Dusk Shine against Four Mothers

We are so screwed, aren’t we? - Eris

You are, not us… We are innocent - Screwy

Dusk began to waken, his senses returning to him and the world coming into focus.Various dark colors came to and from focus. Voices began to play around him.

“...did he become an alicorn?”

“...how long have we’ve been gone?”

“...is my voice distorted because we are unfocused or because the writer isn’t sure what we sound like when a pony wakes…. oh he’s getting up!”

Dusk saw four faces come into view, though not the ones he was expecting. When he realized that the four voices did belong to the tormentors not long ago, he instantly went into instinct, teleported and landed on all fours with a fighting stance.

What he hadn’t realized that he had just taken on a fighting stance… facing four young looking copies of their mothers. The four youngins… a black alicorn, a light violet draconequus, a changeling with light blue gleaming features and a short black unicorn with a red tipped horn.

They were all looking at him with curiosity, though none of them seemed threatened by Dusk’s quick change to defense. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, the four villianesses that Dusk Shine had to deal with had been talking amongst themselves, before noticing his arrival. Their faces carried no malice, no hate, nor anger or any other negative vibe that radiated when they last met. Instead, they looked passive, calm, though they were unease by Dusk’s new appearance as well as Dusk himself.

His eyes shifted back and forth between them, trying to get a grip on the situation. His mind was sharper than ever, he wanted to feel hatred and rage towards his tormentors, yet it was impossible due to the fact that four… young ones were present before him. His heart was beating heavily at the implications before him, wondering if it was denial or rational thinking that prevented him from lashing out.

His peripheral vision showed Spike had remained unharmed while both had fainted. Though he felt like he might be in another trap, he mentally scanned the books on the walls to see if they look distorted or wrong to see if he was hallucinating or under a spell.

There were details that went into the system he used in his mind to keep track of his books as well as how he organized them. No pony would know how to follow his system… because everyone thought it was too complicated.

Once he verified they remained where they were, he finally settled on the eight individuals, with his heart remaining steady but his mind keeping vigilance over the four that they claimed were from… him.

A single question rang out through the entire room…

“How?”

The four villianesses looked at one another before Nightmare Moon spoke, though there was much hesitance and… fear? Something he swore that felt alien to him. Though a few features began to surface on them.

She swallowed whatever it was and spoke gently.

“Dusk… I know that we have…” She paused, looking towards her children, trying to spare any details that should not enter their minds, yet. “-done some horrible things in the past. Whatever has happened between us, they are not part of it.” She motioned to the young ones. Each mother stood by their sides, pulling them close and protective.

Dusk really wanted to yell, to scream, to unleash pure Tartarus on the females before him, but couldn’t. Not when four in the room were innocent and not when he didn’t know the extension of what they were capable of.

There was no denying that they were his foals/children. A part of him didn’t fully register they were his just because the concept of being a father never crossed his mind prior to all this. Yet, the more he took in their features, the more some parts of them started to show his leanige.

The foal of Nightmare Moon was male. While he shared the same features of his mother, his eyes showed intelligence and wisdom in his years. He kept looking at the books, almost wanting to grab one and read them write away. He studied everything with wonder, absorbing the world around him with curiosity that burned into his mind.

The daughter of Eris may have his coat color, she seemed very adapted at magic. While draconequus could do magic without the need of a unicorn horn, her magic that surrounded her body was the same colors of his own. Her eyes also carried the same shade as his. She casually floated in the air, bored but trying to stay focused on himself and for her siblings.

While not as imposing or as sinister looking as his mother, the unicorn foal of Silhouette was showcasing his intelligence too, though it seemed to come naturally to him. He wasn’t focusing on the books and environment around him, rather he was focusing on the stallion before him. Dusk was not intimidating like his mother, but the colt saw wisdom and could read the fear and pain that his mother had caused before to him.

Lastly was the changeling. In truth, Dusk was fully aware or knowledgeable about changeling anatomy to know if it was male or female. It did show that it was vastly different then the mother, Chrysalis. There were no holes around the body, the carapace looked clean despite the black color and had an incredible gleam to the wings, the eyes and the horns. It reminded him of the reports he had gotten about a new type of changeling seen.

Feeling like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Dusk kept himself at ease, for now. He turned to his unconscious dragon and lifted him up. With a light shake, he tried to rouse him.

“Spike, wake up!”

The dragon woke with a small start, trying to focus his mind.

“Huh… what?”

