My Dear Nightmare Moon

Chapters

Love and a new life.
Where to begin?
High Flying, More Crashing
Two Lost Souls
Where to now?

Love and a new life.

“My dear Nightmare Moon, its time to wake up.” Rang out a deep voice, brimming with love, into the wide expanse of the Ethereal Plane.

The soft and pointed ears of an ebony alicorn perked as they caught the words spoken so sweetly to them. Light twitches swam across the tall and broad built equine body and signaled the waking of a long dormant mind. Upon either side of the equine’s flanks there came forth a glowing light from the cutie mark of a pale crescent moon surrounded by solid purple that slowly bled into individual balls of purple intermixed with her ebony fur.

“Come now my little pony and wake up, you have a life to live.” That deep voice came forth again, bringing with it a strength that was born of pure care for the one it spoke to. A strength that poured forth into the alicorn down to her very core, warming her heart as much as her body.

Deep within the body of the alicorn, the rush of love and freely given strength ignited the spark of her consciousness once more. Her mind blazed with awareness, her sea-blue and slitted eyes, topped with violet lashes, shooting open to behold the darkness around her. The massive and yet elegant wings of an alicorn flared open from her back and sides, flourishing their beauty and intimidating physical power, while the magnificent and long spiral horn atop her forehead ignited with a strong sea-blue aura of magic. Her mane and tail whirled into a temporary tornado at the initial rush of sensation, before tapering down into a wispy, trailing mist composed of the raw stuff of outer spaced, colored a pale blue hue and twinkling with the beautiful light of far-off stars. A long silent muzzle opened up in a wild neigh that bore her sharpened snow-white fangs to the blackness surrounding her. Her body and mind reeled for the first few moments of her soul surging forth from bleakness, before catching up to that wild spirit and her entire being simmering down to find a tentative stability. Those immense wings came to hang at her sides and the strong blazing magic of her horn and cutie mark tamed itself much like her mane and tail had, settling back down into a faint glow.

“Father, is that you?” Nightmare Moon called out in a cracked tone as she twisted her ears, eyes, and head in every direction possible to try and find the source of the familiar voice. Several loud pops and cracks echoed out into the huge nothingness, garnering groans of relief driven by long-stationary muscles from all the movements. Her hooves scrambled against the blackness around her as she tried to turn her body or gather any kind of directed momentum of her floating form, yet she did not find any purchase to do so. “Where am I? Why aren’t I gone?” She cried out, in desperate want of answers as the memories of her last waking moments flooded her mind.

A beam of rainbow colors and the raw power of harmony filled her mental vision, crashing into her body and smashing to pieces her body and magic both. It should have killed her, as it had rippled her away from the physical being that she had been bound to and mixed with, a smaller alicorn, much like herself, but of a midnight-blue color and a black marking around the pale crescent moon cutie mark. She had been of a mixed mind, herself and that smaller alicorn, bound to the same body just in different forms. Yet she had always been her own soul, one that had been consumed by a similar negligence and loneliness that had gripped the smaller alicorn and brought them both together in insanity. It had been their combined magic that had given Nightmare Moon any shape at all to begin with, she had only been a spirit a drift in the world before. There were no memories of before that time though, her birth, her growth, only the ceaseless and horribly lonely wandering. They had been replaced by the memories of that alicorn that she had been bound to, her mind having been warped and twisted as it was, and it had sought out a replacement for the knowledge of what events had brought it to such despair to begin with. Nightmare Moon knew that they were not her memories, exactly, but having another pony’s entire life-time of memories inside you could not help, but breed a sense of closeness that was impossible to truly describe. But now, she was completely her own self, she could feel it, locked away into wherever she was.

“You are within my wings little one, I could never let you disappear. What happened was a second chance, but you needed some time to rest before you could wholly take a hold of the opportunity.” That deep voice spoke again, a voice that her soul knew, not so much as her mind. It was from a being she could never forget, one she knew was her father. However, she couldn’t recall much more than just the voice either. The bond of a parent and child was not reliant on memories alone for it to make itself known. And it was why, Nightmare Moon trusted the words being spoken, despite the confusion and fear inside of her.

“What do you mean in your wings? I can’t see you father! Please, help me! I don’t know where to go to find you, it’s all darkness here. .” Her voice carried her confusion and fear into the darkness around her, wanting and needing some kind of actual sensation besides the mere existence of her own body.

“You’ll see me eventually my child, I am always with you in your heart. Never forget that. We lost each other to the maze of despair, and I am sorry, so sorry, that I could not help you when you lost yourself. But now, my daughter, we will always be able to feel and help each other when we most need it through our hearts. It may take time for you to feel it, but the chance the Elements of Harmony are giving you, gave me the chance to be with my daughter again to. My flame will always be there, burning in your heart now. So pull from it if your strength ever truly fails you again and you need mine to keep going.” Her father spoke, a new cheer in it as it spoke seemingly of a brighter future than what she had come from.

