“It happened a long time ago. I was a little filly then, maybe even younger than you three! I lived in Cloudsdale, a city built out of clouds. It’s a little scary to live so high above the clouds at first, but you get used to it… eventually.
So, all throughout Equestria, there is a tradition of celebrating Nightmare Night. In Cloudsdale, the residents would gather in the town square at night, dressed in scary costumes, and then try to scare everypony else. The pony who had the scariest costume would win a lot of candy and a title of “Scariest Pony of Cloudsdale”. After that, there would be a big banquet for everypony present that would last until sunrise.
The promises of candy and fun made me exctatic when I was old enough to stay up for it. Unfortunately, I somehow missed the part about scares and being scared. My first Nightmare Night ended when I saw a huge zombie, opening its maw to gnaw on me… Then, I ran away and hid under my bed. For three days...
Since then, I dreaded Nightmare Night. This horrible, horrible night when everypony dresses in horrible, scary costumes and goes out of their way to give other ponies a fright… It made me cringe even to think about it. But it was a tradition and… I never had too many friends either. I was always scared of large groups — I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a little shy.”
“You don’t say,” Chrysalis deadpanned, before Moonie gave her a little shove.
“Do not interrupt. ‘Tis rude,” she scolded the irritated changeling. Fluttershy coughed to get back their attention.
“Back then, I had only one real friend: Rainbow Dash. She’s a wonderful pony — brave, strong and very caring about those who can’t protect themselves. Maybe one day you’ll get to meet her… I hope.” She fiddled a bit with her hooves before continuing.
“So, Rainbow Dash wanted me to attend Nightmare Night. Two years she would come to me and outright beg me to go. The first time, I declined and she left, and the second time I wanted to as well. I was afraid of what she’d think of me if I told her I was too scared to go; I might lose my only friend in the entire city… maybe, the entire world if I couldn’t do her even this small favour, so I agreed.
When Nightmare Night came, we put on our costumes — I was dressed as a bunny — and we hurried to the town square…”
“Then, you had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends, and became the bestiest pony in Cloudsdale!” Sombra suddenly interrupted her, beaming like a torchlight.
“Well… actually… no. It wasn’t like this.” Fluttershy sighed heavily, biting her lip. It made her feel slightly hurt when she saw Sombra turn slightly sad.
“When we arrived, I couldn’t believe my eyes; there were so many scary monsters: Hydras, vampires, zombies, demons, even a dragon… When I saw all of that, I- I screamed and ran away. I didn’t even say anything to Rainbow. I just ran without looking back. Maybe I even knocked down some lamps while I ran… It’s hard to remember.”
Fluttershy’s hurt grew as she saw the faces of the three. What were they thinking? Their expressions seemed disappointed. She pried her eyes from theirs and continued.
“Only when I slid under the bed, I realized what I had done. Not only had I humiliated myself, but... I’d humiliated Rainbow in front of everypony! It felt so horrible that I actually cried… a lot.
I thought I’d lost the only friend I ever had and that I would live alone forever. Nopony would ever speak to me again, because… who wants to be friends with a coward?”
Fluttershy gave a start when she felt Sombra curl up against her, nuzzling her.
“These thoughts made me feel even more horrible, and I cried even harder… I think this was one of the saddest moments of my entire life. However, I suddenly heard a voice... Rainbow’s voice.
‘Come on, Shy. This is no crying matter.’ I hadn’t heard her come in, but there she stood, knocking on the nightstand to get my attention. I swiped my tears away and listened — listened to her. Rainbow did not come to shout at me for embarassing her… she came to offer support. I slipped from under the bed and looked at her, straight in the eyes.
I can’t quite recall what exacty I asked, but it was along the lines of: ‘Why did you come here? I’m a horrible friend…’
To which she just replied: ‘No, Flutters, you’re a great friend. It was my fault — I knew you were easily scared, and I insisted that you should go. I’m sorry.’
I tried to tell her that there was nothing wrong in her actions, but she was persistent. As an apology, she organized a special Nightmare Night just for me: we made ourselves a tent consisting of a chair and a blanket and read spooky stories till we fell asleep…”
Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the moment when she’d woken up, and saw Rainbow Dash peacefully sleeping beside her, her face burrowed in the book. That morning she’d realized what it meant to have a true, true friend.
