Past Conditional: More Speedfics and Drabbles by Present Perfect

by PresentPerfect

Thank You, Nightmare Moon

Thank You, Nightmare Moon
by Present Perfect

The chance for Luna to once again catch up with Twilight Sparkle and her friends in Ponyville -- her friends, too -- without any sort of incidents was just the thing she had been needing. Mind, body and soul cleansed, she left the Palace of Friendship feeling lighter, but also ready to bask in a quiet evening in her study at the castle.

That was, until a small voice clamored across the courtyard.

"Princess Luna, Princess Luna! Is that really you?"

Luna turned to see a small pink blur racing toward her. She held out a wing as her guards stepped forward, knowing an overexcited filly when she saw one.

The filly screeched to a halt just before Luna, and stared up at her with barely-repressed awe. From beneath velvety purple curls, deep brown eyes sparkled at her, fervent enough to make the Princess of the Night take a step back.

"I love you so much, Princess Luna!"

A smile rose unbidden to Luna's face, and she let out a breath. "I am quite... honored to hear so, my little pony."

"I heard you were in Ponyville," the filly began chattering, "and I just had to come and say hi, I was too young to see you when you were here for Nightmare Night, but I couldn't let you leave this time without saying anything because you're just the best and I--"

Luna watched, smiling patiently, as the filly took a long, deep breath.

"Thank you for being Nightmare Moon!"

Luna's breath caught in her throat.

Her first emotion was fear: the lingering fear that somepony, anypony, knew what she had done and would hate her for it. It was an illogical fear, of course; everyone knew that she had been purged of the Nightmare. The few ponies who groused about her existence either despised having to suck up to a second Princess, or didn't know her at all.

Her second emotion was anger. That should have been "having been", not "being", right? She wasn't Nightmare Moon anymore! Was this filly stupid?

But strongest of all was the third emotion: confusion.

"I-I'm not Nightmare Moon anymore," Luna croaked dumbly, all three emotions jockeying to be the first to color her words.

"I know," the filly whispered, grinning as though sharing in some grand secret. "She's just you playing pretend!"

A part of Luna, deep inside, wept at the knowledge that Nightmare Moon had somehow become 'pretend'. That one thousand hours of envy, one thousand seconds of anger, and one thousand years of lonely penitence had been swept aside in favor of a young filly's fantasy.

A much deeper part wept for lost glory.

Luna ignored those parts, as was right, and placed her hoof atop the filly's head, which both stilled her jittering and caused her eyes and mouth to expand into large O's.

"Tell me, little filly," she said slowly, "what is your name?"

"Amaranth, Your Highness," the filly said, with all the decorum of a Canterlot noble of proper birth and upbringing.

"Amaranth." The name felt to her mouth like fine, dark wine; to her heart, it was even finer. "Just why do you like Nightmare Moon so much?"

"I know what you're gonna say," Amaranth whispered. "She was mean and evil, and I shouldn't want to be mean or evil."

Luna glanced down; the filly had averted her eyes. Luna rubbed her mane gently.

"B-but, when the foals at school are mean to me, or I feel alone, I just think about you and how you were Nightmare Moon, and you didn't feel scared or sad about anything." Amaranth licked her lips. "And I can pretend I'm her, just like you do, and then I feel..."

"Confident?"

The word came to Luna's lips unbidden. She really should not be encouraging this filly. And it was getting late; where were her parents?

"Yeah!" Amaranth's face lit up, and she raised it to look at Luna once more. "And then nothing mean or scary hurts me!"

Despite herself, Luna smiled. She swept the filly into an embrace, holding her close.

"Thank you, my child, for saying such kind things about me," she began. "But you're right that you should not idolize a pony who was so wicked in the past. Even if she is... pretend."

Stepping back, she lifted the filly's chin and gazed deep into her eyes.

"But if pretending to be Nightmare Moon can give you confidence, that means there is a piece of you, somewhere deep inside--" she poked Amaranth's chest, and the filly giggled-- "where that confidence naturally resides. You would do well to call on it, and not dark specters of the past, when you require reassurance."