Not trying to lead too much into him, he pulled him close. “We’re in a bit of a dilemma here and I need you to go get the girls and send word to the Princesses.”

Spike slowly gained back his awareness as well as the immediate realization of the situation at hoof. However, his immediate reaction of surprise and fear was halted by Dusk’s hold to get his bearings together.

“Don’t wait for me, go and get the girls then send the message to Celestia.” Dusk put himself in front of Spike in case the females tried to stop him. As Spike fearfully and quickly made his way to the door, he finally noticed that the four young ones that came with their ‘mothers’, remained on Dusk, though the small purple draconequus that resembled her mother, gave a glance and a wink with a smile.

Not finding any reason to stay any longer, the young dragon quickly flew out of the library, hoping his brother would be okay.

Dusk noticed that as Spike left, none had made a move to stop him. His features into a frown as well as confusion. “You didn’t stop him?” Was his question.

Instead of a response from either of the villianesses, it was the young draconequus that quickly piped in with enlightened enthusiasm. “Oh! oh! Was I supposed to stop him, mother? Should I go after him!?” Her cheerful mood put him off immediately and despite the clear indication she was Dusk's daughter, he hadn’t developed enough of a bond to really say… he would stop her if she chose to go after Spike.

Eris however, shook her head, keeping her yellow eyes on Dusk. “No, Screwball. We need to conserve our strength.”

Upon saying that, Dusk noticed that in his fear and hate for the villainesses before him, he noticed that they looked… worse for wear then anything.

Eris looked like she was barely able to keep herself from wobbling on her mismatched legs. She could have easily stopped Spike but she looked… drained.

Chrysalis’s chitin was a dull black with small dried gray husks in different parts of her body. Her wings were torn or ripped in some places.

Silhouette didn’t radiate any magic from her body nor was her horn red. Her coat was a dull grey with fur missing in patches while her eyes seemed less menacing.

Lastly was… Nightmare Moon. She was as normal as a tall pony could be. No wavy mane or tail that shined with twilight stars and night skies. Both were physical and unkempt, with strands of mane discolored. Her eyes were tired and the areas around them had dry streaks of tears.

All four mothers looked terrible. Was it because of him? Did he send them somewhere horrible and they were suffering for it? His… ‘offspring’ looked healthy and decently well kept. Did the mother’s give everything to keep them alive?

Was Nightfall in charge of this?

“What happened to you? Why come back all of a sudden?”

At first none of them spoke; all of them seemed tired and weak yet Nightmare cautiously stepped before them all. Her legs trembled with ache as she closed her distance between Dusk and herself.

He kept his defensive stance and his horn sparked with magic. Nightmare stopped, her hoof hovering in place before stepping back. The young alicorn colt quickly appeared by her side. He looked up at the pain and sadness that filled his mother. His eyes turned to his father and stood between them.

“Don’t hurt her! They can’t defend themselves!” His voice startled Dusk, forcing him to look at the colt and his mother. He swallowed the hate and rage for the midnight alicorn, staring back at the eyes of his… ‘son’.

“What do you mean ‘they can’t defend themselves?’ They can do anything they want.” He almost shouted but he was trying his best to restraint from doing so at the young ones before him.

Nightmare pulled the alicorn colt close to her with a shaky hoof. She gave a small sad smile towards him and brushed his side. “It’s okay, my son. Your fa…. Dusk Shine isn’t aware of what has happened to us.”

Dusk didn’t know but he had a feeling. Still he let Nightmare speak. Her tired eyes focused on him, keeping her voice from sounding… desperate.

“We… we are weak Dusk. We have lost almost all of our magic trying to get out and… keeping them alive.” She pulled her colt close while the other mothers leaned into their own children. “When we got…” She swallowed, trying to find the right words without upsetting the young ones more. “...exiled, we were sent in a different dimension outside of this one.”

Eris pulled up close, though she swagered as she moved forward. “When I tried to change our course at the last section, I didn’t exactly control where we would land so it was a place with almost no magic.” She sighed and raised her paw up to snap. When she snapped, a small spark that left her paw, caused a small puff of cotton candy to form but it quickly dissipated into the air. Her daughter managed to snatch it before it did with her paw and just like her mother when she was powerful, quickly turned the small puff into a large bale of it.

Eris smiled and rubbed her daughter’s fluffy mane before turning to him, becoming tired once more. “If it weren’t for her inheriting my magic… and maybe yours, we never would have escaped, or survived.”

