//------------------------------// // A Prisoner of War, Bandaid! // Story: The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon // by Aegis Shield //------------------------------// The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon Part 11: Prisoner of War, Bandaid! It was without a word or ceremony that Faust Almighty left Equis. She nuzzled Celestia, Chrysalis, and Nightmare Moon in turn before melting into a molten ball of light and departing for the cosmos. Bandaid, who stood far and away with a few guards, watched her go. He really should write about this or something, he thought. Seeing the High Creator in the flesh was a once-in-many-lifetimes sort of thing. “What will you do now, Chrysalis?” Celestia asked, turning toward her sister. “No doubt mother’s love has filled you to the brim, and with your new immortality…” she trailed off, looking uncertain. “Afraid I’ll march an army over your borders, dear murdering sister?” Chrysalis said, looking at her sideways. “You wound me.” “I shalt wound you more, if you like.” Nightmare volunteered as the three of them turned back toward Canterlot. “You have what you’ve always wanted, so tis a fair question I think.” Flapping her black wings twice, she offered a fang-filled smile. “I’ll leave your august presence then,” Chrysalis said. “Out of sight, out of mind, right Celestia?” she offered a dagger of a comment. The white alicorn winced guiltily, for one of their number was still a stone statue in the royal gardens of Canterlot. “I thought so. Ta-ta! …for now.” She turned, gesturing to her two nameless guards. Their wings opened and they buzzed forth to flank her as she turned from the gathering. Nurse Bandaid watched them go, and met Chrysalis’ gaze for but a moment. He offered a strained smile, but she did not return it. His ears splayed sideways awkwardly as she walked past him and to the apex of the hill they’d gathered on. Spreading her wings, she lifted off. “Bandaid,” Nightmare smiled genuinely at last. “Do me the honor of a dinner together?” she offered rather kindly. “We can relax under the moon and stars.” “That would be… nice.” he said, looking relieved now that Chrysalis was gone. “Lead on.” They left Celestia standing alone on the hilltop. Sighing, she sat to worry. Chrysalis, immortal. Mother gone for now, who knew how long this time. Nightmare thoroughly distracted. She wasn’t stupid. The immortal chess-player knew that as soon as she was able Chrysalis would march on Equestria. Though her nation had a standing army it was nowhere near as desperate, nowhere near as motivated and cunning as a changling army could be. Creatures that could identify by smell alone could simply mimic their enemies and plunge a battle into confusion until a singular army milled about killing its own members. Crushingly distressed, she hung her head. Times were about to turn to turmoil indeed. She needed to rest. Wings dragging in a very unprincess-like way, she finally set hoof to the brick road path and returned to the palace. =-=-=-=-=-= When Chrysalis landed, the whole hive shuddered. The buzzing grew deafening, and they began to emerge by the hundreds. Every crater and dug-out hole, every cave and dwelling and tunnel was abuzz at her mere presence. Standing at a Pride-Rock-like protrusion, she let them gather. With her two guards flanking her, she turned and gave them a nod. They turned to give her space. A colossal changeling, hundreds of legs up and down his centipede body, emerged and reared up so he could see as well. Drones flooded out on all sides, some hovering in the air. The queen gave them only a light gesture and they obediently landed to dull the noise of wings. They clung to rocks and outcroppings. Others emerged carrying egg-sacs on their sides, eager to show Chrysalis the young were still doing well. More still stampeded out into view. The main crater of the hive, a sort of colosseum-shape, filled within minutes. Changelings of every breed, shape and size emptied out of the vast hive to see the queen’s triumphant return. The hissing, buzzing cacophony was deafening before she called for quiet. Gradually, it all died down. “My hive! I have returned!” she paused for the roar of joy and buzzing wings. “Not only successful,” she paused, gesturing to one of her guards. They produced a wing-sword for her. With all the ghusto of a cult leader, Chrysalis stabbed herself in front of everyling! Instant panic thrust itself over the crowd, but the queen stood there to let them panic as blood gushed from the wound. Hunching forward slightly she gritted her teeth in pain, but something far more powerful pulled at her inner being. The silvery primordial power she’d only just tasted. “IMMORTAL!” she threw her head back to shout in the Royal voice. Thunder concussed the sky, rolling with the fury of her voice. The blade suddenly dashed itself on the ground, exploding into a thousand metal shards. The stab-wound sealed itself, gumming over and then vanishing in moments. Every-ling gaped in shock, then burst into uproarious cheering. “I HAVE FINALLY BECOME A GODDESS!” Chrysalis’ Royal voice imploded across the sky like