Sunny's parents awoke in their home. They had been laid on the cave floor to recuperate from the excitement. The unicorn watched as Nightmare Moon looked about the crudely dug out home in the cave, grunting at the obvious cold that formed in this place and the multitudes of steaming pipeworks winding about the stone like ivy. Several lamps had been attached to the wall and fed by thin gas pipes branching off the fatter main lines. Couches and tweed chairs were placed around the area in separated sections with multiple carpets and stone veins strewn about the rocky faces of the cave home. Moon noted that the living area had been made a bit too large for who lived here, but the assortment of rusty tools like pickaxes and giant hammers set about just as haphazardly as the rest of the furniture clued her in as to why: They were miners.
It was still better than just being peasants, at least. Miners provided the kingdom with the necessary raw materials to help build it up. A sly grin grew upon her face. She had a potential cook with the thestrals. She had an heir with Sunny. She had a connection with the griffins through the parrot. If she could elevate Sunny's family up to the royalty they so rightfully deserved, then they could become an affluent mining family at her beck and call. Now there was a lovely little idea.
"They're waking up!" Sunny called out.
Moon puffed and shook her head. One step at a time. They probably barely got by already. Throwing so much responsibility and power on them would either cause them to snap like twigs or become corrupted with power almost immediately; making them no more worthwhile to her than those other imbecilic 'nobles' who droned on about their relations to alicorns of the night and darkness and the moon and anything else of that somber nature. It was all so exhausting.
"Are they awake or are they still in a daze?" the alicorn asked Sunny.
The young unicorn tried to raise their heads using his magic, being careful not to hurt them or jerking them about too fast. The first to come to his senses was the young stallion's father. He took in his surroundings, groaning all the while. When his blurred vision finally focused, he was met with the glowing white eyes of Nightmare Moon before him. The alicorn expected him to scream or shrink away as all the others always did, but instead of there being a consistent drone of silence and terror, the old pony started chuckling then laughed aloud.
Moon was vexed and pointed at him. "What is he laughing about?"
Sunny gulped and looked back at his father. "Dad, what's wrong?" he asked him. The young unicorn shook his father a bit, worried there might have been more damage to his mind than anticipated. "Is something wrong? Please, stop laughing!"
His father tried stifling his laughter and looked at his son. His face was caked in tears of joy and his lips were warping from the colossal effort to not laugh. "The first thing I remember when waking up is that mares are eldritch horrors from beyond!" he said before he resumed laughing.
Moon frowned, confused. "He remembers the joke he made and this is why he's laughing?"
Sunny sighed and dropped his dad, bringing out a cry of sudden pain. "It's what-" The white pony quickly caught himself before resuming. "It's what we call a 'dad' joke." The alicorn raised a brow, perplexed. "Did you have a father?"
The mare looked to the end of the cave. "I did, yes, but he never made such...stupid 'jokes'," she hissed.
Sunny's father had started patting his mother on the side of the head in an attempt to wake her up.
"Dad, you need to listen," Sunny said. He grabbed him by the shoulders and slowly turned him to face Nightmare Moon. "Mom will be alright. You don't need to worry."
The alicorn rolled her eyes when the elder pony went back to arguing with his son and walked over to the unconscious mare. It would be easier if she was just asleep, then Moon could just wake her up through a sudden fright. Instead, she thought back to the time before she was betrayed by her sister. Her horn began to vibrate and she levitated the elder mare to her horn. Almost instantly the pony was startled awake and began lashing out and screaming in fear. She was tossed to the two stallions that held her down while the older pony talked her down.
"What did you do?!" Sunny shouted.
"Smelling salts, although I might have made them too strong," Moon stated with a hint of bemusement.
"You could have at least tried!"
"I am not versed in the art of medical magics." She casually swiped some debris off of her coat. "Nor do I plan to be."
The worried unicorn clenched his teeth and looked back to his parents. His mom had calmed down but seemed greener than usual.
"What an awful stench! I thought my mom had come back from the dead and was making food again," she gasped.
The father stared at her with wide, unblinking eyes then laughed. "Even now you can still make jokes."
Nightmare Moon raised a brow. Sunny's parents were acting strangely around her. She was unsure what the problem was, but ponies would always tremble when faced with alicorns. She reminisced fondly of her own parents who struck terror into the hearts of the war-loving ponies shortly after they arrived in proto-Equestria. Good times.
"Our son tells us you are an alicorn, but I'm not buying it," Sunny's mother exclaimed confidently.
Moon was ripped from her moment of reverie. How much time had passed? "And this concerns me why?" Moon asked.
The old mare was taken back. "Because I don't believe in alicorns! My great great grandfather was insistant that we descended from one, but if that were the case, we would be in a noble family, or at least our fortunes would be better!" she stated as she gestured around her. "Not that I curse my circumstances. I have a great son, a great husband, and I enjoy mining and sculpting." Moon tilted to the side and noticed that the mare's cutie mark was as pickaxe sculpting a statue from stone on one side and digging into an ore vein on the other. "Quite frankly, miss, I don't appreciate a con artist tricking my son into believing this...hooey!"
The alicorn leaned forward, her eyes starting to glow, and gave the elderly mare a grin, revealing her fangs. "Yes. I'm a con artist, that's why I can walk around in this form and not collapse from magical exhaustion."
