With the immediate danger of the transformed sun out of the way, with Swiftwing as her daypony ambassador and Contrail as his nightpony counterpart, and with a marriage celebration on the other side of the country to look forward to, Nightmare Moon retreated to the Royal bedchambers where her sister Darkstar was supposedly waiting for her.
A pair of Nightguards were placed on either side of the door leading in the room formerly belonging to Celestia, in which Darkstar had now taken residence as proper successor to her sister. The Queen approached them, her large form casting a shadow over them as she passed a lit lamp hung on the opposite wall, and gave a quick nod at the closed door.
"How has my sister been, Cloverleaf?" she asked of the Lunar Earthpony to her left.
The guard's tufted ears perked up and her slitted silver eyes turned to face Nightmare Moon from the shadow of her own dark coat. It was dark enough to be mistaken for the same black which her Queen wore, but with a blue sheen to it.
"She's having her third dinner of the night," the young mare answered in a surprisingly raspy voice.
"Tonsils still acting up?" the Queen asked, turning her right eye upon Cloverleaf.
The mare gave a silent nod back.
"It's been three days now," Nightmare Moon spoke in clear worry, then caught herself and waved her left wing in the direction from which she had just arrived. "I won't have sick guardsponies; go visit the Royal doctors about it. I've only just come from there myself, so I know they are still awake."
Cloverleaf's ears fell as her Queen stared her down, even if it was with her gemstone eye, but then she grudgingly dropped her gaze. "Yes, my Queen," her raspy voice sounded again, before she moved away from her spot and started off in the direction of the staircase leading down.
"While you're there, get the kitchen to send another dinner up," the Alicorn Queen called after her. "My sister may have tried to empty the cupboards while I was otherwise occupied, but I have not had a meal myself since breakfast."
She turned her attention upon the other guard to her right. "You don't have any health issues remaining from your transformation, do you?"
The Unicorn guard shook his head. "No, my Queen. If anything, I have been feeling far more energetic than before You gave me Your Gift."
"It is good to know I have at least one competent guard in my palace," Nightmare Moon chuckled. "I shall see my sister now."
She opened the door to her sister's chambers and entered the darkness beyond. Her sister had no lamps lit, and the only light that was present was the natural light shining in through the windows.
Closing the door behind her again, effectively blocking the light from the hallway lamp, and her eyes quickly adjusted to the lighting conditions in the room. The Queen soon spotted her sister lounging on a set of cushions on the floor, a number of emptied plates and platters stacked around her.
"I see you have made quick of your dinners, Darkstar," Nightmare Moon offered casually.
"The transformation left me with a larger appetite than I had imagined, sister," Darkstar responded, peering up with her slitted pink eyes.
"May I join you?" the Queen asked, motioning to an empty spot on the floor near her sister. "I have ordered for my own dinner to be brought here, but would like the chance to discuss some things with you while I eat."
"By all means, sister, but you will have to levitate some cushions over yourself if you wish to sit comfortably. I'm afraid I am still recovering my magic," Darkstar suggested with a nod to the alcove in her room where she usually lounged near the window.
Nightmare Moon pulled some cushions out of the alcove, arranged them on the floor, and let herself sink down ob top of them so she was facing her sister on the same eye height.
"You could have avoided draining yourself by first bringing your plans to change your sun up in conversation," she chided softly. "Your Queen could then have made an informed decision based on her advisor's suggestion, instead of having to run damage control after the careless acts from said advisor."
Darkstar blinked her eyes as the words hit her addled mind, but then her ears and head fell lower.
"Yes, you are right, of course," she responded timidly. "The rush from my transformation was still raging through me and I just wanted to solve this issue which had kept Celestia and yourself occupied since she gave up her throne to you, my Queen."
"You forgot your place there and made me look the fool," Nightmare Moon stated flatly.
"Such was, truly, not my intent. I just..." Darkstar stopped and let out a long sigh. "No, no excuses. I gave you my loyalty and acted hastily nonetheless. I'll do my best to keep from doing so in the future."
"I do value you as an advisor, sister," the dark Queen told her now almost equally dark sibling, "but that is what I need you to limit yourself to. It undercuts my authority to have my advisor make huge alterations to my realm without first seeking permission to."
"Like Celestia did before me, yes I see," Darkstar agreed. "I apologize, sister. It won't happen again."
"See that it does not, sister, or you may force me to actions the likes of which my right eye can't behold," Nightmare Moon added as a warning.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between the two dark Alicorn sisters, before Nightmare Moon broke a smile.
"With that out of the way; how are you feeling, Darkstar? You are only the second of us Alicorns to have undergone the process, and mine was a far different affair than your own," the Queen pointed out. "Some of my children came down with illnesses after their change, while others said they felt much better than before. How do you experience your change?"
Darkstar perked up at the question, her ears flicking back upright from where they had lain in their low position and turning to her sister. A wicked grin grew on her face as she leaned in a little conspiratorially. "What is this, sister? Genuine interest in another pony's well-being?"
"Blame it on the gemstone eye, if you will," Nightmare Moon snorted. "I simply wish to know whether I should call for the Royal Doctors or leave you to your own devices and trust you will be healthy enough to advise me anew come the morrow?"
