Two Weeks After the Death of the Guardian
Just Under 6 Months Prior to the Commencement of The Game
Chrysalis das Pupa, sole queen of the changeling race, descendant of the beloved Amaryss, creator of the Grand Scheme by which the Hive Throne and the Dual Thrones would be bound together by bonds of matrimony in accordance with the most ancient and respected tradition of two noble houses was presently (and momentarily) on her back due to a very expertly-thrown pillow by a most smugly-grinning husband. To be perfectly fair, she’d started it by dropping every one of the considerable number of cushions in the master bedroom on him but being floored by one’s husband via padded projectile was a most unseemly and unqueenly situation.
Time to rectify it.
Still splayed out on her back, she lifted all of the cushions again and began to rotate them around the suddenly not-so-smug stallion.
“You know, this is supposed to be a pillow fight,” he said conversationally, very deliberately not watching his plush doom orbiting in a vague dome. “Couch cushions aren’t pillows.” He gestured to the bed mattress above him. “And that… that is cheating.”
“All’s fair in love and war sweetie,” she said with as sweet a smile as she could manage.
“But this isn’t war. It’s a fight.” He rolled his eyes up so he was watching the menacing mattress, sized so that six ponies could fit comfortably on it with a twin-sized space for each. “The fun kind. In theory. Please put the mattress down, Rissy.”
“Anything for my darling,” she sing-songed.
And stopped holding the mattress up.
This being a regular occurrence in their fights, Pharynx had enough time to do the tabled eyebrows and the very dry “you’re despicable” before he was only visible as a large lump in the center.
She rolled to her feet and started putting the couch cushions back, giggling to herself a little in an extremely unqueenly fashion, before turning to where he’d had already put the mattress back and was taking his revenge by tucking in all the sheets with extreme military precision, producing corners you could put an eye out on.
“Vengeance is unseemly for a crown prince, love,” she teased, retrieving the multicolored pillows to begin arranging at the head.
“So is attempted husband-cide by mattress.” He started on the next layer with the same level of precision. “And you should be blaming my late drill sergeant.”
“I stop by and leave flowers sometimes.” Which was the end of the play for the morning.
“I saw.” He stepped over and gave her cheek a kiss. “It’s sweet of you to remember.”
“As mother put it, a queen isn’t allowed to forget.” She turned her head and kissed him back, inhaling at the pleasant sensation of spousal love wafting over her cheek. “Shall I call the kitchen for breakfast?”
“I will,” he said. “You get to hogtie our wild child.”
Chrysalis laughed at his overly serious expression. “You know you can just ask her wife.”
He smiled a little at her laugh and shook his head. “You know why I can’t. It’s silly, but…”
“...unofficial unwritten social laws are still laws.” She leaned up to kiss his horn, which he preferred to keep smooth and occasionally switch between green and orange (all he’d ever say about it was ‘lost a bet, dear’). “One of these days, I’ll epater la noblesse to the gasps of horror from Camri.”
“I sometimes wonder if she practices those…”
“Love, have you ever seen her cutie mark?”
“I don’t tend to stare at the flanks of other mares anymore,” he said piously.
She poked him in the side. “Be serious.”
“No, she seems to like to keep it covered. Why?”
“Theater masks, dear.”
He nodded to this. “I wondered how she managed the pain in public, charming in private persona.”
“Teachers used to hate her,” Chrysalis smiled at the memory of a younger, slender version of the often overwrought noble. “She changed roles like she changes earrings so they never knew what she’d be from term to term. Remind you of someone?”
“And that’s why you get to hogtie her and bring her to breakfast.” The smile faded as he opened his wardrobe, glancing between his uniform and less formal white smoking jacket. “Thryssa should be home by now.”
The mention of their eldest daughter made the smile disappear from her as well. “Sugary?”
“Still standing to with First Tantalus, conducting the draw-down.” He pulled the uniform from the closet and began unbuttoning it. “I don’t think he knows how to stay away from the front lines. Remember what that was like?”
“Yes.” She tugged the uniform out of his grasp and replaced it with the smoking jacket. “I’m glad not to experience it anymore. Happier not to be be reminded of it every time I look at my husband across the breakfast table. I think our little girl would prefer that too, no matter what act she puts on.”
“I think she’d appreciate the reminder that soldiers get old at home.” But he kissed her and put on the more casual jacket--and the exquisite estoc that suited it--before opening the drawers that contained her court ornaments. “Silver or black?”
“Silver,” she said instantly, slipping his delicately-wrought crown--a twin to her own--out of her drawers. “Also, speaking of Camri, tell the kitchens to set out a sea platter for her.”
He gave her a look of brief surprise. “Should I have the courier…?”
“No need, she knows.” She walked around their bed with his crown in her grasp and conducted their morning ritual, crowning one another and sealing it with a final shared kiss, before Pharynx disappeared out the door to arrange breakfast and she went out the other to seek out Cryssa.
Cryssa du Closs, Lepinora’s wife-in-all-but-official-acknowledgement, was perhaps the only mare Chrysalis had ever seen who wore a tailored gray suit with an actual silk ruffle at her throat, a monocle, and still somehow did not look absurd. She’d never actually asked what series of events had led to the decision, but it somehow fit very well on the austere noble. Cryssa’s stoicism, perfect counterpart to Lepi’s excitability, didn’t make her any less friendly and Chrysalis found herself greeted by a light, one-leg hug when she entered the wing where the two mares lived.
“Hello, Queen Mother,” she said. “Nora will be ready for breakfast in a few minutes.”
Chrysalis returned the hug and smiled at the mare, very nearly as tall as she was although noticeably thinner. “Cryssa, you’ve been my daughter in law in all but official status for years. Family doesn’t normally call family by titles.”
“Family is not normally family in all but official status.” Chrysalis normally concealed the small wince at the touch of bitterness in Chryssa’s tone but it was much harder when the mare was looking at her very directly. “When that changes, Chrysalis, so will the business of your not-quite daughter-in-law calling you ‘queen’.”
“You know I want it to.”
“I do.” Cryssa smiled. “And that is why I am bitter, never angry. It is irksome, this business of official status, but even your favorite overstuffed guardian of tradition treats it no differently than if I was Nora’s husband. Unofficially, of course.”
She smirked a little. “There are times I think Lepi rubs off on you a little too much. She’s barely fatter than I am.”
“I know,” Chryssa said with a tone that was a touch too cheery to be only acknowledgement.
“Perhaps I should say ‘most times’.” She glanced over the suit and noted that it has very recently been brushed and pressed. “You are allowed to dress less formally for a family breakfast.”
