New Moon Rising

“Mama!” Something just poked me in the face. “Chi!” Another poke. “Wake up!”

“Allright, Allright, I’m up.” I blinked a couple of times to clear the sleep from my eyes, and saw Mirage standing an inch from my face.

“Mama!”

-Uhhh… why is she calling me ‘mama’?-

’Because you and me are together. She goodbye to the rest of your manliness, because she’s decided she has two moms.’

-Ain’t gonna stop me from chasing away the colts from her when shes older.-

’I’m not even sure changelings and ponies can have foals.’

-Don't care, not letting just any colt have our daughter.-

’And that’s why she calls you Mama. You called her our daughter.’

-...I did? So this is what parenthood feels like.-

’So it is. Come on, we’ll be pulling into the station soon and we’ll have some help carrying all of my stuff.’

"Wheres Chrys- err Loveless anyways?"

“In the next car over, trying her best to get at some stallion.”

"Hey, she needs food too, I can't blame her."

“She’s fine, I’m sure.”

The train lurched slightly, as it begun slowing down. Mirage gave an excited chrp before she began bouncing up and down. "Canterlot!”

“Why don’t you go get Loveless, I’ll go get my stuff off the train.”

"Sure, why not?" I slowly got onto my hooves, and stretched. I then headed into the next car to see Chrysalis chatting with a stallion, who had an axe cutie mark.

"It truly is a wonderful sight, Isn't it Leaf Cutter?" Chrysalis had her head resting against the stallions side, a slight smile on her face..

"Yes it is. Truly, Canterlot is a majestic sight."

"Hey, Loveless."

She jumped when I called to her, and the stallion had a terrified look in his eyes. “Y-yes Chitsuki?”

'Ribbon sent me to come and get you." I gave the stallion a small nod. "I can sense your fear, and it is unfounded, its not like I was angry with you or something."

“Okay.” He visibly relaxed. Geeze, do I really scare ponies that badly still?

"Anyway, follow me Loveless." The train came to a complete stop, having pulled into the station. Leading Chrysalis back to Ribbon, I smiled upon seeing how happy Mirage was, as she was playfully batting at Ribbons mane. "Well Ribbon, I brought Loveless, and we're here now."

“Good. I have several changelings helping to get all of the stuff to the outpost.”

“You have an outpost here? Do the Princesses know about it?” Chrysalis tilted her head in confusion, and a slight bit of worry.

“Of course they know, they gave us the crystal mines, the very one Chrysalis put Princess Cadence in. We’ve been mining them out and selling the crystals, since ponies don’t seem to care.”

I picked up one of the bags full of stuff Ribbon had brought, levitating it over to me. "Well? What are we waiting for?" Mirage stopped toying with Ribbons mane, and walked over to me.

"Up!" Up? Oh... she wants up on my back, doesn't she? I obliged and scooped her up, letting her nestle herself in between my wings. She soon started batting at my mane, which caused me to chuckle at her perpetual happiness.

"Well Ribbon, Loveless, lets get going." I walked off the train, the other following. Soon Ribbon took the lead, taking us up to the outpost. I saw a bunch of unicorns offloading the boxes, and several more black coated unicorns taking them, changelings maybe? Probably staying out of sight, but still noticeable.

As we began our trek towards the mine entrance, I could overhear several ponies talking about us.

"She has a foal?"

"They should be removed from Canterlot."

"I heard she infected the Princess' student with dark magic."

"How can the Princess just let them walk freely?"

"She's a walking time bomb."

"Look, there's another one. First one tries to invade, and now there's two of them."

"Why doesn't the Princess do something about them."

These ponies are a bunch of racist bigots, I saved theirs asses from Chrysalis when she was still evil, and yet they think I'm still bloody Nightmare Moon! Ungrateful bastards.

“Don’t let them get to you, it’s Canterlot, they’ll always tell false rumors and backstab others to make themselves look better to each other. Don’t play their game.”

I took a deep breath to calm my nerve. "Honestly? I can live with them spreading rumors about me, its when they start badmouthing you and Mirage that I want to strangle someone."

“That’s why I stayed in Ponyville, so much weird happens that I look like I belong there. But with the Griffons being a problem, I don’t want to risk Mirage’s safety, for comfort, so I’ll probably avoid the general public, let alone the nobles. At least the princesses are good company, you should try starting over with them.”

"Just thinking about the stunt Celestia pulled about certain 'quirks' I had due to being an alicorn, is enough to get my blood boiling."

“Maybe so, But is it really their fault? Weather they told you or not, did it matter?”

I sighed. "You're right, maybe I should give her another chance. Now can we drop this? I don't think Loveless needs to hear my life story."

