The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon
Part 12: Dam It, Bandaid!
Nightmare Moon paced one way, then the other in the throne room. It had been well over a week since Bandaid’s capture, and her fury grew by the night. No ransom note, no taunting messages, no nothing from the Badlands where Chrysalis lay in wait. As much as she absolutely refused to admit it, Celestia was right. She could not risk war for one stallion. All her little ponies lives weighed hard against the single grain of rice that Bandaid might represent. One was not worth the whole, no matter her aching heart. So all she could do was wait, and see what the Changeling Queen’s next move was. Would she use dear Bandaid as a shield? To keep Equestria’s forces away? Or torture him, until he taught them the ways of advanced pony medicine? He was certainly a walking well of medical knowledge. “… I miss his hooves on my legs,” Nightmare said aloud, drooping for a moment. One of her guards cocked his head, looking over at her curiously. “As you were!” she snapped at him, coughing twice. He quickly regained his composure, staring straight ahead. “Pull!” she shouted to a nearby mare.
A cement block sailed through the air, launched from a short-range catapult. Turning with a snarl, she blasted it into oblivion with her horn. She shouted again, and another went sailing. Boom! Boom! BOOM! She’d passed well into the range of forty or so. They would have enough rubble to build a gravel road in Ponyville at this rate! It seemed to make the Princess feel better, though, so nopony dared stop her.
“Your Majesty?”
“WHAT?!” Nightmare rounded on whoever dared interrupt her target practice. Noble Cause stood in the massive double doorways, helm under one arm. She nodded towards the one standing next to her, a short changeling with feminine features and a scroll in its mouth. On its back was a white banner-cape, the universal sign of a messenger. “At last,” Nightmare cantered eagerly, and the drone spat its charge into her hoof. She pulled at the rather sticky seal and curls. The spider-web that was Chrysalis’ seal melted away, and the messenger planted his butt to patiently wait. Nightmare quickly unfurled the scroll, noting the loopy hoof-writing and golden signature at the bottom.
To My Sister Princess Nightmare Moon,
As you have no doubt noticed by now, I have taken the stallion called Bandaid from you, and across the southern border into my empire. I assure you he has not been harmed or mistreated any more than necessary. Yet. He will not be fed on, starved or otherwise harassed within the best means of my powers. Unless I feel threatened. He is my prisoner. I am extending the following conditions if you wish to see him again.
1. Send an envoy or ambassador to deliver word of your compliance with my demands.
2. Withdraw any and all ponies you may have in the badlands. This includes cartographers, explorers, and any mad treasure seekers that have at one time or another harassed the changeling hive.
3. Release the river from the Neigh-Hoover dam, and allow it to flow unimpeded into the Badlands from this day hence.
If all these conditions are met, you will see your stallion Bandaid post-haste.
In My Own Hoof,
Queen Chrysalis Cosmos Equiness of the Changeling Empire
“A ransom note, as expected,” Nightmare Moon said thoughtfully, frowning. The changeling drone tilted his head at her, for he did not understand her pony-speak.
“What does she want?” Noble Cause asked, setting her helmet down. “What should we do?”
“Twilight Sparkle taught me of the Neigh Hoover Dam while I lay in a hospital bed not long ago,” the black alicorn said thoughtfully. “I will seek her council, and my sister’s.”
“A wise decision, your Majesty,” Noble Cause smiled, nodding in agreement.
Nightmare swept from the throne room to fetch the proper maps and waterway charts. The remaining guards looked around at all the cement block rubble that lay strewn about. Finally the one of lowest rank sighed and went to fetch a broom.
The messenger sat there, looking dumbly about. Was he supposed to stay there? A maid offered him tea, but he hissed at her and she quickly tottled off. He sat there with a glazed over expression, frowning at nothing at all. Perhaps he would be here for a time, then, if the big-pony-princess needed to compose an answer. The Queen would be pleased with him!
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Bandaid glared and rose when Chrysalis entered. “Comfortable, I hope?” she chuckled, looking about the cave.
“There’s no bathroom,” he told her sourly.
“Fair enough, I’ll have one built by the time we return. Come!” she turned on her heel to be away. He stubbornly stood there. “I said come!” she snapped. One of the guards poked him in the butt with its horn, startling him forward. “I’d like to show you something, Bandaid.”
“Joy,” the stallion said miserably.
“Or if you prefer I could put you in a dress and stick you in my tallest tower?” The Queen chuckled. He looked horrified at her. “I thought not, come along then.” She trotted forward. The dark tunnels had all been lit with bioluminescent mushrooms, smoothed into a consistent shape, and even bricked in certain areas. “You’ll have to forgive all the construction, stallion, a lot of good has happened since I returned from Equestria.”
