The morning after, Mark was woken by a slight movement on his bed. Opening an eye slowly at his right, a pair of slit-like pupils and a smiling face greeted him.

“Hello!” Nightmare said in a cheery voice.

Upon realizing what was happening, Mark sighed loudly as he turned in the bed to the other side.

“Five more minutes, please… it was a very tiring day.”

“As much as that would be lovely, it’s time to get up, dear blue.”

This time, Mark opened both eyes as widely as he could as he saw the princess of the Night sitting in a chair next to his bed. His eyes relaxed a little as he saw who it was. That was until a certain thought crossed him mind.

“… Have you been watching me sleep during this whole time?” Luna’s eyes widened as he asked that with a suspicious look.

“Of course not, dear Blue.” She said as her eyes narrowed at the other side of the bed. “I was watching HER.”

Mark simply hummed sarcastically as he got up from his bed in order to get some clothes. He still was using the ones he used the day before. As he entered his room, he started searching for clean clothes on his wardrobe.

Minutes later, he walked out of the room in a fresh change of clothes, ready to start the day with whatever it might threw to him… except for a certain alicorn filly standing in front of his door.

“Hello.”

Mark took a few instants to remember that, according to Nightmare, she would be his shadow until she found her destiny. When that memory returned to his head, he simply groaned lowly as he realized that she was serious.

“… C’mon. Let’s get some breakfast before we do anything else.” Mark said as he started to walk down the hall.

“Alright, then. But tell me…” Mark turned to her as she made that question, not sure what she was curious about. “… What is breakfast?”

Mark stopped abruptly, wide-eyed as he turned around to look at Nightmare. That look vanished as he remembered that she wasn’t as experienced in the world as others. It truly fit her look she had.

“… Well… it’s the first meal of the day and, according to some dudes out there, the most important one of the day.”

“Really? How so?”

Mark smiled softly as he suddenly felt like a big brother to her. If Nightmare truly planned to stick by him, then he better started to get used to that.

“Well… To be honest, I don’t really know why it’s the most important one. Yes, I know it gives you the first push of the day, not to mention that it really cheers you up, even more when it’s your favorite one.”

“Oh! That’s what Fluttershy always says!”

Mark turned his head towards the third voice on the hall, coming face to face with the chaos entity itself.

“Oh, it’s you.” Mark said with a slight annoyance on his voice. “… Look, I want to apologize for what happened before.”

“Oh, don’t worry, my dear friend.” Discord said as he simply turned upside down, floating lazily in front of him. “I know I’m kind of an annoyance.” His face turned to a mix of anger and sadness. “Hmph… the friends of my friends constantly tell me that.”

Mark raised an eyebrow at this, seeing his face.

“Hey, relax, dude. You aren’t annoying. It’s just that I had a very long day yesterday.” He said as he glanced back at the black filly walking behind him.

“Oh, yes. Filly Nightmare returning to physical existence, along with her promise to stick by your side can be very tiring, isn’t that right, Mark?”

“You have no idea.” Mark said with a deep sigh as he kept walking, his stomach already grumbling in protest at its emptiness. At least, until he walked a couple steps ahead and abruptly stopped, his eyes widening as something clicked on his mind. Turning slowly, his face showed concern.

“What did you call me?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, my dear friend.” Discord said as he vanished from sight, appearing few moments later as mini Discord, and standing on his shoulder. “You aren’t the only one who has seen him.”

Both, Nightmare and Mark became confused at that.

“Are you a… you know?” Mark asked with concern on his voice.

“A resurrected? Of course not!” Discord said with a mocking grin as he vanished once again. Moments later, a pipe organ started to sound, which was being played by a deformed Discord. Suddenly, a thunder crashed right behind them, making Nightmare to cling to Mark. As he turned around, his blood suddenly froze while his mane suddenly stood up.

Those feelings were lost moments later, as the dark figure with a scythe on his hand didn’t have a bony face, but instead, a smirking face with two penetrating yellow eyes.

“Scared you for a moment, didn’t I?” Discord said mockingly as he snapped his fingers, vanishing everything he had summoned seemingly from nowhere, and assuming back his twisted form.

“Don’t do that again, please.” Mark said with a deep sigh as he tried to stabilize his breathing. Moments later, he turned to him with a serious face. “You haven’t answered yet, though. You said you weren’t a… ‘Resurrected’? Then how is it that you know him? And worse yet, how do you know ME?”

