After a quick examination, no serious damage was found to Nightmare Moon's leg. Her ankle was going to be sore for a few days, so it got wrapped in a bandage and Nightmare was encouraged to keep her weight off it.

Once the examination and bandaging was done, she was given an apple to try. It was actually rather enjoyable. Sweet, but not as sweet as the cupcake from Sugar Cube Corner. Crunchy, but it also seemed to have a lot of juice in each bite. She could see why they were such a popular treat among ponies.

Turns out the apple was part of a trap set up by Twilight Sparkle and Applejack. The first step was to have Nightmare Moon try out an apple and see what she thought. Once it was discovered that, yes, she did seem to like them, the torture began.

Torture was how she would describe it anyways. The two responsible for it would not refer to it as such. Especially Twilight Sparkle. Twilight would use the proper name for her specific brand of torture. She would call it "a lecture." A long, boring, lecture.

As Nightmare Moon sat there, she was forced to put up with a very lengthy and detailed explanation about plant life, crop growth, food, and the requirements of sunlight and water for it all. Basically the entire point boiled down to the fact plants needed sunlight to grow. If there was eternal night, there would be no sun, and no sun would mean that there would be no crops for ponies to eat. So if Nightmare Moon succeeded and created eternal night, ponies would slowly starve to death.

Or freeze to death.

At some point, Twilight went into a tangent about how a large amount of the planet's surface heat was actually the ambient energy from the sun. In the event of Eternal Night, Equestria would rapidly grow colder until eventually becoming frozen. Ponies would have to try and find alternate heat sources or freeze to death. Those that were able to live would still be at the risk of starvation.

So if Nightmare Moon had been successful and actually kept true to her word, she would be condemning practically every living creature on the planet to a slow death. That was not what she wanted. Not now, and not when she had first manifested with Princess Luna. Luna had been jealous of her sister's popularity, and wanted ponies to enjoy her night as they seemed to with the day. Nightmare Moon wanted to rule, to have the ponies serve and obey her, and be worshipped. True, she was willing to hurt, intimidate, and even threaten ponies to do as she commanded, but she did not actually wish for any of them to die.

She would not admit to such a thing out loud, but it was something to think about. Not enough to discourage her from trying to take over Equestria, but certainly to consider working on a better method. As much as she would like to have eternal night, having all who were to follow her die out would leave her a very lonely ruler.

Nightmare Moon, Princess of Decay and Ice.

That... actually had nice ring to it. Nightmare Moon, Princess of Decay and Ice. Fear my icy grip and my army of the frozen dead. All who dare to oppose me shall freeze, and their corpses shall join me.

As interesting as it was, the idea was also off topic and beside the point.

Once the torture had ended, it was decided that Twilight Sparkle and Nightmare Moon would make their way to Fluttershy's, letting Applejack get back to work. Since Nightmare Moon would have trouble walking, Twilight suggested that they fly there. Now that it was brought up, Nightmare was curious as to why they had not flown to Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight never really gave an answer.

As they reached Fluttershy's cottage, Nightmare Moon stopped and stared.

There were animals everywhere. They were in the trees, running across the ground, some were in the stream. There was even a set of toy boats that seemed to be in use like ships. Nightmare could not be sure, but it looked like one group was playing something that she would guess to be pirates. Overall there were dozens -- if not hundreds -- of little creatures, and they seemed to be pretty much everywhere.

As they landed and walked toward the cottage, Nightmare Moon noticed something following her. It reminded Nightmare of a small dog, but that was not the case. The erect ears were larger, and the muzzle was narrower. The creature's tail looked to be almost as long as its body, and fluffy. It had a gray coat with bits of a rust color around the eyes and along the neck. The thing looked up at Nightmare with gold eyes as it followed.

"Why are we here?" Nightmare grumbled, looking around as they walked up the path to the door.

"Well in this case, there are multiple reasons," Twilight answered. "You know where all my friends spend most of their time and how to get there, so you can go see them if you want to try and get to know them better on your own. Fluttershy was the one who helped reform Discord, so she could possibly give us some advice to make this easier for both of us."

She knocked on the door, then turned to look at Nightmare.

"Plus, I thought it would be a good idea for you to get a pet. Taking care of something else would probably help you quite a bit. Help you learn about responsibility, and improve some of your social skills. Just something to consider. And before you ask, no you can't keep another pony as a pet."

"Yet you are permitted to keep a dragon," Nightmare retorted.

"Spike is not a pet," Twilight snapped. "He is my assistant. He gets paid and has days off."

Nightmare said nothing more on the matter. Instead, she chose to wait until the door opened.

The figure that did so was not Fluttershy.

"Welcome to Chateau Du Fluttershy," Discord said as he held the door wide and stepped aside. "Please, come inside and make yourself comfortable. Your hostess will be joining you shortly."

Twilight Sparkle entered and walked toward the couch to sit down. Nightmare turned and looked at Discord. Her ears pulled back as her lips pulled back, baring her fangs.

"What are you doing here?" she growled, eyes narrowing as she got close to the mish-mashed monster.

"Oh, my dear Moonie," Discord said as he reached up with his lion paw and gave her pats on the head, "I'm here to offer support to my dear friend Fluttershy, Twilight, and a former villain looking to change their ways just as I ha-OW!"