"I was hoping you'd forgotten I was here." Chrysalis was busy alternating between listening to us, and shooting anypony who insulted Ribbon a rather nasty glare, no doubt because she wanted her 'successor' to 'get the respect she deserves'.

The mine entrance was now in sight. After changelings had taken up residence, it seems they decided to smooth the place out. I noticed that Chrysalis seemed a tad bit nervous about walking into what would hopefully be our new hive soon.

As we traveled deeper, the familiar sight of what I had dubbed Glowshrooms greeted us, illuminating the mineshaft. "Can't wait till we have this place looking like glowstone cavern, right Ribbon?"

“Yeah. Crystal walls, ceiling, floor, doesn’t matter. We’ll figure out a way to do it, even if I have to contract somepony to help make it.”

"Glowstone... Cavern? Can't say I've heard of a place like that before." Chrysalis was now quite interested in our little hideaway/Forward operating base.

“On the edge of a griffon city, there’s a small cave hidden by a waterfall that leads to a massive cavern filled with geodes and an underground lake, the lake is hot enough that steam comes off of it. And the walls and floor are covered in some glowing blue moss.”

"The ceiling though, that was a thing of beauty. Watching as the light reflects off the water and into the ceiling, causing geodes to light up like stars. Words cannot do it justice." I sighed. "I wish we could go back there sometime."

“Unfortunately, it’s in griffon territory, that’s why we’re going to try and copy it here at the hive, hopefully. We still need to talk to her about that, and about the mole that tipped off the griffons.”

"What!? You saying somepony TOLD the griffons where the hive was?"

"Yes Loveless, yes they did." I made sure to place extra emphasis on Chrysalis cover name, trying to keep her from getting recognized.

Chrysalis scrunched up her face, she knew she made a mistake. As we traveled deeper into the mines, I noticed how Chrysalis' anxiety increased ever so slowly, and as the actual outpost came into sight, I sensed the smallest amount of fear.

There were several small rooms carved into the crystals, with an entrance to a much bigger room all the way in the back, glowshrooms lighting the area. "So, care to show me some of the stuff you've been working on once we unpack everything?"

Ribbon had just pulled out a large black cloak, and was busy securing it to herself.

"So, whats it supposed to do?"

“Most ponies who don’t want to be seen, usually wear a cloak. This one actually hides you, but it only works when you’re standing still and you’re in a dark place. See the clasp here?” I nodded. Seeing the simple silver clasp with a small jewel. “This is what actually holds the enchantment, one of Twilights crystals.”

"Cool! It might be highly limited, but its still essentially a freaking invisibility cloak!"

She put the cloak away and pulled out a ring with the same small gem. “This, is supposed to hide a unicorns magical aura when casting a spell, that’s what it’s supposed to do. Instead,” Ribbon put the ring on and instantly her horn lit up. “it shows the arua clearly and constantly, even when I’m not casting a spell. And it itches like crazy.”

"Well, that ones a bust."

She took off the ring and put it away. The next thing she pulled out was a large green looking crystal. “Again, another one of Twilights crystals. This one has been charged with a large amount of energy. It’s meant to hold and store love energy, except the enchantments meant to hold the energy is instead feeding off of it. I’m thinking, maybe using runes will give a better result. This one has been corrupted by changeling magic and can’t be used for anything now.”

"Wait, changeling magic can corrupt those?"

“Well, maybe ‘corrupt’ is the wrong word to use, more like, stained. Normal gems, when enchanted, don’t glow and don’t change color, Twilights crystals are very different that way, and I can’t take the enchantments off now, so the only thing this one’s good for now would be an energy trash can.”

"Oh. That makes sense."

“And I don’t intend to just throw away love energy, that’s just wasteful.”

"I got all the love you could ever need right here, cuddlebug." The sound of Chrysalis retching caught my attention, she had peeked in through the entryway and saw me being sappy. "You're just jealous!" I stuck my tongue out at Chrysalis. Hey, just because I've become an ageless embodiment of darkness, doesn't mean I can't act immature if I want to. I walked over to Ribbon and hugged her, feeling happy that she would never have to go hungry. Then, inspiration struck! "Say, that gem might not be good at storing magic, but what about dispersing it?"

“Like what?”

"If you linked it to something that absorbs magic, you'd have a way to block magical attacks for non magic users!"

“Like a heat sink, link a shield spell to it and use this one to drain off magic from spells that hit it."

"Exactly!"

“This one’s still useless, but now I know what it could be used for!”

I grinned. “Still, perhaps its time we let Mirage see the sights of Canterlot? Along with Loveless, of course.” Can’t let Chrysalis slip away, now can I?

