Apotheosis of the Nightby Dark0592ChaptersPrologue: Night CourtChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Prologue: Night CourtTwilight was sitting behind and to the right of Luna during Night Court. It had been a good month since Twilight volunteered as an advisor. She couldn’t help but think about what’s happened over the last decade. She no longer lived in Canterlot, not all the time at least. Celestia had arranged for a home in Ponyville where her friends and the other elements of harmony lived and she spent at least half of her time there. She still spent some weeks here in Canterlot to be with her adopted mother and recently Luna. When Luna appeared as a child, it was quickly discovered that she wouldn’t wake up. It was strange to see a child grow into a young woman without even opening her eyes to see it. Twilight had hoped to have a sister to grow up with, but it wasn’t to be. It wasn’t until she was already nineteen years old that Luna opened her eyes. It wasn’t Luna, though. Not entirely. It was filled with Nightmares. That was a very dark day for Equestria. They had all thought they had solved the problem of Nightmare moon, but it turned out to be the spectre formed of Luna’s darkest wishes that was the source of her coma. It resurged after finally taking enough power to possess Luna’s unconscious body again and she disappeared for nearly a week. Celestia had tasked Twilight and the other elements with finding out what they could while she did her own research, and it was at the temple in the Everfree Forest where they finally found Nightmare Moon. She was attempting to seal the stones that were the catalysts into prisons of dark energy, but when the elements arrived they broke out as if the barriers were made of sugar and we all know the rest of that particular night. Nightmare Night after that was an interesting night as well, but that’s a tale for another night. Luna was trying to get Twilight’s attention. Oh no, she just spaced out in the middle of court again. “Oh I’m so sorry Princess, I was thinking during the break and I guess my brain forgot to turn back on.” Twilight said uneasily. This was the third time that night. Luna gave her a jokingly disappointed expression. “Unfortunate, I was just asking you what this man was talking about… I kind’ve spaced out too.” The Princess giggled and turned to look at the man. “It’s clear to me when I’m not wanted…” The man scoffed and turned to leave. “Sir Bright Stroll, I do apologize for my inattentiveness. I will give you my full attention if you repeat yourself.” Luna said with an almost commanding tone. She didn’t have to apologize, but she did anyways. The man grumbled and turned back around. “As I was saying, then… It’s about your Night Guard. We usually don’t have much Crime in Canterlot to deal with, not real crime anyways, but the Royal Guard seems to be rather lax in their duties at night and petty crime is up by thirteen percent. Your Guard is called the Night Guard, yet nobody even sees heads or wings of them during the night OR day.” The man repeated. Luna let out the smallest of sighs, passing it off as a normal breath. Twilight caught it, though. It looked almost like Celestia did right before her composure fell and SHE had to yell someone out of the room. It was different though, Luna didn’t care about Composure nearly as much as her sister. This was… well, she’d have to watch out for it again. “Contrary to their name, the Night Guard is not a guard at all. At least not in the same capacity as my sister’s guard. That is unfortunately all I may say publicly, for it is a matter of national security and cannot be addressed in a public court. As a member of the city council, though, you may inquire about them through private channels to learn yourself if you wish and I will answer any questions I can at that time.” Luna replied gracefully. This wasn’t the first time she had been asked about the Night Guard, but it was the first time she gave anything more than ‘can’t tell you, sorry’. “Very well, I will do so. Thank you.” He said with a bow. He turned to leave and was quickly replaced by someone who spent way too much time on their outfit. “Lord Prim Luck.” He was announced by the volunteer Herald with a long scroll of names. Twilight and Luna both thanked Celestia that he rolled it up afterwards, meaning this man was the last of the night. Luna nodded her head to the noble, signaling he could speak. “Princess, I have come to propose a simple tax reform…” The man started. Twilight inwardly groaned. Luna outwardly. Twilight recognized him though. “This man came by the Day Court last week to propose a tax reform as well. Celestia almost shouted him out, pay attention please.” Twilight leaned to say in Luna’s ear when the man paused. The playful scolding caused Luna’s mouth to twitch in a smile but she quickly sequestered it away. The man talked for about ten minutes before Twilight saw it again. He was talking about cutting the pay of the Night Guard to make way for some profiteering neither of them cared to listen to the details of. Luna’s posture slumped slightly and there was another tiny sigh. Twilight latched onto the signs though and started digging through what body language the Princess was showing. It was almost like what Twilight went through the first day after switching cities, missing her friends or missing her mother . This wasn’t quite that though. Luna was missing… something. “I’ve had enough of this, and I don’t have the energy to shout you out right now Prim Luck. Next time, stick to the first half where you talk about how you’re helping people, then make sure the people you’re helping list more than you and yours. I don’t approve of profiteering at the cost of your fellow man and my sister doesn’t either. If either of us see you in court for this again I will personally strip your titles and demand your land as compensation for the insult.” Luna said evenly. The man froze and scowled, but said no more. He gave a very unenthusiastic bow and stormed out. The Herald bowed to the Princess and left as well. The small assembly of observers and archivists finished their writings and left as well, leaving only Twilight and a few night Guards to keep the princess company. She stood up, letting out a rather unprincess-like yawn and stretched. “Captain, you are relieved of your guard duty. Take your people and continue your rounds if you would.” She said to one of the guards. The man nodded with a fist to his chest and the guards left the room as well. She turned to Twilight, who was still kinda staring at her. “Dinner?” The princess asked with a little smile. Twilight snapped out of it and returned the smile “Dinner.” She said as she stood. Author's Note I wish I could draw, cover images are so hard to come by these days for humanized stories. Apologies for the inconsistency with making it human, but I'm just not capable of writing them as ponies anymore. This is the true sequel to The Sun and Her Little Sparkle, instead of me slapping the sequel tag on that other story as an afterthought. Hopefully it does the original justice. Chapter 1“How goes your studies with my sister? I understand you’re her best student since Starswirl the Bearded.” Luna asked, once again breaking Twilight out of her thoughts. Twilight’s surprise at the break in silence didn’t go unnoticed, but Luna kept it to herself as they enjoyed a nice stew and salad dinner. “Oh! Um… well, to be honest we haven’t done much in months. It’s kind’va the reason I started sitting in on your courts. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with mom and everything… it’s just the studies just become ‘let’s sit down and be lazy while we do nothing and call it studying’” Twilight replied, ending with a little giggle at the end. Luna seemed a little surprised by that answer. “I don’t understand, she has centuries of knowledge and teachings to pass on.” The Lunar Princess said. Twilight smiled. “Well, even before she adopted me I did a ton of my own studies into magic. The reason I’m her personal protege is because she believed I was already halfway through what her school for gifted mages would be teaching me, and I’d outstrip the rest much too quickly. Slap on ten years of advanced teachings from the Princess herself and we’ve hit a wall.” Twilight explained. Luna slowly nodded. “Then I amend my previous statement. You are her best student period. Even Starswirl was well into his thirties by the time he hit that wall with her.” The Princess said with a little chuckle. “I suppose it makes sense. You haven’t shown much interest in my court before, boredom is a powerful motivator.” She said with a light chuckle. Twilight saw through the chuckle though, it wasn’t genuine.She saw that little pang of… something. “Oh no, Princess! I mean, well, yes it was technically out of Boredom I asked to sit in on your courts. But if you remembered, I offered to be your advisor in the first place. While Politics aren’t exactly my favorite thing in the world, Education is one of them. It has been a wonderful week helping you learn the changes of modern times.” Twilight tried to explain as best she could. She wanted to make Luna feel like she wasn’t just there because it was the only thing to do. It was, as she said, technically true. She didn’t see it that way though. “In fact, I wish I would have started sitting in earlier. If for any other reason than these little chats over dinner we have afterwards. You make for far more interesting conversation than anyone else in the palace.” She continued. Luna had a hand over her mouth by the end of it, not sure whether she was suppressing a laugh or something else. “Surely your mother makes for interesting conversation?” She asked, almost probing the girl for information. Twilight rubbed her forehead. “I mean obviously, but… I’ve been having conversations with her for more than half of my life. It gets a liiiiiittle stale after so long.” The girl said, almost in a grumble. Luna laughed at that. “I suppose I know what you mean. While it has been interesting seeing how my sister has changed since my banishment, even after a month I grow wanting for others to speak with. I have to thank you, as you’ve helped with that recently. I’m glad I’m not just your last resort.” The Princess replied. A bit of an awkward silence formed as they both returned to their meals. It wasn’t until they had finished did they speak again. “The night is certainly an interesting place, Twilight Sparkle. All one needs to do is simply ask and she may spill her secrets.” Twilight heard Luna say. She looked up from her empty bowl to see the princess standing at the door. Apparently she had zoned out again. Luna was watching her with careful eyes and Twilight felt that pang again. When Luna saw that she was heard she inclined her head to the girl and left the room in full. Twilight didn’t really know how to respond to that, which made her a little thankful that the princess had left. What did that even mean? She chose to think on it. She pushed it right up next to the strange signals she was getting from the princess in terms of internal prioritization. “You’re up awful early…” She was once again startled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice. Celestia had just walked in, though she had a bit of a worried expression. Confused, she looked around. Why was Celestia up so late was the question. Oh… it’s morning… She really sat here all night thinking without even realizing it. Celestia’s sun nearly blinding her as she looked at the windows to prove the point. “O-Oh… I need to stop doing that…” The girl grumbled and rubbed her face. Celestia rolled her eyes and walked over to hug her adopted daughter. “The staff informed me that you were still in here from last night, but I got a little worried when I didn’t see your usual pillow of books. I was especially worried when I saw you were actually awake and not asleep.” The Princess explained. Twilight grumbled. “I had a lot on my mind… and spending so many late nights with Luna I think my internal clock is going crazy.” The girl said simply, rationalizing it. Celestia hummed a maybe and made to take her seat next to Twilight as the chefs came in with breakfast. “Well, we can talk about what was on your mind after breakfast if you’re still awake. It’s clearly troubling you, whatever it is.” The Princess said as pancakes and two large omelettes were placed in front of them. Twilight kind’ve automatically picked up her new utensils and started eating. “Well, I don’t know if bothered is the right word for it… Have you noticed that Luna is… missing something?” Twilight asked, testing her theory on what it was that she felt in Luna. Celestia hummed in thought. “Well I assume you don’t mean something physically, she’s always missing something there. You know she’s terrible with paperwork…” Celestia started with a giggle, but her tone fell to a more serious one. “...But I think I know what you mean. My guess is that she’s lonely. We… aren’t as close as we used to be. I wish we were, and I try to be, but there’s so much between us now. The Banishment aside there’s the millenia gap in time, my tastes and even personality changing all the way, and she herself changing from the isolation and having the nightmare ripped from her. I love her as much as I love you, Twilight, but it’s impossible for us to truly be sisters again… At least for now.” The Princess continued with a bit of melancholy. Twilight listened in silence. A thought popped into her head. “Well… She did say she was enjoying my presence in her court. Maybe I should try spending more time with her if she’s lonely.” She said. Celestia nodded as her smile returned. “An excellent idea! She could probably teach you a few things as well, heavens knows I’ve done all I can in that respect.” The Princess agreed happily. Twilight smiled but then grew silent again. Celestia took note and assumed it was Twilight trying to figure out how to word what she wanted to say next. She was accurate in that assumption. “Princess… Mom… what if I started studying under her like I did with you? Our study sessions have turned into cloud watching or going out of the palace for lunch more than actual studying. I mean, I love every second of it but…” Twilight started and couldn’t quite finish it. Celestia gave her a knowing grin though. “You want to end your apprenticeship with me and begin anew under my sister?” She asked. Twilight nodded slowly. “Oh I suppose it’d be a good idea. I can’t think of anyone besides her that would even have much to teach you that you couldn’t find in books.” Celestia continued. Twilight looked up at her. “While