The Unofficial Records of a Mare in Black

by the7Saviors

1/29/1001

Okay, I've got a lot to unpack here and I'm struggling to find out where to begin. I made it back to Canterlot safe and sound. I got my answers from the Princess—well, most of them anyway. Spike and Sunset are in the clear and the higher-ups are even letting Spike stay with me in my agency provided living unit. Everything has pretty much gone back to normal for me, or as normal as things get around here. Oh, I also found out that my brother—on top of being the Captain of the Royal Guard—is also part of a new top secret super elite military organization known as the Solar Knights. Yeah, those Solar Knights. The ones that supposedly laid the groundwork for today's Royal Guard all the way back during the Dark Era.

Turns out, the Princess has been building the foundation for this new military unit since long before I joined POUT and it was finally officially implemented as of a week after the Nightmare Moon incident. The actual scouting for members didn't start until a little before I left for Manehattan. Shining Armor got scouted along with about a dozen or so other soldiers and naturally, he jumped on the opportunity. Apparently he'd grown a bit envious of my position as a secret agent and wanted a piece of the pie? I don't know, that's more or less what he told me when I asked him about it later. He mostly acts as a sort of general go-between for the Solar Knights and the Royal Guard, with most of his actual work still falling on the Royal Guard side of things.

Apparently, Sunset hadn't known about the Solar Knights until Spike and I found out during the meeting. She practically begged the Princess to let her join the Solar Knights after the meeting, but the Princess denied her outright. I personally thought Sunset would make a great additional with her skills, but then I remembered what she's like and decided Princess Celestia's denial was probably for the best. Knowing Sunset, I wasn't all that surprised that the Princess chose not to tell her initially. Still, the ensuing argument that followed was pretty funny to watch from the sidelines.

What I found more interesting about all of this is that most of the other recruits were Guards who got caught up in that whole dimensional displacement debacle during the raid on the Nightmare Cultist's ritual. Like me, they still don't remember what happened during the displacement so I don't see where Celestia is going with the decision. It wasn't something that came up during our little chat which, by the way, left me with just as many questions as answers. I'm confused, frustrated, curious, worried, potentially traumatized, and hungry... but I'm home, and surrounded by friends and family. That definitely counts for something.

Setting my mental health and the creation of yet another secret organization aside for now, I suppose I should start talking about that long awaited discussion with Princess Celestia. It was certainly eye-opening and a lot of things Sunset and I had wondered about did end up making some sense in the end. The meeting itself took place in POUT's debriefing room and consisted not only of the Princess, Sunset, Spike, and myself, but the boss and Shining Armor. At first I didn't understand why my brother was there but then I found out about the Solar Knights and... yeah. Question answered. Now he gets to join in on all the secret meetings.

Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if the real reason he joined was to look out for me. It would be just like him, that freaking helicopter sibling from Tartarus. I love my brother to death, but sheesh...

As for where to start, I guess I'll begin with the whole Nightmare Moon situation. Yes, Nightmare Moon was once Luna and Luna was Celestia's sister, but that was pretty much already a given and quite honestly the least interesting part of this whole thing. In actuality, this whole thing was kicked off by the Princess several hundred years ago, just at the end of the Dark Era. Well, if you want to get technical, it was actually Star Swirl and his prophecy that started it all, but for the sake of the story and the proceeding facts, we'll say it was Princess Celestia.

Now, the prophecy documented in the Royal Archives states that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the Stars would aid in Her escape, and She would bring about nighttime eternal. Nopony knew what was meant by 'the Stars', but everypony who knows about the prophecy just assumed that Star Swirl was talking about Nightmare Moon escaping from the deepest pits of Tartarus. What the Princess revealed during that meeting was that the prophecy was, in fact, completely false. It was a fabrication she created to hide the true prophecy from the Nightmare Cultists. The cults posed a much more dangerous threat back then and Princess Celestia feared they would eventually discover the prophecy and ensure it came true on their terms.

Why yes, I am cognizant of the fact that I sound like a tinfoil hat wearing loon, but all of this comes straight from the Princess's mouth. If you want to call the Princess a tinfoil hat wearing loon, be my guest.

According to the Princess, the true prophecy claimed thus: On this day one thousand years hence, She will descend upon the world, a Dark Shade torn free from within the all-encompassing Eye of Infinite Realms, and the Blighted Night will return to reign eternally. The Princess intentionally changed the date of the prophecy and left her own falsified copy of Star Swirl's writings for the Nightmare Cults of old to find. The actual date was meant to be a thousand years from the day Star Swirl first spoke the prophecy and Princess Celestia was already making preparations. And then there was that middle line, the one mentioning the 'Eye of Infinite Realms'.

I had my suspicions and sure enough, when I asked about it, the Princess confirmed my fears. She hadn't been sure until recently, but it looked liked the prophecy was referring to the Left Eye of the Nightmare. It was already known that the thaumic anomalies that started appearing about a month before the Summer Solstice were actually micro ruptures in the dimensional wall—small tears in the fabric of reality forming and collapsing in a matter of moments. The researchers back at HQ hadn't been idle while I was away in Manehattan, and they'd discovered that those dimensional disturbances had been a direct result of the Left Eye 'waking up'.

