"What does it look like, the shape in the glass?"
"Ocellus," King Thorax asks politely, "When you see Pharynx, tell him... tell him this is the most noble thing he has ever done. Tell him I am proud of him. And that I miss him already." The King pauses, wiping a tear from his eye. "Tell my brother that I already miss him. And that the hive will work day and night, along with Princess Sparkle, to find a way to get him home."
Ocellus nods numbly. Her world is chaos. Her thoughts are debris swirling in a hurricane.
From behind her, she hears a hurt voice. "Please tell Yona that Prince Rutherford not say: changeling problem, changeling must fix."
To her side, Gallus groans.
"You know Grandpa Gruff did," the griffon says bitterly as her friends build an idea of what went down in Princess Twilight's own throne room in Canterlot. Or wherever she talked to them. Knowing their former Headmare, the meeting may have happened by magic. But clearly Thorax and Pharynx made the trip. Or were teleported.
Ocellus numbly decides on teleported. Talking to their nation's leaders explains the delay, but there is no way her King and his brother could have flown from the hive to the Everfree Forest so quickly. The conclusion feels right to her because this rescue feels rushed. Like some creature panicked.
"No way!" Smolder fumes next to her. "Diplomatic my scales. I thought we were all past this!"
"H-Hey now," King Thorax interrupts. "We could only send one through. It made sense for it to be a changeling."
Someone who could pretend to be love-starved, Ocellus thinks. Like she did.
"Pharynx volunteered to do this. He protects the hive. All of us." Thorax looks pointedly at Ocellus before turning to Gallus. "And yes, he's angry that another evil queen has abducted a member of our hive and her friends, but I think wrath is going a bit far..."
Pharynx was already angry before he even got here?
Next to Ocellus, Gallus seems to have the same thought. "Oh, we are so screwed."
"Thorax, if I may?" the voice of Twilight Sparkle asks. Thorax turns to the blackness and nods, stepping away and vanishing into the dark.
Princess Twilight emerges, her features etched with concern. "Gallus, what did you mean? What problem?"
DOOM!
Something slams into the Throne Room from above. The ceiling becomes a mosaic of cracks. Ribbing snaps. Dust rains down from the fissures. The impact reverberates through the floor. Ocellus can feel it in her chitin.
Every creature stares upwards. Gallus raises a talon. "Make that two problems."
Gallus grabs a moonsilver needle from the pile, holding it like a weapon. Then immediately thinks better of it, tossing the needle to the far side of the room.
"Yona not like this!"
"The ceiling is warded too, right?" Smolder asks. "Nothing can get in here?"
DOOM!
Something deep inside Ocellus insists on turning the sound into that word.
The ceiling bows inward from the impact, chunks of stone raining down. Silvery white arcane symbols and ethereal lines flash across the ceiling, then dissolve like dissipating moonlight.
With a shout, Gallus shoots across the room, lion's strength and eagle's might meeting the almost immovable object, shoving Yona back as a segment of arched ribbing twice his size crashes down behind him.
More flashes erupt down the pillars and across the floor as overstrained wards flare into visibility, then burst. An eldritch cascade failure.
Smolder jumps into the air, backing up. She absently throws the strap of Gallus' saddlepack over her shoulder, freeing up her claws. Then swoops down to grab Ocellus.
With the third thunderous impact, the ceiling comes crashing down.
DOOM!
A bulbous black mass broils into the room on tall, spindly legs. It is an amorphous form of writhing, greasy black -- liquid chitin and the melted, ever-shifting forms of scores of changelings. The room fills with a horrid gurgling, sloughing sound. Like the entire population of the school suffering crippling indigestion.
And with the sound comes a foulness. Ocellus chokes, the acrid stench reminding her of a pyre of rotting pumpkins set ablaze a week after Nightmare Night.
One of its spindly, needle-like legs pierces Nightmare Moon's throne, cleaving it in two.
"What in Tartarus is that?!?" Smolder screams.
An obscenity. Ocellus has no other answer. She has never seen a horror like it.
But it has seen me.
Ocellus' terror-fractured thoughts tumble back to the dream.
The mirror in front of her is the last to go, standing stalwart against the apocalypse eating the world. Resolutely showing her absolute lack of reflection. Nothing but a void.
And just for a moment, she feels something staring back at her from deep within it...
...like something horrible waiting to be born.
A dire prophecy births itself in her head. Ocellus doesn't know where her understanding comes from, but she knows with certainty: If I taste it, I will die.
Queen Elytra's laughter mixes with the cacophony of screams and destruction. She lifts, rising from the top of the monstrosity.
"You asked for nightmares!" she proclaims, sitting atop the obscenity's back. "So I give you yours!"
Tentacles of oily smoke slither from the creature's bulk, lashing out, tearing apart the columns of the Throne Room.
Ocellus stares, rooted in place.
Like the tentacles that came out of the mirror.
A tentacle raises up, and Ocellus sees hundreds of changeling fangs swarming through It, melding together at Its tip to form a giant talon.
Ocellus screams as the Nightmare brings the talon down through the Grand Mirror, shattering it! Twilight's horrified face fractures into a hundred shards, then vanishes, the black fading to shadowy reflections of the Nightmare itself as the shards rain onto the floor.
Ocellus hears the great window being smashed. The reek of the monster is torn away. Smolder struggles to fly as a sucking wind pours through the ruins of the Throne Room, escaping. Ocellus turns in Smolder's grip, trying to see Yona and Gallus. But the mass of the collapsed roof and the bulk of the Nightmare itself fills the space between them.
"Gallus! Yona!"
As if in response, the horror opens its mouth. Rows of changeling drone heads bubble up where Its teeth should be. More hang down in the back of Its throat. They open their writhing mouths and cry out, hissing her name!
"Ocellussssssss!"
"Ocellusssssssssss!"
"Ocellussssssssssssss!"
The nymph briefly forgets how to breathe.
Love-starved drones pour into the room from above. Among them, Ocellus sees multiple Nightmare Moons.
Ocellus' muzzle opens, but her words are torn away as the monster lets out a primeval roar. All other sound is devoured by the flensing vortex of audio turbulence. All coherent thought is obliterated, leaving only primal flight screaming from her soul.
RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! FLEE! FLEE!! FLEE!!!
They flee.
Ocellus doesn't remember much beyond her heart hammering in her chest so fast it hurt. The ringing in her ears. And the all-consuming panic. Raw, primordial terror.
It is a miracle that Smolder didn't drop her. Instead, the young dragon had clutched onto the nymph with enough strength to nearly cut off her air and flew!
Mindlessly, aimlessly flew! All that mattered in life was getting away, and she put every ounce of herself into it, ignoring the bundle of panicked writhing she was clutching to her breast.