She looked at the three villains, awaiting their reaction. Her hooves started shaking a bit.
Suddenly, Sombra’s face widened in a smile and the silence was broken by clapping of his hooves. “This is such a sweet story! A bit sad, but still sweet! I loved it!” He stretched upwards and nuzzled Fluttershy’s chin with his nose. “I’m so happy you have a friend such as Rainbow.”
“I agree with Sombra: thy story is indeed very sweet.” Nightmare Moon nodded sagely, looking at the warm cuddles between the two. “Thou hast, indeed, deserved a cookie.”
“Wait, does this mean that all our stories have to be sensually-feelsy?” Chrysalis grumbled, sniffing. “Ah, blast it. Now, I’m going to catch sugar poisoning or something.”
“No, not necessarily. But it would help us bring each other together.” Fluttershy reached for a cookie and put it in her mouth. The dough almost immediately dissolved into pure bliss of sweetness and sugar, creating a heavenly mix. The Cakes certainly knew their stuff.
“My turn! My turn!” Sombra finally disengaged from Fluttershy and moved to his original position. He practically oozed eagerness to share stories with his friends.
“Of course, Sombra, go on.” Fluttershy nodded with an assuring smile and Sombra, after taking a deep breath, began.
“My story is very similar to Fluttershy’s. Though, it’s not about Nightmare Night, or Cloudsdale. That sounds very fun, but my story isn’t about them.
I used to live in a place that was called… err… Cry-sta-llic… something, I don’t remember. But I do remember that it was a horrible place! The food was horrible, my bed was rough and the roof was leaking!” He accented everything with wide gestures of his hooves that were more or less related to the things he told about.
“Even ponies were nasty. Nopony wanted to be my friend no matter how hard I tried. They would either ignore me or tell me to go away. I felt so lonely for so long… But, one day, I found a friend — a true friend!”
“Liar, you didn’t even know me then,” Chrysalis chirped.
Everyone looked at her.
“What? Ugh, fine, I’ll keep quiet.” Quietly grousing to herself, she let Sombra continue.
“Err, where was I?” He looked questioningly at Fluttershy.
“You found a friend, dear.”
“Oh, right! His name was Choppy. When I met him, he didn’t look too good — sick and hungry. But with my help, he got back on his hooves and we became best friends! We would never separate; we were together everywhere! Believe me or not, at times, he would beg me to let him in my bed; he showed me that his pillow had bugs in it! Hah, what a silly pony.”
Nightmare Moon coughed delicately: “Excuse me, but why has he not told thee? I cannot help but notice.”
Sombra puckered his lips while he thought. “I guess he never was much of a speaker; he didn’t talk too much.”
Seemingly satisfied with his answer, Nightmare Moon nodded, gesturing for him to continue. Fluttershy said nothing.
He took a deep breath. “One day, during our game of tag, he said that he hated this place with a passion and asked me to aid him. He said that he wanted to run away forever and never return to that place of big meanies. At first, I wanted to talk him out of it, but then… I felt that I didn’t like that place, too. I was only happy when Choppy was around — and he was going to run away regardless… so I decided to run away with him.
Next night, when everypony was asleep, we sneaked out of our bed and slipped away through the basement. We almost got caught, but thanks to my agility and Choppy’s smarts, we escaped successfully. When we found ourselves outside of Cry-sta-whatever, we discussed where to head next. Choppy said that he had a good friend somewhere far away and that we could go there, and I… I didn’t have anything to offer, so I agreed.
When we left that horrible place behind, I felt such relief and happiness! I thought that I would finally find friends and family, away from all those mean ponies. Though, little did I know that our journey would be long and hard. When we made our way out of the town, we entered a big, dark forest. I couldn’t take a step without getting my face scratched by some branch.”
He paused to tap his chin as if contemplating something, but continued on moments later.
“The further we went, the darker it got. There were creepy sounds — whispers, scratching, hissing, everywhere! Then… I… erm… I got scared… very badly. I hid near a rock, closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself somewhere else. It was so scary there, I didn’t want to be there.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice how calm he was despite telling about a no doubt harrowing experience for him. Could he be making that up? It seems far too cohesive to be false...
