The dark trees swayed ever so slightly around her. Everything was quiet as the lone mare made her way along the faded path. Only the sound of her hooves against the dirt hinted at a creature being awake at this hour. She flinched as a chilling wind wavered soundlessly past her, upsetting her sparkling blue mane and nipping bitterly at her skin.
There was no moon out tonight. The only light came from the dim glow of the stars which periodically poked out from behind the foreboding black clouds. It wasn’t enough to illuminate the shadows of the forest though. The only chance she had of seeing anything was by sticking to the faint trail that wound back and forth between the trees in front of her.
It was unnervingly silent as she continued on. Even the wind didn’t make a sound. The leaves all rustled and stirred around her but they remained muted. A layer of dense fog caressed the ground at her hooves, the icy moisture collecting on her skin until she was sure that she was kicking up water with every step.
Luna stopped suddenly along the bleak trail. The sound of the wind howling through the trees echoed from somewhere far away. It carried along the forest until reaching her with a powerful gust, whipping up the leaves on the ground into a frenzied whirl. She winced as her mane snapped violently in front of her face and the wooden limbs stretching overhead bowed and creaked threateningly.
Then everything returned to normal. An eerie hush fell over the forest once more.
She continued absently stumbling along the hazy path until the creeping feeling of something following her developed in the darkness. It wasn’t something that could be pinpointed to one location, but it stayed with her all the same. The sensation of its eyes watching her anxiously tightened the muscles in her back. Her every hoofstep shuddered against the thick blanket of night, betraying her location to everything in the forest. The shadows did nothing to protect her.
The air grew heavy with the feeling of her pursuer. The back of her neck became riddled with her hair warily standing on end as she quickened her pace. It was now entirely behind her, matching her step for step. Her staggered breaths came out in small puffs of white vapor that dissipated a few inches in front of her face. The ground below her skipped and bumped treacherously until she found herself nearly tripping over every rock and dip hidden beneath the fog. Even with her hurried stride the shadow still matched her. She could feel it gradually closing the gap until the heat of its breath fell menacingly against her nape.
She was at an all-out gallop when her hoof suddenly caught on a rock and her face was thrown down into the earth. It all happened so fast. She barely had time to recognize her own body as it rag dolled behind her, bits of wet pebbles battering and bruising her flesh.
A freezing streak of moisture coated her face and belly as she struggled to her hooves in the aftermath. Her tense muscles ached with the contusions that dotted her hide. Whatever had been following her had returned to the shadows to wait, but she could still feel its looming stare locked on her.
Luna looked around uneasily. She had tumbled off the path and stood isolated at the bottom of a small hill. The shadows stretched past her on every side now, concealing even the dense layer of mist she could feel on her hooves. A powerful shiver racked her body as the cold biting wind tore at the dampness she was coated in.
There was no telling where she was now. Not that she knew where she was before. The path she had been following through the Everfree Forest snaked back and forth for what seemed like centuries. It was always dark too. She couldn’t even remember what it felt like to have the warm caress of the sun on her face. There was only the cold embrace of the night surrounding her from every imaginable angle.
The trees pressed in around her, constricting her to the point that she found it hard to breathe. Their menacing ghostly figures stared down at her with a deep contempt for anything living. She could even see their haunting faces carved through the fog.
Something sparkled out of the corner of her eye; its unmistakable glint emanating an ominous presence. Hesitantly, she moved towards the source of the small glimmer protruding from the ground.
The wind suddenly picked up around her, howling through her mane and raising tiny goose-bumps across her skin, but she didn’t even notice. The manifestation of whatever had been following her escalated. Every hair on her body stood on end as she approached the partially buried object. With a delicate hoof, she carefully pushed the dirt away.
It was a helmet.
The earth around it had been cemented firmly to its form over the years but it still shone like the day it had been made. Even as she picked it up clumps of dirt crumbled and fell to the ground. Its polished metallic surface mirrored everything around her as she rolled it back and forth in her hooves. The bowl-like form reminded her of something, but she couldn’t quite picture it. It nagged at the back of her mind as she continued to stare into its glassy surface.
Suddenly her breath caught in her throat. She sat petrified at the figure that had emerged from the reflection in the helmet behind her. She dared not turn around but the twisted grin of the specter sent a shiver all the way down the length of her spine. Its emotionless turquoise eyes pierced through her very soul.
Her heart skipped a beat as the owner of the helmet stretched its black wings high into the night sky and let out a shrill banshee-like screech that shook the entire forest. Luna jumped at the howl, fear gripping her as she took off for the path that she had been on before. The helmet she had been holding tumbled to the ground and bounced with a metallic clink before revolving around to show the terrified princess struggling to climb the steep hill. No matter how hard she dug her hooves in she couldn’t make it up the incline. The soft dirt just gave way beneath her every step, sending her sliding back down with a torrent of soil.
