It was almost pitch black within the abandoned castle. The hoots from the owls and constant noise from the crickets were nice and relaxing. All in all it was quite a nice night.

But this did little to alleviate Nightmare Moons boredom.

She looked around the castle and sighed when she realised that nothing was out of place. Everything within this castle was exactly the same ever since she had been forcibly separated from Luna. To everypony else she had been blasted into pieces and was scattered all over the floor.

And in a sense they were correct. Her body had been destroyed entirely.

But her essence, her soul and everything she was had survived. But only to be forced into a dark corner of the castle, never to move, never to change or see any change happen. To her everything was stuck in time and it always would be…

She was a billowing shadow that could never be seen, never be touched...never be spoken too.

Her thousand year exile in the moon had nearly shattered her mind with solitude. And so her happiness at being able to not only talk to others but also touch and smell something again had been exhilarating. But her subjects feared her, they misunderstood her enthusiasm about her eternal night.

Her gift for them.

But rather than accept her gift with open arms they shunned her and almost immediately called for her arrest.

Bah! As if they could ever hope to have arrested me. Nightmare thought bitterly.

She was quite right in that regard. Nopony could match her magic…except the elements of harmony. They, she could never have predicted again. The moment she forced her sister into a deep sleep she had sensed that she was no longer connected to the ancient power.

And so like a foal she and overlooked the one question she should have asked herself.

If Celestia wasn't connected to them then who was?

And now she was paying dearly for that mistake.

Why couldn't they have understood me. I was never going to harm them! I was never going to become a tyrannical ruler with an iron hoof!

Nightmare felt the familiar feeling of sadness mixed with the hopelessness of her current situation overcome her. It was a mixed batch of emotions that she knew too well, but she welcomed them. If nothing they reminded her that she was alive…in a sense.

She was so lonely now. More so than when she was on the moon. At least then she had Luna with her, however unwilling the other side of her would have been to admit it. But now she had nopony, not a one. She had never really had a friend before, her guards and followers in her bid for eternal night had only been by her side for power or out of fear.

Nightmare did have to admit to herself that she was not what you would call the social type. She had attempted to be friendly with her followers but they always looked at her with fearful eyes, as if she would strike them down for saying the wrong word.

"Foals…" Nightmare muttered sadly. "Was it too much just to have somepony to talk to or laugh with?"

It was a sad fact that nopony in their wildest dreams would ever have thought of. Even Celestia herself had never considered this fact.

All the most reviled mare to ever have existed in Equestria wanted…

Was a friend.

Suddenly Nightmare felt a horrible lurching feeling, as though something was pulling at her harshly. She tried to flail and escape its grasp but it was in vain, whatever had a hold of her just simply kept on pulling her down.

"Get your hooves off of me!" she yelled defiantly.

Whatever it was didn't listen to her cries and gave her one last tug, successfully pulling her down and into a dark abyss, where she just kept falling and falling and…

Nightmare opened her eyes and instantly put a hoof to her head, massaging the headache she felt coming on.

Wait! I can touch my head?!

Nightmare looked at herself and almost collapsed in disbelief.

She was herself again!

Her coat was still as dark as midnight and her ethereal mane and tail still resembled the night sky. The only thing missing was the armour she had on before she was separated from Luna.

Her jubilant emotions were cut off however as a car suddenly sped past her left, making her fly into the air out of fear and shock.

"What the buck was that?!" she asked out loud, her breathing was slightly panicked for a second or two before returning to a reasonably calm rate.

She looked around at her surroundings and frowned when she noticed just how little plant life there was. The only green she could see was the grass and few trees in the park she had apparently landed on. With a slight frown she used her magic to feel the amount of magical energy in the planet's atmosphere.

"Strange…it feels the same as usual and yet it is as though it is rarely used. The signature feels out of place as well."

A conclusion came to Nightmare which she refused to accept until she had any proof. She flew up higher until she had a good vantage point to see her surroundings. Her heart skipped a beat as the strange buildings and beings she could see only proved her conclusion to be correct.

"I'm not in Equestria anymore."

The beings from what she had seen looked like hairless apes. Clothed hairless apes that spoke to one another and for the majority of them, used their strange appendages on some sort of metallic device which they placed close to their ears.

Deciding that she needed some answers, Nightmare flew down to the ground in front of a group of them.

"Greetings apes! I am the ruler of the night, Nightmare Moon. I was wondering if you could…"

Nightmare stopped talking when the apes literally walked through her, not even noticing that she was there.

The hay?

