Chapter 6: There Shall Be No Lies
Canterlot Royal Gardens
Eight Hours Into Eternal Night
Twilight
It was by far the worst tea Twilight had ever had.
In truth, it wasn’t the tea itself that was ruining a normally welcome part of her routine.
It was the mare she was having it with.
Twilight was sitting on a plush blue cushion in the Royal Gardens uncomfortably, her posture stiff. There sitting innocently in front of her was a small glass table with a warm pot of tea along with two saucers and their accompanying tea cups. There was also a plate of her favorite cookies, chocolate chip fresh from the royal kitchens.
The gardens were beautiful as always, even at night. Princess Celestia always made sure that her gardens were alive at night as well as during the day, teeming with both diurnal and nocturnal flora and fauna. There were statues of various things Celestia had wanted immortalized in her garden for visitors to see. Great sculptures representing victory, harmony, happiness as well as odd ones such as the mismatched chimaera were lined up along the walkways of the garden.
In the past when Twilight went stargazing, the gardens were her favorite spot. Sometimes even the princess would join her, though Twilight realized after a couple of these impromptu get-togethers that Celestia was uncomfortable discussing the stars and the phases of the moon with her. It was very subtle and Twilight one day discovered Celestia’s disquiet and had never broached the subject as to why Celestia was uneasy with astronomy.
She had always wondered why.
The answer was probably sitting across from her.
Nightmare Moon was also reclining on a dark blue cushion, although hers was much larger. She had actually removed that accursed helmet and placed it on the ground next to her, her normally billowy mane seeming to calm down to match the gentle waviness Twilight usually associated with Celestia’s mane.
Although Nightmare Moon seemed to be attempting to appear less intimidating, her change in decorum didn’t alter the effects of the midnight fur, the dagger-like teeth, the feathery bat-wings, and the teal draconic eyes.
“Do you want some tea Twilight?”
Why? Is it poisoned?
“No thank you, tea doesn’t agree with me.” Twilight lied, her voice clipped and short.
“Really?” Nightmare asked, looking skeptically at Twilight. “That’s not what the castle staff told me. They also said that these cookies are your favorite.”
Fiddle-Sticks
“Well…I usually don’t drink tea this time of night.” Twilight amended, enunciating the starlit skies above them.
Nightmare raised an eyebrow but she smiled in defiance of Twilight’s non-too subtle remark.
“Oh, that’s right, you’re usually stargazing.” The lunar alicorn zinged back at her.
Double Fiddle-Sticks
Feeling like the conversation was becoming too much like a tennis match. Twilight glared back at Nightmare and put on a wary expression, attempting to steer the discussion into perhaps more useful territory.
“Why am I here Nightmare Moon? Why the wings? Why am I not with my friends? What do you want from me?” Twilight demanded of the larger mare, lifting her head in question to stare into Nightmare’s eyes.
Nightmare continued smiling smugly, like she had predicted that Twilight would change the subject and ask those very questions. She took a little sip of tea before placing her cup back down on the table with her indigo magic.
“First answer me this.” Nightmare retorted. “What do you know about the Elements of Harmony?”
“I’m afraid I’m going to decline answering that. Giving your opponent useful tidbits of your strategy is an excellent way to lose a game of chess.” Twilight replied, preparing for the inevitable storm that was sure to come.
Apparently, the storm was some amused chuckling as if Nightmare found her statement funny.
“You are assuming that I don’t know anything about the elements already.” Nightmare said bluntly. “When in fact, I probably know more about them than you actually do.”
“Oh?” Twilight intoned sarcastically. “And why would that be?”
“My sister and I did use them once or twice, in fact, I once saw the elements on a daily basis.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and tried not to snort in frustration. She couldn’t believe that Nightmare was trying to obtain information on the elements by claiming she already knew, thus trying to draw Twilight into a false sense of security and reveal perhaps vital information.
“You know I find that hard to believe.” Twilight told Nightmare, shaking her head in disbelief. She glared at Nightmare as she formed her next question. “This sister you mentioned, is she some other ancient mare that’s going to come back to conquer Equestria?”
Nightmare’s smile grew, like Twilight had talked herself into a trap the black alicorn had set.
“You tell me, you were her personal protégé.”
It took a moment for the words to fully register with Twilight, when they did, she didn’t even try to restrain her snort of incredulity.
