The Beloved of Princess Nightmare Moon
Chapter 1
Nightmare Moon rushed up the spiraling stairs of the tower, shouldering a massive silver mace as she did so. In her wake, a trail of dead changeling soldiers and servants to the crown. Ahead of her, her beloved in waiting. Stained with the orange blood of the enemy, she tore past slitted window after window, panting as she galloped wildly higher. Spitting a coppery taste from her mouth, she hefted her weapon when she reached the sturdy wooden door. It blasted to pieces before her fury, spraying the stone and carpet floor with debris. “Bandaid!” she cried, eyes darting about. Bandaid stood on the stone balcony handrails, wearing a massive tattered black cape. It billowed in the phantom breeze of the late night badlands, twisting about like a whisp of cloud. The black medallion Nightmare had given him all that time ago still hung on his chest. He looked frightened, disheveled and sweaty. What had she been doing to him?! Chrysalis had a simple wing sword pressed to the nape of his neck. Hovering there with her massive wings buzzing, she threatened to send him over the edge with only a gesture. Nightmare paused, angrily assessing and glancing about. “How many times must we dance this dance, sister?!” The black mare shouted, hefting her weapon. “How long ‘til you understand my fury, and stay from my heart?!” She gestured to Bandaid, who gave a loud whimper when Chrysalis landed on the balcony handrail next to him.
The structure shuddered. Chrysalis was time and a half bigger than he. He chanced a glance over his shoulder. The sheer drop was hundreds of feet to the courtyard below. The hundreds of onion-shaped buildings below beckoned. “I never touched him this time! You're tresspassing on my lands!” Chrysalis said angrily.
“Having thy servants mare-handle him is no different!” Nightmare spat, taking a step forward. Chrysalis threatened further and Bandaid wavered wildly where he stood. The black mare stopped, gasping as he teetered on the edge.
“Perhaps you’d like to tell me why your stallion is here in the middle of the Badlands capital?! Is he spying on me?!” Chrysalis demanded. “Tell me, before I send him over the edge!”
“N-Nightie, help me!” Bandaid said in a quavering voice. “I-I-I can’t take heights like this!” He leaned forward to steady himself and a long line of red started down his front. “Ouch…” he whimpered.
“Speak!” Chrysalis demanded angrily. “What are you two doing here?!”
“Enough of your games!” Nightmare shouted. Hefting the massive morning star to one side, she took a single step then launched herself wildly forward. The black burst of speed spanned her wings. Chrysalis swung her sword with a shout, and Bandaid could only fling himself backward or die. He careened over the edge and into open air. The moon encircled him for but a moment, a black shape on her pale face... before he fell. An arc of Nightmare’s horn magic met Chrysalis’ strike, stunning them both. The Night Goddess tumbled cartoonishly over the side and off the balcony with a loud string of curses. The Changeling Queen dashed herself to the edge, peering over as the two figures raced to the ground below. She shouted curses after them, hoping they would crash to the ground and die.
Bandaid screamed and flailed all about, tumbling end over end as the floors of the mighty changeling palace flew past him in a blur. The ground was rushing up to meet him, oh gods. Tears escaped the sides of his eyes as the wind whipped by. Nightmare finally gained control of herself and angled her wings. Folding herself into a bullet shape she streaked towards him with all her might. Balconies whizzed by, confused changeling onlookers peering after them as they flew past. Horrifically, Bandaid struck the side of the tower, blasting off pieces of brown plaster as he went. He yelped like a mare, stunned and bleeding from the head. Nightmare gritted her teeth, lighting her horn to put on a burst of speed. Her wings screamed in protest, the air of speed shrieking in her ears. She flattened herself, pulling her legs up under her carriage. “C’mon c’mon c’monnn…!” she growled through her gritted teeth and fangs.
Bandaid fell back-down belly-up. He looked up at her diving after him, silent and pleading. Droplets of blood seemed to hover in the air around him. He reached for her with a seemingly tiny hoof, begging with his tear-streaked face. Save me. Save me Nightie, his eyes said. The ground rushed up to meet them both.
Red, glittering magic suddenly seized Bandaid from the air, slowing him. Nightmare’s wings flared so quickly she almost backflipped. She struck the ground and shattered the tiles with her mighty hooves, sending spiderweb patterns in all directions. Bandaid hung motionless, battered but alive, in midair. Nightmare’s head snapped hawkishly from one side to the other. Where-?!
