Sixteen years ago, approximately eight months after my husband and I were married, a basket was left on our doorstep. Moonchaser was in it, wrapped up in a blanket the color of the night sky.
Also in that basket were three things. Two of them were scrolls, a letter each to my husband and myself. My husband never showed me his letter, and I suspect I know why, given that my own letter instructed me to never show it to it to him. The third item was a small pendant, a sliver crescent moon on a thin chain. Moonchaser still has it, as well as the blanket.
The letter explained many things. My husband was Moonchaser's father - to this day I know not who her mother is, though I suppose it must be an alicorn. It requested that I take care of the filly. That I raise her as my own.
How could I refuse?
I raised the child, loved her. I had been ill recently, and so hadn't been seen much in public. We simply pretended that I had been hiding my pregnancy. The scandal blew over as soon as the next one hit, I honestly doubt anypony but me even remembers it.
The illusion was simple, and easy to continue. Moonchaser was far too young to understand. We had originally been planning on telling her on her seventh birthday.
And then everything changed.
We had kept her isolated from other foals, using the scandal as an excuse for as long as anypony remembered it. Later, we said that she was delicate, and we didn't want to risk her health. What happened may have been irony's price for such a ruse.
Night Wind was a unicorn, which was part of our half-baked scheme to explain both wings and horn once Moonchaser was too old to keep inside the manor. When she was four years old, he fell ill and unknowingly brought it home. It infected our daughter as well. By the time we realized what it was, it was too late.
I'm going to assume that they don't have hornrot in that other world you say you come from. It is a terrible disease, though thankfully quite rare. It infects a unicorn's horn, turning their own magic against them. It has cures if you catch it early enough, but...
It was too late for my beloved. Night Wind's magic had already done too much damage to his body, we couldn't save him. His death however, saved our daughter. Moonchaser was advanced, but still behind him in the disease's progression. We had only one option to save her.
Amputation.
Her horn was removed before the disease did any lasting damage. In a few months, we managed to purge it completely from her system.
And I was left to raise my daughter on my own.
The years past, and over time I continued to give myself excuses, reasons why she couldn't know. First she was too young to understand. Then she was too young to trust to keep it secret. The fact that without a horn she simply thought herself a normal pegasus helped. There were none of the questions that we had anticipated in earlier years about why she was the only pony anywhere with both horn and wings. Then, almost before I knew it, she was old enough to wonder why I had never told her before.
Which is why I can't tell her now, not until the time is right.
We always knew that this time would come. That eventually she'd find herself in a war for Equestria. There was nothing else that an alicorn infant being sent in secret to hide with us could mean. The letter even told me that when she was grown I would have to let her accept her destiny, and hoped that I would help.
And then there was that day. The day she met you. Since then it's been a rollercoaster of not knowing if she's alive or not. It seems her destiny came to claim her, but a few stubborn ponies wouldn't let it take her alone. It's honestly far better than what I had been hoping for. I cannot begin to tell you how good it is to know that my daughter isn't all alone out there. Thank you for that.
Which brings us to today. And me listening here as you laid most of my secrets bare. I must admit, I was surprised by what you told me about Sunbeam, she's even kept her wings hidden from me. And now that I've told you all of this, you have my last secrets. You have me.
What are your intentions?
Midnight had been sitting with his eyes closed as he listened to the mare's story. After a moment, he opened his eyes and mouth to answer her, only to snap the latter shut and swivel his head towards the sound that had cut him off.
A ragged sob from inside a wall.
Starshadow said a rather unladylike word as both of them realized what had just happened. The mare started running to the entrance of the secret passage she realized only now that she had forgotten to have Silver Monocle clear and guard. Midnight, on the other hoof, took the more direct approach of shifting to alicorn form, pulling the painting off the wall, and jumping through the hole it left.
Moonchaser was sobbing into Dust Runner's shoulder while the earth pony mare shook her head in wide eyed surprise and fear. "Sunny, I swear, I didn't know about any of this. Do you really think I would have helped you two sneak in here if I did?" The other mare was glaring at her hard enough that it seemed like one or both of them might burst into flames.
Midnight subtly stepped between the two as he laid a comforting hoof on Moonchaser's shoulder. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it after a minute when he realized that anything coming out would likely involve his hoof going in.