ten years is very short in comparison to other apprenticeships, I daresay you’ve learned all you can from me. I’ll make a media announcement about it rather than doing the actual ceremony. It’s horribly outdated. From now on, you are now a master in terms of the Arcane. The only step up from here would be Archmage, but I’m afraid I can’t just give that title to you. The nobility would have a fit, and ultimately that duty falls under Luna’s jurisdiction.” The Princess explained. Twilight was a little confused by that. “Is that why there hasn’t been an Archmage since Starswirl?” Twilight asked. Celestia nodded. “While I could have taken over that duty, I saw no need to. The Archmage is a position that is… unique. I can’t even quite explain it. You’ll have to ask Luna more when you tell her the good news. That’ll have to wait until Dusk, though. She’s long gone to sleep.” The Princess answered. Twilight hummed as she looked down at her now empty plate. She didn’t even remember finishing it. “You should go get some sleep, Twilight.” Celestia said as she picked her fork back up. Twilight hummed and stood. “Thanks Mom. Good… uh… day. Love you.” The girl said with a smile and quickly hugged her adopted mother. Celestia giggled at that and returned it before returning to her food. Twilight thanked the workers that had cleaned up for the morning for not disturbing her and made for her room in the Astronomy Tower. “Fall asleep at the dinner table again?” A voice startled her out of her thoughts for the third time that day. She had just walked into find Spike standing on his tippy-talons to reach a book on the top shelf of the bookcase he was standing in front of. He had stopped in a precarious looking pose, his tail helping him keep balance, when she walked in. “Something like that.” Twilight said, walking over to him and levitating him up a foot so he could reach easier. The purple dragon chuckled at the feeling of being lifted and slid the book out of its place. “Well I’ve got some research to do for Rarity, I promised her I’d master control of my fire by the next time we go to Ponyville so that I can help her with a project she’s working on.” The dragon said, wriggling out of Twilight’s magical grip to land back on his hind legs. When standing up like this he was about as tall as Twilight, maybe around 5’6. He stuck the book between two spines on his back and dropped to all fours to plod over and lean up against Twilight in a hug. “Spike you know you won’t be able to breath actual fire for another decade right?” Twilight said to him more rhetorically than anything. Spike grinned and looked up at her. He spit a bit of green fire at her, it fell short right before it hit her face. She recoil hard and almost fell over. “I’m not a normal dragon remember? My artificial egg and magical birth, thanks to you, make me age way fast. I’m even starting to remember things from previous lives, though mostly tastes and smells. According to this book…” He started, standing up on his hind legs again to pull the book out of his spines and open it up like a human. “... I’m about fifty years into my life cycle, physically at least. Further exposure to magic may accelerate my growth further and new milestones might get hit faster. I’ve already got a tiny bit of fire, and I’m halfway there to wings according to this timeline.” The Drake continued and flipped the book over for her to see. It was a very basic timeline with milestones. The first ten marks, leading up to the 50 year mark, were mostly instinctual memories. 15 held the first signs of fire breath, while 50 marked when they were usually supposed to have the ability to create the iconic flamethrower of breath. 100 was when the wings were supposed to grow in. “Well, it says you’re already supposed to have control over your fire so get to work!” Twilight said with a grin as she snatched the book out of his talons and used her magic to put it back where it belonged. “Hey! I was going to read that!” The Drake pouted. “Not when you’re practicing fire you’re not. In fact, if I ever catch you breathing fire in here again I’ll turn your tongue into ice. I will NOT have this palace burn down because of you.” Twilight scolded, taking on a tone like a mother scolding her child. Spike looked at the ground and scratched at the stone with his talons. “I’m sorry…” He said softly. “Good. Now…” Twilight started, her demeanor switching completely. “I need a nap something fierce. Just let me know if you leave the palace to practice. Otherwise you can go ahead and go back to your books.” She said, her smile returning as her lack of sleep really hit her. “Alright. Want me to wake you up anytime in particular?” Spike asked as he dropped back down to all fours. “At Dusk if I’m not already up, thanks Spike.” She said, scratching under the frill on the right side of his head. His tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth at the scratching and he grumbled in affirmative. She patted his head and made for the bedroom as the Drake plodded back over to the shelf. Twilight had put his book a shelf lower so he could actually reach it this time. He took it over to where he had already constructed his patented cushion fort from the furniture in the room and curled up inside of it to read. Author's Note Sorry this took so long to get out. I don't know when I'll be updating, but I'll try to get at least one chapter out a week. It really depends on how much I work, which is currently 40 hours a week. Hope you enjoyed. Chapter 2Twilight was dreaming. She had to be dreaming. Last she checked her room in the Astronomy tower wasn’t an endless abyss of black. She felt like she was floating in water, though that wasn’t quite right. She was floating in something else. Or maybe it wasn’t something else at all, maybe what she was floating in was… nothing? She snapped her vision to where she heard the sound of… something. It was Luna, wistfully floating around and humming a soft tune to herself. The sound echoed across the endless expanse of… nothing. The Princess would occasionally twirl around as if dancing to herself, or swirl around little masses of the nothingness. But wait, if it was nothing how was she swirling it around? Whatever this stuff was it was certainly not nothing. “You should recognize this place, is it not familiar?” She heard from her other side. Luna didn’t seem to notice, but when Twilight turned she was started. It was herself that was speaking to her. Although It was… different. The girl that was now standing directly in front of her had a much more pale hue to her skin, her eyes were slits, her expression almost giddy with malice. It was a little terrifying. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The not-Twilight sneered. “Who are you?! What are you?!” Twilight exclaimed, recoiling from the creature. This seemed to only amuse it. It giggled and stepped closer. “I am you,and I am you. But I’m not quite you at the same time. You should be familiar with this now shouldn’t you? And I thought you would actually be smarter than me.” The thing laughed. Twilight was getting frustrated. “Alright, fine. Have it your way. I’ve been banishing nightmares since I was a little girl. You’re no different.” She said and attempted to summon up her magic to use the calming spell she had learned in the Orphanage to ease the nightmare into a much tamer thing. Nothing happened. “Ooh hit the nail right on the head. You got me, I’m a Nightmare. But I’m not just any nightmare. I’m YOUR Nightmare. And I can’t just be banished away like that, not in this place of dreamers.” The grinning not-Twilight almost cackled. Twilight froze and looked at it. “Nightmare Moon…?” She asked softly. The creature’s grin fell to a line. Almost in annoyance. “No you idiot, I’m YOUR Nightmare. Nightmare Moon is LUNA’S Nightmare. Geez I have to explain everything to you don’t I? Ok, let’s start with the baby terms. I am a physical mental and magical manifestation of all of your deepest darkest fears and hates and all of those bad feelings you have. I’m not particularly fond of you, and you’re not going to be particularly fond of me I can assure you, but we’ll work something out.” The Nightmare explained. Twilight listened to every word. The scholar in her wanted to ask more. The survivalist in her was yelling at her to get the hell out of there. The Scholar won. “Wait work something out, what do you mean by that?” Twilight asked. The Nightmare sneered. “I am Fear. I am Hate. I am Anger. I am all of those little feelings and big feelings that turn that pretty face of yours into a scowl. I guess you can say I’m an Avatar of your negativity. Naturally I want to rip things apart, snuff things out, destroy everything I can get my hands on. I obviously can’t do much of that here and so I get more and more irritated and antsy. If you don’t let me out of your head to break something every now and then I might just have to bide my time and they’ll have to make another prophecy about us instead of them.” The Nightmare explained, ending with a thumb over at Luna. The Princess still seemed blissfully ignorant of their conversation, but now that Twilight looked she realized the Princess had a shadow. It was Nightmare Moon, matching her step for step. It wasn’t the hate filled scowl of the creature trying to bring endless night, though. Luna’s Nightmare seemed almost… content. “I can’t possibly know or understand what those two have come up with, but they seem to actually be getting along. Right now I don’t see that happening between us. Your little dragon is trying to wake you up now so I suppose I’ll let you go. Messing with your head is more fun when I can watch you tear yourself up trying to understand what I do.” The Nightmare said into her ear with a giggle. She was in the middle of turning around when her eyes opened to the blinding sun just barely sitting above the horizon. Spike had an annoyed expression. “Seriously, stop missing so much sleep or I won’t be able to wake you up anymore. I was about to start drawing on your face.” The Dragon grumbled. Twilight shot him a look that spelled ‘you wouldn’t dare’ and he shrugged. He probably wouldn’t. “Anyways, Mom sent over this paperwork while you were sleeping. Apparently you’ve got a title now.” He continued, pointing to the desk with a Talon. Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes and got out of bed. “Yeah yeah… sorry.” She grumbled back to him and walked over to the desk. It was a good stack of paperwork detailing duties and responsibilities, as well as benefits, of her new title of ‘Magus’. Twilight recognized the title, it was one that was used centuries ago. It was the title given to powerful mages who were hopefuls to inherit the title of Archmage, and usually studied directly under them. Her duties and responsibilities would be dictated by her mentor, but the benefits included a stipend from the Treasury and the right to speak in court should she choose to. She already could do so of course, but this title granted her the authority to overrule any of the nobility and even be the tiebreaker for a council decision- though a tie hasn’t happened in a long time. “I wonder why she’s even bothering to give me a title. I mean, the power is nice and all but I’m no politician… same for the Stipend, I already have quite the savings just from what she gives me as her stud-… oh. right, I’m not her student anymore…” Twilight said, more to herself than anything. “You’re not Mom’s student anymore?” Spike asked, a little concerned. “Oh, right, I never told you! I’ve officially completed my Apprenticeship under her and I’m going to start a new one under Luna.” She replied. Then she froze, looked out of the window and facepalmed. “Crap! That’s why I wanted you to wake me up at Dawn! I have to go tell luna that I’m her apprentice now! I’ll be back probably maybe tonight bye!” She continued in a rush and was out of the door before Spike had even processed what she said. He looked out after her and just shook his head. The Royal Guard stationed nearby didn’t even flinch. Twilight managed to recompose herself as she entered the dining room where she hoped Luna would be with the sun still barely peeking over the horizon as it was. She was correct. “Ah, good evening Twilight Sparkle! I wasn’t aware you would be joining me tonight, Court is not for another week.” The Princess said with a happy smile. The Chefs could either tell the future or were just impossibly quick because a plate was already being put down in Twilight’s usual place. Or maybe they were told to expect her showing up. That’s also a big possibility. “I wasn’t exactly planning it either, not for long at least. Um… do you mind?” Twilight asked a little nervously. Luna caught on to it though but nodded anyways. She watched the girl carefully as she took her seat and didn’t really touch her food. Then she noticed the paperwork in the girl’s hands. “Oh what have we here? Some assignment my sister has assigned?” The Princess asked slightly teasingly, knowing Celestia stopped assigning her homework years ago. Twilight was confused for a second but then realized she was still clutching the stack of paperwork about her Magus title. “Oh! I forgot to put those back down… I uh, I guess I should fill them out…” Twilight said. Luna chuckled, this wasn’t exactly unusual behavior for Twilight when something big -at least in her mind- is happening. The question was, though, what exactly was happening? Apparently it had something to do with her otherwise she wouldn’t be so nervous about sitting down and having brunch. “What ever is the matter, Twilight? I thought we’d become much more casual with each other since you started attending my court.” The Princess said cautiously, trying to prod the girl to explain what’s going on without actually saying ‘what’s going on?’