Chapter XV

Nightmare Moon backwings away from horizontal slash of red energy, then desperately lashes out with her wings to send out multiple bolts of lightning in front of her.

A black and yellow blur has already moved out of the way. A wave of ice rushes over the ground towards her, and she barely manages to blast an opening down the center of it with magic before the spikes of ice impale her.

Then she feels it on her back. That gaze. Those empty eyes that promise oblivion.

She reacts without looking. She blasts upward with a beat of her wings and barely manages to escape the explosion of fire that erupts beneath her. She maneuvers herself up higher while turning to look down and look for the monster that she’s fighting.

Slit-pupil amber eyes meet her turquoise ones and she freezes in terror.

A fatal mistake.

A clawed hand clenches over her horn right as she starts to cast a spell, and then she’s overcome by pain as lightning courses through her body from his iron grip. She falls down to the gray landscape, barely conscious.

She recovers her senses just enough to lighten her impact with the ground by shooting a gust of wind downward, but she still gasps in pain when she crashes.

Nightmare struggles to stand up from her impact point, but then a powerful force slamming into her back puts her back in the dirt with a deafening Boom.

As soon as the impact’s force is gone, Nightmare immediately notices that the weight remains at four points on her back, and then the two near her shoulders dig into her flesh, right through the tendons to her wings, and grip her tight.

“Aaauuughh!!” She cries out in pain from the claws digging into her, and then screams in agony as the thing’s hind claws rake themselves down her back again and again, shredding her muscles and carving her bones.

And then, right as she tries to throw it off, she hears it inhale and it breathes an intense stream of flame over her back, incinerating her fur and feathers where the flames hit.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” She screeches from the pain and heaves upwards and mercifully the creature is thrown from her back. She rolls in the dust of her moon to extinguish the flames still burning on her wings. But that’s also what the monster wanted, as she feels a fluid wrap itself around her front legs, clenching them painfully together. Before she can react, she feels a sudden jerk and her legs let out several sickening snaps as they’re twisted around each other and broken with one quick pull from him.

“AAAAAUUUAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!” She cries out, nearly blacking out from the pain. She lays still, panting from the agony scorching across her back, and the throbbing from her legs. Her head pounds from the earlier electric shock, but she can’t feel anything in her horn.

She’s powerless. Her horn’s numb, her wings burned, and legs are broken. She can’t fight back. She shakily breathes in gasps through the pain, but manages to squint open her eyes and she fearfully looks up to the eyes of the approaching creature.

The eyes that hold the hundred years of pain she inflicted on him. The eyes that promise to rend her into nothing.

“NO!” Luna jerks awake with a gasp, panting in terror. She looks around her room.

‘What? But where is… a dream… it was a dream… he’s not here.’ Luna tells herself, chest heaving from frantic breathing. She needs to calm down. She keeps breathing, steadying both her thoughts as well as her heart rate for several minutes until she’s just sitting upright in her bed, staring down at her bed sheets in thought.

Luna looks to her left to the alarm clock on her bedside desk that her sister explained to her was developed as an improvement of a sundial several centuries ago. Luna herself didn’t quite understand the point at first, seeing as she and her sister moved the sun and moon themselves, and thus technically controlled the time, but she has grown to like being able to know how close it is to the time to lower the moon without needing to ask somepony else. She doesn’t feel comfortable interacting with other ponies at the present moment.

Luna lets out a small breath through her nostrils when she sees that the clock reads 5:55 AM. It’s only a few minutes before she needs to lower the moon.

‘Might as well get up.’ She reasons to herself.

She slowly rises from her bed.

Why is she currently getting up with the sun? Because her power hasn’t come back, and she is taking the time to educate herself on the workings of modern Equestria.

Or, that’s what’s told to those that ask. In reality, Luna is just in a funk.

Upon waking up after the Summer Sun Festival in Ponyville, Luna panicked from realizing she had lost consciousness. But after the first few seconds of the ground around her not exploding, (That happened far too many times to her in the past) she calmed down enough to observe her surroundings.

To say that she was surprised to be lying in an incredibly comfortable bed in a night-themed room would be an understatement.