“I don’t understand Father! What are these second chances? How can I do anything in a place like this? Please help me understand!” Nightmare Moon cried out as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, before trickling down her cheeks in a steady stream of her confusion.

“You’ll understand as you grow my dear, now stow away those tears.” A wisp of a touch brushed against her face, raw love caressing her and brushing away the streams of tears matting her fur. “Now is a time of joy, for the both of us. You get to live out your own life this time, and I get to see one of my beautiful daughters grow again, and help her on her journey.”

“Father, I!” Nightmare Moon started, before her words were cut short by a sudden influx of light streaming into the blackness and washing over her. With her senses so new, fresh, and only accustomed to blackness, the light startled her and made her flinch against the new sensory input. Her wings and hooves raised to block her face for a time as the light continued to grow in scope, her eye needing time to become accustomed to it. The darkness around her bowed away from the light as if it were a pair of giant wings unfurling after having been cradling her this entire time.

When her eyes had finally refocused to be able to take the new flood of information, she peered out of the gaps between her wings and hooves to behold a brilliant and cloudless night sky, illuminated by countless stars and a dozen proud galaxies floating through the reaches of space. And below it all, an endless stretch of tall green grass that swayed and rolled as if it were an emerald sea and the wind blew forth waves across its surface. It was a wind that she could now feel, and it brought forth with it a warm caress of a summer night. It was temperature and physical touch, brushing her silken fur much like it did the grass that was rapidly approaching her floating place in the ethereal plane, which was similarly rapidly disappearing.

Weight was the next sensation to overtake her, as the grass finally reached to where she had been floating. Gravity pulled her downwards onto the grass, and against the firm, solid ground. Curled up as she had been against the light, she did not topple, already sitting upright in a curled position. All the touches of the grass, and the soft dirt under her flanks and hooves had her gasping in an adrenaline rush. It sent a hard shock through her body making her bolt straight upright, push out her wings in a broad flare, and crane her neck and head upwards towards the sky. And as her vision traveled upwards, the retreating darkness finally gave way to what had for so long been both her comfort and torment, the seat of her hope and her torment, the bright and bold Full Moon dominating the wondrous sky above her. It filled her with an onslaught of emotions that came rushing up from her past, and crashing down from the future that had been promised to her. It was a chaotic storm that she had no means to process, only ride out and let take her to a place of new possibilities and uncertainties. However, amidst the chaos there was one thing that was clear and strong above the harsh winds; the voice of her father.

“Never fear the darkness my daughter, you are a part of it and it is a part of you. Neither the turmoil of the past, or the unknowing of the future, or all that goes bump in the night, it all has and will continue to shape you. Neither fear the light either, that of the Moon that you are so tied to, nor that of the Sun that you once so despised, both lights will now be working together to guide you on your journey.” The voice rippled through her soul, words of advice that would be burned into her, though she did not know if she could live up to with the intensity of the moment. But, the last words spoken to the reborn Nightmare Moon at the start of her new life were ones that she knew she could at least return:

“I love you my daughter, my little Nightmare Moon.” Spoke the voice.

“I love you, father.” Nightmare Moon whimpered back, tears again starting to stream down her face, though this time out of sound joy as her cradle of darkness, and her father’s wings, finally fully peeled away from her wholly.

Author's Note

This is a personal story, one I will hopefully be able to update regularly as it means a great deal to me. My heart is going into this one, rather than my mind or it being just a random stroke of inspiration. I will let the story speak for itself, but I hope that it gets across to the readers at least a little of what my heart is putting into it.

Where to begin?

The emerald sea that Nightmare Moon had been left on flowed with all the elegance of any body of water. A thousand thousand different waves of grass moved in a thousand thousand different directions with no guidance whatsoever in their journeys. It was a chaotic beauty that matched oh so perfectly to the emotional state of Nightmare Moon as she sat floating among it all, admiring all the wonder around her and yet, completely confused on what to do or where to go in this endless emerald sea. Her eyes swept over the planes before her as she attempted to sort through her emotions for something useful to give her a sense of direction at the very least.

"Where do I go?" Nightmare Moon mused aloud to herself and the world that she was apart of once again. Her lips pursed into a serious frown as her emotions slowly simmered down From the raw inferno of her previous emotional state, emerged only a few flames that still burnt brightly, but were at least ones she could think through.

A bit of fear still burnt inside her, of the past and what she had once been. Her last waking memories were being ripped apart from the only being she had and true remembrance of being close with. It was the only time in her own memories, not Luna's, that she could recall not feeling that dread of being alone forever, of being completely forgotten about and left to rot. However, even though she was technically alone right now physically, she didn't feel alone after being given such a direct message of love and compassion from her father. Love certainly burned the brightest in her, not necessarily for herself or her situation, but for the opportunities that she had been blessed with. To meet her father, even as odd as it had been, and to know that there was someone that had love just for her specifically still out there was an amazing feeling to have. She was certainly grateful to have her own body as well, even if it was starting to make her remember what being hungry felt like. And with a loud and quite undignified growl of her stomach, hunger pushed away the other few emotions rolling around inside her and demanded to be her first and most pressing thought.