“I don’t know how long I was there, but after a while, Choppy spoke to me. He said that giving up was not the way and that I should press onward, no matter what. He said that I could achieve everything I could ever wish for if only I got up and kept pressing onward.
So, I got up, opened my eyes and walked onward! I ignored everything, no matter how scary it was, because now, I was no longer afraid. I wasn’t afraid of anything, because my friend was near me, and his support was all I needed!“
Sombra beamed with happiness as he finished his glorious tale. “Then, we finally got out of the forest and reached a big bright field! Choppy and I celebrated our successful escape from the mean place with tasty flowers! The end.”
Brief silence claimed dominion over the room as the listeners pondered about what they heard just now. Fluttershy looked the most confused out of all; for a moment, she even forgot to congratulate Sombra for telling such a story.
“You didn’t like it?” He looked at Fluttershy with his eyes quickly turning wet, snapping her out of the pondering.
“Of course I did, sweetheart. It is a very touching story, and the lesson you had learned was very important too.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Take a cookie, you deserved it.”
Sombra licked Fluttershy’s nose in reply and proceeded to grab a cookie and munch on it with glee and vigor. Fluttershy felt content to see the little foal happy, though his story still confused Fluttershy to no end. What was the mean place he was talking about? Had it been night when he fled from there and had he therefore spent an entire night in that forest before he’d reached that field? And who was Choppy? If Sombra remembered him so well, why wasn’t he concerned about his fate after he’d been transported here? Those were questions Fluttershy would have to answer on her own, it seemed.
“So, who wants to go next?” Fluttershy turned to Moonie and Chrysalis, smiling brightly. So far, everything had been going very good.
“Bleh, I think I’ll let Moonbutt have a go first. Achoo!” Chrysalis barely managed to cover her nose before splattering its contents all over the room.
“What is wrong, art thou scared of sharing thy secrets with us?” Moonie snickered. “Art thou a chicken?”
“Hey, don’t mess with the coockoos. They will mess you up… Achoo!”
“I am unaware of any cuckoos in this residence.”
Chryssie moved her face until she was nose to nose with Moonie. “Do not mock the coockoos! They will mess you up…”
“Alright, alright, I got thy message,” Moonie said hastily, probably to get Chryssie out of her face before there was another nasal discharge.
“Very well, then, make yourselves comfortable and let me tell you my story.” Nightmare Moon adjusted her position, cleared her throat and lifted her foreleg as if she were about to recite a poem.
“Before I was magically transported into this beautiful realm by your purple friend, I lived in a vastly different world. The main difference was that it had no sun. Or any source of illumination for that matter.
Of course, I didn’t live in complete darkness. I could illuminate my path with magic, but that was about it. However, I rarely travelled outside of my secret hiding place: the bud of a flower. You see, that world had a lot of nasty things in it. Creepy-crawlies, slithering slugs, swarms of bugs which were very different from those in your yard, Fluttershy — or Chrysalis.”
“Hardy-har-har,” Chrysalis deadpanned expressionlessly.
Moonie coughed. “As I was saying: the bugs in your yard, Fluttershy, give you flowers, and those other ones usually hissed and tried to catch me. I normally passed my time with dreaming. ‘Twas a scary place… until something miraculous happened. I was resting in my flower, when suddenly I felt a rather unfamiliar bite on the eye…
“It was a spider that crawled into my bu… Achoo!” Chrysalis unsuccesfully tried to interrupt Moonie with a rather crude joke, but common cold played its part. “Sorry, something crawled into my nose.”
Moonie looked at Chrysalis with scorn. “Have I told thee that thy jokes are not amusing in the slightest?”
“It’s a special kind of humor. C’mon, Moon, I’m just playing arou-Achoo!” Chrysalis covered her nose with a handkerchief, but even despite the daze caused by the sneeze, she could see Nightmare Moon shrug and turn away from her, resuming her tale.
“A mysterious foreign light was seeping through the walls of my botanic home. At first, I thought this to be just a trap, set by a very imaginitive nasty, however I remembered, that none of those nasties could even emit light.
I know, it was a foolish thing to do, but I crawled out of the bud to see what was going on outside. I was far too gripped by curiosity; I just wanted to see what this strange light was and what brought it into this dark domain… Oh, it is rather sweet to remember — my first meeting with my dear friend Selena.”
