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15 Years Before Nightmare Moon’s Banishment

Castle of Moonlight

Silent Dusk

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“Mom I don’t understand this.” I said reading a tome on dreamwalking. I had been learning how my mother banishes nightmares or creates them to find ponies who had been less than faithful to the Alicorn sisters, namely assassins or traitors to the crown.

“Well Dusk take a closer look here” My mother Princess or Queen of the Night to me, Nightmare Moon looked at the tome in front of me and pointed with her hoof. “Dreams are created by the sub-conscience, with our Lunar Magic we can dive into them and manipulate certain aspects of the dreams ponies have.”

I looked at the text again while thinking about what my mother told me. After a few seconds of mental debate I nodded. “Okay I think I got it.” Lighting up my horn in a dark purple glow I turned the page and continued reading and taking notes on a piece of parchment levitating beside me; books and studying are what I do best after all. ‘I almost feel bad for the librarians during one of my late night reading sessions’ I thought to myself with a quiet laugh.

“Good, you’re doing wonderfully my little daughter.” I heard Nightmare praise but I only rolled my eyes at the name ‘little daughter’.

“Mom I’m not little anymore, I’m already your height” Rising to my full height and unfurling my wings to prove my point. My mother only laughed at me with an amused smile. “What’s so funny, I’m serious here.” I couldn’t help but smirk a little at the stupid look on her face.

“Indeed you are as tall as I am but you’re still little in my eyes. So are you almost finished?” She asked while I looked back to my notes.

Making sure all the correct words and diagrams were written down I picked up the tome with my magic and placed it back into its spot on the shelf beside other books about Lunar Magic. Making absolutely certain it was in the correct spot I counted the shelf numbers by flying up and  looking over each and every book on the top shelf.

After landing back on all four of my hooves, I watched my mother trot past me with a ‘come with me’ kind of look. I was a little timid as we passed some batpony maids in the hallway but said nothing, I’m still not entirely comfortable around them. Their eyes are the same as my mother’s but they had that creepy stoic look plastered on their faces whenever I looked at them.

My mother took me to her favourite balcony in the castle which makes sense since you could see all of Equus from here.Yep we live on the Moon, mother didn’t want her sister to know about me yet. She didn’t say why exactly just something along the lines of ‘I don’t want to share you’ I still don’t quite understand yet, but I don’t care much. Being with the one who gave me life is good enough.

“So did you want talk about something Mom?” I asked as she gazed at the planet.

She didn’t respond immediately which confused me since she has always been so open with me.

“Nightmare?” I used her name this time hoping I could get her to say something.

“Oh...sorry Dusk, I have been thinking about my sister recently” She said still not looking at me.

Okay now I’m actually concerned, my mother doesn’t talk about Celestia unless it’s serious.

“You can tell me” I smiled at her while wrapping one of my pale purple wings across her withers.

Nightmare finally looked at me with a grateful smile. “Of course I can you are my daughter.” Then her face became darker and more grim, a look I have never seen before. “It would seem my sister has been asking for my presence in the Day Court more often lately, much to my dismay.” She closed her eyes briefly before she turned to stare at Equus once more.

“I...see” I didn’t like the sound of that. I personally haven’t met my aunt more than twice before, in disguise of course. And already I disliked her. She seemed so...ignorant. “When is she expecting you?”

She narrowed her eyes as she spoke. “Today” That was all she said to my question before taking off into the lunar atmosphere and disappearing in a flash.

That was odd. She never left me without a warm hug or a reassuring smile; something about all of this for some reason made my blood boil. I turned around and stormed down the hallway to my private room, though it was more of a villa of sorts. I even I had my own garden. Lunar roses and lilies on every hedge and bush, but as pretty as they were, my favourite was the lone flower in the center of my little garden. The flower itself was the very first one my mother ever gave me, it’s blue and white tipped petals and white stem standing proudly in its vase.

“Ah, my Moon’s Tear, still as full as the night it was given to me.” I smiled while bringing over a watering can with my magic and gently pouring water over the leaves. “Bloom little flower, Dusk will take care of you…” I thought for a moment 'I have had this flower for quite a while now' it needed a name. “Hmm...What should I call you little sis?” While I didn’t have any siblings this flower a was gift from from my mom so I fondly called it my ‘little sis’ It filled that hole in my heart whenever mother wasn’t around. “Oh I know! Since my name name is Silent Dusk for the time before the Night, I shall call you Twilight Sparkle just before the night turns to day.” I liked it. I may not like my aunt much even with with little knowledge on her, I still enjoyed the day when I was on Equus.

I brushed its leaves for a while before I decided to head to bed since I wasn’t sure how long my mother would be gone for this time. ‘I really do wonder sometimes what Celestia is actually like.’ I thought before drifting off into a dream filled sleep.

