Nyx Returns

by Bronyxy

13 The Sun and the Moon

Luna’s eyes began to focus, taking in a pair of sparkling purple eyes set in a lilac face and she smiled.
“Twilight" she said "I upheld my promise.”
“I know – and you were so brave too; Nyx told me!”
“I have had to remove some of the memories from her mind; they were too horrible for her to bear.”
Twilight looked saddened and drew closer to Luna, saying nothing and waiting respectfully for her to continue, but there was only silence.

“I like this dream” said Luna eventually, looking around at the familiar scenery.
“Nyx made it for you.”
“It is perfect – I suspect she may have had some help though?”
Twilight smiled and Nyx came bounding over to greet her saviour.
“Hello Princess Luna! Do you like it?” she asked excitedly, before adding “Thank you for saving me.”
“I feel I have been here before” said Luna, gifting a warm smile “But I feel that once I have enough strength, we should return to the others.”

In Luna’s chambers, three alicorns began to move like mechanical mannequins on a steam organ suddenly dragged to life as a preordained sequence started up. Amidst the transition back to a waking state, Luna felt for the Wand, checking that it was still close to her.

There was cake and tea and more cake waiting for the travellers from the realm where everypony went, but none other than two special alicorns could control to their will. They rose slowly, tentatively as their bodies got used to moving in this realm again, everypony speaking at once and all wanting to hug and be hugged. It was a truly joyous reunification following the most unusual of separations.

Luna had agreed not to tell Twilight what happened as she didn’t want to force Nyx to hold the crumbling dream together longer than was absolutely necessary and it would take time to tell the story twice. Now there was no justification for further postponement and under prompting from everypony present she began her story, under the rapt gaze of all present.

“You will remember that as Nightmare Moon, Nyx split herself into individual clones, but the more there were, the weaker each individual was, full strength only being realised once all clones were joined back together. As Nyx and I have the same pedigree, I joined with her to make one alicorn in the belief that we would be stronger, and also there would be but one of us to protect.”

“Once you directed the alicorn magic at us, the entity realised it was under threat and attacked us with bad dreams too horrific to repeat. As the attack progressed, the entity recognised that it was losing the battle and increased the terror of the dreams to such a level that Nyx passed out. I too was on the point of becoming overwhelmed as the entity gave everything it had in a final outpouring of hate and I had to summoned the Wand of Fulfilment to prevent both of us from being destroyed. Just before I cast the spell, I jettisoned Nyx so that only I would suffer the curse of the Wand and not her as well. Fortunately, we prevailed.”

“My power was spent and I had nothing else to give except my body, so I wrapped myself around Nyx and purged her mind of the nightmares before I myself was overcome. I do believe this time that it is gone; I felt it die.”
“But what about you, Luna?” asked Twilight, shocked “You have paid a very high price.”

“I think I can help here” said Celestia “My Sister, you have proven yourself brave beyond measure and I am sorry that you felt it necessary to use that accursed relic. With your permission dear Luna, please would you allow me to transport it to the heart of the sun? Equestria is not prepared to lose you, and neither am I.”

Luna hung her head “Thank you Sister. You should know that I craved that Wand when I was becoming Nightmare Moon and I would have used its entire power against you to achieve my twisted aims. I am so pleased I never found it then and can only hope you forgive me.”
Celestia moved forward and held Luna with a closeness neither had shared for too long; a meeting of minds, of souls and sisterly love.

“I too have learned much dear Luna. I have not been the sister I should have been to you and I have not been the friend that I should have been to all of those thankfully present here now. I have learned through your courage and their courage what I need to do to be respected and trusted once more. Because I consider that I do so much for Equestria, I had forgotten to see the sacrifice that my friends and family make, and had grown to think of myself as better than everypony else. I am not, and I hope you will all forgive me.”

Celestia walked to the window and did something that had rarely ever been seen in the history of Equestria; she summoned the sun. As they watched, they all shared the moon’s surprise to see the sun rise in the middle of the night and hover in the sky next to the moon.

“The Wand please” she requested.
Luna passed it over and then all the Princesses watched as it flew from her towards the sun.
“No third spell, Luna. If Equestria falls, we fall together, but we will never stand by to see one of our own sacrifice herself.”
“Thank you, Sister,” said Luna.

Celestia turned to face the others in the room “I decree that I have made some bad decisions of late, but I should like to make it known henceforth that I approve of the match betwixt my Sister and my former student; may you both find happiness together. I also decree that the alicorn known as Nyx may, if she chooses think of me as her aunt and I promise to always look after her best interests.”

Cadence turned to a stunned looking Nyx and said “That must make us related! Let me show you a special dance – Sunshine, Sunshine, Ladybugs awake …”

Celestia turned to her sister “I am so grateful to have you back, but I think now you may choose to spend some precious moments with somepony special. I shall leave the sun in the sky next to the moon to act as my blessing for the two of you.”

Luna and Twilight stood together looking out of the window as Celestia retired tactfully. Somewhere in the background they heard Cadence singing and could hear the playful giggles as Nyx tried to get the dance right.

