//------------------------------// // New Symbol // Story: Left Behind // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Nightmare Moon brought up the maps again whilst still within her sphere. She turned and twisted them all around and frowned. The location of Canterlot. The location of the Everfree forest. Even if it had vanished, she would have still appeared above it...So where was she? The alicorn pointed at the mayor. "You," she started. "Has this place ever been the home of a mighty forest? Or at least where your city is located." Sunny was quick to translate for him, and Moon found his new instincts to be quite pleasant. "Well...There are times that we find fossilized seeds for very old trees, some dating thousands of years ago." His ears folded and he drooped his head. "The botanists are obsessed with recovering them, so the workers can never do their jobs," he complained. "Really?" Moon started to think, letting her head start to heat up with activity. "Then I really did pop up above the Everfree forest." She cast a glance outside one of the temporary windows that let in moonlight from outside. "There were some small mountains near the Everfree, but not like this." She hummed. "Too many factors to take into account. The important aspect is that I awoke above the Everfree, but I should have still been tied to m...our old castle," she spat. "Well, I'm not sure what to say about your castle," the mayor sighed. The alicorn jolted to the mayor then Sunny, fury in her eyes. "I didn't tell you to translate that to him, you dolt!" she said as she slapped the young stallion on the back of the head. Sunny squeaked and covered his head. "I'm sorry! I just assumed you would want everything you said translated!" The mare put a hoof to her temples and shook her head in disappointment. "I can't believe you don't understand simple cues...Very well! I'm going to speak to your..." She chuckled. "King. I take it the others have left?" Sunny went to check and came back with a positive response. This time, the alicorn didn't have need of an artistic entry and simply jumped from above and landed upon the ground. "So, the terms of your vassalage," Nightmare Moon started. The queen's anger didn't go by unnoticed by the alicorn. She made a mental note to keep watch on that one, as there would likely be attempts on her life. Well, that would break some of the monotony during her reign, at least. Sunny took his time, making the situation awkward as Nightmare seethed. "About the resources you have at your disposal," Nightmare started. "You will continue to send them out to restore this castle to a functional state," she began. "The local military garrison will be converted to my own, personal cohort. They will be the beginning of my personal military that will stretch to every corner of Equestria!" She leaned forward. "And what about me?" the king asked. Nightmare Moon leaned in. "I have no intention of taking Equestria by force. You will remain in your position as a vassal, providing me with supplies when I demand them." The king looked at his wife gesture something with her wings and nodded. "And what if I refuse and declare war against you? You are but a single pony, and it looked like you were straining to open that portal. You can cast one pony in it, but can you cast others within?" Nightmare Moon stared at him with an unamused expression. "Theatrics amuse you that much? Should I just tear open the space before us and watch what you do when we're all pulled within?" she asked. She laughed. "I don't think I'll have to worry about anything, but you and your wife?" "Okay! Okay. I was just prodding you to see your reaction." "Yes, I'm sure." She took a deep breath. "As I was saying, I'm not interested in taking over Equestria by force." She looked away, her lips twitching and exposing her fangs. "It's not as interesting without her being here, to watch her face crumble as I take away everything and leave her stranded. To see all her efforts come to naught from her prison in the sun that I was preparing. The triumph I would have felt!" she declared at the top of her lungs. "But now..." Moon slumped down. "Now I just want to take back what belongs to me." "And then what? I give you a billion Mints when you ask for them, ruining my country?" the king asked angrily. "Mints? What is mints? Your money?" she asked Sunny. The stallion nodded. "That's a stupid name." Moon shook her head then readjusted herself, trying to keep her mind off of the naming convention. "I'm not interested in finances. I'll learn to manage them through this city and the mayor." "Wh-what?! What did I do? What's happening?" Sunny began explaining to the mayor while Nightmare Moon waited. "I only require resources and skilled hooves to serve me in my new castle," she said. The king scoffed. "You won't be getting anypony with no money." Moon nodded in response. "This is true." She leaned in with a giant grin on her face. "Then you can either pay them regularly to keep them at work here or lend me a lump sum enough to pay for all of them for at least a year." The two royals were flabbergasted. "A year?!" the king exclaimed in horror. "Do you even know how much that will cost alongside having this castle repaired? I only did it because of free funds and wanting something new in life! It would have helped me relax and get back into ruling my kingdom so peacefully!" "Y-your highness," Sunny called to Nightmare Moon. "What is it?" "I-I feel there is more I should tell you about our currency," he worried. The mare rolled her eyes and reluctantly turned towards her servant. "And what form of exposition are you going to lay upon me this time?" "Wh-Our kingdom is one of the largest in Equestria, but we still have to contend with our neighbors. If you take away that much money, then they'll see weakness in our forces and try to take us over," the stallion whimpered. Nightmare Moon did a triple take at his words. