight said with an approving nod before she climbed the last few steps to face the burglar, who was pinned up against the door. “Now let’s see who we’re dealing with.” She reached out with a hoof, gripping the mask and goggles before pulling them off. From beneath the black fabric, the mare’s true coat and mane color came into view: summer orange and blonde, respectively. Her freckled face was exposed, and her green eyes looked back at them in shame.

“Applejack!” Starlight, Spike, and Nyx shouted in unison.

“Yeah, it’s me,” she admitted with low voice.

~~~

“Why would you try to steal this?”

Nyx winced. It was her mother’s angry voice, and Twilight had every reason to use it.

After they had captured Applejack, Starlight sent a note to Twilight. A few moments later, Twilight popped into existence beside them. When she saw the truth, her expression didn’t hide her disappointment. She had Starlight release Applejack, and then directed everyone to the throne room. The whole walk had been silent. Twilight didn’t say anything. Applejack didn’t try to explain her actions. Nyx had glanced at Spike, hoping he might at least look at her, but he was keeping his eyes straight ahead as he carried the strange chalkboard.

Once they were in the throne room and the doors were shut, Twilight broke the silence with her question. There would be no beating around the bush, no kind words. Twilight asked the question, simply and honestly. “Applejack, why would you do this?”

Nyx imaged that, like her, everyone else wanted Applejack to give the simple, honest answer.

“I wanted… I needed ta see something,” Applejack said. While in the disguise, she had used her Manehattan voice, the one she had learned while staying with her Aunt and Uncle Orange. Now, she was back to her normal country twang.

“You just wanted to use the spell I made? Why wouldn’t you just ask?”

“Because I heard y’all talking when Fluttershy was trying to decide what she wanted to see. You were talking about the dangers of something like this. Of something that lets you see how things could have been. How it can drive some ponies crazy or ruin their lives, but… dang it, I can’t go on not knowing. Not after seeing all them different things and yet seeing the same thing every time.”

“What are you all talking about?” Nyx asked, frustrated that she was apparently out of the loop on the situation. She had been patient. She hadn’t even asked questions about the chalkboard when they were bringing Applejack back to the throne room. But now they were talking about seeing things and ponies going crazy.

“Starlight made that there chalkboard, and it makes the map table show us things,” Applejack said. “It shows us other timelines, like the ones Twilight saw when she was trying to stop Starlight. We spent the afternoon looking at all these different things. We saw worlds where we were superheroes. We saw worlds where we had different jobs, we were of different tribes, and we even saw ones where we were of different species.”

Nyx glanced between Starlight and Twilight. “That’s amazing! Why didn’t I get to see it?”

“You can see it in a bit, Nyx.” Twilight gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before focusing back on Applejack. “And so there’s something you wanted to know? Something you wanted to see? What could it possibly be that justifies everything you’ve done tonight?”

Applejack tried to fight back tears, but she stomped before throwing forward a forehoof to point at the map table. “I wanted to ask that… horrible, hateful thing why, in all the worlds it showed us, my parents are always dead!”

The shout lingered, sinking into everyone present like a cold ocean mist. Nyx and Spike glanced at one another. Starlight and Twilight did the same. Then, all four looked back at Applejack, who was trying to wipe away tears with her hooves, only for fresh ones to escape her eyes.

Twilight extended a hoof. “I—”

“No, I don’t want to hear it.” Applejack cut Twilight off, her words sharp as razors. “I get it, this was all just supposed to be for fun. But… it started with that superhero timeline. I was some dark avenger, and I got like that because my parents died. My family was rich. We were happy, but the death of my parents drove that Applejack into being some crime fighting vigilante. Still, I was sure that in some of the other worlds, I’d see them alive.

“But no. Again and again, they weren’t there. My family ran some weird company called Apple that didn’t grow apples. My family defended the last safe acres of Equestria from some strange diseases. Yet again and again, it was just us. I was wearing my hat. Big Mac had his yoke. Apple Bloom had her bow. All those different worlds with all their strangeness, and we all still wore those things… we were all still trying to remember them.”

Twilight made another attempt, taking a step towards her friend. “I—”

Applejack backed up, shaking her head. “No, it ain’t right. There has to be somewhere… there has to be some world where they lived. There has to be a time when they get to live. There has to be a time when… when my sister knows more about the best darn parents a filly could ask for. A timeline where she isn’t telling her friends how she doesn’t know what Ma and Pa sounded like or how they acted. A place where Apple Bloom has more than bows as a reminder of her mother.”

“You heard us talking.” Nyx took a step towards Applejack. “When we heard a knock at the door, that was you. You were listening when Apple Bloom was talking about the baby picture she brought.”

Applejack didn’t even register what Nyx had said. She just kept going, caught up in the emotions inside her that wouldn’t be ignored. “I spent the whole walk back to Sweet Apple Acres just trying to understand why the table—” She lifted a hoof to try and dry her eyes again. “Then I heard Apple Bloom talking, and it ain’t right. It just ain’t right that she has to grow up without ever knowing them.”

Applejack shifted her gaze back to Twilight. “I know I should have just asked ya. But if y’all went into one of your lectures, I’ll be honest, I might have stormed out. I’ve been told it all my life by Granny Smith and other Apples. They say, ‘I can’t think about what they’d do if they were here.’ That ‘Ma and Pa would be proud of how Big Mac and I have been running the farm.’ Maybe I doubt that sometimes, but that isn’t what this is about. I want Apple Bloom to hear their voices, and I want that table to tell me why, in all of these other worlds, they’re never alive.”

“Applejack, I’m sure there could be other timelines where your parents are alive. The table just… didn’t need to change that.” Starlight tried to explain, her eyes glancing across the floor as if she was reading the details of her own spell from the nuances of the crystal. “When we make a request with the chalkboard, the table predicts what would need to change in Equestria for that different reality to be true. So unless the other reality depended on your parents being alive, it didn’t try to change what happened to them.”

“Then please, do it once for me… maybe once again when Apple Bloom can be here… and that’s it. I promise I’ll never do anything like this again. Just please… I…”

Twilight took a few steps forward to place her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “ I don’t want to see you doubting yourself. I have no doubt that your parents, any parents, would be proud of all you’ve accomplished for your family.”

“I know. I know, I know, and I promise, I’ll never try to go behind your backs again.” Applejack brought a hoof to her head and ran it through her mane. “Just… it feels like I’m starting to forget them too. Big Mac is the only one who really grew up with them. I was darn young myself when we lost them.”

Twilight looked silently at Applejack for a few tense moments, but then nodded her head and stepped back. She levitated the enchanted chalkboard away from Spike, holding it in front of her. “What should I write, Starlight?”

“I don’t know.” Starlight glanced at the table as it reacted to the chalkboard’s magic, swirls of color starting to emanate from its surface. “We could just ask the table what it would be like if they were still alive, but who knows where we’d see them. And… look, AJ, I understand what you want, but I’m worried you will doubt yourself if the table shows you something, a version of Sweet Apple Acres that you think is somehow better. I want to give you what you want, but I’m afraid of the effects it could have on you.”

Applejack’s brow furrowed and her jaw tightened. “So you want me to see them, but you won’t let me because you think they would have done a better job.”

“No, I didn’t say that. I… “Starlight glanced at the others. “Anypony is free to help me out here.”

“I have an idea.” Nyx climbed up in the nearest throne, putting her head closer to Twilight’s. “Ask what Applejack’s parents would have said, the day before they died, if someone told them the future. A message they knew would be delivered right now. A message they could leave, knowing everything Applejack, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom have done since their deaths.’”

Starlight moved up beside Nyx and Twilight. “Where did you get an idea like that?”

“Power Ponies number sixty-one,” Spike said, smiling. “When the team receives messages from the past that help them defeat a super charged villain.”

“I don’t know about defeating a villain, but…” A slight smile began to form on Twilight’s face as she wrote her interpretation of what Nyx said. Soon, the colors on the map table were beginning to focus. Applejack moved breathlessly to the edge of the crystalline surface. She no longer made an effort to clear the tears from her eyes as her gaze became fixed on the swirling colors.

“Come on, let’s give her some privacy,” Twilight said, motioning for everyone else to leave the room as she placed and carried the chalkboard under her wing. “Applejack?”

“Ya, Sugarcube?”

“Just come out when you’re ready. We’ll be in the sitting room just down the hall. Tomorrow, you can bring Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith. We’ll do this once for each of them. Okay?”

“Thank you, Twilight.” She glanced back to smile, lifting a hoof to try and dry her eyes. “That would mean a lot to me. Don’t suppose we could get a copy of this somehow?”

Starlight frowned. “I didn’t really build a recording system into my spell.”

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Spike trotted over to his throne, getting some of the emergency take-a-letter supplies he kept there. “I can write down everything they say, Applejack. I am pretty good at taking dictation.”

“I’d be mighty grateful, Spike,” Applejack said, her trembling lips managing a smile.

“Hey, what are friends for?” Spike said as he got ready to write. The images in the map were starting to properly come into focus, and a few voices began to echo across the room. Twilight, Starlight, and Nyx left the room, the doors closing behind them as a strong, unfamiliar female voice managed to escape before the room was sealed.

“Dear Applejack,”

~~~

“I’m exhausted,” Twilight said as she and Nyx carried the chalkboard back into the throne room. Applejack had come to the sitting room, looking like she had been crying a lot, but she was smiling. It was the smile of someone that had been relieved of a great burden, even if it wasn’t one they had been aware they were carrying.

At the moment, Spike was making a second copy of the message, just in case, before he’d head back to bed. Starlight was escorting Applejack back downstairs, which left Nyx and Twilight to return the chalkboard to the throne room, at least until tomorrow when Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith would be coming by for the agreed upon time with the table.

Nyx moved alongside Twilight, keeping pace as they went around the table towards Twilight’s throne. “I still can’t believe she thought the only way was to steal the chalkboard.”

Twilight set the chalkboard on her throne, casting a barrier spell to protect it for the few hours until dawn. “That’s part of the reason this spell Starlight created is so dangerous. For some ponies, it's just fun to see how things could be different in their lives. But for others… many have lost things in their lives earlier than they expected. Parents, siblings, friends, pets… they sometimes disappear before we’re ready to say goodbye.”

“I… I think I understand,” Nyx said quietly. Twilight felt the filly brush up against her leg, clinging a bit closer. “You almost… with Spell Nexus and… the execution.”

Twilight stopped where she was, knelt down to Nyx’s level, and looked her in the eye. “I know. It must have been scary. Thinking back, if I hadn’t been infected with that corrupt magic, I would have been terrified as well.” She smiled and leaned forward to embrace Nyx tightly in her wings. “But I had a guardian angel that day who swooped in to save me.”

Nyx let out a small sniffle in Twilight’s ear. “But… you might not have even been in danger if it wasn’t for me,” she whispered while Twilight held her.

“Shh… It’s okay. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have such an amazing daughter either.” Twilight leaned back to look once more into Nyx’s eyes before giving her a peck on the forehead. “Never blame yourself for what happened. When it really mattered, you did the right thing.”

“But what if… what if I didn’t get to you in time?”

“That’s the kind of ‘what if’ question you can’t dwell on,” Twilight said. “Just learn from your mistakes, and always try to do your best in the future. You do that, then no matter what happens, I’ll always be proud of you. Okay?”

Nyx nodded, rubbing her face against Twilight as she did. “Okay.”

Twilight gave Nyx another tight squeeze before letting go of her. “Good, and good job helping Applejack. That idea of yours was just what she needed.”

“I did just get it from one of Spike’s comics.” Nyx smiled at Twilight’s praise.

“Applying knowledge you have, even if it's from a colorful, illustrated source, can be just as valuable as coming up with an idea yourself,” Twilight said with a small chuckle. Nyx, however, was overwhelmed with a yawn, and she used a hoof to rub her eye. “Still, I think it's well past all of our bedtimes.”

“Aw…”

Twilight laughed and squeezed Nyx a bit tighter. “Don’t you ‘Aw’ me. You can’t not be tired.”

“I am,” Nyx admitted. “But we’re not going to get much sleep anyway. It’s almost morning, and I… it's not fair you and your friends got to play with the chalkboard while I wasn’t here.”

“Oh, it's not fair, huh?” Twilight glanced back at the chalkboard, her mind weighing the options for a moment before her horn lit up. The protective spell around the chalkboard popped, and Twilight brought it over to Nyx. “Okay, we each do a quick one, and only one. Then we go to bed, okay? This is your bedtime story.”

Nyx clapped her hooves together and fluttered her wings, managing to hover and climb up onto the map table. “So who goes first?”

“Well, since I’m the one allowing this, I say I go first,” Twilight said, already starting to write something on the chalkboard. “And I know just the thing. We’re going to see what you’d have been like as a foal.”

“You mean like all those embarrassing photos my friends showed me?”

“Yes, those exactly. In fact…” Twilight set down the board, then popped out of existence as she teleported somewhere. She reappeared a few moments later, carrying Nyx’s camera, the same camera Nyx had used to take so many pictures in the Crystal Empire.

“You’re going to take pictures?” Nyx asked with a whine.

“Yes, I am, and I’m going to start an alternate timeline baby book, too.”

Nyx crinkled her nose, but resigned herself to her fate. “Okay, but then I want my question for the table to be… um… I want my question to be… what if you were married?”

“Married!?” Twilight almost dropped Nyx’s camera as her mind tried to process what she had just heard. “Where did this come from?”

“Rarity’s always saying it’s a shame you don’t date.”

It was Twilight’s turn to groan. “Rarity says a lot of things, Nyx. You know that.”

“Yes, but if you’re going to see me as a baby, then I want to see what it would be like if you were married to… Discord.”

“Discord!?” Twilight’s voice jumped an octave.

“I just saw first hoof yesterday how my friends squirmed when they were showing me their baby pictures. I need something equally as embarrassing.”

“I swear, Flim and Flam rubbed off on you,” Twilight said, but she was smiling all the same as the table finally came into focus, showing a nursery in the crystalline castle decorated in the colors of the night. She smiled, seeing a familiar bundle of black fur starting to stir in a cradle. She began to lift the camera, trying to ensure it was at a good angle to capture some quality pictures. “All right, but we’re not taking pictures of that. Deal?”

“I also want to see what I’d be like as a superhero.”

“Yes, okay,” Twilight said, using her magic to ruffle Nyx’s mane. “Now shush, I think you’re foal self is just starting to wake up and… oh, you are so adorable.” Twilight clicked the button on the camera, the film inside capturing the moment in the map table. The moment had started, and in truth Nyx and Twilight would remain in the throne room till dawn, seeing many different timelines and worlds. They laughed and smiled at one another, seeing things both heartwarming and ribtickling.

It was all made possible by a gift from a newly-made friend who asked a single question:

What if?

============

The End of the Core Chapter

Prepare for the Variances

============

Dear Readers,

In brief, I hope you have enjoyed this core chapter, and I want to thank everyone again for making these past years memorable for me as an author in this fandom. I truly can’t say thank you enough.

The variances you are about to read are my way of trying to give back. What you are about to read aren’t bedtime stories for Nyx, as the end of the core chapter might imply. Instead, they are what-if scenarios written for you, going to places that the canon story likely never will. Five variances for this, Past Sins’ five year anniversary.

The variances will be posted once a day following the initial posting of the core chapter at approximately the same time every day.

I do hope you enjoy them. If you just want to go on and enjoy the stories, go ahead and click the link to the next chapter.

For those of you still reading, I would like to take some time to really honor those that have helped make Past Sins what it is today. It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years since Past Sins saw its original debut to the public on Equestria Daily. It has truly been an interesting journey with lots of stories and friends made and enjoyed along the way.

Past Sins wouldn’t be what it is without those who enjoy it, especially those who made fan art, music, and stories about Nyx and the world of her AU. As part of the 5th Anniversary, I want to celebrate and honor at least some of those people here.

Also, one disclaimer before I begin. I’m going to try and provide links as often as I can, but some of things I am mentioning may no longer be available at their original sources. Also, I am just trying to name projects and persons I am most aware of. If I don’t mention you and you feel I should, that doesn’t mean I dislike you or the work you’ve done. It’s most likely because I can only list off so many names and I can only list things I am personally aware of.

Finally, if you feel like some project/person deserves some attention, please feel free to give them a shout out in the comments. That way you can share art, songs, stories that others may not know of and help make this 5th anniversary all the more enjoyable.

HARDCOVER PRINTING

Unlike some other authors, who had to undertake the burden of printing their stories themselves, I was extremely lucky. I was approached by a group, Equestria Publications, who wanted to undertake the endeavor of bringing Past Sins to print. The book’s interior design, the editing of the Season 2 rewrites, the per-chapter art, and the logistics of printing were all handled by them. For those of you who are lucky enough to have one of the hardcover copies, you hold a mountain of time and effort that came together to create a wonderful memento of Past Sins and our fandom as a whole.

Equestria Publications Organizer
ProfPatch

Layout Director and 1st Printing Packing/Shipping

The Illustrious Q

Interior Book Design & Formatting

Kevinltk

Art Direction and 2nd Printing Packing/Shipping

Qbalonka

Per-Chapter Art

CatbeeCache & CiscoQL

Creator’s Tribute Art

Pa-Kaishia

Editors for The Original Story
ActionSCripter - Nightsong - Lightsideluc - Vimbert

Kim Fluttershy - Dykas- Var/Varus - Cloud-vent/Filler

The Editors for Hardback Printing

Adam Kurth - Alexstrazsa - Brois Zhou - Dave - Eythan Finklestein - Frederik Jacobsen

Kevin Keller - Kirk Heller - Koha Izumi - Mark Geiger - Nekomata - PolkdekPL - Trillo

Trinity Cotta - Trival - Valor_Force

ART

It’s hard not to talk about relating to Past Sins without speaking of the story’s original cover art. Though Valcron (Dreatos) did the original cover art as commission, he went to do on other pieces of art involving Nyx and was crucial in establishing what has become Nyx’s accepted look in the fandom. He also did the dust cover art for the Past Sins printing for free, and I am eternally grateful for the beautiful work he did to make such a stylish dust cover.

