The Adventures of Nightshade

00 - Prologue

By: Lunar_Twilight

Prologue: Night Storm

Twilight was nervous as she paced the main floor of her library home. Normally, pacing helped her to solve her problems, or at least allowed her to keep in motion until the answers to most problems more or less dropped into her lap. But this was different. She had been asleep not half an hour before Spike had awoken her with an urgent letter from the princess.

She stopped her endless pacing to sidle over to the rain drenched windows and stared out into the stormy night. She just couldn’t get the words of the princess’s letter out of her mind:

Twilight,

We shall be arriving shortly to entrust unto you a mission of which we had never expected you to undertake. Please be about and ready for our approach, and meet us post haste.

Celestia

P.S. Upon completion of this letter, you are instructed to incinerate all evidence of its existence. Consider this a royal order.

‘What could this mean?’ she thought to herself over and over again. ‘What mission could she be talking about, and why the secrecy? She has only ever instructed me to destroy her correspondences in matters of pertaining to Equestria’s highest security.’

At that thought, she felt the all too familiar approach of her mentor’s magical aura approaching from the south-west. ‘Wait…south-west? But Canterlot’s to the north of ponyville. Isn’t that the direction of…’

Suddenly, the front door burst open, and the ensuing rush of events completely derailed Twilight’s train of thought. Coming in through the door were both of the royal sisters, both looking worst for ware because of the storm. In her mouth, Luna held some sort of ornate basket, while Celestia was using her left wing to keep it from getting wet in the rain. Once inside, Luna carefully placed the basket on the ground between herself and her sister.

“Welcome, Princesses. Please come in. May I offer you refreshments?” Twilight said, and she brought the Alicorns something to dry themselves off with.

However, as she approached, Twilight noted that Celestia usual calm demeanor was replaced with one of stony determination. It was Luna that was first to answer.

Neigh, Twilight Sparkle, for our stay shall be short. We shall depart once our deed is done”

I…don’t understand what yo…”

“Twilight,” Celestia said in her soft majestic voice, “we have come to you tonight to ask something of you that we never would have, had circumstances been different. However as they are…”

_________

Twilight spent the next half hour in stunned silence, as the royal sisters explained everything to her, including her part in their plan, and by the end, all three were in tears.

“I think…I understand,” said Twilight, wiping her eyes with a hoof, “But…don’t get me wrong, I’m honored that you would ask, but what I don’t understand is…why me?”

Celestia smiled at her young pupil. “Because there isn’t a single pony in Equestria whom we trust more completely than you, my faithful student, and I know that when the time comes, you’ll do what’s right,” She paused, and then added, “For both of you.”

At that, the Alicorns bid their farewell and took off into the stormy night, leaving Twilight and the basket alone together. Twilight walked up to the basket and sighed.

Lying in between the white, satin sheets was the form of a small, newborn, unicorn foal. She had a black satin coat of the color one usual only sees in the night sky, but her mane was purple, with a lilac streak. It was strikingly similar to Twilight’s own. She thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult for her to pass this little foal off as her own.

At that thought, she smiled and said to herself. “No, she IS my foal, and I will love her as I would if I had given birth to her myself. From now on, she is as much a part of me, as she is…”

The little foal stirred in her basket, wrinkled her little nose, and let out a small squeak. She opened her little eyes, stared up at her new mother, and smiled. Her eyes where the same color as…”

“I think I’ll call you…”

_________

“NIGHTSHADE!!!”

Twilight burst out of the front door of her home, magically carrying several rolls of parchment, two quills, and three vials of ink. Her face was smattered with droplets of ink, and she had a look on her face of fierce determination.

“Nightshade, get back here, and help me finish the pre-checklist for your checklist for packing the items you’ll need to make checklists when you get to school! Don’t think for a second you’re going to go unprepared.”

Twilight glanced around, but to her chagrin, the filly in question was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, she turned around and made her way back into her library. “Spike! I need your help with…” but the rest of what she said was cut off by the closing door.

After the coast was clear, a small filly, who was currently invisible, chuckled to herself. She loved her mom, but she most definitely could make things a lot more difficult than they had to be.

As she slowly made her way down the street, she disengaged her inviso-spell. Her mother had taught her several spells up to this point, but that was the one spell she liked best of all. She seemed to have a natural affinity with it, and it generally came to mind before any other. She had already used it before on more than one occasion to get out of tricky situations, and on even more occasions to get herself INTO sticky situations. She won’t forget anytime soon that time she had snuck into Sweet Apple Acres, and had caught Applebloom in the barn with Pipsqueak. Oh boy was that weird. When she had asked her mom about what they were doing, she had blushed and spluttered for like five minutes straight. It was hilarious! But then she had sent her to her room, and that wasn’t funny at all. Still, never did figure out what it was they were doing. Oh, well. Must not have been important.

Anyway, today was her last day before she had to start going to Mrs. Cheerilee’s school classes, so she was going to make the most of today, and that meant going on an adventure like no other! But first…she needed a sidekick.