"Ready for your first real view of the world?"
The hallway opens into what feels like a massive space. There is meager illumination and a faint noise, constant but rippled with variation. Ocellus approaches cautiously, edging past the fluted columns that mark the hallway's end.
Luna instructed her to find the Throne Room. A throne meant a ruler. Queen Chrysalis had a throne, but this building was built by and for other creatures. Again, she revisits the feeling that the love-starved changelings are infesting a home once belonging to creatures long gone. Did they abandon this place? Did the changelings find it empty and move in? Or are the original inhabitants now withered husks in a discarded changeling pod?
This is not the Throne Room, but Ocellus believes she is heading in the right direction.
The cavernous room can easily hold a small grove of trees. High above, the cold light of the stars pierces the room through a grandiose arched skylight, the size of which gives Ocellus understanding of the breadth of the room. All below is shrouded in shadows, the light showing edges of shapes and glimpses of forms.
She appears to be in a grand foyer. Her lantern casts light on an ornately patterned marble floor split by swaths of carpet. Immediately above her, those patterns are echoed in moonsilver latticing of the glass-floored balcony ringing and bisecting the room two stories above her.
The near wall boasts a massive arched doorway beneath a trio of lancet windows. Elaborate tracery holds panes of blue and purple stained glass depicting clouds and celestial bodies. A tympanum dominated by a huge crescent moon sits above the exterior door that the hall stand promised.
Massive, familiar magical chains converge on a lock over the door. Again, the lock eschews the traditional keyhole for one demanding a disk surrounded by twisted spikes.
On the far end, she can glean the rising wings of a grand staircase, starlight glinting off banisters of polished blue adventurine. And in the center of the room rises the frozen form of a wicked alicorn, rearing up majestically above worshipping ponies. Her ears prick, recognizing the sound now as running water.
Ocellus steps up to the fountain. The water gurgles as it falls down the marble forms of the ponies bowing to the black alicorn rearing above them.
At least, she assumes it is water. It is clear and doesn't smell like anything else. It isn't as if the water could be a changeling. There are limits to changeling transformation, and a pure liquid with nothing to hold its form together is beyond those limitations. At worst, it could be poison, but who would make a poison fountain?
She is quite sure the fountain isn't a changeling either. Sure, a changeling could become a fountain. But they would either have to become themselves expressed as a fountain, or there would have to be another fountain just like this one to learn this specific form from before they could add it to their repertoire. And even then, they wouldn't get the water effect unless there was plumbing for the fountain already here, and they plugged that into their...
Nope! Not thinking about this anymore.
Ocellus' resolution is interrupted as one of the marble ponies and a quarter of the alicorn rising above are encased in a too-familiar green glop, the jelly hardening with alarming speed. Alarm electrifies her spine. Her nerves tingle with panic as part of her screams that the hive's queen has found her! But this jelly wasn't spit at her. Nor was this an uncontrolled explosion like the orb earlier. Part of her brain insists it was more like a targeted geyser.
The changeling nymph spins to see a hovering drone grinning down at her. But drones can't do that! Ocellus thinks before she notices the strange object strapped to his back. It looks like the fire extinguishers at school, only the transparent tank is filled with a subtly luminescent green. The changeling aims the nozzle at her as his tongue slithers out between his fangs.
Ocellus had thought of the concentrated orb in her saddlebags as the queen of this hive weaponizing her jelly, but this? This takes the idea to an extreme Chrysalis would never have dreamed of. Ocellus finds the ingenuity of this queen frightening.
Ocellus leaps into the air as the drone fires another stream of royal jelly through the place she had just been standing. She beats her wings furiously, gaining height as quickly as possible. It will be harder for the drone to aim against gravity.
"Ocellusssss!" the drone hisses as he turns and chases after her.
He knows my name! How can he know my name?!?
She lifts higher, avoiding another volley as the jelly's parabola fails to reach her. She looks down to see he is farther away than before. Royal jelly is not light; that tank is weighing him down. She veers to the side as he aims again, hoping superior flying will beat superior range.
