Fury.
Discontent was too weak a word, inadequate. A billionth of what it felt like.
Luna fought in her mind with Nightmare, combating the snide remarks and hateful spray of thoughts with her own supportive and encouraging remarks, and it was as if the two of them were locked in a great battle, falling endlessly downwards as they sparred.
Contempt.
For others, and for herself. No, not herself. The self she presented to the world. What a weak and pestilent little thing she was, unable to stand up even to her own subconscious. Release this frail and sickly form, and let true power take control.
Luna rolled over on the floor, pounding her head as the migraine blossomed, a mandelbrot of pain clouding her vision, even while her eyes were closed. Agony ripped through her again, and she remembered the voice of Twilight, a distant echo from only an hour or two earlier.
Let go.
Malice.
She stopped fighting back to the thoughts and feelings that overwhelmed her, relaxing as she finally replied to the jealousy and loathly disgust bulging out of her soul like maggots from a corpse. With a gasp, she spoke aloud once, then lost.
“You win.”
There on the dark stone floor of the throne room, her eyes snapped open wide revealing nothing but blackness, before the darkness was constricted by a snakelike pupil that slammed shut to the smallest slit. Luna flailed as limbs shattered and tendons snapped, but almost as soon as the pain had come, it went away. She was too powerful for pain; feeling it was a choice she did not need to make, and so she cast it aside.
Her legs stretched outward and her wings enlarged in kind. Sharp and jagged teeth crawled out of her jaw like crystal forming, and she gnashed and snapped with them until they fit snug. A violet ethereal maelstrom surrounded her, and the magic unleashed from within her warped and changed her quickly as it spun around her.
Finally, it was over. Nightmare Moon stood on the diaz, panting heavily at the marble floor. Her breath deepened and quickened, and not long after she had settled it transformed into a childish—though wholly evil and not without its share of deepness—cackle. She had won. Luna was too weak, and though she had fought this time far harder than before, Nightmare Moon had overpowered her so much that the puny mare had simply given up. As she should have, of course. Nightmare Moon was clearly superior; she was everything Luna was, without all that petty and frivolous ‘holding back’ she and her sister had practiced so well.
Nightmare Moon lifted her head finally, ready to face whatever defense had been set up to fight her. Elements again, perhaps? A mass of royal guards, horns and pikes trained on her for their chance? She was prepared this time; she knew when she first came back that Celestia would not have the heart to banish her again, but she wasn’t expecting those damned regular ponies to wield the Elements.
Equestria was at its end, she thought. The last shout of Luna would be its death knell, and she would be its reaper, harkening in an unending night that would last until Equus withered away to—hold on.
Her echoing laughter faded away through empty hallways, lit only by dimly burning sconces and the assorted candle here and there. There was nopony here, though that wasn’t what really threw her off her tracks.
“What… is this?” she said, forgetting herself for only a moment before she steeled her mind and closed the mouth that had been hanging open.
She was definitely in the Canterlot throne room; the checkerboarded marble stretched out from her for a hundred meters, bordered by great purple and gold pillars between scintillating panes of glass that told a heroic story of her prior defeats. She would have destroyed those instantly, but framing those stained glass windows were heavy curtains that clearly bore not only her cutie mark, but her colours. Her colours, not Luna’s. They wafted gently in a nighttime breeze, and as they did so, Nightmare Moon continued to look around the abandoned room.
The sconces were all surrounded by lavender and peace lilies, and save for the windows, every symbol of the sun had been obscured or covered from view; even the massive slabs in the floor that were chiseled to match her sister’s charge had been covered with a huge, aegean blue rug. To top it all off, stretched across the entirety of the throne room was a great big banner that bore the words “Welcome Nightmare Moon!”
She stepped back once, suspicious, but then stood tall as she heard the small clip clops of a single pony approaching, and she looked down at the doorway the sound came from and sneered, ready to assert the authority she had apparently just been robbed of.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Rarity said, noticing the tall alicorn by the throne, and she moved the mug of tea she had been levitating and took a sip from it. “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting too long. I had a yearning for tea, and scampered off. I don’t suppose you wanted any? I only made the one cup, I’m afraid.”
