Coming To Terms With The Monster Within

The clock read 10:43PM as Luna’s aching stomach awoke her. Nightmare Moon was nowhere to be seen in the bedroom, much to Luna’s delight. The princess sorted through the memories of the night prior and unceremoniously roll out of bed with a groan. Sure enough, there was a plate of tepid food on her desk, as well as a note.

“Dearest sister, I had a chat with one of the royal psychologists and he believes that he knows how to expunge Nightmare Moon once, and forever. He and I will talk more tomorrow after he does some analyzations of what I told him.
~ Love, Celestia”

Breakfast was scarfed down in a very un-princessly manner. Upon finishing, Luna shouted, “Nightmare?” Silence. “Good.” The princess of the night turned to see a large stack of books that she had made a small dent in throughout the last two days. Her eyes burned at the thought of reading any more. Being forced to focus down at the ancient ink for hours at a time was rather painful. However, the easel in the corner of her room seemed to call to her, begging to be used after being neglected for so long as if it was silently beckoning for Luna’s attention.

Luna had always found that using her hooves rather than her mouth or magic to paint was easier and much more rewarding. Putting physical effort into something, as opposed to magical effort, always seemed to give a greater sense of gratification and fulfillment when Luna saw the finished product: a beautiful painting. Many ponies had offered her large sums of money, well into the hundreds of thousands of bits, yet Luna never let them convince her to sell any of her paintings. They were like a part of her, meant to always be together as one collection. The walls of her room were scattered with the various framed images, all of which had Luna held close to her heart. When the Elements of Harmony took away her memories, all of the paintings had miraculously managed to stay in her mind’s eye, perfect and unscathed.

Luna trotted about her room, searching for something to tie her mane up with. It always managed to get in the way whenever she felt adventurous enough to paint. She located a small black scrunchie and tied her mane into a short ponytail behind her head. After covering the palette in many small piles of various colored acrylic paints, Luna grasped the appropriate brush in her hoof and carefully dabbed it into the wooden palette, which she had firmly held with her wing. The brush glided across the blank canvas, the process repeating as colors were exchanged and skillfully mixed from one to another.

Lunch and dinner were eaten with haste while working; Luna didn’t even notice the lack of a slice of cake. As time passed, the image on the canvas became clear from the foggy, undeveloped picture Luna held in her mind. The cobalt princess brought the brush down to a bright red pile on the palette and she carefully dipped it onto the canvas, where the yellow and orange colors of her sister’s Sun came together.

“Luna! Are you done yet?” The temporarily retired regent of the moon let out a shriek and instinctively brought her hoof down. In doing so, a bright red dash was marked diagonally across the canvas. Nightmare Moon watched in stunned awe as Luna turned from the ruined painting and dropped both the brush and palette to the floor, leaving many large splattered paint smears. The jet-black mare defensively brought her hooves up to protect herself as Luna tackled the dark blur to the floor. The two ponies landed to the ground with an “Oof” from the larger mare as she attempted to free herself from the princess’ hold. Luna’s azure hooves were placed across all four of Nightmare Moon’s limbs, splaying her out across the floor.

“By the Gods, I swear I will end you! Right here and right –” The princess was cut short when Nightmare Moon arched her neck to place a quick kiss on her unprepared lips. Luna’s face turned bright crimson in a blush as the taste of cake and Nightmare Moon graced her. She pulled backwards, sitting upright on her haunches with her hooves covering her face.
Nightmare extended her hoof towards the cobalt blue mare. “Luna, I –“
“Shut up. You are not sorry.”

A crease formed between Nightmare’s brows as she pulled her hoof back. The look on her face appeared as if she had just been slapped. “But I just wanted –“

“I said, ‘shut up’!”

Luna felt rage and confusion battle inside her mind, each emotion fighting for dominance.
In the end, confusion was the victor. Her eye twitched as she looked to the large, formidable mare standing before her. She had her hooves crossed, covering her face. For the first time in her existence, she truly looked vulnerable. Why would she kiss me?

“Damn it, Luna, because I love you. I just wanted you to calm down. I didn’t mean to… I thought that you remembered.” Nightmare responded, her lips quivering as she hesitantly replied.

“I do – I know.” She sighed. “I remember.”

Luna stood up and walked away from the emotionally destroyed mare and closed the door to her room shut with a slam. She collapsed in her bed and closed her eyes while trying her best to sort through her thoughts, which proved to be next to impossible, nor did she care if Nightmare could hear them. The ruined painting sat in the corner of her room, a reminder of what Nightmare had just confessed, or rather reminded Luna of her millennia old confession. The princess turned the painting around to face the wall so that she could not see the destroyed image.

It wasn’t like she was anywhere near finished with the piece, but regardless, all of that hard work in vain made her head pulse and ache. The clock read 4:47AM, and Luna didn’t feel very inspired to start another painting, or even attempt to fix the effectively destroyed one. Solace was sought from a short novella, though barely any was received. It is rather difficult to focus when you’ve been reminded after a millennia that your imaginary would-be friend loves you. At least Nightmare was leaving her alone. She’s probably sulking around in the parlor, Luna thought.

Luna took a quick, uneventful shower before returning to her room, using the solitary time to do think about the very rapid turn of events. Deciding that she had been rather harsh, Luna decided she would do her best to somehow reconcile with Nightmare.

When she opened the ornate door to her quarters, the princess was greeted with the sight of Nightmare Moon lying on her back while quietly snoring, hooves slightly twitching. A tiny puddle of drool was pooling up next to her head, forming a dark spot on the soft blanket. Luna rolled her eyes while she felt her lips curl upwards in a smile. “C’mon, move over.” Nightmare let out a groan when Luna jabbed the corner of her hoof into her belly. At that, she finally rolled over, leaving just barely enough room for Luna to squeeze onto the large bed.

“Good morning,” Luna hesitated. “Moony.” Luna spoke her old nickname for Nightmare Moon, one she hadn’t said in well over a millennia, for she had long since refused to answer to it.
As she grasped the thick sheet at her hooves, Nightmare brought her forearm around Luna’s midsection and whispered,

“Good morning, Lulu.”