The Quest for Everfree Enlightenment

Luna stared into the endless expanse of the twisting, swirling forest, dark in the depths of the night, her horn glowing a dull blue. Surely they had been trotting through this particularly oppressive undergrowth for hours by now!

The scornful contempt of the guardian owl, Valzenok, still rang through Luna's head. It was infuriating to be held accountable still, the great bird of prey unforgiving of Nightmare Moon's transgressions, even after all these centuries. How much atonement did the owl expect? When would enough good deeds replace her bad ones?

“Princess Luna, please be careful!” came Twilight's warning, suddenly snapping the Moon Princess out of her reverie. “We have to stay focused!” The younger alicorn's horn glowed far more brightly, a deep raspberry purple tint of magical light.

This glow kept the mysterious snarling creatures at bay in the darkness, their angry multicolored eyes glaring, audible slobbering heard between the clack of hungry jaws. Loud whoops and shrieks echoed around the two alicorns, faint shadows of claws and great hairy bodies faintly seen time and again, just out of reach.

Not once could the disturbing creatures be seen clearly, always pulling quickly away from the light of the horns, creeping and hissing between the trees. The stench of the horrid beasts filled the alicorns' nostrils, like a pungent decay of flesh and plants, blurred together into a rancid compost odor.

Luna groaned as she placed a fore-hoof on her head, pausing for a moment, overwhelmed by the presence of the lurking hunters, as well as her own frustrated guilt. “We've been in here for hours!” she complained loudly, the light of her horn dimming more. “I don't recall this path being so long! Are we going in circles?”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow, frowning at Luna, becoming deeply concerned. “What are you talking about Luna? We've only been on this trail for 10 minutes, and I'm pretty sure the trees are dispersing further not too far ahead. We don't have to put up with these obnoxious monsters much longer!”

The Goddess of Magic did her best to speak calmly, not wanting to let the presence of the vague, mysterious predators get to her, though truly it was their stench she found the most unsettling. Still, Luna did say this path was the better choice, even with the owl claiming he wouldn't hunt them on the moonlit path. She told herself that if they had to, she and Luna could surely defeat these beasts in battle, couldn't they?

Luna sighed heavily, not moving at all now, the lurking monsters gathering more densely around the pair of ponies, their snarls and growls growing louder. “It seems to me that it is even darker still in that direction, in all directions. What is the point of going onwards, Twilight?” she muttered, casting her eyes down, melancholy even as the hissing and shrieking built up around them.

“Don't let that arrogant old owl's judgement get you down!” Twilight exclaimed, lifting Luna's chin. “He's the one that needs to learn forgiveness! You've already proven yourself to me!” Twilight blushed at her own convictions. She wrapped a wing around Luna's shoulder, trying to comfort her elder.

Luna muttered and shook off Twilight's coddling. “It's not the owl, it's me too. I haven't fully forgiven myself yet.” she admitted, her glow becoming ever more pale, almost gone now. “When I became Nightmare Moon, I had terrified and horrified all of Equestria with vivid nightmares, both real and dreamt.” Luna began to tremble, her eyes becoming filled with fear and self-loathing. “Nightmare Moon is legendary for good reason: I was the most horrible disaster to happen to our land!”

Twilight Sparkle grumbled, nudging Luna roughly in the flank, as more claws seemed to scratch visably at the edge of the circle of glowing magic light, the beasts growing impatient. “This isn't the best place to dwell on the past, Luna! Let's get out of here first, ok?”

“No!” Luna snapped angrily, glaring at Twilight, who took a step back in dismay. The goddess of moon suddenly pulled away, rearing back on her hind legs. “You place too much faith in me!” she shouted, charging forward, straight towards the opening of moonlight further ahead.

Twilight snorted in frustration, galloping after the moon goddess, glad she was at least rushing in the right direction. She suddenly realized she could no longer see or hear the monsters anymore, when she suddenly stumbled from the forest and out into a moonlit meadow.

Finally Twilight could relax, knowing the creatures dare not venture into this light. But where was Luna? She had come through the forest in the same direction. “This doesn't make sense! Luna, where are you?” Twilight called out, her relief becoming anxiety, as she looked back at the angry eyes in the woods lurking at the edge of the meadow, her heart sinking a little more.

Luna felt her legs racing forward, galloping deeper and deeper into the fearsome forest. The glow of her horn soon faded away entirely, now enveloped in the darkness. It was then she realized Twilight's own magical glow was gone too! Had she fallen behind? She thought she heard the younger alicorn's hoof-steps galloping right beside her only moments ago.

Twilight couldn't have been caught so silently by these creatures, not without a fight. There was a strange unsettling feeling in the air, as though Twilight was moving right alongside her, and then suddenly stopping. Was Twilight safe? Luna could not tell. Nothing made sense anymore.

