Author's Notes:

I have never released three fics in as many days before. There is definitely something wrong with me.
I had to reinstall Final Fantasy XV because there was a problem with the installation, though, so that's my excuse.

I'm thinking that next up will be either Celestia, or back to Ponyville for Applejack. Thoughts?

“Wait!” you hear a familiar voice call as you walk down the castle hallway towards your destination.

You turn around and flash a smile. “Hey Celestia, what’s going on?”

“Are you going to see Luna?” she asks nervously, rocking back and forth on her hooves.

“Why, yes. Yes I am. Why, are you jealous?” you grin at her and shake your head in mock scolding. “It’s her turn, Celestia. You know that.”

“I-it’s not that,” she says, clearly a little uncomfortable.

This is unlike her. Celestia never gets flustered like this, so you decide to listen well to whatever she has to say. “I’m listening.”

“Luna figured out that you were snuggling other ponies in Ponyville,” Celestia explains. “She found one of Twilight’s letters. She’s really taken quite a liking to you and has a bit of a...jealous side. I’m really not sure how she’s going to react. I just want you to be careful.”

You look at Celestia quizzically. “Are we talking about the same pony here? Luna? About my height, dark blue, sweet as can be, a little eccentric, wouldn’t hurt a fly?”

She furrows her eyebrows as she stares back at you. “I’m serious, snugglebuns. Luna has a hard enough time sharing you with me as it is. Now that she knows other ponies are in the mix…”

You let out a raspberry in response. “Yeah, sure. Sounds to me like you can’t handle your ‘snugglebuns’ giving any affection to your poor sister.”

Celestia frowned. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She turned tail and walked off in the other direction.

“Hey, what gives? Don’t I get a hug?”

Celestia just turned the corner without answering your question.

You scoff at her behavior. “She’s totally jealous,” you say to yourself as you resume your journey toward Luna’s chambers.
After turning another corner you arrive at her ornate, dark blue doors and are surprised to find no guards outside. Shrugging a little bit, you knock to make sure that Luna is inside. “Luna?” you call, rapping the door twice with your fist.

The door swings open slowly, revealing an almost pitch black room.

You squeeze your way inside and begin walking toward the center of the room, holding your hands out in front of you to make sure you don’t run into anything. “Lulu? My dreamweaver? I’m home for a few days!”

As you reach about a third of the way into the room, the door slams behind you, leaving you in what may as well be pitch blackness. “Oh great. Luna? Come on, I wanna cuddle.”

“Is that so?” Luna’s disembodied voice replies.

“Uh...yeah, it is,” you reply in a confused manner. “That’s kind of our thing, right?”

“You have displeased us.”

You let out a few grumbles. “Come on, Luna. Turn on the lights.”

The curtains to her room open, letting in a wide beam of moonlight. A little to your right, a tall, slender black alicorn with a deep blue, star-filled and undulating mane steps into the dim light.

You squint. “Luna?”

“I am not Luna tonight,” she tells you, stepping forward confidently. “Tell me, servant, do you know what we value most?”

“Ummm...Dreams?”

“No. Loyalty. Royalty should only surround themselves with the most loyal ponies, should they not?”

“I guess they should, yeah.” You look her up and down, noticing her more menacing grin and unnatural-looking eyes.

“You have been most disloyal, oh servant. We have found Twilight’s correspondence. It is bad enough that we must share thou with our greedy sister, but to learn that our most trusted snuggling compatriot held not one, but two other ponies without our consent?” She tutted and frowned down at you. “That calls for a most severe punishment.”

You smile wide at her. “I love what you did with your mane. And your coat! So edgy! Plus, the cute linguistic schtick you have going on there-”

“It is not cute!” she whined, stamping a hoof against the floor. “It’s intimidating!”

“Really? Then what are those adorable socks for, Luna?” you ask, pointing to the purple striped socks she was wearing on all four hooves.

She growls and her horn lights up. Suddenly, you feel a weakness in your throat, and you open your mouth to find it is almost impossible to talk. You let out only a faint wheeze that is barely even a syllable.

