Taming Nightmare Moon

by Leafdoggy

Prologue

Darkness embraced Princess Luna like an old friend as she touched down on the hard marble floors. She found herself in Canterlot Castle, her long time home, standing in the throne room, but something wasn’t right. There was a strange glow about the darkness surrounding her, not the nighttime she knew all too well, but a more sinister kind of darkness.

The darkness of an eclipse.

Behind her, the door to her bedroom stood unchanged. It made her think of the waking world, where she sat alone in quiet meditation. She knew that she wouldn’t find herself if she walked through that door, that the world of dreams had no concrete ties to the world of daylight, but she still felt a curious urge to check. She pushed it away, intent on doing the job she was here to do.

Ahead of her, the throne room was not the one she knew. There stood only one throne, tall and regal, which radiated power. The high back blocked her view of the pony it belonged to. The bright red carpets and glimmering gold accents were all absent, replaced with dark hues of purple and blue. The stained glass windows lining the hall, which were meant to be symbols of hope, were filled with strange shapes and smokey silhouettes. Candles lined the room, flickering with bright blue flames, but their light brought the room no warmth.

Kneeling before the throne, a pained look painted on his face, was Starswirl the Bearded. The sight of him made Luna bite her lip anxiously. He was Luna’s mentor and, in many ways, the pony who raised her. This wasn’t the kind of dream she wanted to see him in.

Starswirl was speaking in hushed, breathless tones. “I’ll never submit to the likes of you.”

“You act as though you have a choice,” boomed the pony sitting on the throne. Her voice was one Luna knew all too well.

“I did, once,” Starswirl muttered. “I suppose I must have chosen wrong.”

This nightmare wasn’t anything new to Luna. It was one she prepared herself for every night. It took different forms, but she had seen this nightmare from so many other ponies. Citizens. Friends. Twilight. Celestia. They all held these fears, somewhere inside of them.

This was the first time she had seen it from Starswirl, though, and the sight of her teacher burned a hole in her heart. She was frozen in place, completely unsure of what to do, of how to mend this wound.

The figure in the throne was speaking again. “What is it you presume to do here, old friend?”

“I presume to put an end to this,” Starswirl said. “I failed Equestria by putting you here, I shan't fail them again by allowing you to stay.”

“Hah!” The hidden pony swiped a hoof through the air, and a wall of blue flames erupted around Starswirl. “I look forward to seeing you try and stop me.”

Luna knew she had to do something. She willed herself forward, pushing step by step. Her hooves striking the cold floor below her seemed to echo endlessly through the world.

Step by step by step, she moved on.

Around the throne, between the two, until she was in a position to stop this twisted version of herself.

When the figure finally came into view, Luna froze. Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes went wide with shock and horror. She couldn’t have prepared herself for this.

There was no Nightmare Moon in the throne. That malevolent force inside of her was nowhere to be seen. Of course she wasn’t there; Starswirl had never seen Nightmare Moon.

Instead, when Luna looked upon the throne, her eyes fell onto a mirror image of herself.

She wasn’t a perfect mirror. She wore a jagged crown and the well polished, commanding outfit of a queen. Her mane flowed with a confidence Luna no longer held. Her eyes were cold and cruel as she stared down her nose at the weak unicorn.

Those weren’t Nightmare Moon’s eyes, though. Just as Luna locked away the parts of herself that made her Nightmare Moon, her dreaded counterpart did the same, blocking herself from the influence of Luna’s lighter side.

This Luna, the one on the throne, still had those bits of light in her eyes. The compassion, the kindness, the mercy. There were hints of them all in her icy gaze.

They just weren’t enough to stop her.

Starswirl caught sight of Luna and crouched down defensively. “Another? Bah! It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, Luna. I will correct my mistakes.”

Luna faltered. She stumbled back. What was she supposed to do? Her thoughts couldn’t even get that far. All she could see, all she could think of, was Starswirl’s hatred of what she had become.

It was too much for her. She couldn’t fix this, she couldn’t even think straight. All she could do was make it stop. So that’s what she did.

With a flash of her horn, the dream broke down into nothingness. Starswirl vanished with a pop, bound for the waking world once more. The windows cracked and shattered, the carpets burned away, the grand throne crumbled. The world around her was weathered away, reduced to less than dust, and then blown away by an invisible wind.

Just like that, Luna was left alone. Around her was the familiar nothingness of oblivion, a dream without dreaming. No light, no darkness. No heat, no cold. There was only Luna, standing stiff as a board as she struggled to fight back the tears welling in her eyes.

Her emotions started to swell. The feelings she had always felt. The inferiority, the loneliness, the frustration. Endless, bottomless frustration. It bubbled up inside her, around her, threatening to drown her.

She started to panic. These weren’t feelings she could allow herself to have. Desperate for anything to save her, she lit up her horn and fled into another dream.

She was too worked up for a smooth landing. She plummeted from the sky that appeared around her. She managed to land on her hooves, but it was far from graceful, and she was disoriented as the dream assembled itself around her.

A building formed, walls and a ceiling followed by lights, shelves, racks, registers. She was in a store, a massive one that stretched on to infinity, and surrounding her were rows upon rows of hats. More specifically, cowboy hats.

As soon as she got her bearings, Luna looked around frantically. “Applejack?” she called out, not seeing her. “Where are you?”

“Huh?” Applejack’s voice came from behind a tall shelf. She walked around the side of it, wearing a new hat that had a price tag dangling from it, and started to smile when she saw Luna.

The smile didn’t last, though, because she quickly saw the distress on Luna’s face. She ran over to her girlfriend, then reached up to grab her shoulders affirmingly. “Luna, what’s wrong? You look awful!”

