“Don’t say things you can’t live up too Grim.”

The flight from Coven to mom’s old shack took only an hour. It also helped that we didn’t run into any Enclave patrols while we flew. Either Dad was able to keep the soldiers that normally kept an eye on the sky’s from doing anything about the skycarriage or something was going on up in the clouds. Either way, not long after we left that small town with a dragon statue in front of it and we were setting down in front of the same shack I’d seen in Stardust’s memories.

“Your mom lived in this dump?” Byte asked as we stepped out of the skycarriage.

“For a little while yeah,” I said as we all started heading toward the small building that looked ready to collapse.

“I looks like it’d fall over if you blew on it,” Aura commented as she poked at the weathered wooden door.

Wingnut examined it a little closer, “Hmm, nope, it’s just meant to look unsafe, you can see that the walls and supports are in good shape. I think somepony just wanted to make sure no pony tried getting in.”

“From all the memory orbs I’ve gone through, it’s supposed to be the place that The Children of the Night first used as a bunker,” I said walking over to the door and turning the handle. It was locked, “She tells me to head to this place and forgets to leave it unlocked.”

“Good thing locks don’t normally stop you from getting into most places,” Aura teased.

“True enough, I’ve yet to meet a lock I can’t pick, but knowing mom, it’s probably littered with traps or something else making it impossible to get in easily,” I said.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll see if I can at least pick the lock,” I pulled out one of my last bobby pins and started to work on the lock. I was just feeling the tumblers inside the lock when the bobby pin started to glow red hot in my magic. I dropped it and watched as the bobby pin melted on the ground, “Okay, that’s a new one.”

“If you can’t pick the lock then how are we supposed to get in,” Stardust asked.

I was just thinking about that as I stepped away from the door, then Byte pulled her gravity gun off her back, pointed it at the door and smiled, “How about we try this,” she fired, a blast slammed into the old wooden door and turned it into splinters, “See that wasn’t so hard.”

She shrugged and holstered her rifle again, “Unicorns always seem to think they’re smart when it comes to putting spells on things. I’m sure Shadow’s mom put spells on it to keep ponies from picking the lock, maybe even protected the door from being shot by plasma rifles or magical energy rifles. She could’ve even made sure that energy weapons like Aura’s spear couldn’t do anything, but my gravity gun fires gravitational pulsations from a small generator inside. I’m the first pony that I know of to make such a gun, so I figured I’d see if it worked.”

I just smiled a little and shook my head, “So in other words you improvised to see what would happen.”

“Duh,” Byte said walking past the splintered remains of the door, “I also like to prove that Unicorns can’t think of everything.”

“Glad to see she’s back to her normal self,” Wind Thrasher said as she followed Byte.

“Yeah,” I said, but I knew that Byte was putting on a brave face, just like I was. Byte had gotten close to Tonto during the three days we spent in Crimson Canyon, same for Wingnut. What most ponies saw as Byte being her normal self, the bitchy smug young mare, was just a mask to hide the scared filly that was alone. She was just like me in that way, but instead of being depressed for eight years when my mom left me in Stable 28, Byte acted like nothing bothered her and made sure ponies were scared as hell of her. I saw some of the real Byte starting to show herself when we were in Crimson Canyon. Now she’d reverted back into the filly I met at that shitty bar just outside of Trotston.

I followed Wind Thrasher with Aura, Wingnut and Stardust close behind. The shack had a single bed that was rotting in one corner, a rusty icebox, broken shelves, and a desk laying on its side missing one leg. Nothing else, nothing that I could see that would lead to an old pre-war bunker that could’ve been used by Night Stalker and The Children years ago.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Aura asked as she scanned the small room.

“As sure as I can be,” I replied, “Everyone look around and see if you can find anything.”

“Find what? This place is almost too small for all of us to fit in let alone hide anything,” Byte said, rolling her eyes.

“Right because the door wasn’t magically reinforced or anything. Why would anypony hide anything behind such an enchanted door?” I said sarcastically, “In all seriousness though, I don’t know where to start, just look for something at seems out of place,” I continued as I started to look around, Aura, Stardust, and Wind Thrasher doing the same.

Stardust bumped into Wingnut, “Hey kid are you going to help us look or not?”

The colt was studying the room, he didn’t even seem to notice Stardust bumping into him or even seem to hear him. Not until Stardust used a wing to poke Wingnut. The colt seemed to come out of his deep thoughts to look up at Stardust, “What?”

“Are you going to just sit here day dreaming or help us find this entrance?” Stardust asked, pushing past Wingnut to go look under the bed.

“I am helping,” Wingnut said going back to his thoughts for a moment, then he got to his hooves and said, “I’ll be right back.”

“Where’s he going?” Byte asked as she pushed the desk out of the way to check the floor beneath.

“I think we’ve looked everywhere at least twice,” Aura commented, “This place isn’t big.”

“Your right Aura,” Wingnut said coming back in through the shattered door, “It’s too small,” he said suspiciously.

I looked at the small building, “Okay, so it’s a small shitty shack, so what?”

“Yes, it’s small, but think about the size of the inside then look at the walls out here.”

“It may look similar in size, but if you look closer you can see that there’s more of a difference than there should be for a shack size. The walls aren’t thick enough to make the inside so small compared to the outside,” he said, looking smug.

His answer took the form of him walking back into the shack pushing past Stardust, Byte, and a pissed off looking Aura just so he could stand in the middle of the room. He started looking around again, first looking at the wall in front of him with a single dirt crusted window, then toward the left wall then the right. Finally, he smiled, “Clever.”

Wingnut grinned wider, “The right wall is closer to the middle of the shack than the left wall. The window looks like it’s right in the center of the far wall so it’s hard to tell, but if you count the boards from the window left to right back and forth, you can see that the right side has one and a half less boards,” he got up and walked toward the right wall then started to tap on it. The knocks made a hollow sound as he did, “There’s something behind here.”

“Even if there is, that’s not a big enough space to put an entrance to go into a bunker,” Aura said.

“True, but that doesn’t mean it’s the entrance, just the way to find the entrance,” he said starting to slowly work his way down the wall then he stopped in front of one spot, “I think I found it,” he said as he pushed his hoof on a big knot in the wood.

Something clicked then the wall was sucked into the floor. Behind it was the true wall to the shack and a single small terminal bolted into the wall. I couldn’t help grinning embarrassingly with a hoof behind my head for doubting our young genius colt, “What would we do without you kid?”

He just shrugged, “You’d look around this shack for a few hours, then you’d throw a hissy fit, Stardust would start shooting things, Wind Thrasher would try to make you two stop, Aura would just leave while you all acted like foals, and I’m sure Byte would be sitting in one corner laughing her ass off.”

I just shook my head and walked over to the terminal, “Honestly, you hit the nail on the head.”

“He did not,” Stardust sulked then said in a quieter voice, “I’d kick a few things first before I started shooting. Ammo’s expensive.”

I ignored my friend as I went to the already unlocked terminal. There was only one option ‘Access C.O.T.N. Bunker’ So I clicked it, figuring there had to be more to this to open the bunker. Sure enough a voice echoed out of the terminal, “Please provide the pass phrases.”

If this Bunker was anything like the base The Children had in Canterlot, then it might be the same. So, digging into my own memories I remembered the phrase recited by Nightstalker, “By the night’s glory, I request passage into the home of these children who look to the Night sky for protection.”

“What kind of pass phrase is that?” Byte asked then her eyes went wide as the terminal spoke again.

“Captain Night Stalker’s personal pass phrase accepted. Welcome home captain.”

The wall slid back into place and the floor under us shook as a section of the floor opened to reveal a large metal platform, just big enough for all of us to squeeze onto.

“Looks like we found our way in,” I said walking over to the metal platform, “Are you all ready?”

Wingnut nodded and joined me still looking proud of himself, Byte, who was still shocked, followed after. Stardust just chuckled to himself joining us on the platform with Wind Thrasher following closely behind. Aura sighed then smiled, “What the hell, we’ve gotten this far, might as well see what your mother was hiding down there.”

The platform shook as soon as all of us were on it plummeting down. The ride was fast, using my best judgement, I’d say that we went quite a ways underground. The perfect hiding place for The Children of the Night when they first came to New Pegasus. Also, a good place to hide out and work on research for a mare that had no where else to go.

The lift stopped at a small decrepit hallway being eaten by two hundred years of rust and calcite build up that had a single door at one end. As soon as we all got off the lift, it shot back up toward the shack. Cautiously we all walked toward the door at the end of the hallway. This was the Children of the Night’s old bunker and who knows how active the traps would be if any. I took hold of the simple door knob with my magic and said, “Be ready for anything.”

My friends all readied their weapons as I pulled Dream Walker out of my holster opening the door, we found ourselves…confused. At the very least I know I was confused, because I thought this place would-be run-down judging by the rustic hallway, or like walking into an old stable, but no, the room was clean, not a hint of dust, or rust, or anything that would tell me that this place had been abandoned for two hundred years before mom found it.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a place this clean…ever,” Stardust said, “And I grew up in a Stable.”

“Thanks Captain Obvious,” I said nonchalantly looking around at the polished floors, metal walls, and clear glass that looked into a small lab. I noticed the polished wooden doors all had names on them. They started just past the lab and wrapped around the level we were on, a big gap in the middle of the floor opening to a room below just like the upper floor to an atrium in a stable…well most stables at least we entered into the upper floor. The one on my left read, ‘Thunderlane’. The room on my right read, ‘Minuette’. I started to walk slowly around the upper level letting my eyes wander over the names of each pony that used to be part of The Children of the Night. Thunderlane, Babs Seed, Cloudy Nights, Comet Tail, Night Stalker, Greta, Lightning Dust, Amethyst Star, and Minuette. The only name missing was Phoenix Heart since she died before they came out west.

Aura was following me as I walked, she finally asked me as I looked up at the name of my great, great, great grandmother, “You okay Shadow?”

“It’s just so strange to be in this place. The place where it all started, where The children started working on Stargazer, where they lived before they built The Lucky Horseshoe.”

I looked up at Minuette’s name for a long moment one more time then shook my head, “No we have enough to do right now. I need to look at the memory orb so I know what Mom wanted me to come here for.”

“Let’s go the lower level first then before you go off into an orb,” Aura said leading the way as we all headed down the stairs then stopped on the last stair as we saw what mom did down here. Or at least I assumed it was her, because across the way from where we stood on the steps I could see memory orbs on a shelf in the back. The lower chamber was ten times the size of the upper, a few rooms split off from this one and a strange machine with two pods was sitting next to the memory orb shelf. Every single orb was hovering in a small light with a protective sheet of glass on the face of the shelf to keep anypony from taking the orbs. The shelf had ten rows to hold memory orbs, five on each row. The first seven rows were filled, but only three orbs was left on the eighth row, leaving the rest empty.

To make this place even more impressive were the wires flowing from each shelf that all led to the two pods in one corner of the room. Along another wall there were a few terminals, a cot was set up near that, and some old snack cake wrappers were thrown everywhere with a stack of Sparkle Cola bottles next to another wall and some clothes and armor. It looked like somepony had left here in a hurry a little while ago, maybe months ago. But if that was true then why was this place so clean on the top level but so dirty down here? I got my answer, when I made the final step down to the floor and tripped on the legs of a robot.

Regaining my composure only to lose it as fast as I gained it, I almost screamed until I saw the broken remains of a white robot that looked like watts or the one in The Lucky Horseshoe. Wingnut and Byte both jumped down after me, the former saying, “That looks like a gen three Miss Nanny bot. Somepony did a number on it.”

He was right, the robot looked like it had taken a few shots from a magical energy rifle, so I walked past it, “Apart from the Miss Nanny, it doesn’t look like anything’s dangerous in here.”

The rest of my friends joined us looking around the larger room. There were a few more doors to the right and a metal door with a window on the wall to the left. Aura walked over to it, “Looks like this was a cell, at least it’s empty.”

