Radiant Hope was not a complex pony. Complexity didn't particularly interest her. The world worked best when there were good ponies and bad ponies, and the good ponies beat the bad ones and everypony was happy.

Radiant Hope was, also, not a filly. She knew that things were rarely so simple. Take her good friend Sombra, for example. He was a nice guy, pretty funny and very hard-working. He was also a tyrant, one who ruled her homeland with such absolute brutality that the Equestrian princesses felt the need to personally intervene.

For a good part of her thousand-year self-imposed exile, Radiant Hope struggled with that dichotomy. It was hard to believe morality was black and white when the most important person in her life was a beautiful shade of dark gray. She was referring to his morality there, nothing else. It wasn't until her good pal umbrum #62 provided her with some words of wisdom that she figured it all out.

“If you care about Sombra so much, just say that he's good and everypony against him is evil or something. Now, can you release us alrea–”

Umbrum #62 was a great guy. Too bad about what happened to him. All that smoke…

Radiant Hope shivered. Never again.

But, the late umbrum’s words had helped her. There was no need to make things complex. Her moral compass didn't have to be replaced with a new model, she just had to shift it a few degrees clockwise. Sombra wasn't morally gray, there was no such thing! He was good, and everypony who stood against him was evil. Bing bang boom, problem solved.

Now, as Radiant Hope was also a good person, it was thus her responsibility to find Sombra and help him. She had planned to find his scattered parts and piece him back together, a process that would've taken years, but was halted before she could even begin.

On the cold, cold wind, as it howled like a dog near death, a feeling was brought to her. It told her that somepony, somewhere, was making assumptions.

So, with a determined smile, Radiant Hope took her first steps out of the Arctic Wastes in a thousand years. She had a friend to find.

Sombra, meanwhile, was trying to smoke milk out of the bottle like it was a bong. Trixie and Starlight cheered him on.

Radiant Hope’s moonlit journey quickly came upon a bump in the road. Well, the bump in question was a cloud of dark blue smoke nearly the size of a house, but it was blocking the road. She felt the metaphor was apt.

She considered, for a moment, turning around and fleeing into the night before the living cloud noticed her. It was clearly alive, as it could be heard muttering to itself. Also, Radiant Hope had a lot of experience with living clouds, and this one fit the bill.

But, she couldn't flee. Sombra needed her, and she knew her destination was on the other side of the cloud. Call it a gut feeling, but those had never led her astray. Never ever.

So, holding her head up high, Radiant Hope stepped closer to the cloud. Instantly, a pair of cyan eyes formed in the cloud, glaring down at her with slit pupils.

“Halt, pony!” The cloud demanded, its voice seeming to come from every wisp of smoke at once.

Radiant Hope stopped halfway through a step and flailed for a moment before catching herself and acting as if nothing had happened. The cloud’s narrow eyes informed her that her acting could've used some work.

“Who art thou–” The cloud coughed, somehow. “Damn it. Force of habit.”

Radiant Hope waited patiently for the cloud to continue.

“Ugh. Anyway, who are you to stand before me? Do you not know who I am!?” The cloud questioned.

“Well, I'm Radiant Hope, nice to meet you.” She went to offer a hoofshake, but thought better of it. “And, um, no. I can't say I do.”

“Figures.” The cloud muttered, though it was barely quieter than its normal voice.

“It's very nice to meet you, but could you please move out of the way? I have something very important to do.” Radiant Hope said.

The cloud’s eyes snapped back to Radiant Hope and seemed to analyze her.

“Important, you say?” The cloud’s eyes took on a distinctly hungry look. “Well, you're in just the right place! You see, I am an individual of much renown and even greater power. I could assist you in your task.”

“Who…” Radiant Hope took a step back, the cloud’s horribly famished gaze quickly crumbling her confidence. “Who are you?”

“Who am I? I am the greatest practitioner of dark magic to exist. I am the shape that has fueled horror stories for a millennium. I am the crusher of the insignificant and weak. I am the one who has dirtied the very word once used to refer to the greats! I am the tyrant of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra–”

“Nope.” Radiant Hope interrupted.

“…excuse me?” The cloud growled.

“You're not Sombra. Considering the fact that he and I are best friends forever and ever and ever, I think I'd know.” Radiant Hope looked into the shocked eyes of the cloud, giving it an unimpressed look. “Try again.”

“Well– I– um… of course I'm not King Sombra! What I meant was…” The cloud paused and closed its eyes, before opening them and revealing its regained conviction. “Sombra and I are similar, almost one in the same! You see, I am one of an ancient race, one only spoken of in hushed whispers. One known to few yet feared by all! I am one of the powerful, fearsome, unstoppable umbrum–”

“Nope.” Radiant Hope interrupted once more.

“What now!?” The cloud yelled.

“I've been living with the umbrum for the last thousand years. I know them all, and you're not one of them.” Radiant Hope paused. “Plus, they're all still trapped in the crystal.”

“Damn it!” The cloud yelled, before taking a deep breath. “Okay, you didn't let me finish. I was simply trying to say that I am similar to the umbrum. Let me finish this time!”

“Alright.” Radiant Hope agreed. “Third time’s the charm?”

“Right.” The cloud looked up into the night sky for a long moment before it tried again. “I am like Sombra, and I am like the umbrum. We are all ancient creatures, proficient in dark magic, and able to turn ourselves into smoke. But, unlike them, my deeds have affected the entirety of Equestria! I bathed this world in eternal night, I struck the princesses down and reigned over their kingdom, I brought the element bearers to the brink, and it is only through the luck of fools that I do not stand before you with a crown atop my head! I am the mare on the moon, the evil haunting the minds of all, the one, the only, Nightmare Moon!”