One piece of art that has become iconic to Nyx and Past Sins was done by Alexlayer. It was an arguably simple piece, but it was done with a great deal of care and attention to the details of the story. It was Alexlayer’s interpretation of Nyx’s Cutie Mark. That design became Nyx’s official cutie mark, and has emblazoned Nyx’s flank in dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces of fan art.

Though she was not the first to try, SaturnStar14 has gone further than any other in adapting Past Sins into a comic form. As of writing this, she’s into Chapter 12, beyond the halfway point and still going. This is an endeavor SaturnStar14 has been working on for 3 years now, and I can’t say enough how much I applaud all she’s done. Past Sins is by no means a small story. To turn the story into a comic is a task of monumental proportions, but she has shown the perseverance and skill to keep going long past when others had given up.

Some of the best art involving Nyx and Past Sins has come out of the MLP fandom’s rich tumblr ask-blog community. While there aren’t any currently active ones that focus solely on Nyx, those that did were beautifully drawn and still deserve recognition. We also can’t forget those ask-tumblr’s where Nyx was lucky enough to be a guest star.

Nyx Contacts by Sevireth
Ask Nyx Tumblr by Mhrathalos

Twixie Answers by Dekomaru

Another monumental piece of fan-art done involving Past Sins was made for Bronycon 2014. The-Paper-Pony, famous in the fandom for their shadow boxes, was commissioned by one 7tails to turn Past Sins’ original cover into a shadow box. It was one of the most complicated shadow boxes they’ve ever built, but they did an amazing job. I was lucky enough to be able to see this shadowbox in person and sign it for 7tails.

There are far too many artists who have created images, comics, and plushies of Nyx to list them all in the detail they deserve. Still, I will try to honor at least some, and to everyone, even those I don’t mention, thank you. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.

Artists who have depicted Nyx

CSImadmax - Petirep - C Puff - DotRook - Lionheartcartoon - Silverarrow87 - SpectralUnicorn

SilFoe - Gardboyz - Leovictor - smilingDOGZ - roninfang - ClayInTheCarpet - ZuTheSkunk

Ponyshot - MidwestBrony - aisu-isme - DrakoDarker - RussianKolz - Sevireth - DawnMistPony

Icekatze - NadnerbD - AeridicCore - GrooveBird - PenniesPonyBlushies

SoapyBacon - Kiashone - NeysaNight

More can be found at Nyx’s DevianrtArt group & on Derpibooru

MUSIC AND READINGS

One of the first complete audiobook styled readings of Past Sins done was completed by Morgan Freepony, aka Illya Leonov. While there have been others, this one was particularly special as it was first performed to live readings through one of the MLP communities in Second Life. A community that invited me, helped me set up an avatar, and let me enjoy the reading in the unique setting of their reading library.

It’s also a reading that’s being lovingly paired with SaturnStar’s comic rendition by Recon777 to create a narrated picture book.

Forcedemodo - Past Sins OST (Prelude - Chapter 13)
Recon777 Audio Compic (Freepony’s reading + SaturnStar’s comic)

Another project worthy of special mention would be the work done by Nimbus Productions. They have gone a step beyond a regular audio reading, working to coordinate different voice actors to create a full radio play. All the voice actors do great work in bringing the characters to life, canon and OC alike.

Past Sins By Nimbus Productions (Fully Voice Acted Radio Play)

Past Sins has found life in music and some rare animations as well. There are so many that are a delight to the ears, and again, I can’t show my appreciation enough to those who have taken the time to do this simply because they enjoyed the story.

Past Sins: Treachery by Arvianth

For Nyx by Chaoomoon

Nyx is Born by Nicolas Dominique

Past Sins (Alternate Theme) by Канал Alnair'а

Past Sins by Gloomy Dusk

Past Sins by The Snatcher

A Nyxmas Carol by SoGreatandPowerful/Pasteur

The Everfree Forest Attacks by Jeffthestrider

Undeserved Sins by Jeffthestrider

Who I Am by DrDycer

Who I Am (Heavy Metal) by The L-Train

Suite for Nyx by Nicolas Basch

Past Sins PMV by Scaris .Wolf (Full Custom Art)

Pony Musical Storybook - A Nyx in the Thicket by Yourenigma

Cross Guard Animations

FANFICTIONS

When it comes to fanfictions about Past Sins, I honestly feel guilty I haven’t read more. Still, I would like to at least point out a few in particular that I have read and can recommend.

The first I will give special mention too will be Nightmare Nyx: Protector of Ponies. Written by Recon777, it's a blending of Past Sins with another classic of the fandom, Fallout Equestria. Yet, while it is a crossover, the story is trying to carve its own path without relying too heavily on its source materials. Recon777 and his editing team also were kind enough to help prepare this story, Glimpses, for posting.

There are of course many other fanfictions that have taken and incorporated Nyx. At the time of writing this, one of the Past Sins related Fimfiction groups lists one hundred and thirty four stories about Nyx and, by extension, the Past Sins canon. Adventure, slice of life, shipping, and just about every genre you can imagine. So if you find the gaps I have between writing more stories about Nyx too unbearable, you should go and give some of these stories/groups a try.

When All You Have Is Memories by keaton-furman-prower

Scarred Hearts by Yukito

Treasures and Trinkets by Chaos Phantasm

Fallout Equestria: Sins of an Alicorn

The Nyxian Alliance Fimfiction Group (Most Stories)
Past Sins Fimfiction Group (Most Members)

FINAL WORDS

Again, if I’ve failed to mention someone or something you feel deserves some extra attention, please give them a shout out in the comments. There is just simply too much for me to put into one place, and that alone is such a great honor.

It has been a wonderful five years, and hopefully we can see a few more years and perhaps a few more stories about Nyx.

I love and appreciate you all so very much

-Sincerely-
Pen Stroke

Author's Note

PSA: If you see typos, I ask that you send them along in PM rather than post them in the comments. The little bit of extra effort is greatly appreciated.

Variance 1 - Fury

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Variance 1

Fury

====================

Water splashed against the shore of the rocky island, stirred by sturdy gusts from the south. There was no shrubbery to block the wind, no trees for a living creature to take shelter. The island was barren and smaller than a square city block. Despite the ever-present sea breezes, the smell of sulfur caught in the queen’s nose as she departed the skiff.

“They may be dragons, but that doesn’t help me understand why they would want to live in such an abysmal place,” the queen said as she waited for her guards to disembark. To their backs was the fleet, a few dozen of Equestria’s finest ships flying their colors like peacocks strutting about. Ahead of them, the stony path wound up a slope. At the end of the path, on the highest point of the island, was a flattened plateau. That was their destination, where she would get her first face to face meeting with the famed Dragon Lord.

The queen’s wings twitched. Her instinct was just to fly up there, but the Dragon Lord had only agreed to the meeting on the stipulation they would not approach by air. Normally, she would not bother respecting such a demand, but the dragons had proved more resistant than any other nation she had brought under her wing. That, and a shadow passing over the island reminded her that there were observers keeping her honest.

“There’s bound to be more of them,” the queen mused as she and her guards began walking the path. There was only one visible dragon in the air and one dragon floating in the water. She knew the one in the water. Torch, one of the largest living dragons and the previous Dragon Lord. He floated in the turbulent ocean like an irritated alligator. Only the crest of his back and half of his head were above the surface of the water. His eyes were fixed on the queen as she worked her way up the path, a few tendrils of smoke sneaking out of his nostrils only to be quickly dispersed by the wind.

The queen could see the glare of hatred in his eyes, though she couldn’t understand it. “Would you answer a question for me, guards?”

Her half-dozen guards shifted in their armor, glancing briefly at one another before one spoke up. “Of course, Your Highness.”

“Would you want to live in a place like this? Islands with no fertile ground for farming. A kingdom so woefully behind the rest of the civilized world in culture, technology, and education that I imagine some of these dragons haven’t even heard of the concept of a wheel before. A country that only has one ‘city’, a shantytown that was slapped together over the past few decades. Does that really sound like it can hold a candle to Equestria?”

“No, Your Highness,” the guards answered in unison.

“Of course it wouldn’t,” the queen said as she and her guard detail neared the end of the path. The island’s plateau was coming into view. They could see the wooden table that had been placed there, though she was quick to notice the lack of sitting cushions. “Any sensible creature would want their own share of the golden age Equestria is having. It only proves that draconic stubbornness is legendary, and of course, the Dragon Lord has proven the most stubborn of any dragon.”

“That’s part of what makes me so good at the job.”

The queen took a final few steps, reaching the top of the staircase and rounding a corner to see the table and two figures standing near the far side. They were Dragon Lord Ember and her greatest knight, Spike. Though puny compared to Torch, Ember stood equal in height to the queen, while Spike was a few heads taller. Both had matured in the decades since their first encounter. Spike’s wings had grown in, and he now possessed a broad shouldered, almost superheroic physique. Ember was just as strong, though her musculature was befitting of a female dragon.

“Really, I just thought a dragon had to have hips a mile across.” The queen said as she came to the table, though her attention quickly shifted. “Spike, it's been too long. You look really good. Love the wings, but they still can’t compare to mine. Though hasn’t that always been the truth. The greatest wings, the greatest magic, the greatest mind, and simply the greatest single pony Equestria has ever had.”

“It’s dangerous to believe your own propaganda, Flurry Heart,” Spike said, though his words were swiftly followed by Ember clearing her throat. He glanced at her, muttered an apology, then looked back at Flurry with his mouth shut and arms crossed.

“Oh ,Ember, don’t be such a party pooper. Spike and I are just catching up.” Flurry batted at her long, flowing mane before extending her wings. Their size compared to her body was just as disproportionate as it had ever been. At twice the wingspan of any alicorn that came before her, Flurry reached across the entire table with her wing, draping it over the surface in a sweeping motion as her horn glowed. In the wake of her feathers, Flurry left behind a tea set and plate of cupcakes. “Can’t have a diplomatic meeting without refreshments, and I’m afraid seawater and gems don’t agree with me. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, of course we don’t mind,” Ember said with a roll of her eyes. She and Spike sat down on their side of the table. Ember knelt on the ground while Spike sat cross-legged. Flurry remained standing a few moments longer, using her magic to conjure a fluffy cloud. She settled her tush into the soft cumulus as she began serving the tea.

“So, why don’t I hear from you anymore, Spike? Certainly scrolls and quills cannot be such a rare commodity out here. That delightful little berg you’ve built up must have a place where you can find such supplies. If not, I’m sure I could arrange a few crates to be sent there as a gift. It would be a shame if the young dragons were deprived of a chance to learn to read and write.”

Ember rapped the talons of her left claw on the table. “You badgered us for months for this meeting, and you want to small talk?!”

Flurry finished pouring a cup of tea for Spike and levitated it to the far side of the table before starting on her own cup. “Spike, really, we must talk at least for a little bit before we get down to business. How is your scar? I trust it's healing well.”

Spike reached for the cup, but deliberately knocked it over, spilling the tea in Flurry’s direction. “No, it’s still a nasty scar right where you left it.”

“Oh, and I do feel so horrible about that.” Flurry began raising her tea cup, but spoke a bit more before bringing the brim to her lips. “Though, that disagreement was your fault.”

Spike began to rise, a surge of smoke curling from his nostrils as fire licked at his lips. “After what you did to Twilight, to Nyx, to Rarity, and to everyone else, you couldn’t seriously have expected me to—”

“Spike,” Ember said firmly, her claw reaching out to touch his. That was enough to make Spike clench his jaw and settle back into his seat, though the trails of smoke still billowed from his nostrils with each exhale.

When she was sure Spike was back in control, Ember looked to Flurry. “You can’t ignore me forever.” Ember reached out, taking a cupcake for herself. She did not eat it, just set it down on the table in front of her, using it as a replacement for the tea cup she had been denied.

Flurry kept looking at Spike, simply sipping at her tea and smiling, as if enjoying an entertaining stage show. Only when she lowered the cup from her lips did she look over at Ember. “Very well, business before family. I believe you’ve had enough time to hear the news. The Griffins have joined my glorious revolution, and already their long abused, ancestral home of Griffinstone is under reconstruction. We even dug their old trinket out of that crevasse.

“Don’t you think it's about time you took up my offer and got with the program?” Flurry asked.

“Our stance has not changed,” Ember said firmly. “ And don’t gloat so much about the griffins. I have it on good authority you poisoned so much of their leadership that there’s only one griffin left with any sort of political power. A griffin that just happens to be part of your cult.”

“Now aren’t you being a tad overdramatic? Is it really a cult? In my opinion, it is just—”

“They think you’re a god, and you encourage them.”

Flurry smirked as she took a cupcake for herself. She removed the wrapper delicately with her magic as it levitated towards her. “You can’t fault their enthusiasm, and I’m certainly not going to deny any admirers. I am the only alicorn to ever be born naturally. Mother and Father always took that as a sign I was special. The ponies of the church just share their perspective and use my shining example to bring happiness and stability to their lives.”

Ember was not as delicate with her cupcake. She used her claw to rip the bottom off and toss it over her shoulder, leaving only the frosted top. “Yeah, though you’d think a god would have been kinder to her own family.”

“Sometimes the best kindness is forced retirement.” Flurry lifted a hoof to her regalia. She had forgone her crown for the visit, but hidden beneath her mane was a golden necklace with a deep purple, spherical jewel set into the center. “Besides, Equestria has never been happier under my wise, level-hoofed, and benevolent rule.”

“You’re about as benevolent as a toothache,” Ember said, starting to pick at the cupcake top, breaking chunks off. Her talons were getting covered in frosting, but she didn’t seem to care. She destroyed the dessert, letting its crumbs fall to the table before she proceeded to lick the frosting that clung to her claws.

“Like what Equestria had before was so much better.” Flurry slowly stood, holding her cupcake in her magic as she broke off a piece and brought it to her mouth. She chewed and swallowed as she looked out across the ocean, her back to the table. Her eyes scanned the horizon, only to catch the faint glimmer from a cloud in a distance. The edge of her mouth turned up into the slightest of smiles.

“We had so many alicorns, so many leaders. That meant we had many different opinions and ways of thinking. Those differences led to disagreements. I could see that, in time, friendships would decay. Disagreements would turn into armed conflict. Yes, as my aunt taught me, friendship is a powerful thing.” Flurry glanced over her shoulder, seeing Spike’s claws dig into the table as his wings twitched again. “Yet, even amongst friends, there can only ever be one real leader.

“That’s all I’m really asking for.” Flurry Heart’s gaze shifted again, this time to focus directly on Ember. “I want to be your friend. You just have to listen to me a little bit, take some constructive criticism.”

“If that’s all you hoped to gain out of this, my answer stays the same.” Ember stood, squaring her shoulders and spreading her wings in a display of strength. “The dragons of the Dragon Lands will not surrender to you.”

Flurry sighed. With her eyes still fixed on the ocean, she deliberately took her time with the next two bites of her cupcake before speaking. “That is a shame. You are a smart leader, Ember. Really, I wouldn’t have dethroned you. You would still rule these…” She paused a moment to kick a small stone near her hoof, causing it to tumble down the mountainside. “...beautiful islands.”

Flurry sighed again as she tossed her cupcake into the air. “I suppose I’ll just have to become friends with your replacement.” Flurry’s cupcake reached the pinnacle of its arc when it was suddenly split in two. Flurry heard the rush of air and the twang of an arrow hitting stone. She didn’t hear a body hit the ground, but the sound of Spike standing from his seat let Flurry picture the scene behind her all the same. She could imagine Spike had leapt to catch Ember’s now limp body as blood flowed over her scales, embracing her as the light left her eyes.

“I am sorry, Spike.” Flurry’s voice sounded sympathetic, but there was no denying the smile on her lips. “I know it seems that I’m always killing those you care about, but it's for the good of the world. Ember was like Nyx. She just wouldn’t see reason, and you were tangled in her influence. Still, I’ll make it up to you. How about I let you guard the royal treasury? It’s grown to be an impressive hoard. You sleep on that for a few years, I bet you’d be bigger than Torch. Though if you want to be Dragon Lord, I could certainly see that happening if you’d—”

“I’m sorry, but I believe I’m going to be Dragon Lord for a while longer.”

The smile fell from Flurry’s face as her head quickly turned around, her eye twitching. She looked to Ember, who was still standing proud and tall. The arrow, enchanted with a number of deadly curses and launched magically from a vast distance, was not imbedded in Ember’s chest or head as Flurry had ordered. It was dug into the table, managing to pierce halfway through before coming to a stop.

“The dragons will never bow to you,” Ember snarled.

“Must I do everything myself?” Her horn glowed, but her eyes flickered a few shades darker. Before Ember could react, her feet were encased in dark crystal, pinning her in place. Ember tried to pull herself free, and Spike took a step to help, only to be blasted squarely in the chest. Such a blow wasn’t meant to pierce his dragon scales, but it knocked him back, slamming him into a rock that bordered the negotiation area. “Now, if you hold still, I’ll try to make this quick.”

Ember continued to tug at the crystal, trying to free herself. “She was right. You planned this all along.”

“She?” Flurry said, her horn glowing. “Ember, my dear Ember, do you have a spy? She must be quite impressive to have discovered my plan. Though, I wouldn’t say you're out of the woods yet.” Flurry’s magic manifested around the arrow, which she knew still bore most of the deadly enchantments that had been placed on it. She yanked it out of the table and drew it back, preparing to drive it into Ember’s body with her own magic.

