Nightstone Castle 10:20 AM

     After about half an hour, Nightmare reappeared before Twilight and Nyx.

Come stop your crying

It will be alright

Just take my hand

Hold it tight

     Nightmare finds Twilight singing to Nyx, that song always did cheer us up now didn't it Nyx she smiles.

I will protect you

From all around you

I will be here

Don't you cry

     Nyx stops crying a bit, wiping her eyes.

For one so small,

You seem so strong

My arms will hold you,

Keep you safe and warm

This bond between us

Can't be broken

I will be here

Don't you cry

     Nightmare starts to join in, quietly singing along with Twilight.

'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be here in my heart, always

     Nyx starts to reminisce about her time as Nightmare Moon and joins in as well.

Why can't they understand the way we feel?

They just don't trust what they can't explain

I know we're different but deep inside us

We're not that different at all

And you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

     Nightmare makes herself know by raising her voice so they can hear. With her magic the room around them fades as images of the Nyx's reign pop up all around them, depicting various times Spell Nexus and Nyx argued.

Don't listen to them

'Cause what do they know

We need each other

To have, to hold.

They'll see in time

I know

When destiny calls you

You must be strong

I may not be with you

But you've got to hold on

They'll see in time

I know

We'll show them together

     The trio continue to sing for several minutes, the ever present Changelings slowly gather to feed on the merriment.

(all 3 ponies)

'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart,

I'll be there from this day on,

Now and forever more

Oh, you'll be in my heart

No matter what they say, I'll be with you

You'll be here in my heart, I'll be there, always

Always

I'll be with you, always and always

Just look over your shoulder

Just look over your shoulder

Just look over your shoulder

I'll be there always.

     The room returns to normal and everypony cracks up in happy endued laughter, then Nightmare turns her head and says "Are you all just going to stand there like perverts, or do you not have work to do?" Rapid hoof beats are heard as the Changelings scatter, "He he, they never stop do they?" Mare says more a statement then a question, more laughter ensues.

      The 3 poines make there way to the dinning room, which was quite empty given the lack of staff in the castle these days, still they grabbed some food out of the pantry and made some daffodil sandwiches and small salads. For some reason, Twilight makes Nightmare a  set as well only to realize hay wait she's a ghost, at which point she turns to see Nyx and Moon laughing a little, "Don't worry Twilight it's the thought that counts. Besides a little cut and I can gladly 'live' again," Nightmare then grabs a small knife out of a drawer and make the slightest cut on Nyx's front right hoof, the blood covers the blade then drops to the floor slowly forming an outline. The cut on Nyx's hoof self heals, the perks of being a princess as the blood pool slowly turns black and forms a 3d shape. A few minutes later Nightmare Moon is sitting on the floor in front of them, Nyx couldn't resist the punch line "Welcome back Mrs. Moon, we missed you", Nightmare snorts and that and the three make there way to the table.

     The dinning room as to be expected was quite large the table it self having forty to sixty seats, the changelings had also gathered for lunch having a verity of dishes from soup to sandwiches, to various meats, namely fish. As they sit, Twilight raises a obvious question "So does this mean your back from the dead now?", Moon responds "No it's only temporary I'm afraid, a few days if I so wish it, but not permanent life," is Nightmares reply. Nyx starts to devour her sandwich and asks "So what exactly do you want to teach me?" Moon pauses before saying "Well... namely those powers of yours you're so afraid of, I wish to teach you how to use them should you ever need to," "And believe me you will in time" she says to herself before continuing, "Anyway there are some that are... I won't beat around the bush, darker then others but they have there good purposes, for example that lightning spell of yours," Nyx nods but her eyes show she's understandably nervous. "Is this seat taken?" a changeling with artic blue eyes asks, "Oh, go ahead sit, we're all friends here right?" Moon says taking a swig of some apple juice. Nyx looks at the Changeling's dish and asks "What is that if I may ask?", "Its clam chowder want to try some?" Twilight's eye fall to the changeling and she says "Um, we are herbivores." The changeling responds "Oh, where are my manners I'm Radiant Hope nice to meet you. As for your diet you can eat meat you just prefer plants" Nyx decides to try a bite and her eyes widen a bit "Wow, you know this isn't so bad, can't say I'd have it all the time but its nice."  Radiant Hope nods and returns to her meal, at this point if only to get that thought off her mind, Twilight decides to try out her mental communication to get used to it.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

     Ponyville schoolhouse

     I had just finished up looking over the student submitted subjects for there history lessons, "Well these are certainly a colorful bunch aren't they hehehe", I chuckle to myself. Cheerilee also had finished going through her portion of the submissions, "Well that looks like everything, you can head home now J.J. and thanks for helping me on such short notice,"