. “Oh! I’m so sorry Princess, I'm just a little… uh… scattered right now.” Twilight said and took a deep breath. Luna recognized this as something she did to recompose herself and gather her thoughts so she waited patiently. It only took a few seconds for the girl to let it out and open her eyes again. “Ok, so long story short I want to be your apprentice and I’ve been granted the title of Magus for the completion of my apprenticeship with Mom.” She explained quickly. That wasn’t what Luna was expecting at all. She just kinda sat there, almost dumbfounded by that, as she processed everything that meant. For one, the title of Magus meant that her sister was recommending her for the position of Archmage. Second was that she was going to have to dig up some old books and probably rewrite the position of Archmage in its entirety to fit modern Equestria. Lastly, her apprentice. Twilight wanted to be HER Apprentice?! And she somehow completed her Apprenticeship with Celestia in only a decade? “I-I’m sorry, Princess… If you don’t want to be my mentor that’s alright… I guess I can-” Twilight started but was startled as she was interrupted by the sound of shifting wood and a crushing embrace. “Oh Twilight, I’ve never had an Apprentice before! If course I’d be more than happy to accept you as one!” Luna said happily as she pulled the girl into an embrace. “I apologize for my hesitation, I wasn’t expecting something like this. Ever. And the whole Magus thing must be my sister’s seal of approval. I’ll need to do some work to get the proper materials in order but I’d be delighted to start your education immediately!” She continued happily. Twilight was stunned by the embrace, but the mention of education snapped out of it. “Really? Immediately?” She asked. Luna pulled away from her and nodded enthusiastically. “Meet me i my quarters in two hours and I’ll have something setup for you. I’ve never passed my teachings on to a student like you before… I hope I do a good job.” The Princess said hopefully. Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’ve learned from dusty old books in the corners of the library before, you have to be a better teacher than that.” Twilight replied with a giggle. Luna quickly embraced her again before disappearing in the direction of her quarters, her meal half eaten. Almost as if on que, a chef came around to package the meal up to save for later. He gave Twilight a stern look before he left, though. She looked down at her plate, the full meal was going to get cold soon. She dared not incur the wrath of the chefs for wasting a meal so she quickly finished it. Magus, Daughter of Princess Celestia, Apprentice of Princess Luna and graduate of Celestia. She may not have nearly as many titles as most nobles, but they were starting to add up. She felt a little vain about them, they were impressive titles afterall. Author's Note Huzzah for completing another week straight of work at wally world. Your reward for bieng so patient is an update, hopefully it's not too bad. Hope you enjoyed. Chapter 3Twilight had been in luna’s room before, but she’d never seen it like this. It was covered in books. So many books. Like, literally at least a hundred books. Luna didn’t appear to even notice Twilight entering, as the door was unlocked and five minutes of knocking yielded no results. The Princess was pacing around with a few books looking deep in thought. “Uh, Princess?” Twilight asked. Luna snapped up and turned to face the sound and seemed surprised Twilight was standing there. She looked out of the window and looked like she wanted to facepalm. “I think I lost track of time, my new Apprentice. I asked Tia what exactly your level of magical study was and when she said the highest I got excited. I’ve never been able to teach anyone more than the basics of this and… well... Time flies when you’re hunting books as you probably know.” Luna explained before smiling warmly and motioning for Twilight to sit on one of the two reading chairs in the room. As Twilight did, Luna took her own seat. Her expression hardened up a bit as she made to speak. “First and foremost, I have to ask you again if you are sure you want to be my apprentice. This is not like Celestia’s tutorship, and it will most certainly not be safe.” Luna started. Twilight’s mind immediately went from ‘Yay Books!’ to ‘what’. “As my Apprentice, you will be sharing in my duties. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, what do you know of my duties outside of court?” The princess continued. Twilight was going to answer immediately, but she realized something important. She had no idea what Luna actually did outside of court. “I don’t actually know… but I’m guessing it has something to do with why you only hold court once a week.” Twilight answered. Luna smiled and nodded. “Celestia is the face of Equestria, I am the hand. She and her guard are the shield, my night guard and I are the sword. Before it used to be assassinations and war planning, among other things, but nowadays it’s diplomacy and secrecy. Celestia is certainly better at the former than I, but it’s not always safe for her to go. While she herself is a formidable opponent in battle, she cannot afford to tarnish her image with blood.” The Princess explained. That started to worry Twilight more than a little. “Wait, so you’re telling me your job is to do the dirty work required to keep a kingdom running?” She asked after a little bit of thought. Luna nodded. “It’s more than that, though. Those are my official duties. I have a lot that I do on the side as well. Namely…” Luna started as she used her magic to retrieve a very worn and unsettling tome from the desk. “... the study of dark magic. This will be the one part of old tradition I refuse to modify, you must learn and master this magic, at least in its basic form. Without it, you will not be able to follow where I go or survive the things we will come across.” The princess continued very seriously. Twilight accepted the tome cautiously. It felt… different. It was unsettling. “This is my gift to you. I need more time to prepare your education. Read that and prove to me you have at least a basic understand of the magics held within and I will officially accept you as my apprentice. If you read through it and decide there’s probably something better for you to do then I will understand.” Luna explained. By her tone, though, it seemed she hoped against that particular outcome. Twilight was starting to worry just what she was getting herself into. “I see… Do you mind if I stay here and do it then? If this is that important I wouldn’t want someone barging into the tower and reading over my shoulder.” The mage asked. Luna thought for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t see why not, I have to go and hunt for a few more things anyways. Just try not to fall asleep in here, it’s terribly awkward carrying someone halfway across the palace in their sleep. For both parties.” The princess said with a smirk. Twilight nodded and cracked the book open. She hardly even noticed Luna leave half an hour later, and she certainly didn’t notice the sun coming back up again. The only reason she really noticed Luna entering again was because that was about the time she hit the back cover. The tome may have been large, but so were the words and the pages rather bare. It wasn’t quite as bad as a spellbook, but it was about as detailed. “Done for the night I see?” The princess asked with a tired smile as she dropped a large sack of what sounded like more books onto the ground and stretched. It was at about then that Twilight noticed that she had actually spent the entire night reading. Again. “I think so. I just need to practice a bit. I saw that there was quite a bit of offensive magic in there, is that what you thought might scare me?” The mage asked. Luna seemed shocked. “Well, sortof. It was more the source of the magic and just what the spells in there did… Are you telling me you finished it cover to cover in twelve hours?” The princess asked in slight disbelief. Twilight nodded. “I can understand, definitely, but Dark Magic doesn’t seem to be all that bad. I mean yeah it uses a lot of negative emotion to fuel it rather than straight arcane power, but it’s got nothing on Black Magic or Necromancy.” She said somewhat casually. Luna just continued to stare at her. “Wait… Black Magic… Necromancy? What the hell has Celestia been teaching you?” The princess asked, curious and a little worried. “Oh, um… everything really. I have full access to the restricted sections of the library. As grueling and dirty as it was, I learned the basics of both so that I could better understand them in order to recognize and counter it. I’ve never heard of Dark Magic before.” Twilight answered cautiously. She hoped she wasn’t in trouble. Luna just stared at her for a little while before shaking a head and putting a finger to her chin in thought. “Oh I suppose it makes sense. Tia wouldn’t just graduate and title you because you asked her to. I guess you really have mastered your position. Hell, you’ve probably mastered what’s needed of you as a Magus. I knew you were impressive, Twilight Sparkle, but I must say I’m rather flabbergasted right now. Do you understand it enough to summon it up?” The princess asked. Twilight thought for a moment and took a deep breath. She focused on what she read, even reread some of it mentally. She let out her held breath and with it let what little negative emotion she had. The biggest one right now was frustration that she had to wait, but there was some underlying fear in there. Now that she thought about it, though, the fear was actually pretty strong. She was starting to understand why Luna was giving her a second chance to refuse the apprenticeship. If she’d have to use this kind of magic what the hell would they be getting into? “Twilight, that’s enough. Can you stop it?” Luna’s voice broke her train of thought. She opened her eyes and realized she was holding a massive ball of dark energy nearly the size of her. In a panic she dropped it and they both scrambled to catch it. Neither of them managed to catch it and they both stared at it as it hit the floor and cracked. “You really are an idiot.” A voice came out of the crack. An arm shot out of the massive orb and, like an egg hatching, the thing started breaking apart even more. “How the hell did you manage to drop that? And then not catch it? Geez, why do you put up with her Luna?” The voice continued as a head popped out. It was the Nightmare version of Twilight. “Tch. So I did see you in the river of dreams then. I thought I was just imagining things. Please don’t start spouting terrible things, I will return you to your realm before you finish.” Luna said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she threatened the creature. It snorted. “Pff I know, I’m not the idiot here. She’s the one who gave me this nice big doorway. I just wanted to say hello. See what it’s like to physically manifest. It's not exactly all it’s cracked up to be, I dunno what the hell your nightmare was on about.” The nightmare giggled. They both froze. “You’ve spoken with my nightmare?” Luna asked. The creature started laughing. “What? Hell no, she’d probably try to break me too. Nah, I just know what you tow have done together from this one’s knowledge and perspective. Do me a favor darling and don’t give me a doorway like that again unless you want me to make your life a living hell. They don’t call me Eris for nothing.” The nightmare replied. “Who calls you Eris?” Twilight asked, confused. “You know, stupid. See? I just tricked you into naming me something awesome. I’d thank you but being an idiot isn’t exactly impressive.” The nightmare answered. There was the slightest twitch in Twilight's’ expression before her fist was through the nightmare’s head. Literally. It just kinda shattered into dark energy. “Ooh feisty. Good, I like that. I’d make a stupid reference here but you wouldn’t get it. Ta-ta for now.” The thing continued, though the voice coming from the malformed mass of energy that was now her head before it all shattered and shot back into Twilight. Disoriented, but no longer being called an idiot, Twilight plopped back down into her chair. “Is that what it’s like? Celestia she was infuriating!” The girl growled. Luna probably would have laughed if what had happened didn’t actually just happen. “It’s different for everyone. We all have our own nightmares, ours are just able to take individuality and physical form because of how powerful we are… Yours is apparently almost as chaotic as Discord.” Luna said, trying to rationalize everything. Yes, that made sense. “Is it wrong that it felt really good punching her?” Twilight asked. Luna did laugh at that. “Not wrong at all. She is your personal nightmare, your hell. It should feel good to vanquish her and suppress her. Mine just really hates the sun. We’ve come to an agreement that she stops trying to take over the day as long as I promise to only summon her in it if she gets to destroy things.” The princess replied. Twilight just groaned. “I need to go to bed… I was already working on overdrive processing all of the information from that book and now this? What am I getting myself into…” The girl said. Luna chuckled a pit and put an arm around her. “Nothing you can’t back out of. If you’re still interested tomorrow then meet me at the library when the sun goes down. Otherwise I’ll send over what’s safe for you to learn on your own and we’ll keep it at that.” The princess assured her. Twilight just nodded and slowly stood. “Don’t worry. I faced down plenty things scarier than nightmares.” She said with a confident smile. Luna smiled back and walked her to the door. Twilight just sort of wandered off towards her own room, her own lack of sleep coming to bite her in the ass, while Luna decided now would be a good time to succumb to her own need to sleep. Author's Note Hopefully this turned out as well as I thought it did while I was writing it. I'm sick and a little drained but I hit a spot of inspiration so yay. Chapter 4“Geez, ever since you started hanging out with Princess Luna you’ve reverted back to your old sleeping schedule.” Spike said from the astronomy tower common room as Twilight came into it, stretching. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was well after noon, but it was still a few hours until sundown. “What, you mean none at all?” She retorted with a roll of her eyes. The dragon put a talon to his chin in thought. “Actually yeah you’re right, you actually sleep. Usually. I guess I can’t complain you’re a night owl.” He said with a shrug and turned back to his book. Twilight took a peek at the cover and found it to be another book about the growth and history of dragons. She couldn’t help but smile at him and kiss him on top of the head. He waved her away but his little giggle betrayed how much he loved it. “I’m glad you’re learning, I’m probably going to be gone all night again. You gonna be ok?” She asked him. “Of course! I’ve been able to live on my own for years now! I just like taking care of you.” He replied, sticking his forked tongue out at her for effect. Twilight snorted. “You take care of me? Riiiiight.” She just said and shook her head. “Gonna meet with Princess luna again?” He asked. She nodded. “I’m gonna meet her at the library at sundown, she’s gonna show me a whole lot of super advanced stuff that nobody’s been taught in over a thousand years.” She explained, by the end of it she was practically giddy. Spike just chuckled and booped her nose with her own, earned a scrunched up face and a giggle. “Just be careful. I don’t really have a bad feeling about this or anything, but something deep inside me just wants you to be careful.” He said. Twilight was going to brush it off as him just being worried about her, which was true regardless, but the way he worded that… Maybe some of the old dragons remembered Luna before her banishment, the things she did. Maybe Spike was tapping into that. