The Moon and the Night

by stanku

Rating: mature
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna
Length: 8420

Twilight asks Luna how Nightmare Moon was born. Luna shows her.

"There are things that can only be shown, not told." The tale of Nightmare Moon is one such. But is Twilight ready to know the truth about the heart of Nightmare?

The story continues in A Grey Twilight.

Published 2013-12-20 23:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-20 23:00:01 UTC

The Moon and the Night

The Moon and the Night

A Fanfic About the Series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

By Stanku

Editor/Pre-reader: Luminary

Twilight stands in front of the dark double doors, nervously shuffling her legs. She eyes the beautifully carved surface, and bites her lip as she thinks about knocking on it. It is such a cliché; to begin doubting the wisdom of a plan when it’s mere inches from becoming real. That is exactly what touching one of those doors would mean, though. The lavender alicorn raises her hoof, hesitates a moment, and knocks on the hard surface twice. Nothing happens for a moment.

The doors open inwards with a creak, revealing a gloomy space behind. “Hello?” Twilight takes a few careful steps towards the entrance, squinting her eyes as she peers into the shadows. They seem to respond to her gaze, gaining sudden life and movement to give birth to a form that strides from the darkness. Twilight yelps – such is the quickness with which the figure darts from the seeming nothingness.

“Hello to you, Twilight,” Luna says.

Twilight blinks a few times and smiles awkwardly. “Uh, sorry about my reaction, Princess Luna… I hope I didn’t wake you up?”

“Oh, it was nothing, a quick nap. And do drop the formalities – our time is better spent in a more casual atmosphere.”

“Heh, of course. Anyway, I was just wondering if you could, uhm, spare a few minutes?”

“Why, I would be thrilled to do so. I dare suggest we venture on a walk – sleep still clouds my mind.”

“Certainly, Pr– I mean, Luna! But... where should we head to?”

“I have always found the Royal Garden as the ideal place for a discussion, regardless of the topic. Some of Equestria’s most important decisions have been made under those oaks.”

Twilight follows Luna as she goes ahead. “Oh, I know something of those moments, all right.”

“I would suppose you do. Is history what you wish to talk with me about?”

“Ehh, well… Yes, as a matter of fact.”

“It is a good thing, then, that I’m in a nostalgic mood. Seeing that you have brought your notebook along, I except that we are about to have quite a lengthy talk.”

A faint blush colors Twilight’s face. “Heh, well, I guess there was no hiding that. I’m actually writing a compendium of Equestria’s history.”

“An ambitious project, one that I find you are more than suited for. How far have you progressed?”

“I just finished writing about the Griffon Wars. It took me awhile to finish that one!”

Luna smiles faintly. “Yes, they were somewhat of a mess. Did Celestia already assist you with that?”

“Yes, although not directly—she allowed me to read some of the notes she had made at the time. They had more than enough detailes.”

“My sister loves to be thorough, especially with her writing.” A guard opens another double door for them as the two alicorns pass from a corridor into a hall. They both nod for the stallions who salute them.

Twilight glances thoughtfully at the guards as they leave them behind. “How come you don’t have anypony standing by your bedchamber? Celestia always has one or two guards or servants with her.”

Their hoofsteps echo against the walls as they cross a high hall. “To be frank,” Luna begins, “I can’t stand the feeling of somepony standing behind me, or behind my door for that matter. Irrational, yes, yet I cannot explain nor deny it. Perhaps I have grown too fond of solitude.”

“Oh…”

Luna glances at the younger alicorn, who is stepping by her side. “No need to feel sorry for me – I am quite comfortable with the situation. Perhaps someday I will have somepony follow my shadow again, standing by my doors and opening them for me. Who knows, I may even begin to relish the idea.”

“I guess getting used to that sort of thing takes time…”

“Especially when one has to shrug a millenium of loneliness off her shoulders, right?” Luna grins.

Twilight gives the other alicorn a shy smile as they enter into yet another corridor. “So, umm… You really feel comfortable with your past now?”

Luna stops abruptly. Twilight keeps on smiling as she slowly raises her eyes to meet Lunas. “I seem to have located the source of your interest towards me,” says Luna quietly. “You wish to talk about Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight nods slightly. “Would you… feel comfortable talking about her? Because it’s totally fine if you don’t, I can read about it in some book or–”

“You acted wisely when you came straight to me, Twilight. I do not deny that recalling those events will bring me sorrow, and yet I would wrong you if I stayed my tongue. You have the right to know everything you want about Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight raises an eyebrow. “The right?”

“Quite so. And not only as an author of Equestria’s history compendium. Allow me to explain.” Luna begins to walk again, and Twilight follows by her side. “Your elevated position carries duties that you have not even fathomed yet. Some of these can be taught, but many of them can only be learned by first-hoof experience. Since only you can fulfill your duties, it is your privileged right to use any means necessary to obtain the means to see to them.”

“I… hadn’t thought about it that way before.”

“Do not be modest – of course you have. In a certain sense you have always thought like this. It has been expected from you. What has changed in your situation is not so much the duty itself but the responsibility of that duty, which is now all yours. And that, Twilight, is a lesson of which the case of Nightmare Moon has volumes to speak of.”