The rooms and corridors they fled through are a meaningless blur. Ocellus vaguely remembers at one point flying with the drone swarm. The Nightmare's scream may have been meant to corral them into the waiting multitude of Queen Elytra's hive. But if so, the queen hadn't counted on the shriek of the Nightmare affecting every creature, including her loyal subjects.
They flew, and the Nightmare chased them! Ocellus remembers looking back once as they shot down some nameless corridor, seeing the monstrosity pour around a corner into the hallway, slouching towards them, thrusting Its spindly legs ahead of it and into the walls. The Nightmare moved like a giant spider in a mudslide -- except not mud but of bluish-black smoke and liquified, black-carapace bodies.
Ocellus' heart is still hammering, her breathing ragged. She feels painful bruises in the shape of Smolder's arms beneath her chitin. The gothic couch that Smolder dumped her onto is spinning. Or is that the whole moon?
The internal screaming to run away has fallen silent. In its passing, the trepidatious fragments of thoughts crawl out of their hiding places, cautiously testing, timidly moving towards each other, forming coherence.
The couch reluctantly slows. The ringing in her ears has faded to a simple deafness that itself is bleeding away.
Teenk. Tunk.
Ocellus lifts her head off the couch, taking in the room around her. The drawing room is familiar. The cloudy-white wallpaper, peeling and oddly-stained. Ornate lamps of polished adventurine and moonsilver, tipped with figurines of Nightmare Moon. And, of course, the grandmare clock.
Teenk. Tunk.
Ocellus looks over the back of the couch. An open archway, the two stained-glass doors resting crumpled and broken on the floor of the next room. Recognition floods through her.
"Let's get out of this room before that clock drives me crazy." Gallus sets down the lantern and grabs the double doors by both handles.
Ocellus' eyes widen as the light from the lantern shines through the stained glass. She can see the shattered remains of two more stained glass doors laying in the next room. "Gallus...!"
Smolder flumps into a chair opposite her, breathing in great gasps. The dragon looks alarmingly exhausted. But there is fire in her eyes.
"What the hell, Ocellus!?" Smolder wheezes.
Ocellus' mind quickly fills with all the things Smolder could be upset at her about. The list is absolutely dominated by her no-longer-secret quest to strand herself on the moon.
Was there something you forgot to tell us about!?!
Teenk. Tunk.
The orange dragon gives a flick of her tail in an expression that is somewhere between resentment and exasperation. "That's what your nightmares look like?" Smolder huffs a puff of flame. "What happened to tests for classes you forgot to attend?"
Teenk. Tunk.
Ocellus blinks, taken off-guard. "I-I still have those t-too." The nymph protests, "I only had that one once!" Somewhat reluctantly, she adds, "Last night."
Teenk. Tunk.
Smolder stares at her. "I figured your nightmares were probably related to your identity problem, but that... that shifting... thing... with all the bodies... That's deeply messed up!"
The dragon sits up in the chair, spreading her arms. "Forget not talking to us about it! You needed to be talking to Luna!" Smolder asserts fiercely.
Teenk. Tunk.
Ocellus stares back like a caught animal, her ears back.
"Th-that... Ocellus... That is not an okay thing for someone I care about to be dreaming!"
Teenk. Tunk.
Smolder clenches her muzzle shut, covering it with her claws as the Nightmare sends a howl echoing through Envy's wing.
Ocellus sees the dragon's wings pull tight against herself, the girl's body going rigid. The nymph feels icicles form throughout her own bloodstream.
Neither move.
Teenk. Tunk. Teenk. Tunk. Teenk. Tunk.
Ocellus tries to take the smallest, quietest breaths possible.
They wait, ears straining for any sound of the Nightmare coming closer. The silence is as taut as a bowstring.
Tunk. Teenk. Tunk. Teenk. Tunk. Teenk.
Finally, Ocellus dares the softest whisper. "We need to move before it corners us. You flew hard; do you want me to carry you?"
Smolder shakes her head.
"Crawl. Keep low," Ocellus suggests, slipping off the couch and pressing herself against the carpeting. She watches Smolder follow suit.
The two friends crawl to the archway, then take to the air just long enough to fly over the broken stained-glass of the shattered doors.
They move carefully, pressed to the floor, keeping behind sofas and under tables. Ocellus considers the ducts above, but she remembers the overgrowth of vines. She does not want either her or Smolder getting ensnared and trapped.
Room. Hallway. Room.
They can hear the Nightmare moving about the wing, searching for them. Searching for her.
Ocellus sees lime light flowing around the corner. They are almost to where she found Gallus.
The lovebug stops as she recalls the One True Broom. She feels a strong urge to cuss, and instead reflects on her hives' evident lack of vulgar argot.
We don't even have our own swears! No wonder Gallus thought of us as harmless.
"What?" Smolder asks in a hush tone, dismayed by Ocellus' expression.
"If I had a broom handle, we could put up the void wall. That should trap the Nightmare in this wing..." She pauses. For how long? After what it did to Nightmare Moon's Throne Room, Ocellus doubts It won't just rip Its way out through a wall. "...long enough to get a good lead. Maybe even lose it."
"And you need a broom for that?" Smolder questions with just a touch of snark.
Ocellus debates how to explain the moon button puzzles, but a not-so-distant sloughing sound tells her they don't have the time. She condenses it to, "I can't reach the button."
Smolder's eyes shift left. Then she twists and digs into Gallus' saddlepack. She draws out his toy crossbow. "Will this do?"
Ocellus feels herself smiling.
Her smile dies as the sloshing sound of the Nightmare grows louder. She hears Queen Elytra's voice coming from the room at the near end of the hall, taunting her.
"You cannot escape your own Nightmare, Ocellus." Her voice is raised, but the queen isn't laughing. She isn't cackling like Queen Chrysalis would. Instead, she sounds like she's having a pleasant conversation. "No matter where you run, no matter what form you hide in, It will find you."
Electric shivers pulse through Ocellus. She spreads her elytra, discarding stealth for speed. Her wings hum softly as she lifts from the carpet, flying around the corner and into the razor-maze of the resin-bomb hallway.
Ocellus lands immediately, folding her wings protectively into her elytra, unwilling to fly through that.
The shifting, sliding sound of liquid bodies grows louder and louder. The Nightmare spills into the hallway behind them, thrashing out with Its legs. From Its back, Queen Elytra almost purrs.
"It knows how you taste!"
The implication of Queen Elytra's words strikes Ocellus hard. The nymph grabs her dragon, the turquoise energy of her collision barrier forming in front of her.
Ocellus comets down the corridor, smashing through the jungle of razor-sharp resin.
