Heirs

Chapters

The Beginning
Ponyville Stroll
Answers
Cousins
Forbidden Love
Complications
More? You've Gotta Be Kidding
Shadow on the Horizon
More Answers
Compromise
All Good
Not So Peaceful Night
The Days Go On

The Beginning

Author's Note

This story contains alicorn OCs, if you don't like them then don't read it.

The Beginning

The shapes of the dream were changing again, forever staying a mystery. Steven gazed at the changing shapes, looking for anything that might be familiar. So far nothing had ever looked the same, at least not in these dreams. This was a special dream, the kind that Steven had grown fond of. The kind where there was nothing evil and at the same time nothing really good. At first Steven didn’t know what to think of them, and then he figured that this was what sleeping was like without dreaming. It was definitely more relaxing to be here when sleeping than to be running through a maze full of spider webs, he had one of those the night before. It was relaxing and at the same time unsettling because there was something that was missing from the dream, or more someone. Steven didn’t know it yet, but he had been pulled to this dreamlike world several times for a specific goal. Only this time that goal would succeed.

Steven sat down on the edge of a shape, kicking his feet childishly. There was a faint crack, like that of glass breaking. Steven looked around frantically. “Hello, is there anybody there?” Nothing responded. Steven took a deep breath in and was about to let it out when the glass that had cracked broke with a crash.

“Steven, can you hear me?” Intrigued Steven responded.

“Who…who is it?”

Silence. One of the shapes began to morph into something of a horse. Steven cocked his head at it and was mildly startled when the voice emanated from its mouth. “Thank goodness. I thought I would never get through to you.” The shape became more distinct. It was definitely a horse, no, a pony. A pony with wings and a horn.

“The way you sleep, it’s like your mind never rests. It is a miracle that you don’t collapse from exhaustion. I have been trying to talk to you for quite a while, but it is only now that your mind has relaxed enough for me to get into your dream.”

“Talk to me? Why didn’t you just do it in person, wait… you’re a pony with wings and a horn, that’s why you didn’t come to me in person. So have you been behind all these dreams of mine?” The form emitted a giggle.

“Indeed I am a pony with wings and a horn, an alicorn if you may. Yes, I have been behind these special dreams, it is the only way I can communicate with those in your world, though I must admit that you are the first.”

They both smiled. For some reason talking to an alicorn felt natural to Steven. Steven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Thank you for these dreams, they are very relaxing, but I need to wake up now. I can feel the pull of morning and I mustn’t delay.” Panic spread across the alicorn’s face. “No, wait!” But by that time it was too late and Steven opened his eyes.

Steven looked around confused. He was on the ground next to a bed, one that was not his own, and in a bedroom that he did not recognize. He went to rub his eyes and realized that he had no fingers, only the hard hooves of a pony. And not only that, he could feel wings on his back and a horn on his head, he was an alicorn. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. Just as he did so he heard voices in the hall and slid under the bed, unsure of what to do.

“That should be all for tonight girls. Sleep well.” Twilight waved her hoof at her friends as they exited the castle that was her home. Then she turned to her dragon assistant.

“Goodnight Spike.” She turned toward her room.

“Are you sure that you don’t need anything else before bed.” Spike looked at Twilight who smiled softly.

“No Spike, everything is okay.”

“Okay, well goodnight then.”

“Goodnight.”

Twilight closed the door and moved toward her bed. Then she noticed that the covers had been wrinkled. It didn’t bother her much that they were wrinkled, what bothered her was that somepony had been in her room without her permission. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled, except she didn’t. She opened her eyes cautiously and looked where the covers had been wrinkled. Under the bed she could vaguely see a set of dark blue hooves, much too small to be anypony bigger than Apple Bloom. And yet she didn’t recall anypony that color in the school house when she had visited earlier that day. Calmly she walked to the bed and poked her head under it.

“Hello there, are you lost?” Steven relaxed at the friendly greeting and shook his head up and down. “Well then, I’m going to help you. I’m sure you know me.” Steven shook his head from side to side. Twilight tilted her head. “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship. I thought everypony had at least heard of me.”

“Twi…Twilight?”

“That’s right. Does it sound familiar now?”

Steven put his hooves over his eyes. Twilight scratched her head. She wanted to help the young unicorn, but had no idea how if he had never heard of her, a princess. She breathed deeply.

“Okay. Let’s get you out of there and we’ll figure this out in the morning, sound good?” Steven thought on it a bit.

“…okay.”

Twilight backed up and slowly Steven crawled out from under the bed. “You must be a new unicorn to the area as you have never heard of me, but we’ll figure this out…” Twilight’s mouth dropped as Steven got out from under the bed and revealed the small pair of wings attached to his back. “You’re an… an alicorn.” She couldn’t believe her eyes or her luck. Twilight couldn’t help but think about how impressed Princess Celestia would be when she showed up to Canterlot with a young alicorn. She couldn’t resist a smile.

Twilight woke up in the morning and remembered the previous evening. “That was some crazy dream. I guess I was more worked up than I thought.” She turned her head to the side and realized that it wasn’t a dream. There was indeed a young alicorn cuddled up against her asleep. Again she smiled, she couldn’t wait to show her friends.

Twilight’s friends arrived all at the same time and, as she had asked, they had brought the three little fillies that she wanted to see. Applejack was the first to speak up.

“Now why did you want me to bring Apple Bloom here? I suppose that you must have a good reason because Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are here too.” Twilight beamed at the question.

“I have a very important task that I would like to ask their help with.” The three fillies shook with excitement as they realized that somepony wanted their help. “You see I ran into a snag and I think that only these three crusaders can help me with.” Rainbow Dash slowly settled onto the ground as she had been looking around.

“Yea, that’s good and all, but what do you have under that sheet on your throne? Not that I don’t like hidden things, but Pinkie Pie can’t stop staring at it.” Pinkie Pie stood with her knees wobbling and her smile from ear to ear.

“I love surprises! Can I look under the sheet? Can I? Can I? Can I?”

“Hold on Pinkie, I was getting to that.” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well I guess I can’t really explain anymore without showing you.” With that she walked over to her throne and pulled off the sheet from Steven. Steven blinked his eyes to adjust to the light and looked around.

“Twilight! You were keeping a pony under that sheet?!” Rarity nearly fainted. “How long was the poor thing under there? Nevermind, any amount under that bland sheet would be dreadful. You really should have used something with a design.” Twilight blinked.

“What? No, that’s not important right now. This is Steven. I found him in the castle last night after you all left. I couldn’t get him to tell me anything except his name and that is why I wanted you three.” With that she gestured to Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. “As you are closer in age I was hoping that you could make him feel comfortable while we figure this out.” The three fillies eyes widened in excitement and Sweetie Belle spoke out.

“Well does he have a cutie mark yet?” Apple Bloom walked around the side.

“Nope. And not only that girls, look.” She raised Steven’s wings. Everypony gasped except Twilight.

“Oh my, he’s an alicorn.” Fluttershy flew over to Steven. “Why hello there. Aren’t you just the cutest little alicorn I’ve ever seen.” Twilight grinned at Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy, he is the only little alicorn you’ve ever seen.” Fluttershy blushed.

“Now I need your help to figure all this out. Girls, can you take him with you for now?”

“Sure thing Twilight.” With that the four little ponies left the castle.

Ponyville Stroll

Luna woke up with a start. After a brief look around she stamped her hoof and a tear rolled off her face. “Deep breaths Luna, deep breaths.” She slowed her breathing and calmed down. “No big deal. I just have to find Steven before another princess does. If not…” She closed her eyes.

“Have you really never been to Ponyville before?” Steven shook his head from side to side and Apple Bloom smiled.

“Well then the Cutie Mark Crusaders will give you the grand tour.” The three little fillies couldn’t wait to show their new friend around town. They slowly strolled around town pointing out their favorite places.

“There is Sugercube Corner, oh and there is Rarity’s boutique and…” They were cut off by the arrival of a pegasi drawn chariot. Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up.

“Wow, Princess Luna is here. I bet she would be amazed to meet you Steven.”

“Maybe that isn’t such a great idea Sweetie Belle. Twilight would probably want to be the one to reveal him to her. We should probably take him to the clubhouse until Princess Luna leaves.” Sweetie Belle looked disappointed.

“I guess you’re right.” Scootaloo was brimming with excitement.

“Look at the bright side, we have plenty to do around Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Hey, you’re right. Let’s go!” With that they were off to play around the apple farm.

Applejack came strolling into the library where Twilight and the rest of her friends were looking for anything and everything that related to alicorns.

“Twilight?”

“Yes Applejack?”

“Princess Luna is here and she wants to speak with you.” Twilight wrinkled her nose as she thought of how Princess Luna could have found out about Steven.

“She can talk to me here.” With that Applejack let Princess Luna into the library.

“Pardon me for the intrusion Twilight dear, but have you noticed anything strange lately?” This struck Twilight as odd because she was sure that Luna was going to ask about Steven. Twilight thought for a moment and decided that if Princess Luna didn’t want to breach the topic then she wouldn’t either.

“No, actually I haven’t for once.” She gave a little laugh.

“Well then, I thank you for answering my silly question. I must be off now as I have taken enough of your time away from your…” She glanced at the books on Twilight’s table. “Your study of the history of alicorns?” She looked at Twilight suspiciously and then around the room at Twilight’s friends. “I happen to be very knowledgeable on that particular subject. Why don’t you run your questions by me and I’ll see if I can’t answer them.” Twilight hesitated.

“Well I was just wondering where alicorns come from you see.”

“My dear Twilight, as I’m sure you know both you and Princess Cadence started as a unicorn and a pegasus, respectfully. As for both Tia and myself, well I have no idea how we came to be. All I remember is that I was always an alicorn.” Twilight nodded her head.

“Just one more question. Do you know of any reason that, I don’t know, maybe another alicorn would appear?” Luna narrowed her eyes and used a serious voice.

“Where is he?” Twilight realized her mistake.

“Where is who?”

“Don’t play games with me Twilight Sparkle. Where is he?”

“There must be a misunderstanding. I haven’t the slightest idea who you are talking about.”

“I’m going to ask one more time.” Tears welled up in Luna’s eyes.

“Please, where is he?” Even through her tears she commanded authority. Immediately Twilight felt ashamed.

“Look, I’m sorry…”

“Just stop.” And with that Princess Luna took her leave.

They were running under the apple trees playing when Luna’s chariot flew over. Steven pointed to it excitedly.

“Look! There goes Princess Luna.” Apple Bloom spoke up.

“Wow Steven, you sure have become more talkative since this morning.”

“I guess. It was just that Princess Twilight was so menacing with all those questions and I truthfully can’t answer them. I don’t know my parents, I don’t know where I’m from, and I don’t know who I am.” Scootaloo piped in.

“You’re Steven, silly.”

“Well I knew that.” They all laughed. Apple Bloom shielded her eyes as she looked at the sun on the horizon.

“Maybe we should head back to the castle now. It is getting kinda late.”

Apple Bloom called out once they got into the castle.

“Twilight! Applejack! We’re back.” They walked through halls of castle until the came to the open doors of the main room. Twilight immediately ran over to them.

“Oh thank goodness you’re okay Steven.” Steven cocked his head questioningly.

“Is something going on Twilight?” The other fillies decided to chime in.

“Yea, and what did Princess Luna want?” They all looked at her with demanding eyes.

“Well, from what I can put together I think that Princess Luna is looking for Steven.” Apple Bloom smiled.

“Well that’s great, isn’t it? I mean after spending the day with Steven we believe him when he says that he doesn’t remember anything. Isn’t it good that somepony is looking for him?”

