Celestia watched as Luna lowered the moon from the Solar Tower, Luna seemed exhausted from the night. After she had left to her chambers Celestia rose up dragging the yellow orb with her. The stars moved away as the sun rose higher and higher into the sky.
She placed it in the center to give everypony light. Then, as she released her grasp on the sun, a grey blur flew past her. Celestia stared at the blur as it sped off to the gardens. Then turned back where it came from, lucky she dived in time to avoid the dozen blurs speeding after the first.
Celestia then turned and followed them to the gardens where many zaldias had gathered already. She quickly disguised herself as a zaldia bat and landed next to a mare who seemed excited.
"Is it true? Do we really have a queen?"
"Fang said it was true, so it must be true."
"What about Luna? Will she send our queen to the moon?"
"I hope not."
"Silence young ones, our queen wishes to speak." (Fang)
Everypony turned their attention to the captain who was landing on a fountain. Shortly after, Twilight escorted by Midnight and Starlight, who recovered with a spell, landed in front of the crowd. They bowed to her making themselves as low as possible.
Celestia watched as her prized pupil opened her wings and eyes. They were now in the form of Nightmare Moon's, one that deeply shocked Celestia. For a split second she thought Twilight had turned to the darkest shadows, but then remembered what her mother told her.
"Hello everypony, I am Twilight Sparkle. Last night I was trotting through the dream world when I thought came to me after seeing a very interesting dream. Princess Luna will pass on her night to me when the time comes, but how can I rule over the night without becoming apart of it?
What if my sister-in-law, Cadence, needs me to take over the day? So I thought of the solution, during the day all zaldias will appear as normal ponies, at night you will change back to a zaldia. I myself shall demonstrate."
Twilight's horn shined and formed a sphere around her. She levitated a few feet then with a pop dropped on her hooves as her alicorn-pony self. The crowd stared at her in confusion, Celestia looked at her with a smile.
"So what you are saying is if you are going to do something in the day, we can still guard you?"
Twilight looked at the zaldia hoof in front of her and nodded.
"Well sign me up! I will always follow my queen."
The others muttered to each other then applauded their leader. Twilight smiled and gave Fang the spell so she could have a zaldia horn cast it. Twilight and Starlight moved away from the crowd and trotted off to the castle. Celestia motioned to follow, but was blocked by Fang.
"Sorry rookie, queen is not to be disturbed at all."
"Well then I shall go speak with Luna about all this."
Before Fang could stop her, Celestia jumped into the air and flew up to the Noctis Tower.
Meanwhile Starlight, now a pegasus, and Twilight flew off to meet her friends in the park. Twilight landed perfectly on the ground while her guard landed in a tree.
"Are you okay?"
"It's been a while since I had feathers. Kinda tickles."
"You'll get used to them."
Twilight pulled him down with magic making him land on the ground with a thump. Rainbow Dash appeared next to him on the ground, apparently she was sleeping in the tree. Fluttershy picked her up while Starlight stood up slowly.
"Hey I was nap----Oh it's you." (Rainbow)
"Nice to see you too." (Starlight)
"I'm sure she just grumpy from being knocked out of a tree." (Twilight)
"You would too if you napped on the top branch. Hey where's Scoots?" (Rainbow)
No later than that a orange filly dropped onto her back still asleep. Rainbow looked over at the filly and smiled.
"Never mind."
They spent the day talking and picnicking with her friends, but Starlight couldn't stop thinking of his dream. He was sure it was just the good outcome in it, but after hearing Twilight's speech he knew it was the real one. Then another thought rolled into his head.
"Hey Twilight?"
"Yes."
She turned from her conversation with Rarity to Starlight who was shaking a bit. He straightened himself and made the 'this is a time of truth' face.
"I need to speak with you alone. It is very important."
"Alright, lead the way. We'll be back soon girls."
They trotted over to a bench near some trees to block themselves from view. After sitting down Twilight looked at Starlight who was still standing.
"Aren't you going to sit?"
"No, I need to stand for this."
He looked around to be sure nopony was listening then looked straight into Twilight's eyes. He forgot his worries and spoke.
"Twilight, I have been thinking a lot lately and that since this should as good a time as ever. Do you think you would want to....I mean....well I..."
"You don't have to say anything. I already know."
"Y-you do!"
"Of course. Your dream was the only one I was allowed to be in. And I already have an answer."
Starlight gulped. It didn't look good. The bad Twilight started like that too.
"Yes."
"What?"
"Yes."
"You...you really want to...I mean..."
"Calm down, you look like you're going to faint."
"Only from happiness."
They rejoined the mares who were staring at a shadow in the sky. Twilight sat next to Fluttershy and looked up. The shadow seemed to be getting closer and closer and closer, until...
"Everypony duck!" (Pinkie)
The shadow spiraled down to the ground behind them, showering dirt on their coats. Rarity pulled out her fainting couch and fell onto it. Twilight trotted to the hole made by the object. Lying in it was a zaldia hoof. She levitated him over to the picnic blanket and wrapped his front leg in bandages.