Stardust and Wind Thrasher both checked out the other rooms as I walked toward the pods. Stardust came out of the other room quickly saying, “It doesn’t look like anypony’s been her in a few months, maybe a year.”

As I looked closer at the pods I asked, “Did you find anything interesting?”

Stardust joined me, “Nope, just a bathroom, but the water is running still and it’s clean so that’s something nice at least.”

“I guess,” Wind Thrasher said coming back out from the door she’d been checking out, “Nothing here but a few scrap parts and some old food and Sparkle Cola.”

I looked over at Wind Thrasher right as she blushed a little, “I can’t, I mean I grabbed as many as I could, but there are at least eight more crates of it in there.”

“We’ll see what we can get later, right now I think I should check out the memory orb to see what mom wanted me to do here,” I said as I walked toward the cot, “Are you all going to be okay while I’m in the orb?”

Stardust shrugged, “We should be fine, I’m thinking about going back up and hiding the skycarriage just in case we’re here for a little while.”

“Good idea,” Aura said, “I’ll come help you, I’m sure Shadow will be fine with Wind Thrasher and the foals.”

Wingnut and Byte were already pulling parts off the Miss Nanny, but Byte looked up at Aura, “I’m not a foal okay.”

“Foal, shrimp number three, whatever, you’re still small,” Aura said following Stardust as he walked back up the stairs.

As I pulled the orb out Wingnut looked over at Wind Thrasher who was sitting at the end of the cot asking, “Wind Thrasher, did you see any extra parts for this Miss Nanny?”

“Maybe, I’m not sure what I’d be looking for,” Wind Thrasher said heading back toward the room. I just touched the orb to my horn, unlike the orb of Night Stalker’s where it asked what his name was, this one didn’t say anything. Instead a pressure started to build on my horn and I started to find it hard to breath.

It took everything I had to say, “Nightshade,” The pressure vanished and the world melted away…

oooOOOooo

Right away I found myself in mom’s body, she was in the same room I was only it was less messy. She was sitting on the cot looking down at an old photo of me, taken on the last birthday I had when I was still in The Crystal Empire. In the photo you could see how sick I was, my body was thin, dark shadows were under my eyes and even my smile looked forced. I felt tears in mom’s eyes as she slowly ran a hoof down the old photo, a single tear landing on the edge.

“You were such a brave filly even back then my little star,” Mom said, it was like she was talking only to me, as if I was sitting right next to her, “Do you remember when this was taken? One week before we left our home so I could find you a cure.”

She sniffed then a hurt laugh came out of her as she tried to hold back a sob, “Four years old, sicker than a filly your age should have to deal with and you still wanted your father and me to throw you a party. We invited that colt from next door that always dropped by to see you. I forget his name, but he was such a nice colt.”

“His name was Razer Wing, he was a year older than me, but always kind to me,” I said even though she couldn’t hear me.

Mom wiped her eyes, “Razer Wing that was it, I just remembered. His mother worked at the lab with me. I think this was one of my last good memories of our home. Even though you had a bad attack that night when you were sitting with your father in his study.”

I remembered that too, it was the same memory I’d had when I was in The Bramble. Dad was letting me sit with him, talking to me about using my magic without mom’s help when my heart nearly stopped. If mom hadn’t been in the other room, I could’ve died. It was that day that she decided she had to take me to New Pegasus, so she could find the project to help cure my illness.

Mom put the picture away then got to her hooves and walked toward a mirror set up in one corner of the room we were in. I could see how much older she looked compared to when she left the stable. This memory had to be around the same time she’d lost her memories. Her mane was longer than it was now, pulled back into a messy pony tail. Her dark grey eyes were sunken in and dark as if she’d lost all hope. Without the cloak and armor she normally wore, I could see that she had scars all over her chest and forelegs. She was also wearing a Pip-Buck that had a small 97 on it. She must have started using Stardust’s after she took it off him.

She looked up into the mirror, I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden I saw myself in the mirror and my mom to the side of me saying, “Sweetie, if you’re watching this Memory Orb, that means that something’s happened to me. First, I wanted to say that I’m so sorry that I’ve had you following the small clues I’ve been leaving for you, but I couldn’t risk the information I’ve found getting into the wrong hooves. It’s been seven years and six months since I last saw you and I’ve made a lot of enemies over the years. Some from before I left Stable 28 and a lot of them after. If you haven’t ran into The Steel Rangers yet then please stay away from them. I’ve left notes for you on the Mark II telling you this, but I’m saying it again just incase you haven’t unlocked all the files yet. Elder Apple Slice will do anything to get her hooves on it.”

She sighed then chuckled, “Knowing my luck, their bunker was the first place you went to look for me. If my spell worked to help you remember when you first found the Mark II that is. When we lived with the Steel Rangers, life was good, the elder was wise and kind to us both. I wish I could say the same for his Daughter. Apple Slice isn’t trustworthy, though I’m sure she’ll try to make you think that she is. Just don’t trust her, she’s been working with another Elder, one that you’ve never met, but who will do anything to get a Mark II. The only good thing is that he doesn’t know that the one he needs is the one you now have. The other two are special, but nothing like yours. Just, stay away if you can, and if you’ve already run into them and helped them get a Mark II from either Stable 9 or Trotston, then I’m just glad you’re okay. At least I hope you are if you ever get to see this orb.”

She sat down and looked away from the mirror for a moment then took a deep breath and looked back at herself, “I’m saying all of this as if you were here, because I don’t know any way of explaining to you why I had to do all of this. That’s why once I’ve made this memory into an orb, I’m giving it to Tonto. He’s the only Red Talon griffon I trust. I needed you to come here so you can see the truth of why I am the way I am and who I am, how I got my power, why I came out here and why I’m looking for Falling Shadows.”

She looked toward the rows of memory orbs, “Those are all mine, I’ve made every one of them over the years and brought them here and set them up to work with that machine. It’s an invention of our Grandmother Minuette. As far as I know, it’s the only one she ever made. What it does is takes the memories of any orb put onto the shelves and feeds them to those pods.”

She looked back at the mirror where I still saw myself next to her, I can see her eyes looking to the side as if she was looking directly at me, “I want you to get into one of the pods and watch them all. Understand that some of them will be hard to understand, or they may show truths that you may not want to know about me, but you have to understand what’s at risk and why you need to finish what I started. Even though I don’t want to make you do this, it has to be done. The memories will take a few days to watch, the pod will make sure your body is hydrated and fed so you’ll be okay. Before you watch them, make sure you have a pony or two you can trust to keep an eye on you though. Unlike most memory orbs, you can be pulled out of the pods in the middle of a memory. Don’t go into the pod if you’re alone, if you don’t have anypony you can trust, then hire a Red Talon griffon, talk to Tonto and he’ll tell you who you can trust to watch your back.”

She sighed, “I know something’s about to happen. I’m not sure what it is yet, but I just know that my time is coming to an end,” Tears started to fall again as she looked back at her own reflection, “My little Star, you need to get Aquila out of you, if you don’t…just…find a way, because I couldn’t live with myself if I let that thing inside you take over. I know you can never forgive me for letting my worry for you blind me to the danger of what was sleeping in that old lab. I just hope that you’ll at least understand why I had to try to help you. I want you to know that I’m so sorry for everything I did, remember that I love you with all of my heart and I miss you every day. When you’re better, try and find your father and go home. Be happy, find somepony that loves you and have a happy life.”

Her crying shuttered her speech now as she took in a deep breath, “I was hoping that I’d see you again one day Shadow, my little star, but I know better now. That’s my punishment for everything I put you through. Twelve years away from home, telling you Nightshade was dead, letting that horrible monster into you, and taking away your memories. I’ve been an awful mother and all I can do is say that I’m sorry for it all. Goodbye my Little Star, remember that you are powerful, kind and the best daughter a mother could ask for. Be brave and never give up. Shine bright, brighter than any pony ever has before.”

She took in another deep breath then choked out, “I love you so much and I’m so proud of you…”

oooOOOooo

The memory ended so quickly that I jumped when I came out of it, the orb falling onto the cot next to me as I breathed heavily. Wind Thrasher saw me jump up and ran over to me, “Are you okay?”

Aura and Stardust were just coming back down the stairs as I spoke, Aura saying, “So she wanted you to come all the way out here just to say goodbye?”

I wiped my eyes then shook my head, “No,” I pointed at the orbs then the pods, “She wanted me to watch those. Those pods make it so that any pony can watch the memories. She said I have to see them to understand what she was doing and how I can finish what she started to get Aquila out of me.”

My friends looked over at the orbs then the pods, then Stardust said, “Yeah right, like you’re going to just get into that thing. Those memories will take forever to watch.”

“I just know. That memory wasn’t fake, mom knew something was going to happen to her, so she wanted to make sure I’d know what to do. She knows that Aquila has to be stopped so she wanted to make sure I had the information I needed,” I said as I walked toward the pods.

Aura walked over to me and put a talon on my shoulder, “Do we even have the time for you to do this?”

I looked up into her beautiful icy blue eyes, “I don’t have time to wait. If this can help me free myself from Aquila, then I have to try.”

She sighed then pulled me into a tight hug, “Fine, but you aren’t doing it alone, there are two pods, I’ll watch them with you.”

I hugged her back then pulled back, “The pods are made for ponies, you won’t fit.”

“I’ll do it,” Wind Thrasher said, “Aura you can help Stardust keep an eye on us and keep this place safe, maybe plan our next move.”

Wind Thrasher nodded, “I won’t be much help while she’s in there anyway, so I might as well watch them with her.”

Stardust sighed then shrugged, “Fine, but I don’t like it, what if something happens while you’re in the middle of the memories?”

I pushed the button to open the pods then looked back at them, “Mom said there’s a way to pull us out in case of an emergency. If something happens pull us out.”

Byte trotted over to the small terminal next to the pods, looking over the files on it, “Foal’s play, I can monitor them from here.”

“Okay, I guess we don’t have a choice, plus we should lay low for a little while anyway while things settle with The Unchained Talons,” Aura said as I got into one pod, Wind Thrasher in the one next to me.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, I love you,” I said leaning up to kiss her.

“That’s what worries us,” Stardust said with a laugh, “Good luck you two.”

I smiled then closed the pods, once they were shut I heard Byte saying from a speaker next to my head, “Okay, I’m starting up the program, be ready…in three, two, one…” everything went dark and the world melted away…

oooOOOooo

I found myself in a filly version of my mom. She was walking down one of the roads in the Crystal Empire near the large castle where a bright white light was shooting up toward the sky, a barrier emanating from it to protect the town from the black cloud of death. She was holding onto a single pencil, concentrated with everything she had to keep it floating in front of her. Her mind was so lost in her small task that she didn’t even notice the other foals walking the other way until she bumped right into them.

She fell back, dropping the pencil. She shook he head saying, “Hey watch were you’re going.”

She looked up and her ears fell back as she saw a filly around her age, another unicorn with a red coat and a bright green mane. Two pegasi colts on each side of her and a dark grey unicorn with orange eyes behind them. The filly mom ran into looked disgusted as her eyes fell on mom, “Oh goddesses, you touched me, gross.”

“What are you even doing this close to the old castle Spell? I thought your family lived near the wall?” the red unicorn filly said.

The filly rolled her eyes, “Ori? Why would he even bother with a weak spell caster like you anyway. Even if you are his sister, you’re just a pathetic unicorn. They should just cut your horn off and put you to work doing Earth Pony stuff. Now get out of here before I tell the guards you’re trying to steal stuff.”

The two colts laughed, one saying, “Look Scarlet, she thinks she’s tough.”

The dark grey filly put a hoof on Scarlet’s shoulder, “Maybe we should just leave her alone Scarlet, we have class soon.”

Scarlet looked back at her, “Keep quiet Stormy, this pathetic excuse for a unicorn needs to learn her place.”

I could tell that mom was getting mad, her horn started to strain as she pulled at her magic, “Shut up Scarlet, or I’ll…I’ll…”

Scarlet just started to laugh, “Oh look, she’s trying to cast a spell. Hahahaha, what are you going to do? Let your horn glow at me! I’m soooo scared.”

