“Did she talk this much for my ceremony?” I whisper to Luna while we’re sitting in the front row. Celestia has been going on and on about the good work Cadence has done and she even brings up a recent list of my accomplishments to use as a reference for what is expected of a knight. She brings up Forces list of assignments and jobs along with all of her accomplishments and at some point I just started to tune her out.

“She didn’t have as much to work with for your ceremony, but thankfully both of you have been quite busy in the last month. I’m more shocked at the attire Cadence chose to wear. Surely I didn’t wear something so royal and pretentious?”

“You did,” Luna starts to look offended, “but you pulled it off much better than she does. I remember thinking you looked like a proper Goddess that had descended to our realm for a visit.”

She’s caught off guard and actually shoots out a short cough. “W….When did you get so forward?”

“Hm? I was just answering your question. How much longer is this thing going to go on for? Do you have to give a speech too?”

“It should only be another 30 minutes at most, Ignis. Stop being a brat and be happy for your friend. Tia asked me to say some words, but there wasn’t much I could contribute so I turned her down.”

As Luna finishes scolding me impatience my ear twitches and I hear the sound of metal rubbing on metal and clinking in the distance. Which means the mare of the hour has arrived. Turning around I look at the pegasus and can’t help but be impressed. Her armor covers the same areas as the regular guard armor but it’s a light shade of gray all around. I thought it’d be pink to be honest. Her bright red hair is poking out of the top of the helmet and all of her little hoof guards have intricate designs going half way up her legs. The impressive part is how intimidating she’s being. The armor isn’t the reason either it’s her eyes, posture, the way she’s walking. It’s almost like Force is just looking down on everyone as she approaches the front stage.

“She looks good. That armor is one I have not seen in a long time, it must’ve been centuries before my banishment. Now that I’ve been reminded of that guard I guess it’s quite obvious where Tia is going to put Cadence, but I was under the impression the empire hadn’t returned yet.” Luna quietly mutters aloud, mostly talking to herself.

“What’s significant about that armor?”

“It belongs to the guards of the Crystal Empire. In the frozen north they once stood as a beacon of hope for the region but the empire fell to dark magic and before Tia and I could correct the situation the entire empire disappeared.”

Apparently Celestia was listening to us as she looked over at Luna and her horn glowed dimly. “Ah apparently that is not something I should so casually discuss in the open like this. I was under the impression this was part of Equestrian History, but it seems it has fallen to the wayside like myself.”

As Luna finishes talking, Force arrives front and center and kneels down with 1 foreleg while lowering her head towards Cadence. The pink alicorn smiles softly and conjures a sword that seems purely ceremonial. Lowering the blade down onto whatever her shoulder is called Cadence speaks. “Do you vow to serve me dutifully in spreading and maintaining the tenets of harmony?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. However in addition to that I, Unstoppable Force, swear that I will place your safety and your ambitions above everything else in my life. That I will always act in your best interest and the interest of Equestria. That I will follow you to any corner of this world and serve you dutifully until the end of my service. Finally I vow that you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, will always have an immovable pillar to lean on.”

Wait, we're allowed to say yes to that first part? I thought that was just some copout question for people that didn’t feel like writing their own vow. Compared to my vow that brought on whispers and commotion this one hangs in silence as the audience looks on with a mixture of happiness and pride depending on who you’re looking at.

Cadence moves the blade from Force's right shoulder to her left and the alicorns’ cutie mark starts to glow as she speaks once more. “Then rise, Unstoppable Force. Open up your heart to love in its purest form as I connect your mana to mine and stand proudly as the Champion of Love, my only Knight!”

There’s a flash of white light and when it fades we’re all shocked to see Force’s appearance has changed drastically. Her entire being is almost like glass or a gemstone with multiple sparkles and dots all along her body. She’s almost… see through? “I wonder if this was anticipated? Nopony here is going to recognize the signature transformation of a crystal pony.”

Once the applause starts I smile as Shining quickly makes his way onto the stage to embrace the princess. After that he starts sharing some words with the new knight that I’m unfortunately unable to hear. Celestia pokes her head up from the ground and gestures for us to come up as well. Slapping my thighs I groan like an old person as I stand up and escort Luna to the stage.