Monstrous roars and hisses echoed around Luna, the creatures chasing at full speed. It had never been this way before, had it? She always kept them at bay with the glow of her moon magic. Why couldn't she do so now?

Luna had no choice but to run faster, and faster, somehow evading all the dense thick trees, instincts or magic guiding her way, even as the bark splintered or scratched at her body.

The Moon Princess heard the scrabbling skittering rush of many legs and many voices, the thick disgusting scent of the unknowable monsters filling her mind with contempt and fear, their slobbering, snarling, slurping jaws gnashing as they drove her deeper into the darkness, howling and shrieking with frenzy for the hunt, surely eager to kill the goddess of the moon.

Luna ran for eternity, her legs burning with exhaustion, as the trees and bushes and leaves battered at her body, bruised and bleeding as she fled for her life, for her sanity. She could feel the claws closing in, almost upon her, ready to tear her to pieces.

The tree branch got to Luna first, knocking her off her feet, sending her tumbling and sprawling, tripping over ancient roots, exhausted and agonized, lying in the darkness, face buried in dead leaves.

Luna panted heavily, struggling to get to her feet, trembling with exhaustion. “What happened? Where are those monsters?” she mumbled aloud, staring into the darkness, terrified more by the sudden absence of the relentless hunters, even their maddening multicolored eyes gone.

“So, you have returned,” came the soft voice, icy with contempt, dense with hatred.

The moon suddenly shone brightly from overhead, piercing between the tightly interwoven branches of the ancient trees, its light as fierce as a pale sun. Luna found herself in a small thicket, surrounded by twisted dead trees, far bigger than even the owl's living humming oak. The rotted bark left them indiscernible, warped beyond recognition, their twisted stretching limbs as though crying out from a nightmare.

Luna's attention was drawn to the center of the hollow, where the trees faced inwards, surrounding the small open space of piled dead leaves. The leaves billowed out, scattering as darkness crawled from the roots of the trees, meeting in the center.

A twisted mockery of Luna's sister Celestia suddenly faded into existence, a dark twin in shape and stature, yet with eyes of a pitiless serpent, jagged teeth like a shark, and her body as dark as the abyss of nightmares. The markings of the moon adorned her shining cold gray armor, her billowing mane of purple shadow twinkling with stars writhing in sorrow.

“No,” Luna gulped, stepping back a pace, tears already spilling down her cheeks, her breath becoming erratic again. “This is not possible.” she insisted, gulping. “You cannot be Nightmare Moon.”

The Mare of Fear stared at Luna. “Frightened little fool,” she scolded, her voice perfectly like Luna's, only cold and hateful. “Do you remember this place? The darkest, most wicked corner of the Everfree Forest? This is where you brought your broken heart, a dark sanctuary where you brooded and festered, simmering in your righteous indignation, your fury for justice, of what should and must be!”

Nightmare Moon lifted her wing, hiding one half of her face under the jagged obsidian feathers, her dainty mouth etched into a wicked smile, laughing, glaring with her visible eye, her horn covered in a hazy mist of shadow. “This is where you found your true self. This is where you found me.”

The Mare of Shadows ever so slowly paced forward, the moonlight gradually fading away again, darkness closing in. “My Nightmare Hunters did well in herding you here, didn't they? Did you miss their terrible stench, their insane eyes, their howls of hunger?” she laughed. “They are gone for now. Perhaps I will send them to torment the ponies of Equestria, hmm? Just like before!”

Luna rose to her feet, staring up at the taller moon goddess, the other side of her own soul. She did not understand how this was happening. Did this dead hollow of trees ensnare her own shadow a millennia ago, when she would wallow in her negative energy here in this dark sanctuary, over the course of decades? Or had she somehow torn her spirit in two, during the frantic, burdened rush through these wild woods that no sane pony would ever venture through?

The Moon Goddess resolved to face Nightmare Moon with dignity and courage. She wouldn't back down. “You are in my past now. You cannot bring sorrow upon Equestria ever again. I will not allow it!”

“Can't I?” sneered the Mare of Fear and Jealousy. “You are weak, Luna. You've returned in a pitiful state, fleeing from your own creations. You've returned to the very place where you first became your true Nightmare self! I can see the sorrow in your heart, little one, like I saw it all those centuries ago. You are no better than before!”

Nightmare Moon spread her wings wide, covering what remained of the moonlight from Luna's eyes, enshrouding her in deep darkness. “All I see is the same sad little filly who needs the strength of hate and vengeance in her soul!”

Luna felt her body shrinking, her feathers and fur growing more pale, her hair losing the luster of its moonlight, her energy being drawn into the nightmare, fear and shame overwhelming her heart. “I'm not afraid of you anymore,” she bleated pitifully. “You have no power over me!”

