//------------------------------// // Changing Plans // Story: Imperial Forclousure // by The Sound of Loneliness //------------------------------// Luna silently lunged through the midnight hallway, avoiding the passing guard and his pesky flashlight. It felt so dreamy in this building at night, even more so than during the day. Bureaucracy always bored her almost to sleep, so she was glad to leave it to her sisters: but this time she had to engage in it herself. She only needed to find the correct desk. Luna darted from room to room, from desk to desk, from drawer to drawer. Grain shipments, population census, seaweed quotas, pig iron production rates - it was all wrong. What she needed was a place. With Nightmare prepared to support her with force and advice, now was the time to move. She needed to know where to find the Minister of Industry and Agriculture. If she could only get with them in the same room… But this was not as simple as just finding schedules. Those were kept with the ministers and their staff at all times so that ponies like her specifically could not find them. Dashing from room to room, Luna eventually found something. It was an internal note from this evening: “To: Glossy Makrel, Security Chief, Floor 26 From: Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture 28th of June, XXXX Your lottery number for this cycle is 7788. Secure the file of the corresponding number in your safe until the 2nd from 1600 of the current date. Equestria and Her People. End.” This note meant little in itself, but Luna knew of its significance. The protocol for handling documents in the Bureu’s bureaucracy demanded that in case of a Minister being off-site, the current documentation must be distributed along the higher-ranking staff through lottery. The document was likely to have no relevance to her goal, but the note in itself told her that her target was not here and would not return in the next several days. She still needed to find where exactly they went, however. Searching for the proper document would likely be fruitless due to the lottery system, however, she could still try the minister’s office and secretariat. Luna continued darting along the hallways, faster than the eye could see and enough to raise a weak gale, even then, still completely silent. Luna swiftly reached the upper, much more secure floors; but locked doors and safes couldn’t stop an alicorn. Forcing the locks to open, Luna entered a room lined with wood and soft carpets. A large portrait was hanging on the back wall. “Green Thumb, 6th Minister of Agriculture”, the plaque said. Luna took a long look at the painting, committing the Minister’s image to memory, before moving on to the surrounding desks. With her best speed, Luna rummaged through the numerous notes, finding little, before she spotted a crumpled paper in the “incinerator bucket”. She levitated it up and unfolded it. It was another note, though, this one was hoofwritten and forgoing the proper convention. “Madame, I regret to inform you that your request for ten crates of Royal Violet tea will be denied, and you will soon receive a notice, regardless of whether you ask for the Ministry or not. As per this year’s plan, my district was ordered to seed corn instead of tea this year, and we do not have enough produce left from the previous year. I understand entirely that this may result in my resignation in the near future. I would like to offer an alternative: while I cannot provide tea, I do have several crates of coffee of Arabian produce in the stockpile. If you would accept it as a substitute, perhaps we could still avoid the emerging problems. Equestria and Her People.” Luna could use this. Coffee was just as rare as tea in this day and age, and ponies will talk. Tomorrow evening she could get messages from her network on all the coffee of the corresponding brand. This was not a guarantee, for she did not have the response letter or even a guarantee that her intel would be accurate, but this was likely the best she’d get, as there would be no papers directly stating the minister’s location regardless. Luna gathered what little information she had, and with a pop of displaced air, she teleported away. She immediately stepped towards her own desk, without even looking up from the documents. “Aunty, there you are!” the worried voice of Luna’s lovely niece made her known. “Aunty, we need to talk! It’s important!” “Dear niece, I am afraid I cannot humor you right now. Would you please wait outside for a moment? I will be free for you in just a few minutes.” Luna did no’t even turn, quickly levitating an ink pen and some paper. “No! Aunty, you don’t get it! Nightmare sent you a messenger a day ago, but you weren’t here, and I couldn’t find out where you went with scrying!” “Like I said, Flurry just a moment. I only need to finish this order. I will be with you both in a moment. Would you, kindly, find Midnight Shade?” “Aunty, Nightmare is in the middle of attacking Canterlot! You must talk to her!” Luna immediately wheeled around, forgetting entirely about her half-finished order. “She is doing what?!” Luna asked in disbelief. “How she-” “Aunty, please! Just come with me! You have to talk to her before she