>Cool wind greeted you as you crossed the boundary to the World Between, a realm of non-existence Nightmare Moon had somehow accessed.
>Once she had recovered what little power she had left, she shaped a small portion of the featureless white plane into an idyllic grassy hill, to better act as a home base.
 
>A large tree sat at the peak, offering a place to relax under and watch the eternal night sky.
>While artificial, she had shaped it to the best of her abilities to mimic the real one.
>Every star was in perfect position, every last little detail and color that decorated the original accounted for.
 
>Soft moonlight kept the place illuminated, a full moon fixed in the optimal position to shed its light across the land.
>A thick forest of trees surrounded the little glade, keeping it from getting too lonely and giving the wind something to gently whistle through.
 
>Of course, if you traveled far enough, you would hit the border of control Nightmare Moon could exert over the plane, revealing the endless expanses of white that surrounded the little globe of mock reality.
>Things could simply be willed in existence here, food, water, furniture, all it took was strength of mind.
 
>You could see her sitting next to the huge tree, her back turned to you as she longingly watched her stars like usual.
>It didn’t seem healthy, but it was all she could do whenever you left for an incursion on Equestrian soil.
 
>The fact that this was a plane that responded only to strong wills was all that kept her form together, surviving as nothing but a mass of magic tightly bound by willpower.
>To step foot in Equestria would see her scattered to the winds, her magic dissolving and releasing her back into the aether.
 
>You didn’t want to approach her, not after what happened and while holding on to all these emotions.
>But it was your sworn duty.
>For better or worse both of you were stuck in this speeding train until it either reached its destination or crashed.
 
>Making your way up the hill you could see her armored head turn ever so slightly toward you.
>Cresting the top, she violently stood up and glared at you with her cat-like eyes, wings flaring out.
 
>“What in Tartarus was that!?”
 
>The landscape changed itself accordingly, harsh winds buffeting you as her starry mane and tail billowed in their full majesty.
 
>“You're lucky things went they way they did, you bumbling failure of a champion!”
 
>Ah yes, your illustrious title of ‘Champion’, graciously bestowed upon you by virtue of being the only follower of Nightmare Moon.
>You simply grit your teeth and dug your staff into the ground.
 
>“Do you know what could have happened when you lost control like that!? All my plans could have been ruined!”
 
>Her horn glowed brightly with arcane power as she stamped a hoof into the grass.
>She cared little for what could have befallen the citizens living there.
>All that mattered was her plan.
>You gave your staff an angry squeeze.
 
>“I should send you hurtling into the far reaches of this world to wander endlessly!”
 
>Shouting, the past few days had been nothing but shouting.
>You just wanted a nice conversation again.
>Commands, orders, reprimands, would it kill her to use an inside voice or talk to you like a person for more than a sentence?
 
“And then who would gather power for you, ‘Queen’?”
 
>She always did hate the mocking tone you put into it, and you made sure to load it with extra venom.
 
“You said it yourself! ‘Our fates our tied’! Without me you would be nowhere, without you I would be nowhere!”
 
>You jabbed your finger audaciously at her breastplate, meeting her glare head on with one of your own.
>You had stopped being afraid of her a long while ago, once you realized just how invaluable to each other you were.
>Nightmare Moon could intimidate you no longer, there was no other choice but to be equals, and she didn’t like it one bit.
 
>She bared her fangs angrily, but backed down shortly thereafter.
>Turning away from you with a huff, she went back to stargazing as the winds died back down, the tension slowly beginning to ease.
 
>“Did you lose much power in the Discorb?”
 
“No, there was enough chaos generated to make up for the expenditure, even got a little bit extra out of it.”
 
>You had been gathering anarchic magic for a while now.
>Frequent raids on various towns allowed the Discorb to grow in both scope and power, theoretically enough to fulfill its part in your plans.
 
>As much as she hated to admit it, outside of Discord himself, you were the only being in Equestria with even the minutest potential to utilize such magic properly, more than likely owing to the chaotic nature of humanity itself.
>Which made you the linchpin for her whole scheme.
 
>Such power proved to be more of a bane than a boon most of the time.
>Either interpreting your will in extremely obscure or archaic ways, or taking such roundabout measures that it would put any Rube Goldberg machine ever dreamt of to shame.
 