Bandaid looked at all the working crews as they passed. Carts of supplies were being pulled back and forth: massive crystals, hay, bricks, cement bags… none of it looked local though. “Did you steal all this?” he asked flatly.
“Over a number of centuries, yes,” Chrysalis smiled. “A few bricks here, a bag of cement there, and so on.” She stopped to encourage a few of them in the changeling tongue, which Bandaid had no inkling of. “Now that the hive is working at full capacity again, we can begin building.”
“Building?” Bandaid asked as they turned a corner and emerged into a super-cavern. There were layers and layers of walkways, tunnels, lit windows and all the like. It looked like a… well, reverse beehive. The open space served as a place to fly from one side or the other. It was abuzz with activity. Everyling was travelling upward, taking supplies out to the surface. “What are they building?”
“Why, my country of course,” Chrysalis said. “I’ve been keeping Everyling alive and as healthy as I can for a long, long time. And now that I am a goddess, I am an endless food source for them.”
“Everyling…” Bandaid wondered, watching a crowd of larva run by. They shouted and chased an odd-looking, painted mud-ball. Some of them sported scrappy capes, little bandannas or even painted designs on their carapaces, skree-ing and hissing and tumbling over each other in their bizarre little game.
The Queen and the nurse found their way to the surface, where they stood on a balcony-outcropping of stone. Bandaid rushed to the railing, throwing his head over the edge at the spectacle below. They were like ants. Tens of thousands of shining little black ants. Crawling over each other with supplies, tools and whatnot to begin construction. Hundreds of them were going mad with pickaxes and shovels, flattening the land as they went. Carts were racing back and forth to move the raw stone, sand and earth out of the way. Carved brick, stone and mortar was being brought in. Dirt roads were already being paved with solid stone slabs. A massive changeling with dozens and dozens of legs was pulling a sledge. When the stone slab slid into place, he did a little happy dance as a dozen sweepers came by to clean it off and secure it into the earth.
“You’re building a city!” Bandaid gaped at all the activity.
“The first changeling city. Can you imagine?” Chrysalis said fondly, watching her subjects mill about in various jobs. The outlines of certain buildings were starting to appear. “And over there,” she gestured. “The prize we will attain to cap it off, if my sister meets my demands.” Bandaid turned to look at what appeared to be a smooth, stone-bottomed canyon. Craggy and rimmed with sheer walls on both sides, it took him a few moments to puzzle it out. Bandaid turned and looked up at Chrysalis with a mix of awe and fear. “We’ve had a lot of time to plan this, stallion. Now that everything has fallen into place, all she has to do is release the river to us, and we will truly prosper as we were intended to.”
“Nightmare might just decide to kick your door in and steal me back, you know,” Bandaid smirked. “You know how she is when somepony takes something she thinks is hers.” She turned, back-hoofing him so hard he crashed to the ground. Yelping like a mare he lay there, tears sprouting from his eyes. Touching his now bruised face, he whimpered as he looked up at her.
“Things change, Bandaid. I am in charge here, if you haven’t noticed,” Chrysalis said, a sickly green fire in her eyes. “Any assault my sister mounts will be met with the full fury of the hive. Not even Nightmare Moon can fight an entire changeling empire all at once.”
“She’ll stop you, whatever you’re really up to, she’ll stop it,” Bandaid said, still holding his face.
“You all seem to have this notion that I mean to attack Equestria, now that the game is in my favor. Does no one think I might just sit here and rebuild my broken country for a few hundred years?” Chrysalis turned to watch her drones build and dig and hew the land below her.
“You’re too clever for that. You always have some other motif. Even full of your mother’s love you’ll just get greedy and lose everything you’ve ever--!”
Chrysalis suddenly turned and kicked him in the ribs. Then in the stomach. Then in the head. He yelped. Cried out. Yelped again. She kicked him, and kicked him, and kicked him some more until he was quieter. He curled into a ball under her fury, weeping at the pain. She stared down at him coldly. “Don’t speak of my Mother. You’ve no right, worm!” she shouted at him. “I have everything I ever wanted, and I’ll be rid of you when Nightmare gives me the river. Keep your blasphemous mouth shut until then so you don’t make a liar out me!” He looked up at her, blood dribbling from his nose. She stopped, taking a deep breath and replacing her fury with a devilish smile. “I told Nightie I would take good care of you until the river is filled. Now be a good boy and don’t give me a reason to tear you in a half!”