Before Flurry could launch the arrow, she noticed movement in her peripheral vision. Her guards were closing in on her, the only living ponies she had brought with her. Six guards, hoof selected from their ranks by her most trusted generals. But something was wrong. They were all looking at her now with glowing, turquoise eyes.

Flurry raised her wings and brought them down, a gale force gust of wind hitting the guards. They were knocked back, or rather, their armor was. The bodies within became as vapor, swirling out of the metal and around her feathers. The smoke began to solidify. First a sword took shape, slicing the lethal arrow in two and causing Flurry’s levitation magic to disperse before a hoof rose from the swirling cloud and connected with Flurry’s jaw.

Her teeth were forced to snap shut. Flurry’s head rang from the blow and the taste of blood filled her mouth. She beat her wings again, this time getting airborne as she quickly brought a hoof to her lips. Her nerves were screaming, the pain ringing in her head. She cast a spell, something to force the pain aside, but then she felt something rolling around in her mouth. She spat it out, caught with a levitation spell, and raised it to her eyes so she could get a good look.

It was the tip of her tongue, cut clean off by her own teeth.

“You Tartarus filth. I’ll see you’re executed for this,” Flurry said. Her teeth were stained red as some of her blood dribbled down her lip and to the ground below.

“An actual execution? Last time, you just stabbed me in the heart.” The familiar voice came from the smoke as it swirled, an equine form taking shape. A black alicorn with blue shield cutie mark materialized in front of Flurry, her body clad in the bronze armor of the Dragon Lands.

“I killed you,” Flurry Heart hissed as she began flying higher.

“You tried.” Nyx leapt forward, her own wings spreading as she pursued Flurry Heart into the air. Flurry was the first to act. Her horn glowed and she summoned great blasts of energy. Such blasts had decimated battalions, but Nyx shrouded herself in a shimmering bubble shield. The magical attacks crashed against Nyx’s barrier, but did not penetrate it.

As the duel in the air began, fighting broke out below. Ember raised her voice, and the ground of the rocky island shook. Dragons, who had been buried up to their nostrils, sprang from beneath the dirt and stone and began flying at Flurry’s escort of ships. The vessels were protected with anti-fire enchantments, but they were no match for the sheer amount of flames spewed at them. Spike himself led part of the charge. With his bare claws, he was tearing through the crystal golems that were Flurry’s forces, scattering them to the ocean floor.

“So you’re Ember’s spy,” Flurry Heart said. She had given up trying to tend to her bleeding tongue. She focused on casting her spells, launching single, mighty blasts as well as volleys of hundreds of smaller energy bursts, even as her lips and teeth were stained red. “You’re her eyes and ears. You knew of my plans. You deflected the arrow!”

Nyx swung her sword, nearly striking Flurry across the chest while her barrier spell continued to hold off the barrage of magic thrown at her. She offered no reply to Flurry’s accusations, her eyes focused entirely on the battle as she and Flurry darted and wove around one another in the air above the raging battle below.

“So what did I kill that day?”

Flurry banked hard to one side, trying to blast Nyx’s shield from another angle.

“A clone?”

The barrier spell held strong from all sides, forcing Flurry into a new tactic. She flew high, spread her wings, and summoned a volley: hundreds of tiny spines of magic that could turn anything into a pin cushion. Yet Nyx did not flinch. She just glared Flurry down as she remained protected by her indomitable shield.

Flurry gritted her teeth as she watched her spines bounce of Nyx’s shield like toothpicks being flung against iron. “No, if it was just a clone you wouldn’t have waited this long.” She went into a dive, a large sphere of magic forming at the tip of each wing. When she got in close, Flurry brought her wings forward, slamming her magic into opposite sides of Nyx’s barrier like a pair of wrecking balls. Yet, the shield still held, not even showing a crack.

“So how did it happen, dear cousin? How are you still alive?!”

With her magic failing to pierce Nyx’s barrier, Flurry Heart dove to the battlefield below, picking up a half dozen of her own crystal golems before turning and chucking them at Nyx like catapult boulders. Nyx lowered her bubble shield for a moment, relying on her aerial skills to dodge the attacks. She banked, she dove, she rolled, and when Flurry Heart had thrown the last golem, she counter attacked: a burst of lightning from her horn.

Flurry Heart raised a shield for herself, gritting her teeth as she braced. Nyx’s spell triggered. The lighting struck. The sound of thunder rang in Flurry’s ears, and the flash of light blinded her. She cursed, closing her eyes and rubbing them with a hoof as she kept the barrier spell up. The moment her vision began to return, she looked forward again.

Nyx was just outside the barrier. If not for Flurry’s shield spell, the pair might have smelled one another’s breaths. Nyx drove her sword forward, the magically formed blade piercing the shield. Flurry tried to dodge, but the blade found flesh. It cut through Flurry’s necklace, slicing the chain off and leaving a deep gash along the base of her neck.

Flurry Heart used another great beat of her wings to push Nyx away, giving herself a moment to think. The pain of the new wound and the ease at which Nyx had pierced the barrier left her enraged. That and her tongue was still bleeding, her chin now stained with the blood that had been slipping out of her mouth with every spoken word and breath. Flurry glanced at her escort. Most of the ships were sunk, and when the last fell, the dragons would turn their attention to her.

“Next time, you’ll stay dead,” Flurry spat before her horn surged with magic. In a flash, she teleported herself. Her magic whisked her back to her kingdom, to her throne room in the Crystal Empire, her capital. Her voice then rang out, filling the whole castle and shaking it to the foundation.

“Get the doctor. Get the generals. And get me the head of whoever was supposed to cremate Nyx!”

~~~

“We didn’t get her,” Spike said as he stood with Ember at the negotiating table, his claw resting on her hip as they stood close to one another.

“We couldn’t have killed her today even if we wanted to. You know that,” Nyx said as she came in for a landing. “Our only goal was was to keep Flurry from killing Ember. All the other things we accomplished today were a bonus.”

Ember nodded. “You’re right, though I am sorry you had to reveal yourself.”

“Even if Flurry knows I’m alive now, it’s not like she’ll be able to find me.” Nyx let her sword dissipate, the lingering drops Flurry’s blood evaporating from the heat of the spell’s dispersal. “Shapeshifting and clone magic make a very effective combination. If anything, her paranoia might just get her to make some critical mistakes.”

“Maybe,” Spike said. “I’m happy Ember’s safe, but… we had her standing right there.” He slowly slumped down, sitting on the edge of the table. “Even if we couldn’t have killed her, maybe we could have… after all these years—” He was cut off by a gentle touch from Ember, her claw touching the small of his back, feeling the rough scar tissue between his wings. Spike smiled and took hold of her free claw, nodding a silent thank you. “ I just wish we could accomplish more than sinking a few of Flurry’s ships and giving her a punch in the jaw.”

“Well then, maybe this will cheer you up,” Nyx said, using her magic to hold up the golden necklace that had been around Flurry’s neck, the one with the large purple jewel. “Though I think she may be a little disappointed her ‘Spikey Wikey’ is all grown up and has a girlfriend now.”

Spike and Ember’s bodies tensed. They glanced at one another, then back at the necklace Nyx was holding aloft. Spike raised his trembling claw, holding out his palm so Nyx could lower the necklace into his grip. He drew it back to him, holding it like it was made thin, fragile glass. “When you said she hadn’t—”

The gem glowed a moment, and then the smell hit Spike’s nostrils. He breathed in deep, a strange calm passing over him. “That’s… Rarity’s perfume. Even after all these years…”

“It’s hard to forget.” Ember said playfully as her claw continued to rub the tender scar on his back. “Sometimes, I think she bathed in that stuff.”

“Turning them back to normal may not be possible.” Nyx used her magic to remove her helmet, her mane changing from a smoky field to normal strands of purple hair. “At least she’s not in Flurry’s grasp anymore. Flurry having Rarity’s eye for detail almost got me busted a few times, and that’s not including Rarity’s power as an alicorn. Without that necklace, we’re that much closer to finally stopping Flurry Heart.”

“That’s good to hear,” Ember said as she leaned into Spike a little. “Spike and I should get back to the city and start planning our next move.”

“You do that. I need to get back and reassume my cover identities before any of them are missed. I’ll send a dragonfire message once I’ve had a chance to gauge Flurry’s reaction to...”

“Call it what it is, Nyx,” Ember said. “We just declared war.”

“Yeah,” Nyx said as she spread her wings and prepared to take off. “But we did it with style. Anyway, I’ll be in touch. Stay safe.” With that Nyx took off, rising high into the air before teleporting herself, heading back to the mainland and her duties. Ember and Spike watched the spot where she disappeared for a few seconds before Ember spoke.

“You know, you two still haven’t told me how she’s still alive,” Ember said as she looked over at Spike. “You told me how it looked like Flurry murdered her right in front of you. Nyx told me how she fled the mainland to find you. I’ve never heard how she survived. It would be a shame if Flurry Heart found out before I did.”

Spike stood up from the table. In one claw, he held the gem necklace that was Rarity while his other claw hooked around Ember’s body and rested it on her hip. “She didn’t survive. That dagger melted and scattered her magic and memories to the wind.” Spike smiled. “Then again, my little sister knows this old stallion that’s really good at putting dispersed magic and memories together into a living mare.”

====================

Variance End

====================

What if Nyx had to fight her family?

Variance 2 - Mutations

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Variance 2

Mutations

====================

“So, did you see General Sombra during his visit?” Bulwark glanced to his left, looking across the cement driveway that separated him from his fellow guard, Wild Willow. The pair was standing guard at a chain link gate, their army fatigues and body armor bathed in the light of a nearby lamp post.

Bulwark turned his eyes back to the horizon. He lifted his rifle and gestured to the expansive wetlands and distant swamps that surrounded the research facility, which squatted amidst the mud and muck like an ill-bred cement toad. “Personally, I was off duty. You know, resting up to prepare for the riveting and action packed night shift. I mean, you never know when the frogmen might finally decide to rise up against humanity.”

“Don’t go waving your rifle around like that,” Wild Willow said flatly. “It isn’t a toy.”

Bulwark chuckled, nodding his head. “Hey, don’t worry so much. I have the safety on.” He aimed down the sights of his rifle, scanning the tree line. “So what was the general doing here anyway? Didn’t seem one of his usual visits.”

Wild Willow remained relaxed, not even looking in Bulwark’s direction. “It was something related to the research in the back labs.”

Bulwark whistled as he lowered his rifle. “Oh, I get it. We don’t have the ‘clearence’ to know what was going on.” He chuckled. “Personally, I just find that just makes me want to know more. I’ve seen the door to the back labs. That is some serious security, but are they wanting to keep people out… or keep something in.”

“If we were supposed to know, we’d know.” Wild Willow said, a sliver of irritation in his voice.

“Yes, of course. We’d get a nice detailed briefing, but come on, Willow. You’ve been here way longer than me.” Bulwark flashed a smile. “I’ll promise to shut up if you tell me what’ve you heard around the base.”

“That’s a promise we both know you're incapable of keeping.” Willow sighed, but after a few moments, nodded his head. “Fine. From what I’ve heard… they got Nightmare Moon back there.”

Bulwark visibly flinched, the answer hitting him like a punch to the gut. “Bullshit. They don’t have something like that in the back lab of this podunk place.”

Willow shrugged. “That’s just what I heard. Now, about your promise.”

“I can’t keep that promise after you drop a bomb on me like that,” Bulwark snapped. “They can’t possibly have Nightmare Moon back there.”

Willow glanced over in Bulwark’s direction. “Why not?”

“Because she’s dead.”

“Dead? What makes you say that?”

“Don’t you remember? She got killed in that event a few years ago when she tore up Manehattan until those other freaks brought her down. It was all over the news.” Bulwark shivered a little, the memory creeping in his mind. “I was in basic training when it happened. We were watching everything happen on TV. Dude, I was scared we’d be called into duty against that monster.”

“She’s been dead before,” Wild Willow said. “Twenty years ago, when she first appeared at that high school, everyone thought she died then. Nah, someone like that, one of those freaks… they ain’t that easy to kill.”

“And that’s exactly why they wouldn’t keep her here,” Bulwark said as he used his thumb to point over his shoulder towards the labs. “We don’t have nearly enough guns, bullets, or bodies here to guard anything that serious. Besides, I’ve seen some of the things Doctor Nexus takes into the lab when he comes back from the city. Would he be bringing children’s books to Nightmare Moon?”

“Then what do you think is back there?”

Bulwark smiled as he squared his shoulders, stood a bit taller, and raised a hand dramatically. “Elementary, my dear Willow. It is clearly Mutant Monkeys that have become hyper intelligent.”

Willow rolled his eyes. “Why in the world would hyper intelligent monkeys need children’s books?”

“Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. Now, who wants a mud pie!?”

Bulwark and Wild Willow flinched, bringing up their rifles in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. Yet, before Bulwark could focus on the pink haired woman, she was gone. In her place, something heavy and wet slapped against his face. Bulwark dropped his gun, letting it hang off his shoulder strap as he used his hands to clear the mud. He looked over to Willow, seeing he also had a mud pie thrown in his face.

“What was—” Bulwark began, only to be cut off by a loud pop. A firework burst above the facility, and it was soon joined by a volley of others that were lighting up the sky in a rainbow of colors.

“We have intruders on the north fence. All exterior patrols, converge on the position.”

~~~

“The pre-party has started, and it's gonna be a doozie! Phoenix, Glacier, go grab our guests of honor so we can start the real party back home!”

The words danced over the squads’ shared psychic link and into Sunset’s mind. She lifted a hand to her ear, touching her earlobe. It was a simple physical gesture to ensure only the thoughts she wanted broadcast were sent to the others. “Understood, we’re heading in.”

Sunset pulled herself up from the mud and grass of the marshland, head swiveling around to ensure there were no other guard patrols heading their way. She then glanced back at her partner, gesturing with her hand before jogging towards the gate. The two young women stepped into the light of a lamp post. Sunset was clad in a lightly armored one-piece uniform that was caked in mud. It was mostly black except for a few orange accents and a V-shaped metal belt buckle.

“Come on.” Sunset placed her hands on the chain link gate.

“Give me a second, Phoenix, I got mud on my glasses.” Twilight came stumbling up, wearing the same style of uniform as Sunset, though hers had blue accents. She was struggling to clean her glasses with an eyeglass cloth which was already fairly saturated with mud.

“We have mud on everything, Glacier.” Sunset said before focusing back on the gate. Her hands became shrouded in a red aura, and the sections of the fence beneath her palms deformed. Sunset waited until the metal had started glowing red before digging her fingers in and flexing. With the the same effort a normal person might open a heavy door, Sunset spread apart the heated metal to create an opening in the gate.

“But the nice thing for me is that mud tends to turn to dirt real quick.” Sunset stepped through the opening, then looked down at her uniform where a lot of the mud had dried and caked into place because of the heat coming from her special ability. She brushed off the largest chunks before looking back through the hole. She snorted at Twilight, who was busy putting her glasses back on. The glasses and the area around her eyes were both pristine, making them stand in stark contrast to the mud that clung to the rest of Twilight’s body. “Wow, you ever considered going into window washing part-time?”

Twilight smirked as she tucked the cleaning cloth back into the pocket of her suit. “Well, no, but I’ll add it onto my possible career list… right at the bottom.” She approached the hole, her hands starting to glow with a blue aura. They touched the still hot metal edges of the hole, and almost immediately, the metal stopped glowing. Twilight waited until the metal frosted over before stepping through.

“Hey, sometimes the bottom of your lists is where the good stuff is. Or should I remind you of what was at the top of your codename list, ‘Hydrochlorofluorocarbon?’”Sunset asked as she motioned with one hand. The pair broke into a jog, crossing the asphalt paved exterior grounds of the research facility as they headed to the nearest visible door. Sunset flicked her wrist, sending a small surge of fire to a lamp positioned over the door. The bulb popped from the extra heat, plunging the doorway into darkness as Sunset and Twilight pressed themselves against it.

“Okay, we’re doing good. Now call Radiance. She should have been able to read the facility’s layout from some of the soldiers’ minds by now.” Sunset’s hand began glowing again as she raised it to the door’s handle, steadily melting the lock away. A few moments of silence passed, and when Sunset didn’t hear any further words in her head, she glanced over at Twilight. Her admittedly inexperienced friend had her eyes closed, and her face was scrunched up with concentration. Though Sunset took particular notice of where both Twilight’s hands were: down at her sides.

“Uh, Glacier.” Sunset used her free hand to gently reach up and tug on her earlobe.

Twilight peeked open an eye, then blushed as she raised a hand to her ear. This time, her thoughts rang clearly in Sunset’s mind. “Sorry, still getting used to this.”

“It’s alright,” Sunset thought over the mental link. “Trust me, with Fili-Second on the team, you want there to be a physical trigger to any psychic link.”

“Sounds like you two aren’t having too much trouble on your end,” Rarity’s voice said over the link.

Twilight gently pushed on her glasses, repositioning them on the bridge of her nose. “Only real hiccup was some messy mucilaginous mud.”

“Oh, believe me darling, I know about mud. I warned Zap she was making things too wet around here. But no, she wanted to make it a real storm. It will take me forever to get our uniforms clean.” Rarity sighed, her voice falling quiet over the mental link before returning a bit more focus. “Now, where are you two now?”

“We’re at our second checkpoint,” Twilight answered. “How are things on your end?”

“Steel Hooves is smashing. Fili-Second is dashing.” There was a crack of thunder, and a flash of lightning raced down from the sky and connected with the ground on the facility’s north side. “I imagine you just heard what Zap is doing. All the while Saddle Rager and I are just marinating in mud.”

Sunset finished with the door latch. She hooked her fingers through the hole in the metal door and pulled it open while her left hand reached for her earlobe. “Well, just imagine it’s a mud bath at the spa.”

