“How did you get back here?!” Rainbow Dash yelled, hugging Discord tightly.

“We thought you were gone!!” Twilight squealed through her teary-eyed state.

“I’ve missed you so much, Discord!!” Fluttershy added, squeezing him more warmly than any of her friends.

“What is going on?” James breathed incredulously, frowning and shaking his head. “You… You can’t be here. How are you here?”

“Can’t I… have some time to… be with my friends, James?” Discord gasped, smiling as the group hug choked the air out of him. “Also, I do actually… need to breathe, girls.”

They all tightened their hug on him and then backed away, giving him room to breathe. His eyes closed and a single joyful tear dropped from his cheek. He opened his eyes again slowly, smile shrinking to one of content satisfaction.

“Now, then,” he said with a small sigh. “We need to address that… little detail that James brought up.”

“No…” James whispered, not in disagreement, but out of sheer disbelief. “You… You can’t be here. If you’re here, then I… WHY ARE YOU HERE?!!”

“Ah.” Discord’s smile vanished completely. “James, you have to – “

“You told me you were DYING!!” James roared, hammering his fists against the bubble. “YOU TOLD ME YOU COULDN’T GET OUT OF MY HEAD WITHOUT LETTING EVERYONE DIE!!! NOW I’M HERE FOR NOTHING!!!”

The bubble he was trapped inside actually shuddered at that last word.

“James, can’t you just be happy that you can go home now?” Twilight asked, frowning sympathetically. “You don’t need to be here any –“

“You know that story I told when I first came here?” he growled, eyes literally glowing with rage. “I must’ve left out the part where he said there would always be some part of the spirit of chaos in my head, even when he’s gone. I can’t back unless I have a death wish, Twilight Sparkle.”

“You’re angry, I know,” Discord said as he marched towards James’s prison. “But you’ve got to hear my side of the story.”

“Get me out of this thing,” James spat, punching the bubble’s inner wall.

“Hmm…” Discord pondered, tapping his chin. “You know, that’s something very strange. Have you ever tried to pop a bubble from the inside? I mean a fully enclosed proper bubble.”

“Hurry up.”

“Aw, you’re all depression and rage. You’re no fun. The punchline was all real bubbles are indestructible from the inside. Seriously, have you even tried popping one of those things from the inside?” He tapped the bubble with his talon and it popped instantly, dropping James to the ground. “Now then. Can we get a few things straightened out?”

James launched himself at Discord and swung his fist wildly. Discord disappeared and dropped out of the sky onto James’s back, pinning him to the ground.

“Get off me so I can punch your stupid face in,” James growled into the dirt.

“Now that’s just mean. Can I talk now?”

James grunted in response, but stayed silent.

“I’m very sorry, girls, but it’s story time again,” Discord said, crossing his arms as a row of seats sprung out of the ground. He motioned for the girls to sit down, which they did, before he smiled and began. “There’s no easy way to put this, but there’s another James out there,” he said calmly, looking into the eyes of each of his friends in turn. “Only… this one is truly more evil than even the one we’ve got here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight exclaimed, glancing down at James. “How is that even possible?”

“He’s had practice,” James growled. “A lot of practice. Especially in the few years of nothing he had after he killed his own universe.”

“Killed his own universe?” Rarity gasped. “He… He’s not planning the same for this one, is he?”

“Wait, how do we know you’re telling the truth?” Rainbow piped up, flapping up and out of her seat. “This could be some bad joke for all we know!”

“Firstly, that is sadly what he wants, Rarity,” Discord answered. “Secondly, it’s no joke, Rainbow Dash. Ask Pinkie Pie. She saw him.”

“Please don’t remind me…” Pinkie sighed, putting her hooves over her head. “It was completely un-fun to meet that joker.”

“Sorry, Pinkie Pie,” Discord apologised, nodding his head at her. “But anyway, as Pinkie Pie knows, there is a much crueller version of our James running around now.”

“Then how do we stop ‘em?” asked Applejack.

“Straight to the point, eh, Applejack?” he asked with a smirk. “That’s good. Because, if I’m not mistaken about this, we don’t have a lot of time to stop him before he gets too out of control, even for me.”

“But… why is he here?” asked Twilight, cocking her head to one side. “I mean, he can’t just have come here for no reason.”

“He came here because he’s from an alternate timeline,” James muttered, slamming a fist into the ground. “As previously stated, he’s killed his own world.”

“On the subject of world domination and/or destruction, there is that matter of… last night.”

“What happened last night?” Twilight asked unsurely.

“N-No!” Rarity yelled. “James said not to talk about that!”

“It’s okay, Rarity,” said Pinkie Pie sombrely. “We were only told to not talk about that because Twilight might have worked out the plan of real James and evil James.”

“Twilight, you almost became Nightmare Moon last night,” Discord stated bluntly.

There was silence for a moment. All eyes were on Twilight now. After the long pause, she shook her head.

“No,” she protested. “I-I can’t have… become Nightmare Moon…”

“You did, Twilight, but we’ll get onto that later. First comes the reason you almost became Nightmare Moon.”

“W-Wait… But… I can’t have become Nightmare Moon!”

“You didn’t. You almost became Nightmare Moon.”

“That’s still not possible!”

“Twilight, you know we all love you, but you’ve really got to let me finish. He made you almost Nightmare Moon to make a statement to her that he could take her on without the Elements of Harmony on his side.”

“So… he lied to us again?” asked Rarity. “It wasn’t by accident?”

“Sadly, no. In fact, that was the beginning of his contingency plan to make Nightmare Moon return if he was ever trapped in stone like I was.”

“What?!” yelled Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all at the same time.

