The full moon cast it's light down through the window into Luna's room, revealing the alicorn of the night laying in her bed. She would typically be laying still while jaunting through her subjects dreams, but tonight she was twisting and turning under the sheets. Any observer could tell that something was wrong.

Luna slammed her hooves into the moonlit grass in frustration. "Why?!" She shouted. "Why am I unable to travel between dreams tonight?!" Her horn lit up and she slashed it down through the air in front of her, an action that would normally result in a portal to the void between dreams opening. But this time, just like the last few times she had tried tonight, nothing happened. "Gah!" she screamed out, "why is this happening?!"

"Having some trouble, Luna?" A feminine voice called out from the darkness.

"What?!" Luna gasped as she spun about, looking all around her, but could see nothing in the darkness between the trees surrounding her small forest clearing. "Wh-who's there?" She stuttered out. She attempted casting a spell to detect the presence of others, but nothing happened. Her magic simply wasn’t working.

"Come now, Luna," The sultry voice said, "surely you recognize me. After all, we spent so much time together… A little over a thousand years…"

Luna's eyes shot open. "No…" She said breathlessly. "No, it can't be you! The Elements of Harmony destroyed you!" she shouted out as she frantically looked back and forth between the trees surrounding her.

A venomous laughter echoed out through the woods. "Destroyed me?" The voice said, sounding more than a little amused. "They may have sealed me away for a time, but it takes more than that to be rid of me for good."

"No... No, she's not really here. This is… just a bad dream I'm having," Luna tried to convince herself, though from the way her heart was hammering in her chest, it wasn't working. "Even I occasionally have bad dreams… I just need to wake myself up, and everything will be fine…" She closed her eyes and slammed one of her forehooves into the other, an action that had always helped her wake up from her dreams in the past.

She opened her eyes, but she was still in the same moonlit forest clearing. Luna began hyperventilating. She closed her eyes did it again, but still found herself in her dream. "I don't understand... W-why can't I wake up?!" She squeezed her eyes shut and began repeatedly slamming one hoof into the other as hard as she could. She knew she couldn’t cause herself any lasting harm in a dream, all she needed was the pain.

"Because, my dear, sweet little Luna," The voice echoed around Luna as she smashed her hoof into the ground, "this isn't just a dream anymore..."

"It's a Nightmare." The voice said from right next to Luna's ear.

Luna’s eyes shot open and she almost tripped over herself as she bolted into the woods, not even glancing behind her. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she ran as fast as she could, the trees seeming to give way before her. Out the corner of her vision, she glanced a pair of reptilian teal eyes watching her from between the trees, a pair of eyes she knew all too well. But when she turned her head to look at them, they vanished. The eyes kept hounding her through the woods, always at the edge of her vision, prodding her on faster and faster. She had no destination or a even a direction in mind, the only thing her panic stricken mind could process was an overwhelming urge to get away.

Just when she didn’t think she would be able to take it anymore, Luna spied full moonlight up ahead. It was the edge of the forest! Her spirits rose ever so slightly as she lowered her head and charged onward. She broke out into a vast, moonlit field of grass, gently swaying in the wind. Simply being out under the open nighttime sky, the stars and moon shining overhead, calmed her significantly. Her haphazard run slowed to a steady trot, and her deep, gasping breaths evened out. She allowed herself to bask in the serenity of the moonlit field, and even smiled slightly.

Then she looked behind her.

The eyes were there again, peering at her from the treeline, but this time they didn’t disappear when she met their gaze. This time they moved forward, and midnight black alicorn with a smug, knowing smile on her face seemingly materialized out from the darkness of the trees and began a slow, steady walk towards Luna.

Luna’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks and her smile vanished as all the terror she had felt earlier came crashing back down on her. “No!” she screamed out, and broke into a frantic gallop through the endless field of grass. She spared another glance backwards, but even as fast as she was running, the other alicorn still seemed to be gaining on her. She pushed herself harder and harder, but every time she looked back, the other alicorn was yet closer still.

Luna’s body was at its limit, her lungs barely able to draw in air quickly enough and her terror plagued mind barely able to keep her legs coordinated enough to keep from plowing face first into the ground. Then she happened to glance upwards into the open, starry sky. A small smile crept its way onto her face as she suddenly remembered that she had wings!

Luna galloped another few feet then unfurled her wings and leapt up into the air. A few mighty flaps of her wings were enough to make her airborne, allowing her to see the field of grass stretching out for miles around her. A sense of triumph spread throughout her being, banishing her terror as she basked in the freedom of flight, and her small smile grew to encompass her face. Then she again looked behind her.

