... and thus I, Princess Luna, had inadvertently created the changeling race; yet another price of my experiments I hope someday I might find a way to repay to my little ponies.

You must understand something, Twilight. At the time, we did not believe changelings were harmful. They were frightening to behold, yet 'cute', after a fashion. We could tell they nursed from the love of ponies, but there was more than sufficient love in Everfree City for this to go unnoticed. I only created five changelings in total. I did not realize they had gender, nor that it would be possible for them to breed. Sadly, Princess Celestia had to deal with the fallout of that mistake not long after banishing me to my Moon, and has again repeatedly struggled with over the past millennium, as even have you.

I still believe that redemption for changelings is possible. As you are no doubt aware, changelings are not true vamponies, but share many characteristics with them, such as the tongue, the libido (though it manifests in a more violent fashion), and insatiable hunger (but for love instead of blood). I did not find a way to 'purify' them, but I am neigh-certain a way exists. It cannot be done through genetic means, however, because the genetics of (REDACTED) (are) obliterated by the same process. My sister has theorized that some kind of emotional infection could bring about a metamorphosis toward the side of Harmony, but we rarely capture changelings for long and nothing we have tried has brought about this change. It is a pity. If my suspicions are correct, a single converted changeling should be able to infect an entire hive with Harmony.

For this reason, I hold great hope for Crystal Hoof, whom you have met. But that is another conversation.

My experiments with flesh did not yield a means for maintaining the bacteria in a separable state, and I was loathe to split the star in two for I feared all the invisible factor could be destroyed if we tampered too much with its only stable home. I needed to look elsewhere.

The first true hoofstep toward my goal came from a modest abuse of Star Swirl's temporal magic. If time were greatly slowed for a crystal fragment just as it became freed from contact with the interior, the bacteria could remain there for a short time. This was visually obvious, because the crystal fragments would turn from a smoky black to perfectly transparent once the bacteria had died (over the course of a few seconds), yet they now remained black for several hours. This allowed me to cast magical spells on a small sample of the bacteria before they would die, without affecting the integrity of the meteorite and its much larger population of bacteria. Unfortunately, the spells I experimented with were also blocked by the time enchantment, so they would not have a chance to activate until the enchantment broke. Furthermore, they would not work on bacteria that had already infected a living host (the aura of the host would interfere with the magic).

To accomplish my testing goals, I would need to cast my spells on an enchanted crystal fragment. However, to infect a host with the modified invisibles, precision timing was of the essence: the host would need to be infected before the bacteria died, but after the spells had been given a short moment to activate. The critical period after waiting for the spells to activate but before the bacteria were no longer sufficient to sustain the reaction was less than one second.

It took several attempts to achieve the proper result, but once the timing had been perfected, success was immediate. My theory regarding suppression of some of the magical influence of the bacteria had been proven correct. The spells changed what (I now presume) was the operation of the plasmids from something magical to something more mundane, if still complicated. This resulted in a permanently changed pony who had only the night-touched physical form, such as nightwings (instead of the fully vampiric nightborns). These forms rely only on essential life magic, just like other ponies.

When I created my first nightwing servant, the changes to her body took about a day to complete. Her libido did not appear to be affected, but the process of the change itself was erotic enough for both of us that we copulated before the changes had completed, then continued our carnal knowing all throughout the night and into Celestia's dawn (my sister was kind enough to lower the Moon and Stars for me). Soon, my entire royal guard had undergone the transformation, minus a few guards who still expressed reservations about the process. Peer pressure and sexual escapades eventually turned them, too.

I was tempted to become a nightwing myself (though it would truly be whatever a night-touched alicorn/voidmare is), but I was a Royal and the political risk was too great. (I also realized that being an alicorn, I might develop the characteristics of the other two kinds of night-touched, which I did not desire at that time.)

I discovered the cure to the vampony infection by accident. Ironically, this happened in part due to my avidity to create the monsters of my desire.

Do not allow your breast to swell too much from elation, Twilight Sparkle. There is no longer a means by which this method of cure could possibly avail us. I shall explain that soon enough.