"You're not where you're ssssssupposed to be!" the drone hisses as he misses Ocellus again, the jelly splashing across a strangely familiar tapestry of planets and moons, trapping the thick fabric against the wall behind a glowing splatter of translucent green. "Everyone's in the Conservatory waiting for you."
Waiting for her?!
Ocellus realizes she was jumping to dire conclusions when she thought the changeling who chased her had murder on his mind. But the realization does not bring the nymph any comfort. Somehow, this seems worse.
With a pang of guilt, Ocellus temporarily abandons looking for the Throne Room, returning to her previous plan of GET OUT! The exterior door may be locked, but there were more ways out of a building than using the door. The changeling nymph changes direction, leveling out, and pours on the speed as she flies for one of the stained-glass windows above the door.
The drone slows, swooping about, adjusting to chase Ocellus on her new course. He prepares to fire again.
Just before colliding with a thick pane of lavender glass, Ocellus closes her eyes. A flash of turquoise fire erupts around her as she becomes a rock.
Rock-Ocellus slams into the stained glass and rebounds, her eyes flying open. As she falls, she sees a shimmer of magical chains become briefly visible before disappearing again. Then a swath of green goo sprays across the trio of windows.
Of course, Ocellus thinks as she thuds to the floor. That would have been too easy.
The drone stops, looking around, apparently having lost track of her. He hisses with frustration, tongue lashing out like an angry snake. "Queen Elytra doessssn't like to be kept waiting!"
Queen Elytra. Now she had a name to put to all of this.
"And we've waited ssssssooo long for the world in the sky to be oursssss!"
Ocellus looks up through the skylight and sees the crescent sliver of a world of blues and whites, browns and greens. Something very much unlike the moon she has seen in the sky every night.
Turquoise fire erupts around Ocellus as a spear of fear strikes through her, almost crippling the changeling nymph. Never has she felt so lost. For even the moon to be so different...
Where am I...?!?
"There you are!"
The hissing voice of the drone snaps Ocellus out of her moment of horror. She is in her changeling form again. The drone spotted the energy burst of her transformation. She rolls across the marble as the drone tries to drop down on her. The drone's attacks force her to refocus.
Ocellus flies up again. Her wings are tiring. She hasn't raced this much in a year. She can't keep this up.
But at the same time, she doesn't want to fight back unless she absolutely has to. She doesn't want to hurt these changelings. The hollow feeling in her gut is reminding her that she was once a love-starved changeling too. She knows what it is like to be a drone. She knows what it is like to be starving.
She knows what it is like to serve an evil queen. And to not know there is another way.
Ocellus darts, changing direction again, flying for the balcony. The moment she reaches it, she takes cover behind a pillar on the upper balcony.
"Listen!" she calls out. "I'm a changeling too. But I'm different. I'm different because I share love! And because of that, I'm never starving!"
She pauses, listening to the change in the drone's wing-beats. He is hovering. As best she can hear, the drone is halfway to the opposite balcony, and maybe a little higher. But what is important is that he isn't moving. He has stopped to listen.
"You could share love too!" Ocellus calls to him, her nerves electric with hope and anxiety. "All of you could. The love you have for each other could sustain you!" She peeks out at him from behind the pillar, giving him her best smile.
The drone's muzzle smiles back. But it is a cold, nasty smirk. His response is terse. "Eh, no."
Ocellus sees green energy flare around his horn as the drone conjures a barrier of green energy in front of him. She dives to the balcony floor, flattening herself against it, knowing what is coming.
Like a blazing green comet, the hostile drone shoots across the space between them, smashing through the pillar. Stone debris pummels Ocellus as the love-starved changeling hits the balcony floor with enough force to shatter the glass and snap the latticing. He turns towards her, crouched and hissing, getting his hooves back beneath him.
The balcony floor sags ominously, then gives way beneath them. The two fall.