Nightmare Moon bristled at this casual manner and hatred filled her at the sight of the mare who had helped cast her out before. “You!!” she screeched, and her horn began to glow with a crackling aura.
“Oh, settle down dear,” Rarity said, setting her tea down on a side table before sitting properly herself. “We’re here to celebrate your return, can’t you see? Don’t tell me one as wise and powerful as you didn’t catch that?” She giggled, covering her mouth with a hoof.
Nightmare Moon’s magic fizzled out, but the anger did not. She glared at Rarity, and then finally replied. “Alright, what is this? Some sort of trap? Designed to put me off my guard before you spring your friends out from behind me?” She whipped around, checking behind her for any said traps, and the sight of the single throne gave her pause once more. She looked back at Rarity, who had not moved save to grab her mug again. “Why is just my seat there? What is going on?”
“We figured you would appreciate it.”
“I won’t appreciate anything from you… you whelps! What subterfuge are you planning?”
Rarity sipped her tea once more. “Well, believe what you want to, then. But welcome all the same. Tonight is your night, Luna, and we are here to celebrate it with you.”
“I am not Luna. I am Nightmare Moon!”
“Sure, whatever you want, darling. Are you coming along, then?” Rarity asked, standing up and moving casually towards the hall doors. She looked back after a moment and saw Nightmare Moon had not moved, but had stood fuming, looking bewildered. “Oh, really now. You’re the guest of honour tonight, ‘Nightmare Moon’.” She said her name mockingly, but with a flirty tone instead of a mean one.
“I have no time nor inclination to follow you! I must find and destroy my “sister”, and plunge the world into eternal darkness!”
“Oh, come now, give it a break,” Rarity laughed, walking up to Nightmare Moon. “Spend one night having fun and then overthrow the world. Besides, Celestia’s gone to bed early, and it’s hardly honourable to attack a pony while they’re sleeping. Kill her in the morning.” She tapped her chin contemplatively. “I think right when she gets the sun to the horizon. What a statement that would make, don’t you think?” She giggled.
Nightmare Moon no longer made any attempt to hide her confusion. “I, well, I uh, suppose that is true…” She shook her head, and spoke authoritatively again. “But why should I follow you? You’re just an everyday mare, without your precious Element, and without your friends!”
“Well, given the rough start to your day, I’ll just ignore that insult—once. My friends are all out having fun and celebrating the night, and it’s high time you and I get to doing the same. Besides,” she turned with a flick of her mane, leading Nightmare Moon to the hall doors again, “I’ve been a Nightmare myself before, and I know exactly what you need, darling.”
Nightmare followed her, constantly checking back over her withers as they walked. “That’s ridiculous. How could a common pony even come close to me? And what do I need, pray tell, whelp?”
Rarity stopped, and with a sudden flash of her horn, a spectral hoof appeared in front of Nightmare and slapped her so quickly she had no time to respond. It didn’t hurt, of course, but she was shocked all the same. Her own horn began to light up in response, but Rarity’s sharp words cut her off once again.
“Let me get some things straight, missy! You were a princess before you transformed, you are one after, and you shall act like it! Princesses do not fight like common cats and dogs! My name, Nightmare, is Rarity, and you shall refer to me as such. I am not a whelp, nor a common pony.”
Nightmare recoiled slightly. She was not afraid, but even then, she had never been spoken to before like this strange unicorn had just done. “I-” she started.
“‘I’ nothing! You are a guest, as I have said, and as your host, I will extend you a certain amount of respect, but you must repay it in kind. Do you understand?” She glared at Nightmare, tapping a hoof.
“Well,” Nightmare started, ready to reply in kind, before she recognized a certain glint in Rarity’s eyes that conveyed to her the futility of her plan. “Yes,” she said finally.
“Good.” Rarity stood up and beckoned Nightmare along again, and they left the empty throne room to follow the halls to the front door. Nightmare said nothing more as they walked, and observed that the rest of the castle seemed to have been obscured or decorated in much the same way.
“Why are you doing… this?” she eventually asked, giving a general wave to the midnight adornments.
They passed by two guards standing fast by the main gate of the castle, and they saluted Nightmare as if she wasn’t a mythological horror from the annals of Equestrian history. She eyed them warily as they passed, waiting for some indication of an attack, or even move to notify somepony else that she had gone by, but they simply stood and looked out about the courtyard, alert. Rarity’s voice brought her gaze back in front of her.
