Queen Nightmare Moon

by Makitk


Chapter 18

Darkstar faltered in mid-step as she laid eyes on her newly transformed sister approach with half the caravan's ponies in tow, the dark magical aura around her horn fizzing out of existence as she took a harder look.

"Get down!" Crescent Eclipse shouted, sending a beam of silver in Darkstar's direction. The other Alicorn sibling dove down just in time for it to fly over her back to impact with a Timberwolf which had intended to pounce upon Darkstar, and the creature vaporized in mid-air!

"Merryweather, you know what to do," the Queen told her captain, then leaned down with a smile as she reached her sister. "Don't tell me; I've changed."

Darkstar blinked her slitted eyes up at the pink ones sat on her sister's face, clearly trying to piece two and two together. "...sister?"

"My children decided on Crescent Eclipse, but my sister may call me Eclipse," Crescent Eclipse suggested calmly. "As soon as she picks herself up from the ground, that is; it's quite unbecoming of you to be lying in the dirt."

The grounded lunar alicorn let out a snort, then rose up from the ground, using her magic to get the dirt off her. "You told me to dive down, my Queen," she grumbled, her eyes going over her sister's new form.

Crescent Eclipse turned with a smile to show her sister her flank and the gemstone sat on it, but then suddenly hardened her expression and launched three quick bursts of magic into an oncoming pack of Timberwolves. "Damnit, how many of them are there?"

"I've destroyed more than a dozen already; it's almost as if they're on the run from something," Darkstar commented, focusing on the fight again as well.

"On the run..." Crescent repeated, then rolled her pink eyes. "The supposed Changeling army?"

"That's my guess," Darkstar answered, throwing her magic around again to help the guards keep the caravan safe.

Crescent Eclipse turned her head for the caravan, sent her magic out, and one of the carts came bouldering down the road toward them - without the pony who was supposed to pull it. A pair of guards' peered out from it in shock as the thing ground to a halt in the middle of the battlefield, then let out surprised yelps as their prisoner came floating out.

"Sunmane," the Queen started in a voice which spoke of her rising anger, dumping the Changeling face-first in the dirt before her.

Sunmane still held her disguise of a white Earthpony mare with a fiery red mane and tail, and tried to get herself back upright once Crescent Eclipse's magic let go of her. The mare's red eyes settled upon the Lunar Alicorn before her, and the pony's mouth slowly fell ajar.

"How fierce is this force you spoke of, and where's their expected entry route?" Crescent Eclipse asked, not waiting for the Changeling to figure out what was going on exactly.

"...how did you..." the Changeling started, caught off-guard by a pony princess transforming their appearance, her mind slow to catch the questions.

"Answer me!" Eclipse shouted, much to Darkstar's amusement.

"Ooh, I'm liking this new you, sister," she exclaimed merrily, rushing a few paces away to get a better shot in against the oncoming wolves.

Sunmane glanced to Darkstar for a brief moment, then back at the Queen before her. "Er... er... size... er... hundreds? We have a big hive out in the badlands, and er... we're here? This is about where they should be right now?"

Crescent Eclipse turned to the South and peered into the darkness of the forest. "From the badlands... Everyone on me!"

The captains responded at the shouting from their Queen, and Sunmane was quickly picked up and forced to follow behind the Queen as she started to walk Southward.

"Wait, why are you going that way? That's where Chrysalis is!" the Changeling protested, struggling against the guards on either side of her.

"Exactly why," Eclipse decided, using her magic to create an artificial path through the trees ahead. A straight road paved itself before her, trees and undergrowth sliding sideways, and quickly extended itself to the horizon until her magic hit something alive and she doused it.

With her guards in tow, still fighting off the remaining Timberwolves which thought they could continue the assault, the Queen strode down the paved path, the stones under her hooves smooth enough to reflect the light from the sky above. Some dark forms moved up ahead, and she soon identified them as similar forms to Sunmane's Changeling appearance, skittering about where her road ended.

Crescent Eclipse's approach made them run around in a seeming panic, until a larger shape stepped up in their midst and positioned themselves prominently in the center of the road, staring across the pavement at the oncoming group.

"Chrysalis, I presume," Eclipse spoke loudly as she neared, stopping several paces in front of the Changeling Queen with her messy hair.

"And who may you be, pony?" the other spoke in a voice which was grating on the eardrums.

"My name is Crescent Eclipse, and I am the Queen of this land you have so blatantly invaded," Eclipse returned, using her magic to pull Sunmane up and in-between them, dropping the transformed insect to the floor without a care. "I've got something of yours. You may wish to take it back."

"Really liking this new you," Darkstar's voice came from somewhere behind her.

Chrysalis' eyes focused on the Earthpony mare, then back to Crescent Eclipse. "What a pallid gift," she snorted with disdain. "I will take your land, and all ponies living on it instead."

Sunmane crawled up from the floor, peered between the two Queens standing face-to-face, and tried to slip away to the side of the road. A group of Changeling drones came out of the darkness and hissed at her as she neared them.

