Lest darkness fall: 589 days to prepare, to act, to succeed. Tartarus if I knew what I needed to do.

Meeting Moon Dancer in the sculpture garden seemed like a right thing to do. It bookended my revolutionary period. My world overturned. Mysteries solved. Love discovered. Ponies saved. A chance to heal.

Proper Step and Facet lay out the red checked table cloth with his magic and her feathered wings smoothing it. The goat-mown lawn smelled fragrantly delicious, and served as a warning to a certain princess that she shouldn't gauchely graze upon the lush green. From the basket flew pumpkin bread slices upon nebulae of caramel brown.

"Prepare the tea, Ma'am?" asked the butter yellow pegasus helping my Chargé d'affaires. Her bubble-gum color mane rivaled the length of Celestia's. Tall with legs that went on forever, perfectly rounded such that she'd attract any stallion walking away, with often fluttering wings that beat Celestia's and Cadance's for elegance, this pony could have been a model.

The original pony that Facet impersonated (sensora could copy only ponies they'd studied) had been afraid of her shadow. She'd only eeped when I tried to talk to her. Strangely, "Fluttershy" had not been afraid of Unseen Tree of Life, the giant fawn Celestia "hosted" at HiSec. The animal interpreter had been sent to chat her up, before leaving on a secret mission to work with the leader of the Ponyville weather team in the Everfree—to ensure her friend, Rainbow Dash, didn't go native as she'd threatened to do. Going native. Unable to speak the language, but going native. Something undefinable about the Golden Stag either represented a unique threat or a fascinating opportunity. Time would tell.

"Yes, please," I answered the reborn Sensora. Facet maintained that form so ponies wouldn't question the pegasus having disappeared from Ponyville. Facet apparently found the animals living at the animal healer's house adorable. That worked for everypony, but left me a bit confused as to what happened mentally to Sensora when they transitioned.

An antiqued silver-edged Resignation Interregnum roses-and-bees tea set floated out of the basket, clinking into place with spoons, a creamer, and a ceramic of sugar cubes, arranged just so. Hoof-sorted wrinkled tea leaves on a rose kerchief were urged by yellow primary feathers into a brown earthen pot of water taken from a grill of pebbles that glowed red. I smelled Earl Greymare. Fluttershy had decided sensora were "as cute as my favorite spiders(!)," taking a shine to Facet and Ocelli, teaching them the Neighponese tea ceremony.

While the two fussed, I trotted over to the peculiar dragon statue. I wore a fuzzy pink sweater, though the autumn hadn't cooled much. Ten days of healing since I'd almost died had taken its toll, but I was determined to rebuild my strength now not later.

It took two bites to clear the dandelions and grass around the placard when Proper Step looked the other way. Bitter, not sour. Sentenced to bed rest by Flowing Water, I'd completed the University of Canterlot 101 textbook on Old Ponish, to ensure I could chat up Omega and learn more about her. The words, chipped into the marble and partially dissolved by a millennium of rain, dated to prior to the first century. They read:

The last words of Discord and Chaos: "Where's the fun in this?"

I chewed my green snack. What did that mean?

Resembling a neighponese wyrm, the spindly monster towered over me, taller than Celestia. Either claw or talon could pick me up, maybe even Celestia. The pony-like face looked open as if in a guffaw.

I was "into" magic; barring that, science. I enjoyed a good fight. Art was another thing I'd been tutored in; I liked the impressionists, but sculpture, and this especially, I didn't get.

I trotted around the pedestal to the spot behind. I'd seen it before. Empty where a statue had gone missing. I pushed away the grass with a hoof, not interested in another bitter snack. At the confluence of three small hills, an æon of moisture had melted the letters like a peppermint forgotten in your cheek. I dug, found muddy soil, and wiped it over the letters.

Brave Son forgive ... wardly father.

"Cowardly father?"

Moon Dancer answered, "I asked Princess Celestia after my coronation," causing my heart to jump.

She stood in the deep shadow of the statue, head down to view the same placard I read, her form appearing as if the darkness were fog. It couldn't have been that she hadn't been there and then had been... soundlessly teleported, which, of course, made it my perceptual error. I wasn't myself, yet.

I skittered back. Purple eyes under red bushy eyebrows regarded me. Through my loud gasp, she finished, "The princess said that's right. 'Cowardly.' Her brother didn't relate to anypony well other than his sister; he was 'high functioning', but autistic nevertheless. He discovered he'd treated his son as a weapon way too late, so he left a message for a future that ought never have come to pass."

"That's sad. Ummmm, could you step into the sun? Something about you standing there makes me uncomfortable."

