Queen Nightmare Moon

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 9

Chapter 1

"Sister, I need your help; we need to do this together," Celestia spoke, her pleading gaze setting on the blue form of her sister.

Luna peered back up as Celestia's magic lifted the Elements of Harmony back up from where they lay scattered on the ground.

"Together," Luna agreed, moving to her sister's side.

Both alicorn sisters took to the sky again while the Elements of Harmony started to rotate around them.

A short distance away from them, hovering over the chaos and destruction he had caused, Discord watched the sisters rise up to his level again while spitting tea back into a teacup like he was sipping from it in reverse.

"Oh, look; the dark sister joins the fight again," he spoke mokingly, throwing the full teacup over his left shoulder where it promptly changed into a pig with wings.

The poor creature needed a moment to realize it had sprang into existence, but soon managed to get the air under its wings and correct its flight path; making for the horizon - away from the ongoing battle - as fast as it could.

"And you brought the Elements of Harmony along again, how lovely. Do you really want to try them on me again?" Discord continued to mock the sisters before him.

"With my sister at my side," Celestia started, giving a glance and a smile in Luna's direction, "I would. Your reign of chaos is at an end, Discord!"

As Celestia's magic intensified as she prepared for the attack, Luna joined her magic with that of her sister and both of their horns glowed brighter in unison.

Discord, having successfully deflected an attack from Celestia by herself, leaned back to watch the show, and even pulled up a target in front of him.

"Oh, this is going to be good," he chuckled, unaware of his impending doom.

As the Elements took the magic of their sisterly bond, they served as a conduit to enhance Celestia and Luna's magic. The resulting beam launching from them in Discord's direction was ten times as powerful than what the Alicorn sisters could produce on their own.

Their magic pierced the target Discord had set up in front of him, disintegrating it, and then hit the Draconequus full in the chest!

"W...what? No, it can't be!?" Discord decried, as he quickly turned to stone...

Celestia lowered her head as she realized the fight was finally over, the Elements of Harmony slowly sinking down around her and her sister as well now they had lost their immediate use.

Luna kept her eyes on the newly formed statue, and slowed its descent down to the ground, placing it in a solid spot in the meadow below so it would not break on impact from an otherwise quick drop.

Luna's eyes moved as she watched Discord's influence on the world retreat; order slowly restoring itself as the magical chaos he had spread pulled away again.

Something about it touched her heart; it was sad, in a way, that it had to go. It had been too much, of course, but for a brief moment there had been a spark that went through the ponies; a spark of enjoyment.

It was a bit like a carnival ride; a funhouse where everything was the opposite of what was expected. It had given rise to dreams which were filled with mirth.

At least, for the first night after Discord rose. After that, the nightmares had begun, and Luna had been witness to great pain and suffering in both the waking world as the dream world.

She shook her head and let herself drift down to the ground, to stand next to her sister Celestia.

"If only he had listened," she mused.

"I, for one, am glad you were here with me to combat this evil," Celestia retorted. "We shall return to the castle and tell our subjects about our victory over the Lord of Chaos."

Luna smirked lightly at her sister calling the Draconequus evil with such definitiveness, watching her put the Elements of Harmony back in the pouch in which they had been taken to the battlefield in the first place.

"As you said, sister; we needed to do it together," Luna suggested in return to Celestia's words, folding her wings to her side. "I'm just glad my wing held out; his last attack on me made for a rough landing; I thought I had torn a ligament."

She peered off in the distance. "It appears the lands are repairing themselves now Discord's magic is sealed."

"Let's hope he will remain locked in stone until the end of time," Celestia let out with a snort, settling the pouch with the gems in it on her back between her extended wings.

"Right," Luna spoke half-heartedly, narrowing her eyes against the sunlight to watch a group of ponies gather on the road ahead. "It looks like we are going to be intercepted by a group of our subjects."

Celestia lifted her head high and set her eyes on the road as well. "So it does. Let us meet them halfway!"

The taller sister eagerly trotted forward at that, forcing Luna to fall in line behind as the road narrowed slightly. With Celestia's wings standing tall and proudly up on either side of her, and the sun halfway down the sky already, Luna felt like she walked in the shadow of her sister even more than she had for weeks before.

It did not get any better when the crowd gathered around Celestia and quickly proclaimed her the sole victor of the fight they had just won together. Maybe they had only seen Luna get beaten down by Discord, and had not seen her rise again... or maybe that shadow was darker than even Luna herself felt it was.

As the celebrations continued in the days following, Luna felt the distance between her sister and her grow, and not only because of Celestia going from one banquet into another party without including Luna in the festivities.

The princess of the night finally retreated to her personal chambers in an attempt to ground herself again, but it was to no avail; the sound of ponies chanting her sister's name reached up into her chambers. The dreams of ponies celebrating Celestia's victory reached her during the night. And the shadow of her sister fell over Luna even when she was hidden under layers and layers of blankets trying to drown everything else out...

Snap.

The blankets flew through her chambers, and saw the rise of a different mare; Nightmare Moon. Luna reborn from the darkness that had taken possession of her.

She took a moment to make herself look like the Queen she felt she should be, and then stormed down through the palace's halls - into the throne room.

"What a dream, what a dream," she mused to herself, looking at the two thrones standing side-by-side in front of the banners of both Celestia and Luna.

"What a laughable joke!" Nightmare Moon decided, letting out a hollow laughter that spread her darkness through every opening of the palace - out into the world beyond.

The sound of merriment ceased, and there was a new sound; ponies howling in renewed fear as dark stormclouds formed above the palace and spread so soon after the previous threat to their lives had been vanquished.

It only took her a moment, but then a bewildered Celestia rushed into the throne room herself.

"Luna?" she called out, in search of her sister and an answer to the questions rising in her mind.

"You thought we could share this world," a bitter voice came to her instead, and Nightmare Moon stepped in front of her - tall and dark and filled with hatred. "You took them all; all of their precious hearts singing to your day and ignoring my night!"

Celestia could not fathom, and took a step back. "What...?" she tried, wracking her brain to try and figure out what she was seeing in front of her.

"No more will I bow to your day, 'sister'," Nightmare Moon proclaimed, and her horn lit up darkly as she charged her magic.

Celestia barely had time to pull up a magical shield as Nightmare Moon let go a bolt of energy at her, but the impact sent her skidding back a few feet.

"Is that you, Luna? What are you talking about? What are you doing?!?" Celestia decried, jumping to the side as a new attack launched from where Nightmare Moon stood. "What is going on?!?"

"Luna is dead," Nightmare Moon stated coldly, and Celestia's heart sank. "You killed her by your pride and ignorance. I should thank you, really; she was too weak."

Celestia stood shocked and was hit full-force by another shot of magic which sent her flying into the wall behind her.

"I am Nightmare Moon, and I am far stronger than your weakling sister. Bow to me, and you may yet live! Under my rule, the night shall last forever!"

"I will never give up my throne, or my sister," Celestia spat while gathering herself again, launching a counter-attack in Nightmare Moon's direction in the same moment!

Nightmare Moon barely dodged the blast, which took out a chunk of the wall behind her, and fired off a volley back at Celestia. Both Alicorns fought to the best of their abilities, but they were clearly evenly matched. All they could do was tire one another out while blowing holes in the palace they once ruled together.

It did not take long for Celestia to rush out of the throne room and to her own chambers, with Nightmare Moon in hot pursuit!

Celestia skidded around the corner, her eyes catching sight of the pouch she had still not unpacked due to the festivities, and her magic reached out to grab the Elements of Harmony from within, even as Nightmare Moon rushed into the room as well.

Nightmare Moon's quickly reached out with her own magic to stop Celestia, and the pouch tore in half, sending the gemstones flying in all directions as if by an explosive force!

There was the sound of the window shattering as one of the gemstones flew through it.

A low thud indicated another burying itself in the wood of a tall dresser.

A hoofstep back.. and another.. then a thump as one of the Alicorns set themselves on their rear.

Nightmare Moon realized it was she, herself, who was now sitting on her rear end, her vision limited somehow.

Her right eye was... Her right eye was not working.

She reached up at it with a forehoof and her hoof hit the gemstone sticking out of her eye socket instead.

She expected it to hurt as she tapped it, but instead the touch caused a warm glow to spread through her. An alien feeling taking a hold of her. Something she thought she could never feel again.

A grunt from deeper in the room reached her ears, and she turned her head slightly for her left eye to spot Celestia having fallen over on her side.

A red stain spread over Celestia's white coat from a wound in her side, and Nightmare Moon now felt the sting of pain, but from where her heart was located.

Did she truly feel for Celestia? For the mare who had mistreated her and took all the ponies' adoration without explaining how her sister had been right there with her?

The warm glow spread from the gemstone still embedded in her eye socket and she reached up to touch it again, but noticed a change in it. Slowly but surely she started to regain her vision, even if it was clouded by a pink tone. Slowly but surely she spotted her right forehoof reaching up to touch her right eye, and tap the hard, smooth surface of the gemstone.

Nightmare Moon blinked as her hoof touched her eye, out of habit more than it hurting, and she realized the strange new pink vision from her right eye disappeared as that of her regular left eye did, then reappeared again with more clarity.

She blinked a few more times, and slowly but surely noticed her vision improving until it had returned to normal. The only thing that remained was the pink hue stuck to everything she saw through her right eye...

The pain in her heart intensified as she watched Celestia squirming in pain on the floor with both eyes now, and Nightmare Moon rushed forward before she could stop herself.

"Are you okay, sister?" she heard herself ask, even if she had nothing but disdain for the white mare before her.

Celestia peered up with confusion in her eyes, then focused them for a moment and widened them in shock immediately after!

"Y...your eye," she breathed out in distress, but Nightmare Moon shook her head at it.

"No, your side," she pointed out, using her magic to tear a strip of cloth from Celestia's bedsheets and bring it over to work around the other's barrel. "We need to stop the bleeding."

Celestia winced as Nightmare Moon tightened the improvised bandage around her, confusion and shock still struggling for control of her facial muscles.

The blue mare ignored Celestia's face for now, instead making sure the bandage was set properly over the wound.

"There you go," she offered with a weak smile as she finished up. "You will need to see the doctor as soon as you can, but this should stop the bleeding for now."

"Luna," Celestia started, but Nightmare Moon immediately narrowed her eyes at her and the white mare pulled her head back a bit in shock. "You... may want to look in the mirror. Whoever you are."

"My name is Nightmare Moon," Nightmare Moon stated with a huff, pushing up from the ground and looking around for a mirror and finding a fullsize one in the corner. "I told you; Luna is dead."

Celestia closed her eyes at hearing that, a tear rolling down her cheek, but Nightmare Moon walked away from her to the corner of the room to look into the mirror there instead of bringing it up.

Her heart was hurting from seeing Celestia in this situation, even if she wanted to tear the mare's head off her rump at the same time, and the duality was tearing at her. She needed to put her focus elsewhere.

As Nightmare Moon moved in front of the mirror, she realized she had been hurt worse than she felt she was; blood stained her face and had leaked down the fur on her neck and chest. Her right eye was... missing. It had been entirely replaced by a pink gemstone which sat and turned in its socket just like her eye had done before.

"The Element of Kindness," Nightmare Moon realized in shock.

"That explains why we're not fighting anymore," Celestia muttered from behind.

"I can see through it, like it replaced the function of my eye," Nightmare Moon stated. "There is a pink hue over everything, but it works like a proper eye."

"Well, it is magical," the other stated calmly.

Nightmare Moon glanced back to realize Celestia had pushed herself up to sit on her rear and was examining the bandage around her barrel.

"How are you feeling, Celestia?" the blue princess of the night asked of her.

"It has stopped hurting, but now it is glowing. Pulsating, almost," Celestia remarked with a frown.

The sound of hoofsteps approaching filled the hallway beyond, and Nightmare Moon turned to face the door. "This... could get ugly."

Celestia sighed and shook her head. "No, 'Nightmare Moon', you were right; I should abdicate my throne and give you a chance to rule Equestria. With your permission, I could serve in an advisory role?"

"I... what?" Nightmare Moon started, tilting her head at the white one still on the floor. "Are you kidding me?"

Celestia looked up with a smirk. "The Element of Loyalty has embedded itself in my rump; I can't but be loyal to my sister, whether she wants me to call her Luna or Nightmare Moon. It was never my intention to make you feel unwanted. I was lost in the rush and simply forgot to include you. I would gladly take a step back and support you from behind."

Nightmare Moon pondered Celestia's statement for but the briefest of moments, but then moved to position herself between her sister and the door.

The first guard who rushed into the room was met with a stern gaze. "Fetch the doctor! My sister requires medical attention!"

As he turned and the next entered, Nightmare Moon barked her orders at them to take stock of the damage done to the palace and to seek out any who may be buried under the rubble, start repairs, dinner, a bath, and so on...

Celestia just sat behind her, giving nods to all guards who required her to verify their given orders before they could leave her room.

And thus began the reign of Nightmare Moon.

Chapter 2

"My Queen, the scouts have returned from their search," the royal messenger declared, bowing low in front of the steps leading up to the thrones and spreading his wings out downward until they touched the floor to give extra emphasis to his sign of submission.

Nightmare Moon peered down at him from the larger of the two thrones, situated in the center of the platform - directly underneath her new banner.

Two steps down from the large throne was a simpler one set off to the left of the first, and it was occupied by Celestia, formerly a princess and now the loyal advisor to the Queen.

The messenger stood four more steps below on the main floor, one step next to the long blue carpet set between the room's main entrance and thrones.

The Queen turned her head to set her right eye upon him, and the stallion visibly relaxed, folding his wings back to his sides again and straightening himself in the same motion.

"Pray tell; Have they found the missing Elements this time?" Nightmare Moon pried calmly.

After her attempted coup on Equestria's throne, the Elements of Harmony had been sent flying in random directions at such speed that just three had been found;

The Element of Kindness, now Nightmare Moon's right eye.

The Element of Loyalty, deeply embedded in Celestia's body.

The Element of Generosity, found in a stack of damaged clothing in Celestia's dresser - and now closely guarded in the palace vault.

Nightmare Moon had immediately tasked a group of scouts to find the missing three as soon as she had taken the throne; the Elements of Honesty, Laughter, and Magic respectively. It had been weeks already, but they had so far avoided the eyes of all her scouts.

The most promising reports had been "the sight of a three-tailed comet flying off to the East".

The royal messenger scraped his throat, then shook his head slowly. "I am sorry to tell you, my Queen; your scouts have travelled as far as Griffonstone but returned with nothing but rumours. There is no sight of them anywhere."

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes with a sigh, then opened just her left one. There was a visible shift in the messenger's stance; a sudden rigidity and an involuntary twitch of an ear.

"Send them out farther still. None of them rest until they are found," the Queen decided sternly, and her advisor shifted on her seat.

Celestia looked back over her right shoulder with a difficult look on her face. "Sister, they are not going to fly faster if you don't let them get their rest."

"How else are we to find the remaining gemstones, 'sister'?" Nightmare Moon bit back sharply. "We have been searching for them for weeks now. Weeks of waiting for your dayponies to return to us with useless rumours or lack of any news."

Celestia reached up to her chest. "If I were carrying the Element of Honesty within me, my advice would be the same; let them rest, send out a different group if that would please you, but you can't expect them to return from these far places and go forth immediately after. They would not last."

There came a sigh from the larger throne above her, and Nightmare Moon opened both eyes, taking in the look on her sister-advisor's face.

"No, you're right," she agreed after a moment of contemplation. "We should give them time to rest and be with their family."

She shifted on her throne, then stepped down off it. "Let them know they are relieved of duty for a few days; we will send them out in groups of four starting next week; two of my sister's dayponies, and two of my nightguard."

"Four?" Celestia inquired as Nightmare Moon passed her by, getting up from her own throne to follow a step behind.

"They are to fly as far as they can and make camp and remain there for a day and night; the dayponies can search during the day, while my nightguard will take turn in the night," Nightmare Moon explained while stepping on the lush blue carpet on the main floor of the room.

The messenger had taken a step or two back as the Queen and her advisor came down toward him, but gave a quick nod to indicate he had been taking notes. "How many groups will be sent out, my Queen?" he asked, eager to get the order to leave the room what with her left side still turned to him.

"Six groups; two for each missing stone," the blue Alicorn decided. "Tell captain Merryweather to preselect the best of her dayponies and I will send her the best of my children."

"Yes, my Queen," the messenger stated, then all-but bolted to the exit.

Nightmare Moon watched him go in the curious dual way she was watching the world now, then turned her head to look back at her sister. "On the one hoof I am amused that he was scared, on the other I am worried I may scare him too much..."

Celestia smiled back weakly at that. "But you appear to be less bothered by it now, than you were in the first days of your reign, sister."

"I am getting used to the duality present on my face," the Queen admitted to her advisor, "and how to use it on others. It still does not mean I am enjoying the feelings this stone brings me. Walk with me."

The blue one set off through the hallways of the palace proper, her white sister sticking to her left side as if glued there. Reconstruction of the damaged parts had been finished recently, and the smell of fresh paint still hung heavy in the air, tickling their nostrils.

Nightmare Moon set her eyes on each new statue erected in the alcoves, the freshly made banners that proudly proclaimed her control over Equestria, displays of stars and moon in the night's sky.

"You remember what I said when we fought; I would bring night eternal," the Queen mused, walking in the direction of the courtyard.

"I remember, yes," Celestia spoke timidly.

"Since I took control, you have kept me from enforcing this, instead begging me for a shorter day and longer night, but to keep the duality already in place," Nightmare Moon continued.

"Hmm-mm," the other hummed in agreement.

"Already we are getting reports from farmers who claim their fields are responding to the change in light; plants responding as if they are preparing for winter while we had summer only a short while ago," the blue Alicorn mare sighed.

"The plants are used to a certain measure of light each day to calculate the seasons passing," Celestia knew.

"I intend to have our court mages work on a spell to allow these plants to draw their light from my moon, rather than your sun," Nightmare Moon decided, studying Celestia's response with her left eye.

Celestia lowered her ears slightly and slowed her pace. "You could do so, but perhaps it would be better to study how it may affect the plants in question on a small scale before forcing this change upon the rest of our young nation?"

"My nation, you mean?" Nightmare Moon pressed, narrowing her eyes at her sister.

"Forgive me," Celestia mumbled, lowering her head further to the ground.

"I can't question your loyalty, but I seriously doubt your ability to talk straight with me, Celestia," the Queen stated. "I have caught the palace staff running errands I certainly had not given them, answers to received letters sent out before I have had a chance to see them, and you constantly advice me to do things different from how I want to do them."

"I am used to governing this nation together with you," the white former-princess spoke in her defence. "It is a hard habit to kick, but I am only doing what I think would benefit your nation and the way your subjects view you. On this most recent subject of plant life; the little ponies will rebel if the local plantlife gets altered overnight or they are left with mutated crops."

"Were I not cursed with this obnoxious pink eye, I might have a simple solution for that sort of thing," Nightmare Moon mused, but then stopped and waited for Celestia to take to her side properly so they could look each other in the eye. "This gemstone makes me actually, genuinely, care about my subjects."

"Maybe you always have, Luna?" Celestia tried, but Nightmare Moon snorted immediately after hearing the name.

"Luna died," she called out harshly, turning to face Celestia fully. "Learn my name already!"

The other sister quickly backed away at the ferocity of the words thrown at her, lowering her head down fully and letting a lone tear slip from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Nightmare Moon..."

"Now look at what you made me do," Nightmare Moon muttered, feeling that weird pain in her heart again. "Come on, raise that head of yours again, sister. We are simply at a new page in our lives. There is no need to be sad; I am stronger than 'Luna' ever was before. We can only lead this nation into a glorious golden age under my rule and your guidance!"

Celestia first wiped the tear from her cheek before doing as she was told and looking her dark sister in the eyes again. "If you say so, sister."

Emboldened by her own words, Nightmare Moon returned on her path to the courtyard with a wicked grin on her face. "Of course! I will bring them a night to remember, in small steps as you suggested. They will come to love me and serve me as faithfully as you do."

Celestia was slow to follow, but then fell back in line again beside the Queen. A thoughtful look was plastered on her face and remained there even as they stepped out into the courtyard.

Above the palace, an odd twilight had taken hold of the sky. Nightmare Moon had decided that her moon should always be present straight above the palace, and let Celestia's sun pass by it once a day on its path from East to West. At the moment, the sun was just disappearing behind the moon, and a blanket of darkness swept across the lands.

Nightmare Moon looked out over the world, in so far as it was visible from the courtyard, and motioned up with a quick motion of her head. "Stop the sun's motion as soon as it's fully behind my moon," she demanded calmly, not looking back at Celestia for it.

A bright light started from Celestia's horn, but then the eclipse hit its totality and Celestia doused her magic again. "It is done."

Without the light of the sun illuminating the lands, the stars above started to come out; a myriad of tiny pinpricks in the blanket of the deepest, darkest night's sky that could exist above the land of Equestria.

Nightmare Moon took a deep breath, then stepped out fully onto the grass lining the courtyard from wall to wall. "It calms me down to see my stars," she spoke to none in particular, even if her sister was still following. "I often wonder why you left such beauty out of the day's sky and instead went for one singular light source, Celestia."

"It is what's needed," Celestia mumbled softly, clearly disheartened by the darkness surrounding them.

"Not if the mages get their spells right," the Queen chuckled with glee. "Soon enough there will be plants aplenty which thrive in my precious night, and your sun's rays will be entirely useless."

"Can I set it back in motion now it still has a task to fulfill, sister?" the other sister queried.

"What if I just said no, and let this become the new standard?" Nightmare Moon asked in return. "How long would it be before the plantlife would mutate on its own? How much damage would it really do? What's the worst that could happen?"

"I dread to think of such," the white Alicorn returned, shivering from the thought.

Nightmare Moon caught the shiver and smirked, that annoying feeling in her heart rising again. "Okay, send that sun of yours back down the Western sky so you don't catch a cold already," she huffed. "I'll need to get the royal tailors to make you some nighttime coat so you won't freeze to death while trying to advise me."

Celestia made light work of breaking the eclipse, her sun quickly reappearing from behind the moon and illuminating the world again as it had done so often before, but may only do for such a limited time yet to come.

"Or," Nightmare Moon mused, spotting a few of the ponies she had personally changed with her magic, "I could turn you into one of mine... and you would come to love the night as I do."

Celestia winced, and took a few steps back from her sister. "I really don't think that that would be the best course of action to take, Nightmare Moon."

The Queen turned to face her advisor, and raised an eyebrow. "Please don't be alarmed, sister; you will like it. I promise you it would be for the better. Look, I'll even turn my kind eye to you so you know I mean well," she spoke, turning her head a little so she was looking out of her right eye at her sister.

"If it's all the same to you, my Queen," Celestia started, taking another step back, "I really think I could serve you better as I am now."

Nightmare Moon watched the, to her pink gemstone-eye, pink mare retreat in a clear display of fear for the unknown, and the pain in her heart rose up to new heights. This time, however, she could sense why it rose... What exactly was behind it.

Here she was offering her sister a chance to join her, on the side of change, the side of the night, the side which would eventually rule Equestria whether it would be quick or slow. A chance to be as she was herself. And her sister was denying herself the pleasure of finding out just what would be like.

"Celestia, sister," Nightmare Moon started in the sweetest voice she could muster, and watched the other's ears flop down. "I promise you, this can only lead to better things. I would not hurt you, you can trust the Element of Kindness, can't you?"

"I would rather have you hold the Element of Honesty and say these things," Celestia threw back weakly.

"If my scouts would have found it already, I would have granted you that request," Nightmare Moon spoke in all honesty. "For once, if there's any chance you may still see me as your sister, I am asking you to trust me."

Celestia perked up at that and stared straight into her sister's oddly mismatched eyes.

"I have not once asked you to, have I? Since we started fighting, while we were rebuilding my kingdom, while you sat with me to give me advice?" Nightmare Moon realized.