Her aim is slightly off. The speeding nymph tears a chunk from the doorway at the end of the hall, shooting into a bedroom. She demolishes a gothic four-poster bed then slams into a wall, gouging a path along it before skipping off and slamming into the adjacent wall. Hard. She drops to the floor, dazed, Smolder rolling from her grasp.
Ocellus wobbles, standing up shakily. Her first glance is to Smolder, seeing the dragon unharmed and staring at her. Probably wondering what exactly she just did. Like Gallus had. Ocellus had never, ever intended to use that ability again. Now she has done it thrice in one night.
"Ocellusssssssss!!"
"Ocellussssssssssss!!"
The nymph looks back across the wreckage of her flight. The Nightmare barrels down the hall after them, Its amorphous form oozing around the remaining stalactites and stalagmites of resin, slowed by them but unhurt.
"This way!" she cries to Smolder. "We're almost there!"
Ocellus spreads her wings, flying out a familiar door and into an even more familiar hallway. Through a familiar arch and to the pedestal hiding the moon-button. "Smolder!"
She turns to see Smolder pulling up to hover above her, holding the toy crossbow. Behind them, the Nightmare is writhing out of the bedroom.
Ocellus points. "There."
Smolder shoots. The sponge bolt misses the hole, hitting the column's capital and bouncing with a cute squeak.
The sound of the Nightmare fills the hallway.
Ocellus grabs for it, snatching the bouncing bolt and tossing it back to Smolder. She looks back, and her eyes widen.
The Nightmare halfway to them. Queen Elytra is grinning.
It moves so fast, closing the distance.
Smolder fires again.
The void barrier swims across the hall like an oil spill. Severing four ponies worth of the Nightmare's forward mass and one of It's slender, needle-like legs.
Smolder and Ocellus watch, barely remembering to breathe, as the disconnected mass of changeling flesh breaks apart, spilling across the floor in a wash of ebony gore -- forelegs and heads, hearts and other internal organs soaking in a pool of crude oil -- that bubbles and hisses before decomposing into blue smoke. One of the heads opens its mouth, screaming without sound as it dissolves, its tongue the last gobbet to perish into smoke.
They cannot hear the Nightmare howl from the other side of the void. But they can feel the architecture shake.
"You win."
Smolder flaps her wings slowly, hovering over Ocellus as she checks the mirror, then the opposite supply closet. The nymph looks at her questioningly.
"I thought I had some frightening dreams," the dragon admits as she hovers before the darkening mirror. "But that... I'm going to have nightmares about your nightmares for the rest of my life."
"Thank goodness you two are all right," Luna's voice announces from the mirror.
"Aaagh!" Smolder shoots up, clinging to the ceiling between vaulted ribs.
Ocellus hides a smile and feels a little guilty at having enjoyed that. Her brief joy is replaced with a cascade of worries, and she flies up to the mirror, seeking Luna.
The darkness has already faded. But as she watches, the shadows deepen again. The mirror does not grow fully black, and Luna's voice is ghostly as it emerges from the mirror without her accompanying visage.
"Do not despair: Gallus and Yona are alive and whole as well. I will guide them to the Oculus Room, so long as the connection does not fail completely..."
Her voice fades out, the shadows dimming for a moment.
"Oculus Room?" Smolder asks, confused. Ocellus looks up. The orange-scaled dragon is still clinging to the ceiling, albeit in a slightly more relaxed manner.
"It's where the anti-Elements have to be to form their portal to Equestria," Ocellus explains, recalling Luna's description while she drew her map. Grimly, she adds, "They aren't like Luna's mirror portal. By destroying the Grand Mirror, Queen Elytra only kept Equestria from sending more creatures here."
Smolder ahs. "Have you been there?"
Ocellus shakes her head. "No, but it's on my map." Her wings buzz. Anxiety grips her, squeezing tighter with every passing second of silence from the mirror. "It's actually outside. A giant, enclosed gazebo..."
Her description is cut off as Luna's voice becomes audible again. "...greenhouse to the essence pool. Save Pharynx from Wrath if you can."
Ocellus quickly shouts, "What happened to Thorax? What about Princess Twilight?"
"...fled into the Everfree Forest." The shadows deepen, becoming the color of soot. Luna's face appears, flickering.
"The magical terror that beast unleashed was extremely powerful," Luna tells them. "It traveled back through the shards of the mirror. I would have fled too, had Twilight finished freeing me from this cocoon before the attack. They will be back soon, I am sure. But without the Throne Room mirror, Twilight Sparkle's plan is over."
Ocellus opens her receptors, then stretches out a hoof. She doesn't want to be suspicious of Luna, even if Luna apparently doesn't trust her. Or, at least, not fully.
Ocellus cannot taste Luna's love. But she knows that means nothing. Tasting Luna's love would prove it was her. But the absence does not prove otherwise. This would be a strange time to feel love. Neither she nor Smolder were...
"HEY!" Smolder shouts, dropping down from above. "You're going to talk to me this time!"
Ocellus tastes spice and cinnamon and Canterlot Red peppers.
"Why haven't you been helping Ocellus with her dreams?!" Smolder demands. "You saw that thing Queen Elytra pulled out of her nightmares!"
Ocellus recalls the conversation about vices. Righteous wrath indeed.
"I don't..." Luna reels, shocked. Confused. Hurt. "I-I..."
A black dawn breaks across Ocellus.
"She doesn't know," Ocellus says. "Luna can't remember because Queen Elytra stole the memory of my nightmare from her to create her Nightmare."
Luna stops, gathering her thoughts. More calmly, she answers, speaking to Ocellus. "You are correct. I cannot know for certain. But I believe I intended to use the nights of the field trip to try to help you. I... feel that was my intention, even though I cannot remember it being so."
Even as she talks, the black begins to fade, the connection weakening.
"Now that I am no longer a Princess, the creatures of Equestria are no longer my subjects. While I have the power to, I no longer possess the right to enter the dreams of whomever I choose."
Luna's face vanishes, but her voice remains, turning otherworldly as the connection degrades before collapsing.
"I must..." Luna's voice fades away, only to return, weaker than before. The shadows continue to fade. "...world and ask their permission."
Smolder and Ocellus look at each other.
"...consent is but one of many concessions..."
The mirror is just a mirror.
Smolder stares at the mirror, her arms hanging at her sides. "Th-that was..."
"Let's move on?" Ocellus suggests.
Smolder nods heartily. "At least Gallus and Yona are safe."
She doesn't say because that thing isn't hunting them. Nor, thankfully, does she add for now. Ocellus considers the dragon's restraint an act of kindness.
The changeling nymph and the dragon girl reach the T-junction beyond the supply closet. To their left, a single wall sconce on the far wall sputters to life. To their right, blue flame erupts from one on the near wall. Another alights much farther into the darkness.
