Repetitive Failure

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Nightmare Moon screamed as all light drowned from her vision. The room she had been accustomed to for the past scheme simply vanished, as she was pulled into a small box by a vortex. Despite her ghostly form, she could still feel a burning sensation. From those lasers. They scorched her.

Nightmare Moon looked about the containment box, and laughed. Darkness. Everywhere. What idiots were they, casting an illusion spell to put her in her own element? How stupid were those Ghost Blaster? Ghost Boosters? What? She had their name on the tip of her tongue. No matter! She would mock them by making fun of their name.

"Oh, how cute. I'm sorry to say, Ghost Busters," That's the name. Ghost Busters, yeah. "but I'm not afraid of the dark."

Nightmare scoffed, as she trotted about in the darkness. What she was searching for? The source of this dark illusion. Whoever was casting was a certainly well-trained Mage. It was cold, extremely cold. Cold enough that Windigos would be jealous. Nightmare had an inability to react to this coldness. She couldn't shiver.

"Now, come out! Lest you be too much of a-"

"The Nightmare is over."

What was that noise? Luna? She could have sworn she just heard Luna's voice. But from where? Nightmare's horn flickered in impatience. This place's quietness and Luna's sudden disturbance was getting to her.

"Luna! Show yourself, and I may reconsider you to be a worthy ally. Get out of the shadows, NOW!"

Nightmare demanded, screaming to deaf walls. For now, she was continuing to walk.

While she walked, she thought.

Why had Luna refused her offer? An offer from her better half? Her stronger half? Did Luna want to be weak, lower than her sister? Did she want to lose battles? Why? This still made no sense. Perhaps, Luna was scared of her better half. She didn't want power, because she was too idiotic to realize the potential Nightmare had.

Was that it? Was Nightmare simply a reject of Luna? A powerful, great and beautiful reject? No. She was not. Nightmare made herself her own body. She made herself her own hooves to stand on. She was.. an individual.. right? She wasn't just some carbon copy, with darker fur and even better hair, right?

Nightmare knew that to be lies. She had forged her own personality, own name, and own body. But.. She made this body off of Luna. She even had the same Cutiemark as Luna. Everything. Luna, Luna, Luna. That scoundrel. That horrid beast for an Alicorn. Why couldn't she just accept Nightmare, and let them be together again? Then Nightmare wouldn't look like Luna's twin, and Luna would just.. Not exist.

It was one or the other, it seemed. Nightmare had tried her hardest, but Luna was much too determined.

Nightmare continued walking.

On and on.

Like her hooves, her mind wandered. She wondered. Why had she done that monologue? Why didn't she just blast the Ghost Busters when they stuck their little snouts inside the door?  Why did the Ghost Busters wait for her to stop her monologue? Why did her faithful Shadow Bolts fail her? Why couldn't she just  possess a Ghost Buster, and just have them kill their friends, then kill themselves? Why hadn't she thought of this plan earlier?

Nightmare Moon smashed snout first into a wall. She reeled back, tending to her nose. She smiled. A wall in this illusion. How unfortunate.

"Oh, whatever will I do? I'm stuck in darkness for-" Nightmare's horn summoned a large laser, which was flung forward at high speeds. It passed right by the wall, and off into the darkness. "ever..?"

Nightmare poked at the wall with her hoof. Her laser should have broken it, and the illusion should have faded, but it didn't. Who was this skilled that they could contain the great Nightmare Moon inside a forcefield, INSIDE an illusion?

Nightmare punched the 'forcefield' wall with her hoof. Only for it to clang against what seemed to be metal. This caused Nightmare's hoof to shoot with pain, as she quickly learned her lesson about hitting the walls.

With a huff, she turned back, and walked back to the way she had came from. She fumed.

What was the place, who made it? Who would dare to keep her in it? She had been watching the defeat of Sombra over and over in her free time. Studying everything the Ghost  Busters did to catch him inside that box. They lead him around the Crystal Empire, and then strangled him in lasers. Then, lowered him down into a box, where.. he was sucked up by a vortex.

Nightmare pieced this together. She was defeated, and put in a box. Just like Sombra was. She was better than him! In all ways imaginable! She had wings, the power to lift the moon, heck, she was the master of illusions! How was this possible?!

She remembered how long it had taken them to defeat him.

"I was.. beaten faster than Sombra..?"

Nightmare's anger for dropped, as her ears flattened at the thought of this. There was no denying this truth. Comparing when Sombra had started his operation, and when Nightmare had started hers, Sombra lasted longer.

"No. He's nothing compared to me. I am the Night! He's the shadow! He can't have outlasted me!"

Nightmare denied this truth as she stopped her pace, staring at the floor. Her mind piled up with all these things, the fact she was bested by Luna, and everyday ponies.. The fact she was a carbon copy of Luna herself, and wasn't an individual pony of her own self. The fact that her plan was worse than Sombra's was..

She denied it. She denied it all.

She flopped down to her knees, and sat. Staring at the floor, unblinking, as her failure came to mentally haunt her. She was crumbling. She did not cry, she couldn't cry. She was a ghost. She was dead. She wasn't even real. Even when she was alive, she wasn't even a real pony. She was just a part of Luna! Nothing more!

Nightmare sat there for a whole night. Unblinking. Thinking. As her mind destroyed her from the inside out. The silence drilled into her ears. The cold forced its way into her being.

Something pierced the silence. Talking. Nightmare didn't focus on it, until one line said by who knows, was spoken.

