"Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite!"

The overjoyed squeals of fillies and colts fill her ears as she chases after the candy-seeking foals, fangs bared in an exaggerated threat display. When she catches up to them, she grabs one and growls, pretending to eat him as she blows a raspberry into his belly.

"Nooo! I'm being eaten by Nightmare Moon! Somepony help m- ahahah nonono stop stop that's my ticklish spot!"

Nightmare Moon snickers and releases the tiny colt, lifting her left wing to allow a frankly massive collection of candy to fall from underneath it.

"Thou hath proven thine worthiness in combat against the feared Princess of the Night, fair Pipsqueak! Collect thine prize, before We seeketh to consume thou as comeuppance!"

His mane is blown back by the force of Nightmare Moon's Royal Canterlot Voice, and even as genuine fear shivers through his mortal body at the sheer power behind the princess's words, a large, adoring grin spreads across his face all the same. The trust in his eyes as he looks up at her while he hugs her leg with his whole body is undeniable, and she breaks character to ruffle his mane with a fond chuckle.

"WOAH! Nightmare Moon, how'd you get your hooves on Hoofsie Rolls?! My parents said these haven't been made for years!"

That breaks Pipsqueak out of his princess-worshipping trance, and he breaks away from the hug to jump into the throng of foals desperately fighting to hoard the most of the treasured, rare candies.

Satisfied that the little colts and fillies are happy with her gift, she quietly slips away, whispering gratitudes to Luna in the language of the immortals as she darkens her light so that Nightmare Moon may better blend into the shadows.

it isn't intentional, but as she approaches the border of the Everfree Forest, she figures that it's as good a place as any to do some ruminating. It's been a few months, and while most of it's been spent squirreled away in either her room or ~~prisoner to~~ studying with Twilight Sparkle, she has learned enough of this small - 'Yet oh-so-interesting' - town to know its superstitions against the strange forest. A mirthless chuckle leaves her at the realization that, after a thousand years of desperation for somepony, anypony, to talk to, she now wishes to be alone.

'Luna...what doth thou maketh of Our thoughts?'

A confused song meets her mind in response.

'We mean that, surely, they art most contradictory to what We shouldst be feeling, yes...?'

Luna's response is a soft giggle and a hum concerning a mortal pony in the general vicinity.

The midnight alicorn decides to not give away the fact that she's aware of the other quite yet.

Sure enough, as she gazes up into Luna's surface, a yellow blur shoots out from a cottage half-hidden within the Everfree Forest's grasps, nearly crashing into the gate before it chooses to simply hop-fly over. Several minutes full of sleepy clucking and furious squeaks later, the yellow blur - now a yellow pony - comes stumbling back out, her expression one of exhaustion and irritation.

"No 'but's, mister! You nearly gave poor Elizabeak a stroke! Now go to bed this instant or no carrots for a week!" Despite the fact that her version of yelling is any other pony's slightly raised voice, Angel still flinches, and he glares for a half-second longer before his face falls into one of apologetic resignation. He hops back into the still-open door with droopy ears, his genuine remorse clear in the way that he doesn't slam it for once.

"We take it that this beeth a regular occurrence with thine fuzzy little acquaintance?"

"OhmygoshI'msosorryIdidn'tmeantointerr-!"

A quiet, hitching little laugh leaves the Princess of the Night before she shakes her head. "Nay, 'tis fine, fairest Fluttershy. We wert aware of thine presence well before thou hadst to chase after thine misbehaving rabbit."

"O-Oh, then, um...I really am sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you for so long, Nightmare Moon." She's scrunched herself into such a tiny ball that her voice is strained, her mane covering well over half of her face as her wings clamp down tightly against either side of her body.

"Thou misunderstandeth. If it wert a problem, We wouldst have requested that thou make leave long before this." She tries to give as unthreatening a smile as possible, but even with her lips closed, her fangs still poke out enough to be noticeable.

'Of all the times to develop an insecurity with Our own body...'

Instead of shrinking away further - or even bolting outright - in fear, Fluttershy simply returns the expression with a meek little half-smile of her own. "Um, that's good, then!" She purses her lips, uncurling enough so that she can cross one hoof over the other uncertainly. "...so, um...d-do you want me to leave? You seemed like you were kind of busy."

Reflexively, she prepares to say yes, but something stops her. Rather, the lack of something.

As she focuses her slitted gaze upon the animal caretaker, scrutinizing her and wondering why she doesn't make Nightmare feel the same way that nearly everypony else has so far, she realizes that this pegasus seems to have some sort of...quality. The same quality that the lunar alicorn holds within herself, albeit a much less twisted version. She feels a tiny flame of kinfolk alight within her breast, and so it compels her to smile a bit wider instead.

