Sunset's Game
Sunset's Game
Sunset Shimmer sat in one of the cubicles in the girls' toilets with the door locked and sobbed.
It was gone. All of it had just...disappeared. House and hearth and field. All gone. Vanished. Turned to dust and ashes.
And not just the buildings either. The world itself. Every mountain, every tree, every...everything gone.
Sunset could barely comprehend it. She couldn't comprehend it, it was too big. She had to think about something smaller. Canterlot. No more Canterlot. No more shining city on the mountainside, no more gilded spires, no more capital. Canterlot gone. Canterlot destroyed. Canterlot laid waste.
Sunset tried to imagine that: an empty space where Canterlot should be, an empty space within an empty space. No, that was still not clear. Still too big. She could imagine Canterlot, but only really from the inside, not the out. She still couldn't grasp what it would be like for Canterlot to not be there.
She had to think of something smaller still: no more palace. Yes. She could imagine that. She couldn't imagine the actual level of devastation however. Her mind was full of images of worldly destruction: towers shattered, stained glass windows broken, walls blown apart, destruction...even death. But that was not what had happened. Or perhaps it had happened, but afterwards the whole thing had just...disappeared. Blasted apart, like that cheesy movie that Rainbow Dash had dragged them all to see when they remastered it. Just gone, and only void where it had been.
Gone too Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Gone those hallowed halls, worn out by the hooves of generations of students. Gone the room where she had plotted world domination in between her maths homework, gone the cafeteria where they had served that apple crumble with a layer of crumble three inches thick and hard enough to break your teeth; for a long time Sunset had thought that was how it was supposed to be.
Gone the all-night ice cream parlour where Sunset had spent many nights, sitting at a table alone with a cup of coffee, a bowl of ice cream and the half-finished essay that was due the next day, scratching away as the place emptied around her.
Gone. All of it. The palace, the school, the ice cream shop, the city...the world.
By starting small, Sunset found she could just about imagine it. There was nothing left.
She put her head in her hands and tried very hard not to start crying.
Between her legs she could see the book, resting open on the most recent page. Twilight's message, informing her of the disaster, grabbed hold of her gaze and would not let go.
One line in particular: We're still trying to work exactly who didn't make it.
Sunset closed her eyes and whimpered.
"Sunset?" Rarity asked. "Sunset, what's wrong?"
Sunset blinked, and wiped her eyes. "Rarity? What are you doing here?"
"We've been looking for you, darling," Rarity said. "Nobody knew where you were."
Sunset leaned back, her head resting against the plaster wall. "How did you know it was me?"
"I recognised your boots, darling."
"Oh, right," Sunset muttered.
"Sunset, if I've caught you in a delicate situation then I do apologise," Rarity said. "But if not, then you really should come out of there.Not only is it rather rude to hog the cubicle unnecessarily, but whatever is bothering you, I'm sure that we can be a better help to you than the water tank can."
Sunset shook her head as she picked up the book, opened the door and stepped out of the cubicle. "I don't think anyone can help me with this, Rarity. And besides, it isn't your problem; I shouldn't bother you with it."
"You're our friend," Rarity said. "Your problems are our problems. And how will you know if we can help if you don't tell us." She laid one hand on Sunset's shoulder. "What is it?"
Sunset held up the book. "I...I just got a message from Twilight... Equestria... Equestria's gone."
Rarity blinked, giving Sunset the same blank expression that Sunset had given the book when she had first got Twilight's missive. "Gone? You mean... what do you mean?"
"I mean... it's gone," Sunset said. "There's nothing left. No more Equestria. The whole world... is gone."
Rarity's mouth flopped up and down like a fish. "How?"
Sunset shrugged. "Evil. Twilight didn't exactly give me a lot of details."
"Twilight," Rarity murmured. "Twilight! Twilight's alright?"
"Pretty much," Sunset said, choosing not to mention the fact that Twilight had apparently lost her wings in the battle to save Equestria. Twilight said that it wasn't that bad and Sunset didn't want to worry her friends any more than necessary. "A lot of ponies got out to somewhere safe before... but they don't think all of them did."
Rarity's grip on Sunset's shoulder tightened into a reassuring squeeze. "Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. I suppose... you were right, there really isn't anything we can do is there?"
"Tell me about it," Sunset said. "I asked Twilight if I should go back... well, not go back but you know what I mean, to help with the reconstruction, but she said no. But I just, thinking about what they all must be going through while I'm here, it..."
"Did Twilight say why you shouldn't come back?" Rarity asked.
"It seems they aren't alone on this new world they've found," Sunset said. "Some other ponies or something found it too, and I don't think Twilight trusts them yet. I think," she had to laugh at the absurdity of it. "I think she's trying to keep me safe."
