21- Ishtar
My smile faltered when I got a good look at the voice’s origin.
Nightmare Moon.
A tall alicorn, fur as black as night. No, night has a blue shade to it, this was the absolute absence of color, though it took a slight purple tinge at the very edges. A nebulous mane, flowing behind her in a nonexistent breeze. Warplate, the same light blue as her big eyes. Her wings were spread wide, as if her massive build was not intimidating enough.
She stood tall, staring me down. Despite being the same size as Queen Chrysalis, I felt oh so much smaller.
“Thou art not a pony, Chrysalis.”
She had an aura of authority that Chrysalis would be jealous of.
“I never said I was.”
“Thou art neither an acolyte of my night.”
When she spoke, I felt the very air in my lungs vibrate.
“I rarely enjoy the luxury of seeing the sky.”
“Hast thou only told us lies?”
Like my own, she had slitted eyes, like two ovals cut clean from pure obsidian, hung in a pool of blue.
I swallowed. “I told only a single lie.”
“If thy lie is not your species nor your devotion, then it must be thy name.”
I felt my heart beat faster and faster each time she spoke.
“Yes,” was all I said.
“We see. Thou wilt not tell us thy name?”
My breathes deepened almost imperceptibly.
“No. Names hold power.”
“One who claims to be Chrysalis, thou art wise for not trusting apparitions within the Dreamscape. However, thy wisdom is countered by slighting us. Bequeath thy name to us; We have been truthful, so too shall you, lest you incur our wrath.”
‘This is an alicorn. This is an avatar of power, the true apex predator of the world. I’d rather not piss her off.’
“... You may call me P.”
“P. What art thou?”
“I am…. A watcher in the dark.”
“Thy honeyed words broker no favors, P. Thou weave thy wordings to suit us. Flattery is a waste of breath.”
“There is no more accurate a description for my people.”
Nightmare Moon leans back, eyeing me over.
“People...? Thou art assuredly not a pony of mine. Doth thou even knowest of us?”
“I… We know of only two alicorns. You are neither.”
“Then thou dost know of us. We were formerly Princess Luna, diarch of Equestria.”
I shook my head. “Princess Cadence and Princess Celestia are the two alicorns.”
Nightmare Moon sneered and stomped a hoof. I was sent half an inch upwards off the ground.
“Has our sister perverted our name? What else has her tyranny corrupted?!”
I recovered enough to answer, “Uh, you’re not Princess Cadence, that much is clear.”
This made her pause.
“No? Then who is this Cadence you speak of?”
“The alicorn of love.”
Nightmare Moon threw her head back with a loud laugh.
“Love? LOVE?!”
Her form shuttered as she was taken by a fit of laughter.
“We have not heard such a humorous joke in millennia. There art but two alicorns P: ourself and our twice damned sister, Celestia.”
“Our knowledge of Equestria is rather lacking...”
“Thy kind doth not live within Equestria? Of course not, We would have known of your kind. We suspect knowledge of alicorns has been distorted greatly in thy lands. We art the alicorn of night. Our sister is the alicorn of day. There is no alicorn of love.”
‘Three alicorns then, I doubt our knowledge is wrong there.’
Nightmare Moon moved closer to me. When I didn’t move, she started prowling around me.
“Thy darkened visage. Thy stark white fangs. Thy slitted eyes. If We did not know better, We would assume that thou were created in our own image.”
She stared at my back.
“Thou hast wings?”
I looked backwards and saw the tips of my wings peeking out of my elytra. I moved them out and completely into view.
“If thy shined carapace hath not revealed thy heritage, thy wings surely would have, Night Watcher…. We knowest of no insects who art cunning as thou art.”
I turned to face her. With her being so close now, I could see in detail the etching on her armor, the strands of her fur pushed down by the edges of her warplating.
‘I need to be careful with what I tell her.’
“We are hidden from the world intentionally. To be known is to risk destruction from Equestria.”
“Thou art an enemy of our sister?”
“She does not know so.”