“I’ll…” mom tried saying, but her voice was weak and she started to shake.

“Move,” Scarlet said, her own horn glowing as she shot a spell at mom, throwing her to the side and into the steps that lead into the Crystal Castle. The two colts and Scarlet started to laugh as they walked off.

The dark grey filly however walked over to mom, “Here let me help you Spell.”

Mom was doing her best to keep from crying as she took Stormy’s hoof, “Thank you Stormy, I don’t know why she has to be so mean to me.”

“She’s a bitch, she excelled early with magic and she thinks that makes her special,” as the filly helped mom up I realized I knew the young grey mare, it was a young Dr. Stormy.

“Why do you hang out with her then? You’re nothing like her and you’re way smarter too,” Mom said as she tried and failed to pick up her saddle bags, “I’ll never get the hang of this.”

Stormy used her own magic to help mom, “You will one day Spell, trust me. You’re a smart filly just like me, you just need to find your own power and one day you’ll show up Scarlet.”

“I do,” Stormy said as she looked toward where her friends went, “I have to get to class, you want to meet me at the malt shop later?”

“Maybe, Ori wants to help me with my magic later when he’s done with class, but I’ll see if I can make it. That is if mom or dad don’t try to make me come home early.”

“Well I’ll be there for a while studying, bring Ori with you if you want. He’s always welcome.”

Stormy made a gagging sound, “Ewww, no, he’s just nice that’s all. Anyway, I’ll see you later okay?”

Mom sighed, kicked the pencil away, then looked up at the old castle, “Find my power, as if, I’m just like mom and dad, useless for a unicorn.”

She started walking up the steps and toward the doors that led into the castle. Guards on both sides of them keeping ponies out, but she wasn’t trying to get in, she started looking around, “Where are you Ori? You said you’d be here at noon and it’s way past noon.”

She sighed and started walking toward the wall so she could sit and wait. As she did she looked toward those doors again, a zap went through her horn. She jumped then looked around, “What was that?” as she looked toward the doors again her horn zapped again, she walked closer, “What’s going on?”

When she was a few inches away from the doors, one of the guards, a pegasus in power armor said, “That’s close enough young filly, no pony is allowed inside.”

Mom looked up at him and backed away, “I’m sorry, I just felt something strange and I wanted to see what it was.”

The other guard looked over at her saying, “Hey aren’t you Fallen Star’s kid? Go back to your run down shanty before we call the city guard, your kind isn’t welcome here.”

“You better watch you tone unicorn, your family is already close to being kicked out of The Enclave as it is, don’t make it worse.”

Mom backed away looking down at her hooves, “Sorry sir, I don’t know what came over me.”

As he spoke two stallions started to fight a few feet away, just at the bottom of the steps. The other guard cursed, “Damn it, why can’t ponies drink and fight when it’s later so I don’t have to deal with them,”

They started to head down to the two fighting stallions, but the first guard looked back at Mom, “You better not be here when we get back.”

“Okay sir,” Mom said watching them fly off to break up the fight. Then she looked back at the doors and smiled, “Okay, if you don’t want me to be here then I won’t. She pushed the doors to the castle open and slipped inside.”

She looked around quickly trying to figure out where that strange feeling in her horn was coming from. Just in the entry-way a long hallway led toward a set of double doors that must have led to the throne room. The feeling in her horn however pulled her to the right and down a small hallway. So, mom followed it, she walked around the mostly empty castle, not running into any ponies as she trotted. The sparking in her horn led her down some stairs then more hallways, dark places where it looked like no pony had been in a long time. Finally, she found herself next to large glass doors that lead out to a beautiful garden. She pushed open the doors to walk out to the courtyard when the feeling went away. She stopped then looked back at a statue of Luna.

“Why is a statue of The Goddess of the night stuck at the end of a hallway?” she said and I agreed, you could barely see the beautiful statue in the darkness just past the garden’s doors.

Mom walked over to it and looked it over, then she noticed a small engraving on the bottom corner of the statue right on the base near Luna’s hoof. She whipped away some dust then read the small words, “Luna is our mother, the mother of the night. We, her children, live to protect Equestria from the shadows. We serve in darkness to protect the light. Huh that’s strange, why would anypony etch that there?”

Something in the statue beeped and mom backed away as the eyes of Luna’s statue lit up and a flash of blue light rolled over her. Then the statue came to life and stepped out of the way, as it did a small voice seemed to whisper, “Welcome Child of the Night,” just behind where the statue had been was a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

For a long moment Mom just looked at it, her hooves shaking, that is until she heard a voice from down the hall, “I’m sure she came in here, that little brat used that fight to sneak in and if the captain finds out we let some filly in here, we’ll both lose our jobs!”

“Oh no,” Mom said, and she ran to the door, opened it and ran through, as soon as the door closed I could hear the statue stepping back in place to cover the door. Mom looked back at it and started to shake when she realized that she was trapped in this dark hallway.

After taking a few breaths, she calmed down and started heading down the hall, her horn still sparking now and then. Until she came to a single oak wood door. As soon as she stepped in front of it, the feeling in her horn stopped again. She looked around, back down the hall, to the walls on each side of her, but the feeling never came back.

She lifted a hoof and opened the door. Beyond was an enormous room, not just a room, but a library. I wondered to myself as Mom trotted forward if this was the place Uncle Oricalcos called the Forgotten Library. As mom walked small lights came to life as she started to look through the books on one of the shelves. Each one was some kind of spell book, from simple beginners’ books to advanced ones. Another shelf held thick books of history, another with books on robotics, and so on.

“This place is amazing!” Mom said jumping with joy as she started walking around the library, her eyes scanning the titles of each book. The room had to be old, but not a single scrap of dust could be seen. Mom went around one of the shelves and stopped. At the end of the row of books was a table with a massive tome laying open on the desk. Around the table were two skeletons, one in Pegasus power armor, the other was a unicorn in an Enclave Officer’s uniform. When she walked closer she saw dried blood on the simple blue carpet.

Mom started to shake as she walked closer saying, “Hello? Is anypony in here?”

No pony answered, so she walked even closer to the skeletons and looked to where the blood went to. There was blood everywhere, dried onto the table, the books around it and the floor, but further down the way bloody prints from what could only be talons led toward a solid wall of books, as well as a drag mark as if a griffon had come this way dragging a body with it.

“Whatever happened here, happened a long time ago,” Mom said taking in a deep breath then looking at the book on the table, then at a single statuette sitting next to it. A statuette that was now in my own saddle bags, Twilight Sparkle. Mom’s eyes went wide and she picked up the statue, ignoring the death and gore around her.

“Twilight Sparkle! The best magical pony in Equestria, who would leave such a beautiful statuette like you down here,” Mom said as she looked it over, “I’m going to take you with me and get you out of this place,” she concentrated with all of her magic and used it to slowly take hold of the Statuette so she could use her hooves to open her saddle bags.

Mom’s eyes went wide as she felt something happen. Her magic which was barely able to hold onto the statuette before got a little stronger and it was like something clicked inside her head. She looked at the Statuette for a long moment then smiled, “I don’t know what you are, but I’m never letting you out of my sight.”

She put the statuette away then looked down at the book. It was open to a page explaining how advanced teleportation worked and how to use it without drawing on too much power. Mom used her magic to close the book and saw nothing written on the cover. So, she opened it to the first page, still nothing apart from a table of contents. So, mom looked on the last page of the book and her heart started racing again, ‘Property of Minuette.’ The same spell book I now carried.

“Minuette, so this library has to be the one our grandfather spoke of. The library where you kept all of your secrets. He said its location was lost when you disappeared. It’s a forgotten library, one with spells that no pony has seen in a long, long time,” Mom said her smile growing, “Maybe I can learn from these. And no pony will ever say I’m a weak unicorn again.”

The memory faded only to be replaced by another. This time Mom was older, probably closer to my age now. She’s just outside a small school building near the Crystal Palace talking with a young handsome gold pony with bright purple eyes, a purple six-pointed star encircled with zebra glyphs. It was a younger Oricalcos.

“Grim I don’t understand why you’re so worried, you’ve made a lot of progress in your spell work over the years,” my uncle said giving her a smile.

“Why do you need to do more? You’re already top of your class, you’ve shown up that bitch Scarlet in a dozen ways now. Isn’t it enough that you’ve surpassed every ponies’ expectations?” he asked.

“No, it’s not, not if I ever want to get into the research department in Nimbus,” Mom said.

Oricalcos chuckled a little to himself as he sat down next to mom, “Grim, I think you’re thinking a little too far ahead. You still have a two more years of school left. Just try and enjoy life a little and stop trying to push yourself so much.”

She sighed and leaned against her brother, “I know, but I just feel like I’m wasting time in my classes when I already know it all. I mean I’ve learned more from the books in the Forgotten Library than I ever did in school.”

He pulled her closer giving her a hug, “Listen sis, even I had to wait until I was done with school before I even started looking into getting a job in The Enclave. Just relax and be a normal teenager for once.”

Mom’s eyes fell as she said, “The sooner I get out of school the sooner I can get away from home.”

“Mom, dad, both of them are a nightmare to live with. You’re lucky you got out when you did. I wish I could live with you instead.”

“I know, but you know that you can’t go up to Nimbus until you have a job up there.”

Mom sighed again, “Stupid laws, I don’t know why the Enclave can’t just see unicorns as equals.”

Mom looked up at her brother, “Isn’t there anything you can do so I can move up there with you?”

He moved a hoof up to rub her mane, “I wish there was, but even if I could, I’m not home much, I’m always working on some new spell to help the military. Even if I could get the city council to allow it, my commander wouldn’t.”

A few tears formed in mom’s eyes as she said, “I just want to get away from Dad. Both of them if I can, no matter how good I get with my magic, they still don’t seem to care.”

“Dad’s a bastard and moms just stuck in her own world of big dreams of having a better life. You know I may have an idea on how you can get away from them,” he said.

He smiled, “Remember that idea you had about how you can make your magic more powerful using less energy?”

She nodded, “Yeah, mixing my own magic with the glyphs of a zebra’s together. Why do you ask?”

He smiled wider, “My commander’s son works with the Research Department in Nimbus. If you can make that idea work, I’ll see if he can set up a meeting with the department heads and see about getting you in.”

The smile on my uncle’s young face was wonderful to see as he said, “Of course, I’d do anything for you.”

The next memory started with mom sitting at a malt shop with Stormy saying, “So, you really have a meeting with the three department heads from Nimbus!?”

Mom took a sip of her malt, “Yeah, Ori talked to his commander who talked to his son. His son I guess has some pull with the department heads and they set up the meeting.”

Stormy smiled at mom leaning her head on a hoof as she said, “I’m so jealous, I’d love to get a chance like that.”

Mom chuckled to herself, “Oh I plan on you getting in too Stormy, remember we always said we’d do this together. Best friends forever.”

I wasn’t sure if mom could see it, but the way Stormy was looking at her, it was the same way I looked at Aura sometimes or how I caught Wind Thrasher looking at Stardust when he wasn’t looking. Stormy seemed to catch herself as she lifted her head again, “Always Grim, but how am I going to get in? I don’t have anything as good as you do to show them.”

Mom smiled and leaned closer to her saying quietly, “Ponies have been saying the same thing about mixing Zebra Magic with Pony Magic for years and I’m going to prove them wrong.”

Mom looked around making sure no pony was watching then she said, “Watch this,” Mom took Stormy’s malt and placed it in the center of the table. Her horn started to glow and being inside her body I could tell that she was doing something very different than what most unicorns did to cast a spell. On the table just under the malt, a circle with glyphs in it showed up, glowing blue. Then the entire malt turned into stone.

Stormy’s jaw dropped open as mom beamed, “How did you do that? You shouldn’t be able to transfigure something like that into stone, even if you could the amount of energy it would cost would leave you panting and weak.”