"It.. has been a long time since I actually ate anything, hasn't it?" She spoke with a crack forming in that serious frown of hers. As if in response her stomach gave another loud growl of need. "Alright, food first, and then more thinking." Nightmare Moon said with a firmness that wholly directed at her mind to make it be quiet. Her head dipped down to the long blades of grass directly in front of her to begin a more dignified grazing that her stomach had initially prompted with its growls. Regardless of the fact that only now was this body hers to call her own, it was still an alicorn body, and as far as she was concerned it meant that she should hold herself to certain standards even when alone. And so she simply sat there grazing bite by small bite for a time, letting her mind go blank and enjoying the wonderful sensations of a physical body.

A roar of sound from high above her head eventually yanked her attention away from her pleasant meal and drew her gaze skyward. Her eyes were drawn to a yellow-green blur blazing downwards towards the ground, a stream of lightening clouds following in its wake as it went. In a stroke of confused curiosity, her head gave a little tilt to the side and her ears perked up as she studied the sole disruption to the otherwise clear starry sky. What is a pegasus doing all out on their own like this? Nightmare Moon pondered to herself as the blur of a pegasus continued its sharp descent, and she soon realized, was gaining quite a lot of speed as it closed the distance between open sky and hard, flat ground. And why aren't they slowing down? Her thoughts took on a darker tone as the pegasus just plummeted faster and faster as time went on. A pang of worry swam through her mind and drove her to stand up and take a few tentative steps forwards, ears pinned back against her head now.

As the blur of a pony continued its straight dive towards the ground, a white cone began to form around the pony's leading edge. The faster the pegasus' descent took it, the narrower the cone became around its body. Faint memories flipped through Nightmare Moon's mind, recollections of an old tale about a spectacular aerial feat that started with the very cone that she saw forming, where a pony would travel so fast they would outrace sound itself. The cone was the air around the pony being compressed in front of them as they neared the speed of sound, but what happened after they broke that speed, she couldn't quite recall. As much as such a feat would be quite the proclamation of her return to Equestria, and she would love to witness something even Luna had not, the pony was nearly at the ground, only a few hundred feet left to go by her judgement. Her breath caught in her throat as the pony came lower, and lower, and lower until when it seemed it might complete such a feat, the ground became a harder barrier than the speed of sound, one the pony wouldn't break. There came a deafening boom as the pony crashed and a shock wave erupted forth, enough to carry a wall of dust and grass across the plains and smack Nightmare Moon square on and send her sprawling out onto her stomach.

A firm hack coughed up a small cloud of dust and dirt from her muzzle after the shock wave traveled past her and dissipated off in the distance. Her entire front was coated in brown and green patches of dirt and grass, blemishing her pristine ebony fur. With a hard grunt she pushed herself to her hooves again, having to add some strength from her rather ruffled wings as she shook off a touch of shock from being thrown to the ground. A firm shake of her head brought a clearing of her senses and her eyes sweeping up over the sea of grass to a small plume of smoke wafting up into the air, the remnants of the pegasus' trail of lightening clouds now almost completely cleared out.

"Oh buck." Nightmare Moon cursed, before her horn glowed brightly in her pale blue aura and she winked out of existence, teleporting to what she hoped wasn't just a pony-sized smear in the ground.

High Flying, More Crashing

When Nightmare Moon blinks into existence, her eyes are quick to refocus and take in her surroundings. With the adrenaline pumping through her now, any residual numbness to any of her senses had been flushed out of her system. She stands in a miniature crater a couple dozen feet wide, but only a few feet deep. Past the rim of the crater and extending out quite a ways lies pure, barren soil, stripped clean of any and all plant life. No dust hung in the air, having been carried away by the shock wave that had knocked her flat on her barrel. Only a thin plume of light clouds, the remnants of the lightening trail the pegasus had had trailing behind it, remained now as it hovered over the center of the crater and extended a few hundred feet into the sky. What was in the middle of the crater however, was thankfully not the complete pony-sized smear she'd expected, though it wasn't to much better.

In a bloody heap lay a yellow-coated pegasus with a mane and tail of fiery orange that bled into a red at the ends. Across her eyes, which were a light crimson, lay the remains of a pair of flight goggles, their glass completely shattered upon impact with the solid ground. What little clothing that remained on the mare, was a shredded forest-green flight suit that looked as if it had already been worn from age before the crash. Her figure was extremely athletic, a fair bit of muscle, but clearly stream-lined, what Nightmare Moon could glimpse of the mare's flanks revealed a cutie mark of a wing made purely of flame. However, on top of that athletic figure lay hundreds of various cuts and bruises covering the pegasus from head to toe. While most of these were oozing some amount of blood, they were nothing in comparison to the streams of blood flowing freely from the mess of her left foreleg and left wing. Both limbs were contorted in extremely unnatural directions with the major bones either bulging against the flesh or in a couple places, poking through the flesh straight out.