“We believe that you are not so much irrational or wrong,” she said, speaking softer now as she inhaled the scent of grass damp from an evening dew, “than you are misguided. Your whole plan; slaying your sister, obliterating the sun, forcing an endless night on the planet, it’s based out of a single desire, correct? Not to conquer or enslave, nor for riches or material wealth. It’s to be loved, and have your night loved as you love it. Yes?”
“If I cannot be loved, then I shall be feared,” she replied indignantly. “But perhaps with enough exposure, they will learn to love it as I do, yes.”
“Now see the problem with that—hello, dear,” Rarity said to a passing socialite carrying a feed bag full of candy, “Sorry, she bought that hat from me, where was I… Yes. The problem with that is that you and your night are loved greatly. You’ve been told it a million times, as I’m telling you now, but you clearly don’t believe us, and so we’re taking you to show you how your night is enjoyed. Perhaps with some hooves-on experience, you may come around, Luna.”
“Nightmare-”
“Whatever.”
Nightmare was quiet as she considered it, but then wrote it off as foolishness. She was Princess of the Night; who was to tell her she was wrong when she could sense the feelings of all in her time? Who was to tell her that she didn’t know what actually went on between dusk and dawn, when it was her who controlled the world then? She scoffed.
Although now as they entered the city proper, she noticed that there was an unusual amount of activity around them. The cobbled streets were packed with dozens of ponies, all dressed up in fancy or frightening outfits, prancing about with bags and friends alike. Despite the late evening, most of the stores were open; bright light slipped out of the shops through the scuffed and aged glass, and the little jingles of bells rang constantly about them as doors flipped open and closed, over and over. Nightmare looked down an alley and saw the next street over was much the same. She narrowed her eyes, tracking a group of carousing ponies as they shuffled past her towering legs without a second thought.
“Alright, sl- uh, Rarity. Enough of this. Something is clearly going on, and though you may have managed to convince me to leave my sister alone for the night, I shall not be going any further unless you explain something.”
Rarity turned around and sighed heavily before walking up to Nightmare, sweeping off a patch of stone next to her with a flick of magic and sitting. “I suppose I can’t blame you, but we are on a time limit. What is it that you simply must need to know?”
“I am clearly extraordinary. I loom above them grandiosely, I’m dressed in my most intimidating armor, my mane is as a black hole. How come none of them are giving me but a second glance?” She sniffed, watching as a mare stumbled past her and giggled after her friends.
Rarity craned her head to watch one of the swaying citizens lean into an alley and quickly empty their stomachs. “Euugh. How unfabulous. I suspect, dear Nightmare, that they think you are simply another costumed pony. And,” she said, holding a hoof up to quiet the alicorn’s forthcoming complaint, “many of them are drunk on sugar or cider and friendship and cannot see clearly enough to recognize your radiance.”
Nightmare Moon blushed ever so slightly, but gave a disdainful ‘hmph’ to hide it. She supposed it made sense, but she still didn’t know why every pony was dressed up. Eventually, she thought, it would be explained. She stood, brusquely putting a hoof out to Rarity to indicate she should lead the way again. Rarity rolled her eyes, but complied silently, and they continued down the twisting city road.
“So where are we headed? You said you knew exactly what I needed,” Nightmare said before blinking. “Hold on, you said you had been a Nightmare before yourself. What was that about?”
“You are as full of questions as you are tall and ravishing.” Rarity looked back and winked. Nightmare felt that same blush touch her cheeks again, and looked away down the street. “I’m taking you dancing. You’ll simply love it. It’s not some formal ball, either, but a place you can really let loose and get into your own rhythm. It’ll be strange to you, I’m sure, but I really think you’ll love it. I do, and, as said before, we share something in common.”
There was silence between them for a minute while Rarity looked down at the paving, her face creased in thought. Nightmare said nothing, waiting for her host to resolve whatever they were dealing with. This pony might have faced her in battle before, but right now she seemed to be baring herself open to Nightmare. A thought passed her mind that it may be something she could use against her, and so she listened patiently.