It was not long after waking that Luna finally got to reunite with her sister, and apologize profusely with tears rolling down both their faces in relief that their separation from each other was finally over.

And then came the knowledge that Luna needed to learn about how things have changed while she was gone.

She caught up within three weeks.

That isn’t to say that she knows everything that’s changed. There is still quite a bit of history she needs to catch up on, and many technological and magical advances still throw her for a loop. But for the most part, Luna doesn’t really have much to do other than wait for her magic to recover to the point where she can re-commence her duty of protecting the dreams of the ponies sleeping through the night.

The one thing that surprised Celestia that Luna didn’t have to adjust to was the fact that Luna was already able to speak in the more modern version of Equish, rather than the ancient dialect that they both spoke in a millennium ago. This was mostly due to the fact that Luna got tired of being so formal in her speech while clashing with Baelor on the moon, and eventually just started cussing him out just as much as he was doing to her.

Not exactly the best way to gain an insight into changes in a language, but considering she had a thousand years to do so, it got the job done.

And thus, this leaves Princess Luna with very few things to do other than try to kill time. And she hates it.

Luna lets out another breath through her nostrils while walking over to her balcony to lower the moon. She ignites her magic to grab ahold of the pieces of her celestial body (she consoles herself about it's new state by considering it a part of her punishment), and slowly lowers it below the horizon.

Luna breathes a bit heavier than would be normal, as if she’d just lifted something heavy and walked it over to the other side of the room and gently set it down, but isn’t very concerned by the strain. It was a heavy exertion, but a quick one, and she’ll be back to normal in a few minutes.

The sun begins to peak over the edge of the opposite horizon that Luna sent her moon over, and she turns to look at the balcony of the tower that Celestia is raising the sun from. Luna gently smiles upon seeing the white form of her sister, even at the distance they’re at. The small comfort allows her to keep her mind occupied long enough for Celestia to finish, and then look over to her. Luna can’t see it from where she’s at, but she knows that Celestia’s smiling right back at her.

And then her sister turns to step back into the castle to begin her daily duties. Luna sighs in resignation of needing to do the same, and moves to walk back inside as well. But then she pauses. ‘What duties am I going to be doing?’ She thinks.

It’s true that she still needs to catch up on things, but that’s more or less covered by this point. And there isn’t really much for her to do other than read or get stared at by the castle staff behind her back.

Her ear flicks in annoyance upon remembering that. And then she looks back outside her balcony, into the slowly brightening sky and the rest of Equestria.

A stray breeze blows into her room and gently caresses the feathers of her folded wings, sending a shiver of want shooting through her suddenly. ‘How long has it been since I’ve flown?’ Luna asks herself.

In that moment, Luna makes a snap decision. She takes a breath and her mane flows and envelops herself, rendering her as a mass of starry magical energy. The mass floats for a second, before splitting in half and reforming into two separate Lunas.

This is a spell that she learned just prior to her transformation into Nightmare Moon. She’s able to split her magical power in order to create a magical clone of herself, one with all her knowledge and thought processes, and it is then able to act on its own, until Luna decides to merge back together with it.

Granted, this spell is also somewhat draining, especially now in her weakened state, but Luna does not need much magical power for what she’s planning on doing. And she highly doubts anything dangerous will occur to the clone over the course of the day. And even if something did, it is made of magic. The worst that will happen is that a few ponies will panic for a bit while the deceased clone’s magical energy dissipates into the air. Luna will feel an annoying loss of magic, but she will still be alive and well enough to return to Canterlot and reassure everypony that she is alright.

“Please attend to whatever duties I must perform for today.” Luna instructs the clone. It nods in affirmation.

Luna then closes her eyes and her mane swirls around her body again, and then reforms to reveal herself as a sky blue pegasus mare with a dark navy blue mane and tail. Her cutie mark has changed from a white crescent moon to a curving white feather with several stars wafting off the edges.

And then Luna leaps off her balcony and takes flight.

So as to not alarm the guards around the castle, Luna banks away from the castle, and then commences to fly even further away from Canterlot. Within a few moments, the city is out of Luna’s view and behind one of the mountains that surround Mt. Canterhorn, upon which the city is built on the edge of.