A grimace washed over Nightmare Moon's features as she took in the gruesome sight of the bloody pony. It wasn't out of disgust, for she'd seen much more gore-filled sights before, rather it was out of a hatred at fate for throwing something like this at her after she had just come back to life. It was as if fate were saying, "You want a second chance? Earn it!" and challenging her to not be her old twisted self once again. The scorn she felt whipped itself into a fierce determination, she was not going to let herself repeat history and let an innocent die when she could do something about it. She was going to be better than what she once was. Her horn illuminated the crater as she reached out with her pale-blue magic to the injured pony. Carefully, she levitated the broken body into the air and stripped it of the shattered goggles and ripped flight suit.

Memories came to the surface of her mind, ones of Luna using her great magic for healing. The most prominent ones were those of a long ago war against the madpony King Sombra, where his dark magic had done horrible and sickening to the bodies of those that he turned it on. The memories of that being struck her anger momentarily, for he and those like him were the reason so many ponies vilified dark magic. It was just another school of magic like so many others, but it yielded so much power so quickly that it was very tempting to abuse it. While Nightmare Moon had access to all sorts of magic as she was an alicorn, dark magic was the one that in the end was her true power, and the very foundation of her magic. Just as Celestia's was the magic of the Sun and Luna's was the magic of the Moon. Her pale-blue magic, that was now washing over the pony to keep it a float in the air, didn't have the total black and purple bombastic nature of usual dark magic, though it did take that on when using a great deal at once, but that was because it was refined, tempered, she was the Alicorn of Darkness, and dark magic was her domain. Unlike so many before, and even herself once upon a time, she used the darkness for a purpose of compassion instead of lethality, to start to heal this broken body.

However, healing magic is an extremely complicated field of magic, so detail oriented, it required remarkable precision and an out-of-the-box type of thinking to wield it properly. It was why there was just as many doctors from other races as there was unicorns, most only had the ability to match regular medicine's effects, albeit quicker. Those that could wield healing magic for healing internal organ damage damage, powerful diseases, and the like, almost always had to be born with their special talent being a specialized form of healing magic. As such, in her weakened state, even as an Alicorn, there was only so much Nightmare Moon could do. Her magic seeped into the shallower cuts and softer bruises of the pony, wiping them away, but for the many, many deeper wounds all she could do was aid the body in scabbing over and stopping the bleeding, as she had to pour most of her strength into the two wrecked limbs of the pony. For those, a scrying spell was first needed to fully assess the damage, and the new 'locations' of each broken bone. This had the side-effect of giving her some good news, somehow, there was no internal bleeding or organ damage. It seemed that these limbs had absorbed the brunt of the impact. Though even still, she was impressed that a pegasus pony could be so hardy after such a crash.

Nightmare Moon set herself to the task of carefully realigning each broken bone, finding and then fusing together each piece of bone that her magic could find inside the battered body and around the crater, though that was hardly all the pieces by a large stretch. At this point, her brow was set in a hard furrow, a headache thumped away in her skull, and her magic yelled at her to stop as it began to tap into its lower reserves to keep going. But, she didn't listen to the pain, she had a pony to save, and a challenge to rise to the occasion and prove she was better than whom she once was. And so she went on, pumping her power into the fire-haired mare to close up the parts of flesh that the bones had broken through to reconnect blood vessels and scab over the flesh as she had done with the other deep wounds on the pony's body. The job that she did could easily be undone if those limbs went through any more trauma though, and to that end her magic reached out to the discarded clothing she'd found on the mare. It was a simple work of magic to clean the shreds of the flight suit and leather of the goggles to be worthy of their new jobs, being carefully cut and shaped into on-the-spot bandages to wrap the damaged limbs in and keep them firmly set in the correct positions for the bones to heal. The leather was pulled tight where it was used, making sure there was no give or slack as it had to take the place of a proper hardened cast. As a last act, she let a numbing spell wash over the pony, taking the majority of bite of the wounds, though they'd still ache and hurt to the point of making a pony not take to kindly to the idea of being awake for it. She opted for duration over strength in this, the idea being to let the numbness spell take longer to wear off so that by the time it did, the wounds would have had enough time to heal that it wouldn't be unbearable without the spell.

That last act had her magic running on fumes, the pale-blue light of her aura now dimmed to just a faint outline over the pony's body. Nightmare Moon was breathing in ragged breaths, sweat matting most of her huge form. Carefully, for both the pony's sake and her own, she picked her way out of the crater and out on pass the barren landscape surrounding it. She went for a small ways, until she found the tall and soft sea of grass once more and could lay her charge upon it as if it were a bed. With her having now done as much as she could for the mare, she laid herself out to the right side of the mare. Her massive right wing rose and spread itself out over the broken mare as a blanket, Like a sheet of feathery, warm, and comforting darkness enveloping the broken body and promising safety inside it. Such a gesture immediately made her think of the 'wings' and darkness that she'd just been held in by her father. And while she still couldn't put any details or a face to that parent of hers, the love and care from them still filled her. With a smile on her exhausted snout, she tried to funnel some of that care into the pony now under her wing. And while she passed out of consciousness from her own exhaustion, that care found its intended home and brought warmer dreams to the pegasus that now found herself under the wings of darkness, a caring, striving to be good, darkness.

