The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon
Part 23: The Foretold Half-Breed, Bandaid!

“We’re approaching the south border of Equestria,” Discord said, his eyes flicking from deepest black back over to their normal yellow and red.

Sombra looked up from the rather pleasant tea set on the magic carpet they were riding, studying the horizon. After the black stallion had refused to climb onto the ballista bolt and be relaunched, Discord had opted for something a bit more stable and flat. As Sombra watched, the craggy rocks and sand dunes were slowly crawling towards them. “You still haven’t told me much about this Queen Chrysalis of yours,” he said slowly. “I’ve only ever read about her,”

“All bad things, I’m sure,” Discord rolled his eyes. “Until recently, she’s flirted with the dark side of things. But the line blurs a bit when you’re starved and desperate.”

“I imagine so,” Sombra said carefully.

“You of all ponies know what it’s like to be a bit different, so I like to think your manners will be better than most,” Discord snorted, snapping his fingers for a pair of binoculars.

“Huhm?” Sombra set his teacup down.

“You’re a midnight black half-breed who prefers stallions, lived in the frozen north and suffers from guilt and abandonment issues,” Discord said without turning to look at him. Sombra scowled angrily, but said nothing. “You know, I could grab up your lover for you, if you wanted. Maybe that would make you feel better and less mopey.” He turned, palm upright. A flickering image of Lemon Lime stood there, one leg folded over the other.

“I live in exile,” Sombra said bitterly, looking to one side. “Please don’t make me think of him. He is better off at home where he belongs.”

“Suit yourself. It doesn’t hurt to be selfish now and again,” Discord vanished the image, then went back to his binoculars. “Oooh, yes, looks like the city is coming right along!” he said with interest.

Sombra craned his neck to see.

Discord’s magic carpet made a slow circle about the city so they could observe all the buildings and changelings teeming below them. Sure enough, a massive gathering of onion-shaped buildings was rising up out of the badlands. The blue river that ran alongside the structures was a bit dirty, but it looked like they were making concrete and such to one side of it. Though the city was only a few months old, excellent progress was being made by its motivated population. Roads had been conjured. Squat little bell-towers complete with mechanical clocks were being fitted. Neighborhoods with nice sod front yards were being unrolled. In the center of all the building, teeming masses was a titanic palace. Surrounded by scaffolding, painters, sanders and the like, it stretched towards the sky no smaller than the white Canterlot castle. It’s towers, buttresses and squat guard houses were certainly made in their own style, though.

“It’s very… brown,” said Sombra, looking about.

“What do you expect with the materials they’ve got?” Discord snorted, curling the edge of the carpet to steer it about. Soon, a squadron of changelings spotted them, buzzing into the sky. Sombra automatically let his changeling appendages flex up and out of his mane, as though to shield himself from assault. The group of five came close and Discord slowed his carpet, smirking in amusement.

“Skreeee!” one of them demanded, leveling a spear at them. Discord snapped his fingers and it turned into red rope candy, sagging in his hooves. The others brandished their weapons, but only ended up with a sucker mace, a gummy bear shield, and other sweets.

“Take us to your leader,” Discord said officially, chuckling at their squawking confusion. They seemed to understand him, and formed up to escort them to the ground. Something told them this strange puzzled-together creature was more than they could handle. The half-breed smelled funny, but he would have to be tolerated too.

Queen Chrysalis, at the moment, lived in a rather quaint two-bedroom home with a half-dozen loyal servants. The palace would be the absolute last thing that was to be finished in the city. Everyling had been told to finish the roads, the defensive walls, and the civilian homes first. They had lived in tunnels and squalor for too long, she’s said, they deserved their reward first and she could wait.

At the moment, she sat leaned over a conference table covered with her city designs. She’d had decades to calculate and come up with a rather elegant city design. Carefully placed fire brigades, schools, and military recruitment centers had to pay mind to civilian homes, cultural buildings, and the palace itself. She longed to finally live in the palace she so well deserved, but her children came first. Grumbling, she settled herself on a long-pillow to think. Numbers and charts lay out before her, so she started scribbling distances between certain building types.

One of her servants, ever the worrier for her health, clambered onto her back. Laying his chin between her wing roots he purred loudly. Her muscles relaxed and she let out a little sigh of delight. This seemed to please him, so he stayed there to soothe her poor stressed body.

There was a knock at the door. “Who dares? I am working!” she demanded. Who would the guards stand aside for in the middle of her work day? She slowly stood and her purring servant grumbled, upset. She stroked his head twice, wandering forth and magicking the door open.
A black stallion stood in the doorway, changeling feelers sticking up out of his mane, and a pair of long fangs sticking down past his jawline. Chrysalis gaped in awe for a few long seconds. Mother’s prophecy came rushing back to her head. A… a half-breed! Just as foretold!

