Celestia, goddess of the sun and ruler of Equestria, turned to give her sister, Luna, a playful shove. "Oh, stop! You know that Nightmare Night occurs once a year!"
"I know, sister," Luna replied merrily. "I am merely saying that it wouldn't be a bad idea to feign being Nightmare Moon if I receive so many treats."
"'I know'?" Celestia grinned. "Whatever happened to the royal We?"
"Oh, please. You know that's just for formal speech."
Celestia chuckled. "I know, Luna. I'm only playing." Luna sighed and muttered something under her breath that sounded like "sisters." Celestia rolled her eyes, the grin continuing to split her face. She loved it when her sister was like this, playful and merry. She'd missed her so much these past one thousand years. Every day had been a torrent of pain and guilt for the both of them for the time Luna was on the moon. Celestia's grin slowly left her face as she recounted those horrible days. Luna, seeing the tension in her sister, changed countenance as well. "Sister? Are you alright?"
The Alicorn sighed in sadness. "I still can't get it out of my head," she muttered. "Nightmare Moon, using the elements, your millennia-long imprisonment..." Celestia's words trailed off. Luna urgently attempted to reignite the cheer, lightly jostling her sister's shoulder. "I returned merely a month ago," she joked. "Of course the memory is still fresh-"
"Luna, be serious," Celestia interrupted, stopping and turning to stare her sister in the eye. "How are you able to put it behind you that fast? I sent you to the moon with that creature Nightmare Moon for one thousand years! How are you able to forgive me at all?"
Luna draped a wing over Celestia. "Being completely honest, I do not think I would've forgiven you had I not blamed myself for everything. I kept telling myself that it was all my fault, that I was arrogant and envious." Luna wrapped her wing tighter around Celestia. "And it worked. I was able to transfer all my anger at you towards myself-and Nightmare. And a thousand years later, after you forgave me and insisted that it was not my doing, I finally let it go altogether and said 'What's done is done.' I pushed it out of my life and focused on the future, aiming as high as I could while still being by your side." The Princess of the night warmly smiled at her sibling counterpart. "And that's how I put it all behind me. Besides, it was not all bad. At least I didn't feel the pains of starvation and whatnot while I was away.
"But I will be straightforward: should I meet Nightmare Moon ever again, I will tear her into too many pieces to count." For a split second, Luna's face creased with smoldering rage, before donning its previous expression. "But I don't think that's going to happen. I know she's out there somewhere, but she is most likely completely powerless. I have a sensation that we will never have to worry about her again."
Celestia looked up from where she was staring uncertainly at that ground and tentatively returned the smile. "That's...good to hear, sister," she murmured. "I'm glad it worked out in the end."
Luna smiled brighter. She nudged Celestia's withers forward. "Come, sister, enough talk about the past; I enjoy the ambience of the deeper Everfree. Let us journey while we are not-"
For the second time that night, Princess Luna was interrupted. Before she could finish her sentence, a flock of grackles flapped into the air, their raucous calls breaking the peace of the forest. From the spot that they rose up from, several small animals fled in terror, headed directly for the two Alicorns.
Alarmed, the two hopped up into the air, watching the animals run by beneath them until the last squirrel disappeared into the darkness behind them. When it was gone, the two alighted on the ground once more and stared confusedly at the spot where the wildlife had fled from. Celestia, the first to speak, eventually turned towards her sister and asked her, "What do you think made them run?"
"I don't know," Luna replied, still staring at the location. As Celestia watched her sister, however, she saw a mischievous look slide onto her face.
"Luna, what you are thinking? I don't like that face you're making."
The blue pony looked at her sister and grinned. "Want to go see what it was?" she asked. She didn't even wait for an answer as she trotted confidently towards the area. It took a few seconds before Celestia finally found her voice.
"Sister, that is a bad idea!"
"Oh, come on, Celestia; it's likely nothing more than a predator killing its prey. The only real thing we'd have to worry about is a timberwolf or manticore."
"You don't know that!" Celestia hissed, trying to stay quiet should it really be a manticore. Luna didn't even pretend to listen, only headed straight for the area. Celestia sighed and muttered under her breath, before hurriedly going after her sister. "Luna! Hold on!" She quickened her pace when Luna disappeared into a grove of foliage.
Once inside the grove, Celestia silently cursed her sister for being so reckless. The Alicorn was nowhere to be seen. "Luna?" Celestia whispered. "Where are you?" No answer. Celestia continued deeper into the grove. If something happened to her sister this soon after her return, Celestia would never forgive herself. She scanned her surroundings carefully, searching for any sign of blue underneath the darkness...
