"My Queen, the scouts have returned from their search," the royal messenger declared, bowing low in front of the steps leading up to the thrones and spreading his wings out downward until they touched the floor to give extra emphasis to his sign of submission.
Nightmare Moon peered down at him from the larger of the two thrones, situated in the center of the platform - directly underneath her new banner.
Two steps down from the large throne was a simpler one set off to the left of the first, and it was occupied by Celestia, formerly a princess and now the loyal advisor to the Queen.
The messenger stood four more steps below on the main floor, one step next to the long blue carpet set between the room's main entrance and thrones.
The Queen turned her head to set her right eye upon him, and the stallion visibly relaxed, folding his wings back to his sides again and straightening himself in the same motion.
"Pray tell; Have they found the missing Elements this time?" Nightmare Moon pried calmly.
After her attempted coup on Equestria's throne, the Elements of Harmony had been sent flying in random directions at such speed that just three had been found;
The Element of Kindness, now Nightmare Moon's right eye.
The Element of Loyalty, deeply embedded in Celestia's body.
The Element of Generosity, found in a stack of damaged clothing in Celestia's dresser - and now closely guarded in the palace vault.
Nightmare Moon had immediately tasked a group of scouts to find the missing three as soon as she had taken the throne; the Elements of Honesty, Laughter, and Magic respectively. It had been weeks already, but they had so far avoided the eyes of all her scouts.
The most promising reports had been "the sight of a three-tailed comet flying off to the East".
The royal messenger scraped his throat, then shook his head slowly. "I am sorry to tell you, my Queen; your scouts have travelled as far as Griffonstone but returned with nothing but rumours. There is no sight of them anywhere."
Nightmare Moon closed her eyes with a sigh, then opened just her left one. There was a visible shift in the messenger's stance; a sudden rigidity and an involuntary twitch of an ear.
"Send them out farther still. None of them rest until they are found," the Queen decided sternly, and her advisor shifted on her seat.
Celestia looked back over her right shoulder with a difficult look on her face. "Sister, they are not going to fly faster if you don't let them get their rest."
"How else are we to find the remaining gemstones, 'sister'?" Nightmare Moon bit back sharply. "We have been searching for them for weeks now. Weeks of waiting for your dayponies to return to us with useless rumours or lack of any news."
Celestia reached up to her chest. "If I were carrying the Element of Honesty within me, my advice would be the same; let them rest, send out a different group if that would please you, but you can't expect them to return from these far places and go forth immediately after. They would not last."
There came a sigh from the larger throne above her, and Nightmare Moon opened both eyes, taking in the look on her sister-advisor's face.
"No, you're right," she agreed after a moment of contemplation. "We should give them time to rest and be with their family."
She shifted on her throne, then stepped down off it. "Let them know they are relieved of duty for a few days; we will send them out in groups of four starting next week; two of my sister's dayponies, and two of my nightguard."
"Four?" Celestia inquired as Nightmare Moon passed her by, getting up from her own throne to follow a step behind.
"They are to fly as far as they can and make camp and remain there for a day and night; the dayponies can search during the day, while my nightguard will take turn in the night," Nightmare Moon explained while stepping on the lush blue carpet on the main floor of the room.
The messenger had taken a step or two back as the Queen and her advisor came down toward him, but gave a quick nod to indicate he had been taking notes. "How many groups will be sent out, my Queen?" he asked, eager to get the order to leave the room what with her left side still turned to him.
"Six groups; two for each missing stone," the blue Alicorn decided. "Tell captain Merryweather to preselect the best of her dayponies and I will send her the best of my children."
"Yes, my Queen," the messenger stated, then all-but bolted to the exit.
Nightmare Moon watched him go in the curious dual way she was watching the world now, then turned her head to look back at her sister. "On the one hoof I am amused that he was scared, on the other I am worried I may scare him too much..."
Celestia smiled back weakly at that. "But you appear to be less bothered by it now, than you were in the first days of your reign, sister."
