Little Nightmare

Chapters

Chapter 1: Eggshells & Raincoats
Chapter 2: Intense Pink Analysis
Chapter 3: First Word
Chapter 4: The Schemes of Alicorns
Chapter 5: Muffin Theory
Chapter 6: Nyx the Noticer
Chapter 7: Everyone
Chapter 8: Loopholes
Chapter 9: Mare in the Mirror
Chapter 10: You Are Nightmare Moon
Epilogue: Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns

Chapter 1: Eggshells & Raincoats

It can be astounding the difference a few seconds makes.

When an out of control cart is careening down the main street of a town, a few seconds could mean the difference between a flattened pony or an intact pony.

Or, when a unicorn is foalnapped to be used in an arcane ritual to resurrect an ancient alicorn made of pure malice by a cult that seeks to bring about eternal night, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death.

And a few seconds of hesitation from the guards dealing with the entire mess afterward meant certain things could escape notice.

“Did these creeps even get to do anything?” asked the last of the pair cleaning up. He looked over a bit of torn cloak, placing it in a burlap sack. The word EVIDENCE had been scribbled on the side with the bare minimum of effort expected from Equestria’s finest.

“Cut up the princess’ protege a bit, but nah,” his partner replied. “Came right in the nick of time. Her majesty herself got a lightning bolt off, and they scattered like rats. From what I heard, a whole lot of nothing went off. Shame we didn’t catch any of ‘em.”

“Scattered is right; there’s bits of their ritual everywhere. You sure we’ve found all of it?”

The wind picked up. Not much, but enough to make both guards shiver. Even out in Canterlot, they had heard stories of the Everfree Forest. None of them were good.

“Seems like every piece has been gone and got… right?”

“I’ll lie to the captain if you lie.”

“...Deal.”

Eager to move on, the guards hurried away. None of them noticed the saddlebag lying on the ground, and none of them noticed the orb that had been blown away by Celestia’s magic and into a nearby bush.

Inside the darkness of the branches and thorns, the orb pulsed, beating slowly. It had no mind or life of its own, but it had been constructed for a very specific purpose. And though it had been interrupted at the exact moment of its conception, it had not been stopped. As it burned with enchantment, tendrils of unseen magical energies inside reached out, seeking more fuel…

And found nothing. The spell had been terminated too early. A few seconds more and it could have powered itself, sputtering across the thaumic finish line with at least a bronze medal in resurrection.

But now it had to work internally. With nothing but a single drop of blood to fuel it, the spellwork began to collapse. Syntax failing, the arcane weaves unraveling, the orb swelled once, shuddered, and hardened.

And then it began to crack.

It was astounding the difference a few seconds could make.

Find her saddlebag, get the book, and put this entire episode behind her. No more thinking about foalnapping or magic rituals or anything. Let Celestia worry about those problems, and let her worry about them with a nice complete library.

It'd all be easy to do, and she really REALLY wished she had had this level of conviction before it started raining.

Twilight Sparkle realized that in hindsight she probably shouldn’t have spent so much time packing a bunch of supplies. What was she afraid of? It’s not like there were any cultists left or any sort of vicious monsters or—

“Dangit, Spike, why did you even suggest asking Celestia to go find my saddlebags? Now I’m going to be second guessing myself all night.”

She looked up through her shield as the rain poured down harder.

“Ohhh, I just hope I remembered to waterproof them too…”

Finally arriving at her destination, Twilight squinted through the force of the rain and tried to spy her dropped saddlebags. But the royal guards had been through the whole thing, and the grove was empty, nothing but wind and some leafy bushes and—

With a happy cry, Twilight spotted the outline of her saddlebags in the darkness, rushing over as she inspected them. Wet on the outside, but the book was (thank Celestia) still dry. What worse sin could there be than getting a book damp?

“Ha! Gotcha!”

KRA-KOOM!

She yelped as a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, too close for comfort. Shaking away the sound of the thunderclap from her head, the unicorn’s hearing returned, and she could suddenly swear she heard something nearby. Not the pounding of the rain or the whistle of the wind but…

It sounded for all the world like the cry of a baby.

Twilight froze. She knew the Everfree Forest had all manner of vicious things; maybe one of them had the ability to mimic a crying baby to lure in unsuspecting ponies? What could even do that? A manticore? Too small. A cockatrice? No, that was a chicken’s cluck, and what she heard then was clearly… a plasmoid, maybe? No, wait, she made those up.

Her heart sank lower and lower as she ran out of options on her mental checklist. Had one of the cultists brought their baby to the ritual? Why? She shivered at the thought as her imagination ran away at the possibilities, images of horror novels and ritual sacrifices and little bundles on bloodstained altars rushing through her mind. What if they had planned to—

“Nope. Come on, get a hold of yourself, Twilight,” she muttered. “It’s a magic evil bush that sounds like a baby or something. They didn’t actually bring an infant out to—”

Lightning flashed, and the bush screamed, wailing and shaking in response. Her heart wrenched and won out over her sense of preservation. Trotting over to the bush as fast as she dared, she lit up her horn and moved it aside.

“Are you—” she began, then froze, taking in the sight before her.

It was a baby—from Twilight’s estimates (though she honestly wasn’t the best judge), a filly no more than a couple of months old. Tears and dirt stained her face, and she was covered in cuts from the deep thorns of the bush. But that wasn’t what had made the unicorn’s body go cold as ice.

No, what had driven a spike of fear into her soul was that this particular filly had a tiny pair of wings, a tiny horn, a tiny black coat, and tiny turquoise eyes.

Slap some tiny armor and tiny makeup on her, and she’d look all the world like someone had shrunken down Nightmare Moon.

Twilight began to panic, a thousand thoughts racing through her as she just stared at the baby in front of her. Did the spell work? Did it fail halfway through and just spit out what it had, like a half-written essay? Did someone somehow magically merge Nightmare Moon with their own child? Or was it a trick, or just—

Another flash and frightened howl from the apparent foal brought her back to reality, and Twilight only now noticed how filthy and bloody the filly was.

Aw, Tartarus.

Again, she stomped down the part of her brain that was screaming to run away. If it was a ploy or not, she wasn’t going to leave a little filly to freeze in the Everfree Forest. That’d be exactly what Nightmare Moon would do.

And wasn’t this exactly what Nightmare Moon would do? Exploit her emotions to get her to let her guard down? She pushed the thought out of her mind, trying to focus on what was immediately in front of her. If Nightmare Moon had intended to attack her, she probably wouldn’t have gotten stuck in a bush to bleed to death.

Bleeding to death, right. Those were the facts. A foal needed her help. Bad ponies didn’t help foals; she wasn’t a bad pony.

“Hey. Hey hey hey, it’s okay. It’s okay,” Twilight soothed in what she hoped was a calm voice, beginning to break away the branches with her magic. The baby simply stared up at Twilight through her tears, wailing but making an effort to remain perfectly still.

The poor thing must be too terrified to even move, she thought. From the looks of it, if she did, those thorns would continue to poke her. A pang of sympathy went out. If it was a ruse, let her fall for it, Twilight decided. If she got attacked by an evil baby, at least she’d have her principles.

With the branches broken away, she carefully levitated the freed filly out and under her rain shield. The foal still cried and struggled, but the sudden dryness and lack of thorns gentled it to more of a whimpering protest.

Old lessons learned and memories made when she had cared for Spike drifted into her mind. Pulling out her improvised wilderness survival kit and pulling off her raincoat, she levitated the filly closer. Best to get it over with while the foal was already crying.

“Shhhhh. You’re okay, you’re okay sweetheart. I’m going to help you, it’s going to be alright.” She pulled out parts of a first aid kid and tried to dig out the smallest bandages and gentlest ointments she could find.

“I’m sorry, this is going to sting, but it’s going to feel better, don’t worry, don’t worry. You’re being a very brave girl right now, that’s it. Thaaaat’s it,” she reassured, applying some of the ointment in the kit to the filly’s cuts. The baby squalled and squirmed, Twilight trying her best to hush her as she focused on what looked to be the deepest wounds she could see.

Finally, amazingly, the baby began to calm down. Wrapping her up in the raincoat (Twilight figured a soiled jacket was a small price to pay for keeping a foal warm) and holding the little alicorn close, Twilight rocked her back and forth while she spoke to her in what she hoped was a calm, even voice; improvising promises that the filly was going to be safe and warm and dry and please stop crying, please? It seemed to be effective, because wailing went to weeping, to whimpering, and then mercifully and finally ceased.

Baby crying stopped and baby death averted, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe now could finally take a better look at her surroundings. If she could find a clue as to what just happened here, maybe she could…

What would she even be looking for at this point? The guards would have taken everything as evidence, right?

With her magic’s light washing over the grove and with care to keep the baby Nightmare Moon out of the rain and off the ground, Twilight peered over and began to comb the area, stopping when she felt something strange beneath her hoof near the other side of the bush. Moving her foreleg aside, she felt something shattered and cracked. Bits of… stone? She leaned in closer and inspected what she had stepped on.

Though it was black as night, it still looked all the world like some sort of hard eggshell.

“Is this… did you hatch from this?” Twilight looked back at the filly, still held in her magic. She had fallen asleep. Twilight could swear there was a content smile on her little face.

Taking in the entire scene, she sighed, having reached a conclusive decision.

“You can’t even understand me, can you? Alright. Alright, fine. Whatever you are, I can’t just leave you out here…”

Gingerly placing the swaddled foal on her back and making sure she was stable, Twilight set off back to the library.

Two hours. Twilight had said she’d be back from the Everfree forest in two hours with Celestia’s book. Because it just HAD to be Celestia’s book, didn’t it? Spike may have had a chance if it was just A Book, a slim chance, but a book from the royal library? Convincing Twilight to stop worrying over a royal book was a lost cause.

So she’d taken some supplies, ignored his protests, and given him two hours. That had been four hours and one Everfree Forest level storm ago.

Drastic, draconic action had to be taken. Twilight could be mad at him later, once she was safe and dry. Quill discarded and scroll in his claws, he readied his hasty letter to Celestia.

“Should’ve just done this from the start, but hey, why would anypony listen to me?” he muttered, taking a deep breath.

A light pink aura clamped around his snout, shutting it and smothering the flame.

“Don’t you dare send that letter,” Twilight hissed, carefully walking through the door as the storm raged outside.

Spike gulped, swallowing the fireball as her magic eased up. He breathed a sigh of relief, before taking another breath and launching into a tirade.

“Two hours, Twilight. Two hours, and you’ve been gone for four! I know how to count! You know I know how to count!”

“Spike, I—”

“And what were you thinking going off in the middle of a storm? Right after everything that just happened? You got foalnapped,Twilight! Foalnapped by a cult, and nobody’s even caught the ponies who did it. And all over a book! Did you even find it? I can’t believe you’d be this reckless over ONE book! It wasn’t even a first edition, for Celestia’s sake!”

“Yes, fine! All those things, sure, I agree,” said Twilight, trying to shoosh him. “Just please, PLEASE,can you be a little quieter.”

“WHY?”

“Because I—”

It was only then that he noticed the small swaddled mass on her back that had begun to shift and whimper. Before Spike could say anything, it sat up suddenly, wailing in fear, tears in its eyes.

Its bright turquoise eyes.

“I didn’t want you to wake her…”

“We’re just going from one disaster to another, aren’t we?” Spike complained. “Can’t there just be one week in Ponyville where nothing happens? Something quiet, no magical disasters? No mythological creatures trying to eat Sugarcube Corner? No cults? No evil babies? Just once? Please?”

An hour had passed. Twilight had managed to reshape a cup into a nursing bottle, and they had even scrounged some milk from a carton at the back of the fridge. There were enough improvised infantile accessories to calm the alicorn filly, and she was sleeping peacefully among some freshly undusted old blankets.

Twilight was improvising, and that wasn’t good.

“She’s not an evil baby. She’s just a baby,Spike. Not a cataclysm in waiting.”

“Okay. Sure. But what if she’s not?”

“Can we not have this argument again? Please?”

“I just—” Spike sighed, rubbing his eyes. “What’s the plan here, Twi? Tell me you’ve got a list at least. I’d feel a lot better if there was a list for something as big as this.”

“I’ve got a plan!”

“Do you? I mean, come on, you turned a random towel into her diaper, and she’s sleeping in a laundry basket after drinking the last of the 2% we had in the fridge. You are winging it.”

“And? I can wing it. I’ve winged it before.”

“No plan and no list? Twilight, this is nuts.”

“I’ve got a plan!” she insisted. “Look, we don’t know what we’re dealing with here. We can’t just let her out of our sight. I can take a couple of days to research more about what went into that spell and—”

“And you can’t just tell Princess Celestia because…?”

“The moon, Spike. You want to risk sending her to the moon?”

“Oh for the love of—”

And so it continued. No matter what points he brought up, Twilight seemed wholly and uncharacteristically unwilling to listen to reason.

It didn’t matter that the filly was an alicorn who looked all the world like Nightmare Moon (“She can’t even walk,” Twilight said), that she had been found right by the same site as Twilight’s foalnapping (“Where she was freezing to death in a thorn bush!” Twilight said), that she was clearly, very obviously Nightmare Moon (“You don’t know that!” Twilight said) and that the best option would be to either throw her out or, better yet, call Celestia and let her deal with it (“She’s a baby, Spike!” Twilight said).

That’s what it came down to, at the end. Nightmare Moon or not, Twilight wouldn’t just abandon a baby.

And, if he had to admit it to himself, neither could he. Something about getting rid of a creature that hatched out of an egg felt… wrong to him.

“Just a couple of days?” He sighed. Why did he even feel guilty over Nightmare Moon?

“At least until I know more about what exactly happened that night.” Twilight nodded.

“Twilight.”

“Yes yes, just a couple of days.”

“And you promise there’ll be a list by tomorrow?”

“I’ve already got a mental checklist ready to go.”

“And a grocery list. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re out of milk.”

“Okay, sure, grocery list, got it.”

“Twilight?”

“Spike?”

“It’s just a couple of days. Right?”

“...Right.”

With her finally agreeing to something concrete, he let himself relax. At least, he hoped she agreed to it. Twilight was looking down at the filly in the basket with an expression that he couldn’t quite read. She didn’t seem upset, or tired. If anything she seemed… fascinated?

That… that was worrying.

He took a deep breath. It was just a couple of days. How hard could it be?

Author's Note

You ever get so mad at how bad the food is when in small town Ohio that you end up writing 20k words of a fic you kind of wanted to see, then realize that you've already committed to it and figure "eh, might as well."

So welcome to my first of several longfics. The good news is this one is finished, I just still need to proofread and help proofreading through it. I'll be posting chapters when

Chapter 2: Intense Pink Analysis

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks of studying a filly that Twilight had finally concluded probably had no inclination to smother her in a cloud of darkness or shapeshift into a full grown mare and annihilate her.

Her and Spike had settled into a routine despite his grumbling. One of them at all times had to keep an eye on their newest resident, while the other would go out for groceries, baby supplies, and anything else they needed. She had managed to avoid her friends for the time being, with the closest call being Spike having to explain to a fellow shopper that the formula he had been buying was to help Pinkie Pie with some foalsitting endeavors.

Twilight had just been relieved that Spike remembered the lessons from his improv classes.

There had also been the matter of a name. There weren’t a lot of options for a black-coated foal that didn’t have something to do entirely with the night, something Twilight very much wanted to avoid. But after some deliberation and a lot of oh-so tragically unavoidable reading, she had christened the baby Nyx, after a character from one of her favorite stories as a filly.

Spike had protested against naming the filly something at all. But calling her “baby Nightmare Moon” was just weird and referring to her as “the child” just sounded like she was some sort of media company that hadn’t figured out a proper name for their latest merchandising endeavor.

Mostly though it was because leaving the filly nameless just felt wrong to Twilight, in a way she couldn’t quite articulate.

So Nyx it was.

And Nyx, as Twilight learned, cried. Nyx cried a lot.

Nyx cried when she needed to be changed, or when she needed to be fed, or needed to be burped, or was too cold, or too warm, or things were too loud, or too dark, or when her magic acted up and scared her.

Those made sense. Those Twilight could plan for. She had managed to locate a whole single tome on childcare which, while helpful, was almost too dry even for Twilight to get through. Sure, it covered the technical side of it all, but would it kill the author to maybe tread through some emotional ground? Or at least inject some humor into things? Sheesh.

Given the author’s picture on the back of the book was that of the sternest looking mare Twilight had ever seen, she feared for whatever poor foals had been raised by her. Because there were things Nyx did that didn’t make sense to her, and even worse, weren’t included in the book.

Nyx cried if she couldn’t see Twilight or Spike. Nyx cried if Twilight didn’t hold her long enough. Nyx cried if she wasn’t allowed to chew Twilight’s mane. Nyx got fussy if she wasn’t allowed to sit in Twilight’s lap as Twilight poured over what research materials she could find on resurrective magic.

If Nightmare Moon was trying to kill her through sleep deprivation, she was doing a very good job of it.

And then there were the worst things of all. The things that made sense, but went to places Twilight didn’t want to think about. Like the way Twilight could calm her down just by talking to her gently or reading to her. Nyx liked to be read to, even if it was just on whatever latest arcane manual Twilight was looking for answers in.

If Nightmare Moon was trying to kill her by tugging on her heartstrings, she was also doing a very good job of that. Mostly she was doing a good job of crying.

But she could handle this. She could completely handle this.

“I didn’t think a foal would be this… tear-prone.” admitted Twilight that day, having coaxed Nyx back from the ledge of another tantrum with a warm bottle of formula, which the filly was now drinking happily. “I don’t remember it ever being this bad with you.”

“You did kind of have your parents and Celestia to help raise me” Spike said, “Gee, wouldn’t that be nice? To have Celestia helping out with things. Maybe someone could, you know, write a letter and—”

“I can’t, Spike! I need more time, just to make sure, 100% sure, that Nyx isn’t Nightmare Moon reincarnated.”

“Yeah, so you keep saying. You promised me it would be a few days, that was two weeks ago. You know I can tell when you’re stalling, right? You’re bad at hiding it.”

“I’m not stalling! I’m researching. There’s a clear difference!”

“Call it what you want Twilight, but you’ve got to tell somepony. I don’t know how much longer I can stay cooped up here while—”

A sudden and very precise knocking suddenly came from the front door of the library. The kind of knock that was trying to be both very insistent and also as dainty as possible, because the mare the knock belonged to wouldn’t want to risk getting a hoof scratched up.

Only one pony in town knocked that way.

“Twiliiiiight dear! Please open up, I know that you’ve been spooked by this whole cult business but darling you’ve become outright, even dare I say it, downright reclusive!” a voice came from outside.

Twilight shot a panicked look over to Spike, who just rolled his eyes.

“Take her for a second, would you?” Twilight pleaded.

“I don’t—” but before he could protest Twilight lifted Nyx over to Spike and rushed out of the kitchen to the front door, right as Rarity and all four of her other friends stepped through into the library foyer. That was always the problem with living in a public library.

“Honestly dear, we’re all worried sick over you. Pinkie said she saw you a few days ago sneaking around and ohmystars!” Rarity yelped, finally getting a look at her friend.

“You look absolutely haggard!”

“Dude, no kidding.” said Rainbow Dash, floating around and poking Twilight to make sure she was still alive. “You look like death warmed over and spat out.”

Twilight sighed. Spike had insisted she at least try to take care of herself, but between a lack of sleep and a lack of time, the most she’d be able to do is squeeze in a bath here and there. She didn’t even want to imagine what kind of bad mane day she was having.

“You’re a mess darling! Oh this isn’t another time travel situation is it? You KNOW you learned your lesson last time—”

“It’s not—”

“Shame on all of you! Look at Twilight, she’s clearly distraught.” Fluttershy stepped forward, putting a hoof on her unicorn friend. “It’s okay Twilight, take your time if you need to tell us anything.”

Twilight shook Fluttershy off. “Guys I’m okay, really. I’ve just been super busy…”

“Busy with what?” Rainbow Dash floated closer, glaring. “We’ve barely seen you! Nobody’s been able to even catch Spike for an explanation, and yesterday ponies said they saw you buying diapers! What’s going on?”

“I just—” but any attempt at an explanation was interrupted by a high pitched gurgle from the doorway.

Spike had wandered in, eyes on Nyx as he patted her on the back.

“She finished the bottle Twilight, but I don’t know if you wanted me to put her down for a nap or—”

Spike suddenly realized he was standing in a room with five more ponies than he was currently used to. He swallowed nervously.

“Oh. Hi… guys.”

Twilight turned her head back and glared at him.

“I.. should have stayed out of sight, huh?”

Still glaring, Twilight nodded.

No longer feeling Spike’s ministrations, Nyx opened her eyes (her bright turquoise, slitted-pupil eyes) and turned her head to stare at all the newcomers.

She burped.

Her friends just stared back. It was Pinkie Pie that spoke up first.

“OH MY GOSH, TWILIGHT HAD A BABY?!”

Dash looked over at her, dumbfounded. “Pinkie… it has wings.”

“TWILIGHT HAD A BABY WITH A PEGASUS?!”

Rarity stepped back. “Twilight… Is… is that?”

Taking her charge gently out of Spike’s arms with her magic, Twilight sat Nyx down on the floor, shortly joining her.

“Girls… this is… this is Nyx. I found her in the Everfree Forest about two weeks ago.”

She was met with blank stares of shock.

“Twilight. Dear, you’re not… you let her into your house?”

“I couldn’t just leave her behind! You didn’t see her then, she was torn up from a bramble bush and freezing and—”

Pinkie, of all ponies, suddenly cut her off.

“Twilie,” she said, uncharacteristically serious, “Tell us everything.”

It had taken twenty minutes. Nobody had moved the entire time, save for Nyx who alternated between playing with Twilight’s hoof and failing to fit her own hoof into her mouth. With the story finished, Twilight sat there in silence, no expression on her face as she finally looked up at her friends, the obvious question left hanging in the air.

Rarity coughed.

“You intend to keep taking care of her?”

“If it comes to it, yes. Yes I am.”

“Are you crazy?” Rainbow Dash exploded. “What if, I mean… But what about—”

Twilight was getting mad. “But what, Dash, what?”

“What? Look at her! She’s Nightmare Moon! Did you forget the whole trying to kill us, banishing Celestia, establishing an empire of eternal night thing?”

“We don’t know she’s Nightmare Moon, and I can’t just… I can’t give her up to Celestia.”

“So what, you’re going to raise her to be good?”

“We redeemed Discord. We even redeemed Nightmare Moon already. Again, I’m not even sure she IS Nightmare Moon.”

Rainbow Dash looked down, looked to Twilight, to Nyx, then back to the other ponies in the hopes of finding some common ground.

“Anyone gonna back me up here? Anyone? This is crazy, right?”

Nobody moved. Twilight looked from face to face, trying to discern what her friends thought.

“Pinkie?” asked Twilight, eyes finally resting on the pink colored pony at the center of the group. She looked lost in thought.

Perking up as her name was called, Pinkie stepped over to the black filly on the floor and crouched down, her face set in a look of chaotic determination that only Pinkie Pie could conjure. Putting her head next to Nyx, the filly turned towards the new fabulously pink curiosity in her line of sight.

Pinkie squinted hard at the foal before her.

“Hmmmm.”

The rest of them leaned forward in breathless anticipation, Twilight included.

“Hmmmmmmmmm!”

Like the arbiter of fate itself Pinkie squinted harder, her glare piercing Nyx with every atom of discerning energy she could muster out of her pink being. Nyx returned fire, gazing at her with the hard and judgmental but completely clueless stare that only a baby was capable of.

She then flopped over with a tiny “bweh!” and started chewing on Pinkie Pie’s hair.

Sticking out her tongue and smiling, Pinkie rolled over on her back and pointed up at everyone.

“Nope, not evil!” she declared conclusively. “Just a cute baby!”

The tension in the room evaporated completely. With Pinkie Pie’s intense analysis being good enough for the other mares, more of them crowded forward, cooing at the Golden Oak’s newest resident.

“Yeah I’m pretty sure I could have taken Nightmare Moon like that.” deflected Rainbow casually. “Plus I don’t think she’d choose to take the form of someone that’s not even potty trained.”

“Ohhh I’m glad she’s not an evil pony. She’s adorable.”

“Oh dear you don’t have to be humble for other ponies, please. She’s positively gorgeous! That black coat alone would be stunning, but together with that mane? Those eyes? C'est magnifique!”

“Are y’all KIDDING ME?”

Five heads turned toward the door. Only now did everyone realize that this entire time Applejack hadn’t spoken. She hadn’t moved. Now she was glaring at the group, and she was angry. Very angry.

“How am I the only pony who sees the PROBLEM here?”

“Applejack come on dude,” Rainbow reasoned. “She’s like… the size of a melon. You really think she’s Nightmare Moon?”

“I ain’t talking about any sort of Nightmare Moon nonsense,” she fired back, brushing off Rainbow’s implied accusations “Celestia knows I’d sooner grow strawberries on the farm than call a young’un any sort of evil. But that’s entirely what I’m talking about!” continued Applejack, exasperatedly pointing a hoof at Twilight.

“Twilight, sugarcube. Yer barely old enough to drink. Y’all can’t even legally rent a cart, and here y’all are talking about taking care of a filly. An alicorn filly!”

“And none of y’all seem to get it! I had to raise Apple Bloom after Ma and Pa passed and none of y’all get how tough it is! Cause it ain’t just feeding her and clothing her and rocking her to sleep and keeping her clean. It’s doctor’s appointments and teaching her to walk and read and EVERYTHING. And that’s just when she’s a baby!”

Applejack paced about.

“Whatcha gonna do when she gets older? Cause that little bundle of joy is gonna get big Twilight. You gonna keep her hidden forever? Hide her from Ponyville? From Celestia? Or you gonna send her outside, out to school? Ya gonna have to explain to her that she’s gonna be different from the other fillies, or make her wear a disguise and make her all afraid of who she is?”

“This ain’t a two week commitment, this ain’t a two month commitment. It ain’t even a twenty year commitment. This is going to be the rest of yer life. Yer barely keeping it together after a whole two weeks, and I ain’t surprised!”

She rounded on Twilight, who sat there, too stunned to speak.

“Cause I got one final point: Granny used to tell stories that when Big Mac was a baby he could kick a hole through his crib. And that was good solid Sweet Apple Acres oak that was.”

She pointed over to Pinkie Pie, who waved.

“From what I hear the Cake twins are either phasing through walls or hovering up round the ceiling like a moth round a lamp in summer. Foal magic is wild and crazy. Now something tells me that a few of the scorch marks I’m seeing round the library AIN’T from Spike practicing sending out letters. Am I wrong?”

Finally, Twilight found the courage to speak up. “Hold on, that’s not fair! I know magic inside and out, I’ve had Nyx’s surges completely under control—”

With a born sense of dramatic timing, Nyx took that moment to lean back and sneeze.

A sound, the kind of unsound that only could happen when a sound was so sound-y that it consumed all other sound exploded through the library as the filly’s horn fired out an enormous night-black beam of magic. The pillar blasted through the roof of the library, traveling into the sky and leaving a visible tear in the clouds.

The trail traveled for miles out.

With a satisfied gurgle, Nyx went back to chewing on Pinkie Pie’s hair, unaware of the shocked faces looking at her.

“Holy buck,” whispered Rainbow Dash.

Whatever arguments Twilight had been constructing in her head were blasted apart like the library roof, the gravity of her situation finally crushing her denial into dust.

Maybe Nyx wasn’t Nightmare Moon. But she wasn’t just an abandoned foal. She was an alicorn. All that magic, all that power.

And everything it invited…

“I- I can’t do this. Oh girls, I can’t do this.”

Twilight fell to her haunches, tears stinging her closed eyes at the realization of just how in over her head she was. How in the world could she think she was able to handle this? Why did she think she could be responsible for—

She felt a gentle hoof on her shoulder, and looked up to find Applejack and the rest of her friends smiling warmly at her. Pinkie Pie had taken hold of Nyx, and she motioned for Twilight to take the filly, all six mares staring at the baby now back in her arms.

Applejack finally spoke up. “Sugarcube, you need to learn to let folk finish before you Twilight yourself into a Twilight freakout. But I had to be honest with ya. You CAN do this. Y’all might not be the best age for it, but that’s why you gotta know what yer getting into. Raising a foal’s hard. Even after all them Elements of Harmony problems it’ll still be the hardest thing y’all ever did do. Sure as spit it’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“But that’s the thing sweetheart, I didn’t do it alone. I had Big Mac and Granny and a heck of a lotta other ponies willing to lend a hoof..”

Twilight took a deep breath, tears clearing.

“Are you saying…”

All of them smiled.

“Heavens to Celestia dear, did you REALLY think we would let you do this by yourself?” Rarity said, stepping close and hugging her friend. “You should know by now there are precious few things in this world we wouldn’t do for you.”

Soon all her friends joined in, offering their support.

“Oooooo, I’ll have to start planning her first birthday party right away! Do we consider the day you found her to be her birthday orrrrr because she looks a little older than a newborn do you think we throw it a few months from now? If I got bats and some Nightmare Night decorations for it would that be inappropriate or do you think she likes spooky stuff or—”

“I know a baby can be very overwhelming sometimes Twilight. If you want to bring her over to my cottage sometimes, I’d happily foalsit. She wouldn’t be a bother at all, and I’m sure the animals would just love her.”

“I don’t think I’m cut out to foalsit but trust me Twi: I’ll be your eyes in the sky. And if the kid needs a few flying lessons later on, I’d say I’ve got that down pat.”

“I’ve got a lot of Apple Bloom’s old clothes plus a fair bit of furniture I could have brought over in a jiffy. Hope you don’t mind apple themed stuff. Because it’s a choice between that… and apple themed stuff.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of Sweetie Belle’s old foalhood clothes but I’ve got enough leftover material that I could put together some lovely little onesies and bib ensembles. Oh, and a nice hand-sewn blanket. Ooohhh, I could do a whole lineup for next season and see about licensing it to Foals-R-Us in Manehattan. We could call it: Baby Chic!”

