The tall and proud figure of Nightmare Moon stood on the balcony; her draconic eyes scanned the place while the presents gasped in shock and terror. Taking a step ahead, the mare in the moon opened her wings and her voice echoed in the hall.
"The night will last forever!"
With those words she marked her return; all the presents inside Ponyville's Town Hall started to scream and run frantically in all directions trying to escape from that place.
"Stop her! Only she knows where the princess is!"
Mayor Mare commanded and a group of pegasi guards charged against the alicorn who shoved them away like if they were flies thanks to her magic. An instant later, Nightmare Moon changed her form into a deep blue mist and left the place through the window. As Nightmare flew over the town, she felt joy of seeing the residents falling into chaos, ponies ran in all directions getting into their houses, closing windows and guarding the foals and fillies that cried on the streets. It was supposed to be a great celebration, but the festival of the summer solstice suddenly took another tone.
Some minutes later, the mist reached the outskirts of Ponyville and landing softly on a small hill it once more took the figure of the regal tall alicorn. Nightmare's black fur seemed to shine under the light of the full moon on the sky, her deep azure eyes were set on Canterlot Castle; she could feel Celestia's vital energy calling her, something that she was more than sure that the sun goddess was feeling too.
A soft breeze blew embracing her body and bringing with it many scents she has forgotten due to her imprisonment on the moon, that was enough to make her smile.
"It's good to be back."
Nightmare closed her eyes and for a moment she allowed herself to enjoy her freedom, however, her tranquility was interrupted by what seemed to be laughs, turning into fog again; she followed the sound of the laughter until she stood behind some bushes.
She was determined to start her new reign scaring to whoever was on the other side of the scrub and she smiled showing her long fangs. Nightmare peered through the branches and found a curious scene. Resting over a small tablecloth on the grass was a gray coated pegasus mare of blonde mane with a group of bubbles as her cutiemark, she had a motherly smile on her face and was looking at her little daughter, a purple coated unicorn filly with blonde mane that jumped around her while laughing in glee, there was also a small basket at their side from which came out a delicious aroma of warm apple pie that Nightmare couldn't ignore. For several minutes the alicorn looked at them, the filly leaped towards her mother who rolled over with her in her hooves, she caressed her daughter's face and kissed the tip of her muzzle, a gesture that the little one returned with love.
The scene brought several images to the alicorn's mind and her chest started to hurt. For a moment she saw the smiling face of a white alicorn of long red mane that moved in the air, at every side of this mare stood another alicorn, all of them were smiling at her.
“Sister! Hurry up! You will miss the show!”
Said the blue coated alicorn while the white coated one of multicolor mane jumped in place in her excitement. Nightmare could feel herserlf smiling, but the scene suddenly changed and she found herself inside a dark room that was barely illuminated by the light of candles, inside the room were the three same alicorns plus a gray coated earth pony who covered with a blanket the body of another pony that lay over the bed.
The eyes of the red maned alicorn who was holding a black hoof of the pony on the bed soon were filled with tears; her face showed pain and sadness beyond words and she ended hugging the covered body of the pony while crying endlessly, the two other alicorns were crying as well and hugged each other.
Nightmare's train of thought was cut by the faint sound of something popping around her. She looked at the ponies in front of her and saw that the gray mare was blowing soap bubbles that were being elevated by the breeze and flew away while the little filly looked at them with amazement. One bubble ended in front of Nightmare and for a brief moment she saw her reflection on it. Her eyes showed all the pain and sadness of being forgotten and the weight of the millennium she spent imprisoned on the moon.
The bubble burst and Nightmare bowed her head to clean her muzzle with her hoof. In that moment something got her attention, at her hooves was a small red ball, she couldn’t tell how it had ended there but she got a very good idea when through the bushes appeared the little filly. Both looked at each other in silence, Nightmare was about to leave when something she didn't expected at all happened, the filly smiled and hugged one of her legs.
“Pretty Princess.”
Said the little one with a huge smile on her face. Nightmare was stunned and didn't know what to do.
"Dinky, where are you?"
The voice of the gray mare was heard and the little unicorn took her ball in a faint golden aura. Nightmare felt a small tug on her leg and saw that Dinky wanted Nightmare to follow her, without thinking about it, the alicorn started to walk and soon both came out from the bushes.
"Mommy, look, a pretty princess."
Dinky said again as she ran towards her mother who looked at Nightmare with surprise, however, the alicorn noticed that she seemed to be completely in calm, as if she wasn't afraid of her.
"Good evening, Your Highness." Said the pegasus while bowing her head.
"A-are you not afraid of me?" Nightmare asked.
The mare smiled. "Of course not, why should I fear you?"
Nightmare was more than surprised by her answer. "Don't you know who I am?"