The enemy changeling beats his wings, catching himself halfway to the floor two stories below the broken balcony. Ocellus does not. Turquoise energy flashes around Ocellus just before she hits the glass-strewn floor below, one rock among the debris.
The drone aims the nozzle of the royal jelly sprayer. He doesn't have to know which chunk of stone she is. He can just hose all of them.
Another burst of turquoise flame. Puckwudgie-Ocellus turns her back on the drone above her and lets loose a barrage of spines. They bounce ineffectively off his chitin. As she knew they would.
The love-starved changeling fires.
The moment the pressurized liquid is released into the hose, it ruptures. Royal jelly explodes out of the multiple holes where puckwudgie spines pierced through, encasing the drone, weapon and all.
He drops to the floor, trapped in a jagged, air-permeable chunk of hardened royal resin.
Ocellus stares at the drone, remembering what it was like to be him. She shudders, fear melting into sadness. She feels sorry for him.
Taking a deep breath, she formally promises herself that she will not bring harm to the changelings of this hive. She believes that these changelings have the capacity to be reformed. She has to. They should not be denied that chance.
When Queen Chrysalis began to drain the love from Thorax, did it feel like this?
Ocellus had been distracted by a thought: Luna said there were wards against enemies; but if the wards keep out changelings, won't they keep me out? She was so deep in her quandary that the changeling nymph didn't realize she had entered the Throne Room until she looked up and saw the ogee arched window filling one entire wall, framing the world outside.
Ocellus sits on her haunches and stares into the valley of despair. She can feel hope draining out of her as if it were being consumed by an alien entity. She was helpless to resist the loss.
Beyond the window, the sky is as dark as ink, pierced by the cold, lonely light of stars. The line between sky and land is stark, like it was cut into being with scissors. Below the sky is... nothing. Just cold and dust. There are no trees, no plants, no grass. No signs of animals or any sort of life. Ridges rise from valleys, all the dullest gray of old ash, so barren they make the badlands feel hospitable. There aren't even any frozen lakes or snow; no windigos. Wherever she is, it is a far, far worse place than the badlands her hive was once thrown to. This is a wasteland. So empty it doesn't even have color.
Ocellus swallows, feeling a hard lump in her throat.
Trembling, she pulls herself away from the sight. Gets back onto her hooves and looks in the opposite direction. Away from the lonely bleak.
Pointed arches march along the walls to either side -- each an alcove or an exit leading to a new wing of the castle -- are separated by fluted pillars and torches burning with azure fire. Tapestries hang from above, richly depicting themes of the night sky or the wicked alicorn featured in the fountain earlier.
Even if Cozy Glow hadn't been good to her word, arranging for Ocellus and her friends to get a make-up test, there was no way she could have flunked Friendship's Effect on the Course of Equestrian History hard enough to not know who that alicorn is meant to be.
Curved steps of arctic blue stone lead up to a dais, and then up farther to the throne. The royal chair is elegantly curved -- a trio of blues rising to a point like frozen candle flame -- and ornately framed with a sculptural backpiece. Teal bat wings spread from behind the throne, rising from sculptures of swirling clouds to meet a monstrous azure form with appendages ending in claws... all beneath an awe-inspiring amethyst magically cut to resemble a crescent moon set within a moon.
Several feet behind the throne, framed by even more rich tapestries, rises a massive mirror, visually doubling the grandiose size of the room and reflecting the outside desolation beyond.
Ocellus turns from the sight, telling herself that she is merely fascinated by a peculiar oil painting on one wall.
She corrects herself. Now that she is looking, she actually is curious about it. Not merely because of the strange and almost arithmetic imagery, but because it is the first painting she has seen in this place.
Ocellus beats her weary wings and starts to fly over for a closer look. But she stops as she notices the mirror darken, the reflection of the room sinking into blackness until the mirror seems to be made of ink. From the depths, the welcome figure of the night alicorn walks towards her.
