Looking out of an eastward facing third story balcony in a hotel; she stood.

When the sun had fallen below the horizon, and twilight had come, the alicorn dropped her human guise.

Thoughts turned around in her mind to what was to be done with the mare. A mare whom stood to thwart the birth of all ponies which would would fill the lands and air in the coming century... and beyond. Little did her opponent comprehend the endless multitude of voices that she sought to end before they were even conceived.

This was bigger than Nightmare Moon, a single alicorn; This was the worlds future, her world was in the balance.

Not in some existential, or allegorical way, but a literal one. If this human mare succeeded in her intentions, Moon would be alone... till the last of her days.

"I can not fail in this. Should I falter, madness of solitude will be my only reward" Moon said to herself. This was by far, the greatest intervention of humanity she would yet commit. This human needed to be put out of her way, where she could do no damage, and for a considerable time.

And so, as the crescent moon crested the cityscape, she waited, following its rise with her eyes.

Meanwhile, in an lavish mansion, the three inhabitants therein flitted away their evening as they usually did. Heedless of the shadow which was about to fall over them.

As the evening drew late, they retired to the respective chambers.

One by one, each fell into slumbers; Fitful and unrestful ones. Their spirits were already burdened, as the alicorn was about to learn of, this night.

For many reasons, this would be a night that left a lasting impression on the alicorn.

The hours passed silently in the hotel room, the standing alicorn unmoving, save for her eyes and breath. Then, without making a sound, her wings opened wide.

With the closing of her eyes, her horn glowed, and in a flash she disappeared from the hotel room.

Appearing in the sky above where the tracking spell had delivered her, Moon opened her eyes and took in the view below.

Her iris's opening to their widest, she could slightly make out the infrared light spilling from cameras covering the parameter of the buildings exterior. Inside, all was dark, save a couple of dim night lights in general areas.

Assuming a stationary position, she cast a sleeping spell across the entirety of the structure.

Sweeping downward and staying out of eye-shot of the cameras, she landed on a second floor balcony unsupervised by technology.

Unlatching the door with her magic, she stepped into a bedroom. Looking around, she spied partially eaten food, trash and clothes littered about, along with alcohol and pharmaceutical bottles here and there.

"I have ventured into a sty, the odor is none too agreeable either" She spoke aloud, unconcerned of sound because of the sleeping spell she applied.

Kicking a few items from her path, she made her way to the occupant of the bed.

Slumbering there, was a male appearing to be in his mid thirties. The pill bottles on the nightstand, along with the smell of alcohol, told her that he was anesthetized to sleep long before her spell had been enacted.

"Curious? Mayhaps thou art the offspring of my foe this evening?"

Looking him over, she lit her horn to check him over.

"As I suspected, thee are most sedated, chemically. But why? Surely this is a most comfortable and splendid accommodation? How are thee troubled so?"

Lighting her horn, she purified his body of the foreign substances in his digestive tract and blood stream.

"There, now dream. Let thine subconscious paint what lies within. From that, I shall learn some of thy story and what plagues thee" the alicorn whispered.

Casting another spell, the mans subconscious became active again. As he entered the dream that had formed, the dark alicorn entered the dream with him, without him being aware of her.

...

The dreams were abstract, as human dreams were; Different from ponies, in which the imagery was direct by comparison.

Over the years, she had studied them on occasion. When she had regained her powers, she tested them with humans, being the only dreaming creatures around.

Human dreams required a series of dreams in order to come to a consensus of their theme.

And as they played out, the alicorn made took notice of the situation inside the dream.

Once she made note of the situation at hoof, she broke the dream, and let another form in its place.

One after another, she came to find that they were mostly full of social strife. Only one was lacking in that, and was mundane.

Mostly comprising of family members, one which she was familiar with; the man was the subject of scorn and verbal taunts, to which he took without retaliating.

After the sixth, she thought to herself;

"I believe that his pains are sourced in powerless-ness. The thread constant, is that he has no autonomy to rebuke what is thrust upon him, earned or unearned. This is a dangerous state for a stallion to persist in for long... for such tension would be released eventually"

Dissolving the latest dream, she suppressed his subconscious mind once more.

"I wonder if it already has?"

Bringing the mans mind to a state of near lucidity, the alicorn searched his memories for emotional significance, to which there were many. Too many for a healthy stallion to posses.

"These are... unpleasant. Breakdowns, increasingly chronic breaking points scattered throughout the years. Appearing to be accelerating in frequency and measure"

As she watched them in rapid fashion, her expression softened.

"As I feared. Implosions..."