A black stallion emerged from shadow, gleaming with silver vestments. His red eyes flicked skyward from which they’d come. Chrysalis was flying down as quickly as her buzzing wings would carry her. “Lord Sombra…?” Bandaid said airily, then passed out from stress and pain. When the stallion limpened, Sombra lowered him gently to the ground and released the hold of his magic. He growled wordlessly, already seeing the battle that was about to interrupt his late-night stroll.
Nightmare rushed to Bandaid without thinking, coddling him up into her arms. She pulled his limp head to her breast. “Oh dear one! Dear, dear one!” she nearly wept over him, and almost didn’t hear Chrysalis landing nearby.
“Well done, Sombra,” Chrysalis said shortly, lifting her wing sword. Her massive hooves clitter-clopped as she rapidly approached Nightmare Moon from behind. “I would hate to have them both dash on the ground and rob me of the pleasure of killing them both myself!” She pressed the tip of her weapon painfully into her sister’s back. “Last chance, what brought you into the Badlands?! Be quick, before I end you both!” The fact that Nightmare Moon was a goddess like herself had temporarily escaped her, it seemed. She was so caught off guard by the sudden attack, the sudden burst of violence that had sent her entire castle into an uproar, she was beside herself. Over a year of absolute isolation had done wonders for her temper, but this insult was too much! How dare Nightmare Moon and her idiot boy toy invade her home so brazenly?!
Sombra frowned in a troubled way, looking skyward to the tower they’d fallen from. Then at the scene before him. It was no secret Bandaid was Queen Chrysalis’ favorite kidnapping victim as of late, but not in over a year had she left the city or sent any agents into Equestria (that he was aware of). His jowls lifted a little to expose the fangs beneath. Something wasn’t adding up. Bandaid was frightened of this entire country, and Nightmare Moon would not bring him here for risk of releasing his… well… temper tantrums. When at last somepony spoke, it was Sombra. “My queen, I do not think Princess Nightmare or Nurse Bandaid are here by choice,” he said. His voice was deep and syrupy, like mahogany wood. Chrysalis gave pause for but a moment, and that was all he needed. “She would never bring him here, and you obviously didn’t snatch him or he would’ve been surrounded by guards before Nightmare’s arrival. To keep him from being fed on.”
The scene seemed to stop for a moment. Chrysalis looked at Sombra incredulously, then to Nightmare, then back to him. It didn’t add up. She didn’t like it when it didn’t add up. “How did an earth pony arrive in the top room of the highest tower before Nightmare arrived to start slaughtering my guards and hoofservants?” Her large eyes narrowed and she slowly lowered her weapon from Nightmare’s bleeding back.
Nightmare Moon slowly stood, Bandaid on her back, her mouth a neutral line. There was a long, pregnant silence. The two sisters stared at each other’s eyes, looking for lies or deceit or even a measure of mischief. Neither could find it in the other. Only indignant anger and confusion. “Something is wrong…” Nightmare said, slowly relaxing her stance. Bandaid’s weight shifted and she leaned to compensate.
Chrysalis gave her wingsword a quick swing to fling the blood from it, and sheathed it under a wing. Her teeth and fangs were clenched in anger. “Who would dare try to trick we gods?!” she demanded. She looked to Sombra, but his look said he didn’t know.
“You two are like huge, angry magnets,” Sombra said with a troubled growl, “The better question, my Queen, may be… who wants the two of you fighting?” the black stallion touched a hoof to his bristled chin.
“Celestia!” Chrysalis blurted.
“Neigh,” Nightmare scowled, “Celestia is visiting the Alpacastan as we speak for diplomatic reasons…” she trailed off before she betrayed too much.
“Both Princesses out of the country at the same time?” Chrysalis puzzled with a frown. “That’s rare indeed…” she stopped to take a cleansing breath and rid herself of the battle panting she’d taken up since catching Bandaid in her castle-palace.
“…Discord?” Sombra offered. Both Goddesses fixed him with an angry look. “Perhaps not,” he quickly amended, turning his ears apologetically back. Their brother was rarely accounted for, but he would not do such a thing to stir the pot of conflict.
