Frantic wings beat the air back as the princess of the night flew through the early morning. She had some urgent business to attend to. At least “urgent” was the word she wanted to use. Wasting no time after lowering the moon, Princess Luna had bolted outside and made a beeline straight for Princess Twilight’s castle.
The princess would have teleported into her chamber but in the risk of it still being early, Luna reckoned that letting Twilight have her last moments of sleep would allow her to be ready for what she had to say to her. Besides, as urgent as it was, the young alicorn was likely still a little worked up over what had happened and Luna didn’t want to inconvenience her further.
Touching down at the entrance, she knocked on the grand doors – the sound resonating for a time. It didn’t take long for the princess of friendship to poke her sleepy head out.
“(Yawn)…yes?”
Twilight’s eyes looked up at the anxious figure in front of her. She soon composed herself. “Oh, Princess Luna. I’m sorry about this. Please.”
Twilight gestured for the elder alicorn to enter and closed the door once the two of them were both in the hall. They adjourned to her chambers where Luna couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“Oh Twilight, I’m ever so sorry. I had no idea what you were doing and I well…”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it! It was a shock obviously but I found it rather funny after.”
“Funny?” Luna was surprised. She had expected the purple alicorn to be all in her face about breaching her privacy. “How could you find that funny?”
“Well it was only a dream after all, Luna. It’s not like it was for real or anything.”
“I suppose,” Luna admitted. “But I should explain myself anyway. The reason I invaded your dream was intentional as I feared that you were either in danger or having a serious nightmare. If only I had realised that the screams and moans I heard from you weren’t out of fear but…um…Still, I was very embarrassed to find you in that situation…with Rainbow Dash…so I vanished before interrupting you any longer.”
“I know it must have been a shocker for you and that was quite a once in a while dream for me. I can’t remember when I ever had a dream that…pleasant. But you must understand my feelings for Rainbow Dash.”
“Well…certainly.” Luna blushed furiously. “It’s not like I haven’t been there myself.”
Twilight’s smile increased. “You mean you’ve loved somepony too? Who is it? Tell me!”
Although not physically, Luna mentally slapped a hoof to her face. She had let it slip now and there was no point worming away from it.
“Well, it wasn’t somepony per se, but…” Luna sighed. “You better prepare to be here a while. It’s a long story.”
When I was banished to the moon by my sister all that time ago, everypony assumed that I had been imprisoned there. Well, I hadn’t been; or at least not as trapped as everypony thought. Even though it was clear that my shadow had been etched into the face of the moon, I didn’t linger there. My sister had succeeded in forbidding me from returning to the Equestrian plane but I still had the use of my dark powers as Nightmare Moon.
One such power, which of course you evidently know about, was my ability to enter dreams. Though on the moon, I found that my ability had amplified to the point where I couldn’t just enter dreams but other realms as well. This greater power however didn’t allow me to escape from my lunar prison and into these worlds, so I was only able to traverse through these worlds as I would if I was searching through dreams.
Of course, I shouldn’t have to tell you that life on that rock can get EXTREMELY boring. So quite frequently I would use my magic to create an ethereal form of myself to allow me to explore these unknown worlds. Due to your exposure of the world where Sunset Shimmer now resides, I believe you understand how boggling other worlds may seem. As a matter of fact, during my occasional comings and goings from one world to the next, I found one particular realm that was perhaps quite like that which you found yourself in, Twilight, after entering the mirror.
“ARTHAS!”
Nightmare Moon paused her trek through the ethereal corridor of worlds and approached the portal to where the faint outburst she had just heard came out. Intrigued, she entered into the world and hovered over the field below.
A great citadel loomed before the wicked mare, a frightening construct with spikes and an eerie fog surrounding it. It towered greatly over the activities taking place on the ground below. Nightmare found it difficult to stay airborne; the arctic cold was freezing her wing joints. Knowing no-one would be able to see her, the mare dove to a lower altitude to escape some of the more frigid winds up above.
“ARTHAS! THE BLOOD OF YOUR FATHER! OF YOUR PEOPLE!”
“DEMANDS JUSTICE!!”
Nightmare Moon found it all quite amusing. Whoever this petty creature was addressing must have done most of these creatures some real damage. It was quite a large gathering actually; there were two armies split down the middle. On one side there were races of varying types clad in a multitude of heavy armour and shields bearing a lion symbol. The other side was composed of much bigger and bulkier races with some but not as much armour as the other army.
“COME FORTH, COWARD! AND ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES!”
His shout echoed through the icy winds and then into nothing. Nightmare Moon chuckled. It was all for naught.
Just then however, a portion of the citadel’s walls looked like it was beginning to crack. The gap increased and pretty soon Nightmare Moon was able to distinguish that they were jaws opening. It appeared to serve as the door to the citadel. She was impressed.
As the teeth retracted to their furthest extent, a sinister figure emerged from the darkness and onto the snow covered battlefield. He was truly a sight to behold; and Nightmare Moon found herself compelled for a closer look.
He bore a dark hauberk with a skull encrusted plate across his waist. His shoulders, thighs and arms were clad in silver spiked armour. Nothing could be made of his face as it was shrouded in an unrevealing helmet of metal, twisted at the top in the same way as the spiral of the citadel. A pair of blue eyes shimmered eerily through the mask, though it only made him more uninviting. His sword – perhaps the most intimidating part of him – was unlike anything the Equestrian mare had ever seen. It glowed a chilly blue and looked to be possessed by some spirit.