Moonie fiddled a bit with her hooves as if struggling with what to say next.
“She was… she was different, different from everything I had ever seen. She was not nasty; she wasn’t ugly. In fact, she was quite pretty — her light was quite pretty. Everything she illuminated underwent an incredible metamorphosis. From nasty, big creatures, they turned into small, sweet and rather fluffy… things. Drawn in like a moth to a flame, I approached this mysterious being…
She seemed quite confused when she noticed me… and when I spoke, she almost fainted. If it wasn’t for a big fluffy ex-creepy crawlie that immediately aided her, she would have fallen.
She asked me a lot of questions: who I was, why I could talk, why I didn’t look nasty like other creatures there. If only I knew the answers myself…
Oh, poor Selena… What if she decided to return there this very moment and discovered that I was not present? How would she feel? What would she do?...
How would she a—”
“I’m sorry to interrupt your mental downpour, but please, could you get to a more interesting part? Purple prose is nice to listen to, but it’s putting us to sleep.” Chrysalis interrupted Moonie, before going for a big yawn. Nightmare Moon turned to her, about to express her indignance over being constantly interrupted, but suddenly realized that she had indeed gotten carried away.
The sight of Fluttershy’s closed eyes and rather peaceful breath clearly indicated that Chrysalis was correct. The little changeling sighed and gave the sleepy pegasus a bit of a poke to the side.
“Oh? I’m not sleeping. Please, continue.” Fluttershy shook her head, trying to drive away the sleepiness.
“I am deeply sorry. I shall try to make my story more engaging. Ehem… when she was done questioning me, I decided to return the favor and ask questions myself. Her hesitance felt rather strange, but, step by step, I managed to find out a little about her. Her name, as I mentioned earlier was Selena. She came to my world, which she called the Nightmare Plain... to tame the nightmares inhabiting it.
What I found strange was that Selena found my appearance rather strange. She said I looked very pretty for a nightmare. To be fair: I still cannot figure out whether that was a compliment or not.
When I exhausted my supply of questions, I looked around, seeing the once ugly and darkened landscape turn and shift in the white light that Selena was emitting. It was truly a fascinating sight…
As we traversed the changing land together, Selena expressed her concern for my presense there — she said that I didn’t belong there, and that I was a mystery that she yet had to solve…
I did not understand what she meant by that, and I still don’t understand. I honestly did not care for my origin, so I asked if, instead of solving my mystery, she could give me some of the light she emitted. Selena giggled at my request and replied that ‘light could not be touched nor smelt, it could only be seen or felt’. Instead, she promised to visit me as often as she could.
I wish not to bore you with the details of our meetings. If I would to sum them up, I’d say we got pretty close. Whenever she was close, I felt safe and protected — her light would keep me safe from any creepy things, and her presense was comforting and soothing to me.
However, one time, her visit came… rather late. She never explained it, though; I never questioned it as well. I just figured that she had her own important business to take care of. But then, her next visit came even later… And this trend continued. I would spent so much time without her that, at times, I would even forget how her light felt.
I know not what I had done, whether I’d offended her or not. She just stopped visiting me… Maybe she got lost? All I could do was sit in my flower… and wait.”
Nightmare Moon cleared her throat once more and sneaked her hoof into the basket, grabbing a single cookie.
“Wait, that’s it? What happened next?” Chrysalis perked up, turning her sight to Moonie.
“I appeared in the library, along with thee and Sombra,” Nightmare Moon replied before chewing on the delicious cookie. “Oh, goodness gracious, ‘tis magnificent. May I have more?”
“Sorry, Moonie, but we should abide the rules of the game…” Fluttershy said in a sad voice. “But, if you are really hungry, you can take another one…”
“Say no more. The rules of the game are sacred and are not to be broken.” Moonie interrupted her in a rather stern voice. However, she looked quite saddened over this, Fluttershy almost felt guilty about it.
“Well, that’s a rather unsatisfying ending,” Chrysalis stated before blowing her nose into the handkerchief.
“I would like to see how thou wouldest try to create a story with coherent narrative. I bet thou wouldest have difficulties even remembering any events with that tiny brain of yours.”
“Moonie! It’s not nice to say that!” Fluttershy perked up, but Chrysalis only laughed in reply.
