“My dear Nightmare Moon, its time to wake up.” Rang out a deep voice, brimming with love, into the wide expanse of the Ethereal Plane.
The soft and pointed ears of an ebony alicorn perked as they caught the words spoken so sweetly to them. Light twitches swam across the tall and broad built equine body and signaled the waking of a long dormant mind. Upon either side of the equine’s flanks there came forth a glowing light from the cutie mark of a pale crescent moon surrounded by solid purple that slowly bled into individual balls of purple intermixed with her ebony fur.
“Come now my little pony and wake up, you have a life to live.” That deep voice came forth again, bringing with it a strength that was born of pure care for the one it spoke to. A strength that poured forth into the alicorn down to her very core, warming her heart as much as her body.
Deep within the body of the alicorn, the rush of love and freely given strength ignited the spark of her consciousness once more. Her mind blazed with awareness, her sea-blue and slitted eyes, topped with violet lashes, shooting open to behold the darkness around her. The massive and yet elegant wings of an alicorn flared open from her back and sides, flourishing their beauty and intimidating physical power, while the magnificent and long spiral horn atop her forehead ignited with a strong sea-blue aura of magic. Her mane and tail whirled into a temporary tornado at the initial rush of sensation, before tapering down into a wispy, trailing mist composed of the raw stuff of outer spaced, colored a pale blue hue and twinkling with the beautiful light of far-off stars. A long silent muzzle opened up in a wild neigh that bore her sharpened snow-white fangs to the blackness surrounding her. Her body and mind reeled for the first few moments of her soul surging forth from bleakness, before catching up to that wild spirit and her entire being simmering down to find a tentative stability. Those immense wings came to hang at her sides and the strong blazing magic of her horn and cutie mark tamed itself much like her mane and tail had, settling back down into a faint glow.
“Father, is that you?” Nightmare Moon called out in a cracked tone as she twisted her ears, eyes, and head in every direction possible to try and find the source of the familiar voice. Several loud pops and cracks echoed out into the huge nothingness, garnering groans of relief driven by long-stationary muscles from all the movements. Her hooves scrambled against the blackness around her as she tried to turn her body or gather any kind of directed momentum of her floating form, yet she did not find any purchase to do so. “Where am I? Why aren’t I gone?” She cried out, in desperate want of answers as the memories of her last waking moments flooded her mind.
A beam of rainbow colors and the raw power of harmony filled her mental vision, crashing into her body and smashing to pieces her body and magic both. It should have killed her, as it had rippled her away from the physical being that she had been bound to and mixed with, a smaller alicorn, much like herself, but of a midnight-blue color and a black marking around the pale crescent moon cutie mark. She had been of a mixed mind, herself and that smaller alicorn, bound to the same body just in different forms. Yet she had always been her own soul, one that had been consumed by a similar negligence and loneliness that had gripped the smaller alicorn and brought them both together in insanity. It had been their combined magic that had given Nightmare Moon any shape at all to begin with, she had only been a spirit a drift in the world before. There were no memories of before that time though, her birth, her growth, only the ceaseless and horribly lonely wandering. They had been replaced by the memories of that alicorn that she had been bound to, her mind having been warped and twisted as it was, and it had sought out a replacement for the knowledge of what events had brought it to such despair to begin with. Nightmare Moon knew that they were not her memories, exactly, but having another pony’s entire life-time of memories inside you could not help, but breed a sense of closeness that was impossible to truly describe. But now, she was completely her own self, she could feel it, locked away into wherever she was.
“You are within my wings little one, I could never let you disappear. What happened was a second chance, but you needed some time to rest before you could wholly take a hold of the opportunity.” That deep voice spoke again, a voice that her soul knew, not so much as her mind. It was from a being she could never forget, one she knew was her father. However, she couldn’t recall much more than just the voice either. The bond of a parent and child was not reliant on memories alone for it to make itself known. And it was why, Nightmare Moon trusted the words being spoken, despite the confusion and fear inside of her.
