Nightmare's Reign

by NorrisThePony

Nightmare's Reign (VIII)

Nightmare Moon stood completely still, staring at the ground where Luna had been not a second earlier.

"You didn't have to do that." She managed, giving Discord a disgusted look. "You have no idea what she's been through."

"Funny, I wonder if she's thinking of you with the same amount of concern." Discord responded instinctively. "You lying, conniving little weasel."

"It would have cost you nothing to have taken my life instead of hers." Nightmare Moon said, unfazed. "She didn't deserve to die."

"Well, Nighty, that wasn't the deal, now was it?"

"I don't care about the deal!" She spat in reply, crossing the marble floor until she was standing over Luna's cold and lifeless body, leaning down and using a hoof to close her wide and frantic eyes.

"Then please explain, my dear...." Discord drawled, and with a flash of magic he was now wearing a spotless business tuxedo and a pair of pink horn-rimmed glasses perched lazily on his nose."...what it is you want."

"I..I want..." At a loss, Nightmare Moon realized she did not know. It would have been so much easier to accept the conditions of her and Discord's original agreement if it weren't for the overwhelming guilt she felt over Luna's death. Perhaps she had originally had motivation to help Discord, and perhaps she had originally held little to no regard for the Moon Princess who she had helped, but all that had changed. Ahead, Discord blinked in amusement at her stunned silence and took it as a show of ignorance.

"The arrangement, Nighty, because it seems as though you've forgotten, was that you brought me a living pony, and in turn I was to allow you to use their lifeless body to live in." Discord explained, pushing his glasses to his eyes. "Not to save the life of an alicorn who cost my own. Not to mention, seriously endangers my future plans for eternal chaos in Equestria..."

"You think I care what your future plans are?" Nightmare Moon laughed without humor. "You are going to do what I ask, or else—"

"Or else what?" He challenged, the business suit and glasses disappearing immediately as took an intimidating step forward and looking down at the snarling alicorn with a patronizing grin. "You'll try to fight me? Cause that worked so well with her, didn't it?"

Unwilling to show defeat or weakness, Nightmare Moon stood her ground, looking back up at him with a contempt expression.

"If need be, yes, I will." She said, refusing to break her glare at the draconequus. "I may have sided with you in the past, but I see now what you really are. You're a lazy coward. And I'm not doing your work any longer."

"And, assuming against all possibility, you actually managed to win a confrontation against moi...what exactly would that solve?" Discord replied, his tone shifting ever-so-slightly from playful to malicious. Nightmare Moon could feel the tell-tale shift in air pressure as chaos magic sprung to life. Nevertheless, she remained where she was standing, in an offensive stance.

"It would bring Lun—"

"What do you care about her?" Discord snapped, and all around the castle the air began crackling as chaos energy grew and grew in intensity. "You led her down here in the first place, Moonie! So don't even start with that!"

"I didn't!" Nightmare Moon protested, and immediately after she had she regretted it. Perhaps due to frustration, or perhaps it was fear of the draconequus in front of her, but the words came out pathetically childish. "I admit I didn't care about Luna when I first dragged her down into darkness, but that was decades ago! I've—"

"You've what, Moonie? You've changed?" Discord laughed, and the ebb and flow of the magic seemed to die down slightly. "Well, I'm sure you'll forgive my skepticism."

"Luna's plan to come down here was of her own design." Nightmare Moon argued, forcing back the prickling sensation of regret as she recalled Luna's decision to try to save her sister, and how she had done next to nothing to warn her of the imminent result. "She would've made it here even if I never existed."

"Really? Would the sun still be up?" Discord pondered, his glasses re-appearing on his nose.

"Y...yes..."

"And would her sister still be alive?"

"Yes."

"Then why would she have reason to come down here?" Discord pointed out matter-of-factually. "See, it's still your fault, Nighty. Maybe you really have changed, heck, maybe you really did start seeing Luna as some sort of..." Discord cringed visibly at the very thought of the word. "...friend...but just like her, you can't take back what you did."

"We'll see about that." Nightmare warned.