“Tiny brain? That’s something new! Good to see you are learning, Moon.” Her reply left Moonie rather confused. This compliment seemed to come out of nowhere. If it meant that Chrysalis wasn’t trying to purposefully spite Moonie, then what was she after?
“Well, it seems like its my turn…” Chrysalis took a moment to carefully look at everypony present in the room. Spilling her soul out was not something she had on the agenda — but telling some sugar coated fairytale seemed rather… unfair. Fluttershy, Sombra and Nightmare Moon all had such pure and honest eyes that taking the easy way out was like kicking a puppy: cruel, heartless and not funny in the slightest.
“Alright, then… Just a second… give me a second.” She took a deep breath and began her story.
“Before your purple friend transported me here, I lived in a changeling hive. Not just any hive,the elder hive. It was humongous — thousands upon thousands of twists and turns in an endless labyrinth of tunnels beneath the earth. I’ve had ages to explore it, yet I’ve never seen more than a half of it.
My life there was.... boring. Extremely boring. Like, atrociously boring. Since the day I hatched, all I had to do was to crawl between the nymph caverns and the cocoons, where we would get fed. Occasionally, some drones would come to look if we were healthy.
Though, just because it was boring doesn’t mean it was easy. We had this delicious liquid to drink in the cocoons, but when it came to other sustenance, we were on our own. I hunted for insects in the caves. Don’t know what the others did. Didn’t care too much.
I did help out those who were starving, though. Not all were able to go hunting on their own — some had trouble moving or couldn’t speak — birth defects. That wasn’t unusual. Heh, I guess things like that are never unusual when you see next to no light.
What else is there?... The other kids, yeah. They were all nameless, so I gave them all names while other changelings just called them nymphs. Most of them looked the same, and yet, they all had a personality to remember… Wow, I remember one I’d called Blimp. He was — and I’m not using this term lightly — fat, and we would all pile up on him and he would fly us around the cavern.
He left quickly, though… All nymphs grew very fast. And when they grew up, they would lose the only thing that made them any fun — their personality. The features of their eyes would fade, replaced by a blue glow, and they would just stare at you with soulless eyes, muttering nothing but orders… Yes, Sombra?” Chrysalis interrupted herself, since Sombra had started pointing up his hoof, like one would in class.
He fidgeted a bit before he asked: “Ehm, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. How is that possible?”
“I agree. What is the cause for such a drastic behavioral change?” Moonie asked.
Chrysalis sighed and massaged her temples. “It is… hard to explain. From what I heard from other nymphs, they had been integrated into the hive mind. I don’t know what it is, as there really was no way of getting information other than from the nymphs, since the drones never spoke, except to convey their orders to us.”
“That’s sad,” Sombra said redundantly, derailing the conversation mercilessly in the process.
Coughing to break the silence, Chryssie went on: “As a result of that, I had to catch changelings while they were still little. I visited the hatcheries every day to check for any newly hatched nymphs. Heh, they made such funny squeaky noises when I pressed their belly a bit. They would also bite if they liked you. Too bad all those beauties would eventually grow into mindless, stupid adul-... drones… Yeah, drones.”
For a moment Chrysalis thought she had hurt Fluttershy, but saw that she didn’t seem upset, only thoughtful.
“All these drones, however, proved to be of no use when I finally managed to break free and escape from the hive. You probably won’t believe me, but the first time I saw the sun was… breathtaking.
It turned out that our hive was located inside a mountain, overwatching a huge valley filled with interesting stuff: lakes, creeks, woods and a small pony village located at the root of the mountain. I couldn’t wait to explore this new, miraculous world. The possibilities seemed endless.
Once I took step into this big world, I realized that I would never want to go back into that cramped cave. Who needs those drones when you had a huge, beautiful world all for yourself?
Things started to get even more exciting when I came across the small pony village, and that was when I first encountered ponies. They looked incredible… not as incredible as me, but they still looked incredible. The colors, the fur, the voices — everything was perfect. As I watched from my cover, I noticed that ponies, just like us, would divide into two groups: kids and adults — nymphs and drones.