She closes the distance between you, almost slipping on her socks but recovering quickly. Her mane wraps around your head from all angles, such that your only choices are to look at the starry manescape or stare right into her captivating eyes. She captures your awestruck gaze for a few moments, and then leans toward you, resting her lips against your ear. “I am not ‘Luna’, tonight,” she whispers. “I am Nightmare Moon...And you are going to atone for your misdeeds this evening. I will allow you only to speak when you are asked a question…”

Your eyes widen as her voice triggers your memory. Of course! Luna was once Nightmare Moon...She wasn’t wearing the armor that was in all of the art featuring the dastardly villain, which is probably why you couldn’t put your finger on it immediately. If you recall correctly, the Nightmare Energy which infested her was defeated once and for all by Twilight and her friends, although Luna retained the ability to create an illusory form of Nightmare Moon, which probably explained the current situation.

Nightmare Moon pulls away and smiles wickedly at you. “The first thing you should do, of course, is show your Queen that you feel oh so sorry for your actions.” Her horn lights up and you are forced down to your knees. She holds her hoof in front of your face expectantly.

You glare up at her and shake your head. What the heck was going on with her, anyway? You place a hand on the ground and rise to your feet again.

Her horn lights up again, a little brighter, and you are forced down again, first to your knees, and then to your stomach, your face turned to the side.

Nightmare Moon’s head lowers into your gaze. “Oh, come now. That was very rude. All your queen wants is an apology.” She pulls you back up to your knees. “Let’s try again.”

You roll your eyes and kiss her hoof gently.

“Better, but that won’t do, now will it?” she asks rhetorically. “Remove my sock and try again.”

reach out with a hand to remove her sock, but Nightmare Moon’s magic forces your hand behind your back again. “With your teeth. Show me that you are willing to serve.”

Now she was just trying to humiliate you. You were going to give her a serious piece of your mind as soon as you were able to speak again. Leaning forward, you grasp a small outcropping of fabric with your teeth and pull the sock off. You then place another gentle kiss on her hoof.

"Oh, what was that? I wasn’t paying attention. Try it a few more times.”

You glare at her, frowning angrily.

When she sees your glare, she merely grins back maniacally and uses her magic to slowly push your head down to her hoof. Your lips meet it a few times before she releases you and uses her magic to put the sock back on. “See? That wasn’t so hard. Of course, that doesn’t make up for your betrayal. Not even close.”

She floats you over to the bed and clambers on, lying next to you. “Oh, we forgot something so very important… We shall return in a moment. Do not leave us. Understand?”

You nod quietly, still unable to speak.

“Good. Perhaps you will redeem yourself yet.” She steps off of the bed and enters a side room, closing the door behind her.

As soon as the coast is clear, you tiptoe out of bed and make a beeline for the door. Unfortunately, as soon as you attempt to push outward, you realize the door has been magically shut, and a shockwave of magic from behind you pushes you into the cold metal.

“So much for second chances,” Nightmare Moon says from behind you. You can’t see her form, but her front hooves soon connect with the metal door above your shoulders, on either side of your head. “I just went to get us a blanket for our snuggling session,” she says, using her magic to tie a comforter around your waist. “We were feeling particularly merciful...but now…”

She teleports you onto the bed, and a magical aura surrounds you, making your whole body tingle for a moment. When it dissipates, you realize you can’t move your head or limbs.

“Now for your punishment,” she grins. “It is only fair that it be tailored directly to your crime, so that perhaps you may learn something...Namely, that your queen is the best snuggler in all of Equestria.”

She stands to her hooves and smacks you across the face once with her tail. “Apologies,” she snickers. “Just readying your little lesson.”

You wince at the moderate discomfort, and when you open your eyes Nightmare Moon is in the process of laying on you, her front hooves resting on the exposed spot between your shoulder and neck. She moves her hooves back and forth gently, the movement of the soft socks against your skin actually quite pleasant. “We heard from you earlier that you like your Queen’s mane, is that so?”

Her mane begins to move from its usual position and traced patterns on your skin. You shiver at the strange sensation of being caressed in so many places at once.

Then, the strands of her mane begin to wrap around your joints; under your armpits, around your mouth, and most worryingly around your neck.

Nightmare Moon wiggles happily, evidently quite pleased with herself. “You look shocked and hurt. Imagine how your queen felt when she found you cuddling ponies without her permission.”

