A thousand years.
A thousand years of banishment. Darkness. Loneliness. A thousand years of watching, waiting, plotting.
And now, it was over. Nightmare Moon was coming back.
She had watched from the moon as the stars had converged. She watched the four stars that were prophesied to aid in her escape on the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. They were closer than they had ever been. When they converged, their astral magic would shine down on the moon, giving her the power she needed to break the spells that imprisoned her here. She stared from the moon’s cold, dark surface, incorporeal but present, as the stars slowly moved across the sky.
Celestia knew she was coming back. Nightmare Moon had seen it in Celestia’s dreams; the sun Princess was aware of the prophecy, and she feared Nightmare Moon’s return. Good. Nightmare Moon had prepared. She was ready to face Celestia. Nothing would stand between her and her rightful rulership over Equestria.
Deep within Nightmare Moon’s subconscious, Luna watched, as she had for a thousand years. She watched through Nightmare Moon’s eyes like a passenger looking out of the window of a carriage. She hadn’t been fully conscious at first, but Nightmare Moon’s grip over her had weakened over the centuries.
Nightmare Moon…in some ways, the Nightmare was everything she had ever wanted to be. Strong, beautiful, confident, powerful, tall. She had begun as a persona, a mask that Luna had put on to hide her insecurities. But Nightmare Moon had fed off of the darkness inside Luna. Mixed with and empowered by dark magic, Luna’s own dark desires had become so powerful that they had become a completely separate personality. They were two minds within one body, two versions of who she might be. Nightmare Moon had tried to utterly destroy Luna, and she had nearly succeeded. But Luna had survived within her subconscious, imprisoned, banished, weak, but still alive.
Even after a thousand years of being trapped within her own mind, Luna still couldn’t bring herself to hate Nightmare Moon, despite the fact that the Nightmare had tried to destroy her. Part of her still wanted to be Nightmare Moon. But ultimately, she knew this had gone too far. She had only ever wanted to be respected and revered, as her sister was. She had wanted to be loved, not feared. She had never sought to be the sort of creature that haunted ponies’ nightmares.
She was done. She didn’t want to be Nightmare Moon anymore.
She couldn’t remember when she had made that decision. There hadn’t been a single moment that she could pinpoint. Sometime within the last two hundred years, maybe. Time was a blur in banishment. But after centuries of solitude, she had realized that she was sick of this. She was tired of being this evil, vengeful creature.
But there was nothing she could do. Nightmare Moon was too strong for her. She knew that she couldn’t fight the Nightmare for control over her mind. Nightmare Moon would destroy her. Luna suspected that Nightmare Moon didn’t even know that Luna was still in here, watching, waiting, barely conscious. If Nightmare Moon did know, she would finish the job and obliterate Luna from existence.
Luna could do nothing to prevent Nightmare Moon’s return.
“The convergence,” Nightmare Moon said, her echoey voice breaking the silence of the moon’s surface. “It begins.” The four stars aligned, and a shaft of starlight descended to the moon. A surge of magical power went through Nightmare Moon. She chanted the counterspell that she had spent centuries devising. Powered by the stars, the spell broke the chains of banishment, shattering Celestia’s spell. She was free.
With a cackle, her incorporeal form shot down from the moon, racing like a purple comet to the planet below. She shot across the sky, heading straight for her first destination: Canterlot. A visit with her sister was long overdue.
She reached the Canterlot Palace, smashing through a stained-glass window of her sister. She sped through the hallways towards the throne room. She manifested as a trail of purple smoke. The guards outside of the throne room spotted her as she turned the corner.
“What is that?!” one of them yelled, pointing a hoof at her.
She took corporeal form, appearing before her subjects in all of her glory. “I am your new ruler,” she said. “I am Nightmare Moon, Empress of the Night and Queen of Nightmares. Bow before me.”
The guards glanced at each other in a moment of hesitation. Then, they charged.
Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. She lowered her horn, and a blast of moonlight surged forward. Its power knocked the guards off their hooves, sending them flying back and slamming them into the wall with enough force to knock them all unconscious.