A low hum began to fill the air around them. Chrysalis’ ears perked as a group of drones began to emerge from the palace and side streets to fill the courtyard. Armed with spears and crossbows they made a big ring about the mosaic design of the area, buzzing and clicking like gigantic ants. They clicked and buzzed in the changeling tongue, waving their weapons threateningly until Chrysalis lifted a hoof to silence them. A captain with a red bandanna about his neck came forward, buzzing and then saluting. “Count your number, there may be some outside agent among us,” Chrysalis spoke in the common tongue to him. He bowed low and turned to obey. “I don’t enjoy your presence any more than dog shit on my carpets,” the Queen told Nightmare Moon. “Take him and flee from here. I will visit soon to discuss this… incident, further.” The black mare made a face. Queen Chrysalis visiting Equestria would not be pleasant, but… Nightmare didn’t need to be told twice.
While she was immortal, dearest Bandaid was most certainly not. She could not protect him from so many. Slowly lowering her head and closing her wings, she backed off. She walked backward, eyes never leaving Sombra or Chrysalis, until she was outside the ring of changeling soldiers. She did not speak her thanks to Sombra for saving her beloved, merely stared at him. She would need to send him a boon, when time and circumstance allowed. Nightmare would not forget this day. This savage head-butting between them had been all too easy for whomever had actually taken Bandaid. If not a Changeling, then… whom?
*****
Princess Celestia boarded the train, positively scarlet in the face. Her private pair of guards politely brought her ice water and thin wafers for the trip before leaving her in peace. Her mane hanging over her eyes and muzzle, she contemplated what she’d said right in the middle of the senate. The people of Alpacastan were very fond of their truth-telling spells. The entire layout of their primary government building was shaped like a truth rune. With a spell that size none could resist it. They thought it helped their government go straight and true. But, any visiting diplomat had to guard their tongue. Even a visiting Goddess and Child of Faust like herself.
Celestia took a long drink of the ice water and pressed the glass to her cheek as though it would banish the color from it. Many onlookers outside the train waved goodbye with handkerchiefs and confetti, seeing off the strange foreign princess. The alpacas of Alpacastan were a loud, fluffy, boisterous people and they thought she was simply the strangest thing they’d ever seen. Whoever had heard of a giant horse princess? She was huge, too, they’d said. (Apparently ponies came in different sizes— and she was a jumbo!)
They’d asked her how she felt. No context, just there in the middle of the meeting. No doubt they were referring to the current discussion, but she’d been checking her notes on the three-way mountain passage between Equestria, Alpacastan and the Crystal Empire. She’d spoken her answer without thinking, without measuring, without anything of the sort. The silence she’d received in return was all it took for her to excuse herself. But the blush didn’t leave her face after that meeting, nor the next day when the meetings continued. Those three small words… why, why had she said such a thing to foreign diplomats, in a foreign country?! They treated her gently after that. None of them would raise their voices to her, and none of them did much more than acknowledge her vote or opinion in matters after that. If Princess Celestia Cosmos Equiness had such things on her mind, she was not to be trifled with so cruelly as with the dance and duel of international politics. Not now, at least. Treat her like she’s pregnant, she’d overheard one squire saying to another.
The Day Princess took another long drink of ice water, and called for wine. She needed something a bit heavier if she was going to calm down. She didn’t mind the worried gaze of the mare serving her as she drained the first glass and asked for another before she’d even moved away. “Thank you,” she offered, setting the second glass pensively in front of her. It was a deep, fruity wine that smelled of hot dragonberries. The not-quite-a-fruit-drink kind that made most aristocrats snort and roll their eyes. Hours went by before the northern mountains began to crawl into view. She looked northward, towards the Crystal Empire. Would Cadance…? She… she would help, wouldn’t she? Yes. Yes there was no doubting her sister to the north. Licking her lips and letting the wine give her courage, the white alicorn stood and gave the servant’s bell rope a firm tug. When a servant appeared, she spoke. “Tell the conductor we are changing routes,” she said gently. “We make for the Crystal Empire.”
“Yes your highness,” it wasn’t a question. He turned after bowing and made for the front of the train. After a few minutes, the Princess felt the train jolt with new speed. The de-icing panels were opening on the outside of the train cars. They were feeding more coal into the engine. The fires blazed as it was opening up for a fast charge forward. The windows began to magically slide closed and tint themselves. The firefly lamps turned on, lighting the cabin areas. The metal sheets slid over the windows to protect from the coming cold. The front of the locomotive slowly sprouted a spiraling spike. If there was ice or snow on the tracks, nothing would stop her majesty’s train from making it all the way north.
WHOOOOO WHOOOOOOO!!!
