The Man In The Moon

As always, Nightmare Moon slowly awoke from her slumber with the depressing knowledge that she had no responsibilities, nothing to attend to, nothing to see. For the first few minutes of awareness, she would consider whether or not to stand up at all today or merely sloth in her loneliness.

But we're not alone.

Moon bolted upright from her royal bed, her blue mane a floating frazzled mess and her reddened eyes wide open, and used her magic to light several hanging torches around the room. Where is our slave?! Or was he... just a dream we had?

"SLAVE!" She shouted, and crawled out of bed onto her four hooves, hurriedly putting her metal shoes and iconic helmet on. "ATTEND TO US! AT ONCE!" The Nightmare's fuzzy black ears twitched from side to side, scanning the silence for any sounds beyond her own. Nothing. She frowned and trotted outside into a long corridor. Unfortunately, her tunnel vision prevented her from seeing something blocking the way of her hooves and the princess stumbled and fell onto her stomach in a very un-princessy manner. The Nightmare hissed in frustration and was about to kick whatever got in her way, only to realise it was alive and breathing. "S-slave?" She stammered.

The otherworldly creature mumbled something in his sleep and rolled onto his other side, clutching a rumpled suit, which he used as his pillow. Yesterday must have truly worn him out. Perhaps we can use the oppurtunity to get something out of him when he's too tired to lie... Using her magic, Nightmare Moon levitated her slave off of the dirty floor outside and towards her bed in her quarters. As the field of energy dispersed and dropped him onto the covers, the slave finally woke up and looked around with a crazed, fearful expression, eventually focusing on the Nightmare. Remembering his quandary, the biped sunk back onto the pillows, sighing. "Your Majesty..."

"Slave. Thou art very weak. Explain."

The biped gulped. "I'm... I'm just a bit hungry, your Majesty." He bowed his head until his chin touched his chest, unwilling to meet his mistress's gaze. "And I don't really know what's going on..."

Hungry? Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. Hungry? ... Sustenance! Food! Water! You idiot, Moon! The creature is not immortal, and thou have foregone all maintenance!

"Well, why didn't thou just say so? Thou will accompany us for... for..." Breakfast. "... breakfast. And a morning bath. There, we can discuss your new servitude in greater detail."

Anon began to climb out of bed, but Nightmare Moon's magic took ahold of him again, and he floated behind the princess as she walked out of the room with a slightly giddy smile on his face at the prospect of food and some relaxation at last. His new mistress was reasonable after all!

Nightmare Moon took him to a dark, vast cavern, which she then magically filled with hot water. A mere shadow of the natural royal springs back in the Castle of the Two Sisters, but in this case, perfectly adequate. She set him down on the edge of the pool and carefully removed the helmet to release her magically waving blue mane, peeking at the slave's reaction.

As she'd hoped, the little creature was awed by her beauty.

Unlike the ponies. They were all so frightened of the night.

She knew she was deceiving herself - the slave barely even knew who she was, let alone to truly fear her. But it was a nice dream. She'd earned that dream after the many years of isolation that... she couldn't even bring herself to think of her foul sister's name... had imposed on her.

"Slave. Remove our shoes."

Anon pattered over to Nightmare Moon and took ahold of the ornaments attached to the heavy metal shoe, pulling it off of her large, coalblack limb. He shivered slightly as his sore fingers brushed against the fine fur, and looked up towards the powerful being who now controlled his destiny. Nightmare Moon's glowing, slitted irises peered straight back at him with some amusement. Who is she really? Anon thought. Why is it just the two of us here?

As he pulled off the last shoe, the Nightmare's neck snaked behind him and she hissed in his ear: "Hold still, Slave. Hands behind you." Instinctively, Anon obeyed and let her latch onto the back of his ragged jacket with her teeth, pulling it off of him. A magical field enveloped each of the six buttons on his shirt, simultaneously opening them.

Like his head, Anon's body was mostly coatless, save for the relatively thin layer of hairs on his chest and arms. "Thou art an odd and inefficiently developeth creature, Slave."

"I'm sorry, your Majesty." Anon mumbled, shivering a little without his shirt. It wasn't really cold, but he felt weak and vulnerable regardless.

"Not your fault."

