Queen Nightmare Moon

by Makitk

Chapter 14

The dark night passed into the twilit day, and Nightmare Moon watched as her sibling Darkstar recovered from the energy drain little by little.

She half suspected her moon to be the reason; as Celestia before her, Darkstar drew her power from the connection with her sun. With the moon now blocking the majority of sunrays, due to their apparent harmful nature, Darkstar was recharging herself at a snail's pace compared to Celestia during her reign.

The Queen kept both of their schedules clear for the day, both to let her sister get her magic back as well as to ponder the words spoken to her the day previous.

That gem of hers had been both a blessing and a curse at the same time. She had been fighting its influence since it took her eye, but she could see how her subjects responded to her when she acted nice to them.

They worked harder at their jobs, stood more proudly, and came to her more eagerly than when she scoffed at them and tried to be the Dark Queen she thought she should be.

Nightmare Moon could see the benefits to being kind once in a while, but the question was how much of a choice the Element of Kindness would give her once they fully bonded.

She felt very much against the idea of becoming a pushover, just being nice to everypony until another Celestia would rise up to throw her in a dungeon to be forgotten about...

The idea was ridiculous, and Nightmare Moon knew this, but she could not shake the fear regardless.

Darkstar did not bring it up all day, perhaps noticing the difficulty her Queen had with it, focusing instead on their travel arrangements for the upcoming trip to the wedding party out East.

Her sister commanded the various ponies with a sharpness that made Nightmare Moon jealous; unburdened by the Element of Kindness, Darkstar had no qualms with threatening them if they did not do their jobs quick- or well-enough to her liking.

With her sister's power slowly returning to her, these threats were increasingly within the realm of possibility, and Nightmare Moon took notice of the changing attitudes of those her sister spoke with.

At first they took them as harmless, returning jokes while they tried to follow Darkstar's instructions mainly from leftover loyalty or her position as adivisor and sister to their Queen. They barely gave these early commands a second thought, Darkstar's powers an unknown factor to them.

Once her magic started to return to her, so too did a dark aura surround her. Barely noticeable to start with, it slowly but surely diminished the intensity of the light in her immediate surroundings. The more energy returned to her, the sharper the contrast became as if she was becoming a black hole herself.

Ponies quickly took note of this change, and Nightmare Moon watched them slow their approach to her sister, back away that much faster, and their discomfort in Darkstar's presence grow noticeably as the day continued on.

As night fell again, Darkstar excused herself to return to her bedchambers, leaving Nightmare Moon to her own thoughts in the throne room.

Not an hour passed before the double doors opened again, and one of her Nightguard entered the room. Approaching the throne, Nightmare Moon recognized the Lunar Earthpony mare from her spotted grey coat and sharp amber eyes.

She waited for the guard to stop in front of the lowermost step to her throne, then spoke as she dipped her helmeted head down.

"What do you need, Steelmane?" the Queen asked of her guard.

"My Queen, there are worrying reports coming in from the East;" the mare started while turning her head up again to look straight at her Matriarch, "the Timberwolves have been moving ever closer to the townships there. There have already been reports from trade caravans and messengers who narrowly escaped attacks while out on the roads there."

"Is there any indication as to why the Timberwolves are on the move?" Nightmare Moon wondered, and caught the guard glancing quickly at her sister's empty throne before returning her attention to the Queen.

"The best guess we have right now is that it is caused by the recent change to the sun and the intensity of the light which it now emits during the day, my Queen," Steelmane suggested. "They have always been more active during Your nights, and the day has been darker than it has ever been before."

"Will it cause problems for our planned excursion to the Eastern cities?" came the expected question. "Please tell me we have enough competent guards to keep the roads safe?"

The mare pulled away a bit, her tufted ears turning back. "Actually, we are spread out more each day. We could really use more recruits to plug the gaps in our border defense especially."

Nightmare Moon stared blankly at the guard. "Why have you not come to me sooner?" she started. "I had no idea the state of my army was this dismal."

"We did send reports to the palace, my Queen," Steelmane replied meekly. "When nothing changed, I was sent here in an attempt to find out if any help was forthcoming at all. Especially since the sun changed and all..."

The Queen sighed out with withheld anger. "The lack of communication must have been my sister's doing. I will have to confront her about this."

"My Queen?" the mare inquired cautiously.

"Help will be on its way shortly. On your way out, tell the guards in the hall that I wish to see my captains before me within the hour," Nightmare Moon decided, turning her head away from Steelmane in order to peer out through one of the windows.

The mare took the hint and backed off from the throne, leaving through the set of double doors a moment after.

Peering at the sky outside, the Queen idly wondered just what state her kingdom was in. How much had Celestia managed to hide from her? She would have to ensure her guards were still loyal, and seek out her sister's pawns with their help.

The fact Darkstar had failed to come clean about Celestia's underhanded practices were a point of concern. How much could she trust one who worked in secrecy, even while having the Element of Loyalty embedded in them?

Just how much power did that gemstone have over her sibling, if Celestia (and Darkstar) managed to move against her regardless?

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