//------------------------------//
// Secrets and seekers 
// Story: My Friend, Nightmare Moon 
// by evanim26 
//------------------------------//

After Amber had arrived at the school, she wasted no time entering and coming face-to-face with Cheerilee and she wasn't angry nor happy.

"Amber, have you calmed down?" Cheerilee asked 

Amber nodded "Wait, you're not mad?" she asked

"I am disappointed at what you did and a note will be sent to your parents, but right now you should just apologize to Diamond tiara and Silver spoon." Cheerilee said as she stepped to the side and allowed Amber inside 

Amber entered the classroom and immediately felt everypony's eyes on her as she stood in front of them. Once Cheerilee had stepped next to her she called Diamond tiara and Silver spoon to the front.

"Now, Amber. please apologize to Diamond tiara and Silver spoon." Cheerilee said 

Amber sighed but nodded "Diamond tiara, Silver spoon, I'm sorry for hitting you." she said 

Cheerilee nodded then turned to Diamond and Silver "Now, what do we say after someone apologizes?" she said

Silver sighed "Apology accepted." she said

"Diamond?" Cheerilee said as she glanced over at her

Diamond rolled her eyes "Apology accepted, I guess." she reluctantly said

Cheerilee nodded "Good, now that that's done, we can move on to class. please return to your seats." she said so Amber and the others returned to their seats and class proceeded as usual.

(After school)

Once school was finally finished. Amber, along with the other fillies and colts, left the schoolhouse, but while walking down the dirt path. Amber was stopped as somepony called her name.

Amber turned around to see three fillies who were known as the CMC "Did you call my name?" she asked 

Applebloom nodded "Yep, and I'm glad we were able to catch up to you before you flew off." she said 

"Wait, why? wouldn't you rather avoid me like everypony else?" Amber asked 

Scootaloo stepped up "We heard everything Diamond tiara said." she said surprising Amber 

"And after how you hit Diamond tiara, I think it's pretty clear who we should believe between the both of you." Sweetie Belle said 

"We're sorry for avoiding you, we should have known better than to believe Diamond tiara." Applebloom said

Amber smiled "It's...alright, I'm just glad somepony finally believes me." she said

Sweetie belle gasped "You know what we should do?" she asked making everypony turn to her "We should invite her to the clubhouse! we can have her join the cutie mark crusaders as we can all become friends!" she said 

Scootaloo smiled "Sweetie, that's an awesome idea!" she said

"Yeah, the cutie mark crusaders can always use more members." Applebloom said 

Nightmare chuckled "It would seem that by being violent, you have gained something good. maybe I should alway-."

"No." Amber said making the Cmc turn to her as Amber realize what she did "Um, I mean. I can't join you today, my parents want me to come straight home from school." she said 

"Aw, oh well, there's always tomorrow. see you later, Amber." Sweetie said as she and the others trotted past her 

Amber opened her wings and began to fly back home, but while flying she couldn't help but smile at the.

"I can't believe it, somepony finally believed me. I have new friends, and I'm so happy about it!" Amber said as she spun in the air

"Hm."

Amber stopped spinning "Moony? is everything okay?" she asked 

"Everything is fine." Nightmare said 

"I don't know, you're acting kinda strange." Amber said 

"I don't know what you're talking about." Nightmare said 

Amber raised an eyebrow "Don't tell me. are you jealous?" 

"What? me? jealous? that's impossible, I am never jealous of anything or anypony." Nightmare said

Amber smiled "Aw, It's okay if you're jealous, they may be my new friends, but you'll always be my first and best friend." she said 

"Shut up."

Amber giggled "We're almost home. I'm pretty hungry so I think I'll get myself some food once we get inside." she said but once she had gotten close enough to her home, she saw Princess Twilight, along with her friends, standing right outside of her home. talking to her parents so Amber stopped in midair.

"What are Princess Twilight and her friends doing at my house?" Amber said

Nightmare thought for a moment "That pony with the pink mane, the one we saw earlier. she must have learned something about you and told Twilight, they are probably here to investigate you." she said

"Wait, investigate me? does that mean they know about you? did Princess Luna tell them what happened in my dream?" Amber said while breathing heavily

"Calm down, if they knew about you and I then they would have confronted you directly. though, they are probably suspicious about you and have come to search you." Nightmare said 

"What do we do? if Twilight uses some sort of mind spell on me then they might discover you to." Amber said 

Nightmare chuckled "You forget who you are talking to, I was able to avoid being discovered by Celestia for the longest time, and by the time she knew about me, I had already taken full possession of Luna. if I am able to easily hide from Celestia then hiding from twilight should be even easier." she said then she cast a spell which made Amber's head glow for a few seconds

"This spell will keep me from being discovered by Twilight and her friends, but if I want to use it at its full power then I must keep a large amount of both power and concentration on it." Nightmare said 

Amber nodded "Then, all I need to do is make sure I don't say anything that might give me away." she said as she landed

"Exactly."