Rarity smiled. "It's probably best to respect her wishes then, don't you think?"
"Yeah, I guess," Sunset said. "Doesn't mean that I have to like it though. Just one of the many, many things about all of this that I don't like." She looked down at the floor, and then glanced back up at Rarity. "I bet you're glad you wanted to know now, aren't you?"
"Honestly, Sunset, just because the news is hard to take in doesn't mean I wish I'd let you suffer alone," Rarity said. "Now come on, let's go and find the others before they worry something has happened to you."
"Do we have to tell them?" Sunset asked as she let Rarity steer her out the door.
"Yes," Rarity said. "Because we may not be able to do anything to help you, or to help Twilight, but there is one thing we can do, and that's share your pain."
Sunset wiped some of the weariness from her eyes and tried to focus on the papers scattered across her desk, along with the various half-drunk cups of coffee cooling amongst them.
She levitated a half-eaten doughnut towards her mouth and took a bite only to cringe when it turned out to be a couple of days old and going hard.
"I'm sure that plotting and scheming wasn't so hard the last time," Sunset murmured to herself.
Of course, there were three principle differences between her past shady endeavours and her current enterprise. The first, and most obvious, was that back then her shady activities had been, well, shady. She had, after all, been plotting to overthrow Celestia and take over Equestria as its new princess. Now, she flattered herself that her motives were more noble. Twilight might even have approved of them, although Sunset somehow doubted that given what she knew of Twilight's aims, objectives and attitudes towards the Starfleet. Still, Sunset wasn't Twilight, nor could she ever replace that remarkable mare, either in Equestria, upon the throne or in the heart of Princess Celestia. So, lacking Twilight's rank, social standing or ability to make friends, Sunset would work with what she had: brains, cunning, ambition and a certain willingness to get her hooves dirty. Her methods were not Twilight's, but Twilight was gone, and though Sunset could not replace her she would do what she could to protect Equestria and the Equestrian races in Twilight's stead; even if she were not doing so as Twilight would have sought to fulfil that noble goal.
The second difference was that her past plots had been, looked at with the cool light of hindsight, rather juvenile. She had plotted to seize power with all the forethought of a child throwing a tantrum because they hadn't liked what was for supper. But she had been able to afford mistakes, sloppiness, reliance upon incompetent minions back them because, whatever she had told herself, she had been playing for low stakes on the infant's table: the title of Fall Formal Princess, the respect and fear of a single high school. Even at the end, when she had thought that power was in her grasp, she had been defeated with contemptuous ease by Twilight and her friends, and then forgiven by them just as easily in a sign of how little their 'great contest' had really mattered. She was playing for much higher stakes now, the stakes of thrones and empires that she had only imagined she was playing for before, and she could not afford a single misstep. And yet she had, perforce, to walk out much further on the tightrope than she had ever dared to do before, without even the safety net of her friends to catch her if she fell. If any one of her agents decided to betray her to Starfleet, if any of her agents were caught and persuaded to talk, if the officers they were bribing to look the other way worked out what was really going on or decided to grow a sense of integrity, if Princess Ayvanna decided that it was better to seek the Grand Ruler's favour than his downfall, if Tempest Shadow played her false, if, if, if; any one of those calamaties could doom not only her but whole enterprise, and possibly Equestria itself. She was relying a great deal upon her judgement of people: of Tempest Shadow, of Dawn Starfall, of Princess Ayvanna of the Kallan, of all the agents she had recruited to lead her cells across Equestria. More than that, she was hazarding a great deal upon the judgement of others, trusting that her trusted agents could trust those they had brought in to swell the conspiracy. Trusting that they could sniff out any Starfleet plants ahead of time.
I cannot vet every single pony who wishes to contribute. I must trust my people...as Princess Luna must trust me to hold up my end of our little plot.
The third difference between then and now was the environment in which she currently practiced to deceive. This was not the friendly palace of Princess Celestia, nor was it Canterlot High. This was the court of the Grand Ruler Celesto, and Sunset had quickly learned the mistrust that was essential to survival here, let alone prosperity. The walls had ears and the doors had eyes, and knowing in whom to place your faith was a fine art.
Especially when she could not breathe a word of what she was about to those whom she would otherwise have trusted most. She could not allow either Celestia or Twilight's friends to become implicated in her actions. If Sunset's activities were discovered then nothing would stop her from getting the death penalty, but she could not, would not allow the princess or the surviving elements to become caught in the blowback. If Celestia fell then the last trace of old Equestria would fall with her, and as for Twilight's friends... Twilight wouldn't have wanted them to get hurt and Sunset would respect that, even if she wasn't respecting anything else about Twilight's approach to dealing with Starfleet.
