The last hoofful of clouds lazed away through the morning sky as Celestia’s sun rose, carrying a quiet breeze with it. Manehattan was building up to the usual morning hustle-and-bustle, and pony-drawn carts skittered back and forth through the busy streets alongside a few of the magical Auto-wheehicular Contra-vices (inventions of FlimFlam Bros., inc.) that had become so popular in the past year.
One such four-wheeled deathtrap nearly fishtailed into the milkmare as she crossed the street towards her final delivery for the morning. The cream-colored unicorn barked a few choice words at the driver as he sped away, cackling at her.
Stallions and their toys, the mare thought to herself as she blew a few displaced strands of pale-orange hair out of her eyes. She snorted and hoofed the low gate ahead of her open, intent on delivering the rest of this damn milk and getting home before any other maniacs attempted to wipe her off the road. The black, wrought-iron gate opened on well-oiled hinges, allowing her entry into the front lawn of the Moonlight Gardens home.
Delivering here always seemed to calm her down on a rough morning, the mare realized. She levitated three white bottles from her basket and trotted softly down the paved path to the front door, admiring the large magnolia tree in full bloom. Where the other, infrequent pieces of foliage around the city were just now showing the first fiery hint of autumn, this tree seemed to be in a perpetual pink bloom, day or night. The grass around it was neatly trimmed up to the garden area surrounding the dark-red brick building.
This particular milkmare was by no means a qualified florist (The horror, she shuddered as she thought of having to tend plants inside all day), but she was familiar with a few of the various species arranged throughout the garden. A good earth pony friend of hers from one of the smaller towns further west had been sending her a small collection of flowers that she cultivated for a living.
Among the dozens of plants filling the garden that surrounded the home, she could only place a name to a few. Many of the buds were beginning to close with the rising of the sun, like the yellow petals of the Lyreleaf Greeneyes or the stark white flowers hanging from the flowering tobacco. She caught a glimpse of the Scarlet Four O’Clock, the Beauty of the Night, before it sealed itself away from the daylight.
It must have taken a powerful magician alongside an experienced gardener to fill a spread like this with plants from around the world, many of which couldn’t live in this climate normally. The mare took a whiff of the heady mélange of scents before it was whisked away with the breeze, growing fainter as each bud closed for the day.
A large stem, covered almost completely in hydrangea and topped with a massive yellow bud grew next to the white set of stairs that carried the milkmare up to the front door. She spared a second look at the plant, wondering what kind of flower grew to be this tall and with a stem so thick...she almost didn’t notice the thick spines spearing through the gaps in the hydrangea before touching a hoof to the plant.
No. No way. This was the same stupid plant that her pal from Ponyville gushed about letter after letter, wishing she could grow one in her own garden someday. Underneath the heavy coat of vine and white blossoms, a single, spiny stalk of the nightblooming cereus stood vanguard at the entrance to Moonlight Gardens. Her friend’s most recent letter had mentioned news through the local florist’s club about one of these rare cacti having been recently transplanted to a collection in Manehattan...apparently this was it.
She was so coming back here tomorrow with a camera.
Leaving the beautiful Princess of the Night where it grew comfortably in the company of its peers, the unicorn ascended the last few steps to the porch and raised her hoof to leave a light knock on the heavy wooden door. Somepony had to deliver this milk, after all.
-----
Snickerdoodle blinked, confused by the question. Sapphire smiled as she stuffed another bite in Shale’s grimacing maw.
“Well, yeah, of course we can, pinks. What do you think brothers and sisters are for?” Doodle slid a plate of flapjacks towards the new addition to their group with a smile. Sapphire scooted the colt off of her lap and began setting up helpings for herself and Lily. Below her, Shale sat on his white-and-black-streaked tail and wiped the rest of his breakfast off of his face.
“That’s right, Lil’,” Sapphire mused. “Most of us here don’t have anypony else to look after us, aside from Miss Dew and Auntie Luna. So we’re each other’s family. Do you want syrup with that?”