“Good idea. We can start with the stained glass windows in the castle, since we’re going there already.”

“Good a place as any, now to wait for Mirage to wake up.”

When I said her name, Mirage shifted on my back where she fell asleep and mumbled. “Fluffy… Mama…”

“Awww…”

As we walked out, Mirage on my back, I couldn't help but wonder...

-Ribbon? What else do you know about... her? What exactly did she do, besides be a monster and try to cause global extinction?-

’I don’t know, I’m not really an expert on history and I only saw her for three minutes when she returned.’

-Should I maybe ask Luna about this?-

’You can, she’d probably know more. But, it might be a bit of a sore topic for her.’

“We’re here.” The castles gates loomed over us.

“Whoa.”

“Mirage, do you remember Princess Luna?” Mirage chirped. “She’s the one that took care of you in Tartarus, this is where she lives.”

“Woooooona.”

“Close enough. Come on, lets go inside.”

As we walked inside, I noticed Ribbon gazing around, she was able to soak in the sight of this place without having to constantly look over her shoulder for prying eyes. “This place is big, and there’s a window every five feet. There’s like no wall.” Ribbon was pointing down one of the hallways, there was a lot of windows.

“I know, not to mention its on the side of a mountain, so it’s got a damn good good view.”

“Mommy!”

“Hmm? wait, is Mirage referring to me, or you?”

“No. You’re Mama. On the train she was calling me Mommy.”

“Mommy, Mama, Baka!” I to Mirage to see her pointing to a stained window. it depicted Ribbon on the right with her shadow stretching out towards Crysalis on the left, and me coming out of Ribbon's shadow in the center, looming over Chrysalis.

“How dare they, if I had my ma- OW! what was that for?!”

Ribbon had kicked Chrysalis. “Calm down!” Ribbon all but growled at her. Chrysalis glared at her, but held her tongue.

“Holy crap, did I really look that scary?”

“No… You were much, much worse during the actual wedding. This is more like a foal friendly version.”

“Damn… I really went nuts, didn’t I?”

“You always go above and beyond. Even when you fought Sombra, I’ll never forget that. Ripped wing, Stabbed through the gut, and several other wounds that should have killed you, or at least crippled you. He even did it with your weapon, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, and it hurt. a lot. At least I ripped out a chunk out of the basterds foreleg when he thought he had me beaten.” I stuck my tongue out, remembering that horrid taste.

“Y-your fangs are just for show, right?”

I looked to Chrysalis, grinning and exposing them for her to clearly see. “No, these are the real deal. I’m a full blown omnivore.”

“That d-doesn't make you look any better.”

“As much as I want to fit in, I’m basically a wolf in sheeps clothing. You’ve witnessed firsthand how protective I can be of Ribbon, and I was still lucid that time.”

“Alright, enough teasing Loveless.” Ribbon was right. Chrysalis looked about ready to shit her metaphorical pants. “Princess Celestia just ended court.”

Chrysalis looked uneasy. “How do you know?”

“I have a guard stationed inside the throne room every day, just incase the incident like after the hive was attacked happens again, or she needs somethings. So I had her informed that we were here.”

“So she’s just waiting for us? She doesn’t know about me, does she?” Chrysalis was radiating fear by now, which actually amused me somewhat. She knew she was completely helpless.

“Yes she is, and no she doesn’t. She still thinks you’re in Ponyville, no doubt Twilight has told her you’ve woken up.” Ribbon walked back into the entryway and towards the large doors. The guards all either side powered up their magic and opened the doors for us. There, on her throne, was Celestia, with Luna sitting just off to the side.

Immediately, Mirage took off and went right for Luna. “Wooooona!”

“Hello little Mirage.”

“Hello Chi, Ribbon. I see you brought a friend with you.”

“H-hello Princess.” Just then, as Celestia came down off her throne, I saw Chrysalis do something I didn’t think she would do. She bowed to Princess Celestia.

-Did… did I just see what I thought I saw!?-

’You didn’t see her during the wedding and the days before, she’s very good. She made herself look cruel to Twilight, and only Twilight, while she made herself look good to everypony else. It made Twilight snap at her friends and Princess Celestia said she was disappointed in her. It crushed her. Then again you slept through all of it.’

-That… was actually a pretty stupid thing to do. why would she go out of the way to make it more likely she would be exposed?-

’The elements of course. When the enemy has a weapon that could turn you to stone, you try and make sure they can’t use said weapon. Taking Twilight out of the picture like she did was an incredibly smart move.’

-True…-

’And once she manipulated Twilight into snapping at her and her brother, she was uninvited to the wedding, so nopony would question why she wasn’t there.’

“Rise my little pony, and tell me. Why are you wearing a suppression ring?”