The venom faded from her sister's grin, leaving just the playfulness Nightmare Moon knew from her sister Celestia. It was almost comforting to see it back on Darkstar's face now.
"Apart from having to get back to strength after both the transformation of myself and my sun, I do not feel any negative effects that I can identify as such," the sisterly advisor answered merrily. "I will sit with you as your advisor tomorrow as I have in the past weeks, my Queen."
"Not even from your new Cutiemark, sister?" the Queen had to pry, looking past Darkstar at the Element of Loyalty jutting out slightly from the other's hip as part of her Cutiemark.
Darkstar gave a glance back herself. "No, although there is a definite tug at the skin as I walk, which I will have to get used to. Celestia did not have that problem."
"Your transformation has been a unique event in our lives," Nightmare Moon decided. "If you learn more about the significance of it, do let me know."
Darkstar gave a slow nod at her sister, the Queen. "I will certainly do so, sister. The biggest change with regards to the Element of Loyalty from Celestia to me seems to be that I feel it pulsate with energy as my heart beats. It is more a part of me now than when I still wore Celestia's face."
"It does grow on me as well," the Queen murmured in reply, mentally feeling out her eye while peering through it at her sister.
"Hm, perhaps I have not made it clear enough," Darkstar pondered with a frown. "I mean to say I am bonded to it. It is an integral part of me now, where it was more of a foreign object which had latched on to Celestia's insides prior to my transformation."
"That's what I am saying, is it not?" asked Nightmare Moon, closing her left eye properly so she was staring just out of her gemstone eye.
"If I am forgiven for mentioning it, but you still seem to be bothered by the duality of vision between your regular eye and your Element of Kindness, sister," the other remarked calmly. "One moment you are as strong as when Celestia first laid her eyes upon you; unforgiving, pushing your own agenda no matter the cost. The next you are the kindest, most gentle ruler Equestria could ever have hoped to have govern it. There's no middle way with you."
The Queen closed her right gemstone eye as well and let out a sigh. "I can trust my advisor, my own sister, to keep things to herself, can't I?"
"Of course," was the quick reply.
"I don't feel I have had much of a..." Nightmare Moon started, but stopped as there was a knock on the door. "What is it?"
"Your dinner, my Queen," the strong baritone voice of one of the cooks came as a reply, and Nightmare Moon opened her eyes to look in the direction of the door.
"Bring it in, then," she huffed, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
The door opened to shine the bright lamplight from the hallway into both Alicorns' eyes, and the shadow of the burly Unicorn stallion standing in the doorway was etched on Nightmare Moon's retina while she blinked rapidly to get her eyes to focus again.
"On the note of 'things that may be caused by my transformation', sister," Darkstar started with a chuckle, "there is this nasty issue with light sensitivity with these new eyes of mine."
"A thousand apologies, princ... er, miss advisor, and my Queen," the cook stumbled, using his magic to quickly levitate a collection of covered plates into the room. "Er, where do you wish me to put these, my Queen?"
Nightmare Moon unfolded her right wing and used it to off-sidedly point at the floor next to her. "Just put it on the floor, and then make yourself scarce."
"Yes, my Queen," the cook responded hurriedly, placing the dinnerplates down on the ground as instructed, and then rushing out of the room again.
"Get the door, will you?" Darkstar called after him, only to watch one of the two Lunar Unicorn guards close it instead. "Thanks for that."
"Light sensitivity, yes," Nightmare Moon sighed, her slit pupil opening itself again to the darkness. "My gemstone eye does not have that issue; I can see better with it than I do with my own eye."
"That is what I was talking about, actually," the other commented dryly. "You keep seeing that stone as a foreign object and it will just make it that much more difficult to get used to."
The Queen peered over the dishes set next to her and lifted the cover off one to reveal a highly decorated cake. "Has it ever occured to you I don't want to get used to it?"
Darkstar smirked at that response. "It is in your own best interest to accept it, sister. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your country. If the ponies under you can't be sure when you will be mad at them or kind to them, they will try to avoid you. Your Lunar children are still burning with desire to live up to your expectations, but you're quickly losing the respect from the dayponies."
"You changing your sun has not helped me there either," Nightmare Moon mumbled, moving the food closer to her. "Celestia kept saying I should keep the dayponies happy by giving them a few hours of sunlight, but that's impossible now."
"I will do my best to make up for that mistake, my Queen," Darkstar offered timidly. "As I said; your Lunar children are too eager to try to please you... myself included."
The Queen stopped paying attention to her food for the moment, the plate falling to the floor as her magic let go of it at the same time as a shudder went through her from head to tail.
"Something wrong with your food?" Darkstar queried, tilting her head slightly to the right.
"...my stars, that was a disturbing thought," Nightmare Moon breathed out, then set her eyes upon the other and frowned deeply. "I don't see you as my child, Darkstar. You have, and always will be, my sister. Can you please never suggest something like that again?"
The wickedness returned upon her sister's face, but she gave a nod nonetheless. "Sure, 'mom', I can play the role of sister to you from now on. Should I be the younger or old..."
Darkstar's question was interrupted by the cake suddenly launching itself off of its plate, sat on the ground between the two Alicorns, and smacking her right in the face.