The Return of Nightmare Moon

     Dark Flame stirred from his deep sleep. Once again the light of day had awakened him from his dreams.

     “Curse that infernal sun.” he moaned. He covered his eyes with his mane. It was no use; his translucent mane offered no protection from the suns light. That cursed orb of light had forced him to become active during the day instead of the night her preferred. He sighed aloud and then opened his eyes and stood up. The sun had just risen. It was probably around nine o’ clock. The rays filtered down through the dense leaves of the trees making the whole forest seem to have a green tint to it.  In some places the yellow light managed to penetrate the canopy unopposed. These formed sun beams in which tiny insects danced like fairies in the suns warmth. Birds sang in the branches and fluttered overhead. They annoyed him; he liked bats and owls much better than these vocal flyers.

     He strolled alone through the dense woods and thought to himself. He thought about his mother. It had been a month since he had last seen her and he STILL had not found a way to turn her back into her former self. This frustrated him more than anything; he felt like he had not kept his promise to her.

     He finally reached his destination; a small, babbling brook that flowed through a grove of wild apple trees. It formed a loop around a small island were the best apples grew. He jumped in with a tremendous splash. The water was cold, he liked it. He swam around in the cool, flowing water; it was well over his head. He swam around the loop about ten times then got out of the water and shook off like a dog. He felt refreshed and awake. He used his telekinesis to pick three apple trees completely bare of apples and ate all of them. He needed a lot of food to feed his massive body.  It took him about ten minutes to do so.

     He wiped his mouth and stretched his wings. He flapped and lifted himself from the ground. The winds blew the trees around like blades of grass. He slowly soared over the forest looking for a place that he could spend the next week. This had become part of his routine; he would fly over the forest to find his next home. He had to constantly move around to avoid being captured by the Royal Guard. He gazed downwards; there was a small cave in a grove of pine trees.

     “That will do.” he sighed to himself. He landed with a soft thud, stirring up some leaves in the process. He walked up to the cave entrance and fired a blast of purple flams inside to kill anything that might be inside. A dragon had taught him to do this the hard way the first night he spent in the forest. Confident that nothing had survived he walked inside to survey his new home. It was dark and cool and wet; just like most caves. Most importantly it was secluded; no pony would find him while he was staying there.

     Suddenly he heard a noise. It sounded like talking.

     “Who’s there?!” he yelled. No answer. “Speak up!” he commanded. Still no answer. He closed his emerald eyes and listened.  He heard it again; it was coming from outside the cave.

     He exited the cave into the blinding sun light. He covered his face with his hoof and squinted his eyes for a few seconds. After about ten seconds he could see; he couldn’t see anyone as he looked around; only the forest that surrounded him.

     “Curse that Celestia!” said an angry feminine voice; it was coming from behind a patch of raspberry bushes. Dark Flame stuck his immense head through the leaves to get a peek at the source of the voice. It was a Changeling!

     She was no normal Changeling; she was about Celestia’s height (Much too tall for a Changeling), she had a crooked horn jutting out from her forehead, (Changelings don’t have horns), she had a crown like growth coming out from the top of her head, and she had a bluish-white mane (Changelings don’t have manes). Her eyes were also different from that of a normal Changeling, they were glowing emerald green, much like his own, and also like his eyes they had vertical pupils (Changeling eyes are normally blue with no pupils). She was obviously a Changeling because of her tattered insect wings, her long, white vampire teeth, black skin, and her legs that were filled with holes. She sat talking to herself among the berry bushes.

     “Hello.” Dark Flame greeted her kindly. She whipped around quickly.

     “Who are you and what do you want?” she asked angrily, barring her vampire-like teeth at him.

     “I didn’t mean to startle you if I did. My name is Dark Flame, son of Queen Nightmare Moon. I couldn’t help but over hear you and can’t help but wonder what qualms you could have with Celestia?” he asked calmly.

     “Why do you?” she asked, still angry.

     “Yes, she put some sort of a curse on my mother.” he said sadly, lowering his head.

     “It appears we share a common enemy then.” she said happily, looking at him seductively with her large green eyes. She didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by Dark Flame’s massive size.

     “Oh no you don’t.” said Dark Flame raising his head and looking down upon her. “I KNOW that Changelings feed off the love of another to gain power. Well you can’t have any of mine.” she looked down disappointed; she was starving to death. “BUT” she looked up again. “If you join forces with me and help me free my mother, you can feed off of the love of FIVE ponies at once! AND I will even give you half of Equestria!” he announced happily.

     “HA! Is that ALL!?” she laughed, showing her huge teeth. “I am QUEEN of the Changelings! You can offer me NOTHING of value.” she lied.

     “Fine, starve then.” said Dark Flame plainly as he walked off.

     “Uh, fine.” she sighed. Dark Flame smiled evilly, his plan had worked. He turned around and smiled at her.

     “Welcome aboard Miss?”

     “Queen Chrysalis.” she said plainly.

     “Well Queen Chrysalis, welcome aboard. Celestia won’t know what hit her.” he shook her hoof and smiled devilishly.

     “You know Dark Flame, this could be the start of a BEAUTIFUL friendship.” she smiled evilly as they shook hooves.