//------------------------------//
// Nightmare Awoken 
// Story: The First and the Last 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

It was a new evening in the city of Nottingham, and it was a beautiful night indeed. The sun was almost down from the top of the sky, and the rest of the land was bathed in golden light as the sun had descended from the clouds on high. Up above him, Tom could see the stars just starting to appear in the sky, and he felt that tonight was a good night for this to happen.

As a lot of people now knew, Tom was a Brony, and not afraid to show it. His love for My Little Pony, especially the 4th generation reboot Friendship is Magic, was something that had survived the end of the show a little under a year ago. He remembered well the day he became a brony, for it was exactly 10 years ago.

It had been a fairly slow October 10th, and he had been looking after his little sister in the days when he had still lived in London with his family. They were out, and as a result responsibilities of caring for her fell to him. That day, a new show was due to start airing called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which he thought would be dumb.





"Tooooom! It's about to start!" Rebecca called from the front room.

"Do I have to watch it?" Tom groaned from another room. "It sounds really boring!"

"You're supposed to be caring for me. So you need to be in the same room as me. Therefore, you should be watching it with me."

Tom groaned. His sister sure had a way of pursuading people, if only because he knew she would tattle tail on him if he tried to get out of it. "Fine. I'll watch your stupid pony show." He sat down in the chair as the Hub logo came up, thinking of all the things he'd rather be doing at the moment.

Then the episode began. 

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land..."

As it went on, Tom was rather surprised as what he was seeing. Far from a dumb show with silly animated characters, the story was actually very interesting and well written. The characters were also well written too, and he became very invested in what was happening on the screen.

"Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!"

When the 'to be continued' card flashed up, Tom leaned closer to the screen. "Wait? That's it?" he asked.

"So, you didn't think it was stupid," Rebecca said. "Shall we tune in next week?"

"OK then," Tom replied. He was astonished. This was allegedly a girl's show. So why did he enjoy it so much?





As the weeks went by and more episodes aired, Tom tried to figure out what was wrong with him, and decided to find out if any other guys in his age group liked the show. To his astonishment, his Google search 'Help I'm a guy addicted to My Little Pony' turned up useful results. He discovered that he wasn't alone. Rather, his circumstances were rather normal. Huge numbers of young men adored the show the same way he did, and called themselves 'bronies', producing fanart, music, and even writing their own stories based on the show.

So Tom had firmly joined their ranks. He was, as the song put it, 'proud to be a brony'. It was also how he met many of his closest friends online, such as Katrina, Steph, and of course Jimmy and John. They were all brought together by a love of pastel coloured ponies, and would stay that way for a long time.

And today, the 10th of October 2020, was the 10th anniversary to the day that Mare in the Moon Part 1 had aired on TV, kickstarting a global phenomenon. Tom intended to celebrate this anniversary by rewatching those first episodes, and rediscover the magic of one of his favourite TV shows.

However, something in the local news caught his eye.

LUNAR ECLISPE FORECAST TONIGHT!

According to meteorologists, the Moon tonight will create an eclipse, which will be visible throughout all of the City of Nottingham. All people are invited to see it, and the best views can be seen from University Park. Special attention must be given to the fact this type of eclipse only occurs once every 1000 years.

Tom suddenly thought of something. "Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal." The similarities to the old legend of Luna were too great to ignore. "Strange coincidence, but I can go with that." He got out his phone.

"Hello Tom! How are you?"

"Hey Andy. It's me, Tom. I'm going to see the eclipse. Fancy coming along?"

"Sure thing! I'll bring Lance along as well."

"Fantastic. See you there!"

Tom hung up and headed into the darkness, his torch flashing as he set off for the Gregory Street streetcar stop.





Tom arrived at University Park first, and saw the sun fade and the moon slide into position. From his vantage point, he could see the moon suddenly hang still in the sky.

Seconds later, the field totally empty, he collapsed in crippling pain.

"AH, A VESSEL FOR MY RETURN!" said a voice.

"Oh, not again!" Tom cried, as his entire body began to shift and swell. His entire form stretched upwards as his back cracked and broke apart to force him downwards onto all fours, as his clothes were ripped apart by the changes. His neck cranked upwards to give him an equine look as his stomach and chest increased in size to an equine barrel. Moments after, his face stretched and elongated to create an horse's muzzle, nose and mouth merged into a single structure. Two pony ears erupted out of his head as his eyes turned turquoise, followed by a black horn.

His arms snapped backwards to create forelegs, his hands by now shrinking into small blobs attached to the ends of the legs. At this point, they were hooves. A pair of wings exploded out of his sides and remained positioned at full width as a ghostly energy, also coloured blue, floated all around her, filled with stars. His legs snapped backwards and his feet were reduced to hooves as his manhood was pulled into his body, rendering him a female horse.

"It can't be... No... I can't be..."

She was interrupted from her speech as she continued changing, black fur washing over her entire body. A pattern of purple appeared on her sides, with more purple bits all over the place as a symbol of a crescent moon appeared atop the big section. Four light blue horseshoes appeared on her hooves, with greaves of the same colour that ran up her legs to the knee joints. A blue chestplate attached itself to her front and looped around the back of her neck to hold it in place. Finally, a blue helmet slotted into place. It covered the front of her face and ran over the top of her head, then back down to her neck base at the back (though leaving space for her horn and ears).

Nightmare Moon laughed as she jumped into the night sky. "BEHOLD, FOOLISH MORTALS!" she bellowed. "YOUR RULER HAS RETURNED!"

Moments after, she was suddenly warped to another place. A ruined castle, with six ponies floating in front of her. "What? What is this sorcery?"

Seconds later, she was blasted with rainbow energy and screamed as her body was seemingly ripped to shreds. Everything was on fire, pain consuming her form until she passed out.





Minutes later, she awoke from her apparent slumber, rubble lying all over the place. Broken armour lay everywhere. She looked over herself and gasped.

In place of the older livery was a younger alicorn mare with lighter blue fur and turquoise blue mane and tail (she actually had a tail now, rather than that floaty thing). A blue tiara sat in her mane, and she had dark blue barding attached to her chest with purple trim, in the centre of which sat a white crescent moon. She also wore four horseshoes. The purple splotches next to her flanks were now dark blue, with another white crescent moon in there as well.

As she looked up in a mixture of fear and confusion, she suddenly saw Princess Celestia there amongst the figures, speaking to them. "I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well." She turned to Luna. "Princess Luna!"

Luna gasped, a look of fear in her face. This was surely the moment she was turned to stone for her crimes, right?

Celestia continued, owing to the lack of a response from Luna. "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?"

Luna was so overcome with emotion she began to cry. Was Celestia really sparing her? "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"

"I've missed you, too." Celestia's words were calm, gentle, and reassuring.