Paf

That was the sound of a clump of snow hitting Nightmare Moon square in the face.

She blinked, slowly reached up to swipe the remains away, then put down the pencil she was using to sign some documents. Then, getting out of her chair, she rose to her full height and surveyed her personal quarters.

Nopony was there.

Now, there was the slightest chance that the furniture had somehow gained sentience from an errant Come-to-Life spell – perhaps cast once upon a time by Twilight as she was studying with Celestia in this very room – but Nightmare Moon was leaning towards ‘some pegasus flew by my balcony and tossed a snowball in.’

Incidentally, she was also a firm believer in the hypothesis that ‘pegasi were more prone to being suicidal during this jolly holiday and doing stupid stunts to satisfy their Thanatos complex.’

Nightmare Moon stomped out onto the balcony and peered over the edge.

Paf

Clearing her eyes, Nightmare Moon gazed upon a surreal scene:

Down in the snow-packed courtyard, Eclipse troops were tossing snowballs, building snow-forts, and forging snow-armor. She could hear their shouting and death kneels even from her lofty spot.

Confusion turned to disgust. Disgust turned to anger. Anger turned to mild admiration as she studied their strategies and patterns. Mild admiration turned back to anger.

Two pegasi locked in a dog-fight flew by, and Nightmare Moon ducked an errant projectile; the pegasus in the front got hit in the flank with a snowball and spiralled out of control, black smoke billowing out of…

Yeah, she wasn’t going to comment on that.

“What in the world are you unfortunate by-products of procreation doing?!” She was using her ‘I’m angry and prone to violence’ tone, but the guards didn’t seem to hear her. Her solution was to yell louder. “Cease this offensive display right now, or you will suffer unimaginable-”

“Empress!”

Nightmare Moon turned abruptly to see Fade fly in through the door; clumps of snow melted in the crevices of his armor. “Report. Why are those fools being more foolish than usual?”

“It’s a snowball fight, boss,” Fade grunted, clutched his left foreleg as if he had been grievously wounded. She saw no signs of damage. “A free-for-all. We’re in for the fight of our lives, yeah?”

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and counted to ten before reaching out with her mind. “Ebony – tell me what the situation is.”

“A free-for-all,” Came the grave reply. “We’re in for the fight of our lives, Empress.”

“I see,” Nightmare Moon reached out again. “Haze – what the hell’s going on?”

“A free-for-all. We’re in for the fight-”

Nightmare Moon tuned out and leaned forward to jab Fade’s chest with the tip of her hoof. “Stop. Being. Stupid.”

Fade blinked as her jabs pushed him backwards. “No can do, boss.”

“I feared as much.”

Fade flew back to the door and waved her over. “The hallway’s clear. We should get moving, yeah?”

Nightmare Moon silently walked past him.

“Don’t worry, boss. I’ll protect you with my life. Right up until it gets too hard. Then…” Fade huffed and stuck his chest out with innate pegasus pride. “Then I’ll run away.”

Nightmare Moon ignored him. This just had to be the work of that ridiculous draconequus; somehow, Discord had gotten free and was causing havoc once more. This wouldn’t do: she couldn’t afford to have anarchy when she had to deal with the human invasion.

With everyone having been driven insane, she had no choice but to face him by herself.

Nightmare Moon turned a corner and was faced with a death squad of her own Eclipse guards, all of them armed with a snowball.

“Boss, get down!” Fade threw himself at her with a defiant cry.

Nightmare Moon sighed as he bounced off her body. Proceeding to walk through the salvo of tossed snow, she delivered a swift chop to the heads of her attackers, knocking them all out clean.

“I’m going to memorize all your faces…” She said over her shoulder, using a wing to clear the snow. “So I know who to hit a second time once I stop all of this.”

Leaving Fade behind, Nightmare Moon descended further into the castle to where Discord was being kept. Or rather, where he should have been kept. She couldn’t rely on something that could appear anywhere at anytime to still be in the place where she last saw them, but considering how much Discord loved presentation and theatrics, there was a good chance he was there waiting for her to come so he could go, ‘surprise, I’m free!’”