Nightmare flew back in front of them and waved a hoof at their faces. None of them responded to her actions and merely walked through her again.

"What is this?!" she demanded angrily. "Some new way to punish me for my actions?!"

She couldn't believe it. She was finally able to be herself once again and move around…but nothing here could see her let alone talk to her. And touching was apparently out of the question seeing that she was no more tangible than the air around her.

She was startled out of her anger when a loud ringing sounded from behind her. She flew up into the air and watched in fascination as a large group of younger looking apes all walked into a building. She flew inside of a large gate and landed on the floor, watching as all the apes walked through her or past her. A sign caught her eye as she looked around, making her trot over to it out of curiosity and read it out loud.

"Education is where the human mind comes to learn, not to fight. Bullying will not be tolerated!"

Ahh so they are called humans. Hmm interesting, I remember reading about this race in a mythology book.

Nightmare turned around as she suddenly heard a cry of pain behind her. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she saw a group of male humans pinning another slightly smaller human against the gate. The larger human holding him up was speaking to him and banging him against the gate harshly. She noticed a bag on the floor as well as books scattered next to it.

"Where's my lunch money huh?!" he demanded.

"I don't have any money!" The smaller human replied painfully.

At this the smaller Human was dropped to the ground and repeatedly kicked by the group. Nightmare's eyes widened in absolute disbelief and disgust. Not once had she ever seen anything take such a brutal beating, especially when Equestria had always been a peaceful world.

She flared her wigs and flew over to the group, an angry expression etched all over her face.

"Stop this at once!" she demanded, but was only met with silence as the group continued to attack the teenager. She rushed over to the larger human and swiped at him with her hoof, only for it to phase through him.

In desperation she lit up her horn and attempted to thrown them off of him with magic, but for some reason her magic refused to surround them. It instead bounced off of them and onto the nearest source.

Namely a small wooden branch.

Nightmare blinked rapidly in surprise at this but shook it off and threw the stick at the larger human. It hit him on the back of his head and caused him to stumble slightly.

"What the fuck was that?!" he cried angrily, spinning around and looking for the perpetrator with a confused expression.

Unbeknownst to him Nightmare was right up in his face and was breathing angrily on him. The human didn't seem to notice this and merely called his friends over.

"Come on guys let's find out who chucked that stick."

Nightmare watched as they all ran inside the building and considered going after them. Her focus was taken away from them however as she heard a groan from behind her. She spun around to see the teenager slowly getting to his feet. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the bruises on his face, as well as a cut just above his eyebrow.

She looked on pitifully as he started collecting his books and putting them in a rather large backpack. He tried to put the straps over his shoulders and gritted in pain as he found himself unable to lift his left arm properly. Nightmare walked over to him and used her magic to help him.

The teenager flinched and cried out in pain as she did so, making her stop and look at him worriedly as he held his head.

"Ugh my head, I must have been hurt worse than usual today."

Nightmare's ears drooped down at the pain in the boy's voice and proceeded to put the strap onto his shoulder whist he was preoccupied. This time the teenager didn't react with a cry of pain but remained oblivious as he continued to rub his forehead. It was then that Nightmare saw a messily written name on his backpack.

Is that his name? she thought.

Jason suddenly seemed to notice that his bag was on him properly and cocked an eyebrow at it. He then shook his head and started to walk over to the building. Nightmare was conflicted at this point, she wanted to go and explore the world she was suddenly in, but she also didn't want the poor stallion to be attacked again.

She sighed in frustration but flew on after Jason whilst also looking around for some sort of projectile to throw, just in case those brutes came back.

One Hour ago

Jason Storm was having yet another shitty day. He had woken up at around six in the morning from the sound of the attic door opening.

His attic door.

Jason had never been allowed a room for himself and had instead been forced to live in the attic. It wasn't too bad if he was being honest. Sure the only thing he had for himself was a small bed with an even smaller blanket, but at least he had something.

"Get up Jason, you've got school!" came the usual demand from his mother.

His mother wasn't quite what you would call the ideal one. She wasn't an addict or alcoholic by any means but she was always so busy with her modelling career, as well as inviting random men into her bed every night or two that she just didn't have time to look after him.

Jason didn't like this but he soon got used to it and merely chose to ignore it as best he could until he finished his last year of school and got enough money to move out.

He slowly got out of his bed and climbed down the ladder to get out of the attic. He then made his way to the bathroom and got showered quickly. As he finished drying himself he caught his reflection in the bathroom mirror and grimaced as he saw a cut from two days ago still hadn't healed properly.