“It’s a perk of being the Lord of Chaos. You get to know a lot of things.” Discord said cryptically as he munched happily on a pink candy cotton cloud, seemingly having popped out from nowhere. “However, I must say that he must see something very interesting in you. Personally, if it were me, I would have chosen another one. I mean, what’s the point on choosing you? Could have been someone better, like another alicorn, or some other powerful entity of the ancient times.” Turning his head once more to him, he was greeted by an annoyed Mark.

“Not saying there’s something wrong with you… well, there are some things wrong with you… But that’s not the point. The point is, be ready.” That caught Mark’s attention.

“Ready for what?”

“Oh, you’ll see.” Discord grinned as his body started to vanish through a wall. “Ta ta, my dear friend.”

“Ahh!!” A feminine shout was heard on the other side of the wall.

“Oh, sorry. Must’ve been the wrong wall.” Discord’s muffled voice sounded through the wall, being followed by the sound of the toilet flushing.

“… Well… that was interesting.” Mark said with a shrug as he turned towards Nightmare, who was still clinging to him. “You can let go, by the way.”

Nightmare suddenly seemed aware of what she was doing. At first, her arms seemed to almost let go of him. Moments later, Mark found his arm being hugged tighter.

“I don’t want to.” Nightmare said with a cute whine.

Mark grumped lowly as he became even more annoyed. Sure, the idea of doing something important with his future title was worth it, but there are always such bothers.

“My, my.” Mark turned his head at the sound of the princess of the night’s voice. It also sent chills through his spine, as it didn’t sounded too pleased. “Just what the two of you are doing?”

“Me? I was going to get some breakfast, but it seemed that Discord guy hadn’t left the building at all. And as for her…” He said as he suddenly noticed Luna’s glare increase slightly at the sight of her younger alter ego. “… Well… I really don’t know what she’s doing. Aside from thinking that my whole body is something akin to a crutch.”

Nightmare turned her head to look at her alter ego, instantly noticing Luna’s glare. Even when it was subtle, Nightmare noticed it. She was her, after all.

Instead of getting frightened by her glare, Nightmare returned her own glare, tightening her grip on Mark’s arm.

“Uh, Nightmare? You can let go. It’s starting to hurt, you know?”

Instead of doing so, Nightmare only seemed to get her grip tighter until the point where he started to actually grunt in pain. Seeing as the silent fight between the two of them could only get worse, he opted to go for a quick interruption.

Lifting his hand, he immediately lashed a slap against Nightmare’s head, making a loud clapping to echo through the hall.

“Ouch!” Both mares snapped immediately out of their anger trance, glancing towards him with a shocked expression. “What was that for!?”

“Because it felt like if you were trying to break my arm by pure strength.” Mark said as he massaged his arm. If he were to take out that part of his clothes, he surely might have seen a red mark surrounding his arm. “But you know what? Scratch that, I’m hungry.” He said as he turned to leave, not bothering to look back. “When you two are done with your glare competition, you can search for me in the dining room.”

Once he was out of sight, both mares turned to each other, once again with an intense glare.

Few minutes later, he arrived at the dining room, where once again, row upon row of maids sat on the tables, each and every one eating their own dishes. However, once all of them noticed him, they all stood up.
“Good morning, Master!”

Mark couldn’t stop the amazement these mares brought to him with each display of submission and obedience. Most amazing of all was the fact that all of them seemed to be willing to do everything he said. Such thoughts were a little creepy, but they all brought some joy to his heart, somehow. The feeling of responsibility was mostly what made his heart warm.
“Good morning, everypony. Keep on with your breakfast, don’t worry.” Mark said with a smile as he went further into the room. As he took seat on his special chair, according to the maids, one of them stepped forward with a menu on hand, listing the specialties of the maid in charge.
“What may we serve you today, Master? Would you like some pancakes or would you rather have some scrambled eggs?”
“Both sound good. Bring me some of both, please.” The maid nodded before walking away, Mark noticed, with a very pronounced sway on her hips. This didn’t go unnoticed by Mark, who was surprised as he suddenly found himself looking at the swaying hips of the mare. Upon finding this, he turned his gaze away from the alluring show, only to notice something that he hadn’t thought before: he had seen Nightmare, Luna and even that Discord guy. But where was Celestia?

“Uhh… Excuse me?” Mark said as he turned to a random mare who had finished her breakfast. “Have you seen Princess Celestia?”

The mare’s eyes widened upon hearing that name. That wasn’t what surprised Mark. What actually surprised him was that every single mare turned towards him upon hearing that name.

“The p-p-princess is here, Master?” The mare asked with a shy yet nervous tone on her voice, which was answered with a confused nod from her master.

Moments later, a sudden pandemonium broke, as every mare on the room literally swallowed their breakfast as fast as they could, lifted their dishes towards a counter on the other side of the room, where some other mares started to clean them at an impressive speed. After that, almost every mare started to exit the room.