She focussed upon two messages - written in a cypher Sunset had devised with some help from the other Twilight back at Canterlot High - smuggled to her from her contacts in New Baltimare, one from the local supervisor of a shipping consortium who found that crates full of military equipment fell off the back of his transports with surprising frequency during fulfilment of Starfleet orders, and the other from a warehouse foremare who helped to store it. Both were concerned that Starfleet was starting to take notice of the missing inventory. It was a worrying development, if true, so Sunset advised them to halt all operations immediately, to break up the cache into as many smaller batches as they could to make them harder to locate, and to start selling small quantities of equipment onto the black market. That would hopefully not only confuse the investigation but also, if they were caught, mean that they were charged with profiteering rather than treason. It wasn't a perfect plan, and Sunset hoped that her friendship with certain civic officials, and the bribes they were paying to certain Starfleet officers, would be enough to protect her allies. If not... she consoled herself with the knowledge that everyone she had brought into this had known the risks when they had joined her little enterprise.
Sunset was startled by a knock on the door. "Who is it?"
"Stirwell, Miss Shimmer, from the kitchens. Your breakfast is ready."
"Just a moment," Sunset said, getting off her chair and padding over to the door as she unlocked it with her magic. The locks upon her door were of a very singular and complex type, based upon Buttercup's Occult Sequence with a few small variations. With Twilight dead there was only one unicorn Sunset knew of who would be able to force the locks beside herself, and even she would hopefully have trouble. "Come in."
The transfigured earth pony of reddish-brown opened the door. He loomed a little over Sunset, but then everybody loomed over Sunset these days what with the way they walked upon their hind legs. He had a breakfast tray, covered with a silver platter, balanced lightly in his left hand. He wore the livery of the palace, a dark suit with the Starfleet insignia upon his right breast, but he also wore a gold flannel handkerchief expertly folded in his breast pocket, which meant that he was one of the Queen's ponies.
Still, Sunset said little to him. "Thank you. Just put it on the floor over there please."
Stirwell nodded. "As you say, Miss Shimmer." He walked stiffly, with perfect poise, over to where Sunset had indicated, and deposited the tray upon the crimson carpet. "Will you be wanting anything else?"
"No, thank you," Sunset said. "Have a nice day."
Stirwell smiled. "Thank you, Miss, you too." He bowed, turned and made his exit.
Sunset closed and locked the door after him before she trotted over to where he had left her breakfast. She lifted up the tray to find a blueberry muffin, a glass of orange juice and a full cooked breakfast on a plate: sausage, bacon, beans, black pudding, hash browns and fried bread all slathered under enough baked beans to drown small animals.
Sunset drained the orange juice in one go, and began to eat the muffin. The cooked breakfast she did not touch. Bacon, sausage? Ugh; absolutely disgusting. How anypony could bring themselves to eat meat was beyond her. Sausages did have one advantage, however: since they were essentially tubes filled with meat, it had proved quite easy to stuff messages into them in place of some of said meat. In this case, both her sausages contained reports concealed in the centre of them: one from her spy in the Grand Ruler's chamber, and another from a member of the Royal Guard who still remembered the days when he had served a princess rather than a queen. Both had been stuffed into the centre of her sausages by Queen's ponies in the kitchens and served up to Sunset for breakfast. She extracted the missives, and a quick spell was sufficient to turn the breakfast into a bed of iceberg lettuce far more palatable to Sunset's stomach.
Sunset yawned again as she ate. One of the reasons for her weariness was that, since she was supposedly engaged in scholarly pursuits while not providing companionship to Celestia, she had to produce sufficient scholarly output to throw off any suspicions about how she really spent her time. Sometimes that was useful - the number of books she had ordered from bookshops as far afield as New Manehattan proved very useful for hiding messages in, and the number of books she had amassed provided ample opportunity to communicate via book codes - but it also meant she had to produce the equivalent of two days work per day. Thankfully no one had thought to question why her scholarly papers were occasionally so slapdash and subpar, not that the space ponies would have known bad scholarship if it had hit them with a failing grade. Besides, she had let it be known that she was devoting most of her scholarly energies to a biography of Twilight Sparkle, and was taking great pains to produce a masterpiece in memory of her friend.
That was true, and as subversive an act as anything else that Sunset got up to. Only a month ago Hinny the Younger, an eminent historian whose sweeping Annals had been required reading for all history students at Celestia's School, had been sentenced to twenty years hard labour on the prison planet Conva, with no consideration granted to his great age and physical infirmity that were likely to render hard labour a death sentence. His crime? He had praised Twilight fulsomely in his latest book, and called her 'the last of the ponies'. Such a heinous act was judged to have insulted the majesty of the United Equestrian people, and when Hinny had protested that the freedom to speak of the dead - to which he might also have added the freedom to judge the living for Hinny had, with all the benefits of cosy hindsight, censured Celestia many times in the works he had produced under her rule - was an ancient and hallowed one, he had been shouted down by the Grand Ruler's baying dogs in the gallery. The jury had known what verdict to hand down if they did not wish to be visited in the night by officers of the security services.
