"Despite all I have told you," I stated softly, gently, "because I look like Nightmare Moon, you have treated me as Nightmare Moon." With an unarmored dark hoof, I gestured about myself to the thick, heavily warded cell surrounding me. "I... I don't even know who Nightmare Moon is!" I cried. "My name is David - I work as a volunteer at a Recycling Center, I fix computers, I fix things - but none of you believe me. All you see is Nightmare Moon. Tell me this, then: why would I ever want to bring about Eternal Night? If I did that, everything - the whole world - would eventually die. Why the fuck would I want to do that?! I don't know you ponies from anyone, despite your claims to the contrary, I really don't know you!
You ponies just... want me to play the Villain; you want me to be the bogeyman that you can destroy so you can get on with your peaceful little lives! Well, I won't do it! I won't! To HELL with all of you!" Those would be the last words they would ever hear from me.
Despite the powerful wards in the Cell, I sloppily, messily, channeled the ... whatever - I refused to call it magic - ... that was inside me, into my horn. I wanted out. I wanted safe. I wanted to be somewhere the ponies didn't go. Somewhere they would never find me. 'Please, please, please...' I chanted internally. I prayed. I hoped. I wished! Then....
"BOOOOOM!"
... with that tremendous, thunderous blast, the magic took me away, blowing away the wards, and the cell as it did so! By the time Celestia, Luna, and Twilight uncovered themselves and dropped their shielding it was too late; I was gone. All three princesses were utterly furious! "NO!" thundered Luna. "SHE WILL NOT GET AWAY! WE SHALT FIND HER!" And so it was that a marehunt was organized--but I was unaware of this. Instead, I found myself, for the first time, safe, laying atop a large - but quite filthy and rotten - four poster bed. However, anything was better than my previous situation. Groaning softly, I passed out, utterly exhausted.
Three days later, after waking with the splitting mother of all headaches... I did nothing, choosing to rest until it passed. On the morning of the fourth day, gingerly, I got to my hooves and explored my surroundings. I was in a castle. An honest-to-god castle. It was abandoned, and filthy, it had fallen into disrepair... but it was mine. All mine! Within I found the library, and - as the years passed - that place would become my best friend. From the books therein - preserved with spells that still held strong after all this time - I learned survival techniques. I learned how to channel and control my immense magic. Most important of all, however, I learned spells of construction and repair.
If this place was to become my home I would see it restored. Disarming the traps built by the sisters when the had been theirs, patching holes, repairing and in some cases renovating and redoing entire sections to my design, I laughed happily before beginning to hum a certain song...
The marehunt was called off, of course; reduced to a token task force, neither the nobles nor the Royal Treasury willing to foot the bill anymore. Despite the constant fretting and worries of Celestia and Luna, the Pony whom they now realized hadn't been Nightmare Moon at all... hadn't really done anything--at all. Oh, there was a thick miasma of chilling darkness covering the Everfree - and Luna had thought to go there- but then her thoughts had wandered elsewhere, courtesy of a powerful enchantment. Besides, the miasma of night only covered the Everfree, and nowhere else. Fluttershy fretted as daytime animals moved elsewhere and more nocturnal creatures called the forest home.
And at its heart...
My Castle, fully restored, was the central fixture of a now quite large village, which thestrals, changelings, blood mages, necromancers, dark-magic using ponies, and other so-called 'malcontents' (actually decent folk when you got to know them) called home. As I stood upon my balcony, surveying my village - in particular, a new construction project that was being built below - my beloved Queen Chrysalis approached, brushing gently against my healthy, wholly male form. As large as I was - her body and wings healthy, free of rot-holes - she chittered a soft greeting, then nuzzled me gently as I enfolded her 'neath a wing. "How's your hive settling in?" I asked her.
"Wonderfully," she answered softly, awed. "I... I never thought we could leave the Badlands; I... I never thought that I and my children would ever find a place where we could be openly accepted for who we are, I..." Closing our eyes, we pressed forehead to forehead, shared breath, kissed. "You're welcome," I responded. Food was grown in sophisticated hydro and aeroponics bays under artificial light, by members of all three tribes disgruntled at the sisters.' Bigotry was not tolerated; beings found doing such were swiftly named and shamed then it was either reparations to the affected party or community service. Changelings, of course, served as excellent mediators, spies, diplomats, ambassadors, miners; Chrysalis was surprised and delighted whenever we debated and discussed ideas. Of course, no city was perfect, but we all - myself, Chrysalis, and our advisory board - worked damn hard to keep it so.
I was content. And yet, I wondered.... for how long could we stay like this? How long until they - the sisters - intruded upon the world we had made. Only time could answer that.