“I guess you’re right. After all we couldn’t find anything relating to him at all.” She took a deep breath. “I guess I’ll take you to Canterlot tomorrow. With Princess Celestia present I doubt Princess Luna would do anything to harm you.” The last rays of sunshine began to fade over the horizon. “We’ll see what they have to say. After all, they are the most knowledgeable about alicorns.” She turned to her friends. “Thank you for your help. Now we should all get some sleep.” Once she said that her friends seemed to finally be hit by the exhaustion of the day and left the castle. “Goodnight Spike. Now come on Steven, let’s get to bed.” She nudged Steven toward the bedroom.

As they got ready for the night and Steven cuddled up against her, Twilight couldn’t help but feel sisterly love for him. All she wanted to do was help him and keep him safe. She closed her eyes and dreamed of how the next day’s events would play out. Hopefully everything would work out.

Answers

The next morning Twilight got everything prepared for the trip. Spike spoke.

“Is that everything Twilight?”

“Not quite Spike. Can you send this letter to Princess Celestia? It just says that I’m coming for a visit.”

“Does it say anything about Steven? Cause I’m sure that Princess Luna will be right there when she reads it.”

“Don’t worry, its fine.” Spike breathed in and let the letter burn up in flames.

“Now then you little alicorn, we have a train to catch.” As she said it she messed up Steven’s mane, causing him to smile.

The train ride was a relatively short and uneventful one. This was partly because Twilight had Steven wear a small cloak to hide his wings. To everyone they met it looked like she just had a small unicorn with her. Arriving in Canterlot by train was still slower than flying, but Twilight didn’t know if Steven was capable of using his wings to fly. She would have to explain why she didn’t fly to Princess Celestia, but it would be quite simple once she saw Steven. Once they disembarked the train they headed straight for the castle.

Princess Celestia was waiting for them at the entrance to the castle when they arrived. Twilight ran up and hugged her.

“Good morning Princess Celestia.”

“Good morning Twilight Sparkle. It is always nice when you visit.” She looked over at Steven. “And who is this handsome young unicorn?”

“Well you see, I found him in my castle and he doesn’t remember anything form his past. I thought you could help us.”

“I see. Well then, come along.” Inside the castle they strolled toward the library.

“Princess Celestia, may I ask where Princess Luna is?” Princess Celestia sighed.

“I would guess she is still locked in her room. Something got her so upset yesterday that I almost couldn’t get her to raise or lower the moon.” They arrived at the library. “As far as memory charms go I should be able to reverse it and bring back his memories.”

“That’s just the thing though, I already tried all of them and none worked.” Princess Celestia looked up in thought and Twilight took a deep breath.

“Maybe we should have Princess Luna come down and see if she knows anything.” Princess Celestia nodded.

“Maybe, but why would you think that she would know something about him?”

“Well, she visited me yesterday and asked me if anything seemed strange lately and now I think that I realize what she meant.” Twilight left out the part where Luna had directly asked where he was. Princess Celestia looked at Twilight questioningly. “What I mean is, well…” She walked over to Steven and removed the cloak.

“Luna dear, could you please come out of your room? Twilight and I would like to ask you about something.” Luna’s voice was muffled through the thick door, but it was still apparent that she had been crying.

“Go away. I have nothing to say to Twilight Sparkle. If you, sister dear, need to ask me something you can do it through the door.” Princess Celestia looked at Twilight who in turn looked back at Steven and then nodded. “Okay then. What do you know about the new alicorn?” Silence emitted from the room.

“I know that Twilight Sparkle is hiding him from me.”

“Well, she’s not hiding him now.” Princess Celestia remained calm throughout the entire process, as she had when she had seen Steven. Granted she had gasped, but she recovered instantaneously. A noise was heard in the room and the door cracked open and Luna poked her head out sniffling.

“Is he here, now?” Princess Celestia nodded. Luna opened the door all the way looked straight at Twilight angrily. Then she looked past Twilight at Steven. A look of confusion swept over her. “But…he’s so young.” She walked over to him and inspected him. “Is your name Steven?” Steven nodded and smiled.

“You’re the alicorn from my dream, aren’t you?” Luna laughed.

“It is you.” Twilight almost lunged at Luna when she kneeled down toward Steven, but Princess Celestia stopped her.

“She knows the most of what’s going on here.” Luna kneeled down and touched Steven’s horn with her own. Blue sparks flew from where the two horns touched and a similar cutie mark to Princess Luna’s appeared on Steven. Luna turned to Twilight and Princess Celestia.

“Now, please let me explain.” Her mood had changed entirely in two seconds flat.

They sat around a table and sipped tea. Luna had yet to explain what she knew and Twilight was getting impatient.

“We’re still waiting for that explanation you know.” Luna sipped her tea in a dignified manner and sighed.

“I am explaining it. For the longest time after I knew about Steven nothing happened, or more nothing could happen.” Luna smiled at Steven who sat next to her and then looked across the table at Twilight.

“I do thank you for bringing him here, after all it was a mistake that he was not here in the first place.” Luna closed her eyes to tell her story. “I found out about Steven through his dreams because, as I’m sure you know, I can speak to anypony through their dreams. The fact of it was that in his dreams he was not an alicorn, if fact he was not a pony at all.” Twilight and Princess Celestia both seemed confused. “That combined with the fact that I could not always see his dreams made it apparent that he was not from Equestria. Some nights I could only look at his dreams and worry as he ran from the terrors within while other nights I could influence his dreams to be more...tranquil. It was never a sure thing though. All I wanted to do was save him from those horrid nightmares he was having.”

Steven laid down at Luna’s side and began to doze off.

“The night you found him was the only night that I actually got to talk to him. I was able to break the barrier between our worlds and in doing so cause him to be pulled into ours. While I was talking to him in that dream I was working the details of where he would wake up in Equestria, but he woke up so fast that I wasn’t able to pinpoint where he was going to be. That is how you found him I suppose.” Luna looked down at the sleeping Steven. “I didn’t expect him to be this young though. In his dreams he seemed much…older.” Princess Celestia sipped her tea before speaking.

“Luna, you know that alicorns age differently than others. If I were changed into whatever his species were, I would likely die from old age.” They all laughed for a moment, then Luna sighed and looked at Steven again.

“But still, I thought he would be more my age. I thought that we…” She blushed and couldn’t finish the sentence. Twilight took a second to realize what she meant.

“Oooohhhh, that’s why you wanted to find him so bad.” Luna looked at her.

“That was only part of it. The other part was what you saw up there, with his cutie mark. Being that he is from another world he had no destiny in store for him. What you saw, me touching his horn, I created his destiny to be entwined with my own.” She smirked a bit. “It was only luck that you didn’t do it first. You found him first, but you didn’t know that touching his horn with your own would bond you. Being an alicorn without a destiny caused him to be like a sponge, he soaked up the first bit of alicorn magic he came in touch with. He probably can’t fly because his wings are still too small, but at least he will be able to use magic now.”

Twilight was in disbelief now. She had had the chance to make Steven a part of her destiny and to protect him forever. She smiled.

“I have to admit that it was just dumb luck that kept our horns from touching. After all he cuddled up next to me for two nights.” Luna narrowed her eyes and Twilight smiled smugly. Luna calmed herself down by taking a deep breath. Steven had already spent more time with Twilight, but that would change very soon. After all, their destinies were intertwined now.

“Well I’m glad that you and Steven get along well because it wouldn’t be good if any two alicorns didn’t. I mean we spend so much time together. I wasn’t sure if you would like him.” Twilight tilted her head.

“Why do you think that I wouldn’t get along with him?”

“Well it’s just that he’s the new alicorn now. I’m sure EVERYPONY will want to meet the one and only alicorn prince. I just thought you might get upset with him taking your spotlight.” Twilight relaxed.

“That’s what you thought? I couldn’t care less if he took my spotlight. All I want to do is keep him safe, I love him like a brother.” Luna closed her eyes and nodded her head.

“I’m sorry for all the rude remarks Twilight Sparkle. As long as you only want to protect him then we will get along fine.” Princess Celestia finally spoke up.

“Well I’m glad that you two have made up. Now we have to discuss what to do with Steven.” They all looked at Steven who was completely asleep beside Luna.

Cousins

The solution that they came up with was fairly simple. Steven would have his own bed in Luna’s room and would follow her around. In turn, she would protect him since she was responsible for bringing him to Equestria. Somehow, because Princess Luna had brought Steven to Equestria, he bared a strange resemblance of her. Since he looked quite similar to Princess Luna, they would tell everypony that he was her and Princess Celestia’s nephew. As for being an alicorn, they would hold a coronation ceremony, as they did for Twilight when she became a princess. He would, in all ways, be a prince. Doing all this would help mitigate any concerns that the public may have. They set the date for his ceremony for the next week and sent out the invitations labeled simply as an 'Event'. The princesses did not want to reveal Steven's existence just yet, and they wanted the extra time to spend with him.

“You really have no questions Steven?” Twilight tilted her head as the three elder alicorns sat in front of Steven after explaining the plan.

“Nope.”

“Wow, you just keep surprising us don’t you.” Twilight looked at the other two. “It’s amazing how he acts completely as he looks like he should and yet he thinks on a higher level. When you said he seemed older in the dreams you weren’t lying.” Luna nodded.

“I told you that before I brought him here he had probably lived as long as you had before you became an alicorn. He has a mind the same age as yours Twilight.” For the most part Steven just kept his thoughts to himself, but when he did share them the three princesses were amazed at the depth of analysis.

“Actually I do have a question.” Twilight had no hesitation when it came to answering questions.

“Okay, what is it?” Steven hesitated.

“If I’m supposed to be your nephew then wouldn’t one of my made-up parents be your sibling? Wouldn’t somepony be curious about who my parents are?” Luna spoke up.

“I’m sure most ponies will be curious, but they won’t question Tia or I. They certainly didn’t when we said that Cadence was our niece…Oh no, what about Cadence?!” Princess Celestia did a face hoof.

“How could we have forgotten about Cadence? She will be furious when she gets here and figures out it’s a coronation.” Twilight spoke confidently.

“Don’t worry. Cadence will keep her cool until after the ceremony. She really thinks about the public and how they see her. It’s when we’re in private after the ceremony that she’ll explode.” Steven looked at the three confused.

“Who’s Cadence?” He looked up at Luna with innocent eyes and Luna looked back at him with soft eyes.

“Well dear, if we are claiming that you are our nephew then she would be your cousin. In much the same way as we are doing now we claimed that she was our niece. She is the third alicorn princess and oversees the Crystal Empire.”

“Do I have to pretend she’s my cousin, she sounds horrible. Is that why you have her all the way in the Crystal Empire?” The three alicorns laughed. Princess Celestia smiled gently.

“She isn’t terrible. You’ll see when you meet her. She just doesn’t like being left out, especially on big things. Everything will be fine once she cools down.” Steven breathed a sigh of relief and the three laughed again.

The days preceding the coronation rolled by easily and without complications. Twilight had returned to Ponyville until closer to the date of Steven’s coronation. Steven followed Luna around and watched her as she performed her duties as princess. Each day after she had finished she would tutor him in magic. When Steven wasn’t making any progress on the first day Luna got discouraged, but by the second day she was surprised by his progress. He had gone from not being able to lift an apple to beginning teleportation spells in less than a day.

“Steven, I can’t believe it. Your already performing spells that take years to begin to learn. Twilight might not care about you taking the spotlight, but you’re going to pass her up in magic quickly if she’s not careful.” Luna rubbed Steven’s mane and he smiled at her.

Finally the day came and ponies from all over Equestria came to Canterlot and made their way to the palace. Ponies began sitting down as the princesses were getting ready in another room. Ponies were talking to one another as they waited for the event to begin.