"Nay, fair Fluttershy. Thou shouldst sit beside Us, so that we may both cast Our eyes upon Luna's beautiful surface." She receives a teasing song from her other half in response, and she turns her head, briefly, to hide her smirk.

"If you're sure, then, um, I'd love to." She shakily steps over, anxiety still marking every move and sound she makes until she half-falls into a sitting position several hooves away from Nightmare Moon.

Silence fills the cool night air until Fluttershy finally feels comfortable enough to say, "You know, you were right." In response to Nightmare's questioning hum, she elaborates, "The moon really is beautiful." She smiles gently at the other. "Y-You called it- her?- Luna?"

A soft hiss of regret leaves the lunar diarch, prompting a nervous glance from Fluttershy.

"Um, Nightmare Moon, y-you don't have to explain if you don't want to."

She contemplates it for a few moments, and after a small push from the being in question, she sighs and shakes her head. "Nay, 'tis something We shouldst talk about sooner rather than later." Turning to the other mare to face her more fully, she fixes her with a hard stare. Not an angry or interrogative stare, but one with a hint of anxiety and fear, and an intense one all the same. "However, 'tis a tale that contains more 'bad' and 'ugly' than 'good', fairest Fluttershy. We do not wish to burden thou with such heavy weights on a night meant for celebrations and festivities."

Fluttershy shrugs, glancing towards her cottage to find Angel peeking out of the door before he, seeing that he's been caught, slams the door shut with a pointedly not inconspicuous 'slam!'. She chuckles before saying, "No, it's alright. I've never really been much for, um...well, Nightmare Night. N-Nothing against you personally! It's just that I don't really like feeling like I might be scared, or made to feel like I'm in danger at any time, even if it's all in good fun." She looks up to give Nightmare Moon a cute, scrunched-nose little snort of a laugh.

"I know ponies think I'm a big ol' scaredy-pony, and that is pretty true, but I can handle spooky stuff if I know it's coming. Besides...I-I don't mean to offend you, Nightmare Moon, but you seem like you need to talk, and what kind of friend would I be if I wasn't there for you?"

Nightmare Moon's jaw drops further and further with each word before, with the other pony's final words, she simply barks out a short laugh, shaking her head with amazed relief. "Thou art, truly, not the bearer of the Element of Kindness, fair Fluttershy, but the very embodiment of thine Element itself." She looks back up to give the blushing pegasus a soft smile. "Kindness beeth the strongest element that any pony couldst hope to retain for even a fortnight, and yet thou hath given Us the impression that thou hath been a practitioner of it for thine whole life."

Pawing at the ground with her left forehoof, a twinge of pain shoots up her right one, only further reminding her of her struggles during her imprisonment. She winces.

"We referred to Luna as such because, despite what many ponies believe, Our sister and Us art not simply the flesh bodies responsible for raising our respective planets. If anything, they art our 'cores', if thou wilt. Luna beeth the other half of Our soul; she holds half of Our essence, and We hold the other half. We wouldst argue that she holds the more important half, but she wouldst likely rain Tartarusfire down upon all of Terra if We wert to start that argument again, so We shalt refrain." A cheeky smirk crosses her face as Luna curses down to her from the heavens. It soon fades as she continues.

"...We hath always communed with Our precious Luna throughout the years. She beeth older than even Us, and so she imparts upon Us wisdom that We wouldst not have come across otherwise. She hath assisted - and even carried - Us through many a hard time." She grits her teeth. "But to be fond of one's solar self and to be imprisoned upon it for one thousand years art two very different things indeed."

The sound of rustling grass meets her ears, and she glances over to see soft cyan eyes looking up at her, forehooves held out as she offers a hug. The size difference makes it almost comical, but as she envelops the other pony within her own forehooves, she feels the most minuscule of a portion of the hurt in her heart begin to fade away.

"We thank thee, Fluttershy." Clearing her throat, she releases the other, trying not to grin at the way the pegasus's mane is now mussed beyond repair. "Ahem...where wert We? Ah, yes. We shalt avoid describing the details of Our time upon Luna's surface, both to avoid boring thou to death and to avoid potentially traumatizing thou, but perhaps the most jarring change which came about as a result of Our period of solitude is that-" She pauses, wrinkles her muzzle, then snorts in irritation at her perceived poor wordsmithing skills and paws at the ground, pulling up a few blades of grass and smearing mud over the bottom of her bare hoof in the process.

"We hath always been a solitary mare, never one for more than the occasional social call with Our close friends and when 'Tia dragged Us into social events with Canterlot snobs." Something deep and dark squirms around in the space behind her irises when she glances towards Fluttershy's caring gaze before she quickly snaps her focus upon a firefly happily shaking its rear at another.