“I won’t be attending.” Cryssa sighed lightly. “Tettidora is stabilizing a distance circle for me as we speak.”
“Is that what she’s calling it…” Chrysalis sighed as well. “I anticipated this, sooner or later. Of course the asylum would be needing everyone now.”
“I have a duty to my patients, even the ones whose only pathology is grief.” Cryssa smiled again. “Pinkamena is helping, when her duties allow. She does more in a hour than we can do in a week.”
“Pinkamena… Pie?”
“The Element of Laughter, yes.”
“I wouldn’t have expected her parties to be… appropriate for ponies suffering from emotional and mental traumas, at least none that require professional treatment.”
“Parties are always appropriate.” Cryssa grinned for a moment before returning to the smile. “But the affair of the Guardian has… changed her. For the better, I feel. She adapts to what a suffering pony really needs from an endless fountain of joy and good cheer better than before.”
“I hope you haven’t had any of the other Elements under your care.”
“Rarity Belle, Dawn Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash have each taken advantage of walk-in clinical services,” she said. “I can’t speak to any informational notes--I fear you’ll have to wait for one of my wife’s spies to steal some--but none of the services indicated pathologies of any medical concern.”
“She discussed them with me at dinner last week.”
“But you needed confirmation from a specialist.”
“It would be irresponsible not to consult an expert if one is willing to be consulted.” Chrysalis glanced at the door to the lavatory, noted the minuscule gap, then looked back to Cryssa. “No medical concern. Any personal concern?”
“Harmony’s instinct was that both Miss Belle and Miss Sparkle would seek further services at some point,” Cryssa said. “Ordinarily I would regard an intern’s assessment with the proper professional distance but discerning future therapeutic needs is her established expertise, in line with her special talent.”
“I appreciate you speaking with me about this, Cryssa,” Chrysalis said. “And for what it’s worth…”
“I know.” Cyrssa bowed slightly. “I understand that there are certain traditions that even the most beloved queen keeps a fair distance from, especially a queen who intends to use her power to make a very old wrong right.”
“It’s not an excuse.”
“But it is a valid reason, and that’s always been enough for us.” She looked at the door. “You can stop that now, Nora.”
“Aww, why ya gotta ruin the fun, Crys?” Lepinora finally opened the lavatory door fully and trotted out, a moving explosion of colorful art who looked about as different from Cryssa as possible.
“Because you are a reprobate, dear heart.” Cryssa leaned over and kissed Lepi. “Feeling grunge band today?”
“Metal.” She nuzzled the taller mare and looked at Chrysalis. “I’ll be at the morning briefing in fifteen minutes, Mother. I’ll see if I can penetrate Cricket’s nerd shield and haul her with me.”
“If you want more time…”
Lepi snorted. “Momma, I’m seeing her off to treat sick ponies, not to war. Fifteen minutes.”
“Give High Lady du Luc my best, Queen Mother.” Cryssa said. “I regret that I can’t express my regards myself but duty calls.”
“I’ll tell her.” Chrysalis bowed slightly to Cryssa. “I’ll tell the staff to keep your tea hot, Lepi.”
Thirty minutes later, Lepi was blowing softly on the rim of her teacup and pausing to take in the fragrance of the orange blossoms scattered across the surface of the piping hot liquid while her eldest sister tucked into breakfast with a soldierly vigor.
“Callista never ceases to impress.” The effect of Camri du Luc setting aside her absurd amount of gaudy jewelry was as transformational as any actress taking off a mask: a chubby mare radiating tackiness like a bad odor turned into a tastefully-adorned matron of a noble family, the slight rounding of age offset by the stark ascetic features of a native of the year-round chill of Stalliongrad. Chrysalis suspected that if she hadn’t grown up with her, Camri’s costume and stage performance as a razor-tongued critic of the throne would bother her more.
“Little wonder her bistro is so popular,” Chrysalis agreed as she scooped up a bite of the fresh citrus leaf salad and savored the lightly floral tang. It had happened that the young businessmare had been in the kitchens to refresh their supply of greens and had promptly taken over when Pharynx had poked his head in to give the kitchens their morning instructions. The result was the array of her scratch-made plates that kept the bistro she ran constantly packed. “Thank goodness for that du Dune eccentricity.”
“Aleera left as great a legacy to her family as Martella did mine.” She looked to Lepi. “And as Sarissa did hers.”
“No less one than Ansela, Tessa, Beatrice, and Amaryss.” Lepinora sipped her tea and smiled contentedly. “And thank you, Baroness.”
“I give no flattery that is not deserved. I regret that General Market cannot also be sharing our table this morning.”
Thryssa grimaced. “Damn Celestia anyway. Equestria in wreckage because one marble mare can’t…”
“Thryssa das Chrysalis.” Pharynx’ voice was no louder than his ordinary speaking voice but the sharpness and the use of her full name made Thryssa stop, take a deep breath, and let it flow out.
“I’m sorry, Father, not the time or place.” She cleared her throat. “I miss him as well, Your Grace. But it’s one of the hazards of marrying a very dutiful stallion: the reason you love him is the same reason you can’t keep him safely at home.”
“Yes,” Chrysalis agreed, giving her husband a smile. “I take it that Tettidora’s nerd shield was impenetrable today.”
“Doctor Leaf beat me to her and had shinier objects.” Lepi smirked. “And she found all of my ways into her chamber of secrets, so I couldn’t kidnap her plot.”
“Any progress on that clinical trial of his?” Thryssa said.
“Well into Stage Two,” Lepi said. “The Stage One debrief looked extremely positive, although I’m still trying to secure access to an area specialist who can interpret the results in detail. Based on discard notes, the complication frequency of Two is well below acceptable threshold so far with a hibernation depth fourteen percent beyond ursine normal.” She smiled. “I don’t understand all of the jargon of course, but the concentration of talent pointed at the project is exciting.”
“A light in the darkness,” Thryssa agreed. “Something everyone could really use about now.”
“Especially Equestria,” Chrysalis said, gesturing to the empty middle of the table they were all seated around. “Lepi, if you please.”
“Sure.” Lepi downed her tea in a single gulp and went to work. One of the many things that made her an excellent spymaster was how quickly and accurately she could convey information, and her tool were a series of intricate and beautifully-rendered magical sculpture-maps she could create wherever she chose and from memory. Camri’s reaction to the sculptures had been unabashed amazement the first time Chrysalis had invited her participation, and repeated viewings hadn’t changed that in the least: the otherwise controlled noblemare made no attempt to hide her amazement.
