Apparently, for a hunk of rock in the middle of space, there were seasons on the moon. I had practiced my teleportation while Nightmare Moon ravaged my mind with her powers, simulating the pure chaos of battle, preparing me for what was definitely to come. I collapsed, in pain, as Nightmare Moon stood over me. This was the third time today I had collapsed, usually our stopping point. But something seemed different about her today.

"Again," was all she said.

I, rather ungraciously, took to my hooves, staggering back to our starting position. I stood there, gasping for breath, as I waited for her to make the first move, as she always did. This ingrained in me a sense of self-defense and provocation, allowing me to fight my best despite the peaceful nature of all ponies. I stared at the black mare, watching for any slight movement or magic.

I was rewarded by a twitch. She was feinting. She charged at me, then flashed behind me, but I was ready for this, and bucked with all my strength, which I was able to build up even without the normal gravity. I felt the impact of lunar steel on steel, the weapons clanging against her armor. Against any other pony, however, the shockwaves from the power stored within would've staggered them, if not put them to the ground. We had to be ready, because we didn't know what to expect when we made our return.

And that day was not far off. Every day, we timed the sun as it stayed in the upper half of the planet's view. It would be Summer Sun Celebration in three days. As soon as we had finished moving stars, we had begun this training.

Before the shockwave had dissipated, I was already moving, turning to face her as I swiftly jabbed her in the chest. Any other pony would have their head there, so it was effective training. I knew, no matter how hard I trained, I wouldn't be ready to face down Celestia. It had only been a week, so the memories were fresh in my mind.

"I know you would like nothing more than to attack Celestia herself, but you could never be ready. An alicorn far surpasses any unicorn in magical prowess. If I put you against her, it would be a bloodbath, and that I could not allow," she had told me one "night."

Being on the moon, there was no true change in light or anything to mark the passage of time, so we had adapted it so our internal clocks marked day and night for us. I snuggled into her, feeling freedom of mind I hadn't felt before. It was exhilarating for me.

It was as if the moon was the opposite side of the world from Equestria, as the longer their days became, and thus the longer into summer, the colder our world became. It became increasingly difficult to channel magic, and multiple times I had awoken curled up and shivering underneath Nightmare Moon's wing, with her gentle eyes upon me as I had slept.

One such occasion brooked a conversation between us, as I sat under the warm blanket of her wing.

"Twilight, you have done well so far, preparing yourself mind, body, and soul to fight and champion my cause," she had said, a smile on her face.

"I would do anything to further your cause. Your beautiful night should be experienced by all, for all time." I had grown used to the way I spoke of the night, and thus did not cringe at my own words anymore.

Suddenly, she seemed about to speak again, but instead chose not to, and simply tucked me further under her wing as the warmth lulled me back to sleep.

However, even with the warmth and all, my dreams chilled me to the bone. So I worked tirelessly until I collapsed most times, drifting into dreamless sleep happily. It beat reliving the scene in my room over and over again. I got more rejuvenated in that dreamless void of sleep than when I had those terrible dreams.

In my heart, I felt what was going on. Nightmare Moon helped, but couldn't possibly fill the void ripped through my soul by her. One day, in the middle of practice, I lost control of my magic and ripped a huge chunk of dirt off the surface. It wasn't for more than a couple instants, but Nightmare Moon's look that day filled me with dread.

It was a look of terrible understanding.

The next day, one that would be our last full day alone, I woke up without her wing over me, and realized my heart rate was slowed from the chill. We were in the depths of winter, and without any cover I had almost died of cold. It was a careless mistake by Nightmare Moon, and I stood shivering and chattering as I channeled magic all through my body, raising my heart rate and warming my muscles from the constricting embrace they had been thrown into.

I walked around for a bit, searching, and found her at the area we always used for moving stars. She had a radiant smile on her face, and I couldn't help smiling as well, though I didn't know what was going on. Not yet.

She turned to me as I approached, jumping and effortlessly gliding all the way to me.

"Twilight Sparkle, this eve is the eve of battle," was all she said.

I was positively giddy, knowing exactly what she meant. Tomorrow, we would walk Equestria once more. I nuzzled her chest, as we had gotten very close over this time together, and she embraced me with her wings, gently caressing my mane and sides. I giggled, as her wings were tickling me, and we turned to stare at the world above.

__________________________

I woke up, yesterday's events flashing instantly to my mind. After we stared at the world for a while, we had cast sleep spells on each other and drifted away, with me curled on top of her. It was interesting how necessity turned to desire in such a short time. The desire I had to be close to her could not be explained, but her touch, her presence, helped ease the pain of my memories, and chased away the nightmares of my sleep.

As I looked up, I noticed the stars aligning above my head, and knew time was short. I donned my armor, a chestplate, full helmet with visor for sight, a flank guard, and legplates, all forged from the same lunar steel of my weapons. Nightmare Moon had been up here so long, she had explored the dirt itself for something to do and had found a wealth of metal, which was, of course, this lunar steel we were using. As I snapped on the buckhammers onto my rear hooves, I smiled, admiring the beauty of the craftsponyship. It looked stunning on me, and I admired my reflection in a nearby lake. However, there were still a couple things missing. The sheathes on my flank guard were empty, and I quickly rectified that with the two swords leaned against a nearby rock. That done, I snapped on the magic dampeners on my forehooves. It was way more effective than any shield, but also prevented me from tapping my own full potential. I could channel enough magic through my horn to levitate things or teleport, but not much more than that. That was why I hadn't been working on offensive magic, even though Nightmare Moon should know plenty by now.

"You look...um, like a warrior, Twilight," came an unexpected appraisal.

I looked up, and there she was, on the other side of the water was Nightmare Moon herself, in similar gear, but without the dampening gauntlets on her forehooves, opting instead for pegasi hoofblade gauntlets, meant for air to ground strikes. Of course, being an alicorn, she could definitely do that. She also had wingblades on her leading edges, which would allow air-to-air attacks, in the unlikely event any pegasi fliers stood against them. It was time, I could tell from the ecstatic look in her eyes.

"Thank you, princess. You look like a queen of war, yourself," I said, the comment flowing freely from my lips. I meant every word.

Hell, the armor looked good on me, it looked amazing on the disgraced alicorn. It brought a smile to my lips, imagining Celly even attempting to match her in any way. Above our heads, the stars shifted the final inches...

Author's Note

The amount of thought I put into the armor was astonishing. I looked at and discarded multiple ideas per minute, and settled for this rather basic, yet detailed, ensemble. Ah, I'm starting to sound like Rarity now. derp.

anyway, comments welcome ^-^ I enjoy hearing what everypony thinks of my stories as I write.