Loved by the Sun and Moon

by Bahamut0

Chapter 3: Regrets

The next few days were far from boring for Burst. Not only was Nightshade going to CHS, but she had also told him she had no place to stay, and he couldn't just leave her to fend for herself. So he wound up having her stay in an extra room at his house. She was so happy she gave him a hug that nearly crushed him! 'I hope Celestia doesn't take this the wrong way.' Nightmare on the other hand, was ecstatic.

'Barely two days and I've already living in the same house as him.', Nightmare thought to herself. 'I wonder how Dark Ice is doing with his vengeance?' She soon found out the next day that Ice had kidnapped Ace's girlfriend Sonata. He then used his dark powers to control her like a puppet and forced her to duel against Ace! Ace managed to snap her out of it, but Dark Ice was a sore loser. He attempted to fire a blast of darkness that would have destroyed the whole group. But Burst put a stop to that with a blast of his own! "Hadoken!" Ice then called a hasty retreat to consult what to do next with Nightmare. But upon observing his actions, she was less than pleased. And she expressed her displeasure with a slap across his face! "What were you about to do?!"

"I was going to destroy my brother once and for all! Maybe even get rid of a larger threat from that Burst Stream guy! I sensed how strong he is! He could easily destroy either of us! What's wrong with that?!" Nightmare was furious! Ice had made the mistake of trying to destroy her soon-to-be lover, and she wasn't going to have any of that. And she wasn't a big fan of destroying people either.

"I may want eternal night for this world, but I will not stain my rule with destruction. I will defeat the elements. But I. Will. Not. Destroy them. And if you pull another stunt like that, I'll end you myself! Are. We. Clear?"

"Crystal.", Dark Ice growled. "But know that if you bring eternal night, this world will be dead anyway."

"What are you talking about?"

"Without the sun's light, nothing would grow and everything would wither away. The whole planet would be a frozen tomb. When you think about what I tried to do, I was going to spare them the agony of a slow demise.", Ice said with a sneer as he left. Nightmare fell to her knees as thoughts raced through her head.

"Would...would I really have doomed Equestria to such a fate? Was I really blind to the consequences of my actions? Was this why Luna and I were banished?" The realization hit her full force, and Nightmare Moon, one of the most feared villains from Equestria, burst into tears. "Celestia knew something like that would happen! And all I did was try to destroy her! It's my fault Luna and I were banished! My fault that Celestia felt the pain of losing her for 1000 years! And my fault Luna took the fall for my mistake and became feared and hated! Why it was so hard for her to be accepted when our banishment ended!" Nightmare's thoughts then turned back to Equestria. "Luna...I'm so sorry!" Nightmare continued to lament her past, until someone noticed her.

"Something on your mind?", Golden Rise asked.

"Who are you?" Nightmare was startled!

"Call me Gold for short. By the looks of that darkness aura around you, you're not from this world. So who are you, and why did you come here?"

"My name is Nightmare Moon. I first came here to bring eternal night. But after hearing the possible consequences my actions could bring about, I'm not so sure I want that anymore. But why am I telling you this? It's not like you can relate to me."

"No. I can't. But I can tell you this. Whatever happened in the past doesn't have to be the path you stick to. Make your own way."

"....Thank you.", Nightmare said as she left. 'I guess I should head back to Burst's house. He's probably wondering where I am.' Meanwhile, Burst and Ace had defeated Dark Ice, and Burst arrived home first. When Nightmare opened the door, Burst seemed to be pretty happy to see her.

"Hey Nightshade! How'd your day go?"

"Ok."

"Mine could have gone better. Ace and I took down his evil brother. It was a pretty insane duel. All I know is that my bed is going to feel pretty good after today."

'They beat Dark Ice! That's a relief.', Nightmare thought to herself with a small smile. As the day drew to a close and she went to sleep, Nightmare oddly enough was plagued by nightmares herself.

Inside Nightmare's dreams...

"I'm back in Equestria?", Nightmare said as she found herself back in her old home. But something wasn't right. The whole place felt cold, and lifeless. She looked all around to see ponies shivering not only from the cold that seemed ever present, but also in fear of her presence. Nightmare looked to the sky, and saw that where the sun normally stood that the moon stood instead. 'Is this....the Equestria that would have happened if I brought eternal night?' Nightmare decided to further explore this possibility by flying to where Canterlot Castle once stood. In its place was a castle themed after the night. Nightmare ventured inside, and journeyed to see where she would have kept Celestia or Luna prisoner. When she entered, they both seemed to pick up on her presence before she was within eyesight.

"Do you understand what you've done now?", Celestia asked with contempt spilling from her voice.

"I-I didn't know."