Finally she managed to gain enough traction to frantically scale the slope. She crawled back onto the path panting and wheezing on her stomach, where a pair of black hooves was already waiting for her. Tears formed in her eyes as she took a shaky breath and looked up, tremors rattling her entire body. She was met with a row of pointed teeth lunging straight for her.
Luna woke with a bloodcurdling scream resonating through the quiet air.
Cold beads of sweat dotted her body from head to tail. Her ragged breathing gradually subsided as she looked around at the familiar scene of her bedroom. She held the covers of her bed tight around herself until her eyes finally adjusted to the black room. Lingering images of her dream still sent tiny tremors through her every once in a while until she finally rolled herself out of bed.
Her hooves hit the ground with an unexpectedly loud clop that was sent bellowing throughout the entire castle. She paused momentarily and listened for any shifting. It was still silent.
With careful hoofsteps, Luna indifferently traversed the many dark corridors that lead out to the balcony. She needed someplace she could sit out at and be alone with her night right now. As she approached, though, she could feel a light breeze rolling past her from behind. It sent a shiver down her spine despite how common it was that there was a draft through the long corridors. She took a quick glance back if just to dispel the thoughts of her nightmare that raced through her mind.
It suddenly occurred to her that none of the guards were patrolling their usual routes. Normally the echoes of their hoofsteps would sound endlessly into every corner until the entire castle was filled with their metronomic patrol. The royal palace had never been this quiet before.
The wind continued to waft past her, suddenly taking on a more chilling aspect. With an empowering breath the princess of the night changed her course to lead her to the doorway on her right. Deep shadows fell across the yellow crest of the sun, obscuring it almost completely.
Luna pushed the gigantic chamber gates open slowly before peaking inside. The room was uncharacteristically dark as she squinted at the black mass in the middle of the bed. A cold gust from behind suddenly whistled through the crack in the doors, nearly tearing them away from her.
Squeezing through the narrow entrance, she managed to close the chamber off from the wind with a distinctive click.
The room she turned to was even darker than she could have imagined. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the black as she slowly made her way over to the bedside. She could still hear the wind howling through the castle from just outside. The air weighed down on her profoundly until she stopped just short of the bedside. Her hair raised on end as she delicately called out.
“’Tia?” she whispered.
“…”
“’Tia?”
“…”
Finally Luna approached her sister’s bed and laid a tentative hoof on the covers.
“’Tia?”
“…”
Nothing moved as she slowly slid the covers back.
“’Tia?” she called again pulling the covers completely off. The blanket fluttered through the air until coming to rest at the foot of the bed where Luna stood paralyzed. It was unnervingly silent again as she stared down at the empty mattress.
Her eyes still hadn’t completely gotten used to the dark but she could be sure that her sister wasn’t there. There wasn’t even a lump in the mattress where the princess of the sun would’ve slept. The unsteady feeling she had sensed in her dream surrounded her again. She didn’t feel safe.
Just then a heavy downpour of rain abruptly battered the roof, startling the young princess. But even after she had regained her bearings the unsettling feeling remained. Her slow breathing broke through the silence of the room, her heart quickening in her chest. An ethereal breeze whispered past her, stirring her limp mane until the haunting feeling was too much.
Luna dashed across her sister’s bedroom. The instant she moved she could feel something in the room with her. It maliciously snapped at her heels with every step until she got to the doors and threw herself against them with all of her might. She was immediately thrust out into the corridor where the only thought that ran through her mind was that she had to get the gates closed again before something got out.
Her hooves scratched against the cold marble floors of the palace as she doubled back and slammed her shoulder against the emblem of the sun. Sweat poured from her shaking body as she struggled to close the massive doors. It was almost as if something was pushing back against her from the other side. Finally a tremendous boom echoed through the palace confirming that they had shut.
Luna collapsed against the doors with a hefty sigh of relief. Her heart still beat relentlessly in her chest and the beads of moisture that had accumulated on her grew cold with the bitter wind, but she felt safe. Not completely safe but safer. She looked around at the emptiness of the castle with her back still against the doors.
Maybe she was going insane. There probably wasn’t anything in her sister’s room. She was just losing her mind. It would make sense since she had just had a nightma…
Thud
The doors suddenly gave a violent jolt. Her eyes grew wide. Every muscle in her body tensed as she braced for another impact.
Seconds passed.
Her breathing came out in ragged flurries.
Minutes passed.