“Its Chrysalis.” Ribbon just blurted it out for all to hear.

“Baka!” Mirage pointed at a rather horrified Chrysalis and laughed.

“The suppressor ring forces her to hold the form we had her take and keeps her from using her magic. I assume Twilight told you she woke up?”

“Yes, my student informed me of such.” Chrysalis went from bowing to cowering. “She can stay under your care, since I trust your more powerful than her, thanks to Chi. And we can always rely on the elements if she gets out of control.”

“Very, and I have the backing of the hive if she tried. But, might I suggest she stay with Twilight?”

“And why is that?”

“Because she acts a little more... friendly, with her.”

-Wait, she is? Twilight must have been popping in to see her a lot more than I thought.-

’You didn’t notice? She was acting nicer to Twilight than she does you. I’m still nervous with her, and you just poke at her, Twilight’s the only one willing to give her a chance so far. And if she told Princess Celestia, she probably told her friends, and have any of them been over?’

-Well, now I know why Chrysalis wasn’t so snappy around Twilight. Stockholm syndrom.-

Ribbon paused for a few moments, more then likely looking through the copy of my memories she had, trying to find out what that meant.

’You think she’s mentally ill? Should we… encourage it?’

-Yes. if we do, Chrysalis might just realize on her own that ponies are more than just a source of love energy.-

“Are you alright Ribbon?”

“Huh? Yes, just going over some things. What did you say?”

“I said that, if Twilight agrees, Chrysalis may stay with her. But, do check on her for me.”

“Of course.”

“As for you Chrysalis, be on your best behavior.”

“O-ok.” my god, Chrysalis looks so pitiful right now, like a wounded puppy.

“Lastly, I was hoping the hive could be moved here, to Canterlot, would that be possible?”

“You could, but I want a favor in return. I’ll be hosting a dinner tonight for a large group of nobles, they’ve been rather insistent that they want see you and I’ve been putting it off for your sake. But, I would like it if you were there.”

“Great. If it gets my hive into Canterlot, where they can be better protected, so be it… Now that that’s all taken care of, I’m afraid I have more concerning news. It seems the griffons that attacked the hive were told where we were, by a pony. We don’t know by who yet, but the only ponies that knew where we were hiding was you, your sister, and a few of your staff. I think somepony here wants us gone.”

Luna, who had been busy playing with Mirage, finally spoke her piece, looking quite infuriated at this sudden revelation. “To think somepony would perform such a despicable act, out of there own petty hatred. Something must be done about this, immediately!”

“I know. As much as I would like to put whoever was responsible for this six feet under, we have to find the lowlife first!” Oh what I would do to the bastard who organized this clusterfuck. I swear, just my sheer contempt for the asshole was causing the room to darken. I mean, even Celestia and Luna looked a bit apprehensive all of a sudden.

“Chi, your eyes are doing that thing again, like they did in the empire.”

“This has happened before, Miss Ribbon?” Asked Luna.

“Yeah. Why? is it bad?”

“I am unsure, but it may be because of her dark magic. Dark magic feeds off anger, hatred, and other negative emotions, while a normal unicorns magic is more peaceful.”

“That… That might explain why I completely flew off the handle when I fought Sombra, unlike every other time, where it was more... focused.”

“That would make sense, yes. Dark magic is more instinctual than what is normal, if you don’t have proper control, it can take over. Sombra had perfect control over his magic when my sister and I fought him a thousand years ago. Chitsuki, if you continue to let your magic get the better of you, you may become a threat.”

“I came to that conclusion myself, and it scares me. I was fighting him like a rabid animal, the only two thoughts on my mind being to keep him away from Ribbon, and to brutally dismember him. I even bit a chunk out of him, I was that far gone to bloodlust.” I hung my head in shame, unwilling to look the Princesses in the eyes after saying that.

“You will need to learn how to control yourself and your magic Chitsuki, You must not let something like that happen again. In the meantime, it may be wise to suggest Tattered Ribbon stay here with her hive and out of danger, as it seems your more frenzied outbursts happen with her around.”

“But Chi’s my primary food source. Just because I have enough energy to last me years, doesn’t make the daily hunger pangs go away. I just got used to not ever having them.”

“I am are not saying we should separate you, just that you should stay with your hive, here.”

“Oh thank god. I don’t think I’d be able to handle being away from Ribbon and Mirage for such an extended period of time.” Just the thought filled me with unease, like we were talking about removing a piece of me. I didn’t want to leave Ribbon, because I felt that since my soul was linked to her, I had inadvertently painted a target on her back.

“Don’t worry, once we set up shop in the crystal caverns and all the changelings are freed from the griffons. I intend to stay.”