Suddenly, a purple pony appeared down the far end of the corridor. “Surprise! I’m free!”

Nightmare Moon kept walking. “Twilight, get out of my way before I string you up on a tree like you’re a Hearth’s Warming Eve decoration.”

“I broke free of your hold, Nightmare Moon,” Twilight announced proudly. “Now, with the power of friendship, me and my friends will defeat you!”

“Yes, bring all your friends here to the same spot. Save me the trouble of looking for them.”

Twilight raised her foreleg and let out a strange warbling cry that made Nightmare Moon stop in her tracks.

“Was that a duck?”

From both ends of the T where Twilight stood, her friends appeared wearing armor and pushing large cannons.

Constructed from snow.

“How did you do that?” Nightmare Moon stared, aghast, as Twilight used her magic to light the cannons’ fuses. “How did you do that?!”

The cannons fired with a mighty poomf, and Nightmare Moon narrowly avoided the dense balls of snow that cracked the wall behind her. Though clearly more dangerous than a regular snowball, they wouldn’t do any lasting damage to her; she just didn’t want to get hit by any more snow.

“Fire again!” Twilight cried.

Her friends stood there, embarrassed.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight turned on them impatiently. “Why aren’t you girls firing?”

“We… didn’t bring any extra snow.” Rarity coughed.

“Wh-what? Agh! Dismantle half of the cannons and use them to fuel the other half!” Twilight suddenly felt a shadow fall over her and turned back around. “Uh-oh.”

Pinkie started giggling. “Thanks for helping, but picking up a cannon like that isn’t going to dismantle it.”

POMF

Nightmare Moon continued walking away, leaving behind a pile of snow. Pinkie popped out a second later wearing a beard of white.

“Huh. Apparently, violence does solve problems. Hey, Rarity? Still having constipation?”

“What?! Lies! Filthy lies! My bowels are perfectly fine! Don’t you come near me with that hoof!”

Nightmare Moon managed an incredible distance of fifteen yards before she was accosted once more; this time, it was by Fancypants and Fleur in a snow-airship.

“These corridors are more spacious than I thought.” Nightmare Moon murmured.

“You haven’t spoken to us in so long!” Fleur cried, pulling up a box-shaped device with two barrels. With a pof-pof-pof, a flurry of snowballs traced a line towards Nightmare Moon, who took to the air to avoid them. “When was the last time we made a show?!”

“So sorry, my friend!” Fancypants hollered as he turned the ship’s wheel. He ducked low as Nightmare Moon swooped over him, followed by his wife’s projectile onslaught, and carefully adjusted his cap. Also made from snow. “Normally, I wouldn’t intrude without sending a letter beforehoof, but my beloved wife threatened to throw out all my moustache combs. Please understand.”

Nightmare Moon dodged the rapid-fire and flew up to the ceiling to unhook a chandelier. “Don’t worry – I do.”

And then she tossed the chandelier into the airship’s propellers.

Twisting and bending out of shape, the propellers failed to keep their vessel aloft, and smoke – for some reason – billowed out of the airship’s engine as it slowly headed for a crash landing.

“Blast!” Fancypants swore as the wheel crumpled in his grasp. “There’s no way to save the old girl… By my captain’s honour, I have no choice but to go down with her.”

Fleur leapt to his side with a dramatic wail. “We’ll go down together, my love. I’m sorry I threatened to throw your combs away!”

“No regrets now, my love,” Fancypants held her in a fierce embrace. “I shall meet you on the other side.”

Nightmare Moon floated back to ground-level and watched, unimpressed as the airship took its sweet time to crash-land with a sound akin to a pillow being dropped.

“Ugh…”

She tried going another fifteen yards, but the floor suddenly gave out beneath her; she was dropped several floors onto a bed of snow-spikes.

Or, she might have been had she not had more than five brain cells and remembered to fly.