Dusk dared not show his moment of weakness at the thought of these four dying. What they may have done to him was unforgivable but if they died during or after the foals were born…

A flashback reminded him of him nearly taking the life of his foalsitter and beloved sister-in-law, Cadence. The foal in her womb had only developed a heartbeat when he nearly took her life.

But here before him stood four lives which he nearly took and despite having no idea or inkly towards them, they were still his blood and it was now pushed into his life… whether he wanted it or not. The only issue was how to tackle this situation.

Currently, four villianesses stood before him with their children. They were currently weakened and were without their full capabilities, which wasn’t such a bad thing.

That left the other four that currently stood in his view. Four… unknowingly powerful foals stood before him. If what Eris had said was true, that her daughter helped them all escape wherever they had been trapped in, was probably just as powerful, if not more so than her mother. His blood and magic ran through her veins too. As did the others.

His thoughts were interrupted as Chrysalis who's been on the side, groaned, nearly slumping forward.

“Regardless of what happens to us, we just want them safe.” Her voice carried no malice or venom of any type, just fatigue and strife.

“Mother!” The voice that came from the smaller changeling was a blend of male and female, but regardless, it… he/she shifted her form to be as tall as her mother, to stop her from collapsing. Chrysalis sighed, feeling her daughter’s form, giving a smile towards her before turning to Dusk. “Tell me Dusk, has my hive been wiped out when I was gone… or were they in hiding?”

In truth, Dusk didn’t fully know what had happened to the changelings, other than scattered reports of a group of changelings being spotted that were far different then the black chitin ones. Reports say that colorful and beautiful changelings had replaced the ‘evil’ ones, while a few others have reported that the regular changelings were in hiding.

Lying to her would be useless, seeing as both would be able to read his emotions, so he gave a half measure truth.

“I know that we haven’t hunted any of them Chrysalis,” His voice was calm but heavy with resentment. He added. “But we know they are still out there.” A small smile touched her form.

Nightmare sat on her haunches, her form showing signs of massive fatigue. “Dusk please,” She took a heavy breath, her voice cracking, from sadness or tiredness, he couldn’t tell. “We came back to try and give them a better life, something we couldn’t do before. While time here was slower for you, we have been gone for more than a decade.”

“We have been keeping them alive with our magic,” Interjected Eris, her daughter creating a chair for her to sit on. “Most if not, all of it was to keep them alive.” She once more tried to lift her arm to snap but… failed and it fell to her side. “We are hanging by a thread now.”

Dusk felt a lump of worry force his way up his throat, but he tried to hold it back. Was it… sadness and worry he had for them, that was giving this feeling? Perhaps it was because the foals in front of him that he was feeling.

The more they tried to remain standing, the more the mothers continued to falter.

“It would mean everything, yes even being exiled once again or being turned to stone… if you just saved and kept the foals.” Tears ran down the face of Nightmare, as her son tried to keep her from falling. With looks of plea and desperation, she spoke her heart out. “Don’t let our mistakes and past be part of their future, teach them something we never could… The power of Friendship and Love from those around yo…”

She didn’t get to finish and she finally slumped onto the floor. Eris, Chrysalis, and Silhouette followed soon after, with the foals crying in dismay as their mothers collapsed before them.

Dusk’s heart gave out, hearing the cries of his foals towards their mothers. Again, he wasn’t sure if this was an act, if they were in on it. The sight before him was heartbreaking as foals tried to wake their mothers. Genuine fear and worry was etched over their faces, tears running down their young faces.

Cautiously, he tried to make his way towards them. The slumped and fallen forms of his… foals’ mothers were terrifying. They were demi-goddesses and yet to see them so mortal, was something he thought he would never get to experience.

He was above Nightmare, her head to the side and her eyes closed. Her son… his son, was cradling her, whimpering in despair. His tears ran down his black coated eyes, sparkling far more than a tear should. His eyes finally looked up to Dusk, trembling and speaking to him.

“F-Father!” He begged, the word sending shivers down Dusk’s spine. “P-Please you have to help them!”

Dusk looked down towards the alicorn colt, seeing the plea and wondering what he could do. His mind was still trying to understand that this colt was his own flesh and blood, but more so was the fact that he already missed a good portion of his life.

He was a father without being told, without warning, and without any sort of knowledge on what he had to do. Yet, being thrusted into it had forced him to do something he inherited or unknowingly wanted to do and that was… care for those around him. Family.