The stillness of the moment was shattered by light as the hidden door a few yards away opened and a second shaft of light spilled across them all. Starshadow stood there silhouetted. "Moonchaser, I-"
"You what!?" The mare in question snapped, "You're sorry!? You didn't want to hurt me!? You've been lying to me my entire life, exactly how am I supposed to take that Mother!? Only I can't even call you that anymore, can I!? I HATE you! I never want to see you again!" And then she bolted, knocking the older mare down as she tore her way around the corner and down hallways towards the front entrance.
The three teens stood gaping as Starshadow picked herself up. "Moonchaser, wait! Please just let me explain, please!" And then she was gone too.
Dust Runner was the first one who realized that they should probably catch up. The trio galloped full tilt down hallways, barreling around corners at top speeds, more than once having to run on a wall to make a turn. Still, they were no match in speed for the two emotionally fueled mares. By the time they caught up to her, Lady Starshadow was sitting in the small courtyard between the manor gate and the main door, the same spot Midnight Star had taken flight from a few nights ago, staring numbly up at the sky.
Silver Monocle arrived shortly after them, huffing and puffing from his own sprint through the house. He leaned only slightly on the door frame, unnoticabley really, as he took in the scene. "Lady Starshadow seems to be in shock," He finally said, "I shall take her inside and see to her needs. You three had best find Lady Moonchaser."
Dust Runner nodded as the butler quietly led the subdued pegasus mare inside. "I'll search all the places that she usually goes when she needs a break from life. Sunbeam, go through the city, get all of our friends looking for her. If we canvas Everfree with search parties, somepony'll find her eventually. Midnight, go home."
"Wh-what? But I - What'd I -"
"Nothing. You didn't do anything wrong, but my best friend is out there right now as an emotional wreck, and I'm pretty sure I know what that means. And for now, that means you need to go home. Go back to the tower and don't leave until she's found, understand? You can use some of your magic stuff to try and find her from there if that helps, but just... please. Go."
"But I want to h-"
"Inkwell," Sunbeam cut him off, "Dusty's right. For now, the best way you can help is to go back to your tower."
The colt bowed his head with a sigh. "Alright. If you both really think that that's what's best." He shifted back to his bat pony form and fired a series of clicks at Dust Runner, Just make sure she's safe, before taking flight and heading for the south gate he needed to go through to get home.
It was about three hours after sunset when Midnight opened the door to the tree. Moonchaser was standing in the light drizzle, hoof raised to knock a second time. The colt's eyes widened in surprised recognition and he opened the door further as he motioned her inside. "Hi."
"Hi," She quietly returned. "I uh... got caught outside the city when they closed the gates and I didn't want to go to Blossom because I knew she'd have questions and I don't really want to talk about it and -"
Midnight corked her mouth with his hoof. "How about we skip the explanations that I don't really need and get you inside, warm, and dry?"
She gave a grateful smile as he removed his limb. "That sounds nice. Thank you."
Moonchaser was curled up in front of the hearth, a blanket wrapped around her and a mug that had once held chocolate cradled in her hooves. A fresh pot levitated over, wrapped in a deep blue aura, and filled her cup before being set on the floor next to her.
The mare had been basically silent since her arrival, and behind her Midnight, Starswirl, and Cloudwing were having a quiet conversation.
"...get what you're saying Starswirl, but we don't really have much in the way of options. at this point it's either I sneak back into the city and stay at my parents' overnight - not a good idea considering that I'm the one she came to for help - or we put her up in my bed and I sleep on the floor."
"And the reason she can't sleep with Cloudwing is?"
"There's barely enough room for Cloudwing in that closet. And that's ignoring the fact that she barely fits on that cot."
"He's got a point. I'm very grateful for it, but I don't think Moonchaser would be comfortable in my room."
"Fine, just... colt, be careful. Both of you are pretty emotional, don't do anything you might regret."
Cloudwing facehooved as Midnight froze. "That's what this is about? For crying out loud, it's not like we already spent weeks unsupervised in the woods or anything. What is wrong with you? If she ever even found out that this got talked about she'd castrate me."