Ocellus turns and flies to the mirror, landing to stand before Luna. The two gaze at each other as if separated by only a window.
"Good. You made it."
Ocellus blushes slightly, feeling warmed by the praise. But she is not content with it. "Where am I?" the nymph asks urgently. Then, "Where are you?"
"You are in the Palace of Nightmare Moon, Ocellus." Luna informs her in the tone of a mother attempting to break bad news.
Ocellus feels a wave of surprise, but not at the drop of the name. Too much of the decor seems to pay homage to Luna's former, villainous self. And a few of the tapestries had struck a familiar chord, reminding her of the ruined ones in the remains of the Castle of the Two Sisters.
No, her surprise is that Nightmare Moon would have a palace anywhere. Her lessons suggested the black alicorn of endless night had not ruled Equestria long enough to erect monuments, much less a palace. Neither before her banishment nor after her return.
Unless it was one created for her, perhaps by a cult?
Or unless it was once created by her during her banishment...?
Oh no.
A frozen pit forms inside Ocellus. She knows what Luna is going to say next even as she says it.
"You are on the moon."
Ocellus feels her freak-out fading, her breathing returning to normal.
Luna watches her from the mirror. Her expression is gentle and steeped in dismay. It was clear to Ocellus, even as she panicked, that Luna wanted to step through and comfort her. It became equally clear she could not. But she remained. Quiet, caring and patient.
Before, at the hall stand, the night alicorn could barely hold her place in the mirror long enough to finish a sentence. But she has given Ocellus ample time to absorb the news, and the nymph realizes she had not faded once.
Finally, Ocellus returns to the question left unanswered. "Luna, where are you?"
"I fear that I am still at the Treehouse," Luna tells her. "I am trapped within a changeling pod, just a foreleg's reach from the mirror portal."
Luna's words dredge back the memory of the last day of Queen Chrysalis' hive -- the day Starlight Glimmer and Thorax invaded. Ocellus remembers that Luna has been trapped in a changeling pod before.
"Are the others there? My friends?" Ocellus asks, imagining Smolder and Yona trapped in changeling pods. Gallus and Silverstream and Sandbar encased in air-permeable prisons of green.
"I do not know. I cannot see the Treehouse or anything more than a pegasus' wingspan away from my pod through this green resin," Luna informs her with regret. "But I can see the mirror's surface, and it is still open."
Ocellus feels a cautious rebirth of hope. "Can I get home through it?"
"I am afraid not. The mirror has been corrupted and is... malfunctioning somehow." There is a hesitation in Luna's voice that betrays deep confusion. "The mirror is no longer acting as a means of travel, although it clearly is... doing something. I have found myself able to use it in this state to see into Nightmare Moon's palace. But only through the mirrors in the palace, and only one at a time."
That little seedling of hope stops growing. But it does not die. Even though this is not a way home, Ocellus recognizes this as valuable. The mirror is a tool, even in this state, that might lead them to finding a way home. But most precious: she is not alone.
"Worry not," Luna intones, attempting to console the young nymph. "Several cherished students and a former Princess can't go missing for too long without notice". She smiles with confidence. "Help will be coming."
Ocellus wants to smile back, but... "We are supposed to be gone for days."
Luna's smile fades. "That is true," she admits. "Perhaps then we should take matters into our own hooves. The palace contains its own portal to Equestria..."
Ocellus jumps up. Why didn't Luna just say so? "Where?!"
The night alicorn holds out a cautioning hoof. "It does not physically exist at this moment. It must be conjured. And doing so is neither easy nor safe. It is not an undertaking I would recommend unless the situation is extremely dire. All I am suggesting is that you check on the..." Luna stops abruptly, her expression becoming more dour. She takes a moment to find the words she wishes to use. "...pieces of the key needed to conjure it, and make sure they are all in their proper place."