>The only reason you even bothered putting it on a staff was for ease of carrying it, and out of a misguided sense that it would somehow improve the failure rate.
 
>Every once in a while it would actually function properly, more so after you stuck it on a stick, though you weren’t sure if it was just a placebo or not.
>It only really took the most trivial or crucial tasks seriously, everything in between was free game for it to mess around as much as it wanted.
 
>Leaving the bothersome staff sticking in the ground, you took a seat next to the simmering mare you had to call a leader, turning your gaze towards the stars as well.
 
>She really did put all her effort into making it as perfect as possible.
>You fondly remember coming back from raids, watching her floating there in the sky fiddling over micrometers with each star.
 
>You had a small smile as you remember making her slip up and roughly bump it when you snuck up on her.
>It was worth getting your ear yelled off just to see her face get so red in anger.
 
>You leaned back on the grass with your arms behind your head.
 
>Sure, you might hold the prodigious spot as Equestria’s most wanted, be universally reviled amongst the ponies for your traitorous actions, and get yelled at and ordered around 24/7 for just about everything.
 
>But at least you got to watch the night sky with a pretty mare.
 
>Maybe if things had gone differently, you might never have had to join forces with this lunar lunatic.
>But it was by the very fact that you had come to Equestria in the first place that set events into motion.
>All because of the effects you had on the world itself, just by existing where you shouldn’t.
 
>You had sacrificed everything, just so-
 
>“Anonymous.”
 
>You blinked a few times in confusion after being broken from your rumination.
 
>“Anonymous, I am addressing you.”
 
>The moonlight was cut off as her head loomed over you, still looking rather pissed.
>You shot her back a deadpan stare.
>You were trying to reminisce here!
 
>“Get up, we need to adjust our plans for escalated Equestrian response.”
 
>Groaning, you stood up, already missing the soft grass the moment your back left it.
>The last thing you wanted to do was discuss the consequences of your fuck up.
>Your earlier raids were, in scale, far smaller than the Manehatten debacle.
 
>They all started out the same.
>Nightmare Moon tears a rift between your little plane and Equestria, and then you cross over and start causing trouble with the Discorb.
>Swift, unpredictable strikes.
>They didn’t have enough guards to secure everywhere, and there wasn’t much effort put into it due to nothing being stolen or anypony getting hurt.
>A little recon in the night made choosing targets easy.
 
>You staunchly refused to raise the staff against the ponies themselves.
>The Discorb was incredibly unpredictable, so when there was even the slightest chance of harming anyone you backed off.
 
>You harbored no grudge against Equestria or her people, but you needed the energy created from all the chaos.
>It fed on this released energy, expending its reserves and reabsorbing what was left, along with whatever you squeezed out of the town with your targeted merry making, hopefully coming up with a net increase.
 
>Buildings were your primary targets, turning them inside out, upside down, sideways, slantways, bigger, smaller.
>Sometimes you went with soaping entire roads, painting clouds, or checker boarding the ground with gaudy colors, those were more than enough to get whatever residents running around in panic.
>Throw in some spooky words, threats, and purposeful near misses and you got a riot.
 
>But they key point between all of your actions was the fact they were REVERSIBLE, with either time or magic.
 
>Manehatten was a horribly different case.
 
>Once you loosed the energy, you had no control over it.
>You gave it a general idea of what you wanted as it charged up, and then you hoped for the best.
 
>But you had tried to do something a little too widespread, something far too ambitious for your mediocre skills.
>The resulting torrent of energy completely overwhelmed you, and only after it had spent most of it could you finally wrest back control.
 
>The level of power had rendered the change citywide and permanent.
>You couldn’t explain how you knew.
>There was just a feeling for the results that you had gained after utilizing its power so much.
 
>While it took a little more than you could give, you had barely saved the residents from suffering the same fate as their city.
 
>Now it was doomed to simply melt into a sticky mass underneath the sun they loved so much.
>All those decades of progress spent building up that city, all those livelihoods ponies worked so hard for, wiped out within half an hour’s time.
 
>And in that short span of time, you had jumped from a troublemaker to a terrorist.