In a space very much like an empty plain, a grassy plain stretched far and wide. There were no trees, and even fewer landmarks; there was an ever present moon, and the stars illuminated the otherwise dimly lit plain.

Luna stepped into this dreamscape, her mane blending in perfectly with the sky. Her eyes searched fervently, till she gazed up at the ever present moon.

The dreamscape truly was a unique place; here, all the dreams of the world could converge, making it far easier to monitor the nighttime pleasures and frights of her subjects, and beyond.

Getting here required the kind of sleep that Discord had truly meant with his joke; not even Luna could both monitor the real world and this at the same time. But she was not here to monitor the dreams of some other pony.

She was here for her own nightmare. Looking intently at the moon, Luna noticed that the thousand year face did not reveal itself on the surface.

In a whisp of smoke, a blowing of the wind really, the counterpart that, on its own, had been psychological warfare against her sister all those centuries ago. A taller, slender alicorn with Luna's color scheme, though with a mane like smog and the teeth of an omnivoric predator.

Extended, pronounced canines sent fillies screaming to their parents, who could only comfort them in knowing that the terrible creature haunted only the enemies of Equestria. Too bad most of modern day Equestria used to be considered enemies.

She bore the same crescent moon cutie mark, yet, her mane seemed more like a smog than hair, and her eyes were like that of a feline's. She bore no armor, and for all intensive purposes, looked less like the terror of the night that she had returned as.

"I was wondering when you were going to give me some credit for all the work that I put into righting the wrong that was done by Celestia."

Turning to face the mare, Luna confidently smiled, holding her head high as she approached. The two locked eyes, and for a few tense moments, it would seem as if a fight would breakout without any further warning.

"Nightmare Moon," Luna stated matter of factly, her tone neutral and uninviting at the same time. "No helmet?"

"Oh no, I lost that when you switched sides." Nightmare sneered, taking a few steps closer to her shorter counterpart. "Tell me, did you enjoy reliving your worst nightmare?

Did you get a good look at Sombra's face when you, his dearly beloved, banished him? Hear his yowls of dismay when you allowed his untimely destruction?"

Luna almost choked on her own words, finding a menacing presence creeping towards her heart. She had fought this battle before; she had no intentions of losing again.

"Imagine all the pain it cause Celestia to have to send us to the moon; no family left to call her own except the bastards and their cousins."

"She never really wanted Sombra; all she cared about what making it as 'Daddy's little filly'."

Luna reared forward at that, barely restraining herself from assaulting the feminine likeness of her father. "Celestia has her issues, and I have mine. Let us not fire such cheap shots."

"What happens in the bedroom stays there hm?" Nightmare drew her head back, leering at Luna with only a single, half lidded eye. "I guess Celestia complaining about how poor Sombra had been in bed the night after Discord was defeated goes to show how true that is."

Before Luna could refute, Nightmare suddenly rushed forward, getting right into Luna's face, seething with a crazed passion of her own.

"But he treated you so well; showed you his most prized possessions, even gifted you with the Crystal Heart, telling you that you could have it regardless of whether you ever married him or not!

No stallion ever did that for Celestia; she has always been jealous of that one thing you have that she can have no part in. Sombra's love."

Luna backed off a few feet, only for Nightmare to press ever onwards, her menacing gaze threatening to enshroud the alicorn in darkness. "Celestia truly felt hurt when, at the end of it all, when Mother died, and she realized just how alone she would be."

Luna took a step forward, now pressing Nightmare back a few paces. "I was all that she had in the world, and as much as it pained her, she sometimes had to see my misery. We would have had no will to slaughter our subjects just to keep them enslaved to us."

Nightmare stopped backing away, the two heads literally touching as the staredown took a silent moment. Nightmare contemplated her rebuttal, and grinned once she found it.

"She still had her foals. And once you were banished, she could easily have set them up for the throne and never allowed you back in one piece."

Luna's head began to hurt from the amount of force being pushed against it; she needed something fast, or else she might be forced to retreat again.

"She would not have done that, they were not ready..."

