//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: A Shadow of Doubt 
// by DaughterScrewball 
//------------------------------//

     Trixie Lulamoon was lying next to the oddly clear pond under the night sky, pondering to herself about the failures in her life. Her failure to impress her parents so that they would spend more time teaching her about their magical work and cultivating her own abilities, which led her to crave the admiration of her peers.
Her failure to impress them with her magic, which led her to vow to become a greater, more powerful wizard than they could imagine so that they couldn't possibly not be impressed by her feats.
Her failure to impress the review board for her entrance into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, which led to her career in show magic as opposed to real, powerful magic.
And most recently, her failure in Ponyville to impress that purple unicorn and her friends. Instead, they absolutely hated her. Why, they had practically run her out of town. If only those idiot fanboys hadn't brought the ursa minor into town for her to fight, she wouldn't be friendless, hopeless, and showless like she was now. And to think that she had even had a slight crush on the purple unicorn since she had admired her from afar as a filly. As a matter of fact, hearing about her whereabouts was the main reason Trixie had come to Ponyville in the first place. She wanted the chance to get to know Twilight better. And like most other things she had attempted in life, she failed at that, too.
A small tear escaped the corner of one of Trixie's deep blue eyes. She looked down at her reflection and noticed that the moon was particularly bright tonight, as if watching over her like some sort of guardian manegel. The moon had always seemed to be brighter when she was lonely. Trixie didn't know why, but she assumed it had something to do with the unexplained moon and stars on her cutie mark.
She continued to stare at her reflection. A dark blue mare stared back at her. This isn’t me. Trixie was not proud of herself at the moment.
"I know I failed again, but... I'm still the Great and Powerful Trixie... right?" she asked softly of nopony in particular as another tear flowed down her cheek.
"But of course, my dear," came the whispery, gossamer-like reply.
Trixie spun around quickly to face the intruder and found herself face to face with the strangest sight she had ever seen. Standing in front of her was a glimmering, shadowy mass in the form of a large mare.
"Ummm... the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't remember ever meeting you before, and judging from your appearance, I daresay that she would if she had," she responded as she tried to regain her composure. Appearing weak or helpless in front of this rather intimidating mare would be a huge mistake.
"Oh no my dear, we've never met before, but rest assured we know each other more than you know, and I plan on getting to know you even better before this is all over."
Something about the stranger's tone struck Trixie as odd. I have to remain cautious.
"Who are you anyway?" she asked, "You seem to be avoiding telling the Great and Powerful Trixie your name."
"My name is not important at the moment." The shadowy mare slithered closer to Trixie, causing a slight shiver to course her spine. "But believe me when I say that we are kindred spirits: both outcast by our peers, forced to live as pariahs... it just isn't fair is it." A look of sorrow crossed her face. "My dear, you have an image of the night sky on your cutie mark, correct?"
"Umm... well, yes I suppose" murmured Trixie, still flustered that this stranger knew so much about her.
"Do you perchance know why?"
Trixie shook her head.
"Interesting... I suppose that's for the best, however. Nevertheless, you will learn soon enough, and when you do, you’ll need someone to help you.”
"Help me? What problem could the Great and Powerful Trixie possibly have that some secretive, condescending, and quite frankly annoying mare like you could possibly help her with?! I have had quite enough of the way you think you can just come in here and pretend like you know everything about me, avoid my questions, and treat me like I'm some sort of helpless filly who you are gracing with your disgusting presence! Now you're going to start answering some questions or I'm going to leave, and you can start with that one." A scornful grin spread slowly across Trixie’s face.
"Fine, my dear, as you wish," Said the shadow, annoyed. "I was referring to your revenge. The vengeance you will get on those who have wronged you. Sweet penance for their transgressions, starting with that mare from Ponyville."
"How do you know about that? I know you weren't there, your presence would have caused quite an uproar."
"Oh, come now, Trixie, have you not already assumed that I've been observing you for some time now?" Trixie shivered again.
"Well then you would know that I haven't had a single thought about getting revenge."
"Perhaps not." The mare shifted closer once again, and Trixie took yet another step toward the pond.  "But I'm confident that if you thought about it, you would realize that revenge just happens to be the thing that you want most at the moment. You have a burning desire in your heart and revenge is the one thing that can quench its flame."
It was almost scary how well the stranger could read her. But Trixie was still angry and didn't want to give in that easily. After mulling it over for a moment, she asked, "If I wanted to get revenge...If...How would you even go about helping me?"