"Also, I'm upset, not intoxicated." It was at this point that the trio realized that their conversation had gotten slightly louder than it had started. Moonchaser rolled her eyes at everypony's expressions. "Honestly, I've been getting lessons on avoiding scandals since I was eleven. I'm inexperienced, not naïve. And I agree with Midnight, it might be a better idea for me to sleep in his room. Although I should really take the floor."
"Not. Happening." Midnight pointed a hoof at her. "One, you're a guest. Two, you're a mare. Three, you're a lady of the court. Four, I'm technically a knight of the realm. Five, I've seen you try and sleep without a matress, and you need more than ten minutes of rest tonight."
Moonchaser reluctantly nodded. "Alright, you win. But at least use more of a bedroll than you did when we were in the forest."
"Of course. That was an emergency, this isn't."
"Come on Moony," Cloudwing tossed her head to one side, "There's some sheets we can string up across his room, make a curtain."
The two females began walking up the stairs towards Midnight's room. "Oh? Sounds like you know his room quite well."
"Well, my room actually was just a large storage closet before I got here, and Featherdancer and I had to stay somewhere, so..." The voices faded as they reached the next floor, although shortly after they did, Cloudwing let loose a scandalized shriek followed by resounding laughter barely recognizable as Moonchaser's echoeing down the stairs.
Midnight shot Starswirl a glare. "See? Now we're all going to reap her vengeance, thank you ever so much for that."
As he turned to leave, a hoof on his shoulder stopped him. "Colt... Inkwell... Midnight. This isn't an apology, but I want you to know, none of this was about me not trusting you. I'm just very aware of the kind of stallion who's trained and raised you. Which includes being acutely conscious of his weaknesses. Learn from him, but recognize flaws and strive to avoid them. Trust me, if he's lived the same life I have... just... always live so that you'll have as few regrets as possible in the end, alright?"
Midnight nodded. "I understand. And... thank you... for caring."
The colt continued walking away from the stallion, not turning to look at him so as to give them both the right to hide the tears threatening to well in hteir eyes. Truth be told, the relationship between the Starswirls and their respective Inkwells was more father-son than master-apprentice or mentor-student. The relationship hadn't carried across when he had come through the mirror, but it looked like it was starting too.
Midnight gave a wry grin. At this rate, he'd be more attached to this world than his own by the time the portal opened back up again. He might never go back through the mirror.
He honestly wasn't sure if he'd mind that or not.
Midnight looked around. He honestly had no idea how he had gotten here. He was currently standing in a drafty stone hallway, probably inside some kind of castle. Torches lined the walls, lighting things well, it would have been just barely too dim to read by.
That wasn't his problem right now though. His problem was figuring out how he got here. The last thing he remembered was lying down on the bedroll they had made out of a few old blankets, and then he had woken up here.
Wait.
No.
That thought wasn't right, something about it wasn't... true.
He hadn't woken up here. He had just been here. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep, and then he had simply snapped to awareness in this hallway. There was only one explanation that offer itself to his mind.
Somepony had erased his memory.
He heard soft crying in one direction. For lack of a better idea, he started making his way towards it. He rounded a corner and found himself facing a rather plain wooden door with an ornate iron portcullis positioned strangely on the outside. The crying, he could tell, was coming from the other side.
"-given you a name. I never should have taken you in. I never loved you. You silly, selfish, spoiled little filly, did you honestly think you were important?" A strange voice came into being as Midnight got within a yard of the door. It was almost familiar, but something about it was... off. That wasn't the only strange thing about it, the voice wasn't shouting, but it was still quite loud. Louder than he should have been able to hear through that heavy looking oak door. And definitely louder than the soft crying that hadn't changed in volume one iota as he'd crossed this strange castle.
At this point about the only thing he could be sure of was tat there was a filly on the other side of this door, and that somepony was putting her through tartarus. Whatever was going on, he needed to reach her and help her. He could worry about figuring things out later.
Rearing up, Midnight braced his forehooves against the underside of one of the portcullis's horizontal bars and pushed up with all his might. After several seconds of futile straining, he relaxed and reexamined the iron gate. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was not a gate, but a grate. It was bolted into the stone archway all the way around. This door was never intended to open.