     "Any time Cheerilee I love kids." I reply with a smile. After gathering my bag I step outside and take a deep breath, "Ahhh what a lovely afternoon, well time to stretch my legs." I transform to my normal human self and stretch, "Oh, ahh, man I am never gonna get used to that, better check up on the castle before I retire home." As I make my way there I bump into Fluttershy walking with some ducks, "Hey Shy and my, my those little ones are just adorable," Fluttershy turns greets me and continues on her way, "Hay J.J can you hear me ok?" says the mental voice of Twilight,

""Loud and clear as crystal Twilight, I heard about this morning, you gonna be ok or do I need to..",

she cuts me off "No, no I can take this, I've dealt with worse". She also mentions Nyx having tried some seafood, "Ya you can try some if ya like Twilight, I know the horses in Iceland eat fish in the winter", "I'll pass thank you maybe some other time."

     I mentally nod and tell her I'm heading to Nightstone before I head to my home on the edge of Ponyville, she mentions the Changelings and I tell her they were given to me by as they referred to her "The Night Queen" to help deal with Nyx, thankfully that intention was unnecessary. "Ok so she really a friend of ours?", she asks "I don't know truthfully, I mean she is loyal to Luna and to a lesser extent Celestia so yes, but at the same time she is a changeling after all, still she saved me and men's lives back when the nobles thought it was good idea to go after the changelings, well you know how that went, can't say I'm that proud of it", I reply, she mentally nods in understanding and mentions Nyx's training, "She's really gonna teach her that stuff? Ok, but be careful Twilight, some of that stuff is not necessarily good for Nyx and some might require you to 'assist' them, just given you a heads up," again she nods and cuts the connection, "Be gentle Nightmare she is still a child after all" I silently pray, sprouting a pair of wings to quicken my pace.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

     Nightstone Castle Throne room 10:30 Am

     After lunch Twilight, Nyx and Nightmare Moon made there way to the throne room of the castle. The castle itself hadn't changed much in the months since everypony vacated the premises, a blue carpet ran and wound its way though halls separating hoof from cold stone, various pictures hung in places on the walls, some new while others were from the original art décor. The throne room doors were as spotless as ever, the only change to them seemed to be Nightmare's symbol was replaced with a detailed image of Nyx's cutie mark. As the three ponies walk into said room they find they are not the only ones present in the room. Standing by the thrones Spell Nexus a dark blue unicorn with gray-white hair is looking over a few piles of notes, Twilight is the first to speak "Nexus? What are you doing here?" Nexus looks up and stares at them a few moments "huh oh! Hi miss Sparkle what brings you here?" he responds clearly surprised, "Oh Nyx and I were hoping to do a little training Nexus, nice to see you again by the way." Nightmare says as Nexus freezes up, "WHA!", he takes a moment to catch his breath "I. AM. never going to get used to you I swear.", Nyx surprised by his reaction asks "You knew about her?" he nods saying he had seen her before but J.J had been the one to bring her to his attention. "So what are you doing here anyway?" Twilight asks again, "I'm just going over some of the various projects we were working on a few months ago, just to see if I can get them to work. The plants that grow at night could be useful in places that have long nights or little sunlight." Nexus replies showing the formulas they had tried, "Well I'll get out of your mane then, a desk would be useful anyway," he picks up the stakes of papers and trots out, "The third door on the right is empty, bye Nexus," Moon hollers as he rounds the corner.

     "Ok so should I step out or something?" Twilight asks feeling out of place in the room, "No, not at all Mrs. Sparkle, if you wish join in I'm sure you can learn some of these yourself, given you can channel the former King Sombra's magic." Twilight straitens up "That was a one time thing, besides Why could I possibly need that for this?" Nightmare looks around a moment as if expecting something to be there "Well it depends on one's affinity with magic, Nyx and myself can use dark magic's with no side effects do to are natural affinity, you would be able to do that same to a point simple do to you bearing the element of magic, which is nothing to sneeze at," "Anyway Nyx to start with how about you get your magic flowing, just stand still and meditate for moment or two." Nyx plants her hooves slightly apart closes, her eyes and makes a slight humming noise, shortly there after her hair starts to slowly but surely become ethereal again, Twilight, transfixed by this soon smiles That's my little girl she thinks. "Good that's better, now what to start with something simple I suppose" Moon then turns and summons a box full of bits, grabs ten coins and tosses them in the air, she then lets loose a arc of lighting that strikes every coin, "To quote Atlas 'an't nothing better then a fistful of lightning' handy for more then giving others a well deserved shock," Nyx tries a smaller feat by throwing five coins and after three or so attempts pulls it off, Twilight even has a go, the first time she miry throws the coins in the air, then after seeing if she can summon the lighting tries again, she strikes every coin, "Your good mom" Nyx comments, "Thanks you Nyx, just need to get your eye in".

