_____*Two days later, Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library, 11:01 PM*_____
The inside of the Golden Oaks was quiet, the lights were off with only a few lit candles strewn about the room and a lantern in the center lighting the main part of the library, outside the tree however a powerful storm raged on outside and trapped all but one inside the tree.
Twilight Sparkle was the one to suggest they spend the night in the library, but because of the storm no other person dared to object, the others inside the large tree were Nightmare Moon who was visiting when the storm started hours ago, Feral Wing who was spending her days in Ponyville before being reassigned elsewhere, Spike who lived in the library along with Twilight.
There was also Alecia, who felt like hanging around tonight, having nothing better to do knowing that Rarity and Sweetie Belle preferred to sleep through storms.
The five of them passed the time by reading some books, playing some games like monopoly or poker, the former they just played until they were bored which lasted around eleven rounds, the latter of the two took a while to explain to Twilight that poker is not bad in general if you don't gamble, even though they decided to use potato chips for the betting aspect of the game, using up three bags worth of decently sized chips in the process.
The poker game eventually ended with Alecia losing first and to everyone's surprise Spike won easily, apparently he understood when and where to use a poker face and when to fake annoyance or joy, suffice it to say that they ended poker quickly.
By the time it was midnight, the storm had worsened and none of the five dared to leave the apparent safety of the room, Alecia though seemed to be indifferent to it all and for good reason, after all a storm cannot hurt the deceased in any way.
As time in the library passed by and everyone spent that time doing various things, Alecia simply decided to close her eyes and try to sleep, not that it was necessary but she liked to nonetheless, she was just about doze off when she heard Feral Wing speak. "Hey uh...Nightmare Moon?" The question sparked Alecia's interest and she opened her eyes, she looked and soon spotted her descendant sitting in the center of the room looking at the Alicorn.
"Yes?" The Alicorn asked, lowering her book to look at Feral Wing.
Feral Wing rubbed her leg nervously. "Could you...tell me about Dark Glyph? I would like to know more about her." She asked curiously but with a hopeful tone.
Nightmare Moon seemed to pause as though she weren't expecting it, she sighed to herself and closed the book she had, setting it aside so she could talk without interruption. "What exactly do you want to know about her? I knew her for only three years before my banishment." She replied with an even tone, not even sounding annoyed.
"Well, you did tell me the story of how you met and how she became your student, maybe you could continue from there?" Feral Wing suggested, Twilight meanwhile had lowered her book and Spike gave the unicorn her notes and quill, as well as an inkwell.
Nightmare Moon nodded in agreement. "Very well, I suppose it would be correct to say that it was very awkward for the woman those first few weeks, she may have had confidence when she spoke to me to revise our terms, but she lost a lot of it the next morning." She stated. "I of course attempted to assure her that I wasn't expecting immediate results, as her species doesn't normally have magic." She shook her head with a sigh. "As it turns out, Glyph was quite prone to imagining the worst case scenario for everything, at least at first." She stated before beginning the story.
______*A thousand years ago, Evergreen City, the Castle.*_______
Nightmare Moon walked through the elaborate stone halls alone, Celestia was currently presiding over her day court as usual and Starswirl was...somewhere, she didn't really care what the unicorn was doing at the moment.
It had been a week since Dark Glyph became Nightmare Moon's student and the human was making...some progress, while she wasn't able to cast any spells or use magic bolts like she did against those criminals, the human was capable of at least feeling and interacting with her magic.
The reactions that Dark Glyph got as the Lunar Alicorn's student were varied at best, Celestia was pleased and seemed to like the human a lot, Starswirl saw her as more of a mystery to solve even though he approved, the castle staff never said a word about it and the guards didn't seem to mind.
Then there was there were Warrior Mages, the robed unicorns didn't like anyone on the best of days but they seemed to absolutely despise Dark Glyph, one of them even spoke in disgust when it came to the human, if they weren't a necessity for the security of the city, Celestia would have disbanded them years ago, perhaps the only upside was that no Warrior Mage attempted to do anything about the human, they also made no effort to try and get rid of her.