Celestia closed her eyes with a deep sigh. "I think a lack of trust between us is where this whole thing started spinning out of control in the first place."

Nightmare Moon sat herself down in front of Celestia and held out her right forehoof. "For once, if I don't ask anything else of you; I am asking you to trust me on this. Let me bring you to our side; show you how we experience the night."

Celestia swallowed strongly, but then gave a hesitant nod and reached her own hoof out to touch Nightmare Moon's. "I'm with you to the end, sister... I agree."

Chapter 3

"We found it," a voice interrupted the twin sisters' actions in the courtyard, as a mare came skidding onto the palace grounds!

Nightmare Moon did not have to look at Celestia to know she had lost her sister's acceptance of the proposed act in that very moment, and instead just closed her gemstone eye to set her fury (or what was left of it) on the interloper.

"You have found _what_," the Queen produced in as icy-cold an exclamation she could produce, "a sudden desire to invoke your Queen's wrath?"

The mare, a lithe Pegasus with an auburn coat and bright pink mane and tail, slid to a stop near to the Queen and her sister, then unceremoniously let her front legs give out from under her.

The result was a sudden faceplanting on the Pegasus' side, and a step back by Nightmare Moon as the Queen tried to avoid a sprinkle of sweat flying off the smaller pony.

Nightmare Moon sighed as her pink eye opened and she set it upon the other in worry.

"Please tell me you planned that and I don't have to resucitate you before you can answer me?" she asked, trying not to let it show how she worried that the mare's face was now a flat pancake.

The pony in question pushed up from the ground on wobbly legs, a dumb grin on her face, and she turned her head to reach behind her, as if to reach for a pouch dangling to the side of her.

Finding only air, there was a visible tensing of muscles underneath her furred form and the pony stood as if frozen in time.

"Contrail," Celestia started softly, "think back to how you arrived here. Have you left anything with the quartermaster before rushing over?"

"I... might," the Pegasus mare mumbled softly, already turning to go back the way she came.

"You have got to be kidding me," the Queen sighed out, watching the mare bolt away from her and disappear through the main gate while wildly fluttering her wings.

"She has a tendency to misplace things because she focuses on the most minute details," Celestia explained calmly. "I may have been responsible for Stronghoof recruiting her into the palace guard before you took over, sister."

The Queen narrowed her eyes and flicked her tail in annoyance. "Remember when I said I would think about the value of your dayponies in my army?"

"She is a very good tracker, sister," Celestia suggested. "If anything, please give her the option of joining your nightguard before you discard her?"

"Define good," Nightmare Moon grumbled.

"She spotted a fly ambling over to one of our cakes while standing on guard outside the banquet hall," Celestia chuckled. "Remember the party two years ago where we went from the ballroom to the garden to have special items of food brought in by the bakers and I burnt my tongue on a hot bun?"

"You are talking of events Luna took part in, not me," the Queen scoffed, "but; yes, I do remember."

"Contrail aimed straight for the fly, forgetting that her wings catch a lot of air when she gets to speed. The poor dear lifted the banquet off the table by the vortices chasing her and, while she did catch the fly, was subsequently assaulted by airborne confectionary," Celestia explained, letting herself giggle openly at the memory. "It left quite the mess."

"And you're using this story in an attempt to have me keep her around?" Nightmare Moon wondered. "If she is that accident-prone, we should ward her from the palace grounds instead."

"She has her moments, yes," Celestia agreed, "but she truly does her best at her job. What other scout came back with the mention of having found something? For all you know she gathered all of the Elements in the time it took the others to get ready to fly off after her."

"I will give her this; she did say she found something," the Queen had to say. "What it is that she found is something I am hopefully going to find out before the night is over?"

"She most likely left it with the quartermaster, which is why I suggested it to her to look there," the white one of the twin sisters mused. "She might have simply forgotten to take it out of her travel bags in her eagerness to bring the news to you."

"That is another thing I will give her; she appeared very eager," Nightmare Moon decided. "Eager enough that we were almost splattered by her sweat, and I'm unsure if she meant to faceplant or if that was a bow gone wrong?"

"Most likely both, sister," Celestia offered.

"There she comes again," the Queen pointed with a slight nod of her head in the direction of the main gate, from which a huffing and puffing Pegasus mare came stumbling up, carrying a small pouch in her mouth.

"Mwfy Gueeh," she spoke while holding the pouch's strap between her teeth, "I ghoufh ghe egheghegh oh gheghehofhiphy!"

Nightmare Moon blinked once at that, then motioned to a spot on the ground in front of her. "First; drop that pouch here. Second; do we need to have some water brought to you? You look like you are about to collapse..."

Contrail spat the strap out of her mouth, the pouch landing in the dirt with a thud.

"No need, my Queen! I'm running on pure adrenaline here! I can go on and on and on and on forever if I have to!" the mare beamed, even if she stood trembling in front of the pair of Alicorns.

"Sit down, at least," Nightmare Moon suggested, motioning with her right hoof. "You are filling me with worry that you may fall flat once more."

Contrail promptly fell down on her rear end, wriggled some to get her tail out from under her, but then beamed up again. "Yes, my Queen!"

"As you said; eager," Celestia chuckled.

"I will consider it," Nightmare Moon grumbled to her sister while turning her head to look at the pouch on the floor. She reached out with her magic to open it up, her curiosity at what might be hidden inside rising to an apex.

"It's the Element of Generosity, my Queen. I found it buried in a crater in the middle of a field," the Pegasus spoke up, just before the Queen's magic could pull the stone from the pouch.

"Yes, I see," the dark twin agreed, bringing the purple gem up to float in mid-air between the three of them. "It's not the Element of Magic, which I had hoped for, but it is a start."

Celestia stared at the gem in wonder, then raised an eyebrow. "This is the Element of Generosity, is it?"

Nightmare Moon huffed at her sister's query and brought the gem closer to Celestia. "It certainly looks like it, or do you not trust your own dayponies or eyes?"

"I am asking, sister, as we have that exact gem in the vault," Celestia noted.

A flash of surprise passed over the Queen's face, which was quickly followed by anger.

Nightmare Moon closed her pink gemstone-eye and set her proper one on the Pegasus mare before her.

Contrail only had to give a quick glance up to realize the Queen's rising fury was aimed at her, and the poor mare fell flat on her face again... this time being on purpose.

Trying her best to become one with the ground she lay on, the Pegasus shuddered as the dark Queen's words bouldered over her:

"What is the meaning of this?!? Do you intend to deceive me by bringing worthless replica stones to me?!? Do you take me for a fool???"

Nightmare Moon's voice rose to a shrill tone as she shouted, the Element of Kindness barely tempering her fury.

Celestia knew better than to interfere at this point, lowering her head as well to show her submission and loyalty to her hot-headed sibling.

The Queen rose up to her full height and a flash of lightning split the sky behind her in twain.

"I have been far too lenient with you dayponies," Nightmare Moon decided, staring down the cowering Pegasus as well as she could with only one opened eye.

"It is time," she continued, breaking into an eager evil grin, "for me to stop listening to my sister's advice. She truly is too _good_ for me."

Contrail let out an almost inaudible whimper as she felt the Queen's magic envelop her and subsequently lift her up into the air with a rough jolt.

Nightmare Moon brought the Pegasus up to eye height, then poured her dark magic into the mare's form, infusing Contrail with the Essence of the Night.

"I will get to you next, sister," the dark one hissed through clenched teeth as she witnessed yet another of Celestia's dayponies transform into one of her children.

"I know, sister," Celestia sighed.

"As for this fake gem," the Queen mused, "maybe I should apply it to this; your favorite klutz? What do you say, sister? Perhaps an eye, like my own?"

Celestia started and quickly moved to stare straight at her sister, her concern painted on her face. "W...what? You don't even know if the stone is magical at all!"

"For all I know it could be set with an entrapment spell waiting to turn me to stone when I make physical contact with it," Nightmare Moon voiced her paranoia.

"Then test it on me," the white sister pleaded, "but don't take her eye! She works as a tracker for pony's sake!"

There was but the briefest moment of hesitation on the Queen's part, but Contrail's transformation into a leather-winged Lunar Pegasus was nearing its completion.

If the stone was not imbued with any magic at all, her new child would need the remaining transformative energy to repair the eye that was to be lost.

Nightmare Moon closed both her eyes, even as she forced the unknown purple gemstone into Contrail's left eye socket.

A sharp pain shot through her heart at the loud howling erupting from the mare, but she had done it; even with the Element of Kindness trying to convert her, she had managed to wound another.

She truly was the dark Queen the insecure Luna buried deep inside of her needed her to be.

Chapter 4

Contrail's whining continued for several breaths, but Nightmare Moon realized something was changing in the magic flowing through her new child.

Opening her left eye so as not to become overwhelmed by emotions sent to her through the Element of Kindness which had taken position as her right, she looked over at the new Lunar Pegasus drifting in her hold in front of her.

Contrail's left eye was closed, and tears flowed over her cheeks, but her right eye was looking back at her Queen with its slit pupil parted open almost fully.

"W...why?" the mare stammered through her tears, and Nightmare Moon felt compelled to lower her onto her own four hooves and release her from her magical hold.

The Lunar Pegasus' forehoof immediately went up to touch her damaged eye, and the dark one's ears turned forward sharply as there was a sound of hoofbone hitting gemstone - much like when Nightmare Moon herself first touched the Element of Kindness buried in her eye socket.

The blue Alicorn opened her right eye and let herself watch Contrail as the other opened and closed her own eyes in turn, testing how much - if anything - she could see through the gemstone.

Having seen how the Element of Kindness was positioned in her own socket in various mirrors throughout the palace, Nightmare Moon took notice of the similarities, and differences, between their individual situations;

In both, the gemstones had turned to show a flat surface near the center, serving as a replacement for the original eye's pupil, with six sides to it. The slanted surfaces leading away from this gemstone iris were of different sizes, the two top ones, as well as the two bottom ones, smaller but elongating toward the four situated at the sides which led into the corners of the eye opening.

As Contrail looked around with it, her gemstone eye turned in perfect synchronisation with her regular eye, which now was a gold tone and had a slitted pupil - like the rest of Nightmare Moon's children.

There was a terrible tugging at her heart as she noticed the duality present on her own face, now on that of another, and Nightmare Moon rushed forward before she knew what she was doing, and pulled the Pegasus into a tight embrace!

"Ah," Contrail exhumed against her Queen's flowing mane, but then slowly let her head fall against the larger form.

The pair stood like that for minutes, while Nightmare Moon tried to come to terms with the sensations she was feeling. Not only did the Element of Kindness give her the realization that what she did had been entirely wrong, misguided by a sense of betrayal and need to retaliate agains what she perceived as a mockery against her person. No, there was a genuine sting in her heart, coming out now the Element of Kindness had free reign over her emotions again.

She did harm to Contrail as an individual pony. She changed the former daypony into a nightpony as she had intended to do to all ponies since she first took over control of the kingdom, and that was something she could rationalize away. But taking her eye went too far, and she knew it.

Her own eye had been removed by a spell of fate; simply standing in the wrong place as the Elements were propelled in various directions at great speed while Celestia and Nightmare Moon fought over them.

But this had been a conscious decision on her part. She had done this herself. There had not been any reason beyond petty ones, and she could not think her way out of those.

There was a careful hoofstep to her side, and then a low thud, and Nightmare Moon turned her head to peer at Celestia through the water leaking from her eyes. When had she started crying?

The white sister looked more pale than usual, and there was a mixture of shock and clear judgement on her face. It did nothing to help the Queen feel any better about her decision - on the contrary; she felt utterly worthless now.

There was a stirring of the smaller form standing against her, and both Alicorns broke their gaze upon each other to look down at Contrail as the Lunar Pegasus started to chuckle awkwardly.

"Heh... hah... hehe," Contrail started, having just her gemstone eye open and peering over at Celestia with it.

"What's so funny?" the Queen demanded, letting go of the smaller mare and taking a step back while looking her over with a raised eyebrow.

"She's pink!" Contrail suggested with a grin, pointing her right hoof in Celestia's direction.

This time it was the white Alicorn's eyebrow rising, and she shook her head slowly. "No, I am most assuredly white."

"You're white when I look at you with my normal eye, princess, but with this eye you're pink! It's the stupidest thing! Everything's pink this way!" Contrail explained, giggling more.

Nightmare Moon involuntarily opened-and-closed each of her eyes in turn, seeing the world (and Celestia in it) go from their normal colours to the pink hue which the Element of Kindness put over everything, then caught herself and opened both fully.

"Pink," she offered to Celestia, motioning at her own gemstone eye.

"But the gemstone before us was purple, was it not?" Celestia wondered, standing up and taking a step to the laughing mare. "May I see your eye for a moment, dear?"

Contrail grinned up and turned to face the fallen princess, peering at her with one golden, and one definitely pink, eye.

"It appears to be pink, sister," Celestia noted, and Nightmare Moon dipped her head lower to peer at it herself. "But it was purple before?"

"It could have been the light," the Queen suggested calmly. "You are used to the brightness of your sun, while we have had mainly twilight and darkness. This is also why I suggested you join us; we see better at night."

"You, yourself, suggested it was purple," Celestia scoffed, forgetting her place for a moment.

"I was led to believe it was the Element of Generosity, and my pink Elemental eye is not the best judge of colours," Nightmare Moon spoke back in a calmer tone than might have been expected of her.

"It could have been dirt?" Contrail added to the conversation, her eyes shifting between both larger ponies.

"Whatever colour it was before, it was definitely a magical stone," the Queen spoke calmly, reaching out with her right hoof to brush some dark blue hair off Contrail's face. "I felt its magic as I held on to you, my child, and if anything could change its colour at whim, it would have to be magical in origin."

"Maybe it's the Element of Laughter?" Celestia prompted. "She does seem far more cheery than I would be, had I been subject to a forceful joining with a gemstone against my will."

Nightmare Moon snapped her head sideways at the sharp sting at the end of her sister's words, and stared her down with a dark glare. "I do know I did wrong, sister! This accursed stone does not let up from hurting me to tell me that! I am relieved it may be the Element of Laughter; at least my child seems to see the humorous side in this fault of mine?"

"Oh, I'm kind of okay with it, actually?" Contrail piped up, but Nightmare Moon's hoof went from stroking some errant hairs of the Pegasus' mane away to getting placed against her lips.

"Shush, child," the Queen huffed, then returned her attention to Celestia. "You have no idea what it is like to have to be both strong AND kind! I have to be one or the other, not showing any weakness, delivering the strong visage for my children to adore while also fighting this stone's suggestions of how to make their lives better!"

"Why fight it at all?" Celestia threw back, shaking her head in worry. "Sister, you are constantly on the edge of reason and insanity, and all I am doing is to help you become a good ruler; to make your reign one ponies will speak of in good ways, rather than becoming a nightmarish thing to flee from."

"It is in my name," Nightmare Moon spoke flatly.

"But you grew from it, even in these short few weeks," the white sister offered up with a small smile. "You are capable of so much greatness, and I want to help you where I can."

There was a pause in conversation as the Queen, Nightmare Moon, stood with her odd eyes locked upon Celestia's, and both sisters' thoughts were their own.

On one side was the former princess who had governed more than her darker sister had, who had been at banquets where she had been lauded for the decisions she had made (together with her sister), who had been revered and was still spoken of in hushed tones in this changed realm even now.

On the other side was the Queen, dark and imposing, fighting her own demons while trying to grasp a firm hold on the kingdom she now ruled alone. There was a pressure constantly riding on her back; the need to do this on her own, but at the same time there was the realization she was struggling to maintain her composure now she was hampered (or helped, one could say) by the gemstone merged with her.

Standing almost between these two Alicorns was a newly formed Lunar Pegasus, still overcome with wonder and confusion at her new lot in life; Her formerly feathered wings were now bare skin, the muscles connecting her fingers still feeling relatively the same, but there was a definite change in how the folds between them felt as she moved them, or even while they were resting at her sides. Her auburn coat had changed to a dark blue tone which was almost dark enough to be considered black but with a blue sheen to it. Her mane and tail had been changed to a light grey tone from the light pink they had been, and her, now tufted, ears were peeking up beside the grey hairs her Queen had brushed in place again moments before.

The biggest change had been the sudden, painful, loss of her left eye. It had changed everything about her; she only had one good eye left with which to focus on the smallest of things happening around her, even if it was now slitted and could suddenly see a whole lot better in this twilight around her. Especially with the sun slowly setting in the West, returning the realm to the darkness her Queen loved so much.

The focus in her left eye was different. She could focus it on objects in the distance as well as with her right, but there was a pink hue over them and the edges did not seem as sharp. There was a small blur effect over just about anything she looked at, but not so much as what she saw when looking at Nightmare Moon or Celestia. Something about them made the blur effect ten times worse. It was upsetting Contrail as she had no idea what to make of it.

Nightmare Moon was the first of the two Alicorns to move, and she let out a deep sigh. "If it truly is an Element of Harmony I shoved into my child's eye, she should remain close to us."

Celestia perked her ears up at that. "What do you mean, sister?"

"I am sending out scouting parties to retrieve the remaining gemstones, only to unite them again," the Queen continued. "It makes no sense sending her away again now she has found one. Especially now it is a part of her, in the way ours are a part of us."

"What are you suggesting to do?" Celestia wondered, setting her eyes on the Lunar Pegasus between them.

"It's not a suggestion; I am ordering that she will be given quarters in the palace, close to ours, and be assigned the duty of personal aide to the both of us," Nightmare Moon decided.

"To the both of us, sister?" the white mare queried, trying to figure out what was behind her dark sister's decision.

"You brought her to the palace guards, told me an anecdote about her, genuinely cared for her as I made the mistake of applying force to her transformation," the Queen listed in a soft tone. "I can't separate you from her. You don't govern with me, but I won't keep you from having friends or servants of your own."

"That is surprisingly," Celestia started, smiling up.

"I swear, if you say 'kind', I will have you thrown in the dungeons," Nightmare Moon grumbled darkly.

"I meant to say generous, sister. It is surprisingly generous of you," her sister chuckled.

"Don't let it get out or I will be expected to give everypony gifts," the dark sister mumbled, turning her attention back to the Pegasus mare. "You should get your belongings from the garrison and meet with maester Fleetfoot. He will take you to your quarters and inform you of your duties."

Contrail smiled up at that and brought her right foreleg up to place her hoof at the side of her head in a salute. "Yes, my Queen!"

The two Alicorns watched as the Lunar Pegasus turned to speed away from them without first placing her hoof back down on the ground, fell to the floor, and then scrambled up again without pause. Her wings spread out from her sides and she gave them a few errant flaps to judge their wind displacement compared to her former feathered ones as she ran, then pushed off fully and barely managed to hold herself upright as she flew over the courtyard's walls in the direction of the garrison.

"I half expected her to spin out and crash into the walls," Nightmare Moon spoke idly. "She is going to make life in the palace all the more difficult for us."

"The word you're looking for, sister, is 'interesting'," Celestia chuckled.

Chapter 5

Nightmare Moon passed by her sister's smaller throne again, walking between the left-and-right sides of the higher platform her own throne was on. Her hoofbeats echoed through the large throne room space, and were tracked by Celestia's ears as the Queen walked past behind her.

"You are pacing, sister," the white one suggested calmly.

"Where is she?" the Queen wondered in response, turning around as she reached the leftmost edge of the platform and heading back for the rightmost edge.

"You only called for tea five minutes ago," Celestia reminded her.

"Moondust would have had it ready within a minute," Nightmare Moon grumbled. "Something's wrong."

"Like what? The mare is new to the task; it is only natural she would need some more time," her sister offered, turning her head to look back at Nightmare Moon.

The dark blue Alicorn reached the edge of the platform again, turned, and paused as she saw her sister's eyes upon her.

"But what if she tripped and got hot tea all over her? She is too accident-prone," Nightmare Moon sighed in clear worry.

A smile spread across Celestia's lips at the genuine worry shown by the Queen. "She will be fine, trust your advisor on that. The ponies in your kingdom are tougher than they appear."

"I am aware of that," Nightmare Moon sighed, breaking eye contact with Celestia and moving back to her throne. "I can't but worry about her."

"If you forgive me, sister," Celestia started, turning around halfway on her own throne and looking over its low back, "but you needed somepony like Contrail in your life."

The Queen sat down on her throne and took her time to settle on it first, then frowned down at her advisor. "Right, because I truly needed somepony to worry over all the time and distract me from governing my realm."

"She helps remind you of what is truly important about ruling, sister," Celestia pressed. "In your first days you washed over them as if they were little more than peons; lifeless, emotionless, only there to serve your every desire."

"Yes, and then I received a backlash from this gemstone buried in my skull," Nightmare Moon grumbled, tapping her crystalline eye.

"And I promised you I would not bring that up after helping you weather it," Celestia agreed with a nod. "But it taught you you needed to keep their feelings in mind as well as your own desires. So too with Contrail now."

"Because I was not already guilt-ridden for having destroyed her eye," the Queen snorted.

"You keep calling the changed ones your children," her sister stated, "but you never displayed maternal feelings to any of them. Until now, that is; you are clearly worried sick over a single one of your children. It may help you empathize with your subjects in general and make better decisions based on that."

"Remember when I said I did not question your loyalty, but worried about the way you expressed it?" Nightmare Moon sighed. "This is one such case; I am not at all sure that this is helping me in any way. It goes in against every fiber of my being."

"I hope you will see the truth in my words in due time, sister. I truly wish you to rise up to your full potential," Celestia suggested softly.

"In due time," the Queen mused for a moment, then lifted her head to peer out to the main entrance to the room. "It's been ten minutes now, surely?"

Celestia smiled broadly and turned around to sit on her throne more properly again. "Barely eight by now."

"Well, it feels like ten. I have half a mind to call for another to bring us our tea," Nightmare Moon huffed.

"It is a shame you were not blessed with the Element of Patience, sister," Celestia joked.

The Queen raised an eyebrow, then sent her magic out from her horn to zap the white one before her, who leapt off her throne with a yelp!

"Be glad I did not singe your backside for that statement," Nightmare Moon suggested as Celestia crawled back onto her throne.

"That was very 'kind' of you," the white one chuckled softly, giving a defiant glance back.

The Queen's horn sparked with a new charge, but then the doors to the room opened up and she let it settle again to focus on the newcomer.

Contrail, the blue-coated Lunar Pegasus with the light-grey mane and tail, walked in with her leathery wings spread out to help balance a tray on her back. The mare focused strongly on the floor in front of her with her right yellow slitted pupil and left pink gemstone eye as she walked into the room, scanning for the cracks between tiles and making sure to step over them.

"There she is," Celestia stated merrily.

"Ten minutes late," Nightmare Moon huffed. "What's taken you so long, my child?"

Contrail stopped walking to peer up at the Alicorn sisters on their respective thrones, and offered them a wry smile. "Apparently I move my wings while talking," she stated, her wings wobbling as she did - and the tray with them.

Even at the distance between them, Nightmare Moon could see some tea spilling out of the cups on the tray and she brought her right hoof up to rub at the side of her head.

"Then maybe you should not speak until you get us our tea," she sighed. "Bring it up here already."

The Lunar Pegasus' head tilted down again to peer at the floor, and then her legs moved to place her hooves up on the tiles in front of her again, again making sure not to step on the cracks between.

"Oh stars, this is going to take forever," the Queen exclaimed, falling against the tall back of her throne.

"We could help the poor dear, you know?" Celestia offered back, keeping her attention on the approaching Contrail. "We do have magic, where she does not."

"The point was for her to learn to aid us, no?" Nightmare Moon snorted.

"But you see how you are not making it easy on her, right?" the white sister suggested. "A Unicorn would be far better disposed to handling trays of food due to their magical ability."

"She's holding it fine on her back, as far as I can see," the Queen stated as the Lunar Pegasus reached the first of the steps leading up to the thrones and stopped at it.

"Ah, steps," Contrail coughed uneasily.