Luna watched with dismay. Were the guards alright? That hadn’t killed any of them, had it? No, they all seemed to be alive. Nightmare Moon had just hurt innocent ponies. Luna had just hurt innocent ponies. Stop…she pleaded. But her voice was a tiny whisper next to the roaring river of Nightmare Moon’s revelry.
Nightmare Moon fired a second blast of moonlight. The throne room doors shattered into a million pieces, and Nightmare Moon strode victoriously through the wreckage.
Celestia. She was there. Not sitting in her throne, but sitting in the middle of the room, bathed in moonlight. She was right beneath a skylight, looking up at the moon. Celestia’s back was turned towards Nightmare Moon. She didn’t turn around as Nightmare Moon strode into the throne room.
Just because Celestia knew she was coming didn’t mean that Nightmare Moon couldn’t make an entrance. At her will, the yellow torches that dimly lit the room flared up in dark, purple flames. Her ethereal mane and tail swirled around the room, filling it with smoke that crackled with lightning. Her cackle echoed around the throne room. “Did you miss me, dear Celestia?”
Celestia was silent for a moment. Her eventual response was barely a whisper. “More than you could ever imagine.”
The response caught Nightmare Moon off guard. She felt Luna stir, deep within her mind. What was this? Luna was supposed to be gone.
Luna realized her mistake. She couldn’t help it; she had felt such a powerful surge of emotion when she had heard her sister’s words that Nightmare Moon had taken notice of her existence. Now, it was too late; she had drawn the Nightmare’s ire.
Nightmare Moon lashed out at Luna, burying her beneath a wave of rage. How dare you, you insolent foal! Once Luna was silent once again, she turned her attention back towards Celestia, her rage against Luna fluidly transitioning to rage against her sister. “Did you think this would be a happy reunion?” she snapped. “Look at me!”
Her horn glowed, and she grabbed Celestia with telekinetic control. Celestia made no apparent effort to resist. Nightmare Moon lifted the alicorn into the air and whirled her around so Celestia was suspended in the air, face to face with her. She bared her teeth, making certain to show Celestia her fangs. “I am not the pony that you once claimed to love, Celestia! I am NIGHTMARE MOON! Luna is gone, and she will never come back!”
At that moment, Luna feared that it was true. She could feel herself slipping away. Being in the presence of her sister was filling Nightmare Moon with rage. She hadn’t been this angry during all of her centuries on the moon. Even Luna was kind of angry at Celestia, although less so than Nightmare Moon. It just drove her insane to see Celestia sitting there, waiting for her, regal, peaceful, calm, in control. Even in this moment of crisis, Celestia hadn’t lost her aura of perfection. After all this time, Luna had still not found it within her to forgive her sister. If she didn’t leave Celestia’s presence soon…she may be lost forever.
“I believe you’re wrong,” Celestia said calmly, still suspended in the air by Nightmare Moon’s magic. “I believe that Luna will come back, some day.”
“Then you’re even greater a fool than I recalled!” Nightmare Moon yelled. She lifted Celestia into the air and slammed her back down with enough force to crack the stones beneath Celestia’s hooves. Celestia cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground as Nightmare Moon released her telekinetic grip. She began to circle Celestia like a timberwolf circling its prey.
“You knew I was coming back,” she hissed. “Where are your armies, Celestia?”
“No armies tonight,” Celestia said, shakily standing back up.
“Then what’s your plan for defeating me? Where are the Elements of Harmony?”
“I don’t have them.”
Nightmare Moon laughed, the sound echoing around the stone chamber. “Of course you don’t, dearest Celestia! Surely you must know that you can’t use them! You are no longer attuned to them. How could a pony like you hope to access the Magic of Friendship? You don’t have any friends. You’re the loneliest pony in all of Equestria!”
Nightmare Moon could read from Celestia’s reaction that she knew it was true. Celestia knew that she no longer could use the Elements. But Nightmare Moon saw an opportunity to dig beneath Celestia’s armor, and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“You’ve lost everypony you ever cared about,” she hissed. “Starswirl. The pathetic weakling that you once called your sister. Sombra from the Mirror Dimension. Sunset Shimmer.”
