Moondancer was no stranger to the night. While other foals threw tantrums about going to bed or needed night lights to fight their fear of the dark, Moondancer happily embraced the blanket of pitch black in her room. Sleeping had become a bit of a sport to her, a fun activity that she strove to get better at with time. Lucid dreaming was not as easy as she first thought it to be, and would leave her more tired after waking up if she didn’t pace herself properly.

As she settled into bed, she popped some earplugs in her ears and siddled under her perfectly weighted custom blanket. She made note of the bushel of lavender on her bedside table, the now empty cup of chamomile tea from her sister, and the beauty of the full moon peering through her window.

Tonight is the perfect night for the perfect sleep, she thought proudly, having been keeping track of the moon to see if it at all aided in her abilities. So far the answer seemed to be yes; the more full it was, the easier it was to lucid dream. I get to see Twilight again…!

Happy with her efforts, she let the easing waves of sleep wash over her. The warmth of her comforter and cold of her pillow lulled her farther away from physical reality into that familiar waning hallway of the dream world. The disconnect between body and mind became thinner and thinner, until an anticlimactic snip cut her free. The heaviness of her flesh no longer surrounded her, and her mind was floating upwards into a mirage of stars.

Then she woke up.

Moondancer blinked her eyes and sat up in her bed, confused. Huh? I did everything right… what happened?

It was too soon to wake up, and she made extra extra sure to minimize disturbances tonight. She scanned her room for anything out of the ordinary, but no luck. The cup of tea remained empty, the lavender huddled in its vase, and she easily pulled the plugs out of her ears. But when she looked out the window… no moon.

Panic flickered through her but she quickly smothered it. Panicking was the last thing she wanted to do before getting back to sleep. Maybe Princess Celestia moved it. She does that sometimes, she considered and begrudgingly slid out of bed to look out the window. She reached up, pushing it open–

“Foal of the night.” A deep voice reverberated through her head.

…Who said that?

Without warning, Moondancer was being pulled through the window by an unseen force with immense power. She shrieked and clung on to the windowsill for dear life with her front hooves, her body dangling out the window and being sucked upwards towards the sky. In her futility, she attempted using magic to deflect the force, but her horn didn’t even glow.

Spurred on by her defiance, the tug on her intensified, sending her careening into the sky with a bloodcurdling scream. A spiral of stars and darkness whirled around her as she thrashed helplessly in her upside down freefall. She squeezed her eyes shut, sickened at the sight, sickened that she might not survive this, sickened that she may have gone too far–

At some point, she stopped falling, her tail caught by something. But she kept yowling and wriggling all the same, hoping that her writhing might disrupt her enough to wake her up. It’s a dream, it has to be a dream! I have to wake up, I have to–

“Cease your struggling, little one. Thy fruitlessness bores me.”

Moondancer shivered, its deep voice and icy breath chilling her bones. She whipped her head around frantically, surrounded by darkness and glimmers of light that were too close and too far at the same time. Am I upside down? Right side up? Who–

A hoof touched her chin and forced face to gaze upon a pair of empty eyes in a horse’s skull. And thus, Moondancer finally stopped moving as requested. She slowly craned her neck upward and was met face to face with an equine shaped darkness trapped in a skeletal cage. Its bat-like wings spanned all around them, like a piece of the sky had come down to catch her. Or maybe to eat her. Probably to eat her.

It’s just a dream. It feels real, but it’s just a dream…!

“G-Go away! I-I don’t know what you are, or if this is someone else’s nightmare that I walked into, b-but it stops now!” Moondancer managed to yell, finding some confidence in the conviction of her voice. Unlike the real world, she was the one with the power here. She could dream it away. And if she couldn’t, it’s not like any of this affected the real world–

“Moondancer. Do not pretend as though you are unaware of who I am.”

The being caressed her cheek threateningly and its eyes looked over her hungrily. Suddenly she realized just how small she was, that this creature’s hoof was the size of her head.

“After you so naively frolicked through my realm night after night, did you truly believe I would not notice…?” A cold cackle and sent a puff of mist into her face. “I am impressed by your powers, filly. However…they could be stronger. You could be… like me.”

Moondancer didn’t know what to say. Your realm…? Now that she thought about it, this was an alicorn, wasn’t it? And upon further inspection, it bore the crest of the moon caved into its chest… and suddenly, it all made sense.

“Nightmare Moon…” Moondancer whispered breathlessly.

This isn’t a dream, is it?

The being laughed boisterously, her body twisting contorting from the merriment and her teeth sharpening all the more. She dropped the foal in the process, and Moondancer prepared to be sent into another freefall, but landed roughly in an windy field of tall grass. The stalks of grass whipped around wildly like tendrils reaching up towards the towering silhouette of their malevolent master.

“Yes, little filly! Nightmare Moon! A piece of history turned into nothing but an old mare’s tale…” she purred, but her voice trailed into rage at the end. “Your precious Princess Celestia has a habit of erasing bits of the past that would lead others to be… cautious of her. Things that may make people question her intentions and authority.”

Moondancer can only stare up at the dark alicorn with wide eyes. I don’t understand… I don’t even know what’s going on…! “W-What do you want from me? If you don’t want me to go into other ponies’ dreams anymore, then I won’t–!”

“Do not be silly. Your ability to dream walk is a gift. You are the most adept I have seen in a millenia, and at such a young age, too. What you can do now would take even a powerful unicorn years to master,” Nightmare Moon assured, though her stalking forward was anything but comforting. “It makes you very special. I have been watching the world from far away for many moons, and I assure you… that you have more potential than anypony else in this world.”

Moondancer’s ears perked up at that, and she looked upon Nightmare Moon with curiosity. “Really…?” Special enough for Twilight…?