“I’ll have you know there are far fewer creepy crawlies in the mud at the spa.”

Sunset chuckled as she let Twilight head in through the door first. “That’s why I said imagine. Now, can we get our guidance?”

“Yes, of course,” Rarity said over the link. “Your world should look a bit more elegant momentarily.”

Sunset moved in through the door and found herself standing with Twilight in a loading dock that was empty apart from a few stacks of crates and a forklift that was tucked into the corner. Yet, even as they looked about the space, it began to change. Accompanied by a familiar tickle in her brain, Sunset saw a lush, purple, velvet rug take shape at her feet and begin unrolling itself. The rug climbed up a nearby staircase, rolled a few yards, then made a hard left before disappearing through a closed door.

Twilight adjusted her glasses before glancing over at Sunset. “I still fail to see how this is better than something simpler and more tactically relevant, like an arrow.”

“It’s either let Radiance do this or design our mission outfits. Considering what I saw of her first design sketches, dealing with ‘fabulous’ mental projections is the lesser evil,” Sunset said as she and Twilight began to jog along the projected rug, quickly moving to the door that it had disappeared through. The moment Sunset’s hand touched the door handle, a thunderous boom shook the facility, forcing Sunset to brace herself against the door to keep herself on her feet.

After she regained her balance, Sunset’s hand moved to her ear. “Radiance! What was that?”

“Well, it seems there was a snake of some variety that happened into our little party. One of the soldiers saw it, shot at it, and… now Saddle Rager is tossing around jeeps like they’re pillows.” Rarity groaned as another thunderous boom shook the building. “I appreciate a desire for stealth, but could you two do me the tiniest favor and perhaps speed things up a tad? Saddle Rager joining the fight does tend to escalate things more than we’d like, and I’d rather not deal with tanks tonight.”

“Have Fili-Second get the ‘Quiet Time’ mat ready, and we’ll try to pick up the pace.” Sunset began pushing open the door as she glanced back over her shoulder at Twilight. “After all, with Saddle Rager outside, it’s not like we’ll have to worry about guards inside.”

“Phoenix!”

Sunset was looking back at Twilight when she shouted. She saw the fear in her friend’s eyes, and quickly turned her head. In the hallway beyond the door was a squad of four soldiers. Their weapons were already raised. Sunset’s muscles tensed. She ducked her head, bringing her hands up in front of her face. She heard the first pops of rifle fire. Sunset knew there was no way they could miss at such short range.

Yet, instead of feeling the sting of bullets piercing her skin, she heard the crackling and popping of ice. Sunset dared to open her eyes. The doorway was frozen solid, a thick sheet of ice separating her from the soldiers and their gunfire. She quickly turned her head to look at Twilight.

Twilight was panting heavily. Her glasses were askew, and she held a trembling hand up, palm pointed at the door. Sunset realized, as she took a few deep breaths herself, that she was shaking just as much as Twilight. She stood slowly, squeezing her hands together to calm herself. She wanted to panic, to freak out, but doing that right now wasn’t going to help them.

“Good reflex,” Sunset finally managed to say, forcing a smile.

Twilight only nodded her head. Yet, both Twilight and Sunset flinched when they heard bullets striking the far side of the ice barrier. Twilight took a step towards the door, her power surging. The ice thickened, growing beyond the door frame and beginning to consume the door and nearby walls.

“Glacier, easy.” Sunset placed a hand on her shoulder, making a conscious effort to keep a calm tone in her voice. “It’s okay. The door is frozen enough, Glacier. They won’t get through there for a while. Let’s find another way out of this room before they try and flank us.”

Twilight nodded, her panicked posture relaxing enough that she began to move. Sunset patted her friend's shoulder once more before jogging ahead. She reached another door, cracked it open, and took a peek inside. When she didn’t see any immediate threats, she opened it all the way and stuck her head into the connecting hallway.

“Okay, no guards this time. You remember the plan from here?”

Twilight nodded. “I do. I studied the mission briefing very thoroughly.”

Sunset broke into a jog, heading deeper into the facility with Twilight following a few steps behind. “Wouldn’t expect anything less. We just need to find Radiance’s projection again, and we’ll be back on course. Keep your eyes peeled for that gaudy purple rug.”

Sunset glanced back a moment.. “Don’t tell her I called it gaudy.”

~~~

“Is this it, Phoenix?”

Sunset skidded to a stop and jogged back a few steps to the intersection in the hallways. She and Twilight had spent the last few minutes making their way deeper and deeper into the facility. They had dodged patrols and left behind walls of ice to ensure they didn’t get snuck up on. They had found and resumed following Rarity’s fabulous illusion, but at one point, the rug just up and evaporated. That moment preceded an earth-shaking crash and explosion. The girls outside were still alive. Someone would have said something over the psychic link if something that bad happened. Still, the longer the operation took, the more dangerous and desperate the facility’s garrison would get.

Their goal, however, was within sight. Twilight had spotted a large, thick, metal door with deep red markings all around its frame built into a wall that appeared to be made of the same materials.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Sunset said as she and Twilight jogged up to the door. As soon as she was close enough, Sunset reached out to touch it. The metal felt very cold, like the inside of a refrigerator. Sunset’s hand began to glow, but unlike the chain link fence outside, she couldn’t get the metal to heat up.

“Just like our contact said. This door, this whole section of the facility, was built especially to keep me and our stronger friends out. I’d bet even Saddle Rager would have some trouble with it.” Sunset took a step back and regarded the door thoughtfully. “They really didn’t want us to get into the back labs. Hopefully, they didn’t anticipate our latest recruit.” She turned and gave Twilight a thumbs up. “You got this, Glacier.”

Twilight drew in a deep breath as she brought her hands to her chest. She clenched her fingers into fists as she held the air in her lungs. She then exhaled, her whole body appearing to relax as the temperature around her dropped sharply.

“Give me a few minutes.” Twilight adjusted her glasses, stepped up to the door, and placed her hands on the surface. Sunset turned away just as some frost began to form on the door’s exterior. She held her hands up at elbow height, palms facing upward as a pair of fireballs formed in her grasp. She clutched them like baseballs, their searing heat feeling like the flutter of butterfly wings against her skin as her eyes scanned the surrounding hallways.

Behind her, Sunset began to hear the door straining under the fast freeze. The components were groaning and scraping, the different metals of the door contracting at different rates as their temperature dropped lower and lower. The door would eventually give way, yet, when Sunset heard the clatter of boots getting closer, she could tell it wasn’t going to be soon enough.

Sunset reared back, and the moment she saw a flicker of movement, she rolled her shoulder forward and threw one of her fireballs. The flaming fastball soared through the air, eventually smashing into one of the facility’s walls. It burst on impact, sending a cascade of fire and sparks in all directions. Sunset heard coughing and panicked shouts. She even saw one soldier poke his head out from around the corner. Her next fireball flew down the hallway, exploding within inches of the soldier's head.

“Come on, boys. I know I’m hot, but there’s no reason to be shy!” Sunset shouted. She threw a third fireball while forming a fourth. This one would be different. She passed it between in her hands a few times, letting its size grow to that of a soccer ball before eventually letting it drop to the ground. She then swung back her right foot and kicked it. The fireball sailed towards the hallway intersection. It slammed against the wall, bursting like a molotov cocktail. A cascade of flames poured out from the impact point, leaving behind a line of fire in the hallway.

“How’s it coming, Glacier?” Sunset asked, glancing over her shoulder. The door was looking noticeably misshapen, and ice was starting to expand in the gaps between the door and its frame.

“Just a bit longer,” Twilight replied.

Sunset nodded and looked back in the directions where she had been harassing the soldiers. Her fire was still lingering at the nearest hallway intersection, and she didn’t see or hear any soldiers. For a few moments, it seemed like she had chased them off.

But then she heard it, the sound of metallic footsteps and crunching tiles.

“Not to put pressure on you, Glacier, but ‘a bit longer’ just got too long.” Sunset formed a fresh pair of fireballs in her hands. From further down the hallway, past the flames, Sunset could see it step into view. It was a mech soldier, a human clad in a modern suit of armor that made them a walking tank with superhuman strength. This mech soldier was carrying a proportionally large riot shield and a shock baton wired directly into the suits power system.

“Great,” Sunset said as the soldier began marching towards them. “With Saddle Rager outside they got permission to use mechs. Isn’t that nice, Glacier?”

“Wonderful,” she said through gritted teeth.

Sunset shook out her shoulders, then wound up and threw a fireball. The mech soldier easily deflected it with the riot shield, continuing his march towards the pair unabated. Despite the apparent ineffectiveness, Sunset continued her barrage. She even tried kicking an extra large fireball at the soldier, but he continued marching. It was like trying to stop a train with snowballs.

He was past the intersection where Sunset had chased off the first squad of soldiers. A few more seconds, and he would be close enough to start putting his shock baton to use. That baton itself told Sunset that someone higher up had given the order that she and her friends were to be taken alive. It was nice not having to deal with guns, but regular soldiers with guns would have been welcome compared to trying to fight off even a bare-handed mech soldier.

“Okay, big boy, that’s close enough.” Sunset brought her hands together as they began to glow bright red. She planted her feet, squared her shoulders, and braced herself. She then felt the kick, a column of fire erupting from her hands and consuming the hallway beyond. Her feet skidded a little on the tile, the force from her flamethrower pushing her back. Still, she kept pouring on the heat.

But the mech soldier kept coming. He tossed his riot shield aside, walking through the flames like was simply strolling against a stiff breeze. Sunset grunted, taking a cautious step back. She had to give the military credit. These newer suits were a lot more heat resistant than the last versions.

“Sunset, move!”

She heard the shout from Twilight and dared a glance behind her. The door was at its failure point. Like a coiled spring, the metal was struggling against the ice, trying to retake at least something close to its original shape. Sunset nodded to Twilight, then looked back at the soldier. She poured on the heat, creating a fresh surge of fire that consumed the whole hallway. It was enough to make the soldier pause, to push him back just a little, and that was all Sunset needed.

She dove to one side and then looked back at the door. Twilight pressed her hands on the nearby wall, her ability causing the ice around the door to expand just a little further. She pushed the door past its failure point. It buckled, and like a snapped rubber band, it popped out of the door frame and shot down the adjoining hallway. Sunset and Twilight both winced when they heard a loud, metallic clang, which was followed swiftly by the sound of something heavy falling to the floor.

Sunset peeked around the corner, smiling at the sight. The deformed door was several yards away, and the mech soldier was sprawled out on the floor. He was moving, but the servos and pistons around his chest area were crushed. He wouldn’t be posing a threat anytime soon.

“Oh, that looked like it hurt,” Twilight said as she took an anxious step towards the soldier. “I didn’t kill him, right?”

Sunset shook her head as she moved passed Twilight and through the now open doorway. “I’ve seen those things get tossed around by Saddle Rager and the pilots survive. He’s going to be sore and probably have a lot of bruises, but he’ll live. Still, great job with the door.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said as she followed Sunset to the other side. “So, according to the plan, I’m supposed to stay here and keep the door sealed until we’re ready to leave while you go get our targets. Are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself?”

“If things get rough, I’ll call for backup,” Sunset assured. “Just stay frosty. I’ll be right back.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she placed one hand on the door frame, her powers causing ice to begin forming over the gap. “Wow, I haven’t heard that one before.”

~~~

“But what’s going on? Why are there alarms?”

Nyx was up on her bed, clutching a teddy bear to her chest. She had been sound asleep after a long day of testing when Doctor Nexus came into her room. He had been acting strange all day. Normally, he was the only one who would take the time to play with her, but today, he acted like all the others. He was distant, especially when the mean old general was around. She didn’t like General Sombra. He always had a scary look in his eyes when he was watching her.

“I can’t explain right now. Just please, put on your shoes.” Doctor Nexus said as he was hurriedly tossing things from Nyx’s small dresser drawers into a garbage bag. All of her clothes, her books, her toys. Everything that was hers in the world was in that one small dresser, and all of that was going into the one large garbage bag.

Nyx pouted but crawled to the edge of her bed, still clutching her teddy bear. She reached down below the edge, grabbing a pair of plain white shoes. Everything she owned was the same clinical white as the labs outside her room. Her shoes, her clothes, the sheets on her bed, and even her teddy bear. Nyx began putting on her shoes, slipping them onto her feet without socks.

She had slipped on her right shoe and was beginning to put on the left when she heard a knock at the door. Her eyes glanced up and quickly drifted to Doctor Nexus. He was frozen in place. One hand held open the trash bag, the other clutched a ball of socks. Nexus dropped both things and quickly moved to the door, pressing himself against the wall as he reached into his coat. He withdrew a gun, and Nyx instinctively clutched her teddy bear tighter. She didn’t like guns. She knew what they could do. General Sombra threatened someone in the lab with one once. It was really scary.

Still, with pistol in his right hand, Nexus reached for the door handle with his left and gently opened the latch. The door swung open a little, and Nyx saw Doctor Nexus’s expression shift. He wore a relieved smile as he put the gun back into the holster on his hip. “I was worried when I heard there were intruders on the north side. I thought something had gone wrong.”

“No, that’s just our distraction, though we did run into a fair bit of resistance on our way in. We need to move quickly.”

“Just let me grab a few more of her things. I’ve already got all my research notes and wiped the servers as best I could. Everything is in that briefcase by the door.” Doctor Nexus stepped away from the door as someone else came into the room.

Nyx looked at the woman, her eyes drawn to her vibrant red and yellow hair. The research facility was almost entirely white. Almost everything in her room was white. Yes, she had seen some colors around the lab and in the picture books Doctor Nexus brought her, but she had never seen such vibrant colors.

“Who are you?” Nyx asked, while keeping her teddy bear clutched close to her chest.

The woman looked over at Nyx, and for a moment, there was uncertainty in her eyes. She looked surprised and scared. Nyx knew that expression all too well. Almost everyone she met for the first time wore that expression, and some people never stopped looking at her like that.

This woman, however, soon smiled, and walked over to the bed. “Hi, you must be Nyx. My name’s Phoenix.”

“How do you know my name?”

Phoenix gestured back towards Doctor Nexus. He had briefly stopped packing to search one of his coat pockets. He eventually withdrew a thumb drive, and after glancing down at it briefly, he slipped it back into his pocket and continued emptying the dresser drawer. “I’m a friend of his. We’re here to take you away from this place before something bad happens. Don’t worry, I think you’ll like where we’re going.” Sunset reached into one of her pockets, gently removing a plastic baggy. She opened it and took out a piece of paper, which she unfolded and showed to Nyx.

“Hey, that’s one of my drawings!” Nyx said, recognizing her crayon doodle. It showed a picture of her outside, under a happy yellow sun. She was standing on grass near a tree and a happy doggy. She had never seen an actual dog before, but one of her books was about a big red dog.

“Doctor Nexus gave it to me. He says you’d really like to go someplace where you can run on grass. Well, we have a really big lawn where me and my friends live. There’s grass, trees, and other kids your age to play with.”

Nyx looked up at Phoenix, her imagination dancing. All things she had only read about in her books. She could see them. Nyx looked over at Doctor Nexus, who was emptying the last few things from her dresser drawer. “Can I really go outside, Doctor?”

Nexus synched shut the garbage bag, then glanced over at Nyx. He just stared at her a second, as if the question confused him, but then he nodded. “Yes, yes. Grass, trees, sun, water, bugs, lions, tigers, bears: you’ll get to see it all, but only if you hurry and put on your shoes.”

Nyx needed no further motivation. She put on her remaining shoe in a few seconds and jumped down from her bed. She was practically dancing on her feet. She tossed her teddy bear into the air and giggled as she held it aloft, making it float and dance above her. She then winced, quickly letting her bear drop from her telekinesis before looking over at Doctor Nexus. “Sorry… I didn’t mean… I know I’m not supposed to.”

“Whoa, easy there.” Phoenix knelt down beside Nyx. “It’s all right. Those rules don’t apply anymore. In fact, I’m kind of like you. I have a special gift too. Would you like to see mine?”

Nyx nodded furiously as she picked her teddy bear back up. Phoenix smiled and gently twirled her hand. Fire danced from her fingertips. Nyx’s eyes went wide, and her gaze followed the dancing flames. “Wow.”

“Pretty cool, right?” Phoenix chuckled and stood back up. She looked back to Doctor Nexus. He was slapping his pockets, silently mouthing out words as he touched each pocket.

“You ready, Doctor?” Phoenix asked. The tone in her voice was a lot firmer than the one she had used to talk to Nyx.

“Ye… yes, yes, I have everything.” Nexus slung the garbage bag over his shoulder and quickly picked up his briefcase with his other hand.

Phoenix nodded, then looked back at Nyx and offered her hand. “Hey, have you ever had a piggyback ride before?”

“No. What’s that?” Nyx asked. Phoenix reached her hand a little closer, and after a moment’s hesitation, Nyx gently took it. A few seconds later, she was riding on Phoenix’s back, her legs hooked through the woman’s arms while her own arms held onto Phoenix’s neck. She leaned in close, looking over her piggyback-provider’s right shoulder.

