After four harrowing years of civil war brought about by Nightmare Moon's return, Canterlot has finally fallen. Princess Celestia has been banished to the moon, and now a new alicorn rules over Equestria. For the supporters of Nightmare Moon, the new eternal night is a time for celebration. For the ponies who fought for Celestia, it means something else entirely. For when the war is lost and the victor demands fealty, the vanquished are given only two choices: bow low and kiss the ground beneath her hooves, or die.
Not everpony who bows does so out of love for the conqueror, of course. Some do it to bide their time. Some do it out of a sense of opportunity. Most bow merely to survive. All of them are liars. But how long can a pony tell the same lie before it becomes the truth?
And what happens to that pony when their lies are lies no more?
Edited by SolidFire. Inspired by the Nightmare Moon timeline in the season 5 finale, a particular scene from a particular show, and an entertaining game of Equestria at War.
the ending just hurt my soul. AJ is my fav mane 6 pony
Nice story, love it.
That’s cold bruh, but still awesome
Man on the High Castle. I'm 100% certain you got inspiration from that series. Especially the episode when America officially surrendered to the Reich. John Smith's part in that scene where the prisoners were hauled off to the executioner's wall was down right bone chilling.
10/10 will definitely watch again.
Kudos to you.
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.”
Ayn Rand
If I was there I would not bow or serve Nightmare Moon But I would only serve Celestia instead.
10027439
Considering all the people who kept fighting were branded traitors and killed, you are signing your death warrant. That's the reason Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy switched sides in the first place, and also to protect their families.
I don't suppose you're willing to make an alternate ending where Rarity proposes a new pet project for Nightmare Moon, calling it a... rehabilitation act. After a gruesome war there would be need for extra labor in various places. They'd work, toil and grovel in exchange for shelter and 3 square meals a day. And if they're good enough they might hopefully even earn their freedom as full citizens of the empire. You could also put some obedience collars on the prisoners making them more docile or punish them if they fall out of line.
Naturally Rarity would get Applejack. And I can see that she wouldn't bow so easily. But Rarity would put Apple Bloom and Big Mac into the picture promising them a comfortable life if she would change.
