Paint The Moon Red

Chapters

Luna’s Dilemma
Rave-ity
Pink or Treat
Applejack Daniels
Smash and Dash
Flutterhigh
Highnote Sparkle
Bloodshot Moon

Luna’s Dilemma

Luna paced incessantly around her room, gnawing nervously at a hoof. Celestia watched her silently from where she sat at the edge of the bed, concern evident on her slender face. She said nothing, however, knowing it would only make things worse.

Luna paused once, scanning about the room. It was midafternoon, but heavy velvet curtains of indigo and blue blotted out the sun handily, and one couldn’t tell that it was day by the room’s light alone. As it was, the muted purples and golds of the Canterlot castle trim were highlighted by a fireplace that crackled quietly opposite the bed. Luna looked down at the carpet beneath her hooves, and then to her sister.

“I’m going to wear out this rug, aren’t I?” she asked. Her thoughts diverged from her, and briefly she considered trampling back and forth over Celestia instead of the rug, and she shook her head to clear the idea.

“Mhmm,” Celestia said, clearly choosing her words carefully. “I can move it for you if you’d like,” she offered quietly, “but I’m sure Twilight will be here shortly, so in the meantime if you need to pace, please, Sister, pace.”

Luna’s thoughts splashed and rocked with vitriol. She didn’t need her sister to move the damn rug for her, she was able enough herself! She shook her head again, forcing the hate out by repeating what her sister had said. Twilight, indeed, would be here shortly. She allowed herself to continue pacing guiltfree, taking slight comfort in the near-darkness of the room. Despite her issue, she did not blame the night. That had been her charge for longer than most ponies would remember, and would continue to be for quite some time. She adored the night, the quiet stillness and serenity it brought, and the wonderful changes to the world that a rising moon could bring.

If only she wasn’t the only one to love it so, she felt. That seemed to be the issue, always; others didn’t love the night she brought. They didn’t love something so vastly and monumentally important to their wellbeing, because it was so important that they simply expected it would be there; and so she had provided, selflessly, for as long as she could remember. Save for a prior incident, of course.

She shook with anger and whipped her head around to Celestia, ready to bark and hiss at her, when there came a rap at the door. Celestia did not look to the door when the knock came, however; she stared at her sister still with that same concern, though when she saw the fury in Luna’s eyes, had leaned back ever so slightly. It was a practically imperceptible movement, but Luna perceived it all the same, and she shrank back herself, mumbling something that sounded like an apology.

There came another knock, and Luna spoke. “Announce thy presence,” she said, and some of the building anger leaked out with her call.

“Princess Twilight to see you, your Highness,” came the voice of one of her thestral guards.

“Ah, finally. Send her in, please.”

The door opened, though only wide enough to permit Twilight to pass through without squeezing. She looked back curiously at the door and the guard while she continued in, and looked even more puzzled when the guard quickly shut the door, cutting off the sudden beam of light that had trespassed into Luna’s room.

“Hello, your Highnesses,” she began, genuflecting before the other alicorns. “Is everything alright? Well, I suppose not, you did summon me stating there was an issue… But with you two personally, I mean.” She smiled briefly but it faltered after she had a moment to read the room. Both Luna and Celestia stared at her with blank faces before turning to look at each other.

“...No,” came a unified reply. Celestia continued while Luna turned her head up and away. “We are not alright, Twilight. There’s an issue we’re hoping you can help with, though we fear it may be beyond any of us. This goes a bit further than a friendship issue, I fear, and the two of us are stumped. I have faith in you, though,” she said in her usual gentle manner.

Twilight gave another smile, more of an offer of comfort than for any personal feelings. “Certainly!” she said, and she walked forward before stumbling on the now-flattened carpet in the middle of the room. “Oh, whoops. How come it’s so dark in here?”

“Why must there always be such a call for light?” Luna hissed, whipping her head back around. Twilight recoiled at her sharp tone, shocked at the demeanor from the young (relatively speaking) princess. “The... fire gives plenty to see by,” she said, almost apologetically. She sat down then, her face creased in concern. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay! I’ve been stressed before—quite often, really—and I know how ponies can get. So…” she trailed, looking back and forth between the alicorns before her. It was some sort of personal issue between them, she realized easily, though she wondered what Celestia meant by it being beyond a friendship issue. “What exactly is the problem?”

“Her,” both sisters said, pointing at the other, though after a shake of her head, Luna corrected herself. “No, it is me, actually. Well not me. I mean, I certainly hope it’s not me, though after the last couple months I’ve been thinking that maybe it actually is me, and that what you see before you isn’t me, but-” She paused, looking at the consternation enveloping Twilight’s face. “Uh, it’s me. I’m the problem.”

Twilight very slowly tore her gaze from Luna towards Celestia, who nodded solemnly.

“...Are you… alright, Luna?” she said, testing the waters.

“I am far from alright, Twilight. I have been plagued by Nightmare recently, and every night it gets worse.”

“Oh, bad dreams? Are they really that serious, your Highness?”

“Not nightmares, Twilight,” Celestia cut in before Luna could rebuke her, catching the steely glint that appeared in Luna’s eyes at Twilight’s question. “Nightmare. As in Nightmare Moon.”

“She perverts my thoughts and feelings even now,” Luna said with a sigh. “Please do not take my outbursts personally. They are born not from specific enmity towards you, but from an undying hatred within my soul.

“I hate that it’s within me,” she continued, looking apologetic to Twilight and Celestia. “I had come so far with learning and understanding all that it is Sister does, and the importance and value of my work as well. I know there must be balance, and I know that Celestia’s work is not as glamorous as it seems. All the same, there burns inside my soul this discord, and it festers and grows despite all my lessons in patience.” She grimaced, and Twilight could see fear in her eyes for just a moment before they glazed over with anger yet again. Luna closed her eyes, ashamed, and looked to the floor.

“But… How can it be Nightmare Moon? That was some possession, was it not? Dark magic of some kind? We banished it with the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight began pacing then herself, following the worn path in the rug. “Perhaps they could again…?” She suggested, letting the implication lie in the air.

Luna shook her head. “The Nightmare is more than some simple enchantment I had been enthralled with.” She looked at Celestia, and then back to Twilight. “I say this not out of arrogance, but I must cast aside humility for a moment. Alicorns like Celestia and I are outrageously powerful. Dangerously so, even. The Nightmare is not so much something that overcomes me, but something I allow myself to be. Do you understand?”

“I… I don’t really, no.”

“Let me try to rephrase,” Celestia said, ignoring the wicked glance Luna gave her at the interruption. “Luna and I are much like tuning forks. Given a base harmony, we sing, and our music—and magic—flows easily and loudly. But we are also subject to vibrations from outside and within.”

Luna picked up from there. “With Nightmare, there is a discordant tone at my very core, and it steals from my harmony. I become ‘out of tune’, you could say, if ever I am unable to forfend against its dissonant call. This is what happened when I first fell.” She approached Celestia and hugged her, and the sister responded in kind. Twilight could see that it took great effort for Luna to remain where she was for the scant time she held the embrace, but the expression was genuine, and Celestia smiled warmly for the first time that day. “The Elements cannot be used by a single pony, even one as powerful as my sister. When she used them on me, they locked me on the Moon, as punishment to my sister and I both. When you and your friends used them on me, things were different. The Elements detected harmony and responded in kind, and I was overwhelmed with it, and tuned, you could say.”

“But it didn’t resolve the instrument providing the dreadful tune?” Twilight asked.

“Precisely. And despite all the compassion and love I have learned from my sister and your friends, it plays on, tainting me once again.” She dropped her head again, and Twilight was shocked to see tears beginning to fall from her face. She spoke, without looking up, and her voice was drenched with sorrow. “I cannot fight it much longer. Before long, the Nightmare will return, and I will attack my sister and all others I love. We cannot always depend on the Elements to reset me for only a few years, Twilight.” She sniffed. “I fear the only permanent solution would be banishment for eternity, or worse. I don’t know what to do!”

Twilight stepped back at Luna’s despairing shout, and she sat down and started tapping her chin. Celestia had reached a leg out to comfort her sister, but it was smacked away, and she stood down.

“I won’t let that happen, no matter what,” Twilight said confidently. “Though I am not sure quite yet how to do so…” She trailed off, thinking. What she needed was more information. Luna was right in that the Elements could not be depended on; should something happen to her and her friends, or if they were halfway around Equus on some world-saving quest, there would be no way to reset Luna. As well, she could see the hurt it was causing both of them. To let Luna experience that a hundred times again and again was unacceptable. There had to be another way.

“If I may,” she started hesitantly, “I’d like to ask Luna some questions about Nightmare. Questions that I think she could answer more easily were you not present, Princess Celestia. I’m sorry to ask you but,” she shrank back and gave an awkward friendly smile, “would you mind stepping outside? Just for a moment?”

Celestia did not object. She stood up quietly, gave one last supportive glance at Luna, and then walked out, leaving Luna and Twilight in the shadowy bedroom.

“What is it you wish to know, Twilight?” Luna asked, moving to her bed and sitting down where Celestia had sat.

“This… ‘discordant music’, the thoughts, what are they exactly? I remember the old books mentioning jealousy, but nothing more. Are you able to tell me what they say?”

Luna held herself back from lashing out and screaming her current train of thought at Twilight. An unrighteous fury burned in her stomach for a moment before she strained and smothered it. “You may. I will try to… repeat them as neutrally as possible, but when I move down these streams of thought, they tend to reinforce and more greatly express themselves. Please, Twilight, be patient with me.”

“Always, Princess Luna,” Twilight responded, bowing her head.

“Thank you. At first and foremost, it is the unappreciation that I feel.” She paused for a moment for Twilight to interject that she was appreciated, but the purple pony simply sat silently, and Luna was thankful for it. “I know that it isn’t the case, and the work I do; the dreams, the moonscapes, the cool refreshment of night, are appreciated. I’m told as such whenever I express my concerns, but it feels so much like I am just a child being placated. There’s always this voice that taunts me, telling me that my nights are not enjoyed.

“I love the night so much, Twilight. I don’t know if I can express it properly, but the bond between me and a moonlit sky is much the same, I’m sure, to the one between you and your friends. I feel misunderstood, as well, for when I try to share this love, try to share the splendor of a beautiful night, I am simply mollified, assuaged that ‘yes dear, it is indeed lovely, goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning.’” She said her last sentence mockingly, and her voice began to quaver.

“I work endlessly to provide and all the while Sister sits upon her throne and is beguiled and delighted upon by all the castle staff and citizens. Yes, she works hard as well, but why does she get all the praise and adoration?!” She was standing now, no longer seeing Twilight, but fuming at the worn-out rug. “If only they could see how lovely my nights are! If they could experience the starry skies I raise, breathe the restorative air of darkness, and love me for what I deserve!”

She was crying again, though her voice was anything but sorrowful. Her inflections were sulfurous and acidic, and her head twisted strangely as Luna tried to control her anger. For the briefest of moments, Twilight felt she saw the familiar jagged teeth of Nightmare Moon, and she leapt up from where she was standing and put a hoof around the Princess, holding her tight, and the vision vanished.

“You’re right to be angry for that reason,” she said sternly, keeping her embrace around Luna while she shook. The angry mare did not fight Twilight however, only seethed through her teeth. “But your reasoning is flawed.”

“WHAT?!” Luna whipped around, throwing Twilight to the floor. Twilight scrambled up quickly and ran forward, hugging Luna again. Again, she did not fight her.

“Please breathe, Luna. I’ll explain in a moment. It’s okay. You’re loved, and understood. It’s okay.”

Luna’s breathing became deep, forceful breaths, and after a moment they slowed and became more normal. It was probably five minutes later by Twilight’s account when she finally spoke.

“You may release me now, Twilight. Thank you.”

Twilight complied, and led Luna back to her bed where they both sat next to each other. There was another moment of silence, before Luna lifted her head and spoke again.

“What did you mean by that, though?”

“You and I both know what the actual problem is. It’s not that you are truly unappreciated, but that you feel unappreciated. You said it yourself, ‘feel’. The solution then is not to tell you that you are, but to show you.”

“But I have been shown, many times, and yet still the venom lingers.” She was looking curiously at Twilight.

“Right. But then again, the pony just speaking to me now was not you. It was Nightmare Moon. It is she who feels unappreciated. I think that if we show Nightmare Moon just how much the ponies of Equestria truly love her—and your—nights, she may not ever need to come back.”

Luna frowned. “What are you suggesting?”

Twilight slid from the bed and went to the door, opening it up. She saw Celestia sitting anxiously on the bench across the hall, clearly disturbed by whatever yelling she had heard, and beckoned her back in the room. When the two of them were both in and seated, Twilight began.

“I think we need to take Nightmare Moon partying,” she said, cheerfully.

The reply came in unison, as before.

“What.”

“Bear with me. Nightmare Moon is not so much a possession of Luna, but a manifestation of her power out of harmony, correct?” Luna nodded, and Twilight continued. “So she is very much still Luna, but with cognitive behaviors that are counterintuitive to a normal functioning society.”

“Twilight…” Celestia said, disapprovingly.

Twilight continued unabated. “I think that if we prove to Nightmare Moon that her nights are well and truly acknowledged and loved, we might deal with her permanently. No more will Luna have intrusive thoughts that she’s unloved, because we’ll have proven directly to her negative psyche that she’s wrong.

“Nightmare Night, fittingly, is here in three week’s time. Are you able to hold Nightmare back until that time, Luna?”

“I believe I can fight her for another two months, before I succumb.”

“Excellent. I want you to give in to her on Nightmare Night.”

Luna and Celestia exchanged glances yet again, and then back down to the proud purple pony before them.

“And what’s the plan for Nightmare Night, then?” Celestia asked, still wary.

Twilight beamed. “We’re going to throw the greatest party Equestria has ever seen.”

Rave-ity

Fury.

Discontent was too weak a word, inadequate. A billionth of what it felt like.

Luna fought in her mind with Nightmare, combating the snide remarks and hateful spray of thoughts with her own supportive and encouraging remarks, and it was as if the two of them were locked in a great battle, falling endlessly downwards as they sparred.

Contempt.

For others, and for herself. No, not herself. The self she presented to the world. What a weak and pestilent little thing she was, unable to stand up even to her own subconscious. Release this frail and sickly form, and let true power take control.

Luna rolled over on the floor, pounding her head as the migraine blossomed, a mandelbrot of pain clouding her vision, even while her eyes were closed. Agony ripped through her again, and she remembered the voice of Twilight, a distant echo from only an hour or two earlier.

Let go.

Malice.

She stopped fighting back to the thoughts and feelings that overwhelmed her, relaxing as she finally replied to the jealousy and loathly disgust bulging out of her soul like maggots from a corpse. With a gasp, she spoke aloud once, then lost.

“You win.”

There on the dark stone floor of the throne room, her eyes snapped open wide revealing nothing but blackness, before the darkness was constricted by a snakelike pupil that slammed shut to the smallest slit. Luna flailed as limbs shattered and tendons snapped, but almost as soon as the pain had come, it went away. She was too powerful for pain; feeling it was a choice she did not need to make, and so she cast it aside.

Her legs stretched outward and her wings enlarged in kind. Sharp and jagged teeth crawled out of her jaw like crystal forming, and she gnashed and snapped with them until they fit snug. A violet ethereal maelstrom surrounded her, and the magic unleashed from within her warped and changed her quickly as it spun around her.

Finally, it was over. Nightmare Moon stood on the diaz, panting heavily at the marble floor. Her breath deepened and quickened, and not long after she had settled it transformed into a childish—though wholly evil and not without its share of deepness—cackle. She had won. Luna was too weak, and though she had fought this time far harder than before, Nightmare Moon had overpowered her so much that the puny mare had simply given up. As she should have, of course. Nightmare Moon was clearly superior; she was everything Luna was, without all that petty and frivolous ‘holding back’ she and her sister had practiced so well.

Nightmare Moon lifted her head finally, ready to face whatever defense had been set up to fight her. Elements again, perhaps? A mass of royal guards, horns and pikes trained on her for their chance? She was prepared this time; she knew when she first came back that Celestia would not have the heart to banish her again, but she wasn’t expecting those damned regular ponies to wield the Elements.

Equestria was at its end, she thought. The last shout of Luna would be its death knell, and she would be its reaper, harkening in an unending night that would last until Equus withered away to—hold on.

Her echoing laughter faded away through empty hallways, lit only by dimly burning sconces and the assorted candle here and there. There was nopony here, though that wasn’t what really threw her off her tracks.

“What… is this?” she said, forgetting herself for only a moment before she steeled her mind and closed the mouth that had been hanging open.

She was definitely in the Canterlot throne room; the checkerboarded marble stretched out from her for a hundred meters, bordered by great purple and gold pillars between scintillating panes of glass that told a heroic story of her prior defeats. She would have destroyed those instantly, but framing those stained glass windows were heavy curtains that clearly bore not only her cutie mark, but her colours. Her colours, not Luna’s. They wafted gently in a nighttime breeze, and as they did so, Nightmare Moon continued to look around the abandoned room.

The sconces were all surrounded by lavender and peace lilies, and save for the windows, every symbol of the sun had been obscured or covered from view; even the massive slabs in the floor that were chiseled to match her sister’s charge had been covered with a huge, aegean blue rug. To top it all off, stretched across the entirety of the throne room was a great big banner that bore the words “Welcome Nightmare Moon!”

She stepped back once, suspicious, but then stood tall as she heard the small clip clops of a single pony approaching, and she looked down at the doorway the sound came from and sneered, ready to assert the authority she had apparently just been robbed of.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Rarity said, noticing the tall alicorn by the throne, and she moved the mug of tea she had been levitating and took a sip from it. “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting too long. I had a yearning for tea, and scampered off. I don’t suppose you wanted any? I only made the one cup, I’m afraid.”

Nightmare Moon bristled at this casual manner and hatred filled her at the sight of the mare who had helped cast her out before. “You!!” she screeched, and her horn began to glow with a crackling aura.

“Oh, settle down dear,” Rarity said, setting her tea down on a side table before sitting properly herself. “We’re here to celebrate your return, can’t you see? Don’t tell me one as wise and powerful as you didn’t catch that?” She giggled, covering her mouth with a hoof.

