In the comfort of her cozy cell, Celestia snuggled against the fluffy wall, relishing in the simple pleasure it brought her. She rolled around on the soft pillowy floor, feeling a sense of bliss and freedom.
"It feels so good!" the alabaster mare exclaimed, her voice filled with joy. She giggled as she cuddled with a pillow, rolling around on the soft floor of her cell.
The sensation was delightful, and she felt like a carefree filly once again. The worries of ruling Equestria faded away, replaced by a sense of pure joy.
She truly felt like she was in the Elysium Fields
As she lay there, her mind wandered to the state of Equestria. She believed that her trusted assistant, Raven Inkwell, was more than capable of handling things in her absence.
Over the past few years, Celestia had relied on Raven's judgment in most of the decision-making, blindly signing off on anything her assistant sent her way. And so far, nothing had gone wrong.
At first, it was only to prepare her assistant for the worst case scenario, but soon Celestia found herself cling to this status qua, not wanting this new dynamic to end.
"Raven Inkwell, the secret ruler of Equestria," Celestia giggled at the thought, finding humor in the idea that her faithful assistant actually held so much power behind the scenes.
And with the help of her trusted niece, Cadance. They will surely succeed.
However, a hint of worry crept into her mind. She hoped that she had instilled the same confidence in her faithful student with her sister.
So much has gone wrong in such an amount of time. Celestia truly yearned for everything to go smoothly without any unforeseen troubles.
Closing her eyes and embracing the tranquility of the moment, The immortal ruler patient hoped that nothing had gone wrong yet.
Knock Knock Knock!
The sound of hoof met wood echoed through the golden oak library.
"Come out, Twilight. You need to eat," Nightmare Moon called out to the closed door, her tone gentle but firm.
“Please go away!” Twilight's muffled voice came from behind the door, still consumed by guilt and regret.
Nightmare Moon sighed, face-to-face social interaction was not her strong suit, and she knew it.
It had been nearly half a day since the unicorn had locked herself in her room. Horrified at what she had done, Twilight locked herself into her room, sulking in there alone.
Nightmare Moon looked down at the food plate in her hoofgrip, the one that she had prepared for the unicorn to eat.
It was a hayfried with daisy flower burger, the simplest recipe from a random cookbook she found in the library. It was her first attempt at making pony food, and she hoped that it was edible.
She had tried her best to follow the recipe and make it properly cooked, crispy, and with no burnt marks. She hoped it would entice Twilight to come out of her room, but that is not to be.
"Please, Twilight," Nightmare Moon cried out again, but she received no response, only silence greeted her this time.
Their new habitat, the golden oak library, was outfitted with a kitchen and was already prepared to be used.
The freezer was full of ingredients that would last for a month or so for a little pony like Twilight, and a lot of gemstones, food for a dragon like spike.
Nightmare couldn't help but suspect that the white one had been deliberately planning to separate Twilight from her family and kept her in Ponyville from the start.
That scene in TV shows where after Twilight defeated the original Nightmare Moon and is going to return to Canterlot, the unicorn begged sunbutt to 'allowed' her to stay in Ponyville, is likely a mere visage, to push all the responsibility off her by making Twilight says she wants to stay in Ponyville herself.
She wondered how this Twilight, which is more level-headed and less neurotic, can still be manipulated like that, but....
She shook her head, trying to push away the thought.
“It's alright, Twilight. I'll leave the food here for you,” Nightmare Moon said, placing the plate at the front door of Twilight's room.
That was a logical move in a sense, despite all of its weirdness. Ponyville was one of the best place to keep a sentient superweapon on standby, far away from any noble's reach, yet still close enough to Canterlot.
Nightmare Moon wondered how she had convinced Shining Armor to let his little sister stay here alone, far away from her family. It was a mysterious thought that gave her food for thought.
Money, perhaps? Maybe a threat? Celestia was certainly capable of stooping that low, and Luna knew firsthand just how ruthless the sovereign of the sun could be.
Lost in thought, Nightmare Moon made her way to the first floor, to the kitchen where she left her own portion of dinner. She had left the food plate at Twilight's door, and now she needed to eat something herself.
As she ate in silence, Nightmare Moon couldn't help but think about Twilight. She hoped that the unicorn would come out of her room soon, so they could talk and work through whatever was troubling her.
Loss in her thought, random topics came in and went out of her head rapidly, some stay long enough to become a thought experiment, but most don't.
Such topics ranged from 'Should she spice up the burger more?' to 'Where to go next if she cannot find everything she needs in Equestria?', but there is a topic that stuck to her.
The royal guards.
There are quite a lot of guards, more than four if she counts them right, rotating throughout the day, keep 'protecting' her in pair all days. She scoffed at the idea that they are here to actually served her.
The night alicorn doesn't want to assume anything, but this is likely they are the same ones that were sent to protect sunbutt last night, and this is their 'punishment' for 'failing' to accomplish their duty.