Nightmare Moon descended and landed on the spikes anyway; they crumpled beneath her hooves. “Astounding. Now, which genius seeks to waste my time next?”

She found herself in a long corridor filled with rotating snow-blades, snow-pitfalls, snow-axes swinging from the ceiling like pendulums, snow-crossbows mounted on the walls, and a flesh and blood poodle at the far end barking furiously.

While holding a snow-chainsaw.

Nightmare Moon could appreciate that.

“You’ve done well to come this far, but the road ends here,” A unicorn with glasses and a messy hairstyle emerged out of the shadows on the opposite side. “For my friend, Twilight, I shall see you defeated.”

Nightmare Moon frowned. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me, but I was Twilight’s friend when she was still living in Canterlot,” The unicorn retrieved a book from inside a saddlebag hanging by her side and flicked it open. “My name is Moondancer, if you must know.”

“Hm…”

“This book? It’s a catalogue of all your traits, strengths; I’ve taken the liberty of constructing counters to them via this hallway. That strength, speed, and resilience?” Moondancer chuckled darkly. “It won’t help you in getting past this hallway, so you might as well-”

Nightmare Moon lit her horn and appeared in front of Moondancer with a flash of blue light.

“Seriously, where did you even come from?” She snorted, brushing past the mare and breaking the poodle’s chainsaw with a swipe of her hoof. “I don’t even feel the need to hurt you.”

Moondancer’s eyes watered and she sighed, forlornly looking at her traps. “And I spent so long making this,” Another sigh. “Well, guess I’ll just-”

And then Nightmare Moon kicked her down the corridor.

Two floors down, Nightmare Moon came across a Pinkie-esque earth pony advancing towards her while playing a snow-accordion in a menacing manner.

“Name’s Cheese Sandwich,” He growled with a tip of his cowpony hat. “I’m here to stop you,” With a pause, he dragged his instrument out and made a sound like a depressed elephant. “Look… at mah accordion.”

“I’d rather not.”

Cheese Sandwich grunted and started playing, the power of his music whipping up a blizzard in the corridor that coated the walls with frost.

Nightmare Moon’s brow furrowed in disbelief. “Are you seriously trying to beat me, the mare who spent a thousand years on the moon, with a pitiful blizzard? I’d have killed for a blizzard just to alleviate the boredom. Now…”

Nightmare Moon walked forward. Icicles formed in the blizzard and shattered against her, but she ignored them and grabbed Cheese Sandwich by the scruff of his yellow shirt.

“Now I’d kill just to make this one stop.”

Cheese Sandwich swallowed hard. “W-wait!” The blizzard died down. “This whole ‘serious shtick’ really isn’t my thing. Maybe the song of my kind will cure your case of the grumps?”

“‘Song of your kind?’ You mean tribal drums and stomping your hooves on dirt?”

“Hey, that’s racial profiling.”

“No, that’s literally the song of your kind,” Nightmare Moon dropped him on his rump with a snort. “Earth ponies invented the first drums and stomped on dirt to drive out evil spirits. That accordion is not the song of your kind since it was invented in 889 AD by a yak called Uther.”

“Really?” Cheese Sandwich’s eyes widened. “Wow, it’s cool that you know that.”

“I’ve been around for a long time: trivia like that is second nature to me.” Nightmare Moon shrugged.

Cheese Sandwich pondered for a second. “… Well, then how about I throw you a traditional earth pony party?” He threw his forelegs out and confetti exploded into the air. Nightmare Moon’s eye twitched. “We can play all the games they had back then!”

Nightmare Moon smiled sweetly. “Of course. We can hit pinatas with sticks.”

“They had those?!”

“Well…” Still smiling, she placed her hoof on Cheese Sandwich’s shoulder. “It wasn’t a pinata and it wasn’t so much a celebration event as a form of punishment.”

Celestia didn’t look happy when Nightmare Moon turned the corner.

“Finally! What took you so long? And why did it sound like you were beating a rug?”