Nightmare Moon’s magic fizzled out, but the anger did not. She glared at Rarity, and then finally replied. “Alright, what is this? Some sort of trap? Designed to put me off my guard before you spring your friends out from behind me?” She whipped around, checking behind her for any said traps, and the sight of the single throne gave her pause once more. She looked back at Rarity, who had not moved save to grab her mug again. “Why is just my seat there? What is going on?”

“We figured you would appreciate it.”

“I won’t appreciate anything from you… you whelps! What subterfuge are you planning?”

Rarity sipped her tea once more. “Well, believe what you want to, then. But welcome all the same. Tonight is your night, Luna, and we are here to celebrate it with you.”

“I am not Luna. I am Nightmare Moon!”

“Sure, whatever you want, darling. Are you coming along, then?” Rarity asked, standing up and moving casually towards the hall doors. She looked back after a moment and saw Nightmare Moon had not moved, but had stood fuming, looking bewildered. “Oh, really now. You’re the guest of honour tonight, ‘Nightmare Moon’.” She said her name mockingly, but with a flirty tone instead of a mean one.

“I have no time nor inclination to follow you! I must find and destroy my “sister”, and plunge the world into eternal darkness!”

“Oh, come now, give it a break,” Rarity laughed, walking up to Nightmare Moon. “Spend one night having fun and then overthrow the world. Besides, Celestia’s gone to bed early, and it’s hardly honourable to attack a pony while they’re sleeping. Kill her in the morning.” She tapped her chin contemplatively. “I think right when she gets the sun to the horizon. What a statement that would make, don’t you think?” She giggled.

Nightmare Moon no longer made any attempt to hide her confusion. “I, well, I uh, suppose that is true…” She shook her head, and spoke authoritatively again. “But why should I follow you? You’re just an everyday mare, without your precious Element, and without your friends!”

“Well, given the rough start to your day, I’ll just ignore that insult—once. My friends are all out having fun and celebrating the night, and it’s high time you and I get to doing the same. Besides,” she turned with a flick of her mane, leading Nightmare Moon to the hall doors again, “I’ve been a Nightmare myself before, and I know exactly what you need, darling.”

Nightmare followed her, constantly checking back over her withers as they walked. “That’s ridiculous. How could a common pony even come close to me? And what do I need, pray tell, whelp?”

Rarity stopped, and with a sudden flash of her horn, a spectral hoof appeared in front of Nightmare and slapped her so quickly she had no time to respond. It didn’t hurt, of course, but she was shocked all the same. Her own horn began to light up in response, but Rarity’s sharp words cut her off once again.

“Let me get some things straight, missy! You were a princess before you transformed, you are one after, and you shall act like it! Princesses do not fight like common cats and dogs! My name, Nightmare, is Rarity, and you shall refer to me as such. I am not a whelp, nor a common pony.”

Nightmare recoiled slightly. She was not afraid, but even then, she had never been spoken to before like this strange unicorn had just done. “I-” she started.

“‘I’ nothing! You are a guest, as I have said, and as your host, I will extend you a certain amount of respect, but you must repay it in kind. Do you understand?” She glared at Nightmare, tapping a hoof.

“Well,” Nightmare started, ready to reply in kind, before she recognized a certain glint in Rarity’s eyes that conveyed to her the futility of her plan. “Yes,” she said finally.

“Good.” Rarity stood up and beckoned Nightmare along again, and they left the empty throne room to follow the halls to the front door. Nightmare said nothing more as they walked, and observed that the rest of the castle seemed to have been obscured or decorated in much the same way.

“Why are you doing… this?” she eventually asked, giving a general wave to the midnight adornments.

They passed by two guards standing fast by the main gate of the castle, and they saluted Nightmare as if she wasn’t a mythological horror from the annals of Equestrian history. She eyed them warily as they passed, waiting for some indication of an attack, or even move to notify somepony else that she had gone by, but they simply stood and looked out about the courtyard, alert. Rarity’s voice brought her gaze back in front of her.

“We believe that you are not so much irrational or wrong,” she said, speaking softer now as she inhaled the scent of grass damp from an evening dew, “than you are misguided. Your whole plan; slaying your sister, obliterating the sun, forcing an endless night on the planet, it’s based out of a single desire, correct? Not to conquer or enslave, nor for riches or material wealth. It’s to be loved, and have your night loved as you love it. Yes?”

“If I cannot be loved, then I shall be feared,” she replied indignantly. “But perhaps with enough exposure, they will learn to love it as I do, yes.”

“Now see the problem with that—hello, dear,” Rarity said to a passing socialite carrying a feed bag full of candy, “Sorry, she bought that hat from me, where was I… Yes. The problem with that is that you and your night are loved greatly. You’ve been told it a million times, as I’m telling you now, but you clearly don’t believe us, and so we’re taking you to show you how your night is enjoyed. Perhaps with some hooves-on experience, you may come around, Luna.”

“Nightmare-”

“Whatever.”

Nightmare was quiet as she considered it, but then wrote it off as foolishness. She was Princess of the Night; who was to tell her she was wrong when she could sense the feelings of all in her time? Who was to tell her that she didn’t know what actually went on between dusk and dawn, when it was her who controlled the world then? She scoffed.

Although now as they entered the city proper, she noticed that there was an unusual amount of activity around them. The cobbled streets were packed with dozens of ponies, all dressed up in fancy or frightening outfits, prancing about with bags and friends alike. Despite the late evening, most of the stores were open; bright light slipped out of the shops through the scuffed and aged glass, and the little jingles of bells rang constantly about them as doors flipped open and closed, over and over. Nightmare looked down an alley and saw the next street over was much the same. She narrowed her eyes, tracking a group of carousing ponies as they shuffled past her towering legs without a second thought.

“Alright, sl- uh, Rarity. Enough of this. Something is clearly going on, and though you may have managed to convince me to leave my sister alone for the night, I shall not be going any further unless you explain something.”

Rarity turned around and sighed heavily before walking up to Nightmare, sweeping off a patch of stone next to her with a flick of magic and sitting. “I suppose I can’t blame you, but we are on a time limit. What is it that you simply must need to know?”

“I am clearly extraordinary. I loom above them grandiosely, I’m dressed in my most intimidating armor, my mane is as a black hole. How come none of them are giving me but a second glance?” She sniffed, watching as a mare stumbled past her and giggled after her friends.

Rarity craned her head to watch one of the swaying citizens lean into an alley and quickly empty their stomachs. “Euugh. How unfabulous. I suspect, dear Nightmare, that they think you are simply another costumed pony. And,” she said, holding a hoof up to quiet the alicorn’s forthcoming complaint, “many of them are drunk on sugar or cider and friendship and cannot see clearly enough to recognize your radiance.”

Nightmare Moon blushed ever so slightly, but gave a disdainful ‘hmph’ to hide it. She supposed it made sense, but she still didn’t know why every pony was dressed up. Eventually, she thought, it would be explained. She stood, brusquely putting a hoof out to Rarity to indicate she should lead the way again. Rarity rolled her eyes, but complied silently, and they continued down the twisting city road.

“So where are we headed? You said you knew exactly what I needed,” Nightmare said before blinking. “Hold on, you said you had been a Nightmare before yourself. What was that about?”

“You are as full of questions as you are tall and ravishing.” Rarity looked back and winked. Nightmare felt that same blush touch her cheeks again, and looked away down the street. “I’m taking you dancing. You’ll simply love it. It’s not some formal ball, either, but a place you can really let loose and get into your own rhythm. It’ll be strange to you, I’m sure, but I really think you’ll love it. I do, and, as said before, we share something in common.”

There was silence between them for a minute while Rarity looked down at the paving, her face creased in thought. Nightmare said nothing, waiting for her host to resolve whatever they were dealing with. This pony might have faced her in battle before, but right now she seemed to be baring herself open to Nightmare. A thought passed her mind that it may be something she could use against her, and so she listened patiently.

“Twilight thought, when Luna said you were back, that you were simply a possession of some kind, and not a reflection of Luna’s true heart. She thought so because I was possessed by it. Perhaps it was some lingering element you had left on the moon, or something other entirely, but there’s no denying that I transformed into something very similar to you.” Her voice lowered, and Nightmare moved forward to hear over the shouts and laughter of the streets around them. “But it had an in with me because of my true heart, so maybe it was something from within.”

“And what is true within you, Rarity?”

“What was true, Nightmare, is the question. It is no longer the case, but I feared unappreciation. I represent Generosity. It’s so ingrained into me that somehow I’m linked to an ancient magic that expresses and resonates with the concept of it.” She shook her head lightly, a ‘no’ to an unheard question, or perhaps to dislodge an unwanted thought. “But when you give and give, you’re bound to feel taken advantage of. To feel as if it’s expected for you to provide and unacceptable for you to ask.”

She stopped and motioned for Nightmare to stop too, and continued speaking with nary more than a whisper.

“It came to me at a point where I felt unloved and unappreciated, and whisked me away with hardly a fight. Once I entertained it for a tiny moment, it seeped into me like water into a sponge, and changed me. I fought my very friends, roused an army and assaulted Ponyville. If I wasn’t going to be given anything in return for my generosity, I was going to take it instead.” She stared at nothing in particular, and went quiet.

Nightmare Moon felt incredibly awkward. The circumstances may have been different, but her story had filled her with a sickening sense of deja vu. If it was truly the case that they had been so alike, how then could Rarity be before her, back to her weak form?

“How did you overcome it? The Elements again?”

Rarity blinked and then looked up, seeming to realize for the first time where exactly they were in Canterlot. “They couldn’t use them without me. What they did is prove to me that I was loved. There’s a bit more to it than that, of course, but the other bits are highly personalized. In the end, I learned that I was loved, and we all learned how to express it to each other better so none of us felt unwanted or alone.” She beamed, genuinely, at Nightmare. “It worked for me, and our hope is it will work for you.”

“And what if I don’t want to be ‘fixed’? I’m better in every way as I am now than I was then. Luna was weak.”

“Yes, well, Luna is our friend, and we love her, and if nothing else, she’s less sharp than you.”

“Oh, what, are you afraid of these?” She bared her teeth then, looking as close to a rabid timberwolf as she could muster, and snapped at Rarity.

“Oh, behave. Put those away before I cover them for you.”

“W-what?”

“We’re here,” Rarity said, smiling slyly. She pointed across the street to a smaller, newer building on the road. Bright purple neon lights indicated in cursive that the venue was named “L'estrous”, and a line of a hundred ponies stretched down the street, held back by a pegasus that was almost as large as Nightmare herself, though just in muscle mass alone. A deep pulsing seemed to be coming from the building, quivering her hooves through the pavement. As she watched, a couple burst out from the door, tumbling over each other on their way out, and they whooped and hollered as they swayed away together. The pegasus at the door undid a clip on a velvet cordon and motioned the next two inside, and the line shuffled up to replace them.

“It appears we are too late. That line is enormous, and while I could shorten it, I don’t think you’d approve of me nor would they let us in after I had done so.” Nightmare chuckled softly and stood proud.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I told you earlier, I am not a common pony.” Rarity trotted across the street, flipping her mane with a foreleg as she did so, and approached the bouncer.

“Oh, Bulk, darling, what a shame you need to be working on such a fabulous night,” Rarity said, her voice saccharine and sultry. “I hope it’s been an enjoyable enough shift, at least. How’s the crowd been, dear?”

Bulk looked down at Rarity and grunted at her before unclipping the cordon and stepping aside for her. He eyed Nightmare Moon suspiciously but said nothing, choosing instead to snort menacingly at the patrons in the line who had started complaining, silencing them immediately.

“Ah, well, we’ll just be along then. Thank you so much, Bulk!” Rarity gave an exaggerated wink and then moved forward into the open door with a clearly-impressed Nightmare in tow.

“I suppose every pony is supposed to just give me whatever I want tonight, then,” Nightmare said as they entered a long dimly lit hallway. The floor was carpeted a deep red that, in the moody lighting, looked like blood to her. Small lamps inset in the wall gave off a dull pink glow, and the pulsing that she had felt outside was surrounding her now. She noticed that when she spoke, her words seemed to be sapped of their volume by the intense bass pounding about her.

“What? Oh, no, dear, he has no idea who you are. He knows who I am, however, and that’s all you and your lil’ moon need worry about.” She stopped before the double doors; two metal panels that were highlighted by a mesmerising rainbow that leaked from the frame, and turned to face Nightmare. “Now, I need to set a couple ground rules here, your Highness. This is going to be the biggest shock you’ve experienced so far, I think, and I don’t want you going off the rails and ruining a perfectly good party.”

Nightmare reeled. “How dare you suggest I-”

“Like that. Tone it down, dear! Nopony is going to be able to hear you, even with a Royal Canterlot voice, and you won’t be able to hear them. It’s going to be cramped and disorientating and likely a dozen ponies are going to step on your hooves and not even notice. Now, so far as you’ve been with me, you have been unassailed and treated respectfully. With that in mind, I must have you give me your word that you will keep your temper while we dance.”

Nightmare looked hard into Rarity’s azure irises, thinking. She considered a couple things. One, Rarity had indeed been telling the relative truth so far; nopony had blasted her with magic from behind her back, and she hadn’t noticed a single suspicious watcher or tail their entire walk. Two, Rarity had divulged rather personal information—or if she had lied, done so incredibly convincingly—as a manner of trust. Finally, Nightmare Moon thought of herself, and the power she held within. She could bring the Sun down on Equus in a minute if she felt like it. She may have been unaccustomed to current social conventions, but she was not naive; while she expected a trap, this did not by any means feel like one. What harmony-loving psychopath would try to fight a demigod in a room packed with civilians? After a long moment, she nodded.

Rarity tutted, and Nightmare sighed.

“Yes, Rarity, you have my word. Now let’s get this over with.”

Despite the warning from Rarity, Nightmare was completely unprepared for the world that opened up to her when the doors were pulled open. It was not necessarily a massive room, but for the sheer number of ponies occupying it it might have been a banquet hall. First and foremost was a cleared flat area where most of the ponies had congregated, and they were bouncing and sliding to the bass so hard Nightmare momentarily thought it was a pool of agitated water suspended above the dance floor. Flanking the lowered dance floor were sections of regal-looking booths. Red velvet seats cramped around mahogany tables, and each of these, too, were overflowing with ponies. The tables themselves were just as cluttered, with piles of plates with half-eaten appetizers and dozens, if not hundreds, of bottles and glasses of all shapes and sizes. At the back of the room, raised high above the rest of the club, was a recessed balcony of sorts with various machines and instruments. A white mare with a spiky, two-toned blue mane and violet sunglasses was bouncing up on the balcony along with the others on the dance floor, but held a hoof high in the air while another flew over the instruments so fast Nightmare couldn’t keep up with it. With every flick of a hoof, the music and beat would shift and change slightly, and the crowd would respond in kind, and Nightmare felt a tinge of jealousy at this mare’s complete control over the rest of the room.

She felt a touch on a forehoof and looked down to see Rarity holding it, gently pulling her to one of the booths on the right side of the room. It was just as stacked with dirty dishes as the rest, but the chairs had been abandoned. Nightmare pulled her hoof back sharply, and went to admonish Rarity before finding that she couldn’t hear her own voice amongst the intense music.

Rarity, at this movement, rolled her eyes and then pointed at her mouth, miming—or actually, Nightmare couldn’t tell—speaking. She tilted her head forward with a raised eyebrow, as if to say ‘understand?’. Nightmare nodded, and after hesitating, extended her leg again for Rarity to take and lead her.

They proceeded to the booth while Nightmare continued to gawk and gaze at the alien world she found herself in. There was no room to walk, but the two of them continued as if nopony were there, pushing others out of their way to absolutely no notice whatsoever. The room was even darker than the hallway, and that Nightmare could see anything at all was more to do with the spectrum of bands and necklaces that glowed in the dark like rainbow-coloured fireflies than the practically useless mood-lighting. They made it to the booth, where Rarity directed Nightmare in first and then followed.

She frowned, and wondered why they were there. Weren’t they supposed to be dancing? And what in Tartarus’ name were those ponies doing? That wasn’t any dancing Nightmare knew.

Rarity tapped her on her shoulder and then, with light pressure, pulled Nightmare down sideways to bring her lips right to the alicorn’s ears. Nightmare’s eyes went wild and her thoughts raced before Rarity started yelling as loud as she could. Even so, it registered hardly above a whisper.

“Sorry, I just needed to get someplace you could hear me! If you need a break, come back to this table! You’ll find me here too if you lose me! Now just follow my lead!”

Nightmare nodded, and then found her eyes going wild again as the muzzle next to her ears gave her the smallest peck on her neck. She swung around only to find the white unicorn starting to disappear into the crowd, and she scrambled out of her seat to follow her to the dancefloor, flustered. Somehow, above all the noise, she thought she heard Rarity giggle.

She stopped at the edge and watched. Rarity’s coat changed from its brilliant white to a tye-dye rainbow as she entered the fray, reflecting and radiating the colours from the neon bands that surrounded her. She moved in past a few ponies, and then closed her eyes.

It started with a hip. The song shifted as she started dancing, and Rarity’s hindquarters started to snap to the side and back with the new, quickened beat. Then a knee joined in, and her swaying began to deepen and change. She brought her withers into the mix, rolling her shoulders forward counter to the movements of her backside. Ever so slightly, her head began to bob. It seemed to gain energy with each bounce, raising and dropping further with every cycle, until Rarity was completely one with the music. There was no order to where her hooves stomped, no pattern in which leg bent after the last, no rhythm to where her mane and tail bobbed and swished, save for the beat. The point to this dancing, Nightmare could see, was not to move to a specific choreography. It was not to be romantic, even though the movements she was watching were almost entirely sexual in origin. It was not to train or intimidate or impress.

It was simply to move.

And move she did. She stepped forward onto the dance floor, and secret feelings of awkwardness vanished quickly. There wasn’t a single pony here who was seeing her. They were all entirely enraptured by the thumping tones that blasted them from the speakers at each corner of the dance floor. And even if all eyes were on her, she couldn’t screw up moving to the beat. If anyone said she had anyways, she would just unmake them, so really there was nothing to worry about.

She closed her eyes, and thought about the music. She could hear it, of course. It was all she could hear. She could feel it; even the air about her was vibrating with each shake of the speakers. And with her eyes shut, she was shocked to find that she could see it, too. Not in a way that actually made it through her eyes, but in her head. She breathed the music, drank the music, wore the music.