“I wonder what is going on that they invited ponies from all over to see.”

“Must be important.”

“I’ll say.”

In the other room the three princesses were making idle conversation while their manes were being done when Cadence walked in. Twilight smiled at her.

“There you are Cadence. You’re just in time to get your mane done if you want.” Cadence looked around, analyzing the scene around her.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” She sat down and the attendants began work on her mane. “What is this event that’s happening anyway? I don’t suppose there is anything I will need to do during it, is there?” Princess Celestia looked at her.

“Just smile and be the perfect image of a princess. I am the only one that has to do anything.”

“If you say so.” She closed her eyes and relaxed as they prettied up her mane.

The four princesses stood at the front of the room on top of the raised floor. Princess Celestia began the ceremony.

“Welcome everypony. I thank you for coming to this most joyful of occasions.” She paused and looked at Twilight and Princess Luna, then continued. “Without further ado I would like to present the newest member of our royal family, Prince Steven.” Gasps were audible. The doors opened and Steven walked in and up to the front of the room where he stood in front of the princesses. Twilight looked over at Cadence and noticed that her left wing was twitching slightly. At the front Steven was presented with a small crown and, since he was still too small to take on much responsibility, the ceremony was complete.

There was a reception afterwards and, even though Steven was not going to be there, nopony would resist a free party. They would all get to know Prince Steven in time, which was what Princess Celestia had promised them. Steven was in another room with the princesses.

“YOU DIDN’T THINK IT WAS IMPORTANT THAT I SHOULD KNOW THERE WAS ANOTHER ALICORN BEFORE YOU MADE HIM ROYALTY!?” Cadence was screaming, but in anticipation Princess Celestia had soundproofed the room with her magic. “And you said he was part of the royal family, how it he even related to you?!” Princess Celestia looked over at Princess Luna and grinned before answering.

“If you must know, he is our nephew.” Cadence rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to stick to that story? It may keep the whole of Equestria from asking questions, but don't you remember that you did the same thing with me?” She looked straight at Princess Celestia who stuck her tongue out. “I guess I’m not getting any answers from you.” She looked around. “Where are you Steven? I’m sure you’ll answer my questions.” She spotted him behind her as he backed away. “COME HERE!” She began chasing him around the room. Twilight laughed.

“They really do look like cousins.” At the comment the other two began laughing as well. At the sound of laughter Cadence stopped and looked over at them.

“What’s so funny?” Princess Celestia answered.

“It’s just that this may not be so hard to fake after all. You two really do look like cousins.” Cadence saw Steven stop moving from the corner of her eye.

“I have you now!” She teleported in front of him, cornering him. Princess Celestia moved to help, but Luna stopped her. Slowly Cadence moved in on Steven. “Nowhere left to run.” Steven began shaking as he huddled in the corner. Cadence made a move to grab him, but at the last second Steven teleported to the center of the room. She looked around. “W-what?!” Princess Celestia and Twilight seemed equally puzzled. Steven looked at Cadence from the middle of the room and just laughed. Princess Luna began laughing as well after she saw the look on their faces. Cadence was the first to recover. “Wait, he can teleport?” Twilight was quick after her.

“But he’s so young, how?” Luna gladly answered.

“I have been teaching him magic, after all he is my student. He just has a knack for magic and is much more advanced that anypony I’ve seen in Tia’s school at his age.” Princess Celestia wrinkled her muzzle, clearly annoyed at the remark.

“Well excuse me! It’s not my fault I don’t have a student that I brought in from another world.”

“Wait, what?” Cadence looked confused. Luna closed her eyes and sighed.

“We were going to tell you once you finished chasing him, but now that the fun’s over I guess we should tell you the truth.” Cadence sat down.

“Finally."

Cadence had scared Steven at first, with all the chasing and such, but now that everypony was being honest she had changed. Steven saw the better side of her and vowed to never lie to any of the princesses. All it took was a minute for her to accept him after hearing his story from Twilight and Luna. Cadence acted like an older cousin to him, even when they were not in public’s eye. However it did not last for long because she had to return to the Crystal Empire, but she promised that she would visit to check on her favorite 'cousin'. Twilight also had to leave soon after because she needed to return to Ponyville and continue her work as the princess of friendship.

Forbidden Love

It was dusk and Luna was just finishing raising the moon. Steven walked into the room they shared and laid down in his bed. Luna came into the room and smiled at Steven.

“You’ve performed so well in all the tasks we’ve given you. Maybe I should have you help me with another job tonight.” Steven looked at her with tired eyes. “Don’t worry Steven, you’ll get your sleep. I want you to come with me to help ponies in their dreams. This is my most prized duty as the princess of the night, along with raising and lowering the moon of course.” Steven smiled.

“What are we waiting for then?” At his words Luna laid down in her own bed and together they delved into the dream world.

Steven opened his eyes to see the shifting shapes from his first visit from Princess Luna.

“Was it all a dream?” Luna walked over to him.

“I hope not.” He smiled and looked around.

“Where do we go to help all the ponies in their dreams? I don’t see anypony.” Luna facehoofed.

“I forgot I had already taken care of everypony yesterday night. No pony is going to have bad dreams tonight. Even Tia is enjoying her sleep, just look.” Steven looked in the direction she was gesturing and saw a window. He smiled when saw Princess Celestia in the dream getting a massage.

“Too bad she isn’t getting a massage in real life, she needs it.” Luna giggled.

“Indeed. My sister does work hard for the kingdom to thrive, but…” She paused for a moment. “She just doesn’t understand me, nopony does. I mean like really understand. I know she has to care for many other than myself, but even when she does make time for me, we’re opposites. She’s day while I’m night.” Steven sat down because he knew she needed to vent. She hadn’t forgotten that she had made sure everypony would have good dreams tonight, she had done it on purpose. “And then there’s you Steven. You are the same as me. You understand.” She took a deep breath as she got it off her chest. “Thank you for listening Steven. I just felt that since this is a dream and anything is possible…” She closed her eyes. Steven thought for a minute and stood up.

“I think I understand.” With her eyes still closed Luna’s voice wavered.

“But do you really understand?” “I do.” She opened her eyes and was shocked at what she saw. Standing in front of Luna was a full grown alicorn about her size. Steven looked at her with compassionate eyes.

“I believe that this is what you wanted?” She smiled and hugged him tightly.

“You truly do understand.”

“I understood from the moment you brought me here.” A tear rolled down Luna’s cheek.

“I love you Steven.”

“I love you too.”

Cadence jolted awake and sat up, not worrying about waking her husband who was asleep next to her.

“What just happened?” Shining Armor slowly opened his eyes.

“What’s going on Cadence?” She shook her head.

“I-i don’t know. I just felt a spark of love between two ponies.”

“Well you are the princess of love.”

“Yes, but I don’t normally feel things like this. Something is… off.”

“Well whatever it is it can’t be bad, can it? I mean its love.” Cadence relaxed and nuzzled Shining.

“Your right. Let’s go back to sleep and figure it out in the morning, I was having the most wonderful dream.” With that they both laid down and fell asleep.

Morning came and Princess Luna opened her eyes. Slowly she walked out onto the balcony and nodded at her sister who was over on the other balcony. The moon began to go down as the sun rose. After the sun was up in the sky Luna returned to her room and saw Steven still sleeping in his bed. Smiling, she gently nudged him awake. His eyes opened slowly.

“Come on, we need to get to breakfast.” Steven smiled as she kissed is cheek.

When Luna and Steven arrived at the breakfast table Celestia greeted them.

“There’s nothing unusual on our agenda today. We just get to relax for once.” Princess Celestia sat at the table sipping her tea. She noticed Princess Luna and Steven being unusually quiet. “What’s gotten into you two? You’ve hardly eaten anything.” Luna and Steven giggled and Princess Celestia just sighed. Just then a messenger came in.

“Sorry for the interruption, but Princess Cadence sent you a letter.” Princess Celestia took the letter and the messenger left.

“That’s odd. She doesn’t usually send letters around this time.” Steven finally began eating as Princess Celestia opened and read the letter.

“Hmm.” Luna looked at her.

“What is it sister?”

“Well it seems that Cadence felt something last night that made her unsettled.” Luna sat there surprised.

“That’s impossible I…” Princess Celestia looked at her sister suspiciously. “…I saw her dreaming pleasant dreams.” Luna smiled deviously. Princess Celestia continued.

“She said she felt a spark of love that was unusual.”

“How can love be anything to worry about? I mean its love.” Steven and Luna giggled. Princess Celestia looked at the letter again before putting it down.

“I suppose you’re right. I just hope the pony who is in love isn’t making a rushed decision.” Luna frowned and Princess Celestia smiled as she sipped tea. “I suppose you and Steven will want to relax together so I think I’ll go to the spa for a massage, but I figure you already knew that I would, right Steven?” Steven blushed. He couldn’t figure out how she had known all that. Luna just looked down and waited for Princess Celestia to leave.

Luna practically dragged Steven to her private library filled of books on nighttime plants and animals as well as star maps. When they got there she collapsed onto a sofa.

“I should have known the Tia wouldn’t approve of us.” Steven was still confused.

“But how did she know? Did she look into our dream?”

“It doesn’t matter Steven, she would have figured it out sooner or later anyway. We were pretty obvious at breakfast this morning. All that matters is that she’ll never let us be together, she probably feels that you are too young to know what you’re thinking and that I’m just taking advantage of you.”

“But I do know what I'm doing! Why wouldn't she understand that?” Steven laid down on the carpet and pouted at the thought of being underestimated. Luna looked at Steven laying there and smiled.

“I don’t care if she doesn’t understand. I don’t care if she doesn’t approve. I love you Steven. Now come here.” Steven smiled and crawled onto the sofa and cuddled next to Luna.

“Don’t worry Luna,” Steven nuzzled her neck. “We’ll get her to understand.”

Complications

Princess Celestia sat with Cadence in her study explaining things.

“Cadence, I really need you to talk some sense into them.” Celestia sighed. “Steven tells me that he knows what he’s doing, but I don’t think he does.” Cadence sat there for a while.

“I’m just don’t know what to think. On one hoof I completely agree, he is too young. But on the other hand…” She paused. “That night…I felt their love. I’m the only other one besides them that knows how they feel.” Cadence looked Princess Celestia in the eyes. After a second Celestia averted her gaze.

“Whether their love is real or not doesn’t matter. It has to stop. Do you know how bad it would look for all of us if it were to get out that my sister was romantically involved with a pony that young? It would cause outrage!” Cadence closed her eyes.

“I know, but I can’t bring myself to break up true love. There has to be another way to take care of the situation.” Princess Celestia took a deep breath.

“I think I have an idea but we would definitely need Twilight’s help.”

Twilight stood in front of Celestia and Cadence with her jaw dropped.

“Wait, what?!” Princess Celestia sighed.

“Do I really have to explain it again?” Twilight hurried to stop her mentor from repeating herself.

“No, no. I understood your plan, but when was anypony going to tell me that Luna and Steven were in love?” Cadence put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“It only came to light a few days ago. We’ve just been trying to keep it quiet until we could do something about it. I’m sure that you understand that the public wouldn’t look at their relationship in the right light with him being so young and all. Thank goodness they have been very cooperative about it.”

“I see, but…” Twilight hesitated. “If it really is true love then your plan wouldn’t work. I’m not even sure that I could come close to executing the spells you’re asking of me. And even if I could there would be no guarantee that everything would work as we planned.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes.

“Then what are we to do? We can’t just leave it as it is.” Cadence suddenly smiled.

“Maybe we can.” The two other ponies looked at her questioningly.