Phoenix headed to the door, Doctor Nexus following closely behind them. As they walked, she glanced over her shoulder to look at Nyx. “Things might get a little scary, but I need you to be brave, okay? My friends and I won’t let anything happen to you or Doctor Nexus. Now hold on tight.”

~~~

“This is very troubling,” Celestia said as she looked over the research notes taken from the facility. She was in her office, sitting at her desk as she clicked through some of the digital data. The computer was the one bit of visible technology in the otherwise classically decorated room. There was not a wall that did not have a bookshelf, and all the furniture was either polished wood or fine leather.

“You’re telling me.” The voice drew Celestia’s attention away from the monitor. She glanced to her side, reaching out and scratching Spike’s head. The wolfhound greedily accepted the pet, but soon, both he and Celestia were focusing back on the screen. “So, did Professor Luna call in sick before or after she heard the mission was a success?” Spike asked.

“After. She waited until the girls were out and we heard a confirmation from Nexus that he had destroyed as much of his research as he could.” Celestia stood from her desk, walking to the large bay window of her office that looked out on a lush, green front lawn. Classes were out for lunch, and her students were enjoying the warm weather.

Their two most-recent acquisitions were out and about as well. Doctor Nexus and little Nyx were being given a tour of the grounds by the girls responsible for their rescue—her best team. Amongst the group, Pinkie Pie suddenly turned and waved in their direction. Celestia waved back, having long gotten used to the girl’s impressive sixth sense.

“Well, it’s good the research is gone, though Luna sure wasn’t as eager to go on the mission herself when we found out who we’d need to rescue at the same time,” Spike said as he followed Celestia to the window.

“I can’t blame her.” Celestia watched Nyx romp through the grass barefoot. “Nightmare Moon left a scar on this world. It’s a part of her life my sister would rather forget, but she faces constant reminders. Whenever the governments of the world talk about the need to regulate, imprison, or even go to war against our kind, Nightmare Moon is always one of the examples they bring up. It’s on the news. It’s in the propaganda.

“And now for a new Nightmare Moon to be… genetically cloned in a lab.”

“Well, this Nightmare Moon seems a lot sweeter than the original ever was.” Spike said. “She ran me ragged trying to ride me like a horse this morning before breakfast.”

“I suppose that explains why you’re hiding in here.” Celestia managed a brief smile, but it quickly withered as she continued to look out the window. “Hopefully, my sister won’t avoid the campus for more than a few days. Even when she does return, I doubt she’ll want to associate with the girl. That, and I don’t doubt we’ll be getting a visit from our old friend Harshwhinny very soon.”

“She’s such a friend,” Spike said as he brought up a big paw and scratched at his neck. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to be friends with a government suit who only ever comes over to threaten our home and our lives?”

“It’s the political game, Spike. Her superiors who dislike what we do here have to make a show of force, but they know doing anything against us would blow a number of their own secrets as well. Though I hate to say this about her, Nyx and Spell Nexus just became two of our best assets. Off the books genetic research, experimental cloning, and unauthorized human testing. If that was released to the public, it will be a PR nightmare. I just hope those two can be happy here.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Doctor Nexus will probably be happy as long as Nyx is, and she’s so happy it’s almost infectious. I mean, she’s not that different from Twilight or anyone else here. We all needed a safe place. It’s why you built this school.”

“Yes it is.” Celestia reached over and patted Spike’s head again as she turned away from the window. She returned to her desk, closing the research files and bringing up the school’s registry. A few minutes of tapping and clicking, and a new student had been enrolled and assigned to a room. With the deed done, Celestia sat back, letting her eyes wander to the window again where she could catch a glimpse of Nyx running and playing on the grass, experiencing a warm summer day for the first time in her life.

“Welcome to Celestia’s School for Gifted Children,” she said, only for her computer screen to light up. A circle with a V appeared on the screen as information and video feeds began to stream across the desktop. Celestia’s brow furrowed as she read over the news reports before bringing a hand to her head. She reached out her mind, forming a psychic link with seven specific students.

“Valkyries, to the situation room.”

====================

Variance End

====================

What might it take for Nyx to be born in the Equestria Girls universe?

Variance 3 - Blessed

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Variance 3

Blessed

====================

The basement stank of old cedar and musk, but none in attendance complained. It was humble, but it was their sanctuary away from the prying eyes of the public and even their friends and families. None would understand their purpose. All were too blinded by the regime of indoctrination that washed over Equestria every second of every day.

Silent Shepard didn’t care, however. The belief of their members was stout. They would not be swayed, and slowly, their numbers would grow as more and more ponies questioned the status quo. He tapped his hoof against his podium, and the few dozen ponies in attendance fell silent. The small basement beneath Silent Shepard’s bakery was not much of a church to their queen, but they took care to make the most of the space.

“For the night eternal,” Silent Shepard said to his flock.

“For Equestria’s true queen,” the ponies replied, before they sat on the low and simple pews that occupied most of the room’s floor space.

“Welcome again, brothers and sisters, as we come to speak and hold in our hearts Equestria’s one and true queen,” Silent Shepard said with a smile as he spoke to the congregation. “Yes, we come to commune together to speak of her wisdom, her strength, and her beauty. We, who are her blessed children. Everypony, feel the blessing and let it manifest.”

Silent Shepard closed his eyes, rolled his shoulders, and felt a shiver crawl up his spine. When he opened his eyes again, they had changed to an almost luminescent turquoise, though the pupils were still round. Every other pony did the same, all of them soon sharing the same eye color.

“Yes,” Silent Shepard said with a smile. “Yes, we are all her children here, for we all feel the rekindling of her sacred blessing. The time will come again for the beauty of the eternal night, but next time, we must hold our true queen in the highest regard. It was our weakness. It was our faults that disappointed her. It was us who drove her to return this kingdom to the rule of the unworthy sisters. It was our failures that led her to take away her most sacred of blessings. Yet she did not forsake us. She wished only for us to mature, to once more grow ready for her eternal rule and the eternal night.”

“For Equestria’s true queen,” the congregation said again, muttering it as if the ending to a prayer.

“And our queen prepares for her return to power by continuing to play the innocent, to hide in plain sight of our enemies while sending us, her faithful, her true wisdom. Behold, the gospel of our queen as released this very day.” Silent Shepard reached within his podium, his hoof grasping and lifting up a thick paper square. It was a record sleeve, the front of which was decorated with a skeletal alicorn walking on what appeared to be the surface of the moon.

Silent Shepard smiled as he turned the album slowly so that all could clearly see the cover. “Yes, the new gospel has been released. Our queen and her closest acolytes speak once more to us through the subtle interpretation of their lyrics and melodies. This is why we gather here today, to begin our sacred duty. So let our queen’s words be played. Let us hear her sweet voice as she speaks to us as a queen, as a mother, as a goddess.”

“For Equestria’s true queen,” the congregation repeated as a few members stood. The album was taken from Silent Shepard. The vinyl record was carefully removed and placed on a simple, spring driven record player. The arm was cranked, the needle was placed, and the horn was turned towards the congregation. Soon, after a few moments of popping and scratching, the music began. Hard drums, driving guitar, subtle choral voices, and other tones mixed together into a style that the band, Nightmare, had become semi-famous for.

The congregation bobbed their heads to the beat. They shut their eyes, and sat silently absorbing the album. No words were shared between songs. The brief reprieve between the tracks was taken as a moment of silent meditation. Silent Shepard himself remained at his podium, simply observing his brothers and sisters with a subtle smile. Surely, this album would be the one where their queen would reveal her plan for finally overtaking Equestria once more. The album art gave them a hint that they would, perhaps, launch their attack from the place of their queen’s long imprisonment: the moon.

Then came a slam, which caused the needle on the record to skip. Eyes opened around the room. Some looked to the record player, others looked to Silent Shepard. His eyes were focused on the stairwell that led down to their hidden sanctuary. The slam came again, and bright sunlight flooded the stairwell. Silent Shepard opened his mouth to shout, to warn his brothers and sisters, but it all came too late. A flashing blue-red spell zoomed down the staircase, and the moment it hit the floor, the room was flooded with a blinding light and an ear-piercing bang.

~~~

“They’re bringing them out. Get the camera ready.” She had pad and pencil in magic, jotting down notes at a mile a minute. Yet, there were no camera flashes occurring next to her. Her eyebrow twitched in irritation before she brought a hoof to her lip and blew a loud, piercing whistle.

“What!? I’m awake… where am I?” The photographer stammered, his wings twitching as he glanced around.

“Shutter, focus. Police raid. Relapsers. Take pictures. Make money. Make headlines. Go.”

The sidewalk gray pegasus, Shutter, groaned, nudging up the neck mount that held his camera and lowering his head to the eyepiece. “Right. One of your sources actually turned out to be legit. Are you sure I’m not still dreaming? ”

“Save the comedy for your stand-up classes,” Byline Bloom said as she pressed herself against the police barricade. Her more energetic mood compared to Shutter was reflected in her more vibrant colors. Her yellow coat almost blended with the chest high, yellow magical barriers being projected by unicorn officers keeping the crime scene secure. Her lighter, tulip yellow mane was pulled back in a ponytail, ensuring not a single hair would get in the way of her eyes.

She made a note for each relapser that came out the door. There was one after another, and whenever it seemed to stop, it was but a delay in the stream. Most of the ponies she didn’t recognize, but she could spot a few that were well known enough in the area. The familiar ones had their faces on advertisements or were in the papers for one reason or another. It was a diverse group, with the only common thread between them being their excellence in their individual fields and careers.

You couldn’t be a relapser, at least not yet, unless you had been originally infected, and you were only infected if you were one of the best at something.

Each pony arrested was properly bound. Hooves were cuffed, magic was blocked, and wings were bound to ensure almost zero chance to escape. The last of the approximately three dozen was the pony who owned the bakery that was above the basement. He had a cardboard standee of himself welcoming customers in, though the standee looked a lot happier than the real pony was at the moment.

“So did we just chase the police here, because I don’t count dumb luck and siren chasing as a ‘legitimate’ news source.”

“Can’t you spare me your skepticism until after we’re done?” Byline asked, not looking up from her notebook.

Shutter took a photo of all the arrested ponies lined up on the street before lowering his camera. “Nope, you pulled me out of bed. You get skepticism at full blast.”

“My friend told me a customer he was waiting on at the cafe today wouldn’t stop complaining about music.” Byline paused from her note writing to glance at Shutter. “Someone in the mare’s building was blaring music every Friday for hours on end for the past two months. The same music, the same band, and at the same time, like clockwork. The building manager couldn’t do anything about it because it wasn’t any of the apartment tenants.”

“So? Manehattan is a noisy city. What made you think that was a good tip?”

Byline smiled, levitating her pencil to tap Shutter’s camera before pointing back at the crime scene. “It was a good tip because of which band the mare said was being blared. I tracked her down at the restaurant tonight, got the whole story. It was going to be perfect. We would catch these relapsers sneaking in and out of the basement. It would have been a big story. We would have broken this open before the police even knew.

“But I guess that mare filed a noise complaint,” Byline said as she glared at the nearest officer.

Shutter brought his camera back up, though he was just looking through the viewfinder in search of another picture. “Oh yes, what a horrible police department we have. They’re actually doing their jobs. Those monsters.”

“I thought I was getting skepticism, not sarcasm.”

Shutter smiled. “It’s a combo platter of the consequences of dragging me out in the middle of a night, and there’s more to come.”

“Fine, just keep taking pictures,” Byline said as she went back to scribbling on her notepad. “We’re the only reporters here. This is an exclusive, and I want good pictures.”

Shutter rolled his eyes as he kept taking pictures. “This isn’t going to be some exclusive. The police will make a statement, will provide pictures, and every paper in Equestria will be running it before the day is out. This is just another relapser cell.”

“No, I can feel it. Something is going to happen here,” Byline hissed.

“Make a hole,” a third voice bellowed from behind the pair. Byline, like some of the other onlookers, glanced back, but she was the only one to smile. A pony was approaching the police barrier. It was Manehattan Police Chief Siren. She had seen him enough in person and through pictures to be able to recognize him even blocks away: light blue coat, aged white mane and mustache, and gray trench coat. He was flanked by a pair of earth pony officers, and he did not look at all happy.

It was the perfect time to ask some questions. “Chief Siren! Chief Siren!” she said, scrambling away from the police barricade and towards the approaching chief. “Byline Bloom, Manehattan Gazette. Do you have any comments on this large bust of relapsers? Do you think there are any more groups in the city? Has there been any news on a permanent cure from Canterlot? Have there been any reports of the curse spreading beyond the original infected?”

Chief Siren visibly bristled and looked back at one of the officers escorting him. His hushed comment didn’t escape Byline’s ears. “How did these vultures get here so quickly?”

Byline Bloom just smiled, raising her voice a little to ensure she kept the chief’s attention. “A good reporter always has her sources.”

“Or gets damn lucky,” Chief Siren said. The unicorn officers maintaining the yellow barrier began opening a hole as the chief got closer. “Look, we are making no comments at this time. An official statement will be released in the morning. But I tell you what… If you just sit outside the police line without giving me a reason to arrest your flank, your luck might just pay off.”

“How so?” Byline tried to follow the chief through the barrier, but one of the officers accompanying him made sure she stayed outside while he stepped into the cordoned off street.

“Because you’ll get pictures I promised a lot of ponies weren’t going to get taken. So I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me, and you better leave my name out of your article.” With that, Chief Siren turned his back on Byline, trotting into the scene as the hole in the police barrier closed.

“What do you think he meant by that?” Shutter asked.

“I don’t know.” Byline began scanning the scene. There was obviously something there they could take a picture of, something that would be excluded or minimized in the official report. But what? Was one of the relapsers an important pony? Was there something significant about the location? Was there an implication that the relapser situation was going to get much worse after tonight?

“Uh… Byline?”

“What? I’m trying to see what Chief Siren was talking about.” She glanced at Shutter, but found he wasn’t looking at her. He had his camera to his face, pointing it skyward as he snapped pictures about as fast as his camera would allow. He even reached the end of his film, causing him curse and quickly scramble to replace the cartridge. It was only then that Byline looked skyward for herself, her eyes locking on a set of winged figures silhouetted by the ever glowing lights of Manehattan's skyline.

Four pegasi officers were flying in a tight formation around what looked to be a cloud. It was no fluffy cumulus. It was a writhing, star speckled clump of miasma, one that began to swirl and take a more distinct shape as it made its final descent towards the crime scene. By the time the cloud was near the ground, it had solidified into a tall, slender, flesh and blood alicorn.

“Everypony back at the paper is going to flip,” Byline said with a wide smile as she began to write as quickly as she could. It was Nyx, there was no doubt about it: the coat, the cutie mark, and there certainly wasn’t another alicorn in Equestria sporting Nyx’s current look. She had several piercings in her ears and one metal bar in her nose. Her eyes were accented with a heavy dose of eyeliner and eyeshadow, and her mane was trimmed very short. It almost looked like fire swirling on her head, especially in comparison to her tail, which was still long and flowy.

“What is she doing here?” Shutter asked as he finished reloading his camera and resumed taking pictures. Nyx was speaking with Chief Siren, her eyes drifting over to the arrested ponies on occasion.

“This is probably the biggest relapser bust we’ve ever seen in Manehattan, and she’s on tour with her band in the city. Think about it, Manehattan Central would be overwhelmed taking care of all these relapsers at once. Someone called in a favor to get her to help,” Byline said, her words almost exactly mimicking the notes she was writing as theories flowed from her pencil like water from a spigot.

“Byline, stop writing and look,” Shutter said, elbowing her in the side. “I think she’s treating them.”

She looked up from her pad, her pencil pausing as her eyes watched what was playing out before her. Everything they had heard about the relapser treatment said it took regular unicorn doctors days to cleanse a pony and another week of recovery after that before the victim was back to normal. Nyx was simply washing her tail over the arrested ponies. Some were calling out to her, pleading to her like children to a parent. But she continued her work with a cold indifference.

One of the arrested was particularly loud, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was the one the police had brought out last, the owner of the bakery above the basement where the group met. “Please, queen, goddess, have we not been loyal?! Have we not done as your sacred gospel describes?! We are your children, your Children of Nightmare! We live only to serve! If we have failed you, we ask only for a chance to redeem ourselves! Release us from these bindings, and we will begin a coup right here! With my congregation at our side, we can overwhelm these blind sun-lovers and retreat to your glorious castle. Ple—!”

His words were silenced as Nyx’s tail enveloped him. All of the arrested were now lying unconscious in the street. They were as motionless as the dead, but police officers were going through and checking the life signs of each one. Byline could only assume that, since no one was panicking, none of them had been killed by the procedure.

Nyx moved back over to Chief Siren, speaking with him as her pegasus escort prepared to take flight.

“She’s already done!” Shutter said. “If she can cure a relapser that quickly, then why doesn’t she just fly around to the hospitals and cure everyone herself?”

“If her cure worked, there wouldn’t be relapsers at all,” Byline said as she made notes of everything they had seen. This was gold, pure reporter gold… or at least silver. No, gold would be getting an interview. If only she could get that... Byline paused a moment, some tiny voice her head warning her against the idea.

She chose not to listen.

“Nyx Sparkle! Princess Nyx Sparkle!”

Shutter flinched as the crowd, the police, and Nyx herself looked over at Byline. “What are you doing? The chief said we needed to be quiet.”

“Like I’m going to listen what he says,” Byline snapped at Shutter before putting a hoof into the air, waving it like a filly trying to get her teacher’s attention. “Nyx Sparkle, I’m Byline Bloom of the Manehattan Gazette. Just a few minutes of your time, please!”

Nyx turned to look at Chief Siren. The Chief put up a hoof defensively, saying something to the alicorn. She said something back, and they ended up exchanging words for about a minute before Nyx visibly sighed. She then turned and started walking towards the police line.

“I’m only going to warn you once,” Nyx said once she was closer to Byline. “You ask a question I don’t like, I’m taking your film and crushing the camera.”

“Deal,” Byline said, paying no mind to the look of horror that formed on Shutter’s face. “Now, did you just treat the relapsers here?”

“Yes.”

“Have there been any developments in a permanent cure for the Children of Nightmare’s blessing?”

“No.”

Byline nodded her head. No surprises there. The Canterlot researchers would make a big announcement if they made any real progress. “Is Canterlot still working on a cure?”

“Yes.”

Again, there was no real surprise there, but that was fine. Byline knew what she was doing. She was fielding easy questions. She’d lull Nyx into a false sense of security before laying out a real question. “Is there a reason you don’t help with the research?”

