Nightmare Moon stood atop the highest tower of Canterlot Castle and surveyed her realm. It was everything she'd wanted. The dark perfection of her night had lasted for more than a year now. Ponies lived beneath the moon and stars, never seeing the sun. She ruled them utterly, her every whim was swiftly, even eagerly obeyed. She was surrounded by ponies who groveled at her feet, who sang her praises, who told her everything she'd always wanted to hear.

It wasn't enough.

That knowledge gnawed inside her, an empty, hollow ache.

Ponies obeyed her. Ponies worshiped her. Ponies wrote poems to her eyes and entire operas in her honor.

But they did not love her.

Not the way she wanted. Not the way they had loved her sister. She snarled, her mane and tail whipping agitatedly around her at the thought of how ponies still fawned over Celestia. She heard that hated name whispered all too often, when she floated as a dark mist outside the windows of unsuspecting ponies. At first she had ordered such blasphemers dragged out and arrested, yet soon it became evident that she could not possibly arrest all the ponies who wished for her sister's return. If she did, she would shortly have very few citizens left. Those who remained would be only the most self-serving of toadies, the ones who had gained power and prestige by shamelessly kissing her hooves, but who most certainly did not love her at all. She tolerated them, for their praises were still sweet to her ears, but they were like candy, sweetness without substance, unable to sustain.

A few of her admirers were genuine, she had to admit that. But oh so precious few. And deep inside she was starting to wonder if those few would not have still admired her were the sun yet shining in the sky...

She shook off that traitorous thought. She might not have love, but she had power, and fear, and she would not give those up. They had their own rewards. Indeed, sometimes fear could be almost as good as love. The sight of an enemy cringing in terror at her feet was a good one. She had seen it many times over the past year and her enjoyment of it only grew.

"Your Majesty?"

Nightmare Moon turned at the soft, respectful voice to see one of her thestral guards standing behind her. He bowed low, one forefoot outstretched, the other folded, his head lowered to almost touch the floor.

"Rise," she commanded.

"Thank you, your Majesty." He stood at formal attention.

"What news do you bring?"

"We have captured a strange creature, Majesty. It was slipping into the city wearing the shape of a pony, but was caught by our detection spells. It nearly escaped, it is quite magically strong, but it did not seem to expect discovery, and we eventually managed to restrain it. We have never seen a creature like it."

"Interesting. Where is it now?"

"In the high security dungeon, awaiting your decision as to its fate, your Majesty."

"Take me to it."

"Yes, your Majesty." The guard bowed again, then turned and led Nightmare Moon towards the dungeons. It was a long trip from the highest point in Canterlot down to the caverns deep beneath the castle. The upper floors of the castle were largely silent. The dungeons however, echoed with the forlorn cries of those who had not quite broken completely. Nightmare Moon closed her eyes for a moment as she stepped into the cold, stone-walled space and savored the sound.

The guard waited while she did, then continued to lead her through the main dungeons and down further to the high security dungeon, where magical wards prevented any possibility of escape. The cells here were not as crowded; few ponies required such measures. Nightmare Moon smiled faintly as she passed one cell that contained additional wards on top of the normal precautions. A pink alicorn lay listlessly within. Cadance, the alicorn of love, whom the Nightmare hated almost as much as the alicorn of the sun, lifted her head to watch her pass, but said nothing. Nightmare Moon had not broken her yet, but she was starting to bend a bit.

Nightmare Moon continued, finally halting at a cell three doors down from the one occupied by Cadance.

"Here is the creature, your Majesty."

Nightmare Moon's eyes widened as she looked into the cell and saw a familiar pink alicorn. The pony standing in the center of the cell, wrapped in magical bonds and glaring at her defiantly, could not possibly be the alicorn of love. Yet there she was, disgustingly pink, impossible to mistake.

"What mockery is this?" snapped the Nightmare.

The alicorn sneered at her and did not answer.

"It is a shape-changer of some kind, your Majesty. We could not dispel its disguise, but the wards clearly showed that the creature is no pony."

"I see." Nightmare Moon's dragon-like eyes narrowed. Her horn began to glow with a deep blue light. She cast the strongest dispelling magic she could think of on the impostor. The magical bonds holding her dissolved like water. The disguise she wore, surprisingly, held for a long moment, then shattered. Pink shards of magic flew away from her, revealing a very different creature beneath.