"Who knows, next time another ghost causes trouble we may have to get you out of the castle to help us, Princess Celestia."

Celestia was going to force restless souls into boxes? To think about mistakes for the next millennia? What kind of sick, twisted world was this?

"NO! THOU SHALL NOT DO THIS TO ANOTHER SOUL!"

Nightmare barked, shooting up a rebellious beam to where she thought the sound came from. Why would they do this to ghosts, ponies who've died? Ponies who outlived their stay in this demented Tartarus-hole? Celestia was a demon, straight from the deepest pit of Tartarus.

"That would be nice. I hardly to get out much unless it's royal business."

She could hear Celestia's haunting voice. It would send chills down her spine, if she had one.

"BURN IN TARTARUS, DEMON!"

Nightmare hissed, her voice cracking as she did so. Thinking about her life, and everything she did wrong, she was rather.. sad. She was in denial, to say the least.

"Well we better get back and deal with Nightmare and her minions."

Minions? They were her loyal allies! They were her spawns! She created them! They were not minions! Wait, she was going to be dealt with? No. Nightmare didn't want to be 'dealt with'.

Nightmare blocked out the rest of their talk by putting her hooves over her ears. They were quiet for a decent while. She thought that they might've just decided not to 'deal with' her. Maybe they were 'dealing with' her Shadowbolts? Oh no. Oh nononono.. Her Shadowbolts, tortured in the afterlife?! They were all she had left!

"You know I don't think I'll ever get used to this transformation to and from."

Transformation?

"Who would?"

"Come on guys, let's take care of business."

Business? What business? Where was she going?

"First up the Shadowbolt ghosts."

What?! What's going on?! They better not be destroying their souls! She couldn't stand to hear the screams of her beloved flying squad!

There was a multitude of different in-pony (in-human) noises. She didn't know what these noises came from, but she didn't wish to find out.

"And finally the cherry on top of the sundae, Nightmare Moon,"

Now it was her turn. She was going to find out what had just happened to her precious spawns of Nightmare magic.

A loud banging sound that shook her containment could be heard. It was like an earthquake. She would have held onto something, so she simply held onto herself. There was nothing else here.

"Hey Nightmare,"

Something was talking to her. It sounded like that Ghost Buster from before. The one that called her gorgeous. Way to feed her now ever-diminishing ego.

"If you can hear us from inside there we want you to do something for us."

Nightmare hesitated. She was about to ask what the Ghost Buster wanted, but that was quickly answered.

"If you see Sombra where you're going give him our regards."

Sombra? No. She couldn't be stuck with Sombra. No. No no no. She was not going to be stuck with him. She would be a laughing stock! She would be the most easily defeated hero there was! She couldn't stand to face Sombra! But she was going to have to.

A white vortex opened at the opposite end of her containment. It's winds were rough, as she made a break in the opposite direction. The winds was stronger than her muscle-lacking form. When she was close enough to said vortex, she was about to lash out. Swears, swears upon swears would have spewed from her mouth.

She was cut off, luckily enough. She found herself in a new location. There were these alien ghosts flying everywhere. They weren't pony shaped, rather, ape shaped. They were multi-coloured and came in all different shapes and sizes. These ghosts were extremely strange. They screamed, gurgled, belched, and made rather nonsensical noises with their mouths.

Nightmare was frantic. She couldn't see her Shadowbolts anywhere. They weren't within the crowd. They weren't beside her. They weren't behind her.

"Mistress!"

She was then bombarded from above, three ponies diving onto her. Her Shadowbolts were worried about her, obviously. Just like she had been about them. Her Shadowbolts hugged her, ever so tightly. She felt appreciated, for once.

"We apologize for our failure."

Haze admitted. Nightmare thought differently.

"No. You did nothing wrong. I just.. was a bad leader. I needed a better plan. I should have done some hoof-on work myself."

Nightmare belittled herself. Something she would never do. Her allies helped her to her hooves, as the sounds of most of the spastic ghosts had silenced. Nightmare looked about. They were all looking off in one direction. Almost all of them, at least. Some just continued to fly around, yelling and screaming.

Nightmare raised a ghostly eyebrow to this. What was going on? She knew her Shadowbolts wouldn't have an answer, so she stayed put.

The ghosts, the ones who were silent, all turned their heads to look at Nightmare and her accomplices. If she had sweat glands, she would be sweating at the moment. What were these freaks looking at?

One of them waved their hands in a 'come here' motion. The crowd of ghosts started to split. Perhaps she was going to meet the boss ghost? What was the boss ghost going to look like?

The crowd only split to a small extent. So there was a small indent. Nightmare took a little while to bring herself and her company to the split in the ghosts. As she walked forward, the indent furthered as she continued walking. More and more ghosts parted for her.

She walked for what seemed to be an hour. There were millions of ghosts in here.

When the part had finally ended, she was staring out into a large, vacant space. When she had exited the split, the ghosts went back to doing whatever they were doing. That was rather strange.

Nightmare noticed something, way off in the distance. A two minutes trek brought her to what she had saw. A gray stallion, along with a crown, which had caught her attention in the first place.

This gray stallion was laying back down on the floor. His mane was basically infused into the black space, and he looked like he was missing a chunk of his head. Except for his horn. A long, rustic and red horn. Curved to a fine point.

Nightmare moved off to his left, and laid beside him. The same way he was laying.

"So, Sombra.."

Nightmare started, as her Shadowbolts got comfortable next to her.

"The Ghost Busters give their regards."