~N~
Nightmare had sat there for what felt like an eternity, but was actually more like a day or so. She guessed that Octavia was so enthralled with her playing that she had lost all grasp of the passage of time. It was a sign of a good artist, to get so wrapped up in their craft. She had been almost as wrapped up herself just listening, sitting there and enjoying the artist’s skillful playing.
However, all things eventually come to an end. One doesn’t spend years with only one other pony for company and not speak at all. She also grew quickly tired of Luna’s pessimism, and felt a desire for speech that was less unpleasant. She knew not why her alternate persona kept such a grudge even now against her, even now, many centuries since the fateful events of the past...
While thinking such, the alicorn walked quietly over, so she would not disturb Octavia’s playing, before stopping, and waiting for the minuet she was playing to be over. Once it was, she began to speak to the musician.
“You play very professionally... had we been in power still, we would pay you to perform in our courts.” She said with a slight bow. A gesture of respect was rare from one of such power and class, but Nightmare felt Octavia deserved it. She smiled, appreciative of the wonderful music she had heard, and the skills the mare had mastered.
“Thank you...” Octavia said, putting her bow down beside her, before letting the entire instrument lay down on its side next to it. If one looked closely, one could see the smallest blush of modesty color her cheeks, and the faintest hint of a rise in the corners of her mouth.
She turned once again to speak with Nightmare. “I’ve... had a lot of experience with music. I’ve been playing for what feels like forever. I’m glad I memorized a lot of the pieces I’ve played, or I wouldn’t have much to play out here.”
“I am glad you have done so as well. Your music is pleasing to my ears. I have not heard it’s equal in a very long time, before that tyrant Celestia sent me away. Though, an artist such as yourself would be brilliant at improvisation, as well, I’m sure.”
Octavia shrugged off the flattery with a growing smile.“Hmm... I suppose I might. Though I don’t know if you could even tell if I was.” She wiggled her eyebrows at that last statement, though Nightmare could not tell if she was being sarcastic or not. She looked at Octavia quizzically, baffled by the strange gesture.
“Young mare! What silliness is this you bring to my vision with this strange... eyebrow wiggling?” She tried to mimic the gesture, “What is the meaning of this?”
Putting a hoof up to the bottom of her mouth, the mare giggled a bit, humored by Nightmare’s display, however well it could have gone.
“Well, it means nothing without context, but it’s usually a gesture of... what’s the word... sassiness?”
“Sassiness... is that like sauciness? I’ve heard of sauciness from a previous visitor.”
Without warning, the tall, imposing alicorn walked over, looming high above Octavia, standing tall, in all her regal majesty. She looked down at the mare, blinked a few times, tilted her head, before lowering her neck and placing a small kiss on her nose.
Octavia’s eyes grew wide as she felt Nightmare’s lips briefly contact the end of her muzzle, before breaking away. She had obviously not been prepared for that, and shrank back quickly after the gesture, leaving Nightmare standing above her.
“...would that not be more appropriate if we’re talking of sauciness?” Nightmare said, “I do not understand how wiggling one’s eyebrows is... saucy.”
Octavia shuddered a bit. “Well... sassiness isn’t the same thing as... um... ‘sauciness,’ as you put it. Sassiness is more more like sarcasm or swagger, not... uh... intimacy.”
“Oh... how droll.” The alicorn shrugged her wings, “I thought that you were pronouncing intentions of that nature. How unfortunate.”
“Well what did you think me as, a prostitute? I was going to be in the High Canterlot College of Musical Innovation before I was sent here, I’ll have you know, and if you weren’t goddess of the night, I’d have a right mind to slap you for such lecherous behavior.”
“Of course you are no common whore, but if you were a prostitute, I think you would be rich.” She said, meaning it as a compliment, but if it would actually be taken that way... one couldn’t be certain.
“Well, I am not! Perhaps others that were sent before me, but I refuse to be even compared to anypony who might sell their body for such lewd acts!” Octavia put her nose in the air, obviously displeased, perhaps even insulted.
Nightmare frowned, “It was meant as a compliment, dear artist. Of course you do not belong in a harem. You are like a fine rose, meant only for one vase. I was only implying that you might be sought after... that is to say... that you are beautiful. That is all.”
Octavia scoffed at the alicorn. “Well, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to be complemented without being compared to a filthy prostitute. Now, if that’s all you want to say, I’d like to forget that any of this happened,” She said, before picking up her bow once more, and raising the instrument, testing the strings and preparing to play once more.
“Actually, Octavia, we have got off track. My whole reason for coming here was so that we could begin to get to know each other more fully and deeply... after all, if we are to be friends... that is only appropriate, yes? Perhaps you can tell me something... personal about yourself... and then... I can tell you something about me.”