Luna takes a deep breath of the morning air, a growing sense of exhilaration filling her as the wind whips past her face, under her wings, and through her mane and tail. She grins and with a powerful flap of her wings, she soars up high into the sky past the clouds, and then allows herself to stall, tilting backward and then diving down headfirst into a free-fall. She rockets down to the ground ever faster, the excitement and thrill of the high speeds making her grin grow, until she pulls up, wings flaring out wide bellows of winds beneath her to allow her to transfer her momentum from vertical into horizontal, and she’s soaring through the sky again, the cool morning air growing warmer as the sun rises higher as time passes.

Luna briefly wonders why she ever wanted to get rid of the day. While it is true that she wanted to bring about eternal night as Nightmare Moon, a part of her ruefully admits that… she missed the warmth of the sun.

While she definitely experienced the heat of the sun while on the moon, it was only just that, heat. And it only came from the sun. The rest of the space around her, it was just the same frigid cold of space where the sun’s light didn’t touch. And where it did touch, it wasn’t comforting or relaxing in the least, just oppressive.

Back here on the planet though, the sun’s light warms the air around her, and its light infuses everything it touches.

Luna takes another deep breath and lets it out with a large grin, relishing the adrenaline rushing through her veins. This is the first time in a long while that she’s felt this good, and she plans on making it last as long as possible today.

Luna breathes deeply while lying on a cloud, the sun warming her underside as she rests from the several hours of flying. ‘It feels like I haven’t done this since I was a filly.’ Luna thinks to herself, content to melt into the fluff of the cloud and allow her wing muscles relax from their workout.

Unfortunately, the world seems to have decided she’s not allowed to do that for the moment, because the cloud suddenly disappears from under her with an audible *poomf*, and Luna falls towards the ground.

She lets out a startled yelp and manages to flip around and hover back up after only falling four or five hoof-lengths.

“That’ll teach you to-wait you’re not… Oh my Celestia, I am so sorry!” Luna turns around to see a lavender pegasus mare with a two-toned blue mane flying close by, her rear legs curled upwards near her belly from having recently bucked a cloud away.

Luna opens her mouth, but can’t come up with any words to respond with. Why is this pony not afraid of-oh wait, disguise.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry, I thought you were Rainbow Dash and I thought she’d overslept on a cloud she was supposed to clear. I bucked it out from under you without looking.” The mare says to Luna when she doesn’t say anything, worry etched on her face.

Luna mentally shakes herself out of her thoughts to answer. “It is alright. There was no harm done. And I do believe it was my fault for deciding to rest on a cloud that was supposed to be cleared away.” Luna answers, feeling a bit abashed about getting in the way of clearing the skies.

“Are you sure?” The mare asks.

Luna nods. “Yes I’m sure. Thank you for the concern though.” Luna tells her with a small smile.

The other pegasus sighs in relief. “Oh, good.”

They hover in the air for a moment.

“Um… yeah, I kind of need to get back to work. There’s more than just cloud kicking to do today, and I got a little sidetracked here.” She says sheepishly.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get in your way.” Luna apologizes.

The other mare chuckles. “Heh, don’t worry about it. It’s really not that big of an obstacle when you compare it to some of the other stuff that happens to Ponyville.” She answers, turning away to finish her other work.

Luna blinks. “Ponyville?” She asks in surprise.

“Yep. Disasters every other week, and everypony here is still crazy enough to stick around. Other than that, it’s one of the most welcoming places in Equestria. Anyway, I need to get back to work. I’ll see you later!” The mare calls back before flying off.

Luna stares off into space where the mare used to be, lost in thought. ‘Ponyville. Why does that name sound familiar?’ She thinks to herself.

To perhaps get an idea of where she’s heard of Ponyville before, Luna looks around for the town, and sees it off in the direction that the mare flew off to, only really a minute’s flight away. Luna decides to get a closer look.

As she draws closer, she notices a few familiar buildings, but can’t fully recall where she’s seen them before. Until she sees the forest the town is practically right up against.