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m getting myself into. She spent all of yesterday making sure.” She said simply, kissing him on the head again and walking off. “Go get something to eat, when you get excited like this you forget that you need food!” Spike called after her. Twilight stopped as the door closed and looked down. Yeah, she was SUPER hungry. She decided that brunch was the first thing she should take care of. She was delighted to find Celestia in the dining hall just starting her lunch. “Oh there you are, Twilight. I admit I was slightly worried when you weren’t at breakfast, but I suppose my sister’s Nocturnal schedule has something to do with that.” Celestia said when she entered the room and quickly came over to hug her adoptive mother. “Pretty much. It’s not much different than when I’m in crunch mode, except I get more than half an hour of sleep. How was court today?” Twilight asked. Celestia practically deflated as a servant put a plate in front of Twilight. It was a plate of a couple grilled cheese with eggs and bacon sandwiches, her favorite brunch! “My dearest nephew is trying to get into politics again and insisted he sit in as an advisor. I was actually surprised, he was polite for a while. The second the first noble refused to leave when I asked him though he practically exploded at them. After that it all went downhill and he started trying to shout every noble that asked anything of me out of the room. I tolerated it until he insulted a Griffin dignitary and they almost dueled…” Celestia grumbled. “Please don’t tell me you actually let them duel…” Twilight groaned. Celestia had a particular twinkle in her eye, like the one she had when she introduced Spitfire to Dash. “Of course I did, I just gave them sticks to duel with instead of blades. It was actually rather impressive- if amusing.” The princess giggled. Twilight just laughed. “How about your last Night court with Luna?” Celestia continued. Twilight hummed. “A whoooole lot of people trying to run things by her that you rejected, a few people with relevant requests… Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask you! This one noble brought up a decent question. If the Night Guard aren’t for guarding, then who polices the city at night?” The young girl replied. She had been curious since she didn’t really know the answer to that. “Why, the police of course! They aren’t exactly common to be honest, since most matters that require authority intervention is minor enough for a royal guard or two to take care of. Luna actually came to me about that topic, though, expanding the police force- especially at night. Even got a few volunteers from her night guard to start it off.” The Princess explained. Twilight nodded. She wanted to ask more about the night guard, but knew that if she really wanted to know then she should ask her new mentor. Knowing Celestia, she’d say the same. “How is Spike doing? I’m afraid nobody has seen him outside of the tower in days.” Celestia broke Twilight out of her thoughts. Twilight snorted. “He’s pulling a me. He found a few old books about dragons and has been hiding in his cushion fort ever since.” She replied, smiling at her adopted sibling’s similarities with herself. “I thought so, I’ll have to send him a few of my private copies then if he’s reached that stage of his adolescence. Learning more about himself will help his connection to his kind swimmingly!” Celestia said happily. Twilight smiled and nodded. The meal fell down to comfortable silence again before Celestia stood and servants cleared both of their empty plates. “I’m afraid I have a mountain of paperwork to get through, I approved a small tax reformation to spread the wealth of the nobility around where it’s needed and I’m going to need to pull an all nighter to word it so they don’t come after me with pitchforks and torches.” The Diarch said ,ending in a grumble. “I’ll probably be up all night as well, I’ll make sure we stop by if you’re still awake when we’re finished with whatever it is Luna wants to do tonight.” Twilight replied, standing as well. They hugged, Celestia kissed the top of her head like she had done to Spike, and they parted. Celestia practically trudged in the direction of her study while Twilight decided to head to the palace’s library and research her new title. She was aware of old traditions, but had no idea if they still held true. She was startled out of her reading by a night guard. “Sir, it’s nearing sundown.” The leather winged Valkyrie said professionally, though she had a particular expression. It seemed like she was happy to be fetching Twilight. Twilight gave her a blank look, looked out of the window, and nearly screamed. “Our Princess had a feeling you’d be tucked away in here for one reason or another and sent me to make sure you weren’t late.” The Guard continued. Twilight took a deep breath, like Celestia had taught her, and shoved her panic down and crushed it. She wasn’t late. Yet. “Thank you, miss…” She started, but realized that she didn’t know a single night guard’s name like she did the royal guard. “Lunar Wind, Sir. Would you like me to escort you? The streets of Canterlot aren’t entirely the safest place in Equestria at night anymore.” The guard asked, smiling softly at being asked her name. “While I don’t think it’s entirely necessary, it would give me a chance to get to know you. I am at least acquaintances with every royal guard on the payroll, I don’t see why I shouldn’t extend that to you guys.” Twilight replied, smiling. Wind smiled brighter at that and had to suppress a giddy giggle. Twilight took note, but otherwise motioned for the woman to lead on. “So, what were you reading that had you so tuned out, if you don’t mind me asking?” Wind asked, risking a bit of casual conversation as they walked. “I was doing some research on my new title of Magus, what it entails, the responsibilities and all that, then I started on the title of Archmage since it’s the next step and… well... There’s a LOT of very OLD traditions that come with both.” Twilight explained. Wind couldn’t repress her soft snort at Twilight’s blush. “Yes, I am aware of many of them. I assure you that our Princess hasn’t need of the more… private ones. Luckily the nobility couldn’t care less of our half of history or they’d have rioted in the streets at what the title of even Magus implied of the two of you.” Wind went on. Twilight giggled, and we relatively impressed with the guard. She wasn’t just a grunt that’s for sure. “Tell me, Lunar Wind, what is your role in your work with Princess Luna?” Twilight asked interested. The woman thought for a moment. “A little bit of everything I suppose. Seneschal, assistant, runner, bodyguard, she even put me in command of the army sent to blockade the Changelings before Celestia demanded neutrality.” Wind replied. Twilight was even more impressed now ,a rather jill of all trades. “Do you lead the night guard?” Twilight asked. Wind smiled but shook her head. “Luna leads the Night Guard, as do you now. We are the blades, you are the hands that hold them.” The Dark Valkyrie replied. Twilight’s step faltered, but she caught up as she remembered what exactly it meant to be the protege of a Princess. “Right… that’s why you called me Sir… Since I am second in command for my Princess.” Twilight said, halfway reciting from what she read. Wind nodded as the Canterlot Library came into view. “While we have been instructed to treat you as our superior, I don’t believe you’d use that authority any time soon. Oh, wow, she cleans up nicely.” Wind continued, but changed the subject and stopped as she looked towards the Library. Twilight stopped in her tracks as well, seeing that Luna was waiting there. She was standing, leaning against the fountain, and Twilight had never seen her looking like this. Normally, Luna was either wearing a simple dress under her regalia for special events, or a rather nice but again simple tunic and trousers under her regalia on most days. Tonight, she seemed as if she were meeting the love of her life. She was wearing an elegant dress, the kind even Rarity would drool over. Actually, it looked like something Rarity could have made. It even had a lovely black bow with the moon dyed into it. And she was wearing makeup. Makeup was one modern beauty trend that the princess of the night neither understood nor cared for… but it made her look absolutely stunning. Either she had a secret hobby, or she had a professional touch her up. “When you said you were going to freshen up, I assumed you were just going to put on clean clothes or something.” Wind said incredulously as she walked closer. Luna, startled out of her thoughts, smiled warmly at her multipurpose assistant. “One of the maids convinced me to look my best when I mentioned I was ‘going out’... She may have misunderstood, but I haven’t felt pretty like this in a long time.” The Princess replied. “Did you fetch her then?” She continued. Wind, confused, turned around. Twilight was still standing a good few paces away staring at Luna. “Uh, Twilight? You’re going to make me blush…” Luna said jokingly, though she had a feeling if she didn’t have the small amount of makeup that she did she would have been called a liar. That snapped Twilight out of it. “O-Oh! Heavens, Princess, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so… prettied up before. I thought you hated Makeup.” The girl finally said as she joined the other two next to the fountain. “I hate modern makeup and the trends it follows. I don’t see the point of lathering chemicals all over your face every day for an hour. I make my own beauty products, and as such I won’t waste them on daily activity. Reserved the the most special of occasions.” Luna replied. “What was that about being misunderstood? Sounds to me like you really are ‘going out’.” Wind said. She snorted as Luna shot her a glare and turned. “Right, If I stick around long enough you might actually punish me for being a smartass. I’ll fly my normal rounds. Princess, Sir.” The night guard continued, bowing to both of them before shooting into the air. Not without sticking her tongue out at her princess first, however. Luna just shook her head and chuckled. “That woman. I love her to death but I swear one day we’re going to get into a fistfight.” The Princess muttered, looking back over to Twilight. The girl seemed a little embarrassed. Luna rolled her eyes. “I do suppose I got carried away. I just got so… excited...I wanted the first lesson to be special- even if we do away with the old traditions.” The Princess said softly, the last part an attempt to inject humor into it. It failed, though, at least to her .She could feel her blush at the thought. “You look… absolutely stunning, Princess…” Twilight managed to eep out. Luna’s blush intensified and she was glad Wind was long gone. She scuffed the toe of her very nice shoe on the ground a second, realized what she was doing, shook her head, and then walked over to Twilight and offered a hand. “Come on then, we haven’t got all night. And thank you dear, I did put more effort than I care to admit into it.” She said with a little laugh. Twilight nodded and took the hand cautiously. They walked into the Library, hand in hand, though at this late hour there weren’t many patrons. The only ones here either fast asleep where they sat or were too engrossed in their studies to notice the odd pair. Luna inclined her head to the librarian, who bowed in her seat, and they walked to a familiar direction. “Um… I think I could recite the restricted section by memory if I’m honest… any particular reason why we’re going there?” Twilight asked. Luna giggled and led a little faster, that was all the answer Twilight was getting. There was a somewhat blank wall there, one Twilight was VERY familiar with. “There’s a secret behind this wall, isn’t there?” Twilight asked, a question she’d asked probably a million times by now. “Mmmmmhm” Luna simply replied. The gears in Twilight’s head had already started turning, though. She didn’t stop. “And there’s something special you’ve taught me already that helps me get into it, right?” “Mmmmmhm” “Something to do with Dark Magic?” “Mmmmmhm” “Let me guess… it’s an illusory wall reinforced with Shadowstuff, Dark Magic, or both, and it reacts to the use of Dark Magic since you and your guard are the only ones that use it?” “Try for yourself.” Luna finally derailed the exchange. Twilight nodded and, letting go of Luna’s hand finally, stepped up to the wall. She took a deep breath and focused. A thin black tinted lavender tendril of magic coiled around her fingers and she put her hand up to the wall. It turned translucent immediately, and her hand passed right through. Twilight looked back at Luna, who was beaming. “Very good, Twilight .Your manipulation of it was nearly expert, this time. I’m impressed.” Luna praised her new student. Twilight grinned and they stepped through together, the wall solidifying immediately behind them. It led into a torch lit hallway that felt oddly cool and smelled like a night out in the wilds. Luna took a deep breath of the smell as they walked. “Heavens I missed this smell. There’s nothing like pure wilderness, the only place you can get this in earnest anymore is in the Everfree.” Luna said, almost as a happy sigh. Twilight took a breath of it too and smiled. “It is very refreshing.” The girl agrees as they walked. They walked a good hundred or so meters on a downward slope, directly into the mountain Canterlot was built into, and almost suddenly the hallway expended into a massive cavern. There was a beautiful waterfall, lit by luminescent crystals and bioluminescent flora along the walls and in the water, filling most of the cavern. The hallway broke into a long staircase, spiraling down on the outside of the cavern walls until it reached the bottom. Along the way, there were small torchlit alcoves that held bookshelves of all things. There were hundreds of these alcoves! “Welcome, my student, to the Catacombs. Where knowledge comes to die.” Luna said softly, for once not one for the dramatics. Author's Note Back in the swing of things! It feels good to write again. Enjoy!
