The room at the top of the tower was pleasant, if  oddly decorated. A telescope and star chart stood to one side of the open balcony door; a reclining couch against the far wall. There were a few shelves with odds and ends of indecipherable nature to Nyx's eye, and some throw rugs on the floor. the center of the room was devoted to a bowl of water on a pedestal, and a large, ornate mirror that reached from floor to ceiling was set in the wall next to the couch. Other odds and ends of furniture and bric a brac were scattered about the room. "What is this room for?" Nyx asked.

Princess Celestia nodded at the decor. "Princess Luna uses this room as a retreat of sorts. A place to think and meditate away from the bustle of the rest of the palace. She had a similar room at Canterlot--- though not quite as cluttered." She nosed a few of the items on one shelf affectionately. "She also keeps a few mementos of her fillyhood here. One or two of them here I wanted to show you." She stepped across the room and reclined on the fainting couch. "Before we begin: tell me, Nyx; do you know where little foals come from?"

Nyx looked askance at the odd question. "Ummm, why?"

"Little one, you said that your greatest fear was that you were not a 'real filly,' because you weren't born like other fillies," Celestia said with a gentle smile. "I think it is rather relevant whether you know where 'real' fillies come from in the first place."

"Oh." Nyx shuffled her feet. She felt like she was being given a verbal exam. "Um, yeah. Miss Cheerilee told us. We had a film strip and diagrams and everything." She paused and made a face. "It made a bunch of the kids throw up."

Celestia's laughter was like bells ringing off the ceiling. "That does seem to crop up a lot in your stories," she giggled.

Nyx's eyebrows were a solid line. "Yeah, being a kid's a lot like a roller coaster ride," she said. "Screaming, crying, and barfing." Celestia laughed even louder.

"Setting that aside, dear," she said, "What did she tell you?"

Nyx gawped. Surely she didn't want her to talk about..... "Um, well, that colts and fillies are different..." she started to point with a hoof.

"A little further along, dear."

Nyx turned red. "Um, when a colt gets really happy, his thing---"

"Okay, a lot further along," Celestia deadpanned.

Nyx mentally fast forwarded through the gross parts. "um, that when the male and the female gam... gametes meet inside the mommy, they form a goat cell. And then that makes the baby?"

"That's 'zygote,' dear," Celestia said. "oh dear, I'm thinking the details after a certain point are a little fuzzy, am I right?"  Nyx nodded. She'd never been so glad that Cheerilee hadn't graded the quiz she'd given them. Celestia got to her feet and walked over to the water bowl standing in the middle of the room. "Come here, Nyx, and look into the scrying water. I want to show you something." Nyx obediently walked over and looked up at the bottom of the bowl. "Oh, sorry," Celestia said. "A bit tall for you, isn't it. Here, just a moment." Celestia waved her horn over the bowl and the pedestal. The pedestal shrank into the floor; the bowl widened until it was a low, shallow dish several feet wide, just low enough for Nyx to look down into it. Celestia's and Nyx's reflections gazed back up at them.

Celestia's horn glowed, and their reflections disappeared. Instead there was an image; an image of hundreds and hundreds of translucent round things, with dark centers. as Nyx watched, one of the things stretched, pinched in the middle-- and now there were two of them. "Cells!" she exclaimed. She recognized them from pictures she'd seen in Twilight's library books.

"Exactly. We're all made of cells, Nyx," Celestia said. "You, me, everyone. And each of those cells has a pattern inside... a blueprint for making us. Every little Nyx cell has a Nyx blueprint. Every little Celestia cell has a Celestia blueprint. Now look over here... "  The picture seemed to spin away; now they were looking down at two cells, all alone. One looked about the same, except a little larger; the other looked like a tiny wriggling tadpole. As she watched the tadpole cell swam over to the other, and merged with it. "These are the gametes. That's one's from a colt, that one's from a filly. Each one has HALF a pattern. And when they come together inside the womb, they become---"  

"--The Zygote! Oh, I get it..." Nyx said. That made a whole lot more sense than the mental image she had before.

"Yes, and a whole new pony, special and unique." The new zygote in the image divided, then again, then it was a clump of cells, then time swirled by in the image, the eye of the pool drew back, and the zygote was a tiny dot. then a blob. then it had eyes, ears, nose, limbs.... slowly it looked more and more like a baby foal. "We all start out as a tiny dot, Nyx--- no bigger than the point of a pin. Just two little blobs, a tiny bit of the mother, a tiny bit of the father... and something magical all coming together." The baby foal disappeared.

