They dream of the things they wish for
Her large, black wings carried The Nightmare through the cool night. She flew with her eyes closed, letting her heart set the direction. Her face was stained with tears, causing it to glisten in the pale moonlight.
When she opened her eyes, she was approaching a large, ornated castle overlooking Canterlot. Nightmare descended onto the balcony decorated with gold, recognizing the solar patterns and Celestia’s liking of the golden color.
As she peeked inside through the glass doors of the balcony, she saw the royal sisters peacfully sleeping on the bed, under the covers, Celestia embracing Luna as the big spoon.
”That could be me...” Nightmare thought. ”She could be holding me... Loving me... We could be so happy...”
She shut her eyes tightly, feeling her tears spill, gritting her teeth and tensing her muscles. She managed to hold her crying back for a while and opened her eyes.
She saw Celestia’s large window pane widely opened to her right. Jumping on the opportunity, she propelled herself silently through the opening with her wings, landing without a single noise on the carpet. Nightmare walked closer to the bed, looking at the sleeping sisters. Her envious thoughts returned from earlier, and she caught herself breathing heavily, desperately trying to keep herself from breaking down.
She was interrupted by a whimper coming from Luna, which gave her a really bad feeling. An idea snapped into existence in her mind, and Nightmare started looking around the room for a picture of Celestia to take with her. She found one on top of the empty fireplace, and she quickly scooped it up with her magic.
At this moment Luna whimpered louder and sat upright, with her eyes wide, sensing the dark presence, waking up Celestia as well by leaving her embrace.
“Nightmare Moon!... Guards!” Luna’s yells made Celestia shoot upright as well, protectively sliding over Luna to be between her sister and the intruder. Two guards stormed into the room, pointing their spears to Nightmare’s neck, still looking unconfident in themselves, the tall alicorn intimidating them by her presence.
“I can explain everything, just let me talk, please, Celestia! I promise I do not want to do anything, just let me explain!” Nightmare talked as fast as she could before the princesses would do anything.
“So you’re saying you were not trying to murder us in our sleep and take over Equestria?” Celestia squeezed her lips together, making them a thin line in anger, glaring daggers at Nightmare.
“Of course not! Why would I do that? I have changed much from my past self, I can tell you everything, just listen to me!And don’t send me back to the moon...” she noted in a faint voice.
Celestia looked at Luna with a puzzled look, as if asking for her younger sister’s opinion on whether they should listen to the intruder or just deal with her quickly, incapacitating and throwing her into the dungeons.
“I would like to hear what does she have to say, Tia.” answered Luna the unspoken question.
“I will tell you two my deepest feelings and thoughts, but only in private and with less spears pointed to my throat, if that can be arranged.” She didn’t realize she was still levitating Celestia’s picture, enough distraction having been provided.
Celestia dismissed the guards with a wave of her hoof, who left in disbelief and also a light shock from seeing Nightmare Moon return. As soon as they left the room, Celestia spoke up.
“You could start by telling me what did you want to do with my picture?”
Nightmare almost asked “What picture?” before realizing, then she blushed and placed it back to where she took it from, and begun to talk.
“I wanted to take your picture with me to your old room in the Everfree Castle, where I currently reside... I would hang it on the wall, and as I would look up to it, you would smile upon me. I would also hug it to my chest, imagining you were there with me, holding me as I cried and told you how sorry I am for all that happened, how different I am from the monster I used to be, begging for forgiveness, and you would stroke my mane calmly as I buried my face in your chest, telling you how much you mean for me and how much I love you... That’s what I needed it for...”
She was choking up on her words, her whole body shaking as she leaned her head down, shutting her eyes tightly in a futile attempt to stop her tears from overflowing. The drops slid down her face and fell onto the carpet below.
Celestia sat there with her mouth agape, utterly dumbfounded by Nightmare’s words. After minutes of silence, she turned to Luna.
“Luna... can we believe her? Is she not just trying to mislead us, create a false sense of security, and an opportunity to strike?”
“Why would I lie to you? I would never do that! If I wanted, I could’ve taken your lives while you slept, but I didn’t. I changed... Please believe me...”
“She is speaking the truth sister. She truly changed, and she truly loves you.” answered Luna, who didn’t appear surprised at all by Nightmare’s story.
“How can you be so sure?” asked Celestia, relieved a bit by her sister’s words, but still showing suspicion.
“Simple. She dreams of you. She has the ability to manipulate her own dreams and she always makes herself dream about you.”
Now it was Nightmare’s turn to be surprised, her slitted eyes going wide in shock.
“S-so you have... Does this m-mean you...”
“I even helped with those dreams of yours. You always got emotional and slowly lost control... Your dream would’ve changed or you have woken up, but I made the dream last longer quite a few times, letting you experience all the happiness you could get from those dreams.”
Nightmare listened in silence, then raised her voice to speak.
“Thank you... You know how much those dreams meant for me, and I am grateful for letting me be happy with Celestia at least in my dreams.”
“If it is so, I would gladly offer you a chance at my friendship, and an opportunity to forget about the past.” Celestia raised the edge of the cover and pat the mattress beside her, inviting Nightmare for affection.
The alicorn of darkness felt unspeakable joy at Celestia’s words, another wave of tears starting their way down her face, and she was compelled to use all the self control she had to literally not jump into Celestia’s hooves. She climbed onto the bed and wrapped her hooves around Celestia’s chest and buried her face in it, sobbing quietly and occasionally whimpering “Thank you” and “I love you” while Celestia brought her hooves around her back and used one to rub up and down the back of her neck, like she did countless times in her dreams. Nightmare continued to weep tears of joy as it felt uncomparably better in real life. She felt another pair of hooves wrap around Celestia from behind just below her own, brushing against them as Luna assumed sleeping position as well.
Before sleep claimed Nightmare, she felt immense joy as she was being with the two ponies who were closest to her heart. Luna nuzzled into Celestia’s mane from behind while Nightmare softly rubbed her cheek on the solar alicorn’s chest. She knew her life would be happy from this point. She felt it in her heart.