Twilight was touched. Her friends. All of them. Why did she always forget that she could lean on them? Things were looking up, they—

“Twilight,” Applejack’s mood had suddenly darkened. “Y’all need to tell Celestia about this.”

“No!”

Immediately her rising good mood retreated, and she clutched Nyx to her chest, panicking. “I can’t- If she found out I don’t know what she’d do, she might—”

“Twilight. It’s Celestia. Haven’t y’all been through this before?”

“I just…”

Applejack sighed. “I know sugarcube, I know. Y’all are scared. Take it slow, but sooner or later, she’s gonna find out. Honesty is gonna be the best policy. Now, I want y’all to take a deep breath.”

Twilight breathed in.

“Now let it out.”

She let it out, trying not to hyperventilate. Trying to fight the oncoming panic attack.

“Now tell me it’s gonna be okay.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

“You can do this.”

“I can do this!”

“Now y’all are getting it.”

Twilight felt the panic attack scurry back to the dark corners of its mind. Nyx had been accepted, after everything. Pinkie was already bringing out a cake that read “CONGRATS ON THE NOT-EVIL BABY TWILIGHT!” on the top.

She had her friends, after everything. She would always have her friends. And as long as she had her friends, it would all be okay.

Wouldn’t it?

Author's Note

Six mares and a god baby, what could possibly go wrong?

Chapter 3: First Word

A month had passed since that fateful forest venture. With the “Nyx Support Network” (as Pinkie had labeled it) firmly in place and many a plea from her friends, Twilight had finally gathered up the courage to at least take the filly outside.

Truthfully it hadn’t taken much convincing; she wanted Nyx to see the sun and try to bring some sense of normalcy to this entire endeavor.

So the month passed as Twilight wanted to spend it: among her closest friends. It was a month of seeing Nyx watch with utter fascination as Fluttershy showed off her animals, playing with various bits of cloud that Rainbow Dash had brought down (which confirmed at least that she had pegasus magic), or grumpily getting dressed up in various prototype baby clothes Rarity had designed (which had only ended in two magical surge tantrums). Questions from neighbors were dodged, babies were smuggled across towns, and Twilight finally felt her fears quiet down.

Her friends had been thankfully understanding about her apprehension to show off Nyx further. Though Applejack had tried to coax her to give the filly some freedom, Twilight stood her ground; an alicorn filly would mean questions, and questions meant rumors, and rumors would get back to Celestia, one way or another.

They had discussed introducing her to the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the very least, but a single mention of Gabby Gums had popped that suggestion like a balloon. It wasn’t a risk Twilight wanted to take.

And was it a risk she even needed to take? Maybe it was the regular sunshine or the increased activity or just being around more than two creatures, but Nyx’s disposition had also greatly improved. She still cried (what baby didn’t?) but a month of foalrearing had annihilated any lingering doubts in Twilight’s mind.

No matter which way she tried to spin it in her mind, reconciling the image of the towering and evil alicorn Nightmare Moon with the sight of the happy cooing foal she’d come to know was all but impossible. She wasn’t about to saddle a baby with the attention of all of Ponyville.

So this was her life now. She wasn’t winging it, no ma’am. She was just staying the course. She’d come up with a plan, she’d figured out something in time, right? It’d been almost a month, she had a system developing, and a support network.

This was Twilight Sparkle’s bread and butter, this planning stuff right here. What could possibly go wrong?

“Bweh.”

“Come on, you can do it! Say… Pinkie.”

“Beh.”

“Pie.”

“Geh.”

“Close enough!” she said, lifting Nyx up high in the air, smiling as the filly giggled at it all.

“You’re really determined to have her first words be Pinkie Pie, aren’t you?” Twilight accused, not looking up from the essay she was writing.

“Hey it’s happened for two of the three babies I know. That’s a 66% success rate! That’s a passing grade!”

“No, Pinkie, that’s a failing grade for unicorns.”

“It’s a supermajority in politics!”

“That’s still not a passing grade.”

“Pff, it will be when Nyxie’s first words are Pinkie Pie! 100% pass rate, you’ll see!”

Though Twilight sighed, she couldn’t help the smile that was forming on her face. If nothing else, having a third pair of eyes watching Nyx freed up Twilight to at least have some time to herself. She never knew how great naps could feel, maybe Rainbow Dash had been onto something.

Pinkie had by far been the not-so-unexpected hit with Nyx. Between her bubbly energy and fascinatingly chewable mane, she was more than happy to come over for a playdate and give Twilight some much needed time to study and work.

She had all but given up researching the resurrection spell. A month at it had revealed nothing, but at this point… did it really matter? Better to focus on research that mattered. Like a nice in-depth alchemical survey. If only she could…

“Have you seen my copy of Barely Lethal Plants & Fungi?” Twilight asked, wandering through the main room of Golden Oaks. “I swear things are just getting lost under all these toys.”

“Your copy of barely what now?” Pinkie squinted at her, setting Nyx down.

“It’s a book with a green cover, a gold leaf on the front?”

“Book!”

“Right, have you seen it anywhere?”

Pinkie paused, “That… wasn’t me, Twilight.”

As a pair, they turned towards the only other inhabitant in the room. Nyx was happily flipping the page of one of her new picture books back and forth.

“Book!” She confirmed again, slapping a picture of a cow with her hoof.

Whatever noises of joy Twilight made were thoroughly drowned out by Pinkie’s own elongated shriek of elation, who scooped Nyx up in her forelegs and began tossing her happily in celebration, still shrieking.

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my goooooosh!”

Pinkie’s little shriek finally ran out of air, as she held the filly up to Twilight’s face.

“She said it Twilight! She said book! Do you know what this means?”

“It’s her first—”

“Her first word Twilight! Book! OoooooOOOO you must be so proud right now!”

Twilight paused, her smile faltering.

“Proud of what?”

“Oh come ON Twilight, her first word was ‘book’! After how much you read to her, I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re raising a real bookworm, huh?”

She paused. Raising her.

“Book!” Nyx repeated.

“Yes, you are going to be a big time book reader, aren’t you? You’re Twily’s little egghead alicorn aren’t you? Yes you are, yes you are! Who’s going to be top of her class at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? Who’s gonna get a passing grade?”

“Book?”

“That’s right, you!”

It became quickly apparent that everything was “book”. The book was “book” but Twilight and Pinkie were both “book” as well. Toys were “book”. With the power of speech the world was her oyster, and that oyster was also “book”.

The mares cooed and giggled as Nyx ran wild with her limited vocabulary. Twilight levitated the filly over onto her back, trotting around the room as the baby squealed with delight.

Pinkie’s little tangent about Nyx graduating top of her class at Celestia’s school was (at least Twilight hoped it was) a joke, but in her mind’s eye she could see a happy filly, now a grown mare in graduation robes.

She’d be surrounded by friends, by success. She’d live a good life and… It made her feel proud. Theoretically proud? Thinking about her future with Nyx suddenly brought up feelings that seemed familiar.

Then it hit her. It was the same feelings she remembered having when she was first around Spike.

That was it, wasn’t it? She had pledged it the day her friends had confronted her, but it hadn’t really sunk in what she had promised. It wasn’t about redeeming Nightmare Moon, it was about raising a lost and scared filly. Really raising her.

She cared about Nyx. To Tartarus with it, she loved the little filly. She had been rocking her to sleep, feeding her, changing her diapers, watching her grow. Even if it had been only for a month, it was enough to drive a spike of maternal warmth right through her very being.

That should have brought with it joy. She should be happy about this, but as she bounced Nyx on her back, she felt another feeling growing, surging. Coming back.

She was afraid again. And she finally knew exactly why.

In Twilight’s dreams a filly screamed.

This was nothing new to her. Twilight had nightmares before, but they had been common, normal. Usually she was late for a test, or late for a test but she was a teacher, or ended up at school in her underwear. That last one was usually the oddest of the lot.

But things had changed. Now there was Nyx in her life. Now it was dreams of open windows and empty cribs.

Or dreams of dark forests where a filly’s cries echoed endlessly no matter how fast Twilight sped through them.

Or dreams of a pack of timberwolves standing over a shaking bramble bush.

Dreams of Celestia and Luna, stern and high above Twilight on their thrones. Nyx in the grasp of their magic, crying wordlessly and reaching for Twilight as she was blasted away to the moon with nothing but a wail. She’d try to move during those but find herself in chains, in a dungeon, or just too slow.

Always too slow and too late to save her.

Dreams of cults, long knives, and swaddled foals on bloodied altars.

That was where she found herself now. She knew it wasn’t real. She knew when she’d wake with a start soon she’d groggily stumble over to Nyx’s crib, her face covered in sweat and tears as she made sure her charge was still in her crib. She always was.

But that didn’t matter because right now her mind was blanked out from the sheer weight of subconscious tragedy. She was bound in chains before a dark forest clearing. Symbols on the ground, symbols on the standing stones around them. Ponies in robes with long knives approaching a small bundle on the ground. She didn’t need to see inside that bundle to know who was inside.

It was always the same.

She wanted to rush them, to blast them out of the way and take that bundle in the circle and just run. Run until she couldn’t run anymore, until she found a place where Nyx could be safe.
But she couldn’t move. She couldn’t break the bonds, her friends were gone, Celestia wouldn’t protect her this time.

She had failed. She had failed and Nightmare Moon was going to return and rule over an eternal night and she’d never see Nyx again. She’d never see Nyx walk, never see her talk, never see her read on her own for the first time.

As the knife plunged down, Twilight shut her eyes closed and-

“Enough!”

A blast of blindly blue light shot through the trees, turning the cultists to dust and somehow calming the dream version of Nyx. It swirled around Twilight, annihilating her bonds and setting her down gently. The dark clouds of the forest sky were pushed aside by some invisible force, giving way to the gentle glow of the full moon…

Out of which landed a navy-coated mare, her flank sporting a bone white crescent moon across an inky black sky.

Princess Luna.

No. Please no, anyone but her, thought Twilight as Luna approached her, a look of concern on her face.

“It is rare that the dreams of grown mares call to me, Twilight Sparkle. But the vividness of your fear has been too much for me to ignore any longer. Celestia says you haven’t written to her in weeks, I hear rumors that few in Ponyville see or hear you save for the occasional arcane explosion, and those that do speak of you speak as if you have become uncharacteristically secretive. Now I find you in a dream that seems more memory than imagination. What brought such horrors into your mind?”

Twilight’s bonds were broken. She could run. She could find a way to wake herself up but…

Twilight broke down, throwing herself before Luna, hoping if nothing else, she could buy some mercy.

“Please, Luna! Please!”

“Twilight.”

“Whatever the cult has done, it was just them! Nopony else should get hurt or punished because of it!

“Twilight.”

“Please don’t tell Celestia what you’ve seen, please! I want to tell her, I do, but I need time to find out what to say—”

“Twilight Sparkle! Calm yourself!”

She found herself brought to her hooves by Luna’s magic. The concern on Luna’s face had deepened, but it was slowly being eclipsed by dawning horror. She looked at the clearing, at the imagery, the clear spellwork, the symbols strewn about.

The symbols that could only belong to Nightmare Moon. Or those who would worship her.

“Twilight… What is this about a cult?”

Twilight froze, eyes going wide as her own particular flavor of horror dawned on her.

Celestia hadn’t told Luna about the cult.

“Twilight… What is this?” Luna wandered closer to the central circle. The central circle where the bundle of blankets sat.

“How… how much of this is a memory?”

A cry went up from the bundle, and Luna’s eyes widened.

Please, thought Twilight, please let her think it was just part of the ritual. That it was just some random foal.

Please don’t look inside.

But Luna edged closer, kneeling over the wailing bundle. Twilight stepped after her. But what could she do? This wasn’t just her dream anymore.

Luna’s horn glowed, surrounding the top of the bundle in her aura.

“Luna…” Twilight almost whispered. “Luna… please. You don’t understand…”

She shifted the blanket away, bearing witness to the filly inside. The filly with a black coat. The filly with wings, and a horn.

The filly whose bright turquoise eyes were filled with tears.

Luna gasped, stumbling back, wings flaring. She whirled around to look at Twilight, speechless.

“Luna…”

The princess looked back once more at Nyx. Then back to Twilight, panic in her eyes.

And then she vanished, taking the dream with her.

Twilight gasped as she woke up, her sheets soaked with sweat, Nyx bawling in her nearby crib. Whatever nightmare had woken the filly paled in comparison to the waking one Twilight was experiencing.

The princesses knew.

The princesses knew about Nyx.

Equestria’s co-regent was looking forward to this: A hot drink in her hooves, a crackling fire to warm her, and the latest and trashiest romance novel she could find to keep her company. Yes, a nice quiet evening and good night’s sleep was precisely what Princess Celestia needed right now.

Which meant it was also the perfect time for Luna to fling open the doors to her bedrooms, the force of which snuffed out the fire.

Her little sister always had a born sense of dramatic timing.

“CELESTIA!” Luna shouted, striding towards her sister’s lounge chair. Celestia noticed she was carrying a stack of papers.

“I would have words with thee, dearest big sister.”

Not a happy meeting between sisters, no. This would be another argument, another fight. They would reconcile, but Celestia had noticed that even with her sister restored and returned to her, there were still… lingering issues. Fights over petty things. Fights over not-so-petty things.

So many fights. And she could guess exactly what this one was about. What else could it be?

“This is hardly the time for a lecture Luna—”

“Too bad, because you’re getting one anyway. And you know exactly what it’s about.”

Yep. Of course it had to be now.

Luna began to pace in front of her sister, stomping her hooves as if trying to find a way to beat the anger out of herself.

“Twilight foalnapped. A whole host of ponies, who even knows how many, that got THIS close, this close, to taking my darkest impulses and bringing them to life? Were you going to tell me about this at any point? Or that they’re still out there, and you aren’t anywhere close to finding them?”

“I… didn’t feel you needed to be part of this endeavor, Luna.”

“Why? My dear sister can’t stand to have me confront my own past? That I’m too fragile to handle my mistakes?”

“It’s not your mistake to handle!”

That made Luna pause. Calming herself, Celestia continued.

“I wanted to tell you… once I was sure that at least there were no lasting consequences.”

“No lasting-” Luna sputtered. “No lasting consequences? You call an infant copy of my twisted self no lasting consequences?”

Celestia looked at her, startled. “An infant copy? Luna, what are you talking about?”

It was like having the wind knocked out of her. Luna’s anger evaporated in an instant, as she looked over at her shocked sister. Twilight’s words in her dream echoing in her head.

Don’t tell Celestia.

Because Celestia hadn’t known.

Oh, dear.

“Sister… Luna… You need to tell me everything.”

The warm drink had cooled, the trashy romance novel had been forgotten, and secrets had been revealed. Celestia paced back and forth across her bedroom floor. The initial papers Luna had brought up had been joined by a series of other reports, spell research, and more. The sisters had poured over it, planning and debating their best course of action.

“I want to make sure of this, Luna. You’re certain that this child exists? That it wasn’t some subconscious metaphor for Twilight’s helplessness over being foalnapped or some other psychological construct?”

“Memories and dreams intertwine constantly, but I know the difference, Tia. Twilight’s nightmare was a fabrication, but the location and the filly were not.”

Celestia groaned.

“Twilight, this is the last thing I would have wanted for you…”

“Sister?”

“If Nightmare Moon has returned, in a fashion, then we have a duty to act. Without knowing the nature of the spell, it would be hard to determine WHAT this filly actually is. For all we know, it could be a ploy. A plot, even.”

“Sister, action must be taken, I agree. But… we’re speaking of a foal. You said it yourself, the spell could have produced anything. We have no evidence.”

“We have one piece of evidence. Do you believe this child is with Twilight now?”

Luna hesitated. Where had she expected this to go, really? “Ponies say she hardly leaves the Golden Oak Library, and hasn’t for the past month. Still I—”

“Then we prepare and leave tomorrow night. No chariots, no guards. Just you and I.”

“Sister—”

“Luna, listen to me. It is because of Nightmare Moon that I lost you for a thousand years. This is not a chance we can afford to take. We leave tomorrow night.”

“We’re speaking of a foal, Celestia. A baby, an infant.”

Celestia hesitated.

“I urge caution, older sister. Tests before action.”

Celestia looked at her sister, hurt in her eyes.

“I have… no intention of harming her, Luna. She must be contained, if necessary.”

“I never suggested otherwise, Tia. But…”

“Yes?”

“Write to Twilight.”

“That doesn’t seem like the best course of action.”

“There is no best course of action right now. Your student is panicking. Let her at least plan for your arrival. Or do you trust her so little that you think she’ll go running off?”

Celestia sighed. It went against her intuition but when it came to matters such as this, Luna was proving herself to be too right too often. She didn’t want a fight, and she didn’t want Twilight to panic either.

A little too late for that, though. This was all hard enough on her protégé. Grimacing, Celestia reached over for a quill and paper, drafting a short letter.

“I’ll have it delivered in the morning.”

“Thank you, sister.”

“In the meantime, would you please pack some saddlebags?” Celestia asked, levitating some out of a nearby closet. “We’re going to be leaving on short notice, and we’re going to need to be prepared.”

“Of course.”

Celestia had her intuitions, but Luna had hers. Making sure Celestia’s attention was on finishing the letter, she slipped one of the many papers on the desk into the saddlebags. Celestia hadn’t noticed that Luna had requested it among the many other treatises and reports, of which the paper was neither.

She remembered the fear in Twilight’s eyes, even if anger had clouded her judgment at the time.

Luna just hoped she was doing the right thing.

Author's Note

Next few chapters are fairly long, so proofreading them may take a bit. This whole novella tops out at juuuuuuust under 50k words.

Chapter 4: The Schemes of Alicorns

Twilight hadn’t felt this strung out since she had first brought home Nyx. More strung out. Terrified. More terrified than when she had been foalnapped even.

Luna knew. Luna knew about Nyx and she was going to tell Celestia and—

She had spent hours that morning pacing about, trying to think of a plan before Spike finally came in and found her curled up on the floor. He had tried to get her to calm down and had almost succeeded until he burped out a single small scroll, the royal seal clear as day on the front.

Inside, the message was brief:

Dear Twilight,

I know what happened with the spell.
Please prepare for our arrival tonight.

-Celestia.

The princesses were coming. The princesses were coming. The princesses were coming for Nyx.

Unable to keep Twilight from Twilighting herself into a panic attack, Spike had done the only thing he could think of at that moment: he had rushed out to find the rest of the Element Bearers and call forth the Nyx Support Network.

Hearing their friend was in trouble it didn't take long to mobilize all of them, and within the hour Twilight had found herself in the protective aura of her friend’s company, Nyx happily crawling between them. If Twilight was to face Celestia, she wouldn’t do it alone.

Soon Pinkie Pie had brought over a miniature cupcake that Nyx scarfed down with delight, and the day had been spent with the Element Bearers and Spike keeping her occupied and entertained.

Twilight had been determined that no matter what happened, she’d make sure these past few hours with Nyx would be as happy as she could make them.

Even if they ended up being the last few hours she’d have with Nyx.

“Aren’t we just overreacting?” asked Rainbow Dash as she paced around the room, a giggling Nyx on her back. “It’s Celestia we’re talking about here. We ruined her party and she just bought us donuts. Heck, Fluttershy birdnapped and killed her chicken and she’s not on the moon!”

“Um, Philomena is actually a phoenix, but—”

“Right, magic royal chicken. The point is Twilight hasn’t done anything wrong! Nobody has.”

“Nightmare Moon has,” said Twilight quietly.

“But Nyx isn’t Nightmare Moon!” protested Rainbow, looking back at her passenger. “Right?”

“We’re not the ones that need to be convinced of that, Dash…” Twilight said, lifting Nyx off her back and setting her down next to a few of the new toys her friends had brought.

“Well, I don’t care what the princesses decide! Alicorn or not, Nyxie’s not going to the moon or ANY other planet without a fight. That’s why I got this!”

Pinkie pulled something out of a corner. It looked like her confetti cannon, but far more streamlined and without any patterns or adornment. She bounced a cannonball in her hoof.

“I’ve got my newest secret weapon.”

Rarity glared at her. “Pinkie, dear, you’re not using that.”

“Not if I don’t have to.”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie,” hissed Rarity, “You are not to shoot royalty in Twilight’s house!”

“We’ll see, Rarity. We’ll see…”

Twilight looked them over. Rarity was now struggling to get the cannonball out of Pinkie’s hooves, Dash and Applejack taking up sides to encourage the chaos. Fluttershy and Spike sat with Nyx, dangling a pair of plastic keys in front of her.

Her friends.

Her family.

They were here for this.

For her.

It made her feel like she could take on the world.

It made her feel like she could take on Celestia.

“No matter what happens… thank you,” Twilight declared finally. “Thank you all so much for helping me try.”

There was a polite knock at the door. Everyone froze, and Twilight tensed up, before slowly, painfully inching towards the entrance. She looked back at her friends. At Nyx. She didn’t know what she had expected to see. By the warm light of the library’s lanterns, the filly looked… Just like a normal baby.

She swallowed hard and reached for the doorknob. Applejack nodded at her.

“We got your back, Twilight. Y’all are gonna do fine.”

She opened the door.

Luna had tried to convince her to go without her crown or raiments, to try and make things feel casual, but Celestia had argued otherwise. She wanted to project an air of authority, or at least assure her little ponies that she knew what she was doing. It had turned into another fight, one that almost made them late.

Now, standing here in Twilight’s library home, she started to think Luna may have once again had a point. Seven pairs of eyes watched her intently.

“Um…”

“Twilight.” Celestia gave what she hoped was a calming smile, but her beloved student continued to look away.

“I have your book. There was a tiny bit of water damage, b-but it should be okay.”

“I’m not concerned about the book, Twilight.”

“Right, right.”

Ignoring Luna’s glare, Celestia coughed awkwardly. This was not going the way she had expected. Best to get everything over with.

“May I see her?”

“Right. I mean, yes. I mean… She’s there.”

Twilight shifted to the side, pointing over to the foal on the floor. The tiny black filly looked up at the princess curiously, slowly getting to her hooves. Her legs wobbled, and then she flopped back down.

“She’s… she’s not really at the age where she’s afraid of strangers yet. She’s also not at the age where she can really walk…”

Both she and Celestia sat there in silence. This was an awkward situation right? It had been a little too long since the princess had really been in one.

“Well, she certainly looks the part,” Celestia spoke. “Though last I checked, Nightmare Moon is quite a bit taller.”

Nobody laughed at her joke. Tough crowd tonight.

“Princess, please. I’m not really certain if she’s—”

“I think you already know what she is, Twilight. I’m unfamiliar with this particular magic, but if I might hazard a guess as to what happened: A brief return by you to the scene of the crime, an ominous black orb, and a filly with no apparent origin?”

“...Eggshell,” Twilight said quietly. “There were bits of black eggshell.”

“That still doesn’t surprise me. I wish you had told me about this from the start, Twilight. The incident with the cult was over a month ago, this just means further complications. If you had just been honest with me, we could have resolved everything without any sort of…”

Confrontation? Is that what this was? She felt like a hanging judge in a courtroom right now, with the stares she was getting.

“Princess, I wanted to. I did, but…” Twilight glanced back at the filly on the floor, who was giving the whole ‘walking’ idea another try. She smiled gently at the display, and the foal smiled back at her.

Ah. So it was like that then.

“Please, what’s going to happen to her? What are you planning?”

Celestia sighed. You banish one sister to the moon and every visit afterwards has to be a matter of life and death. What would keep Twilight calm in this situation? What would convince her?

“Tests, Twilight. It’s all just a matter of tests. To borrow an idiom from the pegasi: We’re flying blind here. Everypony here knows what the aims of the cultists that foalnapped you were, but the result, and whether or not they succeeded is obviously…” she eyed the filly, who was making a third attempt at walking, this time buzzing her tiny wings in the hope that they’d help. “To be decided.”

“But I’ve done tests. I’ve done research!”

“I’m not questioning your dedication, dear. Stars know that if there was anything to be learned about anything you’d have learned everything there was to know about anything. But to hazard another guess: I’m going to say Golden Oaks doesn’t have a lot of books on resurrection magic.”

“There’s… Three. Four, if you count Bananacus the Instantaneous’ response to Respawnia’s Lazarus Device.”

“And you’ve read them all.”

“I’ve memorized them all,” replied Twilight indignantly.

“The Canterlot royal library and my own private archives have over six hundred volumes on the subject. It’s not a matter of ability, but a matter of resources and experience. You’re an incredible student Twilight, and your grasp of magic is an inspiration but… Some things are beyond any one pony. This requires a princess and a team of experienced unicorns to get to the bottom of, and if, uh…” She motioned to the foal on the floor.

“Nyx. Her name is Nyx.”

Celestia smiled. “If Nyx is simply the happy filly she appears to be, then there’ll be no harm done, at all.”

“But she’s not-”

“What if you’re wrong, Twilight?” the unicorn shut her mouth, letting Celestia continue.

“If I’m being honest, this isn’t the first time someone’s made a pony through magic. We could go into theories or debate on the philosophies of how sacred life is but I’ve dealt with magic mirrors, magic pod plants, and I won’t even get into how many errant bronze golems I’ve had to track down and grant citizenship.”

“Where this filly comes from is obvious, but what she is, what she truly is, that is the problem. When you look at her you see a baby. When I look at her I see a thousand years of my mistakes staring back at her. Of my sister being banished. Of a night that lasts forever.”

“You’re afraid of her?” Twilight was stunned.

“I’m afraid of being right, my faithful student. It’s entirely why I wish you had told me about this as soon as possible. It would have made everything easier. We could have learned more and planned this out together. But circumstances have changed.”

She put her hoof around Twilight, giving her the warmest smile she hoped she could manage.

“None of these tests are going to be invasive. Complicated, maybe, but I promise you, I won’t hurt a hair on her head. It’s all just about confirming that things haven’t gone… strange,” she waved a hoof. “So to speak.”

“I- I could come with you,” Twilight suggested. “I’ve been with her long enough that she’d—” Celestia shook her head.

“And I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, either. If there is something wrong, or if something goes wrong, the safest place for you would be here, in Ponyville. Equestria will need… it will need the Elements of Harmony if it comes to that.”

Silence, from every pony. She’d take that as acceptance, at the very least.

“I’m glad you understand. Now we’ll want to move fast. If you could give us the foal and some…” she looked around. “Some supplies, me and Luna will be on our way. With luck, there will be nothing wrong and she’ll be back by tomorrow. We could even make headway on tracking down the cult, and—”

“No.”

The word was spoken as a whisper, barely audible. Everyone turned to look at Twilight.

“I beg your pardon?” Celestia said.

“I said no. Y-you’re- you’re not taking her,” said Twilight, louder this time. “It’s not right. You haven’t seen her, you can’t make that kind of decision just like that. You can’t make that decision for me! She’s my responsibility now.”

She moved in front of Nyx, poised to do… What exactly? What would she do against Celestia?

“Twilight, I know this can be difficult to understand, but it’s your own best interest, and the best interest of the foal if she comes with us to Canterlot, we have-” Celestia moved forward, only to find Applejack stepping in front of her as well, blocking the path and eyeing her.

“The gal said ain’t nopony going nowhere, princess. She’s made her decision.”

All the other element bearers moved forward as well, forming a shield of ponies trying their best to look intimidating.

“I’m sorry princess, but um… Please don’t try anything.”

“Apologies, Your Highness, I do respect you, I do. But… Twilight is right. Absolutely right.”

“I’ve got a cannon and I ain’t afraid to use it!”

“Pinks, seriously, not right now. Look, Princess Celestia, are you seriously gonna tell me THAT thing is a threat?” Rainbow Dash pointed over to Nyx, who had given up trying to stand and was now content on trying to shove a plastic block into her mouth.

Celestia looked over at Luna, who said nothing but was certainly giving her a look.

Seven against one, then? Celestia had seen them gaze upon her with awe, respect, and relief. But she had never seen them like this.

It had been a very long time since she had faced a room full of ponies that were angry at her.

Because they were right. What in the world was she doing? She sighed.

“I… very well. I would be a poor princess if I didn’t consider the words of six of Equestria’s greatest heroes to not be credible evidence of Nyx innocence. If you truly wish for it, Nyx will stay.”

“Then why are you—”

“But perhaps… I am not the one who needs to be convinced.”

Celestia stood to the side, nodding to Luna.

“As Nightmare Moon came from her, her magic would be best suited for any sort of… investigation. Truly if we brought her back to Canterlot we could be absolutely sure. But if you’re certain—”

“Yes.” All six ponies said at once.

“Then if you’d let her, perhaps we can all get the answers we seek. Luna?”

Luna began to approach Nyx. The Element Bearers hesitated.

“You have my word, friends. I will not harm her in any way.”

Not taking their eyes off the younger princess, each pony moved aside. Twilight still remained rooted to the spot, not daring to move, not daring to even breathe as she watched Luna pass her by to reach Nyx. Luna laid down low as she could go, until her eyes were level with her tiny doppelganger.

Nyx affixed her with a curious stare of her own, still chewing on the plastic block. After some consideration and with a small pop! she took it out of her mouth, holding it up to Luna.

“Book,” Nyx proposed.

Luna raised one eyebrow, her lips twitching upwards just a bit as she levitated the drool-coated block out of Nyx’s hooves and into the saddlebags.

“Your peace offering is accepted, little one,” she said, finally allowing a broad smile to grace her face.

Any tension in the air evaporated, seven other creatures (and one owl in the rafters) let out a breath they hadn’t even realized they had been holding in. Pinkie Pie’s test may have been passed, but Luna’s stamp of approval held a far greater weight. Her horn glowing, she levitated Nyx back over into the arms of Twilight, who snatched her up and held her close, regarding Luna with wet, thankful eyes.