"What happened?" (Twilight)
"The unicorns, they blasted us while we used the spell you gave us. They said we are not worthy of the night!" (Guard)
"Were they in gold armor, Obsidian?" (Starlight)
"No, they were regular unicorns. They had a strange symbol on those necklaces they wore." (Obsidian)
"What was it?" (Twilight)
"It was...THAT!" (Obsidian)
Obsidian pointed at a group of unicorns and pegasi standing behind them. Immediately, Starlight put himself between Twilight and the offending ponies. He bared his teeth which grew fangs in defense. The leading unicorn, wearing a cloak over his head, trotted up to him. The symbol on his necklace was a bright crescent blue moon with a silver star in it's curve.
"My queen, we are honored with your presence." (Stallion)
"Go away. I am not your queen. You are not welcome here." (Twilight)
"My queen, we only wish to rid the vermin you have. He is not worthy to live." (Stallion)
"What makes you think you can say who can live!" (Rainbow)
"Our birthright. We are Nocturne, ponies under the moon's light. We are guided by Blue Moon, we are the true zaldia." (Stallion)
"You are not children of Blue Moon. She created the zaldias to guard her, you can't even see in the dark without a torch!" (Starlight)
"Poor bat. He lost his sense of direction. You are impure, unfit to be under the new queen's wing." (Stallion)
"Enough! You ponies have know idea what you are saying! I would never let you under my wing even if I was dying and never ever have you in my sight! Now go before I call Luna to send you to the moon!" (Twilight)
"Very well, my queen. We will leave, but we will be watching. You will soon see the true light." (Stallion)
The leader set off a smoke bomb and disappeared. Twilight and her friends went to the castle to see Celestia and Luna about the strange ponies. Midnight met them at the doors to the throne room, apparently with a broken wing, and took Obsidian to the hospital wing.
Luna was sitting with Fang who stared at every corner in the room. Celestia was staring out the window towards the gardens that laid in ruins after a large fight.
"Celestia, there were-"
"I know. They caused quite a bit of damage to the gardens and made an attempt on Luna's life. These ponies, Nocturne, are a group from long ago, before Luna and I took the throne. I hoped we would never see them again."
Luna trotted over to Twilight, her wing folded over the young alicorn. Luna looked up to her elder sister.
"Perhaps I should tell her of the Nocturne, my mother was the victim of their worship." (Luna)
"Of course. Blue Moon suffered much from them." (Celestia)
"What's going on?" (Rainbow)
"Yes. We thought, like all ponies, you had a mother and a father." (Rarity)
"We were raised as sisters from the last alicorns." (Luna)
"But your alicorns right now." (Pinkie)
"It is very complicated. But Luna and I appear as alicorns, we were created to hold the place until the real leader takes the throne." (Celestia)
"Then what are you?" (Twilight)
Luna stood next to Celestia and bowed. Her horn glowed and a white light enveloped her entire body. The ponies had to shield their eyes from the bright light filling the room. Luna disappeared leaving a crystal, actual crystal, blue pony standing wings flared and horn glow fading.
Everpony, except Celestia, was wide eyed and mouth dropped. Pinkie fell over on her face from the weight of hers. The crystal pony turned to Celestia, who was beginning to glow as well. After another blinding light a pink crystal pony stood tall.
"Princess?" (Twilight)
"Twilight, we are made entirely out magic crystal found with the crystal heart. We were created by Golden Apple and Blue Moon to protect Equestria from any creature. Luna was raised in the night while I was raised in the day. Our mothers gave us their magic so we could grow.
We are the only living children of the last alicorns. You and Cadence are the first alicorns since Discord removed the real sun and moon from the sky." (Celestia)
"Nocturne wanted to destroy me in hopes of bringing my mother back, but failed when her guards, the zaildas, interrupted the spell. We believe now they wish to use you to bring back Blue Moon." (Luna)
"Use me? Blue Moon? I'm sorry, but I don't understand. How? Why? What?" (Twilight)
"Twilight, be calm." (Celestia)
The two crystal alicorns flashed brightly again and the royal sisters stood once more. Celestia waved a hoof and a small tree appeared. Luna waved a wing and a bush appeared. Twilight stared at the two items, but neither did anything significant.
"Celestia, what are these supposed to be?" (Twilight)
"They were the keepers of the tree of harmony. The tree is a pegasus named Sprout, the bush is a earth pony named Ferngully. they are the only ones who could help us against Nocturne." (Celestia)
"How in the hay are two plants gonna help us?" (Applejack)
"They are the only beings who have the knowledge of Nocturne and they may be a great use to you Twilight." (Luna)
"Pardon me, princess, but how are we to believe any of this is actually real? You can change yourselves into anything you wish and could have brought us two plants from the garden." (Rarity)
"A very fine point, Rarity. We could be playing a joke, but would that be appropriate after have a multitude of unicorns injure sixteen zaldias?" (Celestia)
The room was silent. Any doubt flew out the window and into the sun. Twilight felt guilt being the one to bring the zaldias outside. She trotted forward to her mentor and looked back at her friends. Her eyes fell on Starlight who was nervous being close to Celestia.
Twilight then looked down at the tree and bush, both had black symbols around the bases. The purple alicorn nodded to the two sisters, Luna picked up Sprout while Celestia levitated Ferngully. The two plants circled, but did nothing significant.
"The keepers are sensitive to things that harm plants, so try not to step hard on grass." (Celestia)