She… does… too… She loves me. She LOVES me. SHE LOVES ME! ME! Strawberry tried not to hyperventilate himself into unconsciousness. His heart had dropped to the bottom of his hoof. It also beat so fast— his whole body jiggled so fast— that he seemed to be digging a pony-shaped hole into the stump. He sat so close to her.

The alicorn and the unicorn were face to face for what felt like centuries. Her smile... Her mane… Her mouth… Her teeth... Her nose… Her eyes... Oh, goodness, those eyes. She kept on smiling, motionless. Strawberry knew that he had to do something.

That was the moment. That would be the moment. Of course, the odds were that he would completely blow it. Why would he spoil his perfect record? Just like always, like the dance… like the time Fluttershy had the ice cream, and you didn’t… OH FOR PETE’S SAKE!

Kiss her you blockhead! His mind screamed at his body to obey, even though it refused. ‘Kiss me you blockhead’ Moon’s soft, sheltering eyes seemed to scream as well. He felt a sudden jitter from head to hoof. “Only… you…” he whispered, speaking so delicately that be barely moved.

Already so close, the alicorn somehow moved even closer. I just… LOVE… YOU… He somehow moved even closer. He couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t think.

Their lips locked. Strawberry pressed himself in, and she gently nestled her head over. This gigantic wave swept over every last inch of his body. It almost felt like she had enveloped him this bright black magical fire— so dark, so calm, and so comforting. For all the love songs he had ever heard, ever rehearsed, ever played… none of them prepared him for just how wonderful he felt at that moment.

He didn’t really know what to do next. He moved in, and she warmly obliged him. The alicorn shifted her mane over and it draped him all over the side, pulling him forwards. Their front hooves found each other, and they locked close. He felt little tastes of her tongue going into her mouth, and he tried not to purr like a kitten at the wonderful new sensations.

He tried to taste around her mouth as well. She clearly loved it, and she tilted her head back and forth. His lips went on enveloping hers. Every additional second felt like a decade. The alicorn— somehow, someway— kept twisting about in a way that seemed to pull him closer and closer.

He could have thought something like ‘There’s not even an us, not anymore… she’s bonding me like we’re one in the same’. He didn’t think that, since he didn’t think anything at all. Nightmare Moon took him into the point that he almost had to stop himself— to keep breathing.

As their hooves knocked closer, their heads moved faster, and their eyes suddenly filled up with tears… something changed. A split-second shock went through them. He felt it like the whack of a baseball bat upside his head. Pain. Guilt. Shame. Hate.

The alicorn ripped herself off of him, and she stood back upright. Strawberry, eyes still closed, gasped at the now empty air. He took some frantic breaths as he opened his eyes.

“What? What?” he mouthed, “What’s wrong, your highness?” He didn’t sound angry or tense. He sincerely felt afraid for her. She saw little pains shooting through her body. Her face had this low red glow. It didn’t look like a blush. It looked… alien and mysterious.

“How can you think… How can you be so… so… impudent… so callous… So ignorant!” Moon called out. She tried to convey some kind of anger, but Strawberry only saw fear.

“Your highness,” he began, and he stepped up beside her. He cradled her right hoof for a moment. He didn’t feel any separation from her, not anymore. He touched her the same way as a mare and her colfriend or a husband and wife. “Whatever it is… Whatever you… Whatever it takes.” She glanced away from him demurely as he rubbed her hoof.

“It’s too late,” the alicorn shrieked. She waggled her head uncontrollably. As the moonlight shimmered across her bride-like dress, Strawberry thought that she shrank several inches shorter.

“Late…” he muttered.

“OF COURSE IT’S TOO LATE, YOU IMBICILE!” Moon let into him with her full voice— the full power and full horror of the nightmare. She spread out her wings and burned her eyes with that cold blue intensity. She calmed down a second afterward, and she saw that Strawberry felt genuine fear for the first time.

He still looked right at her. He still had those loyal, puppy dog eyes. Yet he had shifted several feel back, leaning down in the grass. Those eyes filled with tears once again— but for sadness, not joy.

“You, you, you, you, you,” the alicorn stammered, “You fool! To think that you could just forget everything that’s happened! Everypony that’s made me suffer! Everypony that’s suffered at my hoof!”

“I d-d-don’t… c-care…” he said. He gulped. I… I have to be careful. Love is blind, not stupid. “Of c-course, I care about my friends. My family. Everypony in Ponyville. I love them. They’ve loved me. They love me.”

“Love…” Moon repeated. She spat out the word like a timber wolf spitting out a carrot. She had also gone back to her familiar scowl.

“I love them as much as I… l-love y-you…” Strawberry muttered. He couldn’t keep down his fear. Her eyes had gone back to normal, but her wings remained pointed out like battering rams. The alicorn’s horn pointed straight at him as if she would skewer him at any moment.

“You… are very young. And… very naïve,” Moon said.

“And it’s… the eternal night. The overthrow of Celestia. Whatever fight, fights… you’ve had…” Strawberry tried to say something profound, but he ended up just babbling pointlessly.

“Fights… huh,” Moon replied. She then smiled, but not like the same smile he had seen moments before. She looked more like the cat that had just ate the canary. “More like a slaughter.” She laughed.

Strawberry knew that her laugh pretended to be maniacal. She had the power, but the edge had gone. He heard fear and anger evenly mixed up inside of her. The unicorn said, “L-look… your highness… I just think that we could w-work it all out… y-you and I…” His voice lowered to a whisper. “T-together?”

“Kindness, such kindness, how wonderful, how predictable,” the alicorn said— sarcasm dripping like syrup. She stepped a few feet away from him— towards the path back into Everfree and her new castle. She tilted her head coyly. “That reminds me of someone… Kindness… a certain yellow pegasus?”

“F-fluttershy?” Strawberry asked.

The alicorn leapt through the air thirty feet and landed right on his lap. “WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW WHAT I DID TO FLUTTERSHY?” Moon yelled to him. She didn’t flare up in true Nightmare Moon style, though. Strawberry trembled in fear, but he saw a very sad, very wounded looking horse rather than a vengeful one.

“I…” Strawberry said. How could… anypony respond to that? Fluttershy, oh… Fluttershy… her… Fluttershy… His eyes really teared up. “I d-don’t… y-your highness…”

“So!” Moon declared to nopony in particular. She jumped upwards, and then she beat her wings to keep her in the air. “It’s all set in stone, now.”

“Please…” Strawberry said.

“The eternal night shall go on. The ponies shall tremble in fear, and they shall suffer for the rest of time for the indignity that they put me through. I have chosen… We have chosen our path,” Moon called out.

The tears poured out. Strawberry’s mind felt completely blank. He simply sat back on the stump, guitar at his side, and he stared upwards.

“Farwell, Strawberry,” she said. She turned around and faced towards the castle. She drifted a few feet forward, and then she halted. She curled her head a bit back over her side in Strawberry’s direction. “We… we… uh… Thank you. It has been a most wonderful evening.”

“I...” Strawberry muttered. He got up on his hind hooves. Come on! Something! Do something! Say something! “I… I LOVE YOU!”

On the one hoof, the alicorn sped off into the horizon— leaving a mysterious grey trail behind her that Strawberry didn’t recognize. One on the other hoof, she had clearly and distinctly replied something back.

“I… love you too.”