Sharing an understanding glance with Celestia, Luna finally spoke.

“She is Nightmare Moon.”

The room exploded, six mares yelling at Luna in a mix of anger and betrayal.

“Dude, are you KIDDING me?”

“Y’all can’t believe that—”

“Why does everypony keep interrupting me?” Luna said, rearing up. “May I please finish before you all start swinging swords and jumping off tables? We will not take Nyx.”

“But y’all said—”

“And can we save the questions until I’m done?”

“Sorry.”

“Thank you. As I was trying to say, she is Nightmare Moon. But that does not mean she is the same villain that terrorized Ponyville.”

Luna looked over and Celestia, who nodded in understanding. She began to lecture.

“Throughout our world, magic occurs naturally. Healing springs, lost forests, standing stones. Places of power that all too often have a life of their own.”

“But even in a controlled environment, wild magic still exists. Effectively any spell cast is wild magic until the moment it is complete. All spellcraft works off the same basic principles: An incantation is cast, ambient magic is imbued with the potential action of that spell, and that coalesces into the result.”

Twilight nodded. This was basic magical theory, of course.

“Even if the result of that spell never manifests the magic that would be needed to cast it still lingers. In most cases, this results in explosions, sparks, and the typical signs of failed spellwork. But in more complex spells or even simply more ambient spells, the magic will linger around places of power, enchanted objects, or more likely the half-finished result of that spell. When it occurs naturally, this is what ponies think of when they normally say ‘wild magic’.”

“Nyx reeks of wild and unfinished magic.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight said. “I just changed her, so—”

“Again, interruptions. A little bit of respect, please?”

“Sorry, princess. Please go on.”

“The spell that created Nyx has not failed. The spell was intended to grow a new life for Nightmare Moon; a new alicorn body from her remains before filling it with her memories and her mind. Not a resurrection, but an entirely new magical birth.”

“This is a working theory, mind you. What we’ve seen supports it, but to even accomplish this was… something we thought impossible,” Celestia clarified as Luna nodded.

“Thanks to my sister’s intervention, the spell was interrupted far too early. A new life was formed, just barely, but there are no memories of Nightmare Moon and no mind of Nightmare Moon within Nyx.”

“She is Nightmare Moon. Not Nightmare Moon reborn, but Nightmare Moon incomplete.”

Twilight gasped. Staring down at the filly. It made sense, it did. But that just made it worse.

“Princess Luna, if that means what I think it means, then are you saying…?”

“I’m sorry, Twilight. Your nightmares and fears… they are justified. The spell that made Nyx still swirls around her. If the cult were able to find her, to recover her, they could complete the spell. They would destroy Nyx as she is now.”

“Nightmare Moon truly could rise again.”

Twilight’s forelegs began to shake. Panic, her old familiar friend, had arrived back from its brief vacation and was now making itself at home in her mind.

“But that will not happen!”

To the surprise of everypony in the room, Celestia had strode forward, facing Luna and Twilight and standing tall. She looked angry. She looked determined.

“I let this go on for too long. Our actions have already put you in danger Twilight, and as Luna says, this filly is innocent: A helpless bystander in a sick and twisted delusion. Nightmare Moon still casts a shadow over Equestria that pulls everyone into it. I’ve been letting it influence me for far too long and for that, I am sorry. But no more. No tests, no need for you to prove what you know in your heart. I’m through with it all.”

She snorted, wings flared.

“And I will not allow anypony else to come to harm so long as my sun shines. I swear it to you, to all of you.”

“But how—”

Celestia’s horn glowed. From another room, a table floated down in front of them.

“How indeed? Now comes the time for us to do what royalty does best, Twilight, dear: We will scheme.”

An hour later, a whole herd of mares sat hunched over maps and sketched up diagrams. Crumpled up paper plans and half-baked ideas littered the floor as the group’s brainstorming session had dwindled to a mere mind drizzle over the best way to protect and hide the foal sleeping the night away in Twilight’s arms.

“I still feel like the vest would be the most elegant solution. Some way to hide her wings and pass her as a unicorn would offer the most flexibility if we ended up having to ‘wing it’, as one says.”

“Rarity, seriously, it always comes down to clothes with you,” Dash rubbed her temples. “The whole point is to make her not stand out. Nopony else in town really wears a vest, she’ll stick out like a bucking thundercloud on a sunny day.”

“Vests are in season!”

“Y’all even think she’d even wear the vest? Kids can get mighty good at wiggling out of whatever ya dress ‘em in. Applebloom’s bow wasn’t something she’d even consider till she was about three.”

“Um, excuse me? What about her eyes?”

Luna frowned. “I could cast a spell to periodically hide her wings and eyes, but it would require constant application. Such regular exposure to heavy illusion magic at a young age might cause long-term consequences.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we? It sounds like we’re all in agreement that a nice vest would be perfect.”

“Dude, enough with the vest already!”

“You’re all being duuuuuuuuumb!” a voice sang out. The rest of the library turned, looking at Pinkie Pie as she waltzed down the stairs, a plate of late-night planning muffins on her back. Nobody was quite sure where she had found the ingredients for them.

“Pinkie, now’s not the time—” Rarity began, only for Luna to hold up a hoof.

“Ms. Pie, could you elaborate?”

“Oh, come on, silly billy,” said Pinkie, plopping down in front and shoving a muffin into her mouth. “How many times have we been through the whole ‘keeping world-ending secrets’ from each other and how many times has it gone kaboom in our faces? I mean, we JUST tried to keep Nyx a secret from you two princesses and that whole secret train didn’t so much derail as it did fly off a bridge and explode, right?”

“I’m still not certain I see where you’re going with this.”

“You keep talking about hiding Nyxie over there or doing some complex spell or magic headband to let her blend in like a normal filly, but everypony here already knows she’s not a normal filly! Sure, it might work for a little while, but as soon as she starts walking and talking she’s gonna start knowing something’s wrong. And believe me, magical filly plus insecurity equals di-sas-tar!”

Another muffin entered her mouth. Pinkie was surprisingly coherent even with her mouth full.

“It’ll probably be something like some spooky voice in the forest telling her that it can show her her true destiny, or she’ll get into a school play where her disguise fails in front of the whole town, or some weird old wizard will start sending her letters inside egg cartons and then what have you got? Probably some hurt little filly and a lot of unpredictable craziness that you could fill a whole book with. Anyone else want a muffin?”

The group just stared. At least some did. Luna and Twilight looked fascinated.

“The way I see it I’d say you just rip that band-aid off the elephant in the room so we can cross that bridge as soon as we come to it. Why not just tell everypony the truth: that Twilight’s got the cutest sweetest new baby and a bunch of creepy mean ponies want to hurt her? I might not know cults, but I do know that everyone in Ponyville loves Twilight and loves their foals! Plus ain’t her being an alicorn also mean she’s a princess? I bet most ponies here would go berserk on any creep that tried to hurt a baby princess.”

She popped the final muffin into her mouth.

“Oopsies, out of muffins. I’ll go get some more!” she sang and trotted out of the room, leaving behind a host of dumbfounded ponies.

“That…” Luna finally said, “...is absolutely brilliant.”

“WHAT?”

“She’s right,” said Celestia. “Sooner or later, one way or another, the truth about Nyx would come out. If the cult doesn't know of her existence, they will eventually. Any action to hide her carries a lot of risks, to say nothing of the potential psychological damage. Rumors, misconceptions, and panic would set in. But if we send a clear message to ponies, one that tells the story how we want to tell it instead of letting them draw the wrong conclusions, then we’re not only able to steer the narrative, but we’d be able to turn the tables on the Children of Nightmare.”

“The what?”

“The cult,” said Luna. “It’s what we’ve elected to call them.”

“Hold on now,” Applejack said, raising a hoof. “Y’all are talking about stories. Papers? News stories? Yer just gonna turn a little girl into a… a sideshow attraction. That ain’t right.”

“We’re not going to treat Nyx like the newest curiosity, the goal would be to tell the truth in the simplest way: An evil cult’s failed spell inadvertently created an innocent alicorn foal. One who is being happily raised by the Element of Magic. We focus not on the potential return of Nightmare Moon but on what lies before us now: a young mother and her daughter simply trying to stay safe. The Children thrive off paranoia, so let’s use that against them.”

“But would that even work, your highness?” said Rarity. “Forgive me for saying so, but no matter how heartwrenching a story you write, and even if it preemptively redeems dear Nyx in the public eye, it sounds like you’re simply bringing a lot of national press and attention to Twilight’s doorstep. The poor dear has enough troubles as it is. And that’s to say nothing of the mass panic the knowledge of a cult among us would bring!”

Luna smiled. “A changeling invasion descended upon Canterlot and took out Celestia. For what little time has passed, the only thing that has changed as a result is the occasional bug-zapper on a street corner. I know panic, I know fear, and I know how to temper it into caution.”

“As for the press…” Celestia grinned devilishly. “Haven’t you ever wondered why a town home to six of Equestria’s greatest heroes and the princess’ personal protege has never been swarmed with cameraponies and paparazzi? We princesses have our ways.”

The rest of them fell silent. It was Twilight who finally spoke up. She had been silent ever since the table had been brought out, mostly having spent her time staring at Nyx.

“Her daughter…” realized Twilight. “You said… this press release would tell the tale of ‘a young mother and her daughter’.”

She looked up at the Princess of the Night, hope in her eyes for the first time in what had felt like a very very long time.

“D-does that mean…?”

Luna smiled. She loved it when her intuition was right. Horn glowing, she reached into the saddlebag and brought out a series of forms, passing them over to Twilight along with a quill and inkwell.

CERTIFICATE OF ADOPTION

the top of the first page read.

“Twilight Sparkle, just as we have sworn an oath to protect Nyx, we charge you thusly: Take this filly, and be what she needs you to be. Teach her of the world, of happiness, and of friendship. Let her days be filled with the laughter and innocence that she deserves, and keep her safe from those forces that would see those taken from her.”

“In summary, Twilight Sparkle: we charge you with motherhood. Think you can handle that?”

Once again, Twilight was grateful that she used magic to write. She didn’t trust her hooves or mouth not to shake from every emotion she was feeling at this point. She felt like her heart would burst.

Trying to keep calm, she read through each line and signed each empty box that she came across, Luna helpfully pointing from line to line. It was all so official, so calm. A form! A form for parenthood. It was almost as wonderful as having to write an essay on parenthood, and with each new page the smile on her face got wider and wider.

Until she got to the final page. The final signature. The pen hesitated in midair.

“Twilight?”

“Is this… is this what I’m going to be condemning her to?” Twilight frowned. “Chased by cults, me having to look over my shoulder at every shadow or strange pony? Not able to enjoy any moment with her because I’m always going to be afraid it’ll be our last?

“Am I going to spend the rest of her life always afraid for her?”

“Ha! Finally, y’all get it!”

Everyone turned to look at Applejack.

“Shoot, Twilight, that’s the most basic part of being a parent. It ain’t ever gonna go away but trust me: if you weren’t afraid I’d be worried for y’all. You gotta be the one alert and aware so they don’t have to be. That’s probably rule #1 for being a momma.”

“Momma.”

The group froze, turning towards the filly in Twilight’s arms. She had awoken and was fussing a bit, evidently getting uncomfortable.

“Momma!” she said again, beginning to whine.

With an inarticulate cry, Twilight held Nyx close, hugging her, embracing her as if everything in the world was trying to take the foal away from her.

In many ways, it was.

And she wouldn’t let that happen, no matter what.

An aura of pink magic lifted up the discarded quill and scribbled her signature on the final line of the form.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Twilight said, tears streaming down her eyes. “Momma’s here.”

“Momma’s finally here.”

“Oh my GOSH!”

There was a clatter of baked dishes from upstairs, followed by a blur of fuzzy pink hyperactivity. Pinkie Pie had returned and had overheard enough.

“Twilight’s officially a mom! Adoption party time!”

She zipped towards Twilight before noticing the baby in her arms and opting instead to sweep up another pony in a huge hug. In this case, the victim was Luna.

“I feel that it is a bit late for that, Pinkie Pie. There will be plenty of time for that later. I believe everyone, including Twilight-” motioned Luna as she tried to break away from the hug, “-Is quite exhausted.”

“Awww,” Pinkie pouted for a moment, then perked back up. “Okie dokie, just oooone little thing~”

Before anyone could react, she pulled a small camera out of nowhere, snapped a picture of Twilight (who barely had time to react), and was now shaking out a freshly printed photo.

“Polaroid! So glad I got to use that instead of my non-confetti confetti cannon. Much less messy.”

She slapped the picture into Luna’s saddlebags with a satisfied whinny.

“There you go, princess, put that in your papers and print it! Now—”

She went back upstairs to fetch the baked goods tray she had dropped.

“Who wants a muffin?”

The two sisters sped along in the night. It wasn’t a long way back to Canterlot as the alicorn flies but it gave them enough time to think, to plan, and to reflect.

“Luna,” Celestia spoke up. “Those adoption forms you had—”

“Filled out and signed. Twilight is not one to forget a signature, dearest sister.”

“Yes. Many of the details I noticed had been filled out.”

“They had.”

“And they had been filled out before we arrived in Ponyville.”

“Merely part of a possible spell.”

“A possible spell.”

“A legal spell.”

“A legal spell?”

“Indeed. Certainly, Celestia, you would have thought it best to be prepared for any possibility?”

Celestia sighed, slowing down before coming to rest on a nearby cloud. Luna followed suit, landing and facing her sister, her face impartial and emotionless. All the same, she could almost feel her sister’s disappointment radiating out.

“Luna… I should have told you about the cult. About the ritual.”

Luna sighed back.

“You were… doing what you felt was right. It wouldn’t be the first time. Had there been ‘no lasting consequences’, I perhaps could even see the logic behind it. That is not what upsets me, they will be dealt with.”

“Then what-”

Luna had fished something out of her bag. It was the small plastic block from earlier, which she was now looking over impassively.

“Celestia… If I had not been there, if the other Element Bearers had not been there, if it had not been six against one and merely Twilight Sparkle facing you alone… What would you have done with Nyx?”

Celestia sat there, unsure. Luna often liked to say that Celestia was better with children than she was, but for all her denial Luna still liked to tell tales of the nightmares she had defeated. Little fillies rescued from drowning streams and headless horses because of her actions, colts snatched from teeth of pure darkness and delivered safely back to the waking world.

Then there were the other nightmares. Ones far worse than common fears and imaginary boogeyponies.

She recalled a recent incident several months ago in Fillydelphia. The reports had described it as a horrific case of mob justice against a stallion accused of… certain things. She did not approve of vigilantism, no matter the alleged crimes.

But it had taken a stern lecture from Luna to learn everything else about the stallion. The nightmares of children she had visited in his wake, the memories she had seen.

And a revelation that Luna was very good about organizing shared dreams.

She had seen a different side of her sister that day. For all her claims of being unable to deal with foals, the children of Equestria were well protected. All of them. Luna having been all too willing to call the filly “Nyx” hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Oh, sister, you’re a better pony than I deserve, thought Celestia, before steeling herself. Best to avoid another fight.

“I am often too brash in my actions, Luna. There have been too many times when uncertainty would have risked too many ponies’ lives to count. To be decisive, it seems, is a double-edged sword. But I spoke truthfully to you and Twilight. I would not have harmed Nyx.”

“Harm comes from more than just actions, Tia. To use your own ridiculous metaphor, I fear that your decisive sword did damage all the same.”

“How? We’ve pledged an oath of protection to them, we’ve got a plan of action. I meant it. I will use everything in my power to see that filly safe—”

“She is not the only pony you need to protect!” Luna shouted.

Celestia sat there in silence, Luna continued.

“What do you know of the nightmares of mothers, Tia? Did you know when I first appeared to try and help Twilight Sparkle that my appearance made her more terrified than any dream could?”

“Did you think it was simply cultists leering over her daughter that she was frightful of? Or did you not realize that in the depths of her mind, there were other parties she feared would take Nyx from her? Other royal parties.”

“Despite her claims, despite all she’s done, it took the testimony of six other mares to sway your opinion. Do you not trust your own student? Do you not trust her own judgment about the filly she loves?”

“Did you not realize that deep down, she’s become afraid of us?”

Celestia was stunned as the weight of it all came crashing down. The magnitude of it all. Of Twilight’s change in personality, in the way Twilight’s friends had stood against her.

She would have been willing to tear a child away from the arms of her mother.

Celestia hung her head in shame.

“Oh, Luna… I’ve made a real mess of it all, haven’t I?”

Luna sighed.

“The failure is mine too, sister. It was I who told you of Nyx’s existence, and I who spurred you to action. But… I do not know Twilight Sparkle like you do. She’s your student, your friend. It should not have been me who urged caution and mercy… over a baby.”

Luna inched across the cloud to her sister. She put a wing on her shoulder, her stern look replaced with one of compassion.

“Let me lead the charge against this Nightmare cult, Tia. Let my guards stand watch over Nyx, and let me gentle Twilight’s fears. Make your proclamations, spin your stories for the press, keep an eye open, be the dignified face of the kingdom I know you can be. But in the matter of our newest little alicorn, please, leave it to me. Terror is my domain sister, let me wield it as a shield.”

Celestia chuckled to herself. “Luna, you don’t need to ask permission. I’m more surprised you’re chomping at the bit to dawn a cowl and put the fear of the night back into a few ponies.”

Her sister’s eyes glittered mischievously.

“I’ve spent more than a few Nightmare Nights playing that role to entertain. If even one tiny foal needs me to play that role to protect, then I will do it to my fullest.”

“You’re a wonderful sister, Luna. Truly. I have one request though.”

“You cannot be my sidekick. The Night cannot work with the Day.”

“Not that,” Celestia said giggling, “My investigation was already underway, mostly in trying to find out the exact effects of the original ritual. Take what I’ve already uncovered and take the unicorns that have been helping me. They’re being led by Spell Nexus.”

“Your headmaster?”

“When it comes to spell research, he’s the greatest I’ve ever known. This will be your fight, but allow me to help where I can.”

“At my discretion?”

“Of course.”

“Then we have an accord,” Luna spread her wings. “When do Equestria’s newspapers push their morning editions?”

“Several hours, why?”

“I would not deprive Twilight of even a day’s delay in this matter. We will finish your story and publish it tonight. And, as soon as I can—”

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the adoption forms.

“I need to get these to Canterlot’s civil services.”

The moon shone brightly through the window of her bedroom, illuminating it in a pale blue glow. Twilight assumed that was deliberate; a signal from Luna. Or maybe a promise? The Princess of the Night had a weird way of doing things sometimes. After all, right now it shone brightest on the crib in the corner. The same crib Twilight was leaning over. Inside, her daughter slept peacefully.

Not her ward. Not her charge. Not merely a curiosity she was keeping watch over.

Her daughter. By tomorrow, it would all be official.

Her daughter.

Twilight didn’t realize that having a weight lifted off one’s shoulders could hurt this much.

Celestia hadn’t banished Nyx to the moon, Luna hadn’t wielded a sword of dark fire and struck her down. They hadn’t taken Nyx from her.

Her daughter was still here. Her daughter’s second word was “momma”.

Sweet Celestia, it was okay. It was finally going to be okay.

Wasn’t it?

“You know… I don’t wanna say I told you so, but I told you so.”

Spike wandered in, his own blanket under his arms.

“If you had just written to Celestia from the start it would have been fine. I mean come on Twilight, she did one moon banishment once. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t something she made a habit of.”

Twilight smiled at that, still not taking her eyes off Nyx.

“You doing alright, Twilight? Even I’m pretty rattled, and I’m not the one who signed the adoption papers.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just fine. I’ve got a working theory that there’s only so much blank terror and anxiety a unicorn can handle before it sort of reaches what I’m tentatively labeling an island of tranquility. Essentially: one freaks out so much that you end up calm.”

“Really?” said Spike, looking for the telltale eye twitch.

“No. Absolutely not. But the girls went out and got me some tea from Zecora. Special zebra tea. It’s been doing wonders, trust me.”

“It’s going to be okay, Twi. Celestia and Luna are on the case, and Nyx has you watching out for her. I mean look at her, this is the longest I’ve seen her go without crying.”

Twilight sighed.

“I’m sorry, Spike.”

“What, about the whole me being right about telling Celestia thing? Meh, I’m used to it.”

“Not that. These past few weeks must not have been easy for you, with Nyx taking up so much of my time.”

Moving back from the crib, she used her magic to pull Spike closer to her, wrapping her forelegs around him as they both leaned over the crib.

“I was so young when you hatched and you grew up so fast afterward, I never really had time to think about any of it. Nyx… isn’t the same. She’s going to take a lot longer to grow up and need a lot more attention.”

“Yeah, Twilight, I know how babies work. I’ve been here, too, you know.”

“It’s just…” Twilight hugged him tight. “No matter what happens, you’ll always be my #1 assistant.”

“Twilight, come on, give me a little credit. I’m nearly old enough to get a cart-driving learner’s permit. And I’ve read enough comic books and novels where some parents have a new baby and the older sibling gets jealous and there’s some dumb misunderstanding and honestly, I’d like to think I’m above that.”

“You started a one-dragon crusade against Owlowiscious because Rarity gave him a bow.”

“That’s different. He’s able to read. Nyx can’t even stand up without help.”

“Oh, so if Rarity came along with a cute little bow and onesie ensemble for Nyx and went on about how cute she is you wouldn’t be turning a little bit more… green?”

“Baby cuteness is in a different category than my cuteness, Twilight. I’d be more weirded out if any of our friends didn’t find her cute, but it’s not mutually exclusive to my cuteness. It’s like saying that Ponynich Manuscript is a better book than The Count of Monte Cristo But Everyone Is A Horse.”

“Spike, one of those is a novel and the other is an untranslatable pre-Celestia compendium of imaginary plants.”

“Sure. But they’re still books, see?”

Twilight sighed again, turning back to Nyx.

“Twilight, if these jokes aren’t landing, I can go see if we have any more of Zecora’s tea.”

“It’s not that,” she leaned in closer, rubbing her hoof along Nyx’s cheek. A tiny smile crossed the filly’s face as she nuzzled her new mother’s hoof. Twilight couldn’t help but smile back.

“She’s Nightmare Moon. I know she’ll be a sweet, wonderful filly with a lot of friends and family that will do anything for her.”

Twilight frowned.

“But she still is Nightmare Moon. She’s an alicorn, the same as Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. That kind of power and past will hang over her like a shadow. There’s already going to be a cult after her before she’s even potty trained!”

“You’re going to protect her, Twilight. You promised her.”

“I won’t always be there, Spike! I want to think I will, but I know better. Pinkie Pie’s rubbing off on me. I just know there’ll be some friendship problem or some insane dictator that steals everypony’s cutie marks or an evil unicorn with a broken horn that invades Canterlot with an airship fleet or Discord turning into a creature of pure order and trying to enslave everypony in a hivemind or—”

“Twilight, do you need the tea?”

“I just… I need you to promise me something.”

With that, Twilight gently sat Spike down on her bed, before lifting Nyx out of her crib. Gently, as if she was made of eggshell, she placed Nyx into Spike’s arms. She stared at her two children. One brave enough to face down a unicorn made out of shadow, the other unaware of the thousands of dangers that would be lurking around every corner for her.

“Protect her, Spike,” said Twilight finally. “Let your baby sister never know fear, or hurt. As much as you can. Let her know she is loved, that she’s more than just an unfinished spell. Be the big brother she needs to be. Promise me.”

“Twilight…”

“Pinkie promise me you’ll protect her.”

“I can’t do the gesture while holding Nyx.”

“Promise!”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said. “I promise. Nopony’s getting to her, not on my watch.”

Twilight closed her eyes. It was going to be okay. So long as she had her family.

“Uh… That doesn’t mean I’m going to have to be in charge of diaper duty from now on, am I?”

“Spike, I all but made you just swear a blood oath, and we’re going to be fighting a cult. Do you still want to be making jokes?”

“Oh, no, I’m down with the whole knight errant thing. Shining Armor told me once that chicks really dig the whole caring protective older brother shtick.”

Twilight froze. So did Spike when he realized what he said.

“You never told Shining Armor about Nyx.”

She squeaked.

“And… you haven’t told your parents either.”

She began to twitch. Just a bit.

“And the princesses said they’re going to try and publish that story about her as soon as possible.”

More twitching.

“And your dad likes to read the newspaper. He does it every morning.”

A bit of whimpering.

“More of Zecora’s tea?”

She nodded. Evidently, there was not an island of stability in the sea of anxiety.

Author's Note

Whew, longer chapter than normal but there's no real good way to split this up without if being cliffhangery. We got another big one coming after this, so strap in.

Thanks to Toonwriter for helping with the proofreading on this one.

Chapter 5: Muffin Theory

Spell Nexus awoke to another terrible morning.

Mornings in general were terrible for him on general principle of course, but all the mornings since that failed, awful night had been especially terrible.

He had failed his queen, failed his sworn brethren, and worst of all, failed himself. So much time spent planning, so much research and time spent gathering materials wasted. And for what? A drop of blood and a shattered grove of spellwork at best.

A strange, small, and furious part of his mind wanted to push onward, to find some other way, some new spell or endeavor to try. But the greater and more rational part of his mind had just… given up. After all, without the remnants of Nightmare Moon, there was no material, no arcane fuel to work with.

So it was that Spell Nexus awoke, each day the same routine. He’d don a robe, his butler would bring him his morning coffee and paper. Then he’d skim the major articles before-

Spell Nexus almost spat out his drink, before eyeing the brand, and forcing himself to swallow it down. He may have been the highest of high deacons in a cult trying to plunge the world into an eternal night, but that was no reason to waste expensive coffee.

Finally calm enough, he looked down to read the front page of the Canterlot Gazette, still not fully believing what he saw.

FROM RITUAL FAILURE TO FOUND FAMILY
ORPHANED ALICORN ADOPTED
NIGHTMARE CULT ON THE LOOSE

The headline read. That alone would have been cause for concern. But it was the single-color photo that had drawn his attention. Even slightly blurry, there was no mistaking anything in the newspaper.

A lavender unicorn, exhaustion, and relief all over her face as she clutched a foal in her arms. A foal with a horn and wings. A foal with a coat as deep as the backdrop of the universe itself. A foal with his queen’s eyes.

A foal that was looking at Twilight Sparkle with unrestrained infantile adoration.

Trying to shake through his fury and disbelief, his eyes traveled down the article fully, absorbing every little detail and flourish.

It was good.

Too good to have been penned by some underpaid reporter. It was less an article and more a woven tale of abandoned innocent fillies and kind lonely mares. And of the shadowy players in the background that would see them come to harm. Both of them.

It all tugged at the heartstrings. All too deliberately.

You don’t even know the opponent you’re up against Celestia, he seethed to himself. And yet… well played, all too well played. But is this even your game?

“Etiquette!” he called over to his butler, who had been patiently watching his coffee-spitting outburst with a towel at the ready.

“Sir?” came the eventual answer, the towel lowering.

“Take a message and send a raven to Miss Gray Gale and Night Wind. And I suppose Mister Stonewall—”

“I beg your pardon but… a raven, sir?”

Right, a mental misstep. Sometimes even he thought his queen stuck a bit TOO hard to the whole nightmare and nighttime motif.

“Sorry. Can you please send out several invitations to them? Tell them it’s urgent, though I believe they’ll understand why.”

“Of course, sir. I take it that there has been a development?”

Nexus glanced down at the paper again, glaring at the filly on its front.

“A small one… yes. An inkling of a development, one might say.”

A new day had dawned in Ponyville, and the paper had been delivered.

Twilight had promised Spike she’d do her best to remain calm, to trust that the princesses knew what they were doing. She wasn't really surprised when she woke up with a surprisingly normal amount of panic from her. She had woken and changed Nyx, then headed downstairs to join Spike for breakfast.

The front page news of the Ponyville Express hadn’t surprised her either. She supposed she should be at least impressed at how fast Celestia had penned the entire story, but she’d read works by her mentor before. Once you knew what to look for it was always easy to spot her writing. She penned a lot of bakery reviews in Canterlot’s papers. Anonymously, of course.

And it was a good story. Twilight could forgive a few of the embellishments and creative adaptations of her new daughter’s life story if they were in the service of some top-tier prose.

What had surprised Twilight was how few ponies had come by. It was almost noon, and so far she had only opened the door to find the the Cakes (who had hoped to set up a playdate), Derpy (who had come by with both the mail and a few kindly recommendations for babysitters), and the Cutie Mark Crusaders (who had happily recommended themselves as babysitters).

The princesses were right. Maybe it was the regular monster attacks or her friends’ adventures, but Ponyville had simply gotten used to the strangest things. She supposed that if you lived in a town where it would and had rained fish on a regular basis and had once been plagued by errant ghost trains that an alicorn filly was probably a passing curiosity at best.

Celestia, was she getting indignant that so few ponies had come by to wish her well and see the new baby? She supposed she was. What was the point of motherhood if you couldn’t get lauded (or at least graded) for it?

Finally at her limit, she let her frustration out in a long, tortured groan.

“What’s up?” said Spike, looking up from the various local letters of heartfelt support that Derpy had delivered.

“I’m sick of opening doors Spike. Feels like all I’ve done is open the front door over and over and over again. I don’t want to be pacing around the library wondering when any of my family is going to arrive! This time, I’m going to be in control of my destiny.”

She levitated over her baby carrier and her baby, getting them both situated on herself in short order.

“Why gee Twilight, is that your new magical not-evil baby? Why yes random passerby, yes she is. Gee Twilight, you sure are doing a good job with her. I’d give you an A+ in magic baby raising, were I a teacher. Thank you, random passerby.”

“You alright Twi?”

“Better than alright,” she proclaimed, patting Nyx on the head. “You and I and Nyx are going out and heading to the train station where we’ll greet my brother, as a family. Ten bits says they’re taking that Celestia-awful high-speed crystal train, and should be easy to spot. Right now though, I am through with pulling open the Golden Oaks’ front door and letting other ponies spill into my home uninvited.”

