The Kids From Equestria

Nightmare Moon's blackened armor lustered in the pale moonlight. "Thou, sister," he bellowed in the Equestrian royal voice, "thou are the monster! Thous't banished me when thous't been wrong the whole time!" His dark blue, sparkling magic spilled from his palms and struck Celestia's chest, knocking her back into the wall.

"Brother, stop this instant," she shouted back, "you are being unreasonable!"

"Me? I am unreasonable? Thou are but the unreasonable one!" The tall princess counteracted his blue magic with her own golden magic, but Nightmare Moon's black face the color of soot drew a scowl under his helm. His sharp canine teeth ground together and his piercing blue eyes sank deep into her soul before he spread his black bat wings and ran to her, wrapping his fingers around her neck. "I will come back!"

That was when Celestia awakened and shot up in bed. She swallowed dryly and threw her legs over the side of her bed, standing up to wrap her soft blanket around her smooth shoulders. Slowly she crept to her brother's empty room and looked both ways before opening the dark blue door that was decorated in stars and the moon, all made out of gorgeous diamonds. Tears stung at her eyes when she saw the empty bed, but this time—much unlike any other night—she felt nauseous.

Unlike any other time before, the doors shut slowly behind her and her pink eyes widened when the hard wind had slammed the windows open. His favorite music box, showcasing a winged unicorn with a sapphire mane and opal body, began to play the songs that he had written in his solitude. Celestia pressed her back to the wall as the nightstand drawer threw itself open and thousands of pages of music flew from the bottom.

The sound of his sweet symphony filled her ears and she couldn't help but let out the sobs of a thousand moons passed. "Artemis," she called out, grabbing her golden blanket tighter. "I know you can hear me, so stop this nonsense!" The pages swirled out of the drawer violently and it was only a few second before finally the music box’s song stopped. The floating pages swirled in a cyclone around the music box and one piece of paper floated away from the group and to her. Grabbing it gently, she gasped when the box was thrown out of the cyclone.

She caught the music box before it fell to the floor and she saw that the sheet music was scribbled in shaky notes, then the pencil had trailed off of the paper and he had written a note on the page. Celestia looked down to the horse in the music box and watched as its beauty melted away to a black, fire opal mare with a long, sharp unicorn horn that was chipped and it had the same bat wings Nightmare Moon had grown when they had last fought. The blue pattern on its legs crawled up its neck and head until it formed the shape of his helmet that he had worn and her attention snapped up to the paper when she heard the sound of the paper being burnt. The symphony grew louder and an ember traced across the paper, writing the horrifying word: READ.

"Dear sister," she read aloud loudly with tears still streaming down her face, "I love you, but you have ruined my life. I needed someone—anyone—to be my friend, but all I received was anger and hatred. Kill me now with your 'superior magic,' or I shall kill you before anybody could ever realize it. My magic is superior. I am the Prince of Darkness. I am Nightmare Night." The pages fell to the floor and the wind stopped blowing her hair around. The calm returned and she looked down at the little music box, which had returned to normal. She furrowed her brow and took in what the note had said. “But you’re not Nightmare Night, you’re Nightmare Moon—“

"Celestia," she heard the loud voice call down the hall, "are you alright, dear?" Quickly she gathered up the blanket and placed the music box on the nightstand, bursting through the doors to her parents, Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos. The bearded man hugged her close and stroked her multicolored hair, giving the top of her head a kiss. "What's the matter?"

"He's coming back," she hiccuped through sobs.

"What do you mean?"

"Artemis wants revenge on me!"

"How do you know," Queen Galaxia whispered with a forced smile and Celestia pointed up to the glass ceiling, showing her parents the craters that looked like a horse in the moon.

"He's coming back on Nightmare Night, and I had a vision about it. Nobody will tell me otherwise!"

"It was just a dream," King Cosmos laughed in a jolly way, but Celestia shook her head as they ushered her back to her bedroom.

"It was a vision."