Nightmare Moon
"The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us," Twilight Sparkle shouted with determination.
"You still don't have the sixth Element!" Nightmare Moon jeered in desperate denial. "The spark didn't work!"
"But it did! A different kind of spark," Twilight corrected. Twilight's focus shifted away from the Lunar tyrant, falling on her new companions. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all..." Twilight turned back to Nightmare Moon. "Are my friends!"
With her declaration the sixth and final sphere flashed into existence over Twilight's head. "You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic," Twilight affirmed with triumph. As if in response, the sphere above her exploded in a burst of light. Each set of shards surrounding her friends combined and formed a necklace on each of them, as a tiara created from the final stone set itself upon her head. All six radiating with magical energy, they levitated off the ground and came together. Once together, two rainbows of magic spiraled above them before coming together and diving at Nightmare Moon.
"Nooooo," she cried in desperate panic. "Nooooo!"
The rainbow summoned by the Elements crashed into Nightmare Moon, quickly engulfing her as she struggled to escape. As the rainbow consumed the last of Nightmare Moon, Twilight opened her eyes shining white with pure magic, and the blinding glow quickly filled the entire room.
Nightmare Moon's eyes snapped open, quickly standing to her hooves, intent on finishing off the little meddlers she had grossly underestimated. Looking around, however, she quickly realized that she was no longer in her old castle. Nightmare Moon seemed to be in some sort of nowhere space, very similar to the dreamscape she used to frequent so much, yet much whiter.
"Where am I," Nightmare Moon asked in suspicious confusion. "What's going on?"
She stiffened as she suddenly felt a presence behind her. Turning on the spot, Nightmare Moon confronted the newcomer with a snarl, only for her face to jerk back in surprised confusion. Standing in front of her was what seemed to be a child, filly or colt she couldn't tell, that met her gaze unflinchingly. It seemed almost ghostly in appearance, with bluish mist wisping off its ethereal form.
"Greetings, Princess Luna," the small figure said calmly. Its voice seemed to echo as if multiple voices spoke at once, distinctly childlike, yet with barely audible undertones of adult, both male and female. Nightmare Moon's face soured at the newcomer's greeting.
"Do not address me with that title," she spat with a growl, her patience already nonexistent. "That name means nothing to me. That mare is gone."
"Irrelevant," the figure stated flatly. While its specter-like form made the figure's facial features difficult to distinguish, Nightmare Moon could tell its face remained neutral as it spoke. "That is who you are. Thus, that is what we shall call you."
"Enough!" Nightmare Moon's shout echoed through the nether space around them. "Who are you," she demanded.
The figure cocked its head slightly. "Do you not remember us," it inquired. Nightmare Moon's response was another growl of impatience. Taking her response as a negative, the figure continued. "We are the Elements of Harmony."
Nightmare's look of confusion quickly morphed into one of comprehension. Of course! It was so obvious now, she silently berated herself for not figuring it out earlier. Her expression of dawning comprehension changed again to a grin of malice.
"Well then," she jeered. "Thank you for making this easy!"
Faster than a mortal eye could process, Nightmare Moon charged her horn and fired at the diminutive figure. However, before her magic could launch more than three feet from her, it dissipated away harmlessly. "What!" Nightmare Moon cried in shock. Quickly, she tried again to the same result. Then again. And again. After her fourth attempt, the Elements spoke up.
"Your attempts are pointless," they informed her. "None can come to harm here."
Nightmare Moon panted, both in slight exhaustion and frustration. Without waiting for further response, the Elements turned away from her and began walking off. "Come," they called back to her. "We have much to show you. Much to discuss."
Quickly weighing her options, Nightmare Moon sighed in defeat before quickly catching up to the small figure retreating from her.
After an extended period of silence, Nightmare Moon spoke up. "What are you planning," she inquired, slight malice still detectable in her voice.
"We wish to show you the consequences of your actions," the Elements answered simply. "Both actual, and potential."
"But why now," Nightmare Moon spat. "Why imprison me for a thousand years before showing me the consequences of my actions." She said the last few words in a mocking tone, doubtful of the Elements' intentions or success. The Elements came to a halt, and so did Nightmare Moon.