Luna stretched her midnight blue wing out over Twilight and they both turned their heads towards each other, finally free to share the kiss of consummation they had both desired for so long.

From this moment on …

Comments

[Knight N Gale]

8885581
How come there's no romance tag? I mean there is romance

[Bronyxy]

8885603
Thanks - you make a good point.
It's always a problem which tags to apply and which to leave off, given that there can only be a maximum of three.
Much as I like the romance (TwiLuna is a great ship!) , it's there in this story to highlight the bond between the two Princesses and significantly through that their commitment to Nyx, rather than to be an end in itself. If I could have had a fourth tag, I would have added it.

[MJP]

a Nyx story in 2018? did Wallflower blush wipe your memories too?

[Death Moon]

Perfect History!

[Bronyxy]

8888932
Thank you - I put a lot into this story and I'm really pleased that you like it!

[Starlight Nova]

8886066
What do you mean by that?

[MJP]

8889575
i mean people are over her character at this point, either they don't care or they realize she's a bad character in hindsight

[SupernalDawn]

no gonna lie i cried. i liked how Celestia made up with everyone. I also glad how luna didn't use the third spell. Thank you

[SupernalDawn]

one question i have been having some problems being a brony. i can't take it anymore. i barely talk, i don't come out of my room, my parents say that being a brony is pointless because they don't think anyone else likes it. sometimes I feel like i just want to kill myself. i just want them to stop can anyone guide me? please i beg of anyones guidance.

[Bronyxy]

8904538
A true pleasure; thank you for your kind words. I enjoy writing stories and I am so glad when people like them. A lot of my stories have sad endings, but I wasn't going to let that happen this time!

[Bronyxy]

8904543
All the pony protagonists have good characteristics – perhaps there’s one you relate to most?
For example, each of the Mane Six has a really positive personality trait reflected in their Element of Harmony. Why not rewatch the episodes and see how each of them has faced a difficult situation and see which approach calls to you?
For me it’s Princess Luna, the pony who did wrong but was forgiven and then worked really hard to fit in and be accepted again - I find her example inspirational.
I hope this helps.

[Tholamas]

You might want to throw a romancer shipping tag on that one. Just to let everypony know what there getting into.

[FolkloreBrony]

I'm trying to wrap my head around what the hell happened. This story was going great until the Twi/Luna ship came out of nowhere and the who thing derailed. I'm so confused

[FolkloreBrony]

8886066
What do you mean by that?

[FolkloreBrony]

8904543
Don't take the fandom so seriously, that's what I've learned. I have close to no interaction with the fandom unless it's through the comments on rare occasion, and when I'm writing fanfiction(which I was writing when I was still apart of the fandom but only write now because I just genuinely enjoy writing)

This will also help you interact with people who AREN'T in the fandom, like your parents. They're not going to care about the show, so don't bother

[Bronyxy]

9209638
Thank you for your comment.

I wanted to build dramatic tension between the Princesses so as to exploit the powerplay between them and generate a platform from which reconciliation would become that much harder to achieve.

The passages from “Past Sins” I exploited to achieve this end are from Chapter 20: Judgement, just after the Royal Sisters have been returned to Equestria, in which Twilight says two key things to Celestia:
“I promised Nyx that I wasn’t going to let you take her away from me again, and I meant it.”
“You’re right. I honestly don’t want to forgive you for that night, but… I do forgive you.”
However, before the end of that chapter, Celestia has separated Nyx from Twilight once again, so she has failed in her promise, and the tentative forgiveness she extended to Celestia has to my mind been compromised.

Therefore, in “Nyx Returns”, when Twilight feels Celestia is about to embark upon separating them again, she is determined not to allow her to do it for a third time and acts precipitately out of maternal protectiveness. You are quite right in that at the end of “Past Sins”, Celestia believes everything to have been smoothed over and that is why in “Nyx Returns” she is caught so off guard the first time Twilight challenges her, and why the story develops the cloak and dagger undertones you righty identify. From this seemingly disastrous split, they all then have to pull together, with the developing romantic connection (not entirely unexpected given their common interests in magic and Nyx’s development) between Twilight and Luna. Anyway they all pull together in the end and Equestria is saved!

Thank you for showing so much interest in the backstory I have developed to make “Nyx Returns” happen. If you’re interested and want some more, please check out “Like Sister, Like Student” [https://www.fimfiction.net/story/418793/like-sister-like-student] that once again involves Nyx and the Princesses as they tackle a different set of challenges.

[RebelNarrator45]

Oh. My. Gosh.

I think my heart may have stopped at least six times during the last couple of chapters of this story...not to mention the dozen or more beats it skipped during the rest of the chapters.

Well done, Bronyxy!

Also, to the complainers about the Luna/Twi ship...it actually makes perfect sense. So...get over it!!!

[Bronyxy]

9231467
Thank you for your kind words.
This story is special to me and I'm so pleased you liked it too!

[Fluttershylover3]

I can see there may be a sequal for this

[Bronyxy]

9250119
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
There is no sequel planned, but I do enjoy working with these characters, so another story like this may follow before too long. Thank you for your support!