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When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a familiar throne room gazing up at a pair of thrones. Immediately, I realized this was the throne room my mother and her sister Celestia shared down on Equus.

"Proceed." I spun my head over at the solar throne on which Celestia sat as she spoke. Turning my head the other way, I saw that the entirety of the room was filled almost to the brim with noble ponies. I scoffed at the thought of them being "nobles", true nobles fought for truth and justice, and cared for the less fortunate. These cretins wouldn't even give a friendly greeting for a passing servant.

'Do I have to be here? These ponies are just giving me nasty glares mother.' I thought to Luna using telepathy.

I could hear her mentally sigh. 'I'm afraid so Dusk. I wanted you to meet my sister incognito, but these infuriating nobles insisted on having the both of us handle their pointless issues.'

"Sister? You are being spoken to." Celestia hissed quietly at my mother, I only barely heard her through our telepathic link.

"Huh? Oh right, ahem, ...what were thee asking?"

I toned out the rest of court. Politics bored me, I'd rather spend my afternoon reading whatever books the library had in stock. But I couldn't just leave the throne room by teleporting, since I'm supposed to be a pegasus right now, so no magic.

I rolled my eyes over to my mother's appearance. In public, she would glamour herself into her "Luna" form, and when in private with me, revert back to Nightmare. I asked her about it once, she said that Luna was her real name but Nightmare Moon was her "true form". Celestia of course had no knowledge of this, we deliberately kept this information to ourselves. I still don't know the difference between both "forms" so I just sighed and continued to drown out the noise around me until court was over.

Once the stuck-up nobles were gone my mother spoke. "I have somepony for you to meet sister." She gestured with a hoof over in my direction.

"Oh? Come forward my little pony, so I can see you." I slowly trotted out the dark corner I tried to crawl into during the meeting. Celestia looked up and down over my form with a questioning eye. "Dear sister who is this young filly?"

Luna flew over to me and gave a warm smile before turning back her sister. "I'll be blunt sister...I wish to adopt her."

Celestia blinked, and I cringed internally. "What? Luna you know we can't have children."

Luna straightened her posture. "I know that, but she has nopony else to take care of her."

"Luna I-" We heard a very loud noise behind the doors, and in came a very large black scaled dragon.

"Princesses, we have very urgent business to discuss..."

I fainted before I heard what happened next.

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I awoke the next “morning” to the sound of loud knocking but not from a hoof but from the door hitting the side of the wall. I sleepily gazed at it before pulling the covers off and trotted to it. “Is the door broken again? I could have sworn I had it fixed last month.” I ignored the door and went into the hallway but noticed that nopony was around not even the maids or my personal guards.

I began to panic. “What is this? Where are my guards!?” I teleported right in front of my mother’s chamber. “Mom! Are you there!?” I moved to knock on the doors but when I touched them they opened up[,] much to my surprise. Walking into the room, I gasped at the state it was in, everything was covered in dust and even my mother’s rather large bed was filled with holes. “Wh-what happened here?”

“Dusk my daughter” I spun around and sure enough there was my mother but for some reason was in her ‘Luna’ form. “You must come with me to Equus we’re not safe here anymore.” She looked like she hasn't slept in days.

“Why? What has happened Mom?” I timidly asked as I nuzzled her neck.

She smiled at me and returned the affection with her own nuzzle. My mother pulled back and gave me a weary look which looked a bit odd given her current shorter stature compared to my own. “When I left the Moon last time Celestia and I had a disagreement.” She said with a sigh, I cringed slightly. “She said I can’t come to the moon anymore. Dusk you have been asleep for five years.”

I froze at that. “F-F-Five years?” Luna nodded. “...WHAT!?!” I yelled much louder than I intended.

“Dusk you were drugged with a sleep potion. There was a traitor amongst our servants. A solar fanatic who found out about you, tricked the other servants, and waited until I was gone to put you under a powerful sleeping potion.” She teared up and gripped me tightly. “I am SO sorry my dear, sweet daughter. It took me far too long break its hold over you.  But don’t worry I’ll be with you from now on and that accursed stallion paid with his life.”

“Y-you killed him?” I questioned her as I nuzzled into her soft fur as if I was a little filly again.

“Yes, he deserved it for harming you.” I recognized her voice right away, it was back being Nightmare Moon’s tone, the voice I first heard in my life. It made me feel safe. So safe in fact that it even beat my strongest shields...well that’s not a very good comparison but it felt appropriate. “Now come along Dusk we must return to Equus.”

“Alright Mother Moon” I smiled at her as we flashed out of sight.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5 - A Mother's Love (Edited) Estimated time remaining: 11 Minutes