Return of a Nightmare

Chapter 1-A Message

  Dawn was approaching and Princess Luna was outside on thew balcony using her magic to lower the moon. She paused for a moment when she noticed that her sister had not arrived to raise the sun.  She teleported into Celestia's room. Luna turned toward Celestia who was still in bed.

"Sister? Why are you still in bed? It is your turn to raise the sun." Luna prompted.

  Celestia raised her head and turned toward her sister. "Sorry..I was just...distracted..."

  Luna tilted her head confused. "Distracted? By what?"

  Celestia rose out of bed and sighed heavily. "I fear that....Nightmare Moon has returned..."

This caused Luna to freeze. "But........That's impossible...."she stammered.

Celestia nodded. "I know....But...I have a grave feeling that she is present once more." She approached her sister and wrapped one wing over her shoulders for comfort.

Luna relaxed slightly from her sister's touch.

Just then, Discord poofed in with his and Celestia's daughter, Misfortune. This caused Luna to fall back in fright. Discord laughed upon seeing her reaction.

"Oh dear Lulu, I did not take you as the one to be startled so easily." He smirked.

Luna glared at him. "I told you not to call me 'Lulu'."

Celestia turned toward her husband and child. "Discord, do we need to have another talk?"

Discord stopped laughing. "Oh..why Celestia....I did not mean...Well I was just poking fun..."he stammered.

Celestia breathed in softly. "It's alright Discord. No need to get flustered."

Discord sighed with relief. "Thank you..."

Luna stood back up. "What brings you here so early? You usually sleep through the early hours."

Discord opened his mouth to speak but Misfortune closed it with her snake tail.

"Dad felt that mom was not well so he dragged me here to see if she was okay. I wanted to sleep later, but he gave me no choice." She lightly shrugged.

Discord removed her tail from his muzzle. "Yeah, what she said."

Luna sighed before turning to Celestia. "Do you want to tell them or should I?"

"Tell us what?" Discord and Misfortune asked in unison.

Celestia nodded before looking toward them. "I fear that Nightmare Moon has returned."

Discord raised an eyebrow. "How can that be? Luna here does seem to have turned."

Luna glared again at him.

Celestia shook her head. "No, but I feel that when the Elements of Harmony freed Luna, a part of Nightmare Moon had fled till she regained enough strength to take shape once more."

Misfortune tilted her head. "But if it took this long for her to just take form, then she must not be at full power yet."

Luna looked at her sister. "She would need a new host body...I doubt she would just crawl back to me.."

Celestia nodded.

"Well then what are we waiting for?!"Misfortune shouted,"Let's go find Nightmare Moon and destroy her while she's still weak!"

Misfortune was about to fly off when Discord grabbed her tail. She turned to face him. "Dad! Let me go!"

"Can't do that Missy."he replied.

Celestia looked at her daughter.  "Misfortune, we can not destroy her if we do not know where she is hiding."

"So what are we going to do?! Sit around and wait till an innocent pony becomes her host?!"she countered.

"Tia, I have to agree with my dear niece. We can not just sit around wit hour hooves tied behind our backs." Luna added.

"Yeah I have to agree with them too honey." Discord admitted,"Guess it's three to one."

Celestia sighed. "I know"

She used her magic to levitate a pen and paper over. "I want to inform Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight about this matter as well so everypony will be on high alert."

"Then where do we go from there?" Luna asked.

"Once everypony knows that Nightmare Moon has returned, they will be sure to report to use when she appears again." Celestia answered.

"Then do we strike?" Misfortune asked.

Celestia nodded. "Then we strike."

Once the messages were written, Princess Celestia sent them to both Twilight and Cadence.