From the Notes of a Historian:
While the Moon Kingdom seemed to be perfect from the outside, inside was utter chaos. While it wasn’t hit with the brunt of The Famine, it had various issues of its own. Once Queen Waning had taken control of the Moon Kingdom, discontent began to grow among the nobility, notably corrupt nobles who had favored her predecessor. The Great War prevented them from acting right away; however, with their militaries built up, these corrupted nobles banded together in an attempt to overthrown the queen once the war had finished. However, the queen had the affection of her populous, and gained the upper hand through their assistance. Queen Waning stomped out the rebellion in her kingdom, and learning from past mistakes, executed those responsible for the rebellion.
Towards the end of The Famine, Queen Waning of the Moon Kingdom sent excess food to the cities of the Sky Flotilla. From the reports that her majesty received from her envoys, many of the cities had suffered rebellions and much of the nobility was killed in the chaos. The newly appointed councils welcomed the aid of Queen Waning and once again built a network of communication between the cities, which then began restoration projects to restore the cities to their former glory.
To prevent repeats of the horrors The Famine caused their cities, the Sky Flotilla, created new cities to spread the population around and alleviate cities which were overpopulated. But the greatest project they planned to undertake was that of cities whose sole purpose was to produce food. These new cities, nicknamed, “Green Clouds”, were to become the major food production and trading hubs of the entire Sky Flotilla, ensuring that famine would never again be seen upon their streets.
After the ravages of pestilence, war, and famine took their toll on the lands, things began to resemble normality. While those who died from The Plague, The Great War, and The Famine can never be brought back, the world has gained much in the realm of knowledge. New practices in hygiene and medicine have shown a decline in deaths relating to diseases. Inventions once used to kill one another are now being repurposed to assist in the reconstruction of the post-tragedy world. Better knowledge about plant growth and development has also led to advancement in food production. Peace began to spread across the world as every nation attempted to recover.
The charred lands of the Scarlet Empire began to develop life once more. However, these lands would be unfit for food production for many years to come. But discontent among high ranking officers was creating a divide in the Empire. Some officers had witnessed the accusation and execution of a well-known officer who has fought against the Magical Symposium. This officer had been accused of treason and was executed at the brink of one of the war’s final battles. Those who witnessed his execution say that he never actually died, but will someday return to extract revenge upon those who wronged him. But these account should be taken with a grain of salt, as they also include mystical beings such as the Alicorn of Death.
Despite this discontent and the warrior mind-set of many of the Scarlet Empire’s officers, things were kept peaceful. Records were gone through and officials were interrogated to uncover the truth. Though it took years of work, eventually various plots were discovered in which the Emperor and his royal guard, along with various other high ranking military officers, exploited others to achieve their goals. Even as noble and righteous as some of those goals were, it was no excuse for what they had done.
The acts were exposed and those guilty were tried and executed or imprisoned. However, the Emperor’s power allowed him to forgo a trial and continue untouched. But a few days after this was announced, he was assassinated by an unknown assailant. His son took his place, however whether or not he would follow down his father’s path or not was unknown. In his first act as Emperor, he returned a small portion of land to the Magical Symposium with the message, “Our previous skirmishes were entertaining. Let this be a gift, so that one day we might have an even more entertaining battle between us.”
The Magical Symposium, having been reduced to a small size, accepted this offer, if somewhat curiously. With the introduction of this new Emperor they weren’t sure what to think. Their council had held through The Plague, War, and Famine, but if the Scarlet Empire meant to attack them again, they were unsure whether or not they would be prepared. The land they were returned was still charred, however it was in a good location and once things would grow, it would be perfect. They sent out a decree across their nation offering various amounts of money for military service, restoration service, and land grants in the returned land.
They hoped to bolster their military and restore what land they currently possessed. In addition, they wanted to construct new fortresses in the land they received and garrison troops there as well. The land grants were offers for citizens to move to the new land and build villages, farms, etc. However, since the land was divide of life and unusable for farming, the majority of those that moved there would need to take up work in various other fields of work, including magical research.
This period of time became known as the Reconstruction period and during this time families and villages moved from place to place. It wasn’t unheard of for a family to be in town one night and be gone the next morning. Not only were families moving for work, but also to reconnect old family ties, rediscovering old cousins, or attempting to find family they lost in the chaos.
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Approximately ten years after Famine:
I lay in my bed, waiting for sleep to come and take me away for the night. Mother and father had left my door open a crack to let the candlelight into my room. The light from the candle lit up the wall across from my bed and brought me comfort. I didn’t like the dark. Anything could be in the darkness, even monsters. But the light keep the monsters away, it dispersed the darkness and brought safety to the world. With the light keeping me safe, I could usually fall asleep in a few minutes. However tonight seemed I couldn’t seem to fall asleep no matter what I tried.
I had been laying in my bed for hours but still sleep hadn’t visited me. For a few moments I would feel like I was going to fall asleep, but then I would catch myself realizing this and accidentally snap myself from slumber. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get to sleep. Perhaps a monster had put a spell on me? Could they do that, and stop me from sleeping? My mind began to think up various things the monsters would do to me when I heard a hoofstep and the sound of a door opening. Thinking the monsters were coming to get me, I pulled my blankets over my head to hide from them.
