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.