January 4th, 2 After Banishment
Nightmare Moon stared up at the blue-green ball above her, as she'd done every day for the past two years. It burned her soul to know that Celestia was still up there, moving her Moon and taking all the credit.
And all the ponies, who'd probably forgotten she existed already. Unless she could escape her imprisonment, she'd never be able to see another pony again; never hold a conversation with anypony; never—
A rock clattered to the ground behind her, catching her attention. She turned and was surprised to see an amorphous cloud of stars with two silver eyes and a plain purple mask staring at her from behind a rise. As soon as it realized she saw it, it zipped out of sight.
"W-wait!" she called out, desperate for anything to fill the loneliness.
After a moment of nothing, she cursed under her breath. "Whatever; We don't need anyone," she lied to herself, trying to push down her emotions. "We are Nightmare Moon, the most powerful pony in the world! We don't need friends!
"And yet..." she trailed off, turning back towards Equus.
January 12th, 2 A.B.
Nightmare Moon woke up like any other day: to the feeling of the Moon being lowered from Equestria's skies. She sat up, stretching, then paused when she opened her eyes.
The blob was back, and it was sitting about twenty paces in front of her.
"Uhh... Hello?" she didn't know what to say; after all, it's not every day that you meet an alien.
The blob tilted its... the area around where its eyes were. "H....heh...hehloh?" it sounded out.
She smiled. "That's it! My name is Nightmare Moon."
The creature tilted its head area again.
She pointed a hoof at herself. "Nightmare Moon," she emphasized.
The creature blinked. "N.. nyt... Nytmair Muun?"
Nightmare nodded.
Then something surprising happened: the creature shape-changed into something that looked vaguely pony-ish, but still made out of the star field. It pointed one of its 'hooves' at itself, in the same gesture as she'd done, and said something in its foreign tongue: "Çøßmîç".
Nightmare Moon blinked. "Cosmic?"
The creature repeated itself, and she tried to copy, but it was clear that she just couldn't make the sounds necessary. So they settled on her calling him (it sounded like a him) Cosmic.
They spent the next hour or so getting Cosmic to understand her. By the time he had to leave, he knew a few words such as 'Moon' and 'Rock'.
And even though they hadn't really had a proper conversation, Nightmare Moon still felt like they'd made a connection.
February 24th, 2 A.B.
"Why Nightmare Moon here?" Cosmic asked one day while they were practicing talking.
She sighed. "Because I did some bad things. I tried to keep the moon up, because I felt unap— not liked," she caught herself before she used a word he didn't understand.
He nodded his new head. He'd gotten better at turning into a pony in the past month; now, he actually had some distinguishing features, like a solid purple mane and amber-brown fur. "Cosmic like you."
She smiled sincerely. "Thanks."
March 9th, 2 A.B.
Cosmic led Nightmare Moon across the pocked surface of the Moon, in the direction he'd always come from. He finally trusted her enough to show her where he lived, and Nightmare Moon was thankful for that — it signalled a new level in their relationship.
Not to mention that there were more Moon Spirits (that was what Cosmic called himself) there. And there would be food — even though she hadn't needed to eat since her arrival, she was definitely missing it.
Finally, they came over a ridge to find a few rows of bushes that matched the coloration of the rocks, along with a hole into the ground that Nightmare assumed was the entrance to his home. Cosmic resumed his natural form and floated down the ridge, followed closely by Nightmare.
As they approached, another Moon Spirit exited the hole and headed towards the bushes.
"D@d!" Cosmic called out in his native tongue, catching the creature's attention. He took one look at Nightmare Moon and immediately tried bolting for the hole, but Cosmic was quick enough to intercept him. "D@d, thîß īß Nightmare Moon. ẞhë'ß frøm thãt pl@ñēt, åñd ßhè'ß â frîëñd." Cosmic then turned to Nightmare Moon. "Nightmare Moon, this is Çrætër, Çrætër is father of I."
" 'Crater'? Námástë." It was lucky that their greeting was one of the few things she could actually pronounce in their language.
Crater seemed to calm down at that, and stuttered back a greeting as well. He moved closer to the bushes, picked one off with a tendril, and held it out. "Øffërîñg?"
Nightmare looked at the berry curiously; it was the same dark color as the Moon's 'seas'. She nodded, and got Cosmic to tell him that she thanked him. She took the berry in her magic, and, after just a moment of hesitation, popped it into her mouth.
The taste was like nothing she'd ever experienced before; it was the complete opposite of spicy, being so cold that her tongue went numb almost immediately. Other than that, though, it wasn't half bad.
She shivered. "Sweet Mother, that's cold! My tongue almost froze off!"
Cosmic made a noise that resembled a chuckle. "Yes, is cold. But we is used to it." Crater also seemed to be put more at ease after seeing that.
She looked at the other bushes. "Do you have a name for these berries?" Cosmic shook his head.
Nightmare Moon remembered naming one of the 'seas' on the Moon 'Mare Frigoris', which meant 'sea of cold'. "Well then, 'Frigoris berries' it is."
Cosmic nodded. "Now, inside, before lüñ@ dæmønêß come."
With that, they led her inside.
June 6th, 2 A.B.
"I've been wondering," Nightmare Moon began during what would be one of their last language sessions. "You said Crater is your father, right?"
