"Y'know, you can stand and glare at the wall until it grows moss, Moonie," Eris said as she popped into being a few feet away from Nightmare Moon, watching the large mare stand and stare indignantly at the white wall before her. "But it can't make up for you being the biggest cunt."

"I am... I am not ignoring my need to apologise," she snarled, hands balling into fists down at her sides. "I am merely trying to find a way to... express myself in a manner that does not... that allows me to..."

"Basically-" Eris smirked, teleporting once again and appearing upside down above Nightmare Moon. "You're trying to find the way to word your apology in to show that you're actually sorry without making you look like a little bitch?"

"How did you-" the black mare began.

"-read the chapter notes, helped a lot," Eris waved away dismissively. "If I may propose a suggestion-"

She bopped Nightmare on the tip of her horn before teleporting in front of her, floating in a laid-out position with her legs kicking behind her.

"-don't worry about looking like a cunt. Because you already look like a cunt. In fact, you look like so much of a cunt that the mere sight of you excites my lesbian tendencies," she giggled. "Though that might just be because you look like a snack."

"Do not mock me, Draconequus," she snarled in response.

"An angry snack. Like a snack with spice on it, but instead of being an actual snack with spice," Eris continued, tumbling through the air as she spoke. "You're just a cunt with an attitude problem."

"Do you want me to vaporise you?" Nightmare growled furiously.

"I want you to try, sugartits," Eris countered in a cold, serious tone.

The two locked eyes for a long moment, Nightmare leaning closer and standing her ground while continuing to speak.

"You're a powerful being, Eris," she hissed. "I'd relish the challenge."

"I'm not a powerful being, Moonie," the Draconequus sniggered. "I'm the powerful being. I'm the mistress of all of reality, able to create and destroy at my whim. You may have the power to blast a hole through a planet, but what good would that be against me when I can simply remove you from existence? Turn you into a swarm of butterflies? Teleport you into the deepest reaches of space and watch you boil, freeze, and explode before piecing you back together and doing it over and over again?"

Nightmare's glare faltered slightly.

"And if you have such power, how were you able to be defeated by Dusk and his friends? A creature of such strength should've found children with fancy jewellery to be no such issue, correct?" Nightmare continued.

"Oh, the little rascals snuck up on me after I thought I'd won," Eris sighed, shrugging dismissively before dropping down onto her feet. "Didn't get a chance to use my fancy magics against them, got hit with the blast and... well, as we both know, once that little rainbow tickle hits you, you don't really want to be evil anymore, do you? I could snap my fingers right now and reverse each and every effect the Elements had on me... but I don't want to."

"You're a strange being, Eris," Nightmare sighed, shaking her head almost dismissively. "The power of a god in the palm of your hand... and you're content to wile your days away in a carehome, at the beck and call of no more than a child."

"Cuz it's fun, it's interesting, and the cafe here makes really, really good spaghetti," Eris shrugged. "The chef can grate the Parmesan in that way that it doesn't clump up and melt all in one big glob, and I've never been able to do that before because all the stupid graters I've used are cheap and clumsy-"

"I'm going to go apologise to Dusk now," Nightmare groaned in a flat tone, desperately wanting to be away from Eris' ramblings.

"Go be a good noodle for once!" Eris called with a smile and a wave as Nightmare Moon made her way down the hall. "Try your best to be polite and remember that if you so much as irritate him anymore, I'll feed your corpse to the wolves!"

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes, waving half-heartedly over her shoulder as she made her way through the halls to Dusk's office. With a deep breath and a roll of her eyes, she opened the door and walked inside, coming across Dusk in the middle of a conversation with a projection of Celestia coming from an enchanted stone.

"-I'm really sorry, Dusk, but this has happened too many times. The budget for the centre has been drained by damages, and we just don't have it in the place's funding to repair it again without cutting into the money for other facilities and other essentials," the projection explained to the smaller Alicorn.

"I know... I've decided to strip Moonie and Umbra of their facility privileges and confine them to their rooms until their behaviour improves," Dusk sighed in quite a depressed manner. "I... I lost my temper with them as well... I really wasn't professional about it at all."

"I feel it needed to be done," Celestia sighed, eyes dragging away from Dusk only to notice Nightmare Moon standing in the doorway with her muscular arms crossed over her chest. "Speak of the devil... you're not allowed to enter the administrator's office without knocking, Luna, it's against site rules."

Nightmare Moon closed the door behind her and strode over to the crystal, eyeing up the projection of her older sister with a flat, almost-emotionless expression.

"Luna!" Celestia beamed in a warm fashion. "It's so good to see you again!"

Nightmare was silent again, crossing her arms over her chest and grunting out a single response.

"You're getting fat."

Celestia's smile faltered for the briefiest of moments, eyes screwing shut and a long, slow exhale falling from her plump lips.

"Good to see you're maintaining your tact, as always," Celestia sighed.

"About as well as you're maintaining your overweight body," her sister shrugged in a dismissive tone. "Can you leave? I need to talk to Dusk."

"Actually, Luna, we're kind of in the middle of important business here that really can't be igno-" Celestia began, only for her projection to disappear immediately as Nightmare fired a finger beam at the crystal that created her ethereal form.

It shattered loudly, raining smoking fragments all across the room. Dusk's eyes widened in shock only to narrow quickly thereafter in anger, quickly confronting Nightmare with a more-than annoyed-expression.

"Didn't I just tell you to behave yourse-" Dusk growled, only to be silenced as fast as Celestia had been once Nightmare placed her finger... pretty much over his face in an effort to shush him.

Dusk glared blankly at the titanic tyrant, rolling his eyes under her touch before she began to speak.