The worst of reaction however came in the form of the ruling class, Nobles who acted like Nightmare Moon's choice of student was an insult, they were the most persistent in their attempts to get rid of Dark Glyph, they always did so with the arguement that it wasn't befitting a Princess to take on a 'hairless ape' as her personal student, regardless of magical potential, and even though Nightmare was always a step ahead in dealing with them, she had managed to catch some of them scheming to implement a silent law, one that they could use to get rid of the human.
Nightmare Moon and Celestia were quick to put an end to that, the whole fiasco ended with five noble's tried for treason and subversion, the families were dishonored and denounced, leading to a rapid decline in family wealth and they lost a lot of credibility, there hasn't been a single attempt from the nobles to get rid of the human since, and even the spies that Nightmare Moon posted stated that there was no suspicious activity to report.
And although Celestia told her that she needed to relax and believed that the danger had passed, the Solar Alicorn also suggested that Dark Glyph be assigned a personal guard for protection, and Nightmare Moon agreed with her sister, as such she did some checking for available candidates and found two that she could choose from, both were acceptable and seemed to be perfect for the job.
The first candidate was a Pegasus Stallion colonel called Thunder Skies, he was an odd one to be sure, three years in the military and yet he didn't seem to have changed at all, he could be serious but most of the time he was a gentle soul, which of course did make the Alicorn curious as to why such a person would become a soldier.
The second candidate was the unicorn that Dark Glyph seemed to like, private Rally Lightwing? yes, that was her name, only half a year in the military and disliked by her commanding officer, but she was still one of the best choices in this situation, mostly because of her background.
Just yesterday Nightmare Moon spoke with them both, questioned them about everything she could think of, even things that were unorthodox to gauge their reactions, after she was done questioning them both she found that she was unable to choose one over the other, so she did the next best thing and offered them both a job as Dark Glyph's personal guard.
Celestia mentioned that she was surprised that she only chose two guards, saying that she half expected at least four to six, to which Nightmare countered stating that she knew what she was doing and to trust her judgement.
Speaking of Celestia, the Solar Alicorn was actually a little wary around Nightmare Moon, which wasn't without reason because the drastic change in her sister was concerning at best, though this was just what Nightmare Moon thought her sister was thinking.
Nightmare Moon eventually reached Dark Glyph's quarters, this part of the castle was on the second floor near the back, it wasn't a particularly busy part of the castle, mostly because of Starswirls experiments and their tendency to explode, if it was up to her, Nightmare never would have allowed her student to live in this part of the castle, but this was the only available room that wasn't near a crowded part of the castle.
Nightmare knocked on the door and moments later it opened to reveal Thunder Skies, the Pegasus saluted and allowed entry to the room, upon entering the room Nightmare saw a sight she had gotten used to seeing, Dark Glyph sat on the floor next to her desk in the corner which had a chair, she was sitting on the soft carpet with a thick wool blanket on top of the carpet, her legs were crossed and she had five books surrounding her while she read a different one.
Dark Glyph wore a simple outfit, simple yet warm for the cold weather, baggy black pants and a dark blue sweater along with a heavy pair of gray winter boots complete with fur trim.
The strange thing about this setup was that there was a small wooden table top next to Dark Glyph with a pitcher of water, three glasses of water, a small tray of fruit and a hourglass, now this wouldn't be very strange if you factor in Rally and Thunder, but when this is the usual setup even when Dark Glyph is alone? then it's a bit strange.
Nightmare Moon attributed this strange habit to her students subconscious, as though it were trying to restore some semblance of who she once was, soon enough the human looked up from the book and her eyes widened. "Oh! uh, hello Princess, what uh...w-what can do for you?" Glyph asked while setting down her book and getting up, a slight hint of red on her cheeks from embarrassment.
Nightmare raised an eyebrow. "I came to remind you that we had a lesson an hour ago, seeing as you forgot again from the looks of things." She said, gesturing to the setup that Glyph liked. "Where is Sergeant Rally?" She asked, not having seen the unicorn yet.
"She is up at her old unit gathering her things and finishing her last duties there." Dark Glyph replied. "She said she should be back later today or tommorrow morning." She added.