He pulled close to Nightmare Moon and tried to focus on what was missing and closed his eyes, focusing his magic. He lit his horn to try and find where her needs were. His magic then spread out from his horn, as magic tendrils came from his horn and sought the four mothers. Each one floated over each of them, hovering over them to get a small insight as to what each one needed.

Again, a small part of him thought it was a trap of sorts, but did find there was little magic left in their bodies. They were also malnourished, lacking other sources of nutrients and such. If they truly were giving everything they could to their foals, it was amazing that they kept them going for a decade.

They were different from one another, so it would make sense that each one required a different source of magic.

Instantly he knew it, as if an instant connection was made and his eyes snapped open. “That’s it!” Each of the four foals looked at their father. He turned to each of them. “I know how to fix them, we just need to-”

A powerful magical spell ripped open the fabric of reality with blinding light and strength. Dusk and the foals had to shield their eyes, as part of the tree had been removed at the entrance by a powerful glowing light of yellow and blue.

“Fiends of Evil, we cometh to fight and conquer! Prepare thyselves!” No mistaking the voice of Princess Luna, Dusk Shine saw from the blinding light, Luna and Celestia had arrived, along with Shining Armor, a hoof full of guards, all dressed in battle armor. Near behind them were his friends, the girls wearing the Elements of Harmony on them. The guards were carrying weapons, the princesses had royal armor with specialized weapons of their own. Shining had a more rugged armor set but it still looked like he was ready for war.

The fact that all of them were here and now, looked like they may have been ready to go to war. Yet… they saw that Dusk remained untouched, the four villainesses of his past were on the floor either dead or knocked out, and four smaller versions of the villainesses were next to them, all behind their father and using him as a shield, cowering behind him.

Luna, Celestia and Shining Armor all saw the scene before them, almost lowering their guard. The girls meanwhile cautiously made their way towards Dusk, who seemed annoyed that a piece of his home was just ripped apart.

“Dusk,” Celestia spoke, moving close, studying the four foals behind him. “what is going on?” Her eyes still remained on the four villianesses on the floor but glanced at the newly ascended Prince of Equestria.

Dusk had so many questions himself, only one or two having been answered. However, he felt the weight and fear coming from the four behind him, wondering if it was fatherly instincts or… just the mindset that made him do it, to protect them, but he stood firm and tall, before everypony before him.

“I am just as confused as you are, but I know that they have returned.” He then slowly spread his wings, covering or shielding the foals, speaking firmly to the princesses. “I… also am placing the four mothers in temporary sanctuary until they can recover on their own…” He paused, swallowing a huge lump on his throat before continuing on. “-and keeping my foals under my protection.”

The princesses were in shock, as was his older brother, Shinning Armor. Rarity had fainted for some reason. Everyone else just quieted, as Dusk just announced his fatherhood and... his acceptance as Prince of Equestria. The four foals behind slowly peeked behind their father to show their forms to the rest of them.

(All works of art belong to their appropriate artist. I do not own any of them, please support the original work of the artist. Comic book panel is artwork of Hasbro Inc and My Little Pony Fiendship is Magic Issue #1)

Author's Note

And here and now with the prologues out of the way, the real story can begin.

And You all will decide how this story will go!!!!!! Since I know that many questions were asked about how the future procedes with Dusk, his foals and the four villianesses, I will let you, my readers decide how the future of this limited series go! This
(Closed now)
Ideas and looks of the foals and the pictures above, they are close to what I had in mind to how they would look like to their designs.
Nox(Black Alicorn son of Nightmare Moon) Is a genderbent Nyx from the great series, Past Sins)
Screwball will have two forms to her, as seen above, her draconic form and her pony form she can switch back and forth from.
Mirage is the changeling. However... this one is a more adult form, but just visualize it foal sized. The story will tackle the gender issue.
Last is Umbra, who is the colt of Silhoutte. Many of you wondered why I went with that name instead of Umbra... now you know. Because Umbra and Sombra would be too close together and throw off so many people.

A huge thanks to Alphamon_Ouryuken for helpig prep this sequeal to the series years prior! Without him, I would have never considered a sequeal to this series! The foal character suggestions, art looks, and their behavior is all because of him, so thank him for that too.

I thank you all for reading, hopefully this will get exciting for us all. The vote will be counted and the 1st chapter will be on the week of or a few days before Thanksgiving. So that is November 25th before the next chapter will be out. By then, the 1st chapter will establish how the series will play out after.