She slammed open the door, took one look at the couple, squeaked, then slammed it shut.

Spike raised an eyebrow, walking over to open the door. “Shining Armor, Cadence. Good to see you guys! Would you like to come in?”

For Shining Armor, fast sometimes wasn’t fast enough. Maybe it was old habits dying hard, maybe it was adrenaline from when he had nearly choked on a piece of toast after he saw the morning paper headline, but even he surprised himself at how quickly he had made up his mind. If he had had it his way, they’d have been on the first morning mail train out of the Crystal Empire.

Unfortunately, not everyone shared his concerns. Or his sense of urgency. The mountain of gifts sitting behind his wife made it clear where her priorities lay. They’d have left for Ponyville sooner if not for that morning shopping spree.

He supposed he couldn’t blame her, Cadence was the biggest softie when it came to foals.

“So what exactly,” Cadence said, looking over the top of the newspaper, “are nards?”

Shining Armor coughed. “Cady!”

“What?” She grinned. “You had threatened to string the poor driver ‘up by his nards’ if he didn’t get the train to Ponyville ‘as fast as possible’. I was just wondering how that would work, and why he’d be so terrified afterwards.”

“Alright, alright. I get the point,” he waved a hoof, dismissively. “I may have overreacted a bit at the idea of being a little bit late. I’m just… I get antsy when Twily’s in trouble.”

“Trouble?” Her horn glowed as she turned a page of the newspaper. “It seems like she’s got things under control.”

“Under control? You call all of that-” He motioned to the paper. “Under control? Nightmare Moon’s sleeping under the same roof as my little sister and ponies just expect it to be all okay? That is under control to you?”

“Oh of course, we should all be trembling in fear at Equestria’s newest supervillain,” she spread open the front pages of the Crystal Heart Courier, splaying Twilight and the foal’s picture out to the side of her head while making a snarling face, eyes twinkling. “Look out world, Nightmare Moon is loose. She’s ten pounds soaking wet and won’t sit still when being changed and chews on everything she’s not supposed to. No pair of plastic keys is safe!”

“Cadence.”

She laughed, tossing the paper over to him. “So which part is the most intimidating to you? Her adorable widdle wings or the sudden realization that your little sister is now a grown mare making her way in the big wide world?”

“The part where Twilight was foalnapped and almost sacrificed by a cult.” Said Shining Armor quietly.

Cadence opened her mouth to say something, closed it, then sighed, moving over to snuggle up to her prince. “Shiny… She’s gotten into danger all the time. She’s an Element Bearer. She’s THE Element Bearer. You can’t always protect her, it’s not your job to protect her.”

“I could have done something.”

“You were halfway across the world in bed when it happened,” she smiled. “You know this isn’t the first time she’s been in mortal peril. Auntie knows it probably isn’t going to be the last. You have to accept that sometimes somepony else is going to be saving her other than her BBBFF. ”

“I can still be upset,” he slunk down, looking away.

“Sure, but not at the baby...” She snuggled up closer to him, a mischievous smile finding its way onto her face as she nuzzled him. “You know what I think is going to happen?”

“What?” He said, unable to resist smiling back.

“I think Prince Grumpy Armor is going to take one look at his new niece and instantly melt into the best uncle ever. You’ll be chomping at the bit to be her gallant knight.”

“Oh, please, I’m not that easily manipulated by kids.” He snorted.

“You are the biggest softie when it comes to foals, Shining Armor,” the Princess of Love ran a hoof up her husband’s chest. “One little coo and yet another alicorn will have you wrapped around her little hoovey wooveys.”

“You want to bet on that?”

She winked at him. “Loser makes the other breakfast in bed?”

“Deal.” He leaned into his wife as they both watched the hills go by. The train was blasting along the route at a breakneck pace, they’d probably be at Ponyville within the hour.

Shining Armor was almost impressed at what the Crystal Empire’s trains could do when their crew was properly motivated. He guessed the engineer would get to keep his nards after all.

In retrospect, he should have expected his knocking to be met with a subsequent door-slamming. He didn’t think he had been frowning that hard. Cadence gave him a Look, which he responded to with a Shrug. The door opened again, revealing the face of a young dragon.

“Shining Armor, Cadence. Good to see you guys! Would you like to come in?” Shining Armor shook his head.

“Is Twilight available? Cadence— I mean— we brought gifts,” he looked back. “A lot of gifts.”

Slowly, the door creaked open again, and the door’s owner slowly stepped out. She eyed the couple nervously before Shining Armor cleared his throat to try and throw some conversational water on the awkward fires of silence.

“Hey… Twily.”

“Big bro! You’re… it’s good to see you two...” She shifted awkwardly from hoof to hoof.

His eyes traveled away from his sister’s fear-stricken face, down to the foal carrier hanging from her neck, and the void-coated occupant within it.

And there she was. Nightmare Moon reborn. Equestria’s greatest boogeymare for a thousand years, queen of eternal night, spiritual patron of the cult that had foalnapped his sister, archenemy of her eternal majesty Princess Celestia, the luna menace incarnate.

She was about the size of a football and currently trying to fit her entire hoof into her mouth, regarding him with wide eyes and an expression that seemed to be sizing him up as to whether or not he would make prime chewing material.

“Book!” she cooed, offering him a slobber-covered hoof. The stallion opened his mouth to say something in response.

Then he closed it. More than a few mental gearworks were being overclocked trying to figure out what to do next.

Sweet Celestia, she was adorable. With no other option apparent, he gave up and smiled.

“Well. hello to you too, Nyx,” he responded, taking her tiny drool-encased foreleg and shaking it gently. “I hope you haven’t been driving your mom too crazy. We both know she doesn’t do well under stress.”

“Momma,” confirmed the filly, giggling happily.

“Not even thirty seconds. That’s game, set, and match,” Cadence laughed, walking past her husband and winking back at him. “I’ll expect my strawberry waffles tomorrow morning to come with a nice glass of tangerine juice.”

“What’s this now?” Said Spike, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” she reached down to give her #1 assistant-in-law a big hug. “Good to see you again, Spike, hope you’re not getting too overwhelmed with double the magic users around.”

“I’m good,” he stood proudly. “I swore a blood oath.”

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake. It’s a Pinkie Promise, not a blood oath! I was being hyperbolic last night,” Twilight trotted over to the conversation, giving Cadence a huge hug as she left Nyx at the mercy of her unicorn uncle, who was currently blowing raspberries onto the infant alicorn’s tummy as she screamed with delight. “He’s been telling everypony who comes by about that.”

“Oh, have you now?” Cadence leaned down, flashing him a knowing smile. “Hoping to impress a certain unicorn mare with your cool big-brotherness?”

“Well, duh,” Spike looked at both of them, shrugging. “Everyone in town knows already, might as well be honest about it.”

“I’m sure she’ll think you’re ever the knight in shining armor,” she said, eyeing her husband. “No pun intended.” She then raised her eyebrow at Twilight. “A blood oath, really?”

“A Pinkie Promise. And I’ve been a little on edge lately.”

“On edge? Twilight, you look exhausted. And a princess knows when it’s more than just 3 AM feedings that are keeping her little sister up.”

“Sorry, I didn’t get a lot of time to plan for… any of this. If you want to come in, I just need to—”

“What you need, honey, is a break,” her sister-in-law insisted. “Or at least a bit of one. Let’s do a family lunch and then me and Shining can take over for the rest of the day. You can catch us up on everything.”

“Are you sure? Nyx isn’t surging too much anymore but she can still be a serious handful,” Twilight eyed her daughter, who had fallen asleep in her uncle’s mane, some of which the filly had deliberately placed in her mouth. “Especially when it comes to hair.”

“Hey, I didn’t win the title of ‘Best Foalsitter in the History of Foalsitters’ for nothing. You’ve been through enough already. Besides,” Cadence nudged her husband a bit, winking. “We can consider it practice for later. Hair included.”

Twilight paused. It hadn’t been the whirlwind of new faces and all of Ponyville descending upon Nyx that she had expected, but all the same there had been enough ponies to deal with that she had almost forgotten the looming cloud of cult-related fear that she figured would be following her forever now.

Still, if she couldn’t trust Shining Armor and Cadence, who could she trust? And a midday nap did sound nice. Celestia, a nap sounded wonderful.

“Well…” she acquiesced to their demands, Cadence had certainly brought a lot of presents. “I still planned to meet Mom and Dad at the station. I’m actually surprised you beat them here. I knew the Crystal Empire’s trains were fast, but I didn’t think they were that fast.”

“That’s the magic of nards, Twilight.”

“Nards?”

“I’ll leave it to Shiny to explain, come on. Let’s get these gifts inside and we’ll go get a welcome party ready.”

“Ugh, please no more parties,” Twilight groaned.

“Pinkie Pie?”

“I think with all that’s been happening she’s been overloaded. At this rate, she may even run out of balloons.”

“Oh, well, we can’t have that happening,” Cadence giggled. “The welcome wagon, then. Cartseat included.”

“Yeah, I can see it. Hard to mistake those eyes. That's why I don’t get why you’re so angry. It worked, right, that’s her, isn’t it? The spell didn’t work right, but it’s still her.”

“In a way.”

“Look, Nexus, it either is or it isn’t. We know where she is, why don’t we just go get her? We managed Twilight before and-”

Spell Nexus slammed his hoof down on the table, anger boiling back up again. He looked over at the trio of ponies before him, trying to keep calm. Somewhere inside, some part of him wanted to scream at their ineptitude. He had called this meeting hoping that, at the very least, they’d be on the same page. At least they had clearly seen Celestia’s handiwork all over the story in the paper.

“Are you THAT clueless?” He bellowed. “Twilight Sparkle is not the problem we have to worry about here.”

The pegasus in front of him just looked confused. He sighed. Was it that hard? How could they not see the game being played here?

“You’ve looked at the paper, you’ve read the story?”

The figures before him nodded. He lifted the newspaper in his magic and tapped it.

“Rather trite and deliberate, wouldn’t you say? The kind of stuff to give a happy parent nightmares, right?”

The pegasus shrugged. “Sure, it’s a tearjerker, I guess. Cute baby, found family, menacing cult? Pretty cliche, I’m sure it’ll sway the lowest common denominator.”

“Exactly my point! The issue, my sworn brother, is not that the public knows about our little pony. It’s that they know that we will be trying to get our hooves on that poor little defenseless pony. That twee puff piece the princess published puts us in peril. We’ve gone from surviving in the shadows to having our biggest potential victory put out there to have every single eye in Ponyville and beyond watching her. Watching us.”

He put his head to his temple, he could feel a headache coming on.

“She just turned our little errant spellwork into the most heavily guarded foal in Equestria.”

“Oh. OH. Darn, no kidding, huh. THAT’S why Celestia kept working the poor little ‘lost baby’ angle,” the pegasus nodded, finally realizing something.

“What do you mean?” asked the unicorn next to him.

“I don’t know about you, but Ponies do NOT like it when kids are messed with. Didn’t you hear about that whole debacle in Fillydelphia recently?”

“Enlighten me.”

“Well, there was this pony and some fillies and… you know. Bad things.”

“Bad things?”

“BAD, bad things. They say a huge mob caught up with him.”

“Ah.”

“There was an inn near where it happened. They call it the Skinned Stallion now.”

“I see.”

“They sell souvenirs of the whole thing now too. There are little dolls of him and you can peel off their-”

“Yes, right, I understand!” she shouted, waving the pegasus away while trying not to lose her dinner. “I suppose that definitely rules out the possibility of simply foalnapping her away during recess at magic preschool.”

“Sorry, magic preschool?” the robed pegasus looked at his sworn sister, confused.

“Yes, you know. For unicorns?”

“So it’s just preschool.” Replied the pegasus.

“It’s magic preschool.”

“Right, but what exactly is magic about it?”

“It’s for unicorns, unicorns have magic.”

“But… is magic actually taught in magic preschool?”

“Of course not, at that age, a unicorn has no control over their magic at all, it would be pointless.”

“So then why is it called magic preschool? You would save time simply calling it preschool.”

“How is this a hard concept to grasp, what do you pegasi call it?”

“Flight school.”

“But then, what do you call flight school when they’re older?”

“That’s also flight school.”

“What about high school?”

“You mean flight school?”

“Do you not see the hypocrisy behind this-”

“ENOUGH!” shouted Spell Nexus. This was the problem with the Blessing. They may have been servants of Equestria’s true queen, their eyes opened to the truth, but it hadn’t fundamentally changed who they were as ponies.

It took a much firmer hoof to mold their minds into something competent.

“So you really threatened Celestia?”

Two alicorns, two unicorns, and one dragon waited on the train station platform. Despite Twilight’s warnings that it was a long story, Cadence had insisted on learning every detail. From the way she had extricated the filly from her husband’s hair and spent the entire walk over cooing and fawning over her niece, she was evidently quite taken with her. Twilight had almost been concerned Cadence wasn’t going to give Nyx back.

“No! I mean, Pinkie pulled out a cannon and was aiming it at her, but I’m not sure she’d really fire it. Probably. I think that was the final straw that made everypony just sit down and realize how crazy the entire thing last night had gotten.”

“I’m not surprised, that sounds hilarious. I almost wish I could have been there,” Cadence giggled.

“I just… I hope she wasn’t too upset by everything. I think I hurt her feelings.”

“She went straight home afterward and penned the mother of all puff pieces in your favor, do you think she’s got some hurt feelings?”

Twilight shifted uneasily. “I don’t know, really. She did write to us this morning inviting the whole family to Canterlot. She says she wants to get to know Nyx better but I’m still worried…”

“You’re still worried she wants to perform some sort of test on Nyx?”

Twilight nodded, shyly.

“Even after pledging to protect her? Even after you’re worrying about hurting her feelings?”

Another nod.

“To tell you the truth I think Auntie just misses the clatter of little hooves around the castle. That or a filly driving all the nobles up a wall,” Cadence sighed, memories of her own childhood coming back with nostalgic fondness. “I don’t think she really considers it a home unless she tricks some stuck-up old stick-in-the-mud lord into foalsitting a hyperactive ten-year-old alicorn.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “She didn’t sound enthusiastic about anything when she visited last night…”

“Oh, believe me, she definitely screwed up more than a little bit, Auntie Tia’s always been a bit… Well, Luna’s a bit of a sore spot for her. If I had to hazard a guess, she’s probably realized just how badly she came off, is kicking herself over it, and is trying to make it right.”

“Are you saying she just wants me to pop in unannounced, in the middle of court? With a baby?”

“Oh stars, yes, she’d love that. Probably the only pony in the world I know of who would love an unplanned family visit.”

“I don’t think she really sees me in that way,” Twilight’s ears drooped. “At least, not anymore.”

“Oh, Twilight, she’s probably already forgiven you more than she’s forgiven herself. As for Nyx? Nyx was born from Nightmare Moon, and Nightmare Moon is Luna. Or she was Luna. She’s like a little clone of her now, or a weird offspring? Scientifically and technically, she’s like a cousin or a niece, and Auntie looooves to be the fun, cool aunt. Trust me, she’s probably gotten over another bout of Equestria’s Only Protector Godqueenitis and is badly knitting a pair of little wing cozies as we speak.”

As Twilight watched the train from Canterlot chug into the station, she let Cadence’s words roll over in her head. Since the incident last night her princess-laden worries had largely faded, but she still privately admitted that she was a little afraid of Celestia.

And wasn’t she justified in that? The princess’ first instinct upon hearing about Nyx had been to kick down the door of Golden Oaks and try to drag the foal back to Canterlot like some sort of criminal mastermind baby.

But Cadence was also right that Celestia wouldn’t have been thinking about it rationally, as silly as it sounded. The princess wanted to protect Luna, the same way Twilight wanted to protect Nyx. Love could make a pony do stupid things.

Maybe she should give Celestia another shot. If nothing else the thought of tiny little Nyx nestled in between a full-sized alicorn princess, annoying all the petitioners as she held court made Twilight smile.

Nyx deserved a family that loved her, after all.

With an airy hiss from the carriage doors, they sprung open; a small crowd of ponies filtered out, barely giving their group a second glance. Again Twilight felt a little indignant at how casually they just accepted two whole alicorns standing on the train platform, at least wanting a little acknowledgement.

Unfortunately, said acknowledgment came from the two remaining ponies that had arrived. Both were looking at her, or more specifically down at the filly she was carrying, with a mix of anger and concern.

Her parents had arrived.

And they were not happy.

This was not good. Twilight could deal with anger, outbursts, and tantrums. She’d been through enough friendship problems that she had a whole index and glossary that she could mentally sort through.

But that required ponies to actually talk. And everypony had just trotted across town in silence, no matter how hard she tried to breach that conversational barrier..

Hi, Mom, hi, Dad, I’d like you to meet Nyx, your granddaughter. No reaction.

So um… was the train ride from Canterlot smooth? No issues? Just cold stares. Celestia, their disapproval was almost physical the way their eyes were boring into her.

We’ve got a lunch reservation at Sugarcube Corner. I— I don’t think we should be late. They had at least followed her then, not talking the entire time. Twilight had just given up eventually. If they wanted to say nothing, fine, she could play that game too.

As they entered Sugarcube Corner, immediately they found a familiar pink pony bounding up to them, ready and willing to bake and serve.

“Hi, everypony! I’m soooo glad you guys came here for lunch! We could totally have thrown a ‘Happy Three Generations Of Sparkle Ponies’ party, but I’m doing some advanced muffin theory so we might need a raincheck on that—” She stared into the sea of glum faces before her.

“Ohhh, not the happy family reunion it should be, I getcha. Perfect muffin theory experiment time then!” she led them to a table, before producing a whole tray of muffins from behind her back and setting them down.

“These are Family Conversation Instigating Muffins. I’d have whipped up some Parental Disapproval Resolution Muffins, but I used the last of the coconut extract up. I’m gonna need you to do most of the hoofwork yourself, but tell me if I got the craisins right.”

She trotted off. “And quit giving Twilight that look, you two!”

That look. Twilight had seen that look on her parents when she had accidentally spilled ink on the carpet or stayed up late reading advanced essays analyzing twelfth-century diplomatic treaties. She had never expected it to apply to her trying to be a parent though.

Eyeing her as she placed Nyx into a high chair.

Eyeing her as she prepared the foal’s bottle.

Eyeing her as she cut up parts of a muffin for the filly.

Not even judgemental, just mad. She had had enough.

“Are you just two going to act like foals all day, or are you going to say something?” she glared across the table at her parents.

Night Light was taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’ve been giving me that look ever since you got off the train. If I’m going to have to be an adult here, fine. Fine! Just tell me whatever it is that’s got you so upset, and we’ll deal with it, like adults.”

Her parents sighed, finally giving some sort of reaction other than disapproving stares. Twilight steeled herself, preparing for the oncoming tirade and subsequent lecture. No doubt something about dark magic or trusting Celestia. Maybe at least they’d express concern about the cult. But maybe that was asking too much.

“Twilight, what do you even want us to say?” Her mother said eventually. “Did you think we were going to be alright with… this? The least you could have done is give us some sort of notice! Even a letter might have helped. But to learn something like this by having to read it in the morning paper…”

Darn. They had a point with that at least. Perhaps she should have told them about Nyx. After how upset she was over learning about Shining Armor getting married with no prior notice, she probably was being a bit hypocritical not letting them in on her own life.

But there hadn’t been much time between Nyx’s adoption and this entire newspaper insanity. No time at all in fact. Why would she feel guilty that Celestia and Luna liked to move fast? That wasn’t her fault.

“You’ve made some rash decisions, but I think this… this is probably a little too much for us.”

Rash? Her? Neurotic and prone to overreaction, maybe. But rash? That was one step away from irrational.

“How could you go and do something like this, after all you’ve been through? I just- I thought we raised you better than that.”

Oh, well, now that just stung. Nyx wasn’t some sort of mistake. Well, she was in the literal sense but… Nevermind. Twilight opened her mouth, prepared to unleash a tirade of her own.

“I mean, what were you thinking? You’re too young!”

What?

Twilight paused, her train of thought screeching to a halt as the various cars bumped and crashed into each other, sending neurons flying to and fro in a mental calamity.

“What do you mean, too young?”

“Dear,” answered her mother, “You made it very clear to us that even after moving to Ponyville your studies would always come first. That was fine, even if your father and I still hope for you to find some special somepony of your own. But there’s an order for these kinds of things!”

“You know how the rhyme goes.” Her father said, eyeing Cadence and Shining Armor, who also just looked confused. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes—”

Twilight facepalmed. Of all the things to object to…

“Let me get this straight. You’ve been giving me the silent treatment all afternoon because I adopted a foal out of wedlock?”

“Yes! What else would we be mad about?” her mother had the gall to look ignorantly shocked.

“The midnight foalnapping? The secret cult trying to overthrow the government? My magically resurrected formerly evil baby?”

Twilight Velvet waved a hoof dismissively “From what you’ve told us, you girls handle all sorts of things like that all the time. Of course, we trust you to be prepared and use protection against an Element of Harmony problem, as I believe they call it in the papers. But parenthood? That’s a whole different barnyard.”

“A whole diff—? Are you kidding me? She’s Nightmare Moon! How is that— How is that the least of your concerns?”

“Twilight did you think—” her mother looked at her father, back to her, down at Nyx, then started to laugh. “You thought we were afraid of Nyx?”

At that, her father also burst out laughing, and soon both of them had collapsed in a fit of giggles.

“This isn’t funny!” Twilight said indignantly. “I’ve been stressing out this entire time over how to convince ponies that my daughter’s not some world-ending scion of eternal night, and you’re telling me this entire time you’ve been upset because I didn’t date? You’ve not got a single thing against Nyx?”

Wiping a tear out of her eye, her mother shook her head. “Dear, she’s cute as a cat-themed bookmark. And given that she’s struggling with a bit of muffin—” she levitated a napkin over to wipe the filly’s face. “Evidently she’s about as dangerous as one.”

“Now, now, hun, you never know, those muffins can be a real minefield.” Chuckled her father.

“You two are being ridiculous right now!” Twilight protested.

“As ridiculous as thinking that we’d think a newborn foal was a world-ending threat?” Twilight Velvet countered.

“Shiny certainly thought she was,” tattled Cadence.

“I didn’t—” They all looked at Shining Armor, who looked away and went back to sipping his coffee. “I may have jumped to a few conclusions and freaked out just a bit. We’re good now though.” He muttered.

“Didn’t even last a minute before he was blowing raspberries on her stomach,” explained Twilight, giving him a smirk.

“I think we might all be acting a little bit silly.” Twilight Velvet rolled her eyes. “I guess so much of this is moving a bit fast and we’re just the kind of ponies that don’t do well with that kind of change.”

“Do all you Sparkles tend to overcomplicate things?” Came a voice. Pinkie Pie had arrived once more, bringing in a stack of muffins.

“No,” said Shining Armor and Twilight.

“Yes,” nodded Cadence and Spike.

Pinkie pouted. “Aww, you’re so lucky! I wish my mom and dad had my neuroses. I could have gotten some serious party planning tips then,” she perked up. “Oh! I’ll have to go pull out some Parental Reconciliation Muffins then, be back in a jiffy!”

The Sparkles all watched the pink mare retreat back to the kitchens, humming an indistinct muffin-baking tune. Shaking themselves out of a possible Pinkie-induced headache, they turned back to their daughter.

“Are we the last two on your checklist, Twilight?” her mother gave her a sly look.

“I don’t have a-”

“You absolutely have a checklist for something like this Twilight, you’ve been making checklists since you were five.”

Twilight blushed. “There’s a few ponies I want to get her introduced to, Cherilee at the minimum so I can put together an early foalhood curriculum for Nyx.”

“Obviously,” her mother grinned.

“So does this mean you’re okay with it?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, her eyes sparkling. Both of her parents looked at each other, then nodded slowly.

“To be honest, we’re not surprised at getting to be grandparents this soon.” Her father said. “Just a bit surprised that someone else crossed that finish line first,” he eyed Shining Armor, who nearly spat out his coffee.

“Dad!” He said.

“You and Cadence made it pretty clear you wanted a big family son, the cow’s not going back in that barn anytime soon,” Night Light said, shrugging and turning back to Twilight. “But yes, dear. I can’t say you aren’t a little too young for it, but Celestia knows that if you’ve got your mind set on something nothing short of the end of the world could change that.”

“Oh, believe me, she knows,” muttered Spike.

Twilight Velvet put a hoof on her daughter. “Maybe we’re not giving you a fair chance. Sometimes it’s hard enough thinking my little girl’s now a big world-saving hero. I guess a baby was a little easier to wrap our heads around. But I know if your heart is set on being a mother, you’ll be a wonderful mother. I just hope you’ll be happy to have us as grandparents.”

With tears in her eyes, Twilight happily levitated Nyx over to her mother, who in turn happily scooped her up her new granddaughter for a long-overdue session of grandparental affection.

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance of getting her to say ‘grandma’ is there?”

Twilight chuckled. “I’m afraid other than me, right now everything and everyone is ‘book’.”

“Book?” Her mother looked up, surprised.

“Book!” Nyx confirmed, spraying muffin bits everywhere.

“It was her first word.”

“I understand that, it’s just…” She and Night Light shared a knowing look.

“That was your first word, too.”

It was late now in Canterlot, the moon rising over Nexus’ home as a candle burned around a pile of discarded plans and information. Though the Children of the Nightmare could scheme and plot, at the end of it all the facts were plain as day. One whole newspaper article was all it had taken to all at once restore their greatest hopes and yet, paradoxically, dash them in the same instance.

“I feel like we keep approaching this from the Celestia angle and that’s the wrong way of looking at it,” Grey Gale looked over some of the results of their nefarious brainstorming. Things had gotten desperate, one of these sketches even seemed to include a catapult, Nightmare Moon could only wonder why.

“She is our greatest obstacle. Equestria’s truest and oldest enemy. She is the key to this, to her own undoing,” Spell Nexus said, trying to make do with empty platitudes.

“Sure, but what about Luna?” Grey Gale pointed to the moon outside. “I hear they’re always fighting with each other, could she be a resource at all?”

A part of Spell Nexus bristled at the name. Celestia was a known quantity, years of his own memories fueling the best ways to outsmart and outrun her. Even thinking of those times in the distant past, when he had been just a nervous colt at her school, were times he looked back on with shame. He had been a weak fool, a friendless child manipulated by kind words and gentle smiles. Only when he had found his true queen and truly grown up had he learned what was really behind all those motherly platitudes.

Oh, yes, he knew Celestia all too well. But Luna? That deep part of him, the dark truth in his mind that whispered forgotten secrets, had so little to recommend about her. Nothing but centuries of hatred, sadness, sometimes screaming. If it knew Luna, it wouldn’t say, it couldn’t say.

“Brother Nexus? Are you alright? I asked you what was happening with Princess Luna.”

He snapped back to the present, looking across at three concerned faces. Why did he have to be the one always making plans? Was it too much to ask for loyal servants with a bit of agency? That other part of his mind knew his queen wanted better than what she was stuck with, she deserved better than what she was stuck with. But stuck with them he was. But even fools could be useful.

“Luna will be… difficult to work with. I had wrongfully assumed that a thousand years in isolation would leave her ignorant to the ways of the court, but that has worked out to her advantage.”

He tossed a letter towards his fellow cultists, who lifted it up to the candlelight.

“To my surprise, she has taken over the endeavor, no doubt after begging Celestia for the position. In response, earlier today, I sent Her Highness—” He cringed at the title. “A long, heartfelt letter expressing my surprise at recent developments, offering my services in her investigations as well as my credentials as both a master of spellcraft and my long, loyal service to her older sister. The entire thing was three pages, double-sided. Not ten minutes later I received this in return.”

Luna’s response wasn’t even half a page long.

Dear Spell Nexus,

No.

Signed,
The Immortal Mistress of the Night, Eternal Lady of the Lunar Kingdom and its Territories, Twin Regent of Equestria and Sacred Holder of the Moon and Stars,
Princess Luna

PS: Please turn over any materials my sister has given you regarding the Children of the Nightmare to the chief of my Lunar Guard, Nightshade.

“Succinct. Very succinct.” Murmured Grey Gale. “I take it the Lunar Guard are—”

“Her bat ponies. Loyal to a fault. I believe they, too, may be a problem, their allegiance to Luna makes it… difficult for them to see the truth.”

Too difficult. He wasn’t quite sure of the difference in biology, seeing as a thestral would obviously have never come through his School for Gifted Unicorns, but a few failed attempts at blessing them had left that avenue abandoned.

“Nightshade? A bat pony named Nightshade?” Night Wind raised his hand.

“You’re not in Magic Preschool, you oaf, you don’t have to raise your hand.”

“Can we not start that again?” groaned his sworn sister.

“No, I mean, I overheard some of the day guards talking about a Nightshade. Something about her and her husband getting a new position out in Ponyville.”

“Her husband?”

“I hear it’s a good place to raise a family,” Night Wind looked around. “Apparently.”

Spell Nexus snorted, ignoring the pounding from deep within his head over the situation. “See, she already moves her most trusted lieutenants into place. I would hazard a guess that more than a few of our honorable Night Guard will suddenly find themselves longing for the countryside—”

He paused, realization dawning on his face.

“Which will mean quite a few less paranoid eyes here in Canterlot.”

“We have our own agents already in place in Ponyville,” suggested Stonewall.

“And you’d trust them to outrun or win against trained thestrals?” Spell Nexus gave them a disapproving look.

“...Right. Not an option then. I know that look though. What’s the plan?”

Nexus began to pace about, schemes rapidly forming as he considered his options. The foal was key to everything, but said foal was now possibly the most protected pony in Equestria. There’d be eyes everywhere, watching her.

But only her.