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? It sounded like you said 'one of' and 'in Equestria' in the same sentence. Does this imply a fractured country?" The stallion cleared his throat while the mayor and royals watched in confusion. "Y-yes. There's, um..." He slowly shrunk the closer Moon got with her glaring eyes. "Around eighteen different countries in Equestria. A few aren't held by ponies, and there are a few independent, tiny city-states not taken into account..." He smiled sheepishly. "Really tiny though." The alicorn's eyes began twitching. "Mayor, supply me with as many historical documents as you can." She pointed to the king. "You, get me any information the general public doesn't have access to." She stomped the ground angrily, causing the castle to tremble. "I did not come back to Equestria just to see my future empire fractured into tiny pieces." She grabbed her head with her wings and started pacing about the room. "How did this even happen? The ponies always stayed together, using that repulsive 'magic of friendship' thing my sister and Starswirl were always going on about." She sat on her haunches and massaged the sides of her head with magic. "I can't believe I'm going to be forced to have military campaigns to take over Equestria." There was no fun in that without Celestia being there, but as she was certain of, Moon believed that she would likely stomp everypony she encountered except a handful of them. There were always a handful of military geniuses that caught issues to everyone they fought against. She didn't want to deal with that. Oh, and then there'd be the supply lines, and the recruiting, and alliances, and the diplomacy...The alicorn could feel herself dying. Although, she could probably cause a few of them to join up with her soon-to-be empire by her mere existence alone. That could render things easier. "I want the mayor to serve as my link to the king and queen," she ordered. "I'll stay here and learn all I can." She took a deep breath. "I'll need an assortment of staff. I'll need a smith to make me new armor, a cook, and I'll think about castle staff when it is finished." "I could provide staff for the cooking and cleaning of the castle. They'll be paid on a salary I'll have prepared." The mayor smiled. "You're lucky to have fallen into one of the richest cities of Equestria. Might even make it the capital in the future," he said confidently. "Or I kill you and wipe your town off the face of the world when I have recovered Equestria. How about that instead?" Moon threatened. The mayor gulped in response. He didn't know what she had said, but he knew just from pure instinct that it was a grave threat. Sunny dropped, exhausted. "Translating so much so fast is exhausting, your majesty. Are we over soon?" Moon raised a brow and shook her head. "Fine. You may leave," she told the royals. The two left quickly and quietly until they were finally in the coolness of the night air. The soldiers at the side of the entrance saluted them. "Some help you were," the king groaned. "This was meant to be a vacation." His wife started performing many signals to him. She was absolutely furious. "No, my queen. There's nothing that I can do. I understand that this is a grave insult, but until we can find a way to seal or counter her magic, there's nothing we can do." He paused, reading out the lengthy speech his wife was making for him. "True. Without pushing her, we'll never know what the limits of her abilities are, but we need to be cautious about it. As I've mentioned before. We need to watch our funds. We'll play along for now since she seems satisfied with this castle." Gallant watched his wife and nodded. "I agree. Let's just enjoy the festival itself. I've heard good things about it, but we'll solve the problem sooner or later." He frowned and looked down. "But how do mortals get rid of a god made manifest?" Sunny and the mayor left soon after, both exhausted, but only one of them was joyful. "She said she'll reunite Equestria!" the mayor exclaimed. "Can you believe it? I never even thought that was a possibility! Hades, it didn't even cross my mind when I started this!" "Nothing crossed your mind when you did all of this!" the unicorn yelled angrily. "Stupid idiot! Because of your need for 'excitement' in your life we're all going to die!" Dimples started pacing about, horrified at the implications of what was going to happen. "I never paid attention in history class! What am I going to do now? I don't know what war is like!" He clung to the mayor and shook him aggressively. "I don't want to fight in a war! I just wanted to study dead languages and become a linguist! Look what you did to me!" The mayor surprised Sunny by grabbing his foreleg into a lock and then flipping him over the elder's back and onto the back. "Those night classes on self-defense are helping a lot," he chuckled. "And were it not you, wouldn't it have been another? And they would have reacted the same. There is no dodging the issue that she would have been bitter and angry if there was no pony to watch and teach her," the mayor explained. "And judging by her behavior, she was always going to do this. I just didn't expect it since the tales of the alicorns have always been so...so!" "Uplifting?" "Yes! That. Makes you wonder why she is the way she is. Could've been lies." The mayor shrugged. "At least this way she'll either fail or be successful in her efforts rather than suddenly appearing out of nowhere and blowing everything up like it seemed she was going to do when she first appeared." He groaned. "That was an event..." Nightmare Moon, on the other hoof, held a strand of Sunny Dimple's mane and examined it closely. His colors were suspiciously familiar, and no pony she knew aside from one could ever hold this color. Rumors were never something to get obsessed with or something to focus on, but rarely did they have a bit of truth to them, but her sister siring offspring? Moon bawked at the thought. For the others, there may have been alicorns born like her and Celestia, or they may have been created. Regardless, ten thousand years of lost history left a lot to speculation. The alicorn engulfed the strand in magic and waited patiently as she cast several spells on it. Nothing happened for several minutes until the next spell produced a small spark that startled Moon briefly. "Interesting," she noted. "There might be some truth in all these claims of alicorn ancestry."