Twilight, Celestia, and Cadence stood outside of the door and knocked.

“Luna, sister, could you come out here and talk with us?” Princess Celestia spoke in a sweet voice. Hooves were heard moving on the other side of the door. The door opened and Luna stuck her head out. It was still early and when Twilight stretched she could see Steven sleeping soundly in Luna’s bed. “Sister, we need to talk about Steven.” Luna looked at Cadence and Twilight and frowned.

“Ugg, okay.” She closed the door behind her and followed the three down the hall.

Celestia tried to put her wing around her sister, but Luna shrugged it off.

“Luna, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way…”

“How could I? All you want to do is take away the love of my life and leave me alone with nopony who understands me. It seem pretty straightforward to me.” They sat around a table in the library and Celestia was trying to reason with her.

“Luna, he’s too young. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“You don’t know him. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” Luna stood up from the table. “I don’t even know why I followed you. I guessed I hoped you finally understood.” She began to walk away but Cadence called to her.

“Luna wait.” Luna stopped walking. “I understand. I’ve felt the love between you two. It is real, trust me, I feel everything between you.” Luna gave a sly grin.

“Everything?”

“Everything.” The two locked eyes for a second and then began giggling. Princess Celestia put her hoof to her face.

“Will you at least hear us out now?”

After hearing their plan Luna was still skeptical.

“Are you sure that this will work?” The four princesses were walking down the hall back to Luna’s bedroom. Twilight responded confidently.

“Well it should. It takes a powerful alicorn just to perform an age spell on a normal pony. With four powerful alicorns we should be able to perform a little age spell on an alicorn easily.”

“I hope so,” Luna turned to her sister. “Because whether it works or not…” Celestia closed her eyes.

“I know, I know.” Cadence was the first to reach the bedroom.

“Well, here we go.” Luna opened the door and peaked in before entering with the other three ponies behind.

Steven stood in the center of the four ponies.

"I don't understand..." Luna knelt down in front of him.

“I would be fine if you stayed the same Steven, but there are some ponies here who think our relationship looks bad because you are so young. They just want to change your age and make you older so that everypony will be more accepting of us.”

“I’m scared.” Luna pushed his chin up.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, everything will still be the same. You’ll just look older.” She was able to get a small smile out of Steven. With that she stood back up and rejoined the formation around him. Twilight looked around.

“Is everypony ready?” They all nodded and began to cast the spell. Their horns glowed more intensely as the spell progressed. Slowly Steven began floating and his eyes glowed with yellow light and electricity arced around his body. Cadence began struggling after a few minutes.

“Twilight, how much longer will this take because I don’t know how much longer I can last.” Twilight had to shout over the noise in the room.

“It should have worked by now, but it’s never been done before so…” Her voice trailed off as she became unsure of what was happening. All four princesses stared as Steven began glowing and the air swirled around him. Suddenly there was an explosion and he was shot off to the side and became limp as his body hit the wall and fell to the floor.

“Steven!” Luna ran to his side and knelt down. Princess Celestia looked at Twilight.

“What went wrong?”

“I-i’m not sure, it looked like it was working the way it should.” Luna just knelt there crying. The others stayed slightly behind her. Cadence gently touched Luna’s shoulder.

“He is still alive. All we can do now is hope he is okay.” Steven groaned and they all leaned in to see him. Slowly his eyes opened. Luna spoke softly so as to not hurt his ears after the explosion.

“Steven, are you okay?” Steven’s eyes watered before he jumped up and ran under the bed. Twilight stuck her head under the bed.

“It’s okay Steven, what happened wasn’t your fault. We weren’t sure if the spell would work or not.”

“No, it is my fault.” Twilight tilted her head.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I can’t control it anymore…” His eyes flashed with darkness and he shook his head to clear them. Twilight backed out from under the bed quickly and ran over to the other ponies with a worried look in her eyes.

“Steven is convinced that he made the spell mess up.” Cadence frowned.

“That’s absurd, why would he think that?”

“I don’t know how to explain it…he has some kind of power in him, and its dark, like nightmare dark.” Luna shook her head.

“No…” She began crying again as she walked to the bed. She poked her head under the sheets. “Steven?” He looked away from her. “Steven, please come out from here. We can fix whatever happened to you together. I sure that the others want to help.” Steven looked at her for a second before looking down.

“I just don’t want to hurt anypony.” Luna laughed.

“You won’t do anything to hurt anypony if you don’t want to. Nothing can make you do that.” Steven smiled before suddenly grimacing. “What hurts? You did hit that wall pretty hard.” Steven just shook his head, shut his eyes tight and put his hoof to his head. Just as suddenly as it had started it stopped and Steven fell unconscious. “Steven!” Luna took him out from under that bed and placed him within the covers of it. She then looked at the other princesses. “We need a doctor.” Cadence immediately ran off to get one.

Steven opened his eyes and looked around. He knew he wasn’t awake because there was nothing when he looked out the window. It wasn’t just dark, there was nothing. He was laying in the bed that he and Luna shared in their room. He got up and stretched.

“I guess that I must have hit that wall pretty hard because it hurts even in my dreams.” A voice hissed from the shadows.

“Oh, this is more than a simple dream.” Steven squinted at the shadows, trying to make out who was there.

“Luna?” The shadow snickered.

“No, but she and I have met before. It was actually just like this, how I met her.” Steven realized that there wasn’t anything in the shadows, the voice was the shadows.

“Who are you?” Steven carefully walked to stay out of the shadows.

“Who, me? Hmmm, Luna never even questioned that. You are quite unique aren’t you? For all intents and purposes, I am darkness.” Steven sat down in a patch of light. “Hmph, I hope you don’t think that light is anything special.” The shadows condensed into the shape of a pony. “You see I do as I please.” It wisped around Steven. Steven's bravery began to fade and it was showing.

“W-what do you want with me?” The shadow smiled as much as a shadow can.

“Here’s the thing Steven. I already have what I want with you. A better question is how do you want this to happen?” Steven tilted his head, scared, and the shadow let out an evil chuckle. "This is going to be fun~"

More? You've Gotta Be Kidding

Can't forget the other world where Steven came from, where a little girl sat crying on the edge of her bed. It had been months since Steven had disappeared from the orphanage but the police never found anything. The headmaster of the orphanage didn't push to continue the search after a week, not like he was her child. The girl sitting on her bed crying was Holo, Steven's best friend in the orphanage. She wanted him back more than anything. There were a few words she had never told him that she desperately wished she had now. The room she was in was fairly large and full of beds. Directly across from Holo's bed was Steven's, or it had been before he had disappeared. Now the headmaster was going to let a new kid sleep there. Holo got up and went over to Steven's bed, one last visit before it wasn't his anymore. She laid on the bed and squeezed the pillow imagining she was holding her best friend again. The bed still had a slight smell of Steven despite how long had passed. After a few minutes she began to drift off to sleep, a little nap couldn't hurt.

Back in Equestria a doctor examined Steven.

“There is nothing wrong with him physically. Whatever it is that’s causing him to be like this is in his head. I can’t do anything else until he wakes up.” Luna’s face relaxed as the doctor spoke.

“Thank you doctor. We’ll call you when he does.” Princess Celestia was still as levelheaded as ever. Luna envied the way she could stay calm. After Celestia closed the door she returned to Luna.

“He’s going to be fine Luna.”

“I hope so…” She cast a glance at the door to the bedroom and a look of worry filled her face. “There goes that hope.” Celestia looked over to see a curtain of darkness flowing out from the crack under the door. She rushed to the door and opened it while Luna walked sadly. “It’s too late sister, I feared that this was what it was.” Inside the room stood Steven. Luna put on a brave face. “Steven? Are you feeling okay?” He turned his head and Princess Celestia jumped. Dark curtains flowed from his eyes.

“I’ve never felt better.” His voice clashed with itself, sending chills down both their spines. “We really should be going, I’m sure you understand Luna dear. Steven took the option completely opposite of what you did. Funny how that works, isn’t it?” Luna became flustered.

“He… he did?” The nod from Steven made her smile. “If that doesn’t prove he really cares for me then nothing will.” The white alicorn turned to her sister.

“What are you talking about?” But before Luna could respond Steven disappeared, leaving a shroud of darkness behind.

After being pestered by her older sister for an hour Luna finally decided to explain the Nightmare curse.

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” They sat in Celestia’s room. Luna looked down.

“I just wanted to put all of that behind me. I’m not that pony anymore.” Celestia nuzzled Luna gently.

“Luna, listen to yourself. If what you told me is true then it wasn’t your fault that you became Nightmare Moon. The darkness isn’t a part of your nature.” Tears began forming in Luna's eyes.

“But that’s not what I’m ashamed of sister.” The tears flowed down her cheek and onto her fur. “The reason I’m ashamed is because the Nightmare gives you two choices.” Realization dawned on Princess Celestia.

“Oh.”

“Yea. I chose to try to hurt you.” Tears were still streaming down her face as Celestia moved in and hugged her. “I don’t understand. I wanted to hurt you.” Celestia reassured her little sister.

“It’s as much my fault as it is yours. I should have been a better sister. I ignored you when you needed me most.” Luna’s crying gained a new vigor as she returned the hug. “So the Nightmare became a part of Steven when you intertwined your destinies?”

“Mhmm, I think.” A curious thought popped up in Celestia's head.

“So what option did Steven chose then?” Luna wiped her eyes.

“H-he chose to leave those he loves forever.”

“Wait, but what good could that do for the curse?” Luna looked at her sister with big eyes.

“Do you know what it’s like to be away from everypony you love? All the Nightmare wants is to destroy.”

“Destroy what?”

“Anything and everything.” The elder princess was still confused.

“Then why would it let Steven chose to leave?” Luna thought for a moment.

“He isn’t as powerful as I was.” Celestia put the rest together.

“It wants him away from us so that it can become more powerful.” Luna sighed and put her head down.

“And then it will convince him to destroy, probably starting with me because it doesn’t control me anymore.” Celestia pushed up Luna’s chin.

“That’s not going to happen because we’re going to find him.” Luna smiled. “Now c’mon. Let’s get some sleep.” Celestia helped Luna to her bed and together they fell asleep.

Holo slowly woke but kept her eyes closed as she lay there in the bed. She breathed in and confusion sweep through her mind. She still smelled Steven, but she smelled someone else too. Slowly she opened her eyes. She wasn’t in the orphanage anymore. She looked around the room, it was a very well furnished room. Just then she heard a noise at the door and ducked under the covers. Luna opened the door and stepped in before calling to her sister down the hallway.

“Just let me get my saddlebags and I’ll be ready.” She turned back to the room and stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t hard to see that there was somepony under the covers of the bed. “Steven?” She walked to the bed. There was no response so she pulled the covers down to reveal a small pink alicorn covering her eyes. “Hello, who are you?” Luna was practicing staying calm like her sister. The filly moved her hooves slowly and looked up with big eyes.

“My…my name is…Holo.” Luna smiled.

“What a wonderful name, my name is Luna.” Celestia walked into the room.

“Are you ready yet Luna dear…oh. Who’s this?” Holo hid under the covers again. Luna patted the lump in the sheets that was her.

“You just sleep for now, we’ll help you figure this out later.” She motioned to Celestia and the both left the room.

Celestia was asking questions trying to figure out where the filly had come from.

“So she just appeared out of nowhere?” Luna didn't hesitate to answer.

“Yes.”

“And you are sure that you didn’t have anything to do with it, like with Steven?”

“Yes.” Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. “What are we going to do? More alicorns can’t just keep appearing.” Luna thought for a minute.

