Chapter Thirteen: Clair de Lune

"Way to go, Pyx!"

"You're the best desu!"

"That was awesome!!"

"NIPAH!!!"

Pyx sat on her haunches, smiling nervously as her classmates crowded around her, praising her to the heavens. She was a little relieved when Cheerilee finally approached, shooing them all away.

"That was just wonderful!" the teacher beamed. "I had no idea you were this creative, Pyx!"

Pyx smiled wearily. She was exhausted, but she felt wonderful. Everything had gone perfectly.

"Tutturu~~!" she said.

"Where did you get the idea for that story?" asked Lemon Pledge, the little yellow pegasus filly who had played Chimney Sweep #4.

"From one of my Mommy's books desu!" beamed Pyx.

"What was the book called?"

"Yes, what was that book called?" came a familiar voice.

Pyx wheeled around. In an instant, all of the exhilaration drained out of her, and a knot formed in her stomach. In the doorway of the little backstage room stood her mother.

"M-mommy..." began Pyx nervously.

However, she soon realized that her fear was unwarranted. Instead of chastising her, Twilight ran up and embraced her.

"Your play was great, Pyx," she whispered into her ear, hugging her tight. Pyx hesitated a moment, and then hugged her back.

"I'm sorry I escaped from the basement, Mommy," she whispered.

"That's okay, Pyx," said Twilight. "I'm sorry I locked you down there this time. I was wrong to do that on this one specific occasion. I guess we were both being a little bit silly. And as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about in the first place. Your play wasn't even about Nightmare Moon!"

"Who's Nightmare Moon?" asked Pyx.

"Nopony, Pyx," whispered Twilight, hugging her as tight as she could. "Nopony at all."

Twilight released her, and sat back on her haunches.

"But I have to ask: what book of mine was your play based on?"

"Oh, right," said Pyx. She went to the corner where she'd left her saddlebag, and rummaged around inside. A moment later, she held up a book in her horn aura.

"Tutturu~~!" she said.

Twilight took it from her and read the title out loud:

"Autumn's Estrus, by Rod Hardhoof."

Her face turned a deep shade of red.

"Where did you get this?!?" she demanded.

Pyx looked taken aback.

"I found it in the library desu!" she said. "I...I didn't think you'd mind if I took it, since it was stuffed all the way back behind the other books on the shelf!"

"Miss Cheerilee said there was a lot of stuff in that book that we couldn't put in the play," added Sweetie Belle. "So we had to change the story a lot. That's probably why you didn't recognize it."

Twilight's face reddened further. She wheeled around to glare at Spike, who was also there for some reason.

"Spike!" she cried. "You told me it was The Elements of Harmony that she borrowed!"

Spike smirked, his arms folded across his chest.

"Sorry," he said. "Guess I made a mistake."

"You don't sound very sorry."

"Alright, fine; I did it to mess with you."

"Why in the wide wide world of Equestria would you do something like that?!"

Spike shrugged again.

"Serves you right for making me wear that stupid teddy bear costume in front of Rarity. We're still not even for that, by the way."

Twilight ground her teeth.

"Then where exactly did my copy of Elements of Harmony go?!?" she demanded.

"Uh, wasn't it in your bookbag?" asked Spike. "You know, the one you left in the Everfree Forest that night and then forgot to go back for?"

Twilight groaned, and began smacking her face repeatedly against the floor.

"Excuse us, Miss Sparkle?"

At the sound of the new voice, everypony stopped what they were doing and turned to face the intruder. The two detectives from before stepped into the room. Twilight moved defensively in front of Pyx.

"What do you two want?" she demanded.

McSpade glanced briefly at Friday, and then cleared his throat.

"We just wanted to stop by and let you know that your...eh...cousin...is no longer a pony of interest."

Twilight blinked.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," replied McSpade. "A suspect has been arrested for the murders of Miss Diamond Tiara and Miss Silver Spoon."

"Really?" asked Twilight again. "That's...wonderful...I guess. Who did you arrest?"

"We don't make arrests, ma'am, we're private detectives," said Friday. "However, we went to the Everfree Forest earlier this evening to...eh...follow up on a lead. When we got there, the horse-police were in the process of apprehending the suspect."

"Well, who did they arrest?" asked Cheerilee.

"Steven Magnet," said Friday.

"Steven Magnet?" repeated Twilight. She looked at Cheerilee, who shrugged.

"Yes. Steven Magnet. He's a big purple sea serpent who lives in a cave by the river. Really annoying; always going on about his mustache."

"I...think I remember him," said Twilight.