He supposed he could have gone around, tried to find another way through this wall and into that room, but he didn't want to risk losing the time or getting lost himself in the maze-like passages. So instead the stallion turned around and delivered one of the same bucks he had seem the farmers use in their orchards to the metal obstacle. Examining his work, he couldn't say he was impressed with the craftsponyship put into the bars. They had dented severely, two neat hoofprints embedded in it as if it were made of butter. A pair of bolts connecting it to the wall had snapped as well.
Four bucks later, the mangled metal was stuck in the doorway by only two points, one on the top and on on the bottom. Midnight wiped his brow with a wing as he turned to finish the job, then froze as he felt feathers drag through his fur. He looked down at his hoof to double check his coat color, then went crosseyed to look at his horn. He wasn't quite sure how, but up to this point he had failed to realize that he was curreently an alicorn. Further proof that something strange was going on.
He attempted to shift back to a bat pony, only to realize that either he or his body couldn't quite remember how. He wasn't sure which. His rumination on the subject was cut off as his ears were again flooded with the sounds behind the door. He wasn't sure if he had tuned them out or if they had paused, but for some reason he hadn't heard anything going on with that filly since he had delivered that first buck to the iron.
He shrugged, since he was stuck as an alicorn for now anyway, he might as well roll with it. His horn lit up with his deep blue magic, mirrored by the aura around the torn metal grating. The two remaining bolts snapped and he threw the iron backwards into the door, reinforcing the physical attack with a magical blast of his own.
The oak planks were blasted not only off their hinges, but away from each other. A sawdust haze filled the air around the door and the filly's crying and the other pony's insults skipped the briefest of beats, almost as if reality had hiccupped. Midnight froze as he realized what he was looking at.
Moonchaser.
A distinctly younger Moonchaser, perhaps nine or ten. And somepony in a hooded cloak was standing in front of the crying filly, pouring venomous words in an endless stream. "You're a vindictive little shrew who should have never been born and I-"
"Now I know that you're wrong there."
The room froze and everything went shaky for a brief moment before the hooded pony spun around to face the cloud of sawdust. Midnight had no clue how said cloud still existed, or was as big as it was, but he shrugged it off. While the phrase "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" felt inappropriate these days, the lesson remained. Or re-maned, depending on how punny one felt.
"Who's there?"
"Just a concerned bystander." Silently, Midnight took to the air while continuing to project his voice from inside the cloud. Magic plus ventriloquism, thank you Mother.
"What do you want?"
"To clarify things. Specifically some of the lies you've been spouting off. To be precise, Moonchaser happens to be the kindest mare I know, and the world is a far better place with her around. I'm certainly grateful she's here." The stallion landed, standing protectively over the filly.
"And who do you think you are!? How could you possibly know that!? You think you know this little rat better than I do!?"
It seemed fitting, so Midnight went with a thought that suddenly popped into his head. He raised one hoof and slammed it onto the stone floor hard enough to crack it and create a small spray of sparks. "I AM MIDNIGHT STAR!!! And apparently I do know Moonchaser better than you do, because I know that she's good. And I know that she's kind. I know that she's sweet, I know that she's important, I know that she's strong. I know she's better than you. I know that she would consider it a badge of honor at this point to be branded with the same title of 'rat' as some of her closest friends. In fact, about the only thing I don't know is who in Tartarus you think you are and where you get off trying to hurt her like this."
"I am her mother!" The warped voice had been getting progressively more and more shrill, and now it jumped an entire octave. The mare spun around as she shrieked at Midnight, her hood flying back as she did.
Midnight had to admit, the mare did look like Lady Starshadow. Almost.
There were only a few problems. The mare's powder blue coat looked like it had never been groomed in her life. Her mane was the right colors, blue with a dark red streak, both colors bordering on purple, but it hung limp, neglect leaving it in greasy strings. Her wings he could see poking out under her cloak, unkempt, ragged, as if she hadn't preened in years. Her hooves were chipped, almost looking ceramic with the veined cracks running through them. But the biggest difference, the worst and most telling one, was her eyes. Gone were both color and warmth, in their place was left blackness and deadness.
"No."