“Er,” the stallion said awkwardly, not daring to cross the threshold. He eyed her stature, very alicorn-like, and her crown. “Your Majesty,” he said. “I am Sombra, from the Crystal Empire. I’ve been brought along to seek a new home among your people since, erm, I am what I am.” He flick-a-flicked his antenna about. Throwing out his chest a bit, he continued, “I am highly educated, a powerful magician and inventor. If you would have me, I would obey to make my new home here… half-breed though I may be.” He lowered himself into a humble, formal bow.

Chrysalis’ mouth was dry. Her door! Mother had foretold the turning of the age in her favor upon the appearance of a half-breed pony-changeling and he’d just shown up at her door! Fighting down the ear-splitting squee of delight, the changeling queen composed herself at last. “Precious child,” she said, coming forward and taking his chin in her hoof. “Half-breed or no, you shall be welcome here.” She lifted him up, then rather intimately put an arm around him and pulled him to herself. She felt him tense, but he did not resist her. “Changelings do not turn away their own.”

“I erm,” even for a noble like Sombra, it was a little overwhelming to stand before a Queen so different than Princess Cadence. “I also come bearing good news for you.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis was still trying to contain her jitters. The prophecy! It was early! The city of metal and glass had not happened, for the future was not set in stone, but this half-breed had emerged nonetheless. His coming foretold the beginning of a new age! The age of the changeling! Of Queen Chrysalis ruling from the top! Eeee! “Pray tell?” she managed somewhat calmly. The flick of her wings managed to dismiss some of the boiling energy inside herself.

“Your brother is here as well. He’s waiting to see you outside,” Sombra gestured.

“My brother?” Chrysalis cocked her head at him with a frown. “My brother lays in confinement in Canterlot, cursed by Celestia no less.”

“Not anymore-r-r-r-re!” A melodic voice called from the courtyard outside. Chrysalis almost knocked Sombra down as she shouldered past him. The door slammed against the wall as she galloped past the guards and out into the sunlight. She gaped at him.

“Discord…?” she whispered, eyes wide. “Is… is it really…?”

“It is, baby sister,” he snapped his fingers. Grass rushed up about the courtyard out of the hot, dry dirt. Flowers exploded into bloom. Vines rushed up the walls, pregnant with wine grapes. Sunflowers blasted open and rushed to their mightiest heights. Birds made of wood tweeted, flapping about and pecking at her guards. “Ta’dahhh.” He said, posing for her.

“Big brother!” Chrysalis rushed forward and embraced him with all her might. “Ah! You’ve come home! You’ve come home at last!”

“That’s right.” He said, digging his claws into her shoulders. Hunching down at last to hug her properly, he cupped the back of her head. The earnest, charging hug left everyling within three hundred yards or so tingling and prickly without knowing why. Someling was certainly happy! A few of them scratched, jittering as though in pent-up joy.

Sombra stood in the doorway, watching the spectacle. When at last brother and sister parted, they turned to him. So it was true. He was the god of chaos, child of Faust, and so on and so forth. If Chrysalis recognized him, then it was very true. He touched the amulet around his neck, wondering what he’d gotten himself into.

“Wine!” Chrysalis called. “Wine and pillows for my brother and his friend here!” No changling present needed solid food, but certain stocks were kept just in case a different species visited.

“You’re too kind!” Discord chuckled as his sister clung to his arm and escorted him inside. “I’m sure you’ll want to hear all about my escape, haha. Well it’s partially thanks to Sombra here! Let me tell you,“ his voice faded as they went inside.

Sombra stood in the courtyard, eyeing all the rather alien-looking flowers, strange wooden birds and the like. One of the changelings was beating back the weeds with his spear, skree-ing obscenities for all the stickers that were clinging to his person. The amulet tink-a-link’d around his neck. It may have been Discord’s symbol, but it’s value was towards Lemon Lime. He did not trust these strange new gods. Something wasn’t right. Frowning a but sulkily, he tried not to think of his lost love and turned to go inside and join them.

=-=-=-=-=-=

“Paint is actually of pretty high value right now,” Chrysalis said conversationally, gesturing to all the workers milling about in the street. They stopped to let a gaggle of larva run by with their painted mud ball. A matriarch with her egg sacs wandered by too, waving merrily to the royalty as she went. Chrysalis watched her go, then gestured that they keep going.

“It is very impressive. It’s nice to see your lot finally come into their own,” Discord said. He stopped to admire jagged design that was being painted onto a nearby house. The Changeling that was hovering there with brush and pail flew back, studied his work, then flew up close to dab at it some more. He only seemed satisfied if it was just so. “They seem to be working hard.”