"Horse-police searched his cave and discovered a pineapple that was linked to the murder," said McSpade. "The suspect confirmed that the pineapple belonged to him, although he claims it had been stolen on the night the murder took place. However, we can't confirm his alibi. Our theory is that he snuck up behind the fillies and bashed them both over the head with rocks, repeatedly and with enough force to detach their retinas. As they stumbled around blind and disoriented, he proceeded to stab them over and over with a sharpened stick--"

"Well, we can't thank you enough for the work you've done," interrupted Cheerilee quickly, glancing at the group of wide-eyed foals around them. "We're just happy that we can all put this horrible business behind us. Isn't that right, class?"

The foals all looked at each other and nodded slowly.

Friday and McSpade tipped their fedoras.

"It's all in a day's work, ma'am," said Friday.

"Be sure to give us a call if you ever need anything investigated," said McSpade, passing her a card. "Our rates are very reasonable."

And with that, the two of them turned around and left.

Twilight and Cheerilee exchanged a look. Cheerilee cleared her throat.

"Well," she said. "It sure has been an eventful day!"

"You can say that again!" said Twilight, and everypony laughed. "Hey, I've got an idea! What do you say we all go out for frosty chocolate milkshakes? My treat!"

"Tutturu~~!" cheered the foals and Cheerilee in unison.

The moon was hanging high in the sky. Twilight, Pyx and Spike walked slowly and comfortably home, their bellies stuffed with frosty chocolate milkshakes.

"Ugh," groaned Spike. "My belly hurts..."

Twilight giggled.

"That's because it's stuffed with frosty chocolate milkshakes!" she said pleasantly.

"Uggghh..." groaned Spike again. "I'll never eat frosty chocolate milkshakes again......"

"A likely story!" chirped Twilight.

Pyx trotted behind them, enjoying their banter. Truth be told, her belly also hurt due to being stuffed with frosty chocolate milkshakes. However, she didn't mind. She didn't mind at all.

She took a deep breath and looked around. It was a warm, pleasant, beautiful night in early summer. The sky was a canopy of dazzling stars; the air smelled of lilac and honeysuckle and jasmine. A few lingering fireflies still floated lazily in the darkness.

Pyx was happy to be alive. For the first time since that night in the woods, the one she couldn't remember, she felt that everything was going to be okay.

They rounded the corner. Pyx could see the tree library at the end of the street. She squinted. It was dark, but it looked like there was some kind of chariot parked out front. She wondered who it belonged to.

Suddenly, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, her entire body stiff. Pyx looked up at her. It seemed that she had noticed the chariot as well.

"Mommy?" she asked. Twilight didn't answer, but she and Spike exchanged a long, uncomfortable look.

"...maybe she just wants to chat?" offered Spike.

"I sure hope so," murmured Twilight. She didn't sound very hopeful.

"Well, we'd better go see what she wants, anyway," said Spike. "You don't want to keep her waiting."

"Yeah..."

The three of them approached the library, slowly and with trepidation. As they drew nearer, Pyx saw that a light on the first floor was on; somepony had just let themselves in.

Twilight took a deep breath, muttered a brief prayer to some long-forgotten Ponish god, and pushed open the door. Princess Celestia was seated in Spike's easy chair, a cup of tea floating on a saucer in front of her.

"Good evening, Twilight," she said. "I hope you don't mind that I let myself in."

Twilight tried to force a smile. She overshot it by a wide margin, and wound up with a huge, idiotic grin plastered across her face.

"No, not at all!" she cried, a note of hysteria in her voice.

The Princess smiled gracefully, and gestured toward the chair across from her.

"I'm glad," she said. "Please, sit down. We need to talk."

At Celestia's insistence, Twilight had sent Pyx upstairs to bed. She knew the inquisitive filly would be lurking near the top of the stairs, eavesdropping on everything they said, but there was little she could do about that. Meanwhile, she had sent Spike into the kitchen to put a pot of coffee on. For once, he had donned his apron without being asked. Twilight sat in the easy chair across from the Princess, her nerves completely shot. She hoped Spike would have enough sense to put a little something "extra" in her coffee.

"Twilight..." began Princess Celestia. She sighed. "I suppose you know what this is about."

Twilight thought about playing dumb. A million answers to her teacher's question flashed through her mind in rapid succession, each more idiotic than the last. Finally though, she gave up. It was no use lying to the Princess; by the sound of it, she already knew everything.

"It's about Pyx?"

"That's right."

The Princess took a sip of tea.

"Twilight," she said. "There's no sense in beating around the bush. I can sympathize with your...situation."

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"You...can?"

"Of course. We're both mares here. We've all had that...impulse...from time to time."

"Impulse?"

"Oh, yes. You know, the urge. The desire to...*ahem*...procreate. To have a foal of your own."

Twilight reddened a little. This conversation had been bad enough when it was just Rarity; with Celestia it was downright humiliating. She hadn't been this uncomfortable since her mother had given her the "mares and stallions" talk all those years ago.

