Author's Note
This story originally was a ONESHOT. This is a addition I decided writing for christmas. Happy holidays to all of you!
Hearts' freezing eve
Nightmare Moon
“Luna?”
Nightmare looked up, looking at Celestia.
It was hearts warming eve, a day before an annual festival that Nightmare only recently got aware of. However, thanks to what it represented, she could not find any pleasure in it.
“You have to go out more! Especially at hearts warming eve!” she urged, but Nightmare shook her head.
Hearts warming is a holiday, dedicated to the founding of Equestria – and the banishment of spirits known as ‘the Wendigos’ through earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns working together in harmony and friendship.
And harmony was represented by six virtues: Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic.
Three of which she opposed while being supposed to be the one who once embodied them: Loyalty, Honesty, and Laughter.
It only served that much more of a reminder that Luna should be here today, not her.
The black mare looked down again, remembering how Luna was the only one to understand her. Nightmare had not seen Luna since she left the moon, even not when she tried visiting her via the dream realm.
Was this the time for Luna to return? No. It was alone Luna’s decision, and she was probably still scared. Alicorns changed and acted slowly. When she was ready, she would come.
Though...
“Where are you going, Luna?”
Nightmare never reacted to Celestia calling her as her sister. It felt wrong to do so. She was an alicorn in the body of Celestia’s sister, but she was not her sister.
“We – I do plan to visit an old friend,” she responded, carefully concealing key facts about her planned visit to the moon, only reminding her further of her being essentially the opposite of an honest being.
Celestia, in turn, smiled widely.
“That’s wonderful, Luna! Will you tell me who it is?”
She shook her head.
“Not yet, she requested me not to mention her name,” she responded.
“Has it something to do with the enormous rune below your carpet though?”
Nightmare blushed slightly.
“Yes,” she admitted, picking up her present for Luna.
“Long-range teleports aren’t easy, even for us. May I ask for privacy about this, Celestia?”
“You may,” Celestia responded, leaving the room and knowing she wouldn’t get more information from ‘Luna’.
Nightmare’s horn lit up in a dark cobalt blue, and she rolled up the carpet. She then stepped in the rune and activated it, creating a passage only she could enter, connecting the room to the moon.
“Thou didst return!” the blue cloud exclaimed before condensing in a slightly smaller pony.
“I am not one to break my promises,” Nightmare responded, looking at Luna.
“And? How doth thou fare down there? Better than ten centuries ago?”
“There was no conflict in quite some time, it is peaceful,” she said, looking to the ground. Peaceful, yes, but harmonic?
“Why art thou looking like that? Is it not hearts warming eve, a time of celebration?”
“I am doing nothing more than living a lie...” Nightmare said, trailing off and falling down.
“Mayhaps. But we are, too.”
Nightmare looked up.
“How do you mean that?”
“Follow us,” Luna solemnly responded, turning around and walking (floating?) back to the castle she built during the time they were banished to the moon.
When they arrived in the throne room, Nightmare was there for the first time, but she immediately noticed the two thrones. It was a near-perfect replica of the throne room in the castle of the two sisters. However, the big throne bore Luna’s mark, the other one held the symbol Nightmare Moon once choose for her campaign against Celestia. Only she and Luna knew about it.
“Why?” she asked, her voice suddenly dry.
“Because our moon shant be ruled by those connected to the light,” Luna responded, sitting down (?) on the big throne.
Nightmare grimaced at that thought. She had enough of politics, at least for the time being.
“Now, we doth believe you have a present for us?”
“Right,” Nightmare said, levitating over the deep blue crystal.
“I made this crystal to amplify your magic. It should bring you back part of your former strength and allow you to visit the dream realm again,” Nightmare said, carefully placing it down.
“We can already access the dream realm again.”
Nightmare looked at Luna, shocked.
“Then why did I never find you? Felt you, for that matter?” she asked, wondering why Luna would stay back that much from the world.
“We wished not to be found,” Luna admitted, looking at the crystal.
“But... why?”
Luna gave Nightmare a sad smile.
“We still art not ready to return. So, we choose to observe thou and the world. We believe you could reveal thyself, too.”
“Would they really believe me when I told them the truth? When I would tell your sister? Would they stay my friends?” Nightmare asked, nervously scrapping along the ground with one hoof.
“Of that, we art sure. Though, thou said they art your friends, no?”
She could only nod.
“Then we believe you should spend hearts warming with them, as well. No matter what thou tell thyself, thou have no frozen heart. And Celestia is your sister, too.”