“You are claiming that Princess Celestia is your sister?” Twilight asked mistrustfully, her disbelieving gaze boring into the offending mare. “That is probably the most far-fetched thing I have ever heard. If that were true, which it isn’t, somepony would have recorded it in the history books, such a thing could not have been ignored. You’re lying. Simple as that.”
Twilight straightened up and closed her eyes in triumph for disproving Nightmare’s claim so easily. But when she opened them back up, she was surprised to see that Nightmare didn’t look mad at all or even affected by her words.
“It’s no surprise to me that my sister would cover up what she would see as a black mark on her pristine reputation.” Nightmare growled, her face morphing into a scowl at mentioning her ‘sister.’ She looked across the garden, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before the scowl disappeared and Nightmare returned her searching stare back to Twilight. “Celestia did have an entire millennium in which to do so. But that’s not why I brought it up, I wanted to make a point.”
Now confused at Nightmare’s change in tact, Twilight’s ears folded back and she tried to decipher why Nightmare would mention that Celestia was her sister if getting Twilight to believe her wasn’t her true goal.
“What…point, were you trying to make then?” Twilight genuinely asked Nightmare, her curiosity getting the best of her despite her misgivings.
“That you aren’t going to believe me, no matter what I say.”
Twilight’s confusion was growing by the minute, Nightmare wasn’t making any sense to the lavender alicorn.
“Well…yes. There is no reason for me to believe you. None.” Twilight retorted bluntly, raising her guard as the conversation sailed into unfamiliar waters.
A cunning smile of satisfaction bloomed upon Nightmare’s terrifying face at Twilight’s assertion. Her horn lit up as she next spoke.
“But there are tools that will ensure that the truth is spoken.” She said cryptically, her horn still glowing.
Twilight shook her head again, not taking Nightmare’s statement at face value.
“What ‘tools?’ Truth spells are possible, but casting one horrendously damages the mind because it forces it to tell the truth against a person’s will. Many have died shortly after the spell being cast. Besides, any ‘tool’ you have is liable to be a fake to convince me of your lies. I doubt you would use an actual truth spell on yourself.” Twilight confidently lectured Nightmare. Convinced once again of her flawless argument, she turned away from Nightmare and stuck her nose in the air with a cute but indignant “Hhmph.”
Nightmare’s smug and confidant voice cut through the night. Her words alone seeming to chill the air.
“Even if it’s the Element of Honesty itself?”
That seized her attention immediately.
Turning back quickly to stare at Nightmare, her eyes were immediately drawn to the golden necklace with a gem in the shape of an apple that was held out in front of the black alicorn with her magic.
“W-Where did y…” Twilight stammered out before she stopped and thought. There was only one real logical conclusion as to where it came from.
“The elements, you’ve put them in a dimensional pocket.”
Nightmare nodded in affirmation of Twilight as the element floated between them. A very satisfied smile was creeping across her maw, showing off those pearly daggers she had for teeth.
O.K. I know where the elements are, perhaps I can find out where she’ll store them.
Dimensional pocket spells were one of the most advanced works of magic ever invented by Starswirl the Bearded. One mistake and the objects in question could be instantly crushed, vaporized, annihilated, etc. On top of that, in order to be able to retrieve the stored items a portion of their magic had to be continuously put into the spell. Large objects were much harder to store than smaller ones, like the elements. One of the major downsides of the spell was that eventually, the pony’s magic would eventually run dry from maintaining the magic needed for the spell, leaving their magic reserves empty. It was useful because nopony else could access the objects inside the pocket, it was like picking the lock of the royal vaults with a blunt rock, it just wasn’t possible.
With all those facts, Twilight knew that she could not retrieve the elements while Nightmare had them in her dimensional pocket. But Nightmare would not be able to keep them there indefinitely because maintaining the spell would leave her weakened and vulnerable, so she had to find a more permanent storage place for them eventually, and probably soon too. It was possible that because of the surprising leniency Nightmare was giving Twilight, and her close proximity in the castle might just give Twilight the advantage she needed to take back the elements.
Logically, Nightmare would want to store them nearby so that she could keep a draconic eye on them. Hiding them in some vault far away was too dangerous. Eventually somepony could find them and then Nightmare would be open to attack by them. So she had to keep them close.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
If Twilight was able to stay in Nightmare’s good graces, she would be able to explore the castle for wherever Nightmare would hide them and also be able to use her magic so that when the time came, Twilight could free her friends, whom Nightmare probably also imprisoned close by, and defeat her.