     "OK that was easy enough now lets try something a little harder," Moon proceeds to shuts some of the curtains on the large windows "Ok try to get across the room with touching or crossing the light," both Twilight and Nyx tilt there heads to the side "Ok, so how do we do that?" Nyx asks stumped, "Simple Nyx shadow stepping, not truly dark magic but it does incorporate it to hide you", Moon then demonstrates by walking into the first shadow then disappears only to reappear in the next shadow on the other side of the room and repeats till she is at the throne, "The advantage to this, as opposed to teleporting, is it doesn't give away your position, that said its shorter range and can only really work in low light or say an ally in the mid day sun, less your really good at it." Nyx tries but has some trouble at first, she disappears but its only like an invisibility cloak, then she somehow teleports to the ceiling fluttering down with her wings, "I'm sorry but that was funny," Moon says barely suppressing a laugh. Twilight gives it a shot and does well for the most part though she still leaves a slight glow when she vanishes, "You can do it Nyx just take it slow," she says encouragingly, Nyx then tries standing in the shadow at first then moving and finally starts to get it, jumping from shadow to shadow, after doing this four times in a row without fail they move on.

     "Alright now for something Twilight might be able to do easily, you remember that weapon forming spell right?",

     "Of course, why?" she asks,

     "Well remember that sword J.J. gave you when everything was said and done, well try summoning it." Twilight lights her horn and a few minutes pass, suddenly a sheathed sword pops up on her back, she draws it revealing a rather well made sword, the blade had a slight purple tint to it and Nyx's cutie mark engraved above the guard, "I still don't have an explanation for the cutie mark thing," Moon says admiring the blade, "Well that was simple, I always was wondering if he put that on it, still it should glow violet when you 'light' it,"

     "How?" Twilight asks, "Oh just strike it against the ground for now that should do it," she does this and surprisingly it works, the blade starts giving off a violet aura. Nyx for some reason Tries to summon her sword and is partially successful in the fact but gets a smaller blade a little over a foot big, "Well at least I can still call on it if I need it" she says smiling proudly. Moon has them summon various weapons from knives to spears to firearms, fully loaded firearms, at which point they call it before someone gets accidently shot.

     "Ok, now this is where we start to get to the good stuff, may as well start with the worse of the many right?" Nyx just shrugs and Twilight glares at Moon questioning her honesty. "Ok Twilight would you mind... volunteering for this?" Moon asks nervously, "Ok, before I say anything what is the worst that could happen?", Twilight questions "Do you really want to know?" Twilight nods "Alright for this at least worse comes to worse Nyx will be... stuck to you if you will, don't worry both I and the powers that be can easily fix that should that be an issue".

     "Ok so how do I do this, also what is it?" Nyx asks slightly excited, "If I told you its name you'd refuse to do it off that alone, don't worry because this has its good uses like I said, now try to imagine yourself as water, Twilight slowly approach Nyx, then Nyx all you have to do is touch your mother, throw yourself at her if you wish", Nyx again mediates making a humming noise, Twilight slowly walks over to Nyx then stops gasping. What Twilight see she swears will haunt her dreams, Nyx's hair had become dark tendrils coming and she appeared to be liquefying.

     "Ny... Ny... Nyx what... what is happening?!!" she stutters clearly scared, Nyx opens her eyes and looks at her mother "Trust me Twilight Sparkle, I... am familiar with this," Twilight officially goes into panic mode SHE NEVER CALLS ME THAT!! she suddenly feels Nyx touch her and she looks down at the bright smiling face of her foal, "Mom your ok, we're going to be fine", Twilight hugs her daughter tightly only to see her melt away, she looks down at her hooves and sees them slowly turn black, looking to her back same thing, she gives Nightmare Moon the WORST death glare she can come up with, and slowly starts looking like Nightmare herself, "Twilight calm down before you hurt yourself! tell me though how do you feel?", Twilight puzzled by her response says "Well... like I'm being hugged all over my body and I got this weird feeling in my head," "Mom can you hear me?" Twilight's eyes fly open, "GET ME A MIRROR!"