"Um... Luna?" Ocellus appreciates Luna's desire to keep her safe. But she is not safe here. And the idea of trying to keep tabs on wherever these pieces of the key are isn't really a good idea when the place is swarming with drones. Especially when the changeling queen is clearly up to something, and could even be behind what happened to the mirror portal.
In the very least, Queen Elytra has drones actively hunting her.
She is prey.
Ocellus tells Luna of the changelings. Everything she knows. Everything she suspects.
Luna listens, eyes occasionally widening as parts of Ocellus' tale surprise or alarm her. After the nymph finishes, the former Princess is quiet for a several long minutes. When she finally breaks her silence, her tone is grave.
"This is a problem," Luna admits. "Once conjured, the portal will remain open until it is actively closed. Were you to use it to return home, Queen Elytra's hive could invade through it."
Ocellus winces. She knows from the talkative drone that Elytra intends just that. She doesn't want to go home at the price of opening Equestria to an attack. "Is there any way to prevent that?"
Luna grimaces. "The only way to prevent that is to destroy the portal. But the portal is one way, and can only be destroyed from this side. Worse, the portal must be manifested in order to be destroyed, and that means opening the portal."
Ocellus' ears fold back. Her wing-muscles tighten beneath her elytra. She can almost see the prize dangling before her on a poisoned string. Oh look, the way home. Jump or destroy.
Luna's grimace deepens. She hangs her head. "I am very sorry, Ocellus. But I fear the situation is even worse." Ocellus can hear the sorrow in Luna's tone. Each word falls from the night alicorn's tongue like it is weighted. "If this new changeling queen is as ingenious as you surmise, then it is only a matter of time before she figures out how to open the portal herself."
Ocellus nods. She suspects Queen Elytra may have done so already. The nymph takes a deep breath. "So how do I open it first?"
Ocellus is standing at the window again. Looking out on the barren dustscape of the moon. Digesting the truths that have been told to her.
Luna was reluctant. Even when she acquiesced, it was clear that these were secrets that she had kept locked away, hoping never to tell. And Ocellus sensed that Luna was skirting subjects that were even more painful to her. Ocellus didn't want to insist, and she did so as gently as she could, giving the alicorn who was once Nightmare Moon the time and coaxing she needed. And bit by bit, Luna told Ocellus what she needed to do.
It took the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon. According to Luna, it takes a similar power to open the way back. While unexpected, the news does not surprise Ocellus as she recalls that travel with the mirror portal needed to be augmented with the magic of the Treehouse of Harmony to ensure passage between their world and this one.
What does surprise her is to learn that Nightmare Moon was aided in her return. Strange, alien entities -- spirits of the stars -- gave Nightmare Moon four magical items of tremendous power.
"It is best to think of them as evil equivalents of an Elements of Harmony," Luna confessed. "Each resonating with a vice, just as the Elements were conduits to the spirits of virtues."
Luna looked at her sadly. "There are many such vices, just as there are many virtues. But these... these resonated with the four vices that were strongest in Nightmare Moon's... in my heart."
Ocellus stares out at the moon and remembers the way Luna bit down, glaring at the throne, then let out an equine snort of disgust.
The idea of evil counterparts to the Elements of Harmony struck a chilling nerve. Ocellus began to wonder if the Tree of Harmony had enemies. Or at least, evil... relatives? If these came from the stars, were the stars themselves like the Tree had been?
Luna's voice cut her ruminations short. "These... for lack of any other name, let us call them 'anti-Elements'... are scattered about the palace, and they must be gathered together to make the portal appear. Once the portal appears, it can be used... or destroyed."
For the first time, Ocellus feels glad her friends are not here.
The changeling nymph is still looking at the desolate gray desert when Ocellus finally asks, "Which one is closest?"
Luna answers. "Envy."
The nymph groans inwardly. She was not looking forward to this.
The moon outside continues to be the moon. Wanting a distraction, Ocellus asks, "So... what is the rest of the moon like?"
Ocellus can hear the little snort and can almost feel Luna shaking her head behind her.