At first, I wanted to come out and greet the young ponies, but suddenly… this feeling of… unease struck me. I thought: ‘I haven’t seen them before. What if even their young are dangerous?’ So I kept to my cover… Well, that was the initial plan. The kids that I was observing were kicking a small leather ball around, and suddenly, one of them kicked it towards the bushes right where I was hiding.
As the laws of nature say: anything that is inflatable and emits funny sounds when deflated must fall on something sharp — in this case, my horn. So, several seconds later, I was faced with three pony nymphs who, at first, were horrified by the demise of their ball and then by me.
At first, their faces turned pale as if they saw a ghost. Then, one of them, with a pale green mane, approached me.
It was clear he was scared, scared but he didn’t show it. I felt a little nervous when the foal removed the remains of the ball from my face and looked straight into my eyes. I had never seen eyes so deep and colorful… Until recently, but that’s another story. So, he looked at me, and then said… he said that I looked weird and asked what my name was.
His friends approached as well. They were all suddenly interested, asking me questions… all kinds of questions. I took a deep breath, and answered them as fast as I could, though… I had a little bit of a speech problem. Had a really quiet voice. You know, when you live in caves, you got to keep quiet — the darn ceiling was just waiting to collapse.
This was my first time talking with ponies… and it went so well. Those nymphs asked me a lot of questions, and my appearance did bother them a bit, but not too much. They were friendly to me, and I… I kind of started to feel at home… Like I belonged there…”
“I feel compelled to tell thee that pony young are called foals, not nymphs.”
“Thank you kindly, dear Nightmare Moon. May I continue now?”
“Thou may’st.”
Chrysalis facehoofed. “After we were done questioning each other, one of them offered to go to the creek — perhaps to discreetly indicate that I was quite dirty, having literally crawled out of a cave. Everypony agreed, and I decided to tag along too... Heh, the water was cold as ice, but it was so worth it to get clean from all that dirt. I rarely got to bathe in the caves — water was normally something you’d want to get away from as quickly as possible. Anyway, now I was sure I wasn’t going to return — this... this was the life I wanted to have. Surrounded by nymphs, away from all those drones… Oh, wishful thinking.” Some of the fondness left Chrysalis’ voice.
“Things started to go downhill just as the sunset came. The foals told me that they had to go home and asked if I would like to go with them… We weren’t too far away from the village, so it was a short walk, and then…
Then I realized that my caves weren’t that different from the rest of the world — just darker, tighter and less pretty. Otherwise, they were alike.
When their adults saw me, I almost went deaf because of the screams. Then the chaos began. Everypony ran after me with nets and sticks. The foals tried to stop them, but when did adults ever listen to kids? In mere second, my friends had been taken away and I had been captured.
I could hear how they mocked me. ‘Monster’, they called me! And then, they threw me into a cage, like I was some kind of a dangerous beast!
It felt bad to realize that I traded one picture for the same one only with a different frame. The foals were the nymphs, and the adults were the drones. Stupid, mindless, driven only by the will of one really nasty individual… Adults…
Oh, don’t be worried, I didn’t stay in that cage for too long. In the middle of the night, several changelings snuck into the camp and brought me back to the caves. I can’t really call that a rescue… after all, I was returning to my original place of imprisonment.
Then…"
Suddenly, Chrysalis paused. She just stared into the floor, her mind wandering off into a completely different direction.
Fluttershy already felt a massive lump of emotions in her throat and Chrysalis’ sudden silence made her feel even worse. Everything she’d said so far felt like a personal attack — even though she knew Chrysalis didn’t mean to insult her, and that she no longer believed in those morals, but Fluttershy still felt like she was responsible for what happened to her.
“Chryssie… I know you feel angry, but… those ponies, they didn’t do that because they hated you. They were just… scared…” She carefully wrapped her forelegs around Chrysalis, comforting her and, to her shock, felt the little changeling… shiver. “You don’t have to tell the rest of the story if you don’t want to.”
Moonie and Sombra nodded in unison, both feeling rather uneasy about Chrysalis’ story and her current condition. Moonie looked the most anxious; she hadn’t taken her eyes off Chrysalis all throughout her story.
“No… No, I’m good.” Chrysalis took a deep breath. “I just needed a moment to… gather my thoughts.” She swiped her nose with a handkerchief and continued her tale, everypony present turning quiet as she spoke.