Jason wasn't a bad looking guy by any means. Sure he was a little skinny and had a few bruises on his skin but the way his pale complexion mixed in with his short black hair and light blue eyes still caused him to get a few glances from a few giggling girls.

Not that they'd actually try and talk to him mind you. After all there was a reason he had all those bruises and it wasn't because of girls pouncing on him.

After around ten minutes Jason got dressed into his school uniform, consisting of a white short sleeved shirt, black trousers and a black blazer. He grabbed an apple on his way out and quickly made his way to school. One of the good things about living with his mother was that he was only a few minutes from his school, and so it didn't take too long to get there.

Unfortunately by the sound of the bell ringing he had obviously overslept just a tad too much this time around. Jason quickly ran inside to get to class on time but found suddenly found himself hanging from the air as the infamous school bully and his lackeys surrounded him. They quickly pulled his backpack off of him harshly, twisting his arm in the process as they opened it and scattered all of his books over the floor.

"Where's my lunch money huh?!" Aaron Fletcher demanded.

Aaron had quite the reputation in this school and it wasn't for being number one at the chess club. He was widely known as someone you just didn't cross, unless you wanted to lose a few teeth in the process. To Jason's dismay he had been ripped of his lunch money every day for the past four years, and had taken to hiding it within a small pocket in his bag.

"I don't have any money!" he lied painfully.

He knew what was coming and braced himself as he was dropped to the floor and kicked by the entire group. It should have hurt him a lot more than it did, but after a while he just got used to the pain.

It was second nature to him.

Suddenly he heard Aaron yelp in pain as a stick dropped by Jason's head. Jason wearily opened his eyes and saw Aaron running inside of the school with his friends right behind him.

Seeing that he was safe for the moment, Jason stood up shakily and picked up all of his stuff. He then attempted to put his backpack on but was unable as his shoulder throbbed profusely every time he tried. Suddenly he was hit with an excruciating headache and closed his eyes as he cried out in pain. Then just as suddenly as it came it had gone, leaving him with a slight headache.

"Ugh my head, I must have been hurt worse than usual today."

Shaking his head slightly, he went back to putting his bag on. To his surprise however it was already secured on both of his shoulders. He raised an eyebrow at it but considering he had just gotten the crap beaten out of him he didn't complain. He walked inside of his school and headed over to class.

The day went by fairly quickly and before Jason knew it, it was time to leave. Many of his teachers had seen the state of him but every time they asked him to go home he refused merely on the account that it wouldn't be any better there then it was here. But now he had no excuses and it was time to go home. So with a little reluctance he grabbed his backpack which just seemed to slip onto his shoulders by itself. He chalked it up to him being tired, after all a bag couldn't move on its own.

Nightmare had been watching over Jason the entire time he was at this school. She found the place to be fascinating and had tried to learn as much as she could while she was sitting by her human. She had learned of many subjects during one of his lessons, and was greatly disturbed to learn that this world had been at war twice. She had also tried to take part during a Mathematics lesson, easily answering the questions and smirking when she saw the bully from before struggling with them.

But during all this time she had kept her eye on Jason, just in case some of the others tried to hurt him again. It was frustrating that she couldn't use her magic on anything living but she had at least been given the chance to use it on other things. And so she kept a rather sharp looking knife that she had "borrowed" from the cafeteria with her at all times.

Hmm it has been a rather informative day to say the least. Perhaps I should come here as often as Jason does, at least then I might hope to learn something about this world and…where is he going?

Nightmare noticed that Jason was attempting to put his bag on again and helped him with it. She then followed him as he left the school and quickly headed in a straight direction. She paused for a second as she saw him heading up to a large building but continued to follow him even as he opened the door and walked inside before closing it. Nightmare phased through the closed door behind him and looked around the room.

They were in a rather small hallway that lead to other doors and had a stairway leading up. Jason walked up this stairway and when he reached the top he proceeded to pull a string that was connected to a square door on the ceiling. The square door opened and a ladder fell down which Jason quickly got on and climbed up.

Nightmare followed him up and nearly blanched as she saw the poor state of this room. There was a small bed in the centre with an even smaller looking blanket and pillow on top of it. Besides that the only thing inside the room was a desk with some sort of square box on top of it. The square box also had some sort of black string that led to other objects, one a rectangular shape with little squares on it and some sort of oval shaped plastic object.

Her focus snapped back onto Jason as she saw him removing his clothing and clenching his teeth in pain as he did so. Nightmare magically helped him pull his top over his head but left the rest to him as she was too busy staring at the scars all over his stomach and back.

