The Return of Night Mare

As Prowler listened to Night Mare describe her first assignment, he couldn't help but feel a little queezy. He knew that Nightmare Moon was trying to manipulate him into joining her. But it felt off to know that she had roped Night Mare into the entire mess, and manipulated her masterfully, for the sole purpose of delaying their search for the Elements of Harmony.

"So what happened next?"

"You know full well what happened next." Her response was very curt.

"During our..." Prowler paused. "...encounter, did you use your abilities?"

"Yes."

"Is that how you knew about my abilities to see through the dark?"

Night Mare let out a dark giggle.

At least that's one thing about her that hasn't changed a bit. Prowler thought.

"I'm not a mind reader." Night Mare replied, as if it were obvious. "I can just see the things people are afraid of in the moment. All the information I got about you was from Nightmare Moon. I wasn't lying when I said she was keeping a close eye on you."

"Did she mention any pony else she was keeping a close eye on?" The idea was highly unlikely, but Prowler wanted to be sure to double check.

"No." Night Mare gave a very simply response. "Or at least no pony she told me about."

Now that that question was out of the way, Prowler went back to the narrative.
"So...when we met, what did you see?" It wasn't until after he asked the question that he realized he probably shouldn't have asked.

Night Mare paused. "Your friends had some very interesting things going on in their heads. Most of them were reasonably concerned about you betraying them. And one of them was fixated on marshmallow men and bald gorillas with vacuums on their backs."
Probably Shen. Prowler didn't hesitate to make that assumption. Only he would come up with something that ridiculous.

"And were you using your ability when you were trying to win me over?" Prowler wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but I figured he may as well get a taste of her abilities. Especially if she was so willing to reveal it.

"I did." Night Mare replied. "Or at least I tried."

Prowler gave her a very quizzical look. "What did you see?"

Night Mare paused. "I didn't see anything."

Prowler's quizzical look turned into a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"In that moment, you were so focused, and so determined, you didn't seem to be afraid of anything. No matter how hard I looked, and no matter how much I tried to shake you up, I couldn't see anything."

"Well you said that you could see what I was afraid of a few minutes ago." Prowler said. "So what changed between then and now?"

Night Mare took a minute to respond. "I don't know." She looked down again. "Listen...about what happened. I..."

Prowler watched, as Night Mare's composure slowly melted away.

"I...I don't expect you to forgive me....but I....I'm...." And then Night Mare did something Prowler was not expecting. She started crying. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know what I did was wrong. I'm sorry!"

Prowler had no idea what to do. Of all of the scenarios he prepared himself for, this was not one of them.

After sobbing for a minute, Night Mare spoke up again.
"I don't expect you to forgive me. But if you're going to keep me locked up down here....could you at least...."She looked him straight in the eyes." could you at least send some pony to visit me....every so often?"
After a minute of listening to Night Mare sob, Prowler got up and left. Half of him knew he wasn't going to get any more information. The other half of him just wanted to leave.