“The changelings brought me into the main room, also known as… the Queen’s quarters. The Queen was humongous, bigger than any drone or adult pony, at least twice their size… At least, I think so. I had never seen her upfront — she was always hidden in the darkness. She hated light, and she rarely left her cavern.
When the drones led me through the tunnels to her, I could feel the darkness slowly devour me until I saw no more… I stood still for a couple of seconds, and then, I saw something sparkle in the dark: a huge maw filled with razor sharp teeth, distorted in a wide, mocking smile was hanging right in front of me. I couldn’t make out anything else.
Then, she started speaking. She sounded calm, and yet the words she spoke oozed poison. She said that it was foolish and dangerous of me to escape the hive, that I’d put our entire colony at risk of being discovered. That I was a fool, an idiot, that I didn’t deserve to be a part of the hive… and she spoke so fluently, so calmly… It was really freaky… Then, she said that if I were to repeat such a deed again, she would dispose of me. She hissed and dissapeared… I can’t recall what happened next.
I woke up in the nymph chambers, like nothing happened…”
Chrysalis finally fell silent as her listeners pondered over her tale. Sombra shrunk, shivering a little.
“That was really scary…” he murmured, imagining the monstrous maw like Chrysalis had described it. Frightened by the image, he snuggled under Fluttershy’s wing and turned quiet as if the monster were around.
However, Fluttershy was the one who was affected by all of these stories the most. Only Chrysalis’ story seemed quite straightforward, but that didn’t make the others any less horrifying.
Each of them had such deep tragedies hidden within. It hurt Fluttershy to even think about it. The place from which Sombra had escaped, the loneliness Nightmare Moon endured, friends they both would never see again, and Chrysalis, who lived in literal hell, guarded by monsters of Fluttershy’s wildest nightmares.
“It’s okay, little one. It’s just a story.” She hugged Sombra with her wing, tickling his side with the fluffy feathers. “Chryssie… Thank you for your story. Everypony, thank you. You’re free to have as many cookies as you want.”
Moonie perked up and was about to lunge at the basket, but immediately stopped herself. “Nay, Chrysalis has shared her story with us. She should be the first to begin our humble feast.”
Chrysalis leaned closer to the basket and picked up a cookie. She gave it a long, hungry stare, licked her fangs and… gave it to Nightmare Moon.
“I’m not hungry. You can have my share if you want.” Nightmare Moon stared at Chrysalis with the expression of complete shock. It took her a minute to finally accept the cookie.
“I- I thank thee. I am grateful.” She mumbled and Chrysalis gave her a friendly bump to the side.
“No problem. Friends have to share… And I didn’t feel like cookies anyway.”
When the two fillies inched closer to the basket, Sombra, too, crawled from under Fluttershy’s wing and joined Nightmare Moon in her little feast. He offered his share to Chrysalis, but she gently refused.
After a few minutes, the basket was empty, and the foals started discussions about their stories.
“And how long did you live on that field you managed to reach?” Chrysalis asked Sombra, while the latter was polishing his hooves with his tongue.
“Mmm? Eh, not much. We were found and sent back to that awful place. I and Choppy tried escaping a few more times, but it didn’t work… But that doesn’t matter anymore! I’m here now!”
“What about your friend Choppy?” Nightmare Moon hummed.
“Oh, he’s okay. He said he has been through worse.” Sombra smiled in return and then yawned. Fluttershy gave him a pat on the head and gently rubbed his ear.
“Feeling sleepy?” Sombra nodded a few times in return. “Go upstairs, you can have a nap on my bed.”
Sombra and Fluttershy trotted upstairs, and Nightmare Moon saw this as an opportunity to finally resolve her problems with Chrysalis. She inched closer to the changeling.
“Erm, Chrysalis… I have a question for thee.”
“Shoot,” Chrysalis replied daringly.
“Thou hast made fun of me during my story… but, when I made fun of thee, thou took’st no offense… and then, thou gavest me thy share of cookies. Why? Why hast thou done that?”
Chrysalis looked at Nightmare Moon and snickered. “Well, you did say that you were all alone. You see, when you make fun of your friend, you never mean it in a serious way. You just point out some funny stuff, and you both laugh at it. That is what I was going for at least.”
“So… you think we are friends?”
