-The Night-Mare in her eyes-

‘Good, the moral, the righteous, the desire to see approval from others. Evil, the profound, the wicked, the relentless pull towards one’s own desire. Those who see this line, walk with certainty through her court. For all who hide in her dark shall hold no candle to her light. Like the coin that lands between the times of dusk and dawn, they too shall be known as the Night. The time where no sun can truly shine.’ -Everfree V

Chapter 1- To want the sun

Time, always flowing, never standing, always changing. Like all true stories, our story starts much like many do with a young mare who yearned for the sky. Wingless yes, yet just like time she too found changes. Wings like gentiana flowers grew and like all things, so she did too. However this mare is not where I story follows, but like all tales a predecessor is required. For this mare who grew wings with horn desired one thing that neither she nor sister could discern. Small and full of life she did seek, new form of growing within she. Yet let known with all great desires, a trickster will always sire. Alicorn and Draconequus met in secret, yet harmony’s sun did see them. A deal was made, a foal did grow, yet it was the chaos which was turned to stone. First of it’s kind, familiarity it showed, the Mare of the Night born and grows. Yet like discord before, so too did this filly go. Far away, to a place up high, a reminder to the mother who rules the night. A thousand years sealed in plain sight. Yet the reason for her penance shown no light. Yet word did surface, a prophecy made in earnest. For the thousandth day of her commemoration, the stars would aid in her retaliation.

So that dear reader is where our story shall commence. On a round floating rock within a starry net.

It had been almost a thousand years since she had seen another living creature, it had been almost a thousand since she had seen the sun. As her eyes stared down upon the place she once called a home, she pondered to herself. Not of anything of significance or filling, just the mindless wonders that pass through all creatures thought. Where to go, what to do, how many of her ponies still remembered her. Were there any still alive, she doubted that. No, no one had remembered her, no one cared and all who had surely had passed. Yet in the coldness of her heart she knew of one who had lived, one who must have lived. For it was her spell that had held her for these last nine hundred and ninety nine years.

Letting out a snort, the black mare turned her back towards the world. Feeling no more desire to see it as she flopped herself onto the ground. Rolling to her side the mare rested her head on the cold white dust, closing her eyes in thought. “What was the reason after all this time?” The mare said as mind fading to that of sleep. The world around her fading into nothing as she felt herself sink into her own mind before the feeling of hard stone slabs meet her hooves.

She was standing, standing in a long corridor lit by torch light. Banners of blue and gold, night and day decorated the walls next to suits of armor that stood on display and relics of past victories on pedestals beneath glass cases. This was her home. An old castle, in an ancient forest, built in honor of her aunt and mother. A place she had not dreamt about in a very long long time.

“I remember this place.” She thought out loud as she slowly walked alone down the long hall. A soft breeze ran through the hall through open windows as she went at sluggish pace, her hooves like lead as she approached a single window. The starry night sky meeting her teal eyes reminding her of her mother’s flowing mane. In her youth she had always wondered how her mother managed to capture the starry night so perfectly in essence within her mane. Now in her older years the wonder had long since vanished for much like her mother she too shared in this magical genetic trait. The only visual difference between them, being that while her mother’s featured different shades of blue with white stars that stood out even next to the night sky, hers was a deep purple that could fade into the backdrop showing only stars of yellow and blue.

Drifting away from the sky she gave her head a quick shake as she continued on glancing here and there at various trinkets that caught her one. One being a dark gray metal amulet, the object was in the shape of a triangle with a red diamond shaped ruby embedded in its center. A pair of pegasus wings with red trim sat at the top meeting with a unicorn head between them. It was known as the alicorn amulet if she recalled correctly, an enchanted artifact from a war long before her time. “It's funny, Mother once told me that you could give your wearer untold power, only for you to corrupt your wearer. Looks like there is more than one way to corrupt a pony.” She snorted, her eyes focusing on her reflection with the glass casing before turning away.

She walked a bit more before stopping in front of two large old wooden doors with two guards standing to each side of it. Each guard stood unblinking with yellow bat-like eyes, brownish gray fur and a dark purple mane and tail. Their fluffy ears peeked out of purple and blue armor with silver trim. She stood there a moment taking in the appearance before a sense of familiarity met her like she had once in her life knew these two ponies, but now their names escaped her.

“I wish to enter.” She said looking past the two guards as they gave a quick bow as they stepped off to the side as the doors creaked open ever slowly. Walking through the threshold she was met with a very dark room with three large pink glass windows, one on each of the exterior walls. Two sets of stairs sat at the other end of the large room, both leading to two large wooden thrones, one of blue and one of gold, each with a corresponding banner hanging above them.

Walking a bit further into the room the silhouette of a large mare stood upon a single platform that connected the floor between the two thrones.”What do you think you're doing here so early in the morning, niece.” The silhouette scuffed as she watched the first beams of morning light pass through the window above the thrones.

