The hive of changelings was teeming with life once more. In the throne room, Chrysalis gave orders to the drones for collecting love, while Chitin supervised the rounds of the warriors.
Aglowing Shell walked through the corridors of her little world. She was happy, humming a tune that she was improvising from some song Pepper had taught her - a song on how to find a friend, all while she bickered nicely with any of her subjects she met.
At a bend of the corridor, a little blackback drone appeared out of a narrow side tunnel before walking over to meet the little queen.
"Sweet Dreams!" the young queen exclaimed with a big smile.
"Aglowing Shell, I'm glad to see you smile so much."
"Yes! It's thanks to Pepper Chilly!" chirped the child.
“What do you mean?” the drone asked, unsure what Aglowing meant.
"Thanks to her, the hive will get better,” the young queen explained. “Mother said so."
“And what exactly is she doing to make our hive better?” Sweet Dreams asked, as that information had been far too vague for her.
"I don't know." The child shrugged.
"What do you know?" the drone pressed.
"Mother said that Pepper had to leave for treatment, that she's sick, got some kind of bad blood in her head. It caused her to stay asleep, so she removed the blood, which is the new smell in the hive. But thanks to her, the hive will be as good as it was before!"
"Oh! This queen is resourceful."
Aglowing was surprised by Sweet Dreams' choice of words. "This queen? You mean she's not your queen, too? Aren't you from the hive?"
The drone was caught off guard by the sudden flood of questions directed at her, but seeing Aglowing Shell's face, which seemed amazed by the simple idea that the one before her could have come from another hive, she decided that a piece of truth wouldn’t hurt.
"Indeed, I'm not from your hive, Aglowing Shell."
"Whoa! Where's your hive? What's your Queen's name?"
Sweet Dreams was annoyed at the idea of giving her Queen's name, but giving the location of her hive was not a problem. She pointed with her hoof at the narrow corridor she had come from.
"You can see my hive from anywhere at night," she said proudly, looking up at the ceiling as if she could see the moon through the rocks.
"The night?!" repeated the little changeling, suddenly panicking and looking around as if surrounded by enemies, while at the same time hoping to find something that could protect her.
"Yes. You've been out of your hive at night, haven't you?"
Around Aglowing, everything slowed down. Scenes that disturbed her young mind flashed in front of her eyes. Her surroundings became blurred. Changelings stopped moving, glitching out of existence.
Sweet Dreams stopped daydreaming as she felt that the dream was turning into a nightmare. She barely had time to realise that she had been the one that unintentionally created it.
Aglowing was crying, looking down, magic crackling over her horn. In front of her eyes, she saw a wounded Chrysalis coming back from outside. The final blow to her heart came as a single star escaped her mother’s body and she fell, inanimate, to the ground. "NO!" the child screamed in horror. The magic of the little changeling exploded, utilising power from the depths of her heart. In a wave of magic that spread to the horizon, Aglowing swept the dream like a house of cards, forcing Nightmare Moon to lose her changeling appearance.
In the darkness of the dreamless sleep, only the cyan eyes of the latter was visible. Nightmare Moon tried to understand how this could have happened. The only thing she could think of was a survival instinct. Just as no hypnosis could push anyone to put their own lives in danger, Aglowing Shell had just destroyed a nightmare that seemed to be a threat to her life. Nightmare Moon was shocked. A child had just swept away the dream the mare had created in order to soothe her mind. "Aglowing Shell? What's wrong with you?"
"I hate the stars! Each of them was created at the death of one of my subjects! And the night is filled with it! I'll never get out of the hive again! I don't want to see the night anymore! I hate it!"
Nightmare Moon was mortified. What could she say? She, who had commanded the ambushes and assaults to decimate the changelings? Because of her, this little girl feared what she loved the most. The little girl saw the night as a huge mass graveyard. She looked away before closing her eyes, disappearing with the rest of the dream and betraying her presence with a faint smile that seemed slightly forced. "Very well. I won't bother you anymore."
Aglowing Shell hiccuped at these words. She raised her head before looking for the voice’s origin, sounding panicked. "Sweet dreams!" she shouted.
Nightmare Moon stopped just as she reached the door that led out of Aglowing Shell's dreams. She turned around, curious as to why the little queen called after her. "What is it?" asked the alicorn.
"You don't bother me. So please come back! It's good to be able to talk to someone who's not from my hive."
Nightmare Moon once again didn't know how to answer that. However, it was the first time that a soul living on Equestria wanted to see her again, which brought a smile to her face. "If what you say is true, then I'll come back."
"Honesty in words!" replied the little queen.
Nightmare Moon was troubled by these words coming from a changeling—or, at least, a hybrid having been raised as such. "How do you know the concept of honesty?"
"It's Pepper! She told me it's a way to find friends! Mother tried to explain the details to me, but she had trouble with the spark of magic, to the point that she made a lot of faces."
Nightmare Moon frowned. "Everyone has a problem with the spark of magic," she replied, her thoughts no longer lingering on the element itself, but turning toward Twilight Sparkle.
"Will you come back then?"
"When you’re asleep, I'm never far away." Then, Nightmare Moon used her magic to end the dream.
Aglowing woke up, realising that all this had been a dream. She was in her alcove, which was hidden from the rest of the room behind a tapestry that faced the door leading to her room. The walls of her alcove were coated with a viscous organic material that provided comfort for changelings. She crawled out of it. When her hooves touched the ground, she found herself in the middle of her toys. After hastily grooming herself, she went to the door and opened it. As she looked through the open door, her ears strained to hear the slightest sound. She did not expect to come face to face with Chitin.