Two Lost Souls

For Spitfire, waking up during the soft glow of the morning sun was one of the hardest things she'd done in quite a long time. From being stolen away from her first pleasant dreams in months, to the splitting headache and dull ache across her whole body, she had no real reason to thank the sun for awakening her this day. A heavy and reluctant groan blundered out of her snout and declared to the morning her very strong distaste for its existence. It was quickly followed by a series of pained grunts as every little attempt at stretching was either met with an annoying cramping or a throbbing pain through her entire left wing and foreleg. Her eyes shifted a rather blurry gaze down to the wrecked limbs and received a visual feedback of great blobs of black, green, red, and her own yellow fur. It barely made any sense to her at first, but as her mind slowly processed her other senses alongside her vision, she gathered her limbs were bound in some kind of make shift bandages, given the tight pressure that kept her from even flexing those limbs and the rather metallic scent of dried blood now creeping into her nostrils.

"You bucking idiot." She spat a curse at herself, a rather harsh malice accompanying it. "I messed up again, just like everything else I do now a days." A sharp hiss slipped from her snout now, as her figiting pulled at her wing muscles in the decidedly wrong way. "And I might have really trashed myself up for good this time, since I should dam well be dead after that stunt."

The mare's thoughts rambled along those lines for awhile, until a most odd, yet not uncomfortable sensation washed over most of her body. It felt like hundreds of soft paintbrushes dancing across her mussed up yellow fur, it was somewhere between tickling and a wonderful rubbing that drew a light eep from Spitfire. Her good limbs all twitched at the sudden odd sensation, and she quickly turned her head around to figure out what the hell was going on. At first all she saw was this huge black mass covering all of her body aside from her bandaged limbs, but as she squinted and her eyes lost their morning fog and refocused, she made out the details. Long and wide black feathers had been the culprits behind that odd sensation, all connected to a massive wing that if fully extended could easily stuff her entire body within it, and have room for another pony. Her eyes widened and her head snapped forward as a running shock rolled through her mind.

Not good. She spoke within her mind, instead of out loud this time around. Ok, a little good. Whomever this is obviously bandaged me and likely saved my life. But, there are only two types of creatures I know that could have a wing that size and could know medicine. Her breathing came in short breaths now, a touch of panic setting in that made her eyes quiver, yet kept her body quite still.

Either the largest griffon I have ever seen found me, wrapped me up, and watched over me all the time I was knocked out. In which case they likely did it to put me in their debt and are going to tell me I owe them thousands of bits. Or.. Spitfire's eyes scrunched tight as the next thought was even more imposing than a titan of a griffon. That is an alicorn's wing, in which case that has to be blue, not black, I really did nearly kill myself, and I was so far gone that that is Princess Bucking Luna and it took her to safe my stupid flank. In which case, after all the dumb mistakes i've made and all the citations of misconduct thrown on top of me, i'm one hundred percent, guaranteed fired. But, if it was her and she healed me, at least there is a chance I can fly again. Both scenarios were absolute shit for her going forwards, it all came down to what kind of screwed she was. And with a heavy breath in preparation, she twisted her head around again, this time to the right side, and cracked open her eyes to find out just which breed of shit she was in.

Her gaze washed over the form laying next to her with not a small amount of trepidation. At first she followed the massive wing to the back of the creature it was attached to, a broad and sweeping set of shoulders anchored the limb solidly to its owner's body, clear muscle rippled beneath the black fur of this creature, and the prominent pectorals certainly looked pony shaped to Spitfire. Up once more and over the shoulders, yup, there was that waving mane that was so iconic of the Princesses... but it wasn't quite right for Luna's, it was so dark, and so, infinite. Luna's mane was still solid looking to a degree, not this, which looked like a portal she could just fall right into. That was odd. And as her gaze traveled up one more time, yup, there it was, the extra long, pillar of a horn of an alicorn. Except, Luna's wasn't that big, no it was shorter, and not nearly as thick. Did the Princess go through another growth spirt or something? Spitfire thought to herself, as she had seen how the Princess had changed over time, from when she had just been turned back from Night...night.. Nightmare.. As the mare's eyes danced down to the snout of the alicorn, Spitfire found herself staring at the unmistakable face of Nightmare Moon, who's eyes were starting to flutter open.

Spitfire's mind raced as time seemed to slow down with her gaze completely locked on the alicorn's slowly opening eye. Her mind blazed as it processed her current situation; Nightmare Moon was a live Nightmare Moon was currently holding her in her wing, and that same Nightmare Moon, as there was only one Mistress of Darkness and terror of legends, was currently waking up and Spitfire was in no condition to go anywhere or do anything about it. Clashes of facts and beliefs ripped nad bashed one another apart within the mare. This was the bucking scariest mare that ever lived, yet she was cradling her as if Spitfire were her onw daughter. This creature tried to bring eternal night to the world and was willing to destroy Princess Celestia to do it, yet she was the only other pony around and somehow her wing and leg were bandaged, and she knew she had nowhere near the amount of damage and pain she should have. None of these conflicts made sense, and Spitfire just locked up as Nightmare Moon's slitted eye finally opened up in full.