"Listen true and listen well, for I shall only say this once," she began, brow furrowed as she spoke. "I light of my prior actions, both today and in recent memory, I am here to say that... I offer my condolences in regards to the grief you have suffered because of them..."

Dusk's eyebrow cocked in a suggestive manner, realising exactly what was going on here before he gently moved her hand off his face.

"No, let's try that again," he sighed. "You're sorry that you've offended me."

She remained silent.

"You are sorry that you've offended me," Dusk repeated.

She scrunched her muzzle up.

"Nightmare," Dusk blinked.

"Mnf," she grunted dismissively.

"If you're not going to say it, I'm not going to accept your apology," he glowered.

"I am... regretful over the fact my actions caused you-" she began, only for Dusk to turn his back on her and return to his desk.

"Okay, look," he said with an enormously disgruntled expression. "Don't try to apologise if you're not sorry. I'm not your father, I'm not your teacher, and I'm not trying to get you to say sorry just because it's the polite thing to you. I want you to genuinely improve who you are now, and the first step to that is expressing a little bit of regret over your actions. If you've come in here, too proud and too self-important to even give a fake apology, then you clearly aren't even close to it."

Nightmare exhaled loudly through her nose.

"So if it's all the same to you, I'd rather you not embarrass yourself, go back to your quarters..." Dusk growled, waving her away with a dismissive hand. "And stop wasting my time, please? I've got a hell of a lot of stuff on my plate to sort through, and you're just making it worse."

Nightmare went to turn her nose up at the request, only for her to stiffen suddenly, fingers twitching against her bicep muscles as her arms remained crossed. Dusk noticed the change in her demeanour immediately, casting a quizzical glance at the large black mare as she seemed to struggle against something, her face twitching briefly before widening into a large, warm smile.

"I want to apologise from the deepest depths of my heart for the fact that I've made you so much as frown during our time together," she began in a sing-song tone that was so out of character for her it made Dusk's skin crawl. "You have shown me nothing but kindness and goodwill, and that makes me feel beyond heartbroken that I should ever make a cloud come over your bright, sunny day, and truly makes me realise what a stuck-up, worthless, and conceited bitch I am with no fashion sense whatsoever."

Nightmare finished her little spiel by making a heart gesture with her hands and beaming widely. Dusk was silent for a long moment, looking her up and down before casting his eyes towards the closed door of his office.

"Chrysalis, I appreciate the help in getting her to confess her... unbecoming traits, but a fake apology is about as worthless as no apology!" he called out to the hallway.

"Want me to lobotomise her then?" came the muffled response from the Green Queen outside.

"No... just, release her from the spell... and maybe make her not remember it happened?" Dusk asked. "I'm not in the mood to have to scrape you up off the floor."

"If you say so," she sighed, an audible snap of her fingers followed by Nightmare shuddering suddenly.

"What just... what happened?" she asked, an edge of anger to her voice.

"What happened when?" Dusk bluffed effortlessly.

"Moments ago," she reaffirmed, eyes hardening as she glared at him.

"I asked you to leave, is what happened," Dusk shrugged. "Please? I've still got a very busy day ahead of me... and I need to call Celestia back..."

"Very well," the large, coal-black mare shrugged. "I've made my peace and have naught left to feel sorry for. Good day, Dusk."

And with that, the haughty mare of the moon made her exit, leaving Dusk alone in his office with a pounding headache and an inability to process simply how socially broken that big horse was. Chrysalis stuck her head in the door, beaming widely as she threw a little wave at Dusk.

"Hi, Chryssy," he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Having fun?" the former Changeling queen inquired.

"All of it," he said in a glum voice. "Haven't enjoyed myself this much since I split my head open on a pine tree."

"I imagine that'd be way more entertaining and would be more satisfying than dealing with that bitch," Chrysalis snorted.

"Please don't talk about her like that," Dusk added for professional reasons.

"What else am I supposed to talk about her like?" Chrysalis asked, eyes flashing mischievously as she spoke. "Like she's a good person? Sorry, my Hive Mother raised me not to lie."

"Didn't you essentially do nothing but lie when impersonating Cadance and trying to take over Canterlot?" Dusk blinked.

"Well, I said she raised me not to do it," she shrugged. "Never said I took any heed of it."

"Of course you didn't," Dusk nodded, gently slamming his hands down onto the desk as he shot up to his feet. "Chrysalis, I'm going to the cafeteria to make myself some coffee, and then I'm probably going to throw it in my own face."

"Sounds fun, can I tag along?" she giggled.

"Yes. I'm probably going to need you there to prevent me from stabbing myself in the eye with a fork," he nodded, heading around his desk and walking towards the door.

He closed the solid oak entrance-denier behind him, locking it with his large jumble of keys, before turning around to head to the cafeteria... only to come to a stop as the larger, black mare snaked her arm through his and squeezed herself up against his smaller body.

"Chryssy... I'm not allowed to fraternise with patients," Dusk sighed in a dry tone.

"Oh, please, this isn't anything close to fraternisation," the Changeling sputtered. "You'll know what fraternisation is when you wake up in my bed after a night so wild, we're both glued to the bedsheets."

"I..." Dusk began, trailing off with his mouth agape and eyes locked onto Chrysalis' beaming face. "This is sexual harassment in the workplace, and I don't have to take it, you know?"

"Oh I know..." she sniggered. "Taking it is my job."

"I feel threatened," he gulped.

"Only because you are," she added, eyes glowing ominously as she stared down at the little femboy. "Now how about we got get some of that... hot coffee?"

"I want my mommy."

"Oh, I'll be your fuckin' mommy alright, little boy."