Sunny watched as the two bickered, although as time went on it looked like his mother was gradually backing away. It looked like she was starting to suffer through some innate fear like he had, or rather, still did.
"It feels like everything is just happening too quickly," Sunny noted.
His father rubbed his head. "You know how your mother is," he said. "But, is that really an alicorn? Are you sure of it?" The stallion raised a brow. "How did you meet them?"
"I was in the city, then there was a giant explosion of magic, the moon lost its face, and she appeared in its place. The local soldiers tried to subdue her with their antimagic weaponry and she broke the weapons then summoned a vortex of magic that pulled them all in. Oh, and she was imprisoned in the moon about ten thousand years ago."
Sunny's father watched him with a loose jaw as the young unicorn listed everything off like it was just an every day grocery list. The old earth pony cracked his jaw left and right. He looked back at Moon then his son again. "And she's part of our family, then?" Sunny nodded in response. "...So...Let me get your mother so we can have a proper discussion at the table."
The stallion grabbed his wife, repeated what Sunny said, prompting the mare to grow pale. After a few minutes of back and forth the two invited their visitors to a roughly sculpted table. It was uneven, and the chisels being used were left on its lumpy and cratered surface.
"They want to talk now?" Moon asked Sunny. He nodded in response. "Good."
The parents stared at Sunny.
"You understand what she's saying?" his father said in great disbelief.
"Yes. It took... a while, but I was already studying her dialect of ponish." He adjusted himself, pushing his chest out. "I'm the one who taught her our language!"
Moon rolled her eyes. "Yes yes, very impressive. Now, what do you say about my offer? I believe you would find it interesting to be the one true family of true nobility at the head of Equestria."
The parents stared at her, dumbfounded.
"You really need to warn us before you throw out explosive spell after explosive spell. The head of Equestria? You're the ruler now?" the father asked incredulously.
Moon shook her head. "Not yet. I have things to learn beforehand, then the king will abdicate the throne."
The parents looked at each other and Sunny's father scratched his head.
"How about we introduce ourselves first to facilitate things?" Sunny's mom said shakingly. "I'm Honey Dimples, and this is my husband Geode Twinkle." She was doing her best to smile, but it was obvious she was absolutely terrified. "I just had a fight with a literal god. If I don't step around her carefully I'm going to die!" she thought in a panic.
"You're spilling your drink everywhere, Honey," Geode worried. "Maybe just set it down into one of the craters of the table and let your wings rest?" the mare nodded and placed the cup down. "There you go. Now take deep breaths." He looked to the alicorn. "Could you explain, in detail, what it is you want and why? This is kind of a lot to take in," he chuckled nervously.
Moon pointed to Honey. "Your wife is a descendant of my sister, which makes your son one as well. For whatever reason her genes are more prominent with him than his mother, and I must amit that I thought he was just dressing up as her in some revolting display of admiration." She growled despite herself and quickly regained her composure. "I have decided to make your son into a prince because of his genetic ties, which means that his parents or guardians are extended the branch of royalty as well."
"And...we have no choice in this?" Honey stammered.
"You have the choice," Moon said in dulcet tones. "But I would prefer to have actual ponies of nobility around...even if they are...peasants," she ended with a hint of disgust.
"But...why now, and why do you want us? You could have been satisfied with our son, not that I would let him stay with a goddess on his own." Honey shot the young unicorn a glare. "N-no offense, but--"
"I think we're beyond the concept of 'no offense'," Nightmare Moon interjected.
Honey gave a sheepish smile in response. "W-well, you aren't exactly the kindest pony I've ever met. In fact you're downright terrifying now that I know you're a genuine alicorn despite what we had been told."
Moon raised a brow. "I appreciate honesty, but what have you been told? I assume this means you have heard the tales of an alicorn in the north and that it was just a bit of smoke, then? A charade? A ploy of the festival?" Honey and Geode both nodded, prompting Moon to lean back and take on a pensive expression as she looked towards the ceiling. "Even here, then. As for your other question, it's because I have decided on what I am going to do now that my sister is no longer here, and since your son has been of great help to me I wanted to reward him. By proxy, that means you as well."
Honey narrowed her eyes and looked at Moon, incredulously. "You were trapped for ten thousand years, your sister is gone, and you're reaching out to her descendants..." Her eyes widened in sudden realization. "You want a family." Moon didn't dignify her 'realization' with an answer.
"Mom," Sunny started.
"No! She wants a family!" Honey accused. "I barely know anything about her but I know the look of a pony that suffers from loneliness, but suddenly coming into our lives when we don't even know you and offering something as incredulous as becoming members of royalty is insane!"
"She's right," Geode added. "Perhaps if we spent more time talking and learning about each other we might be more trusting, but knowing you're related to a god is just...wow." He shook his head. "Everything is going too fast! We need a moment to properly talk, rather than this sounding like a one-way ultimatum."
Moon glared at them then turned around, facing the distant wall that held the entryways leading deeper into the mountain. She needed to move, so she slowly walked forwards. How dare she assume such things of her. She's only related to her sister. The milennia have dulled and diluted the genes, but Sunny still had the closest match...