Twilight Sparkle let out a yelp as the tip of a blade sliced her flank. Her magic flared to life, yanking her sword from its sheath and swiping at the air behind her. The alicorn spun on her hind hooves, forelegs raised for protection during the evasive manoeuvre.

The black-furred unicorn behind her was grinning, staring at her with green and red eyes that were trailing purple mist. The tip of his horn was tinted red, and the magical appendage was glowing with purple, green and black aura bubbles.

“Sombra.” Twilight spat, narrowing her eyes. She slammed her forelegs back into the ground, cracking the dirt and softer pieces of stone. She pointed her sword at the evil unicorn.

“Twilight Sparkle.” He laughed. “What a delight!”

“Cut the nice guy act! My friends and I locked you away once, and we’ll do it again!” The alicorn growled.

The unicorn seemed momentarily surprised, though whether it was real or not was hard to tell. Then he smiled again. “Whoever said it was act?” The unicorn’s horn stopped glowing, and his sword clattered to the ground. “I simply wish to make a… arrangement. To give you an offer.”

“What offer?” Twilight asked, suspicious. Even so, she let her muscles loosen slightly.

“You will come with me for now. We’ll discuss the rest later.”

“No way!” Twilight shouted, stamping her hoof.

“I’m sorry.” Sombra’s eyes suddenly began to glow, the mist thickening.

Twilight took a step back as the purple mist started spreading through the darkness. “What are you doing?” The mist was clouding around her hooves, freezing cold to the touch.

“But it’s not your choice.”

Suddenly, the mist rose above Twilight’s head before crashing down on her, turning her blood to ice.

“Nooo!” she yelled as the mist slid down her throat and choked her lungs. The last thing she saw was Sombra’s grinning face, the purple mist surrounding everything else in the dark cave.

Then there was only black.

Celestia glared at the dark unicorn, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Sombra!” she shouted. “It was one thing to enslave ponies, but killing an innocent young mare, not to mention a ruler of Equestria, and kidnapping another, is just too far!”

“Oh, Celestia.” Sombra grinned. “I didn’t kill your precious student. Although I suppose she’s not your student anymore. She’s your equal. And who says I kidnapped your sister?”

“What?” The alicorn raised her head, confused.

“Oh, no, no, no. Princess Luna came oh so willingly. Isn’t that so, dear?” the dark unicorn turned his head to the figure sitting in the corner of the small, dark room. At those words, the figure rose and trotted into the light.

The figure was tall, black-furred and female. Her mane was made of mist, and her eyes were blue and snakelike. Nightmare Moon.

“Hello, sister.” She hissed, a fake smile aimed at Celestia.

“L-luna?” Celestia’s eyes grew wide, and the first tears dared to form in the corners of them. “No!”

“I’m afraid so.” Nightmare Moon laughed. “You best leave now, dear sister. Our patience is running thin. We must return to building our castle. It must be finished before your expected attack arrives. That is, if you want your precious Twilight back.”

Celestia lowered her head, choking out, “You’ll regret this, Sombra!” before spreading her wings and disappearing into the darkness.

“No, Celestia, I don’t think I will.”

Twilight whimpered as her tormentor approached once more. For the umpteenth time, she tried to force her magic to work, but the magic restrictor held strong. The dark unicorn grinned.

“Don’t worry Twilight. This is the last time. After this, your life, minus all memories, will be given to my foal. Imagine how the Equestrian warriors will crumble when they see their precious princess fighting against them.”

The alicorn felt the tears run slowly down her cheeks. She only had a second to enjoy the fact that they were hers before the mist filled her vision, slipping into her mouth and nose, finally clouding her eyes until she could see nothing. For a few moments, she could feel pain behind her eyes, but then she could feel nothing.

Then there was only black.

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes nervously. She opened them slowly, curious yet scared of the feeling of being able to see. The light was scary! She was used to darkness. She blinked rapidly as the light attacked her eyes.

When she finally realised the bright light wasn’t trying to hurt her, she opened one eye fully. Being able to see was amazing! She was currently lying in a small blue crib, soft blankets folded under and around her. Beside the crib was a large bed, in which two ponies were sleeping. They must be her parents!

Her father was a dark-furred unicorn, her mother a black alicorn with a mane made of stars. Twilight’s eyes drifted to a picture frame beside the bed. The picture it contained was of the two ponies on the bed, both wearing a thin gold ring on their horn. She couldn’t help but note how both her parents had their ‘cutie marks’. Her mother’s was a crescent moon, her father’s a black crystal.

