Author's Note

This is a supplementary chapter to show how Sombra took over Moonlight Gleam. You do not have to read this chapter to understand the plot of the rest of the fic or even the next chapter. It only provides more insight as to what happened during the end of the previous chapter.

Struggle Within the Mind

Moonlight found herself in an endless black void, a place of nothingness. She couldn't see or feel anything. She couldn't hear anything other than her own breathing. She watched as a portal opened up revealing her enemy, King Sombra. She rushed towards him, intent on using her horn to attack him. The shadow unicorn smiled and dissipated. The investigator growled and skidded to a halt, turning to face her opponent. "You can't beat me. The only way for you to escape this is to swear fealty to me. I know your greatest fear, it's an opponent that you cannot overcome!" Sombra taunted.

Moonlight concentrated magic into her horn, an orb of light formed at the end of it causing the shadow unicorn to recoil. "What's this!?" he yelled out in pain.

"Basic light spell, it's incapable of causing harm to those that walk the light. To those who choose to embrace darkness, it burns them!" The normal unicorn said with a smirk.

Sombra hissed and vanished, the scene of the dark void changed to her world. She watched Sunrise appeared before her and she attacked him only to find that his hand wrapped around her horn. She was effortlessly thrown into a building and she tried to cast a spell only to find that it didn't work. She stood her ground and tried to fight, but the scene changed to her getting chewed out by the director.

"That's the tenth time this month, Moonlight! People are getting hurt because of your carelessness! You're not only being taken off the case, but you're fired!" he yelled at her.

She found herself on the street, walking in a crowd of people. No one recognized her. As far as they were concerned, she didn't exist after all. Records had been altered years ago to state that she had perished when she tried to fight Sunrise for the first time. As the crowd ignored her, she arrived at her old house. She knocked on the door and her mother's voice replied, "Coming!"

The door opened to reveal her mother, this filled Moonlight with joy. She hadn't been able to see her parents in a long time. The woman standing in front of her looked at her with a bit of confusion, "Who are you?" she asked.

This cut the investigator deeply, "I'm your daughter," she replied tearfully.

"My daughter isn't some pastel colored equine! Not to mention she was taken from us by Sunrise Standing. You're that investigator that has failed to ensure that he would see justice and that my baby girl could rest! Get out of here! Get out now!" the woman yelled at her.

Moonlight growled and looked around herself with a scowl on her face, "Is this the best you can do Sombra? Make me be unrecognizable to my family!? Show me that I have failed to catch Sunrise time and time again!? That's not my worst nightmare, that's my reality!" she yelled out to the shadow king.

"What is your worst nightmare then? It seems you already don't exist to your world. You are a constant failure in your endeavors to capture the one person you are trying to capture. You have failed time and time again, you're constantly alone, pushing everyone away! It would seem that my usual tactics won't work on you," Sombra replied, confused and shocked that this one unicorn was resisting him.

The mare yelled in anger and ignited her horn. Flames wrapped around her as she prepared a spell that would use up a large portion of her magic. But if Sombra was anywhere close to her, he'd be caught in the flames. She smirked and unleashed the spell. Flames erupted in a dome around her, spreading for three meters as she unleashed a scream. Though the fire show was flashy, it ultimately did nothing. Darkness swirled at her hooves and she started to sink into darkness. She flailed and fought, but ultimately she was overcome.

The darkness gave way to her standing in front of her home. Things felt different, the sky was brighter than usual, the tension that tended to be thick in the air was gone. Everything was peaceful. She knocked on the door with a hoof and her father answered. "Moonlight, you're alright! You've been missing for four years, honey!" he exclaimed.

Moonlight tried to open her mouth, but her father turned into the house, "Hey, Sunset Aurora! Come here, you won't believe this!"

"I'm coming, Thunder Spots!" her mother replied from inside the house.

Her mother arrived at the door and the mare tensed up, agitated by what she had seen before. "This is another one of your tricks Sombra. You're going to get me to lower my guard so they stab me in the back!" Moonlight hissed.

Sunset Aurora frowned at this, "Don't you recognize me, honey? You look different, but I can tell that you're still my little Moonlight Gleam," she said with a saddened tone.