“Oh? Is that what this is to you? I’m sure you expect I’m just going to spew out my life story at will, and then you’ll tell me about being stuck on the moon for a thousand years, and then We’ll fall in love, and live happily ever after trapped on the moon together.” She said, scornfully imitating a dreamy mood, before quickly frowning once more.
“I am not just some royal subject who will buy into the advances of another just because they want me to. Just because I have to be stuck with you does not mean that I’ll put up with this and mindlessly become part of god knows how many mares and stallions have become your lovers!”
“...” Nightmare frowned and looked down, “None... No one has ever even come close enough to consider me,, let alone be my... lover, as you say. After having lived for over a millennia... there is much about me that you don’t know...” she trailed, and frowned, sighing a second time, “that nopony knows.”
“Oh what, so now you seek to repent by telling me some sob story? If you have secret you so desire to share, why don’t you just act like any normal pony and wait until the right time to do it?”
“Well you shall have to forgive the lack of social skills that comes from a thousand years almost with no one to talk to. Yes, Celestia sent them, but that doesn’t mean they did their job as they should have.”
Octavia dropped her bow, and it fell into the dust, making a small cloud upon impact. She stamped up to Nightmare Moon,sticking her muzzle out before yelling into her face.
“Well maybe they would have been your friends if you didn’t behave like a lusty mare-hole full of venereal diseases! Maybe if you didn’t think only with your nethers and expect me to be a good little whore, I might respect your speech! Maybe if your words didn’t come from so far up your glorified posterior, I might believe what you say! Maybe if you weren’t such a resentful, stuck-up ugly piece of griffon dung, your sister wouldn’t have done the world a favor and sent you here for me to be stuck with!”
“...” her lip trembled, eyes wide at the insult. Physical insults she was used to, and she knew most of what the mare had said was due to a minor misunderstanding in the language she had used, but that last bit, “Done... the world.... a.... a....” She turned away, “Go away... your words are hurtful...”
“Oh, I wish I could go away!” Octavia had clearly lost it at this point spewing insults and all the rage she had stored in her heart since her arrival on the moon. “I’m not surprised you say that nopony ever loved a stain on the world like you, you dust-speckled grime-smeared demon! Celestia above, I hope you die, and I’m sure everypony who’s ever met you feels the same, you stinking, looney, slovenly garbage heap! Celestia told me to be reasonable and give you a chance, but now I know you’re just as evil as they say!”
“You’ll never be anything more than the incarnation of a bad dream!”
Nightmare blinked, “I... I...” she closed her eyes and whimpered, body trembling with a mixture of sadness and an untameable fury,
“NO!” Came a horrible voice from deep within her, as her eyes flew open, “SHUT YOUR MOUTH! YOU HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE MARE!” her horn glowed, as did her eyes, a dark violet blazing from them, so bright her pupils disappeared. She could feel her body shine with an aura of purple magic, a sphere of power beginning to circle it. She could hear the voices of everyone who had ever mocked her.. said the kind of things that came from Octavia now... but the difference was this time it was coming from someone who she’d actually spoken with, someone she felt close to... someone who, in some sense, knew her more than any other.
“I’M MORE THAN A NIGHTMARE … JUST.... SHUT UP! SHUT UP! EVERYPONY, JUST... SHUT... UP!” and with that, the sphere exploded outwards, crushing the surface of the moon beneath it, and sending a huge cloud of dust hurtling upwards, leaving nightmare floating above a deep canyon of a crater she had left. The remains of the moon’s surface from the area was flying, gradually starting to descend across the landscape once more, specks of ash landing miles away.
But the mare’s rage was not quenched merely by this. Purple shooting stars fell from the heavens, embedded into the rocky crust of the moon, exploding. Mountains were obliterated in plumes of dust and smoke. Rocks flew in a violent wind from the various explosions. Lightning arced from both the goddess’ body and the sphere that surrounded her, loudly cracking into the roar of the explosions which kept coming, creating small crater after small crater whenever one of the mystical purple stars hit and exploded.
The alicorn thought about the pain caused by the mare’s words, thought about all of the others who had said the same, and deeply dwelt upon the fact that, in reality... it seemed like they were all right. She’d never done any good for any pony, had she? Not really... and as these things flowed through her mind, she felt herself screaming something that wasn’t understandable; pure, agonized wails of pain and hate, as the raging storm of attacks continued, the flurry destroying the various mountains and hills that once dotted the landscape of the space-rock...
After several long moments, the falling stars, lightning, the orb around herself... it all faded away, as she stayed there, hovering in the air, panting heavily.
As she rose into the air, Nightmare Moon gave Octavia one last direct, piercing look, a mix of the utmost rage and hate, mixed with a deep sadness and hurt. A single tear fell, and then she flew off into the bleary, spacious sky, filled with emotions that she never knew had so much power.
Though, as she flew, she realized that... even through all of that rage, in what amounted to a godlike wrath...
...a small magical shield had been conjured around Octavia the entire time.