“I was wondering if I could watch the sun rise with you?” A small filly’s voice answered from behind her accompanied by the soft sound of small hoof steps that came closer to her.
“That’s enough.” The black mare said as the world around her started to disappear like ash on a windy night. Closing her eyes, she flickered her ears around before picking up the fairly faint sound of some pony trying to hide their breathing. “I already know you’re there, why don’t you stop hiding.” The mare snapped showing off pointy teeth as she opened her eyes with a glare.

“I was only wanting to talk to you, Nightly.” The voice said from almost nowhere as a dark blue cloud of mist formed from the ground before taking the form of a dark blue alicorn. She stood almost as tall as her with teal eyes and a starry mane, her wings resting at her side while a black grown rested upon her head, her cutie mark being that of a crescent moon on a black sky.

Lightening my expression a bit I unfurrowed my brow giving the blue alicorn a look without expression. “That’s not my name anymore, Luna” I said, as I laid down on my legs amongst the nothingness that made the floor. “It hasn’t been for over nine hundred years. Now why are you here?”

With a deep sigh the blue alicorn gave me a sorrowful look as she lifted a hoof. “May I perhaps lay down with you first?” She asked with a pleading expression as I motioned with my head.

“Just stay five feet away from me and where I can see you. Now for the second time, why are you here?” I knew why, it was the same reason she always visited. Once a year, on the anniversary of my banishment this mare would pay my dreams a visit, when the spell sealing me away was at its weakest. Everytime she would request the same thing, to release her daughter from my control, to take her body instead, to give her back her Nightly. However there wasn’t any daughter to free, no one to control or body to take control cause I had never left. I had only forgotten who I used to be, before the anger, before the jealousy, before the moon. So to spare this mare the heart breath I played my role, I played it over and over and over again each year for every year for the past nine hundred and ninety nine years. I played the villain, the monster, the nightmare. I played the role that was given to me when my aunt burnt me into the ground, when she had used the elements of harmony to seal me in the moon. I was tired of playing the role, I was tired of her.

“I… wanted to tell you that in a few days we’ll be holding the one thousandth summer sun celebration.” Luna said, not wanting to make eye contact. This had piqued my interest. Not once within my banishment had she gone out of her way to mention the celebration of my defeat. From what I had seen prior, it had always been a sore subject for her.

“So you will.” I said squinting my eyes and I gave her an inspecting look. “Why tell me?” Raising an eyebrow I waited for her to respond as pawed at the ground for a moment before finally speaking.

“It was said… that on the one thousandth anniversary of the summer sun celebration when the moon is at its highest, the stars will aid in your escape.” Luna cleared her throat as she raised her head to look me in the eyes. “What I’m saying Nightly is that in a few days you’ll finally be able to return.”
Looking into the blue alicorn’s eyes it seemed like time had stopped. ‘I’m going to be freed.’ I thought to myself as a wicked grin spread upon my muzzle as I slowly stood up to look down upon the mare. “Is that so,” I hissed as I slowly started to approach the slightly smaller alicorn. “Then let me give you a message to deliver.” Leaning my head down close to her ear I clenched my teeth with a slight growl before continuing to speak. “Tell your sister, when I get out of here, I’m going to come find her. I’m going to rip her throat out with my teeth and shatter bones as she bleeds out from her wounds, I’m gonna make her watch as I level your castle to the ground before I hang her corpse for all of your subjects to see. Then, once I’m done with her… I’m coming for you. ” Raising my head back up I watched as the mare in front of me shook as her eyes had become pinpricks from fear before slowly turning her head to me as I raised up on my hind legs before crushing her astro form and destroying my dreamscape.

Opening my eyes I looked down upon the world as I started laughing to myself. “For so long I had watched from afar, for so long I have been forced to watch without being able to act.” Getting up to my hooves I grinned at the planet before me. “When I get out of here, everybody is going to know the name Nightmare!” I shouted slamming my hooves into the moon’s surface causing lightning to burst from the contract. “Just you wait.”

— *** —

Nightmare rested upon the ground, her legs folded under her belly, her wings gently hugging her sides. As she laid there quietly with her eyes closed she focused on her breathing as she brought her mind inward. ‘Just a little longer.’ She thought as she listened to the stars flicker and spark around her. The dark void around her magic core sparking and twisting in sync with the stars as her mental awareness spread out further tying one star to another like one giant web made up of burning balls of light and invisible threads. Feeling the tug of the stars against her core, Nightmare took in a deep breath and held it for a moment before slowly releasing it. Her brow twitched as the stars tugged again in her magic. Taking in another breath she loosened her grip on the stars ever slightly. “Guide, don’t force.” She said to herself as slowly led them into a song of flicks, sparks, snaps and twinkies. “Feeling within me… I made only hate… You lead me in sorrow.” Nightmare sung, her body rose as her legs lifted her to a standing position. Her voice ever somber as she slowly walked from her lunar cave into the solar reflection of the sun that refracted around the planet. “Going about… pleading. Your lack of love is.” Her cold body warmed as the light reached her black fur. “It’s clouding my heart and freely gives me something… that flows in my eyes.” Slowly opening her eyes the starry sky circled around slowly in dance. “If this hate would stay… Please only use this pain… Please Ohh…”

Sounds of flapping wings slowed her song to near pause followed by the landing of hooves on white stone dust. Without turning to look, a wide sharp grin stretched across her muzzle. “Nightmare…” A voice said in the tone of an older mare. “It’s time.” Nightmare laughed as she turned her head to the side glancing back as she turned to face the mare. Standing before her in her golden regalia and crown, with wings and fur of white. Mane of pastels like an ever blowing wind, stood a white alicorn. Her magenta eyes showed an air of authority and age. “Celestia, so eager to die.” Nightmare said, expanding her wings out as the stars around her glowed in golds and teal.