a fork of lightning. “A FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF ENDLESS MAGIC AND LIFE!” More cheering nearly drown her out while the drones crawled all over each other just to be nearer to her. “AND JUST AS I SAID I WOULD, I BRING BACK THIS PRIZE TO SHARE WITH YOU ALL!” Her wings opened, then buzzed her into the air. Bringing herself upright on her back hooves, she kicked her front ones like a war horse. Everyling began to notice her sheen, her missing leg-holes, and the flow of her extra-long hair. Why, she did! She did look like a goddess divine! A low hum began in the air, making everyling look around in confusion. Chrysalis began to glow a shining bronze color. Her carapace glittered back and forth as the golden light began to wash over the gathered crowd. Rivulets of light pierced the tunnels of the hive, filling every crack and crevice. Radiating like the sun she rose up over the crowd like an angel, wings wide and fluttering. Lifting her arms and mane bannering, she released all she could! The wave of love energy and magic flooded down over the crowd. The result was instantaneous. The diggers dug deeper. Eggs exploded into life. Drone armor hardened. Happiness and wealth crashed over the hive with such a fury that, rather suddenly, it was post-feast naptime. Everyling collapsed under the weight of the feast of love and magic. Curling into balls, piling together like a million black puppies, there was a vast silence. Chrysalis landed, looking about with a big smile. When they woke, they would be full, healthy, happy. Just like she’d always wanted for them. Just like she’d been destined to. The bronze glow slowly faded as she folded her powers and her wings back into herself. Crawling to the apex of the jutting rock, she set her chin down. Immortal though she was, she still needed rest after such a powerful strain. Smiling happily, she turned and lay her head sideways to rest her cheek on the cool rock. “Mmm! Mmmrph! M-mrm-mrrph!” Chrysalis heard over her shoulder. She looked back and him and smiled. Tied up in the corner, at the edge of the path, lay a pony bound in sticky webbing and rope. He’d been snatched while she and her sisters had been visiting with Mother. Stealth drones still managed to easily pierce Celestia’s defenses. Especially for simple things like snatch-and-grabs. =-=-=-=-= Nightmare Moon watched Bandaid out of the corner of her eye. He’d not touched his food. In fact, he’d done little more than stir it about a bit. At one point he’d even lifted an empty fork to his mouth and mimed chewing when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Is she really so foolish…?” Nightmare wondered softly. “So soon, and so blatantly?” Reaching across the table with her magic, she lifted a broad salad fork. Bandaid looked up at her. “Is everything okay?” he asked as the fork turned his way. “My dearest and most beloved,” Nightmare whispered, sending the fork through his eye and out the back of his head. The explosion of gore painted the walls. “How many times must I slay your shade?” Sparks and crackles of magic ran down Bandaid’s body, revealing a simple drone changeling under the disguise. Nightmare stood, wiping her mouth. “Clean up this mess,” she bade a guard as she passed him. He stood frozen, staring at the gory display in horror. “I must seek council with my sister.” =-=-=-=-= Celestia could sense a rising fury approaching her chamber doors, so she opened them before her sister even arrived. “Nightmare?” she asked softly, tired in the eyes and heart. “Bandaid has been taken from me by Chrysalis. Again,” Nightmare Moon said testily. “I would request your signature to attack her with hooves on the ground.” “You want to start a war over one stallion?” Celestia said, standing slowly from her desk. “Do you remember what happened the last time we gods openly fought among ourselves?” she lifted a hoof to gesture. Nightmare looked to one side, to a portrait painting that sat propped against the wall. She startled a little, for she’d not seen it when she’d arrived. A fiery earth-pony stallion and Celestia stood within the frame, garbed in ancient wedding attire. The black alicorn had not seen the image in an age. Mountain Blood was as handsome and virile as any she could remember. “I remember,” Nightmare said softly. “When Discord reversed gravity on Equis, Mountain Blood was in a field with a picnic, waiting for thou and…” she trailed off. Nopony had been around to see the poor soul drift slowly into the sky and out into space. The only reason they knew what became of him was because his family had been in their house (clinging to the ceiling), before Celestia had arrived to stop her chaotic brother. “We really do hurt you, don’t we?” Nightmare said softly, looking at her. Celestia suddenly seemed much older, much more tired. “Each of us in turn. Chrysalis. Myself. Discord.” “Only Cadance remains, and I still await the day and the deed.” Celestia murmured. Quickly shaking her head to clear the abysmal thoughts, she coughed once and lifted her wings. “As romantic as it is, sister, I cannot allow you to march Equestria’s armies into the badlands