"Even now, Cadence and Shining Armor have all but replaced the role Sombra and I could have played; there is only room for two alicorns at the top, to rule the night and the day."

Nightmare Moon ruthlessly continued her assault, battering Luna with everything she had left remaining. "Has it ever dawned on you that she never told you what happened to your colt when you left?"

Luna took a moment too long to think about this one, and found herself being pushed back closer and closer to the edge of the plains, a dark abyss awaiting her.

"I have a theory." Sinisterly, Nightmare Moon smiled in delight, unmovable and savoring this moment. She sang in as dark a tone as she could muster, "Somepony had an 'accident'."

Much to Nightmare's dismay, however, the shadowy abyss changed back into mere plain, and Luna kept at it, her eyes alight in a sort of fire unseen in many years.

"Do not try to paint my sister as a sick monster; she would have cared for him even as her own! Perhaps even raised the two as brother and sister before putting them to death!"

Luna reared her head back a mere inch, then pushed forward, driving a now staggering Nightmare Moon backwards.

"Through all of the pain and suffering, she pulled through. Maybe scarred, perhaps regretful, but never defeated! The likes of you have no place here!"

Finally back to where they started, Nightmare managed to regain her grip on the ground, steadfastly maintaing her leverage. Sweat beads began to fall from the two mares, as this struggle of dominance, symbolic as it was physical, continued silently for the next few minutes.

Only the sound of their grunting broke the silence, until at last Nightmare Moon roared in rage, digging her back hooves into the very dirt.

"Enough of this!" Nightmare raised her head, sending Luna charging straight beneath her frame. Nightmare reared up, and prepared to stomp the staggering Luna into the ground.

Luna, however, had seen this coming, and rather than drawing back, she kept going, tackling the hind legs of her alter ego, sending her toppling to the ground.

Not so easily beaten, the mare got back to her feet while Luna prepared a blast of magic. Not wasting any time, Nightmare began charging one of her own, and as Luna cocked her head to fire, Nigthmare shot up into the air.

Firing off, Luna missed the alicorn by mere inches, and leapt to the right in order to dodge the blast from her quarry.

Leaping into the air, Luna prepared to give chase when Nightmare dove down towards her in a reckless charge of sorts. Luna barrel rolled, narrowly avoiding the long, sharp horn that managed to scrape at her side.

However, she was far out of the clearing as the smoggy mane reached out to grab at one of her hind hooves. Her upward momentum shifting, Luna found herself thrown to the ground.

A crater about twice her size formed where she dropped, and the slightly dazed alicorn had no time to react as Nightmare slammed her body atop of Luna's.

The breath knocked from her, Luna cringed and brought herself into a fetal position, horn aglow. Thinking that she had her, Nightmare dove in for the kill, only to get a face full of magic.

The beam of magic had been strong enough to send the other alicorn flying backwards, to skid along the ground on her side.

When the two got back to their hooves, they eyed each other, charging magic into their horns once again.

"We are evenly matched; you cannot defeat me!" Nigthmare Moon defiantly chanted, "Stop this senseless fight!"

Luna had to admit, she was fighting herself in some ways; she did not have much greater strength than Nightmare, and though one could hardly tell by height, the two were evenly matched in physical strength.

"But we're not matched in polar magic, now are we?" As if reading her mind, Nightmare switched to dark magic, her eyes glowing green and purple flames burning from her irises like a raging fire.

The two fired off their beams, the two blasts meeting in the center. Though Luna exerted all of her strength into the attack, the beams were still evenly matched, with Nightmare's slowly creeping ever closer to Luna.

They were only a few meters from each other; if Nightmare maintained the advantage for much longer, Luna would be finished.

Luna strained against the effort to push her alter ego back; even Nightmare struggled to keep the blast going, though she still held the upper hoof in the matter.

"Give it up! Against me, you can not win, and you know that!" Nightmare channeled more of her seething rage, quickly gaining more ground.

With the two blasts meeting just two feet from her, Luna's heart sank. She could not afford to lose again, not like this.