     Moon quickly obliges summoning one out of fear for what Twilight would do if she didn't, Twilight freezes instantly. "Is, is that me? wow I look like, like..." "Like a nightmare," Twilight simply nods to Nyx's voice as Moon finally finds the courage to speak "I call this bounding, its a symbiotic form of possession, in this way Twilight, you should have all of Nyx's power as well as your own and Nyx in a word 'feeds' off of you," again Twilight glares at her "Don't give me that look its nothing serious, just ya know if you eat something she tastes it as well, as you might expect she can influence and control you if she wanted to, speaking of witch try speaking Nyx", a voice mixed of Nyx and Twilight says "Like this.. Oh this is weird very weird," As Twilight starts to feel very uneasy, Nyx takes the rains "err, mom you ok?" The voice then switches to Twilights "Ya, just this is highly unsettling, can we stop please, I'm about ready to breakdown here." Twilight feels Nyx hug her as she 'slides' off body Its purple coat returning, Nyx in question forming up right in front of her. After the two have a comfort moment Moon speaks again "Well on that note that seems like enough for today, if you ever want to try learning some more well we can always come here after school," she then fades away into Nyx's mane and disappears, now alone Twilight speaks up "Well, That is a experience I don't want to go though again anytime soon, still if you need help with it I guess I can help you," Nyx nods "Thank you, I'm surprised I can cover you completely like that," Moon adds her two cents "Well she is your mother after all, still that is a good sign that you can, if necessary you can control anyone, we can cover that later, anyhow I'm sorry if you are feeling violated Twilight but well, that was one of those things I was worried about", Twilight responds saying she was just uncomfortable, and they head home for the evening.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nightstone Castle 4:30Pm

      I finished my inspection of the castle then met Twilight and Nyx at the gates, "Heading home ladies? Sure you don't want to stay the night?" Twilight laughs saying "Thank you but I think we have had are fun for the day." As we walk home Nyx asks "Hay J.J um, do you what do you think of Moon?" I scratch my chin, "Well she hasn't lied to us yet and well, she an't Nightmare Moon. Apart from that I really don't think of her much these days, she's cute, mischievous and she is protective of those she holds dear. That just about sums it up, huh sounds familiar now don't it." she nods in response then asks her "I take it you'll want to teach me 'dream walking'?", "Only if you really want to, besides we kinda need Luna's help, not to mention permission for that. Well we don't but would make it easier," Moon replies. "Well anyway girls if ya feel like star gazing I'll be taking up watch tonight," Nyx sounds surprised "I thought you always did that?", "I don't do it every night I just got a feeling something might be going down soon," I reply pulling a lantern from my coat, "How many pockets do you have in that thing?" Twilight asks, "Magic Twilight, I took a few lessons from Rarity and Fluttershy, and made this thing out of magic threads, which have a high resistance to spells and makes it very enchantable, in my case some dampening spells to help make it bullet proof, not that it wasn't already given the threads in question where made stronger with the infused magic, but bullets still pack a punch. The other one is well, I got plenty of space in this thing, dare I say it would not surprise me if Pinkie pops out of it one of these days," I was kidding about that last one but Pinkie was Pinkie, still its not like I didn't have inside pockets but the space in them was magically deeper then they appeared, nothing crazy but I could still put a full length checkbook in a pocket the size of a coin purse. Once I got them home like any good gentleman I left to go grab some things from my house, get a few hours sleep and more importantly check my mail for anything suspicious.

     Spike had just started dinner when Twilight and Nyx came in, "Are you sure your ok Mom," "Yes Nyx I just need some time ok," Nyx nuzzles her mother affectionately before going off to bathe. Twilight for her part plops down in on a sofa in the library and grabs a book about spirits and possessions and how to get rid of them, "Hay Twilight where have you two been?", Twilight looks up from her book, "Oh we where just trying out some new spells." Twilight half lies, "Really? Ok also Cheerilee dropped off Nyx's assignment about 3 hours ago, some history work or something." Twilight for her part nods and continues reading till Dinner is served, While waiting Nightmare Moon pops up beside her "I'm sorry ok, I didn't mean to...," "DON'T talk to me" Twilight cuts her off "I know you had no intention of scaring us, but WARN ME next time you do something like that OK!", Moon just nods and says "Fair enough still, I do apologize, sorry mo..." she stops short "Nevermind, I'll make sure your not haunted by that image anytime soon if that helps," Twilight considers this a moment, agrees and then goes to bathe herself. After washing up the two sit down to a Dinner of potato soup with saltines (crackers) and some hay patties. At around 5 pm then clean the plates, brush there teeth and after killing some time go off to sleep wishing each other a goodnight. Next Chapter: Dream Walking Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 31 Minutes