in open assault on the changeling hive.” “Why not?!” Nightmare demanded. “This nation is half-mine, and I may do as I please with its armed forces!” “We would lose,” Celestia said. “Think about how they work, militarily. The confusion and paranoia alone would be the undoing of any army. Much less that all of them have both wings and horns. And a freshly-charged goddess at their head.” Nightmare snarled stubbornly. “Then I will go alone,” she turned from her. “I shan’t leave Bandaid to suffer.” “That’s what she wants, don’t you see?” Celestia said. “Chrysalis wants to goad you into attacking to justify the war she’s always wanted! Any excuse to mobilize the hive against us, charged and ready as they now are, would be catastrophic!” “A thousand years of peace, have you grown so soft?” Nightmare said. “We carved the very foundations of society, shaped the oceans with our horns, and molded math and philosophy into a race that would have taken millions of years to evolve thus! And I’ll be damned back to the moon if I shall leave even one pony to such a fate!” “I can stop you,” Celestia said mildly, lifting her wings. “To prevent such a conflict, I would.” Nightmare stopped, turning to look at her coldly. They shared a long, icy silence, measuring one another. “Not during the night, you can’t. Tis my realm right now.” Nightmare scowled, eyes narrowing. “You may like to think you are eldest and wisest, but you do not have the right to police your siblings, sister.” She opened her wings into their black expanse. “But until the sun rises I am more powerful than thee. Remember thy place in our diarchy.” Celestia took a threatening step forward. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten the fury an immortal mare feels when her beloved is taken from her.” Nightmare said. Celestia hesitated, looking hurt. “When did you visit our brother Discord last, huhm?” With that she was gone. Celestia stood there, then slowly hung her head and looked towards the propped portrait. Mountain Blood smiled back at her, as he always did. =-=-=-=-=-=-= Bandaid looked at his captors, and they looked back at him. Neither side really knew what to make of each other. He was a brown stallion with a dark-brown mane. He didn’t even have a horn or wings. He was quite possibly the plainest-looking thing they’d ever seen. Why, dabbing him with mud would make him nearly invisible in the hive tunnels! Chrysalis had insisted that he be kept comfortable, but that hadn’t mean that they knew much of what to do with him. They’d fetched plenty of bioluminescent mushrooms to light the place since the poor thing couldn’t see in the dark. They’d also found blankets, several bricks, a wrench, two balls of string, a foal’s picture book, and no less than seventeen gumballs. Ponies liked gumballs, right? They weren’t sure. Drones sometimes brought back pony artifacts to study their culture, but not everyling was privy to what it all meant. “Er… hi,” said the stallion rather miserably. They skree’d at him a little. One fwooshed with green fire, turning into him. “Hi. Hi. Hi.” It parroted, smiling in a friendly way. Real Bandaid sighed, turning over the picture book. That seemed to excite them. The inside was a basic foal’s story about a wizard on a mountain that granted wishes. If only he could wish himself out of here. Putting it down, he studied them a little more. “May I?” he asked, gesturing. He took one of their hooves, turning it over. “Your legs… no holes,” he said slowly, falling into his nurse’s training. He’d always assumed changelings naturally had holes in their bodies. But Chrysalis’ had filled in since she’d become a goddess. He ran a hoof down the smooth carapace of one of his keepers. He or she jittered back, skree-ing at him a bit. “What? I’m bored!” he said, sticking his tongue out a little. The drone stuck its tongue out at him in return. They wondered at each other in silence. There were four drones, and just one Bandaid. They’d asked the Queen why such a simple pony needed so many guards. The Queen had simply said it was for their own good to keep him secured and safe. He was a prisoner of war now, and needed to be cared for as such. But, apparently he was not for feeding on. The Queen had made no mention of sucking the love out of him, nor sticking him in a pod for later. The four of them conversed for a bit, wondering if perhaps they were simply saving him for a victory feast? If the Queen had brought him in particular home for war, maybe he was a tasty thing! They looked at him hungrily, but thought better of it. No love-sucking right now, it would be wasteful. Especially after the Queen had super-charged the entire hive. Tunnels were being smoothed and redone, schools rebuilt, hive-buildings remodeled, and everything in between. The savage energy that filled them all made everyling a little twitchy, but a lot was getting done. Eggs were coming out of hibernation and the population was swelling impressively. The gathering coliseum had already been torn down in the last day or so and was being rebuilt to twice its normal size. =-=-=-= Nightmare Moon was in her storage room, rummaging about