It disgusted Sunset. Only those who knew themselves to be riddled with vice could ever hate to hear praised given to another, and only a narcissist would assume that such praise was meant to impugn them by comparison. It was Sunset's hope that, by the time her own masterwork was ready to bear the public scrutiny, the wings of the Starfleet would have been clipped, if not shredded.
Sunset finished off her muffin and returned to her desk. It was not yet time for her to go see Celestia, at this hour she would still be with the Grand Ruler, enduring another frosty breakfast.
Sunset sighed, and not for the first time she longed to tell her old teacher everything. It might give her hope, to know that the darkness would not last forever.
It would also put her in grave danger. Sunset was walking on a tightrope suspended over a fire, and if Celestia was implicated then neither crown nor marriage would protect her. She might suffer now, but it was for the best that she remain ignorant.
Sunset hoped it was, anyway. Just as much as she hoped that she was doing the right thing.
She glanced across her room to the nightstand beside the bed, where a picture of the Rainbooms nestled under the lamp. Twilight stood in the centre of them, a brilliant smile lighting up her whole face. She looked so happy, they all looked so happy...it was hard to imagine that that Sunset smiling out at her was the same Sunset who now felt so weighted down by troubles.
"Oh, Twilight," Sunset murmured. "What am I doing? Am I even trying to do the right thing?"
A silence more deafening than that she had endured during the Friendship Games was her only answer.
There was another knock on the door, and a gruff voice called, "Miss Sunset Shimmer, are you in here?"
Sunset frowned. "Who is it?"
"Sergeant Moonshine, of the Night Guard."
Sunset walked cautiously over to the door, and stood up on her hind legs to reach the peephole built into it. On the other side she could see a bat-winged night pony, with the same humanoid augmentations as every other pony but her - how weird was that, Sunset could never get used to being the only real pony left in the whole world - wearing the uniform of Princess Luna's night guard. Most of the old Royal Guard had been dismissed from service, with a few lucky ponies subsumed into the Unicornicopian Guard as a token show of equality, but Princess Luna retained her own company of guards in the teeth of the Grand Ruler's displeasure. In fact, Sunset wondered if his displeasure wasn't part of the reason she retained a guard in the first place.
Sunset dropped down onto all fours as she opened the door. "How can I help you?"
"Princess Luna requests your presence, Miss Shimmer, at once if you please."
Sunset raised one eyebrow. "Did the princess say why?"
"Not to me, Ma'am," Moonshine said.
Sunset nodded. "Tell Princess Luna it is my honour to attend her, and I'll be there in just a moment."
Moonshine bowed his head. "Thank you, ma'am." He turned on his heel, and began to stride in a martial fashion back down the corridor. Sunset took just a moment to put her papers in order before she followed suit, locking the door behind her and casting a spell to alert her instantly if anyone tried to gain entry.
She walked down the corridors of the NewPalace, so different in feel from the old palace she had grown up in. The outward features were the same: the red carpets, the white pillars, the hangings of purple and gold. But the feel was different, the very air seemed different. This place did not exude the warmth the way that Celestia's palace had done in old Canterlot. It did not welcome visitors, or even those who lived there permanently as Sunset now did. It was cold, unfeeling. The stained glass windows now commemorated not acts of friendship, but battles bloody and desperate. The only window that now commemorated Twilight was her memorial glass, that hung above the silver urn containing her ashes. The only heroes that were celebrated in United Equestria were dead ones, unless your name happened to be Lightning Dawn or the Grand Ruler himself.
At least there were no guards in this part of the palace. She hated the new guards; Sunset felt that they were here to keep the inhabitants of the palace prisoner as much as to protect them. They watched her steps, and listened to what she said. So did some of the staff. This whole country had become enthralled to the tyranny of informers. It wasn't safe to speak your mind even to your closest friend unless you'd checked outside the window for spies first.
"Ah, Sunset Shimmer. You're up and about rather early again this morning."
Of course, sometimes the spies didn't bother to hide their presence.
Sunset forced a smile onto her face. "Colonel Glimmer, what a pleasant surprise."
Colonel Starlight Glimmer, of Starfleet Intelligence, cast her shadow over Sunset Shimmer. A unicorn and former student of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns - Sunset vaguely remembered her as a senior when Sunset was just starting out - Starlight Glimmer was one of the few Equestrians to rise to high rank in the Starfleet. In fact, as far as Sunset knew, Starlight was only Equestrian to achieve the rank of Colonel, rising higher than even Twilight had managed. She wore a long black coat, fastened down one breast with silver buttons, that descended down past her knees, concealing the tops of her polished black boots. Leather gloves enclosed her hands, and a high-peaked cap with the insignia of the intelligence branch - an all-seeing eye, worked in silver - upon it sat on her head, with her pink horn protruding out from it and her purple bangs descending from below the peak.