"Hello, little queen. The decree of the Queen that prohibits you to enter the southern part of the hive is now lifted. She is waiting for you there."
Immediately, the child started running through the corridors to join Chrysalis. When she arrived in the southern part of the hive, Aglowing entered a gallery that led downwards at a significant angle, leading into a slope that continuously turned to the right, bringing the child deep underground. She finally arrived in a large room, which was in the centre of that endless seeming spiral she had just run down. The room was so large that Aglowing could hardly see the ceiling. In the centre of the room stood Chrysalis, who observed a large mound of loose soil from which a shrub grew that was no bigger than a filly.
Aglowing Shell sat next to her mother, who caressed her cheek-to-cheek.
"Mother, is there another black changeling hive nearby?"
"Why do you ask that question, my daughter?"
"I dreamed of another drone named Sweet Dreams. She said that her hive is not far away."
Chrysalis had some idea of who this black changeling was. "And what else does she say when she comes to see you?"
The child thought about the question. "She asks me if I'm all right. Whether Pepper didn't do anything wrong to me. Those kind of questions. She had a hard time believing that Pepper was there to... help me."
"I wouldn't really call it help. I was really scared for you, you know?"
"Yes, Mother, but she helped me understand why you were weird with me," she replied, making her cutest sorry face, which made her mother smile.
"I wasn't going to come and tell you: ‘Be careful, Mother will come and bite you, my love,’" she said, imitating a big, grotesque monster before tickling her.
Aglowing Shell twisted for several seconds, begging her to stop between laughs. When the torture stopped, she looked at her mother and then at the shrub, catching her breath. "What is it?"
"This is Pepper's gift I told you about yesterday."
"I wish I had seen her again before she left."
"I've already explained it to you. She had to leave as soon as possible. All that bad blood in her head needs to be treated by her friends, the ponies. She may come back one day. If you have no more questions, go back to your room now, I'll come later."
Aglowing Shell set out again, flapping her wings, imagining herself flying through the hive as she jumped joyfully. Chrysalis asked Chitin to approach her by using a sound like chattering and clicking.
This one was never far away. The child had not seen them in the corridors because the warrior was lurking from the ceiling right at the entrance to the cave. They took a few steps down to the wall of the room, then turned their head one hundred and eighty degrees towards Chrysalis. "My queen?"
"It's time to return the favour to Nightmare Moon, as ridiculous as it was in the end. You'll leave at dusk and let her know that I want to meet with her about the Pepper Chilly case."
"If I may, it's a waste of time."
Chrysalis observed her subject, who was as old as they were devoted to serving the hive. They carried out whatever mission the queen might order them to do. If Chitin hadn't been there all this time, she wouldn’t have been able to reach this point today. But it seemed that luck had run out, for she was now the queen of a hive that had fallen to pieces. “So what? We are at their mercy, as much as it hurts me to admit it. But if Pepper's death brings us more grace in their eyes, we might as well tell them the good news. I think she is already aware, but who knows. Maybe they'll leave us alone this time and we won't have to worry about their army walking towards the hive anymore."
"It will be done as you command, my queen."
"Chitin, let her know that coming with one soldier will be enough. And in the case you may not be able to come back—thank you for everything."
"We live and die for the hive, my queen."
"We're dying most of all lately," replied Chrysalis in a weary tone.
Chitin didn't know how to answer that. They jumped off the wall and began to run towards the closest exit of the hive, filled with boundless anger. Where was the Chrysalis they had always served? Where was the one who sang to celebrate each of her victories? They would turn sky and earth upside down just to see their queen be herself again. They would even challenge Nightmare Moon and defeat her if necessary, if they were assured that their queen would sing again. For the time being, they were going to do what was expected of them. If the opportunity arose, they would do what it took so that this day would be perfect, so that their queen could sing it again.
Antares, wearing her armour with just the decals marking her as a private, approached the tunnel that led through the mountains from the Badlands.
Swift Chess, in formation with three other bat ponies, noticed her from the starry sky above. He signalled to the others before joining the mare on the ground. "Hey, Cute Bite! I didn't see you leave for the Badlands. Did you find anything?"
"Yes, and I must inform Nightmare Moon as soon as possible."
"What did you find, Cute Bite?"
"I'm sorry, but I can only talk about it with Nightmare Moon."
As they advanced through the tunnel, Swift was intrigued by something. "Come on, Cute Bite, you can tell me!"
"No."
"Please, Cute Bite."
"I said no."
"I said please, Cute Bite," Swift said, suddenly placing the blade under Antares' throat. "All right, listen to me, changeling. We have orders not to kill you, except in self-defence, so you will immediately stop pretending to be my Cute Bite and you will explain to me why you were trying to leave the Badlands. Without moving, otherwise I will kill you and pretend that you tried to kill me. Do I make myself clear?"
"Very clear."
"Okay, let's start at the beginning. What are you doing here?"
"My queen, Chrysalis, sent me to ask Nightmare Moon for an audience."
"As much as I know you're a changeling, it's scary to see Cute Bite say ‘My Queen Chrysalis.’ And for what reason?"
"You don't have to know that. Now, either you kill me and take the message to your Queen yourself without having all the details, or you lead me to her."