I tried infecting the afflicted vamponies a second time, but this time with the modified bacteria. To my surprise, the full transformation nullified the curse! We had found a cure, as long as the vampony was willing to become one of the night-touched. Their race would change forever, but they would no longer suffer from vampirism, lust without abandon, and what we then considered to be mental histrionics.

I should now describe the other races. From your studies of ancient history, you are likely familiar with the existence of the umbrum, who are the night-touched version of unicorns/bloodhorns, but perhaps not the details of their appearance. They retain the red, curved horn, and they have the ability to darken their coats much like a chameleon (to a limited extent). I realize you are not yet aware of the bloodhorn's affinity for shadow from which this talent arises, but your brother shall reveal this to you soon enough.

The earth pony breed we called an ambler. They were strange-looking creatures: slender (unlike a normal earth pony), but with multiple joints in each leg and a slightly wider jaw. It was disturbing to watch them walk, and unlike the nightwings and umbrum they were not well-received by other ponies. There were only three of these created, and all three were female. Two came from the only two darkhoof ponies we created, while the third was directly converted (she was the first, then we 'cured' the other two). The three mares disappeared from Everfree City on the same day, not long after the incident with Jade Spirit which I am soon to recount. There has not been a single recorded ambler sighting since, unless you count some fanciful but unlikely tales from the Everfree Forest which surfaced a few decades ago.

Sadly, we may never know the night-touched form of a crystal/fractal pony, since the cure is now entirely beyond our reach. Not to mention dragon/horagon, zebra/wildmane, and whatever other new races we learn to infect. Hopefully, Princess Cadance and I (with your assistance, of course) will one day uncover a way to activate the night-touched forms again. It will be useful because the other races provide a unique diversity to our people. Most ponies cannot hold the wolf properly, and doing so takes effort, so those forms can only be readily appreciated by having ponies who are night-touched, whether or not they are also vamponies.

The amblers vanished, as I mentioned. Most umbrum migrated to the Crystal Kingdom during the incident with Jade. Those umbrum who escaped during the Crystal Empire War chose to live on the outskirts of our demesne, and all umbrum within Equestria joined them once the war had ended. The nightwings who were not members of my Night Guard went into hiding after my banishment. Because of this, only nightwings and changelings are common today—though there are reportedly umbrum in small numbers on the outskirts of Equestria. We know that nightwings and umbrum breed true, as is the case with any pony breed. It would make sense for this to be the case in all night-touched races, but there is no further data to support or refute the theory.

At the time of my initial experiments, being afflicted was naturally considered a burden. Once a cure (of a sort) had been found, when faced with the choice of either being forced to take tea three times per week under closely monitored parole for the rest of one's life, versus becoming something monstrous in appearance but stable and mentally fit, the latter seemed like the better of the two options to everypony.

Well, nearly everypony. There was but a single exception.

One evening, I awoke to find my sister sitting at my bedside. From the invasion of my privacy and the dour look on her normally placid muzzle, bad news was clearly heralded.

"We have a diplomatic... situation," my sister said, "and her name is Jade Spirit."

"Jade... Ah, yes. The foreign pegasus who volunteered," I said, stretching as I sat up in bed. As I recall, I had fallen asleep with my greaves on, again, so I adjusted them before stepping out. "She still refuses to join the nightwings, I presume?"

"You presume correctly," said Celestia, standing up.

"Why is this of concern? If she prefers to take tea, she may do so. We cannot allow her to leave the city unguarded, but if the strange mare would prefer a wolf lurking within her to a gorgeous cowl of fleshy wings and adorable ear tufts, that must be her unfathomable choice," I said. "I would likely opt to take such form myself were I not a regent, even though I am not presently infected."

"That is precisely the problem. Luna, Jade is not the mare she claimed to be when she volunteered for experimentation."

I said nothing. She hides her emotions well when it suits her, yet I could sense my sister was very nervous.

Princess Celestia took a deep breath. "She is a royal pegasus from the Crystal Kingdom. The foalish girl ran away from home on a lark, to see how foalks live in Equestria. She cannot return as a nightwing, because she is a direct heir to the throne," she said.