Bandaid husked a whining breath, lying against the railing for a long time while she watched the construction below with interest. Changelings came bearing an easel, concept art, and a little saucer of royal jelly. He watched her eat, converse over the arrangement of the skyline that was to occur, and even make adjustments to the final shape of a tower on the east side of the city. Salutes were given, and the drones buzzed away after a time. The stallion touched his nose. The bleeding had stopped. He looked over at a changeling guard. It was looking down at him. His mind wandered, spun for a bit. Faust the sun was hot… he moaned, sweating and laying in the shade of the short railing.
Chrysalis supervised a few other design choices, choosing between several different blue dyes for trim. The changelings were fond of round, squat buildings that resembled onions. The curved surfaces were pleasing to the eye, and resembled fat eggs or fat tummies. Very relaxing!
One of the architects stopped and gestured to Bandaid, rattling off something in their insectoid tongue. Chrysalis shook her head, sending him on his way. The stallion looked up at her when she spoke. “I told them you’re not for feeding on. I know what happens to you when you lose your little temper.”
“I beat your sorry butt into the ground?” he offered mildly, lowering his head to rest his chin on the warm, unforgiving stone. She kicked him in the face, and he saw white spots. Then nothing at all.
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Celestia sat frowning, across from Nightmare Moon. Also at the table was Royal Vizier Twilight Sparkle. The ransom note sat to one side, having been passed around for everypony to read. The mood was solemn. “The Neigh Hoover Dam took several years to build. Simply opening the flood-gates could drown Ponyville. The park-river and adjoining Golden Thread river just wouldn’t be able to take the sudden deluge,” the white alicorn traced her hoof down the many, many miles it would take for the sudden flood to reach the border, much less the Badlands.
“We would lose Sweet Apple Acres as well,” Twilight Sparkle said, using a quill and blue ink to trace the water’s approximate path given the sudden flood. “One of this region’s primary export services.”
“What about re-routing the river?” Nightmare said, gesturing with a hoof. “A large waterway, like so.” She met her sisters eyes and stifled a groan. Here it came.
“I don’t think we should do this, Sister,” Celestia said. “Given Chrysalis’ sudden ascension, providing her with resources, even basic ones like water, will only bolster her power in the south and make us more vulnerable.”
“What will she do, conjure a lightning storm upon us?” Nightmare grumbled at her. “Changelings cannot control the weather as pegasi can. And even if they could, we would simply push it back over the border again. The Badlands has no reliable rainfall schedule. The desert would wash away into the far southern sea.”
Celestia frowned, steepling her hooves. “What are your thoughts, Vizier Sparkle?” she asked softly.
Addressed by title rather than as a surrogate daughter, Twilight coughed twice and drew herself up. “I think the changelings have an infinite food source in Chrysalis, and have no need for additional resources outside their normal commodities. However,” she paused for a time. “They live in a harsh, unforgiving desert where it barely rains, underground hidden from the sun. The introduction of a river would radically change their environment into something more lush and green.”
“I do not care for them, sister, I care for Bandaid.” Nightmare said sourly. “If Chrysalis wants something as silly as a river, let her have it. Let it wash over the dry, cracked earth of the badlands and flush down into the hive! Wash away the filth and grime they call living.”
There was a short silence, followed by Twilight mumbling at her papers, “…I had no idea the two of you were this racist.” Both alicorns blanched, turning to stare at her in shock.
“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia stood, rather miffed at her.
“Think about it. What will Chrysalis do with a river in the Badlands?” Twilight thought aloud. “Not much, I don’t think. But the changeling race might prosper for it. Food and water shouldn’t be something you spend the majority of your time looking for, right?” She looked at both of them with softened eyes. "Right?"
“Right…?” Celestia hesitantly said.
“Well, what was behind all of Chrysalis’ attacks? Her cloak and dagger? Even Bandaid’s kidnapping?” Twilight’s cheeks were flushed with boldness now that she’d crossed the line. “Hunger! Thirst! Basic needs that everypony should be able to fulfill!” she clopped a hoof into the center of the (admittedly blank and unmapped) Badlands. “I-If that’s all they ever wanted, sh-shouldn’t we help them for it? Chrysalis is their new goddess now, there’s all their food. Shouldn’t they have simple things like water if we can help them? They’ll never be so desperate as to attack us ever again!”