"But not me," Nyx said, looking distressed.

"Oh really?" The view changed again, to a tiny red bead. That little red bead fell down through space, splashed on an unseen surface: a drop of blood. Then a tiny drop of something else, dark and inky black, splashed down next to it. "Do you know how you were born? Spell Nexus took a tiny drop of your mother's blood.... and a tiny bit of Nightmare Moon...  Transfigurated them and merged them together."

"Transfigurated?" Nyx said curiously.

"Let's just say 'added a tiny change'," Celestia said. To her surprise, Nyx nodded and said "Oh. To make it a boy gamete and a girl gamete?"

"Yes, exactly."  Celestia said. The child certainly did take after her mother. "Then he poured all the remnants of Nightmare Moon's magic, all her powers, all her memories--- and a good bit besides--- into it, made it grow, and, well, we know what it turned into, now, don't we?" She nuzzled the alicorn filly. Nyx stared at the glowing pool, trying to digest what she'd been told. "You see, Nyx? You're not a 'blob of magic,' any more than any other pony. The way you were born was different, but you were born. You're a real, live little filly."

Nyx's face lit up... then clouded again. "Then why did you want to 'did-so-lute' me?" she said.

Celestia blinked. " 'Dissolute?' " Nyx nodded unhappily.

         "Who told you that?"Celestia asked.

"Spell Nexus," Nyx said. "It was in his head when I de-cursed him. That you had wanted to did-- dissolute me with a spell." She looked a little fearful even saying the word.

          Celestia sighed. Oh you foolish day-princess, how many little careless hurts have you wrought? "It's true, I did plan to do that," Celestia said. "But I'd thought you were 'just a magic blob.' It wouldn't have worked anyway, even if I'd tried. Because you're not."

Nyx bit her lip. "But what about those pieces of me? Those bits and scraps of me that were inside people and wandering around in the Everfree and everywhere? Couldn't they...."

"Why are you afraid of those?" Celestia asked. "When Spell Nexus completed his spell on you, all those bits were sucked up into you, don't you remember?"

Nyx shook her head. "There were bits inside all the cursed people," she said. "And that big, horrible piece of me inside Spell Nexus."

"Which you destroyed."

"---I almost didn't," Nyx said. She shivered and looked away. "I never told anyone. When I took that part of me out of Spell Nexus, it--- it wanted to eat me up. Take me over and eat me up until nothing was left but it. I beat it, but..." she swallowed, the last came out as a whisper. "...but I almost lost. It almost ate me up...." She looked up at Celestia, eyes wet. "And what if there's another piece of me out there? One that's stronger and meaner than that one? One that grew up into another Nightmare Moon? I... I don't wanna be eaten up!"

Celestia stared at the crying filly, thunderstruck. Irony of all ironies; of all the foals in Equestria who lived in mortal fear of being gobbled up by Nightmare Moon, the only one that had any imaginable reason to fear that fate was--- Nightmare Moon herself.

She pulled the filly closer. "And you wouldn't have," she said firmly. "A spell fragment is just a spell fragment. It can do lots of things, it can even carry memories--- angry ones, bad ones, painful ones. But it could have never really consumed you. It might have taken you over, like it did Spell Nexus.  You would have ended up wearing it like a bad hat till someone freed you from it." Nyx sniffled and giggled at the image. "But consume you? No. come here." Celestia used her wing to guide Nyx away from the scrying bowl, and over to the ornate mirror she'd seen before. The two of them stood before it. "Now. Tell me what you see."

Nyx looked. She could see herself and the Princess reflected in the mirror, of course. But.... in the center of each reflection... there was a shimmering something, a coruscating thing of light and color, fleeting and changing and indescribably beautiful. Hers was small, but bright and alive and danced like a candleflame; Celestia's was larger, but shifted and changed more slowly. It had... points in it that for some reason made Nyx think of old scars, and was... deeper somehow, like looking down into a well of light. Though as for that, if she squinted, her own light seemed to have promises of more depths yet to be seen... "What are they?" she whispered, entranced.