“Although that’s something.” He leant down to James’s head and tapped it with his claw. “How exactly did you think they were going to deal with it? I mean, if they were willing to put Equestria at risk by taking back the Elements to deal with you, how did you think they would deal with Nightmare Moon?”

James remained silent and motionless.

“Now don’t get upset because someone poked a hole in your already terrible plan. I’m just asking questions.”

James mumbled something into the dirt as the girls all stared accusingly and disappointedly at him.

“You’ll have to repeat that. I couldn’t quite hear you.”

“In hindsight, it was a stupid plan,” James growled. “Do you have to keep making me feel worse about it?”

“Yes, I do,” Discord scolded, crossing his arms. “Once you learn your lesson about lying and make up for it, then we can build a bridge and get over it.”

“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow hissed. This only earned a sharp glare from Discord. “Alright, fine. But he better learn his lesson real good.”

“Can we just get to the point already?” James snarled, shifting under Discord’s weight. “I can learn my lesson later. We’ve kind of got a universe to save.”

“Yes, I suppose we do,” Discord said calmly. “And I think I’ve got a plan on how we save it right here.”

He stared at the others and gave them a tiny smile, and they glanced at each other unsurely.

“Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?” Pinkie Pie commented, shuddering at the very thought.

“Oh, don’t worry. If all goes the way I’m thinking it will, nothing bad will happen to anyone except James’s doppelganger.” He frowned. “I hope not, anyway.”

-=-=-=-=-

Luna was furious.

Her own sister had essentially just told her that she was going to let Nightmare Moon return again! How could Celestia have so little faith in her sister that she thought Luna was actually going to allow that to happen?!

She kicked the floor in her quarters and began to pace around the room.

“I’ll show you, sister,” she hissed, spitting the final word with more contempt than she would ever do in any other scenario.

Wait… Maybe that was it! She could prove that it would never happen by going to Ponyville and solving whatever conundrum James had created to lure them there in the first place!

“Oh, yes. That’s an excellent idea.”

She gasped and spun around, glancing at everywhere that the voice could come from.

“You poor creature,” that dreaded voice whispered. “You think I’m actually here, don’t you?”

“What do you want?” Luna gasped, fear overtaking her as the thought of losing herself to the Nightmare presented itself for real. “How are you here?”

“Did you not hear?” asked the voice of Nightmare Moon. “I’m not present in the real world right now. I’m merely… on the edge of your wildest nightmares.”

“But… you can’t be here!” Luna hissed frantically, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. “You can’t take me again!”

“No, Princess Luna, you’re wrong.” There was a small giggle of cruel delight. “I am more present now than I have been in the last few years, thanks to your rage.”

Had Luna let this happen? Had getting so angry with her own sister let the Nightmare return again?

“Oh, don’t worry, you poor foal,” Nightmare’s voice whispered, almost as if she was actually right beside Luna. “I’m not here to take you. I’m here to help you.”

“W-What do you mean?” Luna gasped, backing up against the wall. “How could you help me?”

“You and I share a common enemy, Princess Luna. That… spirit of chaos has allowed you to let me back in, if only just. As for myself, he has nearly destroyed me entirely. That incident with that other princess, when he ripped me out of her, I was almost eradicated.”

“Good!” Luna squeaked, adopting a brave expression. “Y-You don’t deserve to exist!”

“How cold,” Nightmare giggled cruelly. “I’m merely suggesting that you and I work together to exact vengeance onto him. I’m not saying we kill him, for a spirit of chaos can only die of harmony’s eternity. I’m only saying that we… teach him a lesson that he will never forget.”

“N-No!” Luna yelled hoarsely. “I won’t l-let you back in!”

“He brought this upon you, you know,” Nightmare hissed temptingly. “Without him, I wouldn’t have returned.”

Luna shut her eyes tight and started repeating the words ‘go away’ to herself, hoping that Nightmare Moon would obey Luna’s wishes.

“I’m too strong for that now, child.” Another evil giggle. “How do you think I’ve been able to stay after your rage has subsided? It’s for that reason that I believe we can stand a chance against him if, and only if, we work together.”

Luna started sobbing quietly, realising that, if she was this was powerful, Nightmare Moon would probably take over, regardless.

“It’s because of him,” Nightmare whispered. “Let’s show him that we are not be toyed with in such a manner.”

Luna’s eyes opened slowly as a growing feeling of defeat took over.

“Y-Yes…” she breathed, pupils narrowing to slits.

“Good…” Nightmare replied in a satisfied tone. “We shall show him the power of the Lunar Princess and the Nightmare together.”

“Yes!” Luna cried, stomping a hoof as a fearsome grin grew on her face. “We will show him that we are a force to be reckoned with!!”

“Precisely.” The evil giggle became a malicious cackle that came from Luna’s mouth. “We will become more powerful than even chaos itself!!”

“YES!!” Nightmare Luna screamed. “WE SHALL SHOW HIM WHAT IT MEANS TO MEDDLE WITH THE NIGHT!!”

Her wings expanded. Her horn lengthened and sharpened. Her mane became more ethereal. Her teeth sharpened to fangs. Her coat darkened to pitch black.

“At last,” said Nightmare Moon, in the flesh. “And now, human, we will show you that this is your nightmare.”

Just outside the room, unbeknownst to the Nightmare inside, Havoc stepped away from the door and smiled evilly before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Author's Note

I have come to face up against my true enemy, and that enemy is myself. Dun dun duuuuun.

But seriously, I wage war upon one dark section of my mind on the plains of Eternity for victory over my own this is getting way off topic so basically I still hate me but I'm gonna probably make this go out with a bang/ really badly.

Happy whatever.