And she moved.

She started with her head, rocking it with a hard shake to each beat. Her shoulders came next, rolling forwards alternatively to meet her swinging face. Music invaded her mind without her consciously thinking about it, and it suggested to her that she should bend her hindlegs. She did so without a thought, adding the flex to her movements.

More and more joints and muscles joined the dance, and as she got into it, the music picked up its pace. The bass decreased to give way begrudgingly to treble, and the sound of trumpets, clarinets, and strings met Nightmare’s ears. A smile touched her lips. Though the music was still fast and synthetic, these familiar elements reached her on a deeper level. It was swing music, but electric, new, nothing like she had ever heard before. The distant memory of her first informal ball reached her; an ecstatic night with a big jazz band and her learning to four-step, taught by the travelling band of ponies so charismatic she swore her stomach still hurt from singing and laughing.

She brought those elements in, kickstepping to the beat. She stepped both her right hooves out and in, and then leaned over and popped her left ones out and back. Piano notes swept into the song, and she rolled her spine to a slide down the keys and then bucked, laughing. She was moving wildly now, almost miming playing some of the instruments with her limbs. As the first beads of sweat started to run down her forehead, the smallest sense of rationality reached her mind.

Her eyes were still closed, and she had not felt herself kick anyone with her erratic movements. She snapped her eyes open, only to find that the dance floor had cleared an area around her. There was a perfect circle of patrons, all hopping to the song, surrounding and staring at her. Fear, embarrassment, and anger all passed through her mind, and she almost started a powerful offensive spell before the song came to an end, leaving only a generic throbbing base and relative quiet, allowing her to hear the ponies.

Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna!

Well, the name was wrong, but this was more like it, Nightmare thought. She was standing, legs splayed out and head drooped slightly. Most of the crowd were now pumping their hooves in the air, chanting her old name while she caught her breath, and she smiled deviously. The next song faded into the mix then, starting with a rolling snare, and Nightmare threw her head back and stomped her hooves rapidly along with the drum roll. A resounding woop! reached her from the entourage, and ponies rushed in to dance alongside her, cheering and swinging just as wildly. Nightmare smiled broadly, relishing in the music and adoration, and lost herself to the music completely.

She had no way to tell how long it had been before the songs shifted to a far more rapid and electronic throbbing that she felt signalled the end to her recreation. She walked out of the swarm, panting and laughing, drenched in sweat, and glanced back quickly to check for Rarity. She saw no sign of the unicorn, and turned back to head to the seat.

Rarity was there, along with a teal stallion with a slicked back grey mane and white framed glasses. She was idly stirring a half-empty drink in a slim but excessively tall glass with her magic, fluttering her eyelashes and leaning in in a serene manner that Nightmare felt was completely counter to the straight-up screeching the two were doing to converse. She moved up and sat next to Rarity, who said something unintelligible to the stallion and then turned to face her.

“Well, darling, what did you think? You certainly had them enthralled.” She sipped from her drink, a dark brown liquid with lemon slices stuffed down the glass.

“That was… incredible! The music is not my main choice, but it was enjoyable all the same. I cannot remember moving that much in over a millenia. And the attention! They loved me, Rarity, and I didn’t even need to threaten them!”

“Imagine that,” Rarity smirked, mumbling so Nightmare couldn’t hear her. “So how are you feeling then, dear?”

“A little worn out,” Nightmare started, eyeing Rarity suspiciously, “but not weak!” She pulled her chin up indignantly, careful to make it clear she would not be impacted in the inevitable fight. It would have seemed impressive, too, if a disgruntled gurgle didn’t come from her stomach, loud enough to be heard over the music. “Maybe a little hungry,” she admitted, looking away.

“Wassat?” Rarity said, and Nightmare looked down to find she was back to absentmindedly stirring her drink and making eyes at the stallion next to her. “For Cosmare, you say? Well that is such a wonderful coincidence, I happen to be a bit of a fashionista myself…”

“Rarity,” Nightmare said, insulted at her drop in attention. “I require food. You are my host, are you not? Rarity!”

“Food? Gee, I can help you with that, Luna!”

Nightmare turned around, shocked to find another one of her arch-enemies standing at the table. It was the pink one, though she was wearing ankle-warmers that glowed like the bands spread about the room, and her curly hair was peppered with stars made out of reflective foil. Her front half was bouncing back and forth, but to her own beat, not the music’s.

That same flash of red rage filled Nightmare then, and in the presence of two Elements every alarm in her head went off. She leapt up with magic crackling about her horn, promptly smashing her knee into the thick mahogany table, rattling the stack of plates and glasses. She crossed her eyes and subdued a curse, rubbing the leg that had connected to the wood before realizing it didn’t actually hurt. She shook her head and then looked, unimpressed, at Pinkie Pie, and her stomach growled again, loudly.

“Oh, yeah, you definitely need something. Let’s get out of Rarity’s way, shall we? She seems pretty preoccupied. She can take care of herself, anyways, so we can bounce outta here and grab some grub.”

Nightmare stared at Pinkie Pie, disgust and confusion clear on her face. Where did this pony even come from?

“...All my friends trust me with food, Luna. It’s like, my thing. Well, fun and laughter’s my thing, but food is pretty high up on the list. I dunno too many ponies who have never had fun with food at least once.” She smiled brightly. “So c’mon, silly! Let’s go eat!”

Resigned, Nightmare Moon shuffled out of the seat and flipped a leg casually to urge Pinkie Pie on. She followed her through the sea of ponies until they reached the double doors and popped out into the hallway. It had been so loud for so long Nightmare thought she had gone deaf momentarily before she realized that she was just hearing silence. She walked alongside Pinkie Pie to the entrance.

“It’s Nightmare Moon, by the way.”

“Nice ’ta meetcha, Nightmare! I’m Pinkie Pie.”

Pink or Treat

Pinkie Pie burst out into the street, bouncing happily along while Nightmare Moon followed her apprehensively. She thanked Bulk Biceps profusely to a similar grunt to the one Rarity received, and then turned down the road, bouncing up the hill towards the shops.

“Your enthusiasm is sickening, Pinkie,” Nightmare spat, her long strides somehow struggling to match pace with the earth pony. “Where are you leading me off to? What food do you know of fit for my excellency?”

Pinkie Pie giggled as if she had been complimented. “Candy, of course! What else would it be?”

“Candy? Pinkie Pie, I am not some naive foal. How could that be the ‘obvious’ choice?”

“It’s traditional,” Pinkie said, slowing her gait as they turned off a street of shops onto one with more residential-style homes.

Even here, Nightmare could see, the firelight from inside the buildings was spilling out of most of the homes, and dozens of costumed ponies were dashing from door to door with feed bags and satchels, thrusting them out eagerly to the tenants within. She looked closer in one house as they passed, and saw an elderly unicorn tittering about how lovely the foal before her’s bugbear costume was. The unicorn lifted a bowl up that was overflowing with wax-wrapped confections, and tossed a hooffull of them into the bag held out to her. She waved goodbye, and then sat back, waiting for the next visitor that was sure to come.

“Traditional for what? Rarity said they were holding a party in my honor today. What does any of this—” she waved a hoof about, indicating the groups spread about the cobbled road, and the candy-dispensing houses, “—have to do with me?”

Pinkie Pie skidded to a stop, and then sprang back towards Nightmare. She leapt up and grabbed the alicorn’s face in both her forehooves, pulling it down to within an inch of her nose. “You mean you don’t know?!”

Nightmare was too surprised to remember to be upset at her mishandling. “Kno wha’?” she asked through her squished cheeks.

“This is Nightmare Night, Lun-er, Nightmare! It’s your night, where we celebrate you! I mean sure they’ll say that it’s for Luna, but it’s all about you specifically, Nightmare. It’s been practiced for like, oodles and doodles of years! Not quite as long as the Summer Sun festival, I don’t think, but yeah!” She let go of Nightmare Moon, and rubbed her own muzzle, thinking. “How could you forget? Luna’s been to one of the celebrations, in Ponyville.”

Nightmare rubbed her neck, embarrassed. “Well, we don’t really share memories. Only ones formed in times of extreme emotional impact. This could be something monumentally joyous or devastating. Most of our memories are of the latter.”

Pinkie Pie made a move that Nightmare could only describe as deflated. Somehow this solid earth pony had melted like chocolate on a hot day. “Oh, Luna,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s Nightmare Moon, Pinkie Pie, and you will do well to stop forgetting this.”

“I was speaking to both of you. Well then!” She bounced back up, causing Nightmare to step back. “Then I consider it my solemn duty to make you two one heckuva great memory to share! We’re gonna go trick or treating!”

Nightmare couldn’t help but smile at this infectious energy. Pinkie Pie may have been informal and careless with her words, but she could see that she truly meant to make this night enjoyable to her. The methods sounded foalish, but, she conceded, this was still a pony set on showing love to her. She would take any worship she could get.

“Alright then. Let us trick and or treat. How is this related to me, though?”

Pinkie Pie had ducked into a nearby alley and was obscuring herself behind a barrel. Nightmare could hear rustling, zipping, and unfamiliar staticy noises while Pinkie squirmed just out of sight. While she performed this strange action, she spoke.

“Okay! So the idea is that on Nightmare Night, you were able to escape your prison on the moon and terrorize Equestria for the one night. Ponies had to dress up as monsters and animals to disguise themselves for fear of being caught by the ferocious Nightmare Moon. If one was caught—oof, this is tight—they could satisfy you with an offering of candy and sweets, to save themselves from being gobbled up.”

She walked out from behind the barrel, and Nightmare Moon had to hold a hoof to her mouth to keep herself from laughing. In front of her was Pinkie Pie, in an ill-fitting white body suit with golden shoes and a golden star painted onto it. Her curly mane was tucked into a hat that a flat piece of cardboard—painted crudely with blues, greens, and pinks—was attached to, and she had somehow changed her blue irises to a synthetic purple colour. She was, in the loosest sense of the word, dressed as Celestia, if Celestia had been made out of bit-store junk.

“What do you think?” she asked, striking a regal pose. The cardboard mane tilted, and then fell down, plapping Pinkie in the nose.

At this, Nightmare could not hold her laughter in. It escaped from her hoof, and the street was momentarily filled with the teenaged-sounding belly laughs of this ancient evil. Pinkie Pie held her pose and smiled broadly while Nightmare finished her laugh. Nightmare sighed contentedly, and then wiped a tear from her eye.

“You look exactly like how I feel she looks,” Nightmare said.

“Aww, thank you! I think I’m beautiful too!”

“No, that’s not—”

“Anyways, the ponies go door to door and collect candy from all the houses. It’s more of a foal and yearling thing, especially at places like Ponyville, but all the adults usually get involved in some way. Here in Canterlot, though, it tends to go much further into the night, after all the foals are home and full of sugar. Here, this is for you,” Pinkie said, handing Nightmare a brown canvas feed bag. She had her own, a little plastic jug that looked like a pumpkin.

“What a brilliant tradition,” Nightmare said, equipping the bag around her neck. “I couldn’t escape the Moon, so I wonder what it was that caused this legend to arise. Regardless, it is an acceptable myth to be related to. Worship me or die.” She flexed a foreleg and smiled deviously. “It appears I don’t need to be around to get the desired effect. The concept of me existing alone inspires others. I like it.”

Pinkie giggled again and started walking towards the first house. “I felt you would! Now c’mon, let's get some candy before they start turning their lights off.”

The first place she approached had their door closed, but the lantern outside was burning brightly, and Pinkie rapped on the door, shouted “Trick or Treat!”, then stood giddily. The door opened to another elderly pony, an earth one this time, who lit up at the sight of Pinkie Pie.

“Oh, well, what do we have here? None other than Princess Celestia! Why, dearie,” the old stallion gushed, “it’s you in the flesh! Honey, come here! We’ve been graced by a Princess’ presence.” He winked at Pinkie and stepped aside for a mare to join him at the door. The wrinkles about her eyes spread like cracking ice as she smiled so wide they squeezed closed.

“Goodness, Farrier, it must be her!” She winked too, and then muttered to Pinkie. “What a lovely costume, child. It’s nice to see some hoofmade ones instead of these common premade ones most of the foals have these days.” She grabbed a hooffull of large, full-size candy bars, and dropped them into Pinkie’s bucket. “Have a wonderful Nightmare Night, dear!”

Pinkie thanked them as the door closed and then bounced back to Nightmare, vibrating. “Full-size bars! This is one of the ‘best house’s! Go on ahead, follow my lead. You knock and say the line, and then they’ll usually say you look good and then give you candy. Be polite, though. Princess or not, if you’re rude, they’ll close the door and maybe stop giving out the good stuff!”

Nightmare Moon nodded and walked forward confidently. She didn’t need to be told what to do. This candy would be hers, and nothing could stop her! She reached the door, then knocked her hoof hard three times, and spoke.

“Offerings or perish!”

The door opened and the ancient-looking stallion started, finding himself looking at Nightmare’s chest instead of her face. She saw his neck crane upwards and his eyes squint, then open wide as his jaw dropped. Good, Nightmare figured, this mortal understood the gravity of the situa-

“Well paint my rump and call me a sailor! If that ain’t the best Nightmare Moon costume I ever seen! Blossom, come, come quick! You must see this!”

Nightmare Moon stood, confused. “Uh, I’m actually-”

“Alicorns above, isn’t it ever, Farrier? Your costume is divine, dearie!”

“...Divine you say?” Nightmare blushed and held a hoof to her chest. “Well, thank you so much! It takes a lot to look like this,” she said, slyly.

Blossom looked at the bowl of chocolate bars and then glanced at Farrier, who nodded. “Well dear, we were going to turn the lights off soon anyways, so why don’t you just take this? That is simply stunning work!” She reached the bowl up high to Nightmare’s sack, and Nightmare was surprised to find herself bending a knee to help the old mare reach. She glanced down, and couldn’t help but feel a great excitement from some inner foal as a half-dozen large bars of candy dropped into the satchel.

“...Thank you,” she said genuinely, tasting the words and finding them not as disgusting to say as she expected.

The two tittered and gushed for another moment before Farrier blew out the lantern and waved Nightmare away while she rejoined Pinkie Pie. The door closed, and Nightmare quickly pulled out a bar, unwrapped the wax around it, and took a bite. It was dark chocolate, and she took a moment to relish the sensation of familiar bitterness mixing with a refreshing sweetness.

It was the best thing she had ever eaten.

Pinkie Pie bumped her side into one of Nightmare’s legs affectionately. “Come on, let’s get going! We’ve got a lot of room for more candy, and only so much time before all the lanterns are out!” She bounded away, and Nightmare eagerly pranced behind her, grateful for the weight of the chocolate finally silencing the growl of her stomach.

It turned out, much to Nightmare’s pleasure, that the first door they went to that night was not an anomaly. Dozens of houses in a row expressed amazement and wonder at just how brilliant she looked, how befitting of the night she was, and how real she seemed to be. The thought crossed her mind a few times to shout out and clarify that she was indeed Nightmare Moon, but then piles of candy would be thrust out at her and she would smile. Saying ‘thank you’ became easier as the hour passed, and by the time they reached the bottom of the hill the long residential road stretched over, there was a warmth in her chest which had a source she could not place.

“Indigestion, perhaps,” she mused, munching on a handful of small hard honey-flavored drops.

“Whuh?” Pinkie Pie said, rummaging through her pail. She found a pack of bubblegum and gasped excitedly before tossing the whole thing in her mouth and chewing, her muzzle wide open and smacking.

“I feel strange on the inside. It’s not an unwelcome feeling, but it’s not one I’m used to.”

“Ah, woll, y’ pro’aly nee suh foo!”

Nightmare looked down at Pinkie, noticing she was struggling to break the lump of gum down to something more manageable and choosing to speak around it. She grabbed the damp mass in her magic and pulled it out of Pinkie’s mouth.

“Repeat yourself.”

“You probably need some real food! Here, this way!” And with that, she leapt up and started bounding off, back up the hill. Nightmare panicked, and called after Pinkie.

“Wait, what? Hold on! What am I supposed to do with this?” She jabbed a hoof towards the half-eaten gum levitating next to her.

“Keep it! It’s blueberry, not my favorite.”

Nightmare shuddered and then flung the gum off into an alley. She trotted after Pinkie Pie while shaking her head. Rarity at least seemed to be consistent. Pinkie Pie, she decided, was innately unpredictable. This was troubling, if Nightmare were to get too accustomed to following her. She could follow her around a corner and come face to face with some Starswirl wannabe with a spell to turn her to stone.

She bit her lower lip and slowed, watching the curly tail while its owner hopped over cracked stones in the path. Should she keep following Pinkie? So far it had been safe but…

“Hurry up! I wanna buy you a kebab!”

Nightmare nodded, and she picked her pace up tentatively. She had no idea what a kebab was, but Pinkie Pie sounded genuinely excited. And, well, somepony was getting her something without her asking for it. Surely the indulgence was worth a little risk?

Pinkie Pie waited at a corner for Nightmare to catch up, and then turned and walked down it next to her. They appeared to be approaching a sort of main park, and as they walked into the area proper Nightmare could see it was indeed some thoroughfare that ran down from the castle to the center of Canterlot. The central park was surrounded by a roundabout, which at even this late hour was fairly packed. Nightmare looked up at the sky, scanning the stars. The Moon was directly overhead, and after a brief moment of admiration, she brought her head back down to the world around her. It was almost midnight.

She breathed in deeply, and her eyes opened wide. She was expecting the normal scents of night; dusty stones, cold damp grass, perhaps a trace of flowers that were late to put themselves to sleep. What came instead was so much more. Scents of cooking and baking filled her nose, of exotic spices and sauces, of a thousand different foods being fried and flambéed and frittered, and, uncontrollably, she felt a tear run down her cheek. She could not remember a night ever smelling so adventurous and new.

Her open eyes revealed to her the source of this original experience. Dozens of trucks lined the outside of the roundabout, and of the hundreds of mingling ponies in the square, the majority of them were lined up outside the carts. Ponies in unfamiliar uniforms were moving rapidly within them, shouting back and forth—often in languages she did not recognize—and flinging various ingredients to and fro faster than they themselves were moving.