The first map Lepi rendered was at a very large scale, showing Equestria, the Barrens, and all the nations they had intercourse with. The second pass inserted symbolic representations of cities and villages, followed by flags showing the most prominent symbol for each entity.
“Logistical intelligence indicates that the Royal Guard has been fully deployed for policing and relief,” Lepi said, a touch of magic rendering the cutie mark of Guard Captain Shining Armor and then making copies and distributing them to the various settlements in a radius around Canterlot.
“I hear they’re no great shakes as soldiers,” Pharynx said.
“Mainly a matter of practice,” Camri said. “Something that as never really changed, as I recall reading. How would you assess the current captain?”
“High competence,” Lepi said. “Reconstruction will take time but everypony affected by the Guardian has had shelter and needs secured, and post-disaster criminal enterprise has been managed as well as possible, given the resources he had at hoof. Needless to say, the princesses are both heavily involving themselves in seeing to the comfort of their subjects.”
“Of course they are.” Chrysalis smiled.
“Moving outside of Equestria proper, Thryssa knows the state of things along the borders better than me so…” she gestured towards her sister.
“Nothing to report,” Thryssa said. “No one--even the normal array of adventurers, wanderers, the curious, and so on--is getting anywhere near the outer string. Sugary is managing the stand-down of First Tantalus on the Everfree terminus and dismantling the forward positions to move back to Lady Maredusa’s forest grotto…”
“Forward positions.” Chrysalis sighed. “Thryssa, did you have Sugary post First Tantalus at the terminus itself?”
“It seemed necessary…”
“...and anchor the Black Mambo above the position for a superior vantage point?”
Thryssa colored slightly. “It’s standard doctrine when posting forces to give them a superior vantage point. So yes.”
Chrysalis looked steadily at her for several seconds before turning her head to Pharynx. “Dear?”
He met her look steadily. “The spur line into the Everfree was cut off just prior to the affair of the Guardian, love.”
“I’m still not sure who or why,” Lepi offered. “With the chaos since and the number of dead, it’s possible I’ll never know. But I’ve checked the Royal Archives, Mother, the number of crossings from the terminus are single digits for a year. On average. Celestia has let any knowledge of there being anything in the Barrens other than featureless wastes lapse; I’m not sure that even Luna knows otherwise. Hay, I don’t think even Celestia believes there’s anything for her little ponies in the Barrens, other than a mass grave.”
“Then she’s in for quite a surprise,” Camri said. “One of many.” She leaned back and smirked slightly. “Well-deserved, I say; a few shocks are a very small price to pay for not gathering her lost subjects home after the generation that remembered had passed away.”
“I can’t speak to that, Baroness, but making preparations to intervene in force was required by the situation.” Thryssa crossed her forelegs. “I know the idea of our soldiers inside Equestria’s borders bother you, Mother, but straddling a major rail line into Equestria proper presented advantages I couldn’t just leave on the table.”
Chrysalis sighed. “I think we need to have a word, Thryssa, but we’ve been diverted from the matters at hand long enough. Are there any other military adventures I should know about?”
“I was thinking of an expedition to give the yetis some friendly advice.” Thryssa rolled her eyes. “It seems that they’re having trouble working out that a single airship chasing them into their borders and leaving one of their squalid dens and its entire garrison fleet in flames means ‘go away’.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it Thrys,” Lepi said. “I mean, smash more things to send a message, but I’m calling that in about a year, their boss is retiring. Probably by cannon, yetis being overly dramatic.”
“And that’s good, why?”
“Because the new boss is gonna be hypercompetant. Competent leaders don’t run around inviting big beefy military powers to kick their tails.”
“I’ll take any excuse I can to keep Sugary here instead of out there.” She gestured at the mesa lands stretching out to the direct north of Equestria. “Last I heard, it was all quiet on the northern front.”
They continued the morning briefing but Thryssa’s mention of the yetis had been the last unusual item on the list; the international situation appeared to be quiet for the time being. After Camri du Luc had taken her leave and Lepi had excused herself to take care of some matter of business or another, the breakfast table was just her, Pharynx, and Thryssa.
“Before I go anywhere else, Thryssa, I know that pushing your line forward to the Everfree terminus had legitimate military merit,” Chrysalis said. “And I’m sure you were informed that the spur line being diverted meant that the advance was very low-risk in return for many potential benefits.”
“Then what is the issue, Mother?” Thryssa said tiredly. “You gave me the responsibility of minding military matters for just this reason, so I could make decisions like this.”
“The issue is that my marshal of military forces saw no need to appraise her queen of the decision to advance into the sovereign territory of another nation,” Chrysalis said. “The issue isn’t mother-daughter, it’s an issue of chain of command. Even if you’d given Sugary full freedom of action, you’d be unhappy with him if he went sailing off into the dragon lands and stayed there a while without seeing fit to mention it.”
“No, Mother, the issue isn’t the chain of command,” Thryssa said. “If it was, you would have called me on the carpet in front of Baroness du Luc because that is the expected way for a superior to chastise a subordinate who’d ignored something that fundamental.”
“Then what do you think the issue is?”
“The issue is that you’re overly sensitive to the fact that I’m not enthusiastically on board with making nice at Celestia and treating Equestria as our protectorate instead of another sovereign nation.”
“Our fellow ponies…”
“They are not our fellow ponies,” Thryssa said sharply. “They are ponies like us, but ponies of another nation. And before you start talking about thousands of years of being their sword and shield, forget it. That was a different time, under a very different Celestia with Luna taking us under her wing and treating us as her own. Making common cause with them is great. I adore my Sugary, he’s a good stallion and will be a wonderful crown prince. Equestria is overflowing with good ponies: Shining Armor, the Six Elements, its generational farming families, the old guard of the Equestrian nobility, the ponies Cryssa hoof-picked to serve in her asylum, and innumerable others. But there’s one thing they have in common: when they learn that the ponies they loved and respected and worked with have carapaces, insect wings, and are partly nourished by hugs, the same fuse from a thousand years ago gets lit. And who, mother, is going to be queen when the slow burn hits the powder, which it will do?”
Chrysalis sighed at the increasingly familiar tirade from her eldest daughter. “You.”
“Yes.” Thryssa shook her head. “I’m not you, Mother. I’m not a visionary, I don’t radiate charisma, I’m never going to have my subjects just knocking at my door to tell me their foal just lost their first tooth. And unlike Amaryss, I’m not going to have six strong-willed heads of noble houses to lean on.”