By the time Nightmare Moon got to work on his belt, Anon had finally gathered enough courage to say: "Your Majesty! I, uh... your slave would not... ehhhh... would not want you to... to deal with the hassle of removing my clothes... yeah." It was weird enough that he now had to undress in front of the megalomaniacal talking pony, but at the very least, he could do it on his own terms? Maybe?

No.

Nightmare Moon merely chuckled. "That would indeed be the proper etiquette. But as we are alone, and you are our servant, we will do as we wish." As soon as she finished speaking, Anon's belt finally unlatched itself and his trousers dropped to the ground. "No sheath?"

"I... beg your pardon?" Anon asked, confused. The Nightmare pointed at the obvious bulge in his underpants.
"For thy cock. Male stallions usually have theirs concealeth behind a sheath, as we recall."

About five expressions passed over Anon's face until he ended up just smiling nervously and ignoring the question. "W-would you like me to take off that metal... whatchamacallit... thing on your chest?"

The mare glanced briefly at her breast plate and nodded. The biped removed his shoes and, now wearing nothing but his underpants, walked over and put his strange, fleshy claws on her symbol of office. All the effort that went into making it presentable for our subject, and now we're removing it again. Moon thought with a smirk on her muzzle.

Bare now, the night princess dipped her hooves into the magically created hot water and hummed with pleasure as the warmth washed over her. Alone and unwanted, she had little motivation to maintain hygiene consistently, but now she derived great pleasure from it. Turning back, the pony saw her slave standing over the pool and filled with wariness. She rolled her eyes. "We can't very well have good conversation with our servant hovering over the water like a ghost, can we? Join us - that is an order."

Anon sat down on the rocky floor and lowered his grimy legs in. The pool was at a perfectly warm temperature. With no more hesitation, he jumped in, the soothing water instantly relaxing his muscles. For a moment, he dived under and popped out again, spitting a stream out like a fountain. Nightmare Moon smiled as she saw the biped begin to enjoy the perks of being hers.

She then used her magic to transform part of the water into a solid table, with their breakfast on top. Salivating, Anon rushed to the table, only holding back at the last second. "M-may I eat, your Majesty?" he remembered to ask.

Nightmare Moon simply nodded and watched with slight nervousness as the biped stuffed his face. Being immortal and with no inherent need for food, she could only hope the dishes she'd recreated with her magic were of royal quality.

A part of her frowned. Royal quality? You are a princess, not a chef! Who cares what the food is like so long as the slave remains alive to fulfil his work?

Yet another part sniped back. Tis true, but the dishes were still created by us, albeit with magic. We are Nightmare Moon - we are perfect! And so is our food!

"How does it taste?" she felt compelled to ask. The biped looked up, and suddenly corrected his body posture, having been so ravenous he'd nearly forgotten her presence.

After swallowing, he replied: "It's good, your Majesty... very good. I, uh... I don't suppose you have any meat?"

The Nightmare recoiled slightly. "Meat? No! No, of course not!" Fool! Cretin! The creature is an omnivore, just look at those sharp teeth! Oh, how our mind has dulled in this awful captivity! To hide her error, she snapped sternly: "There is no meat! Eat what you were given by your betters!"

"Yes, your Majesty." The biped mumbled timidly and resumed eating.
No! Now he's scared again! Moon had to physically restrain herself from facehoofing. We can do this. This is just a servant, and we are Nightmare Moon and we are talking to the servant. Be silent, rubbish thoughts!

"What is your name?"

"... Anon. It's short for Anonymous."

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. "Tis a silly name."

He did not reply, which frustrated the night princess even more. Back in Equestria, making conversation was never an issue - not only were her bat ponies perfectly tuned to her every whim, but she was also kept busy, always so very busy. Managing the moon, battling Celestia, exploring the dreams of her ponies.

But here, she had nothing, absolutely nothing, but Anon. Did you send him up here, sister? Is this a challenge, or a mockery? Do you think we cannot get even this alien to love our night? The nerve!

"Who are you?" Anon's question broke the Nightmare's train of thought. "I mean, you told me, but... I didn't really understand. I don't know why I'm here." He said, his quiet voice tinged with shyness.
"'Here' is Equestria... not your Earth. And I am, or rather should be, its ruler." The Nightmare snarled a little, and Anon pulled back from the fury emanating from her slitted eyes. "My accursed sister has exiled us, perhaps you as well, to this place. But we will have our revenge. One... dark... night. If you're lucky, you'll live long enough to see it."