There were plates of rice with sauces overflowing from the sides, colours so bright they were almost neon. Sticks with mixtures of familiar and unfamiliar vegetables, roasted and dusted with spices she had never even heard of, passed between the hooves of chefs to customers. Some carts offered lunchtime meals; sandwiches and salads and samosas flowed out of them to eager ponies who scarfed them down amongst their friends, their bites slowed only by laughter and oft-repeated tales. Others offered breakfast goods; cinnamon buns and pancakes seemed to be the popular choice, though there were one or two fruit stands that appeared to be busy enough to justify their place amongst the rest. The rest were… well, everything. Foreign cuisine lined up next to ice cream trucks, parked across the street from an assortment of extremely niche options. Nightmare Moon blinked, noticing that not only was there a truck that sold just avocado toast, it happened to be the busiest one on that quarter of the roundabout.

“What… is this place?” she spoke breathlessly. Never before had she seen such quantities and varieties of food in one location, and the sheer enormity of options and excess overwhelmed her.

No answer came back to her, not even a giggle.

“Pinkie Pie?” she asked, checking around. Her guide appeared to have vanished, and she frowned. Of course. She had been led to a wide open park, where plenty of hidden agents could hide amongst the crowd and leap out now she was relaxed and potentially sleepy from all the candy her “host” had convinced her to eat. It all made sense!

Nightmare Moon took a guarded step back, her eyes squinting as she surveyed the mass of ponies for trained assassins. It was useless, she realized, as they were almost all of them dressed in ridiculous costumes of monsters and ancient heroes. No matter, of course. She would just remove all of them. A bright cyan glow emanated around her as she charged her horn, the magical energy growing around her along with a malicious smile of jagged teeth. The pink pony had been foolish to lead her here; their trap would fail, and how spectacularly so! She lowered her head, aiming her crackling horn at the thickest group of ponies, and then—

“I’m back, Nightmare! Oh, you’ve got us some light, that’s so thoughtful of you!”

Pinkie Pie’s voice struck Nightmare Moon like a migraine, and she closed her eyes in quiet frustration while depowering the spell.

“You left me.”

“Of course I did, silly! You were enjoying the sights and sounds of the night! I wasn’t gonna interrupt that just to make you stand in a line.” She made a raspberry noise and laughed. “Here, while you were meditating I got you this.”

Pinkie Pie held out one of those sticks of flamed veggies coated with a dusting of yellow spices, and Nightmare grabbed it in her magic, bringing it close to her eyes.

“And what is this, pray tell? Poison?”

“Well, if you can’t handle spicy foods, it can feel like it, but really, it’s good! I’ll eat it if you don’t trust me, and you can have mine.” She beamed, either completely in defiance of, or total ignorance of, Nightmare’s unimpressed stare.

“And how do I know you weren’t counting on that, and poisoned yours in expectation of swapping with mine then, hmm?” Her eyes narrowed on that everlasting smile.

“Someone’s a grouchypants today. Nightmare Moon,” Pinkie Pie said, dropping to her hindquarters and levelling a neutral stare up into her eyes, “I Pinkie Promise you that these kebabs are nothing more than kebabs, served up hot and fresh from my friend Saffron Masala’s stand, just over there, where plenty of other ponies are eating them.” She made a series of motions, culminating in jabbing her open eye with a hoof.

Nightmare Moon felt no more convinced, but, with a deep resounding sigh, nodded. “Fine. Just know that if I feel the slightest bit wronged by this meal, I shall destroy you.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just eat it already, while it’s hot!” She opened her mouth and slid the kebab across her extended tongue, gulping it down entirely without appearing to have chewed it.

Taking a bit more time with hers, Nightmare just tried a nibble of the first vegetable. It was a thin, peppery-looking thing, light green beneath the turmeric and charring, and the refreshingly sweet taste of roasted fresh grass caused her pause. Her eyes opened wide as a distant memory rushed in, overwriting reality.

“Oh, Stars above, this is…” She let the words drop as she took another bite, larger now, taking in a bit of potato along with the rest of the okra. Her eyes rolled backwards as once more a wave of nostalgia washed over her.

“Too spicy for you, huh?” Pinkie Pie asked, giggling at Nightmare’s misty eyes. “Here, I kinda thought it might be, so I got you some extra napkins to make sure you stay looking dangerous and intimidating.”

“N-no, I…” She turned away, snatching the offered napkin out of Pinkie’s outstretched hoof with a snap of magic. “I just remembered…”

“What is it?” Pinkie Pie asked softly, scooching a bit closer to the alicorn.

“Back at our castle—the one in the Everfree, not this one here—I would… Sometimes I would graze in the clearings at night. It-it sounds silly, I know, grazing when you have access to a Royal Kitchen, but…” She sniffed and wiped at her nose with the napkin, absentmindedly grabbing a second one which Pinkie had slid in front of her. “There was something about the Everfree grass, when the moon was high and the dew had settled… This tastes just like it. I forgot… I even had that memory.”

She blinked and then shook her head rapidly, cheeks flushing at her brief moment of vulnerability. “What did you do to that kebab? You made me weak somehow!”

Pinkie Pie shook her head, her mouth occupied by another hooffull of veggies that she was attempting to chew this time. She swallowed loudly, and then spoke.

“Well, that wasn’t me! It was the food itself. That’s what this is all about, Nightmare Moon!”

“What do you mean?” Nightmare asked, before taking another guarded bite and chewing slowly.

“Nights are for making memories. That’s what every pony is doing here tonight. Don’t you see?” She spread her forehooves wide, stretching them out from one end of the roundabout to the next, encompassing every group of ponies that ate and chewed and laughed and kissed and talked. “In the daytime, we’re all at work, or taking care of chores, but when the sun goes down is when we’re free to make memories. None of us are here for the food,” she said, taking a huge bite out of a third kebab that Nightmare had not seen her acquire, “but for the company of each other and the fun of the event.”

She smiled as Nightmare finished her first kebab, mulling over the words Pinkie had said.

“In a dozen years, nopony here will remember what they ate, but they will remember the conversations they had. The food might help them remember, like with you! But it’s the celebration of our friends, and our lives.”

Nightmare Moon swayed in place, her brows creased not in anger or miscomprehension, but in fear of a small crack of self-doubt that this strange earth pony had managed to chip into her shield. Could it be true? Were all of them out and about tonight not just to appease her but to truly enjoy the world… and each other? But how could it have been hidden from her all these years, then?

Her head started to hurt a little bit, and she turned away from Pinkie Pie in silence.

“...I could use a drink,” she said finally, glancing back at Pinkie through the corner of her eye.

“Ah, well, I reckon I got here just in time, then,” a smooth country drawl interjected, spooking Nightmare Moon out of her sullen brooding. She leapt up into the air and spun around to find a second earth pony next to Pinkie, munching on yet another kebab.

Immediately she recognized the orange mare, more because of the stetson than anything else, and a different memory slid quickly into place; one of sudden failure and embarrassing defeat, and she shouted.

“Get thee away from me!” she screeched, momentarily slipping into archaic Ponish as fear and anger flooded into her blood. “You… you! You were there too!”

“I sure was,” Applejack tipped her hat in apology. “And I hate t’ see ya all riled up about it. How ‘bout you let me buy you a drink and we bury the hatchet?”

Applejack Daniels

“This is ridiculous and I hate it and I hate you.” Nightmare Moon was cursing, standing firm at the base of the hilly street that Applejack had started trotting up. Her wings were flared out, and her miasmic mane billowed menacingly behind her armoured head.

The earth pony turned around, an eyebrow cocked and her hat tilted back as if it itself were curious.

“Ah, come now, how am I any different than the other two you’ve met tonight?”

Nightmare Moon pawed at the ground, her slitted eyes widening as sparks crackled around her horn.

“So you know! You are planning something!” She slammed another hoof into the pavement, snorting. “What trickery is this? I shall not proceed any further! I don’t have time for these mind games, you foals! I have a sister to slay!”

She kicked off from the ground, eyes wild and wings beating hard. A pile of dust spread out from under her as the massive appendages hefted her frame into the air, and she turned sharply with the blazing horn aiming towards the castle high above. She pushed forward, or would have, had a sudden tug on her legs not brought her crashing to the ground.

In an instant, Nightmare Moon was laying hogtied in the middle of the street on her back, watching Pinkie Pie giggle at her with a mouthful of potato. Try as she might, she couldn’t snap the thick, rough rope that had lashed her hooves together, and even magic seemed no use.

“What sorcery is this?!” she grunted, tugging at every bit of the knot with her magic and only seeming to tighten its grip with each attempt. “Unleash me!”

Applejack dusted her hooves off and dropped the trailing end of the lasso, smirking. “In a moment, hold your horses. We gotta get some bit of understanding between the two of us down ‘afore I can go and let you play.” She reached Nightmare’s head and then sat down roughly on her chest, knocking the breath out of her before reaching down and patting her cheek with a hoof.

“I’ll destroy you.”

“I’m sure. Now see, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, they’re gentle souls. Violent sounding as they may be, they don’t really have the guts for violence. But you and I, Luna—”

“Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare, you and I speak a common language. I fully understand your anger, and how it feels like the only answer to any problem is to hit it as hard as you can. Don’t lie to me now; am I right?”

Nightmare looked away sullenly, frowning hard and failing at hiding her flustered cheeks.

Applejack hopped in place, bouncing her flank on Nightmare’s chest and blowing the air out of her once more.

“Ugh! Fine! Yes, of course! But you don’t understand me. Nopony understands me!”

“Horseapples, Princess.”

“What do you know about me?!”

“I know you got a lot of pride and being tied up upside down while a magic-less earth pony slaps your hooves hurts more than preeetty much anything else I can do to you,” she offered.

Nightmare Moon stared at her haughtily.

“Now I’m gonna get you up and untie you, but I wantcha to promise me you ain’t gonna fly off and start pecking at your sister’s window like a crow. And I mean it! An actual promise!”

“...”

“Awful lot of ponies around watching us now,” she added nonchalantly.

A deep groan of pain issued from Nightmare Moon’s muzzle, and she swore.

“That don’t sound like much of a promise, but I will have to remember that one,” Applejack replied.

“Applejack, I promise I won’t assault that excuse you call a Princess so long as you’re near me with this despicable rope!” she hollered, writhing against it again.

“Works for me!” Applejack whooped, and she slid off Nightmare’s chest, grabbing her lasso and giving it a light flick of the wrist.

The knot slid completely undone, and Nightmare straightened up, dusting herself off with her wings and avoiding eye contact with any of the gathered ponies.

“You look like a cat that missed a jump and then pretended it meant to in the first place,” Applejack snickered, rolling her rope up into a loop and stuffing it into her saddlebag. Before Nightmare could snap back at her, she continued. “Now that that’s outta the way, we best be going. Don’t want to get to the Cider Gardens and find they’ve run out.”

Nightmare was muttering something that sounded like ‘insolent’ under her breath before Applejack’s words registered, and she looked at her with ears perked. “Cider… Gardens?”

“You’ve never been? Well, you’re in for a treat!” Applejack bounced on her hooves, beaming. “They’re my favourite part of any Nightmare Night!”

“Cider is made in orchards,” Nightmare said, confused. She furrowed her brow and started walking after Applejack, and the two of them continued up the street that she had first tried to lead her up together. “Or at least the apples are,” she said finally, almost unsure of herself. “How does one maintain a garden of cider?”

“You know, I ain’t ever questioned the name of it before, but it’s not that.”

“Then pray tell, what is this? And where?”

“At the castle,” Applejack started, and Nightmare Moon froze without her notice. “And it’s like an outdoor bar with enough cider for the city,” she concluded, and Nightmare started walking again.

“I still know you’re planning something with your friends,” she said out of the corner of her mouth, frowning down at Applejack. “And I still don’t trust any of you.”

“Well, shucks, you’re awful kind,” Applejack replied, still smiling and looking forward to the castle. “Why not?”

“What do you mean, why not?!”

“I mean what I mean. Why don’tcha trust us? One of us took you dancing and let you do it at your own pace. The other helped you get more candy than probably all the foals in Ponyville got tonight, and also bought you supper. I’m currently taking you for drinks, which I will pay for.”

“...W-well, sure, that is true… but you must be up to something! My last, brief meeting with you and your friends, I was struck by some eldritch magic that ripped my physical form to atoms.” Her lower lip quivered, and she turned her head up to the moon to avoid letting Applejack see. “All because the residents of this land are so disgusted by the night I so desperately want them to love.”

“That’s how you see it, huh?”

Nightmare snapped her head back to Applejack, baring her fangs. “Yes, of course, because that’s what it is! If you want the truth—”

“Always,” Applejack muttered.

“I am no threat to any of these citizens. I can destroy them, and will, should they give me reason to distrust them, like you and sister’s other playthings,” she sneered. “All I’ve ever wanted is recognition of the night time I have so meticulously crafted and protected, and yet once sister’s precious daylight is gone, they all scurry away to their homes and shun me. I gave it a hundred years, Applejack. A hundred years! Making the night safer, prettier, more enjoyable and liveable and, and…”

Tears were in her eyes, and she magicked them away to avoid being seen wiping them.

“Not once did I feel a modicum of love or appreciation. Eternal Night is the only way for them to learn how good it is for them. My “glorious” sister was in the way of that, but not the citizens.”

She struck a powerful pose, standing with legs wide and head high, and Applejack paused to observe this.

“For, without worshippers, one cannot be worshipped!”

She broke out into another one of those childish cackles, while Applejack watched her with a neutral expression. After the moment passed, Nightmare continued walking again, looking down at her guide.

“For my crime of threatening my sister’s glory, I was imprisoned for a millennium and then eviscerated. And yet, you expect me to trust any of you?”

“Well,” Applejack drawled, “that’s a mighty fine point you raise, and I feel a little foolish to tell you that the answer’s yes. I do expect you to trust us, cause frankly, Luna’s trusting us to help you… two? The two side’s a you, I guess, to resolve your differences. Now I ain’t stupid, and fair’s as fair does, so Nightmare Moon, I’m gonna tell you exactly what our secret plan is.”

“That makes no sense whatsoever. If I don’t trust you now, what makes you think I’ll trust your words?”

“It’s sorta my thing,” Applejack said, slightly shocked. “But whatever. Believe it or not, here’s what’s going on. Luna came to us and asked us to help quiet the anger and jealousy within her—that’s you, of course. Now, we could have surrounded Luna when she changed and shot you with some good ol’ fashioned Friendship Magic, but Twilight had a different idea.

“Basically, she figured that Luna weren’t jealous, but hurt. It ain’t that you hate ponies appreciating Princess Celestia, but that you hated that you weren’t feeling that same level of appreciation. And? Was she right, Nightmare Moon?”

The alicorn opened her mouth to snap at Applejack before slowly closing her jaw and sighing. “To deny it would be laughable. Yes, that is the case.”

“Well, so what she came up with was for each one of us to take you—not Luna, but you—out at night to show you exactly how us ponies appreciate it. It doesn’t come in the same form as laying on a beach or going to work with warm smiles, but in its own unique ways. Rarity took you dancing, and Pinkie Pie took you trick-or-treating. I’m taking you drinking, which is one of my favourite ways to spend a night.”

Nightmare Moon glanced sideways at Applejack.

“N-not every night, mind you,” Applejack added, blushing. “But when I celebrate something, it’s often around cider and friends, at night.”

“I see. So then once you have finished extolling to me the, how shall I say, virtue of alcoholism, one of your other friends is going to whisk me away and share what they enjoy doing at night?”

“Preee-cisely!”

“I see. I am like some sort of… foal, being gently taught proper manners then? Passed off from parent to parent? And what happens if I don’t play along?”

Applejack stopped, the two of them approaching the outside of the hedge maze that had been cleared for the Cider Garden, and held up a hoof against Nightmare Moon.

“Well, Rarity might spank you, and worse case scenario we’ll probably invigorate you or whatever word you said it was. Point is none of us want to do that—save for maybe Rarity and—well, that’s not important. What’s important is that we love Luna. We love you, no matter how you present yourself. Hurting you is not our goal.

“So, that in mind, Nightmare Moon,” Applejack paused, tilting her head towards the wrought iron gates and the cacophonic cheering that could be heard from beyond it, “you have yourself a choice to make.”

Nightmare stared at the gate and the stack of cider barrels next to it that could be seen towering above the hedge, and found she felt rather parched.

“And what choice would that be?” she asked, still looking away.

“You can wreak havoc and try to attack your sister and bring about Eternal Night, or you can come with me to the Cider Gardens, have a pint, and relax a bit.”

“I… suppose I can indulge myself for an hour,” Nightmare answered, unsure. “I am royalty, after all…”

“That’s the spirit,” Applejack said, giving Nightmare a playful punch on the shoulder, earning a glare she did not catch. “Follow me, then!” she said, trotting happily through the gates.

Nightmare steeled herself and stepped through behind the earth pony, her eyes wildly scanning for anything that looked awry, only to blink in surprise as she took in the scene before her.

Something was definitely awry. In fact, everything was awry. Near the gate was a long counter lined with bartending ponies and hundreds of kegs, and beside that was an even longer line. Interspersed throughout the garden were dozens of large wooden tables of assorted sizes, and each one seemed to have at least three occupants. Unicorns lifting trays of foaming mugs weaved their way fluidly throughout crowds of ponies, swapping mugs for bits at such speeds she could hardly keep up with it.

Ponies were laughing and cheering and shouting after one another. Ponies were dancing at their seat or up near the northwest corner of the garden, where space had been cleared and a band played lively country music. Ponies were sipping from cups, chugging from mugs, and drooling over plates of appetizers. Everywhere Nightmare Moon looked, there was a pony doing something, and they were doing that something with an air of extravagance she had never seen before.

“C’mon!” Applejack shouted, waving a hoof from one of the tables closer to the front. There were three other ponies there, but they weren’t any Nightmare Moon recognized, and she walked forward cautiously, still staring around in awe.

“You move pretty slow for such long legs,” Applejack chided her when she finally reached the table. “Have a seat, and we’ll get introductions out of the way.”

Nightmare Moon awkwardly shuffled onto the seat, slightly splaying her hindlegs out to fit at the table, and then nodded slowly with a suspicious squint at the two earth ponies and the unicorn that sat across from her.

“Howdy, neighbours,” Applejack said as she sat down. She reached behind herself as she spoke and tapped one of the wandering servers on the side, getting their attention. Upon seeing the alicorn next to her, the server’s eyes widened, and she lifted all the mugs off her tray and onto the center of the table, all whilst bowing.