The pegaus said not a word as the slitted eye roamed over her body, taking stock of the state of the mare she'd been holding all night long. For Spitfire however, her entire focus was on that eye and not a single other thought even so much as rippled across the surface of her mind. The situation was nigh-on impossible, but yet, here it was, completely irrefutable as the alicorn of darkness started to raise herself up and stretch out her own limbs after that visual inspection was over. The motions made that massive wing glide over her body again and drum up that half-tickling sensation, drawing a surprised eep from Spitfire as her body shivered in response.

"Good morning." Came a voice that while deep, had an almost sweet lull to it, and a touch of apprehension. It made Spitfire gave a shake of her head in an attempt to bring her sense back from their vacation.

"Good...morning?" Spitfire said aloud, not really in return, but asking if she had indeed really just been greeted so, well, normally.

"Yes, good morning." Nightmare Moon repeated herself, her wings furling upon her back with a loud rustling. "How are you feeling?" She asked, her forelegs now tucking under her chest after their stretching.

"Painful." Was Spitfire's immediate, blunt response. The absurdity of it all left Spitfire's mind to just spit out what was simple and quick.

"Good, that means your nerves were not shredded in the crash." Nightmare Moon said matter-of-factly.

"Wh, just wait a minute!" Spitfire spat out, finally fed up with the sheer confusion in her mind. "What in the hay is going on? Your Nightmare Bucking Moon, the one that tried to bring eternal night and kill Princess Celestia, twice. And your sitting here, cuddling me, having i'm assuming bandaged me since there is no one else here, and slept by my side all night long? This doesn't, make, any, sense!" Her nostrils were flared as her breathing turned into a series of thick snorts of aggravation.

Several quiet moments passed, the pegasus' words having shoved out what was a somewhat-normal conversation in a very unusual situation. Nightmare Moon had an expression of mixed apprehension and indignation at having been yelled at such. She'd expected something like it, or outright fear, but she didn't quite know how to respond at first. She wanted to show she wasn't what the mare knew her as, but even though she wasn't raving mad and evil anymore she did still have her pride, and being yelled at so forcefully did take a strike at that pride. When she did speak, her voice held a tight tension to it, clearly holding back harsher words.

"I am here because the Elements of Harmony gave me a new chance at life. I was mad during my time with Luna, my mind is clearer, and I wish to do better. Thus, after your crash, I have done what I can to safe your life. If you feel it in you, I wish to attempt getting to know one another as two strangers would upon first meeting. My healing you is a gesture of good faith towards that goal, I do not call any debt for that act, or expect any recompense besides what I have just asked for." Every single word was specifically chosen in a purely diplomatic way of speech. Deliberate, cautious, and tense.

The frustration levels boiling inside of Spitfire dropped slowly at first while Nightmare Moon explained things. But, once her mind was clear of that surface haze they plummeted in free fall. She came to the realization that she had just chewed out arguably the largest threat Equestria had ever known, the alicorn's level of power was on par with even discord and she also had had an intimate knowledge of the nation and its government when she was in direct conflict. That initial burst of brash bucking against the situation came from being in a more militaristic environment as a Wonderbolt, they were called to deal with emergencies like rampaging dragons after all, some staring danger down the throat attitude was to be expected. However, that quickly dissipated when one was beaten into a broken heap like herself at the moment an one also took into account the pony she were yelling at could easily turn her to dust even if the pegasus was at her best. Her ears flattened sharply to her skull, and her head lowered nearly to the ground in a submissive reaction to her realization of just outclassed she was.

I just cussed out Nightmare Moon, and i'm not dead, dear Celestia i'm not dead. She thought as she quickly went over a list of details of her situation, In fact, everything points to her having saved my life, just like she said she has. I've got a broken wing and leg that should be all shattered bone, but its bandaged up and cared for. Though regardless, that still means i'm going absolutely nowhere fast without some kind of help. And all she wants after all this, is to be teared as a stranger I haven't met before. Which, technically is true. And then to get to know each other like a pair of normal ponies do. Her eyes dared to roam over the alicorn's chest again, chewing on her cheek as she deliberated with herself. In the end, she felt she had only one sane option.

"Hello, i'm Spitfire, a Wonderbolt Captain Washup." Spitfire said with no little amount of anxiousness as she looked the great alicorn in the eyes and held out a shakey hoof.

With a grin, Nightmare Moon's body visibly relaxed as Spitfire's attitude switched up to something much more polite. Her own hoof reached out to take the pegasus' and she gave it a mighty firm shake in greeting. Her voice had shed volumes of tension as she spoke again to the injured mare, no malice or held back irritation in it now.