Nightmare Moon nodded. "Very well, come, I want to get this lesson in before Night Court starts." She said, turning to leave the room, she opened the door and left the room, followed by Thunder and Dark Glyph.
"So...what's the lesson today?" Dark Glyph asked, rubbing her left arm unconsciously, having singed it a few days ago in Starswirl's lab when the elder unicorn was testing her.
"We will be going over the basic telekinesis spell, you should be able to cast it easily now, but I want to be certain, if all goes well today I will teach you how to use those magic bolts so you can defend yourself." Nightmare stated.
The rest of the walk to the usual training room was quiet, the only sound to be heard was the walking of the trio as they made their way through the castle, they did pass a few of the castle staff on the way to the training room but none spoke or got close to them.
They eventually reached the training room and entered it, the room itself was actually a classroom of sorts, used by the Warrior Mages to teach initiates, but it would suffice for the lessons that Nightmare Moon wanted to teach, Thunder stood watch outside the room while Nightmare and Dark Glyph entered.
There were seven rows of five desks with chairs facing a huge blackboard and a large desk in the room, all the desks were made of oak as were the chairs, there was also a large cabinet off to the side of the room holding supplies for lessons, Nightmare walked over to the cabinet and opened it with her magic, she then searched the cabinet while her student waited patiently, standing by the large desk.
"Where did they put that...ah, here it is." Nightmare said to herself as she levitated a large black orb to the desk, she then closed the cabinet and walked over to Dark Glyph. "Here you are, now I want you to levitate this orb." She instructed.
Dark Glyph nodded and took a deep breath, she held her hand out to the orb and a second later, her hand glowed a soft lavender with an odd pale blue shimmer, the same aura soon surrounded the orb but it didn't rise. "Come on...come on." The human muttered as the markings around her neck glowed purple.
Nightmare watched for five minutes as Glyph attempted to make the orb rise, she kept her expression neutral even though she stood behind the human, and even though on the outside she had no emotion, her thoughts were different. 'I know you can do it Glyph, you're ready.' She mentally cheered her student on, though she said something else. "It is only an orb, just reach out with your magic and pick it up as though you were using a hand." She stated.
Glyph grunted from exertion and Nightmare could see a bead of sweat form on her head, the Alicorn had seen enough and was about to tell her student to take a break when it happened, the black orb rose into the air and Glyph smiled, the human then made the orb fly around the room not losing control at all, her grip was incredible.
Nightmare Moon smirked and lit her horn, she fired a small magic dart which sharply poked Glyph, and to the Alicorn's surprise the human merely looked at her with the orb still in her magical grip. "That was a mean trick." The human noted before returning the orb to the desk.
"Of course, I had to test your focus." Nightmare replied as she watched Dark Glyph magically grab and pick up the orb a few times. "You have progressed much in one week, impressive for one who does not remember using magic before." She praised.
Dark Glyph blushed a little at the praise even as she offered a theory. "It's possible my subconscious is helping with that, the possibility that I've used magic before would be in line with that theory...of course it could just be because I have a good teacher." She said, her blush disappearing.
"Perhaps." Nightmare replied simply as she levitated a pencil out and onto the large desk. "Next, I want you to levitate multiple items at once, you will find it is much more difficult than a single item." She instructed.
Glyph reached out with her magic again and gripped the orb, her markings once again glowed as she strained to pick up the pencil, another two minutes passed and the pencil was soon grabbed, then the orb flickered for a second before returning to normal, at this point Glyph was straining heavily.
Nightmare decided that now would be a good time to test her students limits and levitated a pencil out from the desk, she then magically lobbed it in such a way that Glyph would notice, and she smiled as she watched her students aura surround the pencil and stay in the air, a few seconds passed of the orb flickering and then returning to normal.
"I think I have seen enough." Nightmare stated with a flat tone, her student levitated the items back to the desk and afterwards the human breathed heavily as she released her magic, the markings dimmed. "It is clear to me that you have never used magic before you came to Evergreen, if your magical stamina is anything to go by." She spoke with and even tone which made it impossible to read.
