Airy Carrier flew high above the ground, propelling himself forward with each flap of his wings. Below him he could only see the silver rolling landscape that were the clouds, reflecting the bright moon’s light. Frost had started to build up on his goggles, drastically narrowing his field of vision. Not wanting to put himself and Princess’s message at risk he decided it was a good idea to stop for a brief respite and clean them off.
He touched his hooves down on the clouds, feeling their powdery stability beneath his hooves always made him feel secure. Walking around a little bit, Airy spread his wings wide, stretching them after the long flight they had endured and preparing them for the longer flight that still lay ahead.
It was with a great sigh of relief and relaxation that Airy slid off his saddle bags and shook the icy dew out of his fur. Although he made it often, the flight from Canterlot to the Griffon’s capital city always exhausted him. It usually required him to take a respite about halfway through, and it wasn’t uncommon on night time trips for his goggles to freeze up like they had.
“Let’s see,” Airy started talking out loud to himself. “If I started while the moon was at a 35 degree angle compared to the constellation Starswirl, then it should be…” His voice trailed off as he squinted his eyes and looked closer at the moon. Then realizing he still was wearing the icy goggles, he reached up to his face with one hoof and ripped the flight goggles off.
“Well now then…” Started Airy again, “That can’t be right, not one bit!” His voice rose slightly as he continued talking to himself, however now he had added slapping his goggles with one hoof in order to remove the ice.
While Airy normally kept track of what time it was and how much further he had to go, he found that now it didn't seem like he could. The moon did not appear to have moved since he left. As a matter of fact, nothing in the night sky had seemed to have moved. Everything was in the exact same position, even the stars. It was then that he noticed something that made his blood run cold. He idly dropped his goggles, which were now ice free, to his feet. They made a little poof sound as they made contact with the cloud he was standing on, but Airy seemed not to notice.
Airy took a few steps forward towards the moon, mouth hanging open. His mind raced as he thought of reasonable explanations as to what his eyes were seeing. The Mare, the figure of the horse that lived in the moon for the entirety of Airy’s life, was gone. A few lone moon formations replaced it, but the moon looked naked without the equine figure patterned on it’s surface.
Airy’s mind raced from one scenario to another, and regardless of the means, every outcome looked bleak. Either the alleged Princess Luna, co-ruler of all of Equestria and sister of Princess Celestia was back and ready to rule the nighttime again. Or…
“Nightmare Moon…” Airy heard himself say out loud, his eyes darting from the pale faced moon to the satchel containing Princess Celestia’s letter that lay at his feet. He now realized how important his task was. No matter the costs, the Griffons needed to know that Nightmare Moon could potentially be back, they needed to ally with the ponies to help defeat this common enemy.
Airy grabbed his goggles, and with a sense of haste and urgency that he did not have before, snapped them to his face to cover his eyes. He blinked a few times to adjust his vision in the goggles and turned to grab his satchel containing Celestia’s letter to the Griffons.
However when Airy turned away from the blank faced moon to gather his belongings, it wasn’t his cloth satchel that caught his eyes. There was the dark figure standing next to his satchel, rifling through his belongings. As though it could hear his thoughts, the figure turned and stared at Airy with large, teal eyes. Although it was nearly pitch black above the clouds in the middle of the night, Airy could still see the creature’s mouth. It’s thin lips peeled back allowing the moon to glint off the sharp teeth, forming a sneering smile in the middle of the darkness.
The creature then started to move towards him. Each hoof fall seemed to take hours to make contact with the cloud as the creature’s cruel smile bore deeper and deeper into Airy’s mind. Then, suddenly as if the creature had been there all along, he felt it’s presence beside him. He turned his face to his right and saw the figure of Nightmare Moon, standing next to him, staring him in his eyes.
“That’s right…” The creature spoke as Airy felt hot tears escape his eyes and trickle down his face.
“I’m back…”