Ocellus frowns. The first time she came through here, more than a third of the wall sconces were still functional. Now, less than a fourth.
Pretty soon, the entire palace would be swallowed in darkness.
"Oh!" Ocellus perks up and motions for Smolder to turn around. As soon as the dragon does so, the nymph opens Gallus' saddlebags and starts rummaging through. The startling dearth of school supplies makes Ocellus feel like she is exploring some strange, forbidden land. Snacks, his character folder, a few stray bits. Greed and Envy, each wrapped in notebook paper and stuffed into sandwich bags from the lunch Headmare Starlight had packed for them...
Ocellus beams happily as she pulls out her lantern. "Oh gosh. I was beginning to feel bad about leaving my little friend behind!"
Smolder turns, looking at her with an incredulous expression. Ocellus barely notices as she pushes the lantern's button and watches the blue flame ignite. The nymph gives a little clap with her hooves.
"Speaking of..." Smolder grumbles.
Ocellus picks up the lantern in her mouth.
"What's this about you stranding yourself on the moon?" Smolder asks crossly. "What kind of plan was that?! And were you even going to tell us? Or just leave us to wonder if something horrible happened to you when you didn't come through before it closed?" Well, more horrible.
Holding a lantern in your mouth is a wonderful excuse not to say anything.
The walls shake. The floor trembles. They can feel the reverberation shudder through them.
Smolder looks up at the ceiling as if expecting the sound of doom followed by roiling, spilling blackness.
Ocellus sets down her lantern. "It's not about to come in," Ocellus whispers. "It's tracking me by my love."
It knows how you taste!
Smolder stares at her friend in horror.
Ocellus puts up a hoof. She is remembering being blown out onto the regolith. "The air inside is sealed off from the air outside." Even with the Nightmare tearing down a wall, only the wing beyond the void barrier is compromised. "Even if It was right above us on the roof, it couldn't detect me while we're inside and It's outside."
That won't be the case for long. They need to go.
Smolder points a claw. "Don't think you're off the hook. We're going to have a long talk about this." The walls shake again. "Later. When all this is over, and that... thing isn't hunting you anymore."
Yes, Ocellus thinks as she nods penitently. Later, when you and the others are home safe. And I'm still on the moon.
"Anyway, let's go." Smolder turns and marches off down the left hallway.
"Uh, Smolder...?"
The dragon girl stops.
"Other way."
Smolder spins around. "Right." The dragon marches back past Ocellus.
Ocellus watches, the smile on her lips a reflection of the sentiment filling her breast, strong enough that releasing it would make her glow.
Smolder is infuriated with her. She's being hunted by a horrific monster forged from her own nightmares. Their one place of safety has been destroyed. Their connection to Luna is dying. And her King's brother is here and needs to be rescued from Wrath.
...and yet as she watches the dragon stomp off, she feels a warmth inside her. Like hot soup on a freezing winter day, with whispers of euphoria. Ocellus can taste the love in Smolder's anger. She knows why the dragon is hurt. She hates having caused that pain. But Smolder's fury feels more like a healing balm than tearing claws.
Ocellus picks up her lantern again. Ocellus' wings flutter, lifting her into the air. She follows, quietly letting a few wisps of her feelings towards the dragon flow, knowing Smolder cannot taste them.
They are not strong enough and freely given enough to be seen. But despite the dead sconces, the hallway doesn't seem quite as gloomy as it did moments ago.
Smolder grunts, pushing against the double doors with all her might (which, considering Smolder once created a rock sculpture through punches and kicks, is impressive) but the doors refuse to budge. Ocellus suspects the changelings have begun sealing doors with resin to box them in. They might be learning from Gallus.
Ocellus focuses on Smolder and the door, intentionally not looking at the worst room in the history of rooms. If she did, her already traumatized heart would simply break. She would collapse in tears. Smolder would have to carry her or she'd stay here forever. In a huge library full of books. All in Old Ponish.
Gothic bookshelves decorated in motifs of ponies worshipping the moon are filled with a rich plethora of books, from the carpeted floor to the ogee-arched ceiling. When they flew into the room. Smolder had warned the books that she would set them on fire if any of them were a changeling. Then flew straight for the door. Ocellus almost wishes they were changelings so they wouldn't be books she can't read.
"Urgh!" Smolder gives up, sliding down the doors, her claws leaving little grooves. The orange dragon girl comes to rest on the purple and rose carpet (interlaced abstractions of bats) and thumps her head against the doors, her horns digging notches.
"Ocellus, can we stop?"
Ocellus flies up to her, nodding. Which Smolder cannot see. "S-sure. If you need to." This is not the room she wants to linger in. But if Smolder needs a break, the nymph won't say no. Ocellus wonders if she should take one of the standing torches and beat at the bookshelves.
Smolder turns around, sitting with her back and wings against the door. "I'm angry. I can't risk getting near Wrath like this." The dragon looks up, pointing a claw at Ocellus and giving her a frown. "And before you think it: no. You're not going alone."
Smolder draws her knees up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "I just need a few moments to calm my fire."
Ocellus nods, this time with her friend able to see her do so. "I'd offer a relaxing tea, but this isn't the right time or place for a tea party," she says, hoping a little levity will help. "Plus, we're not dressed for it."
"Can't have tea if you're not dressed for it," Smolder agrees with a weak grin. "Also, we don't have any tea. Or a tea set." Aside from standing torches, the library's only furnishings are a lounge couch, a reading table and a chair.
Ocellus agrees. "And if we did, I wouldn't trust the cups."
The two friends share a short laugh. It is rough, with too many unpleasant emotions getting in the way of true laughter. But it is a start.
Ocellus looks away for a moment, her ocelli finding the only safely bookless part of the room: a large fireplace of onyx stone. The frame above the mantle holds a few shards of a shattered mirror. When she first saw that, she tried calling for Luna in the shards. The fragments of mirror remained reflective.
"Your fire is justified," Ocellus admits.
Smolder snorts. "Yeah. No?" She holds out a claw. "Look, I remember. While you were gone, it was all I could think about. Your greatest fear was that you would become a love-starved changeling again. But when that was the only way to get us home, you dragoned up and became one..."
Smolder pauses, then tries to clarify, "A love-starved changeling, not a dragon. I didn't mean... that's just... dragons say that." The look in her eyes pleads for Ocellus to say she understands before it gets anymore awkward.
Ocellus flinches at the memory but gives Smolder a little smile. "I know what you meant."
The dragon girl breathes a huff of relief. "Good. Because that was the bravest thing I've ever seen."
Ocellus feels her heart purr. It pains her to correct the praise. "I didn't become a real love-starved drone," Ocellus points out. "I just took the form of one."
