"I'm sentencing you to four weeks of house arrest" the judge said with three bangs of his gavel.
The three Alicorns and one Draconequus remained seated as the other ponies in the court house began to leave. If one thing could be said about the Equestrian Justice system it would be "Damn that was fast". It had only been thirty minutes since Nightmare Moon had been charged with Burning down the house of Ponyville’s resident Mail mare. Five minutes after the guards had finished giving Nightmare her rights. Half of Canterlot had broken into a musical number about locking her away.
Twenty minutes later Nightmare had found herself inside the royal court house and under a one month house arrest.
"Well that turned out great if I do say so myself." Discord said with a grin.
"How was that anywhere near great?" retorted Nightmare. If looks could kill the glare she was giving Discord would have most likely bypassed the immortality and vaporized the poor Draconequus.
"Don't look at me like that. My amazing skills got your sentenced lowered down to house arrest" he finished leaning back in his chair.
Nightmare glared at Discord, than at the gavel, back to Discord, back to the gavel. It would only take her 20 seconds at max. She could beat Discord to within an inch of his immortal life. It didn't matter if she faced anymore charges it would be worth it just to see him unconscious on the hardwood floor.
"Moony are you in there?" rang the voice of Luna
The wave of Luna's hoof was enough to snap Nightmare out of her trance.
"Huh, what? What did you say Discord?" Asked a still slightly dazed Nightmare
"I said if it wasn't for me you would have a much harsher sentence." the Draconequus said with a large toothy grin.
Suddenly all of Nightmare's anger came flooding back.
"Harsher sentence? If it wasn't for you the Judge would have let me off with a warning." She snarled, preparing to beat Discord with her own hooves if it came to it.
"How is it my fault he felt you needed a harder sentence?" Discord asked raising his hands defensively.
"The judge was about to let me off with a warning and you told him you thought that was to light a sentence for criminal scum like me." She said attempting to hit her target only to be stopped by a familiar golden glow.
"Hey it's not my fault you're criminal scum, now is it?" He said taunting her from behind the golden wall.
Nightmare's face became eerily calm and a grin began to form on her face. In contrast to her face a look of terror began to spread across Discord's.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Ask an extremely nervous Discord.
"It's simple my stupid, stupid friend I just remembered something." She answered her grin only growing.
"What! What did you remember!?" Discord asked leaning in closer and as his voice began to show his fear.
"I know where you sleep, but more importantly I know where you dream." she whispered into his ear
The Next Morning
"Who did this!?" echoed the shouts of Celestia her raised voice echoing through the stone halls of the castle, a sound that wasn't uncommon within the castle walls.
"What's her problem?" Luna asked weakly still trying to recover from her lack of sleep. She had spent several hours of the previous evening going over the basics of dream control with Nightmare who had apparently decided to take up dream shaping as hobby. At the time Luna thought it was nice, several hours into it her opinion had changed.
"I have no idea." Nightmare answered with a sly grin and in a sing song voice.
How can she be so cheerful? Luna asked herself.
Nightmare sat in her chair, eating her cereal completely oblivious to Luna's inner voice plotting her demise.
How can she be so happy?
I was beginning to wonder if she even bathed.
If she keeps smiling I'll bring down the moon on her, then will see who's smiling
By now the effect should have fully set in. Which means she's stuck like this for the next week
"Why are you smiling!?" shouted Luna
"Wow!" The sudden outburst caught Nightmare off guard and she quickly lost her balance and crashed to the floor.
"I'm okay!" she shouted as she climbed back to her hooves "No need to shout my dear Luna, it a few moments your sister will arrive and everything will be made clear."
As if on cue the large wooden doors were vaporized and the guards left singed. As the cloud of smoke began to dissipate Luna was quickly made aware to the cause of her sister’s anger.
It appeared at some point during the evening somepony had snuck into her sisters bathroom and replaced her special shampoo instead of the cleaner that left her sisters coat a pristine white, it was replaced with pink dye.
"You!" she growled pointing a hoof towards Nightmare who was currently rolling on the floor unable to contain her laughter and quite unwilling to even try.
"You did this to me! Ten thousand years lunar banishment! No trials."
"Sister, don't you think you're being a little harsh? It was a simple prank, we just need to talk to the court mage I'm sure he has some white dyes."
Celestia's gaze was quickly fixed on Luna who now regretted ever speaking.