"Yes, I suppose we will. It'll be ever so entertaining." Resuming his carefree, patronizing grin, Discord used his magic in an attempt to pick up Nightmare Moon the same way he had with Luna, and despite being more than prepared for the attack, she found herself completely unable to counter it. Levitating the alicorn until her was staring straight into her furious eyes, his grin grew to a full on maniacal smile. "I'd watch your attitude, Nighty. Unless you WANT to go back to Equestria alone..."

Nightmare Moon's confrontational glare faltered for but a second as that possibility sunk in. How long would it take to get back to Tartarus? A hundred years? A thousand? She had worked far too long and dragged herself across too many miles of hellish Equestrian chaos to get to where she was now, and the prospect of having to start all again, no Sombra, or Luna to help her, was too intimidating for her to risk. It was entirely possible she would never be able to return to Tartarus, and would instead be banished for all eternity to the terrifying confines of Equestrian soil without hooves to tread through it. While Discord was more than likely bluffing, the Spirit of Chaos was the last creature she wanted to gamble against.

"That's what I thought." Discord said. "You're adorably gutless, Nighty."

Right after finishing his sentence, Discord changed the fluctuation of his magic until it was now one of something different from simple levitation. Nightmare Moon felt the change in pressure being applied on her, and knew instantly that something was wrong. Right as the spell grew, she gave the draconequus her best snarl and breathed one last warning.

"This isn't over, Discord. You haven't won yet. Not against me, and not against Princess Luna."

And with that, she fed magic of her own to counter that of the draconequus, and disappeared in a final flash of purple light.

---

***THREE YEARS LATER***

The river was largely unchanged when Nightmare Moon beheld it once again, for the first time in several years. So many miles of traveling, and it had all led her back to this one place.

Of course, she had no idea it had been three years. To her, the continuous nature of her never ending trek through the Underworld was every bit as insipid and repetitive as it had ever been, except this time it was no longer meaningless. This time, for the first she could remember, she had a purpose. After so long...centuries, perhaps even millenniums of simply wandering, she felt as if her actions finally had the potential to affect somepony other than herself. It was a good feeling, to have a purpose.

Nightmare dipped a hoof in the cool water, flashbacks of her first trip here with Luna instantly resurfacing. She did not make any attempt to repress them, although as her initial step gave way to another, and another, until she was wading through the water, what were first simply memories of her last time here quickly gave way to something more.

"Ah, Luna." Nightmare Moon spoke aloud, the way she had adapted to doing with no other pony around to speak with. "The crazy things you wanted to do...the things you wanted to fix. I thought you were crazy, but I guess what I'm doing is the exact same."

No pony responded. No pony ever responded. But Nightmare Moon hadn't been expecting anypony too. Whatever the purpose of the ponies in Luna's Underworld served, the town of Canterville or the scattered settlements along the road, they had long since been fulfilled with her passing. Now, all that remained was an empty Equestria where every settlement was a ghost town. The whole world was empty. Again.

Nightmare Moon wasn't surprised at this. She had known it would be this way the moment Luna's life ended, the same way it had been before she had infected her life. And now, if she couldn't find a way to fix the aftermath of her betrayal of that poor mare's trust, she would be doomed to roam this desolate wasteland for the rest of eternity, like before. Then again, even if she did manage to fix this, it was quite likely that both her and Luna's fates would remain unchanged, and the only mare who would really benefit at all from both of their endeavors would be Luna's sister.

"That damn mare better be worth all of this." Nightmare Moon snarled at the empty air. From what she remembered during her living years, Celestia wasn't anything particularly impressive, at least not to a being of darkness such as her. In fact, being in her presence was almost...draining. Hopefully, now that they were both flesh...sort of...that wouldn't be an issue, but Nightmare Moon couldn't help but be wary about seeing the Princess of the Sun all the same. Nevertheless, it was what Luna had wanted and she had no choice but to see it through.

Even more concerning was whether Celestia herself would be willing to speak with the mare who, from her limited understanding, twisted her sister into a murderous fiend. Not to mention the current state of affairs regarding Luna's death. But Celestia didn't need to know about that.