Mom shook her head saying, “Using the magic circle I don’t have to use hardly any of my magic. All I do is use it to form the circle then a little more to make sure what I want is put into the spell and the circle does the rest. The power to cast the spell is pulled from the energy created by the shifting of the tectonic plates deep in Equus’s crust.”

“Can you teach me to do that?” Stormy said still looking at the rock that was shaped like her drink, “And maybe get me another malt.”

Mom just laughed, “I could but it would take a lot of time, you have to learn everything about the zebra language and understand how they use their magic.”

“They don’t, they use magic from other sources. Normally gems and stuff like that, this kind of magic is the hardest for them to do and takes a lot of time to form the magic circles. I just found a way to make it a lot quicker,” Mom said as the memory faded away.

The next memory started with mom in the middle of explaining the same thing she’d shown Stormy at the malt shop to two unicorns and a pegasus sitting at a desk, “So you see with this, I can take magic that is thought to be impossible or takes too much energy to preform and make it a hundred times easier.”

A unicorn mare who looked as old as Box Tape, looked at mom like she was a bug, “It’s an interesting theory Grimoire Spell, but that’s all it is. You aren’t the first pony to come up with this idea and fail at preforming it.”

The other unicorn, a stallion, yawned saying, “I thought you had something worth showing us Miss Spell, I didn’t come all the way down here to waste my time. You may show yourself out.”

“I’m sure you think you can, but as I said, the magic isn’t possible,” the unicorn mare said.

“Miss Spell,” the stallion said, “I’m not going to waste more of my time watching you put on an illusion to make us think your so-called theory is possible. Now leave.”

The Pegasus stallion put up a hoof, “No, I’d like to see. Grimoire, you said this power can make spells easier to do am I right?”

The Unicorn mare rolled her eyes, “Light Fog, don’t listen to her, she’s just the youngest daughter of farm ponies at the outer edge of The Crystal Empire, her family hasn’t been good at magic for over a hundred years.”

The pegasus looked over at her, “From what I read, her brother is a very gifted unicorn, so why can’t she be the same? Also, she’s the top of her class, passed all the exams, finished school early, been able to show up most of the unicorns two years over her and seems to think she was able to figure out a theory that no unicorn has been able to make work. We came all the way here from Nimbus to see what she can do, it’s the least we can do by letting her demonstrate. And if you remember my own family comes from the slums of Nimbus and you still took me in all those years ago.”

“Fine, but make it quick, but if she really think she can do this, then I want her to prove it by doing something no unicorn can without using most of their energy,” the mare said.

The unicorn stallion took a large diamond out of a bag and set it on the table, “Shatter this into diamond dust only using your magic, if you can.”

Even I knew that was something that a unicorn shouldn’t try to do. Most gems hold spells well, diamond being one of the best. They also can reflect magic better than anything else in the world. To shatter one that big into dust would require her to put so much energy into it that the gem can’t hold the power then shatter it into dust without that pent-up magic recoiling back at her.

Mom took the diamond with her magic and moved it to the center of the room, “Do any of you have a blast box?”

The Pegasus defending her rolled his eyes and pulled out a small box giving it mom, “Here you go, don’t listen to these two they just don’t want to get shown up.”

Mom took it then placed the translucent box over the diamond. Mom then concentrated her magic. Again, I felt the strange way her magic moved through her horn as four magic circles appeared around the box, one under the gem two on a side, and one on top. Then light started to fill the gem, it got brighter and brighter until mom and the other ponies had to look away. A loud boom filled the room followed by a flash of light so bright I could see it through mom’s eyelids. When mom stopped the spell, she looked at the shimmering dust laying inside the box.

“It has to be a trick, there’s no way her theory worked,” the unicorn mare said.

The pegasus just smiled, “No trick that, well Grimoire, thank you for the beautiful show. I think you are a very bright young mare with a lot of great ideas and power from the look of it. So, if my colleagues agree, I think we’d like to offer you a job.”

The mare was still looking at the dust, “Yes…I don’t know how you did that, but yes.”

The pegasus frowned, “Well you won’t be moving up to Nimbus, not yet at least, but since you live so far from the sky port to get to Nimbus, we’ll make sure you get lodging closer to town.”

Mom beamed then asked, “Um…would it be okay if I have a friend join me there?”

The pegasus seemed interested so he asked, “I don’t see a problem with it, but normally we only let our employee’s live in the housing we set up.”

“Oh trust me, my friend Stormy is just as smart as I am, and has more idea’s that you might find interesting. She’s waiting for me outside if you want to meet her.”

The pegasus smiled as he looked at his still shocked co-workers, “Show her in.”

The memory shifted again, only this time mom was back in the same living room I’d seen only once before in Oricalcos’s own memories. Her face hurt, same for her ribs and it felt like she’d broken a leg or at least badly sprained. One eye she couldn’t see out of as she looked up with her good eye at an older stallion that looked so much like her brother. It was her father and he was holding a hoof up ready to hit her again.

“You ungrateful little shit!” he yelled as he slammed a hoof down on her ribs again, “We spend all that money to let you go to that damn magic school and this is how you repay us. I never said you could leave to get some job in Nimbus.”

Mom spat blood then said quietly, “I…I want to go, I want out of this house.”

“Tough SHIT!” her father yelled picking her up with his own magic and throwing her into a wall. Then he got in her face, “You’re my daughter, you work here on the farm to help us pay for the fucking food and shelter we’ve given you all these years. Your mother can’t do the work anymore, we need you here.”

I could see a short unicorn sitting in one corner watching, “Quartz she’s too stupid to understand how much work we’ve put into making sure she has a home.”

He spat on mom, “Tell me about it, tell me how did you trick those fools from Nimbus into thinking you had real power. What tricks did you pull to make them think you were worthy of working for them huh!?”

He slammed her into the wall again, “Don’t pull that kind of shit, you’re nothing but a weak useless unicorn. You’re lucky we didn’t throw you out when you were a filly. We should have let you starve in the cold or made you walk through the black cloud. At least then we wouldn’t have had to deal with your sorry ass for so long.”

Mom started to cry as pain ran up her back as he slammed her into the wall again then threw her across the room. Her mother looked over at him saying, “Quartz I think she’s had enough.”

“Shut up Fallen Star, she has no idea what enough is. I’ve tried and tried to make her understand that she’s useless, but she still doesn’t seem to understand,” he said walking closer to mom, “You know that you won’t last two months with that job. Do you know what’s going to happen when you get tossed out on your ass? You’re going to have to work the streets, maybe here in the Crystal Empire or in the Twin Cities. You’ll have to sell your body just to eat, you’ll be nothing more than a pathetic whore!”

He didn’t listen getting even closer to mom, “Maybe that’s how you got the job, did you suck one of the ponies off so he’d take pity on you?” he ran a hoof slowly over her face, “Is that what you did you fucking whore?”

Her father lifted her with his magic and slammed her face into the wall holding her their then I felt her tail lift as her father got closer to her, “Fuck me huh, is that what you want?” he moved his muzzle an inch away from her ear, his body close to hers, “Because I have no problem doing it, daughter or no, you need to learn who’s boss around here just like your mother. Maybe once I make you my bitch, you’ll figure that out.”

One of his hooves moved away from mom and a slap echoed though the room followed by the sound of her mother crying and running from the room. Then his body was pressing against her as his breath rolled over her. A strong whiff of alcohol rolled over her as he breathed heavily, “How about it whore, do you really want it or are you going to be a good filly and do as your told?”

“Or what?” he said as his hoof ran down her stomach, his magic still pinning her face to the wall, his hoof almost between her legs, “Cry all you want, but the only way you’re going to learn is if I show you who’s…”

Mom’s horn glowed as his hoof just ran too far, a magic circle appeared in the air and blasted him off. He slammed into the far wall and mom tried to run, she got into the hall almost running into her mother as mom headed for her room, pain running up her foreleg. She dove for her dresser picking up what looked like a portable radio. She just started to yell into it, “Ori Help!” before the radio was ripped away from her and smashed against the wall.

She turned around quickly seeing her father in the door, blood running from his nose, “You’re going to pay for that bitch. How dare you attack me!”

“Stay away from me.” Mom said backing against her wall, pain running up her broken leg as she tried to stand on it.

“Fuck that, when I’m done with you, you ungrateful whore, you’re going to wish you were dead!” he said as he started to walk toward her.

“I said….” her horn glowed bright blue and ten magical circles appeared around her father, “To say away from ME!”

Light flared in the room and her father started to scream. The circles started to glow brighter as her father screamed louder. After a moment I could see why, his coat was started to bubble with blisters, they started to burst and form new blisters as his skin burned. His eyes turned red and blood started to flow from them along with his nose and mouth. His scream got higher as his eyes exploded, his coat burned away, the skin under it turned black. Then the scream stopped as his body started to shrivel until he was half the size he had been a moment ago. The magical circles vanished and her father’s corpse fell to the ground with a loud thud.

A moment later her mother appeared in the door, her eyes falling on the husk that was her husband a moment ago, “What did you do?”

Mom’s eyes were just stuck on the body as she said, “He got what he deserved.”

“You killed him Spell…I’m getting the guards!” her mother said turning to run away from her daughter, only to find Oricalcos standing there.

My uncle looked at the husk that was once his father, then at mom’s broken and bruised body then asked, “What happened?”

“Oh Ori thank The Goddesses you’re here. Your psychopath of a sister killed Quartz, I’m getting the guard don’t let her leave.”

Oricalcos’ horn glowed and a moment later, their mother passed out. He walked in and pulled Mom close to him, “Are you okay sis?”

Mom started to cry, “I just came home to get my things and dad freaked out…he…he attacked me, he…tried to…tried to…” Mom couldn’t finish what she was trying to say.

“Shhhh, it’s okay Grim, I’ll take care of this. Right now, we need to get you to a doctor. Can you walk?”

“Don’t worry, let me take care of mom’s memory quick then I’ll get you to a safe place, just try to calm down okay.”

“That’s my baby sis,” Oricalcos said walking over to their mother his horn glowing as he performed a memory spell. Then he was back slowly lifting mom in his magic, “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

The memory faded and another started up. I still couldn’t believe what my own grandfather was going to do to mom. To make it worse, my grandmother just let it happen and blamed mom for him dying. No wonder mom never talked about them, why I never met my grandmother or grandfather, they were monsters, one was dead, the other should be.

The next memory started with mom sitting on a cloud in a park in what could only be Nimbus, Stormy sitting next to her, both of them looking up at the blue sky. Stormy saying, “So I hear that you and Striker are getting serious now.”

Mom chuckled, “He’s such a nice stallion and yes I think we are, but I told him I’m not going to stay the night with him until we go on at least ten dates.”

“You’ve been seeing him for a year now, haven’t you gone out that many times by now?” she asked.

“Yes, we have, but we don’t get to go out much, work keeps us both so busy,” Mom said as she yawned and rested her head on Stormy’s shoulder, “How are you doing with your marefriend?”

Stormy waved a hoof, “She’s more beauty than brainy for my taste. She can’t even tell the difference between rubidium and cesium.”

Mom laughed again, “I don’t think most ponies could tell you what those even are.”

“Maybe, but I’m smarter than most mares,” Mom said, “I thought you said she was really fun in bed?”

“I thought that was the most important thing when you look for mares,” Mom teased.

“Yeah, when I’m looking for a little fun, but not with a pony I want to be my marefriend. Now enough about me, tell me what’s the next step with Striker?”

Mom shrugged still laying her head against her friends’ shoulder, “I don’t know, I think he might be the one, but he has so many secrets. His whole family does.”

“They have, but I’m not sure why that matters. His father’s a dick, trust me my brother has to work with him, and don’t get me started with his brother Nightshade. That stallion gives me the creeps, he’s always staring at me when I see him with Striker,” Mom said shivering.

“I don’t know, I think Nightshade is kind of nice if you get him on his own.”

“And when have you been alone with Nightshade? I thought you only liked mares.”

Stormy sighed, “I do, and get your head out of the gutter Grim. I got to know him when I spent those months at the training camp helping the military last year, remember?”