Nightmare Moon laughed with contempt. “You continue to delude yourself, child. I am the deep, true darkness! I am the great power of moon unleashed! You can no longer escape me in your dreams. I will rule over your soul, once and for all!”

The Nightmare Queen rushed at the small young Luna, the filly screaming at the top of her lungs while the monster howled in fury, Luna's deepest nightmare diving right into her body, dissolving into purple shadowy mist, pouring into the young filly's mouth and eyes. Luna fell to the ground, writhing on the dead leaves, as she felt a millennia of madness filling her heart.

Faces flashed before Luna's darkened eyes, ponies screaming in fear and horror, every single innocent she had ever terrified out of spite. Sobbing fillies, weeping mares, crying stallions, she had lashed out at them all, punished as many as possible, for daring not to love her enough.

Then came the vision of Celestia, her elder sister, the focus of all her hate and contempt, seeing Luna become Nightmare for the first time, her eyes filling with tears and guilt, Celestia's scream rattling through Luna's heart, shaken to the core.

“Enough! I have had enough! Stop this!” Luna cried out, all the screaming ringing in her ears, twitching and rolling on the ground.

The Nightmare Hunters crawled from the dead bark of the ancient withered trees, swarming together once more, the roaring snarling slobbering hungering predators closing in, fear incarnate, reaching out for Luna, their stench overwhelming, and their wild angry eyes glowing and shifting in colors of hate and fear, drawn to the misery and terror of their creator.

Luna suddenly jumped back to her feet, her body shifting back to her older, darker form, and then further, becoming the Nightmare itself, her mouth twisted in a smile of cruelty, before warping back to Luna, then young sweet Luna, physically twisting back and forth between her three personae, stumbling deliriously on her feet, nearly collapsing again with the overwhelming pain.

“This ends now!” declared the Goddess of Night, as the moon shone overhead again, piercing between the branches, instantly forcing the monsters to dive into the darkness before their shapes could be seen, basking Luna in radiant light.

Luna spread her wings wide open, her form stabilizing as her dark elder body once more, gazing up into the moon, the desolate prison of a thousand years, the always carried burden on her soul, the manifestation of her destiny.

“I am the keeper of the Moon! And I shall always rise!” Luna cried out, suddenly leaping up, shooting straight up into the sky, shadows spilling from her mouth and eyes, as she burst from the canopy of dead trees, into the shimmering moonlight.

Twilight had only been in the meadow for a minute, just about to go back into the nightmare-infested woods, when she saw Luna sweeping up from trees, bearing witness to the ritualistic containment of her negative energy. The goddess of Magic felt a gnawing urge to aid her beloved Moon, but she dared not. She could make the difference, perhaps, but chose not to.

“This is Luna's battle, I can feel it,” Twilight muttered anxiously to herself. “I will only step in if.. if I absolutely must.” She remembered her own intense magical struggle within her own mind, back when she confronted the Sun, Moon, and Love alicorns in her castle, in the Hall of Friendship. None of them had stepped in, and now she thought she understood why.

Luna hovered over the dead trees, the hollow where she always dwelt in her most bitter moments from eons past, where she had nurtured Nightmare Moon. She felt that Nightmare surging through her mind and soul, a hunger for power and malice, to do as she pleased, regardless of consequence or morals!

Luna beat her wings together, spreading her legs wide, basking in the glory of her moon, drawing in its mystery and magic, the glowing energy of the watcher of the night. “Your reign is done, nightmare! BEGONE!” she shouted, an echoing boom across the forest.

The moon goddess' body was enveloped with the shadows, crawling all over her body. But she did not fight. The moon danced within the shadows, twisting her arms and legs in the air, swaying her hips and spreading her wings, spiralling and twirling in midair, jabbing out hooves, channelling all her pent up angst and frustration, pushing it from her soul, generating a rhythm of energetic self-actualization, attuned to the moon's power all around her.

“I am Darkness,” she intoned, speaking to the negative nightmare within her mind, as she felt the shadows swirling about, hypnotized by the energy of her dance. “You are nothing!” with a cry she clapped her wings together, her horn deepened with darkness, the swirling shadows shooting forth from her body in a concentrated beam of negativity, surrounded by the light of the moon, condensing and squeezing together, until it formed a dark purple sphere of swirling madness.

“Now you are in my power. Never again will I let you roam free,” she condemned the swirling seething orb, levitating above her fore-hoof, its surface whispering vague angry hasty mutterings, no proper speech at all. “Begone now, to the nightmare realm, where you belong!”

With that, the sphere of nightmare faded away with a hissing shriek, the moonlight shining through until it had dissolved away entirely. A heavy burden lifted from Luna's shoulders. “It is done.” she sighed heavily, floating in mid-air, smiling up at the moon. “It is done.”

