A drop of fuel for a Nightmare

After your initial breakthrough, finding a common fascination in local history, your and Luna's relationship began to grow and strengthen. Far from the shaky start, where each day would be held in silence, it was rare for an hour to go by now without a conversation on one thing or another. Though she still kept you busy, and still called you "Subject", she was very slowly warming up. She even said "Thank you" now when you brought her meals. Progress!

What wasn't progressing was getting her to leave the tower. She asked for, and generally respected, your opinion on many things now, from low-level politics to any number of things she was researching, whether you particularly knew about them or not. She never acted on your opinion she should get out more (Though of course, you expressed it more diplomatically than that - ', Princess'), despite hinting as heavily as you could without outright saying so.

You had a plan, though. One you'd kept secret from her, and one you needed help for. Though it'd been weeks since you'd last seen her, Celestia was glad for your visit, and even gladder when she heard your updates. Furthermore, she was more than happy to assist in your plan, and wanted to make the necessary arrangements herself.

"Sister, you have done WHAT to us?" she yelled, her voice reaching volumes you hadn't heard since your first few days and the winds pushing you back a step. Luna didn't notice your struggles. "The kingdom fears us, and you wish us to visit them on the very night that so symbolises that? We cannot!"

Your plan was simple. Luna thought she couldn't leave because the kingdom was too scared of what she'd been to trust who she was now. Nightmare Night was coming up, the 'celebration' of Nightmare Moon's arrival so very long ago. If Luna visited some small village on that night, and found the ponies were more receptive of her than she was expecting, it could only be a huge boost to her self-esteem, and maybe give her the chance she needed to get out there. Furthermore, it was one of the very few nights when a good percentage of the population would be awake at night, and so the easiest day to convince Luna to leave on. It was the perfect plan!

"Oh, but Luna, my dear sister, I assure you you'll find nothing but hospitality in Ponyville. Surely you wouldn't suggest that my dear student would give you anything but?" Celestia smiled, as infinitely patient as ever. "All I ask is that you consider it. I can make the necessary arrangements when you're ready."

"Very well, sister, I shall think on it further." Luna replied, her voice hard as if to say "No, I'm not going, but maybe if I don't say that you'll go away"

Celestia either didn't catch the tone of voice, or didn't want to press the issue, and bid her farewell, leaving the two of you once again alone.

Luna kicked a small pile of books, toppling it as she stormed over to her window to raise the night. Jumping into the air after a short gallop, she began. It wasn't often you got to see her doing this, but even given your inexperience this seemed wrong. Her body was sheathed with a blue glow, and her hair seemed almost aflame with energy as it whipped from side to side, Luna's horn pulsing and shuddering as she tore the day down in rough strips, not caring for the slow transition most nights called for.

The winds picked up again, this time more natural winds blowing in from the open window, scattering papers and blowing over piles as the night sky darkened and clouded over, a storm brewing over the city. Luna's hooves waved from side to side as she forcibly brought about night, each hoof swing changing another swathe of sky from dim evening daylight to the darkest night.

Though the winds fought you every step of the way, you struggled, climbed, and forced your way over to the window, grabbing hold of a stone pillar and shouting up at her. It didn't really matter what you were saying, she almost certainly wouldn't be able to make it out anyway, you just needed to get her attention - this wasn't going to do her image any good.

After what seemed like entire minutes of shouting, she finally looked down at you. Her eyes were pure white, unblinking and terrifying. As soon as she saw you, hugging the pillar and holding on for dear life as the winds threatened to pull you away and fling you down the room, though, her demeanour calmed and the winds began to subside as her eyes dimmed, fading back into her normal dark blue eyes.

As if the winds had been knocked out of her body, she dropped to the floor, raising the moon almost as an afterthought and cleaning up the rest of the sky in a smooth motion.

"We're sorry. We did not mean to take it out on you, it is not your fault." she admitted, closing the window behind her as you struggled to your feet. The room was a mess, bookshelves had been knocked to one side, and important papers were nowhere to be found.

"We do not understand how our sister considers this a good plan. How is proving to the population their misconceptions are correct going to solve our problems?" she asked you, sitting down at her table and looking particularly downtrodden. Vulnerable, even. Not a look you'd come to expect from the princess of darkness.

Of course, you had no choice but to make it worse, and admit that the idea wasn't Celestia's - it was yours.

"What? Why would you do this to us?" she snapped, narrowing her eyes as she rose.

Because, you explained, you thought she could do it. Nothing more, nothing less - you believed in her.

"But... we cannot. We are not ready. We have not been seen for 1000 years, how could they accept us now? We do not wish to enforce love for us onto them, and yet we must. Even now, nopony truly appreciates my night, too busy in slumber to look upwards."

You did. Of course, you hadn't at first, but as time had gone by and you'd been left with no choice but to stare through your window at the darkness, you'd slowly began to understand more and more of it. At first it had been daunting, and terrifying, and impossible to understand, but then you had begun to realise that there was as much beauty in the tiniest fraction of the night as there had been in the entirety of the day - and you could appreciate that little bit of night without becoming overwhelmed.

Luna calmed down, and sat at the table in silence. "You think we should?" she asked, as if wanting confirmation it wasn't just a cruel trick.

You thought she should.

"Very well then. We shall take your word on it, though be warned, if the townsponies run in fear from us you shall be severely punished."

A few moments later, she broke into a grin. She was joking. Hopefully. It was nice to see her smile, it didn't happen often. The closest you ever got was in the middle of a particularly energetic conversation on ancient history - or, Luna's immediate history. No book you'd ever read could challenge her for detail, but most importantly, no book had every gotten that excited that it had somebody to explain something that, by all rights, should have been incredibly dull. The logistics of the first Equestrian-Griffon trade agreement weren't exactly riveting, but the way Luna told them was.

You laughed, hoping to lighten the mood and clear the air. You also thought you'd better get started on cleaning up this mess.

"Oh! We shall assist, if you don't mind. Truly it's the least we can do."

You didn't mind at all - in fact, you were glad for the help. You weren't sure you could even lift some of the displaced bookshelves, much less push them back into place, but Luna shouldn't have a problem.

The first few minutes were in silence - not through awkwardness, but through breathlessness. Luna, for whatever reason, elected not to simply use magic, and was by your side pushing herself against the bookshelves and using her strong body to shift things around, putting the heavy objects back where they belonged. Every so often, you found an important looking paper or scroll, and put them all in a pile in the middle of the table.

"Ha! We do believe that's all of them!" Luna exclaimed as the last bookshelf slid into place, lining the walls once more. "Come, let us begin on this pile."

The work of sorting through what seemed like hundreds of pages and papers was far less physically exerting, and conversation began to spring up while you worked. After a few minutes, Luna grew silent and somewhat distant, as if lost deep in thought.

"Subject, we have a confession to make. Our sister and us disagree on a great many things." she started. Some confession so far, they were practically polar opposites. "However, we find ourselves tempted to change our opinion on one thing. My sister was always the more personal of us, thinking that it was better to make friends with our subjects in the time they had. We thought that could only bring pain upon us, and sought to avoid it, being more distant. Soon, the population flocked to our sister over us, but still we persisted, simply hoping that our sister would not take their deaths too harshly."

You nodded - you couldn't hope to understand the difficulties an immortal being faced, but coping with loss was something every living creature had to contend with.

"We may have been wrong on this front. We - I think I would like to change that." Luna said, her voice falling to more of a whisper than her normal half-shout as she reached across the table and touched your cheek with a glass-clod hoof.

You smiled - you'd like that.