"I know perfectly well who you are." said the mare with serene voice. "But not for that I have to fear you, after all, you haven't hurt us and also, it seems that Dinky likes you, Your Highness."
Dinky was jumping around Nightmare who saw her stop to play with her tail from which seemed to spring thousands of small stars that marveled the little unicorn. The scene brought a sincere smile to alicorn's lips; she bent down and gently caressed Dinky's face with her muzzle.
"You have a beautiful daughter."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"Tell me, what is your name?"
"My name is Ditzy Doo, although many know me as Derpy."
"Why is that?" Nightmare questioned her while sitting at her side on the tablecloth.
"Well, maybe they call me like that due to my eyes, it isn't normal to meet somepony with my... characteristic..."
Ditzy said and took her hoof up to her face to move her mane away revealing that one of her eyes seemed to be out of focus and Nightmare understood the reason behind the nickname.
"It’s very rude of them to call you like that." Nightmare retorted angrily.
Ditzy smiled. "Actually, I don't mind it, many who know me say it with love and without malice, almost all the town knows me as Derpy so I got used to it."
"I guess… you're right…” The alicorn thought about it, after all, her name was also something that the ponies created, a name for the myth of the one that tried to enslave them. She shook her head in order to not think about it anymore.
“Ditzy, what were you two doing here?”
"We came to see the fireworks of the festival, this is the best place."
"I'm sorry I ruined your fun." Nightmare said bowing her head.
"None of that, I must say it is something even more pleasant for me to be talking with you."
"The pleasure is all mine." Nightmare smiled again.
It had been so long since the last time she had talked with somepony that it was refreshing for her. She saw Dinky made her way towards her and lay down over her front legs, the alicorn smiled and stroked her belly making her laugh.
"Are you the only ones here? Where is her father?" Nightmare asked.
Ditzy was surprised by the question and her face showed sadness.
"Oh... I see... you don't have to talk about..."
Ditzy took a deep breath. "It's okay, let's say that... long ago I was an insecure mare, you know, with eyes like mine, I felt like I would never knew what love was, but one day, I met this stallion who promised me that he would always be at my side and like the silly mare I was, I believed him and gave myself to him. Sometime later when I told him I was pregnant, he said he would stay, but one morning I woke up and he was gone, I never saw him again."
Nightmare understood what Ditzy had told her and cursed the one who had dared to play with somepony as noble as her.
"But still..." Ditzy continued. "I don't hate him nor wish him harm."
"But he played with you, he abandoned both of you." Nightmare said in shock.
"I know, but maybe he did it because he was afraid, believe it or not, those months we spent together were some of the happiest of my life and now that I have Dinky, I think I should thank him." Ditzy said proud and with determination.
Nightmare admired her. "You're very brave, Ditzy Doo."
"Thank you and you know? Now I'm seeing somepony else." She said with a small smile.
"Really? What's he like?"
"He's a little weird, but he's also very nice and loves Dinky so much, besides being very handsome. His name is Time Turner but everypony calls him the doctor, or just Doc."
"Wow, you're a very lucky mare." Nightmare said and both laughed.
Ditzy rose and took out the apple pie from the basket, then she cut three pieces of the dessert and gave one to Dinky and another Nightmare, after thanking her, the alicorn took the first bite of the pie.
"This is delicious." Nightmare said in glee.
"I know, Grandma Smith makes the best apple pies on the town, even Mr. and Mrs. Cake have been behind her recipes for many years, I don't think they will get it that easy."
"I can imagine it."
The three ate the dessert in silence, the stars in the sky seemed to shine more brightly and Nightmare looked towards the castle, she still had to face Celestia, but she was not so sure anymore.
"Everypony deserves a second chance." Ditzy said drawing her attention.
"What?"
"You're afraid, isn't it? Afraid of what could happen, of how will Celestia react when she looks at you again."
"How do you know it?"
"I can see it in your face, in your eyes, those thousand years locked away in the moon must have been very painful, you don't want to live something like that again."
Nightmare sighed. "You're right, I have fear, but I also know that what I did was wrong and that the punishment I had it well deserved, but I wasn't the only one locked up for a thousand years, Luna had to suffer the same punishment for my fault, my selfishness and desire to be recognized, Celestia had no choice, I know she hated me for that, I bet she still does, I don't want to face her, but I have no choice."
"What you've done, it happened long ago, Celestia had to suffer much during this time, the ponies change and I bet she can forgive you, if you show her that you've changed too."
Nightmare let Ditzy's words sank in her mind, in that moment she knew what she had to do. Both were silent for several minutes, far away, the clutter of the villagers was heard, they seemed to have continued with the celebration despite the threat of eternal night made by Nightmare Moon.