"It is all as you see out the window. Endless dunes and craters of the same rock," Luna informs her in a bitter tone. "It was different while Nightmare Moon was here, but this is all she left in her wake."
Ocellus turns, finding the answer too curious not to pursue.
"Without the magic in the palace, the air outside is thinner and yet colder," Luna adds. "The magic in the palace also keeps the gravity you experience like that of Equestria. Outside, there is less gravity to hold you to the surface. Particularly given your fast-beating wings, Ocellus, you would likely find it difficult to control your flight."
Ocellus was not expecting that. "But there is air on the moon?"
"Of course," Luna responds. "My sister was trying to imprison me, not suffocate me."
Ocellus flinches. "Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't mean... I just have so many questions!"
Luna blinks. "Really? Nobody has ever asked me about it before. I suspect they were afraid to. Or didn't want to know."
The night alicorn contemplates a moment, then announces, "Go ahead. Ask your questions!"
"You were here for a thousand years. What did you eat?"
Luna smiles grimly, seeming both pleased that someone has finally asked her and displeased at the answer. "The blast of magic that sent me here stripped me... Nightmare Moon... of much of my dark power. Scattered it across the moon, leaving a dark stain."
Ocellus brightens with comprehension. "Ooh! The Mare in the Moon!"
"Yes," Luna says with a nod. "Everywhere that dark stain lay, the moon was made fertile with dark power. The plants which grew in those places were rich with dark essence that provided sustenance. At first, I ate them. Later, I... Nightmare Moon... found a way to refine the plants into raw essence that she... I... could use to forge this palace. And to make servants who would farm for me."
Ocellus tries to picture Nightmare Moon farming. The image refuses to form in her head.
Luna is quiet a moment. Then she lifts a hoof, pointing towards one of the alcoves shadowed behind its pointed archway. "Over there. See those pillars?"
Ocellus traces the vector of Luna's foreleg, turning in place until she finds herself looking at a trio of three short columns, each no taller than herself. She nods, finding them oddly familiar. It takes a moment for the recognition to solidify; the kitchen had an identical set.
Ocellus spreads her wings, flapping them quickly to rise off her hooves. She draws closer to the columns, examining them. Each is made of polished onyx and capped with an ionic capital inscribed with a different but equally unfamiliar rune.
"What are they?" she asks.
Luna answers. "They are an artifact that I... that Nightmare Moon devised to facilitate creating her palace. Allow me to show you how it works. Return to that picture you were looking at when I first appeared in the Grand Mirror."
Ocellus nods, turning away from the onyx columns and swooping across the Throne Room to an oil painting hanging on the opposite wall. The painting had struck her as peculiar, drawing her attention when she first began to explore Nightmare Moon's old Throne Room: a masterful rendering of a piece of jewelry -- the black disk of a moon covering the face of a sun, the fiery spikes of the sun's corona seeming twisted in agony. Behind it, the mottled brown of aged paper bears numbers and equations, sketched figures and measuring lines, as if the piece was resting on a designer's blueprint.
"Take the painting and place it on the center pillar."
Ocellus does as instructed, transforming into her dragon form to get the best grip on what looks to be a priceless artwork. She flies back across the room with it, setting it down on the capital of the middle column with care.
Luna watches, her eyes widening a little when Ocellus transforms. Once the oil painting is in place, the former Princess nods her approval. "That image is the Seal of Nightmare Moon. The emblem of an eclipse. From that painting, the artifact can recreate the Seal."
"What happened to the original one?" Ocellus asks, staring at the painting, curiosity welling within her breast.
Luna's answer is succinct. "I destroyed it."
"But it may be wise to create another," she admits. "Should you find that you need to venture outside the palace, the Seal will open the magical locks that barricade each of the exterior doors."