The sight of the Royal Gardens is as breathtaking as ever before, especially in the light of the afternoon sun. The lingering light colours the Gardens with the finest red and gold the world has to offer. The two alicorns stand on the edge of the beautiful scenery, wondering who would break the spell and speak first.

“I expect that the orchard would present an ideal environment for a little chat,” Luna says.

“I think so too.”

They both smile, and enter into the Garden.

***

“So, where should I begin?” Luna asks. The great oak, under which they sit, breaks the sun’s light into a patchwork of shadows that cover her face.

Twilight bites her lip and averts her gaze from Lunas. “Uhm, well… I was kind of hoping that you would know…”

Luna blinks. “The issue is very… complex, as you surely understand, and covers a timespan of several decades. Nightmare Moon was not born overnight, as you surely understand. I cannot simply tell you everything at once.”

“Of–of course! Uhm, perhaps you could start by stating the most important thing that gave birth to her?”

Luna studies the younger alicorn in front of her, watches that bright, innocent face like she sees it for the first time. She watches how Twilight waves the pen over her precious notebook, eager to hear something worth writing about.

“Eh, Luna?”

“Hm? Oh, forgive me, I got lost in my thoughts.” The dark alicorn sighs quietly. “I hate to disappoint you, but I find it quite hard to express my feelings on Nightmare Moon to you. It feels… quite strange…”

Twilight puts the pen down. “Oh? I’m... I’m sorry about that…”

Luna pulls her gaze from the setting sun and back to Twilight. “Do not be. I said it already: it is your right as an alicorn to know the truth about Nightmare Moon. I just… do not know how to explain that truth to you…” Suddenly, Luna’s eyes flicker faintly. “But I could always show it to you,” she says.

Twilight tilts her head. “Eh, what?”

Luna smiles. “Are you forgetting who you are talking with? I am the princess of Night, of the Moon, of Dreams.” The shadows on Luna’s face dance as if they're alive. “There are such sights I could show you.”

Twilight shifts a bit on the cooling grass. “Yeees, I suppose there are… but I can settle for the traditional version, too.” The pen taps the notebook twice.

“I hope I didn’t scare you, Princess Twilight?”

“Whaaat? Of course not, I’m perfectly fine! But, uhm, why couldn’t you just tell me about your experiences? You don’t need to tell them all at once.”

“It is not a mere question of time – there are some things than can only be shown, not told. The story of Nightmare Moon is one such.”

“Okay… Well, how would you show it to me, then?”

Luna pauses before she speaks again. “The line between dreams and memories is thinner than most suspect – at places it even ceases to exist. As you know, I have been blessed with the ability to enter other ponies’ dreams, to help them cope with the fears and horrors they face therein.”

“So… is there a way to move from a dream into a memory?”

“You are correct, as usual. The dreamworld is a gateway into the memories that gave birth to it in the first place. With the right spell, I can take you into my memories as if I was taking you into my dreams.”

Twilight pauses for a while. “That sounds… simple?”

“And like many simple things, it is quite the opposite of that, once you get to the heart of it. Isn’t it convenient, then, that I am not that simple, either?” They both smile at that. “Would you care to give it a try?”

Twilight’s eyes widen. “What, right now?”

“The day is at its end, and I feel my powers growing. Besides, time acts differently in the dreamworld; minutes might turn into hours and vice versa. We need not linger for too long.”

“Uh, I guess it’s fine, then. What.. what should I do?”

Luna, with her horn glowing dark blue, leans closer to Twilight and whispers to her ear, “Relax.” At the same moment, their horns touch gently, and before Twilight can even blink, she finds the cool grass fading under her. She falls while staying still, which is the most perplexing feeling she has ever experienced. Darkness covers her like a blanket, like a suffocating cloud, and for a moment she can’t breathe. A panic begins to stroke her mane with its erratic touch, reaching ever deeper with each sweep of its fingers. The feeling is more confusing than terrifying.

“You can open your eyes know, Twilight.” It’s Luna’s voice. Twilight obeys it.

She sees the dark alicorn standing in front of her. Gone are the oak, the Garden, and the grass – they have been replaced with… with…

“Did... did it work?” asks the lavender alicorn, wondering at the strange forms around her.

“Welcome,” Luna says, “to the dreamworld.” She smiles faintly.

Twilight gulps, still looking around her. This world seems to break every law of nature she knows; especially the geometrical department is in splinters. Objects the size of a pony float around them, changing shape and colour like it was nothing to them. It’s impossible to say how far the horizon is, for there are no landmarks around. Shades of black, silver, and blue paint the ground and light the scenery, although the source of that light is nowhere to be seen. “I… didn’t expect it to be this strange…” says Twilight.

“What you are seeing is the dreamworld without any dreams or memories. There really is no good word for it, but perhaps 'limbo' would be most suitable – that is what Celestia calls it, anyhow.”

“You.. you don’t have any official name for this place?”

“Home.”

“Eh?”

“Well, it was… for Nightmare Moon, that is.” Luna’s figure tenses just slightly. “This was her home for the millennium she– we spent in exile.”

Twilight’s jaw drops. “Oh my. That is… jeez… How did you, I mean, she, remain sane?”