"It helps to bend your forelegs slightly while climbing them, dear," Celestia spoke calmly. "You can't extend your back legs after all, so best to make your forelegs shorter by bending them."

"That makes a surprising amount of sense, thank you princess!" the Lunar Pegasus exclaimed merrily, her wings moving as she did. The movement made the cups wobble dangerously on the tray set on Contrail's back.

A faint light brightened Celestia's horn, and the cups stabilized themselves before they could spill more tea or slide off the tray. Nightmare Moon scraped her throat lightly at the act, and Celestia doused her magic again.

"You tell me to trust in my subjects' abilities, yet then you help my child out when she does well enough on her own?" the Queen asked pointedly.

Celestia smiled back at her. "Did you want to have tea, or an empty cup, sister?"

"I should truly singe your backside for that," Nightmare Moon grumbled, watching Contrail carefully set her forehooves on the lowermost of the steps in front of her, knees bent, then bringing her back legs up to the same step without righting her forelegs with the motion...

As the tray slid forward an inch to rest at the nape of the Lunar Pegasus' neck, the cups on it slid forward as well... only to stop short of spilling the hot tea over the mare as a blue light surrounded them.

The pair of porcelain teacups, and contents, then went up and over Contrail's head to land in the cupholders attached to each throne.

Contrail, now carrying just an empty tray on her back, looked up at her Queen in surprise to see the magic around her horn fade away.

"Okay, okay, I'll find a different job for her," the Queen sighed in defeat, having reacted out of her growing maternal instincts more than anything else. Smirking at the Lunar Pegasus, she continued, "Bring that tray back to the kitchen and report back here, my child."

Celestia simply took her cup from where it was placed down and brought it to her lips, keeping her thoughts to herself while watching the Pegasus attempting to turn on the small step she was on.

Contrail managed the turn, but then made the mistake of applying Celestia's earlier suggestion on the way down it; bending her forelegs. The resulting position would have made lesser ponies tumble over, but the Lunar Pegasus miraculously managed to remain upright.

The Alicorn sisters watched the Lunar Pegasus mare leave the room in the same way she came in; staring at the floor and avoiding stepping on any of the gaps between tiles, the guards outside closing the doors behind her again.

"How did she survive training??" Nightmare Moon gasped in exasperation.

"By being assigned the jobs she excelled at, and being kept from the jobs she performed poorly at," Celestia spoke over the edge of her teacup.

"Considering you know her background so well, maybe you could point your Queen in the right direction?" the Queen pressed.

"If the Queen would listen to her advisor more, I would," Celestia butted back.

"I am all ears," Nightmare Moon grumbled, picking up her own tea with her magic and watching Celestia turn to face her in her seat.

"First off; she is a Pegasus," Celestia started. "Pegasi have thin bone structures and don't do well with manual labor. They are fast and agile, and best suited in jobs like scouts, messengers, weather control, and the like."

"Yes, I already know all that," Nightmare Moon huffed. "And since when is bringing us tea considered to be manual labor?"

"Did you not watch her walk just now? She is obviously insecure when walking and carrying something breakable on her back," the advisor to the throne pointed out. "She excels in flying, and oftencase carried a pouch along with her in her previous job with the Royal Guards. She is confident in that role, sister. All I see now is a mare who knows she is prone to accidents, and who tries her very best to do the task given to her by her Queen by being extra careful about it."

Nightmare Moon looked past her sister at the double doors opposite her throne. "She did appear very timid today, yes. Nothing like the eager mare we met yesterday."

"She respects you, you know?" Celestia remarked with a wry smile. "It does not matter to her what you might have done to her yesterday, or how difficult the task you put before her today; she does her best to serve you since you are her Queen. Even without the Element of Loyalty guiding her as it does me."

The Queen lowered her gaze, letting Celestia's words mull about in her mind while the white-coated, rainbow-maned advisor to her throne sat staring up at her in the hope of catching even the smallest glimmer of realization dawning.

"Perhaps I should leave the teamaking to Moondust and ask Contrail to be our personal messenger; she would be expected to fly in that role, with paperwork which can handle a few accidents along the way," Nightmare Moon realized.

"Thus makes a just ruler, sister; to not just bark commands, but to find the right ponies for the right jobs," Celestia spoke with a growing smile. "If you find the balance between stern and just ruling, may your reign last a thousand years and more."

"With my sister the faithful advisor to the throne, hm?" the Queen chuckled. "I still intend to bring you to our side, Celestia. Sooner, rather than later."

Celestia's smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, and she turned her head away at the prospect. "I already said I agreed to the transmutation, sister."

"You may ask any of my children how they feel for having been altered, Celestia. Take your time," Nightmare Moon offered, lifting her teacup to her lips again. "You will see; it's really for the best."

Chapter 6

There was a loud crash of metal impacting with stone in the hallway leading up to the Queen's chambers, followed by a softer thud and some ringing of metal rolling across the floor. The ringing stopped abruptly, but then approaching hoofbeats replaced its sound.

Nightmare Moon sat up straight in her bed from the first noise, startled out of a restless slumber.

"Hail Contrail," one of the pair of male guards at the door spoke - louder than Nightmare Moon would have wished.

"Is the Queen still asleep?" a mare's voice asked in reply.

Nightmare Moon rolled out of bed and sighed to herself. "I have to get these doors soundproofed."

"Last I checked, yes," the guard continued unabated. "You have some wax on your tail there."

"Oh, yeah, I missed the candelabra by an inch there. Who moved it?" Contrail replied.

"Actually," the other guard started, "I think I heard the Queen's bed creak. She may be awake."

Nightmare Moon used her magic to pull the door to her bedchamber open, grab hold of Contrail as the mare was trying to pull the wax from her tail, pulled the Lunar Pegasus into the room, and then smacked the door close again.

"I can hear you talking, bloody morons," she grumbled, looking around for her crown while her personal messenger was blinking her eyes to the darkness which enveloped every inch of the room.

"My Queen," Contrail spoke, bowing low as soon as she figured out which of the shapes around her was the Alicorn in question. Her movement made something small roll out of the pouch she had strapped to her side, and the thick rug covering the room's floor was the only thing preventing it from ringing out again as it fell down.

"That would be me, yes," Nightmare Moon agreed, stepping brusquely past her to retrieve her crown from the other side of the room. "Who put my crown on my dresser?!? It's supposed to be on my nightstand, darnit."

There was a thud behind her as the Lunar Pegasus pony had tried to turn to keep facing her while at the same time attempting to retrieve the metal object from the floor, resulting in her now laying on her side on the floor with the item between her teeth.

The Queen turned to face her while moving her crown on top of her head with her magic, then raised the eyebrow above her pink gemstone eye. "You worry me sometimes, Contrail dear."

Contrail smirked up from her position on the floor, and spat the item from her mouth again. "I'm sorry, my Queen."

Nightmare Moon stepped to within a few inches of the other, then sank through her unshod hooves to lay on the floor with Contrail. "What have you brought me today?"

The Lunar Pegasus mare grinned up as her Queen took the rare opportunity of their relative aloneness to show how kind she could be with her, and nuzzled the metal thing closer. "It's a hornring, my Queen. It's used by the Unicorn dayponies near the East Coast during weddings; they put one on each other to symbolize the bond between mare and stallion. They are only ever made in pairs, and each set is unique."

The dark Alicorn lifted the item up to get a better look at it, noticing the quality of the work done on the ring. "This must have been made by a master artisan to be sure," she realized at once.

The gold ring itself was slightly slanted, to account for the tapering of a unicorn's horn, and had fine cursive lettering engraved on the inside, in lines barely a hair's width. The outside of the ring was rounded around some small gemstones, engraved lines mimicking rolling waves connecting one to the other.

"I'm sorry I could only take the one with, but the other is kept by the artisan in question; a Unicorn by the name of Sparkle the Engraver," Contrail explained. "He said the wedding is in a few weeks' time, and would only hear of your offer if you would come to be present for the festivities to show you are, how did he say this? 'A Queen who cares for the little ponies'?"

Nightmare Moon lowered the ring and glared over it in the Lunar Pegasus mare's direction.

"I'm just repeating what he said, my Queen," Contrail mumbled weakly, looking back with her own gemstone eye and proper slitted one.

The Queen waved the mare's concerns away with a shake of her head and softening of her expression. "You are about the only one in this realm who has nothing to fear from me, my child," she spoke in barely a whisper.

The other mare nodded slowly to that, inching a bit closer to her Queen. "I know, my Queen... but you are still intimidating when something rouses your anger."

Nightmare Moon gave a quick nod to that, putting the ring back in the other's pouch so she would not fumble it herself. "Instinct can be a wonderful thing. The audacity of that artisan... to call me out like that," she snorted, narrowing her eyes.

"He feels secure in knowing he is the best there is in his field, my Queen. It makes him bold and forward, and dismissive of others," Contrail sighed. "But it is his one and only requirement before he would agree to work as the Royal Jeweler."

"I should go there with a detachment of my Nightguard and force him back here in chains," the Queen mused, an evil grin forming on her face before she winced suddenly and looked away from the other.

"I saw nothing," Contrail coughed uneasily, also looking away, "but if I may make a suggestion? It is an invitation to a party, my Queen... and we have had so few of those recently."

"My sister and this infernal hunt for the remaining Elements has been keeping me occupied," Nightmare Moon sighed, reaching up to rub a hoof at her right temple. "I guess I am due some entertainment."

"If you let me, I could deliver them the news and see to it that the party is in your honor, my Queen?" the mare suggested, an odd shine passing over the gemstone wedged in her skull.

The Queen looked her over for a moment, seeing the eagerness in her. "Promise me you will not burst out in excited yelling if I agree," she muttered. "I only woke up moments ago and will need refreshment before I can handle that."

The mare before her sat up and crossed her left hoof in front of her chest, grinning up at her. "I promise, my Queen!"

Nightmare Moon winced lightly at the, already too excited, exclamation, then gave a slow nod. "See my sister first and be sure she is awake, inform her of our plans, get yourself some refreshments and a rest, and then be on your way again. When I arrive, I expect that party to be big enough to fully ingrain in them the knowledge I am here to stay."

"And to give your blessings to the happy couple, my Queen?" Contrail suggested.

"Yes, yes, that too," the Alicorn mumbled. "Stars, you're getting as bad as my sister."

"I'm eager to help out in any way I can, my Queen," the mare grinned back, putting her right hoof against the side of her head as a salute.

"Aren't you gone yet?" Nightmare Moon wondered with a smile at the other's antics. "Fly safely, my child."

"Yes, my Queen!" Contrail exclaimed, then made for the doors as they opened, skidded across the floor outside the Queen's chambers, bumped her rear into the wall opposite it, and then set off at breakneck speeds through the hallway.

"Ack, careful!" a voice down in the hall cried out, and some clattering followed, leaving Nightmare Moon rolling her healthy eye in its socket. Her gemstone eye just did not want to do that. At all. No matter how much she had tried in front of a mirror.

The guards peered into the room from where they stood on opposite sides of her door, and the Queen narrowed her eyes at them. "Get me the maester builder. I need this door soundproofed before I lay my head down to rest again."

"Yes, my Queen," the guard closest to the staircase stated, quickly leaving his post while she shut the door again with her magic.

"A party in the East," Nightmare Moon muttered to herself, falling sideways on the lush thick blue wall-to-wall carpet which felt so nice and soft under her hooves. "I must have the tailor make me a new dress for the occasion."

A moment passed with dress ideas going by in her head, then she lifted it with a start. "Oh!"

The door swung open as her magic grabbed it firmly, and she stood next to the remaining guard an instant later, staring him down.

"Get me Merryweather and Starstruck on the double," she demanded of him. "I need to prepare my sister for a party."

Chapter 7

The double doors to the throne room opened to reveal former Princess Celestia, now Advisor to the Throne of Queen Nightmare Moon, standing in her proudest stance. On either side of her, and directly behind in double rows, were her Royal Guard led by captain Merryweather. Dayponies one and all, their freshly polished armor shining brightly in the light of the sun coming in from the outside.

For this occasion, Nightmare Moon had allowed her sister to put the sun up high in the sky, unchallenged by her moon, and its light was bright enough to give her a massive headache. Even so, she sat high up on her throne, the smaller one removed from where it had been a few steps below. In front of her, on the main floor, stood rows of Nightguard, weapons at the ready, freshly polished armor shining as bright as that on their daypony counterparts outside.

Captain Starstruck took a step forward from where he stood in line on the left side closest to her throne, and turned to face Celestia and her troops with strict military motions, then rammed his spear onto the tiles a few times. The Lunar Unicorn had been among the first to submit to his Queen, and he had been solely responsible for training each of the Nightguard standing with him in the room right now. They were the best troops that could be found among Nightmare Moon's children.

"You are entering the throne room of her Royal Majesty Nightmare Moon, Queen of the Night, Equestria, and all lands found under her Royal Highness' Moon's light!" the Nightguard captain stated in a strong voice, not really helping his Queen's headache.

On Celestia's side, captain Merryweather took two steps into the room, placed her own spear on the floor next to her, but straightened herself again once it lay flat. An Earthpony with a distinguished service record going back years, she had scars to her that went deeper than her skin. Simply her presence was enough to silence even the most rowdy of dayponies, and she was respected by both day- and night-guards.

"Announcing Princess Celestia, former ruler of the land of Equestria, sister to former princess Luna, Advisor to the Throne to Queen Nightmare Moon," the daypony captain spoke in just as loud a voice, and the Queen narrowed her eyes at her sister who stood still as a statue just outside the room.

Celestia just had to slip that old name of hers in there, and it tired Nightmare Moon to hear it. Maybe that would soon be over. After all of this.

"State your business here, Princess Celestia, former ruler of the land of Equestria, sister to the former princess, Advisor to the Throne to Queen Nightmare Moon," captain Starstruck repeated the introduction, and his Queen could not love any stallion more in that brief moment for him knowing just what to leave out.

Captain Merryweather waited for one brief moment, sticking to the etiquette where it concerned these things, and then opened her mouth again. "We have come to officially offer our surrender as guardsponies to the old ruler of this nation and to offer our loyalty to Queen Nightmare Moon, should Her Majesty choose to accept it. We come to deliver our weapons freely, and ask but to be given a fair judgement."

With that, the captain picked up her spear again, and took two steps back to stand next to her Princess again.

"Her Royal Majesty Queen Nightmare Moon will hear your offer of surrender," captain Starstruck stated. "Come forward and be judged."

Nightmare Moon saw her sister take a deep breath before she took a step forward, her daypony guardsponies following as one as the princess strode up to captain Starstruck. Once the last of them had entered the room, the doors were closed behind them and the group was effectively encircled by Nightguard.

Celestia stopped two paces in front of captain Starstruck, then gave a nod aside to captain Merryweather.

The daypony captain strode forward, turned to pass in front of her princess, and then placed her spear on the ground in front of captain Starstruck. Their eyes met for a brief moment, but then she continued on, walking back past the row of Nightguard to the rear of her troops.

Each of the dayponies in Celestia's personal guard followed behind their captain, all twenty of them placing their spears in a neat pile in-between Celestia and Starstruck until each was unarmed. They fell back in formation, and Celestia finally opened her mouth to speak.

"My Queen, I give you our loyalty as former ruler of this land, and hope you will accept me back into my role as advisor to your throne," the former princess spoke, sinking through her forelegs in a deep bow. Her guards fell into a bow as well, and the room fell silent again.

Nightmare Moon looked the room over; twenty of her Nightguard on the left, twenty of her Nightguard on the right, their captain in the dead center between her and the daypony troops. Celestia bowing low in front of her, awaiting her judgement.

She took a breath.

"I accept your surrender," she stated, rising up from her throne. "And I offer you a place among my Nightguard."

She charged her horn and let her moon outside rise until a twilight fell over the room. With it, a cool breeze wafted in and there was a collective shiver of the daypony guards.

"But under only one condition; you and your princess will join us as ponies of the night," Nightmare Moon decided.

Celestia rose up again and looked straight at her. "I accept for me, and my troops. We submit ourselves to your fair ruling."

"Then let it be so," the Queen spoke, releasing her dark magic into the group below.

The transformative process immediately grabbed hold of the twenty dayponies below, Earthpony, Pegasus, and Unicorn all changing to become better suited to living in Nightmare Moon's night. Eyes changed from the many different colours of regular daypony ones to the slitted yellow of the Lunar Ponies they were becoming. Feathers withdrew into the wings they had sat on, tufts appeared on twenty pairs of ears, and coats, manes and tails changed colours to blue and grey-tones.

All of the twenty guards were changing in ways Nightmare Moon had seen before, but Celestia was an Alicorn. The only other Alicorn to have taken to her darkness had been her, the Queen, herself. There was no precedent, no equal. She was the only one her eyes were set upon.

Celestia's long, flowing, rainbow mane was the first to change; the colors darkening until they merged into one, yet continuing to grow darker. Before long her mane was a pit of darkness with a rim of brightness around it, almost as if one was peering into a black hole with an event horizon surrounding it. Her tail changed in a similar fashion, drawing all the light to it and just leaving a knife's edge surrounding the darkest blackness one could imagine; the absence of any kind of light.

Her white coat darkened as well, taking on a blue tone which slowly settled on a tone which was still brighter than that on Luna before her own transformation into Nightmare Moon. Her pink eyes barely changed beyond obtaining slitted pupils, but Luna's had not gone through much of a change either. If not for the gemstone in her right eye socket, Nightmare Moon was staring out of the same color eyes as Luna before her.

There was a sudden spark of magic, and Celestia collapsed with a faint gasp, making captain Starstruck rush forward to check up on her. Nightmare Moon suddenly stood three steps lower before she could catch herself and regain her composure, helped by Starstruck nodding to her to indicate her sister was doing fine.

Merryweather, the magic still working to finalize the changes on her form, also nodded back to her troops who were casting worried glances out of mismatched eyes. Their captain told them it was okay, but the sudden motion had drawn them out of focusing on the changes going through them. A blessing, really; it hurt more than Nightmare Moon wished it did, if she had to believe some of her children.

They had weathered it for her, and saw in each other the pain they had all gone through. It formed a bond between her children which the dayponies could not grasp at until they underwent the same transformation process. She was secretly proud of how well they each bounced back up from it, but could not tell them. Except for Contrail. Contrail knew. But she was a special case.

Celestia opened her slitted eyes and shook her head a moment, her horn still darkening to match her coat. Her head turned to look back at her right flank, where a blue gemstone now sat prominently wedged in her rump where the cutiemark of a sun had been before. It stuck out a little, interrupting the natural flow of her body, and from its points came shooting stars with fading tails shooting sideways.

Nightmare Moon watched as her sister turned her head to look at her left flank, noticing a similar situation there. She carefully extended her wings, and let out a sigh of relief noting she still had feathered ones, even if her feathers were now a pastel blue tone. The former princess turned her head forward again, then tilted it up to set her slitted pink eyes upon Nightmare Moon.

"The Element of Loyalty split in twain," the newly changed Lunar Alicorn spoke in a new voice, and she moved her jaw and ears a bit at hearing herself.

"How do you feel, sister?" Nightmare Moon asked in genuine concern.

"It is... difficult to describe," Celestia started.

Nightmare Moon took a step closer to the group below. "If you are all feeling alright, I would welcome you to my Nightguard. Let your brothers and sisters help you get used to your new forms and get your new armor from the quartermaster."

"Alright, you scamps; let's give our Queen some room," captain Starstruck called out, then motioned to a pair of ponies with his left hoof, and promptly down at the stack of spears on the ground. "Get this moved to the storage rooms on the double."

Captain Merryweather found her voice and turned to her own group again. "You heard him; if you can put one hoof in front of the other without falling over, I want you up and out of this room and into fresh gear A. S. A. P!"

She turned to give a brief nod to Celestia, then one to her Queen. "We will be ready to resume our duties within the hour, my Queen."

Nightmare Moon licked around her lips, then shook her head. "Starstruck, take your new siblings to town tonight. They are all off duty for a day so they can get used to their new forms."

"Yes, my Queen!" captain Starstruck stated with a salute, then turned to Merryweather. "Welcome to the family, 'sister'. I must say; you do look a lot better in blue."

Nightmare Moon watched the troops file out, Merryweather and Starstruck walking out last, and closed the distance to her own sister.

Celestia was still seated on the ground, settling into her own new form. She turned her head this way and that to get a good look down both her flanks, giving Nightmare Moon ample time to take a lazy stroll in a circle around her.

"Can you stand, Celestia?" the Queen asked, moving to stand opposite her sister.

"I believe I can," the other Lunar Alicorn answered with a nod, moving to act on her words.

Nightmare Moon waited until they stood eye-to-eye again, then let out a sigh of relief. "I must admit, I was unsure what would happen."

"I am still unsure what _has_ happened," Celestia stated. "I feel groggy, as if I have only just woken from a slumber."

"It must be the light outside, let me move my moon," the Queen suggested, charging her horn.

"No, it's not your moon," Celestia pondered, looking at the nearest window and charging her own magic.

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow as she saw the deep blue light sparking from her sister's horn, but then took a surprised step back as the light around them changed suddenly and completely!

"What.... what did you do?" she asked, as screams of terror could be heard coming from outside.

"You were focusing on the wrong thing, sister," Celestia spoke calmly. "It was not the fact the sun was up in the air that was the problem, but the light it spread."

"What did you do?" Nightmare Moon repeated, feeling a sense of dread come over her.

"I changed the sun to cast a better light," the other Alicorn offered matter-of-factly.

The doors to the throne room opened, and a bewildered Unicorn rushed in. Somewhere in the back of her mind Nightmare Moon realized it was one of the Unicorns from the Magic Academy.

"My Queen! The sun," they cried out! "It's changed into a blue neutron star!"

Chapter 8

"A blue neutron star," Nightmare Moon repeated what was just said to her, staring at the overactive Unicorn who had rushed into the throne room moments before.

"Yes, my Queen," the Unicorn mare exclaimed anew, looking utterly bewildered about it.

The green mare's yellow mane was a chaotic mess of hairs springing in each direction but a common one, her pupils were small from barely withheld fear, and the glasses she wore were crooked and in danger of slipping off her muzzle.

The Queen looked from her to her sister Celestia, now a dark visage of her former self, still standing near the center of the room. She was staring out of the nearest window, from which a harsh bright light shone now, rather than the faded blue of the twilight which was cast upon the world during the earlier ceremony.

"What is a neutron star?" Nightmare Moon queried. "I have ruled over the night's sky for years now, and have never heard the term mentioned."

The Unicorn before her blinked once, then reached out with her magic to push her glasses back in place. "Ah, well, as you know, Clover the Clever first theorized that there were as many differences among the stars in your night's sky as there were among the ponies in Equestria."

The Queen gave a short nod to that, turning her attention back to the smaller mare.

"That theory led to the creation of the astronomer's guild by Greymane the Competent, who made great strides identifying the primary colors which we use to categorize the stars, yellow and blue among them," the studious one continued. "She drew up scrolls with theories which we are still working to prove true to this day. Only with recent advances in focal lenses combined with magic spells have we gained conclusive evidence that there is a difference in size between stars, for example."

"Will you get to the point already?" Nightmare Moon groaned, closing her right eye to peer down through only her left.

"A few of the scrolls speak of blue 'neutron' stars, being smaller than our own was up to now, my Queen," the Unicorn pointed out, taking a hesitant half-step back. "They warn that the rays from these stars may be as densely compacted as they are and could do great harm as they fall from the sky."

The Queen glanced sideways at her sister again, who now looked back with a wicked grin, and wondered at just how much the change had affected her. Celestia definitely did not appear to be seeing the danger, or appeared not to care.

"So now my sister has changed her bothersome sun into an even more dangerous one, has she?" Nightmare Moon asked, putting her attention on the unicorn mare again.

"Yes, my Queen," the mare agreed with a quick nod. "We are in grave danger, if Greymane's scrolls are any indication."

Nightmare Moon turned upon her sister by a few quick strides. "Change the sun back, Celestia," she demanded as her sister's pink eyes met hers.

