Once I had readied and donned my spare suit, which took far longer than she would have liked, Nightmare Moon dragged me into the now-filthy airlock. Even before the inner door shut behind us, her patience reached its end and her spike flared, forcing the outer door open. I called to her to stop and wrapped my limbs around a pylon, expecting the sudden decompression to throw us and most of the loose objects in my abode out onto the moon's surface.
Instead of blasting into the insatiable maw of the cosmos, the air remained right where it was, held at bay by a faintly-glowing blue field. Nightmare Moon turned and smirked at me, amused by my fear.
"As pleasant as it is to hear another voice after lo these many years," she said, "if you ever shout an order at me again I'm going to rip the tongue right out of that funny little mouth of yours."
The inner door fell to and she strode out of the airlock, carrying the atmosphere around her within a blue, transparent bubble. The sand glowed and swirled up to either side of her, coalescing into a pair of guards to replace the ones she'd left inside.
I gulped, untangled myself from the pylon and followed her back into the night, shutting the outer door silently behind me and lighting my suit's lamps.
I ran to catch up with her. As I approached, one of the guard statues fell behind and turned to face me. I tried to skirt around it, but it, or rather its creator, anticipated my move. The statue lunged with amazing speed and body-checked me to the ground. Unlike the other statue that had crumbled to nothing at the slightest touch, this animated one felt like solid stone. I looked past it to Nightmare Moon, but she walked on up the slope, paying me and her guard no mind. The statue gave me a threatening glare, and then cantered back into formation. I picked myself up and followed at a more respectful distance.
As before, the other statues stirred to life and parted as she drew near. This time, instead of prostrating themselves, the crowds silently leaped and cheered, tossing dust confetti to swirl in the nonexistent air and strewing dust petals across the path before her. She would occasionally pause in her progress to wave to her artificial admirers.
The sight was less mysterious in light of what she'd told me. As a prisoner in an oubliette would scratch pictures on the walls or fashion figures from trash to ease her loneliness, Nightmare Moon used her tremendous power to build and move these puppets in parody of her former subjects.
But something about it still didn't fit. Why would she surround herself with fawning, adoring images of the people...the 'ponies' she hated and planned to kill? And they were all so much smaller; even the largest were childlike in proportion to their maker. In spite of this, it seemed they were meant to be adults. Some of these statue ponies had yet smaller ones that they held in a way even a quasi-mammal like myself could recognize as parental.
This was the result of some sort of social morphism, perhaps, where rulers towered over their people like the hieratic scaling found in ancient carvings. I wondered if the effect was natural or engineered.
On the other claw, it could just be artistic license. Or egotistical delusion.
She reached the lip of the crater well before I did. This time her guards allowed me to catch up and and roughly pushed me inside the bubble of air. Nightmare Moon stood gazing into the black pit inside the crater.
"It's in there?" She said. "Where?" Her voice sounded distant and tinny through my helmet.
I admitted I wasn't sure of its exact location.
"What do you mean, you don't know? You left my means of escape sitting outside in a hole, and now you don't remember where?!"
Lamely, I began to reply that I'd dropped it, but between my lights and her sharp vision—
"Royalty does not scrabble around in the dirt," she sniffed, lifting me off the ground with her power. "Find it, and do not even think of returning empty hooved... or pawed, or whatever those wriggly things are."
She launched me over the edge, sending me bouncing and rolling hundreds of ells down the inner slope of the crater before I could arrest myself.
Dusting my faceplate off yet again, I made a note to schedule some sufficient penance for myself once all this was over. No matter how necessary the act, the amount of pleasure I'd take reducing another being to ash would demand expiation.
But I was getting ahead of myself. I needed to find the sidearm. It should be easy to spot; its landing would have left a crater in the otherwise undisturbed landscape and the object itself was metallic and reflective. My wrist panel indicated my air supply was at 98%. There was plenty of time.
Air at twenty-three percent. Still no weapon. Whenever my lamps fell on a spot where the dust had been disturbed, it was only my own trail.