"Harsh?! A prank?!" She growled "This is no mere prank; I've tried everything to remove this dye. But it appears someone enchanted it"
"You didn't, did you?" Luna asked pure horror spread across her face. When she and Nightmare were one, they had some pretty stupid Ideas, Catapult Celestia and her bed into the sun and declare eternal night. Sure at the time it was a good idea, except the whole lack of a catapult. Then stupid Idea number two came in, we don't have a catapult so let's just tie her to the bed and tell everyone we threw her into the sun.
Nightmares smile was all Luna needed to answer her question.
"Why would you do this?!"
It was Celestia's turn to speak now "it’s simple sister" she snarled "It's seems our latest roommate would like to taught a lesson. How nice is it that she's under our watch for the next month."
Nightmare's Smile quickly dissolved into a look of utter terror. She had assumed Celestia would send her to the moon that way she could at least spend her month in silence.
Nightmare let out an awkward chuckle "Now no need to get hasty Celestia, why don't I remove that curse?" Nightmares horn glowed for a fraction of a second and with a flash Celestia was back to her usual white coated self.
"See everything is fine! Nobody needs to get hurt." Nightmare said nervously
"Hurt? Do you honestly think I hurt anypony? No I've got something much better in mind for you." as she finished speaking a grin began to spread across her face. The only sign that things were about to get ugly.
1 Hour later
"Oh sweet sun and moon what is this stuff?" Nightmare asked as she was led down the spiral staircase a thick layer of gunk growing on both the walls and the stairs.
"Never mind that!" Celestia snapped "We've arrived." She said before stopping in front of the large metal door.
"Where is here?"
Celestia laughed "You'll see" with that she flung open the door and the two were engulfed in light
After several seconds the light dissipated leaving the two alicorns in what appeared to be the Canterlot Castle main hall
"So it was a staircase that went down and led to the first floor, what a neat trick" Nightmare said sarcastically
"You're close it did lead to the first floor, but not to your Castle, nor the same Equestria." The new voice finished with a laugh
Nightmare quickly spun around in order to find the source of the voice. What she found stunned her, across the room stood not only Celestia but herself.
"Nice trick" She said as she walked over and whacked her doppelgangers flank "You even got my flank right, how thoughtful"
"Oh this is no trick, my sweet, sweet Nightmare." Her doppelganger said
The original Celestia laughed "We are no longer in our realm though this realm appearance to be much the same as ours there are a few key differences, such as the rulers.
"What do you mean? They look exactly like us."
"Well then why don't I let them introduce themselves and maybe you'll understand a little better"
Celestia's doppelganger took a step forwards and it was only then that Nightmare noticed several minor differences instead of a completely white coat she appeared to be tinted Pink and whereas the real Celestia's mane was multicolor the doppelganger's was different shades of pink.
"My, my Celestia has told me so much about you" She whispered into Nightmare's ear "She's told me you've been quite a naughty pony and that you should be punished. It's a good thing we were available on such short notice."
"Who are you?" Nightmare asked nervously
The Doppelganger laughed "My name is Princess Molestia" she said
Nightmare did her best to stifle a giggle "What kind of name is Molestia?"
"Oh it's a very special name" She said pressing herself against Nightmare "In fact you're the first pony other than Celestia to hear it. But enough talk let me introduce my acquaintance "This is Nightmare Moan, I think you two will get along great."
This time Nightmare had no control she burst into a fit of laughter and dropped to the floor "Of all the stupid names I've ever heard, what could you possible do to me?"
The Doppelganger laughed "You'll find out soon enough" she said with another laugh "But first I have a question."
"What?"
"With or without lube?"
Nightmare jolted awake.
"Oh thank sun and moon it was a dream." She said aloud "That was the longest Nightmare I'd ever had, it felt like it had lasted for days but at least it over."
Nightmare let her head fall back onto her pillow and just as she was about to drift back into sleep she felt a hot breath on the back of her neck.
Oh sweet darkness what is that?! she mentally screamed.
Slowly she began to roll over, and to her shock she was greeted by the face of Discord who lay next to her. It was only a few seconds before she realized that he was wide awake just staring at her.
"My dear Nightmare you should really get back to sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." He said in a tired voice.
Nightmare remained silent and instead rolled back onto her other side, accepting that whatever occurred to cause this situation was best left forgotten and made a mental note to take a nice long hot shower in the morning.