Luna’s smile evaporates. Silence descends. Ephemeral scraps of colour, both dark and silver, float like autumn leaves trapped in wind around the two alicorns.

“That is a good question, Twilight. How indeed could anypony preserve their sanity when their home was nothing but a barren wasteland. And yet, sane she remained, for a millenium. That was because, in the land where nothing could grow, she found a flower. And from that flower, she perfected a garden.”

“What do you mean?”

Luna’s horn begins to glow. “Let me show you.”

Something changes in the desolation surrounding them. The strange geometrical forms quiver as if shaken by some unknown power, and one by one they begin to unfold. Twilight’s head moves from one side to the other as she tries to make sense of what is happening around her. One of the peculiar, shaking constructions draws her attention; it floats, spins and turns in the air in front of her. It’s as if there really isn’t just one form there, but that several objects are intertwined in a complex dance that somehow stays whole.

The object opens up for Twilight: Inside, a light shines. The young alicorn peers closer, shading her eyes with her hoof. And then she sees it.

“Fl– Fluttershy?”

She can see a yellow pegasus flying among clouds; the city of Cloudsdale floats in the background. The pegasus looks just like Fluttershy, but no, it can’t be her; she is way too young, only a filly.

“That’s more like it, Fluttershy!” says a voice familiar to Twilight. Another pegasus filly, this one with sky-blue coat and a rainbow mane, is flying next to the yellow one, circling her effortlessly.

“...Dash?” whispers Twilight to herself.

“I‒ I think I got it now…” says the yellow pegasus as she fights to stay aloft. The beats of her wings are irregular and imbalanced, and she keeps on losing altitude.

“C’mon, don’t fail me now!” shouts the azure pegasus. “Let the wind do the work for you.”

The yellow filly furrows her brows, and beats the air around her as she strives to regain her balance. It takes several long seconds, but she finally stops her descent, and begins to rise. Both fillies laugh as they enter into an aerial hug.

The two young pegasi continue to fly inside the dark construction, but Twilight pulls her eyes from the vision, even though she feels hypnotized watching the scene. Something has caught her attention: A noise, like a roar of a crowd, hundreds of voices talking all around her. She looks up.

The sight almost knocks her down. Hundreds of brightly lit geometrical forms have gathered around the two alicorns. The forms stack on top of each other, forming pillars and walls that reach to hundreds of meters, and all of them show some kind of a scene including one or more ponies of every age, race, and mood. Crying, laughing, screaming, smiling, flying – the chaos is absolute.

In the middle of it all, Luna stands with her eyes closed, appearing perfectly calm and in control. Perhaps she feels Twilight’s eyes on her, for she speaks just as Twilight opens her mouth.

“Quite a sight, am I right?” says Luna without opening her eyes.

The noise disturbs Twilight more than she want’s to reveal. “These… these are dreams?”

Luna shakes her head. “No – these have once been dreams. Now they are only memories of them. It is still not late enough in Equestria that we could follow actual dreams.”

“Act– actual dreams…” Twilight takes a second look around her, and sees that the figures are increasing in number; she can see more coming from all around the dreamworld. Some of them just appear from nothing and begin to unveil their secrets.

“Secrets,” mutters Twilight. She opens her mouth to speak, but words fail her on the first attempt. “This is wrong!” she finally manages to shout.

Suddenly, all the noise dies, and all the visions stop moving, frozen in time. The mad cacophony is replaced with thousands of eyes and faces that stare at nothing or at Twilight. She can’t say whether she finds the silence even more disturbing than the preceding noise. She doesn’t have the time to decide, for she notices that Luna stares at her like another frozen dream.

The lavender alicorn gulps. “I mean that, uhh… We shouldn’t be watching other ponies’ dreams without their consent?”

Luna blinks, but slower than she would have to. “Twilight… Why do you think alicorns exist?”

“Uhh… Because… What?”

Luna sighs. “An alicorn can be said to be a lot of things, but such is the case only because guidance has many forms.” Luna smiles again. “We serve the purpose of a compass, Twilight. And how could a compass be wrong?”

I didn’t question where the North is; I wanted to know if that’s the direction we should head to, thinks Twilight. What she actually says is: “I hadn’t thought about it that way.” She feels that this is not the time nor place for an argument, although she remembers to bring the topic up with Princess Celestia later.

Luna nods in response. “I have always admired your ability to learn quickly. Indeed, we are watching the most private and protected part of anypony’s life; Their thoughts, of which their dreams are a reflection. We are doing that because we are required, because that is the only way we can help the poor souls to find the right way.”

Twilight feels the hundreds of stares on her neck. They seem to crawl all over her skin. “So… This is how Nightmare Moon spent her time, eh?”

“Correct. While she was unable to affect the dreams she saw, she still followed them, for they were all she had. And the first dream she witnessed while imprisoned was the flower which I mentioned, and from which this garden of hers grew.”

Twilight does her best to keep her eyes strictly on Luna, who is eyeing the glimpses of dreams surrounding them. The young alicorn can’t bare the sight of them a minute longer. “And that is what you want to show me, right?” says Twilight. “But why?”