I guess we're still sticking with that name as the Princess thinks its safer than calling it what it actually is according to the prophecy.

Nopony knows how or why the artifact activated when it did, but we do know that the Cult hadn't had the thing in their possession yet when the fluctuations started. Some agents from SMILE captured and interrogated a few cultists who'd somehow managed to escape the Old Castle before the dimensional displacement incident occurred. Through them, we discovered that it was the fluctuations that drew the Nightmare Cult's attention. One cultist said something about how the artifact had called out to them. Whispered sweet promises of future glory in their minds and told them how to achieve all that they desired.

At first I thought the Left Eye was a mind-altering artifact, but the Princess had other ideas. She posits that Nightmare Moon was using the artifact as a conduit to call out to the cultists from beyond this realm. If that were true, then it would fit with the whole 'Infinite Realms' thing, but I still had questions. Namely, hadn't the Princess killed Nightmare Moon? How was she reaching out to the cultists? Was she actually reaching out from Tartarus? Well, the Princess doesn't think so and neither do most of the researchers in RIDES. The more popular theory is that the Nightmare Moon that spoke to the cultists wasn't the real deal, but instead, some kind of thaumic 'imprint' left behind when she died.

Essentially, a ghost made of pure magic, hence the whole 'Dark Shade' moniker—but not like the Umbrum. This was more like a sentient memory or Nightmare Moon's will given form and a voice. Maybe calling the creature an echo would be more appropriate. Whatever she was, this is the prevailing theory and I'm finding it rather hard to dispute at this point. As a side note, Celestia also believes that the dimensional ruptures are what pulled the alicorn version of me to this timeline, but that particular subject is a whole different can of worms best saved for later.

Regarding where Celestia had gone during the night before the Summer Solstice Festival, she was in the Old Castle, or the Castle of Two Sisters, as I now know. The whole Everfree Blunder was actually a plan devised by Princess Celestia to capture the Nightmare Cultists. The SMILE agents would stir up the creatures in the Everfree and flush out the cultists while the Royal Guards waited at the edges of the forest to ambush and capture those that escaped. All the while, Celestia herself had quietly vanished from Canterlot and made her way into the Old Castle during the commotion.

Once inside, she'd retrieved the gems she used to seal Nightmare Moon's shade in the moon. The way she tells it, those stones were once known as the Elements of Harmony, and while I won't go into detail about how they work here, I will say that those little gems were a big part of how Both Princess Celestia and her sister stayed in power for so long. Evidently, the reason the Princess had taken so long to retrieve the stones was because they'd been locked away in a hidden vault deep below the Old Castle. The vault in question had been sealed by magic so powerful it had taken the Princess herself almost all night to break the enchantments.

Long story short, she finally got the Elements and stored them safely within Canterlot Castle before taking up her role as the main attraction of the Summer Solstice Festival. The Elements of Harmony had lost a lot of their potency over the last few hundred years and over the next few months, all the way up until Nightmare Moon's shade attacked Canterlot. The Princess had slowly been restoring the magic held within the stones. When I asked how she'd done it, she didn't really respond and instead just kind of looked sad, like she was remembering a lost friend... or maybe a lost sister. In any case we moved on without me getting any kind of answer.

Sunset had asked Princess Celestia why she hadn't just used the Elements of Harmony to seal away the actual Nightmare Moon. The Princess said that she'd tried. She'd given her sister a choice and Nightmare Moon had chosen the path of oblivion. In Nightmare Moon's own words, there were worse fates than death, and that she would choose a thousand times over to die rather than live for an entire age locked away in cold isolation, unable to move or feel anything. All she'd have to keep her company was her own thoughts, and that was no existence worth living.

We could all tell it hurt the Princess to recount her sister's words and I knew she would have preferred a different outcome. I didn't say it out loud, but I wasn't so sure I would've chosen differently than Nightmare Moon if I were in her horseshoes. I could tell by Sunset's look that she felt the same. And... that was it. That was the whole truth behind Nightmare Moon's return. There was some conjecture here and there, but the pieces seem to fit from what I can tell. The only major questions I still have are mostly centered around my disappearance and the Left Eye of the Nightmare, or rather the line about the Eye of Infinite Realms.

I told Celestia about the dream I had in that snowy cabin and what I saw while I was stuck in the pocket dimension inside the Red Crystal. She thinks the Left Eye definitely had some kind of effect beyond the displacement, but she has no idea why or how or what it means. None of the other ponies who came back had issues like mine, as far as the Princess knows. Maybe the other Twilight showing up had something to do with it? I don't know, but Princess Celestia promised to get a few RIDES researchers to run a few tests and try to get to the bottom of the matter. Given how this all started, my weird visions might fall under their jurisdiction, assuming its all connected.

They've already taken the broken Left Eye to study and at the Princess's request, I'll be spending the next few days in their labs getting tested for... interdimensional residue? I have no idea, but hopefully the guys in RIDES will find something to explain all of this. There's a lot more I haven't mentioned yet, but I've been told to get some rest so I'll call this part one and leave it here for now. There's still the matter of my alicorn doppelgänger from another timeline and that's... yeah, that's a story for next time.