“That’s a neat trick, champion of love. Are you always gunna look like this or was it just something that happened for the ceremony?” I ask once we’re in ear shot of the group.

“Funny you should ask… none of us actually know what this is, and it was completely unplanned. It feels kinda tingly.”

Luna tilts her head in confusion when Force says none of them know, but before she can speak up Celestia looks at her and speaks telepathically into both of our heads. “I don’t want to tell them about the empire yet. Cadence is still learning and I do not think she's ready to bear the burden of what she will have to be responsible for in the future. We still have plenty of time and I’ll likely tell both of them soon.”

Before the silence hangs on long enough to be suspicious or awkward I verbally speak up again. “Well you won’t hear me complaining if this is a permanent change, you look good.” The nature of her new translucent coat makes it much easier to see that she’s blushing. Cadence smiles at both of us.

“Let’s move this gathering to the ballroom where everypony else has gone. If you three are going to be this adorable I want it to be in public.” Cadence somehow cartoonishly pushes all 3 of us off the stage and towards the castle.

“So Ignis, now that we finally have some time to talk I was hoping for some clarification.” Celestia walks up next to me as I’m putting food on my plate in the ballroom..

“Clarification on what?” I act completely oblivious as I don’t even look at her and continue grabbing different items with my new telekinesis.

“What exactly did you mean when you said Nightmare Moon would be attending the Gala?”

“Oh that? I have some spells that allow me to summon different types of creatures and I was planning to temporarily give her some freedom by summoning her for the Gala. It’s a temporary thing, no matter which spell I end up using they all run out in less than a day. Of course if you are vehemently against this then I’ll reconsider and talk with Luna about what I should do. Have you asked Twilight what her opinion on reforming Nightmare is, by the way?”

She gives out a bit of an angry sigh. “Surprisingly my student said everypony deserves a second chance and that she supports unsealing the demon and keeping her under strict supervision of the elements. For the record I am vehemently against your Gala idea.”

“I mean… are the elements going to be at the Gala?”

She opens her mouth and then pauses, and I think she realizes where I’m going with this because she lets out an even longer sigh. “Yes, but it’s their first Gala and I don’t want their experience to be ruined supervising Nightmare for the night.”

“Okay hear me out. She most likely will not have even 1% of her normal power, so how about I disguise her and she stays with me and Luna at all times and we just have the elements on standby. To be honest if I was as strong as I am now back then in that old castle I could probably have defeated her all on my own. Granted, that would’ve also killed your sister so I’m glad that didn’t happen, but the point is that I can almost certainly handle her on my own. Can you just trust me on this one? I feel like I have to have earned at least a crumb of trust since our last talk about trust when you denied me being able to learn magic.”

Persuasion Check.

8 + 1 = 9.

“I’m still against it. I know you’re going to do whatever you want to do and Luna also supports you on this Nightmare business so you’ll probably just do it anyways. However, I am asking you to please reconsider.” Woah Celestia actually being reasonable? Fuck now I feel like an asshole.

“I kinda already promised her I would do it…so going back on it now would put me in an awkward position. I promise you nothing will go wrong.”

The solar alicorn seems like she’s lost in thought as she stares off into space, and after a few seconds she just shakes her head and walks off with a concerned look. Looking around with my plate of snacks I try to find Luna but she’s nowhere to be seen which is…curious. Force is being swarmed by ponies giving her congratulations, so I guess I’ll just go sit by myself.

The rest of the reception was actually quite uneventful. Luna eventually wandered over to my table and we idly chatted for the rest of the event with Force joining us after the event had officially ended. It’s been a couple days since then and it’s Sunday night now. I’m currently sitting in the castle gardens with Luna as my theorize what spell we need to use to summon Nightmare.

“The problem here is that a lot of these summon spells don’t let me specify what I summon. It just summons a spirit of that type. There’s a chance that if I cast Summon Celestial it’ll summon Nightmare as long as I’m emphasizing that as my intent upon completion of the casting, but there’s also a decent chance it just doesn’t work at all. The next issue is that if she classifies as a demon then I have to use Summon Greater Demon which restricts what I can summon by Challenge Rating. That’s a problem because even the weakened Nightmare had a Challenge Rating for 24 and I can only summon up to a Challenge Rating of 6. I’d have to summon like a filly version of Nightmare for that to work.” I comment out loud the main problems we’re running into right now.