“Oh, yes, please.” The bottle up-ended itself above the table, drizzling a generous helping on both of the fillies’ plates. As Lily drew her plate closer, a glass of orange juice floated to the table in front of her. Four matching glasses sailed through the air to land in front of each foal, and a bottle of the stuff wound its way into Shale’s outstretched hooves.
“There you go, kids. Now hurry up and finish breakfast. We still have to clean up the den so the Princess has a tidy house to visit,” Miss Dew called from the kitchen.
“Woona!” Shale yelled before Sapphire tilted his bottle back into his mouth.
“Yes. Now c’mon, let’s finish up and get the place clean.”
“Hey, Sapphire,” Lily asked between mouthfuls of breakfast, “what’s Princess Luna like?”
The unicorn tapped her chin thoughtfully before shrugging and gathering up some of the dishes on the table with her magic.
“This is your first time meeting the princess, huh?”
“Yeah...I’m a little nervous.” It was true; excited as she was, Lily still couldn’t get the storybook image of Nightmare Moon out of her head. Sapphire laughed and stepped away from the table, levitating the stack of dirty dishes in front of her.
“You’re in for a treat, then. Get everypony together and meet me in the den, alright?” She trotted into the kitchen, bearing the breakfast load with her. Doodle jumped down from his chair and knocked the back of Petal’s chair as he walked past, startling her awake again.
“Alright, time to wake up, sis. Let’s pick the place up already.” Petal yawned deeply, stretching her wings and cracking her back as she tried to re-enter the waking world.
“Fine. D’you think I can sneak a nap in before she gets here?”
“You’ve been sneaking naps in ever since Miss Dew pulled you out of bed this morning, doofus. You shouldn’t stay up so late to paint. If we can get everything spic-and-span, you could probably snooze a little on the couch.”
Placated for the moment, the burnt-orange pegasus flapped her wings and lifted from the chair to follow Doodle into the living room. All that was left for Lily was to gather up Shale...and Hazel.
“It’s Hazel, right?” She offered her best smile to the quiet unicorn. He had hardly touched any of his breakfast; chopped-up bits of pancake littered his plate like a battleground, but none of them had made it to his mouth. “Are you alright? You seem...sad.”
“Nut.”
“Uh...what?” The pink pegasus knelt down to the dining room floor so Shale could clamber up onto her back, carrying his bottle of juice with him.
“My name,” Hazel continued. “It’s Hazel Nut. Named after my dad, Birch Nut.” He shuffled around in his seat before climbing down, swishing his black tail around to sweep up a few of the crumbs that had fallen to the floor from breakfast.
“Oh. That’s a nice name, Hazel Nut.” Shale was starting to get antsy between Lily’s wings, and she began trotting in place to try and calm him down with some motion. “Can you tell me anything about your dad?”
The blank look Hazel gave her told her everything she really needed to know on that subject.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted, trying to stretch her neck so Shale couldn’t get a good mouthful of her ear. “I just...don’t really remember much about my parents. I was a little curious, is all.” Blushing in shame, she turned and tried creeping out of the room with a foal in tandem.
“No, it’s fine...I forgot that everypony’s here because they don’t have a mom or a dad. At least I still have my dad...sort of.” He fell into step alongside her and gave Shale a nudge back into place. “We used to live together in an apartment on the other side of the city. He got a letter about eight months ago with a golden seal on it...he said he had to go back to work for Princess Celestia. I was dropped off here while he was gone. He never told me what he was supposed to be doing, either. I didn’t find out until I was called in to see him in the hospital...”
He paused in his story as the three foals passed the front door. Over the din from the living room, Lily could hear the colt next to her begin to sob.
“Hey,” she offered, unsure of what to do. “I’m sure that whatever’s happened to your dad, he’s still thinking about you, right?” She raised a hoof to his shoulder, wrapping him in an awkward hug.
