"Ahahahahahahaha!"
Riotous evil laughter rang out across all of ponyville, and a flash of lightning illuminated the night sky, followed closely by the booming sound of thunder.
The residents of the town were all frozen to the spot in fear, their costumes all but forgotten, and their candy, lost to the dirty ground. For tonight wasn't just any old night. Tonight, was Nightmare Night, and all the happy ponies and laughing foals were now glued to the spot, for this was also the night, when Nightmare Moon returned.
"Oh, finally! After all these years! After so long being imprisoned on that Faust forsaken moon we are free! Free at last! Oh how glorious it feels!"
She popped several bones in her neck and joints before stepping forward to meet the cowering ponies.
"What's the matter? Are you not overjoyed to see your one, true, and only worthy princess again? I thought you'd be elated to bask in my presence once again!"
Every word she spoke was dripping with sarcasm and malice in equal measure. And every time she opened her mouth to speak, the populace shivered in fear of her what her next words would be.
"No matter! We shall simply remind you of who is truly deserving of your worship!"
Her eyes glowed and she began to float upwards, her wings outstretched and her horn aglow with power.
"From this day forth, the night...shall last...forev-hm?"
But then, just as she was about to make a show out of threatening them, she heard a soft, almost unnoticeable sound in the distance.
It sounded like...a whimper. As if somepony was...crying.
Nightmare Moon stopped powering her magic and alighted on the ground below, giving the crowd of ponies a quizzical look.
"What is this? Who dares to sully my eardrums with their pitiful cries?"
The crowd dispersed to reveal a lone earth pony colt crying softly in the center of a wide circle, as if the crowd wanted nothing to do with whoever angered the Mare in the Moon, not even foals.
Nightmare trotted up to the colt, lowering her head to glare daggers at him. "Why do you cry, little one? Can you not see that we have returned?! Your princess has come all the way from our wretched banishment to take revenge on Celestia and take our rightful place as sole ruler of Equestria!"
The lightning flashed again, but all it did was scare the colt even more, causing him to gallop away and hide behind his father.
"Ungrateful little...Fine! If you will not receive us with open hooves, then we will force you to comply!"
She was about to start up her horn again, when she heard another small voice to her right. She turned her head to see a filly coming up to her, her head held down.
Before Nightmare could wonder why the filly refused to raise her head, she did so, revealing lifeless, dead eyes. The bright vibrant green irises that had once been there had been replaced by a hollow, distant, far away look, as if the filly couldn't even see her, despite looking right at her. As if she was looking through her.
It sent a chill up Nightmare's spine.
And then, she spoke, "Are you gonna chop us up and eat us?"
Nightmare Moon was stunned. She could barely speak herself now. The only word that managed to make it's way out of her mouth, her lips barely even moving to form it, was, "What?"
The little filly seemed to be the first drop of water in a flood of questions that came after she spoke. After her, came another colt, the same dead look in his eyes as he asked,
"Or throw us into tartarus?"
"What? Ew, no!" Nightmare seemed to have found her voice then, as she vehemently denied the colt's ludicrous accusation.
"Are you gonna torture us?" This time it was a grown stallion. Nightmare looked, and he too, had the same look. What was going on?
"Are you gonna rip our limbs off?"
"Skin us alive?"
"grind out bones into dust?"
"Chew on our intestines?"
"Stab us to death?"
"Stomp on our skulls?"
The very thought of that fourth one made Nightmare's skin crawl. She started to back away slowly, one hoof at a time, a look of horror on her face.
"N-no. No! I would never! Absolutely not!"
"Will you drink our blood?"
"Wear our skin?"
"Rip out our horns and wings?"
"Make us eat each other?"
"Beat us to death?"
"Gouge out our eyes?"
"Rip out our tongues?"
Nightmare couldn't take it. She was being overwhelmed. At first, she could hear them speaking. Tell where each baseless accusation was coming from. She could handle their words. But now, she wasn't so sure. Their dead, vacant eyes, their walk, devoid of all emotion, Their increasingly high pitched voices, as though they were filled with glee as they listed off the many horrible things they believed she would do to them. To them, she was a monster. No, she was worse then a monster. She was an abomination. A being of pure evil. A creature so vile, wicked and heartless that she would cause them all terrible, unbearable, excruciating, unspeakable pain, and not bat an eye towards it. Not even a glance of pity in their direction. Not a shred of remorse in her soul. Her back was up against a tree now. Their voices were blurring together. And as she watched them come ever closer to her, she had had enough.
"No! No! No! I won't! I won't! I promise I won't! I'd never do something so heartless as any of that! I would never hurt my little ponies!"
Just then, a voice broke through all the noise, turning all to silence.
"What's wrong, sister?"
Nightmare looked up to see Celestia. A wave of relief washed over her, and she hoofed it over to her sister, throwing herself over her.
""Oh, sister! Sister, thank Faust you are here. The ponies are saying such horrible things, accusing me of all manner of horrors that I would never commit and...and i...sis-sister?
Nightmare looked up at Celestia's face and saw her...smirking?
"Unhoof me you foul wench!" Celestia said as she pushed Nightmare off of her. "Why shouldn't they? Tell me, sister!" Why shouldn't they accuse you?! You are what they fear, are you not? You are the night, you are evil incarnate, you are Nightmare Moon, are you not!"
Celestia yelled that last part, and Nightmare couldn't believe what she was hearing. "N-no...I...I am Luna...I am your sister. I am a princess, just like you-"
"Don't make me laugh!" Celestia shouted. "You're not Luna. And you most certainly aren't a princess either. You are evil. You are a menace. You are an enemy. To me, and to all of equestria and her citizens. You do not even deserve to be in my presence. You turned against your own country. Not to mention your own flesh and blood, all because you couldn't let go of a little jealousy. I'm disappointed in you. You deserve what you get. You are not my sister."
Nightmare, now Luna, was in tears by this point. How could her sister, the same sister she grew up with and learned everything from, say such horrible things?
"Please, sister! Forgive me! I'm sorry, I...I was blinded by my anger and I-"
"Oh, save it. I don't want to hear it." Celestia said as she turned around. "Get out of my sight."
Luna looked back up at her sister just long enough to see that her eyes were no longer the usual magenta color. Now, he sclera were a dark orange, surrounding bright amber irises and slit pupils. She had bright orange eye shadow and her expression was one of wicked glee.
"S-sister, wait, I....I'm sorry, I..." Luna had no more tears to cry. Instead, she kept repeating her sister's name over and over, reaching out towards her with a hoof as she walked away, all the while the townsponies were closing in on her, getting ever closer...
Closer..
Closer.
"Celestia!" Luna awoke in a cold sweat, yelling out for her sister. She could feel her body shaking. She brought her outstretched hoof into her field of vision and just stared at it, watching as it trembled uncontrollably, even as she held onto it as tightly as she could.
She chanced a glance over to her sister's side of their shared bed. And immediately began to panic. She wasn't there.
"S-s-s-sis...ter?" Luna called, as completely as she was able in her addled state of mind.
Suddenly she felt a body press against hers. It was warm, and while she had gasped and struggled at first, she found herself giving in to the softness of the fur surrounding her. She could smell the faint scent of sunflowers as her breathing finally relaxed.
"Mmmm...sister..."
"Shhh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shhhh...It's alright, my sweet Luna. It's alright. Everything's going to be just fine..."
Celestia laid her head on top of Luna's own as she too drifted off to sleep. "Everything's going to be allllriiiiight."