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.