There she was! Celestia could just make out a form crouched prone in the leaves. She quickly snuck towards Luna, creeping up behind her until her mouth was next to her ear. "What were you thinking?!" she whispered. "Do you know what could have happened to you?!"
Luna didn't respond. She didn't even seem to notice her older sister, who, once she leaned forward, saw a look of unbridled hatred sitting atop her sister's face. Celestia reeled a bit at the sight of her sister's expression. Quickly steadying herself, she tapped Luna's withers. "Luna? What's wrong?"
Luna silently pointed ahead, in the direction she was glaring. "Speak of the nightmare, and she shall appear," she hissed.
Celestia shifted her gaze to where Luna had pointed and saw an incredibly small grotto that the moon shone directly down upon. Within the center of the grotto lay a tree with an Earth Pony mare staring at it silently, her back almost completely turned to the two sisters; Celestia could just see her left eye from this angle: emerald green, with a serpentine pupil. The mare was about the size of Luna, with a pelt as dark as a night with no stars.
Celestia recognized that eye, that pelt, that mare. She let out a small gasp. "Is that-?"
"Yes," Luna growled quietly, "Nightmare Moon."
"But..." Celestia struggled for words. "She has nothing on her! No wings, no horn, no armor-" Celestia looked down at her hindquarters, "-not even a cutie mark!"
"There's no denying it, sister," Luna replied. "That's the monster that drove us apart,"-she lurched forward-"and I am going to kil her once and for all."
"Luna! Wait!" Celestia quickly darted herself quietly in front of Luna. "You don't know what she's capable of!"
Luna scoffed. "She has no horn, no magic! What could she possibly do?"
"You never know, sister." Celestia murmured, "Besides, don't you think the ponies back in Canterlot will be suspicious should you come home raging and disheveled? Knowing them, they won't leave you alone for a minute! Do you really want them ruffling your feathers, starting theories, and maybe finding out what happened?"
"It's worth it should I get to drain that thing's last forces of life."
"No it is not." Celestia planted herself even firmer down. "You know her better than anypony else. You know what she's capable of. Don't charge blindly towards her; you could die!" Celestia stared down at her sister, half-angry, half-pleading. Luna glared silently back up at her until the silence was broken; not by them, but by Nightmare Moon.
"I don't know if you can hear this, but..."
Celestia covered Luna's mouth with her hoof. "We are not going to attack her," she whispered authoritatively, "but we'll stay and watch her; find out what she's doing here. Do you understand?"
Luna huffed. "Fine," she muttered. Celestia sighed and silently thanked Faust.
"I miss you." Nightmare Moon was speaking again. She lifted her hoof and gently slid it across a carving in the tree bark that the sisters couldn't fully see. Her countenance seemed...different, un-Nightmare-ish. Sullen and lonely, depressed, even. "You were the closest thing I had to a friend, Luna."
Luna growled at her own name. "I'll never be your friend again," she spat.
Nightmare Moon didn't hear her. "I wish I could've painted myself in a better light. I cared about you, Luna."
Luna's expression shifted a little over to shock, but still remained hard. "What?"
"After your sister sent the two of us to the moon..." Nightmare's head drooped slightly. "...I realized what this would feel like to you. I realized that I...I'd separated you from everything you ever knew for the next millennia. I realized I'd broken your heart, and I hated myself for it. That's why you never saw me for the first six hundred years; I was too ashamed to show myself."
"So that's what was happening," Luna muttered.
"I wanted to make it up to you, really I did. I thought that if I made the night last forever once we returned to Equestria, you would be happy. I didn't know how wrong I was, Luna, and I'm so, so sorry."
"Horseapples," Luna growled, "You're lying. You're not sorry at all."
"Why would she be lying?" Celestia whispered to her. "She isn't really talking to you, just to herself. She doesn't have to lie."
Luna glared at her. "Are you siding with her?"
"No! I'm simply saying."
"Sure you are."
Celestia sighed; she was never going to get through to her.
"After the Elements of Harmony separated us...I don't know how it came about...but I finally saw what I had done to everypony else. Every last life I took, every single scream I caused, came back to kill me." Nightmare's voice trembled. "I knew I was killing, b-but I didn't feel any remorse at all. A-after my attack, though, I realized what I was." Her shoulders shook.
From where she was, Celestia could see a tear drip from Nightmare Moon's eye. She gasped slightly.
Luna had seen it too. "No..." she breathed, astounded. "Is she...crying?"
"Yes," Celestia replied in equal disbelief.
"Yes, Luna, I realized what I was: a monster. A demon. I still am. Everyone runs from me. My name alone is a breeding ground for terror. Every single thing about me is a bright sign that says She's a monster. I've caused so much grief and pain to so many people.