“Because I believe that Nightmare Moon can be best understood when the process that created her is watched from the end to the beginning. I believe so because the end here is much more easily defined than the beginning.”

“I see.”

Luna smiles faintly again. “No, you do not. But you will. Would you like me to cover these other memories as we focus on the one that really matters?”

“Yes. Please.”

The images close into their shells like exotic flowers. Twilight’s shoulders relax.

“You may asks questions while we are in the dream, but I would prefer if you saved them for later."

“Okay.”

Luna walks to Twilight as another geometrical form built of shadows rises from the ground, or, to be more precise, through the ground. To Twilight’s surprise, it’s smaller than the rest of the objects that keep on floating around. It opens up just like the others, though.

***

The air is heavy with grey mist that resembles smoke. The wind is dead, and so are the colours of the world. Twilight finds herself alone in this strange and weirdly oppressing environment.

“He– hello? Luna?” Not even an echo answers her. She begins to sweat.

“I’m here, Twilight.” Just like that, Luna appears on Twilight's side. The mist is so thick that it covers partly her face even when she stands next to her.

“Eep, you scared me!. Where are we?”

“In a dream that exists in my memories.”

“Right, but where is it? And why is it so foggy?”

Luna turns her head as if she had heard something. “Come, and I will explain on the way. We do not want to miss what is about to happen.” Luna makes a move away from Twilight, leaving her with no choice but to follow, or risk being alone in the mist.

“Wait, wait!” Twilight says as she goes after the dark alicorn who is about to fade into the stale greyness.

Luna waits for the younger alicorn to catch up before she speaks. “To answer your first question: This place has no parallel in the real world. It’s simply a creation of the dreamer's subconscious.”

Twilight frowns. “But the dream I saw earlier – the one with Dash and Fluttershy – happened in Cloudsdale. Was it a memory, then?”

“It is as I said: Dreams and memories are carved from the same wood. The vision you saw might have been how the events actually played out, or it might not. In the end, not even the dreamer can be sure about the truth.”

“I see…” Twilight pauses for a while to get a better idea of her surroundings. The earth they tread on feels normal; she can feel the occasional turf of grass touching her legs. The mist is as impenetrable as before. “Who’s dream we’re in? In somepony’s who has extremely bad sight?”

Twilight can’t say whether Luna is smiling at her jape or not, for the fog is too thick. “You shall see in a moment,” says Luna.

The two walk for a few more minutes in silence. After a while, Twilight can make out a faint sound; somepony is crying softly. As they get closer to the source of the noise, the mist begins to grow thinner, as if it was melting away. Finally, the lavender alicorn can see more than her own nose, she can even make out her own hooves. She doesn’t see the rock that hits her leg, though.

“Ouch!” Twilight stops to look at her hoof. “Jeez, I thought you couldn’t get hurt in a dream?”

Luna, who has also stopped, smiles faintly. “That is quite true for everypony dreaming, but as you remember, we are not asleep at the moment. The pain you feel is real, although it doesn’t touch your actual body, which is safely lying under that oak tree in the Gardens. It is your mind that is hurt.”

“But how can my mind get–” Twilight forgets to finish her sentence, for she has glanced at the rock she hit her hoof against. At closer inspection, it looks quite familiar to her: It’s the Element of Generosity in its stony form.

“What the hay?” Twilight picks the orb with her magic, just to make sure. After having studied it for a minute, she looks at Luna, who is looking back at her. “Are we… in Rarity’s dream?”

“No. We are in a dream that is made unique by the fact that it’s the only dream I have seen from her. My sister can be such a timid thing when it comes to her private life.”

“Her private life…” Suddenly, Twilight drops the stony orb, and her eyes go wide. “You don’t mean… that we’re in a dream of Princess Celestia?”

Luna only stares at Twilight with her calm, cool evening eyes. Twilight’s legs begin to shake a bit.

“Oh my… uhm… Are you sure this is okay?”

Luna’s eyes scan the face of Twilight, the face that is beginning to show great distress. “It is much more than ‘okay’, Twilight. You are not just somepony anymore: You are an alicorn now. Even if you do not yet know what the former means, do try to remember that it’s not the same as the latter.”

Twilight swallows, and tenses her legs to stop them from shaking. “I, uhh… I only mean that Celestia is also an alicorn – shouldn’t we at least ask her first before we intrude her dream? Even an old one?”

“Intrude… is a funny word. As if we would be violating some right as we step into my sister’s dream without her approval. And yet that we cannot do, for alicorns have no rights, in the same sense that they do not have duties: We are the rights and duties of our own. What stands above the right cannot be bound by that right, just like a compass cannot show the place where it itself stands.”

“But you told me just a moment ago that I have the right – as an alicorn – to know the tale of Nightmare Moon!”

“Did you approve that right?”

“Wh– what? I… Yes, of course I did!”

“Then it is your right, as long as you will it to be. What it is that you cannot perceive here?”

Twilight stares at Luna as if she was a stranger to her. “That… that’s not how I have been taught to think…”

“Because you weren’t an alicorn back then.”

