The crowds washed around the alicorn, oblivious to her simple being. Nightmare Moon felt a form of relief deep inside of her, but that was drowned out by the pure rage. How dare they not simply bow in her presence! These simple ponies wandering the streets of Canterlot, ignoring her presence! And the guards, they do nothing to impede her as though she weren't even a credible threat!
Moon shook her head and blinked several times. She squeezed her eyes hard and took a slow, deep breath. What was that? Best to take advantage of the situation and look around at the stalls present not selling food to take her mind off of things, but it was difficult to not find any.
Cheese, various strange plants, farm animals, blankets, jewelry. Nightmare Moon had seen it all before. She would spot some magical trinkets of a low level or some metallic contraptions she didn't know on occasion. A thought crossed her mind, one she had forgotten. In ten thousand years the ponies had hardly advanced technologically or even magically. Even the ponies wouldn't be stuck in such a rut for so long if they were under the rule of a tyrant. They would still find some way to advance and overthrow. They've clearly made some advances with anti-magic weaponry and sources, but how long have they had that kind of technology?
The alicorn thought deeply. Perhaps they did have the technology and they were simply regressed? But then there would be proof everywhere. You can't wipe continents clean of technology. The best solution would be, again, to reach Canterlot and hope the archives were still intact.
"I can't believe I'm stuck in a future with nothing new to offer except new tribes." She bared her teeth, startling some of the passers-by but drawing the intrigue of three thestrals. "I wonder if the site of Canterlot still exists and I can even find them h--"
She found herself teleporting in front of a stall, throwing a griffin couple far away with a foreleg. She was filled with shock, disgust, joy, and horror, but her face showed clear disbelief. The stall owner was yelling at her and telling her to leave, that much Moon understood, but what she actually paid attention to was what the owner was selling: Several stone sculptures of varying colored stone and wood. Some bigger than the alicorn herself.
"I know these statues!" Nightmare Moon bellowed.
She grabbed one on full display on the stall table and took a closer look to be sure. It was Celestia. It was damaged and missing chunks of her mane and tail, but it was her. And that large one over there. Oh, the seething rage Moon had could not be quantified in words. She walked up to it, keeping the smaller one in her magic. The largest statue, easily triple Moon's size, showed Celestia wielding the five elements of harmony and casting her down with their magic.
"Always so prim and perfect and raised up high," Nightmare Moon spat.
The symbols of the elements had been deliberately carved off, and Celestia's face had only been partially destroyed. An eye remained. Nightmare Moon's face, however, remained intact. It was an unflattering display with her face exaggerated to look as hideous and reptilian as possible concerning her mouth and fangs. She was on her back on the floor, flailing her legs pointlessly while baring her fangs at Celestia via a giant mouth that opened wider than the actual pony's.
The stall owner noticed the resemblance and looked between the two. "Hey, you look similar to that thing on the ground. Did you see it and...Wait no. I just... got this..." He slowly looked up to see Moon's mane and tail sparking and showing a red moon surrounded by a flaming red halo. Her eyes were glowing brighter than ever before, and her fangs were bared.
"Where did you find these?!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs. Moon's voice was so powerful that it drowned out the brouhaha of the festival and blew away several of the smaller stalls. "Where did these come from?!"
The ground started rumbling and the stall owner was slowly lifted up by an enraged Nightmare Moon. It felt as though a hurricane had reached the city and was going to destroy everything.
"Pl-please! I don't know what you're saying!"
Sunny Dimples had just gotten cozy in his bed. He would enjoy the festival later. After all, it lasted two weeks at least, and he had more than enough time to entertain himself with it and distract himself from her. Until, of course, he heard her voice that made the windows tremble. He jumped out of his bed and cast a glance outside. The sky looked familiar, like it had when she first arrived.
The stallion whined. "But I had just gotten to bed!"
He hurried out of his home while the military became active again and rushed to try and stop Nightmare Moon using as many antimagic weapons as they needed to. Unfortunately for them, and much to their longstanding fears, this time she wasn't playing along. The weapons would erupt in a black smoke inlaid with purple, but they would fall harmlessly to the ground. At least fourteen of the orbs were thrown at her, but Moon didn't register anything at all. Her seething hatred consumed her and wanted her to torture this pony to give up what he knew. Several of the soldiers tackled the mare but found themselves flying off. It was like trying to blow out a steel wall with a firecracker.
"Your highness!" an out-of-breath Sunny called out. "What's happening?! Everything was going well. I was about to fall asleep early!"
The unicorn skid to a halt and gulped. He had never seen Nightmare Moon so angry before. A primeval sentiment climbed up from deep within him. A deep-seated fear that no creature, no matter how evolved, could get rid of. He was broken from his trance by Moon throwing the stall owner at Sunny who went flying with them. Every step Moon made cracked the ground and pulled up large pieces of stone.
The alicorn pointed angrily at the stall owner who stared at her with pure terror. "I demand to know where he got those statues!"