“Neither I nor her think so,” Nightmare responded, looking away.
“Because sister sees thou as us! Spend time with them, tell them!”
“And if they reject me?” she responded, a lone tear escaping her eye.
“No matter what I do, it can’t possibly end well for me!” she cried out, starting to wish it was all just a dream.
“That is not true, Nightmare!” Luna responded, moving close to the black mare.
“Doth you know why? They art thy friends! They have to understand!” she said, raising Nightmare’s head to look her in the eyes.
“Then how should I do this?”
“Thou do as it follows...”
Hearts Warming – 1001 ANM
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight was surprised when princess Luna requested to be with her during hearts warming but accepted instantly. She did not know why the princess would prefer spending that specific day with her instead of her mentor but saw no reason to decline.
Of course, her parents were slightly shocked when a princess appeared – Twilight only said a guest would come – but they soon enough opened up.
Currently, they were sitting in their living room, and she was looking at the fire in their chimney, mesmerized by the flames.
She was reminded of the ponies around her when she heard the princess asked her something.
“Princess? Did you say something?” she asked, hoping princess Luna wouldn’t get mad at her inattentiveness.
“I just asked you what you think my full name is,” came the quiet response.
“Uhh... princess Luna Nightbringer? I think?”
To her surprise, Luna shook her head.
“No, it isn’t. It’s something different.”
For a moment, the princess was quite, then she spoke again.
“My name is Astral Nightmare Eveningstar.”
~~121 AC~~ / 0 ANM
Nightmare Moon
I looked around in the wasteland that has become my new home. Curse you, Celestia!
Sighing, I decided to make myself familiar with my surroundings. I never bothered learning about the surface of the moon, as it was more or less uniform.
For a while, I just wandered around, looking for anything of interest.
But everything around me was white.
A long time, I couldn’t do more than draw lines in the sand and think about my actions.
Remembering what Celestia said, I doubted myself a bit. Eternal night is bad, that’s what she said. But nopony ever said why.
The elements shouldn’t have banished me here. It seems like I know not enough about them to predict what they do.
Suddenly, I felt very tired. I tried to will myself awake but couldn’t do so. Before I could ask myself why, I was out.
~~133 AC~~ / 12 ANM
Luna
I watched my own, sleeping form.
It was strangely disconnecting to be awake and asleep at the same time.
But I knew that that wasn’t me who was asleep. I wondered why Nightmare would sleep.
I sighed and once again tried to use my magic, and thanks to Nightmare sleeping, I could actually produce a small spark of magic!
Her sleep causes a slip of control. Maybe her sleep is caused by the elements, then? To give me a chance of regaining control over my body?
I once again lit up my horn and felt around. I could sense my surroundings and Nightmare, and, looking to the planet above me, the dreams of the ponies back home.
I couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to know that there was still some control I had over my domain.
Then, I tried to move my body. To my disappointment and frustration, I was unable to do so. I could use a small, small bit of my magic, but I couldn’t move my body at all. But why would I have control over my magic but not my body?
~~156 AC~~ / 35 ANM
Many, many tries later, I found myself able to use something akin to Nightmare’s ability to transform into smoke. I could server my consciousness from my body, which allowed me to travel a bit over the moon’s surface.
Like many things this too was limited. I couldn’t move further than two thousand steps away from my body, and after that I would run into something akin to an energy wall.
However, after what happened, it was my best option to regain some mobility, so I decided to continue to try and move around. And, over time, I indeed was able to move farther and farther away from Night- my body.
Unfortunately, this meant nothing. It wouldn’t matter if I could move ten or ten million steps away, I couldn’t fly up farther than on equis, as the elements prohibited me from leaving, and the moon’s surface looked the same everywhere.
In frustration, I kicked a pebble in front of me, and like before, my hoof passed through it.
Turning around and walking back, I suddenly heard a very, very small sound. Like a clicking of some sort.
I looked around, trying to find out what caused this sound, then I saw the pebble. It has fallen over.
That means this form is partially corporal after all!
~~210 AC~~ / 89 ANM
Now, after yet another long time of trying, training and frustration, I found myself able to move around small amounts of moondust. I wasn’t able to move anything bigger than a small pebble, like the one I knocked over back then, but it would allow me to draw.
Curious what would happen, I drew a rune within the ground, but it didn’t activate. I could only guess why, as I knew near nothing about the magic on the moon.
Maybe moondust wasn’t able to create runes, maybe the moon had a different sort of magic. I couldn’t tell, and it was only important to know that it wasn’t working.
