When Twilight Sparkle is sent to Ponyville to study the Magic of Friendship, the last thing she expected was to use the Elements of Harmony herself. But when, instead of killing Nightmare Moon, the Elements merely separate her from Princess Luna, Celestia decides the Night Alicorn could stand to learn a thing or two about friendship herself, along with Twilight. Secretly, Twilight hopes for something more than friendship. But can a being spawned of hate and jealousy even make friends?

A/N: One-shot shipping, now with 100% less cheeselegs and 100% more cheesebutt! I came up with the ending and wrote towards that, if it seems a little weird. Kind of an AU retelling of the end of S1E2 and some stuff afterwards. Yeah. Art courtesy of madmax.

During a quiet evening of stargazing, Princess Luna and a young Twilight observe the night with mutual contentment. A small flicker of light catches Twilight's attention, a strange anomaly in the sky. When she questions Princess Luna, Twilight is rewarded with a story — one both terrible and beautiful.

Edits by Level Dasher
Prereaders: JackRipper
Chaospaladin

Set before season three.
This story was written for Nightmare Moon 2017 Summer Contest.

This story is a sequel to The Hardest Goodbye

After deciding to run away to the Badlands in order to try and find his destiny, Spike encounters the old villain, Nightmare Moon. After an unsuccessful attempt to posses him, Nightmare Moon is now stuck in his head.

"My name is Sweetie Belle, and I live in a world where night lasts forever."

It all began on the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, a little more than a year ago. Nightmare Moon, the mare thought to be a mere legend has returned and changed our world. She forbid the sun from rising ever again, she broke our spirits and sowed seeds of distrust and sadness amongst us.

She invaded our dreams, poured nightmares into them to make us live in fear, make us obey. And those who didn't obey, ended up in dreamlocked prisons built of their dreams, wishes and fears, with no hope of returning to the real world.

As for myself... I just want my sister back.

Warning: please refrain yourself from reading the comments before the story, because spoilers!

After a malfunction causes the lunar lander to crash on the moon, Captain West explores his new home as the only survivor. While investigating, he falls into a hole that leads him to another part of the moon that is actually part of the universe containing Equestria. Along with his new surroundings, he also comes across the imprisoned Nightmare Moon. After a discussion among each other, they end up bringing two worlds together, if only among themselves.

This story is a sequel to By The Light of the Moon

All Trixie wanted was to be Great and Powerful, and to study magic at Celestia's School. Fortunately, she had two excellent teachers to guide her. Unfortunately, one of them was a Nightmare...

For more of this AU, see: Ring Around the Moon -- Part I

And also check out the series, beginning with Not Exactly Friends.

Nightmare Moon has been banished once again by the Elements of Harmony, however this time she is not banished to the moon. Instead she arrives in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl, site of the greatest ecological disaster in recorded history.

Now she must learn to survive in one of the most inhospitable lands ever born or perish.

Alexei Sharov, unable to make a living in the outside world he has turned to the life of a stalker, a life where daily conflict is the means to survival. Like many stalkers he carves a living from hunting mutants and collecting artifacts – treasures spawned by the Zone worth their weight in gold.

Still being a rookie he has a way to go, but how will he fare when one of Equestria's most infamous villains comes crashing into his world.

Pinkamena Diane Pie is suffering from waking nightmares.
Ghostly, grossly, creepy, weepy, kooky, spooky nightmares.

But a little bit of a grandmother's love can go a long way.

Nightmare Moon has been gone several years, but not gone for good. And when Luna asks Twilight for help in ridding her of this curse, the Princess of Friendship decides to forgo magical rainbow blasts in place of a far more relatable approach.

Tonight, they're gonna paint the moon red.

This story was inspired by the song of the same name by L-Train (feat Koa, TheMusicReborn, Zephysonas & General Mumble).

Narcotics tag for alcohol and cannabis use.

Cover art from Yakovlev-Vad on Deviantart

Pre-reading and editing by Kai the Changeling, Snow Quill, and Atom Smash.

Celestia had a niece once, not an adopted niece like Cadance, an actual biological niece, the daughter of Princess Luna. Sadly when Luna became Nightmare Moon her daughter took her mothers side and led the their forces against Celestia.

Princess Twilight was killed during that battle, or so history tells us...

Featured on the 11/10/2015! Thanks so much!