Luna turned her gaze up to the stars. They were beautiful.

"Learn to do that well, and in time, you'll not need to practice. You will become that strong, confident pony you want to be."

They stood like that, just stargazing, for quite some time. Eventually, Amaranth's name came wafting down the street, and the filly jolted.

"M-my Aunt's calling me," she said, ears drooping.

"Remember what I said, young one." Luna stroked the filly's mane once more. "Go, and find who you were meant to be."

The filly wrapped her hooves as tightly around Luna's foreleg as she could.

"Thanks, Princess Luna! You're the best!"

With no further warning, she dashed off toward the distant pony who had called her.

Luna watched after her. Amaranth met the pony, her Aunt, and the two exchanged words. The filly pointed back at Luna, who waved at them; no doubt the Aunt wouldn't quite believe her story otherwise. The Aunt startled, then shrank in on herself, before they both trotted off to wherever it was they were expected.

"Home, gentlestallions," Luna said, turning and climbing into her chariot. She chuckled as the two charioteers gathered speed and pulled them all, wheeling, into the sky.

"It seems I am fated to always cause a stir when I visit Ponyville."

Author's Note:

I woke up a few days ago with this scene in my head and wanted to get it out.

Thanks to kjack1111, Changeling Scum and Majin Syeekoh for their feedback and encouragement.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Beautifully done, both the youthful innocence and the hard-won wisdom.

[Therizzen]

A part of Luna, deep inside, wept at the knowledge that Nightmare Moon had somehow become 'pretend'. That one thousand hours of envy, one thousand seconds of anger, and one thousand years of lonely penitence had been swept aside in favor of a young filly's fantasy.

Succinct yet impactful. Probably my favorite line. A good story, I liked it.

[Olden Bronie]

Wonderfully done! I just 'dawned' so much. You wrote Luna absolute perfection!

[iisaw]

This is lovely! I wish I could fave chapters. I really liked the "thousand" relation; nice little device, that.

[howard035]

You know, I always figured, other than the whole trying to depose Celestia and bring about eternal night, I actually preferred Nightmare Moon to Luna. I bet a lot of other ponies did too. Luna doesn't have cool cat eyes, badass magical armor, or a fantastic booming laugh.

[PresentPerfect]

9003592
I mean, I think she's hotter cooler. :B

[Icy Shake]

Beautiful little story. I just love how each of them got to learn and take something from the other. Thirding the point on the thousands.

9003592
Unfortunately, Real Princesses aren't allowed to be cool. :-( (Exception: Celestia at the end of "Lesson Zero"--and it's worth noting as a side note that Nightmare Moon was also cooler than Daybreaker). Luna gets a bit from time to time tied to the dream realm, but where that's played up a bit more they also tend to reemphasize her weaknesses and self-doubt.

[howard035]

9004945 I dunno, Daybreaker's hair is pure fire, that's pretty metal.

[Icy Shake]

9005356
Yeah, but it doesn't match well with Celestia's base coloration, the fangs look bad white-on-white, and it all came off a bit as trying too hard to me. That and no-story doesn't beat what's still probably the best villain background to date. And sure, I'll give you fire hair, but who's going to say "night eternal" isn't damn metal in itself?

[howard035]

9005837 Oh yeah, Daybreaker has some trouble justifying her existence. I said this years ago:

Daybreaker: "Join me Celestia, and you could have everything you could ever want"
Celestia: "You mean like ruling the country, living in a giant gold palace, the respect and admiration of everyone?"
Daybreaker: "Yeah.... but.... like,less meetings, and also cool fire powers."

[nemryn]

9005837
I'm severely behind on watching the episodes, so really the only criterion I can judge her on is the name. "Nightmare Moon" is a great name that works on multiple levels, and it always bugs me when authors get lazy and just give Evil Celestia something dumb like "Nightmare Flare". But on that level, "Daybreaker" is pretty solid!

(I'm still the president [and only member] of the Inferno Sun Fanclub, tho. )