Midnight Sun awoke with the sun as he normally did and looked over at the sleeping colt. ‘Of course she had him look like Sirius.’ he thought before he heard a scream. Leaping out of bed the dark grey pony dashed down the halls to find Twilight staring at Spike. He was curled around the baby pony from earlier. The dragon had grown a little and had curled himself around the small child.

“Spike what is going here?” she panted pressed against the wall as the purple dragon opened his eyes. “Why do you have a child?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out.” yawned the assistant as he sat up picking the foal up in his arms. “She came from a stone that I found in the library. Just appeared on your bed so I took it to Rarity to find out where it came from.”

"An imprint stone.” Midnight mused as he thought about it before realizing. “Of course, Aqua Star studied the ancient runes of the Céards. She knew about how they imprinted their conscious onto stones to record some of their history.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Twilight before the dark grey mage turned around saying. “Aqua Star imprinted a copy of her being into a stone in hopes that she would return. It is similar to the process that the Céards used to store their knowledge but changed it. The stone stored something of her in it but it needs a physical sample to come into this world. Who touched this stone?”

“Rarity and me.” Spike replied before blushing. “Does that make us her parents?”

“In a way yes, it is more complicated than that.” sighed Midnight before turning his attention to the Princess who was trying to wrap her head around everything. “Yet that can wait until a later date. I am sure you have questions for me princess. We barely spoke yesterday.”

“Why don’t you treat me like you would everyone else.” the mulberry suggested earning a smirk from the red eyed stallion who told her. “Alright then.”

‘What have I just brought upon myself?’ she thought before giving him a sad smile as she inquired. “Is Aqua Star really dead then?”

"In a way, yes. That child may have her appearance and will grow at an accelerated rate but would probably not retain any of Aqua’s memories. She would have a backup plan for that as well but I don’t know it.” he explained before moving past her. “Now I assume that she had a place to live.”

“Yes, but I keeping you in the castle for now.” Twilight replied earning a raised eyebrow from the unicorn. “Your appearance would only cause panic and you are connected to Sombra in someway.”

“Aren’t you a clever little pony.” scoffed Midnight Sun moving until he was standing over her. “Very well, Princess Twilight, I will play this game of yours. But I want full custody of Comet, I made a promise to Aqua Star that I plan to keep.”

“You know for a second there I swear you sounded like Discord.” Twilight respond her eyes flashing gold earning a slight snarl from the black maned stallion. “Oh hush now, you insulted me first with that tone. Now if you will excuse me I have a library to sort.”

Twilight turned tail and headed off her shadow flickering for only a second. Midnight glanced at Spike before saying. “Perhaps we should explore the castle. After all it seems like we will be spending a lot of time here, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah, plus I need to talk to Rarity about…” Spike paused as he thought about the foal for a moment. “I don’t know what to call her. What was the members of Aqua Star’s family called?”

“There was Aquarius, her mother. A Healer mare with amazing kindness and dedication to her cause. Her father was Night Winds, a Nosteratu, funny thing was he often travelled to the Ancient Lands and came back even more resolve, not even the taint of the corrupted on him.” Midnight Sun recalled as he walked around the halls. “Her younger brother, Sirius was a Mage, it made her worried when she found out he was sent to the front lines. She had a sibling on the way but I do not know what happened.”

“We can always check the library in Canterlot or the Castle of the Two Sisters.” Spike suggested as he thought about what they could do. “See if there are any surviving members today. What about your family? Where are you from?”

“A good idea… I was from the old capital city, Archon, there is nothing that could compare it to its glory. It was also the first city destroyed when Sombra launched his campaign against Equestria. My family was a noble family and I their third child. I had two older siblings both talented in magic and serving in the court of the council and a younger sister. I had a lot to live up to, but no school could take me because of my split core.” Midnight explained as he thought back, the dragon was alright to talk to as he wasn’t as judgemental like most ponies. “I was viewed as a failure until Star Swirl the Bearded chose me as his student. He told me right away that it was mainly because I had a unique core yet I had something that no other colt or filly my age had. The will to push my limits and destroy expectations. My parents weren’t too keen on hearing that.”

The purple dragon let out a laugh as the foal in his arms cooed.

“Don’t you ever want to find out what happened to them?” asked the assistant as he looked down at the child.

“I know what happened to my parents, but to see if my siblings continued their line would be interesting.” mused the dark grey stallion before shaking his head. “This place seems too empty for a Princess of Friendship.”

“Twilight has to realize this herself.” Spike told him giving him a knowing look. “And no hinting towards the fact that it is empty either.”

“I was going to do no such thing.” huffed Midnight before looking at the foal. “Have you thought what to call her?”

“I was thinking Moonlight Wisp. Keeps the name in the family with the night sky theme.” the purple dragon told him as he cradled her. “Do you really think that she will have an increased growth rate?”