Smolder nods. "I know. But you just took the form of Chrysalis in the catacombs and that was like your worst nightmare come to life."
She stands, looking earnestly at Ocellus. "The point is, this place is putting us all through Tartarus and back, but it seems to have a special focus on making every nightmare you have come true. This last one literally."
Ocellus swallows, unable to argue.
"And while I hate some of the things you've done and the secrets you've kept," the dragon says, not pausing when the word hate makes Ocellus flinch, "I have no right to be pissed off at you when you're holding it together better than any creature should. And being a pretty amazing friend." Under the circumstances.
Ocellus feels a crushing weight lifted even as her strength is sapped away. The nymph collapses to the carpet. "Th-thanks." She shivers, more from the frigid air and the cold carpet than all the things trying to haunt her mind.
Smolder watches her a moment, then stomps over to the nearest bookcase, tearing an armload of random books from a shelf. The young dragon hurls the books into the open fireplace and breathes a gout of draconic flame.
"Smolder!?" Ocellus gasps. Just because she couldn't read them does mean it was okay to burn books!
Smolder stands before the crackling orange flame, holding her claws towards it. "It's freezing in here. And I'm sick of blue light."
Smolder sits down next to her, tapping a claw on her elytra. "Open up." Her voice is quieter than before. Gentle.
Blushing, the nymph obliges, exposing her wings and back. Making herself vulnerable to the dragon. A moment later, she feels the warm prickling of Smolder's claws playing down her back. Her wings tremble.
"Feeling ticklish?" Smolder asks.
"A little."
Ocellus lets the intimate little clawstrokes caress her into relaxation. She closes her eyes...
The image of the dead drone plays against her closed eyelids. His left eye has burst open from too many needles, the liquid of his eye having oozed down his face and frozen there.
Ocellus' wings flinch, her muscles tensing. Her eyes shoot open.
Smolder draws her claw away. "Did I prick you?"
"N-no. Please, don't stop."
"O-okay." The claw returns, a little more cautiously than before.
Ocellus sighs, letting Smolder's touch melt the tension. She stares into the fire -- Smolder's fire -- and lets its dance soothe her nerves. A silly part of her mind decides that this fire is part of Smolder, only in book form.
Her thoughts drift. She remembers laying before the grandmare clock. (Which was not ticking.) Her epiphany. Ocellus cannot remember the last time she truly felt like an individual.
"Smolder? Can I ask you something... strange?"
Smolder is a dragon who likes tea parties and dresses, whose best friends include a pony and a changeling, who behaves with honesty and kindness, loyalty and even generosity. She is not like other dragons and she knows it.
Ocellus knows Smolder hides some of that from everyone but her. She embraces other things that set her apart. She cares about dragons, but she doesn't let what a lot of dragons think a dragon should be decide who she is. She is one of the most individual creatures Ocellus has ever known.
Smolder gives her a very slight, friendly prick with a claw tip. "Other than that? Yeah, I think we're already way past strange."
"How do you know when you are acting like yourself and not just how people want you to act?"
Smolder is quiet a moment, thinking about that.
Ocellus looks over at her friend. The azure light of her lantern backlights the dragon girl in cool colors, highlighting her wings, the curve of her back and tail. The leaping flames in the fireplace paint her front and face in warm, quivering light. In between is darkest shadow.
"Mostly I just do," Smolder finally says. "If I'm doing something I know is right, or that I enjoy, it feels good. It doesn't matter if everybody wants me to do it or nobody does."
Ocellus asks, "And you never worry that you are letting what other creatures want you to be determine who you are?"
Smolder laughs. "That seems like a lot of work. As long as I'm not being selfish or harmful or a jerk, I do what makes me feel good about myself."
The dragon turns towards Ocellus, the warm and cold light shifting across her body. "The school has taught me lessons that make me feel a whole lot better about myself than I used to. I've got friends. New people I care about and who accept me for me. You most of all, Ocellus."
Her claw had paused. But now it continues, dancing between Ocellus' wing muscles. The sensation fills her with a pleasant, tingling warmth that she never wants to lose.
"On one claw, I'm not going to start acting differently to get you to like me more, because it wouldn't be me you are liking," Smolder insists. "On the other, I'm not going to stop being friendly because I'm worried creatures prefer a friendly dragon. Doing something just because it isn't what other creatures want is just as stupid."
Ocellus stares into Smolder's eyes, her heart open.
Smolder contemplates the nymph before her. "Is this part of the identity struggle you told me about?"
Ocellus nods quietly.
Smolder's claws begin to stroke. "I don't know if this helps, but I like you for you. You are a brave, kind, gentle, smart..." Smolder smirks, "...dorky stressbug of wonderful. And I don't think any of that is because I like those things, cuz you were all of them before you met us."
Ocellus sticks out her tongue at dorky stressbug. "But how can you be sure? How can I be sure?"
"I can't," Smolder admits honestly. "But if I'm wrong, I'm glad you err on the side of being like you are."
Ocellus feels a spike of regret and longing and loss as Smolder's claws pull away. The dragon turns to face the fire she created. There is a sudden heaviness in her voice. "Creatures use 'being themselves' as an excuse for everything from rudeness to murdering children. None of which is okay."
Ocellus feels a shock rip up her spine. Murdering children? Where did that come from?
Smolder continues, "If you act like a jerk or a villain, it doesn't matter how individual you are being. You deserve what you get. And in some cases, what you deserve is getting your face clawed off."
Ocellus feels stunned. Somehow, this conversation careened into a very dark place. She can see the anger behind Smolder's eyes. There is something personal about this.
Smolder's expression softens. She turns away, her tail dragging on the ground. "Besides, most creatures who use 'being themselves' as an excuse to behave badly really aren't being themselves at all."
Ocellus scrambles to follow. "What do you mean?"
Smolder sighs heavily then turns to look back at her. "I mean they're doing it out of peer pressure. Or because someone they like does the same thing. Or told them this was the way to be better than... whatever bunch of creatures they want to think they're better than."
The dragon takes a few moments, her eyes shifting left and right. Ocellus knows Smolder well enough to know she is trying to find an example that isn't dragons.
"They're like redcaps."
Ocellus recalls Professor Fluttershy's class. Redcaps were nasty, violent, brutish and foul. The kind pegasus rarely had bad things to say about any creature. But even she just warned the class away from the goblins living in the forest bordering the Dragon Lands.
Smolder turns around to fully face Ocellus. The nymph sits up, closing her elytra over her back and wings.
"I ran into a pack of them once," Smolder tells her. "They attacked -- like they always do -- but I'm a dragon. We're not easy prey. Grabbed one of them and stuck him on a ledge. He went on and on about how being cruel and vicious and mean was just who he was. Claimed he didn't have to conform to 'our rules' and play nice. Then his pack climbed up to join him. And you know what he was? Just one of a bunch of redcaps all acting exactly the same."