with a scowl. At last finding the chest she’d been looking for, she threw it open. She frowned at the contents. Her old battle armor had grown grainy and frail with the ages. “Pity,” she mumbled. She’d forgotten to enchant it, so it had rusted away with the blood of her foes caked into its cracks. “Ah!” she reached into the bottom, pulling on a little ribbon. The false-bottom came away, revealing the real prize. It was a long-shafted weapon that took two hooves to wield properly. At the tip was a sphere of glowing metal, tipped with dull spikes in all directions. Perfect for smashing through armored enemies and the hard hides of changelings. In a fit of rather brilliant naming, Nightmare Moon had called it ‘The Morning Star’ when it was created. Deep within slept all the fury of an ancient star going supernova. It had taken a fair number of years to find the properly-aged star, pluck it from the sky, shrink it to the proper size, and contain it within the confines of the metal and enchantments. Taking it in her fangs for a moment, the black alicorn turned it over and over again. It was heavier than she remembered. It would take Nightmare several hours of asking around the palace to realize that a ‘blacksmith’ was not something easily found in the modern era, despite all the guards in their golden armor milling about the place during the day. Grumbling, she went instead to the royal armory. Everything was too small for her, and it earned her some odd looks from any passerby. At least she still had her war helm. Sighing to herself, she returned to the Ebony Hall and brooded on a balcony. “Your Majesty?” a voice came from inside, and she turned to see one of her nondescript guards staring at her from the hearth. “Come,” she said dully, turning to stare at the horizon a bit more. “Begging your pardon, your Highness, but it doesn’t take a genius to see what’s going on.” She said, shuffling a hoof just a little. “They took him again, didn’t they? Nurse Bandaid?” she slowly took off her helm, spilling her pumpkin-orange mane our around her shoulders. Despite the helmet hair, she was really quite beautiful. “When the Changelings left? I saw the blood spatter and the dead drone.” “…Tis true,” Nightmare said after a time. “I am going to wage war on the entire hive by my lonesome, it seems. My sister forbids I use our standing forces to attack their nation. Even Luna thinks I am being foolish.” She gestured to the moon, which sighed at her from behind a few clouds. Stubborn bitch. “They took Nurse Bandaid, I don’t blame you for being angry,” she said, setting her helmet on the railing next to her. “Quite bold, for a simple guard,” Nightmare said testily. The mare flinched back a little, but swallowed and hung her head. “I know if someone took my husband, I would move heaven and Equis to get him back,” she offered softly, looking up at her dark goddess. “In your case, that could certainly happen in the more literal sense.” “Most certainly!” Nightmare said, rearing up and putting her massive front hooves on the railing. “I do not understand why Tia does not think I should attack for such a grave insult! Coming to mine own home and taking that which is most precious to me!” “Queen Chrysalis did it to hurt you, I don’t doubt it,” she said. “…what is your name, in service to the crown?” “I’m Captain Noble Cause, your majesty, assigned to guard royalty until the Lunar Guard is properly mustered in a few years’ time.” she said, smiling politely. Nightmare nodded it was true. The only problem with training your own forces was that it took a serious amount of time to do so. The twins were gone, so she'd decided to train a proper corp. But it would take a hoof full of years, so she'd borrowed some of Celestia's guards in the meantime. “What would you have me do, Noble Cause?” Nightmare said, looking skyward as the sun began to tip over the horizon. “War? Or leave my beloved to his fate?” she looked miserable, for her heart ached. The fire of raising her proverbial fist had cooled, and seeing the ponies mill about in the city below had made Celestia’s words weigh heavy on her heart. “I would say… leave the changelings to theirs.” Noble Cause smiled rather sheepishly. “I’ve read all about Mister Bandaid in a few field reports. If there was anypony I was going to kidnap to goad somepony into a war, well, it wouldn’t be him, lemme tell you. Er, Your Highness.” She said, grinning a bit. Nightmare looked over at her with a frown. Noble Cause let the gears in her goddess' head turn for a bit. The wave of realization crashed over her like a devilish orgasm in a nighttime tryst. “Oh. Oh my…” her jowls slowly lifted into a nightmarish smirk. “You’re right. I’ve no need to go to war just now… they’ve brought war into their own home!” =-=-=-=-=-= Bandaid looked up when he heard a slight slurping sound. Was… was one of his guards licking his lips at him? He shuddered a little, trying to figure out if he could play marbles with gumballs on the flat of the dirt floor. The drone in question watched Bandaid’s plush, yummy-looking backside. Maybe just a quick taste…? The Queen surely wouldn’t notice… End of Part 11