The monster crept closer yet, kneeling down to Moondancer’s level as she spoke. “Why, of course. I will teach you ancient knowledge that has been lost to time, tell you the secrets of magic and its origins, and even enlighten you with the history of Equestria if you so choose…” She leaned in and spoke quieter, almost desperately. “You are the only one who I can trust this with, filly…”

It was tempting. To know things that no one else knew, to actually mean something to somepony. Right now she was just another face in a crowd of other “gifted foals”, and she was already exceeding their expectations by skipping grades. Yet she had no friends to show for it, even scorned by her peers for “trying too hard.” The only one who somewhat cared was Twilight… if somehow she could make her pay even more attention to her, then…

“But what if you’re lying? Nightmare Moon is evil! If you’re really really her, then I shouldn’t listen to anything you say…!” Moondancer retorted, but really, she was reminding herself of her true nature. “Nopony can know all of that, even if they read all the books in the world!”

“I do not need books to tell me what I already know, filly. In fact, I may know better than they,” Nightmare Moon scoffed, and the grass around them receded into a flurry of clouds. Moondancer gasped and braced herself as they descended towards the earth, but they remained stationary while the world flew past them. They were hurtling to Canterlot castle, a mere speck in the distance that grew alarmingly fast. No, they were going to a different castle, an abandoned one…

“I was there, after all. In the beginning… with Princess Celestia.”

The decrepit castle suddenly burst forth with life, now refurbished and shining anew. Around them began a series of scenes depicting Princess Celestia and a younger blue alicorn. They played together, got into mischief, and grew up quickly in a series of slideshows until they finally reached royalty. It was hard on them, but it was clearly harder on the younger alicorn, and Princess Celestia often ignored her pleas, always had her back to her, always looking the other way. And the younger alicorn became more distant, angrier… until finally, at last, a fight broke out, and she transformed…

“You’re… the Princess’s…?” Moondancer couldn’t finish her question. She already knew the answer from a glance to Nightmare Moon’s face. She was unmoving and silent, her eyes clouded with mist and a quiet thunderstorm of emotions. And then they looked at her. Nightmare Moon, Princess of Equestria, looked at her. And she saw her.

“Do you know how it feels… to try your best to do good, only for it to mean nothing at all?” The scenes around them transform into Moondancer’s memory instead. A filly in a busy and bustling classroom full of ponies chatting, helping each other with homework, getting into trouble… and Moondancer sitting at her desk talking at Twilight, but not to her. Even when surrounded by others–and by her one friend–she was utterly alone…

“And when you finally break under the pressure… you are made to be the enemy.”

It all faded to darkness, leaving Nightmare Moon as the only light in the sea of black. Moondancer stood there shaking, speechless, and ultimately… afraid. She could ignore it all, pretend like she didn’t see any of this, and go back to her normal life where she lived through others’ dreams and did better than everyone else for no reward, but… how long could it last? How long could she last?

“If you become my protege, I will assure that you will not break,” Nightmare Moon growled, and reached her hoof out to Moondancer. She flinched at the gesture, only to realize she was wiping away tears she didn’t know she was crying. “And with your help, I shall be able to return to this world… and we will be the ones breaking everypony else.”

Moondancer sniffled and wiped her face. Underneath the fear she felt, an untapped bubbling pit swelled to the surface. Something that lurked in the back of her mind whenever she was picked last or cut off mid sentence. Something that begged to be set free every time she was forced to dumb down things she said or avoided by other ponies in such a natural fashion as though there were some secret unspoken rule to ignore ponies like her. She was too different. She was an outcast among outcasts who were too good for normal school.

How could anypony else understand her when they didn’t even try? Nopony had tried, no pony except for…

“I’ll do it.” Moondancer’s teary eyed face turned into one of resolve. She stared Nightmare Moon directly in the eyes with interest and attentiveness rather than apprehension. “Just tell me what to do.”

Nightmare Moon was silent for a moment… and then began to laugh. A chorus of laughter erupted around them, demonic in nature yet so carefree. The darkness around them cracked from the force of all the voices, and Moondancer scrambled to keep her footing. “H-Hey–!”

“It seems our time is up for now. I will see you tomorrow night, Moondancer… my faithful student.” The princess took off into the sky, her eerie voice fading into the distance with her.

Before Moondancer could reply, the world split, beams of light bursting through the cracks until the sky and the earth shattered into pieces with a blaring roar. Her body, her mind, everything ceased to exist and fell away into a blinding light–!

Moondancer gasped and sat up, a cold sweat overtaking her body and her breath ragged. She gripped the blanket tightly to her chest, and quickly surveyed the room for any abnormalities. She squinted at how bright it was, only to realize a sunbeam piercing through the window had been shining directly on her face. With a huff, she shakily hopped out of bed and pulled the curtains shut.

It seemed she had woken up for real this time. And there was no going back.

–
i think we all think its a bit silly that nightmaremoon suddenly shows up every 1000 years or whatever Twilight’s book in the first episode says. it is much more plausible for her to have some help, perhaps from a student of her own…

for many years, Nightmare Moon and Moondancer actually found a bit of solace in being loners of the night. All NMM knew about Equestria was a distorted version from the nightmares and dreams from the ponies below. Moondancer happily told her about how much things had changed compared to the ancient barbaric hellscape that NMM described. “The Age of Beasts” she called it, an era of strife for everypony. and the more she told Moondancer about the truth of Equestria, the more Moondancer came to scorn those around her, Princess Celestia in particular. but she knew better than to mess everything up for NMM. her return needed to be perfect, even if it took years.

and it did take years. and as we can see… it didn’t go as planned for either of them, for better or for worse.

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Art (c) @stimpower