Dropping her connection to his mind, she sat down next to the bed and looked down, saddened. Looking back to the figure in the bed, she sighed;

"Ye poor thing... So much that Ye could have been. Been reduced to... misery, seeking release"

For a number of minutes she sat there, weighing what, if anything, she could do for him.

"This damage is deep, accumulated over long years. To even mitigate this, I would have to excise sizable swaths of thy life experiences, essentially... ending it, as thou know it"

Standing back up, she whispered to herself;

"This lies beyond my purview, to which I hold myself"

Turning to the man, she lit her horn once more

"This is all that I may do for thee, child. Dream of whatever gives thyself pleasure in the waking world for this entire night"

Failing to restrain herself, she looked into what he was dreaming about;

"This is a simple dream, though it is still sad in its way" she whispered to herself

There the man was, alone in a room, playing a video game; Single player, crafting things in its simple world.

Sighing, the alicorn broke her connection, and turned from the bed.

Opening the hallway door, she turned her eyes back to the peacefully slumbering form.

"He was made stunted and lame, by whom should hath nurtured him" she thought before leaving him in peace.

Coming to the next door, the alicorn found an unoccupied room, clean and made.

Crossing the hall, she opened the door to find an occupant slumbering.

The room was tidier and better smelling than the first. However, nearly as many pharmaceutical bottles were on the dresser as well as the nightstand.

"This... bodes ill. However, I see nor smell any alcohol this time"

Powering her horn to cast a soft glow, the alicorn made her way to the dresser. Around the edge of the mirror were pieces of tape, indicative of torn down pictures.

"Another miserable foal? My opponents hoof work appears ubiquitous" she thought.

Glancing at the bottles, the alicorn didn't recognize most of the names on them, though some were the same as the man's in the first room

"Time to answer the mystery of what this mare is feeding her offspring" the alicorn spoke as she levitated the occupants phone to herself.

A spell unlocked the security lock on it, where appeared the usual feed of socialization in this era. Making a note to being it back up when she was done, the alicorn brought up a search page on it.

Entering the letters matching the labels on the bottles and reading what they did, puzzled the mare.

The results were a mix of the expected anesthetizing agents, mood stabilizers, and... hormones?

"Curiouser and curiouser" she puzzled.

Putting the bottles back, erasing her digital hoofprint, and placing the phone back where and how she found it; She made her way over to the bed of the sleeping human.

Looking down to the face of human, the dark alicorn scrutinized it;

"Indeed, the features are... indeterminate. More youthful that the first, however slightly softer in tone and shape. There is little stubble as well..." she thought as she studied the face.

"No matter. Pray tell, have thee fared better than thou brother?" she asked the sleeping figure as she changed her horn from illumination, to casting.

Performing the task this time was frustratingly more difficult than the first, as she could not simply remove All of the foreign substances from the bloodstream to un-cloud the human's mind.

"An unlooked for hindrance. Akin to sifting through trail mix to remove much of the unwanted chocolates"

After spending minutes more removing the sleep inducing chemicals, the alicorn consider it sufficient;

"This will be enough. Though a great mess of synthetics, is this ones bloodstream. This is no way care of a foal, even an old of one as this" she huffed.

Moon's annoyance at the company president was building beyond what it already was. If fact it was starting to feel personal in an odd way that she couldn't understand, yet is was there.

"If I were the same as I was in Equestria; I would simply land her in the middle of the Luna Ocean for the sharks to have by this point, consider the issue closed, and forget it in quick order" the alicorn grumbled under her breath.

Catching herself, she looked on the human in front of her;

"These two... would have fared slightly better. However..."

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts of morose suppositions, she brought her mind back to the present.

Casting the spell to activate the subconscious once again, the alicorn slipped into the dreamscape of the human unseen.

Repeating the process she performed as with the first, she found her skill tested. For the dreams themes, ebbed and flowed. Rarely keeping one course, it was like an abstraction atop what was already; abstract.

Dozens upon dozens of dreams she watched.

"Hmm, it is as if this siblings subconscious wanders... I have yet to experience this in a human or pony before. Perhaps the groundwork is compromised in some fashion? Is this my foes hoof work, or something else?"

Halfway though, she recognized a face from the others troubled dreams;

"Ah, thou art also the other which graced his troubled dreams with taunts. I suppose thee count as two bringers of woe then? This dynamic becomes more intriguing, the more I learn" she surmised.

As the dreams progressed, they ranged from a woman coming to someone else's rescue, to a man being surrounded by a sea of accusing eyes. With a myriad of lesser obvious ones among the mundane in between.