The alicorn sisters looked at each other. Celestia knew she was right, paranoid of conflict as she had already driven herself to be. Chrysalis was hungry, always hungry-- but now as an endless wellspring of love energy and magic… perhaps not? If it would drive peace home and bring prosperity to others, maybe finally… finally they could begin building bridges again? The troubled princess of the day held the bridge of her muzzle for a time, deep in troubled thought. “I… you are right, Twilight.” She finally admitted, looking over at the beaming purple mare. “You are wiser than we sometimes. I am glad you have my ear.”
“And your teachings!” Twilight said, turning the map over. On the back was a copy with a different sort of waterway design. “I was up late last night thinking about how we could seriously release the river if it came to that, I think I’ve got a few ideas that will make every pony happy in the end.” She showed them the designs. From the Neigh Hoover dam was a straight, surgical line, as wide as many ponies standing shoulder to shoulder. “Suppose,” Court Vizier Twilight said. “That we could just dig a straight line. Forget the curve of the river, forget depth and distance travelled. Just a straight line. And at the same time,” she looked up to appease her Goddess Celestia, “A gentle warning in case Queen Chrysalis decides to double-cross us.”
Nightmare cocked her head with interest, leaning over the facts and figures. Oh. Oh this was delicious. She really did like Twilight Sparkle sometimes, she decided.
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3 Days and Much Careful Planning Later…
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“My Queen! My Queen!” A pegasus soldier landed, flashing back into his changeling form. He hissed, spat and wing-flapped his way through a quick and terrifying report.
“What?!” Chrysalis stood with authority, her nectar cup falling and shattering on the floor. Bandaid, who was chained to a nearby column with an embarrassing red collar, looked up. “I must see this for myself!” she rushed away, wings opening and buzzing. Launching herself skyward and out of the makeshift hive palace, she erupted from the top skylight and out of sight.
“What’s happening?” he asked, slowly standing. Noling answered him.
Chrysalis rushed out to an outcropping, then launched into the sky for a birds-eye view. A gouge had appeared in the land. A furious, coal-black gouge. It glowed with heat, sending noxious fumes into the air. The edges were red-hot, and there were little fires sprouting alongside it. It stopped just short of the stone canyon where the river was supposed to be flowing. The Changeling Queen flew over it, dashing back and forth like a distressed dragonfly. The magic residue was- “Celestia,” Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed. The sand had been turned to glass, the rocks to sludge, the trees to ash. Only potent solar magic could carve such a thing in one go. “EVERYLING!” she concussed the sky. “CONNECT THE RIVERBEDS! THE WATER IS COMING!”
Everyling instantly stopped what they were doing, looking skyward at the Queen. Turning and dropping their tools, the great black mass rushed to the rock canyon and the scorched earth bed. Digging furiously, they threw rocks, tossed earth and spread sand. Workers ran with bags of dirt and carts of rocks. Rush rush rush! The water was coming! The water was coming!
The crashing sound of water began in the distance. Chrysalis’ eyes widened. So suddenly?! She veered around, watching the workers rush back and forth. If the water struck the edge before it was all connected the hive could be flooded! Turning with a growl, Chrysalis rushed down to be among the workers. “Start tunneling!” She shouted. “Poke through to the canyon beyond!” she watched drones furiously start spitting acid and tunneling in like moles. They black, shiny bodies disappeared into the dark earth and stone The water was coming closer, rushing along at break-neck speeds. They dug, dug as quickly as they could. “Harder! Faster!” Chrysalis shouted. “Make the breach! Even one tunnel will be enough!” Like rolling thunder the water did come. The changeling queen whirled about. It came around the bend, a white crashing wave of tidal fury. “Get out! Get out its too late!” Everyling panicked, throwing down their tools. Tunnelers sweated, trapped under the earth and rock. Spreading her wings, Chrysalis lit her horn. A green, scalie-looking shield of magic raised itself out of the ground. “Get everyling out! Get out!” she shouted over the crash of water. The foaming tidal wave mashed itself against her shield, raising high in all directions like a god’s massive fingered hand. Gritting her teeth and pulling from deep insider herself, Chrysalis dug her hooves in. She held it there, the water shooting out and around the sides. The water began to dash into the hive itself, down into the tunnels. A drone suddenly landed at her side, skree-ing something. “Good!” she shouted over the storm. Turning, she seized the brave soul around the middle, cancelled the shield and launched herself skyward in all desperation.
The water lanced forward—pierced the barrier and filled the tunnels to the breach. The two riverbeds connected with an earth-shaking explosion of earth and rock. Water stopped flowing into the hive. The rock canyon flooded with water, drinking it all in and filling, filling, filling as it went! Everyling danced and cheered as the Changeling Empire received its very first river unto the Badlands!
End of Part 12