"And I hate it, Luna. I hate it so much." More tears spilled down Nightmare's face, which seemed to be collapsing, just as she was. "I don't want to be this...this destroyer anymore. I don't want this life. I want to become something new. I want...I want..." Nightmare sobbed, "I want to do some good for once."
"This isn't real," Luna whispered. Her eyes were wider than a full moon. "Nightmare genuinely regrets what she has done? She truly sees herself as she's been seen by all of us?"
"It would appear so, sister." Celestia could hardly talk. "I can't believe it either."
"I want to tell you how I feel, Luna. I-I want to kneel in front of you and beg for another chance. But I don't have the courage. I'm too ashamed to go to you.
"How ironic that a creature named Nightmare Moon would have nightmares. Because I do, Luna. Every night." Nightmare wiped another tear away. "Every night, I dream the same thing. I dream that I'm running from myself, the beast that terrorized Equestria. I s-see you standing at the end of a long tunnel and sprint for you. J-just when I reach you, the monster behind me pounces and bites my neck. I dream that I fall to the ground in agony. The monster jumps on top of me, while you stand there, silently, and I s-scream for you. I scream for forgiveness, that I w-w-want to change. I try over and over to get the thing off of me, until finally it tears my throat out, and my vision goes dark. And the worst part is that...that..." Nightmare drew in a shaking breath, "As I fade away, I see you blast the monster with a beam and obliterate it, and without even looking at me, you say one word.
"'No.'"
"What is this?" Luna whispered, "I can't even...how...what..."
Celestia nodded in agreement. She had no words left, just an unbelieving face.
"You're the only pony that won't run from me, Luna. The only one that I have any hope of getting a second chance from. Please, Luna, if you can hear this, I ask one thing of you..." Nightmare seemed to struggle with the next few words. "Please, tell me that I have a chance. I don't care if it's a star in the sky or if you come to me yourself, just, somehow, give me a sign that I can be forgiven. Forgive me Luna, please!"
Nightmare's hoof flew from the tree she was staring at, and she slammed them both into the ground, throwing her gaze to the sky. "PLEASE, LUNA! TELL ME THAT I CAN BE OF USE! I DON'T WANT TO BE THIS MONSTER ANYMORE! I WANT TO HELP SOMEPONY, ANYPONY! *I WANT TO DO GOOD IN THIS WORLD!** ALL I NEED IS A FRIEND, SOMEONE TO TELL ME THAT I'M NOT ALONE, BECUASE THAT'S ALL I AM RIGHT NOW, IS A MONSTER ALONE IN A FIGHT WITH HERSELF AND THE WORLD, TRYING TO BE BETTER THAN SHE'LL EVER BE!*
"PLEASE! TELL ME IT'S ALRIGHT! TELL ME I CAN BE BETTER! PLEASE! JUST TELL ME!" Nightmare Moon collapsed into sobs on the ground, head in her hooves, and the two sisters saw what the carving in the tree was: a picture of Luna, smiling brightly. The entire time, Nightmare had been speaking to that carving in the tree, one she had likely put there herself.
Both sisters stared the wreck of Nightmare Moon as a torrent of tears raged from her eyes. They did not believe what they had just seen, they couldn't believe it. She was Nightmare Moon; how could she possibly ever break like that? She didn't ever show mercy, and now, she was here, pleading for someone to help her change from what she was, screaming that she hated herself for what she had done? No, they couldn't believe it. They simply stared at the heap before them, unable to fathom that the Mare in the Moon had undergone such a change of character. Well, Celestia was staring, at least. When she looked over at her sister, she saw a mare staring uncertainly at her hooves.
"Luna?" she queried.
Luna looked up at her older sibling. "Sister, I-"
"Say no more," Celestia said, quickly trying to be reassuring. "Come on, we found out why she's here. We shouldn't want anything more to do with her."
"Wait!" Luna called out as Celestia began to turn and head in the direction of home. She promptly turned back around with a "Hm?" And looked at Luna, who had turned her gaze back to Ngihtmare Moon. After a moment or two, Luna spoke.
"Nightmare would not feign this kind of acting, sister," she said to Celestia. "Every single tear she cries is an honest one. She truly wants a second chance at life. And, sister, after seeing all this..." Luna turned towards Celestia, her eyes changing from uncertainty to conviction, "...I think I want to give her that second chance she desires so dearly."
Celestia gasped, loud enough for Nightmare Moon to hear through her own crying. She quickly snapped her head off of the ground and stared in the direction of the noise. "Who's there?" she whimpered.