"Aqua Star… wouldn’t risk having a foal try and grow up during a harsh war. No matter how much it would pain her to see the child grow up fast.” the dark grey stallion told him and Spike looked sad. “I can try something however, she will still grow up fast but she will stop growing when she is a filly. She’ll still be your little girl and will have a lot of learning to do. Will you be ready to take on that responsibility?”

“We have a studyholic for a princess, I think we will be fine.” the small dragon assured him before the baby started crying. “Uh….”

“I think we should get her some food first. Come on.” Midnight Sun said moving to get some food quickly casting the spell he was talking about. It was a simple one that he had practiced time and again to keep fast growing plants from dying too quickly.

“How old was your sister when you left with Star Swirl?” Spike inquired and the other pony went quiet before saying. “I was the one who held any interest in her actual well being. Since my parents had no use for me they just let me do what I pleased unless it brought shame upon their name. They didn’t raise me themselves, I had tutors and the servants help me. Same as my older siblings, the only time they seemed to care was at events and even then it was to show off the accomplishments. Solar Flare was only their latest. I was the only one who actually took care of her, I fed her when she was hungry allowing the servants and nannies to attend to other duties. I… I didn’t want to say anything when I tested her early. She was a split core like myself… she was a Barrier Master and a Mystic so I tampered with her testing crystal. She grew up to be a court Mystic but we both knew what she had to sacrifice to save face.”

“Who were your other siblings?” Spike noticed that Midnight was a lot more open about the past than Aqua Star. Unlike her talking about the past seemed to keep him distracted on more recent events.

“Prophetic Sunset was my older brother, he wasn’t the most talkative of the court instead being more like an advisor in the matters of Shadow magic. Like most raised in my family he was distant until we were all in public together. He married to a unicorn chosen by our parents and went on to do his duty and serve Equestria.” the dark grey stallion seemed a little bitter about that as he looked out the window. “Morning Glow started out as a rebel, not wanting to marry the stallion that our parents chose for her. Instead making a deal with our parents to allow her to chose who she marries but she will follow the path set down for her. My mother did not like it and decided on a quick spell that would… change her thoughts. My sister then became a good pawn marrying who was chosen for her and became a High Necromancer living in relative peace.”

“I wouldn’t like to meet your mother, she sounds… mean.” Spike sighed looking down at Moonlight Wisp who was still crying.

“To Solar Lake and Sunset Pyre of the Sun Family appearance and obedience was everything. Father wasn’t to keen on using underhanded tactics on keeping order. I much preferred rebelling and hanging out with a dishonored noble. They couldn’t touch me because of my teacher.” a wry laugh came from the black maned stallion and a look of confusion from Spike. “The Nocturne Family became dishonored when Night Wind married a partial corrupted, Aquarius.”

“A Partial Corrupted?” the confusion was evident in the question and Midnight remembered that a lot of things from the past was forgotten. He cleared his throat as they got to the kitchen preparing the meal for the foal as he explained. “The corrupted are ponies who fell to the influence of Abyssia’s dark magic. We thought by sealing her away it would prevent it from spreading but… by doing acts that would taint our purpose, going against our code, would corrupt us. It is like a small voice whispering in your head twisting your thoughts until you are a mere shell of what you were. It can be spread through the blood. Certain Cores are more resistant to corruption allowing a pony to ward it off completely or become only slightly infected leaving a sign that it is inside of you. Aquarius was one such pony, no one knows how she became like that, it was one of the Nocturne’s family’s closely guarded secrets. Yet there was a lot of gossip and rumor about it. The family left Archon after the disgrace and settled in Hessarian, a small city near the Northern Mountains.”

Spike thought about it, Aqua Star never talked about her family much but the stallion was willing to share everything he knew. At first the dragon thought it was his way of mourning but something felt off. Midnight Sun began to feed the child in his arms using his magic watching her.

“Why did you start telling me this?” he asked looking at the black maned stallion who answered. “Because you needed to know where we came from. Why we act the way we do, Aqua Star obviously kept a lot of things in like normal. I can’t do that, ignorance is not becoming of ponies or dragons.”

“You guys really needed a hobby.” chuckled the dragon before an idea came into mind. “Perhaps you can join Big Mac and me for game night. It isn’t anything really that spectacular but it would keep your mind off of reality for a bit. Maybe we should drag in Comet as well when he wakes up.”

“What is this game we will be playing?” this caught Midnight’s attention for a moment as the assistant replied. “Ogres and Obulettes. You are new here and we need to reach out a hand to someone who needs company.”

Midnight paused almost tempted to reject the offer but he looked at Moonlight Wisp before saying. “Well somepony will need to keep an eye on her while you are having fun.”

“So you’re in?” Spike held out a free hoof and the dark grey unicorn took it in hoof shaking it once. Moonlight giggled the bottle popping out of her mouth before she was burped. Midnight gave a small smile as he watched her. His heart yearned to see his own sister again as his mind began to wander back to the old capital city of Archon.

Author's Notes:

I do not own MLP.