The two mares advanced through the maze of tunnels to reach the hive, with Chrysalis leading Nightmare Moon on a different, more convoluted path than the one Chitin had taken. She was taking several corridors, going through the maze they built to disorient intruders. Soon, they reached the northern section of the hive, which served merely to be a decoy. Nightmare Moon followed Chrysalis in nervous silence. After a long walk and many intersections, they arrived in an empty room lit by some large cocoons from which greenish light emanated.

Aglowing stood there, waiting as Chitin had asked her to. When she saw her mother, she rushed towards her, but stopped when she saw the alicorn following her.

Chrysalis reassured her with a cheek-to-cheek caress. "Aglowing, my love, I'd like to introduce you to someone who would like to talk to you."

Aglowing looked at Nightmare Moon with childish curiosity. "I know her!" she chirped proudly.

The two queens were surprised by the child's sudden assertion, glancing at each other. . "Really?" asked Chrysalis.

"Yes!" she said. "All black, all tall! She's Sweet Dreams’ queen!"

It was the moment of truth. Reluctantly, Nightmare Moon took a deep breath. "I am Sweet Dreams, Aglowing Shell."

"Wrong! Sweet Dreams is a drone. You're tall and beautiful like my mother. You can't be her," the child argued.

Chrysalis remained silent. She stood by her child's side, offering a reassuring smile when their eyes met.

This situation could have lasted an eternity. Thinking that a picture was worth a thousand words, Nightmare Moon took on the appearance of a little blackback changeling drone.

"Sweet Dreams! So it was really you? I didn't recognize you!" She moved to greet her, but her mother stopped her. With a few sounds, she asked her to listen to what their guest had to say.

Nightmare Moon didn't dare to look the child in the eyes anymore, for fear of reading a feeling of betrayal, anger, or hatred. "I assure you, it's me. However, Sweet Dreams is a fake name. I didn't want you to know who I really am. For the past three months, I've been watching over you without you knowing it. I've been sneaking into your dreams to chase away the nightmares you're having because of me." She took a breath to find the strength to carry on. "I am Nightmare Moon, Queen of the Bat ponies, Princess of the Night, and I'm the one who attacked your mother's hive. It's my fault that so many changelings died."

There was silence in the room, soon broken by sobs and little hiccups. Aglowing Shell couldn't accept what she had just heard. The one she was beginning to appreciate a little more with each dawn was also the one that had caused the present desolation of the hive? Her little heart was pounding, tears clouding her sulphur and emerald eyes. All her senses were racing; she was losing her grip on reality, her horn crackling with energy. Fortunately, Chrysalis came to the rescue of her child, sharing her pain, offering her a cheek to cry upon.

Nightmare Moon was uncomfortable with this spectacle. She, who wished to be Celestia’s equal—who was adored by her subjects and enjoyed her sun— was far from achieving such results. "No doubt this was the lot of those who shed blood to achieve their ends," she thought. She sighed, accepting this fatality. "I regret my actions. I know there are no words that can erase what I have done. I pray to the stars of the Night that you may hate me as little as possible. I shouldn't have approached you; it was a mistake on my part. I wish you a long and happy life, Aglowing Shell. I'm sorry." She would have liked to leave the room with the royalness that was hers, but she felt so miserable that she preferred to take the primary form of the Tantabus. Without a word, the little cloud of starry dark matter left the room.

Chrysalis pondered the consequences of the predictable outcome of this encounter. Two options were open to her. Time was running out. She had to get straight to the point. So, she started talking to her daughter in their native language. It took a long time before the child looked her mother in the eye and finally answered her. The queen looked at her daughter and resumed a short monologue that calmed the child and made her pensive before answering. Chrysalis looked into the child's eyes and asked her a question before offering her a soft and tender maternal kiss to give her strength. Then, she highlighted a fact that surprised the child, who then looked at the door through which Nightmare Moon had fled before looking at her mother, hesitant. A few clicks were enough to overcome this hesitation. Aglowing ran away in pursuit of Nightmare Moon. Left alone, Chrysalis clicked her tongue. A few seconds later, Chitin appeared.

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"My Queen?" the warrior replied.

"If anything should ever happen to me, for the sake of my daughter, I want you to put your hatred aside and take my daughter to Nightmare Moon and ask for her protection," Chrysalis answered with a few clicks.

"I am devoted to you, my Queen. This order I would perform selflessly, but may you help me to understand why Nightmare Moon in particular?"