“We… move slowly. Careful. Inches at a time. Understood? The princesses are ageless and used to playing long games. We move not a piece, we show not a card in our hand,” again that part of his mind pulsed, it didn’t seem to like game-related metaphors, and it seemed to like even less what he was suggesting, like it was impatient. “This will be a plot that unfolds over months, years even. Patience will be the key. Expect missteps, expect setbacks. But expect to persist.”

His three underlings nodded. They had come this far, what was another long wait? At that, parts of his mind surged. Their queen had waited a thousand years for her reign, and patience was not one of her lauded qualities. Still, he gritted his teeth through the pain, letting the first domino in his house of cards fall. Soon, it’d be checkmate.

Stars, the migraines were making it hard to even think in proper gaming metaphors.

“Take a letter to Brother Rich. Make sure it is delivered discreetly. If our ‘Immortal Mistress of the Night’ is so determined to find cultists, let’s grant her her wish.”

With plans in motion, the pounding in his head was satisfied and eased. This day had been a setback, yes, but what servant of Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be able to find the beauty in the darkness?

And it was high time that Nightmare Moon had a better class of servant.

Author's Note

And there's the first half of the fic done. Now comes the time for action. Chapters will get shorter once again from here on out.

Thanks again to Toonwriter for proofreading.

Chapter 6: Nyx the Noticer

Near the center of Ponyville, there was a library in a tree. It had changed a bit in the past five years. A room or two added, a small garden, various childhood toys, and a tricycle strewn about in the grass. Once a public place of knowledge, it slowly evolved into a home for a happy family.

Inside, it was no longer just books that lined the walls, but photos as well. Photos that told a similar story as the plastic toys outside.

A photo of a black-coated foal in a high chair, what’s left of a cupcake in front of her. A single snuffed candle lopped to the side as the foal dug into the cupcake with unrestrained delight, face covered in vanilla frosting.

A picture of a young dragon in an ugly holiday sweater, ever so slightly larger and holding his sister whose own overly-complicated Hearth’s Warming Day outfit has left her with a look that is evidently five whines away from a full-on tantrum, while a decorated tree and a mountain of presents sits in the background.

A photo of a lavender alicorn, awkwardly positioning a pair of wings she still wasn’t used to as she scoops her daughter up in a huge feathery hug, nuzzling her close.

A somewhat larger alicorn filly, her saddlebags laden with school supplies, books, and one raggedly doll, nervous smile on her face as she turns towards a little red schoolhouse.

Five years. Five years of life. Five years of growth. Five years of feeling happy and safe and without a care in the world.

Five years. Five years of captivity, of hate and anger and feeling trapped and worse. Five years of watching a blob of wayward failed spellcraft live in the body that should have been Nightmare Moon’s. Five years of watching that THING drink in the adoration that should have been Nightmare Moon’s.

Five years of love from subjects that should have been Nightmare Moon’s.

No. No, it wasn’t adoration, it wasn’t the love that ponies should have for their rightful queen. It was the patronizing that parents gave to an infant. What did Nightmare Moon care for gold stars in kindergarten or a terrible macaroni picture stuck to a fridge?

The pony that had once been Spell Nexus wanted to scream in frustration. It wasn’t his frustration. Or his scream.

Celestia was an unworthy ruler, but even a pony as blinded by fanaticism would have to be an idiot to underestimate her. She had a thousand years of rule, a thousand years of experience at navigating noble houses and whispers and plots against her. Nexus had been her greatest student once, and it took everything he had to keep up with her games.

But Spell Nexus was something Celestia was not. He was ruthless. He took risks, sacrificing pawns as he pleased while Celestia hesitated to bring even one of her little ponies to harm. Bit by bit, he should have been gaining ground. Bit by bit, he should have been winning.

But Celestia was not the problem. No, the far greater problem was Luna. Whinging, sniveling, undeserving little sister Luna had unexpectedly been the star player against the Children of the Nightmare. And she had done it by not playing the game at all.

For a mare who, by all reports, was inclined to quiet and bookish activities, Luna was not one to play chess or, in fact, entertain any sort of courtly intrigue at all. Where Celestia had positioned and schemed, Luna confronted and annihilated the board entirely.

Take, for example, the original resurrection spell. Before Celestia had given Luna the case, she had called forth her greatest archivists (Spell Nexus included) to figure out its effects. It was a process that could take months or years even; such was the extent and complexity of the ritual. Such could have been the extent of Spell Nexus’ delays.

But Luna? Luna had simply requested a list of the materials used in the spell, and then banned the rarest ones outright while destroying the existing stockpiles under the guise of “eliminating contraband”. A few complaints from several unicorn researchers had been met with Luna citing an ancient royal rule she called “Potes meos suaviari clunes”, followed by increased scrutiny on what kind of magical research would require such ingredients in the first place.

The pony that had once been Spell Nexus had lost a few of its most trusted lieutenants that way.

Unfortunately for him, while running a cult was within his ability, a respected headmaster with close ties to the royal family had very few experiences or contacts in whatever passed for Equestria’s criminal underworld. Smuggling the ingredients was out of the question, or at least out of his range of influence. The best offer he managed to find was a cheap deal on some high-quality sugar and a diamond dog who now insisted that he owed him four hundred tons of salted butter.

And now the rest of his sworn brethren of the night were getting desperate, taking risks they had explicitly been forbidden from taking. An incident not but a few weeks prior in Ponyville had left Luna one step closer to getting her hooves around them, and then it’d all be over.

But he knew he had to remain calm. There were always going to be setbacks. At the beginning the Children of the Nightmare’s goal had been simple: Find a way to take Nyx from Twilight Sparkle and recreate the original spell. Doing so would finish Nightmare Moon’s resurrection. Luna’s machinations had made the latter goal impossible, but there was more than one way to skin a filly. So to speak.

Nexus crept up the stairs of one of the palace’s towers to its topmost rooms. It wasn’t one often used; the royal castle was so old and ancient that towers and turrets and whole halls would simply be constructed and ignored as time passed.

Once upon a time, this place had been a ballroom of some kind, its farthest side open to the night air. If any guard bothered to even check up on it, all they’d find is a lot of dusty old chairs and a large mirror sitting at the center. Spell Nexus approached the mirror, studying himself.

Of course, it wasn’t Spell Nexus in the mirror. Not anymore.

Five years was a lot of time to learn, to change. To grow. Where the corruption in his mind was once a tumor, now it was a parasite. Where once he was an enthralled supporter, now he was just a supportive thrall.

Nightmare Moon wasn’t sure if there was anything left of the old stallion. But as he became more and more of a thoughtless puppet, it became harder and harder to take advantage of his knowledge.

Moreover, Nightmare Moon was not stupid. His advice had been invaluable. His freedom had been invaluable. Every step Nightmare Moon took, every bit of his mind she controlled, she lost a perspective she knew she needed. She was making mistakes, and bit by bit the royal sisters were gaining ground.

She needed her body. She needed that damned sniveling bedwetting little homunculus reabsorbed. She could leave Spell Nexus behind then, give him back enough of his freedom to put the rest of her plan in action. That would work, right?

Why did she care what happened to him? He was just a body to use. And she needed a body, any body. Without a corporeal form to inhabit, she risked losing herself. A body was a safe place to hide, but she needed advice more than she needed safety right now.

So she let him go, ever so slightly. In the gaze of the mirror, she could remain focused, visible, but not solid. Not entirely.

“Time runs out, Spell Nexus,” her reflection paced about the stallion, standing proud. “Luna and Celestia face us on too many fronts and, frankly, your excuses and delays to that white tramp are starting to sound more and more desperate. Even a fool as trusting as her is going to start suspecting something.”

She frowned, regarding him, appearing, she hoped, as a disappointed queen.

“On your advice, I placed myself where you pleased. On your advice, I have blessed so many. By my reckoning, I should be ruling Equestria, if not openly then at least by proxy.”

“So why am I stuck talking through a mirror while that BRAT WALKS AROUND IN! MY! BODY?”

It took a long time for Nexus to speak as if he had forgotten how. Had he forgotten? She didn’t want him broken, not like that. Again, why did she care?

“We are… spread too thin. Too many pieces to control, too many moving parts. We have to thrive off secrecy, and now? We’ve been overplaying our cards. It was a necessary sacrifice, but—”

“I am sick of the game metaphors, Spell Nexus. I am not here to establish a decadent court of intrigue like some beheaded Prance noblepony, I am here to rule Equestria as it should be. No more cards, no more pawns. No more dumb metaphors! What is going on?”

“Your majesty, we should be ready. The good news is that the mirror is complete, the focus and latticework are perfect. By all accounts, this is a contingency, but a contingency that should work.”

“Go on then, tell me the bad news.”

Nexus shifted, uncomfortably.

“I’m not going to smite you Nexus.”

He didn’t speak.

“I order you to be honest with me!”

“It is the matter of Nyx, Your Majesty,” he cringed at her reaction to the filly’s name. “We can bless as many as we dare, perfect what spells we have, but without her, it means nothing.”

Nightmare Moon sighed. That was always the trick, wasn’t it? Retrieve the filly, complete the spell. Five years had changed nothing, five years had been useless.

Twilight was the key to all this, she knew that. If she could have wrapped her claws around that tart cosplaying as a mother, taking Nyx would have been simple. But she had moved too slowly, and Twilight was an alicorn herself now. Beyond her power, beyond her reach.

Nightmare Moon had grown in those five years, as Nyx had. She could bless an entire army now, if need be, and if she got close enough she could puppeteer even the strongest-willed pony. But an alicorn? A princess? It was beyond her.

…

Wasn’t it?

She had never tried, if she was being honest. But… Spell Nexus had been a powerful unicorn. Headmaster of the academy, the once-protege of Celestia herself. But she had overpowered him all the same, it had simply been a matter of pouring more of herself into him, of forcing herself into his mind as hard as she could.

…Was an alicorn not the same way?

Nightmare Moon smiled, the final pieces of her master plan falling into place in her mind. She took control once more of Spell Nexus, letting his eyes gaze out over the fields of the royal palace and Canterlot below. Evening had spread over the grounds, painting the palace with that hated golden light. She let him smile her smile.

She knew what she had to do.

Equestria had seen its last sunset.

Nyx was smart. At least, grownups said she was smart.

But Pumpkin Cake said that when grownups told you something like that it was because they wanted you to do something, not because you were that thing. They’d say you were “quiet” as a compliment because they wanted you to be quiet, or to be still or something else.

That’s what Pumpkin said.

But she didn’t think grownups wanted her to be smart. Grownups got upset when she noticed things, but it wasn’t her fault. Nyx always noticed things. She would consider herself a noticer, in fact. It hadn’t always been that way, but Nyx had fallen into the role by serendipity.

Nyx just wanted to know everything there was to know about everything. Apparently, being smart is how you became a princess, that’s what she had thought. After all, Momma was smart. Momma was a princess, and Momma knew everything: every question that came to Nyx’s head, she’d answer with the smile and grace of a princess.

So at first, she thought you had to know everything to become a princess, which seemed daunting. She didn’t want to be a princess. She had thought that perhaps if one was a princess, then they’d know everything, which seemed upsetting.

But one day, when she had asked Momma where babies came from, she had been met with a nervous laugh and a promise to answer that question when she was older. When Nyx was met with an answer like that, which was often, she’d do what she did best: go ask someone else.

Aunt Tia had nearly spat out her drink when Nyx asked her the same question. She had smiled serenely and told Nyx that babies were shaped out of clouds when two ponies loved each other very much.

But Nyx knew that only pegasus ponies could touch clouds, and non-pegasi had babies. So Auntie Tia was wrong.

Aunt Luna had simply said that babies came from magic eggs of darkness that hatched in the Everfree Forest during thunderstorms. So she clearly also did not know what she was talking about.

Being a princess, conclusively, did not mean that one knew everything. And one probably didn’t have to be a princess to know everything. That was good. But it left Nyx back at the position of still not knowing everything, and at the worse problem of having ponies often unwilling to answer her questions.

It was only when she realized that if she sat quietly and noticed what was happening around her, she’d know more. Momma had been so happy when she told her that. She said it was called “learning”. Nyx just thought it was noticing.

So here she was, sitting in an afterschool sandbox over another failed attempt at the world’s greatest sandcastle, quietly noticing the things around her. Or more specifically, the ponies around her. The ones that were very not her big brother watching over her right now.

“Ponyville has a lot of bat ponies living here,” she said finally.

The nearby Cakes paused their work on what was a valiant attempt at a sandy throne room to consider their best friend’s deep words. Again by serendipity, Nyx had fallen into the role of mastermind for their little party. She was the smartest after all; she could spell her name and was able to count past 200, which nobody else in her class could do. The best schemes came from Nyx’s mind, so when she said something that wasn’t a string of questions, her friends listened.

One could truly ponder the vast mysteries of the playground via one of Nyx’s rare insights. In this case, the twins turned to look over at what Nyx had Noticed.

“That’s just mister and missus Nightshade,” downplayed Pound Cake.

“They’re watching us,” Nyx tried to look discreetly at the Thestral couple sitting on the bench nearby. They tried to look discreetly back. It was a game with no winners.

“Their son is in our class. He’s nice,” justified Pumpkin finally.

“You just think his wings look cool,” said Pound.

“Do not!” fired back Pumpkin.

Nyx shook her head. “Foxglove’s not here today, he went home. It’s just them.”

“So they’re watching us. Big deal. Your mom is a princess. Don’t princesses have, uh…” her friend struggled for the word.

“Bodyguards?” Nyx suggested.

“Yeah. Bodily guards.”

“Missus Nightshade’s nice,” Pound added. “She lets me have flowers at her stand sometimes.”

“You just think her wings look cool.”

“Do not!”

And so the twins argued in their usual chaotic way. Nyx knew they hung out with Pinkie Pie a lot, and while Momma had happily explained the concept of osmosis to her, she didn’t quite think that it worked with personalities.

Still for once their words gave Nyx a chance to think deep thoughts of her own.

Princesses had guards, Nyx knew that of course, they were always around Auntie Tia and Auntie Luna looking mean and serious and wouldn’t ever let her look closer at their helmets. But Momma didn’t have guards. Rainbow Dash said that Momma didn’t need guards, and Nyx had seen more than one would-be villain atomized into ozone-smelling nothingness that made her glad that Momma only ever hurt bad ponies.

But Auntie Luna said that her guards were bat ponies. And Nyx had noticed that Ponyville hadn’t always had bat ponies. Grownups would sometimes talk about that, and then get embarrassed when she asked them why.

Then there was that incident a few weeks ago. Nyx had noticed a strange pony that had been following her and Momma and Spike in the market and had pointed it out. In seconds, a huge crowd of ponies had swarmed the stallion, pinning him under a veritable ponypile of bodies. A LOT of the ponies in that pile had been bat ponies, who had seemed to have come out of nowhere.

It was probably something she could ask Momma about. She had wanted to get to the leather bottom of this bat mystery herself, but Nyx was always happy to ask questions and was happy to have a mother who loved to answer them.

Having lost track of time while exploring her own inner monologue, she was finally roused from her internal resolve to ask Twilight by the distant ringing of the clocktower.

Sighing and waving to her friends as Mr. and Mrs. Cake picked them up, she trotted over to Spike with her trowel and bucket in her mouth, eagerly awaiting the trip home where she could spend an evening asking Momma more questions.

“You look excited, Nyx,” he said, looking up from his comic.

“Yep!”

“Let me guess, more questions for Twilight?”

“A whole bunch!” She smiled happily.

He sighed. “Wonderful. So no trying to catch fireflies tonight? Twilight’d skin me alive if I brought you home after dark again.”

“Fireflies can wait, questions are more important.”

“You promise?”

“Uh-huh! They’re good questions.”

She nodded eagerly, scooping her sandy implements once more, thoughts of watching threstrals largely refocused into the far more exciting thoughts about answers about watching threstrals. A perfect capstone to a great day.

Spike supposed that other teenagers would be bristling at having to watch over their kid sister instead of going to wild parties or huffing cans of whipped cream or whatever weird things that Rainbow Dash had told him teenagers do.

He certainly felt like a teenager at times. Five years had been plenty of time for him to grow tall enough to where ponies at least had stopped calling him a “baby” dragon. Though that may have also been because he spent so much time babysitting in the first place. Even if he wasn’t taking his Pinkie Promise seriously (which he was, he’d be dead before he broke this Pinkie Promise), his friends were happy to put him into the role of the older brother. It felt nice to be the hero on the regular. If only some ponies wouldn’t stop trying to butt in on his turf.

“Aren’t you hanging out a bit too close right now?” Spike eyed the happily trotting filly in front of him, pulling back a bit to get close to the two incognito guards following them. “I thought the whole point was to keep some distance between the Lunar Guard and Nyx.”

“We’re just a family out for a nice evening stroll at the park,” Corporal Hemlock replied, expressionless.

“With no foal?”

The guards said nothing and just continued to watch Nyx.

“You guys talk a lot less when you’re not working the flower stand, huh?”

“Ever hear the term ‘on-duty,’ kid?”

“Right, fine,” but not content to leave the subject alone, Spike gave them what he hoped was a guilty look. “Sure would be a shame to leave everypony trying to protect her out of the loop though.”

He was a bit too old now to be considered precocious, and he doubted he had enough natural cuteness left to really work that angle, but one didn’t grow up around Twilight Sparkle without gaining a ruthless sense of how to manipulate royal guards, particularly if it involved breaking into forbidden libraries. Hemlock looked down at him, considering his words, and looked over to his wife. She paused, then nodded, lowering her voice to make sure they weren’t overheard.

“They’re letting Trenchcoat go, no charges. Her Highness has pardoned him.”

“WHAT!” He yelled, then noticed Nyx looking back at them before lowering his voice again. “Why? He tried to foalnap Nyx in broad daylight, there must have been over a hundred witnesses!”

“You read too many detective comics, kid.”

“And too many essays about Equestria’s legal system.” Countered Spike. “What’s Luna playing at?”

Both of the thestrals shifted nervously. “We… we don’t want you to worry about something like this, you don’t need to be afraid.”

“I worry, Twilight worries, you worry. We get paranoid—” Spike pointed down the road at his baby sister. “So that she doesn’t. Spill the beans, or I’ll get Twilight to do it anyway.”

Hemlock sighed. “The suspect… wasn’t in full control of his mental faculties at the time.”

“So he’s nuts.”

“He was brainwashed.” Hemlock said. “Magically so. Her Highness purged the spell in question, but the last thing Trenchcoat claims to remember is meeting an unfamiliar pony and then he was…” He struggled to find the words.

“Infected?” suggested Spike. Both the guards nodded.

“I believe Princess Twilight expressed concerns that the cult members we have caught don’t match any patterns or display behaviors that would suggest sympathy towards Nightmare Moon.”

“She kept complaining that it didn’t make sense, it was driving her up a wall… Guess it’s because it doesn’t make sense. But if it spreads like… like a zombie infection.”

“You read too many comics.”

“Fine, a vampire curse, then.”

“Also not real,” Nightshade eyed him disapprovingly.

“You know what I mean. If you’ve got a few real whackos going around brainwashing ponies in dark alleyways then that means that—”

He looked up at both of them, realization dawning. “Oh.”

“Hence the increased scrutiny,” concluded the guard.

“Gotcha.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Heading back over to Nyx, he considered the words of the guards. Infections. Brainwashing. The cult could take ponies… Which meant that anyone could be a suspect now.

Celestia help them if poor Twilight knew about this already. He knew she put on a brave face, but there had been more than a few times when the thought of things lurking in the shadows ready to hurt her family had become overwhelming. Nopony else knew about those heartwrenching late-night breakdowns, and it had made him all the more determined to keep everyone he loved safe.

But if that meant he had to be watching and scrutinizing everypony he met, even his friends, he didn’t know if he could do it. Pinkie Promise or not.

But what if the cult got them? Or the guards? What if they got Spike?

He suddenly was roused from his thoughts by a nearby whimper. Nyx had shifted the bucket onto her back and was looking around nervously.

“You okay, squirt?” Spike asked.

“Can we… can we go faster, Spike? It’s gotten really dark…”

Dark. That… that didn’t seem right. Ponyville was a quiet little town, but it was a town that still had electricity. Or at least ponies that made sure there was oil to burn.

“Spike…” Nyx said, shying closer to him. “Are we lost?”

“Nyx, come on,” he gave her a confident smile, which faltered quickly. “I know these streets like the back of my claw, we’re right in the middle of… town.”

He finally realized what was wrong. They were in the middle of town. The Night Market should have been going on, Ponies bustling among the glow of streetlamps to parties or plays or late-night obligations. But now the stalls sat empty, the buildings around them had no light and no sound in them.

In what was the busiest part of Ponyville, shortly after sunset, there was not a pony to be seen, and not a lamp lit.

One didn’t grow up around Twilight Sparkle without gaining a ruthless sense of when the midden was about to hit the windmill, and without missing a beat he scooped up his little sister, who gave a yelp of confusion as she dropped her bucket. He sprinted over to their thestral guardians.

“You guys—”

“I know. Stay with Hemlock,” Nightshade nodded, wings spreading as she took to the skies. For a moment, she was nothing more than the shadow of a pegasus outlined by the full moon.

And then another shadow joined it. A far faster shape that collided with the thestral in midair. Nightshade fell.

“Nightshade!” Cried Spike, looking around, trying to see the pegasus that had hit her. It was dark, but he swore he recognized that silhouette.

“Where are the other guards? Hemlock, there should be more!”

“I know, stay behind me. If I give the signal, run. Get to the library and Princess Twilight,” eyes wide but expression calm, the remaining Lunar Guard flared his wings, stepping through the darkness of the street to try and find the assailant, hoping to put himself between them and the two youths.

Instead, a blast of magic flashed out of the darkness, hitting the guard square between the eyes with something. He crumpled to the ground, Spike crying and rushing over to him, Nyx huddled close to him, shivering in fear as they both inspected what Hemlock had been hit with.

It was a gorgeous and rather heavy gemstone.

Several clues lined up in his mind, clicking with an ominous echo. He recognized the pegasus in the sky. He recognized this gemstone or others like it.

And he’d recognize the color of that magical aura anywhere.

“No…” the dragon whispered.

Out of the shadows stepped four mares. Each of their eyes glittered turquoise, their pupils harlequin. A fifth and final one landed with a heavy thud in front of them, rainbow mane visible only by the moonlight.

“Dash? Fluttershy? Applejack? Pinkie? R-Rarity? Even you? You can’t be… they got you? They got you?” Spike stepped back in disbelief, moving to stand in front of Nyx. The unicorn mare smiled back at him, all teeth and not a single bit of her characteristic generosity within. It was the look a predator gave cornered prey.

“Spike, darling. You’re a smart young dragon. You know what this is allllll about, right? We don’t have to make this difficult, do we?” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Why don’t you hand sweet little Nyx over to us, we’ll make sure she gets home… safely.”

“Nyx is fine with me. You… You stay back.” He swallowed, trying to dredge up some resolve from the swamp of terror and betrayal that was his soul.

“Come now, dear, don’t make us do anything rash.”

“I said stay BACK!” he yelled, barreling into the unicorn without hesitation. It might look like Rarity, but Rarity would never threaten his sister, implied or otherwise. He’d wrestle with his own inner turmoil later. Right now there were no guards, and he couldn’t rely on his friends. It was up to him to get Nyx home. Get to Twilight. Twilight could fix this.

“W-what’s happening? Spike, why does Rarity look like that? What happened to mister Hemlock?”

“It’s not her Nyx, you have to stay calm. Something’s gone wrong with everypony, I know. But it’s important that you stay calm.”

“She has my eyes!”

“It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, just make sure you do exactly what I say.”

Sailing over the groaning cult-Rarity (Nightmare Rarity? Don’t think, figure it out later!) with a terrified Nyx in his arms, he blasted past the stunned mares, rounding a corner. He knew there was an alleyway here, dark or not. He’d plunge through, lose them in the maze of buildings, and try to make his way back to the library. Easy, right. He could do this.

Get through the alleyway, ignoring the clambering and crashing behind him, avoiding crates and trying to get as much distance as he could. Rainbow Dash would be a problem, but even she couldn’t see in the dark.

Finally clear of the alleyway, Spike turned a corner and—

And instead of an easy road to freedom, he found himself in front of a wall of ponies, staring back at him with a sea of glowing turquoise eyes. Every single face was terrifyingly familiar to him.

The Children of Nightmare hadn’t just infiltrated Ponyville.

They hadn’t just taken some of the citizens.

They had taken everyone.

Author's Note

Y'all ever heard of a Sanderson Snowball? We're in the midst of that snowball now, so buckle up.

Thanks to Toonwriter for proofreading this.

Chapter 7: Everyone

Spike ran. It was what he was best at, if he was being honest with himself.

They’d be counting on him to try and make a break for it. They’d have covered every possible escape route, he knew that, they knew he knew that.

But Spike had spent most of his young life now in one perilous situation after another. He had outrun unicorns of pure shadow, changeling armies, and just about every manner of vehicular specter you could think of. Once you got good at dodging a ghost train, one learned how to move very fast.

And one especially learned that a bitey, scratchy dragon was VERY hard to keep a hold of.

With Nyx on his back like a screaming, distressed alicorn backpack, he barreled through the thinnest part of the crowd he could spot, grasping hoofs met with gnashing teeth and snarling sharp claws. Freedom came at the cost of a few bleeding ponies, hopefully when the brainwashing was reversed, they’d understand.

A shadow overhead moved to intercept, and as Dash lunged to block his way forward, Spike responded with claws extended, aiming low as he swiped her as hard he could.

“Ow! Spike, what the hay?!” screamed Dash as she fell over, clutching her foreleg in pain as Spike sped past her.

“Sorry, I’ll make it up to you!” he mentally chided himself. Right now, all his friends were evil. Why was he apologizing?

Come to think of it, chasing him or not Rainbow Dash had acted… remarkably Dash-like. What was going on?

A tug on his back brought him back to reality. He knew nothing was going to make sense tonight, the only thing that mattered now was getting Nyx home.

Home. His lungs burned and his legs were sore, even after all the adventures Spike didn’t think he’d ever run this hard in his life. He could hear the stampede of the cultists behind him, sounding like the rumble of thunder from Tartarus itself, Nyx’s whimpers keeping him sharp and on task. He could see the familiar glow of the library, he could see the door opening, and Twilight stepping out and-

And suddenly, he realized that the rest of the horde behind him had started to slow down. Not like they were giving chase.

But more like they were herding.

“Momma!” seeing the lavender alicorn heading towards them in the distance, Nyx hopped off his back and galloped towards the threshold of supposed safety, only to be held back by the teenage dragon.

“Spike, we’re almost there, what are you doing?!”

“Nyx, it’s not- She’s not-” He struggled to articulate it, not wanting to believe it himself. Twilight was an alicorn, how could the Children of the Nightmare even touch her?

“It’s Momma! She won’t be scary like everyone else, she’ll keep us safe!”

She looked up, her grin fading as she noticed Twilight’s eyes. They weren’t the caring purple eyes she knew and loved, but the same blank burning turquoise she had seen on everypony else in town.

Scrambling, she tried to gallop the distance back to her brother, but an aura of pink magic suddenly surrounded the filly, lifting her high in the air and over to Twilight.

“No! Momma, stop!”

She whimpered, whirling around, trying to break free of the other alicorn’s hold, edging closer and closer as Spike could only watch.

“STOP! PUT ME DOWN!”

Twilight blinked and her magic sputtered, causing Nyx to drop like a stone. She rushed back to Spike, hugging him.

“Everyone is being scary, Spike! What happened to Momma, is she a vampire? Is everyone in town a vampire?”

“They’re not—”

Again magic surged around them, Nyx lifting into the air back over the blank-expressioned Twilight, Spike holding onto her as hard as he could, determined to keep his grip on her.

“NOOOOO! DON’T SUCK MY BLOOD!” Nyx shouted, sobbing as the crowd closed in closer.

Everything stopped once more. Twilight had a confused look on her face as if she was trying to process something. Or trying to figure out how to obey an order? The strangeness of it all made Spike’s already stressed mind go into overdrive.

They were listening to Nyx. They wanted Nyx, because Nyx was Nightmare Moon. If the cult served Nightmare Moon, maybe something in the spell made them obey Nightmare Moon. Or maybe Nyx had some sort of control over them?

“Nyx, you have to try saying something else.”

“I can’t—” he took Nyx’s face in his hands, trying to look calm.

“Whatever magic has gotten to them, it’s responding to you! You’ve got to try.”

The mass of turned ponies stepped closer and closer, moving like they were one entity, filling the air with whispered demands.

“Give her to us.”

“Come with us.”

“She is ours.”

“She belongs to us.”

Spike tried to find a way out, but even the sky was filled with glowing-eyed pegasi. More ponies, more stares, more terror. They were reaching for her. For Nyx.

“NO! STOP IT! EVERYONE, STOP IT!” she screamed at the crowd.

A sea of blank faces stared back at her, most of them freezing in place. But some merely hesitated, still creeping closer, Twilight at the head of them all.

If Nyx had some of Nightmare Moon’s power, it wasn’t enough.

Nothing was enough.

There was only one thing he could do.

“Nyx, look at me,” he said, holding her tight. “Do you trust me? Do you trust your big brother?”

Tears streaming out of her eyes, Nyx nodded.

“Then I need you to take a deep breath. Hold it for as long as you can and remember: You won’t get hurt.”

“W-what?”

Spike didn’t give her time to think. He gulped down as much oxygen as he could handle, and blew out.

Emerald flames enveloped Nyx, who let out a cry before realizing what was happening, and quickly held her breath. It swirled around her, lighting up the street as it spun, sputtered, and then flew away.

Nyx was gone.

Turning to Twilight, staring at her dead, changed eyes. Spike swallowed hard.

“I’m sorry.”

He took another breath, aimed his head down, and coated himself in green fire.

Luna hadn’t quite adjusted to this new Equestria. Not entirely. Her days of speaking in antiquated linguistics had largely come and gone (minus the occasional slip-up when she’d call random ponies “peasants”), but there were times when she found herself overwhelmed at how different the world had become.