"How could you?! All you were was selfish monster who wanted nothing more to make yourself happy! And all it cost you was the lives of everypony in Equestria!" Nightmare tried to talk to Luna, but she kept her back turned to her. "And you took Luna away from me for one thousand years! None of this would have happened if you never existed!" The words pierced Nightmare's heart, and the shock of them caused her dreams to shift back to when she and Luna had returned from their banishment. Nightmare was so engrossed in the dream she tried to talk to ponies there, but they all ran and screamed in terror!

"Wait! I'm not the way I used to be! Please! I don't want to hurt any of you!", Nightmare pleaded! But in the end, she was all alone. The dream shifted again, and she woke up to find herself on the moon. "I should have guessed this would happen...", she said as her chest felt weighed down with the weight of the world. Tears began to form in her eyes. "I...I don't want people to be scared of me...", she sobbed.

"..ightshade!", a voice called out that she could barely hear.

"I don't want to be hated or for people to run away from me!", Nightmare cried as tears were now streaming down her face!

"Nightshade!", the voice called louder.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE ANYMORE!", she screamed!

"NIGHTSHADE!", Burst nearly screamed! Nightmare opened her eyes to see Burst standing over her. "You alright? You sounded like you were having the worst nightmare possible." Nightmare took a moment to catch her breath from the shock of waking up.

"I was."

"Do you wanna...talk about it?" Nightmare nodded.

'Burst's been nothing but good to me ever since I came to this world. He deserves to know the truth about me.' "Burst...there's something I should tell you first. I'm not from this world and....Nightshade isn't my real name." Burst was silent for a few seconds before he answered her.

"I know you're not from around here." Nightmare was caught completely off-guard!

"What?! How did you know?"

"Another perk of my dragonic powers is that I can pick up on energy signatures. Yours looks like it came from Equestria. So, tell me who you really are.", Burst said with a kind smile.

"My real name is Nightmare Moon. In Equestria, I was brought to life from Luna's jealousy of Celestia and tried to bring eternal night. I was defeated by the elements of harmony and banished with Luna to the moon for a thousand years. After all those years we escaped, but were defeated by the new bearers of the elements. Luna was separated from me, and I was nothing more than a pile of magical mist. That is, until you came to Equestria. You left a good amount of residual magic behind that I used to regenerate myself before I crossed over to your world. At first I wanted to continue my plans for eternal night. I sided with Dark Ice, but after he was first defeated he told me what would happen should I succeed. The world would wither away and freeze over without any light. And it would all be my fault. I realized that was why I was banished, and that it was my fault Celestia was alone for a thousand years! And that I caused Luna so much pain!" Nightmare teared up as she said this. "I don't want to be feared or hated anymore! I don't want to be alone!" Nightmare was almost crying until Burst wrapped his arms around her. "You probably hate me don't you? For not telling you and siding with Dark Ice. I wouldn't blame you."

"Nightmare...I don't hate you."

"You...you don't?"

"No. I don't. Whatever you tried to do in the past doesn't apply here. This is a chance to start over, and to not be alone. You've already got me, and I'm sure the rest of my friends would get to like you too.", Burst said with a gentle smile never once breaking the embrace he held Nightmare in. "As long as I'm here, you never have to be alone." Nightmare was in awe! Despite all she had told him, the things she had done, Burst was still willing to accept her. She then decided to ask a fairly bold question.

"Burst...could I sleep with you tonight? And could you not call me Nightmare? Could you...call me Moon instead?" Burst still had that gentle smile on his face.

"Sure...Moon. With the dreams you've been having, I'd say you're better off not sleeping alone." The two of them headed up to Burst's room. Burst soon fell fast asleep, and wound up facing Moon. She hesitated on getting closer to him, but all hesitation was gone when she remembered Burst's words. As she wrapped her arms around Burst, a feeling of safety came over her.

'He's so warm. I feel...safe around him. Like I'm not alone anymore. You were more right than you know Burst. I don't feel alone anymore.', Nightmare thought to herself with a smile as she drifted off to sleep. This time however, she had pleasant dreams the rest of the night.

Comments

[Bahamut0]

7722400
Just finished the latest chapter!

[ArcticAce01]

7722496 ok I love this chapter the most so far!... it gave a lot and shows a lot... plus a happy chapter ending to a chapter! can't wait to see even even more!

[Bahamut0]

7722548
I thought you might like it! The rest of the story is going to be the developing triple ship!

[ArcticAce01]

7722554 Ooooooo can't wait to see how that will turn out

[Starlight Nova]

The synopsis confuses me a bit... By "Moon" you mean Nightmare Moon, right? Why not just call her Nightmare?