Chrysalis had an amused smile. "At first glance, everything suggests that Nightmare Moon would be the worst choice to seek protection after what she did to my hive. But if this irretrievable egomaniac as old as Equestria is capable of putting aside her resentment and pride to ask the filly who put her in her place for advice, I'm willing to bet my life that she will protect my daughter as if she were the most beautiful and precious star of Her night. In return, my daughter will feed off this friendship and become a powerful successor I can be proud of as I watch her from above."

Chitin found nothing to add to that. A noise in the distance intrigued the warrior. "Is that the thunder I hear?"

Nightmare Moon had just arrived at the entrance of the tunnel. Without realising it, shehad unleashed a torrential rain on the Badlands. She recomposed herself, the rain stopping as she calmed down. She set off north, devastated.

"Sweet Dreams!" Aglowing Shell cried out in anguish, her voice distant.

Nightmare Moon paused. Part of her wanted to answer this call, but, deep down, she was afraid to hear what Aglowing had to say. She preferred to turn a deaf ear and continue on her way.

"Sweet Dreams, please wait for me," the child begged.

Nightmare Moon was tempted to do so, but denied herself the hope of a happy ending.

Aglowing could see that she was getting nowhere. Although she was running as fast as she could, she could see that she was falling behind. In panic, in tears, she tried to think of anything that could make herself heard. Suddenly, she remembered something Pepper said. With her mind working as fast as her little hooves, she finally found something to please her ear. "Moony!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Nightmare Moon froze, her pride stung by the diminutive—and, at the same time, unable to ignore the child's calls any longer. She regained her physical appearance, but sat with her back to the child, wings spread. She turned her head to look at the little changeling with an angry eye. "My name is Nightmare Moon," she said with a growl.

Aglowing Shell stopped dead in her tracks, skating a little on the clay soil. "I know, but you weren't answering my calls. Then I remembered something Pepper said. She said she gives a nickname to those she likes, so since Nightmare Moon's too long, I thought... Moony would be a good way to say I like you."

Nightmare Moon was stung by her words. Yet she remained impassive. "How could you still like me now that you know what I've done, little queen," the alicorn said with an icy tone.

"Mother told me, after you left, that we are the changelings. We are the swarm. We adapt, whatever happens. We do not forget the past, but we do not remain chained to it. Yeah, what you did to my hive is ugly. Yes, you lied to me. But you decided to be honest instead of keep lying to me. Pepper said, ‘Honesty in words, Loyalty in decisions. Those are criteria for a true friend.’ Mother said you gave me all these dreams to keep me smiling. ‘Laughter on the lips’ is another criteria."

Nightmare Moon was speechless in the face of this. As she listened to the little changeling, she thought back to the time when Celestia and Luna discovered the elements of harmony. Celestia possessed kindness, generosity, and magic. Luna had honesty, loyalty, and laughter. It gave her a strange feeling to hear a child claim that Nightmare Moon represented these same three elements—she, who was the embodiment of all of Luna's darkness.

Faced with this silence, the young hybrid continued, "Then she said, if I don't catch you, I'll lose you forever." Tears clouded her vision. "And I don't want to lose my friend, Moony. So please don't go. I don't care how weak you are,. I like you just the way you are."

"I'm not weak," Nightmare Moon slammed coldly as she glared at the child.

"Mother says you're just a weakling to apologise, but it's okay. I like you anyway," Aglowing said shyly.

In keeping with Nightmare Moon’s mood, lightning struck the highest mounds of the badlands, frightening the little changeling. The alicorn calmed down and forced the clouds to turn white by her will alone. She approached with a majestic step, lowering her wings to the height of her flanks, offered a cheek-to-cheek caress to Aglowing. "I have to go and have a word with your mother. As for the rest,—I told you I'm never far away." With those words, she began to walk towards the hive. That's when she saw Chitin and Chrysalis—the latter waving her hoof, mocking her. "Chry-sa-liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!" Nightmare Moon shouted, charging towards her.

Aglowing was left behind, but Chitin came to offer her a foreleg to nestle against. She looked up at the sky. The two queens were shooting at each other, offering green and blue tints to the clouds. "What are they doing?" Aglowing asked.

Chitin watched the duel for a moment as they returned to the tunnel. "They're showing feelings for each other that might somehow be considered friendly, in a way that's acceptable to us monsters," the warrior explained. As the changeling carried the child into the lightless tunnels, her horn crackled briefly with yellow and green energy, the sound of the cracklings reverberating in the tunnels.