"If we let her leave with the affliction, she could infect others. We could have a nation of vamponies. That is not acceptable."

Celestia nodded her head. "It is worse. The crystal ponies are their own species. For reasons of superstitious prophecy, their ruling class have always been pegasi, but the countryfoalk are all crystal ponies..."

"...and we have no idea what the disease would do to them," I said, with a sigh. "Jade is a princess, I take it?"

"Countess. But when her father dies, and I hear he sadly ails, she will be the Princess," said Celestia. "I assume you understand the ramifications."

"Fie," I said. "Fie, fie, fie." I grimaced, and added once for good measure, "Fie! It is that royal zounderkite's fault, herself! Volunteering for medical experiments in a foreign land? Has she no horse sense?"

My sister smiled weakly in response, which had not been my intent, but it was most welcome. "Indeed, but she is young, and the young often do foalish things," she replied. "However, there exists a potential solution. Over the past century, the nobility have adopted unicorn guards in addition to crystal and pegasus guards. Countess Jade has taken a fancy to the Lord Commander of the Fire Brigade: Sir Sombra. He has already earned the favor of Jade's father for valor in battle. The Kingdom has sent him here to Everfree City in order to fetch her, and I spoke with him earlier today when he arrived. He intends to return home with Jade Spirit, and agrees with us that it would be best were she to convert to nightwing."

"Aside from the obvious potential for a civil war once the true heir to the Crystal Kingdom throne mutates partway into a bat due to the machinations of whom they must now certainly view as the Lunar Princess of Darkness and Evil, I presume there is yet another catch my dear sister and friend yet waits to reveal," I said.

"Two catches. First, he wants us to make him an umbrum," said Celestia. "Along with the seven members of his guard who traveled with him."

I paused for a moment, thinking. "Ah. He wishes to impress his future Princess," I said. "I fail to see why we should not acquiesce. If he is popular, his acceptance of what may otherwise be seen as a nightmarish mutation may allow her to openly embrace the form of a nightwing. This is a very good thing."

"I agree. However, the second catch is more of a problem. Sir Sombra intends to return to the Kingdom with Jade Spirit in her current form, and change her body there once the Countess has made the announcement to her citizens about her impending... modification."

"Change her after she arrives? But Star Swirl's magic only permits the fractured crystals to sustain the invisibles for a few hours, Celie," I pointed out. "They cannot be teleported or affected by magic in the interim because they remain nearly frozen in time. There is simply no way to get one to the Crystal Kingdom quickly enough, and we cannot safely split the star in twain without potentially ruining the integrity of whatever mystery keeps the invisibles within it alive."

Princess Celestia nodded solemnly, and patiently waited for me to come to the obvious conclusion.

My eyes drew wide. "Neigh, Sister. There is no way this can be permitted," I said. "I forbid it!"

"I share your concerns, Luna. Sombra promises that the Kingdom only wishes to borrow the star for ceremonial purposes."

"I would prefer they take Jade Spirit back to the Kingdom with a supply of tea, to briefly visit her ponies and explain the situation. Then they could return here for the procedure," I said. "That alone would be dangerous, but leaving the star unguarded is begging for a disaster of heretofore unseen proportions."

Celestia sighed. "I know. I tried to push the option you mention, to no avail. Sombra and Jade both insist upon performing the ceremony in the Crystal Kingdom, and I do not believe she wishes to return to our land anytime soon."

"I shall accompany them, in that case," I said. "I can safeguard the star, ensure that Jade does not miss her tea, and act as emissary."

"I fear you may not, Luna. If the crystal ponies were to revolt, they would target you first and foremost," said Celestia, with a stern expression. "Sombra agreed that we may send two of your Night Guard to help safeguard the star, and no other ponies, not even an Ambassador of Friendship."

"I suppose the Night Guard would be a good emissary for nightwings in general. On their best behavior, the crystal ponies will see there is nothing to fear. But I still do not like the plan," I said, lowering my face into my hooves.

"Well, they leave tomorrow morning with Jade Spirit, with or without the star. We lack the diplomatic leverage to stop them from taking her back to her family. They have no plans to return here anytime soon. Unless we are willing to risk a nation-wide infection, what choice do we have?"