Nightmare Moon growled as she bit down on the paw, digging her teeth into the skin. She continued to glare at Discord as she pressed harder and harder. Considering what he was and what he could do, Nightmare doubted that Discord was going to bleed or even have any sort of injury. Still, it would teach him a lesson about touching her, especially in such a condescending matter.

"Nightmare, no!" Twilight shouted. "Stop biting Discord this instant. That is not appropriate behavior."

Instead of releasing him, Nightmare growled. She gave a hard shake of her head, trying to yank the paw back and forth. Her wings flared out as she moved to brace herself.

Something cold and wet suddenly hit the side of her face. It took a moment to realize that it was water. It was soon followed by another squirt, and then another.

Surprised by the water, Nightmare let go to find out the source. Standing near her was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane holding a spray bottle.

"Did... did you just squirt me with water?" Nightmare asked, turning her full attention to the new target.

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy said gently as she set the bottle down, "but biting Discord was a very naughty thing for you to do. It didn't seem like you were willing to listen. It seemed like the best way to stop you and it works on some of the other animals."

Nightmare let out a snort and shook herself, getting the water off her coat.

"Besides," Fluttershy continued, "you should try getting along with Discord. You are both reformed villains after all. I'm sure the two of you have a lot in common."

The comparison made Nightmare Moon bristle, a small growl bubbling in the back of her throat. She did not like being compared to Discord. The only similarities were superficial. They both wanted to take over Equestria. Both were defeated twice by The Elements of Harmony, once when Celestia had them and again with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Now both were supposed to be reformed and rehabilitated so they were no longer threats to Equestria. The difference was that Discord did it for "fun," teasing and humiliating ponies merely for his own entertainment and humor. While not altruistic, Nightmare Moon thought her own reasons were a bit better. She wanted to get the respect and authority she deserved. To be worshipped and obeyed. Treated like a goddess, feared, and respected. Although most of that was because she was born from Princess Luna's feelings of rejection, loneliness and...

Her eyes narrowed as she looked from Fluttershy to Discord. An ancient memory came back to her, and with it, a thought.

"I suppose I can retrain myself from any further attacks," she said, "seeing as I would not exist if not him." Nightmare then started to walk further into the room, noticing the animal still following her.

"What is this thing?" Nightmare asked, poking at it with wing.

"It's a gray fox," Fluttershy answered. Walking over, she gave it a gentle pat on the head before rubbing around the ears. "She seems to really like you."

"Nightmare," Twilight asked, "what do you mean you would not exist if not for Discord?" She looked at Discord curiously, who was busy wrapping an excessive number of bandages around the arm that Nightmare had bitten.

"Well you did use my ability to animate things in your whole 'physical incarnation' thing," Discord pointed out. "Clearly if not for me, she would not be here in the flesh as she is now."

"Considering how mad she was about not being at her full power, I doubt that was what she was referring to."

"Indeed," Nightmare replied as she poked the fox. "You recall how when he was first released, he had separated each of you and attempted to turn you against each others through whispers and temptations?" It was a mostly rhetorical to help clarify the point. Considering all that happened, it was doubtful that Twilight, Fluttershy, or any of the others would forget such an event.

"Oh," Discord said. "Ooohh... I had forgotten about that."

"Forgotten about what?" Twilight asked.

Discord looked up from his arm to Twilight then turned to Nightmare Moon.

"Do you want to tell them?" he asked.

"You can do so if you like," Nightmare responded. She then turned to Fluttershy. "Does this creature make a good pet?"

"Well they're very cunning and adaptable," Fluttershy replied, "but they can be a little mischievous."

There was a snap from Discord and dolls that looked like him, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna appeared.

"Before they collected The Elements and turned me into stone," Discord explained, "Tia and Lulu did try to fight me in other ways. As you can probably guess, it never really worked out for them. Although their attempts were some times quite amusing, as was my retaliations. Remind me and I'll tell you all about the caramel popcorn incident some other time." He let out a snicker at the memory.

With another snap of his fingers, the Celestia doll moved away, leaving the Discord and Luna doll.

"It was after... one of their less memorable attempts that I wound up finding poor wittle Woona all alone." The Discord doll wrapped around the Luna, its muzzle close to her ear. "So I decided to take advantage of it. I talked to her about how she lived in her big sister's shadow, how she was always going to fall short. I pointed out how much the ponies love Celestia and basked in the light of the sun, but claimed that very few even knew who she was, and how they only slept through her night. I even claimed that if they somehow managed to defeat me -- which I didn't think they would -- it would only be Celestia that would be remembered and revered as a hero, with poor little Luna being pushed aside and forgotten."

There was a blue glow around the Luna doll and the Discord one was thrown away.

"She didn't really seem to believe me at the time."

"And for the most part, she didn't," Nightmare said, taking over. "However, it did manage to plant the first seeds of doubt in her mind. The first little cracks in her mind. Enough that she had a bad dream, that a simple little nightmare was able to sneak in. The same nightmare that would grow and evolve into me. With time and my influence, those doubts and fears grew stronger. Then came the battle with King Sombra, who showed Princess Luna her greatest fear and gave me more power. Finally came that fateful night, where Celestia was proclaimed Princess of Equestria and Luna felt like her worse fears were coming true."

She grinned, chuckling slightly.

"You know the rest from there."

She turned to Fluttershy.

"I think that I would like to take this gray fox as a pet. Is there anything specific that I need to know about taking care of it?"