Tucked under one arm she was carrying a large book, bound with a sturdy cover.
"I've always wondered," Sunset said. "Why a book? Don't most Starfleet officers use datapads?"
"They do," Starlight said. "But what would be the point of amassing secrets if anyone could hack into my tablet and read them? They wouldn't stay secret for very long, would they? I think you and I both know, Miss Shimmer, that there is still some advantage to paper and ink, when it comes to preserving the exclusivity of information."
Sunset kept her face studiedly blank. "I suppose you're right. Though I can't say that I've really thought of it that way. I just prefer the feel of a paper book."
"Of course you do," Starlight replied lightly. "Perhaps I might borrow one, sometime? I hear you're amassing quite the library."
"If you want to borrow a book there are plenty of actual libraries," Sunset said. "I'm afraid I need most of mine, for my research."
"Ah, yes, your research," Starlight said. "Twilight Sparkle, isn't it?"
"She's my main focus, but not my sole field," Sunset said carefully. "And it's Princess Twilight Sparkle, if you don't mind."
Starlight smiled. "Of course. How discourteous of me. I understand you once aspired to be a princess yourself."
"A long time ago," Sunset said. "I was a different mare back then."
"Weren't we all," Starlight said. "Of course, most of us are a lot more different now. In fact, of all of us, you are the one who has stayed the most the same."
"On the outside, maybe," Sunset said.
"You don't ever feel the temptation to get your upgrades?" Starlight asked. "To live like the rest of us do?"
Sunset smiled. "At the risk of sounding arrogant, I don't see the need to follow a trend just because it's a trend."
Starlight's smile became a little cold. "Do you think you're better than the rest of us, Sunset Shimmer? Do you think that you are another Princess Twilight Sparkle in the making?"
"No," Sunset murmured. "There was only one Princess Twilight. I'm just...different. Surely you can understand what that's like?"
"I?"
"An Equestrian in Starfleet," Sunset said. "An Equestrian in Starfleet commanding high rank, what's more. You must get confronted by your difference every time you walk into the officer's mess, and see all those winged unicorns all around you, and you just a regular old unicorn. I suppose I should congratulate you."
Starlight frowned. "For what?"
"For the alacrity with which you have been making friends," Sunset said, a faint smile playing across her lips. I know your secrets, Colonel Starlight Glimmer, and if you try and make trouble for me then I will reveal them all. "So many officers you know, so many friends you have: colonels, majors, battalion commanders and intelligencers, ship's captains and generals' adjutants. What would people say, if they knew just how many friends you had?"
Starlight was silent for a moment, before she smirked. "I'm sure that some people would say a great many things, some of them unpleasant. However, I'm equally sure that those same people would have even more to say if they knew about your friends, the number of whom quite put my own small circle of acquaintances to shame."
Sunset frowned. "I don't have that many friends."
"Really? What would you call the Mayor of New Baltimare, then? Or the clerk in the Governor-General's office in Horn Kong? Or all the other friends that you've been amassing, you busy little bee. You see, if you should happen to tell anyone about my friends, then I would have to tell everyone about your friends, and I don't think that either of us really wants that, do we?"
Sunset's stomach froze. She knows! How does she know? I was so careful.
Cold calculation replaced her momentary panic. Starlight had not, after all, told anyone. If she had, then they would not be bantering cryptically like this in an empty corridor, rather Sunset would be entering rather more thuggish officers of Starfleet Intelligence in a dark cell somewhere. She hasn't told, but she's letting me know that she knows so that she can guarantee my silence.
That was fine. Sunset would play that game and keep her silence...for now.
"So what do we do?" Sunset said. "Keep quiet about all our fine friends?"
"Why not?" Starlight asked. "What is there to tell, after all? It is not a crime to have friends. Why stir up suspicion when we are both merely loyal servants of the throne?"
"None more loyal than we," Sunset said.
"Indeed," Starlight said with a smirk. "What are we but two utterly loyal but rather friendly ponies who share a certain mutual understanding, built on respect?"
"Respect?" Sunset asked.
"The zebras have a saying, you may have heard it," Starlight said. "'A good friend is a precious thing, but a good enemy is a thing to treasure above all others.' You are an intelligent mare, Sunset Shimmer; that's all too rare here, these days."
"I think you're very intelligent yourself, colonel."
"Of course I am," Starlight said. "It's why I'm so good at...making friends. Good day, Miss Shimmer."