"Yes. You see, I have all power in this place, and all power over her. This is my-"
"I'm sorry, you've misunderstood. That wasn't shock, it was observation. You see I've met Lady Starshadow, and quite frankly you look less like her than I do. She'd never let herself get into such a state, and more importantly than that, she is a Lady. Setting aside the pain I saw in her eyes as her daughter fled, setting aside the fact that she would never say any of the filth you've spouted here, setting aside the fact that she loves her daughter more than life itself, if she were going to try and hurt Moonchaser, all she'd have to do is keep her silence. You're nothing but a cheap copy, couldn't your masters even afford a decent mirror spell to capture the Lady's image?
"You're done here. The only reason I've let you stick around this long is so that she could see you for what you really are. You're barely enough to count as a shadow, and it's time for you to go. Goodbye."
The mare looked down at the filly in shock. Moonchaser was no longer crying, simply looking between her and the stallion wide-eyed with disgust for the former and awe for the latter.
As a sourceless wind began swirling around the room, so charged with magical energy it was tactile, the mare made a leap for Midnight, murderous intent somehow conveying itself through her dead eyes. The alicorn fell back slightly, allowing his rear legs to collapse and his forehooves to rise...
As he put a magical blast squarely in her chest.
She hit the ground and rolled, struggling to rise before she was picked up in Midnight's magic. Roughly six hundred years later, the word defenestration would be invented, but it still didn't exist yet. Despite not knowing the word, Midnight proved himself excellent at the practice of the concept.
Midnight looked down as he felt a tiny hoof touch his leg. "Midnight?" Moonchaser asked, "Is that really you?"
"Yes, it's me. I'm not sure what's going on though, I think somepony messed with my memories. The last thing I remember was the night you found out all that stuff about your parents. I went to sleep on the floor, on the other side of those curtains from you, and then... It's all blank until I was suddenly here, in one of the hallways of this castle. And you're years younger than I last saw you. Any idea what's going on?"
The filly shook her head. "The only thing I remember is this room, and that mare, my... my not-mother. I'm confused."
The stallion chuckled, "That makes two of us. Try to think though, do you remember how you got to this room, or where this castle is?"
"No..." Suddenly Moonchaser's drooping ears went up, the rest of her body following. "But I think I know how to find out!" She gallopped over to the broken window Midnight had thrown the mare out of. She wiggled as she swiveled her head outside the window, trying to find a landmark.
When she froze, Midnight started slowly walking over in concern. "Midnight," She said, "Something's wrong with the sky, and the world, and, and, everything!" The stallion picked up his pace, arriving at the window and sticking his head out over the filly.
She was right, something was very wrong. The sky had two lines of fire across it, bisecting it at perpindicular angles. One half was day, the other night. Half of each of those was normal, but the other half... a white night sky full of black stars with a few colored ones mixed in. An orange day sky with green, yellow, brown, and red clouds. Half the moon was a matte black and half the sun burned with purple fire. There were chunkcs of ground ignoring gravity, while other bits seemed to be aligned to a different gravity, upside down or sideways. In the distance, a waterfall flowed down, and then straight up another cliff out of the same pool. In the air over this pool hung a circular rainbow. It took a moment for Midnight to realize that said rainbow was colored in wedges instead of rings.
And the longer he looked, the stranger things got. The textures were off, sometimes grainy, sometimes waxy, never quite right. There were parts of it he was looking at and he knew it was monochrome, but he could still identify what colors were what. And then came the kicker.
He caught his reflection in a pond just outside the window, the angles didn't really work, but he was past trying to figure it out. What struck him was the fact that he and Moonchaser were looking out of the window of a rather small wooden cottage with a thatched roof.
He closed his eyes and pulled his head back into the room. He could just feel a headache coming on. He needed an explanation, and he didn't like the only one he had. If the Draconequi had unleashed that much sheer chaos, then it would have pushed the balance so far that a simple desk organizing spell should have been enough to snap everything back to normal and wipe out all their power. If they had found a way to circumvent even the balance... Midnight shuddered. Things were very, very bad.
"Midnight... I think... I think I know what's going on." Oh great, now he was going to have to keep both of them from panicking. Moonchaser pulled her head back in and looked at him as he took a step back. "Midnight. I... I think..." The air got strange around her, a wavy haze in it rippling back and forth. The filly grew, in three seconds she went from a filly to a nearly fully grown alicorn mare. She even shifted to her new body, the one she had picked up after the spell. She looked at him, blinked, and swallowed. "I think I'm dreaming."
Everything went dark.