“No you won’t, you’ll have nine.” Chrysalis paused, thinking. “Eleven, at least. I dare say you may even have nineteen.” She smiled at the look of blank surprise. “You’ll have your three sisters. You’ll have the matrons of the six houses. You’ll at least have Sugary and Cryssa, and I’m confident that Chidinida’s husband will do you excellent service as well. None of the six Elements are going to see the tragedy of a thousand years ago repeated if they can do anything about it, and neither are the Sisters. Frankly, Thryssa, I’m estimating low, very low; you will have more allies than you can count if the darkness looms a second time, and that only counts ponies.”
“Basically, eldest daughter, heir apparent, stop whining about oncoming doom and gloom,” Pharynx smiled. “If the worst happens, you’ll be spoiled for ways to address it… but it’s not going to happen.”
The comment drew a snort and a touch of a rueful grin from Thryssa before the worried expression returned. “I cannot afford your confidence,” she said. “The same thing that Malyss exploited to stir up racial hatreds where none really existed is still there. Even ponies as extraordinary as the Six initially reacted with trepidation to a zebra shamaness and herbalist, and zebras visually differ from earth ponies only in the pattern of their coats. It’s in our own people to an extent, although generations of regularly being around sand drakes, gorgons, rocs, and other oddities sort of cauterized it out of us.”
“Apparently not.” Chrysalis frowned. “What’s wrong, Thryssa?”
“I just told you what’s wrong.”
“No, you recited the same bog-standard list of paranoia you get from a pub when some of the homebodies get too much cider in them,” Pharynx said. “The usually solution is thumping the drunk upside the head and sending them home, but you’re not drunk, you’re already home, and your mother would hit me if I thumped you upside the head.”
“We’re being serious, Thryssa,” Chrysalis said. “You’re talking like pre-Sugary Thryssa, before he started dragging you off on random vacations and making you meet people.” She looked hard at her eldest daughter for a moment, before it came to her all of a sudden. “Thryssa, is this about how that Guardian abomination very nearly killed Celestia and Luna, and they had no army to throw at the problem?”
Thryssa sighed. “Yes. But also no. It’s about Celestia paying the price for her folly, but it’s also about the last campaign, to the dragon lands. Coming home with peace established, and one malicious supremacist only needed to poke a couple beehives to have torch-and-pitchfork mobs thrashing each other because we look strange to the other races, and they were asses to us. And the best deal a good queen could get us from her ruler was time to pack. And the plan is, we go back hat in hoof hoping that a fabulous wedding will make it all better and stop Celestia from pulling another ‘greater good’ if things go bad again.”
Chrysalis eyed her. “Thryssa, are you under the impression that your sister marrying Celestia’s son by adoption means Celestia is my superior?”
“That’s generally how joining noble houses works, Mother: the house with higher social rank is the greater.”
“Thryssa, i‘m not sure what you’ve been studying…”
“...I do, and it’s blatherskite written by jackasses, that last part being entirely literal…”
Chrysalis smirked at her husband. “...but you should know better. I admire Celestia, both from afar and in person--yes, I’ve spent some time in her presence--and I adore Luna. But Celestia burned the bridge of us remaining her subjects by making the choice she did, and Luna did it by not intervening. Celestia made the best choice she could, I sincerely believe that, but she is very nearly a goddess, and sometimes her subjects forget the ‘very nearly’ part. This was even more true in the past. Neither in our accounts nor in those of Equestria is there any indication that she even tried to leverage the power to just ends. She ultimately took no risks for a people who died for her beloved peace, and a far more gentle and peaceful Celestia will be even more risk-averse. For that reason, Celestia will be a dear friend and ally, but she chose to no longer be our princess.”
Thryssa stared for a moment, looking directly at her without really looking at her. “You’re right, Mother… I have some family I need to bop. Aunt Kyra, Aunt Chiti, Aunt Thalia--although she’ll probably use me for a glorious ballistic arc, I’ve seen her left hook--and Cricket.”
Chrysalis sighed. “I take it my little sisters told you some fanfilly stories?”
“Your little sisters told me all the fanfilly stories.” Thryssa grinned widely, showing fang, and the very light undercurrent of tensions seemed to evaporate. “Sounds like you were a little nostalgic for the old country.”
“Full-blown Equestria-phile,” Pharynx said with his own grin. “It was endearing, but fortunately not quite du Closs levels of fixation.”
“I don’t think anyone could get to the obsession level to disassemble their family estate down to the very last nail and carry it across the world,” Thryssa said. “Of course, it was probably more of a ‘buck you all’ than being obsessed with a manor house.”
“To be fair, Tempesthaven is a breathtaking estate,” Chrysalis said. “I’ve seen all of the old estate sites, incidentally. One of the many reasons I devised a way to rejoin Equestria.”
“Looking at lands that used to be owned by noble families a thousand years ago made you want to be Equestrian again.” Thryssa raised an eyebrow to an impressive height.
“They’re not occupied by anyone.”
Thryssa’s eyes opened a little wider. “The richest vineyard land in Equestia is abandoned?”
“And the Patriarchal Forest, and the coastal deeps, and the Ichthyian Drainlands, and all the rest,” Chrysalis said. “It’s not specifically a thing about changeling nobility--the old home estate of the De Lis family is much the same way--but the life and soul went out of them when families that had been part of those places for a hundred generations simply disappeared. The estates are a hole in Equestria as large as the lack of an army to shield the common pony, and I decided that for that and other reasons, it had to be made right..”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be completely on board, Mother,” Thryssa said. “Our status vis a vis Celestia aside, it seems like your plan is to act like no evil was done and we can resume where we left off. That is never going to digest well, no matter how wise and correct that approach is. Nonetheless, I plan to carrying out my part with full vigor.”
“How much of that willingness is duty, and how much of it is wanting to enjoy the reaction of the Equestria nobility to a knock-down drag-out wedding party?” Pharynx grinned at her.
“Ehh… a little from column A, a little from column B…” Thryssa smiled. “Also, Chidi and Shining Armor are adorable together, at least as much as Lepi and Cryssa. Twenty out of twenty guards agree: the boss is the world’s biggest doofus when he’s around his fiance and thinks no one is watching. This being a semi-military outfit though…”
“...everyone is watching, taking notes, and thinking of how best to use the juicy bits for fun later.” Pharynx grinned. “The first time your mother visited me in the field… oh, you should have seen the smiles. Like a pack of starving wolves catching sight of a fawn.”
“Was that before or after the pillow apocalypse?”
“Before, dear.”
“Ah.” Chrysalis looked at Thryssa. “So are we going to have to have this discussion again, Thryssa?”
“Not if I can possibly avoid it,” Thryssa said. “You have a lot to deal with without adding an unruly heir. I’m sorry, Momma.”