Celestia’s eyes grew wide. “How do you know about Sunset Shimmer? That was long after your banishment.”
Nightmare Moon stopped her predatory pacing for a moment. “You…you don’t know?” Her laughter filled the hall. “You really don’t know, do you? You thought just because you banished me that I was helpless? I am the Queen of the Night, banished or not! I still had the ability to walk the dreams of Equestrian ponies during my exile. Even your dreams, Celestia. I have been haunting your nightmares in secret for centuries!”
The slightest twitch of Celestia’s ear, the slightest tightening of her jaw. Nightmare Moon could see that she was getting under Celestia’s armor. She pressed her advantage.
“I am the reason that you can’t use the Elements of Harmony! For centuries, I have been tearing down your psyche in your nightmares. I have fueled your loneliness, your sadness, your guilt. You can’t use the Elements because I have destroyed you! You are nothing but a broken shell, a husk of the pony you once were, and it is because of me! This is my ultimate victory, the ultimate crystallization of my centuries of plotting. I have defeated you, Celestia, and I have proved that I am stronger than you!”
Celestia was shaking. Ever so slightly, but enough for Nightmare Moon to notice. And Nightmare Moon was certain that she saw a tear forming in the corner of Celestia’s eye. Nightmare Moon licked her fangs. Gotcha.
“You’re right,” Celestia said. “You are stronger than me. You always have been. But a pony’s magic isn’t what makes her strong. Her heart is what makes her strong. What makes you strong, Luna. You’ll remember that, before the end.”
Nightmare Moon felt a surge of rage. After all this time, Celestia was still taking the moral high ground and projecting that pathetic aura of wisdom and virtue? The smoke from her mane and tail swirled around the room, crackling with lightning that shattered stone pillars in its wake. “How dare you sit there and lecture me?! Enough of this idle chatter! You can’t use the Elements of Harmony, so you must have had a different plan. What is it? How are you going to stop me? How are you going to protect your precious subjects from my wrath, perfect Celestia?”
A thought crossed Nightmare Moon’s mind. One that made her giddy with joy. She laughed an echoey laugh that shook the room. “Oh please, Celestia, you’re not planning to fight me, are you? Was that your plan? Did you really think that your magic would be stronger than me?”
“I’m not going to fight you, Luna.”
Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes. “We’ll see about that, dear Sister.” Now that she had had the idea, she couldn’t let it go. She needed to prove that she was stronger than her sister, once and for all. She already knew that she was stronger than Celestia, but she needed Celestia to see it.
The darkness in the room swirled around Celestia, tightening around her. Lightning crackled towards her, and she did nothing. Celestia cried out in pain as the lightning crackled across her body.
“Fight me, Celestia! FIGHT ME!”
Nightmare Moon heard motion behind her. She whirled around to see more guards were coming through the doorway, charging towards her with spears. She grinned as she glanced back at Celestia.
“Save your precious subjects, Celestia!” The darkness of her mane and tail surged towards the guards, and bolts of lightning shot out towards them. Several of them were struck, and they cried out, crumpling to the ground. The lightning continued to flash. “Stop me before I destroy them!”
Luna would have cried, if she had a body to cry with. This wasn’t what she wanted. She had never imagined that she would become this. These were her little ponies, her subjects. She only wanted their love. Stop, stop, please stop!
Something hit Nightmare Moon from behind, a bolt of magic that sent a shock of pain through her whole body. She turned to see that Celestia was standing, horn glowing with a radiance like the sun, a determined look on her face.
“Finally!” Nightmare Moon snapped, taking a fighting pose.
Thank you, Sister, Luna thought.
“Leave them alone,” Celestia said. “I can see now that you won’t be satisfied until we do this. Stay back, guards. This is between me and my sister.”
Nightmare Moon let out a wordless war cry and a surge of moonlight streamed out of her horn. Celestia’s magic rushed out to meet hers, and sunlight and moonlight intercepted each other in a magical explosion. The impact shattered every window in the room.
Nightmare Moon began to push her stream of magic closer to Celestia as Celestia pushed back, the meeting point between their magics crackling between them like a thunderstorm. This was the sort of fight she wanted. No teleporting, no dodging, no trickery. Just magic against magic, power against power. The chance to prove, once and for all, that she was stronger than her sister.