Yet still, each day in this wonderful new future brought such new things, such sights! Trains, airships, vaccinations, government request forms, next day delivery! Luna didn’t know how Celestia got bored of it all and was happy to take over such duties that her sister had often forced herself to do. It was one of the few times they had agreed over the past few years, an amiable transfer of implicit power from one co-regent to another. If only the rest of their interactions could be as civil as that whole affair had been. There had been so many fights lately, even over the smallest things.

All the same, Luna’s Night Court had become THE hotspot for one of Luna’s newest and greatest fascinations: intellectual property law. Having come from a time when literacy was seen more as a disease and the printing press regarded as unicorn witchcraft the idea that ponies saw ideas as something to protect was fascinating to her. Even more so was the sheer amount of effort and vitriol they put into the whole endeavor.

Once upon a time, she thought empires would have risen and fallen over grandiose ideological differences. Now she was convinced the great wars of the future would start over disagreements as to which pony was allowed to make bits off a picture of a smiling banana.

She sat there, fully absorbed in the courtly melodrama between two arcane publishing houses, each side claiming to own three paragraphs in a tome about proper pentagram etiquette that the other side also claimed was theirs by some obscure justification or another.

The entire entertaining affair was unfortunately spoiled by the swirling of smokey green fire, which flowed in front of her, blazing and glowing. With a magical pop, it deposited a small black alicorn filly into her lap, who lept at her with an anguished cry.

“Auntie Lunaaaaa!”

Luna sat there ignoring the shocked looks of the crowd and waving away a few nearby courtiers, trying to make sense of the filly’s tale of woe. Her poor niece was evidently terrified out of her wits, but the sobs and sniffles and adrenaline reduced any real explanation to babble at best.

“Dear, please—”

“And-and-and then… then they all had eyes like mine and, and m-momma had my eyes, and-”

“Nyx, I need you to calm—”

“And I w-was got set on… I got set on fire by Spike, and now I’m here!” She threw her tiny forelegs around the princess again, letting loose another round of fear-fueled sobbing as Luna looked around helplessly.

Gently patting the tinier alicorn, any thoughts she had been stringing together went flying off again as yet another blaze of green dragonfire coalesced into the form of a teenage dragon, who stumbled out of the air and rushed over to Luna, panic in his eyes.

“Luna! The cult infected Ponyville! They got Rarity, they got everyone! They got Twilight!”

Luna froze. Spike’s words echoing in her head, Nyx’s statements gaining a sudden burst of contextual coherency. The spectators began to murmur, the trial party members looking about in what looked to be the start of a widespread panic. She sat up, flaring her wings and summoning forth her best royal voice. Whatever happened next, the important thing was to stay calm and project an aura of confidence.

“The court is adjourned for tonight. We apologize for this… disturbance,” she looked down impassively at the two youths near her. “But certain and more pressing matters have made themselves known. Thank you.”

More murmurs. The crowd was beginning to look around as several royal guardponies filtered out of various alcoves.

“If everyone would please remain calm, the guards shall escort you out. We assure you, there is no cause for alarm.”

But the guards remained still and silent, merely looking out over the murmuring crowd.

“Guards? Captain? I gave you an order.”

Spike began to step back, that familiar sense of dread creeping in. He didn’t need years of experience to realize that something else was very, very wrong.

Every single pony that had come in was a member of Celestia’s day guard.

“Luna… how many of your threstrals did you send to Ponyville?”

As one and all at once, the guards turned to face their princess. Luna’s eyes widened, and she whirled about, only to cry out as there was a flash of light, and she dropped to the ground screaming. The guards stepped forward, wings held out and horns glowing as Luna gingerly rose to her feet, only to be slapped down again as glowing magical chains surrounded her.

There was a dark blue clamp around her horn.

The crowd panicked, screams and shouts of protest mixed together as ponies bolted for the castle doors, only to find them slamming shut with a climactic clang. More magical chains wrapped themselves around the length of the doorway, then the windows, and every other apparent exit.

Canterlot Court was on complete lockdown.

“Silence!” A new voice rang out across the crowd, who were cowed into submission.

Again from the shadows, more ponies emerged. They wore robes, and at their center, one particularly familiar unicorn knelt in front of the struggling princess. Luna’s eyes narrowed, she snorted and struggled against the chains as she beheld the unicorn in front of her.

“You.” She hissed.

Spell Nexus smiled at her. “You know, princess, when you denied and ignored my repeated offers of assistance, a part of me panicked. The sheer coincidence of you figuring out our sacred order’s real name was something that left me sleepless. I’ve spent quite a few years now wondering if you suspected me in any way.”

He waltzed up to her, his grin getting wider as she cringed away from him. “Tonight has been a wonderful night, though. Tonight, I realized that none of that mattered. It doesn’t matter how paranoid of a nag you are, Luna. Because we’re everywhere now.”

“No!” came a voice, and Spell Nexus turned to find Spike almost upon him. He sailed through the air, claws, and teeth at the ready, but it was no use. Spike yelped as an aura of magic engulfed him, slamming him against the wall. Chains upon chains wrapped around his body, pinning him down.

“You, little dragon, are a persistent thorn for one so hard to catch. We’ll be having no more surprises from you tonight, hmm?” Spell Nexus sighed, finally turning his attention towards Nyx, horn lighting up once more as the filly desperately clung to the throne she had been hiding behind. But it was no use. She sailed through the air, coming to rest in front of Spell Nexus’ face. His expression was chillingly gentle.

“You have a destiny to fulfill, little one. There’s no use crying over it.”

She turned, cried, screaming, and finally bit as hard as she could onto the nearest available part of Nexus.

Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for Spell Nexus, unicorn horns were more sensitive the more magic that was being channeled through them, and Spell Nexus was the very nexus of many a spell at that moment.

He screamed as the filly fell to the ground, who rushed for his ankles and administered another furious chomp, which was met with another cry of pain as the older unicorn crumpled. Chains across the walls and doors shimmered, puffing out of existence as he struggled to maintain focus.

“Nyx!” cried Spike, “Run! Get help, find someone, find anyone!”

She looked over at him, eyes wide.

“I’ll be fine, go!”

Nodding through her tears, she sprinted through the crowd, wings buzzing as the various bewitched guards dove for the rushing filly, who broke through their cultic blockade. She was within reach of the castle doors, they were opening for her.

There was a unicorn on the other side, a familiar one with a white coat and cobalt mane. Help had arrived, she was going to be okay, she was—

Looking up, she scrambled back, hooves skittering across the marble floors as she found herself once again caught up in another magical aura.

“No! No! Not you! Not you, too!”

The unicorn looked down at her. Though blue his mane and white his fur, his piercing blue eyes now glowed turquoise, his pupils like that of a monster.

“Uncle Shiny…” choked Nyx.

“I had expected you sooner, Brother Armor. I sent out the call hours ago.”

“Sorry, boss, it’s not like there’s a lot of transportation options to Canterlot available at the last minute. Even for a prince,” the prince consort shrugged, stepping further into the hall as the guards around him relaxed.

“You will address me by my proper title, Brother Armor.”

“Sure, boss.”

“I take it you’ve secured the castle?”

“Most of the Lunar Guard are out in Ponyville, with my sister. Canterlot’s ours.”

“Then you’ve done very well, Brother Armor. In the new Equestria, perhaps there will be a place for you.”

“Why…”

Both of the unicorns looked to where the tiny noise had come from. Luna, head hung low, was shaking with rage. Spell Nexus trotted back to her, smirking.

“Why…” Luna said again. “Of all the ponies, why would you agree to this?”

“Agree? That’s a funny way of looking at things,” sneered Spell Nexus. “I recall you described our blessing as an infection. As if the truth of Equestria’s royal family was somehow a disease to be spread, a sickness to be eradicated. But I’m not surprised that’s how you see the world. Ever in your sister’s shadow, ever following what she tells you to do.”

He lifted Luna’s head with his hoof, glaring down at her with a look that also seemed like pity.

“You could have been something great, Luna. Even separated from your better half, you could have had an opportunity to reunite with her and become the true queen this nation deserves. But even when the most blatant opportunity for power was sitting right in front of you, did you seize it? No, you foalsat it and let it call you auntie.”

He stepped up to the throne, his hooves sweeping across the terrified crowd in front of him.

“This is the real sickness, this is the real disease. All of you blinded by your loyalty to Celestia, your love for a queen too cowardly to even admit she’s one. But this?” He motioned to his eyes. “This is the blessing my mistress gives, Canterlot! These are eyes that see the truth. All that love, all that adoration, brought over to your rightful and true queen! Where once you cared for the Princess of the Sun, with us you will live for Equestria’s true queen.” He pointed down the court, down to the filly quietly crying in a weave of magic.

“Nightmare Moon!”

All eyes in court turned to look at Nyx. She wanted to hide. She wanted to shrink into a ball and hope that she’d compress herself so hard that nothing could touch her. She didn’t understand any of it. Nightmare Moon was a monster in a storybook, a bad part of Auntie Luna that Momma and her friends had defeated with the power of love and rainbow lasers. She wasn’t a monster, she wasn’t a bad pony.

But all these bad ponies had eyes like hers. Including…

She looked up at her uncle.

“Uncle Shiny… please.”

Her uncle looked down at her. Face expressionless, nothing there but the stoic look of a royal guard.

He winked at her.

“Hey, boss, I kind of see a big problem with that blessing of yours.”

Up on the throne, Nexus blinked. Sass from a member of his blessed flock was new, apparently.

“What? You question your queen’s vision, Brother Armor?”

“I guess. See, according to you, all this—” He waved his own hoof in front of his new eyes. “All this makes you love Nightmare Moon.”

“But I don’t need anything to love my niece. And I don’t need to love my niece to know when she’s in danger.”

The rest of the Children froze.

“What are you-”

“Everyone down!” And Shining Armor’s horn exploded with light.

Were the situation not borderline apocalyptic, Nyx would have no doubt happily jumped onto her uncle’s back and began her usual bombardment of questions, namely about shield spells. Possessed with an uncanny ability to be unusually patient with foals, Shining Armor would in turn explain that a shield spell, at its core, was simply magic hardened and shaped into a ball of varying size. The stronger the spell, the harder the material and the larger or more precisely shaped the shield could be.

If one was very good at shield spells, one could project it across an entire town. If one was even better at shield spells, they could be precise enough to shape it into tiny orbs and launch them, or single out and bubble an individual pony in a crowd of hundreds.

Shining Armor was not very good at shield spells. He was not very very good at shield spells. Shining Armor was quite possibly the greatest caster of shield spells that had ever lived, and would ever live. Sure, it wasn’t as impressive as an alicorn’s command of celestial bodies, but it had its moments.

A barrage of magical pink missiles sailed across the court, nailing several of the cult’s guards, barreling others over. Bubbles formed and bounced across the halls, encasing those they caught and sending them flying away. Even Spell Nexus found himself bottled up and tossed about like the last kernel in a popcorn bag. Tiny, barely visible marbles of force fireworked across the chains holding down Spike and Luna, annihilating them.

The entire throne room had become a pink bubbly cauldron of chaos, and Shining Armor was at the center.

Free from the chains, Luna bucked at the nearest remaining guard, sending him flying, she glared at Spell Nexus, but as her horn glowed the clamp around it responded, flashing red hot, and she yelped as the spell she had been concentrating on sputtered out.

“Princess Luna!” cried out Shining Armor as he scooped up the newly freed Spike in a forcefield. “This way!”

Some of the guards had managed to recover, a few of the unicorns popping his shields and moving to give chase. As the princess and captain crossed the threshold of the throne room, he turned back, slamming his hooves into the ground. A massive bubbly wave of pink force blasted through the room sending ponies flying back as Shining Armor slammed the entrance shut, sealing it with another round of hot pink.

As the twin doors closed with a clang, they could hear a voice echoing out across the hall. It was full of disbelief and fury, and it sounded nothing like the Spell Nexus that had been giving his grand speech just a few minutes before.

“Bring me that foal!”

Author's Note

Thanks to Toonwriter for the proofread.

Chapter 8: Loopholes

With the clamoring of bewitched guards distant at best, Shining Armor pulled open the door to a small side room, waving Luna through before rushing inside and locking the door behind him. He ceased his magic and dropped Nyx and Spike to the floor, but Spike rounded on him, snarling and determined not to go down without a fight.

“Spike, Spike, it’s okay! It’s me! I’m still me!” Shining Armor put his hooves up, trying to block the frantic swipes of his claws.”

“But— but your eyes! They’re—”

“He’s not evil!” shouted Nyx, taking a stand in front of her uncle. “He saved us! He saved Auntie Luna!”

Luna stepped forward now. “Indeed, your bravery and skill with forcefields are both commendable. But I believe everyone here is more than curious as to how you are still in control of your mental faculties. In my experience with this…”

“The Children of the Nightmare call it the Blessing.”

“Indeed? This blessing leaves those it ravages little more than pliant thralls. Sleeper agents in waiting, who were all too uncooperative when caught,” Luna stepped closer, looking at him intensely. “So how is it that you remain uncorrupted?”

He grinned back at her. “I don’t remember how, for all I know I didn’t even notice being bewitched. It wasn’t until it activated today that something felt… off. Like something in my mind wanted me to do something, but it didn’t feel that… compulsive. It was if the spell had expected something else to do the heavy lifting, like it wanted me to think a certain way and I just… didn’t.”

“But when that stallion started that stupid villain monologue, it finally clicked. The spell was meant to take all the love I had for Ce- for the Princess and funnel it to Nightmare Moon, and take all the fear I had for Nightmare Moon and funnel it to C-Celestia.”

Spike’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. “...We’ve spent the last five years telling ponies Nyx was Nightmare Moon. Reincarnated or not.”

“And it’s hard to be afraid of a filly that you once saw faceplant into the ground during Nightmare Night.” Finished Shining Armor.

“Faceplant?” Luna looked at him.

“We took her trick-or-treating that year. She went as a pumpkin but the costume was too big. Cadence took pictures.”

“Adorable.”

“Hey!” protested a pouting Nyx.

“When we’re not being besieged by a cult bent on world domination, I would very much like to see the whole album,” said Luna, smiling down at the foal.

“Happy to share it, ma’am. I’m sorry I didn’t arrive sooner, but I had to organize a counterattack.

“Counterattack?”

“You think I’m the only pony to not be affected? It’s a pretty big loophole, honestly,” Shining Armor motioned to the back of the room, where some curtains hung. He pulled them back, revealing an aging pink earth pony behind them. He had a chef’s hat and apron.

“Welcome to the resistance, your Highnesses.”

“One other pony? One whole other pony,” Spike sighed, of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. “Who even is this?”

“Oh, yeah, you never went down to the night kitchens. Everyone, this is Warm Milk, head night cook. Warm Milk, the princesses and Spike.”

“Charmed,” said the pony, though he didn’t look it.

Luna squinted. “I believe I know you, are you not the purveyor of Celestia’s beloved cakes?”

The cook sputtered, his eye beginning to twitch. “Purveyor? Purveyor? I have worked in these kitchens for forty years! Forty! Four decades of following every baked whim the princess had, every fever dream of confection she requested. Do you know how hard it is to satisfy an alicorn’s tastes? Extremely hard! And for what? I have never been acknowledged, accoladed, not even a knighthood for services rendered to and crimes against frosted treats. For forty years!”

With his rant over, Luna nodded in understanding, turning towards Shining Armor.

“I suppose that answers the question as to why his love for Celestia has not been twisted.”

“Yeah, he’s had some pretty interesting things to say about your sister. Very… colorful,” Shining Armor explained, eyeing Nyx with the intense caution of an uncle who didn’t want to be blamed for introducing his niece to the lovely world of swearing.

“And you don’t fear Nightmare Moon because?” Luna asked the cook.

Warm Milk snorted derisively. “I’m supposed to be afraid of an old mare’s tale? The nobility these days is getting increasingly insane, I swear. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are cults worshiping Santa Hooves next,” the cook replied. “But I have a granddaughter not much older than your young princess there. The thought of anything happening to her, or a filly like her…”

He brandished his rolling pin, expression darkening. It certainly looked heavy.

“You know what, I’m cool with this,” said Spike, looking over the rest of the ragtag resistance. “At this point, we might as well take all the help we can get. So what’s the plan, Shiny?”

Shining Armor sat there for a moment, taking on an expression of pain. “Cel… Celestia. We have to find her. She’ll have some idea of how to at least counter this spell. If nothing else, we could use a…” he eyed the clamp over Luna’s horn. “A working alicorn.”

“I am too incapacitated to offer assistance, yes. It would take someone of similar magical strength to remove this infernal device,” Luna shifted nervously. “As much as I loathe to admit it, locating Celestia is our best option.”

“‘Loathe to admit it?’” Asked Spike. “You two aren’t fighting again, are you?”

“Certain… hurtful words were exchanged earlier tonight. Both of us may have gone too far, and she flew off upset. To where, I don’t know.”

“Great. So C-Celestia is missing too,” Shining Armor sighed. “If all else fails then, we need to focus on getting Nyx out of Canterlot and as far away as possible from the cultists. Unless you’ve got some suggestion as to where we’d start looking for Cel… C-Celestia.”

“You okay?” asked Spike. “It feels like every time you say Celestia’s name, you cringe, like it hurts you or something.”

Luna squinted. “Ah. Arcane feedback. This is quite the fascinating spell.”

“You’re not dealing with the migraines.” Shining Armor winced.

“Would someone please explain what’s going on here?”

“The spell actively funnels one’s love for Celestia and twists it towards Nightmare Moon. As the captain’s perception of Nightmare Moon is that of his niece, his greatest concern is bringing her to safety. As stated with my magic… indisposed—” Luna winced at the clamp on her horn. “Our best advantage would be to find Celestia. But that means he views Celestia as a figure to be at the minimum trusted, which gets twists back into protective instincts for Nyx which increases his desire to find Celestia which means—”

“Can we PLEASE focus on getting out of here alive and not my growing headache…” groaned Shining Armor.

“I apologize, I was merely admiring your resilience to this entire situation. Though I wish we had more…” Luna scanned the room: A clamped alicorn, an earth pony cook, a bewitched unicorn, a teen dragon, and a kindergartener. “...concrete support.”

“I’m handling it as best I can princess! It’s not easy finding ponies that fit the cultist double-agent profile, you know.”

“But you left Cadence behind?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s not bewitched, and it was her idea. When the spell took over she sent me down here, saying Twilight would need all the help she could get.”

“But you left Cadence alone? In the middle of an all-out hostile takeover? Isn’t she really pregnant right now?”

Shining Armor’s eye started to twitch. Spike turned towards the cook.

“Do you have any tea on hoof?”

“I have every tea on hoof,” he said flatly.

“I think you’ll need one in particular.”

As the earth pony fished into his apron pockets for something to calm Shining Armor, Luna looked out the window across the grounds. There were torches alight, ponies on the move.

Canterlot Castle was on full lockdown.

“We must make haste, if nothing else they will find us soon.”

“Right,” Shining Armor waved the cook away. “We’ll make our way to the cellars, I’ll lead, Milk and Luna will provide combat support, Spike will keep up the rear and make sure Nyx is safe.”

Luna hesitated. “You are aware that I am currently incapable of flight and magic, yes? “

“Can you buck someone, princess?” he responded, raising an eyebrow.

“Verily,” she said flatly.

“That’s more than enough.”

Shining Armor felt something small tug on him. He looked down to find Nyx, a look of resolve in her eyes, standing under him.

“I can help, too!” she protested. “I’ve got magic, I could blast the bad ponies!”

“Nyx, from what Twily tells me, you’re barely in control of that magic. Every time your horn starts sparking up it usually means that anything in front of you just gets turned to ash—”

“Anything in front of her, huh?” interjected Spike.

Shining Armor looked up at Luna, who smiled back at him, realization in both their eyes.

“I think we’ve got a pretty solid plan forming.”

“Indeed we do, captain.”

Shining Armor had figured it out? Shining ARMOR? This was a career low point. Yeah, this one hurt. He could respect the boy’s skill at basic shielding spells, but his school application had been a colored pencil illustration of him rescuing Princess Cadence from a plasmoid, as well as a poorly written explanation of just what a plasmoid even was.

Spell Nexus gently entered the mirror’s hideaway, watching as the door gently closed behind him. He had expected a tantrum, an enraged storm from his soul’s passenger at being thwarted. He didn’t feel anything like that from her, only a sense of cool clarity.

In some ways, that was worse.

“Your Majesty, I beg your forgiveness!” he collapsed to his knees in front of the mirror. “Had I known of this… this loophole, I would have kept the prince under heavy scrutiny.”

“Indeed, a commendable show for the peons of this city,” the shadows in the glass parted, and Nightmare Moon stepped forth, raising an eyebrow at his prostration. “Evidently magical aptitude runs in the Sparkle family.”

“B-But-” Spell Nexus was in disbelief at how Nightmare Moon could be so calm and queenly as she was. “Luna is now at large, and your real body is now in their possession.”

“A minor setback at best.”

“And what of Twilight Sparkle? Surely if Shining Armor could break free from the spell, she’ll be a problem as well!”

Nightmare Moon smiled at him. “The princess of friendship and her friends are otherwise indisposed. Rest assured, they’re in good hooves.”

“You… you granted a piece of yourself to them?” Spell Nexus looked worried. “Mistress, with how unstable you are, that could be very dangerous!”

She rolled her eyes. “Blessings, possession, blah blah blah. For a master sorcerer, Spell Nexus, you never seem to understand when there are other avenues that could be pursued.”

He raised an eyebrow, curious. Nightmare Moon chuckled in response.

“Aww, does my little scholar wish to study a true master’s work?”

“I… Of course, mistress, one must always be open to new ideas,” he rubbed his head. “I am… simply worried for you.”

Nightmare Moon paused. An unfamiliar feeling welled up inside of her, small enough that it felt like a memory of a memory. Was it gratitude? Sympathy, even? Not something worth acting on, but if her advisor wasn’t calmed he’d continue to fret. A fretful advisor was not a useful advisor.

She smiled, hoping that she could at least manage to look confident, if not calming. A calming smile was not something Nightmare Moon was known for, it was not something she wanted to be known for.

“I know you are, Spell Nexus. But rest assured, Twilight Sparkle will not be a problem.”

“Your Majesty—”

“Do you trust me, Nexus?”

“I… I do.” He answered quietly.

“Then trust in my judgment.”

“But Shining Armor—” She shushed him.

“Whether you find him or not is of no concern.”

“But—” She stepped forward, leveling herself and gazing into his eyes. Hers burned with confidence now.

“If you want to learn spellwork from a master, heed these words: There is a difference between finding a loophole and undoing a spell. A very, very important difference.”

In the depths of her own mind, on the floor of a library, Princess Twilight Sparkle fought.

She couldn’t quite remember how it had all happened. There were fragments of a knock on the door, the outline of another pony. Had it been a unicorn? Had it been one of her friends?

Did it even matter? She was now a prisoner in her own body, watching as something else puppeteered it around, forced to watch as it stood tall among a legion of Ponyville’s possessed citizens. Forced to watch as it tried to do the one thing she had feared above all else these past five years.

Enough had been enough. Across the mental landscape of her subconscious, Twilight Sparkle bucked against the cage that had been fashioned across her soul. As she did, darkness swirled in front of her, taking on an indistinct shape of a laughing alicorn that seemed hauntingly familiar.

“Oh please, keep railing against your fate,” the figure before her chuckled. “The irony is palpable that I can almost taste it, and it tastes wonderful.”

Nightmare Moon! Twilight wings flared as she charged against the cage bars towards the alicorn in front of her, firing off a blast of magic that simply went through the giggling dark-coated mare.

“Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. Did you really think you’re important enough to get a real piece of me rummaging around in all this? That I’d waltz out of Canterlot to grace your little hick town? A queen might be willing to get her hooves dirty, but not that dirty.”

So no. Not her. An image. A shadow. A copy? That was good. If Nightmare Moon wasn’t here, hadn’t been here, and if this copy was keeping her trapped in her own mind, that meant they didn’t want her to get out. And if they didn’t want her to get out, that meant there was still a chance. Somewhere in Canterlot, there was a chance.

Twilight glared, horn glowing. Maybe she didn’t know about this kind of magic, maybe she’d find a book on dreamwalking later and practice. But for now, she would be the master of her own subconscious. Every last part of it.

Her horn flared and burst with magic. The image shimmered, then reformed, looking more than a little bit annoyed.

“You little purple tart! You do learn fast, don’t you? Trying to use your own mind to reshape me,” she snorted, clicking her hoof against the glowing bars. “That won’t work, you know.”

“I’ve had villains tell me that before,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. “Usually right around the time it does work and me and all my friends kick your butt.”

“The friends who are all in the exact same position you’re in now?” smiled back the Nightmare Moon that wasn’t Nightmare Moon. “Do you know what this cage is made out of? It’s the strongest stuff in the universe.”

“...Friendship?” asked Twilight, confused.

“You really just use that answer for everything, don’t you?” The image rolled its imaginary eyes.

“It’s love, stupid girl,” She clanged her hoof against the bars again. “Every ounce of it that you have for Celestia, for your friends, for your kids,” she shuddered in disgust. “It fuels this spell. It fuels me.”

The bars begin to shift, closing in around the lavender alicorn.

“You’ve got such a big, sweet heart, Twilight Sparkle. And all that love you have is mine.”

The bars began to shrink further, the cage becoming smaller and smaller. Twilight tried to curl up, tried to hold it back, but as she became more desperate, it just shrunk more and more.

Because now she could feel it. All that emotion, all that pride, all that love. It was fueling the image. It was changing her prison, twisting it. She knew that this cage would crush her, and it’d be all over.

“Let it happen, Twilight. Lay down and let me win, for once. Sit back, let your mind die.”

“N-no. Nyx—”

“There’s no Nyx here!” Roared the image. “There is only Nightmare Moon, and you’ll love me!”

She loved Nightmare Moon?

She did. But Nyx was Nightmare Moon, wasn’t she? That’s what they had been saying for five years.

What was this broiling mass in front of her but a taller, angstier Nyx? Slap some heavy eyeliner, play some heavy metal music, and she’d just be a teenager.

Oh.

Sweet Celestia, was it really that simple? Of course she loved Nyx. Nyx was her daughter. Her precious little filly that loved to learn and asked endless questions and would sneak a storybook into bed at night to read by the glow of her horn when she thought her mom wouldn’t notice.

But she’d be damned if she let her daughter sass her like this.

Twilight drew into herself, letting her mind fill with a maternal energy she hadn’t expected to use for at least another decade.

That hadn’t stopped her from practicing in front of the mirror.

Sometimes she was lucky she overthought and overplanned things.

“You do NOT take that tone with me, young lady. As long as I’m your mother, you will do what I say!”

The image shimmered, twisted. Did this thing REALLY think she wouldn’t be the master of her own mind? Twilight almost felt a sense of indignancy from it, fading fast under what she hoped was her best possible parental stare.

The cage cracked, shimmered, and all at once, it shattered. Twilight stood up, stood tall, harnessing the parental rage fueled by unauthorized tattoos and piercings, of fillies out past curfews, and music being played too loud.

“I thought I raised you better than this!”

That’s all it took: a firm hoof, a bit of guilt.

“You— You’re not the queen here!” Nightmare Moon stuttered back, confused.

And then in for the kill.

“That is it!” Twilight said, stamping her hoof. “I didn’t want to do this, but until you calm down, you’re grounded!”

Tough love was still love, wasn’t it?

Instead of raging or rearing, the construct in her mind began to tear up.

“That’s- That’s not fair!” Nightmare Moon wailed. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”

“I don’t want to hear it, missy. Now march that flank upstairs, and think about what you’ve done!”

The apparition retreated, taking its hold over her soul and—

Twilight gasped, the real world coming back into focus. She could still feel the darkness in her mind, but it was muted. No, not muted, contained? Somehow she felt that if she were able to go inside her own head, she’d find a black-coated teenage filly sitting in an imaginary room, screaming into her pillow. It was a cute image, in a way.

But if it was still there, did that mean…?

A check in the mirror confirmed her suspicions. Her eyes still glowed turquoise, marking her a Child of the Nightmare. She was still in control of her mind, but she’d be able to move freely now without attracting suspicion.

That meant that there was no time to lose.

She bucked the door open of the Golden Oaks, only to find Pinkie, Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy sitting there. As guards or as support, she didn’t know, but before they could move she swept them up in a bubble.

“T-twilight? What the hay?! What’s with the hamster ball?” shouted Dash as her other friends spun helplessly.

“Rainbow Dash, tell me quickly: Who’s the rightful ruler of Equestria?”

“Duh? Nightmare Moon. We’re following her orders,” Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Why aren’t you?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Dash, seriously. Are you going to let Nyx of all ponies tell you what to do? You used to foalsit her when she was the size of a table lamp!”

Something changed in Rainbow Dash almost immediately. Her body began to twitch, her wings flapping wildly, and suddenly she gasped. Her eyes were still the same shade and pupils the same shape, but it’s like her entire body had been on puppet strings that had just been cut. She groaned, rubbing her temples with her wings.

“Nightmare Moon? Ruling Equestria? Jeez, I might have failed Flight Civics Class but never that bad. Why do I feel like someone else’s been in my head?”

“I’ll explain when we’re not all in mortal danger, come on,” bringing Dash’s bubble, Twilight trotted over to Rarity, who looked at them with a look halfway between indignation and confusion. Twilight thought for a moment, then pointed at the white unicorn.

“Rarity, remember when Nyx was a baby and you were holding her and then she spit up all over your new ascot? The one with the pins in it?”

The unicorn stared at her. Her eyes went wide, began to twitch, and then—

“That was Saddle Arabian SILK!” Rarity screeched. “It stained it permanently!”

“Nice, welcome back, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash nodded.

Both bubbles popped and the pair plopped to the ground, restored. Next, they marched over to Pinkie Pie, who galloped around in her bubble to face her alicorn friend, apparently unfazed by the entire display.