My soon to be step-daughter trotted out and we went to the picnic blanket. As she folded down, I noticed that like me she wore a coronet. Hers was hoof-strung irregular amber nuggets on golden wire. Many sported bits of leaves or wood. It contrasted with her hair (up in a fountain colt bun) as much as it matched fur. In the center I saw a hoof-sized dark opal in a silver setting. It drew the eye. In the light, red and blue glints twinkled like little stars in the night sky. Her ears held it in place.

Moon Dancer said, "Look closer." When I did, it seemed to absorb light rather than look dark. She added, "Touch it with your horn."

I felt a shock when a magnetic pull jerked my horn to the gem with a glassy clink. I pulled back, my heart stuttering. What I'd felt was like static electricity from rubbing hooves on a carpet shooting the gap, but I was a high level unicorn. I understood that splendors of my magic had jumped from my horn to the gem. I didn't want to characterize them as "sucked out," but my magic did feel ever so lightly gouged. I felt a magical bruise. "What just happened?"

"Omega and I went together to find it. It's a Tears of the Moon. When I found one back in Horseshoe Bay, I got my cutie mark."

"What were you doing?"

She clapped her hooves together, then accepted a tea cup from Facet's yellow feathered wings with a nod. "I figured you'd ask me the story. I'd gotten turned around at the shore near dusk, after my 'friends' had forgotten I'd come with them and had returned home without me. When I climbed the rocks into the sea grass hills, I found the night getting brighter, not dimmer. It wasn't the risen moon, but I found I could see better if I went one particular direction, which led to a former beet field grown so full of dragon rocks it could no longer be planted. My horn led me to a spot and I dug. I found a lot of common gems, like rubies and citron, but also one of these." She pointed to her coronet.

"What made you get your cutie mark, though?"

"I can see in the dark when one's near. The closer it is to the full moon, the more it clears my thoughts and helps me to cast. I have an affinity for dark skies and the moon."

I looked into the darkness in the center. I shuddered, but said, "Can I get one?"

"I'm sure Omega will find you one if you ask."

Sipping my tea, I found myself staring at the Discord and Chaos statue. Blueblood had talked about living in chaotic times. His father had been difficult and uncaring. He had talked about Celestia as if she were his aunt.

One time he had said he had had two aunts.

Celestia and Luna? Hair rose on my spine.

The pedestal had read, Brave son...

If Blueblood, no Blue-eyed Brawler, had been fighting a monster named Discord and Chaos, who'd been turned to stone...

Had he also...?

Wait, how could a statue have "Last words?"

A pony-sized pedestal stood vacant. "You're Celestia's actual grand niece."

Moon Dancer put down the cup with a clink and a giggle. "It took you this long? Celestia and her sister trapped my father when they turned Discord into stone. He'd gotten close enough to attack the monster. Sometimes luck is not lucky. He broke free two decades ago."

—as Celestia's curse ticked toward the inevitable day of Luna's return, foretelling increasing havoc.

I blinked at the wyrm with the chaotic body. It had been alive once. Could potentially be alive again. How creepy! "Celestia really is his biological aunt!"

"Well, yeah!"

• The End -

Author's Note

Fact: Writers like praise. It takes a lot to write a novel.

First: If you haven't, and you've read this far, upvote. Seriously. Do it.

Second: Leave a comment. Better yet, discuss the story.

Third: Tell your friends to read my stories. Pick one. Your favorite.

Beyond that...

Is this the end or a beginning? For the moment, it's an end as I work on SF and fantasy projects trying to return to commercial publishing. Nothing MLP in the pipeline, in any case. I am not saying never, though various things do influence me, like reader response. I like to write. I've written 48 MLP stories, readers! Forty-eight!

The reception of my stories during syndication has been underwhelming; I know this and accept responsibility. My stories don't fit the mold for My Little Pony, full stop. I write character stories, especially about those tortured by their past or by their principles. This is why Starlight Glimmer was the perfect character for my first story, and for so many others. Sunset Shimmer for similar reasons. Moon Dancer is shaping up in that vein, especially with this story. I gave her a backbone in Sisters in All but Blood, too, but here she's becoming what?

The next antagonist?

She might. The new Princess of the Moon is certainly sinister. If you didn't notice, reread her parts.

Writing for realz is harder than writing fan fiction, but fan fiction is freer and lets me take it easier on myself. For that reason, I suspect I will return to this sandbox to play occasionally. That means this is not entirely a tease without promise:

• At some point there has to be a foal. No spoilers as to whether the current setup pans out.
• Streak has a crush on Starlight.
• Neither Citron nor Sunburst will let themselves be sidelined.
• Shining Armor has to deal with wearing the solar cutie mark, and traveling all over the world with the Princess of Marks since she has to be cast the daily spell on his rear end. A certain pink prickly princess won't be happy being left behind.
• Fizzlepop Berrytwist will encounter the Stormking, after he rebrands himself.
• Midnight, Starlight's international pop star Mother, is alive.
• Discord. 'Nuf said.