“Twilight thought, when Luna said you were back, that you were simply a possession of some kind, and not a reflection of Luna’s true heart. She thought so because I was possessed by it. Perhaps it was some lingering element you had left on the moon, or something other entirely, but there’s no denying that I transformed into something very similar to you.” Her voice lowered, and Nightmare moved forward to hear over the shouts and laughter of the streets around them. “But it had an in with me because of my true heart, so maybe it was something from within.”
“And what is true within you, Rarity?”
“What was true, Nightmare, is the question. It is no longer the case, but I feared unappreciation. I represent Generosity. It’s so ingrained into me that somehow I’m linked to an ancient magic that expresses and resonates with the concept of it.” She shook her head lightly, a ‘no’ to an unheard question, or perhaps to dislodge an unwanted thought. “But when you give and give, you’re bound to feel taken advantage of. To feel as if it’s expected for you to provide and unacceptable for you to ask.”
She stopped and motioned for Nightmare to stop too, and continued speaking with nary more than a whisper.
“It came to me at a point where I felt unloved and unappreciated, and whisked me away with hardly a fight. Once I entertained it for a tiny moment, it seeped into me like water into a sponge, and changed me. I fought my very friends, roused an army and assaulted Ponyville. If I wasn’t going to be given anything in return for my generosity, I was going to take it instead.” She stared at nothing in particular, and went quiet.
Nightmare Moon felt incredibly awkward. The circumstances may have been different, but her story had filled her with a sickening sense of deja vu. If it was truly the case that they had been so alike, how then could Rarity be before her, back to her weak form?
“How did you overcome it? The Elements again?”
Rarity blinked and then looked up, seeming to realize for the first time where exactly they were in Canterlot. “They couldn’t use them without me. What they did is prove to me that I was loved. There’s a bit more to it than that, of course, but the other bits are highly personalized. In the end, I learned that I was loved, and we all learned how to express it to each other better so none of us felt unwanted or alone.” She beamed, genuinely, at Nightmare. “It worked for me, and our hope is it will work for you.”
“And what if I don’t want to be ‘fixed’? I’m better in every way as I am now than I was then. Luna was weak.”
“Yes, well, Luna is our friend, and we love her, and if nothing else, she’s less sharp than you.”
“Oh, what, are you afraid of these?” She bared her teeth then, looking as close to a rabid timberwolf as she could muster, and snapped at Rarity.
“Oh, behave. Put those away before I cover them for you.”
“W-what?”
“We’re here,” Rarity said, smiling slyly. She pointed across the street to a smaller, newer building on the road. Bright purple neon lights indicated in cursive that the venue was named “L'estrous”, and a line of a hundred ponies stretched down the street, held back by a pegasus that was almost as large as Nightmare herself, though just in muscle mass alone. A deep pulsing seemed to be coming from the building, quivering her hooves through the pavement. As she watched, a couple burst out from the door, tumbling over each other on their way out, and they whooped and hollered as they swayed away together. The pegasus at the door undid a clip on a velvet cordon and motioned the next two inside, and the line shuffled up to replace them.
“It appears we are too late. That line is enormous, and while I could shorten it, I don’t think you’d approve of me nor would they let us in after I had done so.” Nightmare chuckled softly and stood proud.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I told you earlier, I am not a common pony.” Rarity trotted across the street, flipping her mane with a foreleg as she did so, and approached the bouncer.
“Oh, Bulk, darling, what a shame you need to be working on such a fabulous night,” Rarity said, her voice saccharine and sultry. “I hope it’s been an enjoyable enough shift, at least. How’s the crowd been, dear?”
Bulk looked down at Rarity and grunted at her before unclipping the cordon and stepping aside for her. He eyed Nightmare Moon suspiciously but said nothing, choosing instead to snort menacingly at the patrons in the line who had started complaining, silencing them immediately.
“Ah, well, we’ll just be along then. Thank you so much, Bulk!” Rarity gave an exaggerated wink and then moved forward into the open door with a clearly-impressed Nightmare in tow.
