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.