The corner of her mouth raised in a smile that threw up red flags.
“Thou also doth not bow and scrape as a serf doth.... We suspect in the waking world, thou head is not unadorned? Tell us ‘tis so.”
I was silent.
“And thou art no lordling neither. Thou hast at thy beck and call, a kingdom?”
Despite my better judgement, I slowly nodded.
“Prithee, let us strike a covenant. We possess a common enemy whose removal benefits the both of us. Upon our return to the world, let us strike at the tyrant who sits upon the throne of Equestria.”
‘A potential ally… And also a potential enemy, once Equestria has fallen.’
“We are so far from Equestria’s borders. We are also unprepared for war. It would take a year to march to Canterlot,” I lied.
“Then should our sister survive my arrival, you shall join forces with our loyal acolytes. Thy forces will grant us strength and our might shall grant us victory. Together, we shalt vanquish our foes and usher in an era of night!”
“You receive the throne of Equestria, the rulership of the night-”
“As is our right!”
“-and in exchange, we receive… An end to the Sun Tyrant?”
“Doth we have an accord?”
‘Hell no, you’ll just turn your sights on us afterwards once you find out about our diet!’
“We do.”
“What is thy full name, P?”
‘Like hell I’m telling you!’
“... Prince Phasmatodea.”
‘W-wait, what? Is this some kind of truth spell?!’
Nightmare Moon smiled once more.
“A prince, not a king? Thou hast good taste indeed, Prince Phasmatodea.”
‘No, no no no! Lie to her!’
I nodded.
‘I don’t feel any magic, what is this?!’
“Thou art conversing a great while. Thou slumbers deeply?”
“For now.”
‘Shut up, shut up, shut up!’
“Then we shalt converse for what time we have. Doth thou enjoy our prison?”
She gestured around us.
“You are imprisoned here? On the moon?”
Nightmare nodded.
“Our sister cast us off one thousand years past. We have toiled here in the dust since.”
‘Why can’t I lie to her? I already lied to her once, what’s changed?’
“I never imagined this is what the moon looks like.”
‘No, I can still lie. So why did I tell her my name? Was it some kind of geas with the accord that I didn’t know about?’
“We suspect few thought of our distant moon as such a… wasteland.”
We were silent for a bit. I did not attempt to start any lines of conversation, I was so worried that I would say more things I didn’t want to, like the location of the hive.
My heartbeat hadn’t slowed any bit during our conversation, in fact it rose when I told her the truth. The silent moments allowed me to regain control of my wits and bring my heartrate down.
“Thou knowest of our bindings now. What dwelling doth a Night Watcher Prince lodge in?”
“Ah. I live in a collection of rooms at the center of our society.”
“A collection of rooms? Thou describes thyself as a baseborn, not a prince!”
‘Don’t need a thesaurus for that one.’
“We… our kingdom is not nearly as large as Equestria.”
“Thy words trouble us. Have We made a covenant with a pollard?”
“Not sure what that means, but if you are doubting our strength, rest assured, our levy is beyond what Equestria is capable of.”
“Verily? Thou remindest us of our own acolytes yet again. They-”
Nightmare Moon abruptly straightened up.
“Thou art awakening. If we do not converse ‘ere our return on the longest day, remember our covenant, Prince Phasmatodea. One year, we expect homage at Canterlot, or a joining on the battlefield. Thou art wise to ally thyself with the rightful ruler of the sky.”
“One year,” I echoed. The grey dust of the moon blurred out of focus.
I emerged from the bio-pod coughing and hacking up the fluid.
The cold air immediately bit through my carapace, chilling me. I started to shiver, and I opened my eyes to the dark interior of my room. Light was spilling in from the opened doorway, where Chamberlain Eucharis stood.
As he spoke, I pressed a hoof to my chest. My heart was still beating faster than resting pace.
“Welcome back, My Prince! As I said, you are perfectly unexploded. In fact, your new horn looks dashing!”
“Dashing?” I echoed and looked up. All I saw was the ceiling above me. “Do you have a mirror?”