Prologue: Night CourtTwilight was sitting behind and to the right of Luna during Night Court. It had been a good month since Twilight volunteered as an advisor. She couldn’t help but think about what’s happened over the last decade. She no longer lived in Canterlot, not all the time at least. Celestia had arranged for a home in Ponyville where her friends and the other elements of harmony lived and she spent at least half of her time there. She still spent some weeks here in Canterlot to be with her adopted mother and recently Luna. When Luna appeared as a child, it was quickly discovered that she wouldn’t wake up. It was strange to see a child grow into a young woman without even opening her eyes to see it. Twilight had hoped to have a sister to grow up with, but it wasn’t to be. It wasn’t until she was already nineteen years old that Luna opened her eyes. It wasn’t Luna, though. Not entirely. It was filled with Nightmares. That was a very dark day for Equestria. They had all thought they had solved the problem of Nightmare moon, but it turned out to be the spectre formed of Luna’s darkest wishes that was the source of her coma. It resurged after finally taking enough power to possess Luna’s unconscious body again and she disappeared for nearly a week. Celestia had tasked Twilight and the other elements with finding out what they could while she did her own research, and it was at the temple in the Everfree Forest where they finally found Nightmare Moon. She was attempting to seal the stones that were the catalysts into prisons of dark energy, but when the elements arrived they broke out as if the barriers were made of sugar and we all know the rest of that particular night. Nightmare Night after that was an interesting night as well, but that’s a tale for another night. Luna was trying to get Twilight’s attention. Oh no, she just spaced out in the middle of court again. “Oh I’m so sorry Princess, I was thinking during the break and I guess my brain forgot to turn back on.” Twilight said uneasily. This was the third time that night. Luna gave her a jokingly disappointed expression. “Unfortunate, I was just asking you what this man was talking about… I kind’ve spaced out too.” The Princess giggled and turned to look at the man. “It’s clear to me when I’m not wanted…” The man scoffed and turned to leave. “Sir Bright Stroll, I do apologize for my inattentiveness. I will give you my full attention if you repeat yourself.” Luna said with an almost commanding tone. She didn’t have to apologize, but she did anyways. The man grumbled and turned back around. “As I was saying, then… It’s about your Night Guard. We usually don’t have much Crime in Canterlot to deal with, not real crime anyways, but the Royal Guard seems to be rather lax in their duties at night and petty crime is up by thirteen percent. Your Guard is called the Night Guard, yet nobody even sees heads or wings of them during the night OR day.” The man repeated. Luna let out the smallest of sighs, passing it off as a normal breath. Twilight caught it, though. It looked almost like Celestia did right before her composure fell and SHE had to yell someone out of the room. It was different though, Luna didn’t care about Composure nearly as much as her sister. This was… well, she’d have to watch out for it again. “Contrary to their name, the Night Guard is not a guard at all. At least not in the same capacity as my sister’s guard. That is unfortunately all I may say publicly, for it is a matter of national security and cannot be addressed in a public court. As a member of the city council, though, you may inquire about them through private channels to learn yourself if you wish and I will answer any questions I can at that time.” Luna replied gracefully. This wasn’t the first time she had been asked about the Night Guard, but it was the first time she gave anything more than ‘can’t tell you, sorry’. “Very well, I will do so. Thank you.” He said with a bow. He turned to leave and was quickly replaced by someone who spent way too much time on their outfit. “Lord Prim Luck.” He was announced by the volunteer Herald with a long scroll of names. Twilight and Luna both thanked Celestia that he rolled it up afterwards, meaning this man was the last of the night. Luna nodded her head to the noble, signaling he could speak. “Princess, I have come to propose a simple tax reform…” The man started. Twilight inwardly groaned. Luna outwardly. Twilight recognized him though. “This man came by the Day Court last week to propose a tax reform as well. Celestia almost shouted him out, pay attention please.” Twilight leaned to say in Luna’s ear when the man paused. The playful scolding caused Luna’s mouth to twitch in a smile but she quickly sequestered it away. The man talked for about ten minutes before Twilight saw it again. He was talking about cutting the pay of the Night Guard to make way for some profiteering neither of them cared to listen to the details of. Luna’s posture slumped slightly and there was another tiny sigh. Twilight latched onto the signs though and started digging through what body language the Princess was showing. It was almost like what Twilight went through the first day after switching cities, missing her friends or missing her mother . This wasn’t quite that though. Luna was missing… something. “I’ve had enough of this, and I don’t have the energy to shout you out right now Prim Luck. Next time, stick to the first half where you talk about how you’re helping people, then make sure the people you’re helping list more than you and yours. I don’t approve of profiteering at the cost of your fellow man and my sister doesn’t either. If either of us see you in court for this again I will personally strip your titles and demand your land as compensation for the insult.” Luna said evenly. The man froze and scowled, but said no more. He gave a very unenthusiastic bow and stormed out. The Herald bowed to the Princess and left as well. The small assembly of observers and archivists finished their writings and left as well, leaving only Twilight and a few night Guards to keep the princess company. She stood up, letting out a rather unprincess-like yawn and stretched. “Captain, you are relieved of your guard duty. Take your people and continue your rounds if you would.” She said to one of the guards. The man nodded with a fist to his chest and the guards left the room as well. She turned to Twilight, who was still kinda staring at her. “Dinner?” The princess asked with a little smile. Twilight snapped out of it and returned the smile “Dinner.” She said as she stood. Author's Note I wish I could draw, cover images are so hard to come by these days for humanized stories. Apologies for the inconsistency with making it human, but I'm just not capable of writing them as ponies anymore. This is the true sequel to The Sun and Her Little Sparkle, instead of me slapping the sequel tag on that other story as an afterthought. Hopefully it does the original justice.
Chapter 1“How goes your studies with my sister? I understand you’re her best student since Starswirl the Bearded.” Luna asked, once again breaking Twilight out of her thoughts. Twilight’s surprise at the break in silence didn’t go unnoticed, but Luna kept it to herself as they enjoyed a nice stew and salad dinner. “Oh! Um… well, to be honest we haven’t done much in months. It’s kind’va the reason I started sitting in on your courts. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with mom and everything… it’s just the studies just become ‘let’s sit down and be lazy while we do nothing and call it studying’” Twilight replied, ending with a little giggle at the end. Luna seemed a little surprised by that answer. “I don’t understand, she has centuries of knowledge and teachings to pass on.” The Lunar Princess said. Twilight smiled. “Well, even before she adopted me I did a ton of my own studies into magic. The reason I’m her personal protege is because she believed I was already halfway through what her school for gifted mages would be teaching me, and I’d outstrip the rest much too quickly. Slap on ten years of advanced teachings from the Princess herself and we’ve hit a wall.” Twilight explained. Luna slowly nodded. “Then I amend my previous statement. You are her best student period. Even Starswirl was well into his thirties by the time he hit that wall with her.” The Princess said with a little chuckle. “I suppose it makes sense. You haven’t shown much interest in my court before, boredom is a powerful motivator.” She said with a light chuckle. Twilight saw through the chuckle though, it wasn’t genuine.She saw that little pang of… something. “Oh no, Princess! I mean, well, yes it was technically out of Boredom I asked to sit in on your courts. But if you remembered, I offered to be your advisor in the first place. While Politics aren’t exactly my favorite thing in the world, Education is one of them. It has been a wonderful week helping you learn the changes of modern times.” Twilight tried to explain as best she could. She wanted to make Luna feel like she wasn’t just there because it was the only thing to do. It was, as she said, technically true. She didn’t see it that way though. “In fact, I wish I would have started sitting in earlier. If for any other reason than these little chats over dinner we have afterwards. You make for far more interesting conversation than anyone else in the palace.” She continued. Luna had a hand over her mouth by the end of it, not sure whether she was suppressing a laugh or something else. “Surely your mother makes for interesting conversation?” She asked, almost probing the girl for information. Twilight rubbed her forehead. “I mean obviously, but… I’ve been having conversations with her for more than half of my life. It gets a liiiiiittle stale after so long.” The girl said, almost in a grumble. Luna laughed at that. “I suppose I know what you mean. While it has been interesting seeing how my sister has changed since my banishment, even after a month I grow wanting for others to speak with. I have to thank you, as you’ve helped with that recently. I’m glad I’m not just your last resort.” The Princess replied. A bit of an awkward silence formed as they both returned to their meals. It wasn’t until they had finished did they speak again. “The night is certainly an interesting place, Twilight Sparkle. All one needs to do is simply ask and she may spill her secrets.” Twilight heard Luna say. She looked up from her empty bowl to see the princess standing at the door. Apparently she had zoned out again. Luna was watching her with careful eyes and Twilight felt that pang again. When Luna saw that she was heard she inclined her head to the girl and left the room in full. Twilight didn’t really know how to respond to that, which made her a little thankful that the princess had left. What did that even mean? She chose to think on it. She pushed it right up next to the strange signals she was getting from the princess in terms of internal prioritization. “You’re up awful early…” She was once again startled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice. Celestia had just walked in, though she had a bit of a worried expression. Confused, she looked around. Why was Celestia up so late was the question. Oh… it’s morning… She really sat here all night thinking without even realizing it. Celestia’s sun nearly blinding her as she looked at the windows to prove the point. “O-Oh… I need to stop doing that…” The girl grumbled and rubbed her face. Celestia rolled her eyes and walked over to hug her adopted daughter. “The staff informed me that you were still in here from last night, but I got a little worried when I didn’t see your usual pillow of books. I was especially worried when I saw you were actually awake and not asleep.” The Princess explained. Twilight grumbled. “I had a lot on my mind… and spending so many late nights with Luna I think my internal clock is going crazy.” The girl said simply, rationalizing it. Celestia hummed a maybe and made to take her seat next to Twilight as the chefs came in with breakfast. “Well, we can talk about what was on your mind after breakfast if you’re still awake. It’s clearly troubling you, whatever it is.” The Princess said as pancakes and two large omelettes were placed in front of them. Twilight kind’ve automatically picked up her new utensils and started eating. “Well, I don’t know if bothered is the right word for it… Have you noticed that Luna is… missing something?” Twilight asked, testing her theory on what it was that she felt in Luna. Celestia hummed in thought. “Well I assume you don’t mean something physically, she’s always missing something there. You know she’s terrible with paperwork…” Celestia started with a giggle, but her tone fell to a more serious one. “...But I think I know what you mean. My guess is that she’s lonely. We… aren’t as close as we used to be. I wish we were, and I try to be, but there’s so much between us now. The Banishment aside there’s the millenia gap in time, my tastes and even personality changing all the way, and she herself changing from the isolation and having the nightmare ripped from her. I love her as much as I love you, Twilight, but it’s impossible for us to truly be sisters again… At least for now.” The Princess continued with a bit of melancholy. Twilight listened in silence. A thought popped into her head. “Well… She did say she was enjoying my presence in her court. Maybe I should try spending more time with her if she’s lonely.” She said. Celestia nodded as her smile returned. “An excellent idea! She could probably teach you a few things as well, heavens knows I’ve done all I can in that respect.” The Princess agreed happily. Twilight smiled but then grew silent again. Celestia took note and assumed it was Twilight trying to figure out how to word what she wanted to say next. She was accurate in that assumption. “Princess… Mom… what if I started studying under her like I did with you? Our study sessions have turned into cloud watching or going out of the palace for lunch more than actual studying. I mean, I love every second of it but…” Twilight started and couldn’t quite finish it. Celestia gave her a knowing grin though. “You want to end your apprenticeship with me and begin anew under my sister?” She asked. Twilight nodded slowly. “Oh I suppose it’d be a good idea. I can’t think of anyone besides her that would even have much to teach you that you couldn’t find in books.” Celestia continued. Twilight looked up at her. “While ten years is very short in comparison to other apprenticeships, I