Maybe it wasn't here at all. How hard had I thrown it? An absurd vision of the weapon tumbling forever in orbit around the moon tickled a morbid fancy.
I raised my head to look back at the ridge. Nightmare Moon was still there; I could tell by the blue glow. Would she let me replenish my air and resume the search? She thought I held the key to her escape, true, but she was also quite mad. Who could say how she'd react if I failed?
Returning my gaze to the valley before me, I spotted something in the distance from the corner of my eye. I turned the helmet's lamps on the spot, but I could see nothing. Wonderful, I thought, hallucinations. Perhaps my air supply was staler than I knew.
As I looked away to resume my search, I saw it again at the edge of my vision. This time I darkened the lamps and looked directly at it. There was another blue light in the crater with me, much fainter than Nightmare Moon's. I hurried forward to investigate.
What I found was another moving statue. It sat upon a small mound, looking about warily and wearing an expression of poorly-feigned innocence.
Was this a joke? Clearly the prize was hidden beneath it, so Nightmare Moon had known where it was all along!
I took a closer look. This dust pony was not like the others. It was the small one that had wings and a spike; the one that had accosted Nightmare Moon at my doorstep.
...The one that had caught her by surprise! Could there be other forces in play here? She hadn't mentioned any, but I was at a loss to explain how this statue could work at cross-purposes to her otherwise.
Whatever power gave it form and motion, it didn't want me to see the object hidden under the mound. As I approached, the statue stood to face me, extending its feathered wings and menacing me with its spike.
It feinted and I leaped back out of its reach. The animated guard earlier had felt as solid as stone. I was not eager to discover whether this little one could puncture my suit with the lance on its brow.
I looked about for a rock I could throw at the statue. I doubted this would be effective, but I was short on air and otherwise out of ideas. The little statue watched me quizzically as I hunted the ground around it.
The dust inside the crater particularly fine, with no stones larger than pebbles. Despairing, I sank to my knees and buried my head in my claws. I now had my choice of deaths: to be pierced by this statue, to return and face the wrath of Nightmare Moon, or to dither until I asphyxiated.
Something heavy pressed against my shoulder.
I whirled around. It was only the little statue nuzzling me. It wore a sympathetic expression, unblinking in spite of my lamps shining directly on its face. I noticed it still kept itself interposed between me and the mound, however.
Otherwise out of options and feeling utterly foolish, I tried to appeal to the compassion of an ambulatory pile of dust. I held my claws together in a supplicating pose, then pointed to the mound and back to myself. The statue frowned and shook its head.
I showed it the suit's control panel (could its eyes even see?) and pantomimed choking to explain what would happen when my air ran out. It appeared troubled and directed my attention to the ground before it. I looked. The statue began tracing signs in the dust with the tip of its toe. First it drew a circle and pointed to the landscape around us. Next it made a larger circle and pointed to the planet near the horizon. above the smaller circle it scratched a long-legged figure with wings and a spike clearly meant to be Nightmare Moon.
I nodded to show that I understood so far. It grabbed my helmet to keep the light steady.
Next, the statue drew an arrow from the picture of Nightmare Moon to the larger circle. It raised a foot and stomped on the planet-circle until there was nothing left but another crater. Its large gray eyes looked up into mine, and it shook its head again, beseeching me not to let this come to pass.
So, independent confirmation. Better yet, whatever this thing was, we were on the same side.
It also occurred to me that Nightmare Moon might simply be playing a trick; using this as a test of my loyalty. I was past caring for subtlety. If I died, I died, but if there was a chance I could get the weapon back, I would take it.
I rubbed out the arrow with my gauntlet. I pointed to the mound behind her and then slapped my other claw down on the image of Nightmare Moon, destroying it. I looked up to see if the statue understood, but it was looking at something behind me and above. Blue light and a hiss of air swirled around me.
"Pangolin, you lazy, disobedient beast!" said a too-familiar voice at my back, "I send you on the most important errand of your life, and you decide to go and play in the dirt with a filly instead?"
I frantically wiped away the rest of the drawings and opened my mouth to make an excuse, but Nightmare Moon was not done.