But then again, the elements failed once, they might fail again.
If Nightmare’s confidence was any indication, she knew why the elements hadn’t worked. If Twilight played her cards right, she could be able to wheedle the information out of the smug alicorn. Once she did, there might be a solution to their misfire.
Mental Checklist:
1) Remain Free, and stay in Nightmare’s graces for whatever reasons.
2) Find out why the elements did not work.
3) Locate where Nightmare will hide the elements.
4) Liberate Elements.
5) Locate Friends.
6) Free Friends.
7) Defeat Nightmare.
While it seemed easy in her head, Twilight knew that this would be anything but easy. Guards would be everywhere, watching her movements, and Twilight would have to get the elements and her friends free at roughly the same time, otherwise Nightmare would catch on to what was happening. To quote Celestia, ‘This is no cake walk.’
Of course, Twilight still needed to know why in the first place she had wings and the reasoning behind why Nightmare was now relatively friendly towards her.
One step at time.
Within the confines of her mind, all these thoughts formulated in a matter of seconds as the silence stretched between Nightmare and Twilight with the necklace hanging between them.
“Alright,” Twilight asked “how would the Element of Honesty be able to be used for telling the truth? I know the bearer is supposed to be honest in order to be able to wield it, but what are you getting at?”
For the first time since Twilight had arrived in the garden, Nightmare took her eyes off of the lavender mare and eyed the jeweled necklace held aloft in front of her, her gaze staring into the red depths of the element, as if transfixed.
“The other five elements, as you surely know, are needed together in order to empower magic to its full capabilities. But, the flow of power can be reversed. As magic is empowered by the other five, so magic can also individually empower the other elements.”
Twilight mulled that over, while she had not seen proof of such a phenomenon, she supposed that it was not such a farfetched claim.
Further research was needed.
“If magic could also empower the elements,” Twilight questioned “then what would their effects be?”
“It is quite simple really, if laughter was amplified, one would feel more cheerful. If the Element of Kindness, compassion and empathy would be increased. And so on and so forth with the others.”
Twilight watched as Nightmare twirled the Element of Honesty around in her magic in a mesmerizing dance.
“When Honesty is empowered, those under its sphere of influence cannot lie. At all. The element is embedded so deeply into the fabric of our world that it knows all truths,” she paused, a smile and daring twinkle lighting up her eyes as she looked from the element to Twilight, “even if we don’t know what the truth is.”
“So you expect me to believe that if you use magic on the element, suddenly everything you say is the truth?” Twilight questioned. “How do I know you’re not just lying to get me to believe what you’re saying?”
“You misunderstand, I will not be empowering the element. You will.”
…
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nightmare smiled lazily as she merrily twirled the necklace around in front of Twilight.
“As I am not connected to the elements, I cannot control them and for that matter, neither can anypony else. And since you are the bearer of the Element of Magic, it is only you who can empower the Element of Honesty using your magic.”
Nightmare then unceremoniously dropped the element right in front of Twilight, setting off a loud clatter as it rattled the tea set.
“Go ahead, try it.”
Twilight could only stare at Nightmare, her mind racing as she contemplated what Nightmare was trying to do.
As if reading her mind, Nightmare smiled coyly at Twilight and nodded again at the necklace between them.
“Surely, you can see the benefits of the two of us speaking honestly?”
Of course Twilight could, but such honesty worked both ways. As much as this was a great opportunity to learn much about her opponent, so was the danger of revealing something fatal to her own plans. Weighing the pros and cons of her choice, she made her decision.
Picking up the element in her magic, Twilight stared deep into the apple-shaped gem and reached down deep into her own pool of magic. Drawing it out, she began transferring the energy into the element before her, which began glowing with a gentle glow until bits of golden light began escaping the gem and surrounded the two alicorns.
That’s when she began feeling it, the power she had put into the element had been transformed into something Twilight had been completely unaware of as the magic surrounding them began to feel unfamiliar. It did not feel oppressive, but the magic emanating from the element seemed to be all encompassing and knowledgeable, as if all the truth of the world was laid bare before her.
All she had to do was speak.
All right then, let’s experiment.
Setting the glowing element back down onto the table, Twilight contemplated what she would do to test the golden magical field. Something simple came to mind, she would try to lie and say that her name was something else, like Pinkie Pie.