“What, no comment on why the rug was crying and pleading for mercy?”

Celestia waved her hoof dismissively. “Hearing crying and sounds of torment around Hearth’s Warming Eve is normal around here.”

Nightmare Moon frowned. “Specifically this time of year?”

“But I will not accept furnishings being vandalized!” With a spread of her wings, Celestia summoned a raging inferno around her. “Prepare yourself!”

Finally, something that wasn’t snow-based. Granted, it wasn’t fun to be set on fire, but she was just happy to be faced with something different.

Celestia flapped her wings and the plumes of flame solidified into red and orange snowballs. “Ha ha! I tricked you by using an element I’m not proficient in!”

Nightmare Moon facehooved.

After an arduous bout that resulted in her body becoming extremely confused as it tried to heal frostbite inflicted by flames, Nightmare Moon arrived at the door that led to Discord’s cell.

“Thank Faust I’m here…” Aggravated and quite tired, Nightmare Moon blasted the door off its hinges with magic and stepped into the darkness. Strangely, she seemed to have trouble seeing even though she had perfect night-vision. “Enough with the tricks, Discord. Show yourself.”

A chuckled bounced off the walls. “So, you made it past my guardians. You really are strong, hm?”

“I’m insulted that you chose that as your way to quantify my strength. You could have placed a jar of pickles in front of me to open and it’d get more accurate results.”

“I thought about that, but I was afraid if I put the lid back on, I’d never get it off again. And I need these pickles for the party.”

Nightmare Moon frowned at where she thought his voice was coming from. “Party?”

“Oh, poop. I spoiled it. Oh, well…”

Suddenly, Nightmare Moon was blinded by a powerful flash of light. She lashed out on impulse and hit something, sending it flying into a wall with a loud crack.

And then-

“Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve!!”

Although blind, Nightmare Moon could still feel; she could feel the merriment of the festivities in the air, she could feel the joy and wonderment being emitted from what felt to be several dozen individuals, she could feel every damn happy feeling being directed at her!

“So, this is your plan!” Nightmare Moon shouted while trying to blink the colourful dots out of her vision. “You plan to deprive me of my other senses and force me to bask in your sickening saccharine secretions! What a horrific torment – I’m quite impressed.”

“Hey, save the alliteration for when Happy Hour rolls on by,” Something with claws grabbed her shoulder, not to cause pain but to coax her forward. Nightmare Moon half-stumbled along since she was still stunned from the flash. “There’s someone you have to meet.”

Eventually, the dots faded and blurred colours focused into shapes and details; Nightmare Moon immediately surveyed the room and was repulsed to see so many familiar faces – including the ones she had fought on the way here – relaxed and happy. They were laughing, talking, and playing games amidst tables that were packed with festive food and drinks. Hearth’s Warming decorations were strung up everywhere; it was like a red, white, and green nightmare made real. The only thing that made for an interesting sight was a dazed Twilight slowly unsticking from an imprint in the wall.

But… but…!

“Who is playing polka music?!” Nightmare Moon glared at anyone and everyone.

Discord laughed as he guided her through the crowd. Ribbons were wrapped around his antler, and a silver bell hung from a satin length around his neck. “Dear me, you’re rather downcast this time of year.”

“Bah, humbug,” Nightmare Moon slapped his arm away and took a step back, her horn blazing with energy. “I don’t know how you managed to escape, but I’m giving you the chance to turn yourself to stone, or suffer what I have in store for you.”

Discord sighed and pulled out a nutcracker and an acorn. “Really now… You should just relax and enjoy yourself,” He put the acorn in the nutcracker, squeezed, and promptly split in half. The two halves looked at her oddly. “She’s been waiting for you, ya know.”

Nightmare Moon frowned. Discord seemed… almost melancholic; he didn’t give off the energy and flair that usually accompanied his antics. Come to think of it… what Nightmare Moon had to go through was pretty straightforward: there were no winding hallways to lead her astray, no ridiculous tasks she had to undertake, or riddles she had to decipher – just a bunch of battles that weren’t even difficult.