“Give me a second, I need to check something.” She curled up on the ground and was asleep before Celestia could ask what she was doing. With nothing else to do she sat next to her sister and waited. After a few minutes Luna opened her eyes and smiled. “Problem solved.” Celestia looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when I first brought Steven here I opened a crack between our worlds. She,” Luna motioned to the door, “must have fallen asleep in the same place Steven did and she slipped through the crack. You don’t have to worry anymore though because I sealed the crack.” Princess Celestia sighed in relief.

“Thank you Luna. We are already going to have a hard time finding Steven so we don’t need any more trouble.” Luna smiled.

“But what are we going to do with her?”

“We'll deal with that later, at least no more alicorns are going to appear. It would be possibly disastrous if more kept coming.”

Shadow on the Horizon

Celestia and Luna left Canterlot early in the morning to avoid being seen. It was better that the public didn't know when they were both going out at the same time. It had been hard to find a way to track where Steven had gone, but in the end they found that Cadence was able to feel where he was due to his love for Luna. Luna squinted her eyes as they flew over the Everfree Forest toward the distant desert. According to Cadence Steven was on the very edge between the forest and the desert, a fact that seemed to unnerve Princess Celestia. Luna decided to ask about it.

"So Tia, I can't help but notice you seem...nervous. Steven isn't nearly as powerful as I was, it shouldn't be a problem to get him back and I'll share my techniques for handling the Nightmare with him. It'll be okay." Celestia didn't look any more relaxed.

"That's not it Luna, I'm worried about something else. I'm the only pony who knows it: That desert is where Chrysalis and her hive reside. I'm afraid that it's the reason Steven chose to come this way." Luna frowned slightly.

"I'm co-ruler of the kingdom and you didn't think I'd want to know where a big danger to Equestria lived?" Celestia giggled a little.

"Absolutely not sister, I didn't tell you because I knew you would want to know. We don't need a war on our hoofs right now with all that's going on." Luna huffed.

"As much as it irritates me, you're right. I would definitely have sent the army there to crush them." Celestia flew a little closer to her sister and nuzzled her from above.

Once they were close they flew down and began trotting the rest of the way toward Steven. They kept their guard up not only because Steven was being influenced by the Nightmare, but also because they were close to a changeling hive. Luckily no changeling scouts were to be seen as they homed in on a clearing that seemed to be where Steven was. Princess Celestia peeked through the bushes first, just in case of the worse, but smiled back toward Luna and motioned for her to follow as she strolled into the clearing. Laying in the grass of the clearing was Steven, same midnight black color, fast asleep. Celestia spoke to her sister reassuringly.

"Seems with all it's 'power', the Nightmare didn't consider it was in a foal who would get tired." Luna nodded and approached Steven slowly as to not wake him. In one swift motion she laid down and curled herself around Steven lovingly. Steven's eyes bolted open, full of shadows.

"What are you doing?! Let go of me!" Luna held him tightly and just shhhed him. After a minute of struggling Steven stopped. "You're lucky I'm out of magic or I'd..." He didn't get to finish before Luna put her hoof over his mouth and spoke calmly.

"Steven, I know you can hear me, listen to my voice. You are strong, stronger than the Nightmare. That's why it needs you, it's weak. You don't have to listen to it, anytime it begins to talk just take deep breaths and focus on happy memories. Just think of anything besides it, distract your mind." Luna let go of his mouth and he stared at her angrily, but slowly the anger disappeared and Steven began returning to his light blue color.

"L-luna, I'm sorry." Luna nuzzled him.

"Don't worry about it, it was way worse with me. You can ask Tia." Steven looked at Princess Celestia who nodded smiling. "Now just follow those techniques and maybe develop some of your own for calming down and the Nightmare will stay away." Steven nodded and hugged Luna tightly.

The royal guard took their job seriously, so when Princess Celestia tasked them with taking care of Holo and not letting anypony else know about her, the took precautions. The entire wing of the castle the she was in was sanctioned off. This allowed Holo some room to move while the princesses were away. Their original plan had been to keep her secluded within Luna’s bedroom, but the whole guard had changed their minds after she looked at them with big eyes. She wasn’t a high maintenance pony, no, quite the opposite. She had convinced them to give her more rooms to move around in to make their jobs easier. Now she could go to the bathroom without having to have somepony escort her. As for food, the guards brought her it. Even though it really resembled a prison, it didn’t feel that way to her. She was only stuck here until the princesses returned. Hopefully they would be back soon, with Steven.

“Steven…” Her eyes watered up. She hadn’t told the princesses that she knew Steven, but they hadn’t asked. They were completely focused on finding him. He had been here for two months, that was a lot of time. She laughed. “It’s just like Steven to find his way to the top. Even the Princesses talk about him as if he’s family.”

Spike followed closely behind Twilight as she walked toward a window with her saddlebags on.

“You sure you don’t need me to come with you Twilight?”

“I’m just going to visit Steven, I’ll be fine.”

“Yea, of course. Have a good trip.” With that Twilight spread her wings and took flight. When she was a good distance from her castle she frowned. She had been woken up by a nightmare of Steven being pulled into a dark fog.

“What is it Steven, what happened?”

“Hello?” Twilight opened the doors to the private study. Empty, like the rest of the rooms.

“Twilight?” She turned around just as Cadence walked in. They hugged briefly. They both looked at each other’s saddlebags. “Let me guess, Steven in a dark fog?” Twilight nodded. “And none of the three alicorns that live here are home?” Twilight nodded again.

“Strange, I didn’t see any of the guards out front. Are they gone too?” Twilight shook her head for the first time.

“No, actually they’re all keeping everypony away from the Lunar Wing of the castle.”

“Wait what, why?”

“They wouldn’t tell me.” Cadence smiled devilishly.

“Then come on, there is obviously a reason they’re there.” They walked out the door and headed for the Lunar Wing.

“I’m sorry Princess, but we have strict orders not to let anypony in here.” The head of the guard stood firmly before Cadence.

“Really? You’re going to tell me that you can’t even let Twilight and I in?” The guard shook his head. “That’s absurd!” Twilight decided to pull Cadence out of the hall before she got too worked up.

“Thank you, we’ll be going now.” Cadence paced back and forth, frustrated at not being able to get into the wing of the castle.

“We have to get in there Twilight.” Twilight was sitting down watching Cadence.

“Hey, don’t worry, we will.” Cadence sat down and took a deep breath.

“Can we teleport into Luna’s room?” Twilight frowned.

“That wouldn’t be safe because we don’t know what’s going on in there.” Cadence wrinkled up her muzzle.

“I suppose your right. Come on, let’s go to the window outside.” With that they left the building.

Twilight and Cadence stood in the courtyard and looked up at the window above them. Twilight started making calculations in her head.

“That’s a lot higher that I thought it would be. How are we going to get up to it?” Twilight looked over at Cadence who looked back at her blankly.

“Twilight, how did you get here?”

“I flew, why?” Cadence put her hoof to her face.

“That’s exactly how we are going to get up there.” Twilight blushed from embarrassment.

“Right. Silly me.” She spread her wings and took off toward the window and Cadence went up right after her. “It…it looks perfectly normal.”

“Then let’s get inside.” With two flashes of light they both teleported into the room.

The room was dim due to the curtains on the windows only being halfway open. Twilight opened the curtains on all the windows in the room. Cadence looked around.

“If there’s nothing wrong here then why would they not let us in?” Twilight shrugged.

“The guards are blocking the whole wing, it could be somewhere else. I guess we’ll just have to wait and ask Princess Celestia and Luna when the get back from wherever they’ve gone.” Cadence agreed.

“Hey Twilight?” Twilight looked over at her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired from the flight here.” Twilight got a daredevil look on her face.

“You could take a nap on Luna's bed.” Sensing a challenge Cadence replied confidently.

“Maybe I will.” They laughed and Cadence walked up to the bed and laid down. Twilight strolled up to the bookcase that was Luna’s personal collection. Her pupils widened in excitement but she didn't get to touch a book before Cadence was back up and talking.

“Oh my goodness!” Twilight turned around to see Cadence standing next to the bed.

“What is it?” She walked over to Cadence and peered into the messy bed. She immediately knew why Cadence had been so surprised. Seemingly asleep with the covers only covering half her body was a pink alicorn. Cadence sighed.

“That explains the guards. She’s still asleep so maybe we can leave before anyone knows we were here. You know how Luna can get when ponies go through her things.” Cadence was whispering as if forgetting that she had yelled only moments before. Twilight looked carefully at the alicorn before approaching the bed. When she spoke she used her normal voice.

“You know she’s not asleep, right?” Twilight pulled the covers down the rest of the way and turned the alicorn over. She opened her eyes slowly.

“Hmmm, whas goin on?” Twilight looked at her suspiciously.

“You can drop the act. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you're Holo?” At the sound of her name Holo perked up.

“How do you know my name?” Twilight smirked.

“Steven’s first few days here he stayed with me. At night he mumbled a few words. He’s probably doesn’t anymore since he feels at home, but he said your name once or twice.” Holo looked at Twilight hopefully.

"Did he say anything about me?" The conversation was interrupted by Cadence, who had grown bored.

"You two go ahead and talk, I’m going to wait for Luna and Celestia back in the sitting room.” Twilight and Holo watched as Cadence flew out the window and down. Once she was gone Twilight sighed.

“You have to excuse her, she wants to know everything but has no patience when it comes to explaining anything.” Twilight gave a nervous smile. Holo sighed.

“This is going to be a long talk, isn’t it.”

Compromise

Luna went to her and Celestia’s private study. She knew that her sister was going to follow her to discuss what was happening. What better place than their study? Not only were they the only two ponies allowed in, they were the only two ponies that could get in. The study was enchanted so that only Luna and Celestia could enter and so that nopony else could use magic to know what was going on in it. It was so secure that the only thing that could get into the room was the small signal that only the guards knew how to cast. The only time they were permitted to use the spell was in extreme situations. Luna doubted that they would need to use it ever because either Tia or herself would usually be somewhere else and could take care of the situation. Even though they would sometimes both be in the room, like they would be soon, it would never be for too long. Luna sigh as she sat down. The study always made her feel happier when she was in it, so much so that she sometimes dreaded leaving it.

Celestia approached the study and smiled when she saw the door. She could always tell when Luna was in the study. There was a light shadow pressed against the door. Luna truly thought that the darkness associated with her destiny was a part of her, but Celestia knew the truth. If the Nightmare were part of her then it wouldn’t be stuck outside of their study. Princess Celestia’s thoughts brushed against how they could use enchantments to take the Nightmare out of her sister and Steven. She opened the door and walked into the blinding light that kept other ponies from seeing in. She hadn’t been to the study for a while and the aqua granite greeted her pleasantly. Celestia looked over at Luna sitting at the desk.

“Isn’t it great? Now Steven will have friends here in the castle.” Luna sighed and closed her eyes.

“Tia, didn’t you see the way Holo acted around Steven? She clearly has a crush on him.” Celestia closed her eyes, then opened them slowly.

“I know you love Steven and I wish the best for you. But maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he ended up liking Holo back. They could rule together when we’re gone. Why don’t we just let Steven make the decision himself?” Luna snickered.

“I’m not even worried that he’d see her that way. I’m just afraid she’ll lie to him since he doesn’t remember his past.” Celestia nuzzled her sister.

“I’ll talk with her and make sure she doesn’t do any such thing, but I won’t tell her to leave Steven alone altogether.” Luna nodded, agreeing.

“And what of their cutie marks? We can’t just let them go around playing with Steven if there’s a chance that their horns could accidentally touch.” Princess Celestia took a few moments to thing deeply. She didn’t want to give them her own and they couldn’t give them Luna’s, for obvious reasons. Then a thought occurred to her.