“Is there no other spell outside of those that you could use?” Luna, of course, has no clue what spells I can cast, but she’s doing a great job letting me bounce ideas off of her.

“I don’t know….maybe? Let me try and remember all of the spells I can cast.”

Arcana Check

15 + 13 = 28.

“There’s one spell that might work. The only problem is that this one also specifies that I’m summoning a spirit. Which implies to me that if this one would work then any of the other Summon spells will work. Oh wait a minute, I think I have a better solution. I just need to confirm something.”

Hey Moonie, do you think you can possess something that I summon or can you only possess me?

It would depend on if the creature is fully connected to your mana. To the point that it even has your same mana signature. Also, don't ever call me that again.

Okay and last question, would you be okay with only being a pegasus? I don’t think I can give you an alicorn form or a unicorn form.

If it’s the only way then yes that is acceptable. I would even take the form of an earth pony if it meant a temporary reprieve from this prison.

Alright thumbs up let’s do this.

I throw on the Mizzium and gesture towards Luna. “You might wanna stand back, this spell is a high enough level that I can potentially fail and miscast something harmful. The chances are pretty slim, but why even risk injury?”

Once she’s around 30 or so feet away I cast Guidance on myself and start to channel the power of the magic item to cast Find Greater Steed.

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 18)

15 + 13 = 28 + 1 = 29.

Wow a 15 two times in a row? Nice. The spell is going to take 10 minutes to cast but passing the check is good enough for me. “Okay Lulu you can come back, the spell will take 10 minutes to cast but from this point on I can’t miscast the spell into something else.”

Once the 10 minutes are over I close my eyes and vividly picture what Nightmare looked like on my first day here, but without a horn as I choose to use the Pegasus form for the spell. It’s a resounding success. I can hear Luna’s breath catch in her throat and even though she supports this her eyes still shrink to a pinpoint as she stares at the form of her other half. “You can relax, right now it just looks like her. We’re gunna try the experiment now.”

You’ll need to avoid resisting my influence this time. I’m going to emulate possessing you but I’ll follow the flow of mana into this thing you’ve summoned. If it doesn’t work I’ll cancel my magic and return to how we are now.

That’s sketchy as fuck, but uhh alright. Fuck it we Bhaal. Send it.

Wisdom Saving Throw.

Save was failed willingly.

