# Gentle Nights A teen filly alicorn resembling Nightmare Moon loosely is conjured mysteriously during a thunderstorm. Awakening cold and unwell, she wanders to find safety... and family. However, her pitch black coat and turquoise-colored eyes make ponies suspicious of her origins, even her own guardian. # 1 >Be me, experiencing the first overwhelming moments of existence. >The air is cold and humid. >The ground is wet and sticky. >My hooves ache as though I’ve been walking for miles. >I have no recollection of walking at all. >Everything hurts... >I open my eyes and try to figure out where I am. >Something tells me gnarly trees hanging around me with no leaves and ragged bark is a bad sign. >I struggle to my sore hooves, and pant for breath. >My muscles shake with effort, like they can’t hold my body weight. >I nearly slip on the muddy ground, but I hold myself steady by spreading my wings. >I call instinctively upon my magic, and the area around me illuminates with light purple light. >I am an alicorn, and something tells me that’s not... good? Somehow. >I tuck my wings to my sides and steadily walk through the clearing. There’s no lights asides from my horn. >The sky is overcast, there is no moon and no stars to guide me. >I am alone. So very alone... >I pick a direction and walk, hoping that it’ll be towards civilization... Others like me. >It isn’t long before I see a distant warm light. >I use a burst of speed to gallop towards the lights, but I slip after only a few hoofbeats. >I land on the mud and cry out as I land on a wing awkwardly. >Gods, I hope I didn’t just break it! >I hiss with pain and begin to cry pitifully. >Something told me I shouldn’t cry. >I cry for a while, before a strange creaking sound perks my ears. >”Hello?” >A soft voice calls out, and I rasp wearily, Here... Help... >I sniffle and rest my head on a hoof as the warm light brightens. >A butter yellow pegasus mare with a luxurious long pink mane and tail emerges, and she gasps at the sight of me. >My gut feeling regarding being an alicorn turned out to be correct, but the other pony does not run. >The pegasus walks up to me shyly and looks at my injured wing. >”Oh, you poor filly! Can you stand?” >Filly? Am I a filly to her? Something deep within me wants to berate and shout over such a name, but I don’t want to! She seems to nice! “M-Maybe...” >I try to stand to my hooves, and mostly succeed. >She talks, but I don’t quite listen. She asks for a name, but I cannot bring myself to speak. >My injured wing hangs limply off of my side and brushes along the mud as she escorts me into her quaint cottage. >It’s... so warm. My eyes feel heavy as she grabs a towel and begins to dry my dark periwinkle mane. >I lay upon her couch at her signal, closing my eyes slowly over the course of minutes. >By time she’s beginning to set my wing, I lose consciousness entirely... # 2 >Waking up this time is much more comfortable. >I open my eyes to see a cottage interior bathed in warm morning light. >I yawn and shift, feeling my damaged wing bound up in a makeshift cast. >So I had broken it after all... >I sit up and look around from my position on the couch. >The cottage is full of decorations befitting a modest lifestyle. >This house belongs to somepony who loves animals, judging by the occupied indoor bird houses, buckets of animal feed and a lone white rabbit glaring at me. “Uh-” >The white rabbit sneers and hops away, kicking up a small amount of rug dust in my direction as he leaves. >Confused, I try a hoof onto the floor. It doesn’t hurt as badly as it had the night before. >I stand up fully and look around the cottage for my savior. >It doesn’t take my nose long to realize where the mare is. The pleasing scent of batter cooking leads me to the kitchen. >I clear my throat and speak. My voice is still husky and deep, but it has a youthful ring to it. >Something about the youthful part takes me aback. >I... wasn’t supposed to be this way, right? “Hello...?” >”Oh! You’re awake!” >The pegasus mare seems overjoyed, and flips a pancake onto a plate before she approaches me gingerly. >”Are you feeling okay?” “I’m okay, thanks...” >She sighs with relief and smiles shyly. >”My name is Fluttershy... I found you outside of my cottage last night...” “Th-Thanks for the save, Fluttershy.” >”My pleasure... Um, I made breakfast. You should sit down and eat...” >I nod and look to the small dining table. >I take a seat and get comfortable as she brings me a plate of pancakes, complete with berries, syrup and whipped cream. >I don’t realize how hungry I am until I ravenously bite into the first forkful of food. >After a few more bites, Fluttershy speaks softly. >”Do you know who you are? Maybe you can give me, um, a name, now that you’re rested?” >Oh crap! A name? I draw up a blank on that. “...I don’t... have one.” >Fluttershy squeaks and gasps sadly. I flinch. >”You poor thing... Do you remember anything at all?” >I try my best, but nothing comes to mind from before waking up in the strange forest. “N...No” >”Okay... Um...” >Fluttershy seems to think hard for a minute as I continue to eat my food. >It isn’t until I am nearly finished that she speaks again. >”Well, um... You need a name, at least... Let me think...” >I shrug and poke at the last of my food, a slight ball twisting in my stomach. >I feel wrong. Like... like I shouldn’t be here, somehow. >Like I... Something terrible must have happened, for me to forget everything from before... >I feel tears welling in my eyes, and before I know it, they’re falling. >Fluttershy seems to notice. >”Oh dear... It’s alright, you’re going to be okay! Here-” >She walks over and hoofs me a clean tissue. I dab my eyes with it and sniffle pathetically. “I’m sorry...” >Fluttershy pulls me into a tight hug, and I nearly break again. Why was she being so nice...? >It’s a long while before she lets go and we resume eating our breakfast... I still feel wrong, but like a weight had been lifted. >When we finally finish is when Fluttershy speaks again. >”Does Asra sound... nice?” “Asra...?” >”It... means somepony who travels at night... I think it’s fitting...” >I feel a smile tug at my muzzle, and I nod fervently. “It’s perfect.” --- >Fluttershy was many things, but she wasn’t stupid. >The appearance was uncanny. >Only the rounded pupils, fluffy dark periwinkle mane, and awkward proportions of a pubescent filly were throwing her off of being a true queen of the night... >Asides from some similarities, however... The teen filly hardly acted like Nightmare Moon. >She was at a loss, especially when the doppelganger began to cry. Truly cry! >Fluttershy’s kind heart broke for the confused young filly. >So she decided as she held the poor thing in her hooves that she would do everything she could to get to the bottom of things.