Although my big sister was correct, the option of allowing them to leave with the star was not much better of a choice. Indeed, it proved to be a fatal one.

The star was to remain in the Crystal Kingdom for one week's time, during which Jade Spirit would undergo her transformation and formally change her name to Jade Shadow. Her father died shortly after her return, so this period was extended to a second week. She underwent the transformation with no difficulty, and it was requested the star remain for a third week so that it could decorate the altar during the marriage ceremony. Many Equestrian citizens traveled far to witness the marriage firsthoof.

We grew concerned that the crystal ponies felt the star was their birthright, owing to its crystal nature. Even though our capital city existed in the middle of the Wild, we had a much more solid infrastructure to protect the star from potential misuse, owing to alicorn magic and the Tree of Harmony itself.

Our fears were made manifest when Sombra bared his vampiric fangs and drank his poor wife empty moments after his wedding to Jade Shadow was sealed. The crystal ponies were so terrified they were unable to use the Crystal Heart in response, and Sombra took advantage of this. He quickly stole it away and hid it in the shadows.

Naturally, the wedding was null and void in the eyes of the crystal ponies, but Sombra was incredibly powerful with the Crystal Heart out of the way. He used mind magic to control the Kingdom Guard, which was now known as the Empire Guard. The Crystal Kingdom had become an empire determined to spread and conquer neighboring lands. King Sombra would have demanded the name Emperor, but he announced he would reserve that title for the day he conquered all of Equestria. He enslaved all of his people. It was a very dark time for Harmony.

It may seem unfathomable that one pony could take over a kingdom so easily, but in addition to being a very powerful mage, Sombra had secretly re-infected himself with the vampony trait, and somehow had the force of will to control it even when fully transformed (he was a Master, in other words). We did not previously know reinfection of a night-touched were possible. It was something I had avoided testing because it was not clear if one could remove the vampony curse from an already night-touched race.

We intended to mobilize a military response, but before we were ready to strike, Sombra's powers grew yet again. First, he created a slew of umbrum soldiers from the other unicorns in the guard. Then he ate the entire star.

Yes, that is correct. As the legend goes, using magic, he cut the star into small pieces: hard metallic crust, infected crystal, and all. The pieces he swallowed sliced and tore at his throat as they plummeted into his bulging belly. He continued to eat long after his stomach had burst. Eventually he was cramming them into his bloody neck, and then he found more creative ways to insert them into his body. Once the entire thing had been consumed, his body somehow healed itself, and he gained unnatural power over both shadow and crystals. We do not know how much of this story is true, but it is almost assured that the meteorite no longer exists. We are also certain that Sombra never infected another pony, not even his mentally-zombified army, as he trusted no other pony to wield the awesome power he now possessed.

As mentioned previously, the amblers disappeared from Everfree City shortly after the wedding (none of them had attended). A few umbrum escaped from King Sombra's mind control, and the remaining umbrum in Equestria either traveled to live with them in isolation or joined the Wartime Division of the EUP Guard.

We went to war almost immediately, but made little progress. A few decades passed with a tenuous armistice, but Sombra grew stronger more quickly than our army did. We had no way to safely bring the Elements to his location, and Star Swirl had gone missing, so Princess Celestia and I worked furiously on learning how to combine our magic to make it stronger. Finally, we used our combined powers to destroy his physical form, but not before his curse caused the Empire itself to vanish for a thousand years.

I believe you know the rest, Twilight Sparkle. Personally, even.

Not long after Sombra's defeat, an attempt was made on my sister's life. The villain was imprisoned in the dungeons beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters. I spoke with my sister in a private room on the following day.

"I am fine, Luna," said my sister, wearing an infuriating smile on her foalish face.

"You could have been killed!" I bellowed in my best Royal Canterlot Voice, as she placed her shoes to her ears.

"That is unlikely."

"My dear Sister, we cannot afford to take that chance again. Something must be done. We must make knowledge of IT secret, no matter what the cost."

("It", of course, is the secret that our Master and Prince Shining Armor intends to reveal to you tomorrow.)