“You’re not the first family that’s struggled with this plan of mine.” Chrysalis rose to her hooves, followed a moment later by Pharynx and Thryssa. “But you’re right: success has too many moving parts for one of them to go awry, especially now. Please do remember to keep me informed in the future.”
“I will.” Pharynx waited until the door shut behind Thryssa before looking at her. “Speaking of family…”
“I’ll take care of my sisters later,” Chrysalis said. “After the close of court. Speaking of such, I got your crown out for a reason love.”
“I’ll tell the throne guard to invite in our first set of company for the day,” he said with a quick peck to her cheek. “Let the chaos begin.”
When she was young, Chrysalis had imagined that when her mother held court, the flood of changelings going in and out at all times were palace servants she simply didn’t remember, or subjects who’d had their issues resolved with consummate skill and cleverness by Queen Pupa. Discovering that the flood were ordinary changelings who had just felt like wandering up to the palace to visit with their queen had come as something of a shock, but it barely took a week of undertaking the duty herself to realize why lounging around chatting with any visitor that came to call was a vital: it made her the monarch of thousands of real people instead of an indistinguishable mass of bodies. Thousands of real people who needed her, who believed in her, and who looked up to her.
“I wish there was a way to just tell Thryssa,” she said to Pharynx as she laid his crown on the velvet pillow in her wardrobe drawer where it was kept. “That all the worry and anxiety and self-doubt and fear that she has to deal with as heir is not going to be there as queen.”
“Some things you can’t just tell, love,” he said. “Your mother tried, got absolutely nowhere, and you were blindisded. Like your mother, like her mother, like all the queens are if what Tetti tells me is right. All you can really do is reassure her that it’ll all work out and she’ll be just fine.”
“More than fine,” Chrysalis said with a little grin. “She’ll go absolutely mad with power and hatch some crazy scheme about marrying off her daughter to some random courtier in a convoluted exploitation of ancient joining traditions, all so she can have tea with a sun goddess.”
He chuckled. “Dear heart, if it was actually crazy, you know I would have bopped you on the head until you snapped out of it.”
“Doubt it would have worked.” She shut the drawer in the few tasteful baubles she favored for sessions of court. “Chidinida was practically sending out wedding invitations before I stopped wondering if my sisters were right. Still wish I’d…”
“Water under a whole nation’s worth of bridges.” He closed his wardrobe and moved the decorative cushions off his side of the bed. “They’ve come around, they think Shining and Chidi are cute together, Thalia and Kyra are designing an apocalypse-by-wedding-party for Canterlot, and when things are settled down you and Celestia will spend hours exchanging baby pictures like trading cards.” He paused with the last cushion in midair. “I mean, after you show up in her throne room and cheerily tell her that we’re not all dead.”
“I’d prefer to defer that moment until after the fait accompli.”
“When you’ll be cracking her upside the skull with having just conned her into giving away her adopted son in marriage to the niece you tricked her into adopting.” He tossed the last pillow at her. “Then again, Camri is… not wrong that she’s deserving of a few harmless ways of revenging ourselves on her.”
Chrysalis caught it and placed it neatly leaning against the foot of the bed. “Giving her a daughter in law that adores her like another mother isn’t exactly vengeance.”
“Shocking her with the knowledge that Lepi has so thoroughly wired her kingdom, so to speak, that we could have done whatever we pleased to her people is.” He smiled. “Not that any queen would have permitted it, but being able to do harm without effort, and yet doing nothing untoward is a pretty heavy thing to drop on ber. Which will also be sweet revenge, at least in the way that Camri and the common changeling see it.”
“How a noblemare who grew up with every trapping of nobility, including servants for her servants, and whose favorite public role is the haughty overstuffed twit, ended up as the vox populae should be the subject of a book someday.” Chrysalis started neatly stacking her cushions, placing them in a rough pyramid. “Perhaps Tetti will write it.”
She had the briefest instant of warning, a gentle tingling brush against the edges of her magical awareness, before she became aware of a presence on their bed. She looked even as she reached for the magic most appropriate to the sudden appearance of a stranger with so much magical power buzzing around them that they could easily be mistaken for Celestia. Times a few orders of magnitude.
“Alright, this is…” Chrysalis let the power arc from her horn and wash over the person even as she turned to look. Pharynx’ reaction time, however, was that of a veteran who had kept himself in peak condition and the black-coated alicorn standing in the middle of their bed and still in the middle of looking surprised, dropped like her legs had been sheared off.
Induction being infamously known to cause the kind of exquisite and unimaginable agony that wiped out all conscious thought instantly, it came as somewhat of a surprise that someone subjected to two changeling royals striking them with it at the same time was still coherent, much less capable of speaking and making themselves understood.
“BUUUUUCKING HELL THAT HURTS!” She yelled in the floor-shaking resonance of the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’ popular among the Sisters for intimidation. “STOP! STOP IT! STOP IT! I AM NOT HERE TO HURT YOU, UNHOLY BUCKING WHORESPAWNS, THAT BUCKING HURTS!”
The word ‘hurts’ clearly had some kind of magic infused into it because it struck Chrysalis like a oncoming locomotive, slamming her against the wall hard enough that she could feel her chitin spiderweb crazily from the impact. Pharynx had fared a little better, flying through a tea cart that broke his momentum a little prior to impact, but he nonetheless looked about as stunned as Chrysalis felt.
Their visitor was also looking considerably worse for wear, laying on the ground and twitching with cascading involuntary spasms, viridian power still arcing over her like a electricity between two lightning generators.
“Ow… ow… cannot… believe it is still… working, ow…” She was saying. “What the… ow… buck… did you… OW… hit me… ow… with?”
If the hit hadn’t stunned her nearly into incoherence, the mare’s appearance finally fully registering would have done the job handily. She...it’s… no, that’s not possible… she thought as she stared in addlepated silence at an alicorn who looked like the spitting image of every depiction of Nightmare Moon she’d ever seen. Including she thought with a touch of amusement, some of Lepinora’s more imaginative views of her. Some part of her had always wondered whether the induction spell could kill an alicorn, given their virtually unique state of being, and the answer to the question lay before her, very much alive and degenerating into admirably colorful profanity as the lingering effects faded.
“Ow…. gods and goddesses bucking with railroad spikes, why is… it… still… trying to melt… my bone marrow?” She winced hard again and growled. “OK, fine, buck you, buck this place, buck this bucking spell, buck this noise… GAH.” Between one blink and the next, the alicorn had vanished. Chrysalis stared for a moment, trying to make her sluggish thinking come to some conclusion, and then the black alicorn was back, standing up again and looking surprisingly none the worse for wear.
