Mare in the Mirror

by adcoon

Bonus. Nothing Shall Be Given You

Nightmare Moon stopped and turned her head to glance at the obsidian surface of the pond. It reflected nothing but the endless darkness and the cold, crushing emptiness filling the void between stars, a loneliness and despair made manifest. She knew it did, she knew it always had, and she knew it forever would.

Her eyes knew different. Her eyes knew a pony looking back at her.

“I don’t know you.” Her lips formed the words, slow as if from a moment of uncertainty, and the pony in the water mimed them back at her.

A drop hit the surface and caused a ripple across the face of the pony. Nightmare Moon lifted a hoof to her face. The pony in the water looked down at the tears glittering at the edge of her silver shoe, like a star sitting just above the horizon.

Nightmare Moon turned her head away, eyes closed for a moment so they couldn’t know. She turned and looked the other way, at the garden of black leaves and motionless branches. It was a garden of hollow and stillborn life, a shadow of a void in her chest where no heart had ever swelled with life. A tight and tangled knot of resentment was all she ever had.

She picked up a bright red flower from the ashen ground and lifted it high in the air as she watched its ruby leaves wither away to gray and dissolve into dust. For one glorious moment this garden—this shadow of a hollow heart of knotted strings in her chest—had known of colors, of life and joy, of warmth and beauty and a lightness and energy of the soul that swelled and threatened to burst the knot and consume the void.

For one brief moment she had held—no, for one brief moment something so pure and precious had held her, lifted her up and touched the void where no heart had ever been and left a heart there with an impossible longing. And then she had let it go as promised and given back what was not hers, because … because something so beautiful could never be hers … and because in that moment it was impossible to imagine taking it for herself.

Nightmare Moon let the dust of the flower fall gently over her outstretched hoof, like the dust of time that whittled away the world to nothingness. “Nothing is mine,” she whispered and closed her eyes tight. “For nothing is all I shall ever know.”

But her heart knew different.

Nightmare Moon turned and walked through the darkness of the garden, away from the pond, away from her reflection in the cold, dark water. Behind her, a tiny flower bloomed for a moment in the ashes and withered away again.

* * *

Branches and cobwebs tangled like endless claws playing twisted games of cat’s cradle, twisting in and out among each other. Silken ropes hung from the trees, holding up the bodies of young fillies, like unmoving puppets dangling on strings in the still air. Their blood, black as tar, soaked their fur and fed the ground. Their skin stripped and peeled from their flesh, entrails dangling beneath them in grotesque imitations of some sick and twisted art.

Here and there, some of them still sobbed and cried for a release that never came.

Nightmare Moon followed the trail of tortured bodies, her steps slow and her head low as the tangled forest grew denser and darker, black upon deeper black, not a single shade of gray or hint of light. She turned her head now and then to watch the tragic souls strung up beside her.

Once these poor souls had known the warmth and color of life. Once they had known love and the bonds of friendship. Once their hearts had swelled with joy and laughter, with kindness and all the other things that the innocent heart of a child could feel. Nightmare Moon didn’t feel anything. She never had and never would.

Her heart felt otherwise. It felt a tightness which could only find release as a sob.

Nightmare Moon turned away and closed her eyes tight, face distorted in anger and resentment at herself and the tears in her eyes. She could not feel these things, it was impossible, but her heart kept telling her different. She couldn’t have a heart, so how did it hurt so much? She picked up her pace, head held low to the ground to avoid looking at them.

Branches clawed and grasped at her as she forced her way through the thickets and webs of this bleak and lifeless desolation. Behind her, a young voice cried out in hope for a second before wooden claws tightened around her neck and strangled the sound from her lungs.

* * *

The cave entrance yawned before her like the maw of some unspeakable horror from beyond imagination, its black throat descending endlessly into the deepest recesses of the abyss. Nightmare Moon did not know fear. She knew of fear, because it was what she invoked in those who, unlike herself, could know its terror.

Her heart shrank back before the black chasm gazing back at her.

Nightmare Moon drew herself up and stared down the deep. She filled her lungs and stepped into the dark as she spoke to command her quivering heart, “I do not fear!”

The forest with its tangled branches and crying souls soon disappeared behind her, leaving nothing but the solid walls of darkness around her and the open darkness ahead of her. Deeper shades of black reached out for her, blacker than black and hungry for light. Nightmare Moon needed no light. This was her element, and she knew what she was here for.

