Twilight Sparkle felt as though she was standing on the edge of a tall cliff, overlooking shallow waters and jagged rocks. The ground crumbling away beneath her hooves. The wind picking up, fiercely pressing forward. It felt as though she were being pushed, slowly but surely towards the edge, where she would fall to a terrible end, and nobody was listening.
One thousand years ago, the younger sister of Princess Celestia, Luna, tasked and charged with the rising and the setting of the moon, had gone mad with jealousy and bitterness. The moon was beautiful, but not loved in the way that the life-giving sun was. The moon did not cast enough light to see and work by, and so ponies would work during the day and sleep at night. Resentment built up in Princess Luna's heart and boiled over, until all that was left was Nightmare Moon, the terrible specter of tyranny that had declared that from then on, if ponies would not willingly frolic and labor under the moonlight then they would do so by force. That from then on, there would be no sunlight, and that Equestria would enjoy Night Eternal!
In response, Princess Celestia had had no choice but to banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years, and afterward take on the duty of moving the moon itself as well as the sun.
Nightmare moon was banished for a thousand years, one thousand years ago. The period of banishment was almost over, with the remaining time best measured in hours, and nobody cared. Princess Celestia herself had just shrugged it off, focusing instead on sending Twilight away to make friends. As though that were the important thing to focus on in this situation!
At this point... At this point, Twilight couldn't be sure that she wasn't taking the situation too seriously, when even Princess Celestia, who should know best on the matter, was paying it no mind. Just what was she supposed to do, then?
... Was the tragedy of Princess Luna, who became Nightmare Moon, only to be sealed away for a thousand years just... a story written in books? No, there was no question about the fact that Princess Luna had once existed. Just...
Why would Princess Celestia not be concerned about this, unless there was no threat?
Twilight felt like she might have made a mistake and poked into something that should have been left buried, as she woke up early and made her way to assemble with the rest of town for the Summer Sun Celebration.
One thousand years was a long time. Long enough for... evidence to disappear. People to forget. If, instead of sealing Nightmare Moon away, Princess Celestia had...
It made sense, if she wasn't going to acknowledge the thousand years as being up. The most logical reason that Princess Celestia wasn't concerned about the possibility of Nightmare Moon returning was if she knew for a fact that she would not be returning. Or... if there was no longer a Nightmare Moon to return.
If that was true, then Princess Celestia had lied. Either about banishing her sister for a thousand years, or... Or about banishing her at all. It wasn't a thought that Twilight liked to have, but looking back rationally at the situation... Nightmare Moon may not have given Princess Celestia much of a choice. And if it had come down to... an outcome like that? If it had... Well. It might have been better to calm everyone down by claiming that her deranged sister had been imprisoned somewhere that nobody could naturally go to in order to check. To make sure that there was no shroud of sibling-slaying to loom over things as Princess Celestia's rule continued... alone.
The very thought gave Twilight unsettled goosebumps. It wasn't something she wanted to think about or believe, but... removed from the situation, from her understanding of Princess Celestia as a person, it was... all too plausible. It explained why she would send Twilight away from her court, too, if that was the case. An important mission of going off to make some friends in a small town far away, where nobody was likely to hear much of Twilight's worries about something that she had said a thousand years ago.
A thousand years was a long time, after all.
If so... If so...
The anxious tension wasn't leaving her. Both possibilities were bad, whether Nightmare Moon was about to show up or not.
If Nightmare Moon returned then, well, Twilight had already dwelled on what that would mean. A lunatic pony with power of a similar level to Celestia, back for the second round and ready to cover the world with eternal night-time again.
If Nightmare Moon didn't return... that was going to be its own problem, given the implications. Just what was Twilight supposed to do then?
... There wasn't much to do, was there? Just... keep her mouth shut about what could be inferred from that. Play dumb and confused. After a couple of days, let it get out that she must have been mistaken about the translation, or the old writings had been scribed wrong, and then let the matter drop. The Princess' secrets weren't hers to spread about, after all. It might feel... unpleasant, to take part in covering up the details, but it wasn't like it was going to change anything.
When the event had happened a thousand years ago? The only person who had any sort of interest in the situation was the Princess herself. Even the 'Nightmare Moon Cultists' that cropped up now and again didn't really have anything to do with the long-ago Princess. They were just misfits and antisocial cast-offs that latched onto the icon as something to justify their behavior. Even if Princess Luna just came down from the moon somehow rehabilitated by a thousand years of complete social isolation, they would just move on to find some other icon to prop up as something to point at when questioned on their tendencies.
There wasn't anyone who would be helped by spreading the news around. Frankly, it could only hurt things. The best thing to do, in that case, was just pretend that she hadn't seen anything in the old tomes and continue living her life as normal.
It bothered her, but... logically, that was just how it was.
...