"Greetings Spitfire, I am Nightmare Moon, the Alicorn of Darkness and former mad-pony."

Author's Note

This particular chapter took me a while to get the ending third finished. Most of it was straight-forwards in my mind, even the beginning of the conversation. But, for some reason it was harder to keep the character's reactions to exactly the type of personalities I personally have made for my versions of them. This is their first dialog together, and while I am overjoyed with Nightmare Moon's dialog with her father and her emotions displayed during that scene, this is in a whole other context. I couldn't just throw away the emotions she'd been left with after being brought back to life, but I had to let her own personality, one not in a immediate chaotic life-shattering/remaking crisis come out and blend the two together. Spitfire was a bit of a balancing act to, as the title of the chapter says, she is a lost soul like Nightmare Moon in my story (as to why that is, you'll just have to wait and see!). That brashness is still there, she is still a dam Spitfire like her namesake, but she's also come to realize that is what has been causing her heaps of trouble lately, along with other things clouding her judgement. I really hope the character's don't seem to have any moments of emotional 180s in here, let me know in the comments if there are any moments like that!

Where to now?

"As much as I do not wish to, I must admit, I have no idea where in Equestria we are." Nightmare Moon huffed in annoyance as she looked around the endless sea of grass stretching out for miles and miles in every direction. She had laid there with Spitfire for a few hours after their last conversation, the hot-colored mare having fallen silent and slipped into a half-rest. While still aware of Nightmare Moon, and any noise the alicorn made, her body still demanded she not do to much. Only now that Nightmare Moon spoke up, did Spitfire's ears perk up and she let out a tentative response.

"Well um, were not really in Equestria." The words slipped out of her mouth with care. The annoyed tone of the alicorn had her worried, and she really did not want to make her more annoyed.

Nightmare Moon shifted her head down to the mare with a raised brow and flared nostrils as she took in a surprised breath. That breath however, brought with it kick of salty sweat smell coming off the smaller mare. It was unmistakably the scent of fear, likely from her initial fright upon first waking and meeting Nightmare Moon and having stayed clung to her as they'd laid here this whole time. While Spitfire was not trembling this time around form head to tail, the tentativeness in her voice gave Nightmare Moon pause and reason to modify her tone a bit into a more controlled, questioning tone, "Where then, are we Lady Spitfire?"

"Ah, well, nearer to the Minotaur Lands." She answered with a bit of stumbling over her words at the start. The change of tone along with being addressed so formally caught her off guard. Spitfire had been addressed formally several times in her life, the prestige of being a Wonderbolt Captain received its due even from the Princesses after all. However, she was a rather casual mare, some even called her abrasive at times, though that came with being an instructor for new recruits as well. True, high class formalities were not something that was in her day to day life, and having it come from somepony from haunting tales of the dark just made it even more awkward for her.

"The Minotaur Lands?" Nightmare Moon asked with a raised brow and a new touch of surprise in her voice, "Unless the geography of Equus has changed severely during the past thousand years, which as I speak of it, it most certainly could have, the Minotaur Lands are just over two thousand miles from the furthest borders of Equestria."

"T-their not as far as that now. Still, over a thousand though." Spitfire's voice gained a light stutter now as she was 'questioned' by the alicorn. It wasn't an angry question, she knew that, but the draconic eyes of Nightmare Moon still made her feel an instinctual nervousness with the sharpness and raw force they held even at ease like this. What kept it to only a light stutter however, was the fact that even as strong as those eyes were, they still held a raw beauty to them just like the rest of Nightmare Moon. That just was how alicorns worked in a way, they were the epitome of might for all ponykind, but they all held some kind of beauty or grace to them that was probably quite literally magical.

"Even still, this is a long, long way away from Equestria. Why did you venture so far forth from home to attempt such a feat as what you had? Even the legends I know of the 'Sonic Rainboom' did not describe it with such power that it would cause danger to others for hundreds of miles around." Her tone was very inquisitive now, and she'd turned her entire head to regard the mare now.

"Ah, well, y-y-you s-see..." Faced with the full attention of the alicorn, Spitifre's stuttering flared up and a harsh wave of embarrassment and nervousness both washed over her, driving a fierce blush into her cheeks.

"Lady Spitfire, your cheeks are blazing as harshly as your name implies your breath does. What have I stumbled into with saving you, hm?" And now the more playful nature of the alicorn came forth, a sly grin completing the picture of a teasing mare. She wasn't all might and power of royalty and darkness after all!

"So nopony could see me if I bucking failed again, which I did!" Spitfire spat out in a hiss of anger, not actually aimed at the alicorn, but rather herself. The mare curled up her body as tightly as she could without tugging at her injured left side.