Twilight flinches, and takes a step back from Luna, only to find her hind leg hit something hard. She looks back and sees the Element of Kindness lying on the grass, cold and dead. At the same moment she notices that the mist has faded even more: She can see a few meters ahead of herself now. She shudders as she sees all the rest of the five Elements lying around her, all lifeless, all imprisoned in their stony forms. It’s like a tiny graveyard full of her friends.

“Perhaps,” begins Luna, “you’re not ready to learn the full tale of Nightmare Moon. Just say the word, and we will return back to the oak tree, safe and sound.” She looks intently at Twilight, who is moving her head from side to side, still looking at the elements.

She looks up at Luna. Her form is still tense, but her eyes stay as still as the mist around them. “No,” says Twilight. “I’m ready for anything you can show me.”

Luna’s eyes flicker even through the mists. “As you say, Twilight. I recommend you turn your head there, then.” Luna points into the mist with her front hoof. As her limb raises from the ground, the fog begins to unveil from where it’s directed, showing a figure lying under a great tree. The figure appears to be sobbing.

Twilight gasps. “That is…?”

“Correct. But don’t bother running for her. She cannot sense us.”

Twilight stops in her tracks and, instead of running for Celestia, turns to Luna. “What am I supposed to do then? Just watch her cry?”

“Have you ever seen her cry before?”

“No!”

“Well then, this should be terribly educating for you.” Luna smiles while she speaks, smiles as if they were talking about the weather. “You do love to learn, do you not?” Luna takes a step closer to Twilight.

Twilight takes a step back, but keeps her eyes on Luna. “Wh– what is this? Luna! What’s wrong with you?!”

The dark alicorn stops, blinks, and begins to chuckle silently. Step by step, her voice grows stronger, darker, thinner. She throws her neck back and shrieks. “NO!” The misty air around the dark alicorn begins to shimmer.

Twilight stares at the sight with her eyes wide open, her every muscle as tense as they have ever been. As she watches the other alicorn falling into what seems to be pure madness, a quiet voice inside her head whispers that perhaps she should do something about it. But she can only stand, and watch.

Luna’s eyes are closed now, and her breathing has grown faster. Her horn colours the surrounding mist dark blue, almost black. She makes a step in one direction, then another in the opposite. Her body writhes as she’d be in agony, as if something was burning her from the inside. She looks like about to collapse, but instead she spreads her magnificent wings and rises from the ground, all the while spasming violently. Her front hooves are locked around her torso.

It’s when Luna screams in pain, three meters from the ground, that the voice in Twilight’s head begins to yell that she really should be doing something.

“Luna!” she shouts. It doesn’t help at all, but instead makes Twilight’s breathing quicken, too. She is looking desperately around her, but the fog has thickened again, and the greyness is indifferent to her panic. Luna screams once more, screams like something was pulling her limbs off. Twilight swallows, spreads her wings, and flies to Luna.

“Luna, snap out of it! Luna! LUNA!” Twilight begins to shake the dark alicorn from the shoulders while in the air. Luna stops thrashing her head from side to side.

“There’s… there is… no Luna.” Her voice is weak, hollow, yet somehow it makes a shudder travel through Twilight’s spine.

“Please, Luna, come back…”

“No Luna.” The dark one’s voice is stronger now. “Only the Nightmare.” Luna’s eyes flash open, but instead of dark blue iris, a feline slit gazes at her.

Twilight slaps her friend hard on the right cheek. The blow catches its prey unguarded, and drops her to the ground, where she stays.

“Luna!” Twilight drops down to the other alicorn and checks if she is breathing. A one shallow intake of breath later and Twilight dares to breathe out, too.

“Twilight?” whispers Luna with her eyes closed.

“Yes, yes!” A tear falls down on Luna’s chest, Twilight sees it, and realizes it’s her own. It’s the same moment when she almost collapses herself.

Luna opens her eyes, and smiles faintly. “You really should see your face right now, Twilight…”

The lavender alicorn gives a short and tense laugh as more tears well up in her eyes. She wipes them away with her hoof. “Are you alright? Can you stand?”

Luna carefully stretches her legs and wings, and winces. “I think I broke a wing. And my cheek feels as if it has a grudge against me…”

Twilight slaps a hoof on her mouth. “I’m so sorry about that! I didn’t know what to do, no spell crossed my mind so I‒”

“‒Decided to use the more traditional methods,” finishes Luna, still smiling weakly. “For that, I’m deeply grateful to you.”

Luna stands up again, helped by Twilight. The dark alicorn looks at her left wing, which is bent in unnatural angle. Twilight has to avert her gaze from it or risk losing her lunch. “Can you fix that?” Twilight asks, looking away.

Luna continues to study her mangled wing as it belonged to somepony else, only grimacing a bit when she tries to move it. Twilight watches from the corner of her eye, and remembers how it felt when her own feathers were left in between a closing door and a frame few weeks ago. The pain lasted for days.

“It is a nasty one, I have to admit,” says Luna casually. “Still, it’s nothing to be worried about. We should continue towards my sister now.”

Twilight’s jaw drops and suddenly she forgets to feel sick. She turns to look at Luna. “Continue? What are you saying? Are you crazy?! I didn’t hit you that hard, did I?!”

Luna stops and looks at Twilight with a neutral look on her face. “I wonder if that is how Celestia taught you to address a princess.”