“Yeah he was, he showed me around and talked to me a lot when he was on guard duty at the base and I was working late.”

“We didn’t talk about you, mostly just about his family and how he always has to live up to his father’s expectations. Maybe he’s just jealous that you’re with Striker, he did used to have a crush on you back in school,” Stormy said.

Stormy just laughed again and for a while they both just watched the sun start to set. Finally, Stormy asked, “What if Striker doesn’t end up being the one?”

“What will you do if you end up not liking him as much as you thought you did?” Stormy asked, her orange eyes still on the setting sun.

“I don’t know, I guess I’ll cry a little, hang out in your room for a few nights, eat too much ice cream, the usual.”

“Do you ever think you’d like to be with…you know…” Stormy said, her voice trailing off as she looked away from mom.

“Stormy, what’s on your mind, come on you can tell me, I’m your best friend, I don’t judge.”

Stormy moved forward and kissed mom full on the lips. I felt mom’s body tense up as Stormy held the kiss for a long moment. Then she pulled away blushing bright red, “I’m sorry Grim, I don’t know what came over me!”

Mom’s eyes were still wide her face still in a state of shock, “Where…did that come from?”

“Nowhere, I just got lost in the moment, I’ll…head back home. I’m so sorry,” and before Mom could say anything, Stormy Teleported away.

Mom just looked at the spot where her friend vanished for a long moment then cursed. She pulled on her own power and teleported as well, in a flash of blue light mom was at a sky port Stormy not far off talking to a Pegasus about getting passage back down to the Crystal Empire. Mom walked over to her, the clouds under her hooves soft and cool.

Stormy jumped then looked back at mom, a blush on her face, “Grim, why did you follow me?”

“I know, but I’m just so embarrassed and I didn’t know what to say or what to do so…”

Mom sighed and said to the Pegasus behind Stormy, “Two tickets to the Cadence district in The Crystal Empire please, private carriage.”

“That will be twenty bits,” he said looking back at Stormy who was still sitting there blushing then back at mom.

Mom pulled a pouch from her saddle bags and tossed twenty gold bits on the counter. The Pegasus behind the counter gave her two tickets then told her were they could find their carriage. Stormy didn’t say anything as mom led her past the swarm of ponies and to a small sky carriage with a single Pegasus hooked up to it. Mom gave the stallion the tickets then got into the back of the carriage, pulling Stormy with her.

Once they were on their way, the sky carriage pushing under the clouds, mom finally said, “Stormy, you’re my best friend, you can tell me anything and you know that.”

“If you know then why didn’t you just tell me you felt that way about me?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess I was just too scared to say something.”

“Why on Equus would you ever be scared to tell me anything?” Mom asked putting a hoof on Stormy’s.

Mom laughed, “Stormy, I could have woken up with you in my bed and I still wouldn’t hate you. You’re my best friend.”

“But…you like stallions, how could you not be angry with me for kissing you or feeling the way I do?”

Honestly, I was surprised how shy Stormy was around mom, the Dr. Stormy I knew was nothing like this mare. What could have changed over the years to take her from this blushing shy mare and make her turn into the snide mare who didn’t have time to worry about somepony like me pointing a gun at her head. Then I felt bad, because I never knew mom had a friend like her and I killed her in cold blood, just because she came up with the Devil’s Children Program.

Mom sighed then hugged her friend, “I do like Stallions and yes I may not be interested in a relationship with mares, but I still want you to be honest about it with me. Holding back your feelings isn’t good for you Stormy.”

She blushed more then nodded, “I suppose I can do that, but what do I do about the way I feel?”

Mom took a moment to think then she smiled asking, “What’s your preference when it comes to mares? Wing’s or horn?”

“I’ve always had a thing for Pegasi, I mean I like unicorns or even earth pony mares too, but I just love the wings on a Pegasus,” she said blushing a deeper shade of red.

Mom’s grin got bigger as she asked, “Have you ever met my co-worker Opal?”

During the flight back, mom told Stormy all about the cute mare who worked in her office with her. By the time they got back to the apartment building they shared, Stormy was in a lot better mood and she was laughing with mom. As they walked up the steps to the apartment Stormy asked, “Oh that’s right, remember when you asked me if I could find anything about Night Stalker?”

“Well after you told me what you learned from Striker about those projects, I started digging in the old archives at the Castle and I found some interesting things that I think some pony was trying to hide,” Stormy said as they got to their floor.

Mom opened her mouth to ask what she found when she stopped, looking down the hall at the Pegasus sitting next to their apartment, blood covering his clothes, and anger written on his face. Mom moved down the hall saying, “Striker? What happened to you?”

“Striker, you’re covered in blood!” Mom said as Stormy came up behind her.

His expression softened a bit, “Please, I don’t have much time. And this isn’t my blood.”

Stormy moved to open the door, Mom and Striker following her inside. Once the door was closed mom turned on him, “Dammit Striker, tell me what’s going on, why are you covered in blood?”

He seemed to sag a little, “Everything as in everything about my family? Or just what we’ve been looking into with The Children?”

Stormy was the one to answer, “I know there’s something secret about your family Striker, but that’s all I know, Grim’s told me what she’s been working on, but she told me that she can’t tell me about your family.”

“Okay, I can work with that,” he said sounding slightly relieved then took in a deep breath, “Grim, my father’s dead.”

“No, you can’t just tell me that you had a fight and your dad’s dead. What did you do!?” Mom asked.

“We had a fight about you! He attacked me, killed my mom, then tried to kill me, all I was doing was protecting myself. Now Enclave soldiers are looking for me. I only came here before I left because I need to make sure that whatever you do, don’t tell them anything about what we were talking about. Don’t tell them about my hideout or anything,” he said starting to pace around the room.

“I…don’t understand, why don’t you just tell them what happened?” Mom asked.

“They won’t understand, there’s already reports going out all around Nimbus about me killing both of my parents. My father was a well-respected officer in the military, he was about to start running for the council.”

“I can’t!” Striker said, “I have to find the projects my father was hiding and destroy them. I can’t let The Enclave take me in, if they do, they’ll find out what I know and they can’t, they just can’t.”

Mom moved closer to him reaching out to pull him to her, “Striker, calm down you’re not making sense.”

I could feel mom’s chest go tight as she said, “Striker? Let me help you.”

“I didn’t come here for your help Grim, I came here to make sure you keep your muzzle shut!” he yelled.

“I’m leaving Grim, it’s over between us.” he said moving toward the door.

“Wait, what? Striker where are you going?” Mom asked, but she didn’t move from Stormy’s side.

He took one last look at both of them, “I can’t tell you where I’m going.”

“I…I thought you loved me?” she said, her voice sounding broken and empty.

His eyes narrowed, “Loved you? I liked you yes, but love? No Grim, you were just a fun piece of ass, something exciting to keep my mind off the shit going on around me. Go find some other stallion who cares about your fucked-up family drama, or better yet, go cry to your brother because that’s the only thing you’re good at. Like I said I only came here to tell you to keep your muzzle shut about my hideout. If I find out you said anything to The Enclave, I’ll find you, and trust me, you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you.”

Before she could even cast a spell or say anything else, he was gone. The door slamming behind him, leaving my mom to look at the door, tears starting to flow down her face. Stormy running back to mom and pulling her into a tight hug as mom broke down and the memory faded.

The next one stared in a room I remembered well, the hide out Striker had in Nimbus. Mom felt tired in this memory, like she spent all night crying. Sitting on the desk was a small note. She sniffed and walked over to the desk and picked up the note reading it quickly.

I wish I had the time to see you before I left, but I couldn’t risk you being pulled into this. I’ve left everything you’ll need to take over as the new Guardian. I know dad never told you much about his work and my own since I’ve taken over the job, but we can’t risk too many ponies knowing about our family’s dark past or the truth behind everything we’ve done or hidden from The Enclave. On my terminal you’ll find the location of a power source to a project that could destroy what’s left of Equestria. Go there and use the codes I left in your room to set up a new passcode. Don’t let anypony follow you and make sure you wear the outfit, it’s the only way you can get into the base where it’s hidden under. You’ll understand more when you go through the box of intel I’ve left here in my hideout.

I know we’ve had our differences over the years, but I’m trusting you to carry on my mission, our family’s mission. Also, please look in on Grim when you can, I’m not sure what I’m going to say to her yet, but I’m sure she’s going to be broken hearted. I can’t fix what happened, but I can at least try and fix what our family did. I’ll miss you brother.

Mom set the note down gently then turned toward the terminal, then said quietly, “I hate you…” her horn started to glow then she blasted the terminal, “I HATE YOU!” she turned toward boxes filled with files and blasted those to ash, “ASSHOLE!” she threw the table against the wall, “WHY…WHY COULDN’T YOU JUST TELL ME!?” she turned toward the cot where I could see the outfit my father now wore as The Stranger. Mom’s horn glowed again then she let the spell fade and she started crying, “Why’d you leave me…I would have gone with you…”

For a long time Mom just sat there, letting her tears fall as she pressed her face into the soft fabric of the trench coat. Then she finally got back to her hooves, “If this is what you wanted, then fine. I’m not going to let you bring me down Striker. I’m going to make something of my life, because I don’t need you. But I will find out what you knew, I don’t give two shits what you wanted your brother to have. Fuck your family and it’s secrets.”

Then Mom packed up as many papers as she could that hadn’t been destroyed in her rage. She then fixed the table and placed Strikers note back on the desk, then looked at the outfit one more time, then left.

The memory faded and the next thing I knew another memory started with mom just waking up in her room, Stormy cuddled up next to her. Woah, please don’t tell me mom did something with the mare I killed in Whinnieapolis and please don’t tell me she’s going to show me a memory of her doing something. It was bad enough having to be in her body when she was making out with Striker!

I got my answer quickly because somepony knocking on the door is what seemed to wake her. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly pulled Stormy’s hoof off her chest then got out of bed and slowly made her way over to the door. The knocking continued, this time it was louder. Mom yawned then muttered, “I’m coming…dammit hold on a minute.”

She opened the door, standing there was…my dad, his bright green eyes seemed to glow as he smiled slightly, his face looked a lot better without the scares around his muzzle and neck. He still had that silver stripe down the middle of his blue mane, “Good morning Grimoire, I’m sorry to bother you so early, but I was sent by Nimbus…”

Dad put a hoof on the door, “I’m sorry, but I can’t Grimoire, this is about Striker.”

“Let me guess, you need to know where he is, well I don’t know now go away.”

“I can’t, not until we talk, if I leave Nimbus we’ll just send another pony your way and you really don’t want them to do that,” dad said moving a little closer and saying quieter, “I already know where he is Grim, but I have to make this look official. Please, just give me a few minutes and I’ll leave you be.”

Dad looked toward the bed room then said, “I…hope I didn’t interrupt anything?”

Mom looked at him confused then chuckled a little, “No, it’s not what you think. Stormy’s…just been comforting me after…your brother said what he did after he left.”

Stormy showed up in the doorway looking at dad for a moment then yawning, “Hey Nightshade haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Good morning Stormy, I’m sorry to bother you so early,” he said giving her a small bow.

Dad chuckled a little, “Military life can do that to you. Anyways as I was saying, I’m here to talk about Striker.”

Mom just yawned again, “I hope you find him and cut his head off, that’s all I have to say about him.”

As she walked back into the room dad asked, “So you two aren’t…you know.”

Mom just rolled her eyes, “No, get your head out of the gutter Nightshade. She’s my best friend for one and I’m not into mares. She is, I respect her life choices. Anyways why do you care if we were intimate?”

Dad was blushing…GROSS I don’t need to know THIS! Mom just sighed, “I’m really not in the mood to deal with you right now. So please get to the point so I can kick you out and get back to sleep. It’s my day off and I don’t get to sleep in often.”

Dad cleared his throat, “My apologies Grimoire, I only came because I had too. What I really want make sure that you aren’t going to tell The Enclave about our family’s…”

Mom interrupted him, “First of all call me Grim, second I don’t care about your family’s crap. I already told Striker I’d keep what he told me to myself and leave it at that. So, unless you think I know where he is, which I don’t, then you may leave.”