"Wait, guys, it's me; Ocellus," she tried, a green sheen washing over her to reveal herself a Changeling as well.

Crescent hissed at the sight. "What did I say, Sunmane?" she spoke coldly.

The Changeling drone turned to face the pony Queen again, looking unsure. "But... but..."

"What are you doing?" Chrysalis demanded, raising an eyebrow.

"I.." Sunmane / Ocellus started, glancing between the two matriarchs as if trying to decide between them.

The pony Queen lifted her right forehoof and motioned at a spot near her, her pink eyes still staring Chrysalis down.

The green glow passed over Ocellus' form again as they took on the form of Sunmane again, and she dragged her hooves over until she stood beside the pony Queen, her head and tail hanging low.

Chrysalis hissed loudly at the act, taking a step forward in a burst of anger. "What are you doing to my drone?!?"

"I'm reminding her of an agreement between us," Crescent Eclipse spoke cold enough for the air around them to cool. "If you continue with your plans to invade my lands, I will take each and every one of your drones from you before I will send you spiraling into your nightmares from which there is no release."

Chrysalis sputtered at the unmoving form of the pony Queen before her, taking a reluctant step back. "Idle threats... we outnumber you six to one. I could end this right now if I'd so choose."

Crescent Eclipse finally broke her eyes away from the other, and turned to face her guards. "Evergreen, Merryweather, please return to the caravan. Darkstar, Sunmane, stay with me."

"But, my Queen," Evergreen protested, but fell silent as she set her eyes upon him. "As you command..."

Darkstar looked on curiously as the guards and other ponies walked back along the road, then frowned as the forest grew back over the road they were on between them. "What are you planning?" she mouthed silently to her sister, who ignored the question for now.

Instead, Eclipse turned back to face Chrysalis only to sit herself down on the ground. "I'm confident in my abilities to take on your entire 'family' by myself. My sister Darkstar is my Royal Advisor, and Sunmane my captive. Let's talk."

Chrysalis sputtered at the display, her mind obviously in turmoil. What manner of pony was this to take these actions? Where was the fear she was used to seeing in them? What power did this one hide to state she was confident enough to take on hundreds of Changelings?

Crescent Eclipse could see those thoughts pass by on the Changeling Queen's face by the changing expressions upon it. There was the moment she wanted to throw caution to the wind and attack, there was the fear something was not right here, the question of whether she could withdraw somehow. A flash of pride struggling to coexist with rationality...

Darkstar moved up to her sister's left side and sat down with her, looking at her from out of the corner of her right eye. Leaving her advisor in the dark was part of the plan to put Chrysalis on the wrong hoof. Eclipse was throwing a major bluff in this game, and the fewer who knew of it, the fewer who could expose it.

Chrysalis finally came to a decision, and shouted "Leave us!" without turning to face her Changeling army. There was a rustling in the trees as hundreds of insectoid bodies fled to a safe distance, leaving the Changeling Queen standing face-to-face with the seated Pony Monarch.

Crescent Eclipse smiled up at the other, and gave a slow nod to her. "Thank you. I'm sure we can come to a solution that will benefit the both of us. Why are you invading my nation? What is it you seek to obtain?"

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the question, narrowing her eyes at the Alicorns before her. "We need to feed. Ponies are our main source of food," she hissed through clenched teeth, clearly not liking to give up any information at all.

"You think yourself predators, then? You want to eat my subjects?" Crescent tried to surmise.

"In a way," Chrysalis hissed angrily, then motioned at the only other remaining Changeling in their group of four. "Why don't you ask the deserter?"

Eclipse noticed Sunmane wince at the word, but turned her head to look at the Earthpony mare properly. "Can you give me an explanation, Sunmane?"

The poor Changeling looked utterly hurt at being branded a deserter, her eyes loathe to look away from her Queen but slowly turning in their sockets to stare up at the pony Queen instead. "I... Yes, I think I can," she sighed sadly. "Our species feeds on love; love between any race. You ponies have so much love to give, we have been jealous of it since we first learned of you."

Darkstar peered around her sibling at the Changeling drone. "You feed on love? How?"

"By taking on the form of a loved one and absorbing its energy as it's directed at us," Sunmane explained. "I took on this form after we captured the pony who was originally travelling with the other three."

"This means there are ponies held captive by you," Eclipse reasoned, turning her attention back to Chrysalis. "What could I offer you as payment for their safe return?"

Chrysalis finally sat herself down with a deep frown, letting out a huff. "There's nothing we need. We will keep them."

"I can't let you do that," Crescent Eclipse decided. "They are my subjects, and I need them returned one way or another."

"It's impossible," Chrysalis returned stubbornly, staring back. "They're already cocooned."

Sunmane stared at her forehooves, her left ear twitching as she did.

"I'm not sure what that entails," the pony Matriarch started, "but I urge you to keep in mind that they make for decent bargaining chips in this conversation."

"Safe passage," Sunmane spoke up.

"What?" Chrysalis asked annoyedly.

"If we can travel within the pony lands without being hunted, we can feed on their love when we need to," Sunmane explained. "We won't starve that way."