"Wh-what statues?!" Sunny asked in a daze. The statue of the alicorn was shoved in front of his face. "This antique dealer possesses statues from my time, and I know that the giant statue of my sister casting me down is from Canterlot!"
"C-Canterlot?!" the stall owner repeated. "But I only got these from a trader that supplies me with antiquities. A-a-and Canterlot is j-just a myth! These are just artistic interpretations meant to look old."
"A myth?!" Moon emphasized angrily. She raised Celestia's statue up. "This is a statue of my sister!"
"You need to tell me who sold you these statues," Sunny pleaded the stall owner. "Listen closely: This is an actual alicorn and she claims that the statue she's holding is of her sister."
The stall owner looked between the two in quick jolts of terror and panic. "What?! A real alicorn?! But when--"
"Not important! Just tell me who sold these to you!" Sunny shouted angrily.
"A griffin! A griffin named tonic! He has blue feathers and a black outline around his eyes! He's in the southern territory where the minotaurs reside! He always brings up a ton of old artifacts for me and others to sell!"
Sunny was quick to repeat the information to Nightmare Moon while placing himself between her and the terrified stall owner.
While the rage didn't subside, Moon nodded. She pulled out her wings, surprising those around, and flew away back to her castle with the statue in tow. A lot of the soldiers had to help their wounded comrades, and many creatures did their best to help others to their feet or hooves and to fix stalls. Most were terrified about the events that had just occurred, but a few remained behind, reminiscing of the event and looking at the source fly away with awe and admiration.
"That was amazing," one of the thestrals proclaimed. "I want to know who she is."
The two others with her went to the giant statue and looked it up and down while the stall owner continued to hyperventilate next to it.
One of them pointed down to the figure lying on the bottom. "I think this is her," he announced.
"That can't be her. This statue must be thousands of years old. No pony can live that long," the third refuted.
"Might be a descendant. They look similar enough," the stallion supposed.
The third nodded. "Makes more sense, and did you feel and see all that magic power?" Their ears flicked up and down with delight. "What can she do when she puts her back into it?"
"Let's follow her," the first suggested.
Sunny was too busy looking at the statues to notice the foolish thestrals leaving after the alicorn of the night. He took some time to take in the gigantic statue, wondering what exactly had happened and what that pony lauding over her was doing and who they were as a pony. Other statues of significant age were nearby, although they weren't as damaged, it seemed. Almost all of them depicted alicorns. One had its forelegs draped over a giant heart and its head pointed down. Another seemed to be dancing with pointy vines wrapping around its body. Another had a foreleg raised, a mouth open, and a crowd of tiny ponies lying down, listening to it. Was it singing or making a speech?
Despite the time separating all of them from each other, there were a few things they all had in common: The faces were damaged and their cutie marks removed. He wasn't sure if any of them were genuine, though. Sunny believed that his archeology teacher might know how to distinguish them.
Nightmare Moon was back in the castle, her rage hardly subsiding and pulling the warping effect her magic had on the environment to the sky above her home. She stared at the statue, perhaps longing for it to transform into her sister. The soldiers fled their positions when they saw her coming. A good idea, but now she was alone again. No matter. She just...needed to sleep. A good, comfortable moment of rest and slumber to help flush out her seething, unquenchable fury.
No bed, but at least some rest would do fine. She placed the statue far away and gradually closed her eyes, letting her exhaustion finally overcome her.
The Nightmare found herself back within the darkness of her prison, but at least she still had her body and everything felt more relieving and comfortable. Just an endless void to float around within. No anger or rage or frustrations or fear or-
"Loneliness?" a voice whispered into Moon's ear.
She instantly flew away and looked for the source. "Who did that?"
"Is that any way to treat your sister?"
Moon immediately relaxed. She was unamused by this doppelganger hiding in the shadows. "Ah, of course, a depiction of my sister in the dreamscape." She let her shoulders drop and shook her head.
"How do you know I'm not actually your sister?" Celestia asked with a smile.
"Because Celestia isn't-wasn't, capable of using dream magic."
The lookalike tilted to the side. "True."
Celestia came forward, frightening Moon when she came into 'light'. Her body was missing portions, the edges of these black and smoldering with little bits of ash raising upwards and vanishing into nothing. Edges of her mane were a vibrant orange and yellow and flickered like flames. One of her eyes was yellow and had a slitted pupil like Nightmare Moon, but both were filled with misery and regret.
"Ah yes, the 'corrupted and died' type of nightmare," Moon mocked. "Yes. Go ahead and speak to me about how I let you down or something similar," she said with a smile.
Celestia shook her head, stepping forward on a leg that had vanished. "There are none of those this day, sister. It is good to see you again."
Moon sighed and looked her 'sister' in the eyes. "Fine. Let us begin this exchange of trivialities brought forth by me finding destroyed statues of us." She snorted. "I thought everything was gone, but I was right." She laughed heartily. "No pony can destroy everything regardless of their efforts and time used to implement them."
The Celestia doppleganger twitched at the mockery. "Yes. It seems we still exist in some shape or form."