The massive machine screamed as it rounded the curve of a hill. Just before it turned all the way north into the mountains, a messenger pegasus leaped from it and into the open air. She powered south to let Canterlot know Celestia was taking a detour.
A tunnel howled past Celestia’s window and she leaned back in her seat. Too late to turn back now, they’d already taken the tracks towards her sister Cadance’s home. She looked out over the trees as the hours went by. They slowly turned white, then became fewer in number, then vanished entirely. A day and a half gave Celestia plenty of time to groom, relax and try to put her three important words into many before she came to Cadance’s august presence. She would’ve sent a messenger ahead, but she had no dragon for smoke mail, and she had no pegasus that could fly faster than a train could go.
When the spires of the Crystal Empire slowly came into view, the train screamed twice again to warn them of their approach. When the train pulled into the station ponies scattered this way and that in confusion. A royal visit?! Why hadn’t they been told?! They weren’t ready to receive someone as important as Princess Celestia! The white alicorn took a deep breath and stepped off the train, flanked by her twelve honor guards and sporting a white scarf about her long alicorn neck. She gave polite smiles, but did not stop to speak to anypony. She did see the fast-flying messenger pegasus dashing towards the palace like her life depended on it, though. Cadance would have maybe twenty minutes before she arrived at the Crystal Palace.
Technically, the Crystal Empire was an independent city-state, but it lay within Equestria’s northern borders and shared her military. Celestia had always treated it as Cadance’s property and nothing less. Well, save that one time she’d chased Discord into the very heart of the palace and caused all that mess. Celestia felt her heart quicken in embarrassment as she strode forward. She’d not visited since and she’d not sent an apology letter either. There was no polite way to say ‘sorry I destroyed part of your home while I tried to kill our brother’, after all. The city sprouted up about her rather quickly as she strode down the glassy sidewalk and towards the palace proper. Ponies gave her and her guards a wide berth, none daring to stop them or even slow them down.
It was His Majesty Shining Armor that met them at the drawbridge with a puzzled frown. Celestia sighed inwardly. The poor stallion had been in the room during her tussle with Discord. “Princess Celestia, this is… unexpected,” he said politely, standing firmly between her and the archway of the courtyard. She stopped near to him. He’d planted his hooves. His face spoke volumes; he was not happy to see her. “My wife is in the throne room, I will escort you.” His tone and the crossbow ponies on the wall said to leave her guards behind. She did so with grace, bidding them to rest in the nearby businesses or eateries if they wished. “To what do we owe this unexpected visit?” Shining Armor asked with the same neutral politeness as they crossed the threshold into the Crystal Tower atrium.
“I’m here to see my sister and ask her advice,” Celestia said truthfully.
“Oh?” Shining Armor said. Their hoofsteps echoed as they passed hearth after hearth in the hallways, none more than fifty feet apart, all of them chewing on long logs.
“Yes,” she left it at that. This didn’t please him.
“My wife and I are understandably caught off guard. You haven’t visited us since-!“
“--And for that, I am sorry, Prince Shining Armor,” Celestia said quickly. “I have not been a good sister or neighbor lately.” She watched his expression agree with her, but he said nothing aloud. “I seem to have a bad habit of showing up at my sister’s door when things are wrong with me.”
“Are you sick?” Shining Armor said, looking up at her with a startled expression.
“No, I am… erm…” Celestia couldn’t find a good word without blurting it out, and fell silent for a time. “I need my sister’s council,” was all she finally said. “And nopony else’s.”
The grand double doors awaited them, and the guards were startled by the alicorn’s presence. They almost tripped over themselves to seize the rings and pull the doors open for her. They groaned with all their might, each weighing massively on the pony pulling them. Pink. Pink everywhere. Pink and purple and lots of gold. Cadance had never been shy about her decorating tastes. Jubilant shades of red and crystalline designs lauded over everything about the room. The columns, the stained-glass windows, even the dais of the throne.
Cadance lay like a bird on a nest, on a massive scarlet pillow. Celestia cleared her throat, standing in the doorway. Shining Armor abandoned her there, stepping across the massive room and up the dais stairs. He nuzzled his wife a few times, leaning to whisper to her. The white alicorn waited, then spoke aloud for ceremony, “Hail Cadance, Princess of the Crystal Empire and all her holdings, Goddess of Love!” She gave a long dip of the neck, spreading her white wings about the floor in greeting. The servants and posted guards murmured to each other in approval, more than a little placated. Everypony there was privy to Celestia’s last… "visit".