Amber began trotting to her home "Okay, I can do this. just stay calm and watch what I say." she said 

"That's strange, Amber is usually home by now." Lucy said then she peeked past Twilight and her friends to see Amber "Oh, there she is."

Twilight turned around and trotted to Amber "Hello Amber. you probably already know this, but my name is Twilight sparkle." she said 

Amber thought for a moment "Should I bow? you are a princess." she questioned 

Twilight waved a hoof "There's no need for that, and before you ask, you can just call me Twilight. there's no need to be so formal." she said 

"Oh, okay." Amber said 

Lucy trotted over "Amber." she said sternly making Amber slowly look up at her "I heard from Prince-..sorry, twilight. that you hit two fillies at school." she said making Amber look down "I want to know why."

"I...they were picking on me-."

"So you hit them? what have your father and I told you about rising to bullies teasing?" Lucy said 

"To never give in, cause, in the end, I'll be no better than them. but they weren't only picking on me, they also made fun of my friend and I couldn't just sit back and let them." Amber said 

"So you hit them because they were making fun of your friend?" Lucy asked and Amber nodded so she sighed "I'm happy you did it for someone else but you still hit somepony, so I'll have to talk to Cheerilee about giving you detention." she said 

"What?! mom wait-."

"No! I don't want to hear it, Amber. we'll talk more about this later. right now, Twilight wants to talk to you." Lucy said 

Twilight was standing off to the side until she nodded "Right, I was hoping to talk to Amber in private if you don't mind." she said 

Lucy nodded "Sure, you can go to Amber's room." she said then she turned to Twilight's friends as she trotted back to the house "Would the rest of you like some snacks while you wait?" she asked 

Pinkie nodded furiously "I sure would!" she said as she hopped into the house along with everypony else 

While Twilight's friends were busy eating downstairs, Twilight went to Amber's room with the filly where Amber sat on her bed while Twilight sat on the floor. then Twilight quickly cast a sound dampening spell on the room to keep others from hearing, she also cast it when Amber wasn't looking so she wouldn't get suspicious 

"So, what does the Princess want with somepony like me?" Amber asked with a nervous smile 

"I only want to ask a few questions. don't worry, this won't take any time at all." Twilight said 

"Okay."

"My first questions concerns the bullies at school, have you ever hurt them before?" Twilight asked 

Amber shook her head "No, usually I would just ignore them. but this time, I guess, they pushed the wrong buttons." she said 

Twilight's horn glows for a few seconds as she nods "Okay, my next question is about you entering the Everfee forest. how did you get out of the forest unscathed?" she asked 

"Be careful on how you answer this. you can not give her any hints." Nightmare said 

"I...uh, I came across the castle of two sisters and stayed there for a while." Amber said 

Twilight raised an eyebrow "Interesting, why did you stay at the castle instead of coming back to ponyville?" she asked 

"I hurt my wing while I was in the forest, so I stayed at the castle until it healed." Amber said 

"I see." Twilight said while her horn continued to glow for a few seconds as Amber spoke "Okay, last question. have you ever heard any...voices?" she asked 

Amber quickly glanced away and back "W-what do you mean?" she asked 

"Like, voices inside of your head telling you...certain things. maybe something about the eternal night?" Twilight said 

Amber quickly shook her head "Nope, can't say I have. that would be super strange and weird to have a voice talking about eternal nights." she said as she nervously laughed 

Twilight put a hoof to her chin as her horn glowed one more time then she nodded "Alright, that's all for my questions. thanks for cooperating with me, Amber." she said 

"I-it was nothing, miss Twilight." Amber said as Twilight left the room and after she did Amber sighed a breath of relief "Thank Celestia she didn't find out." she said 

Nightmare sighed "I was not expecting Twilight's magic to be so strong." she said 

"Are you okay, Moony?" Amber asked 

"I am fine. it took a lot more power than I had anticipated keeping Twilight from discovering me, but I was able to keep her back." Nightmare said 

Amber smiled "As long as you're safe, that's all that matters." she said 

"Hm."

Amber's stomach growled making her giggle "During the princess's visit, I totally forgot about lunch. let's go get something to eat." she said jumping off her bed and trotting out of her room

(Twilight)

Twilight and her friends left Amber's home, but not before Pinkie got a few more treats from Lucy. 