The Nightmare remained on the ground, still plodding forwards. Her slow, confident cadence hadn’t changed, and she was looking up at Luna with the same knowing smile on her face that she had had since she had first revealed herself.

The sight put a damper of Luna’s rising spirits, freezing the growing smile on her face, and a tendril of fear began winding it’s way back into her mind. She turned her gaze ahead, to the full moon sitting in the sky up above, and arrowed her body forward, intending to put as much distance as possible between her and the Nightmare.

A ring of pitch black magic, darker even than the night sky, suddenly appeared around her. Her eyes widened as the hope she had felt vanished. “No!” was all she was able to shout out before it snapped shut around her barrel, painfully crushing her wings against her body. She screamed out in terror, but any sound escaping her lips was drowned out by the whistling of the wind in her ears as she quickly started to fall. She could do nothing but look up at the rapidly receding moon in the sky above her as she fell back to the earth, the wind pulling a few tears away from her moistening eyes.

She slammed back first into the ground, which had at some point turned from a field of moonlit grass into a barren plain of rock and dirt. She groaned in pain as she slowly fell over onto her side and attempted to return to her feet. Every little movement seeming to grind the stones on the ground into the side of her body. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times clear her vision, and there was the Nightmare, still slowly walking towards her with horn glowing slightly.

Any pain she felt was immediately forgotten. “N-no!” she screeched out as her struggling intensified, her hooves digging furrows in the dirt in an attempt to escape. It was a futile gesture, however, as the black ring of magic around her barrel had her pinned tightly to the ground. “G-get away from me, you monster!” she screamed out in defiance, “I’ll never side with you again!”

The Nightmare chuckled darkly in response. “Oh, I have no doubt that you’d be able to resist any and all manner of temptations and promises that I might put before you…” She slowly walked around to Luna’s backside. “No, I have something a little different in mind for you this time…” In the blink of an eye, the Nightmare’s mane shot out and wrapped around Luna’s hind legs, holding them tightly together.

Luna’s struggling slowed as confusion began to mix in with the terror she was feeling.. “Wh-what do you think you’re doing?” She breathlessly asked, heart pounding in her chest.

The Nightmare didn’t respond. She instead slowly lifted Luna’s hind legs off the ground, and brought her head down until they were right in front of her snout. She languidly opened her mouth wide and her tongue rolled out to lick across Luna’s hooves, eliciting a surprised squeak from the bound alicorn. The Nightmare then closed her lips around her hooves and began sucking on them.

Luna’s mind raced, confusion mixing with terror as her hooves were sucked deeper and deeper into the Nightmare’s mouth until they pressed up against the back of her throat. Was the Nightmare trying to seduce her this time? She received her answer when the black alicorn did something she wasn’t expecting.

She swallowed.

Luna’s eyes shot open in shock as she felt her hooves enter the tight confines of the Nightmares throat. “Wha…” was the only response her stunned mind was able to create.

The Nightmare somehow smirked back at her around the pair of legs in her mouth. Her mane uncoiled itself from around her legs and, in one sudden movement, she shoved her head forward and engulfed the entirety of Luna’s legs up to her flanks all at once. She hadn’t even swallowed so much as just shoved them down her throat.

“No…” Luna whispered in shock as she realized what fate the Nightmare had in mind for her. Her struggling redoubled in intensity, her front hooves scrabbling against the ground. “NO! You can’t! You- MMHM!” Her protest were silenced when the Nightmare’s ethereal mane shot out and wrapped around Luna’s muzzle, squeezing it shut.

The Nightmare gave another overly loud GULP, engulfing Luna’s flanks up to her cutie mark. The sight of the Nightmare’s throat bulging outwards with her own backside was too much for Luna. She laid her head down against the ground and squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could, with only the occasional whimpering still escaping from her bound muzzle. But even then, it still wasn’t enough. She could still hear the loud, purposely exaggerated swallowing of the Nightmare, she could still feel those lips slowly inching up her body, engulfing her in that tight, warm darkness. In her despair, she began dashing her head against the ground in the hopes of knocking herself unconscious.

But even this escape the Nightmare would not allow her. As she lifted her head up to bring it down upon the rocky ground again, the Nightmare’s mane tensed around her muzzle and held her in place. Luna felt the tingle of magic around her eyes, and to her horror, the Nightmare’s magic started to pry them open. All her struggling was for naught; she was being forced to watch herself be devoured.