A sudden blush raises on Twilight’s cheeks. “I… That’s not the point! The point is that… well, your wing needs some medical attention, and quickly!”

“My wing is perfectly fine, I’m sure.”

“Wh‒”

“Remember where we are, Twilight. It is only my mind that feels the pain, not my body. When we get back, you’ll find that my real wing is as it should be.”

Twilight closes her mouth after she stifles a counterargument on the tip of her tongue. She bites her lip, and shuffles her legs, and tries again. “It’s not just your wing that troubles me… your eyes… For a moment, they were the eyes of Nightmare Moon.”

Luna stares at Twilight for a good long while. “So… that makes hiding it a fruitless endeavor, doesn’t it?” she says quietly.

“...What happened to you just now?”

Again, silence descents between the two alicorns. The mist is as grey as it gets, and it circles the two princesses ever so slowly, barely moving at all. Luna is looking into the fog, and even though Twilight tries her best to peer into the same direction, the greyness remains absolute to her.

“I have not been very honest with you, Twilight. It grieves me to say this, but in a sense, Nightmare Moon is still a part of me. Indeed, it may very well be that she will always be a part of me.”

“...I…. Don’t know what to say…” says Twilight. “I thought we defeated her a while ago?”

Luna turns her head sharply towards the lavender alicorn. “Is that so? I was trapped in a living nightmare for a millennium – did you think waking up would happen overnight?”

Twilight cowers and takes a few steps back. Luna’s face immediately shows regret. “Forgive me my words. It seems I’m still a bit upset about the event…” says Luna.

The younger alicorn hesitates a moment, but finally gives Luna a smile of sorts. “It’s okay, Luna. I can’t understand how you must feel right now.”

“You truly excel at showcasing wisdom beyond your years. Alas, that does not change the fact that you are correct.” Luna makes a move away from Twilight. “And yet, it is essential that you strive to understand how I have felt, and why. Come, we still have time to witness this one scene before we must return.”

Twilight walks quickly to Luna’s side, and together they keep on advancing through the greyness. Twilight walks a bit more tensely than before, and she still keeps her eyes well away from Luna’s left wing. “If you don’t mind me asking, how come you don’t‒”

“‒get seizures like that so often? Why the nightmare decided to show it’s true face just now?”

Twilight nods slowly.

Luna sighs. “It is the dreamworld. Like I said, we are not walking merely in a dream of my sister, but also in my memory of that dream. It’s impossible to tell where the one starts and the other ends. My past feelings, the feelings of Nightmare Moon, still live strongly in some of these memories, especially in this one.”

Twilight’s eyes go wild. “But why come here, then? If the past memories can have that kind of effect on you ‒ if you could really turn into‒”

“‒and that is exactly why I don’t visit these memories alone anymore,” interrupts Luna again, this time with a smile. “You wanted to learn about Nightmare Moon, did you not? Well, one might say you just received a first-hoof lesson about the subject.”

The two look at each other through the mist that separates them as they continue to stride through that same mist. Surprisingly, Twilight doesn’t feel as tense anymore. Rather, her eyes flicker with a light that cuts through the grey air. They shine with the light of curiosity.

***

Celestia slumps her neck against a great oak while rest of her slender body lies on the grass that surrounds the mighty tree. Her back is turned so that Luna and Twilight can’t see her face, but they don’t need to see her tears to feel her sorrow; such is the hopeless sadness that flows from the sight in front of them. The mist has cleared around the scene for now and has formed a round wall around the three alicorns, enveloping them into what feels like a prison.

“I suppose you know the cause of her misery,” says Luna quietly. Twilight’s nod is almost unnoticeable.

“For this one night my sister’s guard was low enough that I could perceive her dream as Nightmare Moon. For this one night, her mind was consumed by grief so deep that all other thoughts were forgotten. It was the night after our battle.”

Twilight turns her head to Luna, whose expression might have been carved from stone. “You said that this dream marked the end of Nightmare Moon. How can that be, if this was the first dream she saw in exile?”

Luna still keeps her gaze nailed to her sister’s collapsed form. “I also said that the end of Nightmare is much more easily defined than the beginning of her. Nonetheless, even the end of a nightmare can present a hazy concept.” Luna slowly turns her head to the younger alicorn. “Nightmare Moon met her end in this dream in the sense that she understood the effects of her rebellion. She understood the pain she had inflicted, the sorrow she had sowed, and the finality of all of it.”

“But why didn’t she die then and there?”

“Because,” begins Luna, and turns her head away from Twilight’s eyes, “instead of finding the sight repulsive, she embraced it. Thus she was born anew, even stronger, even more bitter.”

Twilight blinks, turns her head to Celestia, then back to Luna, and finally to the ground. A tear stains the dry grass in silence that knows no end.

Luna’s voice is the acknowledgment of that end. “You must understand that the Nightmare that was born in Equestria was not the same that returned to its blight a millennium later. The reasons that gave birth to her were not the same as the ones that fed her during the imprisonment. Even the dark side of the moon has phases.”

“Fed?” asks Twilight, as if she had misheard, wishes she had. “You mean she came to this dream to feed?”