‘The Everfree Forest? Then that means this is the town that I crashed landed into while I was Nightmare Moon.’ Luna realizes, remembering flying over said forest after blasting out of the town hall on that night.

This realization causes her to halt in her flight towards the town. She feels reluctant to enter the town that witnessed her while transformed into her darker form.

However, that reluctance almost immediately gives way to an instinct. And instinct that was ingrained into her for a long time: Do not run. Face your fear head on.

This instinct may or may not have been inspired by the fact that, in the past, turning her back on something terrifying usually ended up with her shot in the back by one elemental blast or another.

Regardless, Luna arcs her wings and swoops downwards into the town proper for a landing.

Upon landing, there are no gasps of shock or fear like Luna was dreading, and upon looking around, a few ponies are just glancing away or giving a small friendly wave upon making eye contact with her.

Luna remembers again that she’s in disguise, and realizes that all they or anypony is likely to see in her is a new face, but not an alicorn princess and certainly not a terrible monster that they were accosted by several weeks prior.

Luna lets out a small sigh of relief at this. It seems that she doesn’t have anything to worry about after all.

But… there is still something that she thinks she might be forgetting.

“WOOOOOOOO!!!” Luna’s broken out of her thoughts by the energetic cry of some pony above

An orange pegasus filly soars high above Luna’s head, her shadow briefly passing over her back as she observes the filly with widening eyes.

The filly, despite her height in the air, is not flying though. She twists her body around while holding onto the handlebars of some kind of “T” stick attached to a board with wheels. She deftly rotates and adjusts her wing positions to spin around over the top of the handles even as she spins end over end. Performing one of the most excessively acrobatic maneuvers Luna has ever seen.

But the thing that catches Luna’s attention the most is the fact that the filly is doing it with her pegasus magic.

She can tell from how fast the filly spins in proportion to how little she moves and adjusts her wings, and even the small twitches of individual feathers. She herself does those same things when she flies, and when she fights. The filly is moving and bending the air around her to lend to her mobility.

Luna’s awe at such a young pony managing to perform an ancient pegasus art at such a young age abruptly changes to panic when she realizes the filly is still falling while corkscrewing headfirst directly at the ground.

With a swift, but controlled sweep of her right wing, Luna flings a twisting zephyr of wind at the filly moments before she hits the ground.

The gust catches her, slows her a bit, and rights her up and places her forward. The filly sticks the landing and then rides off on her contraption with rapidly buzzing wings, whooping in exultation while unawares of the fact that Luna more than likely just saved her from getting a concussion.

Luna sighs in relief, not bothered in the slightest that her good deed went unnoticed.

Or at least she thought it did.

“Whoa. That was so neat!” A nearby voice exclaims.

Surprised, Luna turns to see two bright, yellow eyes looking at her.

Or… wait. One yellow eye looking at her, and another looking at a paperclip lying on the road a few hoof-lengths to her left?

“How’d you do that?” The pegasus mare the eyes belong to asks Luna, grinning widely.

“Er-huh? Do what?” Luna asks back, surprised again.

“That thing with the wing-swish that flipped Scootaloo around and stopped her from hurting herself! Duh!” The gray mare says in clarification.

“Oh, um, that was something that I learned to do a long time ago… wait a moment. Who are you?” Luna asks her in confusion.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. My name’s Ditzy, Ditzy Doo. But everypony just calls me Ditzy. Nice to meet you!” Ditzy says cheerfully, holding out her hoof to Luna.

Luna accepts her ‘hoof shake’ from what she remembers from her lessons, and takes Ditzy’s hoof with her own and shakes it, albeit a little awkwardly. “It is a pleasure to meet you Ditzy Doo.” Luna says in reply with a small smile of her own.

“Soooo… what’s your name?” Ditzy asks, blinking and causing her eyes to both align to look directly at Luna.

“My name?” Luna asks, a little distracted by Ditzy’s eyes.

“Yeah. Your name. Do you have one?” Ditzy asks with a cocked brow.