“I do help.”

Byline paused, stumbling in her rapid-fire chain of questions. “You do help?”

“I help by not being there.”

It took her brain a moment to process the words, but Byline smiled and nodded. “Oh, that’s interesting. That is interesting.”

“Glad I can be interesting. You done?”

“No, not by a long shot.”

Nyx frowned, lowering her head a little so she could be closer to Byline’s eye level. “I can’t be out here all night. You get one more question.”

“But—”

“One,” Nyx repeated as she stood back up to her full height.

Byline opened her mouth to protest, but then shut it as she began flipping through her notebook. One question, one question? She had dozens of questions. How could she pick just one to ask? She licked her lips, glancing between her notepad, Nyx, and Shutter. Her mind began to latch onto an idea: the ultimate question, the one she had been toying with ever since she began to really learn about the relapser situation.

“Nyx, is there any connection with the fact that your mother was identified among the first relapsers shortly after your band sold its first album and you had moved out of the castle?”

There was dead silence. Nyx just stared at at Byline, her wings extended. The sight of an alicorn with her wings out caused many of the onlookers near Byline to quickly step back, as if she was the ground zero for a magical explosion. Shutter was clutching his camera to his chest, fearing for its safety as if it was his own son.

“Most reporters know not to ask me about my mother,” Nyx said. “I don’t like being accused.”

Byline firmly shook her head. “I’m not accusing. I don’t think you caused anything, but I do think you were affected.”

The silence resumed. Some police officers were anxiously creeping closer, preparing to try and hold Nyx back. But then, Nyx began closing her wings. The tiniest of smiles cracked onto her face as she leaned in close, whispering so only Byline could hear. “I’m staying at the Rising Phoenix hotel downtown until five o’clock tomorrow afternoon, when I’ll need to leave to get ready for my evening concert. Ask for me and give them the code phrase ‘lumberjack snowflake.’ They’ll let you up to my room. If what you just said is your actual belief, an interview with you might just improve my own opinion of reporters.”

Byline nodded, unable to manage any other words. Nyx turned to leave, shifting back into a smoky cloud before being followed into the sky by the pegasi officers. The crime scene began to close up. Ambulances from Manehattan Central Hospital began to arrive to transport the arrested ponies. Some of the onlookers began dispersing, but Byline and Shutter remained.

When Byline finally managed to collect herself, she looked back at Shutter, who was standing mouth agape. She just smiled, lowering herself down from the police barrier before putting a hoof on his shoulder.

“So, do you feel like I still owe you a coffee and a donut, or will you be satisfied getting an exclusive interview and possibly landing the story of the year?”

“I still want my coffee and donut,” Shutter said, though the smile on his face was almost as big as Byline’s. “And don’t look so proud of yourself. You just got lucky.”

“Hey, working hard just means that when you do get lucky, you can really seize the opportunity.”

====================

Variance End

====================

What if “The Blessing” came back?

Variance 4 - Bloodstone-Uniform-Gold-Sapphire

Variance 4 - Bloodstone-Uniform-Gold-Sapphire

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Variance 4

Bloodstone-Uniform-Gold-Sapphire

====================

“I thought you were taking care of the alarms?”

Nyx forced open the door, her horn arcing with magic as she came to face the two changeling guards just outside. They hissed, their wings buzzed, and they tried to go for their weapons, but they never even got to take aim. A swift blast from Nyx’s horn was enough to knock each one out, their bodies flopping to the floor like wet noodles.

“I did,” Rita said over the radio in Nyx’s ear. “We did.”

Nyx glanced left and right down the hallway, checking for any more guards before dragging the two unconscious bodies back into the room. A few moments later, she strode out into the hallway. Their mission target was wrapped in a levitation spell, bouncing around behind Nyx like a balloon on a string. “It sure doesn’t sound like it,” Nyx said as the ship’s alarms continued to assault her ears, her voice being picked up by the tiny microphone that reached down from her ear and rested against her cheek.

“That’s not the intruder alarm. It’s the ‘there’s a hacker’ alarm,” Jane answered. “I told you not to snoop.”

Rita’s voice came back onto the radio, starting with a deep growl. “Our whole reason for being here is to get information. I just thought it would be easier to get the data from their systems instead of trying to interrogate someone. The data is right there.”

“And didn’t you think it was perhaps too easy?” Lin hissed. “It was like meat in a tiger trap, and you fell for it.”

“Enough. Just be ready to move. I’m heading to your position now.” Nyx kept moving through the dimly lit corridors of the ship. The walls fluttered a little as she passed, the strange amalgamation of technology, chitin, and green flesh looking more like the guts of some vast beast than a starship. She kept a constant pace, only slowing as she approached intersections. She’d check her corners, stun any guards that happen to be in her way, then keep going.

“Crestwind? Adrian? How’s our exit?” Nyx asked into her radio as she rounded a corner and began galloping down a long corridor.

“Getting toasty,” Crestwind replied, the sounds of blaster fire in the background. “We sent Feather ahead to align the mirrors, but I don’t know how long we can hold our position.”

“Just hold on, once I have Rita, Jane, and Lin, we’ll be heading straight towards you.”

“And the package?” Crestwind asked.

Nyx looked back at her levitation field, frowning at the creature inside. Queen Chrysalis, despite the revelation of the nature of her species, still looked the same, if not better, than she always had. Her chitin was clean, polished, and her green markers had an otherworldly glow to them. Somehow, she made being unconscious look dignified, her legs and head folded into her with only her tongue hanging out of place. There wasn’t even a mark from where Nyx blasted Chrysalis’ face with a stun spell.

“Yeah, I’ve got the royal cockroach stunned and ready for transport. Just make sure we have a way out.”

The sounds of blaster fire reached Nyx’s ears once again, but this time, it wasn’t coming over her radio. She lowered her head and powered forward, galloping at full pace through the corridor. She rounded one final corner, seeing a half dozen changelings all firing at a command console which stood in the far corner of the room.

Nyx cursed, seeing there were too many to take out with single blasts. She took a few steps back, hiding behind the corner of the connecting corridor as a charge of magic built up in her horn. A sphere of energy formed and drooped from the tip of Nyx’s horn, looking almost like a large drop of water. It grew heavier, almost threatening to break away and fall under its own weight. Before it could, Nyx swung her head and lobbed the spell into the room as she shouted, “Thunder in the cloud!”

There was a momentary pause, then a flash of magic as the stun bomb went off. A few seconds later, Nyx heard the sound of bodies hitting the floor. She listened and waited to make sure her spell had properly dissipated before she rounded the corner and stepped back into the room. The guards were all on the floor, and the creature that had been using the control console as cover stood up, one of her three mouths snarling and baring its carnivorous teeth.

“A little warning might have been nice,” Rita, the tiger head of the chimera said.

Jane, the goat head, huffed and leaned a little into Rita’s personal headspace. “She did warn us. She shouted ‘thunder in the cloud.’ Besides, she wouldn’t have needed to warn us if you didn’t set off the alarm.”

“I set off an alarm, not the alarm. There’s a difference,” Rita argued.

“In semantics alone,” Lin, the serpent head, hissed.

Nyx rolled her eyes as she moved over to Ri-Ja-Li, using her prehensile, ethereal tail to flick all three of them on the bridges of their noses. “Argue about it later. We gotta move.” A bit of Nyx’s mane moved, tapping the call button on the radio in her ear as she began marching towards the door that led out of the room and out of the ship. “Crestwind, we’re on our way out. The exit still good?”

“Yes, but we lost contact with Feather. She might have been intercepted at the mirror.”

Nyx cursed, quickly about-facing and taking a few steps to bring herself closer to Ri-Ja-Li. “We need to get to her, then. We can’t let them secure the mirror. Activate your markers.”

The three heads of Ri-Ja-Li frowned. “No, please Nyx, don’t do it,” Rita begged.

“Consider this the consequence of setting off the alarm,” Nyx said as she held out her hoof. “Now give me the spare radio.”

Rita groaned, but then glanced at Jane. Jane bleated her own distaste for the proposed action, but used the leg she controlled to dig into their saddlebags. She soon procured and passed to Nyx a spare ear piece, which Nyx took as her levitation spell brought Queen Chrysalis close. Nyx held a button on the side of the device for a few seconds, causing a little blue light to turn on before she inserted it into the queen’s ear.

As Nyx levitated Queen Chrysalis back to where she had been floating, she could sense the magical signal being put off by the freshly inserted earpiece. That one signal was soon joined by five others. Three came from Ri-Ja-Li, who was clenching just about every muscle in her body at once, looking like she was trying to hold her breath and pass gas at the same time. The other two new signals came from outside the ship.

Nyx waited until she was sure she could properly feel the six signals before closing her eyes. She rolled her shoulders, trying to calm her body and clear her mind as her magic reached out, passing through the ship’s carapace to touch all the signals at once. “Jumping in three… two… one…”

Nyx triggered her teleportation spell, blinking herself briefly out of existence and pulling everyone she had connected to in her wake. There was a moment’s pause, a moment where she and all the others existed in the swirling colors and vibrance of the teleportation plane. Then, with another pop, the spell spat them out at their destination.

Nyx spread her wings, catching herself and making sure she stayed aloft with her captive as she surveyed her surroundings. The tight corridors of the hive ship were replaced with open blue skies and a wild-grass field. The hive ship itself was nestled in the distance, in the shadow of a tall, barren mountain that made the alarms coming from the ship carry a notable echo.

In the field below, there was a firefight going on around an oval shaped metal frame that stood out like the pull tab of a zipper. Changelings were moving in, sending an almost constant stream of fire towards a round console that stood atop a low podium—the alignment console. Feather was behind the console. The griffin had her claws wrapped tightly around her blaster pistol as she returned fire while trying to keep her larger form tucked behind the console’s insufficient cover.

The two soldiers in the squad, Adrian and Crestwind, snapped into action to aid Feather as soon as Nyx’s teleportation spell finished. Crestwind then spread her teal pegasus wings and flew out of Nyx’s field of view, to rain blaster fire down on the changelings from high above. At the same time, she heard Adrian, a light brown horse, land and roll in the tall grass. He was back on his hooves by the time Nyx landed, galloping around the changeling perimeter to attack their flank using the blasters built into his helmet.

All this happened as Nyx and Ri-Ja-Li landed close to Feather. Nyx touched down gently, wings slowing her descent as she raised a spherical magical barrier around the alignment control console, providing the trio a moment's respite from the battle. Ri-Ja-Li landed with as much gracefulness as a falling sack of potatoes, flopping down into the tall grass a few feet to Nyx’s right. The captive and still unconscious Chrysalis floated next to Nyx in the same position she had been for the past several minutes.

“I appreciate the timely arrival.” Feather dared to poke her head out from behind the control console, though her claws remained firmly gripped on her blaster pistol. Her eyes moved to Chrysalis. “Is she still breathing?”

“Last I checked.” Nyx lowered Chrysalis closer to the ground. “Though I wouldn’t mind you checking her vitals to make sure. Ri-Ja-Li can finish the gate alignment.”

“I didn’t get started setting the alignment. I heard the alarms coming from the ship, and my bad luck struck again. I hadn’t even taken ten steps when a patrol, on its way back to the hive ship, spotted me and started blasting.” She moved next to Chrysalis, her claws reaching in through Nyx’s levitation spell as she removed a few medical tools from her saddlebags. “So, who set off the alarm?”

“There’s no point in tossing around blame,” Rita said as she and her sisters managed to pick themselves off the ground. They moved to the alignment console, getting around to the far side. The device resembled a clock, but instead of two legs and twelve numbers, the device had twelve legs and thirty six numbers. Ri-Ja-Li began to shove the different metal legs into different positions, the console clicking loudly as gears inside ratched around.

“No point in tossing blame,” Feather said as she used a claw to open one of Chrysalis’ eyes and see if her pupil adjusted under the sun’s bright light. “So that means you did it.”

Jane and Lin chuckled while Rita only growled. The three sisters pushed the last metal leg into place, then used their right forward paw to press down on a smoothly polished gemstone at the center of the device. There was a single loud click. The arms on the device began to spin, slowly returning to their neutral positions while Nyx felt a familiar aura of magic taking shape.

The nearby metal frame, which was similar in shape to the mirror that connected to the human world, began to activate. Small clear gemstones around its frame became illuminated with different hues of color. Small bolts of energy leapt between the gems, the surges happening with greater and greater frequency as the glow in the gemstones grew brighter and brighter.

As the energy leapt, a shimmering field of magic formed in the center of the frame. It started as merely a distortion of the air, like waves of heat rising on a scorching summer day. The magic field, however, grew more opaque and reflective. Within a few seconds, the field was a mirror like surface that rippled gently, distorting the reflection of the world around it in almost mesmerizing ways.

The shield was still holding, but the dampened sound of blaster fire rapidly increased in volume as soon as the mirror was aligned. The changelings were changing their targets, focusing a volley of fire against her barrier. Nyx grimaced at the patrol that had made their exit more complicated as she tapped the radio in her ear. “Celestia-Pinkie-Mountain-Celestia, do you read? This is Apple Squad. The dragon’s nest has been raided, but we’ve got fire on our flanks and are coming in hot. MAC is Apple Pinkie Rainbow Seven Eight Windigo.”

“Apple Squad, this is Celestia-Pinkie-Mountain-Celestia. Code confirmed. The way is clear and the last dance of the Fall Formal has begun. Better mosey,” a voice replied over the radio.

“You heard her, move!” Nyx bellowed as she walked her barrier closer to the mirror. Feather went through first with Chrysalis. Ri-Ja-Li followed quickly after. Nyx remained, holding up her barrier as Crestwind and Adrian retreated to her position. Adrian limped towards Nyx's barrier, his stunned leg dragging along behind him. Once safe, Crestwind reached out and pulled him along with her as she leapt through the mirror.

Nyx’s barrier was just starting to crack when she jumped through the mirror herself, her body slipping through the field of reflective magic. Her body was wrapped in a sensation like she had just fallen into cold syrup. She was unable to move, unable to breathe, and almost unable to think as the mirror’s ancient magics whisked her away.

~~~

Warmth and the freedom to move returned to Nyx when she popped out the other side of the mirror. She landed, her momentum from leaping through the mirror forcing her to trot forward a few steps before she could turn around. She saw their local mirror, a significantly more elegant version of the mirror she had just leapt through. Metal was replaced with thick, opaque crystal, and instead of being in a grassy field, their home mirror was sheltered and secure within a room of the Crystal Palace.

“They’re through. Raise the barrier!” Cadance shouted above the many other voices in the room, and at her command, an almost perfectly clear magical barrier formed over the mirror surface.

“Nyx, are you okay?” The voice said again, its owner descending a set of stairs that connected the elevated command room to the actual mirror chamber. Cadance approached quickly. Her aunt’s body language made it seem like she wanted nothing more than to hug Nyx, but she restrained herself, simply standing eye to eye with her.

“Things got a little rough, but we’re okay,” Nyx said as she looked over her squad. Feather was doting over Adrian, checking on his stunned leg. Ri-Ja-Li was next in line. Nyx could only guess the chimera was waiting to complain about some scrape or bruise she got because of the teleportation jump. Crestwind was putting on a tough act, but it looked like she was favoring one of her legs.

“What matters is we accomplished the mission.” Nyx’s gaze shifted to Chrysalis, who was being put on a stretcher. The changeling queen was surrounded by two security squads and a medical squad. Fresh sedation spells were being cast by the medics as the soldiers with blasters kept their weapons ready to fire.

“She may not be in the best of moods when she wakes up,” Cadance said as they watched the medic wheel Chrysalis away. “I still think we should have waited for her to reply.”

“She’s ignored it for a week, and we can’t wait any longer.” When Chrysalis disappeared from view down the hall towards the quarantine room, Nyx looked to Cadance. “This time, there will be no bargaining, no lies, and no agendas. Is everything ready?”

“The science and magic staff believe everything is ready, but we’ve never used this on a changeling before. We might not get anything. Worse, we could end up killing her.” Cadance sighed, bring a hoof to her face and rubbing her nose. “I can’t believe I just said that and meant it.”

“I know our friends are few and far between right now, but today, this ‘frenemy’ is more enemy than friend,” Nyx said as she took a step to leave. “I’ll go supervise things and then call you and Spike when we’re ready.”

~~~

“We can’t magically sedate her for any longer without putting her health at risk. She is going to start waking up in a few minutes.”

“Then when she starts to open her eyes, knock her out with drugs or a hammer. I need more time,” Nyx said, her voice cracking like a whip. Creatures bustled around her, technicians intermixed with magic users. Technical consoles beeped, indicating even the tiniest fluctuations in the spells. The unicorn, zebra, and other magically talented species in the room were providing simple, raw energy. Even Spike stood amongst the others, his four claws planted firmly as his barreled chest worked as a tireless furnace. He kept up a constant stream of fire, providing the largest contribution of magic to the spell.

In the center of it all was Chrysalis. She was held suspended in the complex magics of the chamber. She bobbed as if floating in the gentle, rocking currents of the ocean, and at first glance appeared to be surrounded by jellyfish. Amorphous blobs of color grew and bubbled from Chrysalis' eyes and ears, forming a gently turning kaleidoscope of colors.

The swarm was being picked apart by Nyx and Cadance. The pair was sitting on clouds, at an even elevation with Chrysalis. From their cumulus cushions, they used their magic to pull and tug on the blobs of color, drawing them close and forcing them into focus. They were searching Chrysalis’ mind, delving into her intellect and memories to find the information they sought.

For a creature as old as Chrysalis, it was like trying to find a few key paragraphs in the vastness of the Crystal Empire’s library after it had been hit by a tornado full of razor blades.

