Redemption is rarely the end of the story. Princess Luna was given another chance, saved from an eternity of darkness by a lone unicorn. Without Twilight Sparkle, the world will tremble before the mare who rocked the world with her betrayal in days long past.

Winner of the Second TwiLuna Contest

Featured on May 18, 2014

Featured on EquestriaDaily September 11, 2014

The old castle in the Everfree. Twilight Sparkle knows it's full of secrets that are still waiting to see the light of day. On her most recent exploration of the ruins, however, she finds something that she left there years ago.

Not all things know defeat in death.

For almost a thousand years, the immortal Nightmare Moon has reigned over Equestria as Empress. To the average pony, Nightmare Moon is an overarching enigma whose rule is absolute and whose wrath is terrible. But to Twilight Sparkle, who as an orphan has never known her parents, the Empress is something else entirely. When the young unicorn is brought under the royal wing as an apprentice, she learns a great deal more about the supposed tyrant than she ever knew. But as Twilight is introduced to life with her new mentor, she is thrust into a world of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. Secrets that were never meant to be revealed. As allies and enemies plot against the very peace of the nation, will Twilight fall prey to the perils of her new position? Or will she prosper and find in Nightmare Moon the mother she never had?

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My eternal gratitude to my editor, LordOfTheWrongs, without whom Night's Favoured Child would not be the story it is today.

Now with added TVtropes!

A flip of a coin. A twist of fate.

Twilight Sparkle, younger sister of Princess Celestia's personal student, Shining Armor, grew up listening to her brother's bygone dreams of joining the elite of the elite: The Royal Guard.

Now, fresh out of the Academy, this young mare is ready to prove herself equal to the deeds of the great soldiers she read about as a filly. Too bad the princess she ends up protecting isn't Celestia.

We trained her.
We taught her.
We raised her to godhood.
She brought us down to earth.

Sequel can be found here: Memoirs in Ink and Blood

She's perfect, absolutely perfect. Or I once thought that, Princess Celestia was my world, my idol, my role model, but once Queen Chrysalis defeated her with such ease I began to doubt this world's current Alicorns and rulers. If the powerful Celestia couldn't defend her own ponies, what does that say about the rest of us? As the newest Alicorn to come into being; I fear for us all. Then a voice spoke to me...

If they can't protect your friends and those closest to you...shouldn't you?

Something lurks in the shadows, they search for me, and I fear...I search for them.

Deemed a traitor by the God Empress Celestia, Twilight Sparkle must now flee for her life to escape her inevitable execution. In hot pursuit by Celestia's minions, Twilight discovers a cave where an ancient creature has been kept prisoner for over a millennium.

A thousand years ago, Princess Celestia banished her sister to the moon, that much we know. What wasn’t known, and what Celestia kept secret was that before her banishment, Luna had given birth to a foal. Now a thousand years later, as Nightmare returns to Equestria to bring about Eternal Night.

Twilight Sparkle, protege of Princess Celestia, struggles against the tyranny of this ancient foe. But how will she be able to save herself and her friends when the truth of this ancient legend crashes down upon her? Twilight will have to confront herself...and her heritage.

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