“Heh, sure,” he sniffed. “Turns out he had to go fight in the Royal Guard somewhere for the princesses. He got hurt pretty bad while he was gone and he hasn’t been able to come home yet. He...he went and left me and now he might not...” Lily cut him off before a new series of tears could overtake the colt, wrapping both of her hooves around his neck in a silent hug. Shale rolled from between Lily’s wings to Hazel’s broader back, anchoring himself firmly in place with a mouthful of black mane.
“Thanks, Lily. I haven’t really told anypony about that yet. I think Miss Dew already knows, but nopony else asked. I guess you’re alright.” His tired smile was split as Shale wrenched back on his mane, squeezing his four little legs around Hazel’s midsection.
“Woona!” The miniature foal wailed at nopony in particular.
“He’s right, you know. We should go help the others clean up before the princess gets here.” Lily patted each of her new brothers on the head in turn before the smaller one swatted her away from his salt-and-pepper mane.
“NO! Woona!”
“MISS MORNING DEW, MY STALWART CENTURIONS AND I HAVE CAPTURED A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS INTERLOPER ON YOUR DOORSTEP.”
The volume alone was enough to knock each foal onto their backs, and the sonic aftershock rattled Lily straight to her bones. She stared breathlessly at the front door, terrified at what may lie beyond.
“Oh, dear. She’s in one of her playtime moods again.” Trotting swiftly to the door, Miss Dew picked up each of the children and sent them scurrying off to the living room with a wave of her hoof.
“Go on then. Let me sort this out with Auntie Luna before she comes in to see you all.”
“I CAN HEAR YOU WITHIN, MISS MORNING DEW. NO NEED TO LOOK UPON THE INTRUDER; I SHALL HAVE MY GUARDS TRANSPORT HER TO THE NEAREST PENITENTIARY WITH ALL HASTE. IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT STILL ENFORCED IN THESE LANDS? MY KNOWLEDGE OF MODERN EQUESTRIAN LAW IS STILL HAZY.”
Goddesses above, Lily could swear there were a dozen ponies’ voices forcing their way through the rattling door instead of just one. She chanced a look back as Miss Dew stepped outside and caught a glimpse of one terrified mare, two heavily-armored batponies, and four massive black pillars that each ended in a diamond-encrusted boot.
“Good grief, princess, you know full well that there hasn’t been an execution in nearly 800 years. Please stop frightening this poor milkmare - thank you for the delivery, by the way, dear; see you next week - and come inside already! You’re drawing a crowd.”
“HUZZAH! A PUBLIC EXECUTION IT IS!”
Lily leaped into the den with Hazel and Shale in her wake, a stream of booming laughter and mortified wails following them.
“Everypony run! Nightmare Moon’s here!” She leaped behind a thickly-cushioned blue couch, doing her best to draw her tail into the crawlspace after her.
“Yeah,” Sapphire deadpanned as she peeked in at Lily. “We heard her.”
“But-but-she’s gonna eat us! Hazel, put Shale in here with me and find a hiding spot!”
The colt laughed and gave her the first real smile she’d seen from him all day.
“Are you kidding? C’mon, Lily, you can’t miss this!” Shale waved his hooves above his head, teetering dangerously on Hazel’s red coat.
“Miss wh-aaa...” Pink feathers obscured Lily’s eyesight just as a truly massive diamond warboot crashed into her field of vision. She hardly recognized the wings as her own and opted to freeze in place, hoping the Nightmare couldn’t see her.
“I smell four...five...six tasty little foals.”
Drat, one of six foals thought to herself as she tried not to breathe.
“One of them smells like a pegasus...a pretty pink pegasus with blue eyes.”
Double drat!
“She smells as if she is hiding behind the couch!”
“Augh!” Pink feathers burst out of Lily’s hiding spot as she rocketed up to the ceiling, flapping her wings madly to try and escape almost certain death.