"Now look what you've done!" Luna hissed. She began to rise. "Come along. She has already heard us; no point in hiding now."
"Wait, sister!" Celestia warned. Luna was already halfway into the clearing where Nightmare Moon lay. "What if it-"
She heard a sharp intake of breath, and then Nightmare squeaked out, "L...Luna?"
"Oh, no..." Celestia groaned.
Meanwhile, Luna stared at the astonished mare beneath her, the one that she had sworn to blast to smithereens just five minutes ago. She looked down at her tear-streaked face, the face she had come to recognize as evil. She took a small step towards Nightmare, then leaned forward and softly said, "You asked for a sign, so I gave you one."
Nightmare visibly flinched. "How much of that did you hear?" she asked.
"Only all of it."
Nightmare stiffened, then burst into another round of tears, throwing her hooves around Luna's. "I'm sorry!" she screamed. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness! Please, I just want to become something other than a nightmare! That's all I want! Please, just let me-"
Luna squirmed a hoof free of Nightmare's grasp, then laid it on her lips, silencing her. "I know," she said. She grabbed Nightmare under the foreleg and, with a little bit of levitation magic, hoisted her to her hooves. "And your prayers have been answered. If you so desire to stop that monster of yours, if your words are genuine and you truly regret your actions, then I see within you a changed mare, and yes, I forgive you. You have a friend in me."
Nightmare was speechless, she merely stared with the same disbelief that Luna had stared at her at when she had cried that first tear. Her bottom lip quivered as she fought back more tears whilst trying to search for something to say. Just as she found words, however, Luna shushed her once again before wrapping her forelegs around her in a hug. Nightmare was sent into a deeper state of shock than she was already in. Celestia, still watching from the shadows, turned the corners of her mouth upward as she watched Luna handle the whole thing.
Nightmare once again exploded into tears as she returned the hug, throwing herself around Luna and burying her nose into her shoulder. "Thank you, Luna...thank you so much," she whispered between sobs.
Luna said nothing, only tightening her hold around Nightmare as she began to softly stroke her the back of her head, the most comforting gesture she could think of. Still stroking her mane, Luna led Nightmare Moon to where Celestia was sitting. Nightmare cowered beneath her, but upon a few reassuring words from Luna, built up the courage to say hello.
"It's been a while, hasn't it, Nightmare?" Celestia asked. Nightmare nodded slightly, fearful of the alabaster princess. Celestia smiled a bit, then turned to Luna, becoming serious. "Sister," she began, "This is all very well, but if you want to be her friend, how do you expect to spend time with her? There's no way she will be welcomed into Equestria."
Luna grinned. "I have a plan for that, Celestia. You two shall not have to worry."
"Your Majesty, who's the filly?"
The two Lunar Guards standing outside Luna's bedroom door looked curiously down at the navy blue child that walked beside Luna. The filly had bright emerald eyes with the slightest slant to them, much like Luna's own. She was an Earth Pony, with a long, dark blue mane and no cutie mark. Dirt covered her body, and dried rivers of what seemed to be tears lined her face.
"Her name is, ahhh..." Luna glanced down awkwardly at the filly. "...Mære. Her name is Mære."
"Huh. Weird name. What's she doing here, if it's alright of us to ask?"
"It's quite alright, Crescent. We found her in the Everfree whilst out with our beloved sister. She claimed she hast no parents, and showed a particular fondness of the night, so we made the decision to raise her ourselves. She hast nowhere else to go."
"Oooooh. Well, then." Crescent and his friend stepped aside to let Luna and Mære pass. Luna scooted the silent filly inside, then looked down at the batpony. "Crescent," she spoke, "thou and thy friend may go and rest. Thou seem'th rather exhausted."
"We are, Your Majesty," Crescent admitted truthfully. "We've been standing guard for twenty hours."
"Then go," the Princess of the night ordered. "Get some rest. Thou hast earned it, if we say so ourselves. Warn the next guards that their post hast begun."
"Thank you, Lu-aah, Your Majesty." Crescent hastily bowed, then trotted off with his friend, whom Luna heard mutter a "You talk so informally to the princess!" to him. Holding back a giggle, Luna closed the doors to her bedroom, then cast a soundproofing spell around it. "Better safe than sorry," she said deviously to Mære, who smiled. After the room was entirely protected from sound coming in or out, Luna turned towards the filly. Her horn glowed white, and there was a blinding flash. When it cleared, the filly was no longer there, but a large black mare with slitted, serpentine eyes and an ethereal blue mane. Luna came forward and gave her a quick hug before giving her a mischievous grin.
"So, Mære, I've only got one bed."