“Pleasure to see you, Princess Luna,” she said, her horn almost at the floor.

“I am Nightm—”

“Drinks are free for the Crown, your Highness,” Applejack cut in, speaking through the corner of her mouth.

“...Thank you,” Nightmare said to the server instead.

“Would your Highness be interested in any of the appetizers tonight? We have fried celery sticks, hay fries, and mozzarella sticks.”

“We’ll take the platter, ma’am,” Applejack replied. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a hooffull of bits, proffering them to the mare. The server blushed, nodded her head in appreciation, and scampered off towards the bar, while stuffing the coins into her own little pouch.

“So!” Applejack said, turning to the other three ponies. “Thanks for letting us join you! I’m Applejack, and this here is Princess Luna, who’s currently undergoing a bit of an identity crisis and would like you to refer to her as Nightmare Moon.”

“Thas cute,” hiccuped one of the earth ponies, a vibrant purple mare with a thick, messy mane. “I’m Berry Punch. Pleasure t’ meetcha, your Highness.”

“Don’t mind her,” the second mare said. She was a darker purple than her companion, with two-tone light pink hair. “We’ve been playing some drinking games, and I think she’s been losing on purpose.” She giggled, and then held a hoof out towards Nightmare Moon. “I’m Cheerilee. We’ve met before, but you were… shorter, at the time.” She looked at Applejack, a shrewd glint in her eyes. “I take it she wouldn’t remember us?”

“I’m right here,” Nightmare Moon snapped. “You can speak to me,” she said softer, her tone almost apologetic in response to Applejack’s glare. “But no, I do not remember most of what Luna has experienced.”

“Well, we’ll help’ya forget some new memories tonight!” Berry Punch cheered, grabbing one of the new mugs of cider and holding it up towards Nightmare Moon. Applejack grabbed one as well and, elbowing Nightmare to lift her own and follow suit, they toasted before bringing the cups to their lips and drinking heartily.

“Oh my, this is… wonderful,” Nightmare said, looking at the tankard in surprise.

“Thank you kindly!” Applejack said, beaming with pride. “I never got your name, feller,” she said to the unicorn.

“I’m Golden Gavel,” he said, swaying slightly. “It’s an honour to meet you, Pri—Nightmare Moon.” He nodded sagely and grabbed his own mug. “So what brings you to our little table here?”

Nightmare looked down at Applejack and tilted an eyebrow.

“I’m teaching her Highness how to relax a little. I believe I heard something about drinking games?”

“You did!” Cheerilee said enthusiastically. “Would you like to play a round with us? We were just about to start a game of Never Have I Ever.”

“Hot-diggedy!” Applejack whooped, punching the air. “That’s one’a my favourites! Aww, this’ll be right fun, Nightmare!”

“What is “Never Have I Ever?” Nightmare asked, the tone of her voice wavering between nervous apprehension and curiosity.

“Ah, well, thas real easy then,” Berry Punch said, tilting her cup towards the alicorn. “Les start with you then. Just g’wan and say ‘never have I ever played Never Have I Ever.’”

“...Never have I ever played Never Have I Ever?”

The three ponies all took a deep pull on their mugs, leaving Nightmare Moon blinking in confusion.

“You drink if you have done the thing the other pony hasn’t. You gotta be truthful, too, otherwise it’s no fun. It don’t matter how embarrassing or ridiculous it is. If it’s your turn to drink, you drink.” The others nodded, confirming this. “Why don’t you start again, with your own question? Then we’ll go clockwise round the table,” Applejack said, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Alright… Hmm. Never have I ever raised the sun.”

The three ponies stared at her vacantly.

“The trick,” Berry Punch said, puncturing the heavy silence that had quickly fallen around their table, “is to find something that somepony else likely has done.” She looked around, tired eyes already squinting as she focused on the participants at the table, before smiling. “Never have I ever eaten Zap Apple Jam,” she decided.

Golden Gavel and Applejack both took swigs.

“So what is the purpose of the game? The end goal? How does one win?”

“Some ponies play to see who finishes their cups first or gets to a certain number,” Cheerilee responded, rubbing her muzzle as she thought. “But tonight we’re just trying to get each other drunk!”

“Why—”

“Never have I ever told a lie,” Cheerilee said, looking towards Berry with a devious grin. To her surprise, every pony at the table instead of Berry took a drink, including Nightmare Moon—she used to, after all, tell herself that she was fine being forgotten by the citizens.

When Nightmare finished her mouthful, enjoying the spicy flavours of cider as they washed down her throat, she was surprised to find everypony staring wild-eyed at Applejack, who was wiping her own mouth off.

“Did I miss something?”

“Applejack,” Golden Gavel said, “You’re the only pony in Equestria who any jury would accept as a reliable witness. Wh… when did you lie?”

“All the time as a filly,” she said, chuckling. “Then I made a massive mistake that got out of hoof, and after a well-deserved punishment decided that sorta action weren’t for me.”

Nightmare Moon winced as if struck, but nopony noticed, and Applejack continued.

“My turn, though. How abouts… Never have I ever tried to overthrow the Kingdom.” She stuck her tongue out at Nightmare Moon, earning an evil glare in response.

“If the little bit of memory from my lesser counterpart’s recent time amongst the common rabble holds true, I believe they call that a ‘cheap shot’, Applejack.”

Applejack didn’t respond, because she was too busy dropping her jaw at Golden Gavel.

“...What?” he asked, setting his mug down as a bit of foam ran down his chin. “You find me one pony who went to Law School who didn’t make a plan about eliminating the monarchy,” he said, defensively. “It’s like an annual event at our university to organize a protest.”

And Nightmare Moon laughed.

She didn’t expect it to happen, and judging by the rest of the looks she gained, neither were her companions at the table, but laugh she did. It was not the maniacal, cracked-voice laughter she had unleashed at the castle, nor even the sly and sultry practiced chuckle of a villain’s plans coming together, but a giggle. She had giggled.

A moment of introspection took over the alicorn. Why had she laughed? She was nervous, ready to be attacked at any moment, but the tense awareness of her surroundings hadn’t stopped the noise from escaping her lips unbidden. And this stallion had just threatened the Crown. Her crown. And she had laughed.

Perhaps it was because of the futility of a meager unicorn trying to lay siege to what would be her fortress. Perhaps it was the look on the faces of his friends as they stared incredulously at the revelation.

Or perhaps, she considered, she was having fun.

“...Moon?” she heard, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“What?” she snapped, looking around for the speaker.

“Is yer turn,” Berry Punch said, looking expectantly at her mug, desperate for another pull.

“Ah, yes, right. Uhm.” She looked around the table, considering. Applejack had said to answer truthfully despite how embarrassing it may be, and so of course an aim of the game should be to embarrass your companions. Something the earth pony had said to her earlier came back to her, and she grinned and spoke.

“Never have I ever spanked a mare.”

Immediately Cheerilee and Applejack looked sharply at each other before turning away just as fast, each of them bringing their mugs up to cover their deeply blushing faces. The reaction did not go unnoticed by Berry Punch, who started laughing so hard she rolled backwards off the unbacked chair, and continued to howl whilst busy servers walked around her seamlessly. The laughter was contagious, and again Nightmare Moon found herself with a smile she could not snuff out and a quiet chuckle that, despite her worries, would not cease.

“You’re picking up on this far too fast,” Applejack said with a smirk. “You’re gonna get me in trouble, you keep this up.”

“It is only fair for the embarrassment you caused me earlier this evening,” Nightmare replied playfully.

Cheerilee helped Berry Punch get back up, marvelling while she did so at the mug of cider that had fallen with her but not spilled a drop. The drunken mare stabilized herself again, and then looked around, reading the table.

“Never have I ever kissed a sibling,” she said, earning a disgusted noise from Cheerilee. Applejack however just shrugged and drained her cup, setting it down with a loud clunk. She turned to Nightmare Moon, muttering something about pecks on Apple Bloom’s cheeks when putting her to bed, and then froze.

“I…” was all Nightmare Moon could mutter, her eyes clouded by yet another memory from an aeon ago.

She was no longer in the Canterlot Cider Gardens, but in the Castle of the Two Sisters, long before her transformation. She had been wandering the halls, ruminating on the efforts of her long nights defending the infant country from all the various monsters and threats that accompany every new claim to land and power, and how she felt.

She had been stepping softly, aimlessly, until her hooves had brought her before Celestia’s room, where her bigger sister was standing within the doorway, mane still mussy from the night’s rest, her tired eyes catching the pain on Luna’s face the moment they fell upon it.

They had spoken then. Nightmare couldn’t remember the words that had been exchanged, or even the energy or tone of the conversation. Was it their first fight? Or the first time she had opened up to Celestia about her fears, her anxieties?

What she did remember was how she felt after the conversation, and the touch of warmth that Celestia had planted in her heart, holding the cold void of anger at bay for just that much longer, and the kiss she had placed on her sister’s cheek in relief and thanks.

Nightmare Moon took a long, slow drink, as a tear ran down her cheek.

“Never have I ever slept with a mare and stallion at the same time,” Cheerilee said loudly, clearly hoping to move on from whatever Berry’s question had brought, and Nightmare Moon’s cheeks curled in a very small smile in thanks for her thought.

Applejack, now freshly stocked with a new tankard of cider, drank alongside Golden Gavel, and swayed a bit. “Y’all are bullying me,” she said, before a hiccup came out.

“Never have I ever finished a keg of alcohol in one night,” Golden Gavel said, causing all three earth ponies to drink. He winked at Nightmare Moon. “It’s hardly worth mentioning for an earth pony, because they can hold so much more liquor than any other race.” He frowned for a moment. “Though now that I think of it, I’ve never seen an alicorn drunk.”

Another quick memory flashed through Nightmare Moon’s mind, and she laughed loudly, holding a hoof to her chest. “I have, and it’s ridiculous,” she said, vividly imagining Celestia using her magic to float herself around the castle after a night of consuming an imported treat: fermented plums. It was apparently, she had learned after catching her breath enough to ask, because Celestia’s legs no longer seemed to go where her mind wanted them to. She wiped a tear from her eye as her hearty laughter dampened to a mild chortle.

Their game continued on, and as it did more and more memories from Nightmare Moon’s time as Luna seemed to flow through the sieve. At one point, as she was recounting to the rest of them the time she had chased a moth for several hours and became entirely lost in the Everfree Forest, Berry Punch—who, despite the breakdown in speech of the rest of the table, was still as precisely drunk as she was when they started—had noted that Nightmare Moon was the only pony she had ever seen regain memories after drinking.

Japes and jabs and cheap shots went back and forth, and time and time again a server slipped past the table, expertly swapping all the empty mugs with new ones. Together they laughed and shouted and cheered, until finally Nightmare felt a familiar sting of anxiety cut through the warm hug of inebriation.

“...never let the (hic) class care fer a hamster, since,” Cheerilee slurred before giggling. Nightmare let out a half-hearted chuckle before elbowing Applejack lightly, and then harder when she didn’t notice at first.

“Hmm?”

“I think I have had enough. This has been…” She paused, fearing to say the word aloud as if it might bite her, before deciding that she had been honest the whole game and stopping now would be ridiculous. “This has been fun, Applejack. But I do not wish to partake any further, lest I need my faculties around me if I am assaulted.”

Applejack looked at her from her position, crumpled over on the table, head resting on crossed hooves with a half-full mug positioned strategically close enough to sip from.

“Do I look at all in any position t’ wrassle you?” she said, smiling.

“Absolutely not, which is wonderful, but a rather poor performance as host to a royal guest.”

Applejack blew a raspberry at her, but then nodded. “Yer right. I’m in no condition fer foalsittin’.” She looked up, noting the position of the moon above. “Sweet C’lestia, is only been an hour. Uh…” she trailed, before looking around, eyes squinted.

“Is there some significance to the time?”

“We had this whole sorta shed-oole made up, to keep crossin’ paths with one n’other at the right time and whatnot. But I’m early. Got carried away learnin’ about the pranks you’d pull with the Everfree snakes and have had too much. Aha!” she said, raising her head and waving a hoof towards the bar. She blinked before realizing whoever she was looking at did not see her, and then brought a hoof to her lips and whistled.

There was a multifaceted flash and Nightmare Moon jumped, bringing that now-familiar crackling glow to her horn as she locked eyes with whatever stranger had popped by.

“You!” Nightmare said, leaning back in her seat away from the cyan pegasus that hovered next to her. Rainbow Dash ignored her, focusing on Applejack instead.

“Heya AJ. What’s up?”

“Sorry t’ interrupt yer drinks,” she said, reaching a hoof up and patting Dash’s leg consolingly. “I’ll make it up to ya later, but I got a bit carried away and need ya t’ take care a Luna fer me a bit earlier.”

“Make it up to me how?” Dash asked, lowering herself in the air and leaning against Applejack’s withers.

“More cider, ‘course,” Applejack said.

“I dunno, AJ,” Dash said, turning to look at Nightmare Moon. She had been frozen still, leaned back with charged horn, but made no other move or sound. “She looks like trouble to me. You know I love cider, but…”

“Delivered in the back of the barn when nopony’s around?”

“That should do,” she said, winking at the earth pony. She swung around back to Nightmare Moon and gave her a once-over. “I get the feeling you still hate us and won’t be trusting me at all?”

“I— uh, that is…” Nightmare said, blinking, before diffusing the magic in her horn and relaxing. “Kind of, but I get the feeling you’re not going to put up with it any more than your friends, are you?”

“Nope,” Dash said, hovering in the air as if she were sitting cross-legged. “We can play that game if it makes you feel better, though. It is your night, after all.” She smiled, a cocky gleam of teeth that simultaneously made Nightmare Moon want to punch her and make an alliance with her. It was the sort of villainous smile an evil mastermind who knew all their machinations were going exactly according to plan might have.

“Cocksure mare,” Applejack muttered into her mug.

“Thick-thighed mule,” Dash responded, not looking at her.

“Yer jus’ jealous.”

“I am. Would you mind sharing them?”

The two of them grinned, and Nightmare Moon felt she was caught in the middle of some ritual exchange between the two of them, practiced a thousand times over.

“So… well?” Nightmare said, edging into the conversation. “And what whimsical virtue are you to impart upon me, Pegasus?”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Uh, well, first, you can call me Rainbow Dash, Luna.”

“It’s Nightmare Moon,” Applejack and Nightmare Moon said at the same time.

“Sure, whatever. And second, I don’t know where you’re getting the concept of virtuousness from. I was thinking crime.”

“Wait, wh—”

“Last one to the castle peak is a Diamond Dog!” Dash interrupted her, giving her a quick slap on the flank before bolting off into the air, a rainbow contrail left shimmering behind her.

Smash and Dash

“Insolent mule!” Nightmare Moon shouted, kicking off from her seat and rocketing off into the air after Rainbow Dash. She sent the table rocking, and the three earth ponies and the unicorn watched her fly off before looking back at each other.

“Ne’er have I… e’err…” Golden Gavel struggled, blinking bleary eyes at the rest of them, “sucked on a mare’s ‘oof before.”

Applejack sighed deeply. She bit at her mug, pulled it up to her still-resting head and drank from it, then let go and watched the empty tankard roll off the table and onto the ground.

“Hate’cha. The lotta ya,” she said, before closing her eyes and gently starting to snore.

Nightmare Moon, meanwhile, was currently in hot pursuit of Rainbow Dash, far above the castle gardens. Rainbow Dash may have been smaller and more agile, but Nightmare’s large wings gave her a boost to speed, and she quickly approached the multicoloured mare from behind.

Her razor teeth were bared, her slitted eyes snapped tight in laser focus, and she galloped in the air as if any purchase on the wind might get her closer to the pony who had dared to slap her. She had slapped her! And yet, as the warm air rushed past her ears and through her legs, as the beating wings sent pulses of joy and freedom through her spine, as the bright, full moon hung heavily in the air above the castle, she found herself devoid of anger.

She wasn’t mad that Rainbow Dash had hit her, and she didn’t know why. She wanted to reach her, yes, and she grunted hard as a strong flap of her wings shot her almost beside the pegasus. But she didn’t want to harm her. Her focus was on the flag, not the pony. That was what she wanted. To win.

It was feet away, inches away, just within reach! She clamped her eyes shut and stretched her forehoof out, legs kicking behind her for that last extra bit of momentum, and finally—

“Hah! Too slow!”

Nightmare opened her eyes just in time to slam against the roof, dislodging several golden tiles from their home and gasping in unmanifested pain. She recovered, hovering away from the golden peak and watching the tiles vanish far below into the valley at the mountain’s base.

Her eyes shot up as Dash laughed, and she could not keep disbelief off of her face.

Rainbow Dash was moonwalking in the air, pumping her forehooves out and in with each “Woohoo! Woohoo!” cheerfully shouted into the night. She slowly rotated around the flag, giggling and celebrating.

“Oh yeah, I’m the best, faster than an alicorn, that’s me, can’t keep up, can’t beat me, no way, uh uh, so cool, that’s me, not you, you’re slow…”

Nightmare Moon blinked, her jaw drooping open while Rainbow Dash completed yet another loop of gloating around the parapet.

Finally, Dash slowed down and opened her eyes, wiping her tears of laughter with one last chuckle. She flitted up and around Nightmare Moon before coming to a rest, leaning an elbow on her shoulder.

“Oh, too much? They wanted me to show up a bit later in the evening, because I was most likely to piss you off.”

Nightmare met Dash’s eyes, her mouth still agape.

“But we had to be careful with it, cause like, we didn’t want you to get all relaxed and feel loved and cared for and then suddenly I show up and make you bring the Moon down onto Canterlot.”

Nightmare blinked again, slowly, while Dash gave her another coy smile and winked.

“And boy would I feel bad if I caused that.”

It started as a pressure down in her belly, an urge more than anything, one she tried to hold back and found she was powerless against. It shifted up into her diaphragm, and the sensation took hold of her, and she burst into laughter.

It wasn’t like the laughter down in the Cider Gardens, nothing like the respectable giggle and eventual soft chortling that had come about with the lubrication of the liquor, but a full belly laugh. It was like her practiced maniacal laugh, but not; lighter in tone, uncontrolled and sporadic. She rolled over in the air, clutching her belly while she struggled to breath, her eyes closing so tightly in mirth that the tears filling them were squished out to run down over her face.