In time, Nightmare Moon reached the end of the motionless river, where the water tumbled down as a serene and silent waterfall which was completely unsuccessful in pulling anything else down with it, so that Nightmare Moon was perfectly capable of standing on the very edge of the river and looking down at the water falling into the starry abyss.

Celestia.

"Celestia." Nightmare Moon repeated, this time out loud. Keeping her eyes locked on the nothingness below, Nightmare Moon took a deep breath and cleared her mind until only the image of Luna's sister remained. She continued murmuring her name over and over again to help, her voice rising in volume and intensity with every uttering of that title which carried so much weight in Equestria. A name that, to the mare screaming it, meant next to nothing. Deciding that it was only serving to distract her from the actual thought of Celestia and instead steer her attention towards to pronunciation of her name, Nightmare Moon stopped and took another deep breath, conjuring up every detail and memory of the white alicorn she had.

"Here we go."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Nightmare Moon took one leap off the edge and unfurled her wings as she sailed straight downwards into the unknown abyss below her, staving off the fear and uncertainty and instead still focusing exclusively on the one mare who might still be able to fix all the wrong that had happened.

For a long while, there was nothing but the sensation of falling into the abyss which had no end. Granting herself the luxury of a sliver of vision through her shut eyes, Nightmare Moon saw exactly what she had been expecting to see: nothing. And then, without a single pinprick of subtlety, the black sky exploded into a vibrant green forest with a fantastic flash of white. Now, Nightmare Moon was flying towards a vast clearing, surronded in all directions by miles of lush hills with thousands upon thousands of magnificent, strikingly ordinary looking trees growing on them. Overhead, the sun was burning brightly over a sparkling lake, adding to the picturesque nature of the beautiful scenery. Hanging on the edge of an inclined slop over top of the lake was a tall castle that Nightmare Moon instantly recognized as Luna and Celestia's. But it was much larger, much newer, and the shimmering lake and green fields gave it a much different impression.

With a few stray flaps of her wings, Nightmare Moon descended until she was flying above the lake by a mere several feet, her own reflection racing along beneath her. Ahead, the brown cliff-face of the island the castle was built on towered high above, the sun nearly blinding her as it poked in and out of view through the tall spires.

"Alright." Nightmare Moon thought out loud. "So, Equestria. Probably...three...maybe four thousand years ago. But why here?"

If she had been successful in tapping into Celestia's Underworld, it most certainly wasn't what she had been expecting. Then again, she hadn't had any idea what it would be, so her expectations had been mostly nonexistent to begin with. Luna's Underworld had been bleak, dark, and mostly hopeless. Not to mention dangerous. This looked about as intimidating as a clichéd landscape painting. Could there even be a gate to Tartarus here?

The castle was close now, and Nightmare Moon realized with minor grief that she couldn't delay this meeting any longer. As much as she did not want it to be, her encounter with Celestia was right here and right now. Taking one last introspective glance at her reflection below, Nightmare Moon was less than pleased by the corrupted looking version of Luna that Celestia would see.

"No more over-thinking!" She said sternly. "It'll be fine! Celestia's supposed to be a forgiving mare, she'll understand!"

Feeling only slightly more encouraged, Nightmare Moon disappeared in purple haze, which traveled onwards in an instant to the castle ahead.

---

Nightmare Moon found her exactly where she had expected her to be. Slowly and cautiously, she approached the mare who was lounging on a soft cushion in the middle of a lush courtyard, looking at a book through horn-rimmed red reading glaces.

"Ahem!" Nightmare Moon cleared her throat nervously, causing the white alicorn to look up with mild surprise and remove her reading glasses to behold her visitor. "Uh...I hope I'm not interrupting you, Celestia."

Springing to her feet, Celestia whipped around to face her, her expression first one of surprise, then joy, and finally frustration.

"Luna..." She let out a long sigh, shaking her head in disappointment at the black alicorn that had once been her dear sister.. "You're her, aren't you? What's left of her?"