Minutes passed before I decided to remove the blankets from my head. When I did, i saw four shadows on the wall the candlelight illuminated. The four shadows looked like ponies, but two of the shadows, which were standing opposite the other two, were oddly shapen. It was almost as thought the candle’s light was passing right through their bodies. I watched the shadows cautiously, ready to hide under my blankets again should they turn out to be monsters.
The two weird looking ones suddenly pulled out what looked to be knives and i could hear an audiable gasp as the other two ponies stumbled backwards. However the weird ones were fast and the four separate shadows became two. There was alot of thudding, smashing, and a few screams, and with each noise my blanket rose higher and higher until it was right below my eyes.
The sounds suddenly stopped and everything was quiet. I lowered my blanket slightly, but then a bright green light shown through my door and caused me to cover my eyes with it. It lasted for a few seconds before it went away and only the candle light remained. I lowered my blankets once more and blinked a few times so my eyes would adjust to the darkness.
About a minute passed by and then my door swung open abruptly. I quickly curled up into a ball, pulling the blankets over myself as quickly as I could. I began to shake, despite trying my best to stay as still as possible. A few seconds passed and then I heard some hoofsteps. They came closer to my bed, slowly, appearing to be in no big hurry. It wasn’t long, however, until they were right next to my bed and stopped. ‘This is it,’ I thought to myself, ‘I am going to die.’
Suddenly the blankets were pulled from me and I looked up to see my mother standing over me. I was still scared, but relief washed over me. “Mom, wha-“, I started, but was cut off. “Now, now, honey. You should be asleep already,” my mother said. As she said this, her horn began to glow and she lowered her horn to my forehead. Once her horn touched me, i was suddenly overcome with weariness and my eyes couldn’t stay open. It was seconds before I was asleep.
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“RAAAAACH” the sound echos in my mind, like something was snarling very loudly right next to me. But I didn’t hear anything and three of the four figures in front of me had their mouths closed. The fouth figure had its mouth open and its face was contorted into a snarl, but no sound came from it. The sound in my head was so realistic I pushed my hooves against my ears, trying to block it out, but to no avail.
Two of the four figures I recognize as my mother and father. They are doing the same thing I am, covering their ears from a sound they can’t escape from. The other two figures are black and look like ponies, however instead of fur their bodies are smooth and have they holes in their legs. They also have fangs, horns, wings, and solid red eyes.
“Enough of that, let’s just finish them already,” these words echo in my mind amist the snarling which stops soon after. When I hear those words the other mysterious figure’s mouth moves. “Oh, but this is SOOOO much fun,” echoes in my mind as the first figure’s mouth moves. “I know, but I am starving. Let’s get this over with so we can eat.” The second figure’s mouth moves while this echos in my mind.
I quickly realize that these creatures don’t speak verbally, but instead they somehow put their words into the minds of others. It isn’t something I want to experience for an extended period. I am already feeling like I am losing my mind. As I make this realization and snap back to my senses, I notice the mysterious figures have drawn knives.
I look on in horror as my parents gasp as they notice the knives as well, but they aren’t fast enough to run away, instead the creatures are upon them in moments. My parents scream and try to fight back, knocking some things over but otherwise it is a futile effort. I scream out, “NOO!” but neither my parents nor the creatures appear to notice. I try to run over and help my parents, but I realize that I cannot move from where I am at.
I look on at the struggle going on in front of me, unable to look away and unable to help my parents. Within a minute or so of the struggle beginning, it ends. My parents have multiple wounds that are gushing out blood and they have stopped moving. The creatures just stand over my parents and stare intently at them, as though they are in a daze.
A few seconds later a flash of green light sweeps over the creatures’ bodies and slowly they begin to change shape. The light is too much for me, and I have to shut my eyes, but after a few seconds the light disipates and I open them again. The creatures have gone, and in their place my parents are standing. I look back and forth at my parents, the ones that are lying on the ground, and the ones standing over them, unable to make sense of what is going on.
I am snapped back to reality as a voice once again enters my mind. My standing father’s mouth moves, “Take care of the child, dear.” This is followed by my standing mother’s mouth moving and the words, “Of course, darling,” entering my mind. My mother that is standing begins to make her way to my bedroom door. With a hoof she slams it open.
I wake up screaming, shaking, sweating, and looking around my bedroom rapidly. I realize that I am still alive and that my room is as it normally is. My door flys open suddenly and my mother appears with a look of shock and concern on her face. She rushes over to my bed, but I push myself away from her. “Feld, what’s wrong?” My mother asks. Her voice doesn’t echo in my head, but is actually audiable. “Did you have a bad dream, honey?”
Concern and worry are visable on her face. ‘That had to have been a dream, right?’ I think to myself. “Y-yea. I guess,” I tell her. She gives a big smile and says, “Well don’t worry about it anymore, mommy’s here to protect you now!” She walks over and gives me a hug. I hesitate for a moment, before I hug her back. ‘Yea. That couldn’t have been real. It was just a dream.’ I think to myself as I let myself enjoy the embrace of my mother.
‘But just in case...I’ll keep an eye on them’ I thought as she let me go.