"Without the full strength of our true bearers, our solutions were forced to be much more..." the Elements paused, as if trying to find the right word.
"Crude," they finished. Nightmare Moon gazed skeptically at the Elements, doubting the answer, but she chose to remain silent. "Now, Princess Luna, let us gaze into the realm of what might have been," the Elements said, cryptically.
"What will be," Nightmare Moon corrected softly, growling again at the Elements' address of her former self.
The Elements said nothing as images began to flash by before them, until they quickly halted on one particular image. Nightmare Moon recoiled slightly in shock at the sight that confronted her. Before her showed herself cackling madly as she stood over a broken and battered Celestia. The longer she looked, the more she understood. Her sister's mane and tail had lost their hue, and no longer flowed as if she were submerged underwater. The rise and fall of her chest was also absent. With a jolt, Nightmare Moon realized that she saw the death of Celestia at her own hooves. Speechless, mouth slightly agape, she turned to the Elements, who calmly met her gaze.
"I--" she stammered out.
"This, Princess Luna," the Elements cut her off, "is what would have been necessary for your plans to truly succeed."
"I would have only subdued her," Nightmare Moon argued. "Made her see and appreciate the beauty of the night! As with everypony else!"
"But she would have resisted. Escaped any imprisonment you would have created," the Elements countered. "Deep down, you know this would eventually have been the only solution."
Nightmare Moon seemed to shrink away at this. Unbeknownst to her, she had physically shrunk down slightly at the revelation. She then straightened, holding her head up.
"Then that only means that I am the superior sister," Nightmare Moon boasted, though some of her previous confidence was oddly absent.
"Perhaps," the Elements conceded, turning back as the images began cycling again. It wasn't long before they settled on a view of an Equestrian town in bathed in Nightmare Moon's eternal night. At first it showed the ponies of the town either running around in panic or huddled in small groups, cowering in fear. The image gently changed as the frightened ponies faded away, only to fade back in, obviously much later, their looks of fear replaced with an almost melancholy acceptance, somberly trudging through their town. Every once in a while, one of the ponies would look up despairingly at the moon, a small flicker of fear passing over their face.
A frown crossed over Nightmare Moon's face. She hadn't expected this kind of reaction from her subjects. At least, not after too much time had passed. She shook her head. Those little foals just needed more time. Looking back to the image, Nightmare Moon failed to notice her fur lighten slightly from pitch black to a deep, dark blue. "They would have learned to love my beautiful night," she said smugly, attempting to bury the sliver of doubt creeping into her mind.
"Would they have," the Elements questioned. Nightmare Moon looked down questioningly at the Elements. They remained silent under her gaze, instead nodding towards the image before them. Nightmare Moon looked back once more to see the images cycling again, this time changing much slower, allowing her time to fully see what displayed.
First to greet her eyes was the image of an earth pony farmer, unhealthily thin, tending to what appeared to be dead or dying crops, unable to grow in the lack of sunlight. Next came an image of a unicorn mother and daughter caring for a severely ill colt, all three as thin as the farmer, if not more so. Without food to maintain their strength, they would all fall just as ill. What followed was a view of a Pegasus cloud city square, emaciated bodies collapsed on the ground, mares, stallions, and foals alike, some clearly dead. Those few pegasi still moving merely shuffled along the makeshift walkways, no energy left to fly. The clouds themselves had a gray, sickly look to them. The images began changing faster, showing various towns across Equestria, the dead littering the streets, the living mourning them where they fell, having no energy to properly tend to them.
Nightmare Moon visibly shrunk away from each new horror that confronted her, literally becoming smaller and smaller, her mouth agape and tears in her eyes. She wanted to tear her gaze away, but her eyes were fixed to the images of a ruined kingdom in front of her. Her mane had long since lost its flowing texture and shining stars, hanging limp and dull around her neck. The Elements finally broke the silence. "Before you stands the true bounty of eternal night," they explained. "This is what your sister fought to prevent."
"N-no. I-I didn't want this," Nightmare Moon choked out, a tear escaping her eye to fall down her cheek.
"You wanted eternal night," the Elements countered simply. "You never once gave mind to the consequences."
