//------------------------------// // Nightmare // Story: Random Oneshots // by Error403HRD //------------------------------// Nightmare looked out at her beautiful moon. Her citizens were at peace. Everyone loved her, what more could she ask for? When she first returned, she thought her sister would have been at least competent in ruling, but her weak nature stopped her from protecting her citizens at all cost. Luna saw that she had made no preparations for Sombra's return, she didn't even guard the borders that she knew were shared with a being who'd most definitely attack at the soonest sign of weakness when she and her army were ready. The worst part was her utter gall to keep Discord's statue even after the years and years of Luna asking, begging, her to destroy it. Discord was a threat to their entire world, and Celestia was too soft to even keep the thing in Tartarus! She kept it in the castle court yard, the worst possible place to put it aside from her throne room. Nightmare's initial take over didn't go over too well, but as soon as it was established that she knew what she was doing, most opposition disappeared. Of course, Mi Amore Cadenzia was the only real threat to her rule, since the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were unable to locate the actual stones. Of course, murdering a fellow alicorn would not go over well, so Nightmare simply brought her on as a relationship counselor. The mare was happy, and thus had less reason to oppose her. It helped that Nightmare worked to be as friendly as possible, since she needed them to love her to not only stay in power, but to stay happy. The whole reason for becoming Nightmare Moon in the first place was just to be seen as a benevolent ruler like her sister. Having unhappy citizens would lead to her unhappiness. She repaired the castle in the Everfree very quickly and had to go over everything. First was food, she decided to put her top researchers in charge of looking for a sunlight spell to grow crops, it turned out that the threat of actual starvation made them work faster and more efficiently. Next was the matter of Celestia's poorly trained military. The Wonderbolts were little more than stunt fliers and not the aerial patrol they were supposed to be. And they were, for lack of a better word, complete bitches. They were mean and condescending, yet the moment that someone insulted them they got offended. She kept only the most talented fliers and straightened out their attitudes. She looked for amazing fliers elsewhere and found several contenders, one even being the Element of Loyalty, who was hesitant to accept, worried that it would count as the easy way in. Nightmare Moon assured her that she'd have to work for an actual rank and she was at best accepted into the training program. It didn't take much effort after that, and the Element of Kindness giving her blessing. With those sorry excuses for a flight patrol ironed out, she had to turn her attention to Celestia's Royal Guard. They were utter disappointments and she fired every one of them except for a few salvageable captains and trainees. She retrained all of them and even joined her Lunar Guard with them so there'd be some batponies, and because they were much better at their job. Because she trained her guards. When she tracked down the families that were loyal to her a thousand years ago, most didn't hesitate to serve her once more. A few declined, not wanting to lose their bloodline, but Nightmare understood their reasoning and didn't push her luck. With the military retrained and her borders sufficiently guraded, she had to turn to the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, one of them had already been taken care of, since she'd join the Wonderbolts. Unfortunately, the wielder of Magic was horribly loyal to Celestia, and not even her brother siding with Nightmare would sway her until the peer pressure inevitably got to be too much for her. Nightmare decided to just occasionally drop in on her library and walk around like a commoner, it let the citizens fear her less, and hopefully it would eventually calm the magic happy filly down around her. She was talented, but her stubbornness would undoubtedly get in the way of progress as a top researcher. Nightmare would have to wait for that mindset to wear itself out because she couldn't risk the Element of Magic becoming more powerful and pretending to change, only to overthrow her and return Celestia to power. Luckily it wasn't all bad news; her baby dragon was fond of Nightmare, and she didn't mind him snatching rides on her back at every opportunity, he was a child after all. She was disgusted with how little care she saw Magic give Spike, she treated him like a slave with a few more rights. Nightmare considered kidnapping him many times, but the dragon was unfortunately loyal to Magic, so she decided she'd just check up on him more and read some books with him while she was at it. When he got older he'd be a very fitting option for ambassador, or just moral support. The other Elements didn't appear too disturbed. The wielder of Honesty was a bit pissy until she realized her crops and livelihood wouldn't be damaged. Kindness was a bit fearful at first, until Nightmare Moon sat down and started asking questions about her animal friends, the mare was a lovely pony and it was no wonder Loyalty was so against leaving her behind for her dream without permission. Laughter was glad that she still got to throw parties, just for different holidays, which she didn't mind at all, oddly enough, and Generosity was in her pocket as soon as she showed interest in the mare's line of work. And coincidentally got herself a few ballgowns and accessories out of it. Nightmare slowly became more blue over time and eventually completely shifted back into Luna, but she didn't mind since her citizens still seemed to love her and she wasn't as intimidating in the dream world in her Luna form. Ah, dreams. Sometimes working an around the clock job would be hard, if she didn't actually sleep when she did her night time job. She had to have clocks put in everypony's home so they got a healthy amount of rest, but it was worth it. She didn't know how much she'd missed dream walking. She loved playing with foals and helping her beloved citizens, especially those who didn't understand why they were in such turmoil in the first place. She didn't regret sealing her sister away, maybe she'd eventually break her out, but her sister was an unfit ruler on the protection front. Luna had no regrets; it didn't hurt that her selfishness led to the avoidance of many threats. And the dragons and griffins were afraid to reject her diplomacy, so that was another plus. She couldn't find anything wrong with her decision, she wasn't alone, and once she realized what was happening, quickly got professional help for her forming depression. She smiled softly, letting her eyes close as she fell asleep for another night of dream walking.