so far really good story. keep up the good work

What did she mean 'yet?'

Silly Twilight, you have fairy tail character near you. Ofcourse she will be behaving according to the legend, that includes eating foals.

5915724 Well she has yet to meet her true jailers. I don't remember mention of Pinkie being with them all yet, and then there is the CMC. Wondering which trap she will get caught in of theirs first.

Every pony they came across seemed to be weary,

I think the word you're looking for is 'wary'.

Love it~

I adore this story. Nightmare Moon is one of my favorite characters and I can't wait to see what her reaction to Ponyville and it's crazy will be. Especially when she meets best pony Pinkie :D

I found myself smugly smiling and nodding in agreement when she told Twi that little part about how heroes lie to themselves about being better than the 'badguys'. I always thought that if you take the opposite perspective, Sunbutt and her stooges could easily be the villains, and you wouldn't have to change anything from canon either.

Obey, or face a millennium in stone, or in ice, or on the moon!
Heck, even the town of 'our town'... The only town still resisting Celestia's oppression, until her agents removed the leader from the picture.

Also the sun is too bright and warm anyway.

Although it should have been no surprise, Nightmare Moon found that she was not in the castle. Neither the old one in The Everfree, nor the (relatively speaking) newer one in Canterlot. They were not even in the city limits of Canterlot. It turned out that their little ritual had been performed in what was essentially an artificially made cave in the side of a mountain. Turns out it had been made by Starswirl so he could work on his magical experiments without risk of harming any ponies by accident.
Also turned out that -- worse case scenario -- they could collapse the cave in on itself and trap whatever creature they had summoned inside. In a way, it was kind of flattering that they were so worried of what Nightmare Moon might do that they were planning to drop a mountain on her.

Smart.

I do not enjoy it. I can see why ponies wish to avoid it so much.

HEH!

"Good," Twilight said. "Now if you had let me finish, I would have said 'nothing so painful or cruel.' It actually serves two functions. What you just experienced is actually one of them. I can set and adjust distance and location of where the wearer can travel, either from a fixed point, or to a relative area. For instance, right now it is set so that you can't get more than twenty feet from me in any direction."

Smart. And shouldn't it be hooves more than feet?

"Nightmare," Twilight scolded as she used her magic to pull Nightmare Moon away from the mother and child. "What is wrong with you? Scaring a foal like that. You should be ashamed."
"And yet," Nightmare Moon retorted, holding her head high and nose up, "I am not."

HEH!

What did she mean 'yet?'

I suppose you'll be finding out soon.

Twilight is a lot more benevolent here than most warden characters I've read about, but it looks like she hasn't thought through the implications of her actions. They seem to be designed to keep Nightmare in check while sacrificing as little comfort as possible. Much more humane than many things I've seen in redemption stories. However, the way she keeps getting surprised makes me think that she didn't consider what her restrictions might look like to others or how Nightmare would feel about them.

There's also the fact that, unlike Discord, Nightmare was given no choice in this. Discord agreed to at least play along, but Nightmare has been effectively muzzled and leashed then told that she is going to play nice whether she wants to or not. Choosing to reform and being forced to go through the motions are extremely different and I'm not sure Twilight thought of that in her eagerness. It also looks like she didn't think of what it would be like to suddenly be stripped of magic, something they were born with, and be told that it had to be earned back. Magic may not be necessary for them to live, but having that taken away (especially from a creature that essentially was magic) seems like a big deal and Twilight may have jumped the gun, not fully understanding what she's done to prepare for Nightmare's reform.

If Nightmare keeps going like she has, I see self-worth problems in Twilight's future.

Love it. Nightmare Moon should tweak and snark as much as possible.

5916754 Yup, I can easily see a revolt come when she gets the chance. I haven't even read the story yet, and even though I love Nightmare Moon (my Best Pony), I don't think I want to...

Where's the clop?

Clop, please!

5918944 I assume we'll need to wait for a bit for the story to catch up. On the bright side, it'll make the clop more meaningful when it happens (if it's done right).

I look forward to updates. I haven't found a good rehabilitation story for nightmare moon in a while! And then you popped up!

... or a sufficiently powerful artifact that shall allow her to compensate for the loss of her abilities.

What type of artifact could that be?

First, to beat 4 alicorns, you need an artifact with unreachable, strong alicorn-power.
Second, you have to wear it. So it has to be somthing what you can wear without reduce your movement. Maybe something like an amulet.

... But what am I writing, how can she possible find something like that near to ponyville? That is absolutly impossible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntnvS7XkrL4

"And yet," Nightmare Moon retorted, holding her head high and nose up, "I am not."

My head canon Twilight has a very sassy-like black women voice like my mother, so I just imagine Twilight going "Lil' bitch, get your ass in the other god damn car and don't make me get that news paper and smack you the fuck up!"

anyone else get the image of the samething happening to chihuahua as nightmare moon?

5943842 Even the Alicorn Amulet couldn't do that. It's not that powerful.

Ahhhh~! Finally a story that got my attention! It's only 'Good-guy-beats-up-Bad-guy' these days, but this? This is 'Bad-guy-sexually-harasses-Good-guy'! Just for me!