Even Rainbow Dash got caught up in it, laughing likely at the alicorn herself instead of the absurdity of the situation that had triggered Nightmare’s fits. The two of them cackled and squeaked together, a pair of cracking voices and childish giggles, before finally Nightmare’s heaving diaphragm calmed down, and she managed to catch her breath.

“I was so, so mad at you, and then… I just… wasn’t?” she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Well, that’s good then, cause you’re still stuck with me for like, an hour.”

“But why?”

“Huh? What? Why weren’t you mad at me?”

“Yes! You dared mock me, and you cheated, and—”

“What makes you call me a cheat?!”

“You slapped my flank and then left before I knew what was happening.”

“Oh, yeah, that’ll do it.”

Nightmare Moon hovered quietly in the air above the castle, staring at Rainbow Dash with a straight mouth and levelled eyelids, entirely unimpressed.

“You’re intolerable. And the rest of that group of do-gooders calls you their friend?”

“They certainly do, and I’ll knock you right back to the moon with my hooves alone if you ever question how much we love each other again.”

There was a tense silence as the two winged ponies glared at each other, frozen in the air and forelegs crossed.

“...I admire your tenacity when it comes to defending that which you love,” Nightmare finally conceded, dropping her legs. “I would be a hypocrite to suggest punishing you for what, ultimately, I myself have done.”

“Starting to realize that maybe us ‘common ponies’ are a lot like you, and vice versa?”

“A little bit,” she muttered, turning away and looking down over the city. “I don’t like it, Rainbow Dash. I feel a clash of beliefs niggling up my spine, and I don’t know whether to scream or laugh or destroy or celebrate.”

“How about I give you a chance to prove you’re superior? A real one, no cheap moves this time.” Rainbow Dash grinned and nodded. “It’ll be tough, though.”

Nightmare glanced back at Dash before swinging around to face her again. “Alright. Name your terms.”

“You see that statue of you and your sister in the center of Canterlot, in the park there?”

Nightmare nodded. “I see it.”

“First one to touch it, from the flag here, wins bragging rights.” Rainbow Dash went up and placed a hoof against the pole, motioning with her head for Nightmare to do the same. “We leave on your ‘three’. Sounds fair enough?”

“I accept the challenge. Ready then? One, two, three!”

They took off, kicking against the pole so hard that Nightmare could hear the twang from the brass snapping back into position. She spread her wings out fully, pushing a huge mass of air behind her with a strained grunt, and then coasted fast through the still, evening sky. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, picking up the faintest hint of lavender and lilacs and warm fall grass being carried away by the nighttime currents. The light of the moon lit up her pitch-black pinions, and the feathers shimmered with a violet tinge as the wind rippled through them.

Had she not been so tense throughout the night, she would have considered the experience orgasmic. All the same, the constant worries and fears that she was being led astray into some sort of trap had finally started to come loose, slipping away into the jetstream behind her like stray feathers on a blustery day. This was her domain: above all, in the middle of night, where there was peace and quiet and serenity and pure, restorative joy.

She took a break from her thoughts and lazily opened her eyes, feeling totally at peace for just a moment before realizing consecutively that Rainbow Dash was not near her at all but had shot off far to the south over the river that snaked around the city, and that despite this detour, Dash was closer to the statue than she was.

Curious more than anything as to how the pegasus was ahead, Nightmare squinted and closely focused on her. Dash was slaloming back and forth just inches above the water, her hooves outstretched and her wings beating rapidly. Nightmare curved after her, bringing herself down low over the rushing snowmelt as well, and her eyes opened wide in shock.

Her wings came down into denser air right above the water, and the increased mass propelled herself ever faster. She picked up the frequency of her wing beats, practically swimming through the air, inching closer to the rainbow tail that fluttered haphazardly behind Dash.

Rainbow Dash glanced behind her, winked and shot her another smile, and then hunkered down, tucking her shoulders in and hindlegs together. The pegasus seemed to rocket away as if propelled by jets, the rainbow contrail picking up a spray of water and shooting Nightmare in the face with it.

Nightmare Moon laughed again and straightened out her own form, trying to compensate for her less aerodynamic body with pure strength of wing movements. Once again she started to slip closer to Dash, but suddenly her companion cranked off to the side and vanished over the riverbank.

Nightmare didn’t slow, but turned her head curiously before groaning in frustration. The river had curved away from the central park, and she was currently flying away towards the cliff face while Rainbow Dash was halfway between here and the goal. With a laugh and a whoop, she spun in the air and used the momentum to turn, scraping the water with a wingtip while she did so. The spray shot up over two ponies who had been entwined within each other’s legs in the shadowy bank—which she noticed only as she skimmed over them—and somehow, her blackish cheeks managed a blush.

Pushing the thoughts of the couple to the back of her head she picked up a new rhythm of wing beats, cycling them with large and heavy strokes instead of rapid ones. With each push she shot closer towards Rainbow Dash, closer towards the statue, fast approaching now, so close she could taste it, just one more—

She stretched a foreleg out and tagged the statue before snapping her wings shut, dropping onto the damp grass and tumbling, her momentum carrying her a dozen feet away before the grass and mud finally built up enough to halt her. After taking a moment to catch her breath and look around, she dropped her head onto the lawn and muttered a long, low groan.

“Whassamatter, can’t take a fall?” Rainbow Dash laughed, leaning against the statue base and panting deeply her own self.

“I feel no pain,” Nightmare spat, clamoring to trembling hooves and shaking the mud off her back with quick flips of her feathers.

“Ohh, I get it,” Dash said, sliding to her rump against the stone and patting the ground beside her. Nightmare walked over and dropped haughtily, grunting as she did so. “You’re mad cause we tied, is that it?”

Nightmare Moon looked away, eyes locked on the stars above.

“That almost never happens, you know, and I had a lead on you,” Rainbow said, throwing a leg around the alicorn’s lower back—about as high as she could reach without standing—and patting her gently. “Any other pony would be proud of that.”

“Are you always so arrogant?”

“Yeah,” Dash said, smiling and inspecting her other forehoof. “Haha, yeah, I am. But what’s the point of being the best if you don’t let others know about it?”

Nightmare Moon blinked and looked quizzically at the pegasus. “Now you’re starting to sound like me.”

“We were just talking about that, weren’t we?”

Nightmare did not reply, save for an exasperated sigh.

“I think I liked it better when that damned earth pony had tied me up.”

“Yeah, me too,” Dash said, whimsically, before blushing and giving Nightmare a lighthearted punch. “Now fess up. That was fun, wasn’t it?”

“I—” Nightmare went to object, but paused. It had been fun, right up until she had tied. And she was further back than Rainbow Dash had been, so if she hadn’t gotten so caught up in the feeling of flying over the river, she would have handily won their little race. She smiled, and nodded. “Yes, Rainbow Dash, that was fun. I am… s-sorry I had poor sportsmanship,” she added, wincing.

“Ah, it’s alright! What was your favorite part? Dousing those two pony’s candles? Or staring at my backside all the way here?”

“I-I did no such thing!”

“Missed opportunity then. Mine was flying, duh. I love flying. I don’t normally spend much time on the ground like this,” she said, looking about the park. “‘Suppose I could make an exception for special ponies every now and then, though.”

“Is flying all you do to celebrate the night?”

“Oh, no, not at all. It’s certainly part of it, sure. There’s a lot of new and interesting things that come out at night, especially when flying—”

“Like the updraft from cooling water?”

“Bingo! Yeah, like that! And how you can fly without the sun in your eyes, and there’s rarely any clouds unless there’s an overnight storm planned, so it’s just wide open to the stars. Even over boring plains, there’s a light show above. It’s pretty magical.”

Nightmare Moon rubbed her muzzle, deep in thought.

“But what I’ve always liked best is the cover of darkness it gives you.”

“...What?”

Rainbow Dash grinned before jumping into the air. She hovered in front of Nightmare Moon’s face and snapped open her saddle bag, showing off an assortment of tall cans with brightly coloured lids.

“What are those?”

Dash closed her bag and then chuckled. “Follow me. Quietly, this time.”

Nightmare Moon tailed Rainbow Dash as she took off, soaring up high over Canterlot and back towards the castle. When the two approached the brightly lit Cider Gardens, where even from up here Nightmare could hear the shouts of laughter and cheering, Rainbow Dash held a hoof to her lips and then motioned for Nightmare to follow her again before veering off to the other side of the castle. They glided in, making no more noise than the slightest rippling of feathers in the wind, and touched down in the shadow of the towering palace, far away from all the lights and noises.

Moving quickly, Rainbow Dash dropped her saddle bag and picked up a can of dark purple spray. She flicked the lid off and then picked it up in her mouth, before catching Nightmare’s curious eye and spitting it back out again.

“Right. Sorry. Keep an eye out. This’ll be great.”

“An eye out for what?”

“Witnesses.”

Before Nightmare could inquire further, Rainbow Dash had the can back in her mouth and was spraying the castle wall with the shimmering violet paint. Nightmare tilted her head, squinting to see Dash’s fervent movements in the dark. After a few minutes of shaking clicks and sustained sprays, she realized Dash had spelled the words “NIGHTMARE ROOLZ CELESTIA DROOLZ” in big blocky letters on the side of the castle.

Dash spit the can out to the side and then grabbed a yellow lidded one, shaking it while Nightmare blinked stupendously.

“You know, Rainbow Dash, a millennia ago, defacing the castle was a felony crime, not just a misdemeanor.”

“Tha’s wha ah sai’ kee’ ah eye ou’,” came the muffled reply.

Nightmare blanched, and then spun around, glancing around the two rounded corners of the turret, eyes wide while more hissing paint issued behind her. Every few minutes she would hear the can be spat out and a new set of clicks while Dash worked on her project. Throughout this, Nightmare Moon felt a familiar feeling. It was anxiety, fear of being captured, though the terror of an army of guards or a group of magically supercharged do-gooders had given way to fear of a single patrol.

While Nightmare paced back and forth as unobtrusively as possible, she considered this. A single guard would be nothing to her, so why was she nervous? What could there be that she feared for?

A new can was grabbed, and Nightmare gasped softly to herself while she heard the clicks.

She didn’t want her friend to be caught.

Her legs started to shake, quivering as the weight of the word friend landed on her heavier than the castle itself. She wasn’t a friend, right? They were enemies! They had fought before, and then twice again today she had challenged this pegasus in some semblance of competition.

Friendly competition, she realized, feeling dizzy. She turned to speak to Dash, noticing a rather well detailed caricature of her sister with enlarged hindquarters emblazoned upon the wall. Rainbow was busy adding greenish stink lines, and the sight of it interrupted her epiphany and forced a playful giggle to slip past her lips.

“Hey! Who’s there? This area is off limits tonight!”

“Oh, Luna’s tits, we gotta get outta here!” Dash shouted, scrambling back from the wall and grabbing her empty saddle bag.

Nightmare jumped towards her, mind blanking and hooves scrambling while she tried to gather up the cans of spray paint. The guard around the corner shouted again, and a glow of magic light started to curve around the tower, only adding to her panic.

“Leave ‘em,” Dash shouted, kicking up into the air. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

The two of them beat their wings hard, racing away from the patrol. A quick glance behind her showed Nightmare that two pegasi guards had taken off after them, spears in hoof and eyes forward in hot pursuit. She followed Dash’s route, moving up over walls and spinning around towers, leading the guards all over the moonlit castle, struggling not to lose herself to laughter as Dash whooped and hollered with every movement. The pegasus looped backwards around a bridge before shooting up underneath it, whistling for Nightmare to join her.

“What did you say before taking off?” Nightmare laughed, practicing a playful punch of her own against Dash’s leg. Rainbow slid over in the air from the force and then shimmied back, rubbing the leg while whispering loudly.

“Nevermind that. Force of habit, didn’t mean—look, that’s not important. It’s Fluttershy’s turn with you next. She’s in the private gardens of the guest quarters. When those guards come back, I’m gonna get their attention, and then you can go after I lead them away. Get to those two towers over there—” she pointed, indicating two lower spires just to the south, “—and take a right. From there you should know how to get to Fluttershy, and you can get your next lesson or whatever.”

Nightmare reached a hoof out and rested it on Dash’s shoulder, smirking. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “You’ll be okay though?”

“What was your first lesson with me tonight, Luna?”

“There’s nopony faster than you.”

“Damn right. Alright, there they are. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“HEY DWEEBS!” Dash shouted, dropping out from under the bridge as the guards circled back around. One punched the other to get his attention and pointed at her, and they started flying towards her. “YOUR MOTHERS RAISED YOU ON GOAT’S MILK!” she hollered, doing another loop around the bridge before racing off towards the city, cackling the entire way.

Flutterhigh

Nightmare Moon walked slowly down the castle hallway, catching her breath and smiling childishly as moonlight spilled in through the alcoves onto her coat. It was quiet in this wing, the only source of noise the faint hiss of wind brushing flowers outside. Ahead, a royal guard was walking towards her, his face as stoic and unchanged as any.

This night had not gone at all to plan, she thought to herself, glancing over at a tall clock set into the wall. It was nearly two in the morning, and here she was, struggling to hold in giggles at the echoes of Rainbow Dash’s hurled insults. Somewhere above her, past floors of marble and gold, Celestia lay sleeping quietly, her chosen champions spread out around the city, drunk and distracted.

Nightmare Moon’s brows furrowed as a pestering thought snuck into her mind. She should have killed Celestia by now. She should have slaughtered their only hope, displaced the Elements of Harmony straight to the center of the moon, and slipped her shadowy magic into the minds of the Guard by now. By two in the morning, she figured, she would have been moving down into Canterlot proper to enforce order and establish control.

And yet, here she was, panting and sweating in the western wing, a smile stuck on her face and warmth in her heart. How could she feel warmth? There wasn’t a single pony praising or worshipping her before her, and yet all the same there was the feeling of being loved.

Perhaps, she figured, allowing herself to think it for only a moment, Twilight Sparkle might have had a point.

“Good evening, Princess Luna,” the guard spoke, pulling Nightmare out of her contemplation.

“Good evening,” she said to him, staring warily at the stallion.

“Lovely weather for the festivities,” he said, passing by her.

“Yes, excellent indeed. The Pegasi have done well tonight.”

“Indeed, your Highness,” he replied, saluting quickly before continuing his rounds.

Nightmare Moon watched him leave, lingering on him for a moment longer than felt necessary and, satisfied that he did not glance back, faced forward and carried on.

Were the ponies here not afraid of her? It seemed a possibility, and had she asked herself that question earlier in the night she might have assumed it to be true. But perhaps what her… ‘friends’ had suggested to her earlier was the truth. Maybe, she thought, they loved her regardless of her nature.

It would explain this awkward feeling in her chest.

She froze in place and a long, pained groan rolled up her throat.

On the subject of fear, why had she fled from the patrol? She’s powerful enough to level this castle if she wanted, and never minding that, she’s a Princess of the Castle. This is her castle. So why had she run?

The memory of Rainbow Dash’s cackles drifted through her head, and Nightmare Moon shivered.

It was because she was having fun. Fun that other ponies got up to. Fun that other ponies got up to during the night. Her night.

“Princess Luna?”

A soft voice called out to her through the archway she had stopped in front of, and the alicorn blinked, turning to the source.

“Ah, yes, hello!” the voice came again. A yellow pegasus flew in, flapping her wings to bring her onto the stone entrance as softly as possible. Nightmare Moon recognized her as yet another one of the six who had destroyed her those years before, yet this time, that surge of hatred and fear did not bubble to the surface.

Perhaps because this mare seemed so fragile that there was nothing to be afraid of, she mused with a smirk.

“Welcome to the Castle Gardens,” Fluttershy said, bowing low. “I’m sure by now my friends have told you that we each plan to show you around, yes?”

Nightmare Moon nodded. “Indeed,” she said, studying Fluttershy further. Most pegasi she had seen or met—even in her weaker form, that she could remember—were arrogant and brash. This one appeared to be softer than silk. “I ask that you call me Nightmare Moon. I feel poorly about my… other name.”

“Of course, Nightmare,” Fluttershy said, finally standing from her bow. “Anything to help you feel comfortable. My name is Fluttershy, and I’ve been really looking forward to showing you how I appreciate the night. We’ll be outside, just around the corner.” She started to walk onto the dirt path, but froze with a squeak when Nightmare spoke.

“Halt.”

“Y-yes?”

“Walk alongside me, Fluttershy,” Nightmare said, eying the curving wall of lattice and roses that marked their path. She looked down again at the nervous pony and then sighed lightly. “None of your friends have given me reason to distrust you tonight. However, I cannot escape the feeling that my every next step is into a trap. I would prefer you to stay next to me, as… insurance.”

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow at her, but then shook her head lightly and smiled. “Ah, I understand. I deal with bad anxiety too. I’ll stay close and keep you safe,” she said, gently patting one of Nightmare’s tall legs.

“That’s not wh—”

“It’s good to have a friend to be honest about your weaknesses with,” Fluttershy continued as they proceeded down the path. “Too often we get hung up about looking strong and unbreakable, but we’re all vulnerable in the end, and it’s not healthy to pretend otherwise.”

Nightmare Moon grimaced but said nothing, taking in her surroundings. The splendor of the gardens was mostly hard to see this late at night, moonlight notwithstanding. Most of the flowers had closed their bulbs to the cooler air, and the dark shades of green had shifted to black in the shadows. Candles set in decorative lanterns cast romantic lighting, but the flickering flames caused the vines and thorns to dance and shift in the night.

It was the sort of aesthetic that Nightmare Moon appreciated; mildly threatening and conducive to an over-active imagination, the type of setting that ghost stories were inspired by. She could not figure out why Fluttershy would choose this particular place to relax at night, given the highly apparent meekness she exuded.

They rounded another corner in the maze and came across a small pavilion made of bamboo. The floor had been made of dozens of large interconnected stones, and was littered with pillows and cushions of all shapes and sizes. Small firefly lights glimmered across the slatted roof, casting a warm yellow glow about the area.

“Wait here a moment,” Fluttershy said, stopping Nightmare’s stride with a hoof. “I’ll just be a second.” With that, she leapt softly forward, fluttering down onto the pillows towards the back of the pavilion, and started talking in hushed tones.

“Who’s that? Who are you speaking to?”

“Who?” came a new voice, and Fluttershy giggled.