“And to you too, my sister Celestia,” Cadance lifted a hoof with a flippant motion. She stood from her royal seating pillow with all the liquid grace of a snowy mountain cat. The squires, servants, and even Shining Armor scattered from her path when she started slowly forward. What was that look in her eye? Something between intensity, annoyance, and… patience? Like a mother waiting for an apology, Celestia realized. The slow clip-clip-clip-clop of her hooves echoed across the now silent chambers of the crystal throne room. The quiet intensity followed the goddess of love as she descended the dais to the level of the carpets.
There was a quiet hum of magic and electricity between the two goddesses. The usual shields were already in place. Discord had reversed gravity on the planet, and Celestia had imprisoned him in stone for an age. Nightmare Moon had tried to bring about night time eternal, and had been sealed in the moon for one thousand years. Chrysalis had been skinned alive (and outright murdered). Now only Cadance remained to commit some sin that Celestia might try to punish her for. It always hung in the air between them, even in happy times. Cadance tried to distance herself for it. But, at the moment, she had the social upper hoof. The goddess of love stopped before the goddess of the sun. The room was as quiet as a tomb.
Everypony waited.
Finally it was Celestia who bent. “I’m sorry for… for what I did during my last visit,” she said quietly, lowering her head. The servants murmured again. Shining Armor glared them to silence with a light harrumph. “I blamed Discord for my beloved’s death and saw only him, not you and your home.” Her ears turned back and she leaned into an apologetic bow. “If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you-!”
“Apologizing in front of my husband and all my little ponies is enough,” Cadance’s icy exterior finally broke, and the temperature of the room rose a bit. She gave a warm smile. “Be welcome, sister.” She leaned and embraced her taller sibling, wings and all. “Oooooommm-MMPH!” she said with gusto into the hug. Everypony in the room relaxed at last, watching Celestia sigh in relief. “But tell me, what brings you to my empire?” she turned and started walking conversationally. “Is Chrysalis acting up again?”
“Oh no, no this was on a whim… sort of,” Celestia admitted, scratching one fetlock and looking at the floor suddenly. “I wanted to ask your council and advice on… matters,” she said carefully.
Cadance looked interested, “Please, share with me, I’ll help if I can.”
“Do you remember Mountain Blood?” Celestia tasted his name for the first time in ages.
The pink alicorn gave a long and startled pause, “Of course, that gem of a stallion made you the happiest I’d ever seen you. I couldn’t forget head-over-hooves Celestia!” she smiled, but then the smile fell when she saw the rather sad puppy dog-eyed look she was being given. “That was hundreds of years ago, though, why do you bring him up?”
“I…” Celestia fumbled for the three words that she’d blurted under the truth spell in Alpacastan. So many servants and others were staring at her, and her wings fluttered a little bit in embarrassment. “I am… lonely,” she finally got the words out.
Cadance fell silent, staring into Celestia’s face. Without blinking, she gave a snap of her hoof onto the marble floor. The servants positively fled until only the pair of them, plus Shining Armor, remained in the massive throne room. “You’re done mourning,” Cadance whispered in awe, studying her sister’s face very closely. Celestia felt the lump rising in her throat, and she gave a silent nod. “You’re done mourning him?” she whispered again. Celestia nodded again.
“W-will you… would you…?”
“Yes, absolutely yes,” Cadance nodded with a slowly growing smile. “But you must do something for me in return.”
“Name it,” Celestia said, finally able to breathe with the massive weight off her shoulders.
“Burn your ships,” Cadance said with a soft, kind smile. “When you’re ready to start completely fresh, bring me the ashes,” she said.
Celestia knew what she meant. She didn’t want to admit it, but she knew exactly what Cadance wanted. “But… his portrait is all I have left to remember him by,” Celestia said softly.
“And he will continue to be fondly remembered, but if you want a new relationship, you cannot cling to that picture anymore,” Cadance said. “If you want my help, that is my price.”
“I understand,” Celestia whispered, her face falling a bit. “I’ll contact you soon.”
“Starting a new chapter of your love life is never easy, don’t do it until you’re ready,” Cadance bade her, leaning and hugging her in earnest. “I’m the goddess of love, I know these things!” She sent Celestia away after that, and back onto her train. It would be a long ride home for the Princess of the Sun.
End of Chapter 1