It was larger, somehow, than it had been. In fact, it was as tall as the Nightmare herself. It was nearly as dark too, its body a deep charcoal that just avoided being black. It was not covered in soft hide, though, but rather in smooth chitin, like an insect. It had something on its back that might be wing-cases, as green and iridescent as any beetle's. The wings that sprang from them were filmy and pale blue. A long sweep of chitin in faded turquoise imitated a mane, and a crooked horn jutted up from the creature's brow.

Nightmare Moon recognized it with a certain amount of surprise. It was a changeling. She had not seen one in far more than a thousand years. She had thought them extinct, in fact, after a long-ago war. Yet here was not only a changeling, but a changeling queen.

The creature tossed its head and favored Nightmare Moon with a sneer. "So. You are the queen of these ponies. You are as pitiful and flawed as your subjects, I see."

"Do not try my patience, changeling," snapped Nightmare Moon. "You are the prisoner here."

"For now, yes."

"For as long as I wish it so!"

The changeling laughed. "You are weak, and a fool. I was within inches of beginning your downfall. It was only a bit of ill luck that made me your prisoner."

Nightmare Moon stomped her hoof. "Cease speaking such nonsense. You are no threat to me."

"Am I not? Well, perhaps not now." The changeling gave her a long-fanged grin. "But had I only reached Shining Armor, and gained access to his love, ah then, well... within a week's time I would be upon your throne and you would be here."

"You would ally yourself with that pathetic would-be knight? His rebellion is nearly crushed already. You truly are a fool."

"Oh no. I wouldn't ally with him, I would use him. If you know what I am, then you know what I feed on. He loves his dear Cadance with a pure and true love. With such love I could level this mountain. Not that you would know anything of love."

"Do not mock me, creature!" Nightmare Moon's eyes flashed with rage, her ears pinned back, her fangs bared. "I can have you killed in an instant!"

"So kill me," sneered the changeling. "Another queen will take my place."

"I will kill your entire pathetic race, as I should have done centuries ago!"

The changeling snorted. "I would like to see you try. I doubt you could even find my hive, let alone all my disguised children, out among your delicious little ponies, feeding unseen. They grow fat on the love that you will never taste. I can feel how empty you are, Nightmare Moon. I can taste the hunger and the need that gnaws inside your gut. You want love, but whatever tiny scraps of it you manage to gather are not enough, never enough."

"CEASE THIS NONSENSE!" bellowed the Nightmare. Dark magic rolled from her in waves, pressing the thestral guard against the wall, and forcing the changeling queen to her knees. In her rage, Nightmare Moon began to summon a killing spell, to destroy the creature that had dared to mock her so.

"Go on, kill me!" shouted the changeling, her head thrown back in peals of mad laughter. "Destroy me so that one of my sisters may take my place and bring down ruin on your head!"

With a snarl Nightmare Moon aborted the spell. She knew enough to know that the changeling would indeed be replaced as queen as soon as she was slain. Right now, Nightmare effectively held an entire hive captive. Killing the creature would trade a captive queen that might be used for a free one who would be an implacable enemy. Still, she wanted to crush the thing like the insect that it was. She lashed out, her magic throwing the changeling across the cell. "You mock me at your peril, but I am not a fool, changeling. You are my prisoner, and you will remain my prisoner. If your hive acts against me, you will suffer, and they will suffer too."

The changeling picked herself up. There was a drop of green blood at the corner of her mouth, but the sneer was still on her lips. "So, you are not entirely a fool. Pity. But I suppose I do not mind living. I will be free of you soon enough, though, one way or another."

"We shall see about that," snapped Nightmare Moon. She stalked away from the cell, but the echoes of the changeling's laughter followed after her for a very long time.

Author's Note

Welcome to my latest bit of erotica. (I swear, I am still writing non-porn too, but I've just been having too much fun finally finishing and releasing ages worth of old clopfics. And for some strange reason most of my commissions are for clopfics too, I have no idea why! )

This story will release a chapter a day until it's completed, so stick around, the good stuff will be here soon.

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