“Hi, Twily! Are we still foalnapping Nyx tonight? Is the bubble part of some secret plan? Secret foalnapping plan? Why are we foalnapping your daughter anyway?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I don’t get it, it’s like if someone flipped a switch and turned Pinkie Pie evil, but still… Pinkie Pie.”

“It’s not some sort of possession, not fully,” theorized Twilight. “There’s like something inside of her, an image of Nightmare Moon. It’s twisting her own self and making it serve her needs, but it’s not suppressing it. I had to mentally reshape the one in my head into a teenager to get control over it. With each of us, it just needs a little… reminder about Nyx.”

“I got this, then,” Rainbow Dash stretched out, cracking her neck, and bringing her face level with Pinkie Pie, who stuck out her tongue in response.

“Hey, Pinkie?”

“Yeppers?”

“July 18th,” said Rainbow simply.

Pinkie Pie’s smile faltered, faded, and she began to vibrate uncontrollably. The bubble popped in response and she fell to the floor, rocking back and forth humming an indistinct tune to herself.

Twilight looked worried. “Is… she going to be alright? What’s even July 18th?”

“The date Pinkie Pie tried to foalsit three surging babies at once when you went out for that Starswirl lecture in Baltimare,” explained Rainbow simply. “It didn’t work out.”

“Where did they even find the carving knives…” the pink pony whispered to herself.

“I guess it worked, then…” said Twilight, turning towards the last mare in the bubble. “Fluttershy next, then.”

“Um. No need.” Fluttershy blinked, waving at the rest of the group.

“Wait, what? Fluttershy, you’re… you’re okay?”

“I don’t think so, but… did you all have a Nightmare Moon in your head screaming at you, too? It was just awful!”

“I had to mentally overpower her and turn her into a teenager, how did you—” Sputtered Twilight in disbelief.

“Oh, watching her bounce around in my head, it was a lot like Angel Bunny demanding extra carrots, or maybe an unruly squirrel. I didn’t actually mean to use the Stare on her, but–”

“Are you telling me you’ve been in control of yourself this WHOLE TIME?”

“Only for a couple of hours.”

The rest of the group just stared at her. She looked down meekly as Twilight’s bubble faded around her, slowly setting her down.

“Sorry. I just thought it would be impolite. Did you say you turned her into a teenager?”

A distant whinny sounded off from the mouth of a nearby street. A pack of ponies, patrolling for who knows what, had entered and witnessed all of them standing together chatting happily. Evidently possessed or not, they could figure out when something didn’t fit the cult’s designs. At the front of them stood an orange mare, steam rising out of her nostrils and a hat atop her head.

She broke into a gallop, charging towards them at a high speed.

Twilight’s horn lit up once more, ready to contain the last of her friends, but Rarity held up a hoof.

“Let me handle this dear, I see exactly the pattern you’ve got in mind and I have just the thing!”

She turned and trotted happily towards the oncoming locomotive of cult-fueled anger that was the possessed farmer.

“Ohhhhh, Applejack, darling! Remember when our sisters tried to get their cutie marks as alicorn foalsitters using your brand new shiny barn as the nursery?”

“Shoot, it’s that simple, then? Y’all just gotta think of Nightmare as Nyx?” Applejack had finally calmed down enough from her barn-annihilating-induced rage that she could finally respond to Twilight’s explanation with a profanity-laced tirade about certain fillies, certain barns, certain foals, and certain combinations of the three that must never be brought together again. The rest of her backup lay around them, dazed or safely contained.

“I don’t think it’s exactly that,” mused Twilight. “Whatever blessing the Children gave out seems to just make the target love Nightmare Moon. I’m not sure what fuels it, loves spells don’t work without a source of initial affection to help fuel the—”

“Darling, please, focus! I know magical theory is fascinating, but we need a plan of action, not a college lecture.”

“Spellwork can be really finicky. We’ve spent so much time telling ponies that Nyx is Nightmare Moon reborn and redeemed that it’s been flipped.”

“So… Nightmare Moon is… Nyx?” Rainbow Dash paced about, confused. “But then who is leading the cult? Where’d the copy come from?”

“She’s Nightmare Moon to us, that’s what matters.”

“Hey, I’ll take it. So what’s the plan?”

“We need to find all the ponies in town that know Nyx,” Twilight gathered the rest of the Bearers close. “Really know her. The Crusaders, Cheerilee, the Cakes, anypony you can think of that might have a connection to her.”

“But why?”

“Because if they’re still under the spell, it’ll give us the element of surprise.”

“Because…?”

Twilight grinned, her new turquoise eyes sparkling as much as their owner’s namesake.

“Because we’re going to need all the help we can get if we’re going to assault Canterlot.”

Author's Note

What did I say this was? Ten chapters and an epilogue? That's what it's coming out to, yeah.

Again, thanks to Toonwriter for the proofread.

Chapter 9: Mare in the Mirror

The Children of the Nightmare roamed the streets of Equestria’s capital city, and its citizens were none the wiser. Though there was not a Solar Guardspony in Canterlot that had not been blessed by Nightmare Moon, they continued as they had always continued: Patrolling the streets, taking reports, and of course, guarding the gates.

The southern gate and its singular southern gate guard were both, as far as both gates and guards went, unimpressive. Though it was one of the main thoroughfares into the city, it saw little traffic at night and, despite the overactive imagination of some foals, there had not been a plasmoid invasion in the entire 900 or so years that it had stood.

So, at night, a single posting was all it really needed. Someone to let in late travelers after the portcullises had come down, so to speak.

The singular southern gate guard shivered. The spell twisting around in his head had given him a new mistress and a new purpose. It hadn’t robbed him of his fear of the dark, or granted him with enough fortune to not replace the Lunar Guard that should have been out here in his stead.

But there weren’t many of those anymore. Something about a secret mission had been the reason or rumor behind their absence, at least according to his peers, and their unusual resistance to Nightmare Moon’s influence had made them ponies to be avoided, at least according to the orders of Spell Nexus.

So here he was, on the darkest and cloudiest night he’d seen in years, watching over nothing but nothing and—

And he swore he heard something move out there.

The gate guard paused, trying to make sense of the shadowy road beyond the bridge, then furrowed his brow in confusion. Fear of the dark aside, the queen’s blessing had naturally granted him the ability to at least see through it. So why couldn’t he—

He looked at the bright lantern next to him, which looked almost blinding to him. Oh, right. Putting it out would raise too much suspicion.

No helping it, then. Equestria may be awaiting a fresh change in leadership, but that didn’t mean it had a fresh change in night guard protocol.

“W-Who goes there?”

The darkness said nothing.

“By the grace of Ni- Princess Celestia, I order you to show yourself!” he shouted.

A pair of yellow eyes opened in the dark, followed by the familiar sound of hoofsteps as a pony came into the light.

“Evening, constable,” saluted the thestral before him. The guard blinked back, confusion mixing with recognition.

“Corporal Hemlock?” the guard raised an eyebrow. It looked to be a member of the Lunar Guard, but out of uniform. “I thought you and the rest of the tr— I thought you had moved out to Ponyville on a special assignment.”

“Oh, aye, aye. The wife, too,” nodded the other guard with the same casual attitude that could be conjured between mutual watchmen on a moment’s notice. “Just out here tonight for a party…”

“A… A party?” The guard looked at his former nightly counterpart with further confusion, trying to make sense of everything.

“Oh, haven't you heard? We’re having a rescue party.”

Behind Hemlock, a hundred glowing turquoise eyes opened, all of them blazing with fury.

“I’m the distraction.”

“You—” The gate guard suddenly felt a massive ringing in his head as something small and hard blasted out of the darkness, colliding with his helmet. Training taking over, he dove down, watching more of the strange bullets sail overhead.

Were those… gemstones? Did it matter? Her Majesty had to be warned!

“Traitors!” He shouted as hard as he could. “Traitors at the southern gate! Protect the queen! Protect Nightmare Moon!”

One final gem hit him square between the eyes, and he dropped.

A unicorn stepped out of the shadows, a few remaining gemstones orbiting around her, ready to be accelerated at a moment’s notice.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight! I have been working on my aim, but some of these ghastly guard helmets present such a problem.”

An alicorn landed in front of the guard, inspecting him.

“You did great, Rarity, the important thing is that he’s out cold.”

“Not fast enough, I’m afraid,” Rarity pointed up to the city beyond. Unfortunately, the unconscious guard had served his queen well. The sight of torches that served as rudimentary alarms and the sound of clamoring of bewitched guards graced the freed denizens of Ponyville.

“Aw, dang it!” Dash landed next to the other winged would-be rescuers. “There goes our option for a sneak attack. What now?”

The thestral beside her scratched his head. “The Solar Guard’s got about 400 members in Canterlot, give or take? We’ll have to assume each one of them’s been infected, or whatever we’re calling it.”

“What are your orders, princess?”

Twilight paused now. She had managed to remain calm on the way over, riding off the high of her own triumph over the spell in her head. But now it was starting to fade. This was her worst fear come to life. Nyx at the mercy of the cult, an entire city’s worth of guards against her. And what did she have? She looked towards the opening gates, at the sharp wings of the soldiers coming towards her, their eyes glowing as they dropped any pretense of Celestial loyalty.

The Elements of Harmony, her own magic, a few sore thestral guards…

And fifty of her friends.

She grinned. If Nightmare Moon wanted her daughter, she wouldn’t give her up without a fight.

The rest of the Children of the Nightmare? Well, they didn’t stand a chance.

“CHARGE!”

She shouted into the night.

Spell Nexus had been told to remain calm, to stay the course, to trust Nightmare Moon. This was getting increasingly difficult to do.

“Captain, must I be burdened with another report right now?” he eyed the golden-armored stallion that had trotted up to him, looking concerned.

“They’ve rushed through the outer canton, they’ve taken the southern wall and the western gate!”

“So fight back! Surely the famed Solar Guard can stand against a few angry farm ponies?!”

“One of them has a cannon.”

Nexus waved his hoof dismissively. “It’s a party cannon. At worst, you’ll be doused with something trite like bubblegum shampoo or-”

An explosion rocked the tower.

“No, sir, it is an actual cannon.”

Spell Nexus couldn’t feel a headache coming on. He was beyond headaches, beyond worry. He had found an island of stability in a sea of panic, and he was clinging to the lone palm tree of calm for dear life.

“Deal with it,” he hissed.

“Sir?”

“You’re a guard, are you not? Guard the castle.”

“But you—”

“I am not a guard. This is not my duty, and the ponies attacking our castle, the ponies that seek to destroy her majesty are not your friends. Do you understand?”

“I—”

“You have many, many orders that you could be following right now, so follow them.”

“Yes, sir!” the guard saluted, galloping away as he began to shout out hasty orders for a counterattack.

Another explosion came forth. How many cannonballs did that pink monstrosity even have? He rounded a corner, up another flight of stairs, then another, a brisk pace finally bringing him to the doors, through them, and into the ballroom.

The mirror sat there. Her mirror. It looked as calm as he wished he could be, and as he stepped closer and closer to it, he could feel his grip on the mental palm tree slipping. It wasn’t the Mistress in his head anymore, but his own fear, his own realizations.

An army wasbesieging Canterlot’s gates. An army was at the doorstep of his queen’s new sanctuary, on what should be her night of triumph. It was all coming apart, and it was all his fault. He deserved whatever wrath she’d bring.

“I’m sorry!” Nexus fell to his knees finally. “I’ve failed you again, mistress! I’ve tried, I’ve tried, but it’s been—”

To his surprise, Equestria’s true queen wasn’t angry. This entire night, she hadn’t been. Instead, Nightmare Moon emerged from the mirrored fog and shushed him, gently wrapping a hoof around his reflection.

“Did you not say that without the filly, our plans were useless?”

“I did, but—”

“And am I not confined to this castle, relatively speaking?”

“You are, but—”

The mare in the mirror smiled.

“This was the plan, Spell Nexus. My control over Twilight and her friends was always a risky element. But they were never meant to retrieve her. As you said yourself all those years ago, it’d be a fool’s errand to think they’d give her up.”

She motioned for the unicorn to come closer. In the mirror an image formed: A group of ponies, a tiny black filly among them, barreling along.

“But they could certainly terrify her. And Twilight’s dragon, in a panic and ever the wannabe protector, would send her to the one other place they thought she’d be safe. To Canterlot. To us. That Shining Armor would figure out a flaw in the blessing was a minor setback, and one that has been dealt with masterfully.”

“I don’t understand, Your Majesty. You’re pleased?”

“Truthfully? I am… disappointed. But in myself, mostly. You have been a faithful servant, one that I was… too slow to trust. Had I not kept you as a puppet, perhaps we would be in this situation sooner.”

“But that is just it. I don’t need you as a puppet, and I don’t need you as a servant. What I need now is myself.”

Smoke began to pour out of Nexus.

“All of myself. Every last piece of me.”

And as the smoke, Nightmare Moon’s own essence, went, so did everything else. Nightmare Moon’s blessing, Nightmare Moon’s love. That comforting shadow that kept the knowledge of his actions from weighing him down.

“Please! My queen, Your Majesty! I served you faithfully. You said it yourself! You can’t— You can’t—”

“I’ve only ever tried to do what was best for you!” he sobbed.

The corners of Nightmare Moon’s mouth twitched. Not an evil smile, not yet.

“I know, dearest Nexus. That is why I am letting you live.”

“Down!” yelled Shining Armor, as the group collectively ducked. Luna bowed her head, revealing the filly perched atop her back, horn glowing and face strained.

Nyx’s magic was immature, uncontrolled, and absurdly over the top. She was too young to aim any sort of blast and it’d be a danger trying to control it, but, as Spike pointed out, they were already surrounded.

And the good thing about being outnumbered and surrounded was that it made your foes a lot easier to hit.

A shotgun of arcane energy loosed forth from her horn, streaking over Luna’s head and barreling over the bewitched guards like a thaumic freight train. Those fast enough to get out of the way soon found themselves introduced to an oncoming rolling pin or frying pan, their helmets ringing and their bodies crumpling. With a few rushed apologies, the resistance stepped over the bodies, galloping along the halls.

“Hang left here!” Shining Armor pointed, around another pillar, up another flight of stairs.

“No guards ahead,” said the cook, confused. “They appear to have given up the chase.” There was a rumbling. Dust and bits of plaster fell around them as the castle shook violently. “Evidently, there are more pressing matters.”

“I still don’t understand, where is Celestia?” Spike looked around. The castle shook again. “What’s even going on?”

“Perhaps the good ponies of this city have learned what is transpiring and are fighting back. Perhaps my Lunar Guard is putting up a rousing fight!” Luna glared, glancing about as the sounds of battle echoed around us. “It does not matter. Canterlot is not safe at the moment.”

“I’m working on it!” cried Shining Armor. They had finally reached a large pair of double doors. There were a lot of them in the castle.

“What, are we hiding in another unused storage room?” Spike said, exhausted.

“What?” Warm Milk looked down at him “There’s a secret exit in this tower, it’s down in the basement and—”

“The basement we were climbing stairs to reach?”

Shining Armor paused, blinking as he began to retrace his steps.

“Are you SURE you two are completely free of her influence?” asked Spike. “What if this ‘blessing’ does more than just magic away someone’s feelings?”

“It’s a piece of her in my head, doing one simple thing. I told you, I already overcame that trick, the worst I’ll get is a migraine.” Shining Armor frowned.

“So it’s just barely affecting you,” Spike concluded.

The two bewitched stallions looked at each other. Why would the guards have stopped chasing them? Why would they take the stairs to go up? Shining Armor knew the castle like the back of his hoof, he KNEW he knew, and if he was going the wrong way, then—

They opened the door before them. There was no basement beyond it, but what looked like a dark abandoned ballroom.

And there was no other way out.

“Son of a bi—”

“Captain, there are children present.”

“Son of a nag. Sorry, ma’am.”

Spike looked around, panicking. “Okay, so Shining Armor’s judgment is compromised; he’s not evil but we can’t trust his directions. Maybe we do the opposite of what he says?”

“There is the entirety of the castle guard out behind that door, and only one staircase down. We’re trapped.”

Shining Armor paused, as if he was trying to listen to a voice only he could hear.

“This… I don’t think this was meant to be a way to trap us. The directions in my head, they don’t make any sense. Not… not in that way? I think the blessing wanted us to go here. For…”

“For something else?”

A groaning noise came from across the room. The ragtag rebellion jumped, Shining Armor’s horn alight. Maybe he couldn’t trust his mind completely, but he’d go down fighting against whatever was there. He inched closer, trying to make sense of what was in the darkness. It looked like a unicorn. Robbed, ragged, he was crouched in a fetal position and sobbing.

It was Spell Nexus.

“It’s your court advisor! The one who gave that melodramatic speech in the throne room!” gasped Shining Armor.

“Spell Nexus. He is Celestia’s headmaster,” Luna frowned. “But I was under the impression he was the leader of the Children of the Nightmare to begin with.”

“He looks hurt. Do you think whatever’s attacking the castle outside got to him first and he fled here?”

Startled by the noise, Spell Nexus turned over, staring at the party with a look of absolute terror on his face.

They weren’t the eyes of a cultist anymore.

“You shouldn’t have come, it—”

“Don’t fall for it,” said Spike. “They can hide their eyes! It’s a trick to make us let our guard down. He was Nightmare Moon’s #1 lackey, he’s faking it!”

Spell Nexus groaned again, clutching his head as tears streamed down his eyes.

“You don’t understand. You never understood. She took it all from me, she didn’t need me anymore. I’m just—”

“I’m n-not even bait. She already found a way to get you right where she needs you.”

The door slammed shut. Fog began to fill the room. Dark, thick, broiling with an unnatural life. Despite the clouds outside, the mirror began to glow.

“And now she’s here.”

Phantom laughter echoed across the ballroom. It bounced around, ethereal and almost triumphant, carrying a soft voice with it.

“Come here…”

The group looked around wildly, the fog obscuring things, darkness creeping in, separating them. Only the mirror at the center of the room was visible.

“Come to me…”

The fog swirled around Nyx, vague shapes motioning her forward, towards the end of the room, towards the mirror.

“Nyx… Come here to me. Come and see…”

She looked back for her friends, but for some reason, the mirror didn’t scare her. The voice, the room, everything felt weirdly… familiar.

She stepped forward, closer and closer to the mirror.

“Nyx, wait, that’s—” Spike cried out as he saw the outline of the filly against the silver, but the fog pushed him away again.

Finally reaching the mirror, she stepped up to it. Out of the fog, another pony came forward. She was tall, black-coated like Nyx, and with the same eyes. But where Nyx’s mane was a shade of purple, hers sparkled like the cold backdrop of space.

Startled, Nyx looked behind her, only to find nothing but darkness. She looked back at the mirror, reaching out to try and touch the mare behind her, feeling nothing.

Somehow, this strange pony only existed in the mirror.

“Don’t be afraid, little filly. I would never hurt you…” the reflection grinned at her.

“Who… Ae you the one making ponies bad?” Nyx frowned up at the alicorn before her. She seemed to be expecting something from the filly.

“Don’t you remember me, little one? Don’t you remember everything we did together? Everything that happened before Twilight Sparkle hurt you? Before she stripped you away?”

“Twilight…” Nyx was confused. “Momma? Momma would never hurt me. Momma loves me! Momma cuts the crusts off my sandwiches and reads to me, and—”

“Momma is the reason you’re stuck like that, child. Momma is stopping you from reaching your true potential.”

“My… true potential?” Nyx knew the word, but something didn’t feel right here. Why did the mare in the mirror look like her?

“You could be bigger, you could be stronger, you could be smarter.” The alicorn pointed to herself, eyes sparkling with self-pride. “And do you know how that would happen?”

Nyx shook her head.

“All it takes is a spell…” the reflection grinned.

“A… A spell?” Nyx couldn’t help but be interested. Momma had promised to teach her more spells, something beyond the chaotic shotgun blasts she could barely pull off, and those had been tiring her out. But this pony also said that Momma had hurt her, which made her suspicious.

“Indeed, a spell. A simple spell that will make us one. A spell that just needs you to agree to it.”

“But…” Nyx looked around confused. “I don’t want to be you.”

“You don’t want to be me? You want to be stuck as…” Nightmare Moon motioned to the filly’s body. “That? A mewling foal?”

“What’s wrong with being a foal?” Nyx pouted. “I bet you’re too old to trick-or-treat on Nightmare Night!”

“That’s your concern? Of all the things in the world, that’s your concern.”

“Too old! Old and mean!” Nyx stuck out her tongue.

“You’re not even potty-trained!”

“Am too! You don’t even know how old I am!” Nyx stuck out her tongue further. “Old, mean, and stupid!”

“You are denying who you are! You are denying what you could truly be!”

“I don’t know you!”

“I am you!” roared Nightmare Moon back at her. But the filly stood her ground.

“No, I’m not! You’re scary! You’re bad! You’re making ponies do bad things! I don’t want ponies to be bad, and I’m not bad! You’re just… You’re just a weird pony in a mirror!”

“You could be a queen!” Nightmare Moon said. “You could have the entire world at your beck and call, you could know everything there is to be known!”

Nyx paused.

“Yes, your infamous curiosity is well known to me, young filly.” She leaned down, her reflection level with the foal’s. “Imagine it. Nightmare Moon, queen of knowledge.”

But Nyx frowned again.

“I don’t want to be a queen. I don’t even want to be princess!”

“It’s your destiny!”

“I don’t know what that means! If knowing a bunch of things makes me mean like you, I don’t even want that!”

“You can—”

“Stop being mean! I don’t want to be a queen! I want to go home! I want momma to stop being scary! I want momma!”

“You will not—”

“I want my momma!” screamed Nyx again, finally fed up and slamming her hoofs against the mirror. “Give me momma back! Give her back!” Another slam, the room shaking as her wings flared and horn glowed, the darkness around them seeming to pull back.

“I! Want! To! Go! Home! To! Momma!”

She sat back down, glaring at the alicorn that glared back in reflection. Spike rushed forward, fighting through the fog that had seemingly relaxed, pulling his baby sister back. Nyx still hadn’t taken her eyes off Nightmare Moon.

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” he declared.

Finally, the reflected alicorn sighed.

“You know, I should have expected this. Let it be known that I wanted to give you a chance, and wanted to give the rest of you mercy.”

“But I have waited far too long to be denied my destiny. Equestria is my kingdom, Equestria’s throne is MY throne, and if I need to, I will take the body I need to sit in it!”

The reflection’s wings flared, lightning crackling in the background of whatever mirror world it was trapped in. The room began to shake, the mirror began to glow, and the fog began to shift, taking different shapes. Sharper shapes, monstrous shapes.

“Remember this, my little ponies. You chose this.”

And all at once, the fog attacked.

In the center of a ballroom, a group of ponies battled a nightmare. Shadowy manticores, serpents, and spiky alicorns made of fog descended upon the group, who met it with magic, bucking legs, claws, and kitchen implements.

With each roiling cloud monster that was kicked away, another took its place. True to her word, Nightmare Moon’s foggy self was barely physical, but it was physical all the same. Spells shoved them this way and that, threatening to rip Nyx from the grip of safety. Monster and magic traded blows, darkness fading the room in and out as illusions and constructs alike swirled over the ballroom floor.

Bit by bit, the resistance was losing ground and losing steam. Luna whirled about, trying to find any advantage. With each blast of light from Shining Armor’s horn or the sparking clang as Warm Milk’s frying pan made contact with a barely-there beast, she noticed them edging further and further away from the balcony. It was almost as if Nightmare Moon was herding the group, moving them away, driving them back from—

“The mirror!” Luna screamed, realizing the spectral alicorn’s strategy. “Hit the mirror!”

Whirling, Shining Armor’s horn lit with the last bits of effort he could muster, a blast of pink magic lancing through the air, cutting through shadowy tentacles and formless monsters alike, speeding towards the glowing mirror.

And it bounced right off of a golden shield of magic that flew up around it. There was a flurry of wings, as a white alicorn landed in front of it.

Nyx let out a cry of joy, rushing up to her auntie before shying back. They were saved! They were—

“Nyx!”

Spike grabbed her, pulling her back.

“Lemme go, it’s—”

“It’s not her, Nyx!”

Luna looked on in horror, Shining Armor and Warm Milk too, having figured it out. When it finally dawned on Nyx, her expression, and with it, her hope, broke.

And Nightmare Moon laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed and it wasn’t her mouth that the laughter came out of.

They thought that Twilight had been a thrall? Twilight had never been her puppet. Blessed with a copy of herself and twisted to her purposes a bit more than usual, yes. But she was only ever a pawn. A pawn far too distant to be controlled.

It was always a matter of distances, she realized. So long as they were close enough, Nightmare Moon could take a queen.

Whimpering, Nyx looked up in horror at Celestia.

The princess’ turquoise eyes glared back at her.

Author's Note

One more chapter and an epilogue to go, strap in buckaroos.

Thanks to Toonwriter for the proofread.

Chapter 10: You Are Nightmare Moon

Nightmare Moon laughed. It was the cruel laughter of someone who knew the final piece had been played. She had grown sick of Spell Nexus’ idiotic game metaphors, but this? This was one move away from checkmate. This was the last marble down the plastic rail before the cage fell onto the plastic mice.

She had taken Celestia.

It hadn’t been easy. It still wasn’t easy, and she had had to pull back some of the greater hold she had on some of her cultists, but it had worked. She could control Celestia, make her do what she wanted. She could push her hard enough to make her throw herself on a sharp flagpole if she wanted.

But why waste an alicorn on such petty things?

Ohhh, she should have done this from the start. It made it all so easy. Of course, she couldn’t keep her new toy forever. With her body restored, her enthrallment magic would cease. It was, after all, little more than her placing her incorporeal self inside another. All that would be erased, and her more direct thralls would regain their sense of self once she was complete.

Still, she couldn’t let Celestia run free. What to do, oh, what to do?

She smiled. Of course.

Looming over Nyx and Spike, she crouched down, a sinister whisper on her lips.

“Look upon your princess of the sun one last time, children. For she’s about to become my servant of eternal night.”

It would be the final move in a game she had been playing for far too long.

Dear Celestia. Dear incompetent, egotistical, sniveling, wretchedly PERFECT Celestia, reduced to her champion.

No, she’d like that, wouldn’t she? Equestria didn’t need more alicorns, she’d turn her into her personal maid. All that ego and self-confidence fueling what would be her most loyal castle steward who’d work the most menial, most degrading jobs she could think of. She’d do it all willingly.

But right now, the princess before her thrashed against her magic. That was the problem with trying to hold onto an alicorn for too long the old fashioned way. Celestia would follow an order to hold everyone in place, but if she wasn’t told NOT to fight back against her control, she’d do so.

“Hold still!” She shouted, scolding the mare like an unruly filly. Celestia froze up. Nightmare Moon didn’t need to shout the order, but it did well to establish to everyone else present just who was in charge now.

Perfect.

She’d turn Celestia, and when that lavender little worrywart got close enough, she’d take her back, too, and then break the fake filly version of herself with them as her tools. She’d pour her soul back into the useless body that should have been hers, and from there, she’d rule the night forever. Like she should have done from the start.

It was all too perfect.

Smiling, she extended her magic. The shadow spewed from her being and reached out for Celestia’s love, her image, that sense of self confidence that drove her ego like a locomotive. The switch she needed to flip to win. To be complete. All that love, all of it. Serving her. Forever.

She found nothing.

“WHAT?”

The room shook. The mirror shuddered.

“WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS YOUR EGO, CELESTIA?”

“My… My ego?” Celestia said. She sounded dazed, as if the question had woken her up from a dream.

“YOUR LOVE. THE LOVE YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF. WHERE IS IT?! AFTER EVERYTHING YOU DID TO ME, IT’S MINE. IT SHOULD BE MINE. IT’S MINE TO TAKE! YOU’RE MINE TO TWIST HOW I WANT!”

Celestia just stared at her, confused. Nightmare Moon took a deep breath. She would not be bested by this… She wouldn’t lose to her. Not again. Never again.

“Fine!” she screamed. “If you won’t be a queen’s slave, you’ll face a queen’s justice!”

Swirling darkness surrounded Celestia, as if an invisible hand had picked her up like she was little more than a doll, and tossed her down onto the floor. She made no attempt to even fight back. Not that she could.

“Plead guilty.” Nightmare Moon said, holding up Celestia’s head before letting it fall back down. “Plead guilty, and I won’t slit your throat. I’ll let you live. I’ll throw you into the sun for a thousand years, but I’ll let you live. I’ll let you come back out and see the kingdom I’ll have built, where they’ve all forgotten you as nothing more than what you really are. Go on.”

Celestia looked confused.

“You… want me to confess my crimes?”

“Show them! Show them what you’ve done. Show everyone here!” screamed Nightmare Moon. She paced across the room, looking at each of them. Shining Armor and the cook, glaring at her. Nyx, her face buried in Spike’s chest as he tried to comfort her.

Luna, staring at her. One of those intense, hard stares that she was so good at. Why did she know that Luna could do that?

No. Who cared? Who cared what Luna thought? Who cared what anyone thought. Celestia had hurt Luna, not her. Why did it matter? Why was she even doing this? Take her, kill her, take the child. Be complete! Why did she need to hear her sister admit it? Why did she hurt so bad now, when she was SO close?

But she needed her to say it. She needed Celestia to lose. It didn’t matter why.

“My crimes. The heinous things I’ve done,” Celestia coughed, head down. “I can show them, do you want me to do that?”

“You don’t get a choice, Your Highness. My puppet, my thrall! That means my orders.” She slammed Celestia to the ground again and repeated herself: “Admit it. Tell everyone what you are! Show them, do a magic song-and-dance about it. I don’t care! Let your loyal subjects know the Celestia that I know!”

Celestia nodded. Thrall or not, Nightmare Moon was right. They deserved to know the real Celestia.

