The Return of Princess Nightmare Moon
Part 5: Straining
It had been a full, grueling six weeks of recovery time, but Nightmare Moon was at least on her hooves again. She was still very skinny, but otherwise slowly growing stronger. She could eat small meals, reach the bathroom on her own (an interesting ordeal to say the least, learning the toilet), and even stand upright for long periods of time! While she was far from back to full power, she looked less skeleton and more mare than ever before.
Dr. Heart Starter was giving his formal lecture on the Princess’ release. Nightmare Moon stood with Celestia, eager to be out of the sterile and white environment. “So then, I want you to keep up your regiment of vitamins, keep drinking your nutrient juice, and I’m going to have a nurse with you at all times in case something happens.” He went on and on about how very careful she needed to be. “I don’t want you straining on anything, either. That means not a lot of magic, no drinking, sex, or skipping sleeping hours. You know, the usual. Eight hours of sleep every night… day, in your case.” He smiled.
Nightmare scowled at the no sex bit. As though he had the authority to decide on her bedroom activities! Why, she’d been a thousand years through un-answered heat cycles! One of the first things she wanted to do was visit her sister’s harem and relax herself. “Very well…” Nightmare found herself saying slowly, scowling.
“Alright then. Princess Celestia, if you’ll sign her out for us?” He let Celestia put her royal hoof on the bottom line. “Now then, I’m assigning you Nurse--”
“Bandaid.” said Nightmare firmly, nodding. Her draconic eyes locked on the stallion, who was standing nearby. He perked in slight alarm, and she favored him with a close-lipped smile. “A most excellent nurse.”
“Er…” the doctor looked startled, but quickly shifted gears. That wasn’t the nurse he was going to name, but if the Princess liked one in particular who was he to say no? “Right, of course. Nurse Bandaid will be at your beck and call, medically speaking.” He rather frantically waved the stallion over. The earth pony smiled rather shyly as Celestia studied him closely, and he cleared his throat a bit. “Nurse Bandaid, you’ll be responsible for Princess Nightmare Moon if her ailments start acting up. Understand?”
Bandaid nodded firmly. “Yes Doctor.”
Celestia, done with the clipboard, gave it back filled out. “There we are. Come sister, we’ll head to a nice lunch. I’ve already sent palace staff to…erm… unseal, your room. Until then, you'll have to stay in the astronomy tower.” She smiled a little embarrassedly. (Truth be told, there was a group of stallions on the other side of the palace working with crowbars and acid cans to get the old archway door open.) How, exactly, Celestia had gone six weeks and not had a room prepared for her sister was beyond anypony. The raw joy of seeing the recovery had made her forget all about it, though. Ah well, the poor Day Princess couldn't think of absolutely everything.
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After the luncheon, Celestia excused herself to go to the Noon Day Court and left her sister to her own devices. Nightmare sat wiping her mouth regally, while Nurse Bandaid stood quietly to one side. The guards had eyed him up a bit, confiscated any sharp objects he had, and then let him be. The poor guy was a little rattled, but also flattered at the same time. Not just anypony got to be a Princess’ medical hoof servant. “Do you feel full?” he asked softly, coming to stand beside her. “We can’t let you eat too much, your body is still rebuilding and might reject all of it if it gets overwhelmed.”
Nightmare smirked a little at his fussing. “We feel better eating normal food instead of that juice over and over again, servant.” She said, setting down her napkin and slowly rising. Her legs protested and ached, but she was strong enough to force them to do her bidding now. “Come, we will journey elsewhere for entertainment.” Closing her eyes and lifting her muzzle upward into a royal stance, she started into the hall and made a right turn. Two guards and Bandaid followed silently, wondering just what the Princess might do now that she was up and about. “Ah, our bag. Bandaid, fetch our bag from ‘neath yon dinner table.” She coughed a little, having used her voice a bit too much. Bandaid obeyed, turning and going back to the dining room. Meanwhile the Princess started forward again with authority.
Then she turned a corner and smacked into Blueblood.
The stallion toppled with a shout, books going everywhere. He sat up, one book balanced perfectly on his face. “Oh! Watch where you're---! Oh dear.” He saw who he’d knocked down when the Royal Guards came to help her up. He was a white stallion, but he could still turn pale.
Nightmare Moon staggered to her hooves, shaking her head angrily to get her bearings. “Fool! Again we meet, wormling of my sister’s bloodline!” she peered around while Blueblood scrambled about to get his books out of her way. Watching him grovel about she snatched a couple of them up:
Three Dates to the Bedroom, by Smooth Talker.
When You Know She’s the One: A Stallion’s Guide to Dating and Seduction, by Arrow Heart.
50 First Date Ideas, by Con Mane.
Mare’s Delight and Stallion’s Smirk, by Sly Clop.