Luna’s eyes widen .“Oh, um… my name is-,” She panics inside. ‘Buck! Quickly, remember your cutie mark! What is it? What is it? Feather with stars?’ “Star-Fea-FLIGHT!” Luna stammers out a little loudly.

At Ditzy’s confused look Luna speaks again. “Starflight. My name is Starflight.” Luna lies in a much more calm and collected manner.

Ditzy continues to stare at her for a minute. Luna thinks she should be a little nervous that she might be seeing through her lie, but she can’t seem to focus on anything else other than the fact that Ditzy’s right eye is drifting up and to the right.

“Well it’s great to meet you Starflight! Welcome to Ponyville!” Ditzy tells her happily, blinking again to bring her eyes forward.

Luna blinks. “How did you know that I’m new?” She asks.

“Well, for one, you’re staring at my eyes and how they’re misaligned sometimes. Most everypony else that lives here already know about them. And they don’t really pay them much mind unless I do something like this.” She then proceeds to roll one eye around while the other drifts off to look up into the sky.

Luna boggles in astonishment (and a slight amount of disgust) at Ditzy’s eye movements.

Ditzy giggles. “Yep, it’s kind of hard to not stare when somepony does something weird like that.” She states.

“Indeed.” Luna replies, still reeling from seeing that.

“Anyway, besides my eyes. I don’t really remembering seeing you before. And I deliver the mail for Ponyville, so I know a lot of different names and faces that live here. So are you just passing through?” Ditzy asks her.

“It… is more like I wound up here while taking a day off. I will have to return home before nightfall.” Luna answers.

“Hmmmm… you sound all refined and proper when you talk. Are you from Manehattan?” Ditzy asks.

“Canterlot, actually. And… ugh, I’m sorry about staring. Normally I am able to conduct myself much more politely when meeting others.” Luna apologizes.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I know ponies like to stare at strange things they don’t see everyday. I sure as heck do when I see something.” Ditzy pauses in thought. “Or at least… I half stare at weird things.” Her left eye moves in to look at her nose. Honestly, that one didn’t look quite as strange as the other ones Ditzy’s done and why is she thinking this-stop staring!!!!!

Luna shakes her head lightly.

“Anyway, I don’t really mind ponies staring at my eyes that much. If anything, I’m glad that they almost always give me a great conversation to talk to new ponies about!” Ditzy says with a tilted-head smile.

Luna giggles. “Well, it certainly worked with me.” Luna tells her.

Ditzy titters. “Yep. That was the plan!” She says.

Before Luna can say something else though, her stomach lets out a rumble. Luna chuckles sheepishly.

“Sounds like somepony’s hungry.” Ditzy notes with a smirk.

Luna smiles back. “Yes, so it would seem. I forgot to bring any food or money with me, so I will have to return to Canterlot to eat. I suppose this is where I say goodb-.”

“Nope!” Ditzy cuts her off, wrapping a forelimb around Luna’s and dragging her off.

“Wh-what? Ditzy, what are you doing?” Luna asks her in surprise.

“I know the perfect place to have lunch! We can eat together! My treat!” Ditzy tells her.

Luna blinks in befuddlement as the other pegasai drags her away. ‘This mare is very strange… and for some reason I feel as if she would be doing this to me even without my disguise.’ Luna thinks to herself.

“So then Pinkie Pie, a funny filly that lives here in Ponyville, pops out of the potted plant right next to us with a mound of dirt and a daisy on her head and shouts out “Oatmeal?! Are you Crazy?!” and then just sucks herself back into the pot.” Ditzy says with a bewildered expression on her face.

Luna can’t help but snort in amusement from the tale, what’s left of her grilled tulip sandwich held in her fore-hooves.

Ditzy chuckles. “The funniest part is that while I was busy trying to figure out how the hecky she did that, Carrot Top jumped in fright and sent her box of oatmeal, that she just bought, flying. She stormed off screaming some not too foal-friendly things when she saw that it was opened and that dried oatmeal was scattered everywhere in the street.” Luna giggles with a sympathetic ‘aww’ of sympathy for the wasted food.

“I think she mentioned something about putting them both in the hospital one of these days, most likely from backhooving Pinkie while having a heart attack.” Ditzy says with a hoof-tip to her chin.