“That’s…all I really needed to know,” Dad said turning to leave, but he stopped then asked, “Are you going to be okay Grim? I know how close you two were.”

I could feel tears building up in mom’s eyes as she said, “No…I’m not fine. Do you have any idea what it’s like to come home after a nice day to find your special somepony standing at your door, covered in blood? Then to have him tell you he killed his father and he calls your best friend a dyke, then tells you he never loved you!?”

Dad’s eyes fell a little as he turned back toward mom, “No I don’t, I’ve never been close to anypony apart from Striker. But I do understand loss, I was the one who found my parents.”

Dad just shrugged, “Striker killing my father doesn’t bother me, he was a horrible father and a mean son of a bitch, but mom. She was good, she was kind, she didn’t deserve to be shot down by her own son. For that I can never forgive Striker.”

“He…he didn’t kill your mother, he told me that much when he came here. he said your father did when she got between them fighting.”

Mom nodded, “Yeah, one thing I know for sure is that Striker wouldn’t have ever hurt your mother. I knew her quite well and she loved you both quite a lot.”

He smiled a little probably taking some comfort knowing that his brother wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, “Well I won’t keep you, sorry to barge in here so early again. If you ever need anything, just let me know. I know we didn’t get along well when we were younger, but I’m not that same colt.”

“I know, goodbye Sergeant Nightshade,” mom said as he turned to leave, before he could leave she said, “…and I’m sorry about your mom.”

He turned toward her, his hoof on the doorknob, “I’m sorry my brother broke your heart.”

“I know you’ll probably say no to this, but would you like to get a drink sometime?” he asked.

She sighed, “I’m not really in the mood to go out on a date with anypony right now Nightshade, especially with the brother of the stallion who just broke my heart.”

He smiled a little, “I wasn’t asking you on a date Grim, I’m just trying to help a nice mare get her mind off things for a while. You can bring Stormy too if you want, if that makes you feel better. At least think about it.”

For a long moment mom just looked at the door then she ran toward it, threw it open and yelled down the hall, “Tomorrow night, say around eight?”

Dad was almost to the stairs, he turned and laughed, “Sounds good, I’ll see you then.”

Mom went back into her apartment smiling a little. She walked back into her room right as Stormy was coming out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her mane, “I think that’s the first true smile I’ve seen on your face in a week.”

She shrugged, “That mare in 204 wanted to take me out to get a drink tomorrow, why?”

“Oh, well Nightshade wanted to take us out for a drink. Not as a date, just to help me feel better, I wanted you to come too, but if you have a date I can go alone.”

Stormy walked over to mom laughed as she hugged her, “Don’t worry about it, I can tell her to take a hike for my BFF.”

“She isn’t that good looking anyway, she also has a pole way up her flanks.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Stormy said pushing mom back into her bed, “Now get some rest, you still need sleep.”

Stormy took the towel off her mane then laid down with mom and cuddled up next to her again, letting her wet mane fall onto mom’s chest, “That’s what you have me for.”

Mom slowly ran her hoof over the wet mane of her friend, “Stormy, I hope you don’t think by me letting you sleep in my bed means anything more than…”

“I know,” Stormy interrupted, “I may love you more than you do me, but I know your limits, I’m not expecting anything. I just want you to feel better and help keep your mind off that ass hole. I just want to be here for you, if something more than this happens it will be your choice not mine.”

The memory started to fade as mom started to close her eyes I heard Stormy say, “Don’t say things you can’t live up too Grim.”

The next memory was mom looking up at a beautiful night sky, in the distance pegasi were putting on some kind of show. Ponies were all laying around in small groups watching the marvel of aerial acrobatics. As mom watched the show I noticed she was laying her head on somepony’s chest. A foreleg wrapped around her, keeping her close.

Mom was smiling as she cuddled up closer to him, “You know I wouldn’t miss a chance to spend time with you Nightshade.”

He laughed, “A year ago you were more than happy to kick me out of your apartment.”

“I’m not a morning pony Nightshade, I thought you’d know that by now,” she said.

“No I wouldn’t, I think Stormy would know more about your sleeping habits than I would.”

“Well you do spend most of your nights sleeping with a mare who has a big crush on you.”

She sighed, “I am, trust me I am. He’s not the reason I can’t sleep. I keep having bad dreams, I think it has something to do with the zebra magic mixing with my own. The dreams I have are too real, it’s like I’m seeing something that’s going to happen in the future, but I’ve never had that kind of power.”

Mom nuzzled closer, “A few things, but they were scattered, segmented. I keep seeing a filly vanishing in a blast of light, or a mare in the wasteland trying to stop me from killing her. She keeps begging me to remember her, but I don’t know who she’s is. I keep seeing a darkness taking over that same mare, magic coming out of her that I’ve never even heard of on Equus.”

“It is, but when I have somepony I care about with me, the dreams go away. That’s why I let Stormy sleep in my bed, even though I know it’s hard on her. I know she likes me, but I just need her close.”

For a long time, they just watched the show, until it finally ended pegasi started leaving. When most of the ponies were gone dad said, “Grim?”

Dad moved his head down and kissed her for a long moment, his tongue pushing into her muzzle, mom making a moaning noise as he did. AHHHHHH, WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING ME THIS CRAP MOM!? Thank the goddesses it didn’t last to long because dad pulled away looking down into mom’s eyes, “I love you Grim.”

I could feel tears in Mom’s eyes as she said quietly, “I was hoping you were going to say that soon…I love you too.”

“I love you Grim, and I want to be the pony who makes you feel safe at night, I want to be there for you no matter what,” he spoke a few more hopeless romantic quips which seemed to work on Mom.

I could feel mom blush then she chuckled, “You have such a way with words Nightshade.”

Mom moved closer to him and kissed him again (STOP IT) then said, “Nightshade, if you can promise that you’ll always be a good stallion to me and a good father if we ever are lucky enough to become parents, then I’d be more than happy to spend the rest of my life with you.”

The memory faded with my dad smiling like a fool. I was a little touched by the memory, even with mom kissing my dad! EWWWWW! I mean it’s one thing to see my parents kiss, that’s no big deal, but being in mom’s body while she’s kissing my dad, NO THANK YOU! The next memory started with mom in a doctor’s office, it must have been some years later because dad looked a little older now, he was holding mom’s hoof as she slowly cried as the doctor spoke.

“I’m sorry Miss Spell, but there isn’t anything we could have done to save the foal. He just wasn’t strong enough to make it to full term.”

“This is the second foal I’ve lost Doc, what’s wrong with me?” Mom asked through her tears.

“We’ve ran some tests, but all I can tell is that something’s making your body reject the foals.”

Dad asked, “What do you think could’ve caused this? Grim’s always been a healthy mare.”

The doctor looked like his answer was painful as he said slowly, “We’ve seen this before, in unicorns who have a lot of magical power like you do Miss Spell. Magic can do a lot of wonderful things, but it does come with a price. The energy it costs can damage your body, most of the time with mares, it makes having foals next to impossible.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything that can be done. There’s a very small chance, but it’s very unlikely.”

Mom turned and held on to dad as she started to cry, “I wanted to be a mother so badly.”

As mom cried into dad’s shoulder, the doctor said, “It may be too soon for this, but if you’d like, I can give you some information on adoption. We always have more fillies and colts who need a good home.”

Mom looked at the doctor, “I don’t want somepony else’s foal, I WANT MY OWN!” then she got up and started to walk out the door.

As she did I could hear dad say, “I’m sorry, I’ll talk to her and I’ll take the information you have on adoption. I think she just needs a little time to prosses this.”

As that memory faded and before I could start to wonder if mom was trying to tell me I was adopted after all, the next memory started with mom sitting on a couch in the little house I had vague memories of from when I was little. There were a few mares around her and mom’s belly was huge. Sitting next to her was Stormy, a pegasus mare cuddled up next to the small unicorn.

Mom was smiling wide as she said, “Thank you all for all the wonderful gifts. Nightshade and I are very thankful for all of your amazing support.”

A mare near the back said, “Grim what are you thinking about for names? Do you even know if it’s a filly or a colt?”

“Nightshade and I are going to wait until it’s time to have the foal, we want to be surprised. But we are going to do what’s tradition in my family and name the foal as he or she ages,” Mom said happily.

Stormy chuckled, “I myself hope that she has a filly, then at least she’ll be good looking like her mother.”

The mares in the room chuckled, as they did a stallion came into the room. It was my uncle, he smiled saying happily, “I heard a very special mare was being thrown a foal shower today!”

“My commander let me off early when I told him I had someplace more important to be,” Oricalcos said as he walked past the mares a gift floating in his magic. I noticed as he walked some of the mares blushed one even batted her eyes at my uncle as he passed by.

Uncle Ori walked up to mom and set the gift down in front of her then took a seat next to mom, opposite of Stormy. Mom smiled then hugged him, “So big brother what did you get me?”

“Open it up and you’ll see,” he said with a chuckled then looking past mom he said, “Hey Stormy, who’s the arm candy.”

Stormy looked down at the other mare who was still nestled up to her, “Um….something Lights.”

The mare looked up at Stormy saying with an offended tone, “It’s Fairy Lights.”

As the mares around the room chuckled Stormy just shrugged, “Hey at least I got half of your name right.”

The mare huffed, “You don’t have to be so rude, we’ve been seeing each other for almost a week now.”

Her jaw dropped open, “I don’t need to be treated this way, I’m leaving,” she got up and walked away in a huff.

Stormy just watched her go, a slight smile on her face, “I personally still like Cute Pegasus mare, because she does have the cutest ass.”

Mom just sighed as Oricalcos chuckled next to her, “I really don’t know why you have to do that with every mare you meet.”

Stormy just shrugged, “Not all of us are lucky enough to find a special somepony as wonderful as yours Grim.”

One of the other mares giggled, “Stormy, are you ever going to settle down?”

“Doubt it, life is so much more fun this way,” Stormy said as she looked over at Grim, “Enough talk about my lack of a love life, open the gift.”

Mom just sighed then giggled too, “Okay,” she pulled the top off the box but I didn’t get to see what was inside because the memory ended there…

The next one started with mom looking down at a new born foal…me…who she was holding close as dad sat next to her on a hospital bed. Mom ran a hoof over the white filly’s face, “She’s perfect Nightshade.”

“Star…it’s a family name passed down ever since my great, great, great grandfather Dwarf Star.”

“No, I hate my parents, but my family isn’t that bad and you know I’m very close to Oricalcos. Star was his name before he changed it, my mom was Fallen Star, her mother was Bright Star, then Neon Star and so on. I’d like to keep that tradition going, unless you want to use your own family name?”

Dad laughed, “No, she doesn’t look like a mare who would fit my family that well and that’s just fine with me. Star it is then,”

“So, the doctor said she’s okay right, nothing wrong with her at all?” Dad said as he ran a hoof over my short black mane.

Dad just moved closer to mom saying, “She just seems small, even for a new born.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, my mother was a short mare same for my great grandfather. Honestly, Ori and I are lucky we are average height,” Mom said moving her head down kissing my horn, as she did sparks of red came from it. Mom and dad both jumped, “Woah, did you see that Nightshade?”

Before he could answer the foal…myself… started to whimper, as I did my little horn started to glow red and small objects started to float into the air. As they did Dad asked, “Honey, are you seeing this too?”

“I am,” Mom said then she used her own magic to push the items back down, “I’ve never seen a foal so young use magic like that before.”

The memory ended there with mom starting to sing to me quietly, only to be replaced with a memory I feared was coming. Mom seemed to be working with a doctor pony saying, “I’ve used that new spell we’ve created and I think the colt is looking a lot better.”

“I’m glad to hear that Grim, how can I ever thank you enough for all the help you and your team have done here. You’ve saved a lot of lives with those new spells you’ve been able to come up with.”