“Luna, what if we don’t give them cutie marks?” Luna looked annoyed.

“But didn’t we just agree we don’t want Steven to accidentally give them his?” Celestia smiled.

“What I mean is what if I create a magic barrier over their horns?” Luna perked up and grinned devilishly.

“That’s perfect! Because then they won’t have a destiny here and I can kick them out if I want to with no repercussions.” Celestia looked angrily at her sister.

“I thought you closed the bridge between the worlds for good.” Luna frowned.

“I did...”

“Then it’s settled then?” Luna nodded and the two sisters hugged before leaving the study to carry out what they had planned.

There was a knock on the door before Luna poked her head in.

“You okay Steven?” Cadence said that he didn’t want to see anypony. Steven looked up at the door from the bed. Luna came in and sat next to him. He shied away from her before talking.

“I just don’t know what’s going on. Where did those other alicorns come from? It seemed like they knew me, but I’ve never seen them before.”

“Steven,” Luna hesitated as she was unsure how to explain it. “There is only one pony who seems to be able to explain the situation in words. Now since I’m not Twilight Sparkle I’m going to explain it to you a different way.” He looked at her and she surprised him by touching horns. What she knew flashed before his eyes as they widened. Steven sat there silent for a minute processing what he saw.

“...but why don’t I remember them?” Luna sighed.

“We honestly don’t know Steven. For some reason you lost your memories from before but they didn’t.” Steven pouted.

“Why do they get to know me if I don’t get to know me?” Luna wrapped her wing around him tightly.

“I don’t know Steven.” There was a knock on the door before Princess Celestia opened it a little.

“Steven, there are someponies that I would like you to meet.” She opened the door all the way to reveal Holo and Taiga. Then had already been talked to and understood that Steven would have to get to know them again. For this reason they resisted the temptation to jump on him again. Holo and Taiga walked up to the bed Steven and Luna were on.

“Hi Steven, I’m Holo and this is Taiga.” Holo had to turn her eyes away because she was too shy to make eye contact. Taiga on the other hand couldn’t stop looking at Steven. Luna looked at Steven and whispered.

“Since they’re not going anywhere, we were hoping that you could be friends. Maybe you could show them around a little.” Steven took a deep breath before responding.

“Okay, but can it wait until tomorrow? I want a little time to take this all in.” Luna nodded and looked at the two alicorns leaving the room. It was obvious that Taiga was happy, she didn’t even try to hide her emotions. Luna noticed a little smile on Holo’s downcast face. Hopefully she would warm up to living in Equestria.

Steven and Luna stayed in the bedroom while Celestia brought Holo and Taiga to the room they would be sharing.

“This is your room.” She opened the door to a huge room that already had two beds in it. Taiga ran and jumped on one of the beds.

“This one’s mine Holo!” Holo smiled and looked at the sun princess.

“This room alone is bigger than where we used to live. We really don’t need this much space.” The sun princess looked at her with gentle eyes.

“Nonsense, this is your home now. If there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.” At Holo’s nod Celestia smiled. “Make sure you aren’t late for dinner, we always eat meals together.”

“Yes Princess.”

“Just call me Celestia.”

“Okay Celestia.” The sun princess shut the door behind her as she left. Holo laid on her bed and exhaled. Taiga jumped on Holo.

“Gotcha!” They wrestled for a minute before lying there, just the two of them.

“Hey Taiga, do you like it here?” Taiga closed her eyes and curled up against Holo.

“As long as I’m with you and Steven I love it.” Holo just stared at the roof.

“I mean like, really, do you think it’s nice here?” Taiga opened her eyes and spoke with excitement.

“Yea! Not only are you and Steven here, but we’re living in a castle with real princesses.” Holo looked at Taiga and smiled. They may have looked about the same age now, but Taiga was still much younger inside.

Princess Celestia kept an eye on everypony at dinner. Luna seemed to be okay, or at least that was what she was letting on. Steven looked like he was feeling more secure and she even saw him steal a glance at Holo and Taiga once or twice. It wasn’t like they weren’t doing the same though. Taiga didn’t even try to hide it, she was happy. Holo likewise seemed happy, but her smile was only slight. She seemed much shyer than her sister. Celestia decided to try to spark a conversation.

“How are you two liking your accommodations?” She couldn’t help but giggle a little as Holo had to quickly avert her eyes from Steven.

“Oh, they’re amazing. Thank you so much.” The answer didn’t give the impression of wanting to talk so Celestia didn’t push anymore.

Later that night Celestia was in her room getting ready to sleep. Holo and Taiga had gone to bed earlier as had Luna and Steven. She was about to get into her bed when she heard something in the hall. She peered out to see Holo sneaking to Luna and Steven’s room. Holo cracked the door open and peered inside. Celestia didn’t have to look to know what the scene looked like. Steven was probably curled up in bed against Luna. Her guess was confirmed when Holo’s eyes teared up and she ran back up the hallway. Celestia stepped into her path and stopped her. She spoke in whispers so as to not wake up anypony.

“Holo, come in my room. We need to talk.” Holo looked down and obeyed, embarrassed at being caught. Once inside Holo spoke up.

“I just wanted to see...back in the orphanage Steven and I slept in the same room with a couple others.” Celestia crouched down so she was on Holo’s level.

“I understand sweetie, but things are different here and it might be hard to get used to.”

“I know...”

“Okay then, off to bed. And I don’t want to find you sneak around late anymore, it might look suspicious to the patrols.” Holo smiled as Celestia patted her head and sent her off. Celestia sighed once Holo was gone. It would be hard to watch her deal with this.

All Good

The next morning at breakfast everypony looked much more cheerful. Steven spoke to Holo and Taiga.

“Are you ready?” Holo responded for both her and her sister.

“Ummm, ya, I think so.” Celestia watched as Steven left to show them around. It was just her and Luna left now. She could see the nervous look in Luna’s eyes.

“Sister, don’t worry. They’ll just become playmates.”

“How can you be so sure?” Celestia frowned.

“Well surely you don’t think Cadence could have been mistaken when she felt the love between you and Steven? A love like that could never break.” Luna smiled a bit.

“Thanks. And I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time before, well, you know.” Celestia hugged Luna.

“It’s okay, you were just… in love.”

Later that day the young ponies did indeed become friends, or at least that's what Celestia assumed by the way they ran through the halls playing. Apparently acting like they didn’t know each other worked because by lunch the three were covered in dust. The sun princess smiled at them.

“I see you three were having fun outside.” All three had huge grins on their faces and nodded. Steven especially seemed happy, not that he wasn’t happy before, but it was just he needed ponies to play with that were his age. They understood him better that she did. As for Luna, well she would never admit it, but it was healthy for Steven to play with them and it was good for the girls too. The amount of time they could spend playing would make Celestia's job easier. After all she was raising three young ponies. Luna would like to say that she took care of Steven, but she was far from perfect. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself.

“What are you smiling about?” Luna was looking at her with genuine curiosity. Celestia looked down slightly.

“Oh nothing.”

“...alright.” Luna accepted her words and continued watching the three young ones with a dreamy look on her face. Luna seemed to finally be accepting that Steven was safe.

Later that night Celestia ran into the three ponies and Luna in the hall. Steven was pleading with Luna.

“Aww, but why not?” Wanting to make sure everything was okay, Celestia stepped in.

“What’s going on here?” It was her duty to help all her subjects, especially the ones living so close. Luna turned to her with a look of relieve on her face.

“Good, maybe you can explain to them why Steven cannot sleepover.” The three ponies turned to Celestia waiting for an explanation.

“Well it is to my knowledge that you help Luna with dreams at night, is that right Steven?” Realization dawned on him and he nodded. “Though I’m sure that Luna could handle it herself, she is used to your help. Maybe sometime in the future you and Luna could work harder the night before and then you could spend the night.” Steven nodded.

“Yeah, okay.” He turned around to Holo and Taiga who had sat there patiently. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He hugged the both in succession and then went with Luna to their room. Celestia watched them leave and then turned to Holo and Taiga.

“I’m sorry that your day couldn’t go on into the night, but I hope you two had a good rest of the day.” Smiles crept across both of their faces and Taiga was ready to tell Celestia about the whole day.

“It was great! We played outside and...” Celestia smiled and shhhhed Taiga politely.

“Then you better go and get a good night’s rest so you have energy for tomorrow.” The two sisters nodded.

“Goodnight!”

“Goodnight my little ponies.” They turned and ran up to their room. As she watched them leave she thought about how she would explain the idea she was getting to Luna.

The next morning after breakfast the three young alicorns were gone again, leaving Celestia and Luna together. Celestia felt butterflies in her stomach.

“Luna, I was thinking about the girls…” She trailed off. Luna had noticed that she had seemed distracted all morning.

“What is it?” Celestia gulped and took a deep breath.

“Well, I was just wondering if it would be okay with you if I gave them my cutie mark.” Luna smirked.

“It’s your cutie mark, go ahead. But what made you change your mind?” Celestia looked down.

“Well I can only take care of them so much, sooner or later they will need to have magic.” Luna decided to joke around a bit.

“Are you sure that you just want to do it so that Twilight won’t try giving them hers?” Celestia playfully pushed Luna.

“You know she wouldn’t do that.”

“I was just joking. It’s clear that you care for the girls.” They both laughed and watched out the window at the three playing.

They hadn’t even worried about anypony seeing the girls after the first day. Surely rumors had gotten around that there were two new alicorn fillies in Canterlot, Celestia didn’t care though. When the three foals came back in the castle she pulled the girls aside.

“Girls, I think it’s time you got your cutie marks, what do you think?” Both of their eyes widened.

“Please, can we?” Holo was a little less enthusiastic than Taiga.

“Steven told me how he got his and then we tried, but it didn’t work.” When had the two even been alone without Taiga? No matter. Celestia didn’t want to tell them that she had blocked it. She'd just make up an excuse as to why it didn't work.

“Well it wouldn’t have worked because Steven is too young. How would you like a cutie mark like mine?” They looked at her cutie mark and nodded. “Okay then, Holo you first.” She knelt down and put her horn toward Holo. Holo moved forward and light started emitting from the point of connection between their horns. Suddenly Taiga ran forward and touched her horn so that all three were touching at the same time. The light became blinding and Holo and Taiga both floated midair, wings spread out and eyes glowing. When they returned to normal they both had cutie marks. Although they both resembled Celestia’s own, they were both different. Maybe because they had touched her at the same time? The girls danced with excitement. Celestia smiled at them. “Maybe we should go show the others?” They both nodded and ran to the door.

Steven was amazed that Holo and Taiga now had cutie marks.

“I didn’t think you wanted them to have one like yours though.” Celestia simply told the truth.

“Well Steven I didn’t at first, but after taking care of the girls this week I realized how nice it would be to raise them.” Steven nodded in understanding.

“So are they like you daughters now?” Celestia looked at the girls.

“In a way. And now that they have magic they will learning from me like you learn from Luna.” Steven’s eyes widened.

“Magic will make playing even more fun!” The three young ones jumped up and down excitedly. Celestia watched as Steven jumped with Holo and Taiga at the table. All three were playing and acting like young ponies, but it wasn’t always that way, at least for Holo and Steven. Taiga was actually still young according to Holo, so her behavior was normal. But Steven and Holo had displayed more maturity when they had first arrived. Now they acted just as one who didn’t know them would expect. Maybe it was because where they were from they had to be mature at their age, but being here in Equestia had taken the pressure off them. Or maybe they simply were enjoying themselves since they could again. Either way was fine in her book because it had happened naturally. Nature did everything for a reason. All she really cared about was that they were happy.