“Yes!” Nightmare Moon’s voice wasn’t merely loud, it was deafening. It filled the room and the rooms beyond it even further than the gigantic form of her armored body could. “RUN! IT MAKES YOU TASTE ALL THE SWEETER WHEN I COME TO GOBBLE YOU UP!” Fangs leapt out of the Nightmare’s wide mouth, glinting dangerously in the morning light.
Beneath Lily, five foals laughed and disappeared in all directions, giggling as they ran away from the coal-black alicorn.
“Wait...what?” Lily’s hover faltered as she saw the Queen of Terror slip her a quick wink before vanishing in a puff of stardust and purple smoke. Another bout of giggles erupted from the kitchen; Paint Petal, if Lily heard right.
“One pegasus filly gobbled, five foals left to find!” The triumphant cry echoed from the kitchen back into the den, rocking Lily in the air. Below her an orange pegasus popped into the middle of the floor, scattering specks of magic as she appeared. If she was sleepy before, she was completely awake now.
“Heeheehee! Hey, Lily! What are you doing up there? You’ve gotta find a better hiding spot!” She fluttered up to the pink foal and began pushing her down to ground level.
“What?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never played hide-and-seek! There, that’s a good spot. I usually hide there.” Petal lifted one of the large blue cushions on the couch and waited until Lily had crawled underneath to lower it.
From under the plush cushion came another muffled:
“What?”
A soft crash came from the second floor, followed by the sounds of foals’ cheers and laughter. Two pops, one after another, signalled the return of two more foals. Lily peeked out from beneath her plush hiding spot to see Hazel and Shale appear in a bundle on the carpet. Shale leapt off of his brother’s prone body, jumping in place and whooping laughter. Hazel groaned and picked himself up, grinning the whole time.
“Outta the way! She found me!” A blue-tinted magical flash burst in the middle of the air, depositing Sapphire face-first onto the carpet. Her mane and tail were slightly singed from the imperfect teleportation spell. She shrieked with laughter as a deep-purple cloud appeared in the doorway, rocketing tacross the room and solidifying into Nightmare Moon. The alicorn hung suspended upside-down from the ceiling, hooves spread wide in a predatory stance.
“I have you now, child!” She sprang from her perch, tackling Sapphire and rolling into the hallway towards the front door. Lily heard another faint crash as something presumably expensive shattered in the assault.
Miss Dew walked through the same doorway, carrying a pile of broken porcelain in her magical field.
“Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother cleaning before she visits.” Her white tail disappeared into the doorway to the kitchen just as Nightmare Moon stepped back into the den. Sapphire hung from her jaws by the tip of her midnight-blue tail, smiling and giggling softly to herself even as she tried to play possum. The alicorn princess deposited her gently on the carpet before grinding a hoof in mock frustration.
“Only two remain. Perhaps they should surrender so that they do not feel my unholy fury!” She stomped from one end of the room to the other, gnashing her teeth and licking the tips of her fangs for effect. Lily could just barely see a small set of brown hooves following in her shadow.
“Attack!” Doodle leaped and attached himself to the alicorn’s tail, scrabbling with his limbs to try and find purchase in the misty veil of starlight and night sky. Even as he started to fall, the mist formed around him and lifted him high into the air, dropping him neatly behind Nightmare Moon’s icy helmet. With a mournful wail, she spun in place and raised a hoof to her brow.
“Oh, gods and goddesses above, a brave warrior has surely slain me, the Nightmare That Walks The Waking World, the Devourer of Flesh and Soul, Mare Who Is Blacker Than the Blackest Black...Times Infinity!”
“You made that last one up, dear,” Miss Dew called helpfully from another room.
Lily grunted as the full weight of an immortal embodiment of the absence of light crashed onto the couch and pinned her under the cushions.
“Help! Nightmare Moon is squishing me!” She twisted and managed to get a single, pink hoof out from beneath the mare above her.