"Darkstar," the other Alicorn returned with a small smirk, "and, alas, I cannot do that right now, sister."

The Queen lifted her left eyebrow and pressed her right eye closed again. "And why not?"

"Ah, well, as it turns out, changing the sun's color from yellow to blue takes far more energy than I had anticipated," Celestia coughed uneasily, scraping her left forehoof back over the carpet she stood on. "There was truly an immense push against the changes I was manifesting, forcing me to use more magic than expected to steer that away."

"What do you mean with 'a push', Celestia?" Nightmare Moon pressed, trying to understand what her sister was trying to get at.

"Darkstar, if you'd please, my dear sister," the recent transformee repeated. "As for the push I mentioned; it truly felt like an immense wave of energy coming from my sun as it shrank and changed color: A massive feedback pulse which took an equally large amount of magic to turn away from us. I am drained to the point where I doubt I have enough magic left in me to even open a door on my own."

Nightmare Moon blinked once, then brought her right hoof up to place at her temple and rubbed it around gently. "So, to reiterate; your sister, the Queen of this nation, to whom you claimed to be loyal, granted you the gift of transformation into a pony of the night, like her, and you repay her by placing a deadly object in what should be MY NIGHT'S SKY???"

Her sister looked unphazed at the Queen's outburst, answering the question with a curt nod. "That's about the gist of it, yes. Although I was not aiming for it to be dangerous so much as just fixing its radiance to be closer to that displayed by your moon, sister."

"If I may, my Queen," the Unicorn mare spoke up from behind Nightmare Moon, "according to the scrolls we have but a limited time before these heavy sunrays will fall down upon us. Time is of the essence if the populace is to have any chance to survive."

"What do you propose I do about it?" the Queen snapped. "The sun is my dimwitted sister Celestia's domain, not mine!"

"It's Darkstar now," her sister tried again, rolling her eyes.

"Ah, perhaps, if I may be forward, my Queen, you could position your beautiful moon in the direct path of these oncoming rays? Like a shield of sorts," the Unicorn suggested, her eyes wandering to the windows and the light shining in.

There was a moment of silence as both Alicorns considered the suggestion, but then Darkstar, formerly known as Celestia, grinned up.

"That sounds mad enough for it to work," she decided, taking a step closer to Nightmare Moon. "As advisor to the throne, I would suggest doing that immediately, dear sister of mine. Nothing better than a full eclipse, am I right?"

The Queen snorted at her sister's sudden forwardness, but took a few steps closer to the throne to look out the large windows in the wall behind it. The sun was still up on high, where it had been placed for the ceremony earlier in the day, and her moon was partly eclipsing it already. With her unchanged moon so close by it, it was easy to see the sun had clearly shrunk to almost half its size, but it was giving off a strong blueish-white light, brighter than Celestia's yellow sun before it.

The surface of her moon was as dark as she expected it to be, and Nightmare Moon gave it a slight nudge for it to slide further over the star behind it until it made a perfect eclipse. then locked it in place again.

The result was a pitchblack disc floating in the night's sky, with a bright blue aura surrounding it, and Nightmare Moon glanced back from it to stare at her sister's mane and tail, suddenly realizing what they represented: A full eclipse, rather than a black hole.

The unity of both sun and moon together, producing the effective eternal night the Queen had wanted to enact since she first manifested. The eclipse had darkened the world considerably, but the aura around her moon was somehow brighter than it had been before and illuminated the lands below to the point where it bathed in a dark blue twilight.

The Queen, and all lunar ponies with her, could still see perfectly fine in these conditions, and even the dayponies could grow accustomed to it without needing too many lamps.

With a smile forming on her lips, she approached her sister, who dipped her head down slightly to indicate her continued submission to her Queen, even after her earlier statements.

"Next time you wish to grant me a gift like this, 'Darkstar', I would appreciate you bringing it up in conversation first," Nightmare Moon spoke softly but sternly. "It would save me a headache or two dealing with the fallout."

"Yes, my Queen, I will do as you ask. Thank you for using my new name," Darkstar replied, bowing lower by letting her left foreleg slide forward while she bent her right.

"Is the danger averted, then?" the unicorn mare wondered, taking a careful step backward in the direction of the double doors. Her daypony pupils were spread wide open, unused to the new darkness around her, and she was clearly limited in what she could see.

"I expect the academy to keep me appraised of any further issues, but my moon will catch the majority of rays coming from my sister's sun," Nightmare Moon agreed, turning her gemstone eye upon the other while breaking into a smile. "You helped avert disaster today, what was your name again?"

The unicorn backed herself into the left of the double doors, then bowed her head forward in the general direction of the Queen and her advisor while Darkstar was rising up out of her own. "Sunlit Meadow, my Queen," she mumbled in reply, her voice barely audible and her ears drooping down.

"Ah," the Queen responded blankly, her smile fading again.

"May I go now, my Queen?" Sunlit asked meekly, looking up out of her lowered position.

Nightmare Moon gave a thoughtful nod to that. "Yes, Sunlit Meadow, you may. Thank you again for your help in this, I won't forget it."

As the Unicorn retreated out of the throne room with a haste that made the Queen realize the poor mare had been feeling more uncomfortable than she had let on, there was a sudden bump of a shoulder nudging her left flank.

"With a name like that, I'd have thought she would have enjoyed my new sun," Darkstar chuckled as her sister turned her attention back to her.

The Queen furrowed her brow at that. "These past few weeks have led me to reconsider such careless thoughts, sister."

"I know, I was there," the other Alicorn suggested with a return of the wicked grin she had shown before.

"No," Nightmare Moon sighed, realizing she could have done more damage to her sister's psyche than she had accounted for, "you weren't. Celestia would have cared."

Chapter 10

Nightmare Moon sat for hours in the hallway of the palace, opposite the royal physicians' practice, while the Unicorn doctors worked on the Pegasus stallion's eye inside. As time passed, more of the palace guards returned from their work outside, positioning themselves along the halls and corridors leading up to where their Queen was located, saluting her if they walked by.

The dark Alicorn mare barely noticed the odd mixture of day- and nightponies in their respective armors; lost in thought as she was. Swiftwing had brought up an interesting point during their conversation, something she knew happened, but which she had banished to the back of her mind when she started to manifest within Luna: Her subjects relied on her to keep their dreams safe.

Nightmare Moon had not looked upon the Dreamworld since she rose to power, the affairs of her nation and issues with the Elements of Harmony having kept her occupied, but now she sought it out again.

Her mind expanded into the realm of dreams, while her perception of the waking world faded. Sounds became hollow, an empty echo of what they truly were, then disappeared completely as they merged into a faint white noise. Her body felt more and more distant to her as her focus moved to the Dreamworld, until she could only barely feel it as more than a faint reminder.

When she opened her eyes anew, she stood on an empty plane with a thick, low fog around her hooves. The world around her was as dark as her night, with the exception being the utter lack of moon or stars. There was just enough light to see by, even if there was no clear source for it.

Nightmare Moon peered off in the horizon, slowly turning her head to the right until she managed to look past her flank behind her. She then turned her head in the other direction until she was sure she had seen all of the world around her.

"Nothing," she realized, turning to face forward again. "Absolutely empty."

When Luna had come to the Dreamworld before her, there had been rows and rows of large windows, creating an unending corridor from one horizon to the opposite end. Each of these allowed her to see into the dreams of other ponies and, if she wanted to, to step through into them.

Now there was nothing.

The dark mare felt her heart sink at the realization of what it could mean. After all, had Swiftwing not told her?

"I pray to Luna to keep me safe at night," he had told her.

Not her. Not Nightmare Moon.

"Nopony calls for a nightmare to save them from their pleasant dreams," she sighed dejectedly.

This was the reason she had not visited the Dreamworld after turning from Luna, she realized. Luna would have received the ponies' pleas for help in their dreams. Depending on their peril, these voices were soft whispers in the back of her mind, or shrill screeching which interrupted her normal affairs until she dealt with them.

Day and night these voices were there, pulling at her, their presence increasing or decreasing depending on how many ponies were resting at the same time across Equestria. It had been a fulltime job for her, next to her other Royal duties, but she had managed well enough with it.

All those voices praying, pleading, speaking to Luna, now fell on deaf ears.

Feeling abandoned yet again, as Luna before her, she allowed her consciousness to fall back into her body. Sitting still for the duration of her visit to the Dreamworld had made it feel cold and cramped. She slowly opened her eyes, then stood up to stretch, her wings extending outward and trembling as she was caught by a yawn mid-stretch.

As she sat back down again, the door opposite her opened up and one of the Royal Doctors walked out of their office. She took one short half-step to turn into the hallway, realized her Queen was right in front of her staring her in the face, and instead corrected herself to walk straight to Nightmare Moon.

The Unicorn mare's white horn glowed briefly as she used her magic to close the door behind her, then again as she pulled her protective mask down.

"It is done, my Queen," the doctor spoke with noticeable relief. "We had to use the best regenerative spells we know to regrow the patient's eye, but we managed to restore it to function."

Nightmare Moon dared to broach a smile at the news.

"There remains but one complication, my Queen," the unicorn mare continued, and the Queen's smile faded again.

"What would that be?" the Alicorn ruler asked curtly.

"The patient is refusing treatment where it concerns the scar tissue surrounding the otherwise mended eye," the doctor stated factually, her right ear turning backwards slightly.

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow at that. "Is it stopping him from using his eye?"

"No, my Queen," the other replied. "We made sure the eye socket was open and clean before we regenerated the eye."

"Then let him keep the scars," the Queen decided, her smile returning.

"As you wish, my Queen," the doctor accepted with a nod, pulling the protective mask up in front of her muzzle again. After a nod from her Queen, she turned back to the office and disappeared into it, leaving the door slightly ajar.

"N, E, Z, R," Nightmare Moon could hear Swiftwing recite from within the office, and she quickly realized he was being subjected to an eye exam for the doctors to find out if his restored eye was functioning properly or not.

"How's he doing?" the voice of the returned female doctor drifted out, and there was a lower male voice responding to her:

"Better than expected; the restored right eye has improved vision compared to the left."

"The Queen's orders are to leave the scar tissue in place," the unicorn mare spoke again. "He can go, unless there are other tests we need to do?"

"No, we have all the data we need," an androgynous third voice answered.

"I'll get off the chair then?" Swiftwing queried, and there was a soft squeak following a moment after. "Thanks, guys. You don't know how much this means to me."

"We're just doing our jobs. The Queen is waiting for you in the hall," the female unicorn's voice responded.

"I won't keep her waiting then," Swiftwing decided, and she could hear his hooffalls as he ran up to the door.

The white Pegasus stallion soon appeared before her, his dark blue mane still draped over his right eye. Seeing his Queen before him, he stopped a few paces before her, then dropped to a low bow with his head barely above ground.

"My Queen, I cannot thank you enough for your kind gesture to me," he spoke, his voice trembling as she watched water well up in his visible eye, and a teardrop soon escaping the shadow of his overhanging mane. "I am forever in your debt."

Nightmare Moon took a step to him, using her magic to gently lift the dark blue hairs away from Swiftwing's right eye so she could have a look at it. A moist orange pupil stared back at her, another tear escaping it, the clear scar leading from his forehead to his cheek cut in half by the healed eye.

"You were right to want to keep the scar," she decided, letting the hairs of the stallion's mane fall back in place. "It may not look pretty, but shows you are not to be trifled with."

"It is a reminder of my Queen's generosity," Swiftwing spoke, still looking straight at her.

"Maybe you could get a haircut to let others know?" the Queen suggested, then turned away from the stallion to walk in the direction of the courtyard again. "Let's walk, Swiftwing. I have a proposition to make."

The Pegasus struggled to his hooves, then hurried to his Queen's right side, looking up at her at a sideways angle. "As I said, my Queen; I am in your debt. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"I know I have a bad reputation; my reign has led to massive changes in the lives of everypony in Equestria and beyond," Nightmare Moon started. "There are a lot of ponies out there who don't trust me and pray to Luna instead, as you said you do as well."

"You would like me to pray to you instead?" Swiftwing asked.

"That would already help, yes," the Queen agreed. "I would also like to ask you to serve as my daypony ambassador. You are a Pegasus, so you move fast; you can travel between towns, explaining how Luna will not be coming back, and how they should change their focus to me, their Queen."

"I would be honoured to spread the word," the Pegasus responded eagerly.

"Nopony calls upon a nightmare to save them from their good dreams, but perhaps they can find a certain amount of rest in knowing their Queen is the Queen of nightmares as well," Nightmare Moon suggested. "I am a fair ruler; if they put their faith in me, I will delegate their nightmares to those more deserving of them, so my subjects may rest in peace."

She turned left at the end of the side hallway into the main corridors surrounding the courtyard, barely paying attention to the guards saluting her as she passed them by. Swiftwing followed, albeit at a slower pace, and the Queen paused to look back at him. He looked like he was thinking things over while putting one hoof in front of the other on automatic pilot more than anything.

"Voice your thoughts, Swiftwing," she commanded calmly, pulling him out of his trance.

"Ah, hm," he started, lowering his gaze. "I was thinking about how you worded that, my Queen. It... I'm not sure I can both praise your fair rule as well as lead others to believe you are to be feared."

"Find a way," Nightmare Moon stated simply. "I am burdened by my gemstone eye, but not so much so that I cannot be a fierce power if I need to be."

Swiftwing gave a silent nod to that. "I will find a way to spin it as you wish, my Queen."

The Queen turned away from him again and continued on her path until she came to another side corridor. She pointed at it with her left wing, turning her attention back to the other. "Down there are the Royal kitchens. Get the chef to prepare you some food for your journey."

The Pegasus gave another nod.

"If you need to rest, talk to captains Merryweather or Starstruck to assign you a bed in the barracks," she continued. "There is no need for you to return to the palace to give me the results of your campaign, unless you truly feel you need to be physically present; I will know the numbers by my connection to the Dreamworld. The more they pray to me, the more I can protect them while they sleep."

Swiftwing took the information in, then peered up at her with a questioning gaze. "But my job is that of ambassador?"

"Yes, I will have you written into the roster as Royal Daypony Ambassador. You may use that title during your travels," Nightmare Moon returned with a light smile. "Don't abuse it too much to get yourself better accomodation in the towns; we do get the bills sent to us."

"I will keep that in mind," the Pegasus chuckled weakly. "Is this farewell then, my Queen?"

"Yes," she agreed. "If you have any further questions, direct them to the captains at the barracks. They can lead you to the proper pony to answer your queries if they can't do so themselves."

Swiftwing turned to his Queen and fell into a low bow again, spreading his wings out to his side until they touched the floor as well. "Thank you, again, my Queen. I will start my work after a snack and a rest. You have been more generous than I could have hoped for, and you have my unending gratitude. I will pray to you from now on."

"Yes, yes," Nightmare Moon dismissed with a light snort. "Just keep out of trouble from now on and spread the word. The sooner the other dayponies join you in your reverence to me, the sooner Equestria will be a peaceful place again."

Swiftwing remained in his position on the floor, until she leaned in close and stared him straight in the eye. "That means go. Now, if you'd please."

The Pegasus quickly pushed up to a standing position again, folding his wings to his sides. "Yes, my Queen!" he exclaimed, then bolted in the direction of the Royal kitchens.

Nightmare Moon shook her head at him as she watched him track away from her, and sighed out to herself: "Dayponies..."

Chapter 11

With the immediate danger of the transformed sun out of the way, with Swiftwing as her daypony ambassador and Contrail as his nightpony counterpart, and with a marriage celebration on the other side of the country to look forward to, Nightmare Moon retreated to the Royal bedchambers where her sister Darkstar was supposedly waiting for her.

A pair of Nightguards were placed on either side of the door leading in the room formerly belonging to Celestia, in which Darkstar had now taken residence as proper successor to her sister. The Queen approached them, her large form casting a shadow over them as she passed a lit lamp hung on the opposite wall, and gave a quick nod at the closed door.

"How has my sister been, Cloverleaf?" she asked of the Lunar Earthpony to her left.

The guard's tufted ears perked up and her slitted silver eyes turned to face Nightmare Moon from the shadow of her own dark coat. It was dark enough to be mistaken for the same black which her Queen wore, but with a blue sheen to it.

"She's having her third dinner of the night," the young mare answered in a surprisingly raspy voice.

"Tonsils still acting up?" the Queen asked, turning her right eye upon Cloverleaf.

The mare gave a silent nod back.

"It's been three days now," Nightmare Moon spoke in clear worry, then caught herself and waved her left wing in the direction from which she had just arrived. "I won't have sick guardsponies; go visit the Royal doctors about it. I've only just come from there myself, so I know they are still awake."

Cloverleaf's ears fell as her Queen stared her down, even if it was with her gemstone eye, but then she grudgingly dropped her gaze. "Yes, my Queen," her raspy voice sounded again, before she moved away from her spot and started off in the direction of the staircase leading down.

"While you're there, get the kitchen to send another dinner up," the Alicorn Queen called after her. "My sister may have tried to empty the cupboards while I was otherwise occupied, but I have not had a meal myself since breakfast."

She turned her attention upon the other guard to her right. "You don't have any health issues remaining from your transformation, do you?"

The Unicorn guard shook his head. "No, my Queen. If anything, I have been feeling far more energetic than before You gave me Your Gift."

"It is good to know I have at least one competent guard in my palace," Nightmare Moon chuckled. "I shall see my sister now."

She opened the door to her sister's chambers and entered the darkness beyond. Her sister had no lamps lit, and the only light that was present was the natural light shining in through the windows.

Closing the door behind her again, effectively blocking the light from the hallway lamp, and her eyes quickly adjusted to the lighting conditions in the room. The Queen soon spotted her sister lounging on a set of cushions on the floor, a number of emptied plates and platters stacked around her.

"I see you have made quick of your dinners, Darkstar," Nightmare Moon offered casually.

"The transformation left me with a larger appetite than I had imagined, sister," Darkstar responded, peering up with her slitted pink eyes.

"May I join you?" the Queen asked, motioning to an empty spot on the floor near her sister. "I have ordered for my own dinner to be brought here, but would like the chance to discuss some things with you while I eat."

"By all means, sister, but you will have to levitate some cushions over yourself if you wish to sit comfortably. I'm afraid I am still recovering my magic," Darkstar suggested with a nod to the alcove in her room where she usually lounged near the window.

Nightmare Moon pulled some cushions out of the alcove, arranged them on the floor, and let herself sink down ob top of them so she was facing her sister on the same eye height.

"You could have avoided draining yourself by first bringing your plans to change your sun up in conversation," she chided softly. "Your Queen could then have made an informed decision based on her advisor's suggestion, instead of having to run damage control after the careless acts from said advisor."

Darkstar blinked her eyes as the words hit her addled mind, but then her ears and head fell lower.

"Yes, you are right, of course," she responded timidly. "The rush from my transformation was still raging through me and I just wanted to solve this issue which had kept Celestia and yourself occupied since she gave up her throne to you, my Queen."

"You forgot your place there and made me look the fool," Nightmare Moon stated flatly.

"Such was, truly, not my intent. I just..." Darkstar stopped and let out a long sigh. "No, no excuses. I gave you my loyalty and acted hastily nonetheless. I'll do my best to keep from doing so in the future."

"I do value you as an advisor, sister," the dark Queen told her now almost equally dark sibling, "but that is what I need you to limit yourself to. It undercuts my authority to have my advisor make huge alterations to my realm without first seeking permission to."

"Like Celestia did before me, yes I see," Darkstar agreed. "I apologize, sister. It won't happen again."

"See that it does not, sister, or you may force me to actions the likes of which my right eye can't behold," Nightmare Moon added as a warning.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between the two dark Alicorn sisters, before Nightmare Moon broke a smile.

"With that out of the way; how are you feeling, Darkstar? You are only the second of us Alicorns to have undergone the process, and mine was a far different affair than your own," the Queen pointed out. "Some of my children came down with illnesses after their change, while others said they felt much better than before. How do you experience your change?"

Darkstar perked up at the question, her ears flicking back upright from where they had lain in their low position and turning to her sister. A wicked grin grew on her face as she leaned in a little conspiratorially. "What is this, sister? Genuine interest in another pony's well-being?"

"Blame it on the gemstone eye, if you will," Nightmare Moon snorted. "I simply wish to know whether I should call for the Royal Doctors or leave you to your own devices and trust you will be healthy enough to advise me anew come the morrow?"

The venom faded from her sister's grin, leaving just the playfulness Nightmare Moon knew from her sister Celestia. It was almost comforting to see it back on Darkstar's face now.

"Apart from having to get back to strength after both the transformation of myself and my sun, I do not feel any negative effects that I can identify as such," the sisterly advisor answered merrily. "I will sit with you as your advisor tomorrow as I have in the past weeks, my Queen."

"Not even from your new Cutiemark, sister?" the Queen had to pry, looking past Darkstar at the Element of Loyalty jutting out slightly from the other's hip as part of her Cutiemark.

Darkstar gave a glance back herself. "No, although there is a definite tug at the skin as I walk, which I will have to get used to. Celestia did not have that problem."

"Your transformation has been a unique event in our lives," Nightmare Moon decided. "If you learn more about the significance of it, do let me know."

Darkstar gave a slow nod at her sister, the Queen. "I will certainly do so, sister. The biggest change with regards to the Element of Loyalty from Celestia to me seems to be that I feel it pulsate with energy as my heart beats. It is more a part of me now than when I still wore Celestia's face."

"It does grow on me as well," the Queen murmured in reply, mentally feeling out her eye while peering through it at her sister.

"Hm, perhaps I have not made it clear enough," Darkstar pondered with a frown. "I mean to say I am bonded to it. It is an integral part of me now, where it was more of a foreign object which had latched on to Celestia's insides prior to my transformation."

"That's what I am saying, is it not?" asked Nightmare Moon, closing her left eye properly so she was staring just out of her gemstone eye.

"If I am forgiven for mentioning it, but you still seem to be bothered by the duality of vision between your regular eye and your Element of Kindness, sister," the other remarked calmly. "One moment you are as strong as when Celestia first laid her eyes upon you; unforgiving, pushing your own agenda no matter the cost. The next you are the kindest, most gentle ruler Equestria could ever have hoped to have govern it. There's no middle way with you."

The Queen closed her right gemstone eye as well and let out a sigh. "I can trust my advisor, my own sister, to keep things to herself, can't I?"

"Of course," was the quick reply.

"I don't feel I have had much of a..." Nightmare Moon started, but stopped as there was a knock on the door. "What is it?"

"Your dinner, my Queen," the strong baritone voice of one of the cooks came as a reply, and Nightmare Moon opened her eyes to look in the direction of the door.

"Bring it in, then," she huffed, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

The door opened to shine the bright lamplight from the hallway into both Alicorns' eyes, and the shadow of the burly Unicorn stallion standing in the doorway was etched on Nightmare Moon's retina while she blinked rapidly to get her eyes to focus again.

"On the note of 'things that may be caused by my transformation', sister," Darkstar started with a chuckle, "there is this nasty issue with light sensitivity with these new eyes of mine."

"A thousand apologies, princ... er, miss advisor, and my Queen," the cook stumbled, using his magic to quickly levitate a collection of covered plates into the room. "Er, where do you wish me to put these, my Queen?"

Nightmare Moon unfolded her right wing and used it to off-sidedly point at the floor next to her. "Just put it on the floor, and then make yourself scarce."

"Yes, my Queen," the cook responded hurriedly, placing the dinnerplates down on the ground as instructed, and then rushing out of the room again.

"Get the door, will you?" Darkstar called after him, only to watch one of the two Lunar Unicorn guards close it instead. "Thanks for that."

"Light sensitivity, yes," Nightmare Moon sighed, her slit pupil opening itself again to the darkness. "My gemstone eye does not have that issue; I can see better with it than I do with my own eye."

"That is what I was talking about, actually," the other commented dryly. "You keep seeing that stone as a foreign object and it will just make it that much more difficult to get used to."