"Oh, it's actually quite simple." The mare’s face lit up like a candle. "I would stay with you, giving you advice on what to do next, which ideas would be most effective, idea of that sort. Of course it would only be plausible if I were able to stay with you at all times. I obviously cannot simply follow you around, and as you can see I have no normal corporeal body to walk around in. So I would have to, with your permission of course, temporarily inhabit your body and speak with you only in your mind. You would still be in complete control, of course, the only difference being that you would have a passenger of sorts that you could always go to for advice."
The idea of having another pony in her body was kind of creepy.  Though the advice really would be helpful. And it's not like it won’t still be my body, after all. However…
"You still haven't told me your name. I can't just let somepony live in my body without at least knowing their name first." Anger and worry crossed the mares face.
"Now is not the time, my dear. I swear to you that I will tell you my name at a more appropriate time, but you don't know me well enough yet to take that information in a positive way."
What the hey is she talking about. "If you won't tell me your name, you can't help me, and that's all there is to the matter," Trixie said, purposely neglecting to ponder why the mare was so intent on helping her in the first place, as she was slightly worried as to what the answer might be.
The mare waited to respond. "You have to promise me you'll wait for me to explain."
"Of course."
"You can call me... Nightmare."
Trixie was shocked. "You mean Nightmare, as in the Nightmare Moon? I thought you were dead, or at least just an overly jealous version of Luna, not an actual pony."
"My name is Nightmare, not Nightmare Moon. I'm not sure where ponies got the "Moon" part, although I assume it's because I was advising Luna at the time," she said with a hint of annoyance.
"But why would you want to help me then? Didn't you try to send Equestria into everlasting night? How do you go from an evil, world-shattering goal like that to a simple, "nice" goal like trying to help some poor pony? Why should I even trust you? Riddle me that, Nightmare!"
Nightmare paused for a moment before answering with a bitter tone to her voice. "I don't control the moon, Luna does.  All I did in that situation was call to her attention some of the more unfair elements of her relationship with her sister and the rest of ponykind. Like the fact that they loved her sister more, gave her all of the praise, and barely acknowledged Luna. I wanted to help her get the recognition she deserved, but she went overboard and almost started a war, which got her banished to the moon. Since I was inhabiting her at the time, I was the unlucky passenger to also make the trip..." She paused again. "I know it's hard to trust me, but you of all ponies know how easy it is for somepony to get an untrue bad reputation, and how much pain it causes, how hard it is to get rid of. Evil... Selfish... Braggart... Those words are hurtful, even more so when they aren't true. I want to help you because we really are kindred spirits like I said before. We both garnered terrible reputations from those we loved most from something with innocent or benign intentions. You are one of few ponies who truly understand the suffering that I personally went through as I was unfairly imprisoned for 1000 years. I know it goes against everything you have ever been told, but... I'm begging you..." Tears were streaming down her cheek although she wasn't yet fully crying. "Please... give me one chance."
Trixie took a full three minutes to think before she replied. But after mulling it over in her head, she finally decided on an answer.
"Ok," she replied softly, "I trust you. For now."
A look of sheer joy and thankfulness crossed Nightmare's face. "Thank you, Trixie," she stammered while remarkably keeping her composure. "I promise you, this will be the best decision you will ever make."
Trixie flashed a friendly smile back. "Anyway," she said cheerfully, lightening the mood, "How are you going to get into my body anyway?"
"Oh yes, right. Just stand there for a moment if you will, I'll do it in no time." Nightmare approached Trixie and her form promptly dissipated as the smoky form that was once a mare floated straight through her skin and didn't come out behind her. The mist felt odd as it entered, but the feeling soon retracted slightly as Nightmare's form settled into her body and ceased to be anything but a part of Trixie's consciousness.
"How does it feel?" Trixie heard the voice in her mind only, and was taken by a slight surprise that her ears didn't respond to the noise, although when she thought about it, it made perfect sense.
It's... weird, to say the least, but I could definitely get used to it. Trixie yawned. She checked the time and it was almost midnight. The conversation must have taken longer than she thought. I guess it's time for us to go to sleep. Goodnight, I guess. It felt kind of off to speak to herself but she would just have to get used to that.
"Goodnight."
Oh, and one last thing! Don't call me "My Dear", I find it quite annoying. If you want to speak to me, call me by my name: The Great and Powerful Trixie.
"As you wish, Trixie," said the voice in her head as it drifted off to sleep. Trixie noticed that Nightmare had neglected to say the "Great and Powerful" part, but not referring to me as "My Dear" will have to do for today.
Both Trixie and Nightmare slept better that night than either had for as far back as they could remember, and when they awoke in the morning, they started to head back toward Ponyville as they planned Trixie's revenge.