"But at least We still had interactions with ponyfolk. Upon Luna's surface, We- We wert...so alone. We wouldst have killed for the chance to simply see another living creature." A sardonic grin twists her lips. "Though, looking back, We realize that, perhaps, that was a rather counterproductive train of thought." She shakes her head, her expression falling into that of a troubled mare's.

"When We succeeded in achieving Our plans to return to Terra, We wert overjoyed at first. We thought to Ourselves, 'rejoice, Nightmare Moon, for thou art now amongst ponies whomst thou may converse with!', and that that wouldst be that. However, nearly the exact opposite of that hath been Our...feelings, We suppose...concerning Our situation." A heavy sigh heaves itself forth from deep within her chest, and this time, Fluttershy doesn't hesitate to wrap her forelegs around the dark princess's lower neck, nuzzling into her fur with a boldness that displays both her ability to be unpredictable and her unwavering kindness all at once.

Nightmare Moon simply releases another low exhale, leaning down to return the nuzzle and taking a few, deep breaths in a rather fruitless attempt to hold back the tears beginning to rise up within her. "Fairest Fluttershy, We...art We broken from Our time upon the moon? We shouldst be rejoicing and basking in the light of Our adoring subjects, and yet, here We art, practically inside a forest which the townsfolk wouldst sooner die than enter, with only one mare instead of hundreds of ponies as Our company." Her right forehoof throbs harder.

"...it is times like this, when We fear that, perhaps, We shouldst have just stayed on Luna's surface. We doth not miss Our imprisonment, but We cannot find the words to describe this phenomenon otherwise."

"Nightmare Moon, shut up."

She squeaks, her face flushing red. "Um. Your highness."

At the alicorn's bewildered stare, she explains her sudden vitriol. "Nightmare Moon, you...you did do some very bad things, and I-I don't think it's really my place to say whether you deserved to be put on the moon, especially for a thousand years, but I can say that you don't deserve to go back. Not even for a second."

At the pegasus's reminder of her dark past, her wings droop slightly, and she turns her face away from the smaller mare, frowning. "How canst thou be so sure of thyself?"

A yellow hoof comes up to cup her jaw, turning her head until she's facing Fluttershy once more, and she's shocked at the enormity of the levels of kindness that lay within those gentle eyes.

"Because, Nightmare Moon, you're just like me." She releases the alicorn's face before leaning in to give her another nuzzle. "I told you before, about how I avoid Nightmare Night because I'm a scaredy-pony, right?" The pegasus feels Nightmare nod, and she continues. "Well, I'm scared of a lot of things that aren't even related to Nightmare Night. Sometimes my friends give me the strength to face them, yes, but for the most part, it's just my animals, my tea, and me."

Fluttershy gives the lunar princess a little nudge with her shoulder, and she gets a soft chuckle in return.

"I'm very familiar with loneliness, Nightmare Moon." She pauses, staring down at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Nightmare Moon. "...I don't mean to overstep my bounds - again - but, um, I'm guessing that you really want to go out and be in crowds all the time, and 'bask in the glow' of your subjects' adoration, right?" Another nod. "So, what's stopping you?"

"We feel so- so overwhelmed. We wish for so much, but even a small gathering wast-" Nightmare Moon's brows furrow slightly as she struggles to find the right words before she opens her muzzle to speak, only to have her words cut off by a yellow hoof.

"You're not broken, Nightmare Moon." A tiny, mischievous little gleam enters her eyes. "I just said that you're like me. Would you say that I'm broken? Even after my scaredy-pony self sat here and listened to you talk about some pretty scary stuff, told the Princess of the Night to shut up, and stayed here to keep talking to her? Because I don't feel very broken."

She chuckles slightly, the sound tinged with a hint of self-reproach. "Nay, We wouldst not, nor wouldst We ever. Thou art correct in thine statements, fair Fluttershy; thou art as far from broken as any pony couldst be." The smile that curls across her lips is just a little bit more genuine this time, small though it may be.

Nightmare Moon isn't quite sure how to word her request, so, instead, she simply unfolds the wing closest to Fluttershy, holding it open and glancing at her as a small flush of red rises to her cheeks. Something warm fills up the dark spaces that've been eliminated that night as Fluttershy cuddles in close to her, and as they gaze up at Luna's cratered surface together, she sings gentle hymns down to Nightmare Moon that make her think that, perhaps, she could be okay with the loneliness.

Author's Note

FlutterLuna sequel? Maybe in a year or two, according to my writing schedule.