She had never heard the dragon sound so unimpressed.
Ocellus doesn't think she's any closer to feeling like her own self, or even knowing how. But Smolder has a point. Rebellion against the hive for the sake of rebellion isn't individuality. It is just a new way of choosing her actions based on them. And rejecting compassion and tact isn't embracing yourself. Being impolite wouldn't make her a better creature, just a worse one.
If she is going to ever see Ocellus in the final mirror, she cannot measure herself in contrast to others any more than she can mold herself in their image.
A stray thought occurs to her. She raises her eyebrows.
"Of course, you know I bet even redcaps can have actual individuals who break out of their... hive-society." She felt so odd using that word that way. But it was accurate, wasn't it? "One of these days, you might meet the Thorax of the redcaps."
Smolder snorts, taking the jab at her expense. "Wouldn't that be something." The dragon thinks about it a moment more, then grins. "Hey! There's your answer. What do real individuals look like? They look like Ember and Thorax. Creatures who found a better way and took it, even before any creature around them accepted it."
Ocellus blinks. She drinks that in, slowly smiling. Nodding.
Well that was an abomination of magic and no mistake. Though the question remains, If the changelings were able to cocoon Luna on the other side of the mirror, why is all of this going down on this side? And if the changelings somehow got up here without the use of the Elements or something similar, then they ought to be able to get back.
Something about this scenario just reeks.
Woo boy! That is some Nightmare you had Ocellus.
JUST KISS GOD DAMNIT.
This chapter was horrific, the finale monster gave me a lot of death stranding vibs, which masks sense since both DS and Prey feature monsters made out of black goo
Love the Smolcellus but I must know what happens!
Chapter 11:
"too many friends, she says, getting"
"too many friends," she says, getting"?
"The question seemed so much harder in the sunlight and safety of the Treehouse"
And given that then the response was still "Ocellus immediately knows the answer is yes.", this must be pretty strong indeed.
"has far too much her own"
"has far too much of her own"?
"We sent Pharynx. He should already be there."
...
[facehoofs]
Well, you know, I think I can guess where he is.
"He's in charge of the security of the hive."
...Oh. Right. So, yeah, in addition to all the other problems with sending him up there, he's also a wealth of information on the hive's defenses for Queen Elytra, if she can capture him.
Yes, this was such a good plan. Definitely not a case where a lot more attention should have been paid to those with much more information about the palace's dangers.
...Such a good plan, in fact, that, particularly given some things I read about the game when I looked it up, I wonder if there's rather more going on. It also seems awfully (in)convenient that Luna was interrupted right before she was going to answer some questions about how this situation came about.
Chapter 12:
"one of It's slender, needle-like"
"one of its slender, needle-like"?
"off as Luna voice becomes"
"off as Luna's voice becomes"?
"closed?" Well, more horrible."
Was that last bit supposed to be in the speech too, or was it a thought?
"doesn't see quite as gloomy"
"doesn't seem quite as gloomy"?
"her eyes pleaded for Ocellus to"
"her eyes pleads for Ocellus to"?
"She remembers laying before the grandmare clock"
"She remembers lying before the grandmare clock"?
Major differences between different parts of this chapter, but I think they both worked well. :)
Arrghleblargl, I read the chapter yesterday at work but I forgot to comment when I got home and now there's a new chapter. To sum up some of my thoughts:
- The blue mist needle things seem to do random effects. I'm going to guess that the changeling that died had injected themselves, got no obvious affect because whatever happened was internal, injected themselves again, once again got no obvious effect, and then injected themselves a third time. And at some point they may have basically just liquefied their interior. Don't do drugs, kids.
- Oh god Pharynx and Wrath. On the bright side it's possible that this whole Elytra situation is about to get resolved.
Oh, also this is interesting because Pharynx actually being here kiboshes one of my previous theories, the one that was discussed between Gallus and Smolder previously - that Ocellus wasn't actually talking to Luna. Although I didn't think it was a hallucination so much as Elytra.
Yeah I can see that. Jesus Christ this thing is terrifying. Like that mass of Shadows that can attak you in Kingdom Hearts 3, except with fangs and a grudge.
Again: Jesus Christ. This whole thing is actually particularly jarring because until the last chapter you'd managed to keep the kill count low, as in, zero. Then we came across a changeling corpse, and now this. The story has suddenly become a lot darker and more violent.
Well, on the other hand if your plan goes according to plan you'll have plenty of time to learn...
By the way, you beat me to writing this idea, that the backs of changelings might be pretty sensitive and touching them there might be intimate. I had planned to work it into something in the near future. I mean, I still will, of course, but now I can't go "first!" anymore.
10170542
Well we don't actually have confirmation that he's here yet, the figure in the mirror just said that he's here. And, since he's a changeling, and one known for an extremely austere nature, will Ocellus even be able to confirm that it's him?
Silly Ocellus--Pharynx is always angry about something!
I know last chapter I said that I expected Wrath-filled Pharynx would be the least of their problems...but admittedly, this wasn't what I was thinking of when I said that.
One thing's for certain though--Nightmare's palace is definitely not surviving this mess in the slightest. It's gonna be totally leveled by the end of this, no matter what happens now. Which, I know, is not what everybody is focusing about, and it's a place signifying evil so maybe it's for the better anyway...but like Ocellus and those Old Ponish books, I can't help but be sad to see such an impressive structure meet its end anyway.
So, 'Twilight' was come up with a plan to 'rescue' them that went horribly wrong and had a massive amount of logical flaws way beyond even Twilight's zaniest plans that she only comes up with when beyond stressed and had plenty of time to work this one out. And said plan gets put into place JUST as Luna is pressed to actually answer some of the riving questions that have been there from the start and are making less and less sense. Go figure.
Also, yeah that's not a chapter title you want when dealing with the castle of Nightmare Moon.
Yet again, no idea what to really say about this due to just how much it depends on the context we are lacking. That said, story does do a really great job with these. Sure when you really think about them, you realize how little they really say due to said lack of context, but with regards to the situation in the story, there is enough implied context to fully see how they fit in with things and do suggest certain things which work well with the story.
But as above, without giving the context to say for sure one way or the other. And at this point, I'm leery of going along with anything in this story that is based only on implication of assumption rather then observed fact. And I'm even a bit leery of those at this point. In a good way cause it's clear that is entirely intentional on the stories part. So, the opening quotes also very subtly tie into what it seems the story is trying to foster in regards to atmosphere and reader mindset on several levels. But the implied meaning fitting in with the surface of the story, and the subtle caution against going just on implication and assumption without understanding the greater context.