"Our souls," Celestia said. Nyx looked up at her, startled. Celestia continued gazing into the mirror. "Long ago, we had a cruel and cunning enemy who liked to send manikins--- magical puppets that looked and acted like living ponies--- to infiltrate Equestria and spy upon us. We made this mirror as a way to spot them. Though they looked alive, they had no souls, and so could be spied out in the glass." She looked down at Nyx. "That light, that spark, is your soul. It is you. And no power or force in all existence can snuff it out. You are a living soul, Nyx, a real live pony. No matter how you were born or where you came from. And nothing anypony says can take that from you."

Nyx didn't say anything. She just stood there, looking in the mirror, tears streaming down her face.

For the first time in what felt like a long time, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled.

The night was not going well for the sinister group of Greek lettered ponies.(1) Among other things, the tracking spell on Nyx had failed almost immediately. After laboring for four hours under the delusion that the reincarnated Nightmare Moon was standing in her bedroom closet, it had been subsequently revealed that the tracking spell had been cast not on 'Nyx' but on her schoolbags. The group had scattered through town and up into the castle to try and get a fix on her again, only to find themselves dragged by overwhelmingly friendly ponies into various dances, contests and carnival games. Several of them had been caught in (and photographed by) various humiliating booby traps. And two of them had been chased halfway across town by some psychotic mare swinging a broom and screaming something about houses and toilet paper.

Every attempt to covertly locate the little black alicorn had been flummoxed, till Agent Lambda(2) patiently pointed out that they knew Nyx was going to the palace, they had set up the final step of the plan in the palace anyway, so why not go to the palace and wait for her to come to them?

After much facehooving, the Greek lettered agents had regrouped, thrown away their useless tracking device and headed for the Palace. It was fortunate that the conspiracy only had a single, one-bullet-point agenda, Agent Alpha had reflected, because it was incredibly unlikely that this sorry lot would be able to execute anything remotely resembling a long range multi staged plan....

Twilight and Ink Spot wandered their way through the rooms and hallways of the Palace of the Moon, admiring the architecture and the Nightmare Night decorations, laughing at the goofy ghosts and goblins of the "haunted castle," and generally just enjoying one another's company. Colts and fillies ran by, shrieking in mock fear and genuine delight as the costumed castle staff pretended to chase them.

Neither of them seemed to mind.

They came around a corner just in time to see Pipsqueak and Dinky stumble headlong into one of the little haunted house scenarios set up around the palace. A royal guard--- or so Twilight presumed, he certainly wasn't dressed like it-- was standing over a bubbling cauldron, stirring it with an enormous spoon. He was painted from head to toe with black stripes, and was wearing a bushy grass skirt. his mane was up in an enormous wild hairdo. He had jewelry made from fake bones and skulls everywhere, and an enormous plastic bone clipped to his nose.

The two foals almost ran right into him. They looked up and saw him looming over them. "AAAugh, it's a CANNIBAL!"

The guardsman knew his cue. "YUM YUM, EAT EM UP!" he bellowed. He leaned over them, waving his hooves, licking his lips and grinning.

The two foals spun on their heels and galloped past a laughing Ink Spot and Twilight Sparkle. "Pip, have you seen Nyx?" Twilight shouted after the fleeing colt.

"NoIHaven'tCan'tTalkNowCannibalAfterMe!" Pip yelled as he ran past. "Eeeeeeee!" agreed Dinky. The guardsman was hot on their heels, shouting "Yum Yum Eat 'Em Up!" with every step. The colt and filly disappeared around a corner. The 'cannibal' followed--

And then reappeared, walking backward.  Around the corner came Zecora., looking singularly unamused. The guardsman grinned sheepishly. Zecora merely glared at him. "Yum, Yum, Eat 'em up," she said disdainfully. The guard's smile vanished. He mumbled something and hastily retreated to hide behind his smoking cauldron.

Twilight leaned over to Ink Spot. "Awk-- warrrrrd," she muttered.

Zecora stopped glaring at the guardsman and shook her head. "Now there we had a nice little switch, Karma can truly be a witch...." she turned to Twilight, looking a bit embarrassed. "Twilight I am glad to see, though I fear you may have a quarrel with me."

"Why, what's wrong, Zecora?" Twilight Sparkle said, puzzled.

"To you I must confess, I think I made a bit of a mess. While the tale of Nightmare Moon I was revealing, I fear I hurt your daughter's feelings."

There was a pause. "Oh, dear," Ink Spot murmured. "I think I can see where this went..."

"What? Oh that's silly," Twilight protested. "Surely she knew about Nightmare Night beforehand, she's a very smart little filly, and...." she paused. "And I'm pretty sure I mentioned something about the old tale to her..."