"Good day, Colonel Glimmer," Sunset murmured, watching as Starlight walked past her, her long coat trailing behind her, until she was out of sight.
I'll have to watch her more carefully in future, Sunset thought, before she continued on her way to Luna's chambers.
Luna flung down the memorandum onto the table beside her and leaned forwards in her chair. "I will not suffer this, not in a thousand years!"
Upon either side of the door into her study, the two guards kept their faces strictly impassive. Silver Tongue, the Unicornicopian attache she was forced to suffer because her most high brother in law was too grand to come and speak to her himself, looked a little uncomfortable.
"Princess Luna," he began. "I fail to understand the source of your vehemence, we are simply discussing the modernisation-"
"Modernisation, you call it?" Luna demanded. "I call it rank tyranny."
"Have you not adopted the new and superior form with which you have been blessed by the benevolence of His Majesty, the Grand Ruler?" Silver Tongue asked. "Have not your guards embraced the future?"
"I have," Luna growled. "Though I have found little glory in it." In truth, the main reason she had permitted herself to be changed in this way was because she suspected she would get even less respect or recognition from the space ponies in a quadrupedal form than she would otherwise. Even still, she would not have done it had it not been for Celestia's persuasion.
"I allowed external force to manipulate and alter my body once, sister, I shall not suffer it again."
"You cannot compare what Nightmare Moon did to you to this?"
"Can I not, Celestia? It is all the same: someone or something taking my body and altering it to suit their pleasure and their preference, not my own. I say again, I will not bear it."
"And what kind of an example will that set? As princesses it is our duty to lead the way in this."
"Might it not be better to set an example in valuing the autonomy of our own bodies."
"You know why we must do this, Luna. You understand why our little ponies must do this. I do not know what the new order will bring but I know it walks upon two legs and therefore...so must we."
Luna scowled at the memory, as she wondered briefly if Celestia had regretted her stance of those early days. Certainly she now had no problem allowing Sunset Shimmer freedom to walk on all fours, she seemed even to like it. It was a pity that she had learned too late.
We all learned too late. All we can do now is apply what we learned so dearly as we move forward.
Silver Tongue smirked a little. "Princess Luna-"
"Do not smile at me, sir," Luna said sharply. "Certainly you shall not do so with such snideness on your face."
Silver Tongue blinked. "I, um, yes, your highness, but still...I fail to see why you object to others doing what you yourself have done."
"I object to others being forced to do what I chose to out of my own volition," Luna replied. "The moon clans harm no one, they wish to do nothing but to live in peace. And yet you would deny them the right to choose their traditional forms, the forms they inherited from their foremothers, and force them to be like you."
"Oh, goodness no, Princess Luna, they could never be like us," Silver Tongue declared. "Four legs or two they will always be inferior."
It was all that Luna could do not to laugh. I would match my night ponies against all the might of Starfleet any day, sir, and twice on holidays. One day you may even discover why, if you are unfortunate. "Indeed, Mister Silver Tongue. Nevertheless I will not suffer this. I will not suffer any pony to be forced into a conversion bureau against their will and neither will the clans themselves."
"With respect, princess, what you will or will not suffer is immaterial," Silver Tongue replied. "The Grand Ruler has decreed it shall be so and thus it shall. It is too late for any alteration."
"Then why am I only being consulted now?" Luna demanded. "Perhaps because it is only now too late for any alteration."
"I have no idea what you mean, highness. As one of three rulers of Equestria-"
"Yes, but I am not the ruler of United Equestria, am I Mister Silver Tongue?" Luna asked. Oh but to be ruler of Equestria again, and not united, to rule as an equal beside my sister in peace and harmony. "Certainly I am not Grand Ruler."
Silver Tongue laughed. "Of course not, Princess. There can only be one Grand Ruler."
"Praised by his name," Luna said dryly. "And so he makes laws which I cannot even see until it is too late to do anything about it. Tell me, Mister Silver Tongue, does freedom of choice mean nothing to you?"
"It is my opinion, Princess, that is a freedom far too often abused in making of the wrong choices to be worth protecting," Silver Tongue said. "How much better that the truly wise should make decisions touching on the foolish general, ordering all things to their very best advantage."
"Spoken like a true advocate of the police state."
"But a benevolent police state, princess, you must admit," Silver Tongue.
"Must I?" Luna asked. "Must I indeed?"
Silver Tongue coughed. "Um, if your highness would like to discuss foreign affairs. Relations with Grevyia-"
"It is this law that concerns me," Luna said. "Far more than our relations with the zebras." Those still concerned her, mostly due to the increasingly hawkish attitude being taken by Starfleet, but it did not concern her as much as this move towards forced conversion of her night ponies.
"It is too late!" Silver Tongue snapped. "The decision has been taken. It is too late."