Still! Either way, there was nothing to do now. Twilight had tried and she hadn't managed anything. Now, either the thing would happen or it would not, and either way she would have to work out what to do from there. For the moment, she supposed there was nothing else to do but enjoy the holiday alongside all these other fine, mostly hung-over, ponies and...
Her gaze stopped on one stallion.
He looked like a newcomer. A traveler. Somehow, even though Twilight hadn't been here in Ponyville long, she could pick him out as not being a local. She wasn't sure how, but...
His grey coat and pitch-black mane caught the eye, dark like polished stone countertops, ancient tables weathered through centuries of young students scattering books and spilling ink across its surface, darkening its hue bit by bit and one blot at a time. Somehow, it hooked her attention for a moment. But only for that moment.
"We did it." a voice spoke softly in her ear, prompting her to jump and turn to...
To nothing. Nobody was there. Not close enough to be speaking in her ear like that, at least, to be heard with such a soft voice. So she was... imagining things?
"Destiny has been defied. Broken." the murmur came again, as Twilight shivered and glanced around to try to find out who was spooking her. There was nothing, though. "For the better... one hopes, for the better. But it would be hard for things to turn out worse than they did at the end. Almost anything would be better than that."
"What's-" Twilight began to snap, before lowering her voice as curious gazes turned her way from the other ponies. "... What's going on? Who are you?"
"You don't recognize my voice? ... No, I suppose not. It doesn't matter." the spectral murmur came. "I'm nobody, you see. Not any more. What I was before... what might have been... there is no point dwelling on it. I am... nothing more than an echo of a reflection of a future person. Perhaps you will be able to see me in the future, as well. Perhaps I will simply fade away into nothingness. The last wisp of a forgotten memory, gone with the morning dew. That would be fine. For the best, perhaps. When an ending chapter is cut out of a story book, to be rewritten, the old should be promptly disposed of. I cannot complain about that."
Twilight wasn't sure what to make of the wistfully morose tone, this mare's quiet and calm acceptance of her potential nonexistence. It was... unsettling, somehow. Distressing, in a way that she couldn't quite put her hoof on.
And then a thought struck her and she went still as her mind whirled. It was a thought prompted by what she had been dwelling on before, the question of what had happened one thousand years ago, and what was going to happen today.
"Are..." Twilight said, mouth a little dry from uncertainty. "Are you... Nightmare Moon?"
The voice seemed bewildered for a long few moments, before breaking into a wry, near silent series of chuckles.
"No. No, I am not Princess Luna." the voice eventually responded, dryly. "Though I suppose that I understand why she is on your mind. Focus. Don't let yourself be distracted by wondering about me. There are more important things that are about to happen."
Twilight didn't have long to think about those words before a murmuring arose around her. Not about how she was talking to herself, but rather... the sun. It had yet to rise, and Princess Celestia and her retinue were nowhere to be seen.
And then there was a crash, as a terrifying and powerful-looking pony slammed down into the podium that had been prepared for Princess Celestia. There were stars in her flowing mane, and she seemed to radiate tightly controlled madness, wound up to the point where just about anything could prompt a snap.
There was a building sense of panic in the sleepy, hung-over, and confused citizens of Ponyville, nopony quite knowing what they were supposed to do at the sudden intrusion of a mythical figure from a thousand years ago, come like a conquering queen. Someone had to step up to do something...
And then, someone did.
If only it had been something that Twilight could more easily comprehend.
"Well, I for one welcome our new Overlady of the night sky, queen of the moon and stars and all their light falls upon." the out of place Pony declared, voice mellow and unrushed, confident in his statement while everyone else was uncertain and clearly looking to de-escalate the situation.
"Oho. So he's taking that option, is he?" the voice mused in Twilight's ear.
But she didn't understand. A declaration like that, wasn't it throwing over their princess without so much as a moment of hesitation, abandoning her the second a different claimant made her bid for the throne? Who could do that, when Princess Celestia was such an incredible mare!? Was he a... some kind of plant, waiting to smooth over the transition? One of those lunatic cultists, but with a better grip on their sanity and social cues? Twilight didn't know what to say.
And then he spoke again.
"Just, ah... just one thing comes to mind that I should ask. Since it comes to my mind right away and I don't have an immediate answer for it, but surely you do, my lady of moon-beams and comforting darkness." he said. "Just a small thing... a trifle really. I'm certain that it's something you thought of and found an answer for long ago, of course."
"Ohoho, indeed. Speak, good stallion, and We shall grace you with Our response." Nightmare Moon said, clearly still flattered and pleased by the efforts at that flattery.
"Well, it's just... what is the plan for handling the imminent starvation crisis among your loyal subjects?" the stallion asked, calmly and just shy of pointedly. "What with there being no sun, after all, and thus soon no crops that need the sun to grow."
... Nightmare Moon stood motionless on the stage, eyes focused in the distance and not fixed on anything in particular as she barely seemed to breathe.