A thousand years. Banishment. Fear. Anger. Worry. Concern. Despair. Loneliness. Oh, my goodness, the loneliness... And all of those TEARS! How they just poured off of my face time after time until I could have filled the lunar oceans. She rubbed her head against her boots as she sobbed even harder.

That same familiar feeling told her to toughen up. It told her to be strong. It told her to be defiant. It reminded her that she had defeated the elements of harmony as well as banished her sister to the sun. Yet that same voice had grown fainter and fainter. She kept the waterworks going, and the voice just faded. No! What are you doing letting this pathetic pink dipstick get to you! Don't be so pathetic!

"That's enough," she muttered to herself. The steely voice that had kept her sane on the moon went on to lead her to victory. Now, however, it sounded like a cracked, screechy record bumping around over and over again the same stupid refrain. She heard Strawberry getting very close to her-- trying his best to comfort her although he still didn't know about touching her directly.

"Enough," she declared. She opened her eyes and withdrew from her little husk. Those hateful, angry thoughts now barely stuck to her. She had already shed most of them at Strawberry's side. He almost worked like a towel, drying off the bits of ugly dirt from her beautiful figure. She felt so, so... sheltered by him.

"Enough, what?" Strawberry asked. The alicorn waved her head around sheepishly. She realized that she had made a major scene.

"Uh... it will be fine. Really, we are fine. Please, please," Moon said, returning to her content voice from before, "I stopped..." She hesitated. "We mean: we stopped... your beautiful music. Please, continue. You said that you wanted to perform this other particular tune."

"Yes, yes of course," the unicorn said. He moved a bit away from Moon back towards the stump. He pulled out the guitar again.

The alicorn, like a moth to a flame, instinctively nudged her body forward as well. They became so closer-- closer than they had ever been. Strawberry could seriously feel this kind of electricity from her very body. Then, in a single second that felt like a lifetime... She leaned her head on his side.

"Ah, ah," the unicorn stammered. His skin seemed to glow. Smooth, soft sensations flowed into his body. The alicorn said nothing; she simply nodded at him to begin. Moon smiled, and she knew that she could pick up his every thought.

"Looking..." he began. He took a gulp and clutched the guitar tighter. "F-f-from a window above... It's like a story of l-l-love..." His deep, almost painful nervousness battled it out with the tender, kind feeling that Moon gave him. "C-c-an you heeeeeeeeear me..."

"Oooooooooh," the alicorn cooed in tune with the music. Love...

"Came back only y-y-yesterday... I'm moving further away-y," he went on, "Want you neeeeeear me..." He held the guitar so tightly that he thought it could break, and his magic erupted across every inch of it with a bright arua. "All I needed was the love you gave..."

"Oooh," she cooed again.

"All I needed for another day," he sang.

"And all... I ever knew..." he sang.

The alicorn took a deep breath.

"Only you," he finished.

Moon had nudged herself so that their faces were only inches apart. The words may have been as quiet a mouse, but they felt to the alicorn just as powerful as the burning sun. She made a huge grin, and then she brought her front hooves together to applaud. She shifted a bit, and she realized that her wings had sprung far out.

"I love you, Nightmare Moon," Strawberry said. He clearly couldn't think of anything else.

"I... we... we kn--" she began. Were you about to say 'I know'? How... un-romantic and klutzy... That's what a little foal would say, although, of course... He'd appricate that... She just couldn't bring herself to say 'I love you too'.

"I always have. Even before I saw you," he continued, "Sure, I knew that I loved you the moment I set eyes on you today. But it was... before... It was all of my life..." He leaned back, and both the unicorn and the alicorn gazed at the beautiful sky. "Every single night. Every last embrace. Every moon. Every star. It all felt like it was for me. And it sort of was, even if you didn't really mean it that way..." He tried to keep from tearing up again.

"Those elegant, those pretty nights," she said. She flashed back to how much she loved setting everything up. Applying herself as an artist upon the greatest canvas possible-- the sky. Those days... Celestia and I, plus everypony else... such wonderful days...

"And, so every single moment the day ended," said Strawberry, "I fell head over hooves in love with you again. Day after day. Night after night. This beauty kept me going. And, now, all of that beauty has been applied... into you..."

"Did you ever have, pardon the question, somepony else? Another..." the alicorn felt too embarassed to even form the coherent question.

"Nopony else," he replied, "Nothing worked out. Nothing happened. Life just passed me by. And then I walked through this forest, and I saw you."

"And that's..." she muttered.

"It's never been anyone but you," he said, "Only you."

Their faces were so close. She could smell that wonderful strawberry aroma that he carried everywhere he went. That happy, caring feeling ebbed and flowed into her. Whatever remanent of her time banished left within her spirt had been almost totally washed away. The pain. The hurt. It's gone. Just... gone.

"I love you, Nightmare Moon," Strawberry said again.

The alicorn turned her head a bit, and she answered, "Yes. I love you too."