She got to her feet, but continued to look down. Her horn glowed and the fog in the room shifted, shaped by her magic. Half-formed images faded and swirled, sparkling as they came into focus.

“My crimes. I was willing to tear a foal away from her mother’s side, to make her face consequences she didn’t deserve, all for the crime of being born. And then I took her and turned her into a pawn against my enemies. I took what was a happy family and seasoned their lives with fear.”

Nightmare Moon paused. This… What was this?

The fog formed into a real concrete image. Nyx, just old enough to be afraid of strangers on the street and not knowing why. Twilight, looking over her shoulder, jumping at shadows born from nightmares that Luna still couldn’t stop coming. There were too many.

Celestia kept her face hidden, turned behind a wing and refused to look at anyone, particularly Nightmare Moon.

“I didn’t—” Nightmare Moon sputtered.

“I threw caution to the wind in search of answers, and in the process, let my friend, my student, my charge… become tainted by an anger not his own. I led a thousand ponies into the arms of hatred and paranoia.”

Spell Nexus, on the floor of his study. His body twisting in defiance, then spasming in agony, then finally huddled up weeping his princess’ name as a mass of darkness took his confidence, his adoration, his love, and shattered it like glass.

“You’re stalling! Admit it! Admit what you did!”

Celestia still wouldn’t look at her, but she dropped her wing and stared at the fog of her memories.

“My sister. My little sister. My baby sister, my better half, came to me in tears. All she wanted was the same thing everypony else wanted. The simplest thing I could give her. And I turned her away. I let her fall into herself, I let her become what she is not and even then, even then! Even then I failed her. I failed her and because of my failure she ended up gone. Banished, for a thousand years, because of me.”

More memories formed. Luna and Celestia, locked in combat. A final spell being cast, a sister torn away, Celestia’s rage and blazing fury giving way to cold horror.

“It wasn’t about YOU!” Nightmare Moon yelled, kicking at what fog she could, trying to stop the memories from coming.

“It wasn’t your failure! You wanted this! You WANTED me out of the way! You did this! You did this and you won’t even look at me!” Nightmare Moon was panicking now, thrashing against the images. She was clawing her way through the fog of memories towards Celestia, trying to get her to stop.

“I let her rot for a thousand years. A thousand years. So much of her life, I stole from her. I could have freed her, I could have let her out at any time, but then what? Undoing her banishment was easy, but saving her, restoring her from the nightmare I had created? That was beyond my ability.”

“YOU LIE. YOU LIE AND YOU LIE AND YOU LIE! YOU COULD HAVE SAVED ME.”

Nightmare Moon wings flared, spit flying as she finally reached Celestia. She was upon her now screaming with unrestrained fury, trying to force Celestia to look at her. Any composure had drained away. This was the Nightmare Moon Celestia knew. All that anger, all that uncompromising pain. A blast of magic knocked her to the floor, and she could feel as if it was Nightmare Moon’s hooves on her. Hitting her, twisting her this way and that with magic. Anything to get her to face her former captor.

“YOU KNEW WHERE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY WERE. YOU KNEW AND YOU ALWAYS KNEW AND YOU COULD HAVE USED THEM! YOU COULD HAVE USED THEM AND YOU DIDN’T!”

Celestia laughed a bitter laugh through the pain.

“I haven’t been able to use the Elements in a thousand years. How could I?”

Memories swirled and coalesced: A ragged Celestia free of adornments and covered in dirt sitting alone in a ruined castle, six stones laying before her. Her voice hoarse from screaming, her arms bruised and hooves bloody as she slammed combination after combination of orb against one another against the floor, against herself. Trying to get them to work as they once had. Crying, screaming, pleading, begging for her baby sister back.

“What kindness could I claim to have? After a thousand years of lying to myself, what honesty remained? The pony who needed me most came to me in her darkest hour and I turned her away, I threw her away. After what I did, how could I call myself loyal? How could I call myself generous?”

She finally looked up at Nightmare Moon. She was crying. She was weeping, and her tears flowed more freely than they had in a thousand years.

“What joy do I have to give to others, when I committed the greatest crime of all? One so heinous it took millenia for it to even be given a name?”

“I broke a Pinkie Promise to my little sister.”

“WHAT PROMISE? WHAT ARE YOU-”

Celestia simply hung her head back down. She couldn’t face it.

“SHOW ME. I DEMAND IT! I ORDER YOU! YOU ARE MINE, YOU HAVE TO OBEY ME. SHOW ME WHAT YOU PROMISED!”

The memory didn’t swirl, there was no spark or glow. It was old. Older than the castle, older than the mountains around them, so old that if it hadn’t been so important, so basic to Celestia’s entire being that it would have faded like gossamer wings in sunlight.

It showed a home. It may have been a palace, it may have been simply a cabin. Celestia didn’t remember.

What she did remember was a crib, a tiny dark-coated foal sleeping gently within it.

Her mane shimmered with stars.

And she remembered the other alicorn, gently watching over the both of them. The alicorn’s face was indistinct, but even now Celestia could remember the white of her coat and the red of her mane. Neither were vibrant, but they were burned into the memory all the same.

It was all she could remember of her...

Nightmare Moon gasped. She hadn’t thought of this, hadn’t realized it, and the weight of it was as fresh a pain as any that had formed her.

Celestia had forgotten their mother’s face. They both had.

“She is of the night, dearest daughter,” said a voice. It was gentle, knowing, and old. For all the gravitas Celestia’s mind ascribed to it though, it simply seemed like the voice of a mother.

“Just as you will move the sun and command the light and the flame, so too will she command the shadow, the darkness. The moon will be hers. The stars will be hers. My dearest Luna.”

The Celestia in the memory peeked over the edge of the crib. She was so young, so unsure. No cutie mark adorned her flank, she had to be around the same age as the Crusaders.

Why did Nightmare Moon remember them?

Their mother’s voice floated back through the memory.

“So many fear the night, Celestia. They fear the darkness of the trees and the howls of timberwolves. They fear sleep they will never wake from and nightmares that they can never overcome. And this fear will hang over her. It will threaten her, and that is why you have to promise me. Promise her.”

“PROMISE HER WHAT?” Nightmare Moon screamed. Her grip on Celestia lessened from the outburst, and she didn’t notice Luna struggling free of her invisible grasp, slowly inching towards the mirror.

In the memory, their mother drew back something, a curtain? A curtain on a large window? Celestia, both present and past, gasped.

It was the night sky. Stars filled every corner of it, the galaxy’s belt streaking across it as an unstained crescent moon watched over all of it.

Had it always been this beautiful? They had to have lived in a palace, where else would one even see such a vista in such ancient times?

“Protect her, Celestia,” their mother continued, gently. “Let your baby sister know that she is as beautiful as her namesake. Let her know she is loved, that she is worthy. Help her to sparkle in the night as much as you shine in the day.”

“Promise me.”

The memory faded, and ones replaced it. Maybe not even full memories, simply slides. Pictures of pain, etched on an ancient and tired mind.

Fire.

Falling.

Loss.

Luna, barely older and looking so much like Nyx as she screamed for her mother, Celestia holding her back from an inferno that defied color and dyed the sky mandelbrot.

Cold forests.

The light of a magician’s caravan, the gentle comfort of an aging unicorn.

Their marks, blazing on their flanks as the sun and the moon streaked across the sky in an impossible dance. How had she forgotten that both of them had received it at the same time?
How?

A castle.

A country.

Luna, now the epitome of gangly teenage awkwardness. Her mounting frustration as she struggled to focus her power into simple spells. Were this the present, she would have been the favorite target of a high school bully.

And Celestia, a few years older than her. Beautiful, stately, perfect. Magic flowing and dancing to her every whim, her sneering face looking down at her little sister.

Were this the present, she would have been that high school bully.

And ponies bowed to Celestia first. Luna, young Luna, merely the lesser student.

Jealousy, anger. Betrayal, hurt. The first seeds.

The first of Nightmare Moon.

The slides faded and the memories ended, leaving only Celestia. She looked so old, so small, so sad.

So what?

“You cannot claim the love I have for myself.” Concluded Celestia. “There isn’t any.”

Nightmare Moon simmered, her thoughts twisting and colliding, as if her anger was the only thing she had left. She snarled.

“YOU ADMIT IT. YOU KNEW. YOU KNEW. ALL ALONG YOU KNEW.”

But then, her rage faded. Just a bit. Just enough. She asked the question, the one that burned in… her mind? When was it a question she wanted to ask? She swallowed, and her voice came out timid. Where once anger inflamed, now it smothered. Not the queen’s justice. But the queen’s greatest fear.

“If Twilight Sparkle had never come along… would you ever even have tried to save me?”

Celestia sat up. She was tired, after so long. So tired. She wanted to sleep, she wanted to just stop it all, to get it over with.

But more than anything, she understood. Nightmare Moon hadn’t noticed Luna moving closer to her. Or the way their movements seemed to be so similar. As if they were synchronized.

Nyx. Nightmare Moon. Luna. So similar. All so familiar.

Celestia finally knew what she had to say.

“A thousand years. A thousand years I spent trying to think of what to say to you. I wrote grand speeches, poems, even novels. I spent a thousand years looking for the words that I thought would cure you, would fix you.”

She stood up.

“Twilight was an opportunity. The Elements found their wielders, and Luna was returned to me. It was nothing but brute force, but I didn’t care. I had my sister back, didn’t I? But she was still so angry, so untrusting. I was too. I didn’t understand, I couldn’t. Not until her.”

She turned to Nyx. Tiny little Nyx, shivering in fear in Spike’s arms even now.

She looked so much like Luna all those years ago, in the cold forest.

“A filly. A princess. A daughter. A sister. She needs so much guidance, and she’s scared, and there’s a lot of things she’ll need. But she’s too young to understand that, and she won’t like what she’ll need.”

Celestia stepped towards Nightmare Moon, who shied back.

“Stop it.” Said Nightmare Moon, fear in her voice. Her and Luna were side by side now. Identical in motion, in figure. Beside them, the mirror began to hum and shake.

“But all those things don’t matter right now. They’ll never be as important as the thing she really needs. The same thing I should have given to you, hundreds of years ago. The thing I should have said to you from the very start. I never thought it would be so simple.”

“STOP IT!”

Celestia looked at Nightmare Moon. Truly looked at her. Her gaze was piercing, knowing.

Nightmare Moon was anger, hatred, jealousy, envy. Fear. A thousand years of negative emotions.

And whose emotions were those?

Celestia smiled. It was warm as the sun, as gentle as the dawn.

“You are Nightmare Moon, Luna.”

“And you are loved.”

With both wings outstretched, she pulled her sister in for a hug. All of her sister. Every last piece of her.

“And I am so, so sorry.”

The mirror exploded. A sound, the kind of unsound that only could happen when a sound was so sound-y that it consumed all other sound lanced through the sky accompanied by a shimmering pillar that was the color of the very background of the universe itself, a million stars twinkling inside it. It exploded, clearing the clouds outside and leaving behind a brilliant tapestry of the night sky.

As the pillar faded, it left a pair of sisters gently suspended in the air. They held each other, tears swirling in cosmic antigravity, laughter mingling with sobs that wracked both of their bodies so much it hurt.

Gone was Nightmare Moon. Gone was the Luna that had been. She stood tall as her sister, as regal as her sister, her mane shimmering with the same galaxies and stars Celestia had witnessed all those centuries ago.

Her sister was finally back.

“I was so mad.” Luna choked out. “Mad and angry and just always hurt. For so long, Tia. For so long. But I have to let it go, because I want you back, too. I don’t care if it’s a hundred thousand years from now. I want the sister that read to me and answered every question I had and told me I could do anything back. My oldest friend.”

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness, little sister.”

“Too bad, you’re getting it anyway.”

Tears faded to giggles, flight faded to a gentle landing. Both sisters look over the audience of their reconciliation. Shining Armor and Spell Nexus sat dumbfounded, Spike still looked unsure, and Nyx was just shaking in terror. Looking out over castle grounds outside the ballroom, there looked to be a whole lot of unconscious ponies and a whole lot more ponies with torches rushing up the tower.

Luna spoke up happily, of all things.

“We’ve made a right mess of things, haven’t we, sister?”

“Indeed we have. Cosmic princesses or not, I would say this might take a bit more hoof work than usual.”

“All too right, perhaps we should start with—”

“I WANT MY MOMMA!”

A pair of royal heads turned back towards the room, eyes resting on the black filly that had pushed away her brother and was now openly wailing. Celestia smiled.

“Perhaps we should start fixing the small problems first, dearest little sister?”

“I was about to suggest the same thing, dearest older sister.”

Author's Note

And there we go! Did I just trick you into reading a Luna and Celestia reconciliation fic? Yes.

Was this the first part of this fic that I wrote in a motel in Jackson, Ohio after a thing of really bad (like quality wise, not health wise) food? Also yes.

All that's left is the epilogue. Thanks again to Toonwriter for the proofread.

Epilogue: Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns

Love, reflected Twilight, was a funny thing. She knew it had objective power, she’d seen an army blasted from Canterlot because of it and her soul nearly consumed when it was twisted. The things love could do and the things love could make a pony do weren’t surprising.

When she had gathered up a small army from Ponyville and assaulted a castle in the name of saving her family, she hadn’t been surprised. Leading armies to rescue princesses was a scenario she had often considered, given her life. She’d have been surprised if a year went by in her life that didn’t end in some sort of climactic battle. She once dueled a giant plant, for Celestia’s sake.

When she had bodyslammed one of Nightmare Moon’s loyalists against a pillar several times she hadn’t been surprised either. She had read stories about adrenaline doing strange things to a pony. Mothers lifting overturned carts, pegasi slinging tornadoes out of the way of their families. She hoped she never had to buck a manticore in the face to save Nyx or Spike, but she would. Celestia help her, she’d pound it into dust if need be.

What had surprised her is when Fluttershy had taken one of the Nightmare guards up into a chokehold before screaming in his face about what exactly would happen to him if he didn’t tell them where Nyx and Spell Nexus were RIGHT NOW. Even Rainbow Dash admitted that she didn’t even know Fluttershy knew some of those words.

“Oh, I’m sorry Twilight, really! Just the thought of something like… something like that happening to such a sweet little foal, it just makes me… so… SO mad. I didn’t know he would start crying like that.”

“He wet himself, Fluttershy.”

“I did apologize,” only the yellow pegasus could look ashamed in the middle of a battlefield.

“Why did they even make this stupid castle so HUGE?!” shouted Dash, ducking as another pegasus guard came flying. “Two princesses live here, two! We’re never gonna find Nyx at this rate.”

Fate, happy to show off its sense of dramatic timing, immediately responded with an enormous shockwave. A beam of pure night exploded out of a nearby tower, clearing the sky around it and leaving behind a tapestry of space. The guards and cultists around them fell to their hooves, haunches, and out of the sky as if knocked out by some invisible force.

Twilight’s jaw dropped. Old memories of a little filly and a lot of magical surges came flooding back. But if Nyx had let off a blast of magic that strong, then…

No.

No.

“I know where she is!” the alicorn cried.

“We’re right behind you, sugarcube, lead the way,” her friends quickly grouped around her, ready to charge through any remaining guards.

“There’s no—” she tried to remain calm. “There’s no time, hold on.” She tried to visualize that part of the castle, though it had been ages since she had explored it, focusing on teleporting the entire group at once.

But instead of the room she had hoped to find herself in, with a pop of displacement, she fell with the other five bearers outside of it, a pair of double doors blocking her way. There was magic behind that door, more magic than she had felt in ages. It was blocking her teleportation, it was resisting her telekinesis.

“Nyx!” she cried out. “I’m here! Momma’s here!”

The door didn’t budge. Evidently, it didn’t care.

“Come on!” she shouted to her friends as she began to buck the door, leaning as much strength as she could into it.

Celestia be damned, she could feel Nyx on the other side of it. She wouldn’t fail her little girl, she promised.

Another buck, all six of them putting their weight against the door.

She promised. She promised! She wouldn’t be too late.

“I WANT MY MOMMA!”

The cry of a filly fueling her to that adrenaline-fueled state she had heard, she reared for the final buck, the doors glowed gold and violet as they swung open, and all six element bearers tumbled into the ballroom.

Twilight looked up, fearing the worst, ready to see…

What was left of an enormous mirror, a few shards still hanging on its frame. Shining Armor was helping an older stallion to his feet.

The princesses, she thought. Was that Luna? Was Luna always so tall? They were hugging each other, looking out across the room with a mixture of pride and bemusement. Behind them, the night sky shone in a way she had never seen before.

And in the center of the ballroom sat a small dragon and a small alicorn. Both scared, both confused.

But both were okay.

With a shout, Twilight ran to her children. Embracing them, hugging them, covering both of them in kisses no matter how much Spike protested.

The rest of the crowd poured in, regarding the family reunion with relief or the princesses with awe. It lasted until one voice spoke up.

“Dude, seriously, AGAIN?”

“Seriously, am I the only one who notices that EVERY time we end up in Canterlot, we’re the ones that DON’T end up saving the day?” Rainbow Dash said again, a few hours later.

“Hold yer horses, that can’t be right. What about—” Applejack started.

“Dude, no. Changeling invasion? Shining Armor and Cadence. Nightmare Moon cult? Celestia, I guess. The giant rubber ducky—”

“Nonsense, darling, we helped an entire castle turret fall on that one!” Rarity insisted.

“Yeah, that was taken apart by Lyra Heartstrings! Lyra! She doesn’t even live here anymore! We were bait!”

“Um… the Grand Galloping Gala?” Fluttershy suggested.

“Fluttershy, we blew that up.”

“Oh… oh, right.”

Twilight just rolled her eyes as her friends continued to argue. Robbed of the thrill of a climatic magical battle against a resurrected Nightmare Moon and robbed of the further thrill of the glorious rescue of a filly princess, most of Ponyville’s improvised militia had settled across the ballroom. Pinkie may have traded in most of her party supplies for what she called “hardcore battle materials” but one look at a safe Nyx and a clearly restored Princess Luna had been enough to convince her to break into her stash of true emergency party supplies.

It had taken both princesses, Spike, Shining Armor, and some sort of twitchy-looking chef stallion’s combined effort to convince her to downgrade the victory extravaganza into a mere triumphant shindig.

Twilight was thankful, seeing as it was quiet enough to let Nyx crawl into the safety of her mother’s wings and fall fast asleep. She had tried her best to regale her mother with the tale of their escape and the confrontation with Nightmare Moon, but a sobbing five-year-old didn’t make for the best narrator, and after falling asleep she had managed to pry a more concrete version out of her brother and son.

Celestia was off in a corner, speaking gently with Spell Nexus. At her own insistence, both had been given a measure of privacy. Twilight wasn’t quite sure, or even sure she wanted to know what was being said. The old unicorn that the princess now comforted was a far cry from the haughty headmaster she had caught glimpses of in court. He looked haunted.

“There you are!” a familiar voice cried out.

Twilight turned around, just in time to dodge an attempted hug from her parents. She lowered one of her wings, pointing to the gently snoozing and finally safe Nyx, and pressed one of her feathers to her lips. Both of them beamed and nodded in understanding.

“Mom? Dad? When did you two get here? I thought most of the ponies here were—”

“The rioting mob you brought from Ponyville.”

“Yeah, that.”

“Dear, you marched up to the gates of Canterlot and all through the streets screaming that Nightmare Moon was going to kill Nyx. I saw one of your friends fling someone into an apple cart.”

“Rarity said she’d been practicing her self-defense techniques.”

“All the same, you didn’t think we’d just sit idly by and let our favorite granddaughter go through that, would you?”

“We were at the back of the crowd,” smiled Night Light. “But I’d say we did our fair share of contributing against that cult once and for all, eh?”

“Your father managed to throw a rock at one of those cat-eyed guards.”

“I managed to wing him just a bit.”

“Your father is very proud of that. Though he HAS apologized.”

“I have,” Night Light leaned in, grinning. “But just between us, if it meant saving you kids, I’d do it again.”

Twilight couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. Her parents waved over one of the servers, taking a few hors d'oeuvres. Late or not, Warm Milk ran the kitchens well.

“Now from what Shiny tells, both you AND him managed to overcome Nightmare Moon’s—” Velvet shivered “Well her ‘blessing’. I thought I understood it, and it made sense that he’d overcome it… but I would have thought she’d have kept you on a much tighter leash, given, you know—” Velvet gestured to her daughter’s wings.

“You don’t think a little bit of Nyx rubbed off on her, did you?”

Twilight giggled. “I’m still not completely sure. Nightmare Moon in the end was a lot more Luna than anyone was willing to admit I think. But Luna and Nyx are pretty similar, understandably.”

“The heralds are going to be tearing their manes out trying to figure out this entire family tree by the end you know,” her father said, chewing on a cream cheese puff.

“Maybe. But I don’t think the Nightmare Moon in my head was exactly real, or even an extension of her. It was more like a copied mental construct. A recording egging me on, trying to make me obey her.”

“So I just thought about it logically. Nightmare Moon’s just a personification of a lot of angst. Angsty black-coated pony throwing a tantrum? That’s just a teenager. I’ve been reading a lot about problem visualization and disciplining a teenage Nyx? Ha! No problem. I managed to send the projection in my mind into her room with a good well-placed lecture,” Twilight beamed.

“That’s… impressively creative.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it, Mom. I was actually surprised at how easy it was, barely an inconvenience,” she looked at her hoof confidently. “Yeah, when Nyx finally gets to magic high school, I think I’ll have it all under control.”

“Oh, Twilight, dear…”

“Yes?”

“Saying this as your mother: When it comes to teenage daughters, you will not have it under control.”

“But—”

“Nope.”

“But I—”

“You won’t.”

“Dad?”

“Honey, you’ve grown into a fine responsible mare and an amazing mother. You will absolutely not have it under control.”

Twilight’s eye twitched a bit. Another passing waiter, a bit more observant than the rest, leaned forward.

“Zebra tea, your highness?”

Expressionless, she took a cup.

“Keep it coming, ponyboy.”

Luna surveyed the ballroom with a sense of pride. It was rare that she felt the need to attend a party, or even felt the desire to attend one. Give her a nice book and as much space away from a gala or ball, and she’d be happy.

But this time? This little shindig that Pinkie Pie had thrown together felt right. It felt good. Everything felt like that now, the weight of a thousand years having somehow lifted itself off her shoulders. She was herself again. She felt like herself again.

Her eyes landed on Celestia, off in a corner talking to the schoolteacher. Cherilee, was it? It looked like they were exchanging teacher tips. Not the usual social nonsense that came with speaking with nobility, but just talking to someone like a friend. Celestia looked as happy as she did exhausted.

Catching her eye, Celestia raised a glass to her sister and waved. Luna grinned back. Stars, it felt so good to be able to smile at her sister like that.

She felt a sudden tug on her leg and looked down. Nyx had evidently stirred in her sleep and made her way out of Twilight’s winged sanctuary and over to her.

“Auntie?” the filly said, looking up at her.

“Yes, dear?”

“Why do you look different?”

“I…” she paused, fumbling for a reduced explanation. “I found a lot of magic that used to belong to me.”

“Was it the magic in the guards? The magic that made momma scary?”

“Yes, it’s all gone now.”

“Will it make you scary?”

Luna raised an eyebrow at her. “Do I look scary?”

Nyx shook her head, nuzzling the older alicorn’s foreleg. “Nuh-uh. You look like the stars. I like that.”

“I do, too,” Luna grinned.

“Auntie?”

“Yes, dear?”

“In the memories that Auntie Tia was showing, there was another pony. When you were young.”

“There was, yes.”

“Was that your momma?”

“...Yes, dear, it was.”

“Oh.”

The little filly shuffled nervously. Her eyes were downcast.

“Auntie?” she said once again.

“Yes, dear?”

“Is… your momma dead?”

Luna smiled.

“She is, dear. She died a very long time ago.”

“Oh,” Nyx reached out and hugged her leg. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, dear.”

They sat there in silence before Nyx tugged on her leg again. It was to be expected, Nyx never had just one question, and it had been quite a night.

“Auntie?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Are you okay?”

“I am better, dear. Much better than I have been in a very long time, as is Auntie Tia.”

“And the bad pony is gone?”

“She-” Luna paused. Nyx was a smart girl, but how would she even explain what had happened? That she had taken back all that pain and hatred that had been Nightmare Moon and simply… let it go?

How did one explain to such a happy little filly how wonderful it felt to accept so much fury back into herself?

“She’s not a bad pony,” Luna answered finally. “Not anymore.”

“Oh,” Nyx paused. “That’s good. I hope she’s happy.”

“She is very much indeed,” smiled Luna.

Near the edge of Ponyville, there is a tree. It’s also a castle, but mostly, for one small family, it’s a home.

Within the home, there were pictures and more. A rampaging centaur had almost incinerated a few of them when he had blown up the old library, but luck and fate made such memories hard to destroy. A few burned edges hadn’t stopped them from adorning the cozier parts of the castle.

A picture of another baby alicorn, looking similarly grumpy in a Hearth’s Warming Sweater as her cousin held her and tried to avoid being hit by her enormous wings. Twilight had said that she wished she had some of the limiter spells Sunburst had come up with when Nyx was a foal.

A photo of another birthday party, this time a panorama filled with ponies. Friends, family, earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and a few happy-looking thestrals. A town’s worth of ponies that had spent a decade accepting and loving a little foal born of a ritual.

A picture of a sunrise, two towering Princesses looking out over a mountain range as they sat together, sipping tea. The blur of a little black hoof in the corner indicated that this had been a certain filly’s foray into photography, with good results.

And one final little thing. It wasn’t a photo, and it hung on the fridge rather than the wall, but for the castle’s youngest resident, it was the most important thing in that home.

It was a short letter, one page long and sandwiched between two magnets. At the top of the letter sat a title:

PRINCESS CELESTIA’S SCHOOL FOR GIFTED UNICORNS

And at the bottom of the letter sat a single, very important word.

ACCEPTED.

Five more years, five years of peace. Five years of love, five years of a filly discovering herself without a shadow hanging over her. Five years that were ending today with a mother who wasn’t quite sure if she was quite ready to let her precious filly go.

“And remember, I’m just a teleport spell away, and Auntie Tia and Auntie Luna are easy to reach too. Oh, and Grandpa and Grandma are downtown if you need them, and-”

“I know,” the alicorn filly rolled her eyes, having been over this a hundred times before.

“And remember: It’s not about raw power. Mastering magic means you need to be able to focus and control it, as well as perform more complicated spells.”

“I know!”

“And make sure you raise your hoof when you ask a question.”

“I know!”

“And if any of the older colts give you trouble—”

“Don’t toss them into the sky or teleport them to an adjacent plane of pure order or push them through a mirror, I know, Mom. I know,” she giggled as Twilight ruffled her mane. It was shorter than it had been, Nyx had claimed it was what all the cool kids were doing this year.

“You’re gonna do great, sweetheart.”

“I know,” her daughter grinned, then faltered and shifted nervously. “But, um…”

“What’s wrong, honey? You’ve got your scrolls and everything, right?”

“It’s not that! It’s…When you first got into school, you got your, um…” Nyx looked down at her flank. Ten years old and self-conscious about it. Twilight smiled. That seemed all too familiar.

“I blew up a classroom to get my cutie mark, sweetie,” Twilight glanced down at her own flank. “Trust me, I think the headmaster will be relieved if you don’t do something nearly as drastic.”

“But… I’ll get it? It’ll come, right?” She looked up at her mother. Twilight smiled. Ten years old and her daughter still thought she knew everything. How she wished that’d last forever.

Twilight kneeled close to Nyx, smiling gently as she could.

“When I was your age, I remember asking Grandma the exact same thing. She always told me the same thing: A cutie mark comes when you figure out who you are.”

“That day was the day I figured out who I was, and it was the same pony I thought I had been the entire time. I just had to turn my parents into plants, resize Spike into a giant, and cause Auntie Tia to have to intervene.”

“And you know what? It was absolutely worth it. I know yours will be, too,” Twilight nuzzled her daughter, who chuckled in response.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

The little black alicorn rushed towards her, wrapping her forelegs around the beacon of knowledge and safety that she was about to leave.

“I love you, momma,” whispered Nyx.

“I love you, too, Nyx,” Twilight wrapped her wings around her daughter. Sometimes she thought they were built for such a purpose.

A distant bell rang, and Nyx broke the hug.

“Okay, okay! I don’t wanna be late.”

Saddlebags jostled away as she sprinted through the gates of the school, breaking into a glide as she flew onwards towards destiny, good grades, and friendship.

Twilight sighed, leaning up against the dragon next to her. Another five years had given Spike quite the growth spurt, and while he was quite towering just yet, he certainly loomed.

“Feeling that empty nest syndrome already, huh?”

“Spike, if there's a cult out there resurrecting Daybreaker, I am going to be on that baby fire-filly like that,” She brought some of her feathers together, making a snapping sound and then looking surprised. “Oh, I finally figured out how to snap, neat!”

He groaned. “Twilight, please.”

“I’m joking.” She smiled. “Unless…”

“Unless…” Spike looked down in a panic. “Please tell me there’s not a Daybreaker cult running around.”

“I did say I was joking.” She grinned hard.

“Right.”

Spike turned back towards the gates of the school. The academy doors beyond had closed shut, and he couldn’t help but notice a few happy tears coming down the face of his oldest friend. He nudged her gently, breaking Twilight out of her empty-nested stupor. Making sure the filly absolutely couldn’t hear them, he leaned in and whispered. “I give her a week before she blows up a classroom.”

Twilight snorted, wrapping a wing around him.

“Your baby sister? A week?”

“Please,” she smiled. “She’ll do it in two days.”

Author's Note

And that's that! I don't think I've ever written a novella in my life. What has this horse show done to me.

Thanks again to Toonwriter for the proofread, and thanks to everyone else for reading. Maybe I might do some side stories with this AU, maybe not. I've got other stories cooking that need more attention.