Ocellus nods. That is the answer to another of her questions. But she finds the answer spawns yet more questions in its place. If the exterior doors are barred with magic, then either the queen of the hive locked them, or Nightmare Moon sealed up her palace before leaving. And the latter seems far more likely; the magic involved is pony magic. She has seen Chancellor Neighsay use the same spell. But something about that doesn't make sense. Nightmare Moon was alone, save for servants that she created.
"Luna?" Ocellus asks, feeling a needling worry creep up her spine. "Who... or what... was Nightmare Moon locking out?"
Luna grows very quiet. The silence stretches long enough for Ocellus to look to the Grand Mirror, expecting Luna to have vanished.
But the night alicorn is still there, standing solemnly. Ocellus feels a tear in her heart; Luna's expression seems trapped between gut-wrenching sadness and scathing bitterness.
Ocellus flies up to the mirror, beginning to worry. "Luna, I'm sorry..."
"Don't be," the blue alicorn answers sternly. "It is not you who has anything to be sorry for."
Luna droops, her head hanging down. Her mane and tail go nearly limp, barely shifting in the lack of breeze.
"Nightmare Moon... I... wasn't attempting to keep anything out. After I left, this palace was intended to be a prison... " Luna takes a deep breath and lets it out. "...for my sister."
Ocellus sees a single tear fall. It doesn't hit anything; it just ripples into non-existence when it reaches Luna's hooves. "I didn't mean to bring up such a bad memory, Luna."
Ocellus lands in front of the mirror, changing back to her usual form. She lifts a hoof, touching the glass.
The changeling nymph takes a moment to compose her thoughts, rejecting the first few phrases that come to her. She does not wish to say she understands. That could come across as condescending. Or worse, arrogant. She must not presume she has any idea what Luna feels. Instead, she needs to make her words about herself. Show why she empathizes. Let Luna draw her own conclusions.
"I was once an 'evil changeling'," she tells Luna.
Everyone knows that, of course, Ocellus thinks. But she doubts anyone has done the math. Unlike her little brother and sister, she isn't so young that she was born after the Royal Wedding. Queen Chrysalis didn't bring grubs to battle. And the magical pulse generated by Shining Armor and Princess Cadance did not gently deposit them back at their hive -- it flung them into the badlands. Where they rebuilt their hive anew.
Retrieving their grubs from Equestria was not a high priority for her former queen. Ocellus knows at least one survived to find its way into Ponyville, but she suspects most did not. And they certainly never rejoined the hive.
Ocellus continues. "I haven't told anyone, but I was old enough to be part of the attack on Canterlot. The love-starved changeling I used to be did some horrible things. She hurt ponies. When I transformed, I abandoned who I was. With Thorax leading us, we were all able to. I know I am not that 'evil changeling' anymore. But it took Smolder... and some nudging from the Tree of Harmony... to accept that I have really and permanently changed."
Luna is looking at her.
"I'm not the creature who did those terrible things," Ocellus says firmly. "And neither are you."
Luna smiles, although Ocellus can see the sadness has not fully left her face. The changeling blinks as she tastes an unfamiliar but pleasant mix of honeydew and tar. Luna's love. Just a small amount, but somehow sharper and clearer than any she has experienced, as if more alive than life itself, flowing through the mirror as easily as her words.
"I know that, Ocellus. And I forgave myself years ago."
The night alicorn's words are sincere, but Ocellus can tell that is not entirely true. But then, even if they have changed, does anyone ever completely forgive themselves?
Ocellus has left her past behind her, embracing fully her new life as all in the transformed, love-filled hive (except perhaps Pharynx) have done. But the even though she knows she is no longer the love-starved changeling nymph she once was, she does not know how she would fare if she ever met any of the ponies she had attacked. Or fed on. There are deeds her former self did under Queen Chrysalis' reign that still pain her. Nightmares she may never fully escape.
"I know," Ocellus says. "We were taught the story in class. But I also know that even things you have forgiven yourself for can still hurt."
Luna is quiet a moment, but she nods with a sad smile.
As Ocellus smiles back, she closes her receptors, feeling a touch ashamed. She had not meant to do that. She had not even realized they were open.