The Princess dropped them in disgust. “Clearly our instinct of thou was correct.” She squinted, her eyes crackling a sterile white. Blueblood flushed in humiliation, stacking the set of ten or twelve books as quickly as he could and to one side of the Princess.
“I-It’s not what it looks like!” he tried to smile, turning his ears back.
Nightmare Moon loomed over him, a great black shadow with rising wings. “It looks like,” she paused briefly as Bandaid returned with her rucksack of mathematical tools and papers. “It looks like thou have a bit more than Princely duties on hoof. Such filthy literature is hardly becoming of the solar bloodline.” She scowled it him, her jowls rising to show off her rather terrifying teeth.
“It’s not that, I just—I just--!” Blueblood was shaking now, fear working its way and running icy fingers down his spine. Why was it so, so cold in his aunt’s shadow? Was that magic? He sank slowly to his belly, his pupil’s shrinking into dots.
“If coitus is on thy mind, have the decency to hire a whore and be done with it. If thou means to simply seduce another of good standing, we forbid it.” Nightmare Moon scowled. Lifting a powerful hoof, she pointed it at him and bent her ankle slightly. A black, ear-itching hum filled the air around them. Both Bandaid and the two guards cocked their heads, flicking their ears a bit. Suddenly, the fur around Blueblood’s neck constricted like somepony had thrown a noose around him! He gagged and was hauled to his hooves by the invisible force, pawing helplessly at his windpipe as it was ruthlessly squeezed. “We find thy lack of respect for mares… disturbing.” said Nightmare Moon acidly, eyes narrowed into slits.
Bandaid boldly stepped forward, his nurse’s instinct unable to watch another pony suffer. “Th-that’s enough, Princess! Please! Let him go!” he said fearfully. He pawed at her chest, trying to get her attention away from Prince Blueblood.
Nightmare Moon’s draconic gaze slid to her caretaker, and she opened her mouth to disagree. But, just as suddenly, her focus began to slip. Her heart racing, she was forced to drop the choking spell. The sterile white left her eyes, returning to their normal bright green hue. She panted for just a moment as Blueblood collapsed to the ground, holding himself and gasping. She wasn’t yet back to full power, it seemed. “Thine is a filthy mind, little Princeling. Clean it before approaching any mare worth more than mounting.” With that, she snapped her wings closed and walked past him with authority. Her massive hoof crushed the October issue of Play Stallion, ripping a few pages from it in the process. Nose upturned, she was away. Blueblood panted, on his belly and just trying to breathe a bit. Who knew his aunt was so terrifying?!
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That Evening…
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“T-Twilight Sparkle?” Came the rather meek voice at Twilight’s door. She looked over from her open book and notes. The candle and fireplace-lit room was orange and cozy, but something was pulling her from her cloister. “Are you home?” there was a light tapping on the door. She glanced over at Spike, who was asleep on the top shelf on his little hoard. Not wanting to wake her little assistant, she shrugged and went to answer the door.
“Prince Blueblood?” Twilight frowned, wrinkling her nose at him. “What do you want?” she glanced over her shoulder, pondering if she should sic Spike on him. The fact that he’d shown up at her door made her nervous, and frankly she wasn’t above commanding Spike to light his butt on fire again.
“I… erhm…” The Prince had an odd, dark ring around his neck where the fur was mussed. If Twilight didn’t know better, she would’ve thought that he’d been put in a violent headlock recently. But, she did know better. Blueblood didn’t do much in the ways of physical activity other than horn fencing. “Erhm…” his ears were down, and his eyes were racing back and forth like he was trying to find words. “I… I…” he paused a moment. Grunting in frustration, he sighed. “Erhm, one moment, please.” Blueblood reached and, with some strength, shut the door on himself. Twilight blink-blinked, a little caught off guard. “Come on, you idiot!” she heard him say, muffled, through the door. She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head. “Put it aside—something nice---!” she couldn’t hear all he was saying, but it did strike her as odd that he’d shown up only to shut her door in his own face. Usually, that was something she did on her own.
Leaning, Twilight magicked the door open a little. “Are you okay?” she asked with a troubled frown. She saw him with his horn and forehead on a nearby column. “What happened to your neck, anyway?”
“Do’re not sum pize.” Blueblood honked, for his nose was pressed into the cold marble.
“Sorry?” The purple mare asked, leaning. “Are you sick? Do you need help?”
“No no, I’ll be okay!” he shuffled upright, coughing loudly and trying to look presentable again. Princes had to be Princely at all times. “I’m sorry I came to bother you, I don’t know what I was going to say!” he smiled his usual impish, unsure grin that Twilight didn’t trust. He stroked his own mane a few times to make it behave. “Ahem!” he straightened his collar a bit, for it was ruffled and open until he fixed it.
“You came to see me but don’t know what you wanna say?” Twilight frowned dubiously. “Do I need to read your mind, and put you out of your misery?”