“Oh, Applejack…” Luna collapsed to the ground, letting Applejack wrap her in a tight hug. “I just can’t do it anymore.”

Applejack gave her a light kiss on the cheek, then sat down and nuzzled her. “Tell me what happened, sugarcube.”

“Starswirl.” Luna stared blankly at the floor. “He had a nightmare about me.”

“A Nightmare Moon one?”

“No,” Luna said, “about me. He hates me for what I did.”

“A nightmare doesn’t always show somepony’s real feelings, you know that.”

“It shows part of them, though. Deep down, part of him hates me, just like everypony else.”

“We can’t control everything we feel,” Applejack told her.

“No, but do they even try?” Luna waved a hoof through the air dramatically. “The only reason any of them accept me at all is because my sister tells them to, and even she cannot forgive me.”

“Of course she forgives you.”

“Does she?” Luna looked sharply at Applejack, and a spark of blue flames flashed across her eyes. “Would she not be content to rule alone, were I to relinquish the throne? Would she—” Luna caught herself and winced. “No. I should not be thinking these things.”

“You can’t always help the things you think,” Applejack said. “I’m here for you to get it off your chest.”

“I just…” Luna ran a hoof through her mane in exasperation. “I’ve long since moved past the jealousy that drove me to the things I did, but the causes of that jealousy persist. If anything, they’ve gotten worse.”

Applejack rubbed Luna’s back, listening in silence.

“Equestria is content to see me spend my life alone, toiling under the stars while they frolic in the sunlight. What has my sister done to help? She claims the holiday meant to inspire fear of me is now in celebration of me, but that isn’t true. Equestria’s culture does not shift on her word alone, nor should it, but because she let that holiday take hold I’m feared and hated far and wide.”

Applejack nodded, not necessarily in agreement but as a signal of support.

“And she sits on her throne and does nothing.” Luna stamped her hoof on the ground, and for a brief moment it was swallowed by a swirling blue flame. “The ponies of Equestria would sooner throw me back into the moon and be done with me than give me their trust. All that holds them back is my sister’s good will, and I don’t know that I trust that to outlast their hatred.”

Applejack frowned. “Luna, something’s gotta change here. If you keep bottling all this up, somepony is gonna end up getting hurt.”

Luna sighed. “I must bottle it up, though. These thoughts, this anger, I know it isn’t reasonable. I cannot simply allow myself to succumb.”

“I mean, you’re right,” Applejack said. “It ain’t reasonable. It’s backwards thinkin, and you can’t go blockin out the sun cuz of it. But the feelings, those are real. Somewhere, under all the unreasonable thoughts, is the real reason you feel this way, and if you wanna find it you gotta talk. What you’re doin now, it’s just burying it deeper.”

“What would you have me do? I can’t confess to Celestia that I still feel these things, she would never trust me again.”

“You know what I think,” Applejack said.

“They would never allow it,” Luna replied.

“They will,” Applejack told her. “I can convince my friends. You just gotta get your sister to cooperate.”

“And what of the aftermath? My sister is not likely to simply overlook my tantrum.”

“Celestia ain’t a queen. You’re as much a princess as she is.”

Luna shook her head slowly. “They’ll simply banish us both.”

“For what?” Applejack asked. “Last time, you got banished cuz you blocked out the sun. She can’t banish you just for speakin up, even if you need Nightmare Moon to speak up for you.”

“You think she needs more? My sister won’t hesitate to banish me again for the same crime if she believes I’ll do it again.”

“Well, it’s a good thing she can’t, then,” Applejack said. “She ain’t strong enough to banish you on her own, and the elements don’t work without me. She could try for Starlight’s help, but she ain’t the kind of pony to hold somepony to their past. I hate to say it, but Celestia can’t win.”

Luna sighed and rested her head on her hooves. “I feel like such a failure. Even after everything that’s happened, I still can’t solve anything without her.”

“That’s cuz she’s a part of you,” Applejack said. “You can’t tie up your legs and then hate yourself cuz you can’t walk.”

“Can I hate myself for not being able to untie them?”

Applejack sighed and reached up to stroke Luna’s mane. “You’ll get there. Just try and trust her. Trust yourself.”

“Do you really believe it can work?”

“I do.”

“Then I’ll trust you,” Luna said. “Hopefully the rest will come in time.”

“I’m sure it will,” Applejack told her. “You’re the strongest pony I know. That’s why I love you so much.”

Luna smiled, weakly but warmly as well. “I love you too.”

---

Celestia yawned as she walked out onto her balcony that morning. It was darker than she expected; it seemed Luna was being rather punctual with her lowering of the moon today. Dawn wasn’t for a few more minutes, so Celestia decided to enjoy the moment and watch the setting of the moon.

The brilliant white ball drifted slowly down, obscured here and there by the silhouette of a passing cloud or a hungry bird. The castle was cast in a cool blue light as it passed behind, and on a far balcony stood her sister, proudly posed as she did her royal duties.

Something seemed off, though.

It took Celestia a while to piece it together. She wasn’t tipped off by the odd angle of the setting moon, or by the way Luna seemed taller than she should be. She didn’t notice the tall, sharp crown Luna was wearing, or her imposing royal regalia. She didn’t even realize when the moon was fully behind Luna, casting a spotlight on her grand form.

No, it wasn’t until her sister turned and locked eyes with her that Celestia realized she was looking not at Luna, but at Nightmare Moon.

Comments

[Ice Star]

Rare Luna ships always are a treat, and this story looks like it will be one too! I hope to see more.

[ILikeFanfiction1234]

this sounds interesting

[Vaguely Demented]

I am intrigued.