“It’s Princess Luna, silly, but she’s going by Nightmare right now. Don’t worry, she’s harmless,” Fluttershy mentioned to the stranger.

“Who.” came the reply.

Nightmare stomped a hoof on the dirt, frowning. “No games, Fluttershy! Who’s there?!”

“Who,” she heard in response, and a snowy owl flapped up from the bush surrounding the plaza, circling an incredulous Nightmare Moon before landing elegantly upon the princess’s nose. “Hoo,” it said again, leaning down towards her eyes.

Somehow, Nightmare realized, it was smiling. “Shoo,” she snapped, embarrassed.

“Hu-hoo,” it said, rolling its eyes and taking off into the night sky.

“I was just telling Mr. Fluffyfeathers that I had to entertain a special guest and would catch up with him later,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sorry, I should have said more, but I thought it would be very fast.” She beckoned Nightmare in, flipping a hoof to suggest she take a seat on one of the piles of cushions, and then jumped over to the far right corner of the gazebo where a small saddlebag had been resting.

Nightmare Moon tried to sit regally and failed immediately, the cushions slipping over each other and sinking her down into the pile. Briefly she considered struggling against it, but finding the pillows exceptionally comfortable she leaned into them instead, sliding down onto her back. She sighed, content, as she settled and lounged. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, she found herself pleasantly surprised at the saccharine scent of flowers and restorative aroma of dirt that pervaded the plaza.

“So, Fluttershy,” Nightmare said, stretching all four hooves out and grunting, “this is how you spend your nights? Talking to animals and laying on exquisite pillows?”

“Oh, no,” came the reply, and then another giggle. “At home I usually lean back against my tree when it’s a nice night like this. But how I spend my time, well, I like to smoke grass.”

Nightmare’s eyes opened and began blinking in confusion.

“Fluttershy, you eat grass.”

“Not this grass,” she replied, hovering over to the alicorn with her saddlebag in hoof. “Although you can, with the right preparation, I suppose, but I wasn’t really prepared for it and if it’s your first time they can be a little excessive—oh, sorry,” she said, cringing back at the increasingly incredulous look on Nightmare Moon’s face. “It’s pot. I smoke pot.”

“Pot? You said it was grass. How do you smoke a pot?”

“No, silly, like… marijuana. Cannabis. Joints,” she said, digging into her bag and pulling up a lopsided cigarette in her hoof. “It’s a recreational drug.”

Nightmare Moon recoiled from the joint, staring wild-eyed at Fluttershy. “I knew it! I knew you would try to pull something on me! You intend to drug me?!”

“Goodness, no! I could never forcefully drug any other creature, ever! I feel awful even when I have to give my little critters medicine. No, I’m not going to drug you, Nightmare Moon.”

“That’s good, because I would have destr—”

“I’m going to drug myself. And you can join me, if you want. But there’s no pressure to. I thought it would be best to just relax and talk. Listen to you, you know? I don’t know how much you got to talk about yourself tonight, but it always makes ponies feel respected when they have someone to listen to them.”

The look that Nightmare gave Fluttershy might very well have been the most incredulous expression the world had ever seen. She blinked slowly, tilted her head, and opened and closed her mouth several times while she tried to think of a reply.

“You’re… drugging yourself, while hosting a nigh-unstoppable evil?” she asked.

“Mhm,” Fluttershy said, fumbling with a box of matches in her feathers. “Honestly, Nightmare Moon, I don’t think I’d be able to visit with you if I wasn’t smoking pot. I’ve already had one joint tonight. …I have a lot of anxiety.”

Nightmare raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yes, really. We all deal with anxiety in different ways. Some of us lash out,” she said, making quick eye contact with the alicorn before snapping back to the matches, “and some of us shrink down.”

“Do you really mean to insinuate I have anxiety issues?” She huffed and snorted. “How dare you.”

“I offered you a harmless way to relax and you panicked that I was luring you into a trap. You yelled at Mr. Fluffyfeathers because you thought somepony else was here to hurt you. When I found you, you were staring at a guard patrol long after they had passed.” She offered Nightmare an apologetic smile. “It’s probably wrong of me to assume, but when you’ve lived with it as long as I have, some things are really recognizable.”

Nightmare’s chin dropped and she stared down at her hindlegs as she considered this. Four other ponies tonight had treated her as a friend, and each time she had accused them all of trickery or manipulation. She had been hardly able to go over an hour without her mind racing about some unlikely worst-case scenario definitely being about to come true.

There was a long silence that Fluttershy waited patiently through while Nightmare considered all of the terrible things she had lived through, despite how few of them had actually come to pass.

There was a much shorter silence as Nightmare finally realized what exactly Fluttershy had said to her a moment before.

“...You say you are already under the influence of this… ‘pot’?” she asked softly, angry with herself that despite all her power, she was unable to hold back the nervous quiver in her question.

“Mhm,” Fluttershy nodded.

“...I suppose then that… even if I were worried about this being some ostensible deceit, if it is so weak a toxin, one such as I should be more than capable of defending myself… right?” She smiled awkwardly, unsure if she was trying to make a joke or not.

“Yes, absolutely,” Fluttershy said. Her ears flicked up in excitement. “So does this mean that you’d like to try it?”

Nightmare threw her head back and shrugged. “Oh, what the Tartarus. Yes.”

“Great!” the pegasus said, and she leaped out of her cushions with saddlebag in hoof. Landing next to Nightmare she popped the bag open and began rummaging eagerly throughout it, all while Nightmare blinked wildly at this sudden and uncharacteristic burst of excitement. “I have a few different strains you’re welcome to try. Let me see… ah yes! There’s Somnambula Haze, though that one has this weird sandalwood additive… Mistweed is nice, yes, though there’s also Sage Meadowbrook and it’s quite similar, maybe a bit more acrid. What else… Oh, right. Flash Magnum and Friendship Express.” Her head popped out of the bag and her wide overjoyed eyes met Nightmare’s. “Which would you like?”

“I am not so sure I want to try this any longer. You appear to be speaking in tongues.”

Fluttershy recoiled, her wings coming up almost like a turtle shell. “Oh, uhm, sorry. None of my other friends are into this, so I was a little… It’s fine.” She patted Nightmare’s leg and shook her head, and then stuck her hoof into the bag and pulled out a small bundle of paper. “For your first time you should probably try Mistweed. It’s a CBD-only strain, which means it’s relaxing.” She opened the bundle and grabbed a single cigarette with a wingtip, and held it up high for Nightmare, who grabbed it in her magic and stared at it as if she were holding a cobra.

“So those other names you said were different forms of the plant?” She rotated the joint around and then brought it up to her nose and sniffed. Her nose wrinkled at the immediate skunky odor, but a moment later hints of cattails and hyacinth rushed in and swept the pungent smell away. “How very odd,” she muttered to herself.

“Yes. I don’t know where they come up with these names. One strain which is purely THC—less relaxing and more mind distorting—is called Fizzlepop Berrytwist.” She laughed hard, her shoulders shaking and sinking her deep down into the mass of pillows she had just returned to. “Have you ever smoked anything before?”

“I—well, Luna—so us—well, I, we…” Nightmare frowned, feeling a touch confused. There didn’t seem to be a right way to refer to herself in this context. “I have smoked tobacco on some occasions when dignitaries from Saddle Arabia arrived. They have this strange device, like a pot with hoses attached.”

“Ah, good, so then you should be at least a little prepared. Did you need a light?” Fluttershy asked, her own feathers fumbling with that same matchbox from before.

“Thank you, but no.” Nightmare Moon’s horn sparked just once, and magic ignited the two joints. She observed the smoking cigarette with scrutiny. “Is there any sort of etiquette involved in this?”

“Oh, lots, but usually only if you’re sharing one.” She brought hers to her lips and pulled on it deeply, her chest heaving outwards as she inhaled the smoke. Nightmare watched impressed as Fluttershy’s breath held over the counting seconds. Finally, she let her wing drop to her side and exhaled slowly, smoke flooding the little gazebo before the late-night wind carried it away.

No time like the present, Nightmare thought, and so she levitated the joint up and sucked on it herself, taking a huge amount of smoke into her mouth before inhaling it into her lungs.

The following display was wholly un-alicorn-like.

Nightmare coughed and sputtered, doubling over as deep, barky coughs disturbed the serenity of the courtyard. Fluttershy watched while politely hiding a smirk, but said nothing as Nightmare hacked over the pillows. A minute later, chest sore and eyes burning, Nightmare glared back at her, verbal bile and acid built up on her tongue and ready to be sprayed towards the meek pegasus.

She held her words for a moment, side-eyeing Fluttershy, until another minute had passed.

“Not going to say anything about that?” she finally asked.

Fluttershy took another puff and exhaled before responding, with a giggle, “About what?”

Nightmare closed her eyes and counted down, letting the frustration built up because of her own weakness diffuse. It was not Fluttershy’s fault that she had taken more than she was used to or could handle. And while the short laugh at her might be cause for taking offense, there was some extraordinary air of total non-judgment given off by Fluttershy. Nightmare opened her eyes and then sighed deeply, cleared her throat, and weakly grimaced towards her host.

“Any… um. Advice? One might give?”

“Take a very small puff, no more than a gasp, and don’t hold it at all. In and out, like regular breathing. In,” Fluttershy said, taking her own deep inhalation while motioning her hoof in to her chest. “And out,” she said a moment later, sweeping her hoof away to the air at large.

Nightmare nestled back into the pillows and looked at the still smoking joint, apprehensive. Fluttershy repeated her breathing motions one more time, and Nightmare followed along, letting the cold night air suffuse her body, and then followed the given directions.

The smoke quickly touched her tongue and then streamed in and out of her, floating away past her lips and into the garden beyond. Despite its brief visit the vapour settled heavily onto her tongue, the flavours far more apparent now they had not been overblown by sheer heat and volume. It was pungent, and strongly floral, nothing at all like the crisp, minty grass that Nightmare remembered consuming as a child. She twisted her muzzle as she considered it, trying to identify what it was that she was tasting.

It was like seeing a new colour for the first time, she decided, taking a second puff and letting it linger for a moment longer before her exhale, desperately focusing on what was there. Some unholy bastardization of lilac and jasmine seemed to be at the forefront, two distinctly powerful scents with absolutely different profiles. Behind it all was a skunky, unpleasant taste, like ash and rubber, but very quickly she seemed to be adapting to this and less powerful hints of citrus and black pepper could be found beneath.

She found herself lost in cataloguing and separating each puff, her mind focused entirely on breaking down the components and flavors, leaving the world behind as she did so. Each mouthful of smoke seemed to compel her even further into this rabbit hole, though her inquisitive lines of thinking started to lose track and compassion as time went on. Eventually, she realized she had been picturing roses and forgetting why for over a minute straight, and she shook her head, trying to recall how she had even gotten to this point.

She blinked, realizing that her eyes had been open and staring up at the night sky the entire time, her vision glazed yet focused simultaneously, sharply honed in on the few glimmering stars that could be seen through the vine-covered trellis above. A quick glance to the side showed her that the moon had jumped in the sky since her last check, a whole half hour having passed while she lost herself in the discovery of whatever this “Mistweed” truly was.

Panic tried to grip her as the thought occurred that she had been entirely unaware of her surroundings for so long, but it slipped off her relaxed mind, not even hoofwaved away with some weak, pride-saving excuse. She simply understood that, because nothing had happened, she had been safe.

She was safe.

Nightmare watched the stars twinkle above her for one more moment before turning to find Fluttershy still across from her, eyes closed, forelegs crossed over her chest, belly lifting and falling slowly with deep, purposeful breaths.

“Fluttershy?”

“Yes?” came the immediate reply, though she continued to lay and breathe as if she was deep asleep.

“Do you prefer the day, or the night?” Nightmare asked, resting her head on the pillows to stare at her pride and joy again.

Fluttershy frowned and then shuffled from where she lay, reaching over lazily to grab a single bit from her saddle bag. She flicked it into the air and then caught it, turning it over onto her foreleg. “Do you prefer heads, or tails?”

Nightmare blinked. “What?”

“Which side of a bit is more valuable? Heads, or tails?”

“A bit is worth a bit,” Nightmare said, her head tilting. How had they gotten onto this subject?

“There’s your answer,” Fluttershy said, smiling in pride at her cleverness.

There was another long, slow blink, while Nightmare Moon blankly pondered on this.

“That’s not at all related to what I asked,” she finally snapped, crossing her hooves with a huff.

“Heads, tails, night time, daytime, darkness, light, life, death,” Fluttershy spoke, her soft voice lilting such that each pair felt like stanzas in a poem. “All are part of a balance. There is one, and then there is the other. We need both, Nightmare Moon.” She took another deep, exaggerated breath in, and then exhaled just as theatrically. “There is an inhalation, and an exhalation, in everything. The universe breathes in balance.”

Fluttershy shifted up in her cushions and really opened her eyes, then tapped her chin while examining Nightmare Moon. “Being an avatar of a single side of a coin must be difficult,” she finally said. “But I’m sure you’re strong enough to overcome it.”

“And just what do you mean by that?!” Nightmare blustered, trying to raise herself up in the pillows to tower over the pegasus and failing repeatedly at it. She kicked a lone pillow out into the garden and harrumphed. “I asked you which you felt was better, night or day! I didn’t ask for this horse-manure freshmare philosophy!”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said with a grimace. “I can’t answer that. There isn’t an answer to give.”

She lifted up into the air and flew with graceful, delicate motions, hovering to the fidgeting alicorn and resting a forehoof on her withers. Surprisingly, Nightmare felt herself actually calming down, and she allowed the weak press to guide her back to her seat.

“Well, then, why is there no answer? Fear? Ignorance?” She spoke sullenly, sourly. “Yet another pony who withdraws away from me.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way too, but that’s not what I meant.” She landed next to Nightmare, still patting her shoulders. “Because of that balance, there cannot be one better than the other. They can’t even exist by themselves. Without day, there is no night. I appreciate both for their own qualities, but can’t tell you which of those qualities are better.”

“Explain.”

“I like it when my owl friends come out for the night to hunt. I get to visit with them and catch up with how they’ve been. But if it was always just night, and they were out all the time, it wouldn’t be special to me to have that chance to meet them. So I need the day to appreciate that part of the night.”

It started to click in Nightmare’s brain, and a tinge of resentment at herself had started to fester deep within. Her past. Her current—and how she hated to admit it—anxieties. How she felt right now. It had all spawned from her desire to be better, and it was a constant battle both within and without.

She frowned. That wasn’t quite right.

Her desire had never been to be better, but to be equal. To be loved as much as her sister, to have her work and her efforts repaid with as much appreciation as Celestia’s. Yet, despite a yearning for balance, she had fought for supremacy.

“It’s all the same for the daytime, too. How can I appreciate a sunrise without the backdrop of night? How can I gasp in wonder as the midnight fog burns off through the rays of light? The night—your night—is just as necessary for the day to mean anything too.”

She fished the same bit from earlier out from behind her wings and held it up for Nightmare to see.

“Heads, or tails?”

She flicked it, and Nightmare caught it, pressing it against her foreleg as Fluttershy had earlier. She peaked at it, noting the side that was glinting up at her, and then handed it back to Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy?” Nightmare asked, staring back up at the moon.

“Yes?”

“Am I a bad pony?”

Fluttershy pocketed the coin beneath her wing again and then rolled out of the pillows. She walked back across the gazebo, and then flumped over onto her side on her own cushions.

“You are a pony who has done bad things.”

Nightmare began to turn away, tears welling in her eyes; tears of guilt, of anger, of self-hatred.

Fluttershy quickly held up a wing, holding the coin high so the light caught it and glinted towards Nightmare. At the brightly visible depiction of Celestia’s cutie mark which made up the ‘head’ side, the alicorn shirked back, biting her lower lip.

“And you are a pony who has done good things,” she said, flipping the coin over to the side emblazoned with Luna’s—with their—with her cutie mark. “Neither of these increases or decreases your value. Yes, we’d all prefer it if there was a net positive of “good” in the world, but, again, balance, and requirement. If there were nothing bad, then good would be meaningless. Sometimes a pony has to do bad things, say mean things, act arrogantly or strongly, to protect themselves.”

Nightmare blinked the tears from her eyes and sniffed. She tried a weak smile on while Fluttershy sunk deeper into her cushions, forelegs yet again crossed over her chest and belly moving up and down with deep, controlled breaths.

“Four of your friends tonight have hosted me, taken me carousing, eating, dancing. Each has shown me what the nights mean to them.” She looked up to the stars yet again, the dazzling, glimmering lights enhanced by wet eyes. “And yet you’re the first to actually talk and reason with me without force, well-intentioned or not. I did not know how badly I needed this, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy smiled while she rested, and said nothing.

“Thank you,” Nightmare Moon said.

Fluttershy still smiled and said nothing.

“...Fluttershy?” Nightmare Moon tried again, louder this time.

“Snnzzzzzzzzz,” Fluttershy snored, still smiling.

“Ah,” Nightmare muttered, nestling into the pillows. She felt a touch drowsy herself, and the deep, luxurious cushions were definitely calling to her, but she knew that she could not yet rest.

There was still one more pony she had yet to meet.

Highnote Sparkle

Nightmare Moon lay in silent contemplation within the bamboo pavilion, her mind wandering along with the fireflies that flitted from grassblade to grassblade. Asides from the occasional snore from Fluttershy, it was silent; the tall hedges had blocked the mountainside wind well enough that not even the leaves were whispering in the night. The stars continued to twinkle far above her, and the moon crept along the sky unhindered, though its now quickly decreasing angle had started to cast further shadows amongst the vines and trellises around her.

She too made no noise, nothing more than deep, controlled breathing as she absorbed her surroundings, as if speaking would be greatly disrespectful to her precious night time. The conversation with Fluttershy continued to run through her head. She had gone from grimacing to shrugging to smiling, and finally ended up with a thoughtful frown that had stuck for several minutes, until finally she heard the soft echoes of hoofsteps ambling down the cobblestone path.

The tip of a lavender horn extended past the archway to the secluded gazebo, and while only a scant few hours ago it would have filled Nightmare Moon with instant rage it now only swapped her frown to an exhausted smirk. The horn hesitated for only a moment before it continued forward, and the face of Twilight Sparkle followed, a reticent, welcoming smile set upon it.

“Ah! Nightmare Moon. There you are. I hope you’ve been having a lovely time with Fluttershy?”