Twilight Sparkle watched with tense admiration, as Luna gradually defeated her inner nightmare, seeing it disappear into a pocket of void, Luna's body language slumping with exhausted relief as she hovered mid-air, basking in the glow of the moon. She had won her own battle!

The Goddess of Magic could not contain her joy any longer, leaping into the air and flapping her wings rapidly, quickly rising up to Luna's side. “You did it! You did it!” she laughed happily, tackling Luna in mid-air. “Woohooo!”

The Goddess of Moon was lost in reflection, relieved but contemplative of what had transpired, when she suddenly found herself burdened by the enthusiastic weight of Twilight, losing altitude fast, beating her wings faster to not go into free-fall. “Twilight!” she cried out, relieved and delighted. “Yes! Yes, I suppose so. The Nightmare is banished to the realm of dreams, where she belongs,” she sighed in relief.

Twilight hugged Luna close, nuzzling at her throat. “I'm so proud of you!” she gave Luna a big kiss on the cheek, as the moonlight glowed down upon the pair of alicorns, Magic embracing the Moon.

Luna felt her face flush with shyness, overwhelmed by this sudden adoration. “Oh, th-thank you Twilight. Um.” suddenly Luna pulled away, flying straight for the moonlit meadow, now able to enter its sanctuary.

Twilight blushed as she flew down after her elder, rubbing her fore-hooves together in embarrassment. “Sorry! I was just so happy to watch you heal yourself!”

Luna folded up her wings as she landed down on a bed of flowers, smiling serenely up at Twilight, who managed to land gracefully alongside her. “Yes, thank you. It's just, I wanted to settle on the ground first. I'm quite tired from that ritual.” she admitted.

There were faint twittering of birds, the chirping of many insects and the scurrying of rodents, all still awake somehow, behaving as though caught in a perpetual dusk. Yet there was no sun, only the moon shining down upon this meadow, its glow more intense and beautiful than Twilight had ever seen, giving as much energy and life to the creatures here as the sun, but without its intense heat or glare, a peaceful sanctuary of perpetual twilight.

Dense thick bushes dotted the landscape, dark smooth leaves patterned across their surfaces. Most of the deep green dewy grasses were crowded and shrouded by tall flowers, some displaying orange petals, others rather purple, and even more being quite yellow, red as well, even blue, all possible colors on display, and all of them faintly glowing with the light.

Luna sighed, relieved to be out of that unbearable wood of light-hating monsters. She sat on her haunches and sighed in relief, the mysterious creatures not daring to step out, and she cast a wry smirk in their direction, the eyes glaring hatefully back at her. “This is the meadow of serenity. It is a safe haven no matter the time of day, a place of peace.”

“Yes, this is certainly the most relaxing place we've visited so far,” Twilight nodded in agreement, admiring the soft flowing stream, which rushed from the edge of the nightmare woods, winding its way through the meadow, clean and fresh and cool, fish darting along its surface, shimmering in the light, dragonflies hovering alongside it.

Twilight Sparkle let out a squeak of surprise, finding Luna's wings wrapping around her torso, pulling her down with her to the ground, wrapping arms around her hips, both mares giggling with delight as the cuddled together, feeling content and happy.

Luna held Twilight nestled in the fluff of her wings, snuggling her close as they laid atop of the glowing flowers. “Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” Luna mumbled sweetly. “You really make the difference. You give me so much courage. Maybe I can be a true protector of Equestria now, as you've always been.”

Twilight Sparkle hummed softly, laying her head against Luna's chest, her usual anxiety and shyness gone. “I can say the same for you though, Luna. Every time I've felt unsure on this journey, you reminded me of what I can do, what I can be. Nothing is impossible when I feel your determination.”

Luna brushed feathers across Twilight's cheek, leaning over to gently lick the younger alicorn's nose. “I do believe the most stressful part of the journey is finally over, my dear. We are very far away from Equestria now, and the wild woods continues for a long while yet.”

Twilight contemplated their travels thus far. How long had they been going now? They sought the very ends of the wilderness, the farthest reaches of the Everfree. She felt that the Magic and the Moon had both proven themselves here in the uncontrolled magical wilderness. Yet there were still strange secrets to unravel, and wonders of nature to learn about. “What more is there to do?” she questioned aloud.

Luna smiled. “For now? Let us just rest,” she sighed, squeezing Twilight closer, while frogs chirped nearby and dragonflies buzzed overhead. “I think we've both earned a good night's sleep.”

Twilight sighed with relief. She couldn't agree more, burying her muzzle against Luna's fluff, wrapping her tightly in her own wings, the magic and moon dreaming together, their hearts at peace.