“Well, yeah… sorta. You did forgive me for what I did, right?”
“I…” Moon paused for a moment, remembering her thoughts throughout this day. Did she really forgive Chrysalis, or did she just say it in order not to disappoint Fluttershy?
“Yes, I did. So, it is okay for me to make fun of thee from time to time?” What were her thoughts? They were just thoughts, and nothing more. Nightmare Moon felt much easier now that she knew that her conflict with Chrysalis was finally and truly over.
“Of course. Just don’t make fun of my looks. Especially the holes.”
“Certainly. Thy holes shall remain unmolested; I promise that with my life.”
“Magnificent. Let’s celebrate with hugs.” The offer somewhat surprised Moonie, but Chrysalis was unstoppable. She quickly leaned in and wrapped her forelegs around Nightmare Moon. “Not as soft as Bloom, but you’re good too.”
“I know not whether that was the fun thou spokest of or a legitimate compliment, but I thank thee nonetheless,” Nightmare Moon replied and hugged Chryssie in return.
***
“There you go.” Fluttershy finished fluffing the pillow and Sombra hopped into her bed, sliding underneath the blanket. He quickly made himself comfortable, resting his head on the pillow and curling up into a ball.
“Thanks, mommy,” he chirped, wrapping the blanket around himself. “The cookies were very good… Though, Chrysalis’ story was scary… and Moonie’s story was sad.”
“There’s no reason to be scared; they’re just stories,” Fluttershy spoke softly, noting that she should learn this lesson too and stop shivering every time she heard the words ‘scary story’. “I’ll wake you up for dinner.”
“Thank you, mommy… Can you give me your big plushie?” His request was quite sudden and it took Fluttershy a few seconds before she managed to remember what plushie he had in mind.
“Oh, of course. Just a second.” She quickly dived inside a closet, looking for the plushie. “Here it is!”
The big Celestia plushie still looked as good as new. When Fluttershy passed it to Sombra, he quickly wrapped his hooves around it and squeezed it tightly.
“Mmm, it’s so soft… Just like Choppy.” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and was just about to ask Sombra about it when it struck her like lightning.
“Sombra… how did your friend Choppy look like?” she mumbled.
“Well, he was half as tall as you, just a bit smaller , he had a grey mane and grey coat… He also had a sloppy stitch on his stomach. Some very bad pony teared at him once.” He replied and hugged the plushie even tighter, while Fluttershy sighed deeply.
“I… see…” She scratched her chin in confusion. Sombra yawned loudly, and Fluttershy, unwilling to tire him any longer, kissed him goodnight. “Sleep well, sweetie.”
Feeling uncomfortable, she left the room and slowly trotted towards the stairs, still feeling unsure about Sombra’s supposed friend. No matter which theory she came up with, it did not sound good at all.
Fluttershy stopped and sat down to analyze the things she had accomplished today. She found out a lot about the three foals — perhaps even a little too much. However, they all served to make her realize the most important thing about them: they were no villains.
Whatever Twilight’s spell caused, it did not transport the three most dangerous villains the Equestrian history had ever known to this time and place. It had transported three little foals,foals, that had not a sliver of evil in them.
Well, maybe except Chrysalis. She had a few tini-tiny drops of slightly evil, but still good in her.
But the most important thing about them was that they were lonely. Lonely and sad — the worst possible thing to happen to a foal.
“As long as you are here, I’ll make sure not a single drop falls from your eyes.” Fluttershy whispered a quiet oath. “I will do everything in my power to keep you happy, my little dearies. I Pinkie promise!” She finished her speech with a tap on her chest, sealing the deal with herself.
Although, happiness was not the only concern she had now. What do little foals need? Oh, yes, private space. She should definitely get to adding three more rooms to her cottage! What else? Toys! Her old toys would not do, they needed new ones, something for themselves.
Although, that wasn’t the most important part. If they were to live like normal foals, they’d need to develop a social life.
Fluttershy stopped for a moment to analyze her idea. It sounded ridicilous… mad… insane… impossible… and totally crazy. But for the good of the kids, she was ready to be deemed a madmare if need be. So the decision was made. Fluttershy should borrow some glasses from Twilight — just to look smart — and prepare Nightmare Moon, Sombra and Chrysalis for school. However crazy that might sound.