“My name is Twilight Andromeda Sparkle.”
Interesting…
While she had had every intention of saying that her name was Pinkie Pie, and that was indeed what she had commanded her mouth to say, the words that slipped from her were the truth, and it had come spilling from her mouth like it was what she had intended to say all along.
Putting herself on guard, Twilight was unwilling to tell Nightmare anything while having to speak truthfully. Twilight aimed her first question at the lunar alicorn like an arrow.
“Where is Princess Celestia?”
Nightmare smiled but Twilight could tell that the question displeased her from the way Nightmare’s eyes flashed dangerously in the moonlight.
“Admirable,” she said “to try and have us divulge her location, but while we must answer truthfully, we are not forced to answer your question.”
Nightmare sat back in her cushion and her eye lids drooped until Twilight could barely see the gleaming draconic eyes.
“My turn.” She whispered. “How exactly did you become Celestia’s student?”
Twilight considered her options. She needed answers, and Nightmare would probably become more forthcoming in answering her questions if Twilight cooperated, to some degree at least.
“I met the Princess after having an uncontrolled magical flare when I was attempting to hatch a dragon’s egg for the entrance exam for her school. The flare was spreading and Princess Celestia stopped it before it did more damage, as well as reversing the effects. After seeing my potential, the Princess made me her protégé.”
“Hmm…” Nightmare mumbled, her eyes seeming distant as she seemed to sort through her thoughts, but she didn’t elaborate to Twilight what she was obviously thinking about.
“Now, how do you know so much about the Elements of Harmony?” Said Twilight, determined to get an actual answer this time.
Nightmare smirked as she replied. “As I told you before, I once wielded them along with my sister, Celestia. After using them we stored them inside the castle where we lived, coincidentally where you found them.” She shook her head in mock condensation, “Why else do you think it was called the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters?”
Twilight was aghast with surprise, though she wanted to deny it, she could feel the truth of Nightmare’s words through the golden magic that surrounded them. The magic of Honesty would not let Twilight refute the truth, even to herself. The idea—nay—the fact that this tyrant was her mentor’s sister shook her to her very core. It left a bitter and nasty taste in her mouth, like disgusting medicine she had to take in order to get better.
Before she could truly come to terms with the revelation, Nightmare’s voice cut through the haze of Twilight’s shock.
“What did Celestia tell you about me?” she asked. Nightmare’s tone was very dark and her eyes narrowed even further and her lips curled downwards in a frown once more.
“Nothing, everything I know about you I read in a book.” She replied.
Now this seemed to surprise Nightmare, as Twilight saw her eyes widen and her jaw drop a little in astonishment though Twilight couldn’t tell if it was pleasant or disturbing, since a mask of neutrality slammed down to cover the brief lapse in composure.
“I see.” She stated coldly, her black wings fluttering in agitation.
Twilight already knew what else she wanted to ask about, and despite the obvious danger of Nightmare answering it, she tried to appear calm and collected and not show how eager she was for Nightmare to give her an answer.
“Where have you put my friends?”
Nightmare didn’t move an inch, appearing to all the world as one of the statues in the garden. She was undoubtedly weighing the risks of revealing their location. Finally she looked down at Twilight, her face as stony as the mountain upon which Canterlot sat.
“Your…friends are imprisoned here in the castle dungeons in one of the older parts called the cisterns.”
Unable to contain herself, Twilight blurted out more questions in rapid succession.
“How are they? What have you done to them? What—“
Twilight stopped and reeled herself in as she noticed the grimace that increasingly looked like it might boil over into anger as Nightmare bore witness to her enthusiasm for her friends. Twilight watched as Nightmare seemed to calm herself by looking at the stars above them. The silence between them stretched on for several minutes as Twilight awaited Nightmare’s next question, who was still staring at the stars.
Slowly, Nightmare moved her iron-hard gaze from the night sky to Twilight, never once blinking as she began speaking again.
“How do you feel about the night?”
Nightmare gestured to the moon and stars above them with an outstretched wing before she returned her gaze back to the sky, awaiting Twilight’s answer.
Twilight hesitated. She loved the night, but she couldn’t very well tell Nightmare Moon that. She always found a sense of deep peace and contentment under the light of the stars, and the moon had always fascinated her. Twilight loved staying up to read in the dimming sky and loved watching the stars come out.
