Nightmare Night

To our dearest friend Twilight Sparkle.

Friend.

Even as we record the word, it doth seem barbarian, and flows not naturally from our pen; as if those six letters so arranged hath through long years of little use become an enigma to us, such that our very horn might falter upon the writing of them. And yet thou, dearest Twilight, did offer us thine friendship in earnest, both through thine words and through thine deeds.

It is, above all, those deeds of thine, humble though they may seem to thee, that shall endure most long in our memories. For mere words of friendship oft ring hollow; verily we hath heard such sweet eloquent flattery from those among the great and mighty, who would seek to be greater and mightier still, as they spoke whatever thing they felt would be pleasing to our ears, that they might court our patronage.

And through us, the patronage of our Royal Sister.

Such sweet tongues they have! And such lovely smiles, should one heed only their lips and not their eyes. As if we are but a yearling foal who hath not seen the like before!

Beware, beloved friend, those ponies who would look upon thee and see only the favor of thine teacher, and a fatter purse. It is their eyes that shall betray them. It was ever thus.

As we write, dearest Twilight, we recall thine own eyes, that looked upon us as we did lay before the visage of our most vile former self, basking in our despair. We recall the light of true friendship, without malice, guile or falsehood, that did shine there. It is a sight we hath not seen in a thousand years, and it was beautiful to us.

Do not think that we know not love, dear Twilight! Our Sister loves us, and always has. We know that now. Many have been her labours on our behalf since our return, both from our banishment and to our own true self.

Through her efforts, and through the efforts of our civil servants, the Night Court hath been restored. It shall be long years ‘til it regains its former glory, but now our labours to that effect shall soon begin, and we shall revel in the effort! We stand once again as the equal of our Royal Sister in the eyes of the law, a Princess in truth and not in mere title. With the aid of our learned tutors, we shall master the new laws our Sister and her Parliament hath passed in the long years of our absence. We shall once again take up our throne of midnight and ebony. It shall be glorious!

Rest assured that we shall send thee tidings of our Night Court as it becomes active once again.

Please understand, dear friend, that it is not through restored courts or great acts of law that our Sister best shows her affection for us. Were thou not in the crowd that had gathered before us upon our arrival? Then thou wilst hath looked upon our glorious Midnight Chariot! Well we recall its crafting to our own designs in our youth, and ever have we favored it. Our delight upon seeing it once again upon our return was beyond the power of our pen to record. We had thought it long lost.

Our Sister did keep it in good repair in our absence for a thousand years.

It is a little thing, a chariot. Do not the meekest of our subjects now have machines to aid them in there toils? Though our Midnight Chariot might be grander than a farmer’s wagon, beneath its facade it is much the same. Yet it is ours, and crafted to our singular tastes, and we value it greatly. We did not think our Sister would care for such a thing. We were quite pleased to be proven wrong.

It is the little things, my dearest Twilight, that we had truly missed, whilst we were lost. The love in our Sister’s eyes as we recount our nightly labours. The comfort of her embrace when we should meet one another by chance. Her company when we dine together, upon the breaking of our fast, at the time of our Sister’s evening repast.

It is though such things that our Sister truly shows her love for us.

Once, dear Twilight, we did not see this. Ever has our Sister loved us, but we have in past times been less faithful.

Before we became the most vile Nightmare, we lost sight of love and friendship. Ever did our Sister’s eyes shine with her love for us, but we were blind to it. Our right true friends did love us also, but we rejected them.

We became lost in bitterness and foul moods. Ever did we seek to twist the words and deeds of others, in our own mind, to the darkest interpretations. We imagined insult to us in everything our Sister and our subjects did. We thought our true friends false, and heeded not their council. We sought above all our own company, and the company of our black and circular thoughts.

They are forever lost to us, now, our old friends. Only now do we truly mourn them.

By the time of our final madness, when we called the Nightmare down upon ourself, our Sister and the world, we were a twisted, bitter and wretched creature.

For a thousand years we lay dormant within the Moon, whilst the loathsome Nightmare dreamt of conquest, glory and praise. What the Nightmare sought could only have led to ruin. In the prison of our own body, through the windows of our own eyes, we would have watched the world die.

Thou did save us, my most dear Twilight. Thou did save us, and returned us to our true self.

Thou who did save us, and thou, who saw us at our very worst, who might have true cause to hate and fear us, did look upon us with clear untainted eyes and offer us the hoof of friendship. Words are not adequate for the task of expressing our gratitude to thee, dearest Twilight.

