//------------------------------//
// Shattered And Captured 
// Story: Seeking Answers 
// by Skye Mist 
//------------------------------//

Skye woke up earlier than usual. She figured it was about 2 hours before the sun rose. She flew across her room to her dresser, where she had left her necklace. With a light coming from a dim candle in the corner of the room, she looked at the pearls of the necklace. Each shone with an unnatural gleam in the faint light of the candle. She sighed. 'Don't worry, Mommy. Me and Nighty will find you...no matter how long it takes.'

She left the necklace and went downstairs to the kitchen. It was eerily quiet. She had hoped that, just maybe, Night would've been there as well. 'What'd you expect? To see her waiting for you?'

Sighing, she headed back up to do her morning routine. Except without her usual excitement.


************


"Wow." That was all Skye could say as walked into town in disguise.

Night chuckled. "Quite a sight, isn't it? No dreary dark colors like the castle."

The sun was at its peak when the two alicorns in disguise had reached town.

They had searched the forest since dawn and had only managed to cover about half the ground. Quite obviously, they had not found Nightmare Moon.

Now, as they entered town, Amber caught sight of them. Her eyes widened at the sight of the two sisters. She flew over to them and immediately dragged/pushed them to town square.

Skye's cry of protest as she was dragged along was muffled by her sister's tail, who was being pushed along. Night sent a telepathic message through the necklaces: Be quiet! Town square has a lot of ponies. After whatever is going on, we can ask the residents if they'd seen Mother.

Okay. was Skye's only response.

Turns out, they didn't need to ask the townsponies. Standing in the middle of a crowd of ponies was Princess Celestia herself.

Both sisters gasped. Neither had seen the Princess personally, but their mother had described her many times before.

What is Princess Celestia doing here, Nighty? thought-spoke Skye.

I don't know, Skye. I think we're about to find out, though. Night thought-spoke as the Princess cleared her throat.

"Hello, my little ponies. I am afraid I have somber news to tell you all. Yesterday, most of you may have noticed that the moon eclipsed the sun at noon. That was the work of my sister. She wanted the night to last forever. The figure you see on the moon's surface...is her." She paused to blink away tears.

Some of the ponies took advantage of her pause to ask questions.

"Why did she do it?"

"How did you defeat her?"

"What about the battle we heard?"

Those were the questions they asked the most.

Princess Celestia addressed the crowd once more in a melancholy tone. "Luna wanted the night to last forever so that you, my little ponies, would adore her and her night. She was jealous of the praise and attention I got. As for how I defeated her, I had to use the Elements of Harmony. For those of you who don't know, they are six powerful gems that represent the aspects of the most important magic of all, friendship. I...I had to seal her away in the moon, for it was too late for me to reason with her."

Skye narrowed her eyes at Princess Celestia. She had noticed that the Sun Princess had answered only two of the three questions that were heard clearly. Nopony else seemed to notice. 'Well...Mommy always said to go bold or go home.'

She raised her hoof.

Princess Celestia addressed the disguised filly with a smile. "Yes, young one?"

Skye took no time at all to ask. "What do you mean that it was too late for her to be reasoned with?"

She said it with as much innocence as she could.

Princess Celestia's smile faltered. The crowd of ponies stopped muttering to each other and turned to stare at the filly. One could've heard a pin drop.

Skye wondered for a moment if she had said something wrong. Then, Princess Celestia spoke again, this time in a voice barely above a whisper. Yet, everypony could hear her words loud and clear. Too clear for Skye and Night.

"My sister had transformed into a monster. Her once-midnight blue coat turned black, her teeth became jagged, and her mane was a shapeless mist...But worst of all was her eyes. They were like a dragon's. Sharp, cold, and piercing. She wouldn't even respond to her name. She called herself...Nightmare Moon."

Because the crowd was so enthralled by the Princess's story and the Princess herself was crying her eyes out, nopony noticed two unicorns, one snow-white and the other a midnight-blue, gasping and exchanging glances. 

Skye had tears in her eyes. Nighty, does that mean that Mommy...is on the moon?

Night frowned. Wait a minute, Skye. I'm trying to piece this all together myself. I know for a fact that Princess Luna and Mother are not one and the same. Let's see. Princess Luna was Mother's client...she was jealous of her sister...oh sweet Celestia. She and Mother must've merged!

Merged?

Don't you understand, Skye?! Princess Luna enlisted the help of Mother so that she could overthrow Princess Celestia! Now...they're both up there on the moon.

Both of them?! So...Mommy's not coming home? Tears threatened to overwhelm Skye.

Night shook her head. No, she's not, Skye. I just hope that she'll come back one day. I doubt that Princess Celestia would make the banishment permanent since her sister is up there. I just don't understand why Mother would want to overthrow Celestia. I know Luna was a client but Mother knew her limits.

Night directed her attention from her quivering sister to the Sun Princess. She had stopped crying and retained her regal posture. Sadness was in her eyes.

Yet, all Night could do was feel hate and anger towards her. It took all her will and strength to not lunge at Celestia and demand her mother returned to her and Skye. It was her fault that her sister had turned to their mother for help. Her fault that her sister and their mother was on the moon. And here she was, a mess of a princess, crying as she told her tale.

Skye, on the other hand, had mixed emotions. She was angry at Princess Celestia, of course. But she also pitied her. After all, she had pretty much suffered the same as them. Her sister was up on the moon too.


************


The towns ponies broke up. Princess Celestia and her guards left for the mountainside city of Canterlot, where she would build a new castle for her to reside in, as the Castle of the Two Sisters had crumbled for whatever reason Princess Celestia wanted to keep silent about. (Even though they could all guess.)

