//------------------------------// // Managing Domestic Affairs // Story: Imperial Affairs // by The Sound of Loneliness //------------------------------// Nightmare Moon audibly groaned and rubbed her paining forehead. “Luna, can you, please, stop whining at least while I am at the desk? I am trying to work here!” “Oh, my apologies! You are such a busy little fiend, always working on something to further your interests. And I wouldn’t want to interfere, of course not!” Luna being angry or, more accurately, moody wasn’t quite new. Some things never change, no matter how old they become. And to Nightmare Moon having a millennia-old, fretful, foal, buzzing in her head for their every waking moment together, very much got old all the way back on the moon. “Luna, what did I do to draw your animosity this time?” Nightmare Moon asked, still trying to cope with her accumulated frustration, even though Luna, without a doubt, could feel it herself. Them sharing a body ensured that. “I did everything you wanted. I banned execution as a form of judicial punishment. I didn’t jail any of your sister’s remaining supporters. Stars, I even abolished censorship as the official practice, solely because you wanted it that way! I also sent Rarity to help Miss Dawn around her own office! Because you won’t cease tantalizing both of us over how the only thing she dreams in her sleep is quitting the job! Will you, please, let me have some peace? Thanks a lot.” “After all you've done you still have the nerve to ask!” Nightmare Moon louringly, but hardly surprisingly, found Luna’s indignation rising even further, “You stole my body! You killed thousands of my people and you took my sister from me!” Nightmare Moon gave away a tired sigh, “You well remember how miserable the moon was! A wonderful tool for your revenge it made, now didn’t it?” “Luna, we talked about this. This was the only way not resulting in her death. I simply couldn’t allow her to stay! Her mere presence was a threat to the Empire’s stability! Her ponies would’ve never accepted us ruling them if she was still here! Do you want back to the moon?” Luna sent a shiver down their body’s spine. Nightmare Moon pressed the advantage: “You are correct on one thing, Luna. I remember what it’s like up there and I don’t intend to go back. I don’t think you want it either.” Nightmare Moon sensed she won this exchange, but Luna wasn’t done yet. “And what of all the ponies you’ve killed? Are you going to tell me now I wanted this too?” Nightmare Moon reluctantly stood up from her desk, blew a snort and begun slowly pacing around her quarters. Sadly, the formation of 3 new tank divisions would have to wait for her at the desk for now. This foal needed her time just as badly... and a lot more of her patience. “Don’t you blame me now, Luna! We had a deal there!” Nightmare Moon no longer bothered to hold back her irritation, “You had a problem you couldn’t handle! I offered my help in exchange for some control over our body! I could have taken it whenever I so pleased, but I only did after asking you, didn’t I? I never forced anything on you! I allowed you to have your way, even that time when you nearly doomed Equestria entirely with your amateurish “Tentabus”! Luckily, Twilight and her friends are a lot more capable problem solvers than you ever were!” Luna tensed upon the mention of her another failure. “I always was honest with you on my intentions. I told you I would resolve everything, but in my way!” Nightmare Moon interrupted her orderly circling around the room and walked up to the only window. “Look.” Nightmare Moon peered down on the Canterlot streets. Small crowds of ponies, often having members from all four tribes, were visible all around the city, lighting candles at memorials and sending papers lanterns to fly through the dark sky, “Today is the Night of Imperial Unity. I signed the order in front of you on the last day of the War. This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Your dream was for our lovely thestrals to be accepted by other ponies and live like they did before we were exiled. Well, here they are; celebrating with all their new friends. What else is it you want?” “Did I ask you to kill my ponies, you monster?” Nightmare Moon sighed again. Luna’s stubbornness was easily her most annoying trait, “For your damned empire you killed a few times more ponies than died from all wars in Equestria combined!” “And you are blaming me for it now? This is what you needed my help with in the first place, remember? I didn’t start the War! You did!” Luna hesitated before answering: “I asked you not to fan the war, I asked you to stop it! Thestral tribes ignored my pleas!” Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes and continued, though losing most of her venom. “And now it's their own fault? Luna, your naivety still staggers me, even to this night. You should’ve taken some pages from your sister’s book while you had a chance.” Nightmare Moon broke away from the window and approached the ornate tablemap featuring Equestria and all surrounding lands. A number of carved figures visualised both Imperial and foreign armies. It was time for a lesson. Perhaps, if the Empress educated her host a little on the matters of statecraft she would become less annoying. “Watch,” Nightmare Moon instructed and lifted a figure from the western side of the map, “This is a changeling. The insect-like creature that impersonates others and feeds of their love. A parasite. But can we blame it for having to feed of others to survive?” Luna didn’t answer. “I think no. Changelings didn’t choose to be this way. Even Chrysalis, as disgusting as she may be, only did what she had to so that her children won’t starve. I can blame no mother for feeding her foals. We can’t blame them for simply trying to live, Luna. Even if it makes them our mortal enemies.” Nightmare Moon put the changeling figure