"It must have been a spectacular entrance the one you did." Said Ditzy.
"You can tell that." Nightmare chuckled and stood up. "Ditzy Doo, before I go, I must say you're a fantastic mare, I thank you for what you taught me today and I wish you all the luck in the world, I hope that you and Dinky be happy for the rest of your lives."
"You talk as if I will never see you again." Ditzy said with sad tone. "But I understand why you do it. I guess this is it, farewell, Mare in the Moon."
Nightmare bowed her head at Ditzy and then looked at Dinky; she kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear. "Take care of your mom; she's the best mare in the world." Dinky smiled and gave her a military salute.
Nightmare opened her large wings and sailed up the wind in direction to Canterlot, the moment of truth had arrived.
***---***---***
Celestia was standing on the balcony of her room, her gaze on the moon and tears falling down her cheeks. Inside her room, the fireplace was burning filling the room with its warm glow. Celestia reentered and sat before the fire. Sobbing, she heard the clink of thousands of small bells followed by muffled steps of hooves over the carpet.
She turned around and what saw almost made her heart explode, in front of her stood the fragile and weak figure of Princess Luna. The night goddess opened her eyes and when she saw Celestia, she too started to cry and rushed at her. Celestia received her with arms wide open and both fell to the ground entangled in a hug.
"Luna! Oh mother's name, you're back! You really came back!"
“Oh Tia! I missed you so much!”
Both were so happy of seeing each other that at first they didn't noticed that somepony was watching them. From the shadows of the room emerged the figure of a black coated unicorn mare with silvery mane and a group of five stars as a cutie mark, the unicorn cleared her throat drawing Celestia and Luna's attention. Celestia's eyes were wide open and so did Luna’s. The unicorn tried to speak but she just ended crying and with her head hanging low.
“Nightshade?” Celestia whispered. “Is that really you?”
The unicorn nodded. "Hi... sister..."
The next thing she knew is that white hooves and wings embraced her in a loving way and then blue ones joined in. Nightshade kept crying for several minutes, Celestia rubbed her back in a soothing way and Luna kissed her cheek.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Nightshade asked.
"Because we love you." Answered Celestia.
"No, don't say that! Say that you hate me! That you want to destroy me! Just do it!" The unicorn shouted.
“Why would I say or do that?” Celestia told her with loving voice.
“Because I…” Nightshade couldn’t continue, her feelings were overwhelming her.
“What you did, you had all the motives in the world to do it.” Luna told her.
"But I just caused suffering to you, I'm the reason why you endured a thousand years of banishment, I possessed you and then I almost killed Celestia, I'm nothing but a monster." Said Nightshade.
"The only guilty here was our mother; she didn't had the right to erase what you once were." Celestia intervened.
"No, she had all the right, I only caused her pain and sadness." Nightshade's voice trembled. "I can still see her crying on my deathbed, I still remember her calling my name, begging me not to leave her, and I didn't do it, I remained at her side as a shadow, I saw the three of you trying to accept that I wasn't here anymore, but you were so miserable that I started to reach out to you."
"Yes, we know that, and when we told mother that we could see you she just got angry and said that it was a cruel joke, we caused her pain too and to avoid it she decided to erase all your presence from our lives, in the end you never existed." Luna said with fresh tears in her eyes. "We are the real monsters; we should be the ones asking for forgiveness."
"Luna is right." Celestia continued. "When mother left and I took the throne, I also left Luna aside and you too began to fade away from my mind, I am the cause why Nightmare Moon was born, noth you nor Luna, you were only trying to help her, to be remebered again."
"If by helping her you mean turning her into a monster..." Nightshade tried to counter.
"Nightshade." Luna intervened. "I gave you permission to enter in my body, your intentions were right but my hate and rage was what turned both of us into Nightmare Moon, the power we tried to control was bigger than us, Celestia did the correct thing."
"Can you forgive us for what we did to you?" Said Celestia and Luna in unison.
“I don’t hate you.” Said the unicorn with a smile on her lips. "I forgive you."
The three shared a hug and then helped her to stood up.
“We will correct what mother did, now everypony in the world will know that we have a sister, Princess Nightshade has returned.” Said Celestia.
Nightshade looked at both of her sisters and shook her head. “I can’t accept that.”
“What? Why?” Said Luna in shock.
“Because I still need time to get use to this, I’m still just a shadow, a fragment of the past that refuses to die, but at the same time, I’m a pony that want’s to have a life again, I can’t be a princess, I’m not even an alicorn, and this world already has both of you, I need to search my own destiny.” Nightshade told them.
“But you’re our sister.” Luna retorted.
“Both of you know it, and that’s enough for me, maybe one day the world will know it too, but only the time will tell.” Nightshade told her.