While she did love the time of night, she also enjoyed the day time. Twilight knew that Eternal Night was not good thing and that it would only bring disaster. Without the sun, the temperature would drop until their world froze, and all the plants would die without the energy they gathered from the light of the sun. Balance must be maintained, it was a simple and unequivocal fact that if not restored soon, spelled doom for them all.
Knowing that answering Nightmare’s question truthfully would complicate things, Twilight really only had one option left to her.
“I refuse to answer that. We’re even now since you didn’t answer my first question.”
Nightmare scowled at her rebuttal, but didn’t challenge her.
Twilight thought about what would be her next question. She had already asked about Celestia, her friends, and the elements and had received somewhat satisfactory answers. Turning her head around and looking at her new purple wings, Twilight knew what she would next ask.
“Why did you give me wings?”
Nightmare smiled and waved at her back with one of her own wings.
“I did not give you the wings. You were born with them.”
Twilight immediately thought of the impossibility of that statement, she had only discovered the wings on her back an hour ago, but the magic around her would not let her refute Nightmare’s assertion.
Nightmare continued.
“You want to deny it, but it is the truth. You were born with those wings, and Celestia took them from you when you were a foal.”
Denial coursed through Twilight, but deep down the element revealed to her that what Nightmare said was truth, and now a whole plethora of questions plagued Twilight.
“B-But I was born an alicorn!”
WAIT! That’s not what I meant to say!
Twilight leaned back violently and almost fell over, her wings fluttering nervously as she broke out into a cold sweat. She had meant to say that she was born a unicorn, but the magic around her made her say otherwise. As she sputtered from the revelation, she couldn’t think coherently as Nightmare began speaking again.
“Oh yes, you wish to deny the truth, that my sister would not be capable of such acts, but the proof is sitting before me.” She pointed at Twilight with a black hoof. “It seems however, that when you attempted to use the elements on myself, they redirected and hit you instead, restoring you to your alicorn self.” Nightmare finished, but Twilight’s thoughts were too discombobulated to give a scathing or disbelieving reply.
Nightmare Moon spoke truth.
Twilight wished she could dismiss the black alicorn’s words as mere fantasy, but the magic radiating from the element prevented her from doing so. She could feel the truth reverberated in the other alicorn’s words, thanks to the Element. Honesty remembered everything that had ever transpired, and could see behind the curtains of a pony’s heart. Only then did Twilight fully understand that the element was so embedded in the soul of the land that it was the bones that made the foundation for civilization. It was impossible to lie in its direct presence, it was akin to holding a snowball to the sun. Lies melted away from the burning brightness of Honesty.
Truth was like fire, useful and beneficial, but impartial. There are dangers to fire, just as there are for truth, for both are inherently neutral and can be used for the benefit or destruction of anything.
This truth burned.
But Nightmare was relentless, either ignorant or uncaring of Twilight’s internal struggle. As the magic faded from Twilight, who finally comprehended and begrudgingly accepted the truth given her, Nightmare spoke once more.
“I have another question.” She said, her voice excited and yet foreboding, as if her next words carried the weight of the sky. Nightmare seemed to sit on the edge of her seat, leaning towards Twilight much like a hurricane about to break upon the shore. Her gaze seemed to pierce Twilight like hot iron through butter, and a sense of dread rose within her at the intense scrutiny.
“Who is your mother?”
Out of all the questions Twilight had anticipated, that one completely blindsided her.
Thoughts raced through her mind faster than shooting stars, but her outward appearance showed none of her turmoil. Twilight did not want to answer as her parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, could be put in terrible danger if she answered. And yet why would Nightmare ask Twilight when she could have easily gotten the answer if she asked anypony else? It was not exactly a secret who her parents were. Any of the servants at the castle could tell the lunar alicorn who Twilight’s parents were.
So why ask me?
Twilight didn’t have an answer to that conundrum, and seeing that Nightmare would not be satisfied with a refusal to answer, Twilight would tell her, as the question was going to be answered by her or somepony else eventually.
“Nightmare Moon is my mother.”
It took a moment for Twilight to register what she herself had just said.
“No, I-I mean that Nightmare M-Moon is my m-mother…” she repeated, trying to correct what had to be a mistake.
N-N-No…that’s impossible…
The magic was becoming overwhelming from the amount of denial that infected Twilight, it sought to eliminate any shadows of doubt Twilight had of her own statement.