back on the table and lifted a different one, this time, from Equestria. “And here is a thestral. They are fierce, distrustful and somewhat uncouth isolationists. They all have to be. After we were sent to the moon, Celestia’s ponies have driven them deep into the mountains and then simply returned to their usual lives; trying to forget there ever was any forth tribe. With no farmland to speak of and the rest of ponykind refusing to trade with them, they had to find other ways of getting what they need. They mostly got on by stealing, raiding and smuggling. With only themselves to rely on and everyone else being their enemy, they learned to fiercely protect their own and to be wary of the outsiders.” Nightmare Moon then untied the small, velvet bag and levitated a regular pony figure out of it. Nightmare Moon then turned the pony around and placed it on the table, to oppose the thestral. “And then come you, Luna. A long lost Princess of the Night returning to tell them it was time to forget their grudges and to be accepted by the rest of Equestria in peace. Some of them had a feeling it was too good to be true; but they trusted you, Luna, so they agreed to your plan. The only problem was that you forgot to ask your other ponies for their opinions.” Numerous figures from all around Equestria moved to surround the lonely thestral. “What did you expect would happen?” Nightmare Moon’s tone became openly mocking, “The dreaded Nightmare Moon followers, brigands, thieves and scarecrows were now walking on the same very streets they used to raid in days past. While you were playing with laws and giving passionate speeches, your other ponies were beating, jailing and all but killing thestrals for as much as finding them around at times.” Nightmare Moon chuckled, “I wonder what Twilight would say of her precious friendship now.” Continuing her show, Nightmare Moon lifted two of the ponies and turned them to face each other. “Who else could steal your bits if not that telltale bat on that side of the market? After all, this is what they do, right?” Nightmare Moon mockingly reminded Luna the words they once overheard at the Appleoosan market. The Empress, now tired of her play, knocked over the figurine congregation on the table. “And then you told them they shouldn’t be violent. That they must not defend themselves and should simply submit to the injustice your ponies were committing to them! Did you really expect them to obey such an order? Yet, things did not end there; worse yet, your speeches actually were convincing! Many of your ponies went on to protect their newly found friends, bringing whatever weapons they had with them. A single rifle or a rusty blade can’t do much damage, but then even whole military units refused to idly watch. It's your largest success, I suppose. They all swore to protect Equestria, and you made them see that bat wings didn't make thestrals any less Equestrian. Of course, they did not intend to use deadly force against the very people they were supposed to protect; but thestrals did not intend to sit put and let their own rot in captivity either.” Nightmare Moon smiled, “I didn’t start the War, Luna. You did. I made the only choice you left me with: I took a side.” A myriad of emotions kaleidoscoped through Luna’s mind. Nightmare Moon sensed denial, then anger, then it was horror and, finally, despair. “I cannot believe this,” Luna’s startled response finally arrived. “How… how could I be so blind? I failed everyone, again. Oh, sister. I am so sorry!” “Oh, Luna! But this is only natural!" Nightmare Moon eagerly kept pressing Luna’s weak spot. Time was for a little payback for the years of headache Luna gave her since the War, "Your sister was always the one with the brains in your family. She told you from the start this wasn’t a good idea. But you pressed on regardless and she, being a good sister as she is, stood out of your way. Apparently, she trusted you enough to let you pursue your dreams. Look where her mistake got us all now, Luna, isn’t this just delightful?” “E-empress?” Rarity’s stuttering voice broke the Empress away from enjoying her long awaited victory. Nightmare Moon’s eye turned to look at Rarity standing in the open doorway with a file labelled “top-secret”. “Ah, Rarity! Delightful to see you!-” Nightmare Moon quite genuinely smiled at her “-That must be the intelligence report I requested, you may leave it on the desk and be free for the rest of the night. I don’t think I’ll need you anymore for today.” A surprised guard picked out from the doorway, Nightmare Moon winked at him in response, which startled him even more; but he, nonetheless, disappeared again. No doubt he intended to tell the rest of the staff of the Empress’ unusually good mood this night. Rarity did as she was told, but instead of leaving she closed the door. “Empress, may I see Luna?” she approached. Rarity was visibly encouraged by Nightmare Moon’s warm welcome. Nightmare Moon, to Rarity’s dismay, allowed herself a small laugh at the request, but said no word and instead retreated further into Luna’s mind, allowing her to control her body again; and for it to decrease back to its original proportions and her other features to become recognizable again. This was going to be good, Luna did not waste a single moment. “R-rarity, thank you! Thank you for coming!” The Lunar Princess leapt to Rarity, pulling her into a desperate embrace, tears running in thick streams from her eyes. “W-why, of-course, darling. This is what I am here for.” Rarity found herself panicked by the sudden burst of the royal woe. “Thank y-you so much, R-rarity! Y-you are the only one who didn’t abandon me!” “There-there, my dear! This is no way an Emp… a Princess should behave! You are stronger than this. Just... hold on to me, everything will be alright again soon, you’ll see.” “Oh, Rarity! I am a Princess no longer! I bargained my crown away