S̵̡̡͈̼̭̥͔̜̳̣̱͋̀͑̒̍̓͊͘͘͜y̵̧̛̮̜̎͐̓̔́͒̉͛̌͠ͅs̴̀́̓͑͌ͅt̴̜̘̳͍̿̄̽͐̓̆̂̔͆͘̕ê̴͈̲͚̘̹̝m̵̮̪͕͕̘͙̏̓́̒̚ ̶͉̹̲͈̜̜̬̋͆͘Ê̴̢̳͎̬͆͂̒̈́̋̕͘r̵͖̟͉̝͓̃̎͛̾̈̌ŗ̷̢̮͓̥̟̼̥̞̤̒́ó̵̘̗̩͖̰͚̳͍͑͜r̵̨̠̦̲̬̫̣̗̲͈̫̣͛͑ͅ ̵̧̛̰̬̖͈͒̾̽̏̂̊̇̄̓͠͠S̸͖̙̙̮̲̣͓̮̀͗͠y̷̳̟͎͚͊̽̃̀̊͆ŝ̸̢̢͕͇̰͕̭̻͚̹̠̄̎͜t̵̳̫̽͐̎͊̂̐͋́͆̿̒̾͝ę̵̠̝̻̀̃͜m̴̡̲̥̣̥̥̍̑͆͜͠͝ ̷̡͈̪̦̝̹̗̬̺̗̀̂̓̈́͂̓̋̔̍̌͂̚E̵̜̺̲͍̣̝̤̠̺͇͍͒͂̓̽̔̆̀̀͊̍̾̕͘ṙ̸͉̤̫̼̯͇͈͙̰͙̱̥̓́͑̂̒͘̚̚͝ͅr̶̬̼̜̺̬̪̗͍̍͜ͅö̴̱̦̲̝̜̝͖̜͕̅̾̉̾͂̑̐͜͜͜r̵̖̟͔̖̥̬̯͙͚̍̍̐̈́̓͊̋͆̋̑̿̀ ̸͓͚̃̋̈́̈́̈́̕S̷̜͔̳̥͍̪̖̦̣͎̩̺̑̾̎̚͜y̷͍̳̫̟͇̤̲̠̖̜̰̓̓́̐̓̐͐̀̓͘͠s̸͇͇̜͉͂̋̎̑͠t̸̨͇̺̙͔̓͋̅̾̽͌͘e̴̡̡̡̛̟̦̘̗͎͍̘̮̓̅̌͋̾̈́͠ͅm̴̡̡̗̫͚͍̜͕͎̞̞̳̦̊̑̊͑̉̿̚ ̴̡̰̦͓͕̫͖͍̤͇͚̲͍̊̏͑̈̉̋̒̅̍͘̕͝Ē̶̡̼͚͇̟̫͍̖͖̖̌̆ŗ̸̡̙̠̮͗̆͒̅̽́͐͗͛̿r̶̡͖̩̳͈̹͙͓̭̪̞̞̿̆ó̷͇̮̟̰̈́̎̋͠͝r̷̳̰̹̤̥͉̳̉̆̉.̴͈̜̼̣͓̄́̒͑̑̓̃̌̚͘͝͝ ̸̡̳̘̺̣͑́̎̀͌̐̉͜Ḧ̵̢̫̬̙̞͔̫͔̖̩́̂̀͛̂͋͘͝ǒ̷̗͆̄͊̆͌̏͒̀͗͛̓͛s̴̨̗̥̱͉̣͖̲̫̩̈́͛̽̎͑̋͆͜͝͠t̸̬̂̔͜ ̶̪͈̤͎̰͍̒̈́́c̴̢̛͇̞̗͚͉͛̈́͗͊ͅö̵̢̡̨̧̧̰͚̲̺̤̟̳́̌m̵̡͚̗͇͙̈́͌̆̂͐̈́͘͝p̷̨̨͍͈̠̦̼̱͓̿͛̆́̀̚r̶̢̪͇͉͔̬͔̙̖̝̓̓ơ̸̢̳̭̦͎̖͕̯̱̜̋̔͋̀̔̅̍̋̚ͅm̶̨̢̡̥͙͆͌͆͊̓i̸͍͖͕̪̣͛̂̎̈́̔̽̀ś̸͓͚̺͕̮̼̫̭͉̄ͅḛ̷̛̤̺̲̣͔̄͌̑͜d̷͔͓͖͔̠͙̺̖̱͖͍̻͆̊͒̏̿̓̐̒̐͝͝͝.̵̳̤͍̪̔̋̈́̑̓̄̄͛͊͑̀̃ͅ

System Restored.

“It seems it was successful. You have my gratitude, Bladesinger.” Shaking my head from the absolutely strange and uncomfortable feeling I was just assaulted by, I look at the summon and smile as I watch her speak.

“Excellent. By the way Luna I do have some…news to share. This spell isn’t temporary, in fact she’s essentially my 2nd familiar in this state. I’ll be honest I kinda forgot about that when I casted the spell.” There’s several long seconds of silence as both of them stare at me. “That’s not a problem, right? Ole Celly won’t blow a gasket, right?”

“Right?”

Author's Note

Right? It's fine, right?

I'm not gunna lie I wanted to establish more screentime between Ignis and Force to bring them up to the same level as Ignis and Luna post-thestral colony, but I also really just want to get to the Gala so it's off screened and you'll just have to take my word for it.

Also I'll be honest RAW there really isn't an actual way to summon NMM, I think the way we did it here is probably the closest thing we can get with the least amount of fuckery as possible. I considered just having her possess Callisid and then polymorph Cal to a Unicorn and cast Seeming on the unicorn to look like NMM, but unicorns are CR 5 and Cal doesn't really have a CR so that probably wouldn't work. Either way I think this is fine.... right?

Thanks for reading! <3