The Princess took another sip of tea. She didn't look as though she were enjoying this any more than Twilight was. She cleared her throat again.

"It's perfectly natural," she went on. "However, there are...certain rules that must be followed. I'm sure you remember that incident with Rainbow Dash last year..."

"Princess," interjected Twilight. "I can assure you, this is nothing like what happened with Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Pyx is--"

"--not your cousin," the Princess finished calmly.

Twilight's face fell. Her ears drooped.

"Right," she said. "She's not my cousin."

"You can't possibly have thought that I wouldn't find this out eventually?"

"No," said Twilight flatly.

"I mean, it's such a simple thing to check," continued the Princess. "The Hall of Records is literally only a few doors down from my private apartments..."

"I know."

"...and I've known your family for generations, after all..."

"I know."

"...I mean, if you had simply come to me from the beginning, this matter would have been so much simpler to handle."

"I kn--wait, what?"

Celestia took another sip of tea.

"It's exactly as I said, Twilight," she went on calmly. "We've all had that impulse from time to time. That 'Mommy' impulse. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Why, I've 'adopted' a few stray fillies myself over the centuries. Of course, eventually I realized that it was much simpler to just open a school and...well, you know the rest I'm sure. But then again, I'm the Princess; I can pretty much do whatever I want. In your situation...I think what you did makes sense enough."

Twilight blinked several times in succession.

"So...wait a minute. You're...not mad about this?"

"Of course not. As I keep saying, we've all had those impulses. It just...would have been much simpler if you'd come to me first."

"I just figured...well, you know...like you said; that thing with Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo..."

"That was different," Celestia explained. "Scootaloo isn't an orphan."

"Wait, she's not?"

"No, she has parents."

"Really?"

"Yes. Their names are..." she quickly consulted a small memorandum book. "Snap Shutter and......Mane Allgood."

"Wow," said Twilight. "I had no idea."

"Yes, those are her parents. Of course, they're not very good parents; in fact, between you and me her entire family is quite terrible, but...they technically exist."

"Oh."

"So as you can see, Rainbow Dash's attempted...adoption...proved to be a bit of a legal snafu."

"I...see. And Pyx?"

"As far as I can tell, there is no record of Pyx even existing."

Twilight's expression brightened.

"So that means I can adopt her?"

Celestia sighed.

"It's as I said. I wish you had come to me about this sooner."

"What...does that mean?"

"The matter is more complicated now. Perhaps I had better let somepony else explain. Bastion, would you come in here please?"

The front door opened, and an arrogant-looking unicorn wearing a shirt and tie stepped into the room.

"Twilight," said Celestia. "This is Bastion Yorsets. He's a professor at my school for gifted unicorns."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Sparkle," said the unicorn, bowing.

"Wait a minute," said Twilight. "Your name is what?"

"Bastion Yorsets, madam."

"Bastion Yorsets?"

"Correct."

"Wait, is that your real name, or...?"

"It's the name I go by, madam."

"So...let me get this straight. When you were born, and your parents were sitting around thinking up names, they both agreed that Bastion Yorsets was the perfect--"

Bastion Yorsets cleared his throat, looking annoyed.

"Er, Twilight," said Princess Celestia. "Perhaps you should just listen to what Bastion Yorsets has to say."

"I'm sorry, Princess," said Twilight. "It's just, holy jeez. If I had a name like Bastion Yorsets, I would probably--"

"*AHEM*."

Yorsets looked even more annoyed.

"I'm sorry, Mr...eh...Yorsets," said Twilight. "That was rude of me. Please, go right ahead."

"Very good, madam," he said. "Now then. Do you recall an incident roughly two months ago, when you were abducted by a coven of arcane sorcerers?"

"I remember waking up with a splitting headache and rope burns on all four of my legs," replied Twilight, a little testily. "Beyond that, the evening really wasn't all that memorable."

"Well," Yorsets went on, "Be that as it may, the group that abducted you was actually a nefarious occult circle known as the Order of the New Moon. I won't go into the details, but we believe that the spell that this Order...involved you in...was intended to call forth...an entity. Something not of this world."

Twilight gasped. She turned to Celestia.

"Does this have something to do with..." she glanced up at Pyx, who was peeking down at them from the sleeping loft. She leaned forward and whispered: "Nightmare Moon?"

Celestia looked puzzled.

"Eh...Nightmare Moon?"

She turned to Yorsets, who only shrugged. Twilight looked back and forth between them. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore, and just blurted it out:

"Haven't you noticed that Pyx looks an awful lot like Nightmare Moon?"

