Author's Notes:

Sorry for this being a kinda long time between my last update and this one. I hope this chapter is good but I don't know if it is. I will be leaving a comment for why it took so long for anyone interested but not here.

Discovery and a Promise.

‘Alright,’ Nightmare Moon thought as she saw a group of guards moving away from her current hiding place. ‘Being small like this might be demeaning, but at least it has helped with this.’

She walked out into the open, and for good measure used a low power scanning spell to see if there were any guards who had stayed behind. Nothing came up, she was in the clear for now. The guards were thorough when they checked an area but often made too much noise to get the jump on her. She could hear them coming and find places to hide.

“Things are going smoothly so far, I’m nearly strong enough that I won’t have to hide from these foals when they come looking for me.” Nightmare Moon said aloud, then cringed slightly when she heard her high pitched voice. “Before anything else I will need to find a way to fix this. I need to strike fear into the hearts of ponies, and a filly body can’t accomplish that”

‘But why do I need to make ponies fear me in the first place?’ a small voice in her head asked, only to be forcibly silenced.

“Now is not the time to question my purpose, I can’t change who I am or what I was born to do.” Nightmare Moon told herself shaking her head.

“Hey Moonjumper? I have a question about our date.” An all too familiar voice rang out suddenly. Nightmare Moon jumped and gave out yelp before she looked around her. There was nopony to be seen.

“No, of course I still want to go, I just wanted to know if we were going to dress up or anything.” Twilight Sparkle’s voice came again.

“What is going on, I am nowhere near Ponyville.” Nightmare Moon said to herself.

“I agree, our first date shouldn’t be anything over the top, maybe a picnic?” Twilight’s voice came again. Nightmare Moon listened for anything else but it seemed that whatever had just happened was now over.

“What just happened, Twilight Sparkle was obviously talking to somepony, but why could I hear her half of the conversation?” Nightmare Moon pondered on this until she heard a sound come from the forest around her.

“I know I heard somepony, announce yourself or I will use force!” A gruff voice came from just behind a group of bushes. Nightmare Moon froze, she had not heard the guard approach. The guard didn’t seem to be searching in her direction yet, she could probably hide if she star-

“Stay right where you are!” The guard's voice rang out once more. Nightmare Moon didn’t listen, she started bolting away as fast as her small legs could carry her. Her small form let her maneuver around a lot of the tangling foliage on the forest floor, but the guard behind her had a brute force advantage and was gaining on her regardless.

‘I need to teleport, right now!’ Nightmare Moon thought, powering up her horn she prepared the spell.

“Stop!” The guard called, his voice accompanied by a small cracking sound. Nightmare Moon’s spell was ready. She released the teleport spell, as she did a sharp pain hit her in the side causing her to yell out in pain. Then there was silence. The guard stopped in his tracks at the sound of the scream.

“A filly?”

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Nightmare Moon landed hard on the ground, the pain from her side nearly enough to make her cry out. She managed to keep herself from making a sound, instead looking around at her surroundings. She seemed to still be in the woods, or maybe a different wood entirely, but there were no soldiers waiting for her.

Nightmare Moon looked at her injured side and whimpered, a large scorch mark now on her flank where her cutiemark had once been.

“He was ready to kill me.” Nightmare Moon said finally, visibly shaken. She curled up on herself, almost ready to cry. Her eyes were starting to water due to pain and shock. Nightmare Moon’s body started to shake, her mind still reeling from the chase and the pain in her leg. Suddenly she stomped one of her front hooves and shook her head wildly.

“Pull yourself together!” She suddenly shouted at herself. “Just because you have the body of a filly doesn’t mean you need to act like one!” Nightmare Moon used her magic to look at the extent of her injury, it was not actually as bad as her panicked mind had originally thought, but still painful.

Nightmare Moon slowly got to her hooves, testing her leg a bit. Her leg seemed to hold her weight fine while standing still, only a slight amount of pain. She took her first step forward, and immediately the pain became unbearable. Nightmare Moon collapsed onto the ground once again, new tears on her face.

“Great, I can’t move, I don’t know where I am, and somepony saw me. Things are just going great for me today.” Nightmare Moon said to herself. She laid her head down on her hooves and tried to dry the tears from her eyes.

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It had been a few hours since Nightmare Moon had settled down on the ground due to her injury. She had fallen into a restless sleep, not having been disturbed in that time.

"I’m really happy with how things went today. I know things went a bit wonky with our date, but it wasn’t terrible." Came Twilight Sparkle’s voice, startling Nightmare Moon out of her slumber.

“Hey, don’t panic, I’m not going to hurt you.” A familiar voice came, only softer than when she had last heard it. Nightmare Moon turned around and saw the guard that had chased her earlier. She started scrambling backward, the pain in her flank flaring up once again.

“Calm down, you can’t just move around like that, you’ll hurt yourself.” The Guard tried to sooth her.

“You already hurt me!” Nightmare Moon accused, and the guard stopped and looked at the ground.

“I know, I’m sorry for what I did, I wasn’t sure who I was chasing and I should have been more careful.” The guard said. Nightmare Moon just stared at him, unsure what he was doing, She had not expected this to happen.

‘He doesn’t know who I am, I’m still safe for now.’ Nightmare Moon thought to herself.

“Please, I will help you in any way I can, will you please accept my apology?” The guard asked again.

“I- I forgive you” The words were strange for Nightmare Moon to say, but not unpleasant.

“Alright,” The guard picked his head up again to introduce himself, “My name is Bastion, I promise I will get you home as soon as possible.”