Skye and Night were glad for their telepathic link because Amber immediately swarmed them after Princess Celestia left. Mostly, Amber kept looking at Skye and Skye was starting to feel a little uneasy around the curious mare.

"Is this your sister, Raven?! You two look so different! The only way I could even tell was her white coat and both of your eyes. She looks so much like her mother! I can't believe you haven't introduced her to me until now!"

Skye's head was reeling, so she didn't answer. Mostly from the fact that her mother was trapped within the moon, and partly from the barrage of questions that were hurdled at her and Night.

Night was more in control of the situation, obviously knowing what her sister was thinking. "Amber, first off, calm down. Second, yes, she's my sister. And before you say anything, I know we look completely different. No need to repeat. There, done yet?"

"Yep!"

'If I ever meet another pony like Amber...I don't even know.' Skye thought.

"Ni-Raven, can we leave yet?" Skye mentally slapped herself for almost blowing their cover. Luckily, Amber was more interested in the falling leaves around them. 

She visibly shuddered from the chilly weather. She had forgotten that it was almost winter and that it was starting to snow in the more...normal places. The Everfree, or home sweet home depending on who you were, was never on the same schedule as the rest of Equestria. One day, it could be raining floods, and the next, it would be as dry as the desert. No natural cycle whatsoever. 

But it was better than what Discord would do, her mother would sometimes say. Somehow, despite all of the fear and hatred of Discord that she had heard, she was rather intrigued with the mismatched Lord of Chaos. There were a few books' depiction of him. They even went as far as to say that his powers could do anything.

Night's voice broke off her train of thought. "We should be getting home right about now. Bye, Amber! See you soon."

"Okie dokie lokie! Oh, I hope you find your mom!"

The amethyst-maned mare half-hopped half-fluttered away before she saw her words' effects. Both sisters froze. A moment later, they resumed their walk. Not a word was spoken. As the town's highest peak faded from view, they changed into their mist and shadow forms.

Then, they were gone, off into the Everfree.


************


Skye threw herself on her bed and cried. Why can't we be a normal family? Why can't we be normal at all? Why is the world so cruel to us?

Night stood outside, listening to her sister's sobs and thoughts. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Skye didn't raise her head.

Night stroked her sister's mane. She said softly, "You know this won't help, right?"

Skye looked up at her sister through bloodshot eyes. "I-I know, but-" Skye sniffled. "-she's gone, Night. Mother's gone."

Night stopped stroking Skye's hair. She knew something was wrong now. Skye always said 'Nighty' and 'Mommy'. This was the first time she had said 'Night' and 'Mother'. She brushed Skye's tears away and walked back to the door. Before she left, she turned around and locked her gaze with Skye's.

"Skye, you know what Mother would say to you? She'd tell you to never forget and move on. She wouldn't want you to mope around.  Why don't you clean up? Okay?"

Skye nodded wordlessly.

Night closed the door behind her.


************


The moon shown brightly upon the land but nopony was up and about...except for one.

Where is it?! Where is that stupid place?!

As soon as the rather silent dinner had been finished and Skye had gone to bed, Night draped her cloak on her back and set off into the forest. She remained in her pony form instead of her shadow form because who would be awake at this hour? 

She flew around, searching for any traces of her mother's last whereabouts. She refused to believe that her mother would blindly merge with a pony, even if they were a client. Also, she must've known Luna and her stood no chance against Celestia. So that left one question: Why?

Night felt her wings falter. She had been flying for hours. As she stooped to land, she saw her destination: The Castle of the Two Sisters. She veered away from the ground and flew towards the castle. As she suspected, it was abandoned and in ruins.

'Such a waste. There are still preservable things here.'

The old door creaked open and Night trotted into the ruins. The door closed behind her with a thud. There was a pillar with five stones on it in the middle of the hallway. In fact, it was the only distinguishable thing in the hallway; the wild plants of the Everfree had covered everything else with vines and moss. 

'Okay, I take that last comment back.'

The pillar drew Night's attention and she flew towards it. 'What are these?' 

She reached a hoof towards one of the stones, but a gust of wind made her turn her head. The door she had walked through was wide open; it was unnerving. She slowly and cautiously walked to the door and closed it behind her. She let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. 'It-It was nothing. Just the wind. The weather's always weird. No need to panic.'

Night turned back around to see a foggy black shadow inches from her. Her eyes widened, her pupils shrank, and she let a blood-curling shriek of pure terror. The black shadow recoiled. Seeing her chance for escape, she turned back to the door and tried to throw it open with her magic.

Tried.

It wouldn't budge. To Night, it felt like a trying to levitate an entire city. She tried pounding it with her hooves, but to no avail. She looked around, but there was no place to hide or run away to. All the broken windows were too far away, the doorway leading to another part of the castle was on the other side of the room, and to add to the problem, the shadow seemed to be recovering from her screech.

There was only one option left.

'Skye! Are you there?!'

No answer.

'Skye?!'

Still no answer.

The realization hit her like a beam of magic. Skye wasn't wearing the pearl necklace. She had seen it on Skye's cabinet when she had comforted her sister.

'So, end of the line? I don't think so.'

The shadow recovered fully and charged at Night. Night squeezed her eyes shut.

The shadow grew nearer. Night kept her eyes shut.

It was mere inches away. Then, there was a flash of light and Night disappeared.

Night appeared behind the shadow and ran towards the doorway.

'Come on. Almost there.'

But she had underestimated the shadow.

As soon as she'd teleported, it had whirled around and sped towards her.

Night felt her hind legs seemingly disappear and she shrieked. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same effect as before.

The alicorn was swallowed up in a mass of darkness.

Before she lost consciousness, she looked to the moon. 'I'm sorry, Mother. I've failed you and Skye.'