Nightmare Moon blinked in realization. “You wanted me to come here, didn’t you? Why?”

Again, Discord just looked at her oddly once he stapled himself together and pointed to the right. “I promise everything will become clear in time. Until then, you need to speak to her,” He glanced at his wrist, which had a stone sundial on it. “You have about ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes befor wha…?” Nightmare Moon blinked for not even a second long and Discord was gone. No theatrics, no pizazz – just there, then gone. Unusual. “Feh, I’ll deal with him later.”

She went in the direction he pointed in and the crowd parted like a breaking wave; it wasn’t the ‘oh Faust here she comes’ way she was accustomed to, but a ‘lemme just get out of your way there friend.’

Quite unnerving.

Finally, she arrived at a table where a single mare was sniffing at the snacks, her mouth curled into a frown. She looked over at Nightmare Moon, then grinned.

“Hey, Wolf. The food got you down, too? Yeah, it’s not all bad, but I could have given these guys a few lessons in how to really make these babies knock you flat.”

“You put alcohol in anything you’re able to. Sometimes, things you shouldn’t even be able to.”

“And it bugs the crap outta you that I won’t disclose my secret.”

Nightmare Moon shrugged. “… That fool of a draconequus informed me that everything will become clear soon. He also said that I needed to speak to you.”

“What, don’t wanna chat with your best friend?” Vinyl snickered, then smiled solemnly and put the food away before walking closer. “Wolf…” She removed her glasses. “There’s something I need to ask you…”

Nightmare Moon nodded. “And that is?”

“Well… how do I put this?” Vinyl sucked on her teeth nervously. “Will you sing a Hearth’s Warming Eve carol with me?”

Nightmare Moon turned and pointed to the far end of the room. “So, that wall… Should I aim you there and give you time to burn off some momentum, or would you rather save the flight and just take a closer surface?”

“Ah, can we put a pin in that for now? Save it for Happy Hour? Anyway, I’m serious: one of my lifelong dreams since meeting you, even when you were Star Secret, was to get you to sing a carol with me.”

“Your lifelong dreams make me sad.”

“Just one carol! And I’ll never ask again for as long as I live.”

Nightmare Moon took a deep breath. Perhaps Discord’s power was affecting her after all because she wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea. If word got out, so what? All of Equestria would know that the terrifying Nightmare Moon had sung a carol… and it did nothing to change the fact that was still one of the most powerful entities in the land. In fact, the only thing that could hurt her if she did this was if she sung badly.

“… You realize that the only reason I’m doing this is a volatile mix of exasperation, pity, and misplaced generosity?”

Vinyl shrugged. “Pretty sure that’s what Octy was feeling when she first went out with me. Come on – let’s go!”

Nightmare Moon sighed and trudged after her giddy friend. “The things I do…”

“Hot damn, Wolf! I didn’t know you could belt out like that!”

Nightmare Moon smiled, taking in the praise as she and Vinyl stepped off the stage to the crowd’s exuberant cheering. “What did you expect? I do have larger lungs. Plus, seeing as this the only time I’m going to do something like this, I figured that it would be worthwhile to go all out.”

“I love you, Wolf.”

“That wall is still there, you know.”

Vinyl just laughed. “Thanks for doing this for me, Wolf.”

Nightmare Moon shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as I expected, I’ll admit. However, I am still left to wonder just what it is that would become clear to me in due time. My ten minute limit must almost be up.”

Vinyl cocked her head. “Hm… yeah. I think so, too. Which means that my time is almost up.”

“Leaving a party early? That’s rather unlike you,” She was distracted with what Discord had said. Without thinking, Nightmare Moon turned to scan the crowd for a mismatched body. “Why do I get the sensation that I’m about to be jumped by something stupid?”

“Bye, Wolf. Thanks for everything.”

Nightmare Moon turned. “Why are-”

There was no one there.

“-you… so…?”

