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?