Luna muses, "I had not thought of it before. But I can see now: unlike your friends, you cannot learn from my mistakes... for you have already learned those same lessons from your own."
With a wry chuckle, she adds, "I believe that is what I wished to help teach all of you on our field trip..."
Ocellus cocks her head, her ears perking. "Believe? You don't know?"
Luna pauses. Then frowns, a look of agitation playing across her face. "No, I... You're right. I should know... I..."
The night alicorn's face grows distorted with concentration.
"I... I cannot remember. I... I do not know why I planned the field trip. Or if this is truly where I meant to bring you. I cannot even remember asking Starlight..." Luna's eyes widen with alarm. "I cannot remember a great deal of the last few days! And when I try, I feel an ache in my mind. Like a hole..."
Ocellus gulps as a terrible thought comes to her. "Like your memories were drained away?"
She can feel Luna's love through the mirror. This strange malfunction... it allows much more than the alicorn's words and image. Ocellus could feed on Luna's love if she allowed herself to.
Memories aren't like love, she tells herself. Stop thinking what you are thinking, Ocellus. Feeding doesn't work that way.
But this is a changeling queen! They have powerful magic. She knows only a fraction of the things Queen Chrysalis was able to do. Who knows what Queen Elytra is capable of? Her thoughts turn to the drone in the grand foyer.
He knows my name! How does he know my name??!
Luna's eyes widen. Her words show that she too has followed the same line of thought. "Ocellus! This new queen is a far graver threat than I conceived. There are no words to express the damage she could do if she has my memories... not just of Equestria's defenses, but of the fears and dreams of all the creatures within it! It is most imperative that she not be allowed to invade our world!"
Ocellus looks at the three pillars again, the middle one now wearing an oil painting for a hat. The other two capitals remain as before.
Ocellus blinks, another (and hopefully far less invasive) question forming in her head. "Why hasn't it created Nightmare Moon's Seal?" She restrains herself from adding: Do I need to turn it on?
"The artifact weaves creations from dark essence," Luna answers. "You must supply that."
Oh. That makes sense. Of course, Ocellus figures, Nightmare Moon had a plentiful supply of that. But she does not.
"Place something made of dark essence on the first pillar, and the artifact will pull the essence from it," Luna tells her.
"Like what?" Ocellus asks.
Luna smirks. "Literally anything. Every part of Nightmare Moon's Palace is made from dark essence. ...Do not do this with anything you wish to keep. Being stripped of essence will cause the thing to dissolve."
After a moment's consideration, the night alicorn adds, "Although things without real power required only a wisp of essence to create and will provide very little to destroy. You would have to dismantle several rooms and dissolve their furnishings to create the Seal. Weapons and creatures forged from dark essence will provide much better yield."
Ocellus feels her eyes widen, a shudder of shock running through her at the casual mention of dissolving creatures to make a tool. She quickly reminds herself that this is not something Luna ever did, but rather the cold cruelty of Nightmare Moon.
Luna sees Ocellus' reaction and is quick to clarify. "Ocellus, I am not suggesting that you would -- nor should -- kill creatures to create Nightmare Moon's Seal."
Ocellus feels herself relaxing, a tension that had begun to build slowly trickling away. In the wake, her mind latches once again onto the memory of her fight in the grand foyer and the weapon that drone was wielding. A weapon now encased in queen resin with him.
There is an identical set of onyx columns in the kitchen. If Nightmare Moon built and furnished this whole palace with these artifacts, surely she would have wanted to reduce the hassle of lugging materials and furniture.
Ocellus doesn't even have to ask how many of these artifacts are spread across the palace. The tension that had almost faded away rushes back as she realizes the hive has control of at least one. Queen Elytra is using it to create the weapons she devises. And with that comes an even more dreadful thought:
If this is what Queen Elytra is creating now, what will she conjure up when she has all of Equestria's nightmares to pull from?