Chapters There was a creak and then a pony rose from her bed. Her slumber was long and she waited for something to bring her out of her grumpy mood. She pulled her hoof back, and scratched her head. How could she be awake on a night like this? Tomorrow was the wedding. Tomorrow would decide her fate.
She looked in the mirror. A black mare with a shinning starry mane smiled at her, her armor shining in the moonlight. She sighed. It would be ok. It would be ok...
She would be with her.
With her...
Nightmare moon's heart fluttered at the thought. No- she could never sleep on a night like this. And that didn't matter. She needed to see her. They needed to be together. Nightmare moon needed to ask her the question. A question she had been wondering for a very long time. She spread her wings and, without warning, flew outside. Her dear sister would not mind if she was out in her eternal night for a short while. Besides, this was important.
Nightmare moon's wings rose and fell as she gracefully flew through the trees to a house in the clouds. "More like a castle." She thought. "A castle that holds a very beautiful princess." She gulped and sighed. Even after Gilda's proposal, she was still nervous to see her. She knocked three times on the door. Then twice.
Then four times.
And before she could finish the fourth knock, the door opened quickly.
"Oh- Nightmare...." A gilda with shining brown feathers said, blushing a bit. "I wasn't....expecting..."
Nightmare moon only stared into her eyes. Her beautiful yellow eyes....
"I have to ask you," she started. stepping inside,
"Do you truly believe in my night?"
The griffon only blinked, staring back at Nightmare Moon with a look of hurt confusion. They were to be wed, and her truest love did not trust that she found love in her night?
"For surely," began the lovely blue mare, sitting as she brought a hoof to her eye, "no pony loves me or finds any love in my night." The pony's chin fell to her chest and her flowing mane fell over the face, wet with tears.
"Darling, you mustn't listen to the lies they feed you. Your sister..." Gilda stopped, seeing how the very mention of Celestia caused Nightmare's head to snap up, a look of malignant destruction boiling in her eyes. Instead, she rose, spreading her powerful brown wings and pulling one along her love's face. The tears were wicked away by the waterproof feathers.
"Gilda, I pray that you will forget this experience. My trust had momentarily wavered." With this she stood, rising above the griffon she loved so dearly. As she leapt down from the clouds she called, "Goodnight, oh fair griffon. May your dreams be sweet, and free of fright." She ran her legs as she soared, looping and twisting as the clouds licked her skin, leaving dewdrops to shimmer on her dark coat.
Upon landing, Nightmare Moon rushed inside to polish the armor she wore. She one again reviewed her vows, running them over and over again.
"From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew that you were mine. The way you looped and twirled through the night sky I created, the only one to appreciate it at all. You breathed a new breath into my creation. You proved to me that- "
At this point she stopped, crossing off the line that followed. She then inserted a line that would be much more meaningful to both of them. She wrote-
"someone could love me or find any love in my night. "
Nightmare Moon strolled along a moonlit path, her hooves clacking on the path. She breathed in the night air, all of it her doing. Yet, even with her moonlit kingdom, she felt… empty. But every time that one griffon flew overhead, the emptiness subsided into a feeling of warmth and joy.
On this very night, the griffon was out on a flight in the night air. Nightmare Moon saw her and flew up, a distance behind her, hidden in the clouds. Gilda took no notice of this, and continued with her various elegant loops and twirls through the air. Nightmare moon sighed softly, unable to hide her awe at the beauty of Gilda.
“Hello, Feathered Beauty,” she whispered into the night sky. The griffon whirled around very rapidly, emitting a growl of surprise.
“Who’s there?” she called, a slight accent twisting her voice into a melodious song.
Nightmare Moon rose up from her cloudy hollow, the drops of rain yet to fall glistening on her powerful dark blue wings. “’Tis me, oh griffon of the night.” She glided gently towards the sleek animal, blushing in spite of the calm attitude she was trying to pull off.
“Oh. Hello, grand Nightmare Moon, caster of the Eternal Lullaby.” The griffon, too, had a blush forming a rosy line above her sharp beak. She looked at the alicorn, and saw at once what she had come for. She saw it in her eyes, heard it in the rapid beating of her Nightmarish heart.
“I…I…I lo-“ Nightmare Moon started, but her stuttered words were cut off when the griffon kissed her. After a startled moment, Nightmare Moon kissed her back, and the night air was filled with something other than bats and clouds.
That night, it was filled with love.