Nyx rubbed her face as she pushed a blob back into the swirling vortex. Her exhaustion was written into her bleary, bloodshot eyes. They had been at it for hours with nothing to show for their efforts. She now knew more about Chrysalis than she ever wanted to. She knew that Chrysalis knew her multiplication tables. She knew the names and faces of the most important creatures the queen had seduced or impersonated.

She saw the face of her Uncle Shining and had to dismiss it quickly back into the miasma before Cadance noticed it. She saw the day the ships came, and Chrysalis revealed herself to be but a “loyal,” terrestrial queen in a vast, space-faring empire. She saw some of their past encounters, times when they had been betrayed by Chrysalis and other times when they had saved one another.

“Nyx, I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe she doesn’t know.”

She couldn’t see her Aunt Cadance on the far side of Chrysalis’ thoughts, but Nyx glared in the correct direction. “No, she knows. She always knows. She makes it her business to know.”

“Maybe we should just try a traditional interrogation,” Cadance said, her voice weak from her own exhaustion. “You and Spike could—”

“It would take us days, maybe weeks to break Chrysalis, and by then it would be too late.” Nyx spread her right wing, flapping it a few times to push her cloud cushion around the perimeter of Chrysalis’ suspended thoughts. She rounded to the far side of the sphere, almost crashing up against Cadance’s cloud. “This is our only chance to find the Vermillion Queen.”

There was a pulse of light. Cadance and Nyx looked to the memories, seeing several fresh blobs forming from Chrysalis’ eyes and ears. Cadance glanced over at Nyx. Nyx then watched her aunt look down at the the staff of creatures that were maintaining the spell from their control consoles. “What just happened? What’s her status?”

“The queen is starting to come out of the stun spells. She’ll be conscious in under a minute.”

“Who cares,” Nyx said, standing up on her cloud. “She heard me. These memories… they are all of the Vermillion Queen.” The mind spell pulsed again, more bubbles filling the space as the other memories returned to Chrysalis’ mind through her horn.

Cadance lifted a hoof to place it on Nyx’s shoulder. “Nyx, we can’t. The spell is too invasive for a conscious mind, and she’s the only inside informant we have on the changelings. We can’t afford for her to get hurt.” Cadance looked back down at the staff below. “Begin the shutdown sequence and be ready to transfer her out of this room. She can’t wake up in here.”

“No, we’re so close!” Nyx snapped, shoving Cadance away and jumping off her cloud. She used her wings to bring herself to the very edge of the mind spell. She could feel its energy washing over her, like tendrils of spider webs that passed through her skin and clung to her mind. Still, she stayed at the edge of the spell, forcing herself ever closer. “Come on, you love-sucking cockroach. Where’s the Vermillion Queen? Where is Twilight Sparkle?”

“I see her eyes moving. She’s waking up.” One of the pegasi medical staff shouted.

“Just a few more seconds,” Nyx shouted, her eyes flitting between the thought bubbles coming from Chrysalis’ head. They were pouring out like the queen’s mind was filled with an angry boil. “Yes, that’s right, you hate my mother. You hate my family, don’t you? You probably want to kill Twilight. You’ve probably made a dozen plans of how you’d do it, even after she was captured. You’d never just let her disappear, be given to some other queen. If anyone is going to have her power, it’s you. So where is she?”

“We’re starting to get feedback. The queen’s mind is connecting to the spell. If that connection finishes, she’ll be fried.”

“Nyx, we have to kill the spell now,” Cadance shouted.

“One… more… There!” Nyx’s magic lashed out, snatching a single memory blob, one splashed with red, purple, and what looked to be galactic coordinates. “Shut it down!”

In an instant, levers were thrown, buttons were pressed, and all the creatures providing magic to the spell stopped. The bubbles of thought began to flow back into Chrysalis’ mind, fleeing like a school of fish that had been startled by a predator. Only the one Nyx grasped in her levitation magic remained, unable to escape. Nyx was staring at it, committing its every detail to memory. She began to feel the spell pulling, trying to take back the thought as well, but she held on. She could not forget. She could not let this opportunity get away.

Chrysalis was caught with a cloud, winged creatures quickly carrying her back down to the floor and placing her back on a stretcher. She was stirring, but the effects of the spell would leave her groggy and with a pounding headache. Medics and soldiers began to wheel her out, hopefully rushing her away before she could focus on her surroundings. The last memory bubble escaped Nyx’s grip, shooting back to the twisted mind it belonged to. Even as Nyx collapsed back to her cloud, she was smiling. She smiled, laying back with her hooves sticking up in the air as Cadance came in close.

“We got it,” Nyx said, grinning like a kid at Hearth’s Warming. “I know where she is.”

~~~

“I just want to go on record again that I don’t like this plan,” Rita said, Jane and Lin nodding their heads as they sat in the pilot seat. Nyx and her squad were in a small, crystalline shuttle, idling in the void of space. Nyx was in the copilot seat, her eyes focused out the window while Crestwind, Adrian, and Feather were in the back, all of them double checking their gear.

“Your protest is noted, again,” Nyx said before her ethereal mane gently tapped on her ear piece. “Celestia-Emerald, this is Snowflake One. We’re in position.”

Cadance’s voice buzzed over the radio in the small shuttle. “Roger Snowflake One. We’re all ready on our end too. Best of luck to you, and… bring her home.”

“Just make sure we have a home to come back to,” Nyx said back to her aunt before smiling a little. “And make sure the cafeteria makes hayburgers tonight. Nothing says ‘welcome home Twilight’ like a hayburger feast.”

“I’ll be sure to let the cooks know.” The small bit of levitity in Cadance’s voice faded, leaving only the strong, commanding voice that everyone in Nyx’s squad knew all too well. “The cloak is dropping in three… two… one…”

Out the front window of the shuttle, Nyx could see the blackness of space and the speckled stars warp, as if they were suddenly on the far side of a very thick lens. That lens then began to melt, leaving behind in its wake the silhouette of a ship. The entirely crystalline hull glinted in the exterior lights, and an undeniable sense of awe filled Nyx’s mind.

The Crystal Hope, once the centerpiece of the Crystal Empire, floated in space as a marvel of magic and technology. It shared its origins with the galactic mirror system, the legacy of a space-faring society that had fought and presumably been destroyed by the changelings. The Crystal Hope had also been the only thing that had saved Equestria from a similar fate when the hive ships entered the planet’s orbit for the first time.

They had spent years protecting the ship. Many lives and other ships were lost ensuring that the Crystal Hope didn’t fall. Now, they had just dropped it off in the middle of nowhere, entirely alone. It was unguarded, and from the signals it was sending out, disabled and in need of assistance.

It was like leaving a slice of cake unguarded around Celestia. Eventually, even if it was an obvious trap, someone would take the bait.

Sensors on the shuttle beeped, and after pressing a few buttons, Ri-Ja-Li grimaced before looking over at Nyx. “Well, it worked. Long range sensors are showing that the nearby hive ships just started heading our way. With their hyperdrives, they’ll be here in ten minutes.”

“Then put us in position. I want to board the Vermillion Queen’s ship within a minute of it dropping out of hyperspace. The Crystal Hope’s shields will only hold for so long. Every second counts.” Nyx turned in her seat, looking back at Adrian, Crestwind, and Feather. “Secure our landing port and make sure Ri-Ja-Li has a console to work with. Lethal force is authorized. Once I have our target, I’ll teleport back to the ship with her. Understood?”

Everyone nodded their heads, and Nyx returned the nod before looking back out the front window. It was the calm before the storm, the moment’s peace before they would be leaping back into battle. Nyx, however, felt no nerves or fear. Her heart was steeled with determination, and a few whispered words escaped her lips.

“I’m coming to get you, Mom.”

====================

Variance End

====================

What might happen to Nyx in the distant future?

Variance 5 - Royals' Grace

Glimpses

By Pen Stroke

Pre-read & Edited by

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Recon777, Questionable & Winston

Variance 5

Royals' Grace

====================

Celestia needed this, a reason to depart. The castle just was… one letter had caused everything to blow up in her face. She had feared it would, in time. She knew that there would be a bad reaction when the news got out. Still, Celestia had kept it hidden, trying to do the sisterly thing. She just wanted to protect the only family she had in all the world.

So now she flew, dusk wind rushing past as she went on her unexpected, but much appreciated, errand. Celestia could have teleported the distance, been there and back in a matter of seconds, but that would have only put her back in the maelstrom of anger trapped within the castle. No, she needed this. They needed this. They both needed time to calm down and let cooler heads prevail.

She was above the clouds, flying with a tailwind. Ahead of her, a storm brewed over her destination. Thunder, lightning, and rain prepared to unleash themselves on the ground below. Fleeing from an emotional storm, only to have to go into an actual storm: that seemed to fall in line with how her day was going, but for the moment, she simply focused on herself and her flying.

Celestia banked and turned, forming lazy circles as she tried to delay her arrival. Her wing tips gently dipped into the clouds just below her. The dampness sent a small, invigorating chill flowing from the tips of her wings to her spine. The shiver carried away some of the tension latent in her body, casting it out into the world. It felt good, even as parts of her body were starting to numb from flying.

The cold felt good. It was a crucial component to the simple serenity of dusk. The sky was a warm cascade of colors as the sun set and moon prepared to rise. The first few stars were starting to shine, the forerunners to the tapestry of the night. This was usually one of the calmest parts of the day for her—a time of peace, when the business of the day was over and the sweet dreams of night were yet to arrive. Celestia took in a deep breath and a smile blossomed onto her lips. The air so high above the clouds smelled clean, and tonight, carried the wispy aroma of rain.

Still, her reverie had to come to an end. The clouds beneath her were shifting, rather rapidly, from calm cumulus to a billowing storm. The weather would not delay her, though Celestia did take a moment to prepare a protective spell, just a little half-sphere shield to hold off the rain and the lightning of the storm.

With the spell in place and her lungs drawing in one final sweet breath from the world above the clouds, Celestia dove. She dropped through the storm clouds, rain spattering her shield as she descended towards the wild wilderness below. She was heading into the Everfree Forest, to a clearing where, mere hours ago, dark magics had been wrought, and her faithful student had been ponynapped. Supposedly, Twilight’s bag still remained in the forest, containing a precious book she was having a small panic attack about.

At least she hadn’t tried to retrieve the book on her own; given the two options, Twilight writing a letter and begging for forgiveness about losing the book was the better choice. The other concerns in her letter, however, had been what doomed Celestia. She had, on a simple whim, chosen to let Luna read the letter first. In that single moment, all of her work to shield Luna from the cult and their nightmarish intentions had gone out the window.

Right now, even flying through a storm was better than trying to explain herself to Luna.

Celestia’s hooves touched down in the clearing, sinking into the mud: honest to goodness mud. She couldn’t remember the last time she had walked in mud. It was more likely for her to enjoy a mud bath in a spa than to actually walk on muddy earth. Though mud baths were luxurious, the only kind of bath she’d be looking forward to was a long hot one with lots of bubbles. Before that could happen, she still had to retrieve the book. Then, she’d hopefully, she could sneak back into the castle and avoid talking to Luna until the next morning.

With the sound of falling rain surrounding her, Celestia began casting the locator spell Twilight had provided. Her horn began to flash, and after turning slowly in the circle, she was able to find the direction where the flashing was the quickest. That direction led to a bush, and in that bush was the saddlebags. They were soaked through, and the book inside would likely need careful drying, but she could at least make Twilight happy by telling her the retrieval had been successful.

Carrying the saddlebags in her magic, Celestia moved out from beneath the canopy trees to prepare to take off. The storm was truly raging. For a moment, she liked to think it was the forest showing its displeasure about what the cult had tried to do, trying to use the rainstorm to wash away the foul magics. On the other hoof, perhaps the forest didn’t care at all.

There was no benefit in trying to personify and understand the forest, not when Celestia was growing more eager to return to the castle, sneak into her chambers, and just soak in a hot bath with… perhaps the cherry-scented candles tonight. Yes, the cherry candles sounded wonderful.

Her wings spread wide, Celestia prepared to leap when the sky flashed and roared. The bolt of lightning startled her. She slammed her eyes shut, shook her head, and stumbled a few steps back. Even on the inside of her eyelids, Celestia could see the glowing line of the lightning, dancing in a rainbow of colors as her vision recovered from its blinding flash. Her ears rang with the thunder, and a princess-inappropriate curse slipped from her lips as she tried recompose herself.

Yet, over the sound of the rain and the rustle of trees, something began to reach Celestia’s ear. It was a sound, one all too familiar. It was the sound she heard come from children at her school, those who were lonely and struggling to cope with being separated from their families for the first time.

It was the sound of crying, and Celestia could hear it coming from a nearby bush.

She turned and approached the bush. Had a cultist brought a child to the ritual? It was a terribly irresponsible thing for a parent to do, especially if the child was left behind. Yet, if that was the situation, it was a possibly fortuitous turn of events. A son or daughter of a cult member could perhaps hold a wealth of information. Even knowing the names of the child’s parents could help lead Celestia’s team of investigators to more members of the cult.

She reached the bush, gently setting Twilight’s saddlebags across her back so she didn’t have to keep levitating them. The bags were comically small on her, but she needed to focus on the child. “Hello. Are you alright?” she asked as her magic pushed away some of the branches and illuminated the interior of the bush. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t hurt—”

Celestia eyes met the eyes of the child, who turned and peered out through the newly formed hole in the bush. Her heart skipped a beat. She flapped her wings, leaping back a few meters. Her half-sphere barrier spell morphed into a full protective bubble, and her horn glimmered as she prepared a magical blast.

The crying had stopped. All Celestia heard was the raging of the storm, but she did not drop her guard. She had only caught a brief glimpse, but she knew what she saw. The child bore the eyes of the cult, but that alone wasn’t what scared Celestia. The filly was black as the darkest night and carried both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn.

There were other possible explanations, but the logical portion of Celestia’s mind was ruling them out as quickly as her imagination was able to put them together. Only one explanation made sense, and it pushed itself to the forefront of Celestia’s mind until she could not deny or ignore it a moment longer.

The cult’s spell had succeeded. Nightmare Moon had been reborn.

The storm roared, lightning flashing once more and briefly illuminating the clearing. The child’s cries, Nightmare Moon’s cries, resumed. Her voice pierced the storm, and clawed at Celestia’s heart.

That voice resonated with memories she had long forgotten. In her youth, when Luna cried, Celestia had almost always ran to ensure her sister was safe. Nightmare Moon’s voice sounded so similar, it was dredging those instincts to the surface. They were bellowing in her mind, demanding she go and comfort the filly. To get Nightmare Moon out of the rain and in front of a warm fire where she could rest safely.

The logical part of Celestia’s mind fought back, shocked at what she had been previously thinking. She couldn’t comfort Nightmare Moon, the shroud of jealousy and rage that had engulfed Luna, like she was a innocent lost child. For the safety of Equestria, the only sane thing to do was to put an end to the threat before it could manifest further.

If Nightmare Moon was truly just a filly, a single stroke of the sword was all it would take.

But no… no. Celestia shook her head as her conscience bristled against such dark thoughts. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t just kill someone so young, but what if Nightmare Moon wasn’t as young as she appeared? What if she had fully regenerated, and was merely taking the form of a filly until she saw an opportunity to strike? The wisest action was just to end it all. Yet, Celestia’s mind and heart continued to rebel against the notion.

Celestia stood, limbs growing numb in the mud, which caked to her hooves as the rain continued to patter against her barrier. She did not move forward nor did she move back. She did not form a sword to strike down Nightmare Moon, but at the same time, she did not move to soothe the filly’s cries. She was entirely deadlocked, her mind at war with itself over what to do.

Kill or Aid
Fear or Trust
Harm or Comfort
Blood or Smiles

The loop of Celestia’s thoughts came to an eventual end, but not because she had made a decision. Her ears twitched, and her mind stepped away from its perpetual debate. She glanced around, trying to understand what she was hearing. The rain still fell on her barrier. The storm rumbled, and the wind whipped through the trees, creating an endless cacophony of creaking branches and shaking leaves. All that was there, yet something was different.

She couldn’t hear Nightmare Moon crying anymore.

Celestia was sure she hadn’t seen Nightmare Moon leave the bush. Her eyes had been locked onto its thorny branches. Yet, the absence of the crying itched at her ears, refusing to be ignored. Why wasn’t Nightmare Moon crying?

Maintaining her barrier, Celestia dared a step closer. Movement let her mind take stock of how cold she had become. How long had she been standing there, frozen like a statue? With the sky lost behind the cloud cover, it was hard to say for sure, but it had least been several minutes. She had truly been lost in thought, and time had slipped by without her noticing.

Standing once more next to the bush, Celestia braced herself as her magic pushed aside its branches. Nightmare Moon came into view once more, illuminated by the glow of Celestia’s horn. The filly did not open her eyes this time. Her chest was barely moving, and despite how cold it had to be, the filly wasn’t shivering.

“H-hey,” Celestia said, struggling to find her voice. “Are you awake?”

The filly shifted. She struggled to lift her head, and her eyes barely cracked open. She opened her mouth, and the lips moved to form words, but her voice was too quiet. Then, her eyes closed, and her head dropped again, her body managing a single shiver before falling still. The only movement came from the weak rising and falling of her chest.

Celestia was still certain the filly before her was Nightmare Moon, but the sight of a child on the brink of death finally tipped the scales of her internal conflict. Nightmare Moon or not, she couldn’t kill a filly nor could she leave her to die in the forest. With no further hesitation, Celestia broke away the branches of the bush.

“Hold on,” Celestia said as she levitated Nightmare Moon gingerly. “I’ll take you someplace to get warmed up. Just hold on.” With that, the sun princess took off. She flew swiftly, her barrier spell keeping the storm back as her magic enshrouded Nightmare Moon. The filly was ice cold to the touch, and was covered in scratches. Celestia would cast what spells she could to heal and stabilize the young pony, but a swift return to Canterlot would give the filly the best chance to survive.