"Not exactly. My name is Nightmare Moon." She responded, offering a hoof to Celestia, who stared at it for a long while. Finally, she let out an irritated snort and said nothing, refusing to shake it. It was not the gesture Nightmare Moon had been anticipating, but nevertheless she continued.

"Firstly, I'm well aware that you probably hate me, and you don't want anything to do with m—"

"Stop." Celestia interrupted harshly, turning back away from her and squeezing her eyes shut. "Stop, stop, stop. Stop talking, please."

Nightmare Moon instantly obeyed, staring at her feet and feeling guilt that technically wasn't even her own. Silence fell between both mares, with Celestia simply staring into the sky with her eyes closed, deep in thought. Nightmare Moon watched her, unsure about what to say or what to do.

Without any warning, Celestia whipped around and leaped straight at her, crashing into Nightmare Moon and using her wings to capture her in a tight embrace. It took Nightmare Moon several seconds to realize that she was currently being hugged by the white alicorn, and it was in fact not an act of violence against her.

"That's for Luna." Celestia said, letting go and clearing her throat, grinning somewhat awkwardly. "I assume she's the reason you came here to speak with me?"

"You are correct."

"And what relation do you have to my sister?" Celestia asked, once again turning around and sitting down on her spot in the courtyard, looking up at the sun shining above.

"She's a friend. Well, she was a friend, I can't imagine she sees me as such anymore." Nightmare Moon said, standing beside Celestia and staring at the same sun. "We never really got along, her and I, but I think deep down she trusted me, and that's what hurts the most."

"I'm afraid you've lost me."

"Right, sorry. I'll get down to business then. Celestia, you're dead..."

"Well, how very observant of you." Celestia chuckled playfully. "And, I'm doing quite fine. Make sure you tell Luna that."

"I'll try to remember. Anyways, as you can imagine, your death has left your sister feeling utterly devastated. What you probably can't imagine is the lengths she has gone through to reverse her actions. She should be the one standing here, not me, but she is currently...well, she's currently indisposed at the moment."

"What in the name of sanity are you suggesting?" Celestia said, her carefree tone giving way to a more uneasy understanding of what her sister had intended to do.

"Luna traveled across Tartarus, indeed, across the Underworld itself, looking for you. She thought that if she did, she could offer up her life as payment to bring back yours."

"Is...is that even possible?"

"It is."

"And Luna was willing to..."

"She was."

Looking as if she were about to faint, Celestia crumbled to the ground a bit and lay staring at her hooves in dismay. Nightmare Moon watched her from a distance, awkwardly wondering whether or not she should console Luna's sister.

"I should've known she'd try something so rash." Celestia said eventually, her voice visibly annoyed with her sister the way a stern schoolteacher might sound. "Luna is a very intelligent mare, but she can be so dense sometimes!"

"Pfft, tell me about it." Nightmare Moon chuckled, only to stop abruptly when Celestia turned her stern expression on her.

"She must be terribly broken up over what has happened to come up with such a desperate solution."

"You don't know the half of it." Nightmare Moon sighed. "I wish she could be here now instead of me. Speaking with you would probably be all the encouragement she needs to move on with her life."

"Perhaps it is better that I speak with you...I'm sorry, your name was...?"

"I've been called so many. But to Luna, I'm Nightmare Moon."

"Not a very welcoming name." Celestia observed. "You said you're a friend of my sister?"

"I did—"

"A friend doesn't drag another into swirling depths of hatred and jealousy to feed on their inner darkness, Nightmare." Celestia said, void of all emotion other than blame. "I know exactly what you are to my sister, Nightmare Moon. It's not my position to judge you, but do not even think of calling yourself a friend to Luna after what you made her do."

In that moment, Nightmare Moon would have LOVED to scream the truth into this insipid alicorns face. The truth that Luna's jealousy and hatred was not at all a product of her meddling, and that all she had done was given her a light little shove to get the cogs of progress moving. She hadn't made Luna into anything short of what she already was capable of becoming on her own.