kills everyone in the city standing against her!” “W-where is Sombra?” Luna shakily asked. “I… Aunty, Sombra isn’t here. He will be gone for a while. We have to find Nightmare before she orders her troops to attack the city itself;, right now, she’s at the base on the mountaintop, but she has already sent changelings to scout police stations and any other source of threat. She will kill all of them unless you interfere! You are the only pony she’ll listen to!” “Yes, you are right, of course. I shall go immediately.” Luna walked closer to her niece, and nodded. Luna then began casting a teleportation spell. Within a moment, they were there. Luna’s aim was not as perfect as Twilight’s was so they ended up outside of the airbase’s territory, but still close enough to hear out-of-tune singing coming from the area behind the fence. Luna said nothing, unfurled her wings, and gracefully took off with a jump. Flurry wondered for a moment how her aunt could be so casually beautiful. Luna flew into the base itself, and it did not take long for the distant singing to stop, they were already spotted. The fact that they weren’t immediately fired upon meant that perhaps the soldiers were told to expect them. Luna landed on a patch of grass by a large group of pony soldiers sitting around smaller campfires made out of empty fuel drums. They were clutching their rifles as the alicorns approached but showed no outward hostility. “Where is Nightmare?!” Luna asked, making sure that all of them heard her. A few of them even covered their ears. Nobody answered her, but before she could ask again, a very old pony stallion rushed towards her and deeply bowed. “Princess Luna, Lady Nightmare Moon is in her headquarters, would you have me lead you there?” “Yes, immediately!” Luna answered confidently. The stallion led them to the same garage from Flurry’s vision, so far, this was going as she wanted it to, despite the recent trend. They were let inside, where Nightmare was looking down at a map and, drawing with a red marker. Hearing the door, she glared at the ones daring to interrupt her strategizing, but seeing Luna, she immediately softened. “Nightmare! What is all of this?” Luna asked quickly shortening the distance until she stood just a few steps from her sister. “When I asked you to help, I didn’t want you to do this! You told me this was behind you!” Luna sounded genuinely hurt… this talk wasn’t going to be nice. Flurry tried to make herself as small as possible, hiding away next to the door. “Luna, I know how it seems, but I am only doing what is necessary to restore the rightful way of things. I have not harmed anyone who wouldn’t have harmed us. This lowborn filth had imprisoned your sister and drugged her until she couldn’t stay awake. If these were the old days still, I would have hunted down and executed every single one who had their hoof mired in such a crime! After saving her, I crushed their prison into rubble and destroyed two military camps. I ensured that no innocent ponies have even seen us.” “To Tartarus with your throne!” Luna outright yelled in anger. “You are killing ponies for power, and now you invent excuses?! I worked for decades to gather enough information to coerce the Bureau into releasing our former servants peacefully and working towards a common future! They will think that this attack is the doing of my ponies!” “But… Luna, you could just take what was yours after I died… why did you wait for so long? I thought they hunted you…” “Of course not! Nightmare, because of your meddling, our subjects thought that you were an aspect of mine, remember? They thought I was already dead. Instead, they hunted our sister, who fled! Your heavy-hoofed methods are why we are in this situation, to begin with! Even after all these years, violence is still your first resort?” “Only because our enemy leaves me no choice. Luna, they had your sister! What would you have preferred I done? Let them do as they pleased with her? Celestia willingly gave herself up in the hope that they would listen to what she had to say. If you wish to blame someone, then blame her! I tried to reach you, but your poor excuse of a liaison has failed to deliver the message in time!” “I wasn’t even at my desk for the better part of the last three days! I was finding intelligence on the Bureau member I had to meet! I was this close to finding him!” “Meet? You would meet with the savages that drugged your sister?!” Flurry has heard quick, heavy, fast-approaching hoof steps outside. Daybreaker had to bend her neck to not hit her head when entering. She glared at Flurry, but said nothing, stopping next to her, likewise waiting for her sisters to cease arguing. “So you took this place to save Celestia? Hardly a prison fit for her, don’t you think?” “No, Celestia was in a fortified prison. I managed to negotiate her release, but, Luna, there were more prisoners there. After I’ve seen how they treated Celestia, I couldn’t just leave the rest of them!” “Such selflessness! I wish it extended to everyone else you’ve killed!” “Luna, everyone in this facility was a soldier, they would have harmed you and your own followers if ordered so! They would have gotten in the way of us retaking our throne