The Queen peered over the dishes set next to her and lifted the cover off one to reveal a highly decorated cake. "Has it ever occured to you I don't want to get used to it?"

Darkstar smirked at that response. "It is in your own best interest to accept it, sister. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your country. If the ponies under you can't be sure when you will be mad at them or kind to them, they will try to avoid you. Your Lunar children are still burning with desire to live up to your expectations, but you're quickly losing the respect from the dayponies."

"You changing your sun has not helped me there either," Nightmare Moon mumbled, moving the food closer to her. "Celestia kept saying I should keep the dayponies happy by giving them a few hours of sunlight, but that's impossible now."

"I will do my best to make up for that mistake, my Queen," Darkstar offered timidly. "As I said; your Lunar children are too eager to try to please you... myself included."

The Queen stopped paying attention to her food for the moment, the plate falling to the floor as her magic let go of it at the same time as a shudder went through her from head to tail.

"Something wrong with your food?" Darkstar queried, tilting her head slightly to the right.

"...my stars, that was a disturbing thought," Nightmare Moon breathed out, then set her eyes upon the other and frowned deeply. "I don't see you as my child, Darkstar. You have, and always will be, my sister. Can you please never suggest something like that again?"

The wickedness returned upon her sister's face, but she gave a nod nonetheless. "Sure, 'mom', I can play the role of sister to you from now on. Should I be the younger or old..."

Darkstar's question was interrupted by the cake suddenly launching itself off of its plate, sat on the ground between the two Alicorns, and smacking her right in the face.

Chapter 12

With bits of cake drooping off her face onto her chest, knees, and floor, Darkstar erupted in merry laughter which only helped to send more bits of cake falling down.

Nightmare Moon was far less obviously amused by the situation, sat opposite her sister in Darkstar's dark bedchambers. She used her magic to pull another plate of food from a collection on the floor to her right, and lifted the cover from it to reveal a plate of assorted vegetables laid out in a decorative manner.

The plate was quickly moved over her back to an empty space on her left, but the cover moved between the two Alicorn sisters, and the Queen used it to deftly shield herself from any pieces of cake flying her way.

As Nightmare Moon levitated a piece of celery from the plate to her left and moved it to her mouth, Darkstar was finally starting to show signs of calming down, and the former sun princess extended one of her, now dark wings to wipe the food from her eyes.

"It's not amusing in the least bit," Nightmare Moon huffed, then took a bite from the celery.

"Oh, phooey," Darkstar replied with a rogueish grin. "You're trying too hard to cling to your self-image from a half-finished transformation."

The Queen raised her right eye, and Darkstar saw it as a motion for her to continue.

"Luna fell to the darkness by way of Celestia taking to the limelight and casting a shadow over her, I get that," the recently-transformed mare suggested. "This led to your own transformation to becoming Nightmare Moon - borne to make Celestia rue the day and bring forth eternal night, true?"

Nightmare Moon swallowed her celery and gave a curt nod. "That is close to what happened, yes."

"And now you gave me the gift of being borne from Celestia to being Darkstar, your loyal advisor. And I am here to tell you; you are not done with your own transformation yet," Darkstar continued. "As I said before; your subjects are afraid of you now, but not in the way you want them to be. I get it now. Celestia only guessed at it, but I am one with the same darkness that you have within you."

"Do tell," Nightmare Moon remarked blankly, taking another bite out of her celery stick.

"You want them to respect you and your power over them. To think of you as their one-and-only true Queen, and to revere you as they did Celestia before," her sister explained. "You just need their undying loyalty, and I am the only one who can give you that without you second-guessing me. At least, I would think that that was the purpose of this gemstone merging with my being to this extent, sister?"

"I honestly did not expect that to happen," the Queen mumbled, "but I agree with you that it is easier for me to accept your loyalty as fact, than it is to do the same with the dayponies, or even my children."

"Celestia was already witness to the struggle which you have within yourself, Nightmare Moon," Darkstar revealed in a soft tone. "She tried to help you, but you would not listen to her because she tried to help from the viewpoint of her own agenda; keeping the day and night cycle mostly undisturbed."

"Yes, that agenda of hers was very obvious," Nightmare Moon decided. "Too obvious for my comfort. It is one of the reasons for my pushing her to accept the transformation."

"I am truly thankful for you to have given me this new life," her sister offered with a dip of her head forward, which made some leftover cake remains drop down. "I don't have the agenda Celestia had. I will do what I can to help you with yours instead."

"We can talk about that later," the Queen dismissed. "I am more interested in what you were talking about concerning my own 'unfinished' transformation."

"Yes, I am talking from my own experience here, even if I have only had a few hours since my transformation, so please bare with me," Darkstar started, looking difficult as she tried to figure out how to bring it. "Celestia was bothered by her own Element as you are by yours; a foreign object, lodged deep within her, refusing to be cut out of her by magic or otherwise."

Nightmare Moon stuffed her mouth with the remainder of her celery, but was clearly paying attention, so Darkstar continued.

"It was only after my transformation that I... well, I feel whole. It's not so much as if my body was invaded by something, but instead I am the Element of Loyalty as much as it is part of my body, and Cutiemark, now."

"Right," the Queen stated. "So you want me to merge with the Element that sits in place of my eye so I feel whole?"

"It may help you find the balance you need," Darkstar suggested calmly. "I mean, I don't want to keep seeing you struggle, sister. I am in this to help you any way I can. The sooner you realize this, the better I can help you rule this nation as you see fit."

Nightmare Moon looked away from her sister for the moment, attempting to make it look like she was simply trying to pick out another piece of vegetable to lift from the plate to her left. The conversation was wholly unsettling her. The last thing she wanted was to be fully at the mercy of that gemstone's influence, but her sister was right about her struggle causing moodswings no pony could be expected to anticipate.

She had seen it herself, even if she had tried to ignore it. The assault on Contrail, followed by her almost adopting her as her ward. The changing mannerisms while in conversation with others, like with her new Pegasus embassador Swiftwing.

One moment she was happy, the next she had a barely-withheld anger boiling just under the surface. It was difficult to keep her demeanor at times.

And here she sat, with her sister, who had willingly consented to becoming like her. To be one with the darkness, and by total accident also with the Element of Loyalty. Celestia's loyalty to her sister had continued in Darkstar, although how much of it was the gemstone's influence and how much had already been there was unclear.

"I might lose myself," Nightmare Moon whispered, looking sideways at her sister, "again."

"You might find yourself, sister," Darkstar whispered back, her smile now void of jokes; it was only genuine concern that the Queen saw through her pink right eye.

"You're trying to entrap me, I'm sure," the Queen mumbled slightly louder. "What good is kindness to a Nightmare?"

"The best lessons are learned through overcoming adversity," Darkstar stated calmly. "Your ponies will appreciate a little kindness after fighting off their inner demons."

There was something Nightmare Moon had not thought about yet, but now she had an ambassador flying around trying to get ponies to pray to her so she may visit them in their dreams again, it was something she truly needed to wrap her head around.

She closed her eyes again and let it roll around in her mind. Ponies learning lessons through fighting off demons within their nightmares, with their Queen as a kind ruler to fall back upon if those demons ended up being too strong for them? Knowing how Celestia took the hearts of the dayponies by taking credit for fighting off Discord, Nightmare Moon could see the wisdom in Darkstar's suggestion.

"Yes," she decided, trying to push away the feeling of dread that was trying to overtake her. "I can see how that might work."

Darkstar was still looking straight at her as the Queen opened her eyes and turned to face her properly, not a hint of an ulterior motive present in her expression.

"They might come to appreciate the nightmares," Nightmare Moon mused.

"Whatever you decide to do, sister, I will be here to help you," Darkstar stated again, dipping her head a little lower than that of her sister, the Queen.

"I need to sleep on this first," Nightmare Moon sighed, then glanced over the food strewn around the room. "I may have lost my appetite."

"I've had three meals before you joined me, sister," Darkstar chuckled. "I might pop if I tried eating even the cake crumbs still stuck to my muzzle."

"You should really clean yourself," her sister remarked.

"I don't have any magic to clean myself with," the cake-smeared one rebutted, "or I would have done so moments after you sent that cake flying into me."

Nightmare Moon broke a smile and reached out with her magic to grab one of the towels laid out on the dresser, next to a bowl and water jug. She poured a little water out from the jug into the bowl, dipped a corner of the towel in the latter, and then brought it over to her sister's face.

"You must have been imagining things," the Queen replied calmly, starting to dab at her sister's sticky fur with the damp cloth. "Obviously there was a third pony in the room with us, who was responsible for the attack upon your person."

"My Queen, your advisor wishes to advise you not to try leading her astray with falsehoods; she knows full well what happened," Darkstar tried, wriggling her nose as the towel tickled against it.

"Your Queen wishes to give you the choice of having your muzzle cleaned in silence, accepting she did not launch the attack upon you, or going to bed with a sticky snout," Nightmare Moon jabbed back.

"Okay, you win," Darkstar gave in with a smile. "It was obviously that cook who brought the food up in the first place. Maybe you should throw him in the dungeons?"

"Obviously the cook," Nightmare Moon agreed, breaking into a smile herself. "I might go after him in his dreams tonight. Now, sit still or I'll leave for my own chambers."

"Yes, my Queen, I'll do anything you ask," her magic-deprived sister replied merrily while the Queen continued to clean the remains of cake and frosting off her face.

The two sisters sat together for some time after, making idle talk between them and avoiding the earlier conversation topics like the plague. Nightmare Moon had needed someone like Darkstar to bond with again like Luna had with Celestia before her.

Celestia had stood no chance to do so with Nightmare Moon; she was still trying to get Luna back, while running her own agenda on the sidelines - contrary to her stating she was loyal to the new Queen.

The Queen kept returning to the thought on how much Celestia must have struggled with her own Element of Harmony, just as she was struggling with hers. If Darkstar had now truly merged with, and found peace within the Element of Loyalty... maybe Nightmare Moon could give the Element of Kindness a chance to become a true part of her as well?

There was something exciting to the prospect of being a kind ruler over everypony's Nightmares. Somepony to look up to, to run toward, to seek shelter with. She could show her subjects the strength she had within herself while helping them to fight off their inner demons.

Before leaving Darkstar's room, the Queen helped her sister into bed and tucked her in, something which the both of them had always done with their magic. Earthponies and Pegasi learned to do without since they never had it in the first place, but for a Unicorn or Alicorn, magic was just part of their daily routine: Being without, even for a short time, was like having to miss one's leg. It truly debilitated them.

Nightmare Moon stood in the doorway looking into the room where her sister had fallen asleep and slowly closed the door on her. The guards had changed since she had gone in, and there were two daypony guards now. There were internal questions that needed to be answered before their Queen could properly deal with them, so she instead turned away from them and made for her own bedroom.

Her bed, and the Dreamworld, were waiting for her.

Chapter 13

Swiftwing stood before the throne of his ruler, forelegs bent and head dipped low, listening to Celestia orate about his accomplishments. His heart soared in his chest as the Princess lauded him for having done great jobs in service to Equestria, even if the words themselves disappeared from his mind the moment after he had heard them spoken.

"..and for this, we grant you the medal of accomplishment," Celestia spoke, levitating a medal dangling from a decorated sash over his head.

Darkness fell over the throne room, and all voices hushed. The medal clattered upon the ground as Celestia's magic let go of it.

A loud crash caused Swiftwing to look up as well, just in time to see part of the ceiling come down and smash onto half the gathered ponies stood in the room with him. Their bodies exploded in a cloud of small stars drifting up to the new hole in the ceiling, around a dark figure descending through it.

"Your sunlit reign of merriment is over, Celestia," cried the dark shape of Nightmare Moon in a wicked voice as she charged her horn with black magic, her voice dripping venom.

"Not today, Nightmare Moon," exclaimed Celestia in turn, charging her own horn and meeting the blast of magic erupting from the black interloper halfway between them.

Sparks of magic flew through the room as the two Alicorns did battle, with Swiftwing rushing from one end to the other trying to find safety, and a few small foals with him.

Just when it seemed Celestia may gain the upper hand in the fight, Nightmare Moon hit her with a full blast in her flank, and the white princess of the sun fell to the ground. Nightmare Moon stood victorious over the corpse of the other Alicorn, throwing her head back while letting out an evil laugh that chilled Swiftwing to his core.

The foals had mostly gathered behind him, in a corner of the room, and he had his wings extended so as to shield them from the sad sight before them. Backing away to their corner, the metal medal around his neck scraped over the ground, drawing attention from the evil one.

"What is this?" she demanded, her eyes focusing on the medal. "Celestia's hero come to save the souls of those tasty foals behind him?"

"I may not have magic, but I will defend Equestria and its residents to the best of my abilities," Swiftwing spat back in defiance.

Nightmare Moon's horn charged and she sent a blast of energy his way, but Swiftwing somehow managed to deflect it with his wings, leaving scorchmarks on his feathers.

"You have no chance," Nightmare Moon decided, starting to walk to him at a slow pace. "Give up now, little colt. I will eat your soul regardless."

"I will never give up," Swiftwing stated, backing up until he felt the foals' heat behind him.

Another blast of magic singed his feathers again, but he stood his ground even as the large figure of Nightmare Moon towered over him.

She charged her horn again and he prepared to deflect it anew, ready to give his last breath to defend even the small group of nameless foals behind him, when the double doors to the throne room burst open with a loud crash!

The shadowy figure of Nightmare Moon appeared in the doorway, her right eyebrow raised over her pink gemstone eye.

Both Swiftwing and the other Nightmare Moon peered over at her, while the new arrival turned her head to look over the scene she had just entered.

"What sorcery is this?" the Nightmare Moon closest to Swiftwing demanded.

Recognition flashed over Swiftwing's face, and he bent his legs to fall into a bow to the newly arrived Nightmare Moon. "My Queen," he spoke with barely withheld admiration.

The Queen, as she was, put her focus on Swiftwing for barely a moment, then strode up to the other Nightmare Moon and frowned at her. "Be gone."

"What is the meaning of thi..." the evil mare started, but quickly faded away into nothingness.

The remaining Nightmare Moon put her focus back on Swiftwing and lifted his head with a hoof under his chin. "Is this how you repay my kindness, Swiftwing? By dreaming of me in this fashion?"

Swiftwing stared up at the mismatched eyes of his Queen, shaking his head as much as her hoof allowed him to. "I did not mean to, my Queen, truly!"

"What's this?" his Queen wondered, spotting the medal dangling from his neck and reading the text etched in it. "Celestia's Medal of Accomplishment?"

Swiftwing looked away from her with growing shame. "I... dreamt of Celestia granting me this, before the interruption by your... other, my Queen."

"Well, you are a daypony," Nightmare Moon snorted. "I don't know what I was expecting."

Swiftwing's gaze fell to the ground as he continued to look away.

"Let's clean this nightmare up, shall we?" his Queen suggested, and a flash of dark magic followed to disintegrate everything around the both of them. Swiftwing found himself standing on a floor which had no substance for but the briefest of moments before the throne room returned around them, the thrones set up to accomodate his Queen, Nightmare Moon, and her advisor, Darkstar, now.

Nightmare Moon gave a glance around with a growing smile upon her face. "This is much better, don't you think?"

Swiftwing could but nod in response, finding the medal having disappeared as well. "Yes, my Queen."

"Truly, you should not think of me in that way any more, if you can help it," the Queen continued, walking away from him toward the center of the room.

Swiftwing gave a glance behind him at where the scared foals had been huddled up in the corner moments before, only to find them having disappeared as well.

"It was not my intention," he mumbled in his defense.

"How can I convince you that I am not the evil thing you saw me as just now, if not by restoring your eyesight in the waking world?" Nightmare Moon asked, using her magic to put a table filled with assorted treats in the center of the room. "This is but a dream, so I can throw a banquet in your honour," she continued as a pile of assorted medals rose up beside her, "or shower you in medals."

Swiftwing stood and stared at it in confusion and awe, but then looked down at his forehooves. "I think it is just some getting used to, my Queen. Your reign has only just begun, and it has struck us with fear and confusion due to the changes you made. It is difficult to get over that, even if I am forever grateful for your aid in restoring my sight again."

Nightmare Moon gave a slow nod to his words. "Time, then," she realized. "I shall come visit you in your dreams from time to time, as long as you keep praying to me. It is important that you realize I am not out here to hurt you; I am here to show you it is in your best interest to stay loyal to me."

"Yes, my Queen," Swiftwing answered timidly.

"The realm of nightmares is my domain; I shape them at will," the Queen continued. "As long as you remain loyal, I will help you overcome the adversities present in them. If ever you forsake me, you are on your own."

Swiftwing thought it over for a moment; could he have really defeated the dream-Nightmare Moon on his own? Most likely not. "Will it be like this every time you come to my aid, my Queen?"

"No, I may adopt other ways to help, such as giving you escape routes or objects to defend yourself with. I may just be a whisper in your ear, giving you advice," Nightmare Moon answered calmly, walking up to him. "Or, I might do this," she stated, suddenly slamming her right forehoof into his forehead!

Swiftwing woke up screaming in agony in the royal barracks, reaching for his forehead as if something had impacted with it! His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was bathing in cold sweat from the nightmare he'd woken from. Several of the guardsponies around him were giving him curious glances, and Captain Merryweather came walking up to the bed she had assigned him to.

"Everything alright there?" she asked, setting her slitted pupils upon him.

"Ah," Swiftwing started, letting himself fall back onto the wet mattress. "Just a nightmare. I'll... I'll be fine."

"You want some water?" Merryweather pressed.

"No, no," the Pegasus stallion started, then smiled to himself. "Our Queen already gave me all that I needed."

A soft murmur went through the barracks, but a stern glance from Merryweather made it stop as quickly as it had started.

"Can you explain that, Swiftwing?" she asked of him.

Swiftwing looked over at her. "Pray to Her and She will protect you in your nightmares," he spoke like a true convert. "Like Luna did for us in our dreams, our Queen Nightmare Moon will guard our nightmares."

Merryweather smiled up at the thought. "I never thought about it that way, but it feels right."

"I may not be a night pony like yourself," the Pegasus stallion started, "but I am forever in Her debt. Trust me; pray to Her instead of Luna and your nightmares are no longer a thing to fear."

Chapter 14

The dark night passed into the twilit day, and Nightmare Moon watched as her sibling Darkstar recovered from the energy drain little by little.

She half suspected her moon to be the reason; as Celestia before her, Darkstar drew her power from the connection with her sun. With the moon now blocking the majority of sunrays, due to their apparent harmful nature, Darkstar was recharging herself at a snail's pace compared to Celestia during her reign.

The Queen kept both of their schedules clear for the day, both to let her sister get her magic back as well as to ponder the words spoken to her the day previous.

That gem of hers had been both a blessing and a curse at the same time. She had been fighting its influence since it took her eye, but she could see how her subjects responded to her when she acted nice to them.

They worked harder at their jobs, stood more proudly, and came to her more eagerly than when she scoffed at them and tried to be the Dark Queen she thought she should be.

Nightmare Moon could see the benefits to being kind once in a while, but the question was how much of a choice the Element of Kindness would give her once they fully bonded.

She felt very much against the idea of becoming a pushover, just being nice to everypony until another Celestia would rise up to throw her in a dungeon to be forgotten about...

The idea was ridiculous, and Nightmare Moon knew this, but she could not shake the fear regardless.

Darkstar did not bring it up all day, perhaps noticing the difficulty her Queen had with it, focusing instead on their travel arrangements for the upcoming trip to the wedding party out East.

Her sister commanded the various ponies with a sharpness that made Nightmare Moon jealous; unburdened by the Element of Kindness, Darkstar had no qualms with threatening them if they did not do their jobs quick- or well-enough to her liking.

With her sister's power slowly returning to her, these threats were increasingly within the realm of possibility, and Nightmare Moon took notice of the changing attitudes of those her sister spoke with.

At first they took them as harmless, returning jokes while they tried to follow Darkstar's instructions mainly from leftover loyalty or her position as adivisor and sister to their Queen. They barely gave these early commands a second thought, Darkstar's powers an unknown factor to them.

Once her magic started to return to her, so too did a dark aura surround her. Barely noticeable to start with, it slowly but surely diminished the intensity of the light in her immediate surroundings. The more energy returned to her, the sharper the contrast became as if she was becoming a black hole herself.

Ponies quickly took note of this change, and Nightmare Moon watched them slow their approach to her sister, back away that much faster, and their discomfort in Darkstar's presence grow noticeably as the day continued on.

As night fell again, Darkstar excused herself to return to her bedchambers, leaving Nightmare Moon to her own thoughts in the throne room.

Not an hour passed before the double doors opened again, and one of her Nightguard entered the room. Approaching the throne, Nightmare Moon recognized the Lunar Earthpony mare from her spotted grey coat and sharp amber eyes.

She waited for the guard to stop in front of the lowermost step to her throne, then spoke as she dipped her helmeted head down.

"What do you need, Steelmane?" the Queen asked of her guard.

"My Queen, there are worrying reports coming in from the East;" the mare started while turning her head up again to look straight at her Matriarch, "the Timberwolves have been moving ever closer to the townships there. There have already been reports from trade caravans and messengers who narrowly escaped attacks while out on the roads there."

"Is there any indication as to why the Timberwolves are on the move?" Nightmare Moon wondered, and caught the guard glancing quickly at her sister's empty throne before returning her attention to the Queen.

"The best guess we have right now is that it is caused by the recent change to the sun and the intensity of the light which it now emits during the day, my Queen," Steelmane suggested. "They have always been more active during Your nights, and the day has been darker than it has ever been before."

"Will it cause problems for our planned excursion to the Eastern cities?" came the expected question. "Please tell me we have enough competent guards to keep the roads safe?"

The mare pulled away a bit, her tufted ears turning back. "Actually, we are spread out more each day. We could really use more recruits to plug the gaps in our border defense especially."

Nightmare Moon stared blankly at the guard. "Why have you not come to me sooner?" she started. "I had no idea the state of my army was this dismal."

"We did send reports to the palace, my Queen," Steelmane replied meekly. "When nothing changed, I was sent here in an attempt to find out if any help was forthcoming at all. Especially since the sun changed and all..."

The Queen sighed out with withheld anger. "The lack of communication must have been my sister's doing. I will have to confront her about this."

"My Queen?" the mare inquired cautiously.

"Help will be on its way shortly. On your way out, tell the guards in the hall that I wish to see my captains before me within the hour," Nightmare Moon decided, turning her head away from Steelmane in order to peer out through one of the windows.

The mare took the hint and backed off from the throne, leaving through the set of double doors a moment after.

Peering at the sky outside, the Queen idly wondered just what state her kingdom was in. How much had Celestia managed to hide from her? She would have to ensure her guards were still loyal, and seek out her sister's pawns with their help.

The fact Darkstar had failed to come clean about Celestia's underhanded practices were a point of concern. How much could she trust one who worked in secrecy, even while having the Element of Loyalty embedded in them?

Just how much power did that gemstone have over her sibling, if Celestia (and Darkstar) managed to move against her regardless?

Chapter 15

Not a week after learning of the Timberwolf-threat on the roads, Nightmare Moon herself had taken to them; complete with four squads of guards, carts full of necessities, and her sister.

One squad was leading the caravan, with a pair of scouts just out of sight ahead of them, while another was protecting the rear, with both groups covering the sides as well.

While these squads had been with the large caravan of ponies since they left the palace at high noon, and had made sure to keep the crowds at bay as they passed through the nearby town, the other two squads had only joined them after they had left the town behind. Captains Merryweather and Starstruck had to be with the main two groups, of course, leaving the other groups in control of their secondants Evergreen and Starlit Meadow.

All in there were sixteen dayponies and an equal number of nightponies in the group, part of the Queen's continuing attempts to sway the remaining dayponies to her side by showing their kind in prominent positions. They were soon divided over resting carts and active guard duty, following the duty roster Merryweather had set up ahead of time, ensuring there was a squad of freshly rested ponies at all times.