Radiant Hope blinked up at the cloud, who was panting, somehow. It glared down at her with a challenge in its cyan eyes, as if daring her to find a hole in its newest claim.

“Never heard of you.”

“Motherfu–”

Sombra sat back and smirked, having just smoked an entire bottle of milk. Trixie immediately grabbed a bottle and started trying, while Starlight just stared at him like her life had been irrevocably altered.

“So, you possessed Princess Luna?” Radiant Hope asked, sitting on the side of the road next to Nightmare Moon, who was not sitting because she was a cloud.

“Yes! For a thousand years I ruled her body and mind, the powers of an Alicorn at my command.” Nightmare Moon sighed. “Unfortunately, there wasn't much use for Alicorn powers on the moon.”

“That's really sad.” Radiant Hope said. “Did you talk to her?”

“What? No, why would I have done that?” Nightmare Moon asked, confused by the very concept of the question.

“Oh, that's just awful! All alone for a thousand years, I couldn't imagine it! At least I had the umbrum!” Radiant Hope paused. “And the others.”

“Others?” Nightmare Moon questioned.

“Yeah, my friends! I haven't seen them much, not since the… incident.” Radiant Hope shivered. “But, they were always there for me until then. Even if no one else could see them.”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that you are insane.” Nightmare Moon stated bluntly.

“Insanity is the name given by cowards to attitudes they don't understand.” Radiant Hope recited proudly. “Sombra taught me that.”

“I'm sure he did.” Nightmare Moon responded dryly.

“Anyway, I don't see any reason to refuse your help. I could use a princess-level ally to get Sombra back.” Radiant Hope said.

Nightmare Moon glanced away uncomfortably at the phrase ‘princess-level’ but powered on before Radiant Hope could comment on it.

“Back? Where has the former king gone?” Nightmare Moon asked.

“Oh, I… don't actually know. But! I can tell he's in…” Radiant Hope pointed down the road, forgetting she was putting most of her weight on that hoof and falling to the ground. “That direction! Ouch.”

“Right.” Nightmare Moon accepted, not sounding particularly accepting. “Well, I suppose I might as well assist you. All you need to do is let me in.”

“In where?” Radiant Hope asked, looking around from her spot on the ground.

“In…” Nightmare Moon extended a strand of smoke that tapped against Radiant Hope’s forehead. “There. The heart too, I suppose, but it's really more about the brain.”

“Oh.”

Radiant Hope was not an idiot. She knew that giving her mind, body, and soul to a being of pure nightmares was, to put it bluntly, extremely stupid. From Nightmare Moon’s description of her possession of Princess Luna, it wasn't even close to an equal relationship. She'd be giving Nightmare Moon full control, and, at best, Nightmare Moon would honor their agreement and complete Radiant Hope’s goals in her place. At worst, Nightmare Moon would use Radiant Hope’s body to her own ends, leaving Sombra forever unsaved.

Sombra. The person who meant more than anything to Radiant Hope. The person she'd turned her back on. The person she'd left alone, no umbrum or friends to keep him company like she'd had. The person who was now probably alone and scared, tormented by the fiends who struck him down all those years ago.

She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

“I accept.” Radiant Hope declared.

Nightmare Moon cackled. And cackled. And cackled. By the thirty second mark, Radiant Hope began to scoot away. Then, Nightmare Moon‘s eyes locked onto Radiant Hope's, and the pony found she couldn't look away. The world seemed to fade away, leaving only those cold cyan eyes in its wake. Screams filled in the air, circling around Radiant Hope in a cyclone of eternal torment. She could feel time slowing, the seconds stretching into minutes into hours into days. Nightmare Moon was eternal, Nightmare Moon was unstoppable, Nightmare Moon was everyth–

The world snapped back into focus. Radiant Hope took a gasping breath, rolling onto her side and clutching her chest. Her heart was racing, pushing against her ribcage like it was trying to escape. She'd expected possession to be unpleasant, of course she had, she wasn't stupid, she wasn't! But that– that was–

“Ugh. What… what happened?” Nightmare Moon asked dazedly, voice sounding oddly… singular.

Radiant Hope turned to face Nightmare Moon, not wondering for a moment why she could still control her body, only to freeze at what she saw.

There was a pony laying there. She was an extremely dark blue, so dark that it might as well have been black, and had a puffy mane of a brighter blue with small white streaks dotted throughout. On her head was a proportionally tiny horn and on her sides were wings just as unusually small. She looked up at Radiant Hope with unfocused eyes. Cyan eyes, with slit pupils.

“Huh. Didn't… expect you to haunt me.” Nightmare Moon, for that was who the pony was, said. “Luna didn't do that.”

Then, Nightmare Moon looked down at herself. Then, back to Radiant Hope. Her eyes cleared somewhat, and she repeated the motion.

“…what.” Nightmare Moon said eloquently.

Sombra was laughing at Trixie’s failure to emulate his trick when the door creaked open. He looked over, only to find himself locked in a staring contest with Princess Cadance.

“…”

“…”

“I'm too drunk for this.” Cadance stated, turning her head to look down the nearest staircase. “Twilight!”

Author's Note

Turns out I am making a sequel. Let's see how this goes.