“They always have been hard workers,” sniffed Chrysalis. “This is their just reward.”

“Indeed,” Sombra said, looking around. “I’ve not seen such a frenzy of construction in a long time.”

“Everyling was given a templet for a home or building. The city is built, for the most part. About two thirds of them are decorating how they please now. Thusly all the painting and colors and designs. Everyling has an idea for what makes their own home beautiful,” Chrysalis smiled proudly. They passed another changeling who had a wheel barrel full of geodes. He puzzled over one, then broke it with a zap of his horn. Delighted at the dark purple crystals inside, he placed it at random in his little front yard to reflect the light of the sun.

The group passed a few streets, flanked by royal guards as they talked. When they reached the water’s edge Chrysalis sat to watch it burble by, then settled onto her chest to fold her hooves over each other. “I’m proud of you,” Discord said, touching her back. “You’ve done very well for yourself, I think.” He made a light gesture. A rock thrust itself from the earth and molded into a cup like clay. He dipped it into the waters so it could be cleaned. “And you still put them first, just like you always have. It’s admirable. I can’t say I would if I were in charge.” He smiled over at her as Sombra sat nearby, within earshot. He filled his stone cup with water, taking a few swallows before passing it to her.

Chrysalis took it, turning the cup so her lips would touch where his had, and took a swallow as well. Afterward, the cup morphed into a dove and flew away. She chuckled in delight. “Sombra!” she was finally settled and content enough to address him again. “Tell me, what brought you into such exile, all the way from the Crystal Empire? Did you kill somepony for touching your mare or something?”

Sombra pushed a pebble about with a hoof, mumbling to himself. He looked over at her with a rather sad expression. “I almost punched a hole in the atmosphere with a weather machine, killing everypony on the planet.”

There was a short silence, “You don’t say,” Chrysalis said. “Well I can see why Cadence would banish you then.”

“The Princess was right to be rid of me,” the black stallion said miserably. “So here I am at the end of the world, relying on others for charity.” Even in all his silver finery that Discord had given him, he looked rather pathetic as he said it.

“World’s end indeed…” Sombra had meant geographically, but Chrysalis did not. She found herself smirking, ever so slightly. “Well I won’t press the issue. You were cast out of house and home, that is punishment enough for whatever you did.” She stood and went to touch his shoulder. Discord watched, a perfectly impish smile on one side of his snaggle-toothed face. Chrysalis had caught on just as he knew she would. She wasn’t short-sighted like Nightmare.

“Please, do not think my a leper or an invalid,” Sombra said seriously, turning to face her. “Anything, everything you would ask of me, ask it. Taking me in like this after what I’ve done is beyond charity. A new home is a gift.” He leaned and kissed her hoof in thanks.

Sombra’s gaze flicked over at Discord, smile widening. This was going so well! If not for Discord he would’ve still been a wandering vagabond. “Do you promise to obey me as everyling else does?”

He nodded, “I swear.”

“Do you promise to learn the changeling ways, and integrate into our society?”

He nodded again, “I will.”

“Learn our language? Our culture and history?”

He smiled, “For this new chance at a prosperous life, I will.”

“Good,” Queen Chrysalis drew herself up to her full height, taking him by the temples. She kissed his forehead, blessing him. “Guard,” Chrysalis smiled, turning with all her teeth exposed. “Find our archive chambers in the old hive tunnels and have some citizenship papers drawn up for our new friend.” Sombra beamed despite himself, straightening. “In the meantime, I already know what I want from you, Lord Sombra.”

“Oh?” he said.

“The changeling race has lived underground for a very, very long time,” she turned and gestured to a very tall building on the edge of the city. It was a spiraling, imposing looking tower encrusted with badlands crystals and reflective mirrors. “I want you to build an astronomy dome on that tower there, and study the sky as you did with your weather machine in the Crystal Empire.”

“You do?” he said.

“My sister Nightmare just rearranged the stars. The sky is strange to changelings as is. I leave it to you to make it… friendlier.” Chrysalis tasked him.

“I’ll do my very best… my Queen,” he added, bowing to her with a smile. His red eyes glittered at the possibility of a new lab, new machinery, new tools to work with.

“Now toddle. My brother and I have much to discuss. Take a few of my guards with you so everyling will know you’re in charge and obey you,” Chrysalis told him. She watched him go, smiling and filled with purpose. She smiled after him, then resettled at the water’s edge to soak her tired hooves.

“How long before you ask him to rebuild his weather machine?” Discord said, leaning on an elbow to smirk at her. “I saw that little sparkle in your eye.”

“Oh a few months at least. Let his loyalty and drive for his new Queen build for a bit. Perhaps fill his bedroom with foreign mares to have a few more half-breeds like himself.”