I know, I know, meant to be touching but, 1. See the above for how kind of stupid this idea is. 2. All I can think of is this leading to the Changeling Space Program and all the insane, idiotic, and yet still epic and successful hijinks that entails. (Come on, it's a space program where 'just get out and push the spaceship' is a perfectly viable option.)
And don't think Purple Smart get's off easy either, little miss 'I want to make a fully magic based propulsion system and so created an artificial rapid teleport system to get to other planets in days but forget to limit it to three dimensional travel leading to Equestria's entire universe nearly being devoured by Nyarlothotep, only stopped by Yog-Pinkoth telling him to knock it off and also validating what I've said for years that all iterations of The Pink One are merely the construct of mortal minds attempting to give form to the the fragment of the Great Pink One who dwells beyond reality's consciousness that is extended into the realm.'
Ohh, nice imagery.
Yona is RIGHT THERE! Why are you telling Ocellus to tell her rather then talking to her directly? Also Yaks best at diplomacy!
And not the others? And why didn't they rescue Luna first immediately, and get her input on this given she's the one who actually knows what is going on and the only one on the planet to actually have all the relevant information? Yeah, Ocellus would be able to skewer SO many holes in this story if she wasn't dealing with way too many of her own inner issues to focus on things and thing them over.
Hmmmmmmmm......... And there really is no reason for Twilight and the rest on Equestria to panic like that, given right now these four ARE safe and secure, they have enough resources to last a day or two given the replicators, the throne room is perfectly safe for them to hang out in, the only reason they would need to venture out is to try and enact their original plan which if they knew Twilight knew they were trapped and was working on it, they wouldn't need to do. So there is zero reason for panicking.
However.... Luna being pressured into a position where she needs to start answering some questions that it's clear will reveal WAY more then the students think they will or make it fully, unbelievably apparent she is deliberately avoiding giving those answers.... yeah that's a good reason for panicking.
Why?
He's not wrong, and damn I love him being around. At least we got two of my three favorite of the group, and yeah, should be obvious who those are by now.
Hey now, that could be part of the first problem.
Dude, you're the one with the vomit canon! You HAVE a weapon already!
Well, so much for being safe, and again, just in time to distract from questions that it's clear something doesn't want to answer.
And this is why combining together to form larger, more epic forms should only be done by robots or piloted mecha. When organic beings try it, it NEVER goes well......
Oh sweet Faust.... I just had a nightmare image pop into my head..... Evangelion doing Eva combining... THAT would be some serious nightmare fuel.....
Okay these two..... Yeah, I'm about 95% certain I know whats going on. Or at least one of the big parts of it at this point. Still not sure 'why' though.
That is at once both really disturbing, really disgusting, and really damn awesome in a utterly creepy way.
Now that, that is just all of the NOPE! Damn....... just... damn. Grats story, that is really, really REALLY freaking twisted and yes, Nightmarish on one hell of a new level. Damn.......
At this point, why the hell are you inside? Get the fuck as far away as possible! Get an entire moon between you and that thing!
Yeah, becoming so freakishly terrifying your minions run screaming as well is generally NOT a good idea.....
Okay, that whole chase thing was amazing, too confused to know what was going on, but just very evocative and frantic, and perfectly conveying the shear level of OH FUCK GET AWAY! of the moment. Just curious how they managed to get away enough to have time to collapse. Though guess being that damn big makes it hard to move in confined spaces. But still, damn that was impressive.
And that's what she focuses on...alright, nice little chuckle to help break the tension just a bit story. While still kind of being scary that Smolder is seeing just how terrifying Ocellus subconscious can be.
I know, right!?
Ohhh boy is it not........ at all.......
Okay so still trying to follow them
Also, this is quickly reaching Godzilla threshold levels. Or maybe Smolder-zilla?
Pffffft, sadly you gave up what no doubt would end up being the most powerful weapon in the
gamestory. That thing probably had some hidden, gamebreaker level ability on it.Heh, I'm sure you can find a few colorful euphemisms if you tried.
One, Changeling, just shift to something that can do that, even a broom if needed. Two, glad this is the plan, was half certain Ocellus would toss Smolder on one side and throw up the barrier with her stuck with the Nightmare.Three, also good, admitting it would not hold her for long, but maybe log enough.
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Epic Chekhov's Nerf Gun!
Very true and also very... multi layered. Yeah story, I totally see the symbolism and double meanings here.
Heh. HEY NOW! Smolder is supposed to be the overly possessive one!
It's a pretty damn awesome ability! Sign up for the school hoofball team, you'd be the best running back ever. (That's a football thing right? Is that the one who usually runs he ball?)
Also wait.... so they made it down the Envy hall before stopping... so Smolder flew through that green knife room once already at full speed? How'd they get that far down? And then double back around The Nightmare?
Damnit, shoot point blank into the hole!
Huh, what would have happened if they waited another second or two and cut it in half?
Beyond SO MUCH EWWW!!!!
Oh hey! Back to Luna getting to be the one to talk huh?
So, now suddenly she can talk to those two without Ocellus around? Too late story, still suspicious. And let me guess, that's where the portal gets formed?
Except, it wasn't Luna's portal, it was Starswirl who made that thing, and it wasn't paired just with that one, but a free flowing mirror that could link to many other worlds that Luna was directing to go to the moon, and while surface thought is that maybe the 'grand mirror' was the only mirror large enough to work, we've already seen from the very start that the mirror's do not need another actual mirror, given EQG, and the fact that none of the beings who went through the mirror came out of a mirror. So, how does destroying that mirror destroy the link? implication could be that since Luna was talking about it being the place she had the greatest connection, it was what she used to anchor the spell to, but given she's back it's clear she can still make a connection. Plus Twilight flat out said they could only send one... for some unexplained reason.
So yeah, more stuff that could look alright on the surface and has JUST enough of a feel of making sense that you can fully buy why it isn't questioned in the heat of the moment when the characters are stressed, but looking at it in more depth makes it fall apart, only saved by possible implications and assumptions that could fill in the gap, but see the opening spiel about the story making it definitely seem like it's trying to get you to go with that while having an undercurrent of those not actually being what you should be doing.
And ALL of this, so subtle and so, it could make sense, and just so, close to feeling right that it could all very well just be the story being a bit sloppy in it's internal logic. I could very much see a story here all of this happens nearly as is, but there is no 'twist' or no hidden facts behind it, it's all just plain straight and is exactly what it seems. But as said, that would lead to a kind of sloppy, not fully thought out story and I know you are too damn good a writer to for that to be the case.