“As a matter of fact, one was retrieved during your absence. But, ah, the horn was not the only change you underwent, My Prince. During your submersion, your body molted for the first time.” Eucharis floated the mirror over and I grabbed it, holding it in front of me.
Funnily enough, seeing my own reflection was like an out of body experience. I half-expected to see me staring back, a human, not a changeling. But no, I am a changeling now.
My smooth drone horn was gone. In its place stood a taller horn, still more closely resembling a drone's rather than Chrysalis's. It was a uniform backwards curve, though taller and the curve more shallow in comparison to its length.
I also got a good look at my face. Slitted eyes, like an orange parallel to Nightmare Moon’s. Large white fangs that dominated the front of my muzzle. Shiny black carapace, though tinted pink with splotches of the love-gel that I had emerged from. Its shininess reminded of a black jaguar, quite dissimilar from the Vantablack fur that covered Nightmare Moon.
I couldn’t recall the last time I saw my own reflection. I couldn’t remember if I even saw it in the first place.
Moving my head to the side, I saw a fin jutting out from the back. It was light red, and had it continued to the top of my head, I would have called it a plume. I imagined I would see a tail of similar color and length, if I were to get out of the pod completely. It seemed to stay rigid at all times, though the fan did seem to move when I pressed on it.
‘That feels weird. Like the cartilage of an ear or nose.’
Pressing on my fin gave me a good look at my forelegs, which I now inspected. They did seem longer, though I could not tell how tall I was now, sitting half submerged in the pod.
“Huh,” I spoke quietly. “Not bad.”
“I’m glad you think so, My Prince.” Eucharis said, “This was most unexpected. It appears your body has taken more after a common drone than a changeling royal. You lack the hair and crown that adorns every royal.”
‘Luckily I find the common drone to be adorable, so this is far from ugly. In fact, keeping in mind the cyan protrusions from Chrysalis’s head that she calls hair, I’d say this is an improvement.’
“Unexpected, but not unwelcome. As long as this is the final change to my appearance, then I’d say I’ve gotten off lucky with my… mutations.”
Eucharis leaned to the side and into my line of sight. “There’s more, Prince Phasma. Your mother has picked a day for the invasion.”
I lowered the mirror to glare at him.
“Let me guess, it’s far too soon?”
“The summer solstice. Princess Celestia will be completely unprepared for our arrival during the pony celebration!”
‘Five months?!’
“Five months?! That’s……”
‘Celestia will be busy, alright!’
“... perfect,” I said slowly. “The summer solstice: the Promised Day will be the longest day of the year, and the ponies won’t know what hit them.”
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Ooh. Potential point of conflict. I like this.
Now the only question is, is this the Lunar Republic timeline or the Changeling War timeline?
Hmm... Interesting indeed... If only I had waited a few more weeks before starting to read this story. I would have finished in one sitting, skipping all the cliffhangers. Lol, if I hadn't gone to go spend 10 minutes making coffee I would have had more time before classes start... Well I've got to go now.
"Ishtar"
Ishtar (Inanna to the Sumerians), an ancient goddess of the Mesopotamian era. One of the earliest known deities with written evidence to date, she was a powerful goddess closely associated with love and war. She played a complex and influential role to civilizations and religions for years to come, despite her presence falling into silent obscurity.
-------
I don't think he was referring to their invasion.
So plans for invasion has changed from a year to 5 months?
Chrysalis probably won't agree so Phasma will replace her as king one way or another
Definitely the first thing that came to mind when reading the title... also why is an unrelated YouTube channel the only quality source of this disaster of a comedy's trailer?
Anyway this totally sounds like a good idea to attack during what definitely isn't going to be a certain point in the show, oh it'll also go well as I can't imagine anything happening during the planned attack that might accidentally cause them to get surprisedly overwhelmed at that time. Always good fun to read this story when it updates, I love seeing how this train wreck of an invasion is being planned out.