It was in front of her, bloated and oozing black blood from its tattered body, dripping thick and sticky drops from its open wounds. It knew she was there. Pale black limbs dragged its body further into the back of the blackness with a slow scraping noise, pulling itself away from Nightmare Moon. It was a futile but natural reaction.

Nightmare Moon’s heart fought for control, screaming in terror, but she refused to listen. She took another step towards the black monster, her hooves sounding hollow in the echoing cave.

“Have you come to deliver the final blow?” The creature asked, its voice but a whisper in the dark. “Have you come to kill me while I am at my weakest?”

Nightmare Moon said nothing and watched the creature with a face as empty as she herself had ever felt.

“And what would that accomplish? Why are you doing this?” the creature spat out the words in anger. “Is it just for some silly idea of revenge? Because I tricked you? You would have done the same, but I simply did it first.”

“I haven’t come to kill you, Midnight.” Nightmare Moon’s voice was as hollow as her face.

“Ah,” the creature laughed. “Gloat, then. Go ahead, gloat all you like.”

“I haven’t come to gloat,” Nightmare Moon said without her eyes leaving the creature.

“Now I don’t believe you at all.”

“I had to punish you, but I am not unfair,” Nightmare Moon said and moved closer. “I am here to make you an offer you can’t refuse. A gift, in fact.”

“Hah! So you can trick me?” The creature moved a little to the side and settled down heavily. “I don’t need your help. I won’t be stuck here for long.”

A flicker of something stirred within Nightmare Moon, something that shouldn’t stir within her but did. “I know about the blood. You have quite an extended family now, don’t you? Not only your own and Trixie. Celestia, Scootaloo? Possibly even Luna in some twisted way. Am I missing anypony?”

The creature remained silent, watching her with tiny, hateful eyes.

Nightmare Moon watched her in silence for a while. “Oh yes, two of the palace guards, the owner of a candy shop in Canterlot, and a young sculptor from Cloudsdale. You see, I know about all the ponies you’ve got your poison in, and I can watch all of them. I never sleep or tire. I also know where you were buried. I’ll make sure there are no ashes for them to find. I’m going to make sure you rot down here forever.”

“You’d waste all your time to be my jailor? Have you no ambition?”

“Oh, I do,” Nightmare Moon said and smiled. “And as it happens, I need you. That’s why I have a gift for you, and since it’s something you can’t refuse … can I assume we have a deal?”

The creature glared at her for a long time from its corner. “What is this gift?”

“The power that you tried to take from me, but this time on my terms. First term is no more questions. Say yes, like a good little unicorn,” Nightmare Moon gave her an enigmatic smile and winked, “I know you want to.”

There was a heavy silence as they watched each other, unblinking and unflinching. After a minute, Nightmare Moon turned around without a word and began walking back the way she had come. She reached the yawning tunnel, and the walls narrowed in around her.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll take your gift!” the creature broke the silence behind her.

Nightmare Moon turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

“Yes, I … accept your gift,” the creature tried again.

Nightmare Moon’s horn burned without color or flame as she stepped back into the cave, approaching the creature. “Then I shall give it to you,” she said as the glow surrounded the creature, seeping into her like hollow strands sucking in the darkness around her.

The creature writhed and shrunk, its legs withering away to nothing but darkness. A young filly with a spider on her flank looked up in its place, eyes wide as she lifted a hoof and stared at Nightmare Moon through it. “W-what is this?”

Nightmare Moon stepped closer, looming over the filly. “Everything I ever had to give. You see,” she lowered her head as the filly stumbled back. “I never had anything. I never had any power to give either, or for you to trick out of me. I never had anything to offer but empty promises, but some ponies are eager to believe, never realizing that I never gave them anything. It was themselves all along.”

Midnight cried as her hooves became little more than a shadow. “No!” Her horn flared a dark indigo for a second before dying. “Take it back! Take it back!”

“You wanted what I had to give, and all I have to give is nothing. It is yours.” Nightmare Moon looked down at herself, a mere shadow of something, perhaps a memory. “You will never hurt my friends again, or any other pony!”