Twilight glanced down at her own flank. It was lavender, and lacked a cutie mark. The rest of her was lavender as well. She had a short, straight, dark blue mane and tail with purple and rose streaks. She could feel two more appendages just over her shoulder blades, covered in soft lavender feathers. She raised one tiny hoof to her head, and felt a small, hard horn sticking out from the top of her head.

Wriggling around in the blankets, she was able to stand up in the crib, and press against the cool bars. She made a squeak as one of the bars pushed into her muzzle. There was a rustling sound, and suddenly a tall black pony was standing beside the crib.

The lavender foal squeaked again as she was lifted from the crib, surrounded in a blue aura. She flailed her legs as she was dropped from the aura. The black pony held her against her chest with one hoof, looking down at her with love and care in her eyes.

“Oh, Twilight, you’ve opened your eyes!” she smiled.

The filly ceased her struggling, looking up at the tall pony. She gave an adorable squeak and pressed her forehooves to her mother’s chest and giggled. The alicorn smiled warmly, nuzzling the small filly.

“Sombra, honey, wake up!” she called to the unicorn.

He stretched a little before leaving the bed and trotting to his family.

“What is it, dear?” Sombra asked wearily.

“Twilight’s opened her eyes!”

The unicorn looked down at his child in surprise, breaking into a smile as he saw his daughter and her new purple eyes.

“Well done, Twilight.” He smiled.

The filly smiled back, taking one hoof off of her mother and reaching to her father. Her tiny wings fluttered slightly as the hoof rested against her father’s dark-furred chest. The family shared a quick hug before Sombra sighed and motioned to the door. Twilight was placed gently back in her cot and her parents left the room.

“Argh! This is ridiculous!” Sombra growled as the door closed behind them.

“Sombra, surely you expected this?” Nightmare Moon sighed.

“No!” the unicorn snapped. “I expected to wait until her third birthday, when it is physically safe to use magic on her, and then use a time spell on her to give her fake memories of growing up and leaving her in a grownup’s body!”

“But now that you’ve gone through the effort of creating our bundle of joy, you’ve come to love her.” Nightmare smiled softly.

Sombra sighed sadly. “Yes. I have.”

“We can still use the time spell on her.” His wife offered.

“But it just doesn’t feel right!”

“Well… we could use the time spell on ourselves, as well.”

Sombra paused. “All three of us would have memories of our little girl growing up.”

“Exactly.” Nightmare smiled. “And at least three years of her life will be real, even though the fake ones feel real too.”

“You always have the best ideas.” Sombra smiled.

“Indeed, what would you do without me?” Nightmare leaned over and nuzzled her husband lovingly.

“For now, we get to live through a few of the most important years of our filly’s life.” Sombra couldn’t suppress a smile – he felt genuinely excited to show this little piece of himself the ways of the world.

“We’ll have to teach her how to use magic as soon as we can if our plan is to work.” Nightmare sighed sadly, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “Teach her to fear the light.”

“Let’s give her at least one day to know the joys of it before we steal it from her.” Sombra motioned to the door, gripping the handle with his magic.

Twilight pouted as her parents left the room. The tiny alicorn leapt against the bars, squeaking as she fell backwards. She gave an oddly adorable ‘hmm’ before spreading her tiny wings. Somehow she already knew that she hadn’t grown her flight feathers yet; that she still had baby-down covering her wings. But somehow she also knew that baby pegasi had surprising bursts of pegasus magic, allowing them to fly incredibly well.

The tiny alicorn took a deep breath and jumped into the air. Her wings flailed wildly, lifting her a little higher. She reached out her forehooves with a gasp as her wings stopped. She grunted as the tips of her hooves caught the edge of the cot.

Usually only earth ponies had the hoof strength to grab things with so little of their hooves actually on the object. But as an alicorn, she had the pegasus magic burst that lifted her into the air, the earth pony magic burst that allowed her to grab the edge and the unicorn magic burst that allowed her to lift the rest of her body over the edge.

Twilight squealed as her body dropped towards the ground. She tried to reach into her magic reserves, any of them – pegasus would let her fly, earth pony would give her strength, unicorn would let her make a shield – only to find them all empty from the effort of climbing. The tiny alicorn gasped as her descent was halted by a bubbly green and black aura. She struggled feebly as she was lifted to the eye level of her parents. “Twilight, what were you thinking?” her mother gasped, snatching the filly from the air.

Twilight whimpered a little and pulled away from the black alicorn.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is she’s okay.” Her father sighed. “Everything would be ruined if she wasn’t.”