Celestia peered up at the sleeping loft. Pyx immediately ducked down out of sight, but Celestia's aura seized her and levitated her into the air. She floated the filly down and examined her. She turned her around from side to side, looking at her from all angles. She removed the glasses and examined her eyes. She put the glasses back on her. She examined the racing stripe in her mane, making a quick calculation of how fast she could probably go. Then, she returned her to the loft, patted her on the head, turned to Twilight, and shrugged.

"I'm sorry, Twilight, I just don't see it," she said.

Twilight rapidly shook the cobwebs out of her head.

"Look, forget I even mentioned it," she said. She turned back to Yorsets. "Alright, so if this isn't about Nightmare Moon, then what is this about?"

"Well, madam--"

"Is this about what happened in the Everfree Forest?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"The forest?" she asked. "You mean...when the cult abducted you?"

"No!" cried Twilight. "I mean, the thing with Pyx, what the detectives were here about!"

Yorsets and Celestia exchanged a puzzled look.

"Detectives, madam?" asked Yorsets.

"Yes! Those two guys; I forget their names. Friday, and...Saturday...or something like that."

"They were detectives?" inquired Celestia. "And they were investigating Pyx?"

"Yes! Well, I mean, they were, but then they arrested Steven Magnet..."

"Ah yes, I'd heard that Steven Magnet had been arrested," said Celestia. "I was quite relieved to hear of it. I think we'll all sleep easier knowing that he is behind bars!"

"I hope they hang the bastard!" said Yorsets forcefully.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

"So you don't think that Pyx murdered Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?"

Yorsets and Celestia exchanged another puzzled look.

"Wait, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were murdered?" asked the Princess.

Twilight made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat, and shook her head again.

"Look, forget about that part too. It's just that--"

"I say, madam," Yorsets cut in. "This is not nearly as complicated a matter as you're making it. You see, we believe that this filly, the one you call Pyx, is actually demon-spawn that was summoned from an alternate dimension to fulfill some nefarious purpose."

"Wait, what?!?"

"We'd like to take her away for a few days," explained Celestia. "We'll perform some experiments on her, and see if we can ascertain whether or not she's dangerous."

"What kind of experiments?!?" demanded Twilight.

"Oh...the regular kind," said Celestia vaguely. "In any event, if she survives...er...that is to say, if we can determine that she is not a threat to Equestria, we will return her to you relatively unharmed."

Before Twilight could object, Celestia's horn fired up again, and Pyx was once again floated down from the loft, her little legs flailing as she tried in vain to run away. Bastion Yorsets stepped outside for a moment, and returned with a wheeled cage. Celestia placed the squirming filly inside, and Yorsets closed the door and set the bolt in place.

"Mommy! Help me desu!!" cried Pyx.

"PYX!" cried Twilight. She turned to Celestia, her eyes pleading.

"Please, Princess," she begged. "You can't do this!"

Celestia rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Twilight, please stop being so dramatic," she said. "It's only for a couple of days."

"But...Princess..." cried Twilight. "What if...what if I never see her again...?"

"Then I'll take you down to the pound, and you can pick out a new orphan," Celestia assured her. "I promise!"

The front door swung open, and Yorsets began wheeling the cage out of the room.

"MOMMY!!!!"

Pyx pressed her little face against the bars of the cage.

"PYX!!!"

Twilight bolted for the cage, her horn aglow, but Celestia caught her in a force field.

"Now now, Twilight, none of that please," she said.

"PYYYYYYX!!!" cried Twilight, pressing against the translucent wall of the force field, her eyes brimming with tears.

"MOMMEEEEEEE!!" screamed Pyx. Her little horn sparked as she tried to teleport over and over, but the cage had a spell on it or something probably, so she just kept disappearing and reappearing in the same place.

"Hey there ladies, I've got your coffee all ready--"

Spike entered the room in his frilly apron, holding a silver tray. His eyes darted around as he took in the scene.

"Uh, never mind," he said. "I'll just come back later..."

He turned and scuttled quickly back into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Yorsets had finished loading the cage onto Celestia's chariot.

"We're all ready to go, Princess," he said.

"Go ahead, Bastion," said Celestia. "I'll be out in just a moment."

"MOMMEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" wailed Pyx.

"PYYYYYYYYYYYYYX!!!!!" howled Twilight.

The front door slammed shut, and Twilight could no longer see Pyx, but she could still hear her cries of anguish coming from outside. Tears of unfathomable sadness flowed from her eyeballs, like twin waterfalls in the rain.

"...*sniff*...Princess...how could you do this...?" she sobbed. "....*sniff*....Pyx...never hurt a soul...except for Peewee I guess......and those two fillies maybe....."

Princess Celestia cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"Er, Twilight," she began. "This may not be the best time to bring this up, but you borrowed some books from the Canterlot Royal Library a few weeks ago, and...they were never returned..."