"Um, yes," Ink Spot said, hesitant. "But, my dear, did you ever actually sit her down and explain it to her?"

Twilight facehoofed. "No, no I didn't," she moaned. "I just assumed, like a big dummy..." she looked at Zecora. "I'm guessing that her 'legend' didn't go down too well with her."

"She certainly didn't appreciate/ being told of all the foals she ate," Zecora agreed. "And the candy tribute we demanded / left the filly deeply offended."

"Yes, it would," Twilight sighed. "Do you know where she is?"

"She left me with a sharp tongued remark / then followed her friends into the dark," Zecora said. "To the palace they were meant to go, if they did not then I don't know."

"We should alert someone, call the guard," Ink Spot said, suddenly severe. He began looking about for someone to send word.

Twilight waved her hoof. "She's with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I'm sure she's fine..." She stopped in mid sentence, eyebrows flat. "I can't believe I said that out loud." She gnawed her lip. "If she was really upset, she might have run off on her own, or... " Twilight fretted. "Maybe we should ask the guard to help look for her--"

Just as they were about to corner a guard and start the hunt, a trio of shrieks came from the Cannibal's little cul-de-sac. "Don't eat us, Mister Cannibal," a drawling voice said in panic. "Our moms say we're spoiled!"

They looked around the corner; a chuckling cannibal-guard was handing out candy apples to a familiar mad scientist, hunchback, and a Frankenpony monster with two missing boots. "Snips, Snails, Spike!" Twilight exclaimed. "Thank heavens we ran into you... Do you know where Nyx is?"

Spike waved a claw in a 'calm down' gesture. "She's fine, Twilight," he said, biting into his caramel apple. "She's with Princess Celestia."

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight said, surprised. "How did she run into Princess Celestia?"

Spike chewed and swallowed. "She was standing in for Luna as Nightmare Moon," he clarified. "Um.... long story. Tell ya later. Anyway, Celestia flew with her here to the castle. She's safe."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank heavens." Zecora and Ink Spot looked relieved as well. The guardsman in the cannibal costume suddenly looked very professional. "Is there something I can help with Sir? Ma'am?"

Ink Spot shook his head. "No, I think everything's okay, Guardsman," he said. Twilight nodded. "Yes, thank you though..." the guardsman nodded and visibly went back to being at ease. He turned back to his cauldron of candy apples.

"What do you suppose Celestia wants with Nyx?" Twilight fretted suddenly. Not without cause; After Nyx's birth, and her episode as Nightmare Moon, things between Twilight and Nyx and the Celestial Sisters had been....sensitive. Forgiveness may have come from all sides, but it was still difficult forgetting all that had transpired. Celestia's abduction of Nyx. Nyx's transformation into Nightmare Moon, and her conquering (and near freezing) of Equestria. Twilight, in a terror-fueled rage, attacking her mentor Celestia....

Between the four of them things were still... awkward at times.

"It's okay, Twilight," Spike said. "Really. I think Nyx was having some problems and Celestia wanted to help. She's somewhere in the palace right now."

Twilight calmed visibly. "Are you sure everything is all right?"

"Absolutely," Spike said confidently.

Snips and Snails gave each other a sidelong glance. "Least they will be till the princess gets back to us," Snips muttered. Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"Aheh. I'll tell ya later, Twi," Spike said nervously.  Twilight gave him a skeptical look, but let it slide. "We're gonna go join the party. You coming with us?"

"I dunno, Spike," Twilight said. "I think Ink Spot and I were just going to walk around a bit more." She looked up at her date and smiled. Ink Spot smiled back. "If my lady prefers," he said. "It sounds a splendid idea to me."

"Suit yourselves." Spike trotted off, Snips and Snails in tow. "Cool mustache by the way."

"Yeah," Snips and Snails agreed.

Twilight and Ink Spot chuckled. Twilight leaned into Ink Spot's side. "Now where were we? Oh, Excuse us, Zecora."

Zecora smiled and nodded as the two wandered off. Once they were out of sight she sneaked a peek down the cul de sac where the 'cannibal' guardsman was; his back was turned to her and he was head down in his cauldron, fiddling with the smoke machine (and snitching a caramel apple for himself), his grass skirt hiked up. Zecora lingered on the view for a minute, the smirk on her face anything but mysterious and serene--- then walked off down the hallway, sighing. "Alas, it's been a darned long while/ since I saw a striped plot that made me smile...."