daresay you’ve learned all you can from me. I’ll make a media announcement about it rather than doing the actual ceremony. It’s horribly outdated. From now on, you are now a master in terms of the Arcane. The only step up from here would be Archmage, but I’m afraid I can’t just give that title to you. The nobility would have a fit, and ultimately that duty falls under Luna’s jurisdiction.” The Princess explained. Twilight was a little confused by that. “Is that why there hasn’t been an Archmage since Starswirl?” Twilight asked. Celestia nodded. “While I could have taken over that duty, I saw no need to. The Archmage is a position that is… unique. I can’t even quite explain it. You’ll have to ask Luna more when you tell her the good news. That’ll have to wait until Dusk, though. She’s long gone to sleep.” The Princess answered. Twilight hummed as she looked down at her now empty plate. She didn’t even remember finishing it. “You should go get some sleep, Twilight.” Celestia said as she picked her fork back up. Twilight hummed and stood. “Thanks Mom. Good… uh… day. Love you.” The girl said with a smile and quickly hugged her adopted mother. Celestia giggled at that and returned it before returning to her food. Twilight thanked the workers that had cleaned up for the morning for not disturbing her and made for her room in the Astronomy Tower. “Fall asleep at the dinner table again?” A voice startled her out of her thoughts for the third time that day. She had just walked into find Spike standing on his tippy-talons to reach a book on the top shelf of the bookcase he was standing in front of. He had stopped in a precarious looking pose, his tail helping him keep balance, when she walked in. “Something like that.” Twilight said, walking over to him and levitating him up a foot so he could reach easier. The purple dragon chuckled at the feeling of being lifted and slid the book out of its place. “Well I’ve got some research to do for Rarity, I promised her I’d master control of my fire by the next time we go to Ponyville so that I can help her with a project she’s working on.” The dragon said, wriggling out of Twilight’s magical grip to land back on his hind legs. When standing up like this he was about as tall as Twilight, maybe around 5’6. He stuck the book between two spines on his back and dropped to all fours to plod over and lean up against Twilight in a hug. “Spike you know you won’t be able to breath actual fire for another decade right?” Twilight said to him more rhetorically than anything. Spike grinned and looked up at her. He spit a bit of green fire at her, it fell short right before it hit her face. She recoil hard and almost fell over. “I’m not a normal dragon remember? My artificial egg and magical birth, thanks to you, make me age way fast. I’m even starting to remember things from previous lives, though mostly tastes and smells. According to this book…” He started, standing up on his hind legs again to pull the book out of his spines and open it up like a human. “... I’m about fifty years into my life cycle, physically at least. Further exposure to magic may accelerate my growth further and new milestones might get hit faster. I’ve already got a tiny bit of fire, and I’m halfway there to wings according to this timeline.” The Drake continued and flipped the book over for her to see. It was a very basic timeline with milestones. The first ten marks, leading up to the 50 year mark, were mostly instinctual memories. 15 held the first signs of fire breath, while 50 marked when they were usually supposed to have the ability to create the iconic flamethrower of breath. 100 was when the wings were supposed to grow in. “Well, it says you’re already supposed to have control over your fire so get to work!” Twilight said with a grin as she snatched the book out of his talons and used her magic to put it back where it belonged. “Hey! I was going to read that!” The Drake pouted. “Not when you’re practicing fire you’re not. In fact, if I ever catch you breathing fire in here again I’ll turn your tongue into ice. I will NOT have this palace burn down because of you.” Twilight scolded, taking on a tone like a mother scolding her child. Spike looked at the ground and scratched at the stone with his talons. “I’m sorry…” He said softly. “Good. Now…” Twilight started, her demeanor switching completely. “I need a nap something fierce. Just let me know if you leave the palace to practice. Otherwise you can go ahead and go back to your books.” She said, her smile returning as her lack of sleep really hit her. “Alright. Want me to wake you up anytime in particular?” Spike asked as he dropped back down to all fours. “At Dusk if I’m not already up, thanks Spike.” She said, scratching under the frill on the right side of his head. His tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth at the scratching and he grumbled in affirmative. She patted his head and made for the bedroom as the Drake plodded back over to the shelf. Twilight had put his book a shelf lower so he could actually reach it this time. He took it over to where he had already constructed his patented cushion fort from the furniture in the room and curled up inside of it to read. Author's Note Sorry this took so long to get out. I don't know when I'll be updating, but I'll try to get at least one chapter out a week. It really depends on how much I work, which is currently 40 hours a week. Hope you enjoyed.
Chapter 2Twilight was dreaming. She had to be dreaming. Last she checked her room in the Astronomy tower wasn’t an endless abyss of black. She felt like she was floating in water, though that wasn’t quite right. She was floating in something else. Or maybe it wasn’t something else at all, maybe what she was floating in was… nothing? She snapped her vision to where she heard the sound of… something. It was Luna, wistfully floating around and humming a soft tune to herself. The sound echoed across the endless expanse of… nothing. The Princess would occasionally twirl around as if dancing to herself, or swirl around little masses of the nothingness. But wait, if it was nothing how was she swirling it around? Whatever this stuff was it was certainly not nothing. “You should recognize this place, is it not familiar?” She heard from her other side. Luna didn’t seem to notice, but when Twilight turned she was started. It was herself that was speaking to her. Although It was… different. The girl that was now standing directly in front of her had a much more pale hue to her skin, her eyes were slits, her expression almost giddy with malice. It was a little terrifying. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The not-Twilight sneered. “Who are you?! What are you?!” Twilight exclaimed, recoiling from the creature. This seemed to only amuse it. It giggled and stepped closer. “I am you,and I am you. But I’m not quite you at the same time. You should be familiar with this now shouldn’t you? And I thought you would actually be smarter than me.” The thing laughed. Twilight was getting frustrated. “Alright, fine. Have it your way. I’ve been banishing nightmares since I was a little girl. You’re no different.” She said and attempted to summon up her magic to use the calming spell she had learned in the Orphanage to ease the nightmare into a much tamer thing. Nothing happened. “Ooh hit the nail right on the head. You got me, I’m a Nightmare. But I’m not just any nightmare. I’m YOUR Nightmare. And I can’t just be banished away like that, not in this place of dreamers.” The grinning not-Twilight almost cackled. Twilight froze and looked at it. “Nightmare Moon…?” She asked softly. The creature’s grin fell to a line. Almost in annoyance. “No you idiot, I’m YOUR Nightmare. Nightmare Moon is LUNA’S Nightmare. Geez I have to explain everything to you don’t I? Ok, let’s start with the baby terms. I am a physical mental and magical manifestation of all of your deepest darkest fears and hates and all of those bad feelings you have. I’m not particularly fond of you, and you’re not going to be particularly fond of me I can assure you, but we’ll work something out.” The Nightmare explained. Twilight listened to every word. The scholar in her wanted to ask more. The survivalist in her was yelling at her to get the hell out of there. The Scholar won. “Wait work something out, what do you mean by that?” Twilight asked. The Nightmare sneered. “I am Fear. I am Hate. I am Anger. I am all of those little feelings and big feelings that turn that pretty face of yours into a scowl. I guess you can say I’m an Avatar of your negativity. Naturally I want to rip things apart, snuff things out, destroy everything I can get my hands on. I obviously can’t do much of that here and so I get more and more irritated and antsy. If you don’t let me out of your head to break something every now and then I might just have to bide my time and they’ll have to make another prophecy about us instead of them.” The Nightmare explained, ending with a thumb over at Luna. The Princess still seemed blissfully ignorant of their conversation, but now that Twilight looked she realized the Princess had a shadow. It was Nightmare Moon, matching her step for step. It wasn’t the hate filled scowl of the creature trying to bring endless night, though. Luna’s Nightmare seemed almost… content. “I can’t possibly know or understand what those two have come up with, but they seem to actually be getting along. Right now I don’t see that happening between us. Your little dragon is trying to wake you up now so I suppose I’ll let you go. Messing with your head is more fun when I can watch you tear yourself up trying to understand what I do.” The Nightmare said into her ear with a giggle. She was in the middle of turning around when her eyes opened to the blinding sun just barely sitting above the horizon. Spike had an annoyed expression. “Seriously, stop missing so much sleep or I won’t be able to wake you up anymore. I was about to start drawing on your face.” The Dragon grumbled. Twilight shot him a look that spelled ‘you wouldn’t dare’ and he shrugged. He probably wouldn’t. “Anyways, Mom sent over this paperwork while you were sleeping. Apparently you’ve got a title now.” He continued, pointing to the desk with a Talon. Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes and got out of bed. “Yeah yeah… sorry.” She grumbled back to him and walked over to the desk. It was a good stack of paperwork detailing duties and responsibilities, as well as benefits, of her new title of ‘Magus’. Twilight recognized the title, it was one that was used centuries ago. It was the title given to powerful mages who were hopefuls to inherit the title of Archmage, and usually studied directly under them. Her duties and responsibilities would be dictated by her mentor, but the benefits included a stipend from the Treasury and the right to speak in court should she choose to. She already could do so of course, but this title granted her the authority to overrule any of the nobility and even be the tiebreaker for a council decision- though a tie hasn’t happened in a long time. “I wonder why she’s even bothering to give me a title. I mean, the power is nice and all but I’m no politician… same for the Stipend, I already have quite the savings just from what she gives me as her stud-… oh. right, I’m not her student anymore…” Twilight said, more to herself than anything. “You’re not Mom’s student anymore?” Spike asked, a little concerned. “Oh, right, I never told you! I’ve officially completed my Apprenticeship under her and I’m going to start a new one under Luna.” She replied. Then she froze, looked out of the window and facepalmed. “Crap! That’s why I wanted you to wake me up at Dawn! I have to go tell luna that I’m her apprentice now! I’ll be back probably maybe tonight bye!” She continued in a rush and was out of the door before Spike had even processed what she said. He looked out after her and just shook his head. The Royal Guard stationed nearby didn’t even flinch. Twilight managed to recompose herself as she entered the dining room where she hoped Luna would be with the sun still barely peeking over the horizon as it was. She was correct. “Ah, good evening Twilight Sparkle! I wasn’t aware you would be joining me tonight, Court is not for another week.” The Princess said with a happy smile. The Chefs could either tell the future or were just impossibly quick because a plate was already being put down in Twilight’s usual place. Or maybe they were told to expect her showing up. That’s also a big possibility. “I wasn’t exactly planning it either, not for long at least. Um… do you mind?” Twilight asked a little nervously. Luna caught on to it though but nodded anyways. She watched the girl carefully as she took her seat and didn’t really touch her food. Then she noticed the paperwork in the girl’s hands. “Oh what have we here? Some assignment my sister has assigned?” The Princess asked slightly teasingly, knowing Celestia stopped assigning her homework years ago. Twilight was confused for a second but then realized she was still clutching the stack of paperwork about her Magus title. “Oh! I forgot to put those back down… I uh, I guess I should fill them out…” Twilight said. Luna chuckled, this wasn’t exactly unusual behavior for Twilight when something big -at least in her mind- is happening. The question was, though, what exactly was happening? Apparently it had something to do with her otherwise she wouldn’t be so nervous about sitting down and having brunch. “What ever is the matter, Twilight? I thought we’d become much more casual with each other since you started attending my court.” The Princess said cautiously, trying to prod the girl to explain what’s going on without actually saying ‘what’s going on?’. “Oh! I’m so sorry Princess, I'm just a little… uh… scattered right now.” Twilight said and took a deep breath. Luna recognized this as something she did to recompose herself and gather her thoughts so she waited patiently. It only took a few seconds for the girl to let it out and open her eyes again. “Ok, so long story short I want to be your apprentice and I’ve been granted the title of Magus for the completion of my apprenticeship with Mom.” She explained quickly. That wasn’t what Luna was expecting at all. She just kinda sat there, almost dumbfounded by that, as she processed everything that meant. For one, the title of Magus meant that her sister was recommending her for the position of Archmage. Second was that she was going to have to dig up some old books and probably rewrite the position of Archmage in its entirety to fit modern Equestria. Lastly, her apprentice. Twilight wanted to be HER Apprentice?! And she somehow completed her Apprenticeship with Celestia in only a decade? “I-I’m sorry, Princess… If you don’t want to be my mentor that’s alright… I guess I can-” Twilight started but was startled as she was interrupted by the sound of shifting wood and a crushing embrace. “Oh Twilight, I’ve never had an Apprentice before! If course I’d be more than happy to accept you as one!” Luna said happily as she pulled the girl into an embrace. “I apologize for my hesitation, I wasn’t expecting something like this. Ever. And the whole Magus thing must be my sister’s seal of approval. I’ll need to do some work to get the proper materials in order but I’d be delighted to start your education immediately!” She continued happily. Twilight was stunned by the embrace, but the mention of education snapped out of it. “Really? Immediately?” She asked. Luna pulled away from her and nodded enthusiastically. “Meet me i my quarters in two hours and I’ll have something setup for you. I’ve never passed my teachings on to a student like you before… I hope I do a good job.” The Princess said hopefully. Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’ve learned from dusty old books in the corners of the library before, you have to be a better teacher than that.” Twilight replied with a giggle. Luna quickly embraced her again before disappearing in the direction of her quarters, her meal half eaten. Almost as if on que, a chef came around to package the meal up to save for later. He gave Twilight a stern look before he left, though. She looked down at her plate, the full meal was going to get cold soon. She dared not incur the wrath of the chefs for wasting a meal so she quickly finished it. Magus, Daughter of Princess Celestia, Apprentice of Princess Luna and graduate of Celestia. She may not have nearly as many titles as most nobles, but they were starting to add up. She felt a little vain about them, they were impressive titles afterall. Author's Note Huzzah for completing another week straight of work at wally world. Your reward for bieng so patient is an update, hopefully it's not too bad. Hope you enjoyed.