Nightmare glanced over to the pegasus, who used that moment to serendipitously snore loudly, and then looked back at Twilight with a grin.

“It has been… illuminating. I daresay out of all your friends she is the most coercive and brave. Though perhaps it is the copious amount of drugs she must have consumed before I arrived.”

“If you think that’s bad, you should see this friend of hers, she—well, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you seem well.”

Twilight moved to approach Nightmare, but paused as she held up a hoof. Grunting only a moment, Nightmare Moon rolled out of the pillows and onto her hooves, meeting Twilight at the entrance instead.

“‘Well’ is not necessarily the term I would choose. It has been a difficult night. Fun, but difficult.” She looked down at Twilight and chewed her lower lip. “You must feel awfully clever, having me confront my own insecurities and emotions instead of you and your friends.” Then, with a blink and a start, she added, “When did you get wings?!”

“Hah!” Twilight tittered, her feathers twitching nervously on her back. “Funny you mention that. I’m sorta the, uh, Princess of Friendship. Because I’m so good at it.” They continued down the cobble path towards the castle, and Twilight sighed deeply before smiling up at Nightmare. “Would it offend you if I said you were to thank for that?”

“Probably,” Nightmare replied, and then laughed. “It makes sense though. Fluttershy was right, then.”

“What did you two talk about? Er, if I can ask?”

“She told me that there are two sides to everything and that both sides require the other. Your ascension was facilitated by my rebellion. For that, there has been good that has come about it.” She nodded softly to herself, glancing back into the garden for a moment. “It almost disgusts me how simply she summarised and attacked all my insecurities.”

“She’s good at insecurities. Spends a lot of time around them. Most would see it as a weakness—”

“But every weakness has its strengths,” Nightmare finished for her. “I suppose my other half has already congratulated you on your achievements.” She stopped and Twilight turned to face her. Curiosity on the diminutive alicorn’s face quickly changed to shock as Nightmare bowed low, her horn almost level with her head, and then rose again. “You may have mine as well.”

“I… uh… You know, honestly, I didn’t really think we’d see that much of a change over you from this experiment,” Twilight muttered, rubbing her neck. “I was afraid that you’d still hate me for interrupting your plans.”

Nightmare mused on this for a moment as they continued past the stone walls, walking together with Twilight though with no known destination. “Part of me would still like to hate you. I can’t say with great confidence that I even like you, at least. Twice now you have foiled my attempts at destroying my sister and obligating ponies to love me. At first with force, and then again with kindness. It’s rather sickening.”

“I get that a lot.”

“But I must convey my respect to any creature who could stand up to me. You have bested me, Twilight Sparkle.”

“I don’t like thinking about it like that,” she replied, the nerves in her voice vanishing as the strong, confident-she-knew-everything Twilight took the reins. “I have helped you, Nightmare Moon. In fact, had I spent more time understanding the issue in the first place, we would never have “battled” a second time.”

“You think you could have banished this form from Luna the first time you met me?” Nightmare scoffed, though she wasn’t fully convinced it was ridiculous.

“I don’t care what form you or Luna is in. The point is that, as we have done tonight, you would have felt loved.”

Nightmare Moon froze on the spot, her jaw slowly dropping.

“You… are fine with… me?”

“Nightmare Moon, Luna, either or, you’re you. The point of being friends is to love and accept one another, even if we change. Especially if we change. You provide a great service to this land, regardless of who ‘you’ are.” She looked up at Nightmare Moon with a scrutinizing eye. “Rarity probably prefers this model, honestly.”

“She does,” Nightmare replied quickly, earning a raised eyebrow and a chuckle from Twilight.

“I hope she wasn’t too up front when she took you out.”

“Just enough to begin dismantling my walls, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Just ‘Twilight’ is fine. I’ve heard you’re particular about ‘Nightmare Moon’, yes?”

Nightmare shook her head slightly. “Not anymore. As you said, either or, I am me. Call me what you are comfortable with.”

She looked down at Twilight, and the two of them smiled warmly at each other for a moment before Twilight turned forward again, the pleasant look still on her face as they ambled down the endless corridor.

“So tell me, Twilight. How is it that you appreciate the night? What will we be doing?”

Twilight started and then laughed, holding a hoof to her chest while she chuckled. “Me? Haha, you wouldn’t be interested in that. I like to stay up late and read books by candlelight until I hear roosters crowing.”

“Going to bed with the sun, hmm? Perhaps we are more in common than I thought. Well, if not that then, what are we doing?

Twilight slowed and motioned for them to sit on one of the granite benches lining the walls. Once seated, she turned to Nightmare, still beaming.

“All night tonight my friends have taken you to where they wanted to go. Rarity took you dancing, Pinkie Pie took you trick-or-treating, Applejack took you drinking, and Rainbow Dash…” Twilight blinked, and then shrugged. “Actually, she wouldn’t tell me where she was taking you, only that it would be ‘awesome’.”

“We committed a felony, I believe,” Nightmare said. “Carry on.”

“...Rrrrriiiight. Right. Of course she did. Uh, annnyways, where was I… Right!” She perked up, her ears snapping erect as her train of thought jumped back onto its tracks. “Point is, we’ve all taken you out to where we wanted to go. Well, now it’s your turn. I am your guest and you are my host, Nightmare Moon. Where would you like to go?”

Nightmare raised her head up in contemplation, considering it. She couldn’t remember ever having been asked that question before, and didn’t have an immediate answer. She was about to solicit Twilight for suggestions before a memory, unlocked earlier in the night, floated past her eyes again.

She thought of the troupe of travelling musicians she remembered way back at the beginning of her escapades, back when she was dancing. She thought of the lively music and the way it had made her feel. And she thought of the most memorable aspect of that night, celebrated so long ago.

She beamed down at Twilight, a few happy tears floating in her eyes.

“I would like to sing.”

Twilight beamed at her. “I know just the place,” she said, sliding off the bench and urging Nightmare Moon to follow her.

The two of them quickly exited the castle and entered the now mostly-empty streets of Canterlot. All of the rows of houses which had been brightly lit with roaring fires and flickering lamps were now dark, silent save for the occasional burst of laughter or passion that eked out into the night. Their hoofsteps echoed back to them from down the long streets, giving the eerie appearance that there were a dozen of them all walking together. A light gust of cold mountain wind hurried past them carrying a stray leaf, and Nightmare turned to watch it flitter behind them and into the air.

“You and yours have shown me much celebration and love tonight, Twilight,” Nightmare began slowly, scanning the shuttered shops and boarded windows surrounding them as she did so. “And while I will fully admit that I have been shown much of how a pony can appreciate the night, there lies one caveat that must be addressed.”

Twilight nodded silently while steering Nightmare around a corner and down a highly crooked street, though one at least with far more lamplight than the last ones. “Yes?”

“This is a night specifically designed for celebration and love. The lore behind it is cute, really—though I haven’t a clue how the idea came to be—but nevertheless it paints me as the villain I am.” She ran her tongue over one of her fangs and chuckled. “Regardless, that concept has long since fallen away. You ponies choose this night particularly to party. That is why it is held, and why it has recurred for over a thousand years. An excuse to let go, to relax, to stay up late and drink and visit and be merry.”

“Mhm,” Twilight said, letting Nightmare continue without interruption.

“So yes, my ignorance is at fault; but this is merely one night, Twilight. One night out of the entire year. How about tomorrow, or a fortnight from now? One month, when the memories are all that's left of the candy and the only thought given to it is a minor anticipation of next year’s festivities? Am I to accept this single night of worship and be content for the other three hundred and sixty, where all the ponies are fast asleep?”

They broke out of the cramped and crooked street into the huge central park and began to cross it. Nightmare noticed all the food trucks had also been locked up and shut down, only a few giving off a faint light that suggested the operators had taken to sheltering within for the night. She looked down to Twilight and waited patiently as she considered her words carefully.

“It is true that most ponies sleep during regular nights, yes,” she started. “But sleep is the most important thing a pony can do outside of eating and drinking. Sleep is restorative, and in more ways than one. It recharges your energy so you can face the difficulties the daylight brings us, and so you can enjoy what time you have awake. Sicknesses heal overnight while we rest; muscles repair and grow stronger, colds and flus lessen and fade, and aches subside.

“But even beyond the physical ways, there’s the mental benefits. A bad day ends when you go to sleep, allowing you to wake up and start a brand new day. Good days are finalized and sealed away in memories that comfort us long after they’ve been experienced. I’d say a sleeping pony is more appreciative of you and your night than any other type of celebration you’ve seen tonight.”

Nightmare Moon squinted and contemplated this. For a brief moment she considered a world where even she never needed to sleep, a world where her worst days and most difficult challenges never had a concrete transition from present to past, and shuddered at the thought. Yes, she could accept this.

“Wise are your words, Twilight. One wonders what there is about you that isn’t powerful beyond measure. Still, though, it would be nice to see some ponies out and about when the moon is high.”

Twilight said nothing, only smirking in response. She stopped next to a door of an unassuming tavern, the muffled sound of something bassy—nothing at all like the overbearing pressure of the night club Rarity had taken her to, hardly noticeable at all until she had even stopped—humming through it. Here too the occasional bout of cheering or laughter could be made out, and Nightmare tilted her head at Twilight, curious.

“Some special locale?”

It certainly didn’t look special. The flaky sign hanging off the door frame labelled the building as ‘The Sneezy Dragern’, and a cartoonish representation of a lizard breathing flame surmounted the misspelled name. It was a bigger building, the bottom floor a tavern supporting a large inn above, but perfectly in line with all the other houses on the same street.

Twilight swung open the door and laughed. “It’s not special at all, which is what makes it so important.”

Upon the sight of her gigantic frame ducking through the door, the mass of ponies spread all about the tavern erupted in cheer, raising drinks and slopping cider over the hay-strewn floor. Some ponies—Applejack, specifically—flopped over backwards from the momentum of their greeting, and Twilight levitated her back up and sat next to her while Nightmare Moon gawked.

Everypony seemed to be here. That white one with the strange sunglasses that could command any crowd, swaying to the beat of the three-pony jazz band playing behind her. The three ponies from the Cider Gardens laughed at a table across the tavern, though only Berry Punch seemed to be in any presentable shape. Even the two guards that had pursued her and Rainbow Dash were in the building, their armor missing now and a spread of playing cards out before them.

Next to the dozens of other ponies she didn’t recognize were Twilight and her friends (minus Fluttershy), all sat about the round table nearest the door. She finally broke through her haze and joined them, awkwardly stepping over the chair to crane down over the scuffed and stained oak.

“What was that about—” Nightmare started, only to be interrupted by a rather sizable mare that leaned in front of her, replacing empty glasses with full ones in a single movement before vanishing back into the boisterous crowd. She blinked, and then started again. “What was that about this not being special? It appears to be the location to be.” Nightmare glanced at the bar and watched a frail and balding bartender spit into one of the returned empty glasses and begin wiping it with a terrifyingly yellow rag. “Though I can’t possibly imagine why,” she sniffed. “Still, though, it is nice to see ponies awake even at this time.”

“It really isn’t special,” Rarity said, tracing a hoof over a fashionable mare’s withers. “There are dozens of places like this all over the cities that ponies pack into to cap the night off with, especially when we’re celebrating.”

“The location doesn’t matter,” Applejack said, a deeply black mug of steamy, aromatic coffee cradled in her hooves.

“Just the ponies that are in it!” Rainbow Dash said, struggling to hide behind a swaying Applejack from the two guardsponies in the corner.

Nightmare Moon shook her head and sighed. “You all sound like some sort of parable from a children’s cartoon.”

Pinkie Pie slid a plate of appetizers over to Nightmare, finishing off a deep-fried pickle herself before speaking. “It’s sappy, but it tends to work. How was the rest of your night, Nightmare Moon?” She said the name with emphasis, giving an exaggerated flourish as she did so.

“I—I…” Nightmare muttered, staring into each of their eyes in succession, absentmindedly picking up a sour cream-filled potato skin with her magic and holding it close to her. She took a bite of the snack while Pinkie beamed at her, her mind suddenly blank.

She had a very strong compulsion to correct Pinkie Pie, and when finally she swallowed the spud and washed it down with a swig from the far-inferior cider, her eyes caught Applejack’s.

“A bit much for ya, eh?” The earth pony chuckled. “No worries. Take your time, Nightmare Moon. We’re in no rush.”

Again that pang of discomfort jittered up her spine, and she met Rainbow Dash’s eyes while struggling to escape it. Dash, however, didn’t miss this, and she leaned across the table, staring back.

“Something on your mind, Nightmare Moon?”

“Luna!” Nightmare shouted, before shrinking down, her long neck somehow disappearing into her chest. “...Luna. Please… Call me Luna.”

“Hey,” Twilight said, patting her on her back and giving her an encouraging smile. “We’re not here to pressure you into anything. It’s still your night to have, after all!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie and Applejack cheered. The two of them leaned over to hoofbump, squishing Rainbow Dash in the process.

“Ouch, hey! But yeah! Go nuts, Ni—Luna. What did you want to do? How come Twilight brought you here?”

Rarity was busy locking lips with the highly-dressed mare, but she looked over at Nightmare Moon and winked in encouragement.

Nightmare breathed deeply and let it out as Fluttershy had taught her, letting the shakiness in her heart slip away into the muggy air around her. Reassured, she smiled at her friends, and then craned her head back over to the jazz band.

“Go on!” Twilight said.

“Go on! Let’s hear it!” the rest of the group said, clapping.

“Hey everypony! We got us a pony here who thinks she can sing!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flipping up into the air and sailing around the heads of all the wasted celebrants. The few who weren’t so drunk they couldn’t notice whooped and hollered, and Nightmare Moon blushed, uttered a swear towards Rainbow, and stood up to a fastly growing round of applause.

The crowd silenced as she stepped up onto the small stage next to the three musicians, reminiscent so much of the troupe from her childhood, and she grinned foalishly, giddiness already eating away at her nerves.

“Whatchu want, gal?” the stallion on the keyboard asked, a big toothy grin shining up at her.

“Give me a swing beat.”

“You got it! Anda one, a two, a one two three four—”

Nightmare Moon tapped her hooves and started shaking her hips as the piano picked up into a ragtime beat, a back and forth popping that quickly cradled the energetic and swinging saxophone. She listened while the sax finished its solo, picking up the beat, and then, with all eyes on her and a crowd of friends and strangers alike shouting her name—her name, Luna—she stood proud, and belted out into the night.

I’m back in black and blue

Your Lunar Royaltyyyyyyy…

Bloodshot Moon

There were many things that ran through Luna’s head when the stray beam of sunlight cracked through heavy curtains to rest upon her eyelids.

The first was pain, and the immense stabbing headache pulsed and jiggled her brain. Her horn throbbed while her stomach twisted and turned, the room feeling a bit like it was spinning specifically in whatever direction her ears most hated. She tried to crack open an eye and immediately regretted it, the searing sunlight heighting every ache and intensifying her queasiness. For a brief moment, she resented the fact that she hadn’t killed Celestia last night, and then giggled shortly before she had to suck in a breath in agony.

A few minutes later, after the beam had slipped off her forehead and settled onto her neck, she tried again. It took a long moment to stabilize herself from this jarring change, but after she had adjusted to actually seeing, she felt brave enough to attempt a movement.

She yawned and stretched a foreleg, the exhalation quickly reminding her of one of her initial complaints. She gagged on her own skunky breath, and when she clamped her muzzle shut and swallowed, the inescapable feeling of her tongue having grown a mane harangued her.

The next thing that ran through her mind was just how desperately she needed to eat something greasy.

With a fresh mission in mind she started to free herself from the luscious comforter and bed sheets. It took a moment for her to recognize that this was not her bed. She was in one of the guest quarters, a rather similar-looking room albeit, but different all the same. One particular difference she noticed with immediacy was that there was somepony clung to her, a grey foreleg under a wing and over her belly, a matching hindleg resting upon hers, a few stray locks of a long golden mane tickling her nose. She risked turning her head to view her apparent consort and laid eyes upon a uniformly grey mare she absolutely did not recognize.

She shrugged and chuckled, only gasping once in pain as she did so, and then began to peel herself away from the mare as gently as possible to not interrupt her sleep and bring upon her the same, terrible fate that had befallen herself.

A thought that she was in her normal body drifted by but didn’t seem to register long enough for her to care. The body she was in clearly hated her right now, based off of how every joint and every muscle complained and cried with her slow, purposefully quiet movements. She stepped softly not only to avoid waking up the pegasus in her bed, but also all the other ponies that were strewn about the room.

Reality caught up with Luna and she blinked, stunned, at the apparent massacre that had taken place.

Above her, tangled in a chandelier and snoring loudly, was Rainbow Dash. Directly below that pegasus was another: Fluttershy, also asleep, though she was resting on a pillow of a half-eaten cheese pizza. For a moment Luna considered snagging a slice to ease the discontent of her stomach but in a fit of rationality decided it was probably worth getting something fresh instead. She stepped around the dozens of empty fast-food containers, taking care not to crinkle any cardboard or wax paper, and slipped into the adjacent restroom to get a better look at herself.

The scene in here was just as deadly as the bedroom. Luna took one long look at Applejack, her legs splayed out flat on the cold tile, her head resting in the shower, obscured by the curtain, and ultimately decided to cede the bathroom’s territory to the unconscious earth pony.

The living room quarters were a little better, though the tangle of Twilight and Pinkie Pie on the couch took up several minutes of Luna’s time as she struggled to figure out just how they were both resting on each other’s laps. Eventually writing it off as some bastard combination of a deep knowledge of physics and a complete disregard for them, she stumbled outside, her starry mane somehow stuck slick to her forehead and dishevelled. She paused briefly in the doorway for only a second, glanced behind her and, finding no sign of Rarity anywhere, shrugged and carried on to the kitchens.

There, in the cavernously large back room of the castle, usually bustling with cooks and servants but now quiet and dark, Celestia sat at the table, perking up curiously at the sight of Luna shambling into the room. She watched her sister drop unceremoniously onto the hard wooden bench across from her, and then, without a word, silently levitated a small plate of pancakes and a huge mug of water across to her.

Luna drained the entire mug in one go, dropped the cup onto the table, and then snickered.

“Good evening,” Celestia said, smirking.

“You must be so jealous of me,” Luna said.