"By the stars, Cute Bite has a secret twin. Very well. I'll guide you to Nightmare Moon's tent. I'll be behind you. If you try anything else, I'll slice you like a mango."
"I have no doubt that all the changelings you killed were good training for that."
"Well, that would mean I wouldn't be able to kill you, then."
"Wait, what?"
"I'm the one asking the questions here. Move on."
Chitin growled and set off through the tunnel. Swift flew a few steps off the ground behind them, just within range to cut them off at the slightest suspicious movement.
"Stop, and don’t move," Swift ordered the changeling at the exit of the tunnel, then turned to the bat pony stationed there. "Private Dauntless Halberd, assist me in escorting this changeling to Nightmare Moon's tent."
The soldier in question blew an ultrasonic whistle. Immediately afterwards, all the bat ponies in the area approached like a swarm of bees scaring off an intruder, weapons held in their mouths. They carefully observed Chitin and Swift.
Chitin turned cautiously to Swift, who turned to Dauntless. Swift did not seem to understand the reaction of the other bat ponies.
"You forgot the password, <soldier>, if you really are who you say you are."
Swift sighed, half relieved, but also exasperated. "For a moment, I thought you assumed I was a changeling without even checking—just imagine the face Cute Bite would have made if you had dragged me to the command tent. The eternal eclipse is coming."
Private Dauntless Halberd started to laugh. "No doubt about it, you're Swift." He turned to the bat ponies from the camp. "We have a changeling. You know the orders. Take her under heavy escort to see our Queen. Swift, too. For once, he does something right. It has to be highlighted. He will undoubtedly receive congratulations. Who knows, he may be exempt from chores for once."
"Super funny Dauntless. Really super funny," Swift said, rolling his eyes.
"At your service, Private Swift Chess." Dauntless saluted Swift, who was forcibly escorted along with Chitin.
The real Antares stood in front of the tent, wearing her soldier's armour with the distinctions due to her rank, as well as the two swords arranged in their dorsal sheaths.
Nightmare Moon stood one step before her aide de camp. They watched Swift and the impostor arriving. "I'm listening to you, changeling. Explain the reason you came here."
Chitin was enveloped in a pillar of greenish flame for a short moment, returning to their original form. "Queen Chrysalis is asking for an audience this very evening to discuss the Pepper Chilly case."
"It was about time," Nightmare Moon said as she unsheathed her claymore. She looked at her own reflection in the polished surface of the blade. "Would you dare to repeat your wish, changeling?" asked the queen before threatening Chitin's throat with the tip of her blade.
Almost everypony was surprised by the sudden turn of events. Except Chitin, who hardened their eyes. "You don't scare me, monster. I still wish you were all dead," they said before whistling briefly.
Before anyone had time to react, Nightmare Moon slammed her right forehoof on the ground to maintain order. Despite the show of force, she was amused and didn’t hide it. "Considering your situation, you really have guts to spit such words in front of me." She stopped threatening Chitin's life, sliding the blade against her rightwing. "Let your queen know that I will come with a squad in three hours. Major Antares, escort them back to the Badlands. Unscathed. Into infamy shall be plunged the lineage of the bat pony who dares to lift their hoof against this changeling."
Chitin spoke before Antares had time to answer. "Concerning Pepper Chilly's body, my queen wants you to know that coming with only one subordinate will be enough to repatriate her."
Antares lifted her shoulder to present the sheath of the claymore so that the alicorn could put it back, but the latter did not do so. "One bat pony is enough? What happened?"
"My queen has not explained why."
Nightmare Moon blew her discontent through her nostrils. "Major, escort the changeling out of my sight." She stared at the bat pony next to Chitin. "Private Swift Chess, my tent, now," she ordered coldly in an imperative tone, her weapon pointing at the entrance of the command tent.
Antares blinked, surprised by Nightmare Moon's last order. She hesitated for a moment, feeling a hint of fear for her companion, who obeyed the order without blinking or even paying attention to it. Finally, she sighed and resigned herself to escorting Chitin back to the border with a squad of bat ponies at her side.
In the tent, Swift stood in front of the table showing the estimated forces of both sides, deliberately distorted in favour of changelings to deceive anyone who had not taken part in the military manoeuvres.
Nightmare Moon followed him after ordering Shadowbolt Nebula to ensure that no one approached the command tent without her consent. She erected a dome around the tent with her magic, preventing any sound from escaping. Assured of discretion about the upcoming conversation, she went to the rack and stabbed her sword into the ground. She stared at the battle armour in front of her, the royal attire that she hadn’t touched since she had the tantabus for a body. After a long moment lost in her thoughts, she turned her attention to the bat pony who had wisely waited for the nightmare to begin. With a regal posture, she stepped closer to the table, opposite of Swift, facing him. "Private Swift Chess, I'll only say it once. Drop the mask."
"My Queen?" Swift replied cautiously.
"Out of respect for your relationship with the late Lieutenant Antares, I initially closed my eyes to your deplorable behaviour in my army. But leaving your post without receiving orders two days ago cannot be left unpunished. Especially when I see that you're able to detect a disguised changeling. It is increasingly difficult for me to accept this mockery of a soldier you claim to be on a daily basis in my army," the queen said.
He looked away from her, his gaze downcast. "Identifying the changeling was just luck. Cute Bite gets angry when anypony uses her birth name too often. As for the rest, it's not a mask, my queen. It's a promise. A promise from a jester to a knight to protect a pawn."