The idea was to keep the caravan going day-and-night, at a reasonable pace, cutting the journey by road down from two weeks to a single one. Had they all been able to fly, taking the weight of the luggage into account, it would still have taken them three-to-four days at best.

The first two days were fairly uneventful, up to the evening of the second day. Nightmare Moon sat in the second cart, a cart with sleeping guards in front and behind her, with her sister two carts behind. All was peaceful, and the Queen was going over some written reports on scrolls which she levitated in front of her, making notes to a scribe seated in the car with her where required.

The caravan stopped moving forward without warning, causing the scribe to leave a nasty inkstain on the scroll they were using, and Nightmare Moon peered up ahead. One of the forward scouts had returned and was standing in front of the caravan, talking with the other guards standing around them in a small group.

The sound of fast hoofbeats passing by the left side of her cart came to her ears, and Starstruck's form was soon seen as he gallopped over to the front to find out what was going on. Starlit Meadow, in turn, poked her head out of the canvas covering the frontmost cart, ears perked up. The daypony captain and her squad had only just turned in for the night, the Queen knew, having switched with Starstruck's group who were taking the current lead.

The Queen just waited in her cart, knowing she would be informed in case the news was important enough for her to hear. With the caravan's motion ceased, she expected to be filled in about the reason before too long and sent her scribe away. The reports would have to wait until this was handled - whatever it was.

Another captain ran past her cart; Merryweather, of course. The former daypony had quickly risen to surpass even Starstruck in the amount of respect both day-and-night ponies gave her, with the other captains supporting her on most of her decisions. Starstruck himself had, not unlike his name, fallen for Merryweather. Her bodily change to a nightpony had sparked something within the other captain, and Nightmare Moon was waiting for the day they would both come to her to ask for permission to wed.

Merryweather's group was pulling the rear tonight, having taken over from Evergreen and his squadron of dayponies who had been in their position all day.

As expected, Merryweather quickly broke up the group in front, almost ordered Starstruck to get a defensive perimeter set around the caravan, and motioned for the returned scout to follow her to their Queen's cart. At the orders, Starlit Meadow disappeared back in her cart, only for her voice to ring out as she roused the sleeping guards in it.

Nightmare Moon stepped out of her own cart and took position to its left, letting her eyes wander over the grassy hills continuing on to the horizon. There was a large mountain which broke the monotony, and she idly pondered how far she could see from the top of it. Her eyes soon wandered lower, to the two guards approaching her.

"Why did we stop, Merryweather?" she demanded before the Earthpony captain could speak, taking the initiative.

Merryweather dipped her head down slightly, as a sign of respect, the scout beside her dipping his head deeper down. The daypony Pegasus was dressed in leather armor, equipped for speed, and a bottle of water was stuck by a strap to his side, tucked under a wing. There was a crack in it, and little droplets of water were leaking out of it to drip down along the stallion's leg.

"My Queen," Merryweather started, straightening her neck again, "Fleethoof here came back with disturbing reports; instead of the expected Timberwolves, they encountered a group of ponies who were themselves violent and attempted to kidnap them. Fleethoof himself only made a narrow escape thanks to his speed, but another of your scouts has been taken hostage."

Nightmare Moon felt the need to close her gemstone eye, trying to keep it from interfering with her rising rage at the report. "One of our Royal Guards, taken hostage?" she repeated incredulously.

"Yes, my Queen," Merryweather acknowledged with a hard glance in her eyes. "A grave insult to You, and us; Your guards. I would like Your permission to take a squad out to ensure they understand their mistake."

"Two squads," Nightmare Moon hissed through clenched teeth. "Find them, retrieve my scout, and take them before me. Make sure they breathe."

Merryweather gave a curt nod. "Yes, my Queen. I will see to it." She turned to the scout. "With me, Fleethoof. We need you to lead the way."

Nightmare Moon watched both ponies run off to the back of the caravan, knowing just the group Merryweather wanted to take along beside her own; Evergreen had the strongest group of dayponies under his command, and they matched Merryweather's band of nightponies in their undying loyalty to the crown. Where Starstruck was bound to her by duty and Starlit Meadow by her desire to protect the remaining dayponies by serving in the guard, both Merryweather and Evergreen had a fire which burned in their hearts like Celestia's sun had in the sky.

These two captains had found each other even before Merryweather's change into a nightpony, and set up team-based challenges for their respective squads. They pushed their ponies to catch the other group off-guard to the benefit of all, and were pulling pranks on each other in the barracks which even made their way up the grapevine to reach their Queen's ears.

They were competitive, rowdy, and would be perfect for catching a rogue group of ponies who clearly had not learned from Discord's defeat.

Nightmare Moon walked away from her cart and to that which held her sister Darkstar, watching as she stuck her head out into the fading light of her blue star to see what was going on.

"Sister," the Queen spoke as she drew near, motioning to a spot before her. Darkstar rolled her eyes at the motion, but climbed out of her cart to join Nightmare Moon out on the road. The current monarch waited for her sibling to stand before her, and then more until Darkstar reluctantly dipped her head down slightly.

"Have you heard?" Nightmare Moon asked calmly, but made it a point to keep her gemstone eye closed.

"Have I heard what, sister?" Darkstar asked in return, as two squads of guards rushed forward to do as Merryweather had been commanded to. On the other side of the cart, Starlit Meadow's group rushed back to set up defense at the rear in the others' absence.

"There seems to be a group of rebellious ponies up ahead who not only attacked our scouts, but have even had the gall to take one hostage," the Queen informed her sibling. "And here I thought Timberwolves were going to be the only issue we were going to have to resolve on our trip."

"Timberwolves?" Darkstar feigned innocence. "They have not been seen outside of the forests for decades. Why would they chance to attack a group as large as ours?"

"Reports claim they have grown more bold by the day, possibly aided by your sun's new light," Nightmare Moon explained calmly, still keeping her gemstone eye closed. "I was expecting to have to chase them back into the woods once we reached our guards stationed further up the road, but we are held up a full day before we should have reached them."

"Then, clearly, the Timberwolves can not be the cause of these ponies' poor decision to attack our Royal Guards, sister," Darkstar reasoned. "Does it anger you that they have resorted to this?"

There was a slow nod from the ruling sibling to her advisor. "Very. If not for the Element in my eye, I would have rushed out to make quick work of these ruffians myself," she agreed.

"And you are keeping your eye closed because it protests your emotional state?" Darkstar inquired with a slight tilt of her head.

"I found it helps me focus on my anger when I don't see the world in a pink hue," the Queen spoke flatly. "I am still unsure if I will ever do as you suggested; bond with it on a level where it becomes even more an integral part of me as it already is."

"It may shift from its position if you give in to it, allowing you to see the world in its proper splendour," the other coughed softly. "You look like somepony poked your eye out right now. It's not the most becoming of facial expressions."

Nightmare Moon's expression fell flat as she peered at her sibling with her only true eye. "Somepony did poke my eye out; when we fought over the Elements together."

"That's untrue," Darkstar started to protest, but then shook her head and let it fall down a little. "Pardon me, sister."

"No, no... keep talking," the Queen chuckled with an evil grin. "It's helping to raise my anger to the point where not even the Element of Kindness can block it spilling out. I'll need that if I am to teach those criminals to better their ways once they arrive."

"You ordered them to be brought back?" Darkstar realized, then looked past the Queen to the front. "Merryweather and Evergreen... ah, I see."

"They would not suffer them to live had I not," her sister commented flatly.

"They are... adorable," Darkstar grinned. "They truly embody the ferociousness you try to show others."

"Hmm, better than I am allowed to right now, yes," Nightmare Moon agreed. "We need to find out what is making these ponies resort to these acts. If this is indicative of a systemic issue, it could lead to a rebellion."

"Which neither of us can afford right now," the other sister mused.

"What was that, my advisor?" the Queen requested immediately.

"Ah, well, if there were a successful rebellion, there's no Celestia for them to put back on the throne; they would object to my rule as much as your own," Darkstar quickly explained. "You know I am loyal to you, my sister; more so than Celestia before me. Have I not revealed the games put in play by my predecessor?"

"Only when asked for directly," came the grumbled response. "You could be more forward with your information."

"I will endeavour to do so in the future," Darkstar promised with a smile.

"Why don't I believe you?" Nightmare Moon sighed, turning away from her to look ahead along the road. "I came to you for a question, Darkstar."

"I can't undo Celestia's agenda as quick as you want me to; some ponies she had contact with are out of my reach," her sister mumbled behind the Queen. "What was your question, my Queen?"

"Knowing our darkness, you have no qualms with causing damage to our subjects if it is needed, true?" came the question without the Queen turning to face her sibling again.

"Correct," Darkstar agreed, taking a few steps to her sister's side and looking at her at an angle. "That's a rather specific question."

"I can't have a rebellion. There's a wedding to go to," Nightmare Moon returned, looking back at Darkstar.

"You want a contingency," the other stated.

"I need them to disappear if it is necessary," the Queen clarified.

"To any particular location," Darkstar asked amusedly, "or just gone?"

"I don't care," Nightmare Moon sighed. "Discord's chaos dimension, the firey pits in the dragonlands, or out of existence. As long as they don't bother us anymore."

"You don't trust yourself with it. I hope I can earn your trust back by doing this," Darkstar stated. "If you say the word I will dispose of them."

"Thank you," Nightmare Moon returned to her, giving a wry smile. "Let's get dressed before our guards return with the criminals. If we can get them to change their ways without violence, perhaps my eye won't bother me as much tonight."

The Queen had a space cleared in the grass near to the carts, with the carts moved in a semi-circle around it. The small wooden throne she had taken along on one of the carts was offloaded and placed within this semi-circle, and a regular seat for her advisor set beside it. While her servants were preparing this impromptu outdoors throneroom for her, Nightmare Moon put her shoes and chestguard on, then lifted her helmet before her with her magic.

"Needlepoint, can you get me a cover for my right eye? Fasten it on the inside of my helmet," she told her tailor, levitating the helmet over to the Night-Unicorn in her employ. As the other rushed off to the supply carts to get materials, her Queen's helmet drifting after her by the Unicorn's own magic, Darkstar came up to the side of the Queen's cart.

"You should have gotten one made before we left the palace, sister," she helpfully remarked.

"An oversight, is all," Nightmare Moon snorted. "You may have noticed I rarely wore my helmet save for during the few ceremonies we've held."

"Very few they were, too," her sister chuckled weakly.

"I should have a muzzle made for you, while Stripe Gear is at it," the Queen mused.

"Woe would be the advisor to sit muzzled by the side of their monarch," Darkstar chuckled. "Or would you have me be the executioner after tonight?"

"That depends on how things play out," Nightmare Moon sighed. "I'd rather not think of it right now; my stomach turns from what I feel should be done, but which my eye protests against."

"Yeah, best not give in to it right now, sister of mine; I am kind of looking forward to it," her sister warned.

Nightmare Moon climbed out of her cart, then started to walk on over to the throne. "You're not helping."

"I'm just saying I am buzzing with desire to do something unspeakable tonight," Darkstar chuckled, following two steps behind.

The pair took their respective seats, and sat in silence until the royal tailor returned with the modified helmet; having added a piece of curved sheetmetal which was welded to the inside of the existing helmet and cut to smoothly connect both ends of the hole it covered. It made the helmet cover most of the Queen's right side now, but did hide her gemstone eye from sight altogether.

Spotting a large group of ponies approach the camp, Nightmare Moon shooed her tailor away and straightened her back.

Merryweather and Evergreen had returned, their two squads closely encircling a smaller group of five ponies who looked to have been beaten in submission. Off on the side, a few paces away from the captured ponies, were the two scouts; Fleethoof supporting the pony who had been captured as they limped on, their left foreleg held up as if they could not stand on it.

The scouts broke off from the main group as the royal doctors came rushing up to them, while Merryweather took the lead in taking the captives before her Queen. They were positioned in a single row before her throne, with Evergreen's squad forming a wall of mean-looking dayponies behind them to keep them from running, while Merryweather's nightponies spread out to give their Queen a proper view of them while standing in front of them as a protective barrier.

"Bow before your Queen," Merryweather barked, and four out of five fell down to the ground in complete submission. The fifth, a white Earthpony mare with a fiery red mane, remained standing defiantly.

"She's not my queen," she stated, red eyes staring up at Nightmare Moon with nothing but hatred burning in them.

"Sunmane, bow down already," hissed the blue stallion to her right from under his green bushy mane, looking up at her from a corner of his eye.

"Sunmane," Nightmare Moon pondered. "With a name like that, I take it you are still loyal to my sister Celestia?"

"I couldn't care less about you pony royals," Sunmane scoffed. "My Queen will rule your lands soon enough."

There was a look of shock going over the guards, and even Nightmare Moon had to do a doubletake on that response.

"Your queen?" she inquired, rising up from her throne to stand to her full height. "I am your Queen! Celestia surrendered to me, not to anypony else. Pray tell who has the gall to call themselves a queen in defiance to my rule!?"

A flash of green washed over 'Sunmane', and the white Earthpony disappeared to make place for a creature of grey and blue, with green chitin plating on its back and a pair of insectwings which made a low buzzing sound as they moved. It threw its head back and laughed evilly, baring its fangs.

"Hahaha! You ponies will fall to the might of my siblings, who surround you even now," they orated, pointing a hoof which was marred with unsightly holes around to the treeline on the other side of the road from the meadow. "Once we take down your pony 'queen', we will take over these lands in name of Queen Chrysalis, ruler of all Changelings!"

Chapter 16

Nightmare Moon stood staring at the smaller grey insectoid in their midst, the Changeling having revealed themselves to their captors moments before. The other four captives were still ponies, and had expressions of shock on their faces - the closest to the Changeling having fallen over against their neighbour's flank in an attempt to scoot away from it.

Darkstar's dark aura had grown to twice its size upon the revealed threat, encompassing most of the space behind the Queen now, and Nightmare Moon could sense her sister's rage building. Her own was tempered somewhat by the Element of Kindness in her eye, but was nonetheless bearing down upon the Changeling with all the strength the Queen could muster.

"You DARE come to my lands and threaten me with conquest?!?" Nightmare Moon shouted at the interloper, her captains catching themselves at hearing their Queen's voice. As Merryweather and Evergreen started to whip their respective squads back to order, she took a step closer to the wicked grey thing before her.

"Where are these siblings of yours? Where is your army, for you better have brought one to back your words with force," she demanded, staring the Changeling down.

It peered up at her with those odd blue bug eyes of it, still grinning up as if it felt invincible even as she towered over it. "They're near," it cackled, turning for the treeline. "Come hence, my brethren!"

All eyes turned for the treeline, and weapons were quickly aimed in its direction.

Nothing happened.

The Changeling blinked with a growing frown. "Ehm, in Chrysalis' name; attack!?"

Nightmare Moon turned her eye down at the Changeling again and her horn started to glow. She forced the creature down against the ground with her magic, making it squirm while it buzzed its wings to try and escape her magical hold.

"Come forth! Attack! Kill! Destroy!" it cried out in increasing panic as it started to realize it was left to its own devices.

"It appears your 'siblings' have left you alone," the Queen commented, unfolding her wings and spreading them up-and-out at an angle to increase the shadow she threw over the squirming thing. She turned her eye to the other three. "Are you like this creature as well, or just led astray by it?"

One of the mares was crying openly and threw herself at the ground, whining out in a desperate howl; "We were led astray, Queen Nightmare Moon! Please, please don't harm us!"

The stallion in the center of the three of them let his head sink down to the ground as well, closing his eyes. While trying to appear strong, his knees were obviously close to buckling. "I beg your forgiveness, my Queen."

The third, a mare again, still stared at the Changeling with great fear in her eyes, and the Queen realized she had shut down mentally.

"Evergreen, get them out of my sight before I let my sister take out her frustration on them," Nightmare Moon commanded, motioning her left wing in the direction of the panicked mare. "Have the doctors look at that one."

She waited in silence as the three were led away, turning her full attention to the remaining Changeling. "Darkstar, join my side."

"Yes, my Queen," Darkstar stated coldly, walking up and over for her aura to encompass all the area now held secure by captain Merryweather's squad alone.

"This... thing... claims they are going to take my throne," Nightmare Moon spoke to her sibling. "How should we make it swallow its words?"

"Rip its wings off," Darkstar suggested with a wicked grin growing on her dark visage. "Then run staves through those holes in its legs and hang it above a fire."

"Tempting," the Queen mused, but shook her head. "Perhaps we could do something less physical?"

"Tear into its mind to make it experience its wildest nightmares?" Darkstar wondered, while the Changeling - still pinned to the ground by Nightmare Moon's magic - started to shiver in fear.

"Hmm, yes. Unless it tells us where to find that 'queen' of hers," the Queen agreed. "We must stop this invasion before Equestria is filled with this detestable spawn."

"I will never betray Chrysalis," it spat with its last shred of defiance. "You can do to me what you will; I am but one drone in millions!"

"Ah, but you are different from them in one respect," Nightmare Moon noted; "you are our captive, and we have an empty cart to keep you in for weeks while my sister tests the limits of what you can handle."

"Oh, I am liking that idea, my Queen," Darkstar quipped with a wider grin, her dark aura deepening to the point where it sucked all light away from around the three of them. Nightmare Moon could barely see the shadow of Merryweather a few paces away from her.

The Changeling fell silent, its bodily struggling and buzzing of its wings ceasing as it let the threat run around in its head for a moment. How big a threat was this Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon wondered to the silence that fell as a heavy weight onto her captive. How much weight did she have compared to her and her sister? The seconds ticked away as the Changeling pondered the same thing, weighing the threat of daily torture against what its own queen might do if it gave her position away.

Darkstar's aura helped the scales tip in Nightmare Moon's favour; her sister applying the pressure which the Queen herself felt ill-equipped to do herself.

"I'm a forward scout myself," the Changeling finally mumbled in defeat. "I thought I sensed our main force, which is why I dropped my disguise just now. They should have been here..."

Nightmare Moon tried to hold in the sigh of relief as her captive broke, running the information through her mind. "You looked like a pony before, and was called Sunmane by one of the others, if memory serves. How is that done?"

"It's something which comes natural to us," the creature explained, a green sheen passing over it until it looked like the white mare with red mane and tail again, a flame on her flanks. "We can pose as any other creature of roughly the same size as us."

"Infiltrators," Merryweather hissed, a shiver running through the nightpony's body. "How can we fight those?"

"As any other threat; identify, isolate, eliminate," Darkstar replied. "Can I tear into it now, sister?"

"Not yet," the Queen decided, releasing the pressure from the Changeling's back. "We see you now, creature. We will keep you with us, under constant supervision. If you answer our questions willingly, you will not be harmed. We are creatures of darkness ourselves, and this is your one and only chance to prove we can co-exist."

"Chrysalis won't accept that," the creature mumbled, looking down with its red pony eyes. "She's out for full conquest now Equestria lies in ruins."

"Do we look like we lie in ruins to you?" Nightmare Moon demanded while rising to her full height in her polished set of armor. "We are simply undergoing a transformation which will make us stronger in the end."

"A transformation? Fitting, considering our prisoner's ability to shift shapes," Darkstar chuckled.

The Changeling was far out of its league, remaining flat on the ground by choice now, still holding its renewed disguise as the redheaded mare. "I'm only doing as ordered," it whined softly.

"Merryweather, secure the prisoner. Make sure there's two guards on her at all times," Nightmare Moon ordered. "If she changes looks, feel free to call upon my sister until it returns to this appearance."

Darkstar's aura withdrew and she cast a surprised look at her sibling. "What, you won't let me play with any of them now?"

The Queen peered sideways at her sister. "If we find this 'force' of which Sunmane speaks, we'll see. For now, I need you to restrain yourself."

Darkstar seemed to struggle with this, fighting the desire to fight the decision and tear into the interloper anyway, but the gemstone on her flanks started to glow and she settled on a peaceful expression. "As you wish, my Queen. I will look forward to that."

Nightmare Moon took note of the response, then turned back to the Changeling. "Keep that form. Answer our questions. If you do that, you will be fed and allowed to live. If you try to escape, try to wound another, try to pose as somepony else, I will let Darkstar do as she wants to you."

A shudder went through the prisoner, and she let out a soft whimper. "Okay..."

"Merryweather?" Nightmare Moon queried, and the captain moved in with two of her guards who took the prisoner between them and marched her off to one of the carts without further prompting.

As soon as the Changeling was out of earshot, Nightmare Moon turned back to her sister. "We'll need to move more cautiously from now on. Even faced with this... creature, I could not get myself to harm them. Can I trust you to take care of any Timberwolves we come across?"

"With pleasure," Darkstar returned. "You're only hampered by your continued fight against the Element. If you gave in to it, it won't keep you from doing what must be done anymore."

"Like how you were prevented from releasing your pent-up anger just now, sister?" the Queen noted to her sibling. "I saw your flank glow."

Darkstar turned her head away, looking off into the distance at that tall mountain spire set against the dark horizon. "The alternative would have been more devastating. You're aiming to learn about our enemy, not destroy your only lead. I can see that."

"So you kept yourself from destroying this Sunmane creature out of your sense of loyalty," Nightmare Moon mused.

"Exactly; the Element is a part of me, it helps me see the full picture," Darkstar agreed quickly.

"Let me make an observation, sister," the Queen started with an amused smile. "Your wings are still trembling."

Darkstar glanced back at her wings, folded at her sides, and focused on them until they stopped trembling. "So? They do that sometimes."

"You're full of energy; you need a release," her sister continued.

"Perhaps," Darkstar muttered evasively.

"See that tall mountain off in the distance there?" Nightmare Moon whispered, facing it herself. "Blow its top off for me?"

Darkstar turned to face the tall spire herself, focusing her eyes on it. "But that's miles away!"

"Closer to us than our sun and moon, respectively," the other chuckled. "Are you saying you can't focus your energy on something this close by?"

Her dark sister narrowed her eyes at the challenge put to her, her horn sparking up briefly. Off in the distance, the very tip of the tall mountain exploded in a burst of pitch-black energy which briefly darkened the night's sky to the point where the stars disappeared from sight, like an inverted flash.

Nightmare Moon smiled at the sight. "Did that make you feel better?" she asked sideways, but then twitched an ear as a low rumbling sound rolled over the lands like the sound of thunder after a flash of lightning.

"It did, yes," Darkstar agreed with a nod of her head.

"Next time, sister, don't load up so much energy; you will need to release it again eventually," Nightmare Moon chided her sibling. "Celestia taught Luna that when we grew up. I would have thought you remembered that."

"The darkness consumes such thoughts," Darkstar mumbled in reply.

"Don't I know it," the Queen chuckled darkly. "My bout with it was a raging flashfire which consumed all of my rationality. It's been at a low simmer ever since my eye was taken during my fight with Celestia."

"Would you rather it had continued to burn you?" her sister queried, turning to face her Queen properly.

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes to run that thought through her mind. It was true that the Element of Kindness had ceased the consuming nature of her darkness, allowing her to see reason through the haze it brought to her mind. Even if it flared up on occasion, it was quickly brought back down to a manageable level when she had intended to harm other beings. Only when she used it constructively was it allowed to continue to burn and release outward.

Maybe there was a point in her sister's insistence she merged with her Element after all... if it allowed her to more easily manage the darkness within her herself, more intuitively perhaps, she might end up being a more stable ruler in the end...

Chapter 17

The caravan soon set back on the road again, rolling along peacefully for a full night-and-day after their encounter with the Changeling. Sunmane was kept in a cart close to the back of the caravan, under guard at all times, and responded to the questions asked of her with only minimal resistance.

Seated in her cart near the front of the caravan, Nightmare Moon's thoughts were set mostly on the potential for a second transformation in her life; the merger with her Element of Magic. The more she turned it over in her head, the more it started to make sense to her. And that, in itself, was disturbing.

Her captains interrupted her thoughts on occasion when they learned of new information from their prisoner or scouts, but the expected attack by Timberwolves just would not come. Nor did they spot any of the Changelings which Sunmane had spoken of as having a massive invasion force in the area. There were no ponies on the roads, the creatures in the woodlands near to it were quiet, and the guards' moods steadily dropped as they continued forward.