Luna stared at him for a moment, her gaze boring into him until he looked away. "I see. And suppose I were to make some public showing of my discontent?"
Silver Tongue blinked. "Public showing?"
"If I cannot voice my objections in the palace then surely I can voice them in the street," Luna said. "That is only fair, don't you agree?"
Silver Tongue began to sweat a little. "That... that would be very unwise, Princess."
"I dare say you think so," Luna replied. "But thankfully I am not bound to do only the things that you consider wise. For I am, as you so kindly remind me, co-ruler of United Equestria, and hence accountable only to my own conscience."
Silver Tongue shifted awkwardly. "Some might say that, as one of three royal ones, you ought to place yourself above political considerations."
"And silence my voice in the process? That would be convenient for you, I'm sure; but I think not. Without my voice I am...nothing. A puppet with a dark blue crown upon my head. And that I shall never be." Luna's horn flared midnight blue as she levitated a book off one of her shelves and into her hand, thinking all the while how much she detested being referred to as 'one of the three royal ones'. Where these space ponies such cretins they could not even pronounce the word triarch? "Look on this book, sir. See how the spine has faded in colour; it has been left on the shelf for too long. I confess I have abandoned this volume, I have let it fade in its place, gathering dust."
Silver Tongue frowned. "I do not understand, your highness."
"You would make of me this book," Luna declared. "You would place me on the shelf beside my sister and leave me to gether dust, bidding me be as silent as the dead tongue of Twilight Sparkle. Yet when this book is opened observe how, despite the faded colour of the spine, the words are fresh as on the day of printing. So it shall be with my thoughts when I give them voice."
Silver Tongue gave a sort of nervous laugh. "I hardly think the Grand Ruler would approve."
"Fortunately I am not answerable to him, either," Luna said sharply. "That is all, Mister Silver Tongue, you may go."
Silver Tongue blinked rapidly, as if he was not sure what had just happened. "I-"
"I said you may go," Luna reminded him.
"Yes," Silver Tongue murmured. "Yes...I, um. Yes." One of the guards opened the door for him as he scuttled off. Once he was gone, the other guard sniggered.
Luna leaned back her head. "I enjoyed that a little too much."
"He deserved it, Your Highness," declared Catseye, the commander of her guard.
"Perhaps he did," Luna murmured. "But that does not mean it was right to give it to him."
For a moment there was no sound but the fire crackling in the gate. Then somepony knocked on the door.
"Princess Luna?" Sunset asked. "You sent for me."
Luna sat up in her seat. "Yes, I did. You may enter, Miss Shimmer."
Sunset walked in, seeming slightly tentative, nervous even. Possibly. Luna did not know Sunset Shimmer even so well as she had known Twilight Sparkle, or Twilight's friends, she could not read her moods so well.
Of course, Sunset did not know her, either, which would account for a little nervousness. Though they were, to some extent, partners in this enterprise, the younger unicorn kept her very much at a leg's length from her operation; to protect her, but also perhaps because she was loath to give up her position of leadership. Luna did not begrudge her that. Celestia, after all, had always given Twilight her head even when the stakes were highest; why, then, should she not do the same now.
As she must trust those under her, so I must trust her...as my sister always trusted Twilight. That was not to compare the depth of their relationship, of course; merely to note there was precedent for her refusal to engage in micro-management.
As Sunset stood in front of her, Luna was struck by how strange it was to see a real pony. It was wrong how strange it was. She had spent too long as an anthropomorphised...thing, surrounded by the like. Oh, to have four hooves again.
Sunset waited expectantly.
"Give us the room," Luna said. "We are not to be disturbed."
The guards bowed, and exited. Luna knew that they would take up their stations on the far side of the wall, and prevent any others from entering.
She had another guard outside the window, to keep informers at bay.
"Sunset Shimmer," Luna said. "How are you you?"
Sunset shifted on the carpet. "I'm fine, I guess."
"Good," Luna said softly. "And how is my sister?"
Sunset blinked. "I think it might be better if you asked her that yourself."
Luna sighed. "Perhaps. Our recent separation-"
"Hurts her," Sunset said bluntly. "It upsets her and she doesn't understand. And neither do I. Princess Celestia loves you, and with Twilight gone she needs those she loves around her more than ever, but you've shut her out. Why? What has she done?"
"She has done nothing," Luna said sharply.
"Is that the problem?" Sunset asked.
Luna smirked. "Well played, but no."
"Then why don't you ask her how she is yourself instead of calling me into your presence to be your go between?" Sunset demanded. "Princess Celestia... she thinks that you don't trust her."
"I trust Celestia with my life," Luna said. "But I do not trust myself with hers. Something I think you understand very well."