Luna drags the ground with her front hoof in the most erratic manner. “Yes. That is the point of a garden: To relish the beauty of it, to gain strength from it. The dreams you saw piled in that desert symbolize everything she had lost, everything that strengthened the darkness within her. Consequently, their tale is kind of a blueprint of her mind, of everything that gave its share to amplify the darkness of her thoughts.”

Twilight dries her tears with a tip of her wing. “But… how could anypony feed one’s malice from a dream where two pegasi learn to fly? How could anypony draw misery from such happiness?”

Luna doesn’t answer at once. “It may be hard for you to understand… but the key concept of a nightmare, and thus of Nightmare Moon, is the notion that there is terror, misery, and horror in everything.”

Twilight winces. “That’s a horrible thought.”

“It is the very core of a nightmare. To understand that is to understand something vital about darkness itself: It’s not merely the opposite of light, but a continuation of it. Light and darkness are each other’s fulfilment – without one there is no other.”

Twilight begins to move nervously, to shuffle her legs and turn her head in a disoriented manner. “That can’t be right! It can’t be! What about harmony and friendship? There can’t be anything dark or twisted in them! It’s impossible…”

Luna turns her head to Twilight again. Her eyes are two mixed pools of sadness, compassion, and absolute honesty. “That is something my sister told you, is it not?”

“Yes! That is exactly what she has always told me to believe in!” Twilight stomps the grass in the rhythm of her sentence.

Luna looks down on the lavender alicorn whose wide eyes seem to beg her to say she is lying. Suddenly, a memory enters her mind, a picture of the same young pony sitting on grass in the warmth of the afternoon sun, holding a pen with curiosity and excitement. Whatever happened to that self-secure alicorn, and wherever came this frail and panicked creature that shares her name? Luna blinks and for a moment, hesitates. She can feel the eyes begging her, pleading her, even accusing her. But they are not the eyes of a unicorn, but those of an alicorn.

“Twilight… do you still remember the Elements that we crossed a while ago?”

“Yes… They were all dead.”

“Indeed they were. You know what killed them?”

“The… the elements lost their power when they were used in a conflict between two sisters; that was a sacrilege that harmony couldn’t bear. Celestia told me that.”

“No… It wasn’t the harmony that couldn’t bear its own purpose, but Celestia. Celestia lost her faith in harmony, not the other way around.”

Twilight’s expression changes from desperate to determined. It’s like watching a whirling pool of liquid freeze instantaneously. “No. She would never do that.”

Luna’s eyes flicker as the sadness and compassion meet the autumn of their days. “Oh? Perhaps it should be you who should enlighten me of the past events, then. You do seem to know them better than I do, after all.”

The frost that covers the pond warms a bit as a frail blush tries to creep on Twilight’s face. But somehow it never reaches the critical temperature. “Maybe I should, indeed. It seems to me that your version is a bit on the darker side.”

Luna flinches. “My… version? Of Nightmare Moon? You call my account of her… a version?

“I’m just saying that mayhaps your point of view is a bit… too close to the subject at hoof.”

Luna turns from facing the sight of Celestia to fully meet Twilight, who takes a quick step back in response. “And what is that supposed to mean?” asks the dark alicorn.

The ice of the pond feels its first crack. “You… you said it yourself: Your emotions keep on mixing with those of Nightmare in this place.”

Luna blinks a few times, and pulls her neck back. “I–” she begins, but can’t make out a sentence. Instead, she closes her eyes and rubs her temple with her front hoof. Her left wing is dripping bright red blood on the grass.

Twilight bites her lip as Luna continues to turn her head from side to side, eyes closed. “Uhh… perhaps we should return back to reality? I think we’ve been here long enough for today…”

“Y– yes, perhaps that is a good call. Although… I still have not shown you what I was supposed to…” Luna cringes in pain as she tries to align her damaged wing better. Her eyes are moving very fast behind the closed lids.

“It’s okay, we’re in no hurry, you can show it to me some other time!” Twilight is leaning away from Luna, and almost takes another step back.

“No… I want you to see her... like I do.”

“I’ve seen Celestia cry enough already! Can we just go home now? Please.”

“I was not referring to my sister.” Luna’s eyes open in a flash. “I meant the Nightmare herself.”

Twilight takes a step backwards, then another. “Luna. Your eyes.”

The Princess of Night spreads her wings to their full glory with a one fast motion. The symmetrical beauty of them is gone; it’s replaced by a crude caricature where the broken wing seems as if its about to tear off. Luna’s face is twisted in a painful smile, and she begins to laugh with a thin, high-pitched voice that almost crumbles to screaming. “You know nothing of anything, Twilight Sparkle! Your world is but a whim of my sister’s fantasy, a glass artefact wrapped in velvet!” With a single beat of her wings, Luna rises above the ground. “And the fabric can only contain the pieces as the Nightmare stomps on top of it…”

Twilight watches in horror as the creature above her raises into the air, and dives towards her. Instinctively she dodges and rolls on her side, and stands up as quickly as she can, excepting another swoop with her horn glowing ready. But instead she finds herself alone in the midst of a cage made of fog.