The wait was heavy on everypony's nerves.

When word finally came of Timberwolf tracks on the road, a grim determination washed over all in the caravan; this was what they had been expecting. No strange Changelings coming to take over their nation, but animal packs straying out of their regular hunting grounds instead. This was something they could handle.

From that report onward, all guards took extra caution; carrying their weapons openly, staying close to the carts, their eyes on every shadow or moving element in the vicinity. It did not take long before the howling came to their ears, as they passed through a narrow pathway through the woods. Vision was limited, and the guards stuck to the carts as if they were glued to them, their eyes and weapons pointed at the wild growth around them.

"Timberwolves, my Queen," captain Starstruck suggested as he walked to the right of her cart. "We're ready for them."

"I would not expect otherwise from my longest-serving nightguard captain, Starstruck," she returned. "Wake my sister if she's not already conscious. She will want to take the lead on this."

"Yes, my Queen," Starstruck responded, falling back to Darkstar's cart.

Nightmare Moon soon found them both running past to the front of the caravan, her sister's dark aura already surrounding her, and she smiled to herself. It would be good for Darkstar to let go of her energy, as dark as it was, and the Timberwolves would make for good targets; they were indiscriminate in who they attacked, and Darkstar had no qualms with banishing them to what unholy realm they had been spawned from at the beginning of time.

Soon enough there were shouts from the guards as the attack began, and magical energy flew through the woods - striking one wolf after another. Nightmare Moon was well-protected, being the Queen, and simply let herself fall to deeper thoughts again.

Merger with an Element of Harmony...

It really was the only one thing that was going through her mind right now, save for the Changeling invasion. She could not act upon the little information she had on the latter, but the former issue had been with her since the day she emerged from Luna. She had become intimately aware of the Element of Kindness and its finnicky way of dealing with her. It had a mind of its own and she often struggled to find a reason to it hampering her.

If Darkstar could truly see the, supposed, full picture through her Element, why not Nightmare Moon herself? Would she truly gain a deeper insight in the workings of this Element of Harmony within her, understand it at a level she could not truly comprehend right now?

It was daunting, off-putting, going against her every fibre, but also tempting, inviting, and somehow calming to think of allowing herself that final step. To become whole, as Darkstar had put it back in the palace.

The Queen let her head sink down until she rested her chin on the floor of the cart and closed her eyes. There was nothing to occupy her right now, nothing which needed her to make decisions. This was one of those rare moments when she could rely on others to protect her and sort out the situation on their own.

Now was the only time available for this for weeks to come.

She reached out to her gemstone eye and opened herself to its influence, let its magic seep into her without being blocked.

"Speak to me," she whispered, feeling a warm glow spread from her eye through the rest of her body.

The world around her faded from her conscious observation. Sounds dampened, lights equalized, her body felt lighter as the sensation of gravity left her.

The warm magical glow from the Element of Kindness took a hold of her, embraced her, encompassed her, became her.

The cart she was in snapped its axle and came to a sudden stop, the Earthpony pulling it jerking to a halt as well. While Darkstar continued to make quick of the attacking packs of Timberwolves, the guards nearest to their Queen's, now broken, cart turned their heads to peer at it.

The canvas cover lit up with black-blue flames eating away at the material until it had wholly evaporated, leaving behind a pitch-black orb which barely touched the wood it rested on. Their Queen was held inside, barely visible as a slightly brighter silhouette in the orb's center.

There was a surge of air pulling to the orb, and loose-lying items flew to it, only to be catapulted in all directions again as the surge reversed with great force as the orb exploded!

The Queen slowly sank down to the remains of the cart she had been on, her black hooves landing gently on the surface of broken woodboards and dirt. She opened her eyes as she felt the ground beneath her, blinked them a few times, then came to a realization; "I don't see pink," she breathed in a raw voice.

"...my Queen?" a familiar sound behind her called out, and she turned to face Merryweather.

"Yes, it is I," the transformed Alicorn replied, her voice no longer having the sharpness to it which that of Nightmare Moon had, nor the softness of Luna's. It sat somewhere between, like a parent's promise of kindness if one did good or punishment when one acted against her. It had a bit of a maternal feeling to it, which spoke to the Queen. It felt right, true to her spirit.

She smiled weakly, her lips brushing past her fangs as she did. Her tongue snaked out to feel around the teeth, realizing at once that they had grown slightly smaller than Nightmare Moon's had been before. They still stuck out, but now no longer rested against the flesh from which her lower teeth had grown. She had some space to work with now, which was a nice realization.

"What happened to you?" Merryweather queried, the shock still on her face.

"I gave in to the magic," the Queen spoke matter-of-factly. "How do I look to you?"

Merryweather clearly had no words, her slitted eyes moving seemingly at random as she tried to take all of her Queen's new appearance in at once.

Not waiting for her captain to find her voice again, the Queen turned her head to look back along her flank. The first thing she spotted were her new wings, and she slowly extended them out to get a feel for them.

Where Luna and Nightmare Moon had had feathers, she now sported the same leathery wings her Lunar children had on them. There was a soft peachfuzz of fur on the fingers, but the soft, supple leather skin between them was bare. It felt strange to extend them in the cool air of the night as they were no longer protected by the warm feathers her predecessors had; the breeze passing by them sending sharp tingles through them which were almost pleasurable to experience.

She spread them up high above her back at a slight angle and smiled at the sight of them. There was a strength to the fingers extending this way, a beauty to the dark limbs with their curves and sleekness. It suited her just fine.

"...gorgeous," her captain managed to breathe out, further emboldening her Queen's heart.

Her eyes traveled along her black flank, her fur shining with a silver glow as she breathed air along it. It was like a knife's edge trailed along her body, leaving a sharp metal line which left no trace of its existence as the hairs fell back in place again. It was different from her earlier dark coat which had a blue sheen to it.

Sat prominently on her flank, was the pink gemstone which had imposed its influence upon her and her eye before; slightly extended from her hip's smooth form as Darkstar's Element did, but shaped like the crescent shape appearing shortly after an eclipse; barely a sliver growing out from the darkness. A few silver specks sat near it like the stars in the night's sky.

It was a calm design which was easy to remember; a pink crescent waxing moon with few stars speckled around it. It would make for a good flag.

Beyond her rump were the silver hairs of her new tail, spread behind her like a silver cloud illuminated by the moon's light, moving constantly like a cloud by the Queen's magic. A tilt of her head made her aware of a similar silver mane with pink edges sitting on her head, and she decided to shake it out to feel its weight. It felt comfortable. It felt right.

She felt whole.

The Queen's eyes set upon Merryweather again, idly spotting other guards and the cart-pulling ponies having gathered around her where they were not fighting to keep the continued assault from the Timberwolves at bay.

"Crescent," she started, then shook her head. "Eclipse."

"Crescent Eclipse," repeated through the gathered group in a whisper, an expression of shared reverie on their faces, and the Queen blinked at them.

"No, that's not what I meant," the Queen started to protest, but the expressions before her made her fall silent. The admiration in the eyes of those gathered around her was starting to make way for a fearful doubt, and it stung her heart to see. "You know what? I'm actually okay with that name. Call me Crescent Eclipse from now on," she owned up to her mistake, trying to reassure her subjects.

She let her head sink down to Merryweather's height and looked the mare in the slitted eyes. "Tell me, daughter of mine, what do my eyes look like?" Somewhere in her mind rose the question of why she had addressed her captain with those words, but it was just as quickly pushed away again as she saw the tears springing up in the other's eyes.

Having already given herself to her Queen when she decided to undergo the transformative process, Merryweather broke at being seen as the matriarch's daughter, and she could only reply with a thick voice through tears streaming down her cheeks. "Like be... beau... beautiful slitted pools of pink, my Queen..."

Pink eyes.

Eclipse reached out with her left forehoof to gently wipe the tears from her captain's right cheek. "Pull yourself together, dear. We are still under attack."

"Ye... yes ma'am," Merryweather sniffled, trying to get her composure back.

The Queen straightened herself again and gave a quick look around. "Let's give my sister some help up front," she suggested, turning to face the battle in time to watch a pitch-black implosion take care of an oncoming Timberwolf, "although it doesn't look like she needs it."

With her horn starting to shine with a bright silver light, Eclipse set in a strong stride forward. Time to test her magic against these pesky wolves.

Chapter 18

Darkstar faltered in mid-step as she laid eyes on her newly transformed sister approach with half the caravan's ponies in tow, the dark magical aura around her horn fizzing out of existence as she took a harder look.

"Get down!" Crescent Eclipse shouted, sending a beam of silver in Darkstar's direction. The other Alicorn sibling dove down just in time for it to fly over her back to impact with a Timberwolf which had intended to pounce upon Darkstar, and the creature vaporized in mid-air!

"Merryweather, you know what to do," the Queen told her captain, then leaned down with a smile as she reached her sister. "Don't tell me; I've changed."

Darkstar blinked her slitted eyes up at the pink ones sat on her sister's face, clearly trying to piece two and two together. "...sister?"

"My children decided on Crescent Eclipse, but my sister may call me Eclipse," Crescent Eclipse suggested calmly. "As soon as she picks herself up from the ground, that is; it's quite unbecoming of you to be lying in the dirt."

The grounded lunar alicorn let out a snort, then rose up from the ground, using her magic to get the dirt off her. "You told me to dive down, my Queen," she grumbled, her eyes going over her sister's new form.

Crescent Eclipse turned with a smile to show her sister her flank and the gemstone sat on it, but then suddenly hardened her expression and launched three quick bursts of magic into an oncoming pack of Timberwolves. "Damnit, how many of them are there?"

"I've destroyed more than a dozen already; it's almost as if they're on the run from something," Darkstar commented, focusing on the fight again as well.

"On the run..." Crescent repeated, then rolled her pink eyes. "The supposed Changeling army?"

"That's my guess," Darkstar answered, throwing her magic around again to help the guards keep the caravan safe.

Crescent Eclipse turned her head for the caravan, sent her magic out, and one of the carts came bouldering down the road toward them - without the pony who was supposed to pull it. A pair of guards' peered out from it in shock as the thing ground to a halt in the middle of the battlefield, then let out surprised yelps as their prisoner came floating out.

"Sunmane," the Queen started in a voice which spoke of her rising anger, dumping the Changeling face-first in the dirt before her.

Sunmane still held her disguise of a white Earthpony mare with a fiery red mane and tail, and tried to get herself back upright once Crescent Eclipse's magic let go of her. The mare's red eyes settled upon the Lunar Alicorn before her, and the pony's mouth slowly fell ajar.

"How fierce is this force you spoke of, and where's their expected entry route?" Crescent Eclipse asked, not waiting for the Changeling to figure out what was going on exactly.

"...how did you..." the Changeling started, caught off-guard by a pony princess transforming their appearance, her mind slow to catch the questions.

"Answer me!" Eclipse shouted, much to Darkstar's amusement.

"Ooh, I'm liking this new you, sister," she exclaimed merrily, rushing a few paces away to get a better shot in against the oncoming wolves.

Sunmane glanced to Darkstar for a brief moment, then back at the Queen before her. "Er... er... size... er... hundreds? We have a big hive out in the badlands, and er... we're here? This is about where they should be right now?"

Crescent Eclipse turned to the South and peered into the darkness of the forest. "From the badlands... Everyone on me!"

The captains responded at the shouting from their Queen, and Sunmane was quickly picked up and forced to follow behind the Queen as she started to walk Southward.

"Wait, why are you going that way? That's where Chrysalis is!" the Changeling protested, struggling against the guards on either side of her.

"Exactly why," Eclipse decided, using her magic to create an artificial path through the trees ahead. A straight road paved itself before her, trees and undergrowth sliding sideways, and quickly extended itself to the horizon until her magic hit something alive and she doused it.

With her guards in tow, still fighting off the remaining Timberwolves which thought they could continue the assault, the Queen strode down the paved path, the stones under her hooves smooth enough to reflect the light from the sky above. Some dark forms moved up ahead, and she soon identified them as similar forms to Sunmane's Changeling appearance, skittering about where her road ended.

Crescent Eclipse's approach made them run around in a seeming panic, until a larger shape stepped up in their midst and positioned themselves prominently in the center of the road, staring across the pavement at the oncoming group.

"Chrysalis, I presume," Eclipse spoke loudly as she neared, stopping several paces in front of the Changeling Queen with her messy hair.

"And who may you be, pony?" the other spoke in a voice which was grating on the eardrums.

"My name is Crescent Eclipse, and I am the Queen of this land you have so blatantly invaded," Eclipse returned, using her magic to pull Sunmane up and in-between them, dropping the transformed insect to the floor without a care. "I've got something of yours. You may wish to take it back."

"Really liking this new you," Darkstar's voice came from somewhere behind her.

Chrysalis' eyes focused on the Earthpony mare, then back to Crescent Eclipse. "What a pallid gift," she snorted with disdain. "I will take your land, and all ponies living on it instead."

Sunmane crawled up from the floor, peered between the two Queens standing face-to-face, and tried to slip away to the side of the road. A group of Changeling drones came out of the darkness and hissed at her as she neared them.

"Wait, guys, it's me; Ocellus," she tried, a green sheen washing over her to reveal herself a Changeling as well.

Crescent hissed at the sight. "What did I say, Sunmane?" she spoke coldly.

The Changeling drone turned to face the pony Queen again, looking unsure. "But... but..."

"What are you doing?" Chrysalis demanded, raising an eyebrow.

"I.." Sunmane / Ocellus started, glancing between the two matriarchs as if trying to decide between them.

The pony Queen lifted her right forehoof and motioned at a spot near her, her pink eyes still staring Chrysalis down.

The green glow passed over Ocellus' form again as they took on the form of Sunmane again, and she dragged her hooves over until she stood beside the pony Queen, her head and tail hanging low.

Chrysalis hissed loudly at the act, taking a step forward in a burst of anger. "What are you doing to my drone?!?"

"I'm reminding her of an agreement between us," Crescent Eclipse spoke cold enough for the air around them to cool. "If you continue with your plans to invade my lands, I will take each and every one of your drones from you before I will send you spiraling into your nightmares from which there is no release."

Chrysalis sputtered at the unmoving form of the pony Queen before her, taking a reluctant step back. "Idle threats... we outnumber you six to one. I could end this right now if I'd so choose."

Crescent Eclipse finally broke her eyes away from the other, and turned to face her guards. "Evergreen, Merryweather, please return to the caravan. Darkstar, Sunmane, stay with me."

"But, my Queen," Evergreen protested, but fell silent as she set her eyes upon him. "As you command..."

Darkstar looked on curiously as the guards and other ponies walked back along the road, then frowned as the forest grew back over the road they were on between them. "What are you planning?" she mouthed silently to her sister, who ignored the question for now.

Instead, Eclipse turned back to face Chrysalis only to sit herself down on the ground. "I'm confident in my abilities to take on your entire 'family' by myself. My sister Darkstar is my Royal Advisor, and Sunmane my captive. Let's talk."

Chrysalis sputtered at the display, her mind obviously in turmoil. What manner of pony was this to take these actions? Where was the fear she was used to seeing in them? What power did this one hide to state she was confident enough to take on hundreds of Changelings?

Crescent Eclipse could see those thoughts pass by on the Changeling Queen's face by the changing expressions upon it. There was the moment she wanted to throw caution to the wind and attack, there was the fear something was not right here, the question of whether she could withdraw somehow. A flash of pride struggling to coexist with rationality...

Darkstar moved up to her sister's left side and sat down with her, looking at her from out of the corner of her right eye. Leaving her advisor in the dark was part of the plan to put Chrysalis on the wrong hoof. Eclipse was throwing a major bluff in this game, and the fewer who knew of it, the fewer who could expose it.

Chrysalis finally came to a decision, and shouted "Leave us!" without turning to face her Changeling army. There was a rustling in the trees as hundreds of insectoid bodies fled to a safe distance, leaving the Changeling Queen standing face-to-face with the seated Pony Monarch.

Crescent Eclipse smiled up at the other, and gave a slow nod to her. "Thank you. I'm sure we can come to a solution that will benefit the both of us. Why are you invading my nation? What is it you seek to obtain?"

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the question, narrowing her eyes at the Alicorns before her. "We need to feed. Ponies are our main source of food," she hissed through clenched teeth, clearly not liking to give up any information at all.

"You think yourself predators, then? You want to eat my subjects?" Crescent tried to surmise.

"In a way," Chrysalis hissed angrily, then motioned at the only other remaining Changeling in their group of four. "Why don't you ask the deserter?"

Eclipse noticed Sunmane wince at the word, but turned her head to look at the Earthpony mare properly. "Can you give me an explanation, Sunmane?"

The poor Changeling looked utterly hurt at being branded a deserter, her eyes loathe to look away from her Queen but slowly turning in their sockets to stare up at the pony Queen instead. "I... Yes, I think I can," she sighed sadly. "Our species feeds on love; love between any race. You ponies have so much love to give, we have been jealous of it since we first learned of you."

Darkstar peered around her sibling at the Changeling drone. "You feed on love? How?"

"By taking on the form of a loved one and absorbing its energy as it's directed at us," Sunmane explained. "I took on this form after we captured the pony who was originally travelling with the other three."

"This means there are ponies held captive by you," Eclipse reasoned, turning her attention back to Chrysalis. "What could I offer you as payment for their safe return?"

Chrysalis finally sat herself down with a deep frown, letting out a huff. "There's nothing we need. We will keep them."

"I can't let you do that," Crescent Eclipse decided. "They are my subjects, and I need them returned one way or another."

"It's impossible," Chrysalis returned stubbornly, staring back. "They're already cocooned."

Sunmane stared at her forehooves, her left ear twitching as she did.

"I'm not sure what that entails," the pony Matriarch started, "but I urge you to keep in mind that they make for decent bargaining chips in this conversation."

"Safe passage," Sunmane spoke up.

"What?" Chrysalis asked annoyedly.

"If we can travel within the pony lands without being hunted, we can feed on their love when we need to," Sunmane explained. "We won't starve that way."

"This would mean letting you abduct ponies where you go, replacing them by taking their forms?" Darkstar listed with a snort. "I'm not happy with that thought."

"Maybe we could take on a form... similar to our target, but not replace them exactly?" Sunmane wondered quietly, her voice trailing off at the end as Chrysalis stared her down.

"I'm willing to give your race a chance to seek such peaceful co-existence, Chrysalis," Crescent Eclipse offered. "I myself came up out of a very dark place, where I hungered for love as well. Or admiration, perhaps."

"You can't possibly compare yourself to us," Chrysalis snorted, looking appaled. "We're far removed from your pesky pony selves."

"If we're so pesky, why do you need our love?" Eclipse returned calmly. "As I said; I'm open to negotiating a peaceful end to this situation. If you withdraw your army to your own lands, I am willing to let you travel freely throughout mine. In that situation, your subjects, or 'drones', can see whether there is a less invasive means of obtaining your love from my ponies."

"And what if that fails? What if your subjects run from us?" Chrysalis mused. "What if we come to you and get hunted down for what we are?"

Sunmane let herself flop down to the ground. "I've been stuck with them for days now," she sighed out. "I'm so confused..."

Crescent spread her left wing and motioned to Darkstar with it. "Do we appear to you as regular ponies? Do we not strike you as creatures who might be hunted down as well? I fell to a darkness which is difficult to describe, embraced it, became it. My subjects riled up at the idea of me ruling over them, and I have had to strike them down where they became too rowdy. But, speaking from experience, if you give my ponies a chance to let the idea settle with them, they are willing to forgive most atrocities as long as you appear fair to them."

"And what does 'fair' mean?" Chrysalis inquired, her eyelids trembling slightly.

"Not abducting them would be a good start," Eclipse chuckled softly. "I'm speaking to you as one Queen to another; as long as we can speak instead of fight, our subjects should be able to do the same. If we open the road to co-existence, we can study one another and grow together to the benefit of all involved. And, as long as we are able to talk, we can figure out what is needed for you to release my subjects back to my care."

Chrysalis sat in silence at hearing Crescent Eclipse's words, her eyelids trembling slightly as she looked the three of them over. Her thoughts were her own, and the pony matriarch let her work things out without interruption, only moving to place a wing over Sunmane's back. The bone-and-skin limb lazily stroked over the disguised Changeling's back in an effort to give the poor thing some peace of mind.

"I could overrun you," Chrysalis finally whispered to herself. "Why don't I?"

"So you run through me and my guards, take over our lands, and disrupt the lives of thousands of ponies. You end up with a thousand more mouths to feed, and they will be unable to sustain you. Without them able to live their lives, your food supply will wither and disappear in a few short years," Crescent Eclipse listed. "You'll be worse off than if we work out a peaceful solution that could last us a thousand years."

Sunmane looked up in surprise from her position on the ground. "I hadn't thought of it that way," she spoke with new realisation.

"Nor had I," said Chrysalis, finally submitting to the idea. "We came upon a whole town before reaching this point, and subdued it. I have over seventy ponies in cocoons."

"How close by?" Crescent asked.

"A day, maybe two," Chrysalis responded thoughtfully. "I can return the town's ponies for an equal number of my drones allowed to stay behind."

"That sounds like a good deal, but I am growing fond of the little one here. How about you leave her with me and she can serve as a liaison between our races?" Eclipse suggested calmly, stroking her wing over Sunmane's back again.

Chrysalis looked over at the pony on the floor, then shrugged. "Agreed. I would not want him back looking this way."

"I will change the agreement I have with Sunmane so they are allowed to change back to your Changeling appearance when they return to your lands," the pony Queen decided. "As long as she's with me, she will take on a pony form."

"Yes, ma'am," Sunmane muttered in agreement.

"What about the pony Sunmane?" Chrysalis wondered. "Would you need them returned?"

"What would you require in return?" Eclipse asked with a warm smile.

"I could sustain my hive with as few as twenty of your ponies staying with us," Chrysalis reasoned. "I will need replacements."

"I will need assurances in that case," Crescent chuckled. "Hearing about them being cocooned makes me think they are not treated well. If I allow your subjects free movement through your lands, perhaps you can agree to a similar setup for my subjects? We can set up an exchange system that ensures you always have enough love to sustain your family, while you make sure not to harm them too much?"

"We don't need to suck them dry to feed from them," Sunmane noted. "If there's enough love to go around..."

"Hmpf, it sounds too good to be true," Chrysalis grumbled. "Why would you allow us to do this to your subjects?"

"Because I would loathe to see another race starve, nor do I want for my subjects to be enslaved. In this setup I would send willing ponies your way and our races can grow together. Does it feel like I'm repeating myself?" Crescent Eclipse wondered, looking over at Darkstar.

"I'm still shocked you have a penchant for diplomacy at all, dear sister," Darkstar returned. "To me it sounds fair, more so than the solution I would have gone for."

"Which would have been what?" Chrysalis demanded.

"I command the bloody sun," Darkstar revealed. "I would have just smashed it on top of your head."

Chapter 19

After Darkstar's poor choice of words, Chrysalis looked about ready to explode again. The threat of having a giant orb of fire smashed down on top of oneself would make anyone upset, and Eclipse thought it spoke to the other matriarch that she did not call forth her 'drones' and instead just protested verbally. It showed the Pony Queen that the ice between the two nations was broken enough for there to be the possibility for negotiations in the future.

She patiently waited for Chrysalis' to cease her string of sputtering the most vile suggestions of what Darkstar could do with her blue sun, silently loving the fact she was not the only one who had qualms with her sister for once.

As the Changeling Queen finally calmed down enough to be open for Crescent Eclipse to interject, she gave her a warm smile. "It's good to get things out in the open," the pony matriarch stated calmly. "Please forgive my sister, she has a temper which she has yet to learn to control."

"She's not the only one here with a temper," Sunmane commented idly, looking away from her Queen as Chrysalis' eyes glared at the smaller Changeling.

