To be blunt, I'm not a huge fan of this franchise or fandom. But I promised a close friend of mine that I would make her a TMNT/MLP story, and because of her, the idea eventually interested even me. Now I have a full-blown story going.

But because I'm not a hardcore fan, I tried to make up for it by collecting information from each and every episode, despite how tedious that's going so far. Not to mention I barely scratched the comics. But hey *shrugs* I'm trying. My only hope is that I got the details right for the MLP characters.

Anyways, enjoy.

Disclaimer: MLP belongs to Lauren Frost and Hasbro, TMNT belongs to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and Shard, Tang Shen's AU ego, belongs to FantasiaWandering. I only own the plot and the mentioned oc.

'Thinking'

"Speaking"

Dreaming and/or flashbacks

"Ancient speaking/Hardcore yelling"

Prologue

Saturday- September 29th, 2012

Time: Evening

Location: An abandoned subway tunnel in Manehattan

The moon.

It was mysterious, and alluring in it's own way. Whenever the dark skies aroused, forcing the sun to take it's daily nap, the large white orb would douse the land in it's soft light, and thus, bathe the civilizations below with it's soothing glow of moonlight. But although beautiful the moon was, it also bore a common trait.

Sleep.

With the appearance of the moon, creatures all over the world fell prey to the trait of sleep, and entered the realm of dreams. Once in that specific realm, creatures, especially ponies, would explore marvelous fantasies, endure surreal sequences, or suffer from monstrous nightmares, and they wouldn't snap back to the living world until the sun reclaimed it's place in the sky.

This left the younger of the Royal sisters to feel severely underappreciated and lonely. And because of her intense insecurities and worrisome jealousy, her inner hatred claimed her in a suffocating, venomous grasp, ridding the world of the once innocent, beloved little Royal Sister to a few, and terrorizing it with a monstrous, sadistic snake who spared not a shred of mercy for anypony.

It was because of this dark path which captured the former princess, that the eldest of the Royal Sisters was forced to seal the living Nightmare in the moon itself, imprisoning the younger sister in her own domain.

After that horrific event settled, it left the traumatized ponies to slowly pick themselves up and move onward with their lives.

Years passed and everypony in the Royal Family were left unscathed.

Or so everypony thought.

After all, who would have thought that Princess Celestia would be quick to turn on two of her closest friends because of several clever, false, misunderstandings?

Hamato Yoshi certainly didn't.

A deep sigh left his lips as his maroon colored eyes longingly glanced upwards at the moon.

Oh, how he missed his little moon flower...

True, neither him nor Luna were related by blood, but the two had grown up together, fought together, cried together, and cared for each other. Yoshi was there to comfort Luna when she and Celestia lost their father in battle. Luna was there to repay the favor when it seemed he would lose Shen after she nearly fell to a pack of vicious timber wolves.

Yoshi had taken Luna under his wing when times were tough, and Luna helped him through his more difficult challenges in life. Overall, both alicorns had a powerful sibling bond.

However... that bond shattered when Saki-

Yoshi shook his head.

No... He couldn't think about that now. He had to focus on the now, the present. Not what happened all those years ago.

"Yoshi?"

Said pony blinked, and turned around, facing the source of his interrupted thoughts.

A tall unicorn, taller than what was considered normal for her species, stood near the bottom of the ruined steps to the abandoned subway station. Slick black fur covered the majority of her body, while white fur painted her neck and chest, and white markings lined her face, dashing around her eyes, muzzle, and cracked horn. Her hooves were dipped in white, her dark mane brushed past her shoulders with her tail gently sweeping the ground, and lastly, a royal blue kimono wrapped itself around her body like a blanket.

Thin, white whiskers twitched on her muzzle as she took a step forward.

"My love, are you alright?" she asked softly. Yoshi looked at her for a moment, before he looked away with a low sigh.

"I... don't know, Shen. I don't know," he quietly admitted.

Tang Shen frowned, and walked over until she stood right beside her husband. Her warm, amber feline-like eyes studied his appearance and body actions, as she tried to make sense of the alicorn's behavior. However, when she saw him glance at the moon with a mixed look of longing and regret, she knew right then what the problem was.

"Yoshi...," she started in a gentler tone, looking away from the sight of the lonely orb of light, "...What... happened in the past... wasn't your fault... No pony could have foresaw Saki's attack. Not even the king and queen... if they were still alive..."

