In the small hours of the night, a pony slept.

That didn’t actually stop her from doing something else with her time, something more useful, because the pony was Princess (emeritus) Luna. She had spent a thousand years on the moon after her indignation over not having enough of a role in Equestria’s government had boiled over… then, not long afterwards, she’d discovered that actually having a say was even worse and she’d decided not to have a role at all thank you very much.

But she still kept her powers over the dream realm, and that was why she was doing something useful with her time despite how late at night it was.

“Hmm,” Luna frowned, considering, then focused her powers, and an alicorn statue appeared in front of her. Made of onyx and speckled with faint stars, it looked a lot like the Tantabus that she had created in the past, but Luna wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Instead of creating something to torture and punish her, she wanted it for something else. A simpler purpose.

The Tantabus had been to make sure she could never forget her corruption as Nightmare Moon, by reminding her of them every night through nightmares. This was… not going to be for that.

It was made up of her own memories of what she had done as Nightmare Moon, yes, but it was just going to be… there. In her dreams, as a memorial.

“I think that should do,” she said, trotting around the statue, then corrected herself by giving it the regalia she’d worn as Nightmare Moon.

Another tweak, and she added a flowing mane of stars.

Then she changed it a bit more, adjusting the eyes.

“...no,” she said, eventually. “If I keep changing it, I’ll never stop.”

Touching her horn to the statue’s horn, she pushed into it her memories of Nightmare Moon, then sealed it against any further tampering she might do in order to rid herself of the temptation.

Morning was coming, and Luna slipped away through the veil of thought to wake up along with her sister – to enjoy the retirement that Celestia had waited over a thousand years to enjoy.

And, in the dreamscape, the Nightmare statue smirked.

Author's Note

I’m sure that won’t have any negative consequences.