Luna shakes her head in amusement from Ditzy’s story. Then she takes the last few bites of her sandwich. While she may be a princess, table etiquette, while something she knew, was not something she took much time to adhere to a thousand years back. (It helped that most ponies were so afraid of her that nopony wanted to correct her on it.) And she’s elated to discover an actual dish that is designed to be eaten with hooves only!

Luna lets out a sigh of contentment from the finished meal. “Thank you very much for lunch Ditzy. I’ll be sure to pay you back once I have some bits on hoof to do so.” Luna thanks the blonde pegasus.

“Pfft. Don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for!” Ditzy replies.

This takes Luna aback. “… Friends?” She says quietly.

“Uh, yeah. We are friends right?” Ditzy asks her.

“I am certainly not against the idea, I’ve just… never made a friend quite this quickly before.” Luna admits.

“Well now you have! One friend in one hour is your new personal record time for friend-making! Until somepony else becomes friends with you in less time, I’ll be sitting pretty on the 1^st place pedestal in your head.” Ditzy says with a lopsided grin.

Luna giggles. “I suppose you will. But I still plan on paying you back.” Luna tells her.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” Ditzy protests lightly.

“I don’t feel comfortable with just never paying you back though.” Luna responds.

“Really Starflight, I may be a mailmare, but I’m not that bad off. You don’t have to pay me back.” Ditzy responds back.

Luna takes a calming breath to think. How can she pay Ditzy back when she isn’t willing to accept bits? Perhaps a compromise?

“How about… next time we eat together, I pay for our meal instead? Does that work for you?” Luna suggests. Then blinks. ‘Wait, what? Next time? What am I saying?’ Luna thinks.

Ditzy blinks herself, before putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “Hmmm… alright, I’m okay with that. How does same time tomorrow sound?” Ditzy asks.

“That sounds wonderful. I shall see you then.” Luna answers. ‘Why am I making so many snap decisions today? Can I even manage to meet her here tomorrow?’

“See me then? Does that mean you’re leaving?” Ditzy asks her curiously.

Luna sighs. “Yes, I am afraid so. I do need to get back to Canterlot before the day ends. I have duties I must still perform.” She tells Ditzy.

“Awwwww. Okay… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Ditzy says to Luna, her ears drooping down… along with one of her eyes… again.

Luna chuckles in amusement at the grown mare’s near foal-like behavior. “Yes, until tomorrow my friend.” She says, smiling just a little bit wider upon saying the word “friend.”

“Starflight” turns towards in the direction of Canterlot in the distance and takes to the air.

“Bye!” Ditzy calls out, waving goodbye to her from the ground.

Luna waves back before turning her gaze to the city ahead of her. Her mind tries to focus on the things she will have to do to be able to meet again with the gray pegasus mare again.

But despite this, Luna can’t help but feel as if she can soar straight into the stars of her night from how the day went.

...

...

Now if she could only figure out what it is she feels like she's forgetting about the town she just visited.

Author's Notes:

I'm back!

And the chapter's done!

And it didn't take two months this time!

"Barely."

"I think it took one and a half months!"

Oh, *pfft*, details. What matters is that it's done, and now the only mystery left is whether the like counter for the story will hit 200 likes before I get the next chapter done.

"But... there's still the mystery about where Bael went."

"And how the Mane 6 will react to him being gone."

"And what Bael and Celestia talked about during that massive cliffhanger at the end of that one chapter."

"Or what the heck is with Celestia's sword."

"That's a mystery?"

"Yeah! She never had a sword in the show. And in the first chapter there was that one line about how she's going to "return it to it's owner someday" and some other things."

"Well I'll be darned! That is a mystery!"

"Oi! Falx! What's up with all the mysteries?!"

O_O ... Why are you all ganging up on me now?

"Because we want to knowwwwwwwwww!"

"Also, there's a rotation going on, so we can keep the readers entertained instead of picking on only one of us and running the gag into the ground."

Speaking of gags. Is Sombrasicle still going on?

*CRACK* "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

"Yes." *snap* *shck*