Her limbs shook with the extended effort of holding all of her might against the door.
Hours passed.
She finally began to relax. At this point she could rationalize that she had probably been spooked from nothing. It could have just been a gust of wind or something toppling over in her sister’s room.
Still, she was wary when pulling away from the door. She stared at the emblem of the sun intensely for several seconds before turning away. With a deep breath she made her way towards the empty balcony that beckoned to her from the end of the corridor.
A faint creaking came from behind her.
Luna stopped dead in her tracks. Just as she was about to turn around a flash of light blinded her followed by a violent boom shaking the stone walls of the palace. The deafening uproar caused her to cry out but she soon found that her scream was the only thing hanging in the air.
Lightning pierced the sky outside again and again trailed by the jarring booms of thunder which rattled the floor beneath her hooves. Hard rain plummeted to the earth with unrelenting fury, beating against the ceiling above until she was sure that the entire palace would come down. Yet something compelled her to get to the balcony regardless.
The torrents of wind escalated from an ominous moan to a shrieking howl that diluted her every sense as she drew closer. But the moment she stepped outside it died away. Suddenly it was peaceful and there was no sign that there had ever been a storm. The full moon hung in the air just above eye level, casting its warm glow across the land. It almost hurt her eyes after how dark it had been inside.
Luna couldn’t help but smile at how silly she must have acted. She shook her head back and forth in disbelief. She had never been so scared, even when she was a filly. And all because of one ridiculous nightma…
A glint of steel out of the corner of her eye turned her blood to ice. Terror gripped her as she stared at the silver helmet lying on the table next to her. Something was flickering across its surface. She squinted into its shadowy reflection to find the flicker slowly growing larger until finally taking form.
Her heart stopped.
The shape moved impossibly fast, clearing the length of the corridor with an ear-shattering screech. Luna didn’t even have time to react as the last thing she saw was the row of fangs from her nightmare mirrored through the glimmering surface of the helmet.
Clumps of white dust settled around from where she was lying. The tiny particles floated unnaturally in place before eventually hovering to the ground.
Luna stared off into the desolate landscape that stretched far into the distance. There were no signs of life. Anywhere. Ever.
It was a place that had never even seen life.
Deep shadowed craters of every conceivable size surrounded her. She was back on the moon. Everything that had just happened had been a dream. Did that mean that she never returned to Equestria? That she never came to be the horrific aspect known as Nightmare Moon? The Elements of Harmony had never stopped her?
The notion was perplexing. How much had actually happened?
Grains of silvery dust drifted from her mane as she slowly got to her hooves. A plethora of questions was relentlessly flooding her consciousness despite the situation she found herself in. Again.
All those years on the moon alone… did she just imagine them? Would she be forced to endure that time over again?
Her hooves soared gracefully over the uneven terrain while she lost herself in her thoughts. At least it was peaceful for once. The long black shadows cast from the larger calderas went out for miles and the cold they emanated rivaled that of any place in Equestria. But anywhere else on the moon was simply bearable.
The planet she had once known idled lazily out of the corner of her vision, its green and blue surface reflecting some of the sun’s rays up towards her. The warmth embodied her for a brief instant, gently comforting her, before she remembered who controlled its power.
The loathing she had felt for so long finally returned. It boiled up from the depths of her being and consumed her every thought until it was all she could think about.
Luna paused midstride across the floating rock she was imprisoned on. She had been cast out, banished. Her own sister had abandoned and dishonored her over a petty quarrel. She even stripped her of her rank and control over the night.
But she knew that there was nothing to grumble about. If her nightmares had taught her anything it was that nothing good would come from her exacting her revenge.
Then she saw it.
The irregular mound of dirt that bulged up above the rest was hidden almost entirely by the shadows of the nearby craters, but it wasn’t enough to fool the princess. She had spent far too much time on this deserted rock to not notice every little detail of her domain.
Even before she scraped the dirt away she knew what it was. A puff of white dust gathered in the air above her as she dug at the pile.
And there, looking straight back at her with glowing eyes, was the toothy grin of her nightmare reflected across its surface. Luna couldn’t help but smile.
Twilight Sparkle woke with a start, plunging the covers off of her bed to get to the window as fast as she could.
A heavy sigh of relief shook the quiet room.
Everything was normal. Equestria was safe and the dark figure of the Mare in the Moon still stared down at her.
What a strange nightmare.
And yet something was different about the moon tonight. There was a small silver glimmer where the eye of the mare was - it shown like a single tiny beacon from the darkness that surrounded it. The twinkle was nearly invisible across the bright white surface…
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
… Or maybe it was coming from the reflection in the window.