Forced to look, she saw the Nightmare’s lips stretched impossible wide around her, her body engulfed up to the base of her belly. Her eyes were drawn to the Nightmare’s eyes, and she found herself unable to look away from those slitted pupils. Her struggling died down as she was drawn into the depths of those eyes, and dark, despairing thoughts began filling her head. This was it; she had lost and the Nightmare had won. She was never again going to see her beloved sister, her newest friends Twilight and the rest of the element bearers, or any of her subjects. The Nightmare would take them all by surprise, none of them ever suspecting that Luna would fall again so easily. Scenarios began playing in her mind of what torturous fates the Nightmare had planned for all those that she loved, each darker than the last. And the worst part of it all was that they would never know she had tried fighting it. They might think she had willingly given in to darkness once again.

Lost as she was in thoughts of doom and despair, a constant stream of tears flowing from her wide open eyes, she was no longer aware of the Nightmare's constant progress along her body. She didn't notice her belly being pulled down into the Nightmare's tight gullet, or the Nightmare's lips engulfing her wings. She didn't notice the black ring of magic that was pinning her to the ground slowly moving up her body ahead of the Nightmare's maw. She didn’t notice the Nightmare’s magic pulling her forelegs up against her belly so that they too could be devoured. She didn’t even notice the black ring of magic disappear as the Nightmare’s maw reached her neck.

It was only when the Nightmare craned her hugely distended neck up into the sky that eye contact was broken and Luna freed from her trance. She tried to start struggling again, but with only her neck and head remaining outside the Nightmare’s mouth and her muzzle still wrapped in her mane, there was little she could do. The Nightmare’s muzzle continued creeping up her neck as a steady stream of tears flowed down her face, until the Nightmare’s snout bumped up against Luna’s horn.

A small ray of hope cut through her despair. Surely, there was no way the Nightmare could swallow her horn! But almost as soon as she finished the thought, she felt the Nightmare’s tongue slither up the side of her face. It snaked up to the top of her head, longer than it had any right to be, and began wrapping around her horn. She felt a tingle of magic and, to her horror, her horn started wilting, becoming soft and pliable. Another gulp, and the Nightmare’s lips passed over the base of her forehead were her horn once proudly stood.

The Nightmare’s mane, no longer needed, released itself from around Luna’s muzzle, allowing her to speak again. “N-no… please…” she croaked out as her peripheral vision was overtaken by the inside of the Nightmare’s mouth. “I beg of you…” The only thing now visible was the crescent moon high up in the night sky, framed by the Nightmare’s lips. “Don’t-”

The Nightmare cut of her begging by snapping her muzzle shut around Luna’s, the tip of her nose the only part of the night princess still exposed to the outside world. And with another wet GULP, even that disappeared. The Nightmare quickly slurped up the rest of Luna’s aether mane, and another few tremendous swallows were all that was needed to send the rest of Luna down into the Nightmare’s obscenely engorged belly.

“Ahhhhh!” The Nightmare let out a satisfied sigh as she slumped over onto her side, her massive, alicorn filled stomach splayed out onto the ground before her. “My dear, sweet little Luna, you were absolutely scrumptious!” She lay there a short time, enjoying the feel of such a full stomach, before leaning her head in close against her bulging gut. “So tell me, Luna, how do you like your new accommodations?” she asked, but the only response from within her was quiet sobbing. “Hmm! Well, you better get used to it!” The Nightmare said, “because if I have my way, then you’re going to be trapped in my stomach FOREVER! AHAHAHA- UUUUUURP!” Her evil laughter was interrupted by a tremendous belch as her stomach expelled some of the excess air that had followed Luna in. She put a hoof to her lips. “Goodness, excuse me!”

Luna now lay perfectly still on her bed, her blanket having long been kicked off onto the floor. She was so still, that one would thinking something was the matter with her. They would become certain something was wrong when a splotch of deep purple appeared on the black portion of her cutie mark, right in the center of her crescent moon. It began to spread, turning the black of her cutie mark purple until it leaked out onto her dark blue coat, which it began to turn an inky, midnight black. As it quickly spread over body, her mane and tail began to change, as well. The points of light that sparkled within them went from being constellations visible on a clear night to the great galaxies and nebula of deep space. The change spread over her face and finally stopped, the entirety of her transformed.

She lay still another few moments, then opened her eyes. They were no longer Luna’s eyes, but green, reptilian slits. A wicked smile slowly spread over her face.

“I’m back…” Nightmare Moon quietly said to herself.

Author's Note

Here, have another vore fic! And before anyone says anything about how quickly I wrote this, I've actually had this like 80% complete for months now and just finally forced myself to finish it.

Anyway, a commenter on my other vore fic asked why that story wasn't tagged Dark. After all, ponies be getting eaten!

The answer is that the other fic has consensual vore with digestion/reformation, so nopony really dies and everypony's happy with the situation. So it's really not all that dark at all.

But vore isn't always like that. It can get pretty dark at times, especially if you decide to play up the digestion part of things or the finality of it.