“I suppose every pony is supposed to just give me whatever I want tonight, then,” Nightmare said as they entered a long dimly lit hallway. The floor was carpeted a deep red that, in the moody lighting, looked like blood to her. Small lamps inset in the wall gave off a dull pink glow, and the pulsing that she had felt outside was surrounding her now. She noticed that when she spoke, her words seemed to be sapped of their volume by the intense bass pounding about her.
“What? Oh, no, dear, he has no idea who you are. He knows who I am, however, and that’s all you and your lil’ moon need worry about.” She stopped before the double doors; two metal panels that were highlighted by a mesmerising rainbow that leaked from the frame, and turned to face Nightmare. “Now, I need to set a couple ground rules here, your Highness. This is going to be the biggest shock you’ve experienced so far, I think, and I don’t want you going off the rails and ruining a perfectly good party.”
Nightmare reeled. “How dare you suggest I-”
“Like that. Tone it down, dear! Nopony is going to be able to hear you, even with a Royal Canterlot voice, and you won’t be able to hear them. It’s going to be cramped and disorientating and likely a dozen ponies are going to step on your hooves and not even notice. Now, so far as you’ve been with me, you have been unassailed and treated respectfully. With that in mind, I must have you give me your word that you will keep your temper while we dance.”
Nightmare looked hard into Rarity’s azure irises, thinking. She considered a couple things. One, Rarity had indeed been telling the relative truth so far; nopony had blasted her with magic from behind her back, and she hadn’t noticed a single suspicious watcher or tail their entire walk. Two, Rarity had divulged rather personal information—or if she had lied, done so incredibly convincingly—as a manner of trust. Finally, Nightmare Moon thought of herself, and the power she held within. She could bring the Sun down on Equus in a minute if she felt like it. She may have been unaccustomed to current social conventions, but she was not naive; while she expected a trap, this did not by any means feel like one. What harmony-loving psychopath would try to fight a demigod in a room packed with civilians? After a long moment, she nodded.
Rarity tutted, and Nightmare sighed.
“Yes, Rarity, you have my word. Now let’s get this over with.”
Despite the warning from Rarity, Nightmare was completely unprepared for the world that opened up to her when the doors were pulled open. It was not necessarily a massive room, but for the sheer number of ponies occupying it it might have been a banquet hall. First and foremost was a cleared flat area where most of the ponies had congregated, and they were bouncing and sliding to the bass so hard Nightmare momentarily thought it was a pool of agitated water suspended above the dance floor. Flanking the lowered dance floor were sections of regal-looking booths. Red velvet seats cramped around mahogany tables, and each of these, too, were overflowing with ponies. The tables themselves were just as cluttered, with piles of plates with half-eaten appetizers and dozens, if not hundreds, of bottles and glasses of all shapes and sizes. At the back of the room, raised high above the rest of the club, was a recessed balcony of sorts with various machines and instruments. A white mare with a spiky, two-toned blue mane and violet sunglasses was bouncing up on the balcony along with the others on the dance floor, but held a hoof high in the air while another flew over the instruments so fast Nightmare couldn’t keep up with it. With every flick of a hoof, the music and beat would shift and change slightly, and the crowd would respond in kind, and Nightmare felt a tinge of jealousy at this mare’s complete control over the rest of the room.
She felt a touch on a forehoof and looked down to see Rarity holding it, gently pulling her to one of the booths on the right side of the room. It was just as stacked with dirty dishes as the rest, but the chairs had been abandoned. Nightmare pulled her hoof back sharply, and went to admonish Rarity before finding that she couldn’t hear her own voice amongst the intense music.
Rarity, at this movement, rolled her eyes and then pointed at her mouth, miming—or actually, Nightmare couldn’t tell—speaking. She tilted her head forward with a raised eyebrow, as if to say ‘understand?’. Nightmare nodded, and after hesitating, extended her leg again for Rarity to take and lead her.
They proceeded to the booth while Nightmare continued to gawk and gaze at the alien world she found herself in. There was no room to walk, but the two of them continued as if nopony were there, pushing others out of their way to absolutely no notice whatsoever. The room was even darker than the hallway, and that Nightmare could see anything at all was more to do with the spectrum of bands and necklaces that glowed in the dark like rainbow-coloured fireflies than the practically useless mood-lighting. They made it to the booth, where Rarity directed Nightmare in first and then followed.