Mom smiled, “It’s one reason I wanted to work with the Research Department, I want to help as many fillies and colts as I can…”

Mom’s head snapped around to see my father flying down the hall to the hospital, his power armor on and a small white filly held close to him. Mom saw my limp form and ran over to him as he landed, the doctor not far behind, “Nightshade what happened to Star!”

Dad was holding me close to him with one hoof as he said, “I’m not sure, all I know is that Oricalcos did something, an explosion of black light filled his lab and I found Star almost dead in the middle of the blast zone. She’s barely breathing!”

The Doctor started yelling, “We need a stretcher here STAT! Get everypony we can to room 208, we have an injured filly!”

A stretcher was there in an instant, three nurses with it, one moved to dad and took my limp form from him saying, “Give her to me sir, don’t worry we’ll take it from here.”

They started to rush off with my small body as the doctor said quickly, “Nightshade right? I need to know exactly what happened.”

“I don’t know, I just headed over to Oricalcos’s lab to pick up Star when I saw a ball of blackness slam into her. I thought she was dead, everything around her was destroyed. Then I saw him run over to her and checking her for any sign of life.”

Mom just looked at them both, her own heart racing. Then the doctor looked at her, “Do you know what kind of magic your brother could have been using?”

“I have no idea, he’s been experimenting with something old, but I never thought he’d use it around my daughter.”

“Grim I’ll do what ever I can to help your daughter, I need you to find Oricalcos and ask him what happened, it may be the only thing that can save her.”

I could see the light in my fathers’ eyes go dark as he answered, “No, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like your brother made something powerful and contained it into a ball of black energy. I only saw it for a moment as it was flying at Star, but when I did, I swear I could feel something evil from it.”

Before mom could say anything else Oricalcos appeared in the hall. He had a black eye where dad had hit him. His mane was disheveled and his purple eyes were wide, “Where is she?”

Dad rounded on him, “You have a lot of balls showing your face here Oricalcos!”

Mom stepped in between the two, “Not now Nightshade, I need to know what happened,” she turned toward her brother, “We can talk about how stupid you are for doing dark magic around my daughter, but right now I need to do anything I can to save my daughters life. What did you do?”

My uncle was panting and tears started to run down his face, “I was trying to finish my project, a new way to power the city using dark magic. It’s a spell I found in Sombra’s journal, it’s how he powered the city when he ruled over it. He used dark crystal magic, I can’t so I worked backwards…”

“I don’t need the details tell me what that spell was!” Mom yelled ignoring the other ponies in the hall.

I could feel a chill run down my mother’s body as she said, “Shadow Magic can’t be done. It’s creator and all the power he made was banished to Tartarus.”

“You’d have to open the doors to Tartarus itself and only the Goddesses themselves could do that!”

“Normally yes, but I found a back door, an ancient door, that can be opened anywhere. It takes a lot of skill, but I was able to do it and pull a little of the Shadow Magic out.”

Dad pushed past mom and got in his face, “And you thought it would be a good idea to use it on MY DAUGHTER!”

My uncles horn flashed, a moment later dad was thrown back and pinned to the floor as my uncle yelled, “I didn’t use it on her. I’m not sure what happened, but she somehow used her own magic and overturned her crib, I turned to help her because she was crying. As soon as my magic touched hers the shadow magic escaped my hold and followed the lines of magic I had wrapped around her and it flew toward her. I tried to stop it, but shadow magic isn’t like any other kind in our world. It tried to kill her because something about Star’s magic spooked it. She would have died too if I hadn’t used another spell at the last second to destroy a good chunk of the spell.”

A magical circle appeared next to my uncle and mom said in a scary slow voice, “Let my husband go Ori.”

Oricalcos backed up a step letting his magic fade as he said in a pitiful voice, “I didn’t mean to hurt her, I’d never let anything bad happen to her.”

Mom sighed letting her own magic fade as she said, “I know, but you still let her get hurt Ori. You better go back to your lab and find a way to fix this,” and with that Mom started heading down the hall.

I could hear my dad getting to his hooves saying, “If my daughter dies Oricalcos, I’ll kill you myself.”

The memory shifted and now mom was sitting in a hospital room next to dad, both of them looking down at a white foal hooked up to wires, a tube going down her throat, iv lines poking into both of her…my… forelegs and a small stuffed bird laying next to my head. The same doctor as before was speaking softly as mom ran her hoof over my young mane.

“We’ve done everything we can, but the spell used on her won’t subside. It’s slowly starving her heart. In a day maybe less, her brain won’t get enough oxygen and she’ll be gone. I wish I had better news, but we don’t.”

Tears were running down both my parents’ faces as mom said, “I’m not losing her.”

The doctor’s face looked sad as he replied, “I know you’re a gifted unicorn Grim, but nothing can be done to fix the damage that was done. There’s a blackness surrounding her heart and the magic itself is nothing we’ve ever seen before. Even your brother couldn’t make the power go away, he tried everything he knew but still, she’s going to die.”

Slowly mom lifted her head to glare at the doctor, “I said, I’m not going to lose her. If you can’t fix what was done to her and neither can my brother then I will.”

Mom got to her hooves leaned down and kissed the tip of my little white horn whispering, “Don’t worry My Little Star, I will find a way, just be strong and hold on as long as you can.”

Mom didn’t stop, she pushed past a nurse saying, “I don’t have time Nightshade, I know there’s a way to fix her, I just know it.”

Dad flew in front of her blocking her path, “At least talk to me before you storm out of here.”

Dad didn’t move, instead he yelled, “Do you think you’re the only pony who cares about her!? Do you think that it doesn’t break my heart to see our Daughter suffering like she is?”

Mom’s horn stopped glowing as fresh tears fell down her face, “I didn’t say that.”

“Then talk to me, tell me what you’re planning. I just want to make sure I’m not going to lose both of the mares I care about. Put a little faith in me Grim,” Dad said moving forward, bending down and pulling her into a tight hug, “I just want to know what you’re going to do, tell me and I’ll support you.”

Mom buried her face into dad’s shoulder, “I’m going to that library I told you about, the hidden one. I know there’s a book there that might fix Star, or at least keep her healthy until I can find another way to help.”

Dad pulled away and locked his dazzling green eyes on mom’s grey ones, “Good, you do what you have to, in the meantime I’ll take care of things here.”

“I won’t have to; the higher ups already know what he did. You know what they’ll do to him for this,” Dad said turning toward the hospital room.

Mom took a minute to watch him go then she teleported. In a flash of blue mom was standing in front of the entrance to the Crystal Palace. She took in a breath then started up the steps. One of the guards looked over to her saying, “Good morning Grim, I’m sorry to hear about your little one, I hope she’ll pull through.”

Mom looked at the pegasus guard nodding her head a little, “Me too Blaze Wing.”

“Just a little research, I’m working on a project and I wanted to look into more history behind the wall and how it was created. I just need to get my mind off of Star being in the hospital.”

The other guard snickered a little, “Everypony knows how the wall was made, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining armor combined their power and gave their lives to make the wall to keep the poison out of the city.”

“Are you a researcher for Nimbus? Did you do all of the research into the way the magic was formed or how it was channeled throughout the city to form the wall. Or did you read up or look into how the wall is still powered even though the rulers are now dead?” mom asked, though she didn’t have the normal smug tone.

The other guard stuttered a little, “Well…no, but everypony knows the story.”

Blaze Wing rolled his eyes, “Shut up, Grim’s always aloud inside,” Then he turned back to mom, “Go on inside Grim, I’ll stop by the hospital later if that’s okay with you.”

Mom smiled a little, but I could tell it was forced, “Thank you Blaze Wing, that means a lot to me.”

Mom walked passed and into the castle. She ignored the other ponies walking around and headed straight to the hall she’d walked down when she was just a filly. As she approached the statue she spoke the phrase that she had as a child. The statue’s eyes lit up and moved out of the way, mom stepped onto the pedestal and walked through the door. Once she was in the Forgotten Library, she used her magic to start pulling books down from the shelves. She started moving them toward the table where she’d found the bones before, which was now cleaned off.

Once she was done forming a pile of books on the table she took in a deep breath, sat down and started reading, “There has to be something here, there just has to be.”

The memory shifted again, and mom was still sitting at the table. I could feel her mane was disheveled, books were stacked all over and her eyes hurt. She swore, using her magic she tossed the book across the room, “DAMMIT!”

The book slammed into a bookshelf knocking a few of them off. Mom looked over at where the books fell then narrowed her eyes, “What is that?” she asked as she got to her hooves and went over to the shelf. A book was stuck behind the others, it had a light blue cover with words written in gold. She pulled the book out and read the cover, ‘Pure Magic of Light’ the authors name was worn so bad it couldn’t be read.

“Light Magic? I thought there weren’t any books around anymore about Light Magic.” Mom said as she went back to the table, opening the book. She started flipping through the pages, scanning the spells written in a fading ink. Then she stopped on a page titled, ‘Spell of Purity’ Under that it said, ‘This spell can banish away most dark magic.’

Mom started to laugh and cry at the same time as she started to read the spell. This is where I got lost, I could understand the basics of spells and how they are laid out in a spell book, but that was it. Mom was the one who could read a spell and understand its structure. I needed to see how a spell was done normally or practice it over and over again. After reading it once mom smiled again then started to draw on her magic. On the table a bright light showed up, glowing like a little star.

“I think I got it,” mom said getting back to her hooves and stuffing the book into her bag. She started to run, back out of the Forgotten Library, down the hall and back out of the Castle, ignoring the guards who tried to say something to her as she ran past. Once she was off the steps she teleported, reappearing at the hospital. She ran again, knocking over two nurses and a doctor as she did.

She blasted through the door making dad jump off his seat, the Doctor from before tripping over his hooves saying, “Grim, you scared us half to death!”

“I think I can fix it,” Mom said moving over to the bed, “How’s she doing?”

She looked over at him, “I’m not sure of anything anymore Nightshade, but what choice do we have?”

“Grim, I can’t have you trying out spells on your daughter, she’s sick enough as it is. Don’t make her suffer more than she already has,” the doctor said.

Mom frowned then looked back at him, “I’m not letting anypony stop me from saving her, now back off or I’ll make you back off.”

He backed up as mom started to draw on her magic. A blue light surrounded my little body, then mom’s vision seemed to flicker my body seemed to fade showing mom my beating heart, around it was a blackness. Mom’s magic moved down and surrounded the blackness. It started to pulse as mom’s magic touched it, followed by a flash of light. The Darkness seemed to fade then vanish, as soon as it was gone my heart seemed to look better and it started beating faster.

Mom let the magic fade right as my foal-self started to cry, the heart monitors started to beep normally as the doctor said, “I can’t believe it.”

Dad and mom both started to cry as they both moved to hug my small crying body, dad saying, “Grim…you’re a miracle worker…”

Another memory started with Dad and Mom sitting in our small living room, I was sleeping on mom’s lap, looking a little older than I had in the last memory. Dad was watching as mom use the same spell to push away the darkness again, “I thought that spell was supposed to cure her.”

Mom sighed, “I thought so too, but the darkness keeps coming back. I’ve looked through all of the books about dark magic and I can’t find any more from the book on light magic, some of the pages were lost to time or faded too much to read. With what can be gathered, nothing is even close to this spell.”

“I don’t know, but at least she’ll be able to live a somewhat normal life,” Mom said as she finished her spell and ran a hoof over my black mane as I slept.

Dad seemed to want to change the subject because he asked, “Did you hear what happened last week, with your brother.”

Mom nodded, “They tried eight different ways to kill him, but it didn’t work.”

“Everything they tried just made him turn into a shadow. I’ve never seen anything like it before,”

“I’m not sure, there’s talk about banishing him or using him to make some kind of special ops team. Most of the intel is hush, hush, but I’ve been hearing things,” Dad said.

“I’m sure whatever they offer him, he’ll do what they ask. He’s loyal to The Enclave, always has been.”