"And you," she continued, turning to the little statue, "Do you like it here? Is it pleasant? Do you want to stay here forever? Maybe you think everyone will love you when you're a good little pony who does what she's told?"
The statue cringed back, unable to return Nightmare Moon's stare.
"They won't! They never have and they never will! I am the only friend you will ever have, and I am getting. Off. This. Rock. If you won't help me, then just get out of the way!"
The target of Nightmare Moon's rage curled up on the ground and began to shake as if sobbing. The prisoner put on a conciliatory expression and stretched one of her wings around the weeping ball of dust.
While this scene was going on, I seized the opportunity and began digging up the mound. After only a few clawfuls of dirt, my gauntlet struck something solid.
"There, there. I'm not mad at you," she cooed to the statue. "I just want you to trust me. Haven't I always been there for you? Everything I do, I do for you. Now is no different! We'll be back home with the air and the water everywhere. Won't that be nice?"
The statue slowly nodded.
"And when all of the mean ponies see us, they'll be so sorry for what they did, and I'll make sure they never do it again! Everything will be perfect."
Looking miserable, the sculpted pony cuddled closer to Nightmare Moon and the blue glow animating it faded away. With one sweep of her wing, she reduced the statue back to dust.
A chill ran down my spine as I brushed the grit off my find. It still seemed to be charged and in working order. Now was the moment of truth.
I told her I had found what I sought.
Her head flicked up to look at the thing I held in my claw.
"Then do what I told you to. Send me back to Equestria."
I asked what would happen to the little statue.
She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Do not concern yourself with her. As much as I'd like to be rid of the needy little lamprey, we're quite literally inseparable."
I wiped the dust from the weapon's lens, disengaged the safety and set the output to maximum power. A message on the weapon's control plate warned me that firing at this intensity voided the warranty and could be hazardous to the user due to the risk of atmospheric flash-heating. Not having an atmosphere to worry about, I pointed the emission aperture at Nightmare Moon's center of mass.
Something stayed my claw on the firing stud. No matter how much I hated her a peaceable creature does not turn into a murderer overnight. A voice within me cried out against killing the being before me. She had threatened me, beaten me, and fantasized about slaying a world, but she was a living person; the fashioning of the Increate. She was not to be lightly disposed of like a mad beast.
After all, it was my carelessness that had put the world above in danger. Had I not blundered into her prison, all would still be well and she would be in no danger of escape. Things would have continued as they had, and none need die. I would be killing her to cover up my own mistake. What right did I have?
With a shock, I realized I had become the same as the beings that sent me fleeing to the solitary life. I was looking to murder and deceit as the solution to my problems. I burned with shame.
Reason rallied against the flood of emotion. Whatever I did now, in less than five standard months, the ship would return to this moon. If she was still here, she might be able to use her powers to get on board and threaten or cajole them into taking her down to the planet, or anywhere else. It was too great a risk. I could recriminate myself later, but now I had to do whatever I could to keep Nightmare Moon away from her intended victims.
As a sop to my conscience, I gave her a last chance to repent. I asked if she was sure she wanted to go through with this and kill them all. A thousand years is no short time; what if things where different now?
"What is it to you?" she spat. "You claim you came here because you wanted an empty world. Do you have a problem with me making another?" She spread her wings, closed her eyes and tilted her head back. "Enough talk. Send me now or else."
I sighed. She'd had her chance. I hardened my heart, steadied my aim and depressed the firing stud.
The weapon vibrated and shrieked with a noise like the universe rending. Nightmare Moon vanished in a burst of light erupting around her like a second sun. It was the air she'd brought along turning to plasma. My suit saved me from being blinded and broiled, but the wave threw me off my feet and stunned me.
I returned to my senses flat on my back staring up at the stars. My ears were ringing, and spots swam before my vision. The weapon lay beside me in the dust, its forward end glowing and half-melted. Slowly I rose to a sitting position.
In the midst of a field of molten glass, the night-black figure still stood with her starry hair floating behind her. Her armor glowed white-hot, but her body was unscathed.
She opened one blue eye at me.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with it!"
I collapsed back into the dust.