Since then, I stopped trying to create anything magical and only drew pictures. Since I could move my form upwards, I could see them from above, and with a bit of luck, Celestia would do so as well. I’m sure she would like to know I was well!
~~234 AC~~ / 113 ANM
I smiled upon seeing what I managed. I created a beautiful mandala on the surface of the moon, only using the moondust and the light from the sun. It was a few dozen steps in diameter, which didn’t sound like much, but it was incredibly detailed.
Suddenly, after floating back down, I could sense a nightmare, which confused me. I wasn’t able to properly sense any dreams since Nightmare got send her (and mine) sorry flank up here, much less enter them.
Looking around, I found that I was near my body, which already started to get a bit white.
Unlike with Discord, this wasn’t a sign of alarm, as it wasn’t the depression he causes but simply the moondust dulling the colors.
However, as I drew closer, I started to sense the nightmare. It came from Nightmare, which surprised me a bit. I always thought she would be unable to dream, but for now I wanted to see what somepony like her would dream about.
So, I entered her dream.
Finding an empty void at first, I wondered what would make this a nightmare. There was nothing there!
That was when I heard a quiet sobbing, and as I looked, I could see her.
I wanted to hate her. To hurt her. To amplify the nightmare.
But I wasn’t able to. I would become like her with this. And I had no idea why this would be a nightmare.
So, I sat down and listened.
Nightmare stared in the distance, tears running down her face. She lowly whispered to herself, and I was able to hear these whispers.
“Empty…”
“Forgotten…”
“Alone…”
But Nightmare wasn’t the one who was saying these things to her.
Slowly, the dream changed. I could see myself, and Nightmare did as well. She looked up and tried to reach ‘me’.
Recognizing the moment Nightmare took over my body, I watched interested, wondering if and how the dream would be different.
Unlike it really happened, Nightmare drew short of ‘me’. She was unable to reach reality.
Falling down on the ‘floor’ of nothingness, she started to cry again.
I felt conflicted. Nightmare separated me from my sister and nearly destroyed equestria, but the only ones who got hurt were her and my sister. She seemed like she was only trying to find meaning in live.
Since I felt not comfortable with talking to her yet, I drew back from the dream, but changed it so that the voices vanished and she now sat on the green fields near Canterlot.
~~282 AC~~ / 161 ANM
Nothing changed.
But Nightmare dreams once again. Her dreams have gone quiet after I soothed them the first time, so this was surprising.
This time, I was incredibly surprised. I could see her crying again, but it weren’t tears of sadness but joy. She was crying in the fur of my sister, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Celestia would accept her when she would know why Nightmare acted the way she did.
I left her dream as it was, as it showed no sign of turning bad. Back on the moon, I continued to exhaust my magic, which got refreshed by the natural magic of the moon. Only now, after countless years, I remembered that this could actually change my magic.
Looking over my shadow-y form, I couldn’t help but wonder if that already happened.
~~283 AC~~ / 162 ANM
Yep.
~~348 AC~~ / 227 ANM
This time, the trance was caused by myself. I entered Nightmare’s memories and looked over them, finding that the form I now had was similar to the one of Nightmare before she entered our world.
Fueled by emotions, but no dark magic, these bodies have both incredible strength and weaknesses. For example, I could fight a wendigo hoofes-on without any problems. I’d win as well.
However, everything that can change or are influenced by emotions – the fire of friendship, the crystal heart, the elements of harmony – are the weakness of this body. But such things don’t exist on the moon.
They usually came in existence randomly, lived a while, maybe interacted a bit with each other and died again, but Nightmare caught a glimpse of our world.
From there on, she realized how lonely she was, and did everything in her power to reach this world. Her original form wasn’t able to survive her trip, but her mind and part of her original magic got carried over, making her fusion with me more powerful than Celestia was.
Interestingly enough, her real magic (magic influencing the physical world) seemed to still work while mine got completely blocked by the elements. I hope she has no objections to me using that magic as she has no need of it as for now.
~~569 AC~~ / 448 ANM
After realizing that the magic Nightmare used while she was possessing me was entirely hers, just channeled and powered by my body, I decided to show her my memories of learning magic.
It would be a fair exchange, after all.
I turned away from my body, which was entirely white by now. Not moving a few centuries will do that to you.
My power in the astral magic (as I called Nightmare’s magic and species now) has steadily increased over the last years. I was nearly as powerful in this magic than in my alicorn magic now.
Interestingly, that also means I was stronger than Nightmare now. She was not training, only learning a bit of alicorn magic. This would not increase ones’ magical power.