A warm body pressed itself against Luna's left side, causing her to flinch ever so slightly. She sneak a glance, six inches separating her from unconsciousnes.

There stood Sombra, in all of his red and black glory. Fully decked in armor and regal robe, the curve horned unicorn smiled bitterly.

"Sometimes, you have to let the things you love go." He turned towards the nearing doom, taking a fighting stance. "I guess I should go ahead and let you go."

With no further words, mere centimeters left of space, Sombra shot a red beam of magic into the blast, mixing it with Luna's. The tide turned, and as Sombra and Luna gained more and more ground, Nightmare hissed in annoyance.

"What are you doing here? If you destroy me, then there will be nothing left of you!" It was a threat, but not one that Nightmare relished in having to make.

"If there is one thing that I learned these past few days," Sombra called out, together pressing with Luna towards Nightmare, "Is that love never dies. I may not have ever gotten the love that I so craved from Luna, but that does not matter.

I do not need recognition, I do not even need my proper place in history."

The stallion looked towards the panting Luna, who deep down begged Sombra to speed up his speech, no matter how touching it was to hear.

Perhaps just to tease her, he paused for what perhaps counted as the longest minute of Luna's life. And she had had some long minutes on the moon.

"I will forever love you, Luna, and no matter how many pieces I get blown to this time, that will never change."

With those final words, Sombra pooled the remainder of his strength into the blast, sending it crashing into Nightmare Moon.

Engulfed in both her own blast and the combined might of Sombra and Luna, Nigthmare howled out in frustration before flying backwards through the meadows.

The instant she landed Sombra cringed, dropping to the grassy floor in pain. Luna stepped over to Sombra, a few tears welling in her eyes at seeing his crystalline self once again engulfed in a bright white light.

"Why? She might could have brought you back had she won..."

Sombra chuckled, then tenderly touched a hoof to Luna's face with a silly grin on his face.

"If she would have brought me back, then you would have been stuck here for the rest of your existence. And that, for me, is a fate worse than damnation in the afterlife."

Luna attempted to restrain her sobbing as she came nose to nose with Sombra, closing her eyes to try to keep the tears from rolling. She failed in that aspect, but found herself mouth to mouth with the fading king.

Luna re-opened her eyes to see Sombra smiling, eyes expressing a sort of peace not seen in them for centuries. They broke from the kiss, Somba beginning to become translucent.

"I love you, Luna." Sombra briefly gazed over to the other bright light on the other side of the dreamscape, and then snickered. "All of you."

Luna's lips trembled, hardly able to form the last pair of words she knew that she could speak to Sombra.

"I love you too, Sombra."

A final moment passed before the encompassing light faded into sparkles, drifting in the night sky like dust in the wind; Sombra's warm body replaced with the cold grass of the plain and a few remaining specks of light, dying out or ascending towards the night sky.

Luna's head caught itself from falling face first into the dirt, though the alicorn kept her eyes closed, as if to burn that final image of Sombra into her head.

A few moments of silence, and Luna looked up towards the night sky. There, the shapes of Nightmare Moon and Sombra could be seen, a shooting star briefly passing between the two. Tears streaming, Luna chanted, "Let there be peace."

All over the night sky, a bright flash illuminated the sky. Within the span of that flash of what most would accompany as lightning, many residents of Equestria and beyond blinked in confusion.

As if by magic, the entire matter of strange dreams seemed to fade form their minds, as if it never occurred.

Of course, everything HAD occurred, and for an unrelated reason, they also all returned to their homes, and to now unexplained writings about the Poni Empire and its legacy.

Luna had nothing to do with that portion of things, but what she did accomplish was to relieve the world of visions of the past from every corner of the world.

Well, almost, every corner of the world.

In the Crystal Empire, a single alicorn immune to this widespread dream wipe suddenly perked from her position. By this point, order had been restored, and most ponies had went back to an unpleasant attempt at sleeping soundly.

Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armor were all gathered in the duo's bedroom for discussion when a bright flash reflected off of every surface in the room.