Mark actually was expecting the typical rolling bush to pass by as he suddenly noticed that the dining room had been emptied in a matter of seconds.

“… The hell?”

Getting up from his seat, he made his way right to the door where the mares had gone. Opening it, his eyes widened as the hallway wasn’t like five minutes before. It was clean before, but as he gazed at the hallway, it was literally sparkling clean. It was almost as if the whole place was made of crystal.

“Oh, My.” Mark turned his sight towards the sun princess, who was just turning the corner, being followed closely by two still looking angry princesses of the night. “This looks rather clean. I must congratulate you, Caeruleo. You keep this place sparkling.”

“Well, you would do better in congratulating my maids. They are the ones who clean most of this place.” Celestia nodded as she passed through the door.

“Remind me to do it once I see them.”

While they all sat down once again on the table, another maid came, taking the orders from all the other mares. Nightmare had troubles choosing what to eat, since she didn’t know what each thing was. After a while, the food came by, and all of them started to eat, except for Nightmare. In her case, it was more like gobbling the food on her plate.

“This is my favorite food!” Nightmare said, still with food on her muzzle.

Mark grinned as he watched her. After a few minutes, Celestia cleared her throat.

“Caeruleo, I think it’s wise to tell you I will send a letter.” Celestia said as she floated a piece of parchment in front of them.

“You don’t actually need to tell me, remember? Rather, it’s me the one who must ask you before I do anything.” Mark said in a deadpan tone.

“Of course. It’s only because I assume it will affect you directly.” Mark turned fully towards her with a raised brow.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve summoned Twilight Sparkle here, not to mention her friends too, to see what their point of view is, to see what can be done from her on.” Mark simply stared at her as his confusion rose.

“I don’t actually see the point in summoning her here, seeing that we already have the situation controlled here.”

“Of course, Caeruleo. But you forget that she is also a princess, just like we are. Therefore, the reason as to why she needs to know, as well as your cousin, princess Cadence.”

“… Alright… and that affects me because…?” He said as he took another bite of his food.

“Because they will come here, to your house.” At that moment, Mark almost started to choke on the bite on his mouth.

“What!? Why here? I mean, shouldn’t it rather be at the palace, where these royal matter are supposed to be dealt with?”

“Of course, but this can’t be done at the palace. Until we decide what to do with Nightmare, she must remain as anonymously as possible.” Celestia said in a calm tone, completely ignoring the questioning gaze the filly on the room was giving her.

“And that’s just because she’s a supposedly defeated legend?” Mark said in a questioning tone, giving Celestia a serious tone.

“That’s because we don’t want the world to think ill of her. The last time she manifested, she caused a lot of troubles.” Celestia finally turned towards Nightmare, who just stared at the table in complete silence, while a couple strands of her mane covered her face. “Nightmare, it’s for your own protection. If we were to suddenly let you out, everypony would be rather afraid of you. Yes, you are a filly, but your legend has given you a very bad reputation.” Celestia said as she got up from her seat, putting a hand on Nightmare’s head, trying to comfort her.

“… Don’t call me that.” The weak voice of Nightmare came out, surprising everyone. “… Nightmare Moon was a monster… I don’t want to be a monster.”

Mark stared sadly at the filly on the chair, while the memory of Death’s mirror came to his mind. She seemed to be alone, and she felt alone. Inside Mark’s mind, the answer came: she wasn’t alone at all.

“You aren’t a monster, Moon.” Mark said loudly, catching everyone’s attention. “You were merely lost, not knowing what you were doing. But no more. I will make sure of that.”

Nightmare smiled weakly as she rose from her seat, running towards him. Mark gasped as he was wrapped in a crushing hug. As much as it hurt, Mark returned the hug. Suddenly, Nightmare stopped the hug as she felt something settled on her head. Turning her head, she saw Luna looking at her. Not with the gentle smile Mark was giving her, but with a serious gaze, one filled with sorrow.

As much as it pained Luna, that situation was awfully familiar to what she had felt some time before, when she first returned, and she remembered how painful it was to have everypony fearing her and secluding from her as much as they could. It felt worse that her time at the moon.

“Celestia?” Celestia turned her eyes towards the prince, who was looking at her with a fire on his eyes. “Whatever is decided on that meeting, I will be responsible of her. She will be under my protection.”

Author's Note

After a lot of troubles in school (homework, projects and a lot of other stuff), here it is, the next chapter of the story (and I still don't like it. But I said to myself: "To hell with it!" and decided to post it anyways.), therefore, marking this as active once more.
And to add some more humor...