Doubt filled him upon hearing Tang Shen's words, and Yoshi forced himself to peel his gaze away from the addicting moon and land on the concerned face of his wife. "Shen... I was there in spirit when Saki discovered his true origins. I was too late to stop his corruption of Discord. I did nothing to stop Luna's imprisonment..."

"You had to help nurse Luna back to health. You saved Celestia's life. You were fighting for your own life," Shen corrected him firmly, giving him a look, "No pony blames you for what happened, Yoshi,"

The alicorn stared in the unicorn's eyes, looking for any trace of doubt, the same doubt he had. But when he could only find nothing but sincere honesty, that was when his walls of doubt crumbled into dust.

A small smile formed on his muzzle while his whiskers twitched in relief.

"And once again your wisdom has proven to be powerful, my love," the alicorn admitted, as he lied his tattered wing over the unicorn's back, pulling her into a gentle hug. Shen purred from within the embrace, and her content eyes met Yoshi's amused ones.

"I try," she said, adding a wink just to be a bit playful. The action caused the withered alicorn to laugh lightly in mirth, his former troubled thoughts fading from existence in mere seconds. The two ponies stayed in their embrace for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other's warmth, until-

"Mikey!" came an enraged shout as it echoed down the tunnel.

A wail followed not even a minute later, "Waaaaaaaaaah! Dr. Prankenstein miscalculated his target's mood! Quick assistant! Abandon ship! ABANDON SHIP!"

"You don't need to tell me twice!" the third and final voice yelped.

Both parents jolted from the sudden onslaught of noises penetrating the once peaceful silence. So much for having a moment...

Yoshi sighed and shook his head, all the while muttering something that suspiciously sounded like 'teenagers'. As for Shen, she simply giggled, finding fond amusement from her children's antics. Even at the ripe age of fifteen, they still acted like goofy fillies at times. Something she was entirely grateful for. And as seconds passed, the alicorn found it harder to fight off the smile that threatened to form on his lips just from the sight of his wife joyfully expressing her mirth from their children's spirits. If he were being honest with himself, he too took absolute pleasure in having such wonderful children.

Heck, he was lucky enough to have a family at all. After all, Saki and Celestia had come so close to-

Yoshi firmly shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think of such dark thoughts. If he continued to let them have their way, then they would only poison his good mood.

Switching his gaze from one of the many subway walls littered with graffiti to his wife, the alicorn addressed the unicorn.

"Perhaps, we should take our leave and collect the children? The end of their birthday draws near."

Shen nodded at this. She did have to check on the cake, and frost it before Michelangelo could get his hooves on it. She loved her youngest dearly, but he tended to go a bit overboard whenever it came to cooking. Her goal was for their family to have an average birthday cake without the added sweets for pizzazz.

"Lets," she said in agreement, feeling the weight of the alicorn's wing leave her back. Once he retracted his wings and folded them back inside his robe, Yoshi lowered himself in a slight bow with a faint smirk.

"After you, Shen," he said in a playful tone. The black unicorn only rolled her eyes at his antics, a slight smile playing at her lips as she walked by.

"Why, thank you. You're such a gentlecolt,"

The brown alicorn straightened himself up, chuckling as he did so. Taking one last look at the moon, he faltered.

He knew the signs were something he shouldn't ignore... but would he be ready for what was to come? After all, there was only so much an imprisonment spell could do...

Ripping his gaze away from the taunting ball of light floating in the night sky, Yoshi decided enough was enough and trotted after the unicorn, banishing his thoughts along the way. He had a family to get back to.

However, if he had stayed for a few moments, he would had caught the small glimpse of the moon flashing a crystal blue for a hot second... before returning to it's natural pearl white.

I apologize for not really showing the turtles in this chapter. They'll be in the next one for sure. This one, however, was meant to establish the connections both Splinter and Shard share with Luna, Celestia, and a few other mentioned characters.

Celestia may be slightly ooc in the description, but there's a reason for that... which will be covered as the story progresses onward.

Now, it may be a little confusing to have Tang Shen alive in the story with Splinter and the turtles. But honestly? I'm a sucker for Hamato Fam stories. Besides, since it's a crossover, I can pull a few strings, can't I?

And I finally decided what Shredder is gonna be... but that's classified... for now.

Also, sorry about the cover. I said the new one would be ready by September 30th, but due to an injury, any drawing will be done slowly... oso uncomfortably slowly.

The next chapter, Chapter 1, will be ready by February 25th.

Later.