Chapter 3Twilight had been in luna’s room before, but she’d never seen it like this. It was covered in books. So many books. Like, literally at least a hundred books. Luna didn’t appear to even notice Twilight entering, as the door was unlocked and five minutes of knocking yielded no results. The Princess was pacing around with a few books looking deep in thought. “Uh, Princess?” Twilight asked. Luna snapped up and turned to face the sound and seemed surprised Twilight was standing there. She looked out of the window and looked like she wanted to facepalm. “I think I lost track of time, my new Apprentice. I asked Tia what exactly your level of magical study was and when she said the highest I got excited. I’ve never been able to teach anyone more than the basics of this and… well... Time flies when you’re hunting books as you probably know.” Luna explained before smiling warmly and motioning for Twilight to sit on one of the two reading chairs in the room. As Twilight did, Luna took her own seat. Her expression hardened up a bit as she made to speak. “First and foremost, I have to ask you again if you are sure you want to be my apprentice. This is not like Celestia’s tutorship, and it will most certainly not be safe.” Luna started. Twilight’s mind immediately went from ‘Yay Books!’ to ‘what’. “As my Apprentice, you will be sharing in my duties. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, what do you know of my duties outside of court?” The princess continued. Twilight was going to answer immediately, but she realized something important. She had no idea what Luna actually did outside of court. “I don’t actually know… but I’m guessing it has something to do with why you only hold court once a week.” Twilight answered. Luna smiled and nodded. “Celestia is the face of Equestria, I am the hand. She and her guard are the shield, my night guard and I are the sword. Before it used to be assassinations and war planning, among other things, but nowadays it’s diplomacy and secrecy. Celestia is certainly better at the former than I, but it’s not always safe for her to go. While she herself is a formidable opponent in battle, she cannot afford to tarnish her image with blood.” The Princess explained. That started to worry Twilight more than a little. “Wait, so you’re telling me your job is to do the dirty work required to keep a kingdom running?” She asked after a little bit of thought. Luna nodded. “It’s more than that, though. Those are my official duties. I have a lot that I do on the side as well. Namely…” Luna started as she used her magic to retrieve a very worn and unsettling tome from the desk. “... the study of dark magic. This will be the one part of old tradition I refuse to modify, you must learn and master this magic, at least in its basic form. Without it, you will not be able to follow where I go or survive the things we will come across.” The princess continued very seriously. Twilight accepted the tome cautiously. It felt… different. It was unsettling. “This is my gift to you. I need more time to prepare your education. Read that and prove to me you have at least a basic understand of the magics held within and I will officially accept you as my apprentice. If you read through it and decide there’s probably something better for you to do then I will understand.” Luna explained. By her tone, though, it seemed she hoped against that particular outcome. Twilight was starting to worry just what she was getting herself into. “I see… Do you mind if I stay here and do it then? If this is that important I wouldn’t want someone barging into the tower and reading over my shoulder.” The mage asked. Luna thought for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t see why not, I have to go and hunt for a few more things anyways. Just try not to fall asleep in here, it’s terribly awkward carrying someone halfway across the palace in their sleep. For both parties.” The princess said with a smirk. Twilight nodded and cracked the book open. She hardly even noticed Luna leave half an hour later, and she certainly didn’t notice the sun coming back up again. The only reason she really noticed Luna entering again was because that was about the time she hit the back cover. The tome may have been large, but so were the words and the pages rather bare. It wasn’t quite as bad as a spellbook, but it was about as detailed. “Done for the night I see?” The princess asked with a tired smile as she dropped a large sack of what sounded like more books onto the ground and stretched. It was at about then that Twilight noticed that she had actually spent the entire night reading. Again. “I think so. I just need to practice a bit. I saw that there was quite a bit of offensive magic in there, is that what you thought might scare me?” The mage asked. Luna seemed shocked. “Well, sortof. It was more the source of the magic and just what the spells in there did… Are you telling me you finished it cover to cover in twelve hours?” The princess asked in slight disbelief. Twilight nodded. “I can understand, definitely, but Dark Magic doesn’t seem to be all that bad. I mean yeah it uses a lot of negative emotion to fuel it rather than straight arcane power, but it’s got nothing on Black Magic or Necromancy.” She said somewhat casually. Luna just continued to stare at her. “Wait… Black Magic… Necromancy? What the hell has Celestia been teaching you?” The princess asked, curious and a little worried. “Oh, um… everything really. I have full access to the restricted sections of the library. As grueling and dirty as it was, I learned the basics of both so that I could better understand them in order to recognize and counter it. I’ve never heard of Dark Magic before.” Twilight answered cautiously. She hoped she wasn’t in trouble. Luna just stared at her for a little while before shaking a head and putting a finger to her chin in thought. “Oh I suppose it makes sense. Tia wouldn’t just graduate and title you because you asked her to. I guess you really have mastered your position. Hell, you’ve probably mastered what’s needed of you as a Magus. I knew you were impressive, Twilight Sparkle, but I must say I’m rather flabbergasted right now. Do you understand it enough to summon it up?” The princess asked. Twilight thought for a moment and took a deep breath. She focused on what she read, even reread some of it mentally. She let out her held breath and with it let what little negative emotion she had. The biggest one right now was frustration that she had to wait, but there was some underlying fear in there. Now that she thought about it, though, the fear was actually pretty strong. She was starting to understand why Luna was giving her a second chance to refuse the apprenticeship. If she’d have to use this kind of magic what the hell would they be getting into? “Twilight, that’s enough. Can you stop it?” Luna’s voice broke her train of thought. She opened her eyes and realized she was holding a massive ball of dark energy nearly the size of her. In a panic she dropped it and they both scrambled to catch it. Neither of them managed to catch it and they both stared at it as it hit the floor and cracked. “You really are an idiot.” A voice came out of the crack. An arm shot out of the massive orb and, like an egg hatching, the thing started breaking apart even more. “How the hell did you manage to drop that? And then not catch it? Geez, why do you put up with her Luna?” The voice continued as a head popped out. It was the Nightmare version of Twilight. “Tch. So I did see you in the river of dreams then. I thought I was just imagining things. Please don’t start spouting terrible things, I will return you to your realm before you finish.” Luna said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she threatened the creature. It snorted. “Pff I know, I’m not the idiot here. She’s the one who gave me this nice big doorway. I just wanted to say hello. See what it’s like to physically manifest. It's not exactly all it’s cracked up to be, I dunno what the hell your nightmare was on about.” The nightmare giggled. They both froze. “You’ve spoken with my nightmare?” Luna asked. The creature started laughing. “What? Hell no, she’d probably try to break me too. Nah, I just know what you tow have done together from this one’s knowledge and perspective. Do me a favor darling and don’t give me a doorway like that again unless you want me to make your life a living hell. They don’t call me Eris for nothing.” The nightmare replied. “Who calls you Eris?” Twilight asked, confused. “You know, stupid. See? I just tricked you into naming me something awesome. I’d thank you but being an idiot isn’t exactly impressive.” The nightmare answered. There was the slightest twitch in Twilight's’ expression before her fist was through the nightmare’s head. Literally. It just kinda shattered into dark energy. “Ooh feisty. Good, I like that. I’d make a stupid reference here but you wouldn’t get it. Ta-ta for now.” The thing continued, though the voice coming from the malformed mass of energy that was now her head before it all shattered and shot back into Twilight. Disoriented, but no longer being called an idiot, Twilight plopped back down into her chair. “Is that what it’s like? Celestia she was infuriating!” The girl growled. Luna probably would have laughed if what had happened didn’t actually just happen. “It’s different for everyone. We all have our own nightmares, ours are just able to take individuality and physical form because of how powerful we are… Yours is apparently almost as chaotic as Discord.” Luna said, trying to rationalize everything. Yes, that made sense. “Is it wrong that it felt really good punching her?” Twilight asked. Luna did laugh at that. “Not wrong at all. She is your personal nightmare, your hell. It should feel good to vanquish her and suppress her. Mine just really hates the sun. We’ve come to an agreement that she stops trying to take over the day as long as I promise to only summon her in it if she gets to destroy things.” The princess replied. Twilight just groaned. “I need to go to bed… I was already working on overdrive processing all of the information from that book and now this? What am I getting myself into…” The girl said. Luna chuckled a pit and put an arm around her. “Nothing you can’t back out of. If you’re still interested tomorrow then meet me at the library when the sun goes down. Otherwise I’ll send over what’s safe for you to learn on your own and we’ll keep it at that.” The princess assured her. Twilight just nodded and slowly stood. “Don’t worry. I faced down plenty things scarier than nightmares.” She said with a confident smile. Luna smiled back and walked her to the door. Twilight just sort of wandered off towards her own room, her own lack of sleep coming to bite her in the ass, while Luna decided now would be a good time to succumb to her own need to sleep. Author's Note Hopefully this turned out as well as I thought it did while I was writing it. I'm sick and a little drained but I hit a spot of inspiration so yay.