“Alright then,” she said and with her speaking in a normal tone, unruffled and calm, the eerie resemblance between her speaking voice and that of Princess Luna was difficult to miss. “That hurt. A lot. Celestia’s matter-vaporizing mareheat, that was exquisitely agonizing.” She took in a breath and looked between Chrysalis and Pharynx. “I had sincerely hoped to approach you in a matter better befitting your station but I’m afraid that my method of getting back to this world was… mildly imprecise.”
“Explains why you were standing on the bed,” Pharynx said hoarsely.
Nightmare blinked slowly at him and looked behind her. “Oh.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “It seems I’ve intruded into your bedchamber, and interrupted your evening. I can scarce imagine how I could have made a more unfavorable impression, and that is entirely without the profanity.”
Chrysalis finally felt sure enough of herself to get to her feet. “True. However, I believe you’re forgetting a small detail, milady.”
Nightmare’s cheek twitched into a brief half-smile. “I am not your superior, Your Highness, but what am I forgetting, pray tell?”
“The social rules around visits from mythical figures tend to be somewhat… flexible.” Chrysalis grinned widely at her. “Honestly, I wouldn’t expect that meeting you would be anything like an ordinary experience. Especially after you gave such an emotional performance in front of Celestia about wishing you could stay.”
“Circumstances change,” Nightmare said coolly. “At the time, circumstances compelled me to leave; subsequent circumstances have compelled me to return. Although…” she sighed again and shook her head “...I felt it would be best to leave Celestia and Luna to rebuilding their lives as sisters, and with unexpected additions to their family. And thus, heir of Queen Amaryss, I came here.”
“To the palace, unannounced.”
“Well, I had considered approaching by the city gates but I had the impression that it might generate riotous enthusiasm.” Nightmare’s dragon-pupil teal eyes twinkled mirthfully. “Incidentally, I had occasionally considered that creating a situation where a highly erotic encounter might take place between the sisters would be fun, but I would have been unable to actively participate.”
Chrysalis stared at her for several moments before suddenly recalling one of Lepinora’s more recent, and publicly-appreciated, expressions of artistic license. She buried her face in a hoof. “The throne guard must have taken one down before I noticed the one in the town square. Honey?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Remind me to murder my youngest daughter.”
“I’ll do that,” Pharynx said as solemnly as he could while trying not to laugh at what Chrysalis was certain was an utterly mortified expression.
“I think, milady, we are now about equal in feeling extremely embarrassed.”
Nightmare smiled. “Honestly, I have never been able to understand why eroticism is a cause for embarrassment. I appreciated the sentiment, although I am not sure that either of the sisters would have been quite so pleased. Do not misunderstand, they both have a very well-developed sense of humor but Celestia’s feelings about me are... complicated and Luna knows me far too well to be comfortable with the scenario your daughter depicted. Also, if you must use a title for me instead of calling me by name, the proper honorific would be ‘empress,’ not ‘milady’.”
Chrysalis looked at her husband. “Empress?”
“Yes,” she said. “Where I originate from, there is a distinction drawn between ordinary people--who are just called by the name of their race, even if they have a personal name--and those who are extraordinary, practically unique, examples of their kind. The second group is called the Named, because they are always addressed by a personal name or title. Mine is Nachtmiri Mein, the Dread Empress of Nightmares.” She smiled. “But I require no such formality from you, Your Majesty. You may call me ‘Nightmare’ or any variation upon it you wish.”
“Chrysalis,” Chrysalis said. “If you won’t accept formality, neither will I.”
“Pharynx,” her husband said. “Crown Prince Pharynx, if you must be formal.”
Nightmare quirked a brow at him. “Not king?”
“A nettlesome matter of protocol,” he said. “King implies that the royal position can flow along male heirs as well as female, so the husband of the queen is the ‘crown prince’ although he is functionally a king.”
“Mortals have the oddest little traditions,” Nightmare said with a touch of fondness. “Luna eventually surrendered to the fact that trying to explain them all to me would drive her utterly mad.”
“If you don’t mind my asking. Nightmare, how is it that with all that commotion of us striking you with the induction spell..”
“Oh, that is what that was.” Nightmare shivered. “Oh, this explains so many things that upon further reflection, I think I would have preferred not to know.”
“What…?”
Pharynx held up a quelling hoof. “How’d you prevent the guards from hearing?”
“I slightly displaced this room from the reality around it,” Nightmare said. “Someone trying to enter would find it locked and of course, since we are out of step with reality, all the hullabaloo was heard by no one else.”
“Will you restore it?”
“That all depends on whether you are willing to make an accord with me,” Nightmare said. “I freely vow that I will not do you, or yours, any harm nor by inaction permit them to come to harm.”
“So long as that covers the ponies of Equestria.”
“I think that if consulted, they would say that they are not your own, Chrysalis.”
“That is their affair,” Chrysalis said evenly. “But any vow that you make to do me and mine no harm, nor permit harm to come to them by inaction, must cover all ponies, not just changelings.”
Nightmare smiled. “A condition I would have adhered to anyway, out of love for Luna.” She took in a breath and smoothed her expression into an extremely formal and emotionless mask. “I, Nachtmiri Mein, sometimes the Dread Empress of Nightmares, vow to Queen Chrysalis of the changeling ponies and her bondmate Crown Prince Pharynx, that I shall take no action to do harm to any pony or by inaction, allow any pony to come to harm.”
“I accept your vow to do no harm to my own kind, and to those I regard as my own,” Chrysalis replied. Then something occurred to her. If she’s truly ancient enough to have associated with Luna a thousand years ago as she implies, I wonder if… well, there’s no harm in seeing if invoking ancient hospitality tradition means anything to her. “And extend the hospitality of my home to you as a guest, so long as you abide by guest tradition,” she added after a moment.
Nightmare responded to that with a grin. “Oh, I think I rather like you, the unpleasantness with the induction aside. It has been... “ she tilted her head, her eyes wandering a little in thought, “...centuries since I have come across a mortal who extends guest tradition properly. Such a quaint and yet… welcome thing.” She smiled broadly. “Well, I believe we have reached an accord, and I said I would realign the room if we did…”
Chrysalis felt the gentle tingling brush against her magical senses again--oh, so it wasn’t her entry that caused that, interesting--and her ears were immediately assaulted by panicked knocking against the door before it disintegrated into a cloud of splinters under the coordinated shattering spell of the Honor Guard, followed immediately by Thryssa’s tall armor-clad form flanked by the polished brass forms of the rest of the Guard.
Almost as one, their eyes went to Nightmare.