“No!” Blueblood shrieked, lighting his horn to defend himself from mental assault. “No, please don’t!” Why was he so upset? What was eating at him? “I—I’m sorry!” he finally said, backing up submissively.
“It’s okay, it’s not that late at night…” Twilight wasn’t following. She didn’t understand what he was talking about.
Blueblood was on the spot. He’d had a whole string of nice things to say to Twilight after he’d been studying those books. According to all the books he’d been searching through, mares did like compliments. Then Princess Nightmare Moon had choked-a-stallion and he’d gone all muddled in the head. Confidence shaken and the mare of his desires staring at him as she was, he was mute for a long time. Sweating a little and giving his mane a toss, he tried to find the perfect thing to say. Something Princely. Something regal and upright. Something nice that would make Twilight Sparkle’s face light up. There had to be a good one, worthy of the purple mare. Something, something good! Something grand! Ah-hah! “You smell nice!” he blurted loudly.
Twilight Sparkle stared at him in a long, awkward silence. Then she slowly closed the door. Prince Blueblood facehoof’d so hard the clopping sound to his forehead was audible. Inside her apartment, Twilight Sparkle stared straight ahead with a very, very confused expression. What… had just happened? She heard his hoof-steps retreating away from her home, but it didn’t make her feel any more at ease.
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“Princess what was that?!” Nurse Bandaid wanted to know, following closely. It had taken him some time to work up the courage to speak about the choking. They’d made their way all the way across the palace, up into the astronomy tower, and upon the grand royal balcony. Nightmare Moon looked up from the semi-circle of papers on the desk around her.
“Ask not of our motivations, servant Bandaid. Even Princes should be laid low when they surround themselves with such filthy literature.” She flicked her gaze back down. Having pulled all the pages out of the pad of paper she’d been given, she was starting to arrange them in a pattern now.
“Did you have to choke him, though?” Bandaid said, pawing at the ground a little and looking glum. “I mean, he looked sorry when you found all that. Maybe you could’ve just yelled or something? Violence isn’t--!”
“If we wanted to KILL him, we could have shouted!” Nightmare Moon concussed the room with one word, shuddering the bookshelves and windowsills. It was like a roll of thunder! Bandaid was shocked into silence and said no more, wilting a bit like a kicked puppy. After a long few moments, she glanced at him again. Sighing aloud, she rolled her eyes and waved him over. He came close cautiously. “Have a look, Bandaid.” She bade him.
Bandaid leaned, peering at the pages and pages of what looked like… well, nothing at all. There were precise angled lines going every which way across them. There were small circles, crescent moon shapes, dots, lines, dotted lines, little swirl marks, occasional numbers—it was a tapestry of madness that the nurse just couldn’t make heads or tails of. “What is it?” he asked finally.
“Tiz something that Equestria has not seen in a thousand years.” Nightmare Moon smiled lovingly down at the pages. “Something not even mighty Celestia can do.” She moved a page to be next to another. Bandaid saw some of the lines line up. It wasn’t just lots of pages, it was actually a bigger picture. Knowing there had to be an order to the madness, the stallion scratched his head. “Does it look familiar, servant?” she asked with a light chuckle. Bandaid frowned, and shook his head once or twice. She scowled a little, but did not voice her annoyance. Of course he would not know it, it was intricate and beyond his poor mortal mind. “Fair enough. Thou shalt see soon enough.” She glanced to one side, out the window, and cocked her head. It was turning dusk outside. The black alicorn rose from her seat and went to the balcony doors. The two guards opened them for her and she stepped outside. She wondered… staring up at the slowly greying sky, she looked down at her gilded hoof. Could she… maybe?
“Are you alright Princess?” Bandaid leaned around her a little, frowning in a troubled way. “I know you’re upset that you’re not fully healed yet, but it takes time! It does! Six weeks was a miracle in and of itself. It’s probably because you’re an alicorn, really, but you’re not back to one hundred percent yet.”
Nightmare Moon looked over at her nurse. His handsome face was laced with concern and his eyebrows were bunched together into a rather adorable expression. She reached over and patted his head twice. “Neigh, I am fine, Bandaid.” She tilted her head back and watched the sun slowly descend beyond the horizon. She could feel it slipping into subspace, the place between places. There was quiet. No stars ignited. No moon rose. Was Celestia waiting somewhere, to see if she would try it? She wondered… frowning, she reared up and put her front hooves on the balcony railing. The earth pony stallion next to her opened his mouth to object, but she’d already tilted her head down in concentration.