She would not relent in her efforts to refuse though.
Twilight’s eyes blinked in rapid succession and her breathing picked up instantly, her heart seemingly clenched in ice. Her vision narrowed until all that seemed to encompass her surroundings was Nightmare Moon, who seemed to have become larger and more encompassing of Twilight.
It wasn’t until she felt feathers that were not her own touch her in an embrace that Twilight realized what Nightmare Moon was doing.
She was giving Twilight a hug.
Nightmare Moon was hugging Twilight.
Like a daughter.
“Shhhh, I know this is a lot, my little star—“
“NO!!” Twilight screamed, pushing herself vehemently away from the mare to escape her feathery embrace. She started to tremble violently as the magic overtook her, forcing her to realize that—
“NO! My mother is Nightmar—MY MOTHER IS NIGHTM—GAAAH!!!” She screamed, her voice pitching in increasing height as her mouth kept betraying her. “STOP IT!” Twilight shrieked, rounding on Nightmare and pointing a shaking hoof at her.
Nightmare played all innocent, shaking her head at her in rejection of her protests.
“It is not me, my daughter, it is the Element of Ho—“
Before the lunar alicorn could finish, Twilight aimed a well-directed blast of purple energy from her horn and the element shot off the table to clatter across the garden before coming to a rest at the castle walls. The golden light that had surrounded the two of them abruptly dropped and the magical pressure that Twilight had felt for the past few minutes disappeared.
“YOU’RE LYING!!” Twilight bellowed, her mane springing up in frenzied curls as panic set in. “My mother is—“
“ME!” Nightmare interrupted, stepping up to Twilight quickly, never breaking eye contact. “I AM your mother! YOU are MY daughter! I gave birth to you! Cele—“
“STOP LYING TO ME!!” Twilight wailed, anger and desperation gushing through her as she tried to make sense of what had happened. “You—you must have somehow enchanted the element or—or—it’s a fake!”
“You know very well, Twilight Andromeda Sparkle, that it was not a fake!”
An idea sprang to the forefront of her mind, an old spell she had read some years past while studying under Celestia.
“I’ll prove you’re a liar!” Twilight yelled in defiance. As Nightmare continued watching, Twilight reached out with her magic and yanked out a few strands of hair from her mane. She then held it up between them, starting to cast the spell she was sure to vindicate her.
“I can’t be your daughter because you’ve been gone for a thousand years! I was born 17 years ago! I know a spell that can tell the age of any living thing from a sample of hair!”
While her magic took effect, the two alicorns stared at each other. Twilight stood with utter surety, confidant that when her spell was complete she would prove once and for all the lies Nightmare had made her tell.
Nightmare sat back down and seemed to wait patiently, as calm as the eye of a storm.
The spell finished, Twilight’s magic winking out.
…
…
…
“Well?”
“N-N-No…I-I can’t be—“
“One thousand years and five months old. I know. I was there.”
“B-But y-you a-and the wings and—and the p-princess—“
Twilight couldn’t speak anymore, words died in her throat. Her frame renewed its trembling as all of the facts formed together against her will. She had just proven herself wrong with her own spell.
She was over a thousand years old.
The wings.
Nightmare’s leniency.
Honesty’s cruel truths.
There was only one true and viable conclusion, no matter how much she wished to purge it from her mind.
Tears began pouring down Twilight’s face, her face turning pale as her blood ran cold.
She couldn’t stay there.
Without another word Twilight turned around and fled, her tears dropping to the grass below. She was only too much aware of the mare that was still sitting silently behind her as she galloped towards the entrance to the castle. Her wings fluttered as she flung open the doors and departed the garden as fast as she could.
Twilight never looked back, for if she had, she would have seen…
…her mother.
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aaawwwkkkwwwwaaarrrddd...
took a while to come out but it is nicely written and continues the story rather well. keep up the good work
I wasnt expecting it to go like this but I still cant wait for the next chapter!
Wow, well done. I've been looking forward to this. To be honest, this story was the final thing that convinced me to sign up for this site. So, the buildup and reveal was all handled very well, good job on that. Maybe now we'll get to see how all the other characters react to the truth. I only hope that this story has a happy ending for Twilight and her friends. Keep up the good work!
Poor Twilight. I can completely understand her mental breakdown. Hope that she comes to an understanding with Nightmare eventually. Hopefully in time to stop her from killing anything, since just a week with no sun drops average temperatures to freezing.