“Never know glaver gley in your glisten.” Nightmare sang loud as the stars erupted in a symphony of sound, her body appearing before Celestia as she pressed her forehead against her own, staring down into her eyes. An angry furrow met the solar princess’s brow as Nightmare’s teal eyes flickered with gold with her horn before vanishing. Looking around her white dust slowly started to pick up into the thin air as Nightmare reappeared to the left of Celestia’s side delivering a hard hind kick to the white alicorn’s ribs knocking her into the ground. “Tell me like a day in your rising.” Nightmare slowly approaching the knocked down alicorn with teeth shown. “Heavy going and you like getting peace that’s clean.”

Slowly coming to her feet the solar alicorn winced with a spike of pain that came from her ribs. Letting out a small groan she turned herself towards the black alicorn and she spread her wings readening herself for flight. “Like a child in the light… where's the light been.” Nightmare continued mimicking Celestia as she spread her wings out like an inverted reflection.

Taking flight the white alicorn flapped hard as she aimed herself for Equus before several large spikes clamped into her hind leg before pulling her hard back into the moon’s rock-like ground. Red liquid slowly left her leg as the spike-like object left her leg as a black mass rose above her. Pressing a hoof into Celestia’s bleeding leg, Nightmare took in a breath as blood ran down her pointy teeth, dripping from her jaw. Flicking her ear around she chuckled as she pressed her back hoof into the ground creating a stone shield as a beam of blue light curled around the side like a flame as a scream to stop came from the other side, “Hear the cry of the leave in the heathen. Ever know where the blamed and the leathered get lashin?” Nightmare raised her horn up as magic flowed through it before swinging her head down striking the white alicorn with lightning as she screamed out in pain.

“Oh I’ve never wanted heaven only sewn with gold. It’s been kinda lousy with it gone.” Nightmare let on as a light blue barrier covered Celestia in a magical field. Looking at the blue barrier, Nightmare ceased her spell as she felt a pressure in her side before being slammed by a blue alicorn causing her to roll, small gashes forming under her fur as she was scrapped by the ridgid ground before slowing to a stop. Letting out a growl from the impact, Nightmare glared at Luna as she pinned her to the ground with her hooves. A stern look plastered across her muzzle. “It’s never kind to but in on somepony else's battle, Luna.” I said through gritted teeth. My horn glowed with gold as my magic tethered onto one of the stars above us like a rope covered in oil before igniting a that stretched from the star to the pony standing over me in a blast of celestial heat. Luna let out a loud scream of agony as she collapsed onto me as I severed my tether to the star putting out the connecting line of flames as Luna’s back smoked from burnt flesh and fur.

Pushing the cobalt blue alicorn off of her body, Nightmare rolled to the side before getting to her hooves. Looking across the barren lunar plane her eye locked onto Celestia as she slowly went over to her semi concession form as she walked a limp in her back legs. “Did you two fools really think I was doing nothing up here as you ran my name through the mud for the last One Thousand Years!” Nightmare shouted as she stood over Celestia who was struggling to move as she attempted to climb back to her hooves. “A name that I remind you Celestia, a name that you gave me.” Glaring down at the solar princess she frowned as she stared at the injured form of Celestia. “It hurts doesn’t it.” Nightmare said, extending her wings as she lowered her head down to Celestia’s neck. “Don’t worry, it’s only going to get worse.” With that Nightmare clasped her jaw around Celestia’s neck, her teeth digging in through her fur and into her skin. Locking her jaw, Nightmare’s horn started to glow and she covered Celestia in her magic. “You don’t get to die yet.” Nightmare murmured holding Celestia by her neck, flapping her wings as she took off towards the world below, leaving the lunar alicorn unconscious in the place which for the last thousand years Nightmare had called her home.

— *** —

Down bellow, in the land of Equestria, in a small town next to an old forest ponies from far and wide gathered in a coming together to witness their princesses lower the moon and raise the sun, amongst the crowd of ponies a purple unicorn looked up at the sky through the window of town hall. Her eyes filled with worry as the stars around the moon circled around it before the silhouette of Nightmare Moon vanished with a flicker.

Author's Note

Welcome to the new chapter one for 'The Night-mare in her eyes' I hope you like the updated version of the story, I've put the original 12 chapters into one so that there is less confusion on what was going on. The musical number by Nightmare is heavily based on Bodhisattva Cathedral from the original Hellsing RAID soundtrack. I would love to read any feed back you all might have or comments you might want to post so please don't be shy.

Once again thank you all for reading. I'm gonna take a few days before working on chapter two.