“Is that what you really desire?” Celestia asked her and Nightshade nodded. “All right, we accept what you want, but if we have some problem, we will be over you looking for advice, after all, you are the older one.” She chuckled.
“Watch your words missy; I’m just five years older than you.” Nightshade booped the sun goddess in the nose.
The three laughed till tears fell from their eyes, then, Celestia and Luna gave her sister a mirror, a tiny music box and silvery saddlebags.
“What will you do now?” Asked Luna.
“I think I will return to Ponyville, it seems like the best place to start a new life.”
“Indeed, it is a great place and now that you mention it, I think I can use your help, my student Twilight Sparkle is down there and I bet she’s trying to find something to end with “Nightmare Moon”.” Said Celestia.
“The Elements of Harmony?” Said Nightshade.
“Exactly, I need her to learn a very important lesson and also, those elements can help you to end your “shadow” problem, in the end we all win.” Celestia clapped her hooves.
“You still have a weird way to teach something to others, but I think I can help.” Said Nightshade while taking once more the figure of the mare in the moon. “Besides, the night is still young and I need to do some exercise.”
The three nodded and disappeared from the room in a flash of multicolor light.
***One Week Later.***
The train whistled indicating its arrival to Ponyville's train station, passengers soon began to descend from the wagons, among them, a unicorn mare of slender figure, black fur and silvery mane walked until she exit from the station, Nightshade was received by the image of the town, its habitants walked from here to there with a smile on their faces and a warm attitude.
As she walked through the streets, many looked at her and said hello. Among the citizens she was able to recognize Twilight Sparkle and her friends, she also noticed that said ponies were "fighting" for a golden ticket.
"Celestia has done it again." She thought and chuckled, her sister really had a weird sense of teaching.
She kept walking for some minutes, then stopped to listen to a couple of ponies that played near a fountain, one of them, a gray coated mare of dark mane played the cello while her companion, a unicorn of white fur and electric blue mane accompanied her with a DJ console, the sounds that were completely opposite complemented each other in a harmonious way, when they finished playing, several of the spectators applauded and others gave them words of encouragement and admiration.
Nightshade left them a tip and walked away from the place. She stopped in the center of town and looked in all directions as if looking for something.
"Excuse me, miss, are you lost? May I help you with something?"
Somepony asked and Nightshade turned to look at the owner of the voice, he was a brown coated unicorn, his mane and tail was of a deep black color with white stripes.
"Oh, yes, thanks, I'm new in town." Nightshade told him.
"Really? In that case, let me welcome you to Ponyville, the most picturesque town of the region, my name is Lazarus."
"Nightshade, it is nice to meet you, Lazarus."
He smiled and took her hoof to plant a gently kiss on it, she was surprised by that and smiled as well.
"So, how can I help you?" Lazarus asked her.
"Oh, you see, I'm looking for Ditzy Doo; she's a good friend of mine."
"Ah Ditzy, of course, today is Saturday so she should be resting at her home, I can take you there, only if you're okay with that."
"Yes! I'll follow you."
They walked for several minutes, he talking a little about the life in the village and she about her life in Canterlot, of course, all according to the story that Luna and Celestia helped her to create.
"Well, here we are and look; it seems that the room in Ditzy's home is still on rent, you're very lucky."
"Thanks, Lazarus."
"Don't you mention it, it's been a pleasure. I hope to see you again; maybe we can take a coffee one of these days?”
"I... I'd like that."
"Okay, see you around, Nightshade."
Lazarus came over and kissed her cheek, bowed and slowly walked away, she smiled and a faint blush lit up her face. She approached at the door of the house and knocked on it. Moments later a pony of brown hair and fur wearing a green tie opened it.
"Hello there, may I help you?" He asked.
"Hi, you must be Time Turner"
"Yes, that’s me, but you can call me Doc."
"Oh, okay Doc, I'm looking for Ditsy."
"Of course, dear, someone's looking for you."
The Doc called and Ditzy appeared at the door soon after with dinky on her back.
"Hello." Ditzy told her.
The unicorn smiled. "My name is Nightshade and I'm interested in renting the room."
"Sure, c'mon in, you can see it and then we can talk a little about it. Dear, can you go get the keys please?"
"I'm on it." The Doc said and entered the house.
"By the way, you seem familiar to me, have we met before?"
Ditzy told her and Nightshade was about to answer when Dinky jumped from her mother's back to the unicorn's hooves. Nightshade grabbed her tenderly and stroked her stomach.
"Pretty princess." Dinky said and Ditzy looked at Nightshade with eyes wide open.
"Night... Nightmare?..." She whispered in awe.
Nightshade smiled, nodded and winked at her.
"Hi, Ditzy, it's good to see you again."