Honestly, that's what she asks about. This is an object that tells the absolute truth. It doesn't matter what people believe or even know. She just asks about her friends when she could find out the truths of how the universe itself works. She could understand how to become a god beyond anything this pathetic world has ever seen.
Learning the truth is alway's hard.
4516010 Twilight being Twilight, has her priorities straight.
The use of the element of honesty was really well played... It forces Twilight to accept the facts much more than if Nightmare were to tell her
FINALLY MUAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!! THE AWFUL TRUTH i was laughting like this guy
then i was reading "nightmare moon is my mother" all the way to the end
I think twilight should've said princess Luna not Nightmare moon
For fuck's sake....
THE SUN DOES NOT CAST A SHADOW. IT IS A LIGHT SOURCE.
Also, overly purple descriptions are a crime.
can't tell what story I like more Your Human and You or Heir of the Nightmare. You and MadMax keep raising the bar with every chapter, but I gotta say you just took the fight for my favorite story to a whole new lvl. Well done sir well done. I already faved this story so I'm going to give you a follow
4516010
One thing though, just because she asks the question doesn't mean Nightmare has to answer it.
Great chapter btw, can't wait for the next one.
4516106 But Luna has chosen to call herself Nightmare Moon. They are the one and the same pony.
Why is her mother nightmare instead of Luna? Are they the same pony and not just a symbiotically possessed princess, as the comics siggest? Is it actual madness on Luna? Or did she just legally change her name?
4516224 I already replied to someone else on this issue. It came out as Nightmare Moon because Luna herself decided that is what her name was from now on.
4516268 Yeah, it would've been more productive to just refresh the page and look for the same question being honest.
I have to say that chapter was very interesting to read. Twilight seemed to be in perfect character.
Yep, while their personalities are different, the sheer horror and despair that both characters go through is palpable and well portrayed.
Nice. img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120812041416/thefanfictionwikiofgtfandphazon/images/6/69/Clapping_Magic_.gif
)
I'll go wait for the next chapter now. See ya.
(I wrote this in Yami Yugi's voice from YGOTAS, if that makes any sense.
4516381 And this is what happened to Luke after learning that Darth Vader was his father:
Seriously though, the Skywalker family has some serious issues. I mean, Luke's dad choked his mom, he cut off Luke;s hand, and Luke's sister kissed him. Is it any wonder why he went insane?
i think this song fits perfectly when comparing how long luna/nightmare moon waited to see her daughter
4516381 you know, I just knew that someone would post that video with this chapter.
4516831
Yeah well, I like how you did away with the whole cliche of the villain spilling the beans, and instead had the realization come from within the hero.
4516800
Unless you were being ironic, that music is the furthest thing that comes to mind.
Finally! It was a really nice chapter and kudos to you for trying to make it perfect, the wait was worth it in the end.
And my personal thoughts:
So now I'm just waiting for a moment when Twilight realizes how much influence she can have over NMM as her daughter. But what I'm really interested is what more will change in Twilight or maybe what next will she have to give up/sacrifice when she will begin trying to get NMM to change her ways. Because I can't see Twilight having opportunity to do anything different for now... And it should be plainly obvious that while NMM cares a great deal for Twilight, she will want to turn her into a perfect - at least form her point of view - heir to the throne. And I can imagine this will be a long process of "you do that, I do that's..."
Nevertheless... whatever happens, I'm already impatiently waiting for the next chapters.
awesome chapter well worth the wait
Oh my god this was a good chapter, I kind of wish that it had gone on for a little longer to echo some of the information we learnt at the beginning of the story, it's information that Twilight doesn't know yet but then again she has the most important parts.
Still i'm in agony to find out what will happen next.
I was starting to think this was dead.
I love it, It's brilliant. You're brilliant! EVERYTHING is brilliant!!
4517189 What he said it was awesome
, im still in shock from all the FEELS. 
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WANT MORE
I was reading another story when this updated. It was short (the other story), so I waited until I finished it. Then, I forgot that this updated so I proceeded to read more fanfiction, then I realized 'Oh crap. This updated. I'm reading a different fanfic. I need to read it. Why am I wasting my time with this fanfic I strayed to?
' I eventually finished the fanfic and proceeded to read this and oh my gosh I friggin loved it. Interesting to see Twilight betray herself. That's something new I haven't seen in fanfiction before and you pulled it off very well. I. WANT. MOAR. NAO! 