Her eyebrows tabled and she pointed a hoof at them. “You will not... “
Camri du Luc stared across the conference table at Nightmare, with an expression that seemed permanently stuck between fascination and comical levels of horror.
“Chryssy, have you lost your mind?” She demanded, her pitch ascending into a squeak at the end. “An… an… eldritch horror from a plane of nothingness and hunger, whose kind are broadly called evils and you extended hospitality to it?”
“Her,” Nightmare said, shooting the mare an annoyed look. “I am not an ‘it’, I am a ‘she’.”
“You are, if your explanation is accurate, naturally formless,” Camri countered.
“That does not mean that I lack any sense of identity, you twit! It merely means I must seek out the appropriate vessel to manifest it.” Nightmare looked at Chrysalis. “Why is this imbecile here?”
Chrysalis buried her face in her hooves. “She is the head of the noble family of Du Luc, who are valuable supporters of the royal line and a trusted adviser,” she sighed. “Your summary of the situation led me to believe I could use advice, thus the invitation to an excellent source of it.”
“Thank you, Chrysalis,” Camri said with a ladylike snort.
“Lady du Luc, please stop quarreling with her,” Chrysalis said. “I require her assistance as surely as I require yours. She vowed to do no harm to our people and given that she reacted to being attacked with an impressive degree of passivity, I’m inclined to accept that vow. Bickering over how she came to be at this table wastes time.”
“I, for one, welcome a friendly eldritch abomination,” Lepi said cheerfully. “They’re great for smashing things, driving your enemies to frothing heaps of madness, and sussing out highly inebriated elderly stallions on eternal quests for statues.”
“I will have you know he was actually very charming,” Nightmare told her, looking amused. “And a rather frighteningly effective weapon when cleverly directed.”
Lepi blinked. “...wait… seriously?”
“As I can possibly be.” Nightmare turned her gaze back to Chrysalis. “If the matter of your sanity and my sex is settled, Your Majesty, I can certainly elaborate on what I told you last evening.”
“If you would first outline the situation to the table, I think that would be the best way to ensure we’re all equally well-informed.”
“Alright.” As Nightmare turned back to the table and relayed the summary she’d given Chrysalis, Pharynx, and Thryssa last night, Chrysalis followed along in her head: a metaphysical game played between god-like beings. The wager was the entire world. The rules were many, stringent, and almost invariably ignored by everyone involved. Nightmare herself had been contracted to be a piece in the game, working against the being of Light that was trying to shield the world from the opposing Evil, but had agreed only because another power that Nightmare refused to name had already made an arrangement with her to double-cross the Evil. Other Named were certain to be recruited to the Evil’s cause, beings that Nightmare acknowledged as peers and by implication, possessed of power comparable to one of the Sisters.
“And you expect that this ‘Evil’ you’re aligned with will be sending another servant to assist you?” Camri asked as Nightmare finished her summary.
“And to keep an eye on me,” Nightmare said. “Even with an uninterrupted history of adhering to my vows, my nominal sponsor will trust me no further than she can throw me and would be justified in doing so even if I was not serving a different master.”
“Because no matter the vow, you can lawyer your way out of it.” Camri looked steadily at Chrysalis for several moments.
“Because I am known to practice malicious obedience,” Nightmare said, looking steadily at Camri. “And chastise those that command me if they offend my sensibilities. An alliance is a wholly different matter.”
“And for that, we have only your…”
“Camri, this is not helping me,” Chrysalis said.
“If I may, Mother?” Chrysalis nodded to Thryssa, who looked to Nightmare. “Do you have any way to know who this servant would be?”
“Not specifically,” Nightmare said. “But the most logical servant would be some manner of brute with relatively little initiative or intellect. A servant of enough intelligence to properly check me would be a grievous price to pay for a foalsitter, although there is one… possible such servant who might be motivated enough to do the work for a paltry sum. A brute would be the better option because no brutish Evil is entirely stable or rational, and would be prone to amusing itself by using mortals as playthings even if I would rip its head off by main strength for it. Thus, a brute is a distraction as well as a possible tool. The best brute for this purpose would be a void dragon.”
“About about the smart one?”
“She is a peer, not nearly so much in brute power but powerful in cunning,” Nightmare said. “She has a… personal motivation to seek me out but the most likely result is that she is put to devastating use by keeping her far away from the Barrens and most likely, keeping her ignorant of my presence.”
“But she could come here anyway, despite whatever instructions she’s given.”
“So long as the one who has purchased her services has any intellect at all, and I believe my ostensible employer to be quite sensible, she will not. Some of the Named are more creative than others and creativity is essential in being able to, as Baroness du Luc put it, lawyer your way out of a vow.” Nightmare smirked a little in Camri’s direction before turning her eyes back to Thryssa. “The one I speak of is not very creative. Creativity is not necessary for her purpose, so she eschews it in return for a very orderly mind and nature.”
“So what is her purpose?” Camri said without even a facial tic to show that she’d noticed Nightmare’s smirk
“It will be to shepherd other components of the plan, place all the pieces in the precise place they are needed when they are needed,” Nightmare said. “She will be a fulcrum to the lever of her mistress’ power, which is why I refer to her as a peer: we are in the same business.”
“And that is to be the silver-tongued temptress, alluring with promises of help, and advice, and all their dreams come true?” Carmri’s eyes shifted to Chrysalis. “Someone coming around with offers of knowledge without any price?”
“The price was already paid,” Nightmare said, frowning at the emphasis. “I explained this already. My true patron gave me payment to thwart the purpose of my pretended one and left it to my discretion as to how I would carry out the work I had been given. It costs you nothing because the price was previously paid.”
“What is your normal price?” Everyone at the table, including Chrysalis, turned to look as Tettidora entered, her saddlebags characteristically filled with books and other tools of the scholar’s trade, looking half her age because of her small stature and mane done up into pigtails.
“I beg your pardon, milady…?”
“Tettidora,” Tetti said as she seated herself at one of the empty places, spreading out writing supplies and parchment as she did.
“Milady Tettidora,” Nightmare said. “I do not see why my ordinary price would be pertinent.”
“Because I heard what Baroness du Luc said as I entered,” Tetti said, “and she makes a good point. You are offering a great deal for what appears to be no price at all. Such bargains have historically come with a dagger hidden in the details.”
“There are no details in which to hide one,” Nightmare said. “I am here to thwart my ostensible sponsor. I was paid to do this before arriving. Exactly what is needed to thwart that sponsor is something I cannot know without seeing the shape of her plan. I am unsure of what else there is to say.”
“Your ordinary price, Nightmare,” Chrysalis said. “And what specifically that price pays for.”