The mare backed up a step and tried to cast a spell, but nothing happened. No magic came out of her horn. Her parents looked down at her, somewhat confused as to what was going on with their daughter. To them, she was acting extremely strange. "Hey pumpkin, don't you recognize your parents? I know you haven't seen us in four years. But we're still your mom and dad, you know," her father said in an attempt to disarm the situation.

"I've seen you last month, and I've done so every month for the past four years. Neither of you knew that it was me. I had to hide my identity for years, just so that neither of you would be in danger. I had to make sure that Sunrise didn't know you were here, if he got wind of it, he'd go after you without a second thought. He wanted any excuse to make me suffer, any excuse to get to me," she stated.

"Sunrise? You mean that man that went missing and turned up recently too? He's such a wonderful man. He brought us cookies and told us what a wonderful person you were. How you had never given up on trying to find him after he was lost. You brought him back to us and now he's planning on taking over the school for his father!" Sunset Aurora said with a huge smile on her face.

Moonlight barged past her parents and into her house with a growl, if Sunrise was here, she was going to make him pay. She stormed into the dining room where she found a light blue skinned man sitting in a chair. His faded orange hair hung to his shoulders and when he looked at her, she noticed his eyes weren't red. They were their normal gray. "Moonlight! I'm so glad to see you! I'm sorry that I haven't had any success on finding some way to return you to normal. I won't give up until I figure out how and I want you to know that you're safe here and when I get the school back up and running, you'll have a home there too. I promise," he said reassuringly.

Sunrise stood up and walked towards the mare who backed up a step before charging at the man before her. "Get away, you blasted aberration!" she yelled.

The human deftly dodged the charge of the much smaller unicorn, leading to Moonlight being forced to recover and try to change directions, but a pair of pink arms scooped her up. "Now now, Moonlight, we don't attack guests in this house. Sunrise isn't an aberration, whatever that is," her mother said to her.

"An aberration is someone who gave themselves to dark magic, they were tainted and corrupted by it, becoming more of a monster than a human," the mare stated.

"Those were all purified, Moonlight. The dark magic that was so pervasive around the world was driven back to where it came from, thanks to you. You were almost lost in your efforts, but we found you as this unicorn. You were held by the Special Investigators to ensure that there were no ill effects and that you were really you. Once you were cleared, you were allowed to leave," Sunrise pointed out.

"So that's why I'm like this? But what about Equestria? What about Princess Twilight and Luster Dawn? What about the other ponies!" Moonlight exclaimed as she started to panic in her mother's arms.

Sunset Aurora placed her hand in Moonlight's mane, stroking her daughter's head gently. "Sunrise told us that you might have had some coma dreams about another world. You were in a coma for a month according to him. The Special Investigators allowed him to visit you every day to make sure that you were okay," she said in an attempt to calm her daughter down.

The unicorn started to relax a little bit, everything clicked in her head. This was her world, this is who she was. She started to remember saving the world, she remembered herself saving Sunrise from becoming an aberration. She had joined up with the Special Investigators in order to protect her world as a strong sense of duty and justice. She wanted to ensure that future generations of people would be able to live in peace, without fear of having to deal with the aberrations anymore.

Thunder Spots smiled as he walked around the corner, "It's been a while since you were small enough to fit in our arms, Moonlight. How do you feel?" he asked.

The dark blue mare looked down at the floor, it was laminate in the appearance of wood. It was all they could have afforded. She was home, the world was safe and she didn't need to fight anymore. A dark gray human walked into the house with red eyes and everyone knelt before him. Something in the back of her mind told her that this was her enemy, so she continued to stand.

"We are not enemies Moonlight, I just wanted to come see the one who saved the world with my own eyes. I have many rewards to give you as your king, if you would only accept them," the shadow king offered, holding his hand out with a kind smile.

Moonlight was placed on the ground. She felt her body move towards Sombra. Something inside of her didn't like this, but she couldn't risk this being real and messing it all up. She placed a hoof in the outstreched hand. "You have chosen wisely, Moonlight. I will ensure that you will always be happy and live the life that you have always wanted to live. Your family will no longer live in poverty, you will have access to the wealth you've always wanted," the king said confidently.

Moonlight nodded and finally bowed her head, "Thank you King Sombra, I am at your service and command. I will do anything that you ask of me if it means that my family can be happy," she stated.

Sombra's smile turned wicked while she wasn't looking, "Oh, I know, my faithful servant. You will serve me very well," he said, holding back an evil laugh.