Nightmare Moon turned back to the Elements. "I just wanted them to see my nights for the beauty that that they were," she cried.
"Regardless of what you wanted, this would have been the outcome," the Elements replied. "Due to Celestia's efforts, however, this did not come to pass."
With a wave of their hoof, the Elements cast away the images that stood before them. "Let us look, instead, at what did come to pass," the Elements declared, as more images flashed before them. They were soon greeted with the final moments of the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, Celestia having just retrieved the Elements of Harmony from the castle below. The image then showed Celestia's face as she brought the Elements to bear against Nightmare Moon, tears streaming down her face as she used the Elements to seal her sister away into the moon. Celestia fell softly to the ground, tears flowing harder as her body was racked sobs, choked apologies and pleas for forgiveness. With a wail of sorrow she cried her sister's name to the heavens as she stared at the moon's newest feature. Nightmare Moon watched with rapt attention as tears slowly began to fall down her own face.
"Sister," she whispered, her heart aching with regret. The images began changing again, showing Celestia as she ruled alone, always wearing a mask of serenity to hide her true sorrow. However, whenever she was alone, Celestia would let the mask fall, occasionally letting tears fall, but always grieving in silence.
"Sister," Nightmare Moon cried out again, breaking her stillness and bounding forward, pressing her front hooves and forehead to the image in front of her, finally letting the tears fall freely down her face. In her hurry, she failed to notice that she now barely stood taller than the average adult mare. Her mane was now a soft sky blue, and her coat, a light, calm cerulean.
"What you see here, you have wrought yourself," the Elements stated firmly. "So what say you?"
The Princess's mind was a cacophony of doubt and regret, tears beginning to fall harder. Was this truly what she wanted? Ruling in solitude over a broken and crumbling kingdom, her subjects forced to perish by her actions? And what of her sister? Forced to seal away her own sister, not out of malice, but necessity. Did Celestia deserve to be put a millennium of sorrow? All for the vanity and shortsightedness of her little sister? To be Nightmare Moon, she realized, was to bring nothing but fear, sorrow, and destruction to the world.
"What say you, Nightmare Moon?"
"NO," the sobbing mare's scream cut through the void as she rounded on the Elements, finally breaking. "I don't want eternal night! I don't want to fight and rule alone! I don't want to be Nightmare Moon anymore!"
The Elements smiled slightly at this. "Then make it so, Princess Luna."
With shaky breaths, Princess Luna looked to the world on all sides of her as it began to fade around them, before turning back to the fading ghostly figure in front of her. "What must I do," she asked with a pleading sniff.
"What you feel is right," was the echoing reply, and with it, the world faded away entirely.
Princess Luna was suddenly very aware of the floor she laid upon. Her eyes were closed, yet she could hear an almost motherly voice that belonged to only one pony not too far away.
"Now if only another will as well," it said, approaching where she lay. "Princess Luna."
Luna's eyes snapped open with a gasp. Looking up Luna saw her sister standing over her as she neared, her face neutral. Luna sat up straighter as she approached.
"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us," Celestia said as she lowered herself to her knees before her sister. "We were meant to rule together, little sister."
"Sister!?"
The shocked gasp that emanated from behind Celestia went largely ignored by the two alicorns.
"Will you except my friendship," Celestia asked of her little sister as she stood. The Bearers behind Celestia leaned in with baited breath, one of them seeming to lose their balance.
Luna looked into Celestia's face and saw past the mask of calm she displayed. Her sister was nervous for her answer, and she could see the begging in the question that she hid so skillfully from others. As she looked at her sister then at the floor, a different answer to a different question echoed in her mind.
"What you think is right."
Closing her eyes in a hopeless attempt to block her tears, Luna bounded forward.
"I'm so sorry," Luna said as she nuzzled her sister's chest and the tears fell. Celestia's look of surprise quickly changed to a smile, tears welling up as she craned her neck forward to meet her sister's embrace. "I missed you so much, big sister."
"I missed you, too," Celestia said as her own tears of happiness flowed freely. And as the two sisters shared smiles and tears, for the first time in a thousand years, everything was truly right in the world.