city! Surely you understand.” “Canterlot is irrelevant! What we need to take is Manehattan, Canterlot is just a symbol at best.” “Manehattan? Luna, what makes you say so? Canterlot is where my palace is, it is where the throne is. Without it, there is no monarchy.” “Because Manehattan is where the government is! You are not going to hurt them by taking Canterlot! What do you think is going to happen once you have it? Will the army just surrender to you?” “Not immediately, of course, but that would be the start. The ponies will know their legitimate rulers are back and will flock to us.” “Oh… Nightmare, you didn’t talk to any of them, did you? Not many remember the days before our return, but everypony remembers you. They will not flock to you, they will flee to the end of the world.” “Which is precisely why Celestia will be the one ruling instead. I never wanted this. I wanted to leave her to deal with this as she saw fit. I am only here for you, Luna. You wanted me to help you take back what is ours, and by our stars, I shall do so. I will hang every traitor myself if I have to. We get our home back, and your sister gets her throne, we all get what we want.” “No!” Luna stomped on the floor in frustration, shattering the wood and nearly falling. “Nightmare, how can you be so callous? I thought you didn’t want any more blood to be shed, yet now you speak as if nothing has changed at all! I wanted this to be peaceful, to prove to our ponies that we have their best interests in mind after all! How would you have me do this if you are just killing everyone who does not immediately swear fealty to you?” “But Luna, surely you see. We cannot convince our enemies to just simply give in. If it had been this easy, they would have never been our enemies. I promise: I shall only do what is necessary and no more.” “But you are already past that. You killed several hundred ponies that weren’t a threat to you, simply because they were in your way. They might have joined you if you tried to negotiate. Soldiers are some of the only ponies that remember you fondly. Nightmare, I beg of you - stop! Don’t repeat the same mistakes from your past. It is not too late.” “If… if that is what you desire, Luna,” Nightmare Moon caved in, with a degree of disappointment in her answer. “But what would you have me do instead? I suppose… I can still ensure that Celestia returns to her throne and protect her if nothing else.” Luna nodded, “Please, do so. Do not harm anyone unless it is in self-defense. This will work out, I promise. I know you are not on speaking terms with her yet, but try to get Cadance to lend her support; if not for you, then for Celestia. Anyone whom we could get political support from will help us a lot when it’s time to re-establish the government. Maybe this will even be enough to discourage a military response entirely.” “I will do as you ask but do not expect great results. Cadence hates me enough to put her own life and that of her subjects on the line only so that she could discredit me. Celestia has taught her poorly.” “I will speak with her. For now, call off your attack on the city. I will return to you soon and speak with both you and Celestia.” “As you wish…” Luna nodded gratefully and turned to leave. Flurry followed suit, grinning to herself. She managed to successfully avert this crisis after all. Not much longer now. “...Nightmare,” Daybreaker spoke up once Luna was out of view. “I intended to report the findings of your scouts, but I suppose it is irrelevant now. Do you wish to give any immediate orders?” “Order the troops at ease and begin cleaning this place up,” Nightmare Moon tiredly responded. “I suppose we will be playing the role of a nice and obedient troop. We will need some help as well, prepare the prisoners for interrogation. …And bring Rarity, Celestia, and the other civilians here.” “It will be done. Should I also order the troops to take control of your palace?” “No, not now. It seems that Luna does not wish for us to attract any undue attention. Also, do return my book, if you would be so kind. I’ll be reviewing what you taught our sister within the next several hours.” A nervous frown appeared on Daybreaker’s face for a brief moment, but Nightmare Moon did not press. She had more immediate issues to deal with. “We missed some good times, didn’t we?” Blackhoof said, looking over a huge pile of bodies, a shovel slung over his back. “Yeah, we really did. Poor bastards didn’t even know what hit them. Most of them are still in their pajamas,” Whitenose lamented. “The changelings who were piling them up told me they did the same thing at Ponyville too, except that time the ponies never even got out of their beds. By the stars.” “Overheard someone talking about Luna giving Nightmare a piece of her mind over this. Apparently… this wasn’t the plan.” "Yeah, feels like nobody had any plan for a very long time at this point. The hay do we do if not even our Lady knows?" Whitenose sat on the ground, starting to rub his leg wraps. "I don't know anymore. I'll just dig for now," Blackhoof punctuated by putting the shovel blade into the ground and lifting up a pile of earth. "Just like in the army..." the third stallion drearily pointed out.