Nightmare sighed, visibly frustrated. “Why does that matter?”
“Because you are not the first otherworldly being to offer us so much for nothing,” Lepi siad. “Although the first offer was a mute one, it is ongoing, and we only discovered the cost because those who received the offer were irrationally paranoid. There’s no such thing as free power, it always costs something.”
“You are right, it does,” Nightmare said. “The only reason I hesitate to discuss my ordinary price is that the normal, and entirely understandable, reaction to it being explained is not always rational.”
“We’ll try to be objective,” Camri said dryly. “Now out with it. Please.”
“My particular… species, I suppose you could call it, is called a nightmare,” Nightmare said. “As Camri said, I am naturally formless as are all my kind. But in addition to this, we cannot gather the substance of the Void around us and create a shell in which to exist on a mortal plane. As such, we require living space in an existing mortal body to have any power at all and the ordinary way to accomplish this is to seize the form by main force and drive out the soul that belongs in it.”
“The ordinary way,” Chrysalis said. “I take it that someone called ‘empress’ is far from ordinary.”
“I tried the ordinary way at the beginning of my existence,” Nightmare siad. “It transpires that I am not very… accomplished at murder and I would very much prefer not to elaborate beyond that. Which leaves me with two options: to eschew the mortal realms entirely or to be very good at making bargains, and adhering to the terms of my agreements. My price, thus, is that for the duration of my service I have living space within the form of the one who commissioned me.”
“Clearly, you’ve made other arrangements then.” Chrysalis looked at Camri. “Unless the baroness knows of anyone besides the Sisters who could emerge unscathed from being induced by both a changeling queen and her veteran husband simultaneously.”
Camri actually chuckled at that and made a light flourishing gesture with her hoof as she bowed her head, acknowledging the point. “This isn’t open court, Chryssy,” she said. “You don’t need to fence with me.”
“I’ve known you since we were foals, Camri,” Chrysalis told her. “Yes, I do.” She looked at Nightmare. “I think it fair to say that if you’d somehow bent Luna to your will, Celestia would be earnestly trying to smite you, and the reverse applies.”
“Smite is such a gentle word for how either sister would react to anyone laying a hoof on their family,” Nightmare said with a smile. “My arrangement with my ultimate sponsor was that they would pay my price in a unique fashion and I would then sabotage the efforts of the Evil. The holder of my contract used their extraordinary power to mold me a shell of actual flesh and blood, a living vessel uniquely mine, which I asked to be modeled after Luna’s guise. While it is accurate to say that my aid comes free to you, it is not power without price. It is merely a price another paid on your behalf.”
“I’m satisfied,” Tetti said. “And apologize for my tardiness, Mother.”
“I’m satisfied as well, my Queen,” Camri said. “Every element, from her resemblance to Luna to her nature, fits correctly with what is known.”
“It seems we have a new ally, albeit one we’d have never imagined having,” Thryssa said. “Incidentally, Empress Moon, I’m sorry about… err...”
“...running me through seven times over?” Nightmare grinned at her. “Do not think any further on it. After all, no harm done.”
“I’m all good with this myself,” Lepinora said. “That said, I’m sorta curious about something and it’s got nothing to do with trust or anything.”
“And what might that be?”
“Well, two bits really. First thing is, why the buck come all the way out into the desert for allies? Second thing is, how the heck did you figure out where to go?”
“I knew Amaryss,” Nightmare. “Personally, watching from behind Luna’s eyes. And Martella du Luc, and Sariss du Closs, and the rest of them. Whatever Celestia came to believe about the fate of your people, there were two things that I knew with certainty: the first is that Amaryss would have forged homes of melted sand out of the desert if that was what it took to see her people survive. The second is that she would not have permitted personal distress at Celestia’s decision to become disloyalty to the Thrones. So I knew that if I sought the changelings vigorously, I would find them alive and still at least distantly loyal to Equestria.”
“It’s more a… nostalgic affection for our fellow ponies and very uncertain feelings about Celestia,” Chrysalis said. “I personally would enjoy interacting with her as a friend and equal but it is the policy of the Hive Throne that Equestria will be our ally, not our master.”
“That is a completely fair position,” Nightmare said immediately. “And one that I am confident Celestia will understand and accept, if my impression and Luna’s thoughts about her are reliable at all. But what of Luna?”
“She was our princess,” Camri said. “Hers was the banner we fought under, hers was the hoof that directed us. She will not be our leader, but I do not feel that I’m being overly bold to say that we will ever regard her with warmth and strive just a little bit more to make her welcome in our kingdom.”
“That is good, she deserves to be treated well.” Nightmare shrugged with a smile. “Or that could simply be my long association with her talking; I am extremely biased in her favor.
“For us, it’s something of absence making the heart grow fonder,” Chrysalis said. “Our people have been in Equestria since the start of our ‘exile’ and many have seen and heard Celestia fairly regularly. I myself attended the Grand Galloping Gala several times in my youth and she always attends. Luna has barely been back from the moon for a year so we’re getting to know her again.”
“Luna, as it transpires, is also how I was able to determine where to look for you,” Nightmare said. “Being the princess who paints with the stars, she developed a system of navigating by them and in the time of Amaryss, it was considered a mark of good education and breeding to be highly accomplished at stellar navigation. All of the queens would have had such an education, and a goodly number of their subject as well, so I simply needed to ask myself where a race of ponies with an entire family who’d grown up wandering the deserts for fun would go.”
“The eastern seaboard.”
“The eastern seaboard,” Nightmare confirmed. “A source of nearly unlimited supplies of the key to living in wastes. I’m certain that the first time they encountered it, the exiles were surprised to stumble across a greenbelt and then fertile scrublands in the middle of a waterless waste, followed by one of the most awe-inspiring aberrations anyone has ever seen. Naturally,” she added, looking at Lepi, “I was very gratified by the… creative expression of affection for the sisters and I.”
Lepi didn’t even look abashed, not that Chrysalis had expected her to. “I wish I’d realized you were a body clone of Luna.”
“You would have no cause to even guess such a thing.” Nightmare’s gaze next moved to Chrysalis. “Have you any other queries of me?”
“Only one: why this world?”
“I suspect you know,” Nightmare said. “I suspect that you’ve been spending many centuries keeping it secret, keeping it safe, keeping it contained, and keeping everyone else away from it.”
“The Archive.”
“All knowledge, and the ability to gather even more, in the hands of monsters.” Nightmare bowed her head to Chrysalis. “And so I’ve been placed in your service, Queen Chrysalis, scion of Amaryss, for the purpose of turning the tide. What do you wish of me?”