~~~

Luna navigated the halls of the castle with spiteful purpose, her hooves clicking against the well polished floor as trotted towards her destination. First, she finds out that Celestia was hiding things regarding a cult of Nightmare Moon worshipers. Then her dear sister up and vanishes, the staff only able to say that she had to run an urgent errand. Now, Celestia had apparently returned and was summoning, practically ordering, for Luna to come to her chambers.

A dozen possibilities had already run through Luna’s mind, her imagination trying to predict what she would find. She was expecting Celestia to make some grand gesture in an attempt to earn forgiveness. Five of the possibilities involved a please-forgive-me cake in different flavors. In four other situations, Luna predicted Celestia would try and sit her down to explain how she was just trying to be a good sister. Luna did not doubt Celestia had likely meant well, but that didn’t dull her anger regarding the situation. Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons didn’t change the fact that it was still the wrong thing.

The other few situations she imagined had Celestia begging for forgiveness. Those made her smile a little. If Celestia was really repentant enough to get on her belly and beg, Luna doubted she could stay angry. Still, seeing Celestia prostrate herself… it would be a partially-enjoyable first step.

But, before Luna’s mind could wander further, she arrived at the doors to Celestia’s chambers. She knocked. “Sister, I am—”

The doors didn’t open. Instead, Luna felt magic surround her just before being forcibly teleported inside. She stumbled a little, her body recovering from the sudden shift. She glanced around briefly, verifying that she was in Celestia’s room before focusing her gaze on her sister. Celestia was bending over her bed, magic glowing as she pulled up the blankets.

“Is there a reason you didn’t just open the door?” Luna asked, not moving from her spot.

“Can’t let any of the staff know what’s going on,” Celestia replied as she turned away from the bed and faced Luna. “No one but you and I can know about this.”

A chuckle arose from Luna’s throat. Maybe one of her more unlikely predictions was about to occur. “Sister, if you wish to make a fool of yourself apologizing to me, I certainly can appreciate a desire to keep it just between us. But was it really necessary to teleport me in here?”

“Luna, this isn’t about that.” Celestia strode up to her sister. “Something… I’ve found something, and… considering you already know about the cult, I felt this was something we needed to address together.”

“Found something?” Luna arched an eyebrow. Was that true concern in Celestia’s eyes? It was rare to see her sister wear such an expression. “Did one of the captured cult members spill some critical information?”

“No, and… honestly, you won’t believe me unless you see it for yourself.” She turned and stepped to one side, using her head to motion towards her bed. Luna arched an eyebrow and began walking forward. Now that her view of the bed wasn’t obstructed, she could see what Celestia had been doing when she arrived. Someone was asleep in her sister’s bed. It was small: a young, black unicorn filly—a rare color indeed. There was a warm wash rag draped over her forehead, just below her horn. The filly seemed to have been tucked into the bed with extreme care.

“Is this one of the students from your school?” Luna asked once she had reached the edge of the bed.

“No,” Celestia said as she walked up beside Luna. The pair towered over the bed, their shadows falling across the resting filly. “I found her out in the forest when I was retrieving Twilight’s book.”

Luna rolled her eyes. So that was where Celestia had gone. It was a flimsy excuse to get out of the palace and avoid the mess she had made. She wanted to be angry, but Luna could no longer find the heated emotions she had been carrying with her when she arrived at Celestia’s door. Celestia’s concern regarding a small filly had defused their previous situation, at least for the time being, but why? Why was Celestia so worried?

Luna opened her mouth to ask that very question, but as she began to form the first syllable, she saw Celestia tense. Her sister was focused on the filly, and when Luna turned her head to look, she saw the young pony stir. She turned beneath the covers, the idle motions of a body trying to make itself more comfortable without truly slipping out of the sweet embrace of sleep. The filly shivered; she turned to one side, the blankets falling down her body a little. Her eyelids cracked open, giving a small glimpse of the irises.

With that small shift in position, Luna glimpsed what Celestia had feared, and it made her take a tense step away from the bed. Black coat, wings, horn, and eyes… Luna knew those eyes. She had seen them staring back at her from stained glass windows, from statues, and for a brief time, from her reflection in the mirror. They were the eyes of the greatest mistake of her life.

“She’s… what I was,” Luna whispered, a quiver in her voice. “It’s not… you said you stopped the spell.”

Celestia nodded, using her magic to tuck the filly back beneath the covers, taking special care to ensure her wings were beneath the blanket. “I interrupted it. I cast a massive lightning bolt spell at the center of their ritual, but they were already casting the spell. We both know that when magic is interrupted, it can have unintended consequences.”

“Unintended consequences,” Luna snipped, struggling to keep her voice quiet. “I would like to remind you, dear sister, that this could have likely been avoided if you had informed me of the situation when it came to your attention. Now… now... “ She looked back at the filly, and took another step back.

“You can be angry with me all you want, but that doesn’t change our situation.” Celestia turned away from the bed, heading for a tea set resting on a low table. She took a seat in one of the cushions neighboring the table. When she poured herself a cup, the tea was still warm, gently steaming from the cup.

“Oh, and sipping tea will!?” Luna whispered furiously as she moved over to Celestia. “I am Nightmare Moon. That was my mistake, my anger, and my rage, no one else’s. I promised to never to become that monster again.” She glanced back towards the bed, her wings twitching. “Now you’re telling me I don’t even have control over that?! That it is so easy for ponies to make a copy of me from the lowest point of my life?!”

Celestia poured a second cup and levitated it to Luna. “I wouldn’t say it was easy.”

Luna nudged the offered tea away with a hoof, but she did sit down in the cushion across the table from Celestia. Still, even as she sat, she fidgeted, incapable of being comfortable. “She can’t be Nightmare Moon. I am… was Nightmare Moon. There has to be—”

A loud clatter came from outside Celestia’s room, making both princesses wince. In a single breath, Luna leapt and flew to the balcony, looking out over Canterlot. She swiftly spied the source of the sound. Gardeners, trying to pack away their tools for the evening, had a small accident, causing themselves and their tools to fall. The clumsy gardener was being helped by his coworkers, and didn’t himself seem any worse for wear.

“Luna.”

The tension in Celestia’s voice was palpable and sent a cold chill running down Luna’s back. It was a warning, as if she was about to be stabbed in the back by some horrible assassin. She turned her head, focusing on the bed and the filly. The clatter from outside had awoken Nightmare Moon. She sat up in bed, her head and eyes swiveling to take in her surroundings.

Those eyes eventually fell onto Luna, and for the moment, the pair merely looked at one another. Luna’s heartbeat quickened. Her muscles tensed. Without even thinking, she flared her wings and called upon her magic, as if she was about to face a great evil.

Her gesture was not met with equal aggression. The small filly did not suddenly grow to adulthood and launch into combat. She backpedaled, trying to pushing herself against the headboard of Celestia’s bed. Her eyes and head swiveled again, this time falling on Celestia. Luna saw her sister have a similar reaction. She stood from her seat, setting her tea down as her wings flared.

Seeing this, the filly scrambled off the bed. Luna watched her stumble as her gaze darted about the room. She was clearly looking for some means of escape. Yet, there was none. Luna saw that she and Celestia, without meaning to, had covered the exits. Celestia was within reach of both the bathroom door and the door that led out to the hallway. Luna herself was standing at the balcony. That left the filly no place to run.

The filly’s frightened flight ended at the bed when she dove underneath. The last Luna saw of her was her purple tail disappearing beneath the bed skirt, then, nothing. For a minute, she and Celestia just watched the bed, but the filly made no move to try and come out nor did she make any noise. She was simply hiding, and as Luna’s mind processed this, one undeniable thought bubbled to the surface.

In her darkest nightmares, when her imagination forced her to face the demon she had been, she had never seen Nightmare Moon turn and run like a terrified cat.

“Is she still under the bed?” Luna asked as she and Celestia dared to creep closer. “Could she have teleported away?”

“She hasn’t demonstrated magic of that caliber, but we should still make sure.” The pair of princesses reached the edges of the bed. Celestia was on the left side while Luna was at the hoofboard. “Look and see if she’s still there.”

Luna’s brow furrowed. “Why do I have to look? You should look.”

“You have better vision in the dark than I do, Luna, and I do believe we can say that it is dark under my bed.”

“That is a flimsy reason,” Luna snipped, but she began lowering herself down to the floor nonetheless, tensing as if a wild animal might rush out and bite her nose off. She knelt on her forelegs, pressing her head to the floor and using her magic to gently lift part of the skirt. Her eyes took a moment to adjust, but she could see the filly’s silhouette; she was shaking.
The pair locked eyes again, and Luna noticed the filly visibly shrink, as if trying to hide herself better.

Luna stood back up and looked to Celestia. “She’s still there.”

“At least we’ve confirmed that much.” Celestia looked down towards the top covers of her bed. Though Luna knew her sister lacked the ability, it looked like Celestia was trying to peer through the fabric and wood to see the filly beneath. “We could just pull her out with a levitation spell, but I don’t want to scare her further. I mean, you saw how she reacted to us.”

Luna nodded. “I did. It is… uncharacteristic for who I was as Nightmare Moon to act so terrified. Perhaps we are just—what was that turn of phrase I heard the other day—making a timberwolf out of a twig. The simple fact of the matter is we must learn more about this filly’s identity before we can hope to properly proceed.”

“Then what should we do now?” Celestia asked.

“ I would wager she has not eaten yet.” Luna turned, beginning to stride towards the door. “I will go and fetch something from the kitchens. You shall remain and supervise our unexpected guest.”

“Why do I have to do it?” Celestia asked as Luna reached the door.

“Because you’re better with fillies than I am, Celestia. You do have your own school, after all.” Luna wore a smug grin on her face as she slipped out the door. Oh, she did enjoy turning the tables on Celestia like that.

~~~

Celestia remained at the side of her bed, her eyes flicking back and forth with the reliability of a clock pendulum. She’d look to the door, then back to the bed, then to the door, then to the bed. Back and forth, waiting for Luna to return. Grabbing something simple from the kitchen should have taken but a few minutes, yet it seemed like her sister was taking another trip to the moon to obtain the meal.

Her eyes lingered on the bed, breaking their rhythm. She had not seen the filly sneak out, yet… how could she be certain the filly had not disappeared? Celestia’s eyes looked back to the door, giving her sister one final chance to make a swift return. When the door remained closed, her mind was made up. She lay down next to her bed, brought her head close to the floor, and gently peeked beneath the bed skirt. Seeing nothing, she decided to cast an illuminating spell beneath the bed.

The filly was still there, and the sudden increase in light made her crawl away from Celestia, choosing to hide beneath the far right side of the bed.

“You don’t have to be scared,” Celestia said. It was something she had said dozens of times before to new students at her school, but this was the first time she was delivering the calm assurance to someone hiding beneath her own bed. “My sister and I aren’t going to hurt you. We are sorry we frightened you earlier. It was unintentional”

The filly made no effort to reply. She simply watched Celestia. The pupils of her eyes were wide enough that they almost looked circular. They occasionally flickered and narrowed back into a dagger shape whenever the filly glanced towards the light spell on the tip of Celestia’s horn.

“Do you have a name?” Celestia asked, trying to maintain a semblance of conversation. “I’m Princess Celestia. I’m the one who found you in the forest. You remember that, right?”

Celestia’s calm, motherly tones finally managed to elicit an answer. The filly nodded her head, ever so slightly. Celestia smiled and continued. “That’s very good. Do you remember all those nasty cuts you had?”

The filly nodded again, though her eyes flicked down to her forelegs. Celestia knew what the filly was looking for. Her injuries weren’t there anymore, or at the very least, they were no longer open wounds. Anything that lingered had properly scabbed over.

“I used a spell to help you feel better and make some of those nasty cuts go away,” Celestia said, her words making the filly look up from her hooves. “You were out in that forest a long time, weren’t you? I bet it was scary, but you don’t have to be afraid here. This is a safe place, I promise.”

The filly’s body posture relaxed, and Celestia’s smile grew a little. “Would you maybe like to come out? It’s a lot more comfortable on top of the bed than it is beneath it.”

“You won’t be scary again?”

The young pony’s first words. Celestia could still hear a tremor of doubt in them, but getting her to speak at all was a victory. Celestia nodded her head, scooting her body away from the edge of the bed and holding up the bed skirt to create a larger opening. “I promise, my sister and I won’t be scary again. In fact, she has gone to fetch you something to eat. I bet you’re hungry.”

The simple mention of food made the filly’s eyes flash, and the grumble of an empty stomach reached Celestia’s ears. The promise of safety and sustenance was the final item needed to tip the scales. The filly began to slowly crawl out towards Celestia, eventually peeking her head out from beneath the bed skirt.

“See, it's much better out here,” Celestia said, smiling warmly. She stood up very slowly before climbing up onto her bed. She lay down on top of the blanket and made herself comfortable before craning her neck over the edge of the bed to look down at the filly. “Would you like to come up here and sit with me?”

The filly nodded as she turned around to face the bed. She sank down, legs coiling before she made the leap. Her wings spread, but Celestia could already tell her trajectory was going to fall short. Instead of landing, the filly flopped into the side of the mattress, only her head and forehooves managing to actually touch the top of the bed. She then began to slide back, the subtle forces of gravity dragging her back to the floor.

However, a small bit of levitation magic from Celestia ensured the filly did not fall. She gave her a little boost, helping her get on top of the bed. The filly glanced at Celestia, as if she realized she had been helped, but offered no thanks. Instead, she just walked gingerly across the blanket. She gave Celestia a wide berth, walking the perimeter of the bed as she took in the room.

Celestia made no further effort to force the filly to talk. She had triumphed in getting the young pony out from under the bed. Now it was just a matter of waiting for Luna to return. Yet, with nothing else to do, she watched the filly. She watched her walk and, on occasion, stumble as the softness of the bed got the better of her.

The moment felt familiar. It tickled her mind with the sensation of deja-vu. This was familiar, and as the memories gently flowed into Celestia’s mind, she couldn’t stop her smile from growing.

She could remember a time when she and Luna were just fillies themselves. It had been centuries since she had thought of their childhood, yet she could remember moments like this. Celestia would be sitting and watching Luna, like a responsible big sister, as her sibling amused herself. One such memory stood out, a day when Luna had received a new toy. Toys in the time of their youth were rare and crude compared to modern standards, but Luna loved it all the same. She was letting the doll ride on her back as they went on an imaginary trip through some unknown adventure. To Celestia at the time, it just looked like Luna was walking in circle. Still, it had been enjoyable listening to her babble to the doll about what she imagined. It got particularly exciting when they suddenly had to flee from an unexpected group of bandits.

It was hard to believe that she and Luna, then so content with their lives, would eventually face one another in combat.

Luna thought of herself as Nightmare Moon, as the monster who had tried to attack Equestria. Celestia didn't think the same way. To her, Nightmare Moon was the monster who stole away her sister, like some monster in the night. A monster that would not have succeeded if she had continued to be a good sister. If she had continued to watch over Luna, like a real big sister should have.

If this filly was truly Nightmare Moon—if this was all just some elaborate plan, Celestia vowed to be ready. She would protect Equestria as before, and this time, she would protect Luna too. She would figure out the true nature of the filly. If needed, she would summon Twilight and her friends to use the Elements of Harmony.

A knock broke Celestia out of her thoughts, and Luna slipped into the room. She carried with her a covered tray, likely trying to hide the fact she was procuring more food than was suitable for an evening snack. The filly perked up, almost stumbling off the side of the bed as she tried to put herself as close to the food as possible. Her nose twitched, already catching whiffs of the aroma. It was a sight that made Celestia chuckle.

Her amused smile quickly withered away. She had to be careful not to fall for what could simply be an innocent act

“I am sorry for the delay, Celestia,” Luna said as she set the serving tray down on the bed. “The chef seemed intent on making something too fancy for our needs, given the situation. After seeing some of our younger guests complain about the palace menu, I insisted he come up with something more appropriate.”

Luna lifted the lid, revealing a large bowl of tomato soup and and sizable stack of of grilled cheese sandwiches cut into triangles. “He also insisted on making more than I originally asked for when I mentioned I would be sharing this ‘snack’ with you.”

“Well, what’s important is there is more than enough for our very hungry guest,” Celestia said, looking over to the filly. “Go ahead, you may have as much as you like.”

That little encouragement was all the filly needed. She snatched one of the sandwich triangles with her hooves, and took a hearty bite out of it. The filly was lost to the world after that. The only sound she made was that of content chewing as she polished off her first sandwich and reached for a second.

While the filly ate, Celestia noticed Luna step away from the bed. She moved over to the tea set, picking up the cups and taking them to the bathroom. Celestia heard her faucet turn on, and a few seconds later Luna returned, the tea cups freshly rinsed. Luna then proceeded to fill the two cups with some of the tomato soup. She then gave the more reasonable serving of soup to the filly, which also provided the filly with something to catch the crumbs and gobs of cheese that were escaping from the sandwich.

Luna passed one of the now soup-filled tea cups to Celestia while keeping the other for herself. She took one of the grilled cheese triangles and proceeded to dunk a corner of it into her cup. The filly saw this, and quickly mimicked Luna’s actions. Her eyes lit up when she took her first taste of soup-dunked grilled cheese.

Celestia watched all this, smiling a little as she took a sandwich for herself and dunked it into her teacup of soup. The simple intimacy of the moment didn’t escape her, and it made an old adage cross Celestia’s mind.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

She and Luna would keep a very close watch on this filly. They would figure out the nature of her existence. They would continue to pursue the cult that had likely created her and ensure they could not finish what they had started.

Nightmare Moon would not rise again in Equestria, not if Celestia had anything to say about it.

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Variance End

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What if someone else found Nyx?