10558030
I'm leaning more towards the hive splitting. The forces that attack Canterlot get scattered after the Love-Nuke while Phas' gets to make deals and allies with the Crystal Empire he was ordered to take. This would allow time for him to dig in and strengthen his new power base before Chrysalis comes to try and take over in what will become a Changeling civil war.
10558055
*Always Sunny in Philadelphia theme plays*
The Gang Establishes A New World Order
Isn't that an oxymoron?
That.... did not go quite like I expected. I was expecting Nightmare Moon to be more interested in the company after a thousand years of isolation than she seems to be. More focused on conquest than companionship. I'm not sure if I should be surprised or not.
Either way, I'm still shipping Phasma and Nightmare Moon. Make it happen!
I did have a strange thought today. If a pony has a true split personality, can they supply twice the love of a normal pony, since it is two minds, or is the supply of love more tied to their body?
10558081
Look man, I have no idea how to describe the fact that NMN has a purple outline
She looks edgy and let's leave it at that. Suspension of disbelief and all that.
Ah Yes. Making deals with the Queen of Nightmares. Great Idea. Also... jesus, Celestia is going to have a hell of a day.
dost
thy
The demon always gets the better deal.
So... Closer to Sombra's horn?
10558131
Kindly stop spamming single sentence replies. If you can't do that, then don't reply at all.
i always perceived that differently to luna actually being on the moon but actually having the moon become her prison as in the moon became her body with her magic and soul trapped inside it, with her looking down on the planet helplessly, that why it surface has her big ass face on it
interesting end for the chapter. i look forward to seeing how things continue to play out.
five months till doomsday...
10558084
I second this.
If it is a split personality of a single soul, i'd guess the ammount of energy you could take from it would be the same as normal, it is still a single individual after all.
If there are truly 2 people in there, 2 souls, (like what Nightmare and Luna probably are) Then I'd assume that the material body and everything linked to it would still give off the same ammount of energy. But anything that is linked to the soul would be doubled, Love might be one such thing, in myth and fictions ghosts and such are generally able to feel emotions after all.
Is there anything behind the chapter names pertaining to what the chapters about? Cause I'm seeing Norse, greek, Muslim, and Jewish references behind them and I know Seidr is norse for magic, which chp9 involves him learning combat magic.
10558143
The guy can reply however he wants unless the story author says otherwise. There's plenty others on here saying about the same as him and I don't see you jumping all over them.
10558446
Each chapter (with one exception) has indeed been a religious concept that relates to the material
They are, in order:
Lazarus- Rose from the dead
Tantalus- Fed human flesh to the gods
Anesidora- "She who sends up gifts," another name for Pandora
Olympus- Home of the greek gods
Skoll & Managarmr- The great wolves that eat the sun and moon during Ragnarok, the end of the world
Chiron- Mythological teacher of heroes (including Archilles and Hercules)
Apotheosis- Deification, the act of becoming a god (or at least being worshiped as one)
Heka- Egyptian god of magic
Seidr- Old Germanic magic
Ma'at- Egyptian god of truth
Nicaea- The Councils of Nicaea, which lay the foundations of Christianity
Apostles- the first followers of Jesus of Nazareth
Circe- Greek sorcerer who changed men into pigs
Icarus- Greek hero who flew too close to the sun, melting his wings and plunging him to his death
Selene- Titan of the moon, lover of Endymion
Triumph of The Will- Famous Nazi propaganda movie
Despoina- Greek goddess of mysteries
Morpheus- Greek god of dreams (Do you think that's air you're breathing?)
Proteus- God of change
Endymion- Human who sleeps eternally, lover of Selene
Ishtar- Mesopotamian goddess of Love and War
For how they relate, I leave that to you.
Endymion and Ishtar were already explained by
10558023
And I leave the titles of future chapters to them. And you can even comment on the old chapters, too. I'm all for you explaining the chapter titles.
10558023
Yes, Ted. That was the joke.
10558498
I find it funny how such a mythical position the Third Reich holds in our culture.