"Yes," Cosmic replied, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"What about your mother?"
He seemed to go cold. "Mother... She is gone."
Nightmare wilted, picking up on his tone. "Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. How did she...?"
"Lüñ@ dæmønêß," he replied somberly. "Come when we are not prepared, take her away."
Nightmare Moon responded by placing a hoof around his shoulder. "My mother is gone, too. Disappeared when my sister and I were still young."
"Sister?" Cosmic asked.
If this had been a few months prior, Nightmare would've clammed up at that. But now, after all they'd talked about, she felt like she was ready to talk about this. She used her magic to pick up a rock, and sketched out a rough illustration of the Princess of the Sun. "My sister, Celestia. She's like me, except she controls the Sun."
"Sun!" Cosmic eagerly pointed it out in the sky, just on the opposite side of Equus from them.
Nightmare chuckled. "Yes, that Sun."
Then she frowned. "Celestia is one of the kindest ponies you'd ever meet. She's smart, powerful, benevolent, beloved by all — everything I'm not." To punctuate the sentence, she kicked at the illustration, burying it in moon dust.
"Not true," Cosmic replied, catching her attention. "Nightmare Moon is smart, powerful, bene... binevv...."
"Benevolent?"
"Benevolent. And most of all, Nightmare Moon is loved."
She blew a raspberry. "Yeah, right. By whom?"
"By Cosmic."
She blinked, then turned to face him. He was looking at her through that mask of his, smiling shyly and blushing a little (he'd picked that up from her when she tripped over a rock last month).
"I..." Nightmare Moon stuttered.
He pointed to his mask. "This m@ßqūërædé lets Cosmic see true self. I see Nightmare Moon is scared, lost, and confused. Cosmic scared, lost, and confused also, when mother gone. But Cosmic met Nightmare Moon, and Cosmic not feel scared any more."
He leaned in closer, but Nightmare scooted away. He blinked. "Nightmare Moon?"
"I..." she stuttered, "I need to think about this."
With that, she got up and walked away, leaving a confused Cosmic behind.
June 15th, 2 A.B.
Nightmare Moon sat alone, staring at Equus above her. Without much else to do, she was constantly thinking back to Cosmic's confession.
Was she really worthy of love, after all she'd done?
Suddenly, a scream rang out across the plains. She still didn't know how sound travelled on the airless Moon, but that wasn't her main concern at the moment. She got up and rushed over to the source, and gasped.
Cosmic was being attacked by a horrifying monster. It stood about 2½ meters tall, and vaguely resembled a wingless pteranodon, but was white all over and held dozens of razor-sharp teeth in its mouth.
And it looked like Cosmic was losing the fight. Somehow, a chunk of his amorphous body had been ripped clean off, and the wound was now leaking purple wisps of what Nightmare assumed acted as his blood. "Bäçk, dæmøñê, bäçk!" he screamed, but the beast didn't back off.
There was no time to waste; Nightmare rushed down the ridge (her wings didn't work in the airless vacuum of the moon) and lit her horn. "Stay away from him!" She screamed as she shot a blast of magic at the creature.
It recoiled at the blast, then turned to face her. As it rushed her, Nightmare charged another spell. Just as the beast was about to strike her, she teleported behind it and gave it a swift buck, knocking it face-first into the ground.
The creature turned to give one last look at her, then decided it wasn't worth it, and fled the scene. Nightmare caught her breath, then rushed to Cosmic's side. "Cosmic, are you okay?!"
"I... I am okay...." he stated weakly as he lay on the ground, now that the adrenaline (or his equivalent) was leaving his system. "Thank you, Nightmare Moon."
"Please," she smiled, "call me Luna."
Luna lit her horn and cast a spell, sealing the wounds on his side, before hugging him. He sighed in relief, before closing his eyes to rest.
They both just sat there for a while, before Luna began to pull away.
But as she did, she stole a quick kiss on his cheek area. And she got the feeling that, although he had no mouth in this form, he was still smiling.
June 1st, 1000 A.B.
Luna and Cosmic enjoyed 998 years of closeness. They would talk about various things, enjoy frigoris berries together, explore the Moon whenever the lüñ@ dæmønêß were asleep, and overall just enjoy each other's company. She even gave him the surname 'Masquerade', after his word for 'mask'. He also changed his pony form to better resemble Luna's, with stars in his mane and moon motifs on his brand new clothes.
They would've likely gone further at some point, but Luna didn't like the prospect of cursing a potential child to life on the Moon.
Eventually, Luna sensed something in the stars. It felt like they were telling her that, some day soon, they would be aligned to help her escape her imprisonment. She soon became determined to take this opportunity, and prepared for several years for the day she could return.
But there was a problem: by the time she realized she'd be able to escape, there wasn't enough time to charge the energy required to bring both of them to Equus.
So she taught Cosmic how to harness the same magic that she could, so that he could eventually escape on his own (he wasn't skilled enough to charge it as quickly as her). She warned him that the trip might have some side effects, like memory loss or magical exhaustion, but he insisted he'd make the trip as soon as he could.
Eventually, the day came. With one last kiss from Cosmic, Nightmare Moon summoned the stored energy and, with the aide of the stars, escaped.