They have already seen her magnum opus firsthan-hoof, and know what she is truly capable of if she wants to hurt someone.
The little flinches here and sheen of fear mixed with hostility there, are the telltale sign of what they are thinking of her.
It is good to know that they still follow her orders when it came to things that truly matter. May it be a medical emergency of a civilian or a threat to their livelihood, like the little sister of their boss.
She has no illusion that the guards' main purpose is not here to serve her, none at all. Just like that secret agent, they are here to monitor her, report back to their respective top brass, and take action if necessary.
Not like they can do much anyway, with how the guards froze up and the agent immediately broke her disguise at first sight of a potential threat to Equestria.... from a sketchy source.
Good luck for her it's intel on an actual threat this time and not just some kind of honeypot.
Anyway, the alicorn already sent one of the guards on a fast train to Canterlot to inform them about this development, and another one to Baltimare.
It’s where Cadance and Shining Armor are stationed respectively, according to the information she got from a guard.
It is crucial that they were informed of Twilight's condition as soon as possible. For everyone's sake, including hers.
After all, without a dialogue tree to choose dialogues from, she is pretty much useless in this kind of situation.
Talk no jutsu is not her thing, not at all.
Nightmare Moon continued to chew her hay burger thoughtfully, lost in her own contemplations.
The texture of the daisy flowers added an interesting crunch to the patty, but she couldn't help but miss the succulent taste of the real, red meat.
She wondered if Applejack's farm had any cows or chickens that she could purchase for meat, but quickly dismissed the thought, knowing that it would only cause more problems.
"Decent enough" she rated the taste of her homemade food. Not bad for her first try at making a pony recipe, not bad at all.
The alicorn considered the repercussions of sending Spike away, again. While the dragon wasn't particularly close to Twilight, he played an important role in her communication with her esteemed mentor.
At first, she thinks that sending Spike to Canterlot with the guard is the best option. Seeing that this version of Spike is not that close to twilight sparkle, no mommy-son relationship between them at least.
Twilight has a habit of asking Spike to write and sent letters for her. She would be less likely to communicate with that tax leach if Spike wasn't around to send letters on her behalf.
Not only that, but Spike is also someone that has skepticism about her character, a source of unnecessary tension.
By keeping him out of the picture, Twilight will lose the voice of suspicion against her, making the unicorn more cooperative and more flexible with how she does things.
But alas, she cannot do that, Spike is someone who can understand Twilight's psychology and know how to calm her down, if it’s the same as the TV shows that is.
Nightmare Moon worried that Spike's absence and only alicorn with a sketchy past as her sole ally would leave Twilight feeling even more vulnerable and isolated, making her sink deeper into her shell and even more uncooperative with Nightmare's efforts to help her.
The unicorn rejected her help already....
To Twilight in her current state, someone she is familiar with like Spike is invaluable, Nightmare Moon just hopes that he would wake up already.
Seeing a little bit of blood and just fainting like that really make sense why he's not on most adventures with the girls on the TV shows. Wasted of a dragon bloodline, but as expected of a superhero nerd....
As she finished her meal, Nightmare wondered if pegasi in this alternate universe still consumed fish like in the old days.
The idea of any kind of real meat was intriguing, and she made a mental note to ask someone about it later.
Nightmare Moon went back upstairs to check on Twilight, but the door was closed, the plate is gone. She sighed and walked back to the kitchen, feeling a mix of frustration and concern.
At least she ate her dinner.
The alicorn of night walks back down to the kitchen, to clean everything up before go to sleep, her gaze lingered at a front window, looking at one of the guards standing at the entrance directly.
His armor is in night theme, but the only difference to its golden counterpart is just the camo. checking with a scanning spell, they use the same modern equestrian tech just like typical royal guard armor.
Her eyes met another pair of serpent-liked slitted eyes. Their owner flinched and muttered quietly to himself at a volume too low even for his companion that stand by his side, to hear.
This made it impossible for Nightmare Moon to understand the meaning from the sound alone.
But his jaw movement is the one she is familiar with, the same pattern she had seen Twilight made, the same one she had seen many ponies made on the night she left the moon. A name was given to Luna after the day she lose everything.
"Mare of the Moon"
To that, Nightmare Moon's thoughts only filled with a childlike curiosity, and her face morphed into a kind, playful smile to calm the stallion down. While her jaws expressed her question, the one she won't get an answer to.
Air particles vibrated into the sound of words, and the volume is so low that only the speaker herself is privileged to be the sole audience.
From past his experience interacting with the alicorn and words from his co-workers, the guard with batwings would interpret soundless words from her muzzle as some kind of joke, possibly at his expense.
"To have descendants of your comrades. To have the children of the night used against you." She truly wondered "How do you feel, Luna?"
Only the sound of an alicorn chuckling can be heard.