“He’s gay.”

“He’s gay?” Chrysalis choked a little. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“Pity.”

“Don’t suffer a stallion his own tastes.” Discord chided.

“It’s a waste of good genes, you see how gorgeous he is.” Chrysalis grumbled, stirring the cool waters with a hoof. “Even by changeling standards.” She added. Discord rolled his eyes. “Has he some long lost beau, then?”

“Of course he does,” Discord extended a palm, showing her a ghostly image of Lemon Lime. The green crystal pony was a slender, handsome thing, but otherwise looked uninteresting.

“I don’t see the appeal,” Chrysalis said, leaning to see him from different angles.

“Looks and prowess aren’t everything to look for in a companion. Perhaps if you’d ever married you would know that.” Discord said, sticking his forked tongue out at her.

“I seem to recall you proposing to me, some eons ago, brother,” Chrysalis quipped.

“I was only two hundred years old, and you hadn’t grown a tail yet,” he grumbled, remembering the era in the far, far past. “So sorry if my hormones started earlier than yours.” She threw her head back and laughed, kissing his cheek affectionately.

“By the way,” Chrysalis said when she was sure Sombra was long gone. “What did you do with Celestia? You escaped your prison, I don’t imagine you left Canterlot unscathed.”

“Oh I just left her where she put me,” he said innocently. “When I’m done telling Cadence and yourself about Mountain Blood, her prison will break.”

“Mountain Blood…? Oh, Celestia’s late husband,” Chrysalis touched her chin to remember. “What about him?”

“Well, you see…”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mountain Blood’s sweet embrace.

Being hit in the face with a two by four.

Laughing among friends and wine.

A shadowy stallion trying to force himself upon her.

A gorgeous sunrise.

A foal dying of illness in her arms.

A hundred-year peace treaty.

Watching a stallion being beheaded before a crowd.

Celestia stood paralyzed in her own memories in the center of the hedge maze. The black ball of chaos magic had long since spat her out. Now it was a massive, encapsulating dome over the maze itself. Nopony dared enter. Celestia stood among soft grasses of the maze’s center, an expression of pure horror frozen on her face. Now and then she would gasp, or twitch a little, but otherwise stood as still as a statue.

A griffon king gloating over a slain diplomat.

Enjoying the serenity of an apple orchard in spring bloom.

Hanging the moon-worshipping ‘Luna-tics’ that had tried to burn down Canterlot after Nightie’s exile.

Losing her virginity to a giggly friend at a harvest festival.

Exploding a pedophile from the inside out once he’d finally been caught.

An eight hour bubble bath complete with harp-player and bite-size cheesecake squares.

All of them were real. All of them had happened at one point or another in the past. Celestia was seeing the world as Discord could. More aware of time and space than anypony else could ever fathom. All time, all space, was constant and flowing and shifting all around her. She twitched, let out a little whimper, then coughed twice. Everything was simultaneous, and yet in motion. One thing after another. Wobbling about in a constant cocktail birth and death, joy and sorrow, sunrises and night times eternal. Was this how Discord saw the world? With Mother’s eyes? Quivering where she stood Celestia could only pray somepony would save her soon. It had been several days already.

The agony of childbirth.

The thrill of orgasm.

The mystery of exploration.

The disappointment of failure.

The high rise of the palace.

The depths of her darkest dungeons.

Sh-she could only take so much more this. She tried to steel herself. But there was little to be done when one’s mind was gripped in chaos magic.

=-=-=-=-=--=

“And… there,” Nightmare said, frowning up at the sun. “Is that right? Is that where it goes?” she asked the guard next to her, who cocked his head. “It looks okay to me.” Sol, the spirit residing in the sun, fussed. Nightmare ignored him. They’d been squabbling for the past five days about his rising and setting schedules. Only Celestia was in tune with him, and she was on ‘sabbatical’ in the hedge maze of the palace to ‘rework the flow of her kharma and Faust-given divine magics.’ That was the official word, anyway. Anypony that whispered of Discord was silenced and jailed for the moment. Nightmare did not want a panic in the very seat of power of Equestria.

Discord had promised only a very brief imprisonment. Hopefully he would be a bit quicker running from the Southern Badlands to the Crystal Empire. Then Celestia’s prison would be undone. Discord was nothing if not honest among his siblings… most of the time.

Bandaid touched Nightmare’s shoulder and smiled encouragingly. “It looks good to me!” he said. “Let’s go inside, it’s bed time for us night ponies anyway, right?”

“Right,” Nightmare said wearily. She looked over at the tinted, black-glass sort of dome that had settled over the majority of the Royal gardens. She yearned to go rescue Celestia, but she did not dare cross her brother and his chaotic magicks. “We should rest.”

End of Part 23