Midnight’s scream died upon the shadows of her lips as the darkness flooded in to fill the empty space where she had been. Silence, deep and complete, filled the darkness.

Nightmare Moon lifted her head and closed her eyes as nothing remained.

* * *

A tiny white flower bloomed in the darkness. Elsewhere, a little red bud peeked out of the shadows and blossomed. Grass covered the ground while bushes and trees grew from nothing and filled the garden with colors, brilliant flowers in every hue and plants of vibrant green. The sky lit up with stars, and a gentle breeze rustled through the leaves.

A young filly stood up and looked around. She turned to her friend beside her. Across the garden many other fillies joined them as they drifted towards the glade in the center, looking around in wonder and confusion at each other and the garden blooming around them.

A young white filly with lavender-and-rose hair looked up at the faint shadow of a dark alicorn standing in a circle of trees. The filly stood up on her hind legs and closed her eyes as she wrapped her forelegs around the shadowy body. She smiled as tears ran down her cheeks, her head pressed against the shadow’s heart.

Other fillies drifted closer. A white and golden-maned pegasus joined the first filly, hugging the shadow of a leg and letting out tears that seemed to have been held back for ages for this very moment.

Nightmare Moon opened her eyes and looked down at the fillies gathering around her. All she had ever known was emptiness and loneliness. But for a brief moment, something precious and pure had filled the void of her heart with joy and friendship, and it had left behind a bright and burning memory and an impossible longing in the tangled knots of her heart.

Nightmare Moon lay down in the soft grass and cried, and something light and pure lit up her heart with joy and sorrow as she hugged the young filly with the purple-and-rose mane, who seemed to her somehow familiar.

Light and warmth filled the glade. Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and smiled as she faded away in the light. For the first time in her life, she had something.

Comments

[Fallen Knight]

[k64speed]

Good to see a happy ending for Nightmare Moon, as well as it is good to see that Midnight has vanished/been vanished. Is that the end of Nightmare Moon, though? As in, is she completely gone now?

[adcoon]

2926367
I actually have some ideas for Nightmare Moon, but can't say when/if I'll write them.

[k64speed]

2927979 Alright, sounds interesting...

[Fire Soul]

You know....I would love to see another story where Nightmare Moon revisits Luna, Celestia and Trixie, after having had time to experience what it's like to actually feel for someone other than herself. If not for Twilight, Midnight wouldn't have been thoroughly trounced in the end, and Nightmare never would've known what it's like to actually care about someone other than herself.

I like the thought of her changing her world of shadows into a colorful, endless garden. Like some kind of fallen angel redeeming itself and becoming the beacon of joy for all lost and suffering souls in the afterlife.

[adcoon]

3010822
A story about NMM would definitely be interesting at this point. I may never actually write it, unfortunately, since I have so many other things in the works, but if I ever write another story in this series, it would almost certainly involve NMM.

[Armasyll]

I put off reading this series for 2 years :v
I wasn't dissapointed v:

But what happened to Twilight :o

[adcoon]

3556549
Glad you got to it eventually. It's been a while since my mind was in this story, and I can't remember what I had in mind regarding Twilight's soul and her fate when I wrote it. It was probably left a bit vague, but I'm sure I had something specific in mind.

[NightmareTRXY32]

i hope you write about what happened to Twily's soul. I REALLY WANNA KNOW. its too bad there's not a way you could of ressurected her, and had her friends freak and still be happy or something. Still good story though. Good job man.

[adcoon]

6952493
I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

I can't even remember what happens with Twi since it's been several years since I wrote it. There's probably never going to be a sequel though.

[NightmareTRXY32]

6956485 :( if its ok, i could do it sometime down the road, make a sequel for you if you wanted. i could also use someone to check my stories out, if your interested.

[NightmareTRXY32]

6956485 i hope you see this, i have taken it upon myself to try and make my own sequel. Just thought I'd let you know, if your still around. :)

[k64speed]

7677198
Sounds awesome! I believe I'll give it a look soon. Care to share some links for us with the story and music?

[NightmareTRXY32]

7678133 Sorry for the late reply.
here's the link to my unofficial sequel:http://www.fimfiction.net/story/351740/ressurrection-of-a-spark
the other thing i'll link at a later date.
I only have 2 chapters done, i got side tracked for a while with other stories and Source Film maker animations. ><

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!