“What do you mean in your wings? I can’t see you father! Please, help me! I don’t know where to go to find you, it’s all darkness here. .” Her voice carried her confusion and fear into the darkness around her, wanting and needing some kind of actual sensation besides the mere existence of her own body.
“You’ll see me eventually my child, I am always with you in your heart. Never forget that. We lost each other to the maze of despair, and I am sorry, so sorry, that I could not help you when you lost yourself. But now, my daughter, we will always be able to feel and help each other when we most need it through our hearts. It may take time for you to feel it, but the chance the Elements of Harmony are giving you, gave me the chance to be with my daughter again to. My flame will always be there, burning in your heart now. So pull from it if your strength ever truly fails you again and you need mine to keep going.” Her father spoke, a new cheer in it as it spoke seemingly of a brighter future than what she had come from.
“I don’t understand Father! What are these second chances? How can I do anything in a place like this? Please help me understand!” Nightmare Moon cried out as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, before trickling down her cheeks in a steady stream of her confusion.
“You’ll understand as you grow my dear, now stow away those tears.” A wisp of a touch brushed against her face, raw love caressing her and brushing away the streams of tears matting her fur. “Now is a time of joy, for the both of us. You get to live out your own life this time, and I get to see one of my beautiful daughters grow again, and help her on her journey.”
“Father, I!” Nightmare Moon started, before her words were cut short by a sudden influx of light streaming into the blackness and washing over her. With her senses so new, fresh, and only accustomed to blackness, the light startled her and made her flinch against the new sensory input. Her wings and hooves raised to block her face for a time as the light continued to grow in scope, her eye needing time to become accustomed to it. The darkness around her bowed away from the light as if it were a pair of giant wings unfurling after having been cradling her this entire time.
When her eyes had finally refocused to be able to take the new flood of information, she peered out of the gaps between her wings and hooves to behold a brilliant and cloudless night sky, illuminated by countless stars and a dozen proud galaxies floating through the reaches of space. And below it all, an endless stretch of tall green grass that swayed and rolled as if it were an emerald sea and the wind blew forth waves across its surface. It was a wind that she could now feel, and it brought forth with it a warm caress of a summer night. It was temperature and physical touch, brushing her silken fur much like it did the grass that was rapidly approaching her floating place in the ethereal plane, which was similarly rapidly disappearing.
Weight was the next sensation to overtake her, as the grass finally reached to where she had been floating. Gravity pulled her downwards onto the grass, and against the firm, solid ground. Curled up as she had been against the light, she did not topple, already sitting upright in a curled position. All the touches of the grass, and the soft dirt under her flanks and hooves had her gasping in an adrenaline rush. It sent a hard shock through her body making her bolt straight upright, push out her wings in a broad flare, and crane her neck and head upwards towards the sky. And as her vision traveled upwards, the retreating darkness finally gave way to what had for so long been both her comfort and torment, the seat of her hope and her torment, the bright and bold Full Moon dominating the wondrous sky above her. It filled her with an onslaught of emotions that came rushing up from her past, and crashing down from the future that had been promised to her. It was a chaotic storm that she had no means to process, only ride out and let take her to a place of new possibilities and uncertainties. However, amidst the chaos there was one thing that was clear and strong above the harsh winds; the voice of her father.
“Never fear the darkness my daughter, you are a part of it and it is a part of you. Neither the turmoil of the past, or the unknowing of the future, or all that goes bump in the night, it all has and will continue to shape you. Neither fear the light either, that of the Moon that you are so tied to, nor that of the Sun that you once so despised, both lights will now be working together to guide you on your journey.” The voice rippled through her soul, words of advice that would be burned into her, though she did not know if she could live up to with the intensity of the moment. But, the last words spoken to the reborn Nightmare Moon at the start of her new life were ones that she knew she could at least return:
“I love you my daughter, my little Nightmare Moon.” Spoke the voice.
“I love you, father.” Nightmare Moon whimpered back, tears again starting to stream down her face, though this time out of sound joy as her cradle of darkness, and her father’s wings, finally fully peeled away from her wholly.