"We would have to control the populace and restrict the free exchange of ideas, Luna. Nothing is worth that kind of a noose around our citizens' necks. We are not Sombra."

I fumed with rage. "You dare compare me to him, Sister? This was all my fault, after all, was it not?"

"I did not say that."

"You did not need to, Celestia."

"I do not even believe it to be true, I swear it."

"Then you are a foal, for it is the truth. It was my perversion which allowed an entire country of peaceful citizens to vanish altogether!"

"Luna, do not do this to yourself. Please."

"And the citizens of OUR land now hate me for my part in this! They distrust you as well, and are even willing to attack you in your bedchambers!"

Princess Celestia blinked a few times. "Wait, you think my assault has something to do with you? Luna, that is silly."

"Silly! What is silly is this charade we continue to maintain. My weakness of affection has created the worst disaster in recent history—"

"Discord," corrected Celestia.

"—even the serpent did not outright kill many ponies in the wake of his Chaos! We must not allow the sexual openness of our society to drive ponies to make decisions out of passion, not as Sombra has done, and neither as I have. There can be little doubt the reprobate rotting in our dungeons had sexual urges for you—"

My dearest Sister rolled her eyes. "Luna, this line of thinking is preposterous! Sex has nothing to do with my attack," she said. "Besides, many ponies have sexual urges for me."

"Oh, our citizens certainly do love you, Princess Celestia," I spat the words from my muzzle. "They love far too much in general. And with the same fervor, they hate me. Mark my words, if you do not restrain these passions from our people they will destroy society from within!"

"Even if I agreed that such a foalhardy approach to our reign was in any way responsible, how could that be accomplished? Be reasonable, Luna. We are animals, after all," she said.

"Perhaps you and I must be animals, but our citizens need not! We can make them forget, Sister. We can remove memories of young sexual play from them, and teach them to wear clothing and act modestly!"

"You are proposing we censor history, Luna! The Crystal Empire with its many enchantments of love was among the most sex-based societies to have ever existed! Would you remove all traces of the war from our history books? Redact information about pheromones from biology texts? Erase memories from our own little ponies?"

"I would do anything to save my Sister, were she not too stupid to see the necessity of this act! We have to erase memories of (the secret). It is the only way to keep you safe. It is perfectly reasonable to fix our society's dangerous ills at the same time."

Slowly, my sister's face hardened in a way that pains me greatly to remember. "This is ridiculous. I see through your ruse, Luna. You are hurting because our little ponies no longer love you. I agree it is not fair, but making everypony forget about the Crystal Empire is not the solution."

"That... that is NOT why I do this! You know nothing!" I am certain I was crying as I spoke the words, "If you think I am selfish, I shall cause all of our subjects to love me again; and once they do, you shall finally listen to reason and take these dire steps necessary to protect yourself and the rest of our crumbling society!"

I stormed off to my bedchambers. We did not speak to one another for more than a week.

I succumbed to the Nightmare about three months afterwards. After my banishment, in her grief Princess Celestia apparently began to see my side of things.

You know the rumors of what she did, and those rumors are true. In addition to erasing memories and censoring valuable knowledge, she managed to change the very brains of ponies (and possibly other races) with a genetically dormant trigger which overdevelops part of the prefrontal cortex. It activates in early puberty unless a foal has a benign form of sexual experience which leaves them without trauma. You know this as the stain.

I have no idea how Celestia created the stain. I asked her once, when she briefed me on it, and she was adamant that she could not tell me and I should never ask her again. She must have reverse engineered what little Crystal Kingdom technology remained to accomplish this, but there must be more to the story.

I still feel responsible for all of this, Twilight, and perhaps I am, in large part. My sister went mad from my banishment, and tried to create the sterile society I envisioned, one based on friendship and superficial love that buries its baser instincts like landmines. To my surprise, it seems to have worked... but that is only true on the surface.

I would prefer to say nothing more on the matter, as recounting this has brought back many painful feelings. I need to tend to my eyes, then wake Pipsqueak from his nap. You may elect to take this time to write down my words, as midnight will be at hoof within the hour.