Sunset nodded. She chuckled slightly. "It's funny, don't you think? Princess Celestia is older, wiser and more powerful than either of us, and yet we both take such pains to keep her ignorant, in the name of protecting her and keeping her safe. Anyone would think she were some delicate flower in need of... sweet Celestia, we're as bad as the Grand Ruler, aren't we?"
"I hope not, or what is the point in any of it," Luna murmured. "Anyway, now you understand."
"I know, but I don't understand," Sunset replied. "I manage to do what I do without giving Princess Celestia the cold shoulder in the process."
"You may regret that decision when the time for secrecy is at an end." Luna said. "Do you play chess at all, Sunset Shimmer?"
"A little," Sunset said.
"Then you know that, while the loss of pawns, rooks, knights, even the white queen can be endured and the game still won, if the white king is lost then all is lost."
"The white queen wed the black king a long time ago," Sunset muttered.
"So the black king believes," Luna said. "But you and I know better. Celestia is the key. Especially now, with Twilight dead, she is the only thing holding the alliance between Equestrians and Unicornicopians together, maintaining this facade of equal partnership that grows thinner and more faded every day. If Celestia falls, then tyranny will ensue, you may depend upon it. So we must keep her safe.
"And yet I find that, even for Celestia's sake, I can no longer sit silently and idle. The day may come soon when I am no longer here to fight for my sister; when that day comes then you, her knight, must do so in my stead. Can I trust you to do that?"
Sunset was silent for a moment. "It is too soon, princess. These things take time-"
"Equestria does not have time, as I suspect you know full well," Luna replied. "The Grand Ruler's grip tightens each day, what will be left in a few years time. Who will be left to rally to the standard of rebellion when you raise it? All will have been ground down beneath the heel of Starfleet, or else murdered like..."
"Like Twilight," Sunset muttered.
Luna's eyes narrowed. "You suspect it too."
"There are too many holes in the official story for me to believe it," Sunset said. "And the fact that Raven is in restricted acces and I can't get in to see her isn't making me any less suspicious."
"Then you should see why we have no time for patience," Luna declared. "You will find a target on your back long before you reach the culmination of your patient planning."
Sunset looked away. "There are times when I wonder if I'm getting comfortable here. Not with Starfleet, not with the way the things are, but...with Celestia, with Leilani, I...when I'm with them, I can almost forget all the terrible things that are going on outside. Their goodness drowns it out."
"Indeed," Luna said. "I do not begrudge you. In fact I envy you. But we must never allow ourselves to forget, must never succumb to comfort. The Cathedral Solar and Cathedral Lunar are almost complete, and my moon clans are prepared to fight rather than submit to forced conversion. If the time is not now it will come soon. Sooner than you would like, perhaps, but soon nonetheless."
"Too soon," Sunset repeated. "We need a reason to rise up, beyond the everyday injustices that people have learned to live with. We need a spark to light the flame of rebellion and at the moment we have none."
"Sparks rarely spring up of their own volition," Luna said. "They must be lit."
"Meaning, princess?"
Luna smiled. "Meaning that the day may come soon when I am no longer here to fight for my sister. When that day comes then you, her knight, must do so in my stead. Can I trust you to do that?"
Sunset was silent for a moment. "Princess Luna... I don't know you. I'm not your friend. But whatever it is you're thinking of doing I beg you to reconsider."
Luna smiled. "I am afraid that it is beyond your powers, or even Celestia's, to talk me out of this; nor did I ask you here to be so persuaded. I asked you here for your promise. Will you be here for Celestia when I am gone?"
Sunset stared into Luna's eyes for a moment, before she bowed. "I will. For as long as she needs me."
"Thank you, Sunset Shimmer," Luna said. "And good luck."
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And Starlight Glimmer is more likely to stab ponies in the back to rise in the ranks than her fellow Equestriani.
Also... Sunset Shimmer with great pride I give you the title of Celestia's Paladin, you are now her sword and shield. Bring back the light.
I can start seeing how this could play out in my world. Sunset would not be the only one planing on overthrowing the Grand Ruler. She wasn't the only one to be on the other side.
So I have just finished reading all that there currently is, and I am quite happy with what I see. I do so love a good political game, and Sunset Shimmer and Luna are the two I find most easily fitting into said game. I also like how Lightning Dawn has been changed oh so gradually. United Equestria, or rather Starfleet itself, is tyrannical, but poison has always been the favored bane for tyrants. How appropriate that it should begin with Lightning.
Oh thank goodness....
Hmmmm. Unless the Twilight kiler clone comes in soon the description is misleading.
8651684
Chapter 7 I'm afraid.
My descriptions are often misleading because I don't outline in detail before I write the synopsis. As a result it took me a lot longer to get to Twi-clone than I had anticipated at the outset. And I became more interested in some of the other characters.