By now, I could move bigger rocks up to the size of a head around. This would allow me to do some substantial changes on the moon.
But I, too, was far afar from having finished learning. The astrals get way older than ponies, and while I had way too much time on my hooves up here, each single step of an astral spell needs to be understood before casting. That was also why my influence was so weak back then, I only understood that I was trying to levitate something.
However, before I started diving into Nightmare’s memories again, this caused me to wonder: What was Nightmare for me?
~~984 AC~~ / 863 ANM
Nightmare Moon
“Nothing has changed. Nothing will change. This will stay that way until somepony decides that change is needed.”
In tatarus are you saying?
Opening my eyes, I found myself within a great void, back in my old body.
Another of mine was hovering next to me. But it seemed… similar?
“Doth I know thou?” I asked, instantly falling back in the way the pony princesses spoke back then.
“Aye, but it is thou who should answer this question.”
Unlike before, I could now hear and understand the voice.
“Tis’ you, Luna?” I asked, confused where all the hate of hers had gone.
“Indeed. Tis why thou attacked me, is it not?” she asked, gesturing with a smoke-hoof around us.
Right, she must have seem my memories.
“Thy dreams are interesting, they art different from what I know back then.”
Wait.
“Ti’s a dream? But I cannot dream! What did thou do to me?” I asked, both confused and scared.
She however, only tilted her head.
“Thou brought this upon thyself. Tell me, what are you as of now?”
“A shadow?” I responded uncertain, not having an idea what she meant.
Then our surroundings changed. I flinched but realized that this was normal for a dream.
I could see a white, dusty surface, and the form Luna has assumed when I took over her, lying and sleeping.
“Thy are dreaming, as thou now art a pony as well. Thy first dream was caused by the elements, but over the years thy dreams became more and more normal. Alas, I don’t think you can wake up, as they also try to keep thy unaware of the time passing.”
But how could I become a pony?
“Tis should impossible for me to become a pony!” I exclaimed, trying to understand what was happened and still happening to me.
“Many things are possible within dreams and magic,” she cryptically explained and vanished, leaving no trace behind where she has gone.
I shook my head, which I now realized has become that of a pony again.
“It’s time for your next lesson, Nightmare!” I heard an old, but powerful voice exclaim behind me, and I could feel my consciousness leave me, like I have seen with others in the dream realm within Luna’s memories…
~~1121 AC~~ / 1000 ANM
Luna
Feeling the change in the magic around my body, I watched in interest. I had already removed the dust from it, so that it shone jet black like on the day that Nightmare got banished to the moon.
I held her in my now nearly solid forehooves and waited until she stirred slowly awake.
“What’s… happening…” she asked, still clearly tired from her one-millennium-powernap.
“Thy return to equestria is due,” I said, causing her head to whip around and meet my gaze.
“But… I… you…” she said, clearly not understanding how I could have adapted her magic.
“I learned your magic, you learned mine,” I responded, causing her eyes to go wide. Her long, sharp horn lit up and a bolder as big as herself lifted from the ground, and another flash of deep blue light transformed it into rubble.
Then, her horn got clad in shadows, but nothing else happened.
It seemed that thanks to me using her magic, we switched places.
And it seemed that Nightmare realized this now, as well. I could see her tense up, then going through my memories.
Then she fell to her knees, starting to cry.
I held her and whispered words I knew would help her in her ears.
“I have seen why thou did this. I’m not angry, not anymore.”
“I will not banish thou back in the void. Live is too precious.”
“Maybe thy dream will come true?”
The she surprised me once again with what she said.
“But… I stole your existence!”
“I do not mind,” I responded gently, realizing that I actually didn’t.
However, I didn’t feel brave enough to face Celestia again.
“The bonds do not hold us anymore here,” I said, pointing at the glowing of the magic surrounding us.
I lowered my head, knowing I was acting cowardly and foolish.
“Tell my… your… our sister I’m sorry. For being scared and foolish, to staying behind when I know I should return with you.”
“You… you want to stay here? In this wasteland?”
Her question was absolutely justifiable.
“It has a sort of hidden beauty, and silence,” I said, stepping aside and allowing her to see the palace I had build out of moonsand and -stone.
“If I can’t muster the courage to follow you, promise you will visit me?”
She nodded, then hugged my form with all she got – hooves, wings and magic – before spreading said wings and taking off.
I was slightly worried what would happen to her, but I was sure she would be fine. I turned around and moved back to the castle. This time, my throne was the big one.
Looking up, I remembered what happened last time when Nightmare walked on Equis. I could only pray that this was the right decision.