"Why have you made such a promise? Antares' sister shows exemplary behaviour. Why should she need protection?"
Swift looked Nightmare Moon in the eyes. "At first, it was mainly to quiet Antares' mind, because the royal assassin had to be entirely focused on what she did when she covered her hooves with moon blood," he said with a teasing smile.
The queen gave a knowing smile to the bat pony. "Arrant rascal. You go so far as to slip old codes of her missions into the middle of our conversation, but if you think I didn't know that you knew about Antares' dark secret, you're wrong, Private Swift Chess. Antares never hid from me that she saw you after each mission. She called it her reward. At first, I admit that I was afraid you would reveal such a secret. So I had you watched for a while. But all the reports mentioned just a comedian who had only eyes for Antares."
Swift was embarrassed. He looked away, scratching his cheek with his left-wing thumb. "Her first mission was not without consequences. When she came to knock on my window right after the assassination, I did what I could to help her. It is true that it has become a habit from then on." He dared to look at the queen of the night from the corner of his eyes. "Has she always told you everything?"
"Since you have proven your reliability for years now, I will reveal something to you. Every Royal Assassin has always had a fictitious position of Lieutenant. This is because they were the only ones who knew more than anyone else on the Moon how I ruled. Therefore I always forged a precious relationship with each of them, generation after generation. I have always been a confidant to them, allowing myself to reveal a side of me that I could not show to my subjects. So when Antares told me that she had come to your house before she reported to me, I felt jealous. A feeling I hadn't experienced in centuries." At these words, the memory of that exact moment came back to haunt her mind and prick at her heart. Suddenly, she was caught up in the feeling that dominated her life. Her jaw tightened as her body moved on its own, her forehoof slowly carving a furrow in the ground. The memory ended as if the bubble in which she was locked had burst. She suddenly regained awareness of reality. Realising what she had done, she turned her back to the trace in the ground, staring at her armour. She continued the conversation in the same serious tone as before. "You have never failed Antares, nor I, your sovereign, Swift Chess, despite all the knowledge you should not have had."
"Knowledge is power, my Queen, and I made smart use of my knowledge for the good of my friends. And right now, I'm fighting the greatest threat that has the power to break my promise. Even if their lineage has dedicated itself, generation after generation, to assuming the role of your royal assassin, I will not let you make Cute Bite her sister’s' successor."
"What are you implying, soldier?" asked the alicorn, her face darkening suddenly.
"I lied to Cute Bite. I regret that I made her take the role of your former aide de camp on the spot during the night of the genocide. I thought you would have offered her a distinction, even a promotion to Corporal. But I was wrong, and I regret my decision. When I see the consequences, I realise that I offered you a valid reason to give her this promotion, directly from soldier to major, followed by these responsibilities. Not to mention her combat prowess improved in record time. You push her to advance until you get the promotion of the pawn. You want to make her a knight, your new royal assassin. Admit it!"
"Who do you think you're talking to, mortal?!" shouted Nightmare Moon, standing up high and wide, wings spread, threatening.
"To my queen! That I respect as much as I fear! However, this promise I made to my friend forbids me to remain inactive! Antares sleeps forever, following a zeal of loyalty, and I will not let anyone disturb her rest. Not even you. I would watch over it until my last breath," Swift replied, standing up in response, aggressive but, at the same time, submissive to the mare facing him.
The tent fell utterly silent. Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Poor foal. Making a gambit of the king. Just because of a supposed pawn promotion," she noted, adopting a neutral position. "Stand at ease, soldier Swift. If there is one lesson I have learned the hard way, it is not to stand up against friendship. I'll assuage your fears. But first, tell me: Why the name change?"
Swift returned to a more neutral position, but remained attentive to his queen's gestures; he couldn’t lower his guard now. "For Cute Bite, her older sister was her first idol. She replayed the missions she imagined her older sister would accomplish in your name: conquer strongholds, defeat armies, defeat Celestia for the sole glory of the Eternal Night. Her imagination was far from reality. As she saw her resting serenely in the coffin, she couldn't accept that her sister didn't have the glorious future she imagined. And so, she left to fill the administrative papers to bear her sister's name. As determined as I am to protect her, even against the princesses who rule Equestria, with her mindset, she is ready to challenge them so that her sister's name will become a legend."
Nightmare Moon smiled slightly, reminiscing. She thought back to the day when she summoned the major to talk about the adult name she had chosen to wear. "Now I understand better why the descendant of a line of strategists wants to stagnate at the bottom of the basket, when his instructors have denoted a potential that you refuse to exploit: You seek to remain in her entourage."
Swift's resolve could be seen in his eyes. "I will do whatever it takes to keep my promise. If I were to evolve as a strategist myself, I would lose sight of her. That would increase the risk of facing Antares after my death, and she would break my teeth. And I don’t want to be a mockery in the afterlife."