"That's one...theory crossed out." Dark Glyph replied in between breaths, she looked at Nightmare Moon. "What now?" She asked, her tone told the Alicorn that she was willing to attempt whatever lesson she was faced with, but her body and magic said otherwise.
"That is all for today, you must regain your strength, this lesson took too much magic out of you for you to continue." The Alicorn stated. "If you wish, you may join me in the Night Court." She added before watched her student walk to the door. "You should eat however, don't think I don't know about that bad habit." Nightmare Moon added, referring to Dark Glyph's habit of forgetting to eat, one that the Alicorn noticed on day two.
"Alright." Glyph replied with a roll of her eyes, walking out of the room.
Nightmare Moon returned the pencils to the desk and opened the cabinet to return the orb, as she levitated it over she stared at it. 'To think that she could lift this thing like she did, and with two other objects at that...I should really thank the Warrior Mages for coming up with this thing.' She thought to herself as she returned the orb and closed the cabinet.
______*Ponyville.*______
"An orb of draining." Twilight muttered, getting a confused look from Feral Wing, Spike and Alecia. "It was a device that the Warrior Mages used to train and improve their members, for all intents and purposes its inert, but when somepony grips it with magic, it puts a drain on the users reserve that's very intense, add that to the fact that it's very difficult to grip with magic and the drain doubles for every additional object? it's quite the clever device...of course they were all outlawed and destroyed, and the method for making them was erased and is remembered by two...three individuals." The unicorn explained, correcting herself near the end.
"Correct, and for the next week I had Dark Glyph practice with it, after the third day she recruited Rally to train with her on that exercise, they both expected me to be against it but I was not, after all a guard should be capable of defending their charge and since Glyph was my personal student, she was a high value target for assassins." Nightmare stated.
Nightmare Moon then took a breath before speaking. "The lesson for the magic bolt was mostly uneventful, it was a success once Glyph figured out how to throw her magic, I instructed her to work on that for a week but she mastered it in four days, she spent the remaining three days learning about pony culture and about her own people, she even joined me in Night Court some days." She chuckled. "Those nobles threw a fit whenever she did." She muttered with a quiet laugh.
"So my niece was awesome and a quick study? that does sound a lot like Markus and Callie." Alecia remarked with a smile.
Both Twilight and Feral Wing's ears perked up at the mention of the unfamiliar name. "Who's Callie?" They both asked as one, which was kind of creepy.
Alecia rolled her eyes. "Markus' wife, my sister in law, she was a former sword maiden from the Order of the Black Cross, I liked her immediately." She explained with a smirk. "She wasn't bad looking either." She added with a fake dramatic sigh.
Nightmare Moon's hoof met her face and she spoke. "Damnit Alecia." She complained, even though she was the one who missed the ghost the most, she still couldn't understand her humor.
"So uh...aside from Alecia's apparent crush on her brother's wife, what was Glyph like, personality wise?" Feral Wing asked, trying to change the subject before it could get any weirder.
Nightmare Moon, Twilight and Spike all mentally thanked the Pegasus as the Alicorn spoke. "She was shy and hated crowds for a long time, but to those who knew her like me, she was very lively for a bookworm much like someone we all know." She glanced at Twilight who glared at her as she winked. "She had a lot of weird habits but one of them was a recklessness streak, she wasn't very stubborn and was pretty open minded, she was clever when it came to problems or solutions." She explained as she tapped her chin.
Before anyone in the room could speak, Nightmare continued talking. "Let's see, she liked reading almost as much as Twilight does, she liked to come up with strange setups for study sessions, she was fond of Blaze Torch, one of Celestia's students, she hated snow and avoided being outside when it snowed as much as possible, she liked a soft rain and disliked intense heat, though she didn't really mind the cold too much, hmm...I'm also pretty sure she had a crush on Celestia, though I don't know what happened there." She then looked at Spike. "Maybe I could find out?" She whispered quietly.
A deafening crash of lighting struck outside and Feral Wing jumped in fear, while Spike latched onto Twilight who breathed deeply, Alecia chuckled at the misfortune of the living while Nightmare blinked and sighed. "Perhaps we should call it a night?" She suggested, looking up at Feral Wing who was latched to the ceiling light.
Everyone agreed.