The strands of her mane under your armpits began to tighten, and new strands of the starry material wrapped around your elbows and wrists. Nightmare Moon lifts the paralysis on your arms, allowing you to begin struggling. It is to no avail; the force of her mane is too strong.

“You know,” Nightmare Moon comments, almost as if to herself, “I have always found your ears to be quite appealing. She leans her muzzle forward, nudging it against your ear as if surveying it. Then, she opens her mouth and closes her teeth on it, nibbling gently.

The strands of her mane covering your mouth grow tighter and tighter, and you feel her remove the block on your speech...Not that it does you much good. The teasing gesture only allows you to make stock ‘gagged hostage’ grunts.

She moves lower on your earlobe, biting a little harder and even letting the tip of her tongue run against it. “Eh,” she says, pulling back unimpressed. “That got boring quickly.”

Her magic aura pulls your back legs up to wrap around her above her flanks, and she looks down at you with those mesmerizing, almost reptilian eyes. “Now...A test of your will.” The portion of her mane around your neck begins to tighten, albeit much more slowly than the other sections. “For each kiss you give me,” she begins, restoring your speech block but removing the tie around your mouth, “you will receive relief.”

The level of tightness is already concerning by the time that she places her nose less than an inch away from your lips, and you lean in with what little range of motion you have to kiss her. A very small amount of pressure is released...but so little that her mane is already tighter than before by the time that she places her cheek in the same position.

You don’t hesitate in planting another kiss on her, and her grasp on you loosens again. She then places her ear in front of you, and your kiss there opens up a good deal of freedom for you.

Nightmare Moon takes her sweet time in lowering her head to place her horn in front of your face...Time that you really can’t spare much. “Go on,” she commands.

You plant three tiny kisses on it, which stop the tightening for a few moments before it continues.

The situation is becoming dire as you wait for the next opportunity to free yourself. Her eyes glare at you with pure confidence as she appraises you.

Just as the pressure becomes legitimately uncomfortable, she leans in, placing her lips only a fraction of an inch away from yours. Her eyes glisten with mischief as she looks dead on at yours.

No. You can’t. You just can’t. If you do that, she’ll tell the whole court. You’ll be a laughing stock. Celestia will send you a 4000-word letter which basically just says ‘I told you so’. This is the line where no cuddle buddy is meant to cross.

You steel yourself. The right decision is to brave a few seconds of being choked before Luna relents. Certainly she won’t force you into unconsciousness.

And even if she does, she definitely won’t kill you.

...Right?

Just as it finally becomes difficult to breathe, a white glow emanates from Nightmare Moon and you feel the pressure on your body subside. When the glow fades, Luna is lying snugly on your chest, looking up at you with big eyes.

“Hi.”

You take a gasping breath. “Luna! What the heck was that!?”

“I told you, your punishment,” she says, rubbing her socks along your neck again, gently.

“That was insane!”

“Oh, come now, are you seriously going to tell me that you didn’t like it?”

You noticed you had already wrapped an arm around Luna and removed it to cross your arms. “No, I didn’t. It was a violation of my self-sovereignty and was morally reprehensible.”

She leans forward, interrupting your pouting gaze at the ceiling, and looks at you skeptically.

“I admit, it was kind of interesting in a strange and not totally positive way, but I’m going to be really sore tomorrow. You were slamming me all over the place with your magic!”

“Aww, poor baby. We’ll cuddle to make it all better...But it was a little more than ‘kind of interesting’, right?” she asked with a grin.

“...Okay, I admit you got me into it, but it was still kinda weird.”

That answer seems to satisfy her and she nestles back into the crook of your neck. You wrap your arms around her again, and she pulls the comforter she had brought from the other room over you both with her magic. “I have to admit, it was a little weird for me, too. Becoming Nightmare Moon was not my proudest moment.”

“I guarantee you my past is worse,” you tell her, bopping her on the nose. “Don’t sweat it.”

She sighs and allows her thoughts to drift as you cuddle together. You do too, until your eyes shoot open with a sudden realization.

She tried to kiss you! Like, kiss you, kiss you! Or rather, she tried to get you to kiss her!

You look down at her, dumbfounded.

She returns the look with a smile. “What? You wanna change positions? I’d be happy to spoon if you want.”

The worry melts from your face as you smile back.

You can deal with that issue later, right?