“Jellied foal was a wonderful delicacy during my all-too-brief rule,” the princess stated matter-of-factly. The weight above Lily shifted away, and the little pegasus squeezed her way out of the couch and rolled onto the carpet. She watched in awe as the humongous black goddess shrank and changed in color to a comfortably blue shade of midnight.
Princess Luna, Dream Mother and Patron of the Watchful Eye, lounged on the couch as a proud-looking Doodle adopted a heroic pose on top of her peytral plate.
“Come now, Snickerdoodle, let an old horrorterror such as myself be vanquished with her dignity.” The colt atop her wrinkled his nose at the sound of his name.
“Please, Auntie Luna, it’s just Doodle. Don’t call me by my first name.”
“I will do no such thing. I will continue to call you Snickerdoodle, because they are delicious and it is a cute name and I enjoy antagonizing you. Now, Lily Breeze, the quiet little pegasus, come here please.” Princess Luna levitated Doodle away from her as she sat up on the couch, slipping the tiara off of her head and the plate from her chest.
“P-princess! Um, how do you know my name?” The fact that the other foals seemed to remember her name was surprise enough for Lily.
“Child, I know every pony’s name that stays under my roof. While you are all living here, you are living in my home, under the care of my very good friend Morning Dew. Have you enjoyed your first morning here?” The princess patted a spot on the couch next to her, and Lily hesitantly lifted herself up to the seat. The rest of the children gathered around the pair on the couch, taking seats on the carpet or pulling cushions from the living room’s chairs to sit on.
“I’ve been having a nice time so far, princess. My, um...my new brothers and sisters all seem very nice. And a lot of fun!”
“That’s more or less us in a nutshell,” Sapphire added with a wry smile. “Nice, and fun. We accept praise.”
“That is good to hear, but please don’t bother calling me ‘princess’ here, child. I’m making a family visit, not entertaining a court full of nobleponies. Now children, how have you all been since I last came? What have you all done that is new and exciting?” Upon hearing the princess’ question, Paint Petal gasped and zipped out of the living room. She came tearing back down from the second floor a second later, a large sheet of butcher paper in tow.
“Auntie Luna! I painted something for you. I stayed up all night working on it!” The orange filly held up the wide canvas, beaming with pride. A panorama of the night sky appeared to have been vomited onto the paper. White-and-yellow stars speckled a haphazard swash of deep blue and black, and an ovalish-looking moon was scarred with dozens of grey splotches in the rough shape of a pony’s face.
Princess Luna took it from Petal’s hooves gently, handling the artwork as if it was the rarest treasure in the royal vault. Her eyes lit with a warmth that Lily still couldn’t understand, and she raised the painting high above her head in glee.
“Wonderful! Thank you, dearest Paint Petal. I shall have it hung in the palace’s display gallery today! Besides,” she added conspiratorially, “Between us, the horrid old place could do with a few more moons and stars. Far too many paintings of the sun and stuffy old dead ponies.” She shared a giggle with Petal and rolled the canvas with her magic.
“Imbrium! Somniorum! Attend your princess!” Princess Luna called her guards into the den happily, enjoying, as she always did, ordering them around as often as she could. Somniorum, the taller of the two armored batponies, was the first through the hallway. He took a stance next to the couch and raised a gauntlet-sheathed forelimb in salute.
Imbrium came shuffling into the den a moment later, his grizzled muzzle and leaner frame showing the signs of his age. His eyes, however, carried a fierce light to them - and the sardonic smile on his face hinted at the attitude he carried along with it.
“Yes, m’lady,” Imbrium reported.
“This is a highly valuable piece of post-modern expressionist artwork, Captain Imbrium. See to it that it is delivered to the royal gallery at once.” The Centurion took the rolled canvas from Princess Luna’s magical grip and sheathed it in a sheet of hide that he pulled from his saddlebag.
“Of course, m’lady. Would you find it entertaining, m’lady, if I were to replace one of the older pieces with this one?” His grin was in full force now.
“You have clearly read my mind, Captain. Please relocate a Cubism piece of your choosing. They are ugly, and make my head hurt.”