And then a snowball hit her in the back of the head. Like a switch being flipped, Nightmare Moon spun around on the spot, rage making her mane blaze like a blue sun.

“I’m going to rip your ass out of your…!” She blinked in surprise. “Luna?”

Luna was standing there with an unreadable expression. Next to her, Discord struggled with the nutcracker, strips of duct tape keeping his form together. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself up there.”

That’s when it hit Nightmare Moon; that’s when it became clear to her.

“This isn’t Discord’s doing…” She murmured. “This is your doing, Luna. This is a dream. That’s why you weren’t there to face me.”

“Hey, don’t count me out so quickly,” Discord protested. “It was with my help that she was even able to enter your dreams in the first place. Credit where it’s due – even in your state, your mind is strong.”

“My state?” Nightmare Moon briefly glanced aside when she noticed that the crowd was dispersing into smoke and the walls were beginning to dissolve. “What are you talking about? More importantly, what do you plan to accomplish by entering my dreams? Do you plan to lecture me about the importance of friendship, or discuss how my plans are inevitably doomed to fail?”

Discord grunted. “Should you tell her, or should I?”

Luna shook her head. “Dreams are my domain. I will do it. Thank you for your help.”

“Meh, ‘tis the time for giving. Or, at least it is in here. At least I managed to mess with her a little bit.” With a loud crack, the acorn was split.

And then he was gone.

Nightmare Moon scowled. “Luna… what is going on?”

“Discord contacted me. He said to go into your dreams and see for myself how you really are.”

“And?”

“It is as I thought,” Luna shrugged. “You are violent, arrogant, frighteningly powerful…”

“A foal could learn that from just spending five minutes with me.”

“Yet I cannot deny that what I saw up on that stage was honest.”

Nightmare Moon paused, glanced over to where the stage was fading out of existence. “My singing?”

Luna jolted, like she was suppressing a snort. “Snrk… Well, it’s true that I initially suspected you were magically augmenting your voice. However, what I meant was your interactions with Vinyl. Your feelings, your body language, even the aura you gave off was nothing but sincere – you truly did value your friendship with her.”

Nightmare Moon grit her teeth. She wasn’t too happy with one of her enemies finding out about her relationship with Vinyl. She was the one that dug deep to find one’s dark secrets, not the other way around. “Would the ‘point’ happen to be anywhere in sight, or can I dream up a rest stop?”

“The point of this was to see for myself if what you said earlier was true. If I could trust that your intentions and the motivation behind them were true.”

“Earlier? Intentions? What are you talking about? I realize that your whole shtick with dreams is to be ambiguous when there’s really no reason, but it’s getting tiring,” Nightmare Moon sighed. “I’ve no idea what you plan, but I’m beginning to lose interest in-”

“Vinyl is dead.”

Nightmare Moon trailed off.

Luna looked up, horn lighting as she grabbed a decoration before it could fade away. “Hearth’s Warming Eve… Typically, many associate this holiday with joy and the celebration of the unification of the three tribes. However, as it is near the end of the year, it can also invoke past regrets and a yearning for what was lost.”

Something niggled at the back of Nightmare Moon’s head. Something was trying to burst through. Was it a memory?

“I pity you for what happened, even if you might not deserve such sentiments.”

“Luna…” Nightmare Moon began. “What happened in the real world that might have caused me to dream like this?”

Luna stepped forward. “You will remember once you wake. Face it and remind yourself of what you intend.”

And with that, she tapped her horn against Nightmare Moon’s-

Nightmare Moon woke.

Luna stared at her through the bars, a key dangling in her magical grasp. “What do you want to do?”

Nightmare Moon licked her lips. “I want…”

Author's Notes:

Note 1: During the third Hearth's Warming Eve since its conception, Princess Platinum and Commander Hurricane got involved in an argument which eventually led to exchanged blows and grappling. Coincidentally, this took place beneath a piece of hanging mistletoe, and the tale has been romanticized to the tradition that two ponies of differing blood meeting beneath it would kiss.