Early the next morning there was a knock on Celestia’s door. Still not fully awake she opened the door.

“Yes?” It was Luna.

“Sister, might I have a word with you?” Luna had a worried look on her face. Now Celestia was worried as well.

“Of course.” She invited Luna into her room. “What is it?”

“Have you seen this?” She held up a newspaper. Right on the front page was a picture of Steven, Holo, and Taiga playing on the lawn of the castle, all three with their cutie marks showing. The caption at the top read ‘The future rulers of Equestia’. Celestia took a minute to comprehend the paper because it was still so early. When she was finished the look of worry left her face. “Well, they aren't wrong. Holo, Taiga, and Steven really are the future rulers. I mean nopony that reads this today will be alive when they do become the new rulers, but it is still true. Why did this worry you so?” Luna relaxed.

“I was only worried because I wasn’t sure how you would react to this.” She laughed. “It is sort of funny how this will cause quite a stir and yet it will be hundreds of years before they are even old enough that we consider letting they rule.” They hugged and Luna turned and left to get on with the day. Celestia though for a moment as Luna left. That paper would cause a ruffle through the population because until then there had only been rumors of Holo and Taiga. She sighed and laid back in her bed, it was going to be a long day because of that news story.

It was a busy day for Celestia. Fortunately everypony in the castle had already come to know and accept Holo and Taiga, that cut down on the bombardment of questions. Celestia however was always prepared. Soon enough she laid back in her bed and moved the sun below the horizon. The day had gone by so fast and she hadn’t even seen the girls once. There was a knock on her door quickly followed by Luna closing the door behind her.

“Luna? What is it?” Her sister sat down on the bed next to her.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing. I haven’t seen you since this morning.” Celestia closed her eyes.

“Please tell me that Holo and Taiga weren’t too much of hassle for you to watch today?” Luna giggled.

“Of course not.” She looked at Celestia. “So what did you tell everypony, you know, about Holo and Taiga?” Celestia sighed.

“I made something up about nieces I think, something like that.” She looked at Luna and smiled. “This means that our made-up siblings have four total children. I know nopony believes that one anymore.” Luna giggled.

“I’m not sure that anypony believed it when we first used it with Cadence. They just know that when we say that, drop it.” Celestia nodded and nuzzled Luna sisterly. Together they fell asleep after the activities of the long day.

Not So Peaceful Night

The guards eventually searched the entire grounds, inside and out.

“We found nothing Princess, what will you have us do?” Celestia sighed.

“Have an extra patrol out for now, we wouldn't want to be taken by surprise.” The guards nodded.

“Yes Princess.” It was already turning getting late, the search had taken all day. Celestia turned to Holo and Taiga.

“Well I’m sorry that you two didn’t get to play today like you normally do, but I hope you understand that this was necessary for safety.” Holo responded, because Taiga was almost falling over from sleepiness.

“It’s fine, I understand that safety is the number one priority here. Now if you’ll excuse us I need to take Taiga to bed.” Celestia nodded and left for her room as she was exhausted as well.

Holo entered their room with Taiga on her back. Despite them seeming the same age, they were clearly not. It showed when it came to how they acted. Holo tucked Taiga in and kissed her goodnight. Taiga smiled a bit as Holo tucked her in. When she finished she pulled a chair over to the window and sat down. The guards hadn’t found anything, but she knew she had seen something and Celestia had also seen it and it scared her. Holo had a feeling that Celestia knew what it was and that was why it scared her so much. Holo watched out the window for a few minutes. After seeing nothing for what seemed like ages she finally decided to call it a night and went to bed.

A pony stood alone in the darkness. Slowly the darkness began to swirl around and take form. The pony stepped back and questioned the dark form.

“What!? No, you’re gone, I-i made sure of that.” The form hissed.

“Did you really think that I would simply disappear? I will never, can never die.” The pony found her confidence.

“You have no hold here, no hold on me, leave at once and let me wake up from this nightmare!” The darkness made a sound that only somewhat resembled a chuckle.

“Oh but I do have hold here.” The pony's newfound confidence vanished and she backed up once again. “You see? Even you know the truth.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The pony turned around and ran from the form, but it simply swirled around her again.

“Come now, you know that I can help you with your…problem.” The pony was now in a mad dash trying to escape but reaching no such point.

“I don’t have any problem! Just leave me alone!”

“Now we both know that you resent your sister, don’t we?” The pony stopped.

“Ahh, now there we go. Now that we understand each other we can…” A stern look came across the pony's face and she faced the dark form.

“We don’t understand each other. And I don’t resent my sister, not in the way you think at least.”

“Oh really? It seems you’re right that we don’t understand each other. You clearly don’t understand what I am capable of.” The pony simply stood there with their eyes closed. “You resent you sister because she has what you’ve always wanted, to be adored. You know that it’s true because after all, we are in your head.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“But it is. Nopony has ever actually cared about you before. They pretend they do, but deep down you know they’re afraid of you. They don’t trust you and they never will. They accept your rule only because they are afraid not to.” The pony looked up, there were tears in her eyes as the words of the form began to reach her.

“She has everything I’ve ever wanted.”

“Yes yes, let it out.”

“I just wanted one pony to care for me, just one. She has it all and she doesn’t even see the pain in my eyes.” She looked straight at the Nightmare. “She needs to know how much it hurts.”

“Then wake up and let’s show her.” She felt her bed materialize around her body. Slowly Celestia opened her eyes and breathed in the hate that the Nightmare stirred up.

“LUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Celestia screamed her sister’s name with anger. Of course more than just Luna heard the scream. Within a minute he bedroom door slammed open and Luna ran through followed by Steven, Holo, and Taiga.

“Tia, what is it!?” Celestia just stood on top of her bed with her head down. Tears dripped from her face onto her sheets. Luna stepped closer. “Sister, tell us what’s wrong so we can help you.” Celestia interrupted Luna.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong…” She looked up and her eyes flashed dark for only a second. “You, you’re what’s wrong.”

“Wha…what are you talking about?” Luna stumbled over her words.

“All I ever wanted was for ponies to like me, and they don’t.”

“Tia, you aren't making sense.”

“None of them actually care for me, they only fear me.”

“But what does this have to do with me?”

“You have somepony that does care for you.” Her mane and tail burst into flames. “That’s all I ever wanted and you have it!” The four alicorns stepped back from Celestia. “Now I’m going to show you how much it hurts me to be the only pony in all of Equestria to not be loved.” Her eyes shone bright orange and looked straight at Steven. Luna quickly pushed Steven behind her. Celestia just stood there staring. Slowly Holo and Taiga moved behind Luna on their own accord. Seeing this Celestia became even angrier. “And now you take away the only ponies that were even close to caring for me. I’ll kill you all!” Her horn shone brightly and there was a flash of light. When Steven opened his eyes he saw Celestia shooting a beam of fiery energy into a shield of magic that Luna was holding. Luna was grimacing.

“I’m sorry sister…” Her words trailed off as she cast a second spell enveloping Steven, Holo, Taiga, and herself. The room filled with light from the spell and when it disappeared Celestia was the only pony in the room.

Steven opened his eyes and worked his way out from beneath Luna’s wing. He looked around in all directions and saw empty gray dust.

“The moon?” He turned around and looked at Luna crying there. “You took us to the moon!?” Holo and Taiga were just lying there, in shock from what had just happened and being comforted beside Luna.

“It was the only way to save us from her.” Steven shook his head.

“But why did she do that?” Luna looked at him.

“You didn’t see the Nightmare in her eyes?” Horror spread over Steven.

“But…but…”

“Steven, I don’t know how, but with the Nightmare pushing her onward there is no pony strong enough to stop her destruction.” She turned and looked at Equestria. Steven hadn’t noticed it before. It just sat there in the sky. Holo finally began to comprehend what had happened and spoke up.

“W-why does Equestria have orange spots on it?” Luna renewed crying.

“It takes a while to get to the moon, those spots are the places that my sister had already ravaged in her rage.” Holo

“So…so they’re all going to die?” Luna nodded.

“Even if I had brought more ponies with us, they would die before her.” Steven couldn't believe what he was hearing.

“So this is it, we’re just going to wait here for thousands of years until she dies?” Luna didn’t respond and just sat there sobbing.

Luna sat up in her bed gasping for air. She looked around. Steven was still asleep beside her.

“It was all a dream.” She laid back down beside Steven. Thank goodness the Nightmare wasn’t actually within Celestia because that was exactly how it would play out. She opened her eyes and sighed. Slowly she got up from the bed and went to her sister’s room to check on her.

When Luna reached Celestia’s room she raised a hoof to knock, but stopped short. If her sister were fine then she would be waking her up for nothing, while on the other hand if her sister were indeed being controlled by the Nightmare right now she would lose the element of surprise. She didn’t like the thought of invading her sister’s privacy, but if everything was fine then she would never know. Slowly she cracked the door open and peeked inside. Celestia was lying in her bed fast asleep. Luna exhaled at the sight of Celestia sleeping peacefully. She was about to leave when something caught her eye, the window was ajar. She opened the door further and stepped in, looking around. Nothing looked out of place. She carefully closed the window and headed back toward the door.

“Ummmph, Luna?” Luna stopped in her tracks and turned to face the sleepy Celestia. “What are you doing here?” Luna sighed. She didn’t want to tell the whole truth, but she wouldn’t lie.

“I couldn’t sleep so I just wanted to make sure that you were asleep. Usually we both can’t sleep right before disaster strikes, you know.”

“Mhm. Alright then.” She laid back down in her bed. Luna was almost at the door when Steven, Holo, and Taiga pushed past her into the room. “What are you three doing? Tia is trying to sleep.” She was almost whispering to try and avoid disturbing her sister. Steven turned his head toward her.

“Stay back, she isn’t your sister anymore.” Before Luna could respond there was a chilling laughter. Everypony looked at Celestia as she stood up. Steven motioned to Holo and Taiga and they fell into a formation in front of Luna. Luna cringed at the sound of Celestia’s voice, but the three younger ponies didn’t even flinch.

“It’s all her fault. She had to pay.” Her mane and tail burst into flames and her horn glowed. Luna closed her eyes when her sister let loose a beam of energy at them. After a few seconds she opened them to see the three young alicorns in front of her easily holding a magical barrier between the beam and them. Luna didn’t understand.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Without losing any concentration at all Steven turned his head to look at Luna. His eyes told her he was sorry.

“I wanted to tell you Luna, I really did. It was never part of the plan for me to actually fall in love with you that was real.” Luna was even more confused.

“Wait, what? What plan?” Steven looked Luna in the eyes.

“Luna…Holo, Taiga, and I are from the future. We were sent here to stop Solar Flare before she became evil.”

“What? No, Steven I brought you here, remember the dreams?” Steven shook his head.

“Luna, it was all set up so that Solar Flare, Celestia, wouldn’t become suspicious.” A roar made Steven look back at Celestia who was still trying to kill them. Steven turned to each of his sides and nodded to Holo and Taiga.

“It’s time, we have no choice.” Luna watched as the three alicorns pushed the energy beam back and advanced on Celestia.

“Wait, what are you going to do!?” Celestia’s eyes widened when she realized that she wasn’t going to break through the barrier. She stopped the beam, but before they could capture her an explosion happened right on top of her. Everypony was blown back. When Luna regained her senses she looked up to see her sister flying away. On the ground in front of her laid the three ponies that had just saved her life. Without their barrier they all would have surely burned up. “Steven!” Luna ran to him. She looked over him and noticed that his cutie mark was gone. Steven opened his eyes and saw Luna staring in awe.

“It was fake Luna.” She turned to his face.