The alicorn looked to her armour still waiting on the rack, thinking of that day when Luna, then immature, gave in to a desire to see the night as revered as the day. The dark words of the illegitimate monarch of the Crystal Empire repeated themselves in her mind, which allowed herself to be consumed by the nightmarish angst that she had been repressing all that time. She remembered her first words as if they were yesterday: A royal duty, a promise to herself which now could no longer be fulfilled. The bitterness that resulted from it, she wished on no pony, let alone one of her subjects. "The reason I promoted her to the rank of Major and gave her the position of Aide-de-Camp is not to make her my royal assassin. Certainly, she would have become Antarès’ successor, if, among other things, she had been ten years younger, as this kind of work requires a huge amount of training. As to the other thing you’ve mentioned, you are wrong on one point: She is a born warrior, naturally gifted for close combat. I think we’re justified to say that the talent is in her blood, which wouldn’t be surprising, given her lineage. To sum all of this up: I unknowingly wanted to grant both your wishes. If she continues along this path, she could become a high-ranking officer in the Lunar Guard. That is my way of rewarding Antares for her loyalty posthumously. Does that reassure you, Swift Chess?"
Upon hearing those words, he hesitated, thinking for a moment. In the end, he shook his head weakly. "No, my Queen. It is very simple to say one thing and then act completely differently. That is, after all, part of employing assassins. I want to believe your words with all my heart, but I can only determine their truth on her deathbed."
She understood his point of view and wanted to put his mind at ease. "I understand. In that case, I see only one option." She made the magic bubble disappear. "Major Antares! Come in!"
Antares entered the tent, observing them quietly.
"Major Antares, from now on Private Swift will be your second-in-command. He'll be taking orders directly from you only. He seems to have provisions for military tactics, which is why you will hone that skill with his help. But one thing at a time. Shadowbolt Nebula!"
Nebula entered a moment later, greeting the assembled ponies by placing the thumb of her wing on her head.
"Major Antares, your second officer left his post without having received the order. The punishment?" asked Nightmare Moon.
Antares considered the situation, the new orders, and her options. "Private Swift Chess, for insubordination, you will spend the rest of the week in solitary confinement. Dry bread and water for all meals. We'll see if you still have the heart to disobey as a result of this isolation."
Nebula once again did not wait to see how he would react to this. Instead, she drew her weapon and escorted Swift out of the tent. Antares turned toward the alicorn, her head held high. Nightmare Moon stored her claymore in the sheath Antares wore. "Get some rest. We'll meet Chrysalis in an hour. Whatever happens, killing must be the last resort. If the situation turns violent, incapacitate them. It's not as if they can affect me, so in the event that the situation gets bad, your retreat is a priority. This is an order."
Chrysalis and Chitin were standing at the entrance to the tunnel where the genocide had taken place months earlier. Although many changelings had lost their lives during the battle, there were no signs that the night had ever happened. The microclimate of the Badlands had dried the blood and swept all traces of the battle away. "Do your best to distract her lackeys. But don't attack them. It won’t be good to give them an excuse to finish the job."
Nightmare Moon arrived by air, accompanied by Antares. Wanting to shorten this interview as much as possible, and to finally be in possession of the last piece that would allow her to move forward in the next stage of the Eclipse project, she spoke with a monotonous voice, setting the tone of their discussion. "Get to the point," she said, calling back to when Chrysalis had uttered that exact phrase.
Chrysalis didn’t take long to react to this, her attitude changing in a split second. With her head tilted slightly, her eyes began to shine with just anger. She walked at a slow speed towards the one who had done so much. "’Get to the point’? How dare you!? You invade my daughter's dreams, you pretend to be a changeling, you pretend that another hive exists! Do you realise the consequences of such lies? Isn't she suffering enough already? Do you have to offer her false hopes as well? Where will you be when she tries to find your bloody hive? Where will you be when the ponies find her and treat her like they would any changeling: A monster to chase away, if not worse?"
Chitin monitored the conversation, walking six steps away to the left of Chrysalis.
Antares did the same to the left of Nightmare Moon. The tone of the conversation didn't appeal to her. The bat pony already had her head bent to draw her sword, ready to get into the melee if things went wrong.
Nightmare Moon did not expect such aggressiveness from the get-go. She, who came only for Pepper Chilly, was now required to answer for the crimes she had committed. With her whole body bent backwards, she backed away at the same pace as Chrysalis pushed her to do it. However, she did not intend to be treated in this way. She counter-attacked. "I only slipped into your daughter's dreams because she had nightmares! Then I learned who she was! And I've made sure, every night since then, that she hasn't had a single one!"
However, Chrysalis had not finished with her reproaches. Like a lioness protecting her cub she was not swayed by these justifications. "Oh, yes! What a noble soul, killing an entire hive and then protecting my daughter from the resulting nightmares! Do you really think I was born yesterday?!"
"No! I—ah!?" As she backed away, Nightmare Moon stepped on a crack. Her body bent backwards and she lost her balance, causing her to land belly-up.
Chrysalis did not stop. She continued, even abusing her clumsiness to force a hoof on her shoulder. Nightmare Moon had to face the consequences of her actions. Chrysalis dominated the alicorn in height. Her fury was still present, but Chrysalis could not afford to shed blood first. "In that case, why?" she asked.
For their part, Chitin and Antares scraped the ground with their hooves, both ready to defend their respective queens.
"I... I just wanted to make her forget the dream, and push her to think of something else!"
"A noble intention,” Chrysalis interjected, “but nothing can make me forget the deathly silence that reigns in my hive! The sheer lack of life in these galleries! No dream can hide this for the rest of us—not once the sun is raised each day.”
Nightmare Moon grunted fearfully. “Enough! Let go of me!”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. Her rage disappeared in an instant… only for something else to take its place. She bent over to have a one-on-one conversation with Nightmare Moon. Amused by the request, she could not keep away a mocking smile; her voice blew with impertinence. "Beg me."