Nightmare Moon couldn’t describe what she was thinking right now. It was a first time for her.
“You speak of justice…” His voice carried like an echo as if there were two saying the same thing simultaneously. “Of cowardice? I will show you the justice of the grave!
Nightmare observed as skeletons and putrid remains of bodies which once were, erupted from the snow at the figure’s command. He was a necromancer, a talent that was extremely rare in Equestria; a talent which she did not even possess.
“And the true meaning…of fear!”
Oh was he inciting! Her marehood couldn’t cope with the raw cruelty that was on display!
“Wait what? The fact that he was mean turned you on? And how could you even love anypony or anybody or whatever…as Nightmare Moon?”
Hey! Just because someone is evil doesn’t make them capable of showing love. Though I will admit that now that I’ve been reformed once more, the idea of loving this creature haunts me. But at the time, I found him so fun to be around. That doesn’t make me a bad pony now, does it?
“Well, not anymore I guess. Please continue.”
Well now, where was I?
One of the bulkier creatures beside the accuser began to get aggravated. “ENOUGH OF THIS TALK! LET IT BE FINISHED!”
The red skinned creature charged with full haste at the icy figure. Wielding his battleaxe, he slammed it down with the force of a thousand winds intent on ending it here and now. The figure met his own sword with that of the creature’s axe. It shattered the weapon completely and pierced the creature’s neck. The recoil forced the creature down immediately and in but a few moments he was dead.
Nightmare Moon let out an evil cackle but realised the figure was not done yet with the creature’s remains. He pointed his sword towards the still body and an essence began to be absorbed into it. The light poured from his dead body and into the sword that glowed bright when all of the essence had been collected. Nightmare was pleased.
He was evil, so evil.
“You will pay! For all the lives that you’ve stolen, TRAITOR!”
“Hmm…boldly stated. But there is nothing you can do!”
“Sorry, can I pause there again? What was it that made him evil?”
Oh, well he killed his own kind in order to raise them as minions for his army to kill even more of his kind. I take it that answers your question.
“It does, yeah. So what happened next?”
Well, I can’t actually remember what happened next. I recall something happening that I decided to leave for the moment but I then returned quite quickly after. You could say I was rather smitten with Arthas. He was quite breath-taking to a twisted mind like the one I had. I kept visiting the citadel once or twice a moon day to see him; he was about the only entertainment I had after all.
Taking souls of his victims seemed to appeal to me significantly and had I been able to wreak havoc on Equestria like I had once dreamed; I may have been interested in doing the same. I would be the lich queen, as it were.
“Lich?”
Oh, lich is just another word for the undead. Or at least I’m guessing so.
“So did anything happen?”
What do you mean, happen? I couldn’t leave the moon because of my sister’s spell. So there was no way he’d be able to meet me, let alone see me. Eventually though, my dark self went off him.
“Why?”
Because he turned out to have a good side. It was on the final day I went to see him.
Nightmare Moon gasped in horror; which was unlike her. Her love interest had been thrown down onto the ground and his runic blade, which the wicked mare had learned to be called Frostmourne, lay scattered in pieces across the citadel floor. Arthas breathed heavily as he struggled to emit his last breaths.
A ghostly light encircled him and a transparent figure emerged from it. It knelt down to the body as if to tend to it. Arthas looked up at the ghostly figure.
“Father! Is it over?” His voice was filled with fear, almost like a child. It certainly wasn’t the Arthas that Nightmare knew and loved.
“At long last,” the ghost replied. “No king rules forever, my son.”
“I see only…darkness…” His body tensed up as he uttered his last words. “Before…me…”
And with that, the arm which he had been using to cling to his father’s ghost lost life and fell to the floor like the rest of his corpse. Nightmare Moon found it sickening, she hadn’t come here to watch such piffle. And so with disgust evident, she fled back to the moon.
“Well…sniff…that was a great story,” Twilight said, trying not to cry. “I’m glad to see that Arthas had some good in him.”
“Yes, I’m glad of that too. Even while I was visiting him, I learned a great deal about his past. I listened to it – even if the dark me thought badly of his good side.”
“He was once a prince who only wished to do what was best for his kind. But he gave into the fear and anger that taunted him on his quest until his good side was almost non-existent.” Luna began to sniffle. “And his subjects that he swore to protect paid the price for his mistakes as he became a living nightmare and abandoned them to millennia of loss and regret and…”
Luna paused as she began to realise whose story was starting to be told. A tear ran down her cheek as she inhaled through her blocked-up nose. She noticed the outstretched handkerchief offered to her by the other princess.
“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, grabbing the tissue and blowing her muzzle. “I guess the reason I could love Arthas’s good side is that he was a lot like me. I didn’t go to the extent of killing anypony, luckily my sister acted quickly. But if I had had the chance, who knows what I could have done!”
Luna sighed and collected herself. “I think if I could be with Arthas's good self now, I think I would have wanted his company.”
“Do you think he would have liked you?” asked Twilight.
Luna chuckled. “Actually, I heard that he already had a romance before he became evil so I probably wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Oh? Well, that’s a shame,” amused Twilight.
“Quite. The girl had a nice name too.”
“Jaina.”