We shall not spurn this most precious gift. We shall mourn and honor our old friends, not through self pity, but through the making of new friends. True friends, with whom we shall love and laugh and live.

We have seen thine own true friends, dear Twilight. We do not forget our debt to them. It is our hope that, in good time, they shall be among those who are and have been our true friends, also.

The night grows old, and we have tarried overlong. It is our hope, dearest Twilight, that this shall be the first of many correspondences between us.

Yours with sincere faith and love,

Princess Luna

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Comments ( 18 )

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Themaskedferret

Themaskedferret #1 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 1 · ·

Hurray you wrote!

Jordan179

Jordan179 #2 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 2 · ·

I really liked this. I think you're spot-on regarding Luna exaggerating the degree of her loneliness before becoming Nightmare Moon, because she was already going crazy.

Realistically, while Luna almost certainly was less popular than Celestia (she's less charismatic and in particular less socially-adept in civilian situations), it's improbable that nopony liked her. She was still rich, powerful both magically and politically, and beautiful. Her friends may well have tended to be slightly odd Ponies (in the SWSV both Snowdrop and Ruby are certainly unusual) but they would also have tended to be of superior quality to most Ponies, and probably quite loyal to her.

Luna makes a good point to Twilight though about the danger of being exploited by false friends, though. When one is rich and powerful and beautiful, there are plenty of Ponies who would pretend to genuinely like one who might only be thinking in terms of favors to be gotten to their own advantage.

Twilight Sparkle would have encountered this to a limited extent simply by being a favorite of Celestia; I'm guessing she encounters it more after she becomes an Alicorn Princess (which at the point of time of your first letter hasn't happened yet, but Luna may know might happen). Twilight is lucky that she already has friends who cared about her before then, whom she knows aren't just sucking up to her because she's now a Princess.

That last point may have been one reason, beyond the need to attune the Elements, why Celestia encouraged Twilight to make friends -- and had her remain in Ponyville. Celestia may have been hoping, even then, that Twilight would Ascend -- and known that when this happened Twilight would be very lonely without true friends.

Celestia, after all, has been dealing with the same problem, personally, for a very long time herself.

A British Gentleman

A British Gentleman #3 · Mar 25th, 2017 · · ·

8049283

I'm glad you enjoyed it. There's going to be quite a few more letters coming, covering key episodes.

You may rest assured that Magical Mystery Cure is among them.

You're basically spot on about Luna: she had friends, and quite a few of them, but she deliberately isolated herself from them as she became increasing paranoid. She now badly regrets that she never got to say goodbye to them.

8049142

This was actually written a while ago. It's just taken ages to pass moderation. I hope you enjoyed it

Aliucon

Aliucon #4 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 1 · ·

It's great. Luna organically transitions from one subject and retains her character so genuine that it makes it delightful and easy to read. Even amidst ye olde speech and structure, it's quite nice to follow and it holds true to what would certainly be expected of Luna. The apparent need to offer some substantial advice or something in spite of Twilight certainly accepting the letter from a friend regardless was a nice touch too: I'd have been thoughtful of Luna to try and offer something helpful in a letter without the concept of it being uneeded for a friendly correspondent. So great job there.

And I dunno, the smaller details in this are great, it just makes the whole pretty fun and casual, even when the tone is serious at times.

Keep up the good work~

Carabas

Carabas #5 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 1 · ·

Ooh, this is a nice piece of work. Luna's own narrative voice comes across strong, and the wee insights it offers into others and the world around her - such as Celestia maintaining her chariot for a millenium - are lovely.

Looking forward to many correspondences of this sort.

A British Gentleman

A British Gentleman #6 · Mar 25th, 2017 · · ·

8049603

I'm pleased you enjoyed it, and thanks for the follow

A British Gentleman

A British Gentleman #7 · Mar 25th, 2017 · · ·

8049475

Thanks a lot for the compliments and the analysis. I'm glad that you enjoyed it

FanOfMostEverything

FanOfMostEverything #8 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 1 · ·

A touching and sincere start to what will hopefully be a very happy chain of correspondence. I look forward to seeing more of its links.

TheLastBrunnenG

TheLastBrunnenG #9 · Mar 25th, 2017 · 1 · ·

Quite lovely, and believable throughout. Can't wait to see more!

Do please add this to a few groups; most, like the TwiLuna group, have a folder for platonic or friendshipping. And consider adding a Twilight tag. She's almost a character here by mention.

A British Gentleman