"If there's nothing left to discuss," Crescent started again, peering at the other before her, "I would like to suggest we all return to our respective groups and go on our way; you back to your lands, pending a more positive return trip, and we have a wedding to attend to ourselves."

"A... wedding?" Chrysalis repeated, looking interested.

"Ah, yes, something to look forward to after the monotony of palace life," Eclipse chuckled merrily. "And it will aid us to assert our rule over the Easternmost cities and townships. They have been a tad unruly."

"My scouts have told me of these weddings," Chrysalis mused. "They said the ambient love there is almost tangible - a good source of nutrition to us."

An idea sprang to mind, and the Pony Queen thought it over long and hard before bringing it to her lips; "Would you care to join us, perhaps? If you are like your subjects, you could take on the form of one of our guardsponies and be witness to the event. If you can truly feed on such energies as love, then you would not need to harm my subjects while getting your fill? It would allow us to further discuss the details of our agreement and to explore what else we can do for each other? I would have to ask you to come alone, but you shall have full diplomatic immunity while you are our guest."

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the suggestion, which was obviously both tempting and off-putting to her. Crescent Eclipse had taken a leap here which was an extension of her earlier bluffing; Chrysalis would have to take her on faith that nothing would happen during her visit, putting herself in a very vulnerable position. If something did go wrong, the Changeling matriarch would be deep within enemy territory with only Sunmane as her potential ally.

On the other hoof, she would have the ability to get a proper look at Equestrian society and take part in the wedding festivities. If her talk of ambient energy and how her species may absorb such had any truth in it, she could get her fill of love and return home to her subjects with renewed energy. She would then no longer have to feed herself until that was consumed, which would take some of the pressure off of her.

Crescent gently patted Sunmane on the head with her right wing, giving the small one a glance and a smile. "I am still buzzing with the energy of a recent transformation myself," she explained to no-one in particular. "My brain is in high gear and I'm... 'winging it', so to speak. I'm not too forward with this, am I?"

"No, no," Chrysalis mumbled, shaking her head. "I would take two of my subjects as my personal guards if I am to accept this proposal."

Eclipse set her pink eyes upon the Changeling Queen again. "I could shift my guards around and assign one of my captains to you as a personal aide, allowing you and your guards to merge into their ranks without raising suspicion? I have a scout who requires medical attention after Sunmane's group jumped them, and know of two others who could use a vacation. Yes, I would allow you your guards."

"I will not be bossed around," the Changeling matriarch warned. "I shall take the role of your captain."

"I can't allow you to do that, sorry," Crescent Eclipse disagreed. "There is a synergy between them which I doubt you could emulate, even if your species can take on their form as Sunmane has. We are going to face a situation I need to diffuse and I will require all my captains for it."

"I will not subject myself to the commands of some pony," Chrysalis repeated in clear objection to the idea, her large wings trembling as she grew more agitated again.

"I have no other roles to offer you which would allow you to stay in close proximity of my advisor and myself," Eclipse explained calmly. "My guards are able to move within my lands without being questioned, which would be different for even my royal physicians. I know my captains; if I tell them to keep you off the active roster, they will be able to plan around you while still making you appear to be a part of the squad to a casual observer."

Sunmane moved under her wing, and Crescent Eclipse used the motion as an excuse to fold it to her side again. There was a tension in the air, and she was sure the Changeling drone was feeling it. They had found solutions for the most pressing issues in the past hour since they started their conversation, and the Pony Queen was sure the Changeling Queen could find peace with her suggestions if she could get past her ego.

"It's a free meal," Sunmane spoke up to Chrysalis directly. "I think these ponies are too generous given what we've done to them recently."

"Nobody asked you," Chrysalis bit back to her subject with an angry snarl, but then fell silent again and her facial expression softened slowly but surely. "It is a generous offer, though."

"I am known for my kindness," Eclipse chuckled lightly.

"Only recently," Darkstar commented dryly. "I'm still trying to figure out what you are now."

"My offer is genuine, and it truly is the best I can make it," Crescent offered to Chrysalis, ignoring her sister for now.

"I would not have made such an offer were I in your place," Chrysalis returned with a frown. "You are far different from the ponies I was warned about. I'm having some difficulty with it."

"Take your time, please," the Pony Queen suggested. "The offer has been made and will remain available until you are ready to make a decision on it."

"This is far removed from how I expected my first encounter with one of you," Chrysalis spoke again.

"I thought you had captives?" Darkstar queried with a raised eyebrow. "In cocoons, no less."

"They're food to us; they don't talk," Sunmane explained. "They're just suspended from the ceiling and squirm a little when fed upon."

Crescent Eclipse forced herself to remain silent on the issue, and gave her sister a sideways glance in the hope she would get the hint. Chrysalis was still debating with herself on whether she could take the offer before her and any negative comments would sway her away from accepting it. A discussion of how Chrysalis should treat the ponies she received was due at a later date, once the threat of invasion had been fully warded off.

Darkstar opened her mouth to respond to Sunmane, but caught the Queen's glance in time to close it just as quickly again. It was good to see she still had her wit and intuition alongside the anger issues she had obtained from her transformation.

Chrysalis' wings fluttered excitedly a moment, while she exhaled sharply, then she stuck the flimsy things under the chitin plating on her back and gave a decisive nod forward. "The offer intrigues me. As Ocellus said; it is a generous offer. A free meal for someone you have only just met, and met in the process of invading your lands no less."

There was a flash of doubt passing over her features, but she pushed it away with a barely noticeable shake of her head.

"I'm not sure why I'm not pushing that," the Changeling matriarch muttered under her breath, then spoke up louder again, "but am seeing the benefit of your 'long term planning' and the agreements we made so far. A steady supply of food is something I've been trying to ensure for years now."

"I'm happy to help provide it, in return for peace between us," Crescent remarked with a growing smile.

"Yes, peace... it's something I could have never thought of myself; peace between ponies and us," Chrysalis let out in a snort. "I have never before entertained that thought; you are food. It's difficult to comprehend to me how we ended up in this position."

Eclipse waited patiently for the other to finish, giving slow nods to show she listened. The Changeling Queen struggled to extents which Crescent Eclipse could only guess at. What had happened in these Changelings' history to make them so distrustful of others? Just their feeding habits should not have warranted the kind of exclusion that was hinted at?

Their appearance was somewhat shocking; the unsightly holes in their legs, wings, and the Queen's horn, or even in the fins they had instead of a mane and tail. But even that was something that others could grow used to in time.

Chrysalis hid a pain within her which was clearly deeply rooted. Through her new bond with the Element of Kindness, Crescent Eclipse felt a strong desire to find out what had caused it, and perhaps help the Changelings as a species to work past it.

The first step was for Chrysalis to accept her invitation and for the details of their agreements to be worked out fully. Once there was a regular contact between them, they could figure out how to work out the remaining issues in their own time.

Chrysalis finally stood up with a sudden start, and took two resolute paces to the treeline. "Labrum, Cubitus!" she shouted, and there was a rush of movement as two of the quadruped insects ran up to her, their grey forms barely distinguishable in the shadow cast on them by the trees.

"You two are coming with me," the Changeling Queen spoke to them directly, shouting over their heads immediately afterwards; "Return to the Hive, all of you; Release the captives from the town we passed through and await my return!" She then turned to face the pony alicorns again. "I accept your invitation, Crescent Eclipse."

Crescent pushed up onto her hooves and smiled in the other's direction. "I had hoped you would. If I heard that correctly you are releasing my subjects from the nearby town?"

"I am worth more than those ponies combined," Chrysalis spoke in a huff. "I can be just as generous as you ponies, in case you doubted that?"

As Darkstar and Sunmane got up on their hooves as well, Crescent Eclipse shook her head to the other matriarch.

"I don't doubt in your ability to make decisions which benefit your subjects as well as our newly formed relationship, Chrysalis," she stated. "Would you grant me the honour of walking beside you as we return to my encampment?"

Chrysalis dared a smile at the suggestion that the Pony Queen, who had completely sidetracked her plans for invasion, was somehow honoured by her presence. "Yes, I think I will allow that," she spoke with her ego clearly bolstered, turning onto the paved road Crescent Eclipse had laid through the forest by her magic earlier on.

The Pony Queen moved up to the Changeling Queen's left side, noticing Chrysalis tensing up for a moment. As they strode forward along the path and Crescent Eclipse did little other than walk with her, that tension slowly subsided again. Darkstar and Sunmane fell in line behind them, with the two other Changelings pulling the rear.

Crescent's horn glowed a soft silver tone as she removed the paved road from behind their little group, allowing the trees of the forest to grow together again, and she noted Chrysalis' eyes settle upon it.

"Just restoring nature," Eclipse suggested in a soft tone of voice, trying to reassure her. "I only put this path here to reach you in time to talk, and we have done that so it's served its purpose."

Chrysalis turned her head to look back at the forest regrowing behind them, spotted the curious glances from her drones, and quickly turned to face front again with a huff. Her pace quickened as if she was trying to flee from having to explain herself to the Changelings at the rear, and Eclipse felt forced to follow suit in order to stay next to the other Queen.

"I don't see the point," Chrysalis decided angrily, staunchly staring forward.

"It's part of that long term planning we talked about earlier," Crescent explained. "If I don't move the trees back to their original position, they will stand too close to their neighbours. This will cause them to rot or wither and will do more damage to the forest. They will have to slowly regrow over the path, which takes a long time during which this strip of bare space remains."

"I didn't know she paid this much attention in school," Darkstar whispered to Sunmane behind her. "I'm sure Celestia would have delegated more tasks to Luna if she had been aware."

"Er... what?" Sunmane responded carefully, not knowing the Alicorns' background.

Crescent Eclipse focused on the trees up ahead, moving them aside temporarily so as to connect the path they were on to the road the caravan was still camped around. Some Timberwolf remains were littered about, but the fight had clearly finished in the ponies' victory.

Three guards were standing near the remains, looking up as the group approached them. Crescent immediately identified them. "Cirrus, Brownleaf, Star Twinkle, where are your captains?" she asked, continuing her approach.

"They left us to inform the others of your transformation, my Queen," Brownleaf answered, the brown Earthpony stallion with dark red mane and tail answered. "We were left here to ensure the wolves would not find a weak spot in our defense."

"From the looks of things you've held your own in our absence," Crescent Eclipse suggested with a smile, focusing her eyes on the light-blue Pegasus guard with a silver mane and tail among them. "Cirrus, please go inform Starstruck I have need of him?"

"Yes, my Queen," they responded, darting away.

"You recognize these ponies by their names, just like I do my drones," Chrysalis remarked.

"They're not food to me," Crescent replied, smiling at the Lunar Unicorn guard next to Brownleaf. "Star Twinkle here was transformed by me personally, and I consider her to be among my children."

The dark blue mare flushed lightly and turned her yellow slitted eyes downward. "Thank you, my Queen," she spoke, clearly touched by the sentiment.

"Since my rise to power, I have given them all the choice to join my children of the night," Eclipse continued. "Some, like Brownleaf, have not sought to be transformed yet, but I don't think of them any less. Or not anymore, I should say before my advisor reminds me."

Chrysalis peered at the pony Queen with a blank face, and Crescent shook her head at herself.

"Moments before I approached you, I underwent a transformation. Before it, I was known as Nightmare Moon, herself a transformation from the former princess Luna," Crescent Eclipse explained, motioning her left wing in the direction of the encampment. "Let us continue in this direction while I explain."

The last tiles of her improvised pathway through the forest disappeared as the group turned for the collection of carts and ponies, and the pony Queen's magic silver aura faded from around her horn.

"Luna and her sister Celestia were supposedly the former rulers of my nation, excepting that Celestia drew most of the power and admiration to herself. This caused Luna great grief, and she transformed into my predecessor, Nightmare Moon, to challenge Celestia's right to rule," Crescent continued, while Chrysalis listened with growing interest.

"Nightmare Moon has been attempting to enforce her own interests upon this land of Equestria for the past few months now. Where Celestia ruled the day, Luna and Nightmare Moon both ruled the night in their own unique ways. Enforcing longer nights upon this land caused Celestia to transform herself, and her sun, to better suit the new Queen's desire," the Pony Queen revealed as if she had read it from a history book.

"We did notice the odd changes in the sky," Chrysalis commented. "One moment it was day, the next it was night, then it was a strange twilight. I had wondered if the world would come to an end because of it, but then it stabilized."

"Yes, Darkstar and Nightmare Moon came to an agreement on the length of days and the way both blue sun and moon moved through the sky," Crescent agreed matter-of-factly.

"I was forced to agree with my dear sister," Darkstar added with a soft snort.

"Due to continued issues during her rule, Nightmare Moon was forced to transform anew. The pressure from the Timberwolf attack coupled with your impending invasion forced my hoof, and I emerged out of that," Crescent Eclipse continued unabated, again ignoring her sister's idle commenting. "Given we deflected the Timberwolves and managed to make peace with you and your subjects, Chrysalis, I would say it has been a successful outcome of my transformation."

"So you will transform back again to this Nightmare Moon, then?" Chrysalis inquired, to which Crescent shook her head.

"We don't usually have the ability to transform unless by magical intervention from another," she explained calmly, watching as three of her four captains approached from the encampment in order to meet them halfway. "Darkstar's transformation was triggered by myself, but my own were... incidental. I doubt I could force them to reverse on my own accord."

Chrysalis's face darkened. "To be stuck in a disguise," she mused with a shiver. "That sounds like a horrible thought to me. I don't envy you."

"Ah, it does have its upsides, I assure you," Crescent chuckled. "Evergreen, Starstruck, Starlit Meadow, meet queen Chrysalis of the Changelings. She will travel with us to the wedding party and back. Where's Merryweather?"

"In the doctor's cart, my Queen," Starstruck informed her with a thick voice. "She... is not doing well."

Crescent Eclipse's heart sank at hearing the news.

"A wolf caught her unawares," Starlit Meadow added, looking the Changelings over as she spoke, oblivious to the effect the news had on her Queen.

"It was quickly disposed of," Evergreen assured Crescent Eclipse. "You needn't worry about it, my Queen."

Chapter 9

Nightmare Moon left her sister Darkstar to the caring hooves and horns of the palace staff, half-hearing about the items of food the other Alicorn demanded of them to help her get her strength back. At least, those of who had returned after their initial spell of panic at the sun changing color in the sky above.

They were used, by now, to sudden eclipses. They complained about it among themselves, but they had taken to carrying lamps around in case they needed them. As a result, there were a great many lamplights casting shadows around her as the Queen walked idly through her palace.

The new light outside was preferable to that of Celestia's sunlight on a cloudless day before, but it came at a high price. For the first time since she had stood up against her sister, Nightmare Moon worried it was not worth it in the end.

She came to the courtyard and peered up at the sky, the black disc of her moon staring back at her, surrounded by a bright-blue aura. That was another drawback of this new situation; her moon's surface, damaged as it was by craters of various size and shape, was hidden from view.

Nightmare Moon sat herself down on the upper step of the few steps leading up from the courtyard to the palace proper and closed her eyes. She could feel the difference between both eyelids closing; her right rubbing across the smooth faces of the Element of Kindness.

That was the sole reason she was in this situation now; a magical stone that kept pressing upon her, making her secondguess decisions and actually care for others.

"Dear stars, I've turned into Celestia," she realized with a start.

"Are you okay, pri... er, my Queen?" a soft voice asked from nearby, and Nightmare Moon opened her eyes again.

The source of the voice was not immediately obvious as there was no pony before her, so she turned her head to glance about to find a Pegasus stallion hovering above her, having somehow made it past her guards. It had been a crazy day, what with the moon and sun moving about at seemingly random and the latter then suddenly changing colour, so they were most likely dealing with panicked ponies, she reasoned.

The stallion's white coat stood out against the dark sky behind him, his white feathers flapping lazily to keep him hovering roughly in the same place. His dark blue mane was draped over his right eye, obscuring it from sight, but his left had an orange pupil in it which peered at her with worry.

"You wanted to say princess, did you not?" the Queen started, bringing her head down and extending her right wing to motion at the empty spot next to her. "Come sit with me, if you have nothing else to do."

She felt the air displacement of his wings as he moved to set himself down beside her, and watched as he took up a spot a respectful distance away from her. Her right eye made his white coat appear pink, and she smirked lightly remembering Contrail's remark when the mare had first looked through her own gemstone eye.

"Be honest with me; you didn't think much of Luna when she and her sister were here, did you?" she asked him, and he stiffened up a bit.

"I'm not sure I should answer that, my Queen," he started carefully, looking anywhere but straight at her. "Luna has left us, and my Queen has made it known that that was to be the end of it."

"Your Queen is asking you directly, however," Nightmare Moon pressed. "I never asked any of my subjects before. I'm starting to wonder if what I know has not been warped somehow by my own insecurities."

The stallion twitched an ear, then shook his head. "No, my Queen. I did not think much of princess Luna when she was still among us; her sister had a way of drawing the attention to her. I did pray to Luna before I lay my head down, though. Most of us asked her to keep us as safe in our dreams as Celestia did while we were awake."

There was a brief pause, then he turned his head up to look straight at her. "I beg my Queen's forgiveness, but I still pray to Luna before bed."

Nightmare Moon smiled back weakly, giving a nod to the other's words. "You are forgiven."

The pegasus visibly relaxed at her words, and straightened his back. The movement made some of the hairs of his mane sway away from where they had covered his right eye, revealing a nasty scar straight across it leading from his forehead to his cheek.

The Queen used her magic to lift the hairs before they could fall back in place, and leaned in to get a better look, but the other shyed away quickly to the point where he almost ripped the hairs out of his own head!

Nightmare Moon quickly let go of his mane, then sat back herself and reached up to her own right eye with her left hoof. "I lost mine as well. It was replaced by this damned gemstone. Tell me your story to distract me from mine?"

The pegasus stallion was still trying to recover from his anxiety attack, having scooted back to the other side of the wide steps with trembling wings, and the Queen's words barely reached him. "Er... what?"

"Your eye," his Queen spoke, tapping her own with her hoof. "Mine was lost when this gemstone rammed itself into my face during the fight with my sister. It has been a bother ever since, but there is nothing I can do about it; it is a magical stone and fights any attempt to dislodge it."

The stallion stared straight at it with his own, then steeled himself while looking away. "Mine was lost in the chaos before Celestia restored order again."

"Celestia and Luna both fought in that fight," Nightmare Moon interrupted. "Nobody remembers Luna."

"Pardon me, my Queen," the other spoke, casting a curious glance sideways at her. "I'll try to pass the word on if I can."

"Continue your story," the Alicorn pressed.

"I was in mid-flight when the world tumbled," the stallion continued obediently. "Up was down, down was up, and my wings refused to lead me to safety. I... I hit a unicorn falling toward the new ground, and they hit my eye with their horn."

Nightmare Moon winced at the thought. "That sounds to me like you are lucky that horn did not pierce your skull."

"Fortunately it was a glancing blow, my Queen, but one that took my eye out with it," the other grumbled. "I sometimes think it might have been better if it had been angled differently."

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and gave a slow nod. "I go back to that fight every day, wondering if I could have avoided this stone somehow."

"Yes," the other agreed with a sigh which came from his very core. "If we had tilted our heads differently, if I would not have taken that delivery job, if Discord had been defeated a moment earlier, I might still have had my eye."

"We can't change the past," the Queen muttered to herself. "Nothing could have saved your eye, nor mine."

"I... guess not," the stallion agreed hesitantly, and Nightmare Moon opened her eyes again to look at him.

"Believe me, I have had the best minds from the magic academy look for a timetravel spell; there is none," she told him. "I would not be sitting here as I am if there had been one."

The white pegasus peered up at her, then down again a moment later, all energy seeming to drain from him. "Well, I flew here for naught, then."

There was a sting in her heart, and Nightmare Moon pushed up, bridged the distance between them, and sat down again right next to the other. "You came looking for a way to have your eye restored?"

"Yes, my Queen," the other sighed dejectedly.

"I saw the best doctors in the land in the first few days after the fight with my sister," Nightmare Moon stated gently. "I kept them around in case the magic academy would find a way around the gemstone's defenses. If you truly wish for your eye back, let me offer you their services, here and now."

The stallion's remaining eye opened up fully, and he stared back at his Queen in complete disbelief! "I... er... what?"

Nightmare Moon gave him a warm smile back. "It would prove their worth to me if they could help restore your sight. Your eyeball is missing as well as mine, and if ever this stone is going to come out, I will need them to do the same operation to me as I am offering they do to you now. Help prove to your Queen that these idiot doctors have a purpose, hm?"

The pegasus sat still in complete shock, only a light tremor of ears and eye muscles showing he was still alive. Nightmare Moon saw his remaining eye water up as realization set in, and soon the poor stallion was bawling at her hooves, thanking her profusely for the offer!

"Ah, er," she started, backing up a little at the display. "Pull yourself together, will you?"

A number of guards, freshly returned from crowd control after the recent panic spell, came running up to her, but she gave them a quick shake of her head. They positioned themselves close by just in case, but let the crying stallion be for now.

Nightmare Moon reached out awkwardly to tap the white pegasus on his blue mane. "There, there... If you're all done, you should follow me to the royal physicians."

The stallion tried his best to swallow his tears down, wiping his wet fur down against his cheeks with his wings as he tried to get up on his own four hooves again. "Y...yes, my Queen," he stammered, trying to find his composure again.

"I'm only doing this to verify the competence of my doctors," the Queen told him flatly, trying to help him over the worst of it. "Really, I should have tore their eyes out and have them put those back. You're just convenient. I don't even know your name."

There was a smile on the stallion's face at her sudden coolness. "Swiftwing, my Queen."

"Well, Swiftwing, your Queen is going to her royal physicians. Make sure you follow," Nightmare Moon continued in the same air, but gave a smile back as she set in motion toward where the guards were waiting. Her smile wavered and she looked sternly in their direction. "You four; wake up the damned doctors and prepare them for our arrival."

The four guards saluted, leaving just two remaining, and she pointed at them directly. "Get to my sister, 'Darkstar', and make sure she returns to her chambers and stays there until further notice. The last thing I need is for her to interfere right now."

Swiftwing fell in behind her, but she turned her head to look back across her flank. "I asked for you to walk with me, Swiftwing. Pick a side and walk up next to me."

The Pegasus needed no help picking a side, blinded as he was on his right, and soon he was positioned to his Queen's right side, able to look sideways at her from his remaining eye. "Thank you, my Queen. It is truly an honor," he spoke, having calmed down again.

"I already took another pony's eye out this month," Nightmare Moon spoke darkly, remembering the grave injustice she had done to Contrail - another Pegasus at that. "If I can restore yours it would even out, wouldn't it?"

Swiftwing's mood fell and he slowed down slightly. "Okay, that's... more than I needed to know, my Queen."

"It's the truth," she spoke back, not waiting for him. "You do want your eye back, don't you?"

The Pegasus hurried after her. "Yes, my Queen, I meant no disrespect!"

"You are a bothersome colt," she smirked, turning a corner to see six doctors waiting in line for her and her guest; all Unicorns, all dressed in white coats.

"This stallion is missing an eye," she started as she walked up to them, extending her wing over Swiftwing to point him out. "As fate would have it; the same eye your Queen is missing. Restore his sight, mend his wounds, and make sure to do your best job on it. It will show me I can trust you to restore my own when the time comes."

Her wing came down at an angle, behind Swiftwing, and she used it to nudge him forward to the row of doctors.

Swiftwing took a confident step forward, but then realized there were six ponies looking at him and slowed his pace considerably.

Nightmare Moon shook her head at the display. "Help him get into your office. Strap him down if you have to. But show me two working eyes on the stallion before the end of the day."

Swiftwing yelped and struggled as a pair of doctors grabbed him with their magic, and all of them quickly led him into the operating room while their Queen stood and watched.

"Let's hope they're as good as they said they are," she mused to herself, taking position on the other side of the hallway and sitting down to face the closed door. "With some luck I can have them restore Contrail and mine soon as well."