Everything went in a blur. Antares charged at Chrysalis, drawing her blade in anger to cut off the head of this queen who had made this affront to Nightmare Moon.
Chitin was not to be outdone, their horn lighting up with magic while they had the bat pony in their sights.
Nightmare Moon abandoned her physical form to gain distance from Chrysalis in her Tantabus form, before standing face-to-face with the Queen of the changelings.
The latter, however, was not surprised by this manoeuvre.
Antares jumped to sever Chrysalis's head. At the same time, Chitin flew off to jump over their queen, wrapping the sword in their magic. The changeling turned it above their head as fast as they could.
Antares, who had a firm grip on her weapon, could not stand being treated like the stone of a sling. Her grip on the sword went weak before finding herself propelled back.
"I'll make sure your guest's subordinate has no means of disturbing the rest of the conversation. Continue, my Queen. It's good to finally see you smile again." A battle-ready Chitin, keeping the sword under the grasp of their magic, flew to where Antares had landed.
"So, Sweet Dreams... Are you going to stay in this form like a coward, or are you going to face your own nightmares?"
Nightmare Moon assumed her airborne and physical forms at the same time. "The Night is afraid of nopony!" she bellowed, ready to strike.
"Twilight Sparkle," Chrysalis whispered loud enough with a mocking smile.
Nightmare Moon snarled and began their deadly dance, devastating the Badlands with great gales of magic. Chrysalis dodged every shot, gracefully weaving between the blasts of the Queen of the Moon.
Chitin landed not far from Antares, who was trying to straighten up; she was still dizzy from the forced flight. "You came to finish the job, I see," Antares leered.
"You're making a mistake, Cute Bite. I just came to give you your weapon back."
"Huh?!" Antares watched Chitin drop the weapon between the two of them before extending their hoof, offering to help her onto her feet.
"You're very quick to want to cut my queen's throat,” Chitin commented. “That being said, given the situation, I can't blame you for that."
Antares, annoyed, looked at the two options available to her. In the landscape, Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were redecorating the surroundings with bursts of green and cyan magic. "Are you going to tell me our queens aren’t fighting each other as we speak?"
Chitin grinned playfully. "Get up. Or I'll just have to lift you with my magic, Cute Bite."
It was Antares' turn to see red. Driven by rage, she coiled up and launched herself to knock down Chitin with all four irons in the air. She immediately readied her blade again before throwing herself at the changeling, nailing Chrysalis' subordinate to the ground with a hoof on her throat. Her sword was poised to split Chitin’s head at the slightest wrong move. In that moment, Antares had the undivided attention of her interlocutor. "My name is Antares, Major and Aide-de-Camp of Nightmare Moon. I don't like being called by my birth name, especially not by a changeling that's having fun stealing my appearance!"
Chitin listened carefully, observant and unmoving. They took care to stay still and silent like a statue to let Antarès contain both her breath and her sudden outburst of rage. "The one named Swift kept calling me by your birth name. How was I supposed to know?"
With a hiccup, Antares had to admit that Swift was at fault. She had to swallow her anger. It could be kindled until they got home; then she could proceed to beat up Swift. "Getting back to the original question, are you going to try and make me believe they're not fighting each other right now?"
Chitin looked at the blade, as well as the angry bat pony who held it to her face. "Is this an interrogation or a conversation? Let us avoid getting to the heart of the matter. Me, in this case, because I doubt that your queen could save you if you were to commit this act." Chitin first spoke this softly, but her expression darkened and her tone became more acidic at each passing word. "Unless your hooves aren't blood-soaked enough, Major Antares."
"I will make sure that I end up completely covered with your blood if my queen wishes it, changeling," growled Antares.
"Well, then!” Chitin coldly spoke. “Until the order is given, step aside. This little talk is a bit too one-sided for my tastes."
“While I wait for the order, you're going to tell me where Pepper Chilly's body is."
Chitin had her fill of the futile exchange. Obviously, she had provided much of the basis for the unenviable position she found herself in. But if Antares didn't want to move, the changeling decided she would help her. Using their magic, Chitin snatched away Antares’s sword and butted her away with the flat part of the blade. They both got up, Antares in a black anger. Chitin was already morally tired from the one-way conversation.
"Give me back my weapon," Antares ordered.
"You calm down, then we'll see," replied Chitin with a sigh.
"I said: Give me back my weapon, changeling!" Antares commanded, her teeth clamping together with unbridled fury.
Chitin turned into Swift Chess. "Come on, Cute Bite. Changelings are our friends! You have to love them, too," they said with a big smile. Chitin held Antares’s weapon against their shoulder, no longer able to use magic because of the mimicry.
Antares did not know how to handle this. The irritating changeling had mimicked Swift, called her “Cute Bite,” and disarmed her almost effortlessly. Soon, her blood was no longer cold to her enemy. Antares charged Chitin, murder written all over her face. A kick from the right hoof, immediately followed by a hook from the left, struck the doppelgänger. She used the inertia of her assault to frame a swift follow-up attack: a vicious double kick!
If only Chitin had time to dodge the first two shots, but the double kick was more than they could handle. They had just enough time to protect her body, but slid back in the flurry of blows and rapidly lost the upper hoof.