So yeah, this does not make sense when you stop to think about it, but that just means there is something going on we are not aware of, that knowing what it is would make those "Wait... what?" moments actually make sense. And the list of just what that is that would be simple enough to not feel clunky and disjointed, and cover the shear amount of things that are going on is very, very small. And yeah, given the overall themes, focus, and imagery going on, as well as how certain things are done in the story..... Make that 98% certain as to just what that explanation for all of this is. But again, there is still a larger question beyond that explanation I'm still not sure on, 'why?'. I the 'twist' is what I think it is, that could work, but all depends on why it's happening this way and what caused it all to be like this.
Oh no...... oh no.... oh no no no no............
They already attacked the darkness...... now.... ohhhhh damn, Ocellus, have fun facing down the might of The Dead Gazebo!
Why?
It does not take that long to break one of hose open, and that would have been the first thing Twilight did when she got there.
Ummm, her plan was "Send Phraynx in to destroy the portal while the kids leave safely." What part of the requires the mirror you can't use, she explicitly said you could only send on being through, for some reason, and you are still able to communicate?
Yay Smolder!
Which would mean that Luna saw it, which does not change the question of what the hell Luna was doing that she didn't help.
Hmmmm, fair enough. And if I wasn't thoroughly done trusting anything Luna says at face value, I might even buy it.
See also, another reason why the whole "Just drop everything and let Twilight be in charge while we fuck off" ending just makes no sense in any context except "The story of Twilight Sparkle". Yeah, I understand why they went the way they did, and from the limited perspective of Twilight Sparkle's story, it makes sense. But it just makes no sense in the larger context of the world to happen like it did.
Excuses excuses..... Still, remembering this conversation for later.
Yay Lampy!
Pfffft.. well...she's not wrong.
Yeah, smart move. Wait till the immediate danger is over before telling at each other. See also, why Ocellus should have had this discussion when there wasn't immediate danger! And when Gallus could have come up with some idea to make like, a time bomb or something to blow it up as you leave.
Gotta love when the AI starts copying you..... Of course when you figure that out, that's when you start teaching it things that will fail and/or you know exactly how to counter.
Seriously, as much as that's come up, why has she never learned it?
Heh.
Give her time cool off, or go find the other two to help?
Okay.
Heh, and yeah, nice little bit of cool down and giving us a chance to breath here.
Yeah......about that......
Yikes...... and then Twilight rips her way through the palace just to lecture them on this.
Okay, seriously, this girl better have an entire ARMY of therapists waiting when she gets back.
D'awwww. but they are being cute together.
Better question, is there a difference? Is not you acting like others want due to who yourself are that you want to be doing that?
Simple and direct. You really are overthinking this Ocellus. There's isn't some 'right' answer, as the whole problem really is just in her over worrying about something that's going to be hard for most to understand due to it being something so specific and so needing to be overthought to get.
Yup!
Ohhhh yeah.
The whole phoenix thing? Also true. You really need to tread carefully around platitudes and understand several things beyond just the simple idea.
They are trying to act tough or like they think someone who is tough and 'independent' would act.
coughGarblecough
Ohhhkay, this just hella freaking dark....... also, are you TRYING to get me to make more Dresden Files references, cause I can, and this is opening up for some. Cause The Redcap in that really is a total sadistic asshole.
And kicking your ass for being a little shit is just her being true to who she is, suck it bitch. Or, much more fun way of putting it, take how Petey dealt with that idea.
schlockmercenary.com/strip/1909/0/schlock20050902.jpg?v=1443894896188
Exactly, this stuff is very complicated and you are overthinking a small part of it without seeing the whole thing.
Not sure about Equestrian redcaps, but given folklore redcaps need to soak their titular caps in the blood of those they've killed to survive.... that's a bit more of a stretch.
Good point.
So yeah, First Ocellus has to confront her Nightmare, then she gets some safe time to reflect on her internal issues and try to work them out. Huh, it does seem as things are kind of custom designed to revolve around her.... funny that.....
Yeah, damn was that chase creepy, and the bit between Ocellus and Smolder was very adorable. So, how will everything continue to go to hell? And when will Ocellus finally get some answers to what the buck is going on around here?
Just kiss damn you!
Oh god I didn't need to know about that Now I'm scared
O thank God I thought something happen to them I mean yeah it did but But at least are here I just hope they rescue them
Ohh yeah That's right that was your original plan to Sacrifice yourself just to save equestria
Ok so basically Queen Elytra found the kids and attack them and gallus and yona got caught by the nightmare Speaking of nightmares that's why Luna didn't help ocellus because of Queen Elytra took her memory of that now They are being chased by the nightmare Awfully the others were find a way to stop it and save phynax and got all of them home
I don't really know who most of the third parties are at the start of Chapter 12, so I can only make assumptions about some of the subtext here.
Also, I realize that I glazed over the fact that Twilight basically pulled the rug out from underneath Luna here with her rescue mission from the previous chapter. I guess she's still got that problem of trying to solve things on her own.
Also, also, with regards to unstoppable amorphous dangers.
"Bow bow bow,
bow bow bow,
Something bad is coming down,
You better prepare.
Duck inside,
better run and hide,
nothing stops the nightmare!
See the way it slithers forth,
roil, thrash, and tear.
Here it comes right now,
nothing stops the nightmare!"
Sorry, I just had to get that out.
---
With regard to the nightmare and Ocellus. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not exclusively Ocellus's nightmare. At first, I thought it was the combined nightmares of everypony all smushed together and blobby, or maybe all the nightmares of the love starved changelings on the moon, which maybe Ocellus was picking up on? Elytra sure seems to have picked up on it.
---
Also, I get that it's a highly stressful time and people are teetering on the edge of life and death, but I feel like Ocellus's adaptable mentality is 9 out of 10 times the right choice. So I feel like in Luna and Ocellus's defense, they're having a very bad day. :P
---
Re: Villains. When it comes to real life, I've generally found that people tend to fall into one of two groups.
• About half of people have internalized ethics and will stand up for what they believe is right even when pressed.
• About half of people will just go with the flow, imitate their peers, try to get away with things if no one is watching, but will mostly behave as long as someone is around to keep them honest.
• And then there's a vanishingly small but non-zero number of people who literally have no compassion or remorse.
It honestly doesn't seem like Elytra is in control. With how Greed and Pride affected Smolder and Yona, I'm not sure how she ever thought she could wrest these elements from them. And Pharynx will no doubt not be pushover either, once he comes into contact with Wrath. This Nightmare she summoned seems more like an act of desperation than something she planned for.
I'm curious how everyone will actually solve the problem of going back home while also destroying the portal behind them. Of course, the best outcome would be if they could reform Elytra's hive, then the portal wouldn't need to be destroyed at all, but that's hardly something anyone can count on. So, are they just going to accept Pharynx's sacrifice?