The meeting points between their magics began to push towards Celestia. Quickly, in fact. In a direct confrontation like this, Celestia was shockingly weak. Luna’s magic cut through Celestia’s and struck her in the chest. Celestia screamed and collapsed to the ground. The whole exchange lasted only a few seconds.
“Is that it?” Nightmare Moon demanded. “That’s all you have? That was pathetic!” She approached where Celestia had collapsed. The alicorn was struggling unsuccessfully to stand. “To think, for all this time, I’ve considered us equals! Unless of course…perhaps you have a reserve of power left? A reserve of power that you would never tap into, except at the utmost hour of need? Something that you would never tap into unless it was your last, desperate chance to save Equestria?”
Nightmare Moon knew that Celestia could do it. If Luna could, Celestia could. She didn’t just want to beat Celestia. She wanted to beat Celestia at her best. If she still had more to give, Nightmare Moon would lure it out and destroy it too.
But Celestia collapsed back down onto the ground, not acknowledging Nightmare Moon’s taunts.
“Come on, Celestia. You know you want to. I know you can do it. Come on.” She bent down to Celestia’s ear and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Come out and play, Daybreaker.”
A shudder went down Celestia’s body, as if a slumbering beast within her was stirring. But then the moment was gone. All that was left was Celestia, weak, broken, and defeated.
Celestia met Nightmare Moon’s gaze. “You’ve won, Luna. You’ve beaten me. Now what?”
What is your plan, Celestia? Nightmare Moon wondered. Surely you’re not just going to roll over and let me take your kingdom?
“Fine,” Nightmare Moon said. “If you won’t really fight me, we’re done here. Get out of my throne room.” As Celestia struggled to stand, Nightmare Moon said, “Actually, never mind. I’ll remove you myself.”
She glanced back at the entrance to the throne room to make sure the guards were still there. They were standing there, cowering and trembling. Good. They needed to see this.
“You banished me to the moon for a thousand years, Celestia,” Nightmare Moon said, turning back to the alicorn. “It seems fitting that I banish you to the sun. Maybe I’ll bring you down in a thousand years from now to be my servant. I wouldn’t mind watching you dirty your perfect hooves cleaning out pigsties.” Her horn glowed with moonlight as she charged up the spell. “Any last words, Celestia?”
Celestia looked Nightmare Moon in the eye. “I love you. And I’m sorry.”
Nightmare Moon felt a lump of emotion in her throat as Luna began to stir, once again rising from her mental prison. How did Celestia do that? But rage quickly silenced Luna. How dare Celestia take the moral high ground in this moment? How dare she claim to love her after banishing her to the moon for a thousand years? Nightmare Moon lashed out again at Luna, drowning her underneath a sea of fury. Once Luna was silent, Nightmare Moon turned her rage back towards Celestia, and that rage boiled to the surface as a wordless scream. She fired a blast of magic, a banishing spell fueled by her passion. When the blinding moonlight faded, Celestia was gone, banished to the sun, replaced by a smoking crater. The power of Nightmare Moon’s spell had incinerated the very stones where Celestia had stood.
As Nightmare Moon stood there, panting, staring at the sizzling hole, her mind raced. Celestia still had a plan. She knew it. Celestia wouldn’t hand the kingdom over to her without a fight. But what was her plan?
“Guards!” Nightmare Moon snapped. She turned towards the guards, who were still standing in the doorway, staring, mouths agape. “I am your queen now! I am Nightmare Moon, Queen of the Night and rightful ruler of Equestria. Tell me, what were your previous queen’s plans for this evening?”
The guards stared in shocked silence.
Nightmare Moon’s mane and tail stirred and crackled with lightning. “One of you will tell me, willingly or not.”
“She was going to show up for the Summer Sun Celebration,” one of the guards blurted out. “It was going to be in Ponyville this year.”
“Ponyville, you say?” Nightmare Moon said, grinning. “Perhaps it’s time I paid a visit to my new subjects in Ponyville.”