The tension was electrifying. Both had returned to the same state of mind as on the night of the genocide. Facing off once again, no queens could interrupt them this time. Two warriors, short of breath with spiteful frowns, nothing ahead except their mortal enemy. Chitin abandoned Swift's appearance. Antares scratched the earth. Chitin accentuated her grip on the sword handle. Antares prepared to jump.
Meanwhile, in the air, Chrysalis dodged the magical attacks with ease, taking a wicked pleasure in improvising a dance whose rhythm was imposed by her partner. She looked at Nightmare Moon with a sardonic smile. "Missed again, my sweetness!"
The alicorn responded with a coarse gust, not wanting to expend any more magical energy than she needed to.
"Oh! Time-out! I feel like I should ask,” chided Chrysalis. “Who could have been killed by Pepper so that we could blame her for all the aches and pains of Equestria?"
"She didn't eat just any soul. She devoured Celestia’s," Nightmare Moon shouted, sending another burst at the changeling queen.
"Huh?! What?!" Chrysalis became an immobile target following the revelation. Sadly for her, she froze in the path of a magic blast that would have easily been avoided otherwise. She was hit at full force and started falling head-first.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened. She started an immediate descent to reach Chrysalis, using magic to slow her fall before not-so-gracefully releasing it above the ground. "Everypony has such an odd habit of falling down when they are informed of Celestia's death," Nightmare Moon said with a mocking smile.
"Don't make me laugh. My ribs hurt enough as it is," Chrysalis ironed in the middle of her coughing fit. As she tried to stand back up, she turned her head slightly to look at Nightmare Moon. "Is it true? Is Celestia really dead?"
"It would have been a perfect murder, if Luna hadn't surprised Pepper on the way out. All that remains is her regalia. Considering what she did to one of my border guards, I understand why."
"If you mean her magic that turns one into candy, she used it on one of my changelings." Chrysalis turned to the other duo in the distance. "Do you think she swallowed it all?"
"I can only see this solution," Nightmare Moon also observed. "We should get closer; they seem... agitated." She set off without delay.
"Yes, the situation has gotten a little out of control," Chrysalis said, following in Nightmare Moon’s footsteps. Walking beside one another, the changeling had the faster pace and widened the gap between them. There was no way she would be behind Nightmare Moon, nor staying by her side!
The alicorn of the Night didn’t take too kindly to the bug queen’s pompous gait. She walked faster, easily overtaking the changeling.
A most improbable race between two mares occurred, their pride so great that they could not accept the idea of being second.
When the monarchs arrived, the two lieutenants were about to kill each other. Chrysalis took a look at Nightmare Moon, who was now using her ethereal form due to the earlier magic drain. She understood that it was her responsibility to stop the confrontation.
Chrysalis coughed. In a thrill of surprise, the duellists turned their attention to the exaggerated coughs. Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon were sitting ten alicorn steps from each other, observing their respective subordinates. Chrysalis was exhausted, but smiled through her sweat. Nightmare Moon, in her Tantabus shape, wore the usual shapeless face that showed no expression.
"Obviously, we are not the only ones entertaining ourselves," Chrysalis amusedly noted.
Nightmare Moon, unable to speak in her condition, opened a window to the world of dreams to invoke one of the four parts of the Tantabus. As soon as it joined the ethereal body, the alicorn regained some of her power. Enough to regain physical form before closing the rift. "Would it seem, Major Antares, that your little altercation got a bit heavy-hooved? Could it be that you became overzealous?" she asked.
Antares was in a cold sweat. She wondered how she could explain that the fight with Chitin started because she hated the use of her filly name. No matter how she turned it all around, there was no way to discuss it without making a foal of herself.
"Altercation?” Chitin derogatorily interrupted. “Ah! That’s such a big word for such a trivial matter! But I suppose it doesn't surprise me that a walking nightmare would feel that way about a training session.”
Antares’s eyes popped wide. She looked at Chitin, speechless. Chrysalis clicked her teeth to put back the sassy changeling back in their place. Chitin stood up straight and proud, ready to wait for their queen's next order. They watched Antares from the corner of the eye as their lips folded into a mischievous smile.
Nightmare Moon gave herself time to think. "Is that true, Major?" she asked.
Antares looked away from Chitin. It would be enough for her to breathe an affirmative and close the subject. However, the loyalist didn’t dare lie to her queen. She shook her head vigorously, like chasing a bad idea out of her mind. "She's lying. Without your intervention..."
Nightmare Moon observed the three interlocutors in turn, then let her eyes wander before giving her opinion on the subject. "If the changeling claims that nothing happened, let's make this lie a sincerity to avoid wasting too much time with this minor incident. The real reason for our coming is the only thing that matters to me."
Chrysalis smiled at Nightmare Moon's pragmatism. She signalled Chitin to place Antares' weapon down before leaving for the tunnel.
"Bad blood in her head? And she left for treatment?" asked Nightmare Moon once Chitin was no longer in earshot or sight.
Chrysalis peripherally glanced at Nightmare Moon, her eyes charged with the same anger as before. "If you ever get the morbid urge to tell my daughter the truth, I will find a way to hurt you. None of your ethereal powers will help you hide from me. And you will be next on the list to have ‘bad blood in the head’.”
A mother's frenzy was something terrifying. Even Nightmare Moon had a slight chill at the base of her neck. "All I know is that the door to her dreams is gone."