She frowned, and wondered why they were there. Weren’t they supposed to be dancing? And what in Tartarus’ name were those ponies doing? That wasn’t any dancing Nightmare knew.
Rarity tapped her on her shoulder and then, with light pressure, pulled Nightmare down sideways to bring her lips right to the alicorn’s ears. Nightmare’s eyes went wild and her thoughts raced before Rarity started yelling as loud as she could. Even so, it registered hardly above a whisper.
“Sorry, I just needed to get someplace you could hear me! If you need a break, come back to this table! You’ll find me here too if you lose me! Now just follow my lead!”
Nightmare nodded, and then found her eyes going wild again as the muzzle next to her ears gave her the smallest peck on her neck. She swung around only to find the white unicorn starting to disappear into the crowd, and she scrambled out of her seat to follow her to the dancefloor, flustered. Somehow, above all the noise, she thought she heard Rarity giggle.
She stopped at the edge and watched. Rarity’s coat changed from its brilliant white to a tye-dye rainbow as she entered the fray, reflecting and radiating the colours from the neon bands that surrounded her. She moved in past a few ponies, and then closed her eyes.
It started with a hip. The song shifted as she started dancing, and Rarity’s hindquarters started to snap to the side and back with the new, quickened beat. Then a knee joined in, and her swaying began to deepen and change. She brought her withers into the mix, rolling her shoulders forward counter to the movements of her backside. Ever so slightly, her head began to bob. It seemed to gain energy with each bounce, raising and dropping further with every cycle, until Rarity was completely one with the music. There was no order to where her hooves stomped, no pattern in which leg bent after the last, no rhythm to where her mane and tail bobbed and swished, save for the beat. The point to this dancing, Nightmare could see, was not to move to a specific choreography. It was not to be romantic, even though the movements she was watching were almost entirely sexual in origin. It was not to train or intimidate or impress.
It was simply to move.
And move she did. She stepped forward onto the dance floor, and secret feelings of awkwardness vanished quickly. There wasn’t a single pony here who was seeing her. They were all entirely enraptured by the thumping tones that blasted them from the speakers at each corner of the dance floor. And even if all eyes were on her, she couldn’t screw up moving to the beat. If anyone said she had anyways, she would just unmake them, so really there was nothing to worry about.
She closed her eyes, and thought about the music. She could hear it, of course. It was all she could hear. She could feel it; even the air about her was vibrating with each shake of the speakers. And with her eyes shut, she was shocked to find that she could see it, too. Not in a way that actually made it through her eyes, but in her head. She breathed the music, drank the music, wore the music.
And she moved.
She started with her head, rocking it with a hard shake to each beat. Her shoulders came next, rolling forwards alternatively to meet her swinging face. Music invaded her mind without her consciously thinking about it, and it suggested to her that she should bend her hindlegs. She did so without a thought, adding the flex to her movements.
More and more joints and muscles joined the dance, and as she got into it, the music picked up its pace. The bass decreased to give way begrudgingly to treble, and the sound of trumpets, clarinets, and strings met Nightmare’s ears. A smile touched her lips. Though the music was still fast and synthetic, these familiar elements reached her on a deeper level. It was swing music, but electric, new, nothing like she had ever heard before. The distant memory of her first informal ball reached her; an ecstatic night with a big jazz band and her learning to four-step, taught by the travelling band of ponies so charismatic she swore her stomach still hurt from singing and laughing.
She brought those elements in, kickstepping to the beat. She stepped both her right hooves out and in, and then leaned over and popped her left ones out and back. Piano notes swept into the song, and she rolled her spine to a slide down the keys and then bucked, laughing. She was moving wildly now, almost miming playing some of the instruments with her limbs. As the first beads of sweat started to run down her forehead, the smallest sense of rationality reached her mind.
Her eyes were still closed, and she had not felt herself kick anyone with her erratic movements. She snapped her eyes open, only to find that the dance floor had cleared an area around her. There was a perfect circle of patrons, all hopping to the song, surrounding and staring at her. Fear, embarrassment, and anger all passed through her mind, and she almost started a powerful offensive spell before the song came to an end, leaving only a generic throbbing base and relative quiet, allowing her to hear the ponies.
Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna!