"I am getting used to the duality present on my face," the Queen admitted to her advisor, "and how to use it on others. It still does not mean I am enjoying the feelings this stone brings me. Walk with me."
The blue one set off through the hallways of the palace proper, her white sister sticking to her left side as if glued there. Reconstruction of the damaged parts had been finished recently, and the smell of fresh paint still hung heavy in the air, tickling their nostrils.
Nightmare Moon set her eyes on each new statue erected in the alcoves, the freshly made banners that proudly proclaimed her control over Equestria, displays of stars and moon in the night's sky.
"You remember what I said when we fought; I would bring night eternal," the Queen mused, walking in the direction of the courtyard.
"I remember, yes," Celestia spoke timidly.
"Since I took control, you have kept me from enforcing this, instead begging me for a shorter day and longer night, but to keep the duality already in place," Nightmare Moon continued.
"Hmm-mm," the other hummed in agreement.
"Already we are getting reports from farmers who claim their fields are responding to the change in light; plants responding as if they are preparing for winter while we had summer only a short while ago," the blue Alicorn mare sighed.
"The plants are used to a certain measure of light each day to calculate the seasons passing," Celestia knew.
"I intend to have our court mages work on a spell to allow these plants to draw their light from my moon, rather than your sun," Nightmare Moon decided, studying Celestia's response with her left eye.
Celestia lowered her ears slightly and slowed her pace. "You could do so, but perhaps it would be better to study how it may affect the plants in question on a small scale before forcing this change upon the rest of our young nation?"
"My nation, you mean?" Nightmare Moon pressed, narrowing her eyes at her sister.
"Forgive me," Celestia mumbled, lowering her head further to the ground.
"I can't question your loyalty, but I seriously doubt your ability to talk straight with me, Celestia," the Queen stated. "I have caught the palace staff running errands I certainly had not given them, answers to received letters sent out before I have had a chance to see them, and you constantly advice me to do things different from how I want to do them."
"I am used to governing this nation together with you," the white former-princess spoke in her defence. "It is a hard habit to kick, but I am only doing what I think would benefit your nation and the way your subjects view you. On this most recent subject of plant life; the little ponies will rebel if the local plantlife gets altered overnight or they are left with mutated crops."
"Were I not cursed with this obnoxious pink eye, I might have a simple solution for that sort of thing," Nightmare Moon mused, but then stopped and waited for Celestia to take to her side properly so they could look each other in the eye. "This gemstone makes me actually, genuinely, care about my subjects."
"Maybe you always have, Luna?" Celestia tried, but Nightmare Moon snorted immediately after hearing the name.
"Luna died," she called out harshly, turning to face Celestia fully. "Learn my name already!"
The other sister quickly backed away at the ferocity of the words thrown at her, lowering her head down fully and letting a lone tear slip from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Nightmare Moon..."
"Now look at what you made me do," Nightmare Moon muttered, feeling that weird pain in her heart again. "Come on, raise that head of yours again, sister. We are simply at a new page in our lives. There is no need to be sad; I am stronger than 'Luna' ever was before. We can only lead this nation into a glorious golden age under my rule and your guidance!"
Celestia first wiped the tear from her cheek before doing as she was told and looking her dark sister in the eyes again. "If you say so, sister."
Emboldened by her own words, Nightmare Moon returned on her path to the courtyard with a wicked grin on her face. "Of course! I will bring them a night to remember, in small steps as you suggested. They will come to love me and serve me as faithfully as you do."
Celestia was slow to follow, but then fell back in line again beside the Queen. A thoughtful look was plastered on her face and remained there even as they stepped out into the courtyard.
Above the palace, an odd twilight had taken hold of the sky. Nightmare Moon had decided that her moon should always be present straight above the palace, and let Celestia's sun pass by it once a day on its path from East to West. At the moment, the sun was just disappearing behind the moon, and a blanket of darkness swept across the lands.
Nightmare Moon looked out over the world, in so far as it was visible from the courtyard, and motioned up with a quick motion of her head. "Stop the sun's motion as soon as it's fully behind my moon," she demanded calmly, not looking back at Celestia for it.