“Steven, are you going to be okay?” He shook his head. Luna’s eyes teared up.

“Go Luna, to the moon. It’s the only safe place now that we failed.”

“Wait, how did you know that I can teleport to the moon?” Steven only smiled.

Luna gasped for air as she jolted up in her bed. She looked around, everything was fine.

“It was all, a dream? Again?” Steven was asleep next to her. She looked at him, pulled down the covers and stroked his cutie mark. It was solid. She tried to remove it with magic but it didn’t budge, it was real. She sighed. “Why must I dream these things?” She plopped back down and Steven instinctively cuddled closer. Luna closed her eyes. Dreams were the worst because they could make you think they were real life, which is why she had first started helping ponies in their dreams. “Is this a dream too?” She stroked Steven’s fur. It was soft under her hoof. She laid beside him and pulled him closer to her. “No, this is real, it has to be.” She slowly drifted back to sleep.

The Days Go On

Author's Note

Sorry for so long between the last chapter and this one. Life gets busy but I haven't abandoned this because I love it. :twilightsmile:

The Days Go On

Holo and Taiga were just getting into bed when there was a quiet knock on their door. The two looked at each other confused, wondering who it could be. Slowly Holo opened the door as Taiga peeked from behind her.

“Steven, what are you doing here?” Steven stood in the door.

“I was getting ready for bed, but when Luna didn’t come in I got worried.” Holo got a worried look on her face, but Steven didn't look worried and kept talking. “Well, I went looking for her and found her.” Holo and Taiga relaxed.

“Where is she?” Taiga couldn’t help but ask. Steven got a big grin on his face.

“She fell asleep next to Princess Celestia in her room. Better than wake her up I decided that I would just spend the night here with you two, if that’s okay with you of course.” Taiga ran back to her bed and Holo smiled and let Steven into the room before closing the door behind him.

Luna opened her eyes and looked out the window. The sun was up. She walked out on the balcony and looked around for the moon. When she didn’t see it she turned around and went back into the room. She saw Celestia sprawled out on her bed and remembered that she had fallen asleep there the night before. She walked over and poked her sister. Celestia moaned and turned over.

“Tia, Tia.” Luna kept poking her. After a minute of poking Luna became annoyed at her sister. “Tia, TIA!!!” Princess Celestia jumped up.

“What is it!?” She looked back and forth repeatedly. Luna grabbed her to calm her down. Finally when she was awake she looked outside at the sun and then at Luna. “Did I do that in my sleep?” Luna shrugged.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember bringing down the moon, but it’s down.”

“Okay then.” Luna started toward the door.

“I have to go wake Steven up.” Celestia nodded.

“Yea, alright. I should probably get the girls up too. Don't want them getting used to sleeping in too often.” Luna left the room and went down the hall. Not a minute later she ran back into Celestia’s room.

“Steven isn’t in our room, and the patrols said they haven’t seen anypony all night.” Worry filled Celestia.

“What about the girls?” Luna shook her head.

“I didn’t check on them.” They both rushed out of the room and up the hall.

When they reached Holo and Taiga’s room Celestia stopped Luna from opening the door right away. Luna gave her sister an annoyed look. They listened and heard the voices of not only Holo and Taiga, but also Steven. They both relaxed and knocked on the door. The door cracked open and Holo peeked through.

“May we come in Holo?” Holo squinted at Celestia’s question.

“What’s the password?” Luna groaned. Celestia got down on Holo’s level.

“Is the password something we know?” Holo nodded, smiling. Holo’s eyes darted from her cutie mark to Luna’s. “Is the password the sun and moon?” Holo jumped surprised.

“That’s right!” She opened the door all the way. Inside were Steven and Taiga building a castle with pillows. Holo ran over to them and they closed up the door to the castle behind here. Luna’s mouth dropped.

“I didn’t even know that they had this many pillows...”

“Could the three of you come out here for a minute, we just want to ask you something.” Somehow the three foals appeared at the top of the castle. Luna was surprised.

“How is that even possible?” Steven answered smoothly.

“It’s easy, you don’t only use pillows. We had all night to figure that out.”

“Oh, so that’s why you weren’t in our room this morning.” Steven looked down, ashamed.

“Please don’t be mad at them, it was my idea. I saw that you had fallen asleep in Celestia’s room and I just though…” Luna quickly cut off Steven.

“No no, it’s okay Steven.” The three opened the castle and came out. Steven hugged Luna while Holo and Taiga hugged Celestia. Celestia giggled.

“Well good morning you three.” They answered in unison.

“Good morning!” When they finished their hugs Celestia moved on to another topic.

“Now we won’t be mad if you did, but did you three lower the moon and raise the sun?” Steven looked excited.

“Well we woke up and it was still night. I knew that it was supposed to be morning already so we decided to try and help.” Taiga jumped up and down.

“I helped! None of us could do it ourselves but together we could move them sloooooooowly.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other.

“That’s amazing, we’re so proud of you.” Luna nodded. The three ponies were beaming. “Alright then, who wants breakfast?” Despite apparently staying up most of night all three ponies were fully awake and full of energy. They bolted out of the room with Luna and Celestia following leisurely.

That night Holo and Taiga entered their room. Taiga was bouncing to her bed as Holo closed the door. As she turned around she caught a glimpse of something outside the window. But before she could look any closer it was gone.

“Taiga, did you see that?” Taiga stopped jumping on her bed and looked at Holo.

“See what?” Holo sighed. Taiga wouldn’t have seen it because she had her eyes closed while she was jumping of the bed despite being warned it was dangerous.

“Nevermind, let’s just get to bed because we don’t want to miss anything in our lessons tomorrow.” Taiga frowned.

“Fine.” She pulled her sheets over herself. Holo walked to the window and looked out. When she didn’t see anything outside she walked over to Taiga and kissed her on the forehead.

“Goodnight sis.” Taiga looked up at her before suddenly jumping up and hugging her tightly.

“Night Holo.” When the hug ended Holo went to her bed and crawled under the sheets, falling asleep right away.

The next morning Holo awoke to voices in the hall. She looked over to see that Taiga had opened the door and was looking out. Holo hopped out of bed and looked out as well. In the hallway were Luna and Celestia. Luna was trying to calm her sister.

“I have no idea what it could have been.”

“Are you sure that Steven was with you all night?” Luna furrowed her brow.

“Of course I’m sure. Steven did not leave the room, come to think about it he didn’t even wake up all night. I know because I woke up several times.” Celestia seemed skeptical.

“And what made you wake up?”

“I just didn’t sleep well. I was tossing and turning all night and several times I got up so I would disturb Steven.” Holo walked up to them.

“What happened?” Celestia looked happy to see Holo safe.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt like somepony was watching me so I looked at the window and I saw something outside, but it was gone before I could see what it was.” Holo started to look nervous.

“I-i saw something outside our window last night right when we entered the room, but I couldn’t see what it was before it flew away.” Celestia looked with concern at Luna.

“We have to figure out what it is because I don’t want there to be any danger in this castle.”

“Don’t worry Tia, we'll be safe.”

Holo watched the guards outside searching the grounds and sighed. They couldn’t go outside until it was confirmed that there was no present danger to them. They sat in the royal library, waiting. Taiga was content reading the book that Celestia had chosen for her, but Holo couldn’t focus on reading. She walked over to Princess Celestia who was reading from a book and taking notes.

“Um, Celestia, where is Steven? I haven’t seen him all morning and I’m worried that something might have happened to him last night.” Celestia put down her quill.

“Holo, you heard as clear as I have that Steven is fine, Luna told us, remember? Though I am wondering why we haven’t seen him all day.” She got up from her seat. “Actually Holo, would you keep an eye on your sister for me? I’m going to go see Luna and Steven.” Holo nodded and she left the room. Holo looked at the book and notes Celestia had been taking, the book was on how to use magic and the notes were ways that she, Celestia, could help Taiga and herself learn magic. When she got to the end of the notes she paused and read the last one.

‘Maybe if Holo and Taiga become proficient at magic they could help me help Luna and Steven.’ She tilted her head.

“Help them?” Taiga called Holo.

“Holo, look at this.” Holo walked over to Taiga and looked at the book. It was a history book of Equestria for school ponies. Celestia had wanted Taiga to read it so that she could know a bit more about their new home. The place where Taiga was pointing was the section where Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon and been banished to the moon. Holo suddenly understood what Celestia had meant when she wrote that she wanted them to help her. Luna and Steven were probably unstable and Celestia wanted Taiga and herself to help stabilize them someday. Just then Princess Celestia came back in.

“Holo, Steven is fine. Luna is teaching him some magic in their room. Now I don’t want you two to be too far behind Steven so I think we should begin your magic training.” Holo and Taiga nodded and followed her out of the library.

Celestia taught them a couple things about magic and a few spells. Unsurprisingly they both picked up the magic very quickly, the same way Steven had. Not wanting to push them Celestia decided that they had learned enough.

“I think that’s enough for one day.” Celestia had to limit how much she taught them in a day even though she wanted to teach them all she knew. Luna did the same with Steven. Even though they could probably pick up everything that was put before them, Luna and herself agreed they didn’t want to cram too much at once into their heads. Celestia went to leave the room, but Holo ran up and stopped her.

“Um, Celestia, is there any way that I could see Steven? I know that Luna said he was fine and that you saw him, but I can’t feel completely at ease unless I see him personally. I just want to make sure that the thing we saw last night didn’t get to him.” Celestia looked her for a second. Holo had genuine worry in her eyes. Celestia smiled.

“Of course, I want you to feel as safe as possible given our current situation.” She looked over as Taiga who was still making a stuffed animal fly around. “Taiga, do you want to come and see Steven?” She dropped the stuffed animal right away and ran out the door with them.

Celestia knocked on Luna and Steven’s door. A muffled ‘Come in’ came from within the room. Celestia opened the door and the three entered. Steven and Luna turned to look at them. Holo and Steven's eyes met and ran to each other. When they closed the distance they hugged tightly,but it was only a few seconds of the two of them hugging before Taiga reached them and forced her way into the hug. Luna looked from the hug to her sister with a worried look on her face.

“I think we’ll give you three a minute. Come on Luna.” Celestia motioned for her sister to follow her out of the room. Once they were outside Celestia tried to calm her sister. “Luna, the guards haven’t found anything yet, but we aren’t even sure what Holo and I saw last night. It’ll be okay.” The worry on Luna’s face was replaced with confusion.

“What, no. That’s not why I’m worried.” Celestia sat down to listen. “I’m not crazy, right? I mean you saw that hug in there.”

“Luna, all three of them were hugging.”

“Not at first, you saw the way they locked eyes and both knew to run to each other. And this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.” Celestia looked away. Luna squinted her eyes at Celestia.

“What have you seen? Because I can tell you have seen something by the way you are acting.”

“Well, Holo is the one who insisted on coming to see Steven right now. And then there was the time, well…”

“Come on, what is it?!”

“Well, when I gave them their cutie marks Holo told me that Steven had told her how he got his and that they had tried to give her a cutie mark from him.” Luna was no longer furious and was tearing up.

“He never told me that, he tells me everything...” Celestia wrapped her wing around Luna to comfort her.

“It’s okay Luna, they’re just best friends.”

“No Tia, you saw the way they looked at each other.” Her sentences were broken up by sobs. “I don’t think I could take it if he… I don’t want to be alone, not again.” There was a sound behind them. They turned around to see Steven standing there by himself. Luna turned her face to keep him from seeing the tears. Steven came up beside her and looked her in the face.

“Luna, I would never leave you. I love you.” Steven pushed up against Luna’s side. Luna sniffled.

“Really Steven?” He nodded and they sat there for a while.