to pay for my own frailty! I failed in everything, Rarity! I failed my sister, I failed my dreams and I failed you all too, Rarity! You only have the Empress now and all of this is my fault! Rarity, I am so sorry!” Rarity feared this day would come, but... so soon? “The only thing I never fail at is crying. But I can’t do even that now! I don’t even have my own body anymore!” “O-oh, dear. Don’t be so harsh on yourself. Y-you did everything you could in your circumstance. Everything else was out of your hooves.” “There wouldn’t even be any circumstance if I wasn’t so useless at everything!” Rarity decided not to push further. Eventually, Luna's sobs quieted down. “Feeling a little better now, Princess?” Rarity cautiously asked. “Y-yes, Rarity. Thank you.” Luna pulled away from Rarity leaving her to inspect her wet uniform, “Rarity, how are the rest of your friends?” Luna asked out of nowhere. “I haven't heard anything from Twilight or anyone else, besides you, in years. Are they all alright?” Rarity felt her newly found hope instantly sinking. “Well…” Rarity awkwardly smiled. “Twilight is... ok. She is mostly occupied with her library these days.” “Good, at least something doesn’t change.” Luna wiped her eyes and even managed to smile a little. “And how are the others?” To Rarity, the question sounded like a knell. “Well… we don’t see Fluttershy often now, she’s having too much trouble looking after her critters, I think. Pinkie spends her time working at Sugarcube Corner, she says she couldn’t find a reason to party in recent times.” -Luna’s face was now gradually changing to the mask of horror, Rarity swallowed a lump- “And Rainbow Dash and Applejack, I can’t really say, they don’t take well my… service at the palace and Twilight refuses to tell me.” Luna had to lean on the table. "Princess, don't bla-" “What have I done!" Luna wept. "Rarity, I am so sorry!” The designer-mare watched in helpless horror as shivers travelled all over Luna’s body and thick drops fell on the blue carpet. But a moment later, the princess quieted down and looked back at Rarity with slitted eyes. “I thank you for bringing this matter to my attention, Rarity.” Rarity froze at place, neither her Empress' cold tone or her rapidly rising posture promised anything good, “I have a mission for you. You are to travel to Ponyville and get me Twilight.” “C-certainly, Empress. I shall ask when she has the time.” “Now!” Nightmare Moon rumbled. “Drag her here yourself, if you must, but get, her, before me!” Upon noticing her servant's paralysis, the Empress had to add: “Go!” “A-at once, Y-your Majesty!” she said before galloping away, barely remembering to open the door. Now to deal with Luna. “Don’t hurt Twilight! I beg you! She did nothing to foil you!” Luna cried out in the Empress’ head. But she only rolled her eyes. “Who do you take me for, Luna? Why would I hurt Twilight, of all our subjects? Sparkle needs to remember what is her role here. It seems, she tends to fall apathetic without anyone telling her what to do.” Nightmare Moon continued upon taking a deep breath to calm herself down a bit and closing the door again: “You can stop worrying this much. I made a promise I won’t hurt her, or any of her friends, remember? I sent Rarity for a reason. She will make sure this "Princess" won't do anything to force my hoof.” ”Thank you.” Nightmare Moon felt Luna's relief, she even relaxed ever so slightly, allowing the Empress to feel how tired the poor thing really was. Nightmare Moon stepped back to the window and peered at the ponies down below again. “Rarity is right, though.” Nightmare Moon started gently, surprising Luna. “You did all you could with the circumstances you had on your hooves back then. You messed up pretty badly, but you knew if you tried to sort it all out yourself you’ll make it even worse. So, you did the only good thing you could at the time: you gave away the crown you never wanted so your ponies could have a chance for a better future, even if through war. You are braver than your sister ever was, Luna. She never thought this was even possible, let alone tried it. She failed you, Luna, when she left you alone in the moment of need again. It's not the other way around.” “Look at them,” Nightmare Moon purred, still watching the ponies below. “The mortal enemies now all living together in one city, celebrating in peace and harmony, as friends. Isn’t war a beautiful thing, Luna?” To Luna's surprise, Nightmare's awe was genuine, she could feel it. “It brings destruction, yes; but through destruction it brings hope for restoration. It gives us all a chance to build something better from the ruins of our past failures. War allows for the most unthinkable dreams to become reality. Our subjects are wise, you should follow their example, Luna. Today they remember their friends now gone, whichever side they were on. But instead of mourning, they take a moment to appreciate the things their friends died for. Being happy for a friend is a lot better way to honour them.” Nightmare Moon allowed Luna to watch their ponies celebrating for a while. Gradually, tension left Luna, only leaving behind exhaustion. “All of this is thanks to you, Princess of the Night,” the black mare tenderly reminded for the last. Having calmed her host enough, Nightmare Moon was now ready to return to her work; but a sudden idea brought a little grin to her face. There was one more thing she could do for Luna’s peace tonight. “Luna?” Nightmare Moon asked verbally, as if Luna was standing there with her, “Would you like to cry for a while?” Having said that, she once again let Luna back at the reigns of her own body. Luna was too exhausted and overwhelmed to question the offer. She soon almost cried herself to sleep. “Yes, Luna, rest for now. I will finish everything in the morning. Sleep, and worry about nothing. I will take good care of our ponies for you, I promise.”