"By the Gods, who did this to you…?" she asked, concern laced in her tone.

Jason froze for a moment and turned around slowly until his face was no more than a few inches from her own.

Nightmare's eyes widened with hope at this.

"Can you see me?" she asked excitedly. Oh she hoped he could, it would be wonderful to have somepony to talk to.

Jason suddenly shook his head and proceeded to pull the rest of his clothing off.

"Hearing voices Jason, you've finally gone insane." he whispered to himself in annoyance.

Nightmare's face brightened at this confession. He had heard her speak to him…she wondered if…

Nightmare reached out with her hoof and tried to touch Jason's shoulder. She braced herself for disappointment as she did so but carried on and put her hoof on Jason.

It didn't go through him.

Jason jumped out of his skin as he felt something touching his shoulder, scaring him and simultaneously causing his shoulder to throb with pain. He spun around and for a moment he had to rub his eyes to make sure he was awake. In front of him was…well, a tall and slender looking pony. It had a horn and folded up wings which left him confused as to what it was. Its fur was very black whilst its mane and tail resembled the night sky and were floating in a non-existent breeze.

"Okay scratch what I just said, I have gone insane." he muttered aloud..

"You can see me?" Nightmare asked incredulously.

Jason started to back away from her as she said this, his eyes had become as wide as plates.

"What the…okay Jason you've had a long day and your mind is paying tricks on you. It isn't real."

Nightmare raised an eyebrow at the scared Human and starting walking over to him.

"I am most certainly real Jason Storm. For it is I you have to thank for ridding you of that brute this morning."

Jason looked at her in confusion but was snapped out of it as his back hit a wall. Nightmare was right in front of him and was looking at him with a rather upset expression.

"Why do you fear me as well?" she asked him sadly.

Jason blinked in surprise and looked her up and down as he considered his answer.

"Well for one you're a talking pony and for two you just appeared out of nowhere." he replied quickly.

Nightmare tilted her head to the side as he said this.

"My appearance doesn't frighten you?" she asked questioningly.

"Her appearance?"

Jason looked her up and down but he couldn't see anything scary about her. Her eyes were kind of strange but he thought they looked cool. The way her mane and tail billowed in the none existent breeze was far from frightening, if anything it hypnotised him with its beauty. As for her face and everything else, she just looked unhappy not dangerous or scary.

"Uhh you look pretty, not frightening." he said nervously.

Nightmare's eyes widened in disbelief. It was one thing that she was in another world where nopony could see her but this one young stallion. But for her to be complemented on her looks was something completely alien to her.

"Well I, uhh, thank you." she stuttered quickly.

It suddenly occurred to Nightmare that she was having an actual conversation with somepony. Not a talk about her bid for eternal night or a talk about power and bits, but an actual conversation.

She found herself enjoying it immensely.

Jason watched as Nightmare sat on her rump and looked at him sternly for a few seconds.

"I have a request for you Jason Storm."

Jason raised an eyebrow at this but having already concluded that he had gone off the deep end he merely nodded at this creature.

"I was wondering if you would do me the honour of being my conversation pony."

Her what?

"Uhh what do you mean miss…?"

"I am called Nightmare Moon, goddess of all things nocturnal. And as to your question…"

Jason watched as Nightmares face seemed to scrunch up in concentration and had to fight off laughing at her.

"I would like for you to be my conversation pony…I am fairly sure this consists of you talking and listening to me whilst also keeping us merry and entertained."

Jason stared at her blankly which actually made Nightmare wonder if she had explained it incorrectly.

"Soooo basically you want me to be your friend?" he asked questioningly.

Nightmare's eyes widened in excitement as he said this. She had known that she wasn't wording it correctly but Jason obviously must have understood her on some level.

"Ah yes, I would like it if you could…befriend me."

Jason stared at Nightmare for a few seconds but then shrugged and nodded at her.

"Sure, I've already gone insane so I might as well roll with it."

Nightmares expression changed from nervous to extremely happy at this. And so the next thing Jason knew, he was being embraced joyfully by the pony. Out of instinct he hugged her back which pleased Nightmare immensely.

I have a friend, an actual friend!

She suddenly noticed that Jason's breathing had become little more than gasps and let him out of her iron hold with an apologetic look.

"I apologize Jason Storm…this does not make you want to not be my friend anymore does it?"

A wave of despair took Nightmare as she suddenly realized that Jason could de-friend her at any moment. Even now after hurting him with her embrace, he could be inclined to take back his pledge of friendship.