But instead of uttering protest, Nightmare Moon simply slunk her head and nodded.

"Now then..." Celestia carried on, seeing that Nightmare Moon wouldn't. "This business of resurrection. By what means can such a thing be achieved?"

"Quite simply. The only difficulty would be getting to the Tree of Harmony in Tartarus. But even that should be quite simple compared to what Luna and I had to go through.."

"I see. Well, unfortunately I must refuse Luna's offer."

"It isn't what your sister would want." Nightmare Moon said, deciding to be a little more forefront and assertive. It would seem Celestia would need a little coxing.

"And what do you think you know about Luna's desires?" Celestia challenged, her voice rising in intensity and hostility. "The only thing you know about her is what bits of darkness you can exploit for your own benefit."

"That's a lie!" Nightmare snapped. "You hypocrite, you know nothing about me!"

"Then you deny turning my sister into the thing that took my life?!"

"No, but I certainly deny any claims that I don't care about her! You think I came here to speak with you because I WANTED to? I came to find you because Luna couldn't! I'm here for her! Three years I've been traveling to get this far, I hardly think I deserve your condemnation!"

"Where is Luna then? Why couldn't she be here instead of you?"

Nightmare Moon did not answer.

"Where is she?!" Celestia asserted, springing to her feet harshly. "What have you done to her? Have you killed her, too?"

"I regret coming here." Nightmare Moon said. "You're not worth the effort it took to find you. It looks as though I've wasted my time."

"Answer my question!" Celestia screamed. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"No." Nightmare lied. "She's fine."

"You lie!"

"I'm done here." Nightmare Moon said, whipping away from Celestia and preparing her wings for takeoff. "I see now you're too engulfed in your own pride to accept your own sister's sacrifice."

"Stop right now!" Celestia commanded sternly, but Nightmare Moon ignored her and started into the sky, only making it several feet before Celestia called out again, this time much more softly. "Please, Nightmare Moon. I'm sorry. Please come back."

Nightmare Moon obeyed without question and landed back on the ground, feeling quite satisfied with herself for successfully making Celestia beg her to come back. It was amazing the change in attitude one could create by simply threatening to leave. One of the upsides to being a fearsome looking alicorn was that she commanded a lot of presence, apparently even over the Princess of the Sun.

"I didn't mean to accuse you of anything." Celestia said. "But surely you understand me bearing a little resentment towards you?"

"I suppose. I swear to you, Luna will be fine. And I know you don't believe me when I say this, but I consider her the only friend I have."

"I won't try to fathom how that can be." Celestia shrugged, neither protesting nor agreeing with Nightmare Moon's statement. "You're wrong about my pride though. You're a fool if you think that's what's preventing me from taking my own sister's life from her."

To Celestia's surprise, Nightmare Moon responded with a light chuckle. Unbeknownst to her, Nightmare Moon had never once meant an inkling of that statement, and she was simply trying to get a rise out of Celestia to lower her judgement. Apparently it had worked, because when Celestia spoke it was clear from her voice that she was deliberately being much more cautious with her word choice.

"The reason I deny your request isn't from pride." Celestia continued. "It's because of the sheer fact that it wouldn't be fair for Luna."

"Do you think it's what she would want, though?"

"Luna wanted to rule Equestria under eternal night! What she wants isn't relevant!"

"Fine. Forget her. What about the ponies of Equestria?" Nightmare Moon pointed out. "Without the sunlight, each and every one of them is going to die."

Celestia opened her mouth to respond, before promptly closing it and thinking. For a long while, neither she nor Nightmare Moon said a word, until finally Celestia broke the silence of about a minute with a whispered question.

"Why would I be able to change that?" She murmured, once again looking up at the sun above. "If Luna can't raise it...why would I be able to?"

"You're Celes—" Nightmare Moon began, before realizing that she had proven the exact same thing to Luna three years ago. The night was locked, perpetually locked...locked by a darkness not caused by night or by lack of sun. As long as that darkness were present...the night truly would last forever. Even after Luna had died, the night would still last, the darkness would still exist. The Elements of Harmony were the only thing that might stand a chance against it now, and even that was questionable.