Chrysalis looked towards her hive, as if to make sure no one else was listening to her, before turning back towards Nightmare Moon. "While she was asleep—I guess you were visiting her then—I took the closest crystal splinter. When I was done, there was only marmalade left from what he used as her heart. I can only hope that, in her next life, she will keep in mind that nopony threatens the life of my daughter without consequences.”
Nightmare Moon was amused by the story. "I won’t wait until my next life to learn that lesson."
Shortly afterwards, Chitin reappeared. They were using magic to carry a bloody piece of fabric that preserved an object no larger than a drawing sheet.
Nightmare Moon tilted her head, raising an eyebrow; the scene was puzzling. Of course, even after Chitin’s warnings, it was more than she could have imagined. Without ceremony, and with the little respect that the changeling had for the queen of the moon, they threw the flax to her hooves. Nightmare Moon used her magic to unfold the linen, and discovered a mane wick on which phoenix feathers were clipped by the blue bar, all covered with blood.
"Where is the body?" Nightmare Moon asked, turning to Chrysalis.
The queen of the Changelings looked Nightmare Moon straight in the eyes with contempt, albeit smiling and mocking. "What did you expect? You made sure we’d starve. Did you really think that love is our only source of food? We devoured her to the marrow of her bones. Be happy that I even kept this."
Nightmare Moon folded up the linen while she thought it over. The corpse would have been a better option for sure; Luna would have lost her mind as she tried to prove it wasn't Pepper. Apart from the ensuing confrontation with Twilight, the Eclipse project would have been a success by the end of the week. Presenting the evidence—an accessory that Pepper had only been wearing since her return—Nightmare Moon already pictured Luna's scepticism. It didn’t prove that Pepper was definitely dead. It made her head hurt. "If you had left the intact corpse, I could have had the surveillance lifted along the Macintosh Hills right now."
Chrysalis closed her eyes for a moment. Her right eyebrow rose as her mocking smile became more pronounced. "Let's not play a game of what-ifs. You could lose."
“With your raging-mother threats, my time was wasted more than yours!” barked Nightmare Moon, not fond of being played.
"Aren't you losing more right now?" Chrysalis snickered.
"I was merely waiting to see if you'd move on to the whining and crying phase," said Nightmare Moon, bearing a taunting smirk.
"You are not the princess of the night,” Chrysalis retorted, “but of expectation. Between your banishment and my tears, you spent all your time waiting. Hmph! Time well spent, wouldn’t you agree?"
“Right. On another topic, how are the wedding plans going? Any suitors in sight?"
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a mother and the queen of a tattered hive. The few subjects I have left are starving to death. My options are limited. So if you got what you came for, I'll take the day off. I don't have the luxury of waiting for love to come to my door, in any sense of the word."
“For a queen in decline, you have no shortage of bite. Major Antares, we are leaving."
"Minute butterfly. You can't expect to leave me hungry after you tell me that Pepper swallowed Celestia." Chitin trembled at Chrysalis’s words. "Let's be clear. I don't know what's going on with Equestria, but I have my own idea about the dastardly move you're planning. The question is, what is stopping you from doing so without the body of the parasprite?"
Nightmare laughed nervously when she heard Pepper’s all-too-perfect nickname. "Oh, nothing much. Just a certain princess who harmonizes everything that falls under her hoof."
Chrysalis had a sadistic smile on her face. "How is she?"
Nightmare rolled her eyes. "Like a charm. She still thinks that her mentor was only kidnapped by a planeswalker they had all welcomed. Long story short, waiting for a princess who will never return."
"Wait. You mean she doesn't know that Celestia is dead yet?! And to think we're going to miss such a feast," Chrysalis said with a falsely disappointed pout. "Well, if Equestria is in disarray... Why not consider rallying Princess Twilight to your cause?"
"Yes, good idea. Let's join the queue for Princess Twilight Sparkle’s expeditious ‘friendship treatment’!"
“Stop haunting my daughter's dreams and go see Sparkle. Depending on how she reacts when she sees you, you'll know exactly how you stand with her. At worst, she'll think she had a bad dream. At best, you can let us feed on the misfortunes of your new subjects."
"And what should I say when we meet? ‘Hello, Twilight! Nice dream you're having here! Luna's crazy, let me possess her body.’"
“If Twilight has even a little bit of common sense and rationality left in her mind, perhaps the little princess will appreciate being treated with the respect befitting her rank. Nevertheless, considering the wedding episode in Canterlot, it's a bad idea to try to do things through the back door. Yesterday, you were certainly an enemy in her eyes. But tomorrow is another day; you have to seize the opportunity when it presents itself. After a Queen-to-Princess chat, she could become your ally."
"This is madness," Nightmare Moon thought aloud.
"It's strategy. It took me almost a year to prepare for my invasion. When I heard about your return, I started thinking about including you in the equation. But when I saw the sun being raised, I didn't bother to reconsider my plans. This seemingly normal mare managed to best monsters like us, albeit with her friends’ help. But if her mentor is dead, she may need new ‘guidance.’ We underestimated her at our expense, but Equestria is now at a turning point in its history. Everything will change; it's time to adapt. Before anypony can get their heads out of the water, we must capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime chance, Nightmare Moon. If you miss out, it'll look like a simple nightmare. But if you succeed, you’ll get everything you want, and Aglowing Shell will finally be able to go one night without your unwanted intrusions."
Nightmare Moon once again laughed nervously. "Fine."