The stallion placed the covered painting in his saddlebag and tightened his straps for takeoff, bowing low to his princess.
“As you command, m’lady.”
Somniorum watched in growing apprehension as his superior officer left through the front door. He turned his gaze back to the group in the living room, finding all eyes on him.
“I apologize, Corporal Somniorum, but as you can see, that only leaves you with the foals and I. And it is now time for more games. Is that acceptable, children?” Her request was met with unanimous approval. “As I thought! Well, Corporal, you know the drill. Children, choose your weapons.”
Lily was dragged off to choose from an assortment of costume armor and swords with the other foals while Somniorum let out a quiet sigh of resignation.
“Oh, hush, Corporal. I’m sure the children can only handle an hour or two of Hunt the Timberwolf. Besides, ‘tis a fair time to practice your less-than-stellar war face.”
-----
Several hours later, Princess Luna found herself back in the den, surrounded on all sides by the tired children she had spent the majority of the day playing with. A slew of hoof-drawn pictures had been tossed around the room randomly along with the crayons and pencils used to draw them. A small stack of plates and glasses sat unattended in the corner, the last remnants of both lunch and dinner. Corporal Somniorum was standing guard outside the house, having earned himself a few minutes of quiet after having been chased around the building by a traveling band of “wolf-hunting heroes.”
Celestia’s sun was just finishing its long arc across the sky, barely touching the edge of the horizon out past the city’s limits. Luna could feel the pressure in her mind to begin the moonrise soon.
“It’s almost time for me to go, my little ponies. Your Auntie Celestia will need me back at the palace tonight.” A pair of tiny hooves gripped around the back of her neck in protest.
“No,” Shale murmured. He had gotten himself tangled in her mane as they sat together on the floor to rest for a moment, and had decided to go spelunking until he tired himself out.
“Yes, little Shale. She loves you all very much, but unfortunately Woona has some tasks she needs to take care of before morning comes, and you need to go to sleep so you can have sweet dreams tonight.” The bluish cloud of magic that wafted from her horn pulled Shale free from her locks, depositing him against her side next to Doodle and Lily. Paint Petal and Hazel leaned against her back, relaxing in the twilight and happy to spend time with the princess. Sapphire sat quietly to herself a few paces away.
“Well, before I leave for the night...perhaps you would like to hear a little song?” The crowd around her mumbled their approval and curled up closer to the Princess of the Night. Slowly, softly, a quiet melody began to emanate from the tip of Luna’s horn.
“Very well, then.”
Summer’s eve
Long ago
Lonely, cold, in the dark of night,
Suddenly hooves wrap ‘round,
Hold me under the moonlight.
“There,” she breathes,
“Can’t you see,”
“Everything will be alright.”
Sisters, we, from that night on
Safely under the moonlight.
“Ponies come, and ponies leave,”
“Between each storm as a brief reprieve.”
“Know, dear sister, can’t you see,”
“That we are family.”
Children, dears,
Family,
Help each other through fears and frights.
Strong and tall, never alone,
Sleep now under the moonlight.
We’re always near, never alone,
When you’re under the moonlight.
Friends may come, and friends may go
Hearts may break betwixt dreams laid low.
But know, my children, don’t you see,
That we are family.
Children, dears,
Have no fear,
Learn and love and live with might.
Family’s bond is unbreakable
Ever under the moonlight.
I’m always here, never alone...
When you’re under the moonlight.
-----
Lily felt a strange warmth against her as she began to stir. She opened her eyes to find herself embraced on all sides by the sleeping forms of her brothers and sisters.
“It feels nice, doesn’t it? Having a family,” a voice called from behind. Lily spun her head towards the sound and found a familiar blue pegasus leaning halfway through the open living room window.
“Spring!”
“Heya, Lil’. Didn’t I tell ya you wouldn’t have to be alone any more? Now c’mon, wake everypony up. The night’s still young and we’ve got a whole world to go out and see.”