10558859
hey, I said with one exception
Everyone knows Chiron was a real centaur
10558782
Sarcasim!
10558466
Some people are giving one sentence replies, yes. But they're not giving multiple one sentence replies on the same chapter in the span of 10 minutes. Doing what Chrome is doing is nothing short of repeated spam, chapter after chapter, when they could easily just make one reply with all the comments they want in a single post. But no, they are choosing to spam instead. If other people were doing the same thing I'd probably be annoyed with them too... as would several other people, incidentally.
10558466
I will have to kindly disagree. The guy isn't JUST posting one sentence comments, he's posting MULTIPLE one sentence comments in every chapter minutes after one another. It's spam, plain and simple.
10559323
I get it, but until the author puts out a guideline on how they want their comment section handled people can post how they want. Not saying I agree with how the guy spam posted, but none of us are the comment police so we cant dictate how others comment unless the author says otherwise.
10559430
I'd like to point out that there actually are comment police in the form of moderators. Should we go get one of them so they can chime in?
10559746
Again, it's up to the author.
10559430
Fun fact: The site FAQ says "don't spam (comments)". It's not stated as an outright rule, but it is in the commenting "guidlines".
https://www.fimfiction.net/faq/questions/157/what-are-the-guidelines-for-comment-posting
The fact that dudes really in the comments talking about getting a mod because someone makes a bunch of comments in a row is probably the funniest shit I've seen all day. Like, damn, y'all that bored that this is what you've chosen to complain about?
10560493
Well to be fair it does happen often in many comments sections and it can get quite annoying.
10560456
Then go whine to mommy and daddy mods, goddamn dude. I'm done with this high school drama bull shit, I get enough of that shit with my job. Y'all keep harassing each other over nothing, I'm gonna enjoy this fantastic story.
10560645
oooh, touchy aren't ya? You said until there were some guidelines, so I found some in the site FAQ. I was answering your concern. So sorry that displeased you.
10560573
Bruh, it's an internet comment section. Ignore it.
O h
10558143
10558466
10559323
10560573
I have spoken with Chrome and he was more than willing to limit his comments. As a compromise, I said he could write up to three comments per chapter, since I understand the technological constraint he is dealing with.
Let's put this behind us and focus on the story of bug-man and bug-mom.
Obrigatory:
"What is love?"
Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me.
No more.
Im lost... So you ignore the main timeline and push the first invasion to the day were the mane six become the elements? Odd...
Interessting image of the Prince in my head. A mix of Starcraft Zerg and MLP Changelings
10557944
Unless your not dealing with there kind for the first time 
This is going to be a 100-200+ chapters story i hope 
Perhaps neighter. Or a mix of both of em? Hm...
10558023
Got to love your lore explaining
10558062
To bad the timing of the love nuke is totaly off
10558084
1000 years of Isolation. Most humans dont leave Isolation after a singel year. . .
10558100
One hell of a holyday
10558113
True
10558131
Probably yes. I wonder how he looks with the next moltings. He has a lot of growing to do after all...
10558498
Wow! Were did you get all your ideas from
10559247
Well... Sounds legit but technical difficultys can be a pain. No easy fix perhaps? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10559430
Fair is fair. Unless the rules of Fimfiction disagree. I actually have no idea
10560456
Good point!
10560493
Meh... I upvote downvote wile autoread function is running. Hobbys can be... Odd/exotic/funny/sad etc.
10560677
Uuu Shot fired (^.^)/)'(\[^-^]
10561374
Case closed
10565750
Nice :3
Well at least his fealty to Nightmare won't be due before.... Wait...
Bruh.
This has to be the most pompous, prideful, hollier-than-thou NMM I've ever seen.
10822659
I like her
10822659
and yet its one of the best NMM executions i've seen written thus far. I really liked it.
They way NMM bewitched Phasmatodea sure ruined trust between them. You don't do that kind of stuff if you are not in need of it.
10565750
I was so going to make that exact same comment but I figured someone else probably already had