Chapter 4“Geez, ever since you started hanging out with Princess Luna you’ve reverted back to your old sleeping schedule.” Spike said from the astronomy tower common room as Twilight came into it, stretching. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was well after noon, but it was still a few hours until sundown. “What, you mean none at all?” She retorted with a roll of her eyes. The dragon put a talon to his chin in thought. “Actually yeah you’re right, you actually sleep. Usually. I guess I can’t complain you’re a night owl.” He said with a shrug and turned back to his book. Twilight took a peek at the cover and found it to be another book about the growth and history of dragons. She couldn’t help but smile at him and kiss him on top of the head. He waved her away but his little giggle betrayed how much he loved it. “I’m glad you’re learning, I’m probably going to be gone all night again. You gonna be ok?” She asked him. “Of course! I’ve been able to live on my own for years now! I just like taking care of you.” He replied, sticking his forked tongue out at her for effect. Twilight snorted. “You take care of me? Riiiiight.” She just said and shook her head. “Gonna meet with Princess luna again?” He asked. She nodded. “I’m gonna meet her at the library at sundown, she’s gonna show me a whole lot of super advanced stuff that nobody’s been taught in over a thousand years.” She explained, by the end of it she was practically giddy. Spike just chuckled and booped her nose with her own, earned a scrunched up face and a giggle. “Just be careful. I don’t really have a bad feeling about this or anything, but something deep inside me just wants you to be careful.” He said. Twilight was going to brush it off as him just being worried about her, which was true regardless, but the way he worded that… Maybe some of the old dragons remembered Luna before her banishment, the things she did. Maybe Spike was tapping into that. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m getting myself into. She spent all of yesterday making sure.” She said simply, kissing him on the head again and walking off. “Go get something to eat, when you get excited like this you forget that you need food!” Spike called after her. Twilight stopped as the door closed and looked down. Yeah, she was SUPER hungry. She decided that brunch was the first thing she should take care of. She was delighted to find Celestia in the dining hall just starting her lunch. “Oh there you are, Twilight. I admit I was slightly worried when you weren’t at breakfast, but I suppose my sister’s Nocturnal schedule has something to do with that.” Celestia said when she entered the room and quickly came over to hug her adoptive mother. “Pretty much. It’s not much different than when I’m in crunch mode, except I get more than half an hour of sleep. How was court today?” Twilight asked. Celestia practically deflated as a servant put a plate in front of Twilight. It was a plate of a couple grilled cheese with eggs and bacon sandwiches, her favorite brunch! “My dearest nephew is trying to get into politics again and insisted he sit in as an advisor. I was actually surprised, he was polite for a while. The second the first noble refused to leave when I asked him though he practically exploded at them. After that it all went downhill and he started trying to shout every noble that asked anything of me out of the room. I tolerated it until he insulted a Griffin dignitary and they almost dueled…” Celestia grumbled. “Please don’t tell me you actually let them duel…” Twilight groaned. Celestia had a particular twinkle in her eye, like the one she had when she introduced Spitfire to Dash. “Of course I did, I just gave them sticks to duel with instead of blades. It was actually rather impressive- if amusing.” The princess giggled. Twilight just laughed. “How about your last Night court with Luna?” Celestia continued. Twilight hummed. “A whoooole lot of people trying to run things by her that you rejected, a few people with relevant requests… Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask you! This one noble brought up a decent question. If the Night Guard aren’t for guarding, then who polices the city at night?” The young girl replied. She had been curious since she didn’t really know the answer to that. “Why, the police of course! They aren’t exactly common to be honest, since most matters that require authority intervention is minor enough for a royal guard or two to take care of. Luna actually came to me about that topic, though, expanding the police force- especially at night. Even got a few volunteers from her night guard to start it off.” The Princess explained. Twilight nodded. She wanted to ask more about the night guard, but knew that if she really wanted to know then she should ask her new mentor. Knowing Celestia, she’d say the same. “How is Spike doing? I’m afraid nobody has seen him outside of the tower in days.” Celestia broke Twilight out of her thoughts. Twilight snorted. “He’s pulling a me. He found a few old books about dragons and has been hiding in his cushion fort ever since.” She replied, smiling at her adopted sibling’s similarities with herself. “I thought so, I’ll have to send him a few of my private copies then if he’s reached that stage of his adolescence. Learning more about himself will help his connection to his kind swimmingly!” Celestia said happily. Twilight smiled and nodded. The meal fell down to comfortable silence again before Celestia stood and servants cleared both of their empty plates. “I’m afraid I have a mountain of paperwork to get through, I approved a small tax reformation to spread the wealth of the nobility around where it’s needed and I’m going to need to pull an all nighter to word it so they don’t come after me with pitchforks and torches.” The Diarch said ,ending in a grumble. “I’ll probably be up all night as well, I’ll make sure we stop by if you’re still awake when we’re finished with whatever it is Luna wants to do tonight.” Twilight replied, standing as well. They hugged, Celestia kissed the top of her head like she had done to Spike, and they parted. Celestia practically trudged in the direction of her study while Twilight decided to head to the palace’s library and research her new title. She was aware of old traditions, but had no idea if they still held true. She was startled out of her reading by a night guard. “Sir, it’s nearing sundown.” The leather winged Valkyrie said professionally, though she had a particular expression. It seemed like she was happy to be fetching Twilight. Twilight gave her a blank look, looked out of the window, and nearly screamed. “Our Princess had a feeling you’d be tucked away in here for one reason or another and sent me to make sure you weren’t late.” The Guard continued. Twilight took a deep breath, like Celestia had taught her, and shoved her panic down and crushed it. She wasn’t late. Yet. “Thank you, miss…” She started, but realized that she didn’t know a single night guard’s name like she did the royal guard. “Lunar Wind, Sir. Would you like me to escort you? The streets of Canterlot aren’t entirely the safest place in Equestria at night anymore.” The guard asked, smiling softly at being asked her name. “While I don’t think it’s entirely necessary, it would give me a chance to get to know you. I am at least acquaintances with every royal guard on the payroll, I don’t see why I shouldn’t extend that to you guys.” Twilight replied, smiling. Wind smiled brighter at that and had to suppress a giddy giggle. Twilight took note, but otherwise motioned for the woman to lead on. “So, what were you reading that had you so tuned out, if you don’t mind me asking?” Wind asked, risking a bit of casual conversation as they walked. “I was doing some research on my new title of Magus, what it entails, the responsibilities and all that, then I started on the title of Archmage since it’s the next step and… well... There’s a LOT of very OLD traditions that come with both.” Twilight explained. Wind couldn’t repress her soft snort at Twilight’s blush. “Yes, I am aware of many of them. I assure you that our Princess hasn’t need of the more… private ones. Luckily the nobility couldn’t care less of our half of history or they’d have rioted in the streets at what the title of even Magus implied of the two of you.” Wind went on. Twilight giggled, and we relatively impressed with the guard. She wasn’t just a grunt that’s for sure. “Tell me, Lunar Wind, what is your role in your work with Princess Luna?” Twilight asked interested. The woman thought for a moment. “A little bit of everything I suppose. Seneschal, assistant, runner, bodyguard, she even put me in command of the army sent to blockade the Changelings before Celestia demanded neutrality.” Wind replied. Twilight was even more impressed now ,a rather jill of all trades. “Do you lead the night guard?” Twilight asked. Wind smiled but shook her head. “Luna leads the Night Guard, as do you now. We are the blades, you are the hands that hold them.” The Dark Valkyrie replied. Twilight’s step faltered, but she caught up as she remembered what exactly it meant to be the protege of a Princess. “Right… that’s why you called me Sir… Since I am second in command for my Princess.” Twilight said, halfway reciting from what she read. Wind nodded as the Canterlot Library came into view. “While we have been instructed to treat you as our superior, I don’t believe you’d use that authority any time soon. Oh, wow, she cleans up nicely.” Wind continued, but changed the subject and stopped as she looked towards the Library. Twilight stopped in her tracks as well, seeing that Luna was waiting there. She was standing, leaning against the fountain, and Twilight had never seen her looking like this. Normally, Luna was either wearing a simple dress under her regalia for special events, or a rather nice but again simple tunic and trousers under her regalia on most days. Tonight, she seemed as if she were meeting the love of her life. She was wearing an elegant dress, the kind even Rarity would drool over. Actually, it looked like something Rarity could have made. It even had a lovely black bow with the moon dyed into it. And she was wearing makeup. Makeup was one modern beauty trend that the princess of the night neither understood nor cared for… but it made her look absolutely stunning. Either she had a secret hobby, or she had a professional touch her up. “When you said you were going to freshen up, I assumed you were just going to put on clean clothes or something.” Wind said incredulously as she walked closer. Luna, startled out of her thoughts, smiled warmly at her multipurpose assistant. “One of the maids convinced me to look my best when I mentioned I was ‘going out’... She may have misunderstood, but I haven’t felt pretty like this in a long time.” The Princess replied. “Did you fetch her then?” She continued. Wind, confused, turned around. Twilight was still standing a good few paces away staring at Luna. “Uh, Twilight? You’re going to make me blush…” Luna said jokingly, though she had a feeling if she didn’t have the small amount of makeup that she did she would have been called a liar. That snapped Twilight out of it. “O-Oh! Heavens, Princess, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so… prettied up before. I thought you hated Makeup.” The girl finally said as she joined the other two next to the fountain. “I hate modern makeup and the trends it follows. I don’t see the point of lathering chemicals all over your face every day for an hour. I make my own beauty products, and as such I won’t waste them on daily activity. Reserved the the most special of occasions.” Luna replied. “What was that about being misunderstood? Sounds to me like you really are ‘going out’.” Wind said. She snorted as Luna shot her a glare and turned. “Right, If I stick around long enough you might actually punish me for being a smartass. I’ll fly my normal rounds. Princess, Sir.” The night guard continued, bowing to both of them before shooting into the air. Not without sticking her tongue out at her princess first, however. Luna just shook her head and chuckled. “That woman. I love her to death but I swear one day we’re going to get into a fistfight.” The Princess muttered, looking back over to Twilight. The girl seemed a little embarrassed. Luna rolled her eyes. “I do suppose I got carried away. I just got so… excited...I wanted the first lesson to be special- even if we do away with the old traditions.” The Princess said softly, the last part an attempt to inject humor into it. It failed, though, at least to her .She could feel her blush at the thought. “You look… absolutely stunning, Princess…” Twilight managed to eep out. Luna’s blush intensified and she was glad Wind was long gone. She scuffed the toe of her very nice shoe on the ground a second, realized what she was doing, shook her head, and then walked over to Twilight and offered a hand. “Come on then, we haven’t got all night. And thank you dear, I did put more effort than I care to admit into it.” She said with a little laugh. Twilight nodded and took the hand cautiously. They walked into the Library, hand in hand, though at this late hour there weren’t many patrons. The only ones here either fast asleep where they sat or were too engrossed in their studies to notice the odd pair. Luna inclined her head to the librarian, who bowed in her seat, and they walked to a familiar direction. “Um… I think I could recite the restricted section by memory if I’m honest… any particular reason why we’re going there?” Twilight asked. Luna giggled and led a little faster, that was all the answer Twilight was getting. There was a somewhat blank wall there, one Twilight was VERY familiar with. “There’s a secret behind this wall, isn’t there?” Twilight asked, a question she’d asked probably a million times by now. “Mmmmmhm” Luna simply replied. The gears in Twilight’s head had already started turning, though. She didn’t stop. “And there’s something special you’ve taught me already that helps me get into it, right?” “Mmmmmhm” “Something to do with Dark Magic?” “Mmmmmhm” “Let me guess… it’s an illusory wall reinforced with Shadowstuff, Dark Magic, or both, and it reacts to the use of Dark Magic since you and your guard are the only ones that use it?” “Try for yourself.” Luna finally derailed the exchange. Twilight nodded and, letting go of Luna’s hand finally, stepped up to the wall. She took a deep breath and focused. A thin black tinted lavender tendril of magic coiled around her fingers and she put her hand up to the wall. It turned translucent immediately, and her hand passed right through. Twilight looked back at Luna, who was beaming. “Very good, Twilight .Your manipulation of it was nearly expert, this time. I’m impressed.” Luna praised her new student. Twilight grinned and they stepped through together, the wall solidifying immediately behind them. It led into a torch lit hallway that felt oddly cool and smelled like a night out in the wilds. Luna took a deep breath of the smell as they walked. “Heavens I missed this smell. There’s nothing like pure wilderness, the only place you can get this in earnest anymore is in the Everfree.” Luna said, almost as a happy sigh. Twilight took a breath of it too and smiled. “It is very refreshing.” The girl agrees as they walked. They walked a good hundred or so meters on a downward slope, directly into the mountain Canterlot was built into, and almost suddenly the hallway expended into a massive cavern. There was a beautiful waterfall, lit by luminescent crystals and bioluminescent flora along the walls and in the water, filling most of the cavern. The hallway broke into a long staircase, spiraling down on the outside of the cavern walls until it reached the bottom. Along the way, there were small torchlit alcoves that held bookshelves of all things. There were hundreds of these alcoves! “Welcome, my student, to the Catacombs. Where knowledge comes to die.” Luna said softly, for once not one for the dramatics. Author's Note Back in the swing of things! It feels good to write again. Enjoy!