Finally, the alicorn came to a consensus;

"This one, is definitely the offspring of my foe. Power and control, it craves. The thread constants are; opposition, and battle to obtain power. However, my foe never appears in this ones dreams, save for a distant voice. I would not have noticed, had it not been so obviously in contrast from the first"

Thinking through it for a few moments, she spoke to herself;

"One desires to flee from his mothers scorn... the other; Reshapes itself, yet cannot connect with her despite being so close in personality? Both; simultaneously deeply unhappy with themselves"

the alicorn wondered;

"What exactly is this mare I am to deal with?"

Turning her attention back to the task, the alicorn suppressed the subconscious, and brought the mind to a near lucid state.

"Now tell me of Thine story. How did thy mother shape thee to what thou art now?" Moon asked the slumbering shape in the bed.

Closing her eyes, and searching through memories of emotional significance once more, surprise did not grace her expression.

"Many similarities; Breakdowns and crisis, more constant though not nearly as deadly. It also appears as though she was doted on as a filly, thus looked up to her mother as expected. However as she matured, she became disregarded by her mother slowly. Hardly unusual from what I know of humans"

Going across those maturing years in more detail, the alicorn saw more;

"Close friendships were few, then broken. Fewer were made to replace them, and they were fleeting. More and more thou became isolated while seeking a connection, belonging, acceptance. Associations came and went, until... Ah"

The alicorns expression softened as understanding came.

"She found them all there, and her journey stopped in one way, then began anew"

Then Moons expression sagged;

"The euphoria abated far too quickly. Disappointments, betrayed trusts, more lost friendships...lonely"

Opening her eyes, she looked down to the once daughter of the company president. In a soft voice, the alicorn spoke gently;

"I am sorry wayward filly. You traded much, for the promises they made you. Tis likely, neither knew... such promises are incredibly difficult to hold. More so than most, and neigh impossible, depending on point of view... That on thy journey, such comfort that thou sought; did not find thee. Where instead thee found..."

Looking down, the alicorn didn't have the heart to finish the sentiment.

With a deep sigh, Moon spoke again;

"Where I am from, such things do not happen to fillies. They are not left to wander, nor uncomfortable in their bodies... Even spells that could somehow make it possible, are unneeded. I... miss it"

Swallowing a lump in her throat, she raised her muzzle back to the sleeping figure, and whispered;

"I suppose, that we are all our mothers fillies, shaped by their actions... are we not? And here we are; I, whom will deprive thee of the one who contributed to whom you have become. Thine only remaining support, will be unavailable to thee for a time. I am sorry for this added hardship ye shall now face"

After a few moments of silence, a thought crossed the alicorns mind.

With a dark chuckle, the alicorn asked;

"Would thee despise me for doing so? Thee are so much akin to her way of mind and now misery, despite suffering of it. I would wager that thee would easily fulfill her role in her place, no?"

"I am glad that thee are not, such would make this worse, than it already is" She finished, sobering up a bit.

"Thou will need thine strength for the following years. For now, dream the happiest dream thy will" Moon commanded as she cast a dreaming spell.

Inside the dream; There he stood, the filly of the company president, on a platform, clutching his wife, receiving raucous applause and cheers from a crowd of thousands.

Flashing an unsurprised smirk, the alicorn broke her connection to the dream and left the man to his crowds of fans.

Leaving the bedroom of the second born son, she wondered if the firstborn felt usurped by his sister?

"Humans are too complicated for their own good" Moon shook her head. "What a mess she has made of her foals"

Coming to the master bedroom at the end of the wing, the alicorn swung the door open wide.

In the bed was the target of her mission; the threat to not only her foals existence, but the eroder her own.

At the foot of the bed, laid a German Shepard; dozing as well, due to the sleeping spell deployed across the palatial estate.

Looking down on the large canine, the alicorn raised an eyebrow;

"An interesting selection of guard; large, powerful... Mayhaps she is compensating for an insecurity?"

Moving on, the alicorns hooves made muffled thuds as the rugs on the floor cushioned the impacts.

When the night had started, Moon took care to move quietly. The subconscious desire to make stealth the modus operandi of the night.

However, by now she had abandoned remaining quiet since passing through the vanguards of her legacy.

Coming to a stop next to her bedside, she stared down at the slumbering woman.

With a snort of derision, the alicorn greeted her opponent with a loud and grandiose flourish;

"Hail President; Mother of Misery, Destroyer of Daughters, and Consumer of Futures!"

Author's Note

Nightmare Moon in the future-modern human era...

This was not an easy write, as some of the human things, admittedly; hit a bit too close to home.
In a word; uncomfortable.

This ended up longer than I planned it to be, but hopefully it's worth reading.