Nightmare Moon's head reeled back after what was clearly a display of pent up emotions. The dark mare bit her body lip, not having meant to drudge up hidden pain. All she'd wanted to do was get a little fun embarrassing the pegasus and find out a bit more about her 'charge'. Well, she was at least succeeding in the later option, just in a rather closely-held-personal-issues manner rather than anything more mundane like sh'd wanted. With a frustrated sigh at the situation, Nightmare Moon gingerly brushed her left wing back and forth against the smaller mare in an attempt at 'comforting' her. It was awkward and foreign to her, and made her spine tingle from her neck down to her flanks. She said nothing more for a time as she kept up the feather-light brushing of her wing, anything that came to mind was either more teasing, or would come out as blunt and insensitive and make the situation worse. So, she just held her tongue for the time being.

The resulting silence was absolutely fine by Spitfire. She'd yet to speak about her problems to anypony yet and she certainly didn't feel like opening up her heart to Nightmare Moon of all ponies, regardless of the fact that she'd saved her life. However, that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the attempt at 'comforting' that the alicorn was giving her. As awkward as it was, the stroking of a wing along her neck was a common form of comfort between pegasi, and with that familiarity it did its job of helping her to calm down bit by bit. After several lengthy minutes of silence, the fiery maned pegasus lifted her head from her wing, with the flush of her cheeks down to a light pink instead of the bloody crimson it had been. With a deep inhale of air that brought a rush of fresh oxygen to her lungs, she nodded lightly to Nightmare Moon to signal that she was a bit more stable now.

Upon seeing the nod from her fellow pony, Nightmare Moon retracted her wing with a huff. While the experience wasn't painful for her at all, the awkwardness of being so soft had left her with a bit of a bitter taste in her mouth. Brushing it aside, Nightmare Moon spoke to the pony as she began to rise, "From the sounds of it," She began, only to interrupt herself whit a groan of relief as her legs gave several loud cracks and pops as they stretch for the first time in hours. "Mmph, ah, better. Now, it seems both of us have our own personal reasons for not wishing to return to Equestria post haste." Her eyes cantered down to Spitfire for confirmation, which she received via a slight nervous nod.

The larger mare brought her right forehoof to her lips as they pursed into a frown, intense thought written all over her face. Would the Minotaur lands be any kind of safe haven? Their stubbornness matches even Celestia's and perhaps not in any way that would be welcoming to me. Her nostrils flared as a small hint of her rising frustration. In all truth, there is not a place on Equus that is likely to be all that welcoming to me. Not unless some far off corner of the world forgot about me, Equestria barely held onto my history. Perhaps there is somewhere?

As the alicorn drifted off into her own thoughts, Spitfire was left in uneasy silence. Despite the.. well at this point downright weird interaction she had with the alicorn she'd grown up hearing scary stories of, it had only served to dull her fear of the mare a touch. Her gaze drifted down to the ground, watching some of the grass in the far off distance sway to and fro in the gentle breeze that had fallen over the plains in their time sitting there. Sitting next to the Alicorn of Darkness, lost in a remote middle of nowhere, she felt now more than ever in the past few months she'd been fighting a growing depression, that she couldn't fall any further without being dead. She'd wrecked her own life bit by bit, losing sight of what it meant to be a part of the uniform that she wore. Pushing bad policies and outright going behind the back of one of her teammates when they were hurt, she should have been fired a while ago.

"But.. I wasn't." She mumbled, though black coated mare next to her didn't hear the words. "And i'm not dead..yet." Yeah yet, if she pulled something like the other night and fucked it up again she would be dead. Her snout scrunched up as a new mindset started to settle into the mare, a budding determination of sorts. Fragile to be sure, however it was a start. She cautiously turned her head up towards the alicorn besides her and considered what she was about to do very carefully before she opened her mouth again.

"L-Lady Nightmare Moon?" She tried, entirely unsure what title to use for an alicorn that was right now, most certainly not officially recognized as Equestrian royalty.

"Hm?" The direct address of her with a title and her full name was enough of a surprise coming from the formerly sunken mare that it drew her out of her thoughts to stare at Spitfire with a deer-in-headlights expression, her thoughts completely derailed now.

"T-thank you for saving my life." She said quickly, before her courage fled her. It was not to say she thought any better of herself, but she did think a bit better of the mare next to her after taking the time to think about everything. "There are a c-couple independent settlements supposedly around in these grasslands. Perhaps they might be of a more neutral standpoint for both of us?"

The words of Spitfire came completely out of he blue, at least for the much older mare, because she never expected to hear those words aimed at her anytime soon. All the fear and uncertainty that Spitfire had expressed upon waking up had pretty much confirmed in her mind that her reputation would remain first in pony's minds for a long time to come, even when she did something drastically different from her acts during her madness long ago. She simply stayed there, slack jawed for far to long for someone that held themselves with the dignity of royalty. The silence grew heavy as time went on and Spitfire was left to look at the ground wondering what the hell she'd been thinking saying anything at all. That is, until Nightmare Moon managed to close her jaw and work it a bit to remove the tension that had developed, and finally speak.

"You are welcome, young Spitfire. T-th-thank you, for these words." Her reptilian eyes shifted away, a faint blush having slipped into her otherwise pitch black cheeks.