It nearly blinded Celetstia, but she once had a staring contest with the sun; she had lost after two whole seconds and never repeated the experience, so this was more like a gentle flash in her eyes by comparison.

Shaking her head, the alicorn felt some of the dreams start to slip away; but they were personal memories, and she easily retrieved them before they got too far. Only one thought came to mind.

"Luna." Celestia smiled wide, knowing that at least one problem had been solved tonight. Maybe she could ask Luna more specifically about what happened in the first place when she got back to Canterlot.

“Auntie, what a pleasant surprise,” Cadence cheerfully stated, startling the sun alicorn from her contemplation, “I didn't know you were going to pay us a visit tonight.”

Right, Celestia now needed to make a smooth transition out of the Empire, or else arouse suspicion that something had gone wrong.

“I have to get back to Canterlot very soon, but I figured I should just check in to see how the herd is brooding."Celestia winked at Cadence at the end of this statement.

Cadence laughed, but Shining seemed rather confused by the comment.

Twilight and company were just as baffled, but they at least decided that their meeting in a coffee shop went well, until several flashes occurred and caused Canterlot's newest guests to vanish with their memories of the nightmares.

Even Twilight lost her memories of the events, though she vowed to talk to the princesses later concerning the strange meeting with her friends as a way around the nightmare targeted mind wipe.

Twilight bid her friends good night, herself tabbing out to pay for them to stay the remainder of the night in Canterlot.

Entering the castle, Twilight carefully trotted through a long hallway adorned with the sun symbol. Finding the entrance to the throne room both unguarded and with a slight crack in it, Twilight dared to open the door.

What she saw mildly surprised her. There, in the middle of the throne room sat Luna, covered in paint and hard at work painting a sheet on a sturdy stand.

A brush in her mouth and tinsel in her hooves suggested that she had been hard at work for at least a good hour now.

“Evening Princess Luna,” Twilight greeted, closing the door behind her, “Why not just hold it all with your magic?"

Luna looked towards Twilight and smiled, spitting out the brush and levitating it with magic. With a sly smile, she commented, “What is the fun in using magic all the time?”

Suddenly, a bright yellow flash appeared behind Luna, directly in front of the two thrones. Celestia, wings outstretched had arrived, having skipped the another train trip or chariot ride and just teleported straight to her castle.

With a single look towards Twilight, she said, “See you in the morning Twilight.”

Twilight did not protest, though she wanted to, and wished the princesses good night before trotting off.

“I think we have much to discuss,” Celestia stated while looking at the painting, “Was it necessary...”

“Yes,” Luna interjected as she finished the final touch on the painting, “And so was this. Glass would not do this justice.”

The two sisters then walked to the side of the room to begin discussing the events of the past, particularly of the past two days.

The painting shows a mural of Sombra and Luna, in their last moments together.

A crystal heart lingered between the two, and a shooting star fired off as, in the sky, Nightmare Moon and another version of Sombra, a much darker one, faced each other as constellations.

Some time later, in the Everfree Forest

The ruins of the sister's old castle stubbornly clung on as Celetsia and Luna both walked up to the front of it. The Everfree was quiet this time of night, very surprising really, and few creatures stirred. That had been by design, of course.

With a single hoof, Luna pressed down on one of the stones just outside the large castle. A single inscription appeared, and Luna departed with Celestia leading the way.

The inscription says this:

Here lies Sombra of the house of Umbra;

Gone, but not Forgotten. Detested, but still forever loved. May his soul rest in peace.

Author's Note

What started out as an attempt to spew some headcanon so I would have other stories to make up and stuff turned out to be a fic that I am kind of proud of. Granted, it hasn't suddenly skyrocketed in views, but meh, that is besides the point. All I need to do now is get appropriate cover-art and it will be perfect!

Well, no, not really. Reality check, and I am still going back and finding minor errors and blocks of text that could use some breaking up. I also went and deleted most of the author's notes, as many of them had been attachments from when I had been building up the story in the first place.

I also removed the sad tag. There are sad bits, but really, Romance and Adventure (mostly romance) fit here.