Her worries were cast aside as she heard him chuckling to himself.

"Ouch you're kinda strong." he said, still chuckling slightly whilst he did so.

"I am sorry, do you still want to be my friend? I can embrace you softer, I swear!"

Jason flinched from her loud voice which made Nightmare feel even worse.

I am so terrible at making friends, no wonder nopony wanted me. she thought depressingly.

"Relax Moony, I'll still be your friend."

Nightmare snapped her focus back onto Jason as he said this.

"What did you just call me?" She asked quizzically.

Jason went a little red as she asked this and wondered absentmindedly if he really was talking to an imaginary pony.

"Um I called you Moony. It's a nickname and friends give each other nicknames right?"

A nick...name? Nightmare was unfamiliar with the word but if it was something friends did with each other than she would just have to as Jason said "Roll with it."

"You may call me Moony if you desire, but I must have something to call you as well."

Nightmares mind was working on overtime to find some sort of nickname for Jason and felt nothing but despair when she couldn't think of any.

Jason caught the upset look on her face and put his hand on her shoulder to try and snap her out of it. Nightmare felt a sudden warmth on her shoulder and looked at it to find Jason's hand resting there.

"You can call me Jay if you want. I don't really have any friends but if I did I'd imagine it's what they would call me." he told her.

He doesn't have any friends either? Oh then this is my chance! I can be his first friend and he can be mine!

"I would like very much to call you 'Jay'. But to confirm, you are okay with us being…friends?"

Jason nodded at her which made her smile properly for the first time in many years. She flew to embrace him once more but halted at she remembered what happened the last time she tried that.

Okay just put my hooves around him and keep it soft and gentle. Oh this is going to be difficult, soft and gentle is Tia's area not mine. But I must do it to preserve my first friendship! Right let's just-

Nightmares thinking tirade was put off as she suddenly found herself being embraced by Jason. It was quite surprising but pleasant none the less, and so she wrapped her hooves around him and made sure to focus on being as soft as possible.

Jason suddenly yawned which made Nightmare release him from her grip and look at him with concern.

"Are you tired Jay?" she asked.

"Yeah it's been a long day and that beating I took earlier didn't help at all." he replied wearily.

Nightmare's eyes narrowed as she considered all the ways she could make those male Humans pay. Magic for whatever reason only worked on Jason and inanimate objects, but she did wonder if her greatest gift would work instead.

She wasn't called Nightmare Moon for nothing.

"Goodnight Moony." Jason yawned.

She watched as Jason got into his tiny bed and tried to cover himself as best he could. To her dismay however the blanket barely covered his upper body and left a lot of bare skin to suffer under the rooms chill.

This would not do.

Just as Jason was starting to drift off to sleep he was suddenly pulled out of his bed, into the air and placed on the floor. Before he got a chance to complain however, he felt something envelop him and pull him closer to another warm surface. He turned around and found himself looking at Nightmares eyes.

In fact as he looked at the rest of her, he realized that her wings were wrapped around him and had pulled him so close to her chest that he could feel her body's warmth flowing from her and into himself.

"Moony what are you-?"

"Are you not more comfortable here then on that tiny bed?" she interrupted.

Jason blinked at her question. He actually felt a lot more comfortable which was surprising seeing that he was on the floor.

"Umm yes I am." he replied sheepishly.

"Then sleep, I shall watch over you whilst you do so."

Whilst he found that a tad bit creepy he also found himself relaxing as her comfortable wings and warmth surrounded him. He didn't know if was imagining this or whether he really had gone insane. But for now real or not he was going to enjoy this as much as he could. And so within minutes he fell asleep with his face buried in her chest.

Nightmare couldn't help but feel strange as he did so. She considered that it could be some form of maternal instinct, having somepony seeking her warmth and safety was something that could very much start an instinct like that.

None the less he was her very first friend and if this was what she had to look forward too every time he slept then she wasn't complaining. To her surprise she found his warmth quite relaxing as well and instinctively nuzzled his neck to find a comfortable spot to rest her head.

Strange, I'm neither hungry nor thirsty and yet I still need to sleep.

And sleep she did. After a few more seconds the darkness took her and she began to breathe deeply. Her head nestled itself deeper into his neck whilst Jason's did the same on her chest.

Little did they know of the destiny that awaited them.

For friendship was merely the start…

Author's Notes:

More?

Well tell me what you think and I'll get on with it :D

And yes, the cover picture is Fineeeee