It's a shame I finished this chapter. 
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Keep this up and I will love you forever. (no homo)
Oh wow. This was amazing. The emotion in this chapter was fantastic.
AAAAWWW! Poor Twilight!
This is great, I can't wait for more
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This feels broken, since unless you changed the reasons for going to Ponyville, Twilight already knows Celestia's sister was sent to the moon.
This one is VERY much left to interpretation. Birth mother, mother that raised her? I personally think Velvet is more the mother since she cared for Twilight as she grew up and would probably be more willing to do something crazy to save her child.
Also, Luna is technically Twilight birth mother. She carried her, birthed her, and cleaned her. NMM could be seen as a different personality and ultimately different from her mother.
Some sentences were oddly worded but got the meaning across. Much better than other similar stories with the same premise. I want more.
That goddamn ending!... I CRAVE.... MOOAAARRRR!
4519123 Excellent point on the first part. On the second part, on the one hand I do admit that Twilight's adoptive mother could surely be considered "another mother" ... but Twilight was answering the question she understood NMM to be asking. For that matter, Honesty may well have been making her answer the question NMM was asking (instead of giving the answer of the mare who raised her) since answering a question in a misleading way would be a form of dishonesty.
But come to think of it, didn't Celestia say they could tell Twilight she was adopted when she could handle it? Did they never get around to that, or what?
P.S. Something additional that I noticed:
That is false. As the Elements of Harmony would apparently be aware, she first met the Princess just after NMM's defeat, before going into her millennium-long medical coma. This can be easily corrected, however, by simply changing it to "I met the Princess after..." since the question is about how she became Celestia's student, not how they first met.
She should have said "Luna is my mother", because that's NMM's real name and she was born before Luna began to call herself NMM (unless my recollection of the previous chapters is wrong).
4519854
I guess I can see that, NMM meant "who birthed you" when asking who her mother was.
Great point about first meeting Celestia. Though, couldn't "met Celestia" mean more like "introduce ourselves". When Twilight was a baby, you really can't say she met someone since she wasn't even really conscious at the time.
4519901
Polaris interprets NMM and Luna as one and the same. Luna just has changed her name to NMM. Though, this still seems to be a little bit of a slippery point.
4520457 Twilight booped her nose and said her name. I don't know how you could get more of an introduction than having the second word someone ever said be your name.
Certainly, Twilight has no memory of it, but that didn't stop the Element from making her say "Nightmare Mommy".
This is so very good. I cannot wait for more.
4520557
Oh yeah, that is pretty damning evidence. I forgot that bit.
4519123
4519854
4520457 I have read all of your comments and made adjustments where needed. I thank you for your input. I have edited he Author's Notes if you wish to see he explanation of the NM and Luna distinction. On another note, on the whole, birth; adoptive, or motherly figure question. Twilight answered with Nightmare Moon because she had the INTENT of naming her BIRTH MOTHER. I am sorry for the confusion but I hope you all enjoy the story.
4521055
There is still the question of Twilight's confusion over the sister aspect. The story of the elder sister locking the younger one in the moon is in the first 3 minutes of the first episode.
Jumping back to the NMM/Luna difference. In Chapter 2, what you have written makes it seem as if Luna and Nightmare are two distinct entities. The language also seems to hint at this with "a shred of love being all the remained of Luna" or something similar to that. I guess readers are confused by a seeming lack of consistency.
I think this could be rectified with some dialog and Twilight remembering what she read in the book. Nightmare could say something similar to "that mare is dead" when Twi says her mother is Luna. Twi knows that the lunar sister fell to cruelty and jealousy so the connection would still be there.
4520457
Luna and NMM is a persoinality shift. They are the same in all the mattes but also very differnet on things but the one thing they share is love of Twilight.and when discovering that Twilight was alive you see a small shift. making an open for her true self to show up.
4521273 I would love to clarify and make the distinction. There is a true and valid reason behind the shift with Nightmare Moon and Luna. But I cannot satisfy your replies without revealing ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL PLOT POINTS!!!! I cannot emphasize enough about that. But have no fear, all will be revealed I time. I merely ask for your patience.
Oh, and on the sister thing, at the end of the second episode when they all say "sister?!" in astonishment, I took that as thy didn't realize that the NM and the sister were one and the same.