Princess Luna's return from her thousand-year exile on the moon has been one punctuated mostly by elegance. However, some things plague her heart about the new cultural standards of the realm, and its conflictions with her past actions. Eventually she breaks her silence about the coerced unification of early Equestria to none other than Applejack. Her honest depiction of the past runs contrary to the narrative that Celestia has put forth in the thousand years of her absence, and the truth the matter threatens to unravel Celestia's friendship with Applejack and her friends.
Especially as more is uncovered about how much Celestia has slowly erased from the history books.
Chapters (3)
Damn, what an interesting idea! I can't wait to see where this will lead.
Oh boi
Twilight. You and Celestia just don't get it. A kingdom based of lies is doomed to failure.
F in chat boys
It feels really wrong to have Twilight support this level of historical revisionism, even when considering her Celestia-sized blind spot. Though if I had to guess, it seems she's already discussed the problem with Celestia, especially given the "If I was a few years younger" comment. Celestia still knows all those compulsion spells, after all, and unicorn resistance came from using those same spells all the time...
One thing: Twilight's internal musings on whether or not Celestia would have done this don't mesh with her knowing that she should be feigning ignorance about it. Why would she wonder about the existence of the conspiracy if she's already a part of it?
That being said, this is quite good thus far. Looking forward to more.
9818654
I hope whatever discrepancies you found in the previous chapter are addressed in this one.
Ah. I hadn't considered the long-term implications of ruling through casual mind control, and neither has Celestia. There are, after all, two relics from that time that are still relevant in the modern era, herself and Luna. And when you've grown accustomed to yes-men and obedient slaves, and especially when you beloeve you have the right to alter history as you see fit for the sake of your narrative, you're not going to let certain purple ponies out from under your wing enough to do something as dangerous as think independently.
Mind you, there's the question of how well that will work against a living avatar of capital-H Honesty who just chugged down a year's worth of mental wards...
(Also, a noble effort with Zecora, but... well, a lot of people have trouble with her dialogue.)
Celestia that work is already wasted. Truth always comes out and a kingdom formed of lies is not a strong one.
I'm certainly interested in how the rest of things will come apart and what Celestia will do about that.