Rainbow dash hovered next to Twilight "So Twi, was it her?" she asked 

"I'm not sure." Twilight said "It doesn't seem to be her, but something just didn't feel right." she said 

"What do ya mean by that, Twilight?" Applejack asked 

"When I used my magic to scan her, I didn't pick up any traces of Nightmare moon. but some things just didn't add up right." Twilight said as she thought a bit more "First, there was the thing Fluttershy told me about, how Cheerilee said that Amber isn't a violent filly. yet it was after she came back from the Everfree when she hurt those two fillies."

"Mighty suspicious, if you ask me." Applejack said 

"Then, while I was asking her questions that something else didn't add up right. she knew the name of the castle far into the Everfree, yet I had never seen her in the library before and after it had transformed into my castle." Twilight said 

"Maybe she simply heard about it from one of her friends?" Rarity said

"I don't know, there aren't a lot of colts nor fillies who know of the castle, but that is a possibility." Twilight said "I'm just not sure if she's truly the filly who Nightmare is possessing, or not." 

Rainbow groaned "All this thinking is making my head hurt, why don't we just wait till Princess Luna finds the filly's dream again so she can find out the truth for herself?" she asked 

Twilight looked up at Rainbow "That...is actually a good idea." she said 

"Of course it's a good idea, I thought of it." Rainbow said giving herself a pat on the back

"I'll send a letter to the Princesses tonight about our findings, it might help Luna find the filly who's possessed." Twilight said continuing her trot to her castle.

(Amber)

After she had eaten, Amber proceeded to return to her room until she was stopped by her mom

"What did you and the process talk about?" Lucy asked 

"Um, she just wanted to ask me a few questions about what happened at school. nothing too interesting." Amber said 

Lucy nodded "Speaking of school, I'm heading out to speak to Cheerilee about your behavior today." she said

"B-but-."

"Don't even try, I'm sure you apologized to them but the fact remains that you hurt both of them. I'll be back soon, and remember you're still grounded." Lucy said as she trotted out the door 

Amber sighed "What am I supposed to do being stuck at home?" she said 

Nightmare thought for a moment "Well, we could continue your teachings." she said 

"Are you sure? we don't have the books from the castle." Amber said 

"I have studied magic long enough to master their spells. remembering how to do it and how they work is child's play to me." Nightmare said 

Amber nodded "Okay, we can practice in my room." she said then she began to trot to her room where she closed her door 

"We shall continue practicing levitation, the book on the floor over there will do for now." Nightmare said 

Amber moved the book in front of her and following Nightmare's guidance, she began to focus on her magic to lift the book but so far, she hadn't had any luck and barely got the book off the floor. she had been practicing for so long that Lucy had returned home while talking to Cheerilee.

"I understand that Amber should be punished for what happened, but after the whole Everfree. shouldn't we take it easy on her?" Cheerilee asked

Lucy shook her head "I can't go easy on her just because of what happened, if I do then something like this might happen again. we have to teach her that actions have consequences." she said 

Cheerilee sighed "Alright if that's your decision. I'll give Amber detention tomorrow." she said

"Thank you, Cheerilee. if you want, you can come in and have some snacks." Lucy said 

"Not right now, I have to get home myself. I have papers to grade and everything. we can talk more tomorrow." Cherrilee said

"Okay, stay safe." Lucy said as Cheerilee began to trot away then Lucy entered her home "AMBER!" she called out but didn't hear an answer back so she went upstairs to her door 

Amber was too busy focusing on the book to notice her mom calling out her name and as she focused, she had finally lifted the book into the air and smiled "I did it! I finally did it!" she said 

"Took you long enough. to think you would have this much trouble mastering one of the most simplistic spells." Nightmare said 

Amber slowly spun the book around in her magic "And it's thanks to your teachings that I finally did it. I can't wait to see what else I'll be able to-."

"Amber?"

Amber gasped and dropped the book as she slowly turned and saw her mom "Mom? uh hi. when did you get back?" she asked with a nervous smile 

"Just now, what were you doing and who are you talking to?" Lucy asked 

Amber was panicking "Um, nothing. I was just playing with a book while talking to myself. you know I do that a lot." she said 

Lucy looked around the room then she looked at the book and slowly nodded "Okay...well, I just came to tell you that I spoke to Cheerilee and she agreed to give you detention. it'll start tomorrow, alright?" she said 

"Okay...I guess you'll be leaving now?" Amber asked 

"Right...right, make sure you aren't too loud." Lucy said as she left the room but took one last look around then she closed the door

Amber sighed "That was too close." 

"You need to be more careful. we'll end up getting caught at this rate." Nightmare said 

"Right."

Lucy slowly trotted away from Amber's door lost in thought 'Was that magic? that can't be possible, Amber can't use magic. she's a pegasus. but there's no mistaking it, that was magic. what is happening to my daughter?' she thought