A bright light started from Celestia's horn, but then the eclipse hit its totality and Celestia doused her magic again. "It is done."
Without the light of the sun illuminating the lands, the stars above started to come out; a myriad of tiny pinpricks in the blanket of the deepest, darkest night's sky that could exist above the land of Equestria.
Nightmare Moon took a deep breath, then stepped out fully onto the grass lining the courtyard from wall to wall. "It calms me down to see my stars," she spoke to none in particular, even if her sister was still following. "I often wonder why you left such beauty out of the day's sky and instead went for one singular light source, Celestia."
"It is what's needed," Celestia mumbled softly, clearly disheartened by the darkness surrounding them.
"Not if the mages get their spells right," the Queen chuckled with glee. "Soon enough there will be plants aplenty which thrive in my precious night, and your sun's rays will be entirely useless."
"Can I set it back in motion now it still has a task to fulfill, sister?" the other sister queried.
"What if I just said no, and let this become the new standard?" Nightmare Moon asked in return. "How long would it be before the plantlife would mutate on its own? How much damage would it really do? What's the worst that could happen?"
"I dread to think of such," the white Alicorn returned, shivering from the thought.
Nightmare Moon caught the shiver and smirked, that annoying feeling in her heart rising again. "Okay, send that sun of yours back down the Western sky so you don't catch a cold already," she huffed. "I'll need to get the royal tailors to make you some nighttime coat so you won't freeze to death while trying to advise me."
Celestia made light work of breaking the eclipse, her sun quickly reappearing from behind the moon and illuminating the world again as it had done so often before, but may only do for such a limited time yet to come.
"Or," Nightmare Moon mused, spotting a few of the ponies she had personally changed with her magic, "I could turn you into one of mine... and you would come to love the night as I do."
Celestia winced, and took a few steps back from her sister. "I really don't think that that would be the best course of action to take, Nightmare Moon."
The Queen turned to face her advisor, and raised an eyebrow. "Please don't be alarmed, sister; you will like it. I promise you it would be for the better. Look, I'll even turn my kind eye to you so you know I mean well," she spoke, turning her head a little so she was looking out of her right eye at her sister.
"If it's all the same to you, my Queen," Celestia started, taking another step back, "I really think I could serve you better as I am now."
Nightmare Moon watched the, to her pink gemstone-eye, pink mare retreat in a clear display of fear for the unknown, and the pain in her heart rose up to new heights. This time, however, she could sense why it rose... What exactly was behind it.
Here she was offering her sister a chance to join her, on the side of change, the side of the night, the side which would eventually rule Equestria whether it would be quick or slow. A chance to be as she was herself. And her sister was denying herself the pleasure of finding out just what would be like.
"Celestia, sister," Nightmare Moon started in the sweetest voice she could muster, and watched the other's ears flop down. "I promise you, this can only lead to better things. I would not hurt you, you can trust the Element of Kindness, can't you?"
"I would rather have you hold the Element of Honesty and say these things," Celestia threw back weakly.
"If my scouts would have found it already, I would have granted you that request," Nightmare Moon spoke in all honesty. "For once, if there's any chance you may still see me as your sister, I am asking you to trust me."
Celestia perked up at that and stared straight into her sister's oddly mismatched eyes.
"I have not once asked you to, have I? Since we started fighting, while we were rebuilding my kingdom, while you sat with me to give me advice?" Nightmare Moon realized.
Celestia closed her eyes with a deep sigh. "I think a lack of trust between us is where this whole thing started spinning out of control in the first place."
Nightmare Moon sat herself down in front of Celestia and held out her right forehoof. "For once, if I don't ask anything else of you; I am asking you to trust me on this. Let me bring you to our side; show you how we experience the night."
Celestia swallowed strongly, but then gave a hesitant nod and reached her own hoof out to touch Nightmare Moon's. "I'm with you to the end, sister... I agree."