Dark Horses: Daughter of the Night

"I did what I could, and she is alive. Now tell me, who is she?"

Luna could feel her sister's hard stare as she kept her own head down. This was not the way she had planned to tell her sister. Why had she not told her in the first place? It would have made things so much easier. But then she remember. All the fear of what Celestia would have done had she found out Luna's secret. Her stomach churned at the very idea of her sister ordering the use of the Elements of Harmony on the poor thing. Or even keeping Luna away from Starswirl. She felt like dying right there.

"Her name is..." Luna began to tremble all over. After being freed from Nightmare Moon she and her sister told each other everything. Every concern, every sadness, every pain. They had agreed, no more secrets. Except this. This was something Luna felt she had needed to fix first and then tell her about it after there was no problem. But that plan was gone. The moment the teleportation spell had gone wrong was when Luna realized she might have gotten in over her head. Tears slowly began to form in her eyes and her shaking had only gotten worse.

Wings came around her and she suddenly felt everything melt away. She felt the soft, warm fur of her older sister as Celestia nuzzled the younger one like a small filly. A small smile slowly came to her face and she began to wipe the tears away with a hoof.

Celestia spoke in a quiet soothing voice as she said, "No matter what you have done, I made you a promise. We will fix whatever it is together, remember? You and I, as sisters."

Luna slowly broke free of the embrace while keeping her eyes on her sister. Maybe everything would be alright.

"Her name is Starswirl. She is my daughter." Here was the part where Celestia broke her promise. Here was the part where she was sent back to the moon. She knew her sister had told her they would fix this together, but now that she knew the truth, would things ever be fixed?

Once again Luna found her self in a giant wing hug. Once again tears formed in her eyes as she began to cry.  She cried for her child. She cried because she had kept a major secret from her sister. But most of all, she cried because her sister wasn't angry with her. Knowing the only person in the world who had probably suffered as much over her banishment as she had wasn't angry about this her feel like the greatest pain in her life was finally gone.

They sat there, on the same balcony only an hour before had been the sight of one of Luna's most nervous moments. The two sisters, held together in a tight embrace, sat there as nothing else in the world mattered anymore.

And Luna cried.

The fire in Celestia's bedroom was now lit bring a warm and cozy feeling to the nervous younger sister. The two of them sat on the large bed with Celestia's wing draped over Luna.

She was ready. She had to tell the story. She could finally set herself free.

"Over a thousand years ago, right during the war between you and my possessed form, Nightmare Moon realized that she was loosing. It would only be a matter of time before you had caught her and defeated her. She became desperate. Though I was locked away somewhere deep inside, I could feel her fear. She came up with a plan that even Discord might have considered crazy.

She was going to have a child and possess it."

Luna paused her in her story to look up to her older sister. Celestia sat quietly with a face of both pain and worry. Taking a deep breath, Luna continued on.

"The first thing she did was find the strongest unicorn in her Army of the Night. Using her power, Nightmare possessed him even more than he already was. She created the illusion in his head that he had just met the most gorgeous mare in all of Equestria and forced him upon her. When the deed was over, Nightmare took his life. I don't even know his name..." Tears formed in Luna's eyes again. "After that she used magic to make sure she became pregnant and then to speed the process up. What normally took months took only a few days. She gave birth to an alicorn. She was white like you, but with a dark blue mane like mine. She was perfect. Nightmare than placed a curse on her. An illusion curse that would slowly change her appearance to look similar to the closest living being to her, even a different creature. (This is why Luna thought she might still look like a human. SLOW change) It took a few minutes, but soon the little one began to look like a filly version of Nightmare Moon."

Luna paused again. She had to. The tears just wouldn't stop. The thought that her beautiful filly was cursed like that had ripped her to shreds. Suddenly a quick peck on the cheek caused her to look up at Celestia. Tears were falling from her eyes as well. Celestia pulled Luna even closer using her wings. They sat together quietly, both just glad for the company of the other.

After a few minutes, Luna continued.

"While Nightmare was watching the filly change, I suddenly felt stronger. I began to push for control with all my might. I wasn't going to let her go through with this. She may have brought this filly into the world, but this was my body. That meant that she was also my child in a way. Nothing was going to harm her. As soon as I felt I had the ability to use magic, I did. I cast the strongest teleportation spell I could on the little one. I sent her as far away as could, not even knowing where it might be. It was then that I lost control.

After the Elements had freed me, I began to search for her. First I searched our planet, but I found no trace of her. I expanded my magic and began to search every planet near ours. After about ten different planets, I found her on one filled with strange creatures. She was too far away for me to simply teleport her here myself, so I sent the head of your school. That's why he took the sudden vacation. He was very interested in visiting this planet and found an illusion spell to blend in with these creature. When he found her, she was trying to kill him."

"Why would she try to do that? Did she see past his illusion or something?"

"I don't know the entire reason. The letter I received only said that he had simply put her into a deep sleep with magic and used a teleportation spell to send her. During the teleportation I was able to enter her dreams and talk to her. I was finally able to name my own daughter."

"Let me guess, this is where the spell went wrong."

"Yes. I got the letter, asked you for help, and now we are here."

They sat quietly again, neither one of them willing to move. Celestia looked deep in thought and Luna began to worry. What would her sister do now? During the story, Celestia had been just as Luna would have expected. But now she had no idea what the older one was thinking.

"Celestia, I..."

"We need to find her. She belongs here. With us, the way it should have been"

Almost instantly Celestia felt the living daylights being squeezed out of her Luna could hardly contain herself. Finally she and her daughter could be together.

"Thank you so much Celestia... I was so worried that you would..."

"Luna, she may have been born out of Nightmare Moon's horrible plan, but she is your daughter and she is my family. How could I do anything but love her?"

There they sat on the bed, tears both in their eyes and smiles on their faces. Neither of them could be happier.