Canterlot hummed quietly, like a distant and silvery tuning fork. The stretch of her endless, web-like consciousness slipped into the breeze. Nightmare Moon lit her horn slowly as he chin lowered to her chest. Ancient magicks crackled across her being, startling Bandaid back. A phantom breeze blew his mane one way. Her wings opened like quiet antennae, dark magic arcing back and forth between them. She grit her teeth a little as she touched her celestial symbol, the moon. It was a cool, white thing, just beyond the horizon. The tuning fork sound got louder and louder, and the nurse began to back away. Rings of dust pulsed away from the dark alicorn as she revved up her magic once more.
“Obey me.” Nightmare Moon squeezed her eyes closed, clenching her fangs together. “Obey me.” She said more insistently, tugging at the moon herself. So hard was she clenching her teeth, her cheeks vibrated. Straining hard, powerfully, against the massive object, she reared and thrust her front hooves high. Her wings extended to their full black, apocalyptic span. She threw her head back, drawing on the deepest wells of her power. “Obey me!” she commanded shrilly. “Rise!”
Nothing happened.
Nightmare Moon strained and pressed, heaved and pulled at the moon. The white orb would not move. Then quite suddenly the Princess fell into a coughing fit, falling forward and holding herself. The spell of awe on her nurse suddenly broke. “Princess!” Bandaid rushed forward and she leaned on him. “What did we say about straining like that?!” he said, pulling her to put her weight on him. She hacked and coughed animatedly, holding her aching sides as her horn’s glow sputtered out into nothing. Well of course she couldn’t move the moon. She could barely choke somepony. Cursing herself, she gestured with a hoof to be led back inside. She sighed inwardly when she felt her sister raising the moon a few moments later. Panting loudly and shaking her head at the guards that came rushing to her aid, she flopped onto a fancy couch. Nurse Bandaid loudly fussed over her for a long time, reminding her how fragile she was—how weak she was compared to her former glory—how badly she could re-injure herself if she didn’t do as the doctor told her.
“Thou art as fussy as a midwife, servant.” Nightmare Moon informed him with a smirk, laying on her belly and stretching out. “Tend to our wings instead, some of the feathers itch.” She commanded.
Nurse Bandaid was a little taken aback by such an intimate command. One didn’t simply preen a princess’ wings! Plus, he was an earth pony. He didn’t know how to—well no, yes he did. He was miserable about the thought. All nurses were taught to preen winged patients that were in comas so that infections in the roots didn’t set in. He knew exactly how to preen feathers. Gulping and trying to steel himself as a medical professional, he nodded his assent and approached. Sitting on his haunches, he gingerly extended one of the royal wings. Touching here and there with medical hooves, he found a loose feather and pulled it with his teeth. The Princess flinched, but then gave an audible purr. That one had needed to come out, definitely. The pinprick of itching subsided into a warm feeling. Bandaid turned one of the lamps up so he could get a better light. Black feathers during the night were hard to examine. Squinting over his charge, he spent a long time finding the bad or damaged feathers. She’d lost a lot since her arrival and since her physical therapy started.
Princess Nightmare Moon’s rapid molting was a good thing, though. It showed the body was repairing itself, casting out bad parts. A little food here and there, and it had attempted new feathers. But then when actual, real food had been given, it had restarted and put real effort into more new feathers. “Beautiful.” Bandaid murmured before he could stop himself. Nightmare looked at him out of the corner of her eye, frowning, but said nothing.
She turned about on the couch, so he could see to her other wing. “Fetch us a chalice of fine wine, guard.” Nightmare Moon bade one of the nearby armored ponies. “Yon healer has skilled hooves, I shalt be on this couch for some time.” She gestured. The guard nodded, saluted, and turned to make it so.
“No don’t!” Bandaid said, turning. The guard hesitated, looking back at him. “You’re not allowed to drink, remember? You’re still recovering.”
Nightmare Moon baulked at him. “We can do as we please, thank thou.” She said with a scowl. We’ve just returned and have been released from medical captivity. We’ve a mind to enjoy the finer things of life as we are being fussed over.”
“I-I’m responsible for you! Please!” Bandaid said, ears turning down into a mournful expression. He couldn’t exactly tell a goddess no, but he had to try. “Doctor Heart Starter said no drinking, sex, or straining!” his face was rather pink at the list he had to voice.
“He doth take all the fun things out of life, the leech.” Nightmare Moon grumped, flopping down on the couch. “Very well. Belay my last command, soldier,” She said off-handedly. The guard nodded and returned to his post. “My nurse forbids it of me.” She poked fun at him just a little. Seeing his relieved flustered expression, alicorn mischief rose in her eyes. “But the moment we art free of such restrictions, thou shalt be fetching me all the drink and sex thou can gather. Understood?”
“Princess! Don't be a hypocrite!” Bandaid blurted, turning scarlet. Nightmare Moon threw her head back in a throaty and diabolical laugh, slapping the edge of the sofa once or twice. One guard smirked silently at the other. They liked this new Princess. She was funny… if a little terrifying.
End of Part 5