"Could you still wield the Elements after what has happened?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"I don't know. If Luna couldn't...why can I? And if it turns out that I can't, I must then cope with the knowledge that Luna died for nothing."

"Luna has to cope with that knowledge." Nightmare Moon asserted, remembering the repeated point Luna had made; that by doing this she would be free of all burdens of guilt and regret. But if she couldn't save Celestia, that guilt and regret would never go away.

"Well, my sister...is stronger than me in that regard. She can manage." Celestia said, her voice cracking as if she were driving back the urge to weep. "And I know this...because I faltered. On the night I died. I could have stopped her, I could have wielded the Elements instead of her, and I did not. I could not. Not if it meant killing my one and only sister."

"Your weakness has made a miserable wreck of your one and only sister." Nightmare Moon replied evenly. "Is that really any better? Things may never get better for her, you know."

"I still blame you for her corruption, so don't try to turn this around on me." Celestia said, the previous hostility once again bubbling to the surface. Not that she was intimidated, but Nightmare Moon decided to back down, considering arguing would only be counter-productive.

"Fine." Nightmare Moon said, once again unfurling her wings and preparing to leave. "Well, you've refused my and Luna's request, and there isn't a lot more I can do. I see now that coming here was a mistake."

Giving Celestia a courteous nod, and, upon a split-second's thought, a sarcastic bow and eyeroll, Nightmare Moon once again took off into the air, this time with no intention of returning.

"Wait!" Celestia once again called, earning a protesting groan from Nightmare Moon who froze midflight and hovered in place.

"What now?!"

"You are returning to Luna?"

"I am. We're going back to Equestria."

"Can you...perhaps take a letter to her from myself?"

Her frown turning to a grin, Nightmare Moon turned around and touched back onto the earth for the second time. It was definitely a good idea; even if Luna couldn't see Celestia in person, some words of encouragement from her sister would undoubtedly go a very long way. Nightmare stood and waited patiently as Celestia ripped out a blank page from her book and began scrawling furiously. Celestia wrote for nearly fifteen minutes, occasionally stopping, frowning, scratching out a character or sentence, looking to the sky for inspiration, or pacing back and forth as she thought.

Finally, when it looked like she was done, she began folding the paper and floating it towards Nightmare Moon with her magic. Suddenly, as she was doing so, she started in realization of something and pulled the paper back, reopening it and quickly jotting down one last paragraph at the bottom. Seemingly satisfied, she once again folded it and handed it to Nightmare Moon.

"I implore you to wish my sister luck, Nightmare Moon. And tell her I love her."

"I will." Nightmare Moon assured, while internally laughing at the very thought. "See ya, Celestia."

"Farewell, Nightmare Moon." Celestia said, and watched as the black alicorn took off into the sky for a brief distance, before vanishing into the afternoon sky.

Comments

[Unbridled Dolly]

Wait... is Luna dead or not? At some point it seemed like Nightmare was saying she was dead and at some points it seemed like she was saying she was alive. And what was that thing about three years?

[NorrisThePony]

5451455 Well, to Nightmare, death is a little more subjective, especially considering she herself is both alive and yet incapable of existing outside of the mindscape of a pony. I can offer a better explanation in a PM if you want, but from Nightmare's knowledge Luna is dead. As to whether or not she actually is...

The three years is just the time it took Nightmare Moon to track down Tia. It's not particularly significant.

[Unbridled Dolly]

5451807 Ah, okay. Thank you for the clarification.

[Razzy]

Poor Sunbutt.

Cya
Raziel-chan

[EverfreeSparkle]

Well, this is disappointing. Not only was the underworld plotpoint a lot more involved than I expected, it seems to be the driving point of the story. So I don't think I can continue reading. It's not you, it's just the fact that I almost always despise depictions of the underworld. It dampens any impact of dying and loses all of my interest in anything. If they exist after death, then living just isn't that special to me. My emotional connection to the characters shatters and I cannot relate to what they are going through.