Mom took a long time to answer, she kept running her hooves over my mane as I slept as if she was deep in thought, finally she said, “I have an idea, but that’s all it is, an idea. All I know is that he said that no matter what, he’d help me find a way of fixing Star.”

Mom looked up at him, “He loves her as much as you do Nightshade, he didn’t try to hurt her and he’s doing everything he can to help.”

Dad got to his hooves slowly, “I know,” he moved toward the door that led into the hall, “But for all I care, he can go to hell. That’s the only help I want from him.”

“A couple of weeks maybe longer. We’ve gotten word that a fight broke out between some new settlement and the base ponies. I need to make sure everything is secure. Also, I’ve been hearing things about Steel Rangers moving their power up that way,” Dad said.

“Just be safe and come home as soon as you can,” Mom said as the memory faded.

The next memory had to be a couple years later, I was a filly playing hide and seek with dad in our living room. Mom was just walking by when she saw me hiding under the couch, “Star what are you doing?”

“Shhhh, mommy, I’m hiding from daddy,” I said, trying to hide further back under the couch.

“Ah ok, I won’t tell him where you are,” Mom said with a chuckle as she walked past the living room and dad who was checking the cabinets for me. She went over to her room and then to her closet. Pushing some of her outfits aside, she then pushed on the wall. No, it wasn’t a wall, it was a hidden door that opened to steps that led down to a small cellar. Mom closed the door behind her and walked down into it. It was a small lab, test tubs were all over the place, along with books and notes scattered around. Then in one corner was a terminal and a few more notes along with that Statuette of Twilight.

Mom sat at the desk and logged into the terminal, she started looking through her notes on different kinds of magic, when a beep came from the terminal. As if she was expecting it, she backed out of the files she was reading and answered the call that was coming though on a secure broadcast channel, “I told you before to leave me alone.”

A mare’s voice came out of mom’s terminal, “And I keep trying to tell you that I can help you with your foal’s problem.”

“My daughter’s fine, I don’t know who you are or what you want from me, but I’m not going to trust some random mare from outside of The Enclave. I have a spell to keep my daughter alive, I don’t need your help.”

“Let me ask you this Grimoire, is the spell getting harder for you to perform? Is Star showing any improvements at all or is her illness getting worse?” the mare on the terminal asked.

“It’s none of your business, now stop contacting me or I’ll inform Enclave Security that some Wasteland mare is hacking into our systems,” Mom said.

A light chuckle came from the terminal, “Grimoire, even if you did tell the Enclave about me it wouldn’t do you or them any good. I’m not trying to scam you or use you in any way. I’m trying to help you, if the intel I got about Star is correct, she won’t last forever with that spell. All it’s doing is holding back the inevitable, sooner or later you’ll have to watch as she dies a painful death.”

I could feel mom’s heart start to beat faster, “Even if you are telling me the truth, then why would you care about my family?”

“I care because I hate the thought of any young foal dying, it has nothing to do with you or your family. Well not entirely, your husband does interest me a little or should I say his alter ego does,” the mare said.

“The ponies I work with are very good at digging up secrets. Secrets like a family that’s spent decades trying to hide what’s under Spitfire’s Flight Academy, secrets about a secret group of ponies from during the great war who made something powerful. Powerful enough to cure your filly,” the mare said.

Mom’s eyes went wide as her heart was racing now, “I’ve looked through every book I can find about the kind of magic that hurt her and nothing shows a cure. The closest thing I’ve found is the spell I use now that holds back her sickness.”

“That’s because you’re missing a few key things about what’s wrong with her and what Minuette was working on with Night Stalker and The Children.”

“What do you know about Night Stalker or my family’s past? Also, what does it have to do with curing my daughter, nothing in the intel about The Children says anything about them making any kind of project that can cure ponies. The Ministry of Peace did, but they never had anything that can destroy darkness,” Mom said, her voice going quiet, “I don’t believe you.”

“The reason you can’t find anything is because the project they made wasn’t a cure, it was meant to be a weapon.”

There was a pause then the mare said, “It’s hard to explain it all, but to put it simply. A key part of this project has the potential to be turned from a weapon into a cure.”

“If that’s true then tell me how to do this and where to find it,” Mom said.

“Easy Grimoire, I didn’t say I didn’t know anything, I just don’t know where it’s located. I do know two things that will help you find it though. The first part is looking into the notes and information that are hidden under Spitfire’s Flight Academy. The second will require you to obtain a Pip-Buck.”

Mom almost laughed as she said, “A Pip-Buck? Should I just go to the closest stable and ask nicely for one?”

“No, not just any old Pip-Buck, this one is special and it won’t be easy to obtain. It’s the key to making this project work and getting you into the basement of the Academy.”

“Again, what do you get out of this?” Mom asked, “And don’t feed me some bullshit about how you want to help. I want the truth.”

“Fine,” the mare said, “I want the project unlocked. Once you use the power it has to cure Star, I want the Pip-Buck, all the information you find on the Project and how to use it.”

“Sounds like you want this weapon for yourself. What do you plan on doing with it? Are you going to try and use it to take over the wasteland, maybe The Enclave?” Mom asked.

“No, nothing like that at all, I want to use it to fix Equestria then I want to destroy the weapon.”

The mare sighed, “I’m not a bad pony Grimoire, I’m trying to do something good.”

“Because you’re the only mare that can help. You’re smart, driven and most importantly, powerful. At least think about it, I can help you.”

Mom sighed and I felt a tear roll down her face, “I’ll think about it, but if I do this and I find that you’ve lied to me in anyway, I’ll kill you!”

“That I can’t tell you, not until I know I can trust you in return, for now call me The Director,” then suddenly the mare cut off the connection.

Another memory started, mom was in the same room as before talking to the mare calling herself The Director, “I’ve looked through all of the notes I took from Striker and I think I know where to start looking for intel on Falling Shadows, that is if it is the project you’re looking for.”

The Director responded, “That’s the only one that it could be, the other project’s they were working on are well documented, at least here they are. They can’t be the ones, the only one that I know almost nothing about is Falling Shadows. What did Striker know about it?”

“Only that it was part of another project, but I don’t have a name for it. All he says about it was that it was the Key to starting Falling Shadows. He also said something about there being a possible location for the project in New Pegasus,” Mom said as she started looking though some notes she had on her desk, “Are you sure this will help Star?”

“If not, then I don’t know what else can. The problem is that you’ll have to go to New Pegasus.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, also if I leave The Enclave they’ll come after me.”

“Grim, if you don’t take the risk, then you’ll never save Star,” The Director said.

Mom said quickly to The Director, “I’ll be back when I can,” that being said, Mom teleported upstairs to find Dad holding me close, my body thrashing. Mom’s horn started to glow and like before it was like she could see through my body with the blackness around my heart. She started to use the spell to push back the blackness as she did she asked, “What was she doing?”

“She just jumped up and started talking about playing with her friends, then the attack hit,” Dad said, tears in his eyes as my body started to calm.

“Was it worse than last week?” she asked looking down at me as she finished up the spell.

“Worse definitely worse. Grim, I don’t know if she can take this much longer,” he said holding back sobs, “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Mom sighed and slowly pulled me out of dad’s hooves and into her own, hugging my limp body, “There might be a way, but you’re not going to like it.”

“If it’ll save our daughter, then I don’t care what you have to do,” Dad said.

Mom rubbed my mane slowly, “I found something in the old files back at base, there could be a small chance of saving her, but I’ll have to leave with her.”

“I’m not sure, it could take years. I have the spell to keep her going and I think it can keep this at bay for long enough. If I’m right, then she should get better.”

“I have to go to New Pegasus, to the old base outside the city where those bomber ponies live, to start.”

“I do, and it might be our only hope to save her,” Mom said as she pulled me close to her.

“Grim, our family has protected the secret of that project for two hundred years. If you go there and start everything back up, you know what’ll happen.”

“I do, and it’s worth it if I can save her. You said you’ll do anything to keep her alive remember?”

“I know sweetie, just rest and everything will be okay,” Mom said as she rubbed my mane.

Dad stood and started to move away, “Do what you have to. Just remember, if you go down this path, I’ll have to hunt you down. That’s the rules in our family.”

Dad turned back, “And I love both of you, even more than my loyalty to my fellow pegasi.”

Mom started to cry a little as she said, “I’ll need help getting out of the city.”

Dad sighed as he started to head toward their room, “I’m not sure what I can do, but I’ll figured something out. Start getting ready, before I’m forced to change my mind.”

Mom watched him go then using her magic she picked me up and took me to my own room. She set me down in my bed and set Avon down next to me, “Now sweetie, I want you to get some rest. Mommy has a few things to take care of.”

Mom kissed me then headed back to her room where Dad was putting on his military uniform, “Are we okay Nightshade?”

“I don’t like this Grim, Striker didn’t leave very much information about that project. I don’t even know what it does, how do you know it will help?”

“I was able to find more information about it. There’s something down there that may help cure her or at least lead me to what can. I promise that I won’t mess with anything down there, I just need to get into the main chamber,” Mom said.

Dad sighed then put on his battle saddle, “I don’t think you’ll be able to.”

He walked over to her and kissed her for a moment, “I’ve always had faith in you, I’m just scared that something’s going to happen.”

“I know, but we have to do this,” Mom said kissing him back, “Now get to work, I’ll see you tonight.”

Dad left without another word, when he was gone Mom went back to her closet and opened the hidden door. She walked back down the steps and back to her terminal where the connection to The Director was active. Mom sat saying, “Are you still there, Director?”

“No, not at all. You were right, Star’s getting worse. I need to get out of here as soon as possible and head to New Pegasus. If there’s even a small chance of helping her, I have to try,” Mom said.

“Just so you know Grim, if you do this, you may never be able to go back home. The Enclave doesn’t take to well to their citizens leaving, are you prepared to go through that?” The Director asked.

Mom rested her head on the desk taking in a few deep breaths, letting her heartrate slow before she responded quietly, “What other choice to do I have? She’s my little filly, my miracle foal, I’m not going to lose her.”

“Okay, then I should be able to help you, but you’ll need to be prepared. I have a friend that works for a Talon group in the New Pegasus area, he can help you get out of The Crystal Empire. You’ll need to pack light, just take what you need and nothing else, bring the files with you and make sure you find yourself a good weapon.”

“Where you live I’m sure it’s served you fine, but The Wasteland is different. You need a reliable weapon, something powerful that won’t break easy. Get what you need and I’ll have my friend ready to help you, it should take about a week or so.”

“No, it’ll take him about that long to get there, he’s not as young as he used to be and there’s other things he has to get ready before he leaves. I’ll contact you when everything’s ready.”

The next memory started with mom dressing me in a dark cloak with a hood, “Okay, sweetie, I need you to be as quiet as you can.”

“We’re going on a trip, there’s a place that we might be able to make you all better,” Mom said as she finished dressing me.

Mom chuckled a little, but a tear ran down her face, “Not like the hospital, but if we’re lucky and have faith in The Goddesses, we might be able to heal you.”

Dad walked into the room wearing his Stranger outfit, “That’s right sweetie, just listen to your mother and you’ll be okay.”

He moved down and kissed my head, “I told you before, I have to make sure you and your mother both get out of the city safe.”

“I’ll miss you too, but I’ll see you again sweetie. This isn’t goodbye, it’s I’ll see you later,” Dad said.

Mom moved forward, “We need to go Star,” then she looked at Dad, “I love you Nightshade.”

He kissed her for a long moment then whispered, “I love you too, now go, I’ll buy you as much time as I can. Remember, that if you need anything, send me a message from the base.”

I felt mom smile a little, “I remember, I just have one stop to make on my way out.”

“I know, just be careful,” Dad said pulling on his mask then putting on his desperado hat. With that he took one last look at us both, his bright green eyes shining from under the hat, then he was gone.

Mom took one last look around the house then put on her cloak and her saddle bags. She picked me up with her magic, placed me on her back and we too left, mom never looking back…

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Fallout Equestria: Falling Shadows

by Drako Moon

Chapter 51 Part 1: Hold On To Memories