Her heart beats her chest as trying to break out, and her head spins from side to side. “Luna! LUNA! You must stop this at once! Remember who you are!” Time seems to have slowed down, for the silence that follows lasts an eternity.

And then a voice speaks from the fog, as the fog. It sounds like broken glass; sharp and thin. “Did you know… that I did not come to this dream, over and over again, merely to observe my sister’s mental agony? Why, this is my dream as well as hers. Am I not allowed to enjoy it as I see fit?!”

Spells run through Twilight’s mind even as she tries to concentrate on locating the source of the voice. She goes through a dozen spells in a second, yet none of them offers her any sense of security. She only knows a single way to fight against Nightmare Moon, and that option is closed to her right now, she knows that. And suddenly, her eyes flicker with a glint of hope. She must keep her enemy talking, though.

“Luna, you must listen to me! You are Princess Luna, not Nightmare Moon! You aren’t alone anymore: Think of all the friends you have in Equestria, in Ponyville!”

Her pleases might’ve as well been directed at the fog itself. “I suppose you also remember how my dear sister there cannot sense us? continues the voice. “Well, she really cannot… Except if I want her to. She is nothing but a mixed reflection of my memory and her own dream, after all…”

“What do you mean?” Twilight’s horn is glowing faintly from the weight of the spell that’s forming there.

“This.”

Suddenly, the wall of fog rips open, but not anywhere near where Twilight is standing. From the opening emerges a creature clad in shadows, moving with the speed of one. Her flight seems to be unhindered by the ragged wing, which beats the air with unnatural strength. Instantly Twilight expects the creature to come at her, and she almost casts her spell then and there, with her heart in her throat.

Without slowing down a bit, the living shadow charges at Celestia and impales her through the throat with a horn. The white alicorn screams in agony even before the spray of blood reaches the ground. Nightmare Moon waits a few seconds as her victim thrashes helplessly in the ground, her whining growing quickly weaker as blood floods her throat. And then the nightmare begins.

The dark alicorn crunches the white one’s face with her hoof and pulls her horn free. A river of blood keeps on gushing from the terrible wound, which soon finds company as Celestia’s swan-like neck is pierced again. Her snow-white coat is soaked in blood, her eyes are wide with panic, and nopony in the world would recognize her anymore as the Princess Celestia of Equestria.

Nopony but Twilight, who can’t take her eyes of the scene, not in the face of insanity. She can feel every new stab that lances through the pony she has loved for her whole life more than she has loved herself. She can feel every thrust not in her body, but in her very soul. The stabs are the only thing that connect her mind to the scene she witnesses, they are the only thing that tell her that she is Twilight Sparkle, and not some pony watching reality break apart.

The dark alicorn begins to shout in the midst of her butchery. “Do you see? Do you see?! This is what made this dream the rose of her garden! This is what kept her sane through the centuries.”

Very calmly, Twilight’s horn begins to glow again. She speaks the words as if she was on a class, speaks them even as her mentor is reduced to a bloody pulp right in front of her eyes. The other alicorn is too concerned with her work, too clouded by the blood and tears that she could notice the spell Twilight casts. It takes a few seconds for the stony orbs to fly around her.

“Such grace! Such splendour! You had all of it, you kept all of it, you made me swallow all of it! ‘The Moon only shines because the Sun allows it to’! Such profanity! Such hypocrisy!”

The orbs begin to whirl around Twilight; soon they move with such speed that plain eye can’t tell them apart. One by one, they begin to tremble and crack, after which they lose their stony shells like a pond loses its cover of frost in the spring. Inside, the Elements appear in all their glory. Twilight stand amidst it all, her face covered in ice that no sun can ever hope to melt.

The dark alicorn has stopped her work, and the ruin of Celestia’s throat has ceased pulsing blood. The scene is covered in red, it covers most of the white and dark figures. The red connects them, even as it separates them. Nightmare Moon collapses on the ground and looks at Twilight, who is almost invisible behind her whirling shield of colours.

“Such mockery. Such comedy,” whispers Luna.

A rainbow-coloured ray splits the space between the red scene and the lavender alicorn, it strikes at the heart of the dark one, whose scream drowns in the absolute silence and darkness that follows. Its echo haunts Twilight even as she opens her eyes under the oak tree. Only the top of it is touched by the evening sun anymore, she notices absentmindedly.

The young alicorn stands up slowly, trembling a bit. She looks around herself, but can’t see Luna anywhere. Only the other faint imprint on the grass tells her that somepony has been on the place with her. Twilight looks at the impression for a good long while, and finally a shudder travels through her.

She is about to leave for the castle, but something makes her stop. She turns around to look at the oak which she hadn’t been paying much attention to before. She looks at the great tree, and the shadows that cover its trunk give imagination just enough room that she can picture a figure leaning against it. A figure of an alicorn, ravaged by grief so deep that she might as well search comfort from a tree.

Her pen and notebook are still laying on the grass, excepting to be put to work, demanding that they do. Twilight looks at them with a blank expression, as if she didn’t recognize the meaning of those simple objects anymore. What could a simple pen and a piece of paper offer her anymore now that she has seen that which cannot be told, but only shown. She picks them up nonetheless.

It’s what a good student would do.