"This would mean letting you abduct ponies where you go, replacing them by taking their forms?" Darkstar listed with a snort. "I'm not happy with that thought."

"Maybe we could take on a form... similar to our target, but not replace them exactly?" Sunmane wondered quietly, her voice trailing off at the end as Chrysalis stared her down.

"I'm willing to give your race a chance to seek such peaceful co-existence, Chrysalis," Crescent Eclipse offered. "I myself came up out of a very dark place, where I hungered for love as well. Or admiration, perhaps."

"You can't possibly compare yourself to us," Chrysalis snorted, looking appaled. "We're far removed from your pesky pony selves."

"If we're so pesky, why do you need our love?" Eclipse returned calmly. "As I said; I'm open to negotiating a peaceful end to this situation. If you withdraw your army to your own lands, I am willing to let you travel freely throughout mine. In that situation, your subjects, or 'drones', can see whether there is a less invasive means of obtaining your love from my ponies."

"And what if that fails? What if your subjects run from us?" Chrysalis mused. "What if we come to you and get hunted down for what we are?"

Sunmane let herself flop down to the ground. "I've been stuck with them for days now," she sighed out. "I'm so confused..."

Crescent spread her left wing and motioned to Darkstar with it. "Do we appear to you as regular ponies? Do we not strike you as creatures who might be hunted down as well? I fell to a darkness which is difficult to describe, embraced it, became it. My subjects riled up at the idea of me ruling over them, and I have had to strike them down where they became too rowdy. But, speaking from experience, if you give my ponies a chance to let the idea settle with them, they are willing to forgive most atrocities as long as you appear fair to them."

"And what does 'fair' mean?" Chrysalis inquired, her eyelids trembling slightly.

"Not abducting them would be a good start," Eclipse chuckled softly. "I'm speaking to you as one Queen to another; as long as we can speak instead of fight, our subjects should be able to do the same. If we open the road to co-existence, we can study one another and grow together to the benefit of all involved. And, as long as we are able to talk, we can figure out what is needed for you to release my subjects back to my care."

Chrysalis sat in silence at hearing Crescent Eclipse's words, her eyelids trembling slightly as she looked the three of them over. Her thoughts were her own, and the pony matriarch let her work things out without interruption, only moving to place a wing over Sunmane's back. The bone-and-skin limb lazily stroked over the disguised Changeling's back in an effort to give the poor thing some peace of mind.

"I could overrun you," Chrysalis finally whispered to herself. "Why don't I?"

"So you run through me and my guards, take over our lands, and disrupt the lives of thousands of ponies. You end up with a thousand more mouths to feed, and they will be unable to sustain you. Without them able to live their lives, your food supply will wither and disappear in a few short years," Crescent Eclipse listed. "You'll be worse off than if we work out a peaceful solution that could last us a thousand years."

Sunmane looked up in surprise from her position on the ground. "I hadn't thought of it that way," she spoke with new realisation.

"Nor had I," said Chrysalis, finally submitting to the idea. "We came upon a whole town before reaching this point, and subdued it. I have over seventy ponies in cocoons."

"How close by?" Crescent asked.

"A day, maybe two," Chrysalis responded thoughtfully. "I can return the town's ponies for an equal number of my drones allowed to stay behind."

"That sounds like a good deal, but I am growing fond of the little one here. How about you leave her with me and she can serve as a liaison between our races?" Eclipse suggested calmly, stroking her wing over Sunmane's back again.

Chrysalis looked over at the pony on the floor, then shrugged. "Agreed. I would not want him back looking this way."

"I will change the agreement I have with Sunmane so they are allowed to change back to your Changeling appearance when they return to your lands," the pony Queen decided. "As long as she's with me, she will take on a pony form."

"Yes, ma'am," Sunmane muttered in agreement.

"What about the pony Sunmane?" Chrysalis wondered. "Would you need them returned?"

"What would you require in return?" Eclipse asked with a warm smile.

"I could sustain my hive with as few as twenty of your ponies staying with us," Chrysalis reasoned. "I will need replacements."

"I will need assurances in that case," Crescent chuckled. "Hearing about them being cocooned makes me think they are not treated well. If I allow your subjects free movement through your lands, perhaps you can agree to a similar setup for my subjects? We can set up an exchange system that ensures you always have enough love to sustain your family, while you make sure not to harm them too much?"

"We don't need to suck them dry to feed from them," Sunmane noted. "If there's enough love to go around..."

"Hmpf, it sounds too good to be true," Chrysalis grumbled. "Why would you allow us to do this to your subjects?"

"Because I would loathe to see another race starve, nor do I want for my subjects to be enslaved. In this setup I would send willing ponies your way and our races can grow together. Does it feel like I'm repeating myself?" Crescent Eclipse wondered, looking over at Darkstar.

"I'm still shocked you have a penchant for diplomacy at all, dear sister," Darkstar returned. "To me it sounds fair, more so than the solution I would have gone for."

"Which would have been what?" Chrysalis demanded.

"I command the bloody sun," Darkstar revealed. "I would have just smashed it on top of your head."