Well, the name was wrong, but this was more like it, Nightmare thought. She was standing, legs splayed out and head drooped slightly. Most of the crowd were now pumping their hooves in the air, chanting her old name while she caught her breath, and she smiled deviously. The next song faded into the mix then, starting with a rolling snare, and Nightmare threw her head back and stomped her hooves rapidly along with the drum roll. A resounding woop! reached her from the entourage, and ponies rushed in to dance alongside her, cheering and swinging just as wildly. Nightmare smiled broadly, relishing in the music and adoration, and lost herself to the music completely.
She had no way to tell how long it had been before the songs shifted to a far more rapid and electronic throbbing that she felt signalled the end to her recreation. She walked out of the swarm, panting and laughing, drenched in sweat, and glanced back quickly to check for Rarity. She saw no sign of the unicorn, and turned back to head to the seat.
Rarity was there, along with a teal stallion with a slicked back grey mane and white framed glasses. She was idly stirring a half-empty drink in a slim but excessively tall glass with her magic, fluttering her eyelashes and leaning in in a serene manner that Nightmare felt was completely counter to the straight-up screeching the two were doing to converse. She moved up and sat next to Rarity, who said something unintelligible to the stallion and then turned to face her.
“Well, darling, what did you think? You certainly had them enthralled.” She sipped from her drink, a dark brown liquid with lemon slices stuffed down the glass.
“That was… incredible! The music is not my main choice, but it was enjoyable all the same. I cannot remember moving that much in over a millenia. And the attention! They loved me, Rarity, and I didn’t even need to threaten them!”
“Imagine that,” Rarity smirked, mumbling so Nightmare couldn’t hear her. “So how are you feeling then, dear?”
“A little worn out,” Nightmare started, eyeing Rarity suspiciously, “but not weak!” She pulled her chin up indignantly, careful to make it clear she would not be impacted in the inevitable fight. It would have seemed impressive, too, if a disgruntled gurgle didn’t come from her stomach, loud enough to be heard over the music. “Maybe a little hungry,” she admitted, looking away.
“Wassat?” Rarity said, and Nightmare looked down to find she was back to absentmindedly stirring her drink and making eyes at the stallion next to her. “For Cosmare, you say? Well that is such a wonderful coincidence, I happen to be a bit of a fashionista myself…”
“Rarity,” Nightmare said, insulted at her drop in attention. “I require food. You are my host, are you not? Rarity!”
“Food? Gee, I can help you with that, Luna!”
Nightmare turned around, shocked to find another one of her arch-enemies standing at the table. It was the pink one, though she was wearing ankle-warmers that glowed like the bands spread about the room, and her curly hair was peppered with stars made out of reflective foil. Her front half was bouncing back and forth, but to her own beat, not the music’s.
That same flash of red rage filled Nightmare then, and in the presence of two Elements every alarm in her head went off. She leapt up with magic crackling about her horn, promptly smashing her knee into the thick mahogany table, rattling the stack of plates and glasses. She crossed her eyes and subdued a curse, rubbing the leg that had connected to the wood before realizing it didn’t actually hurt. She shook her head and then looked, unimpressed, at Pinkie Pie, and her stomach growled again, loudly.
“Oh, yeah, you definitely need something. Let’s get out of Rarity’s way, shall we? She seems pretty preoccupied. She can take care of herself, anyways, so we can bounce outta here and grab some grub.”
Nightmare stared at Pinkie Pie, disgust and confusion clear on her face. Where did this pony even come from?
“...All my friends trust me with food, Luna. It’s like, my thing. Well, fun and laughter’s my thing, but food is pretty high up on the list. I dunno too many ponies who have never had fun with food at least once.” She smiled brightly. “So c’mon, silly! Let’s go eat!”
Resigned, Nightmare Moon shuffled out of the seat and flipped a leg casually to urge Pinkie Pie on. She followed her through the sea of ponies until they reached the double doors and popped out into the hallway. It had been so loud for so long Nightmare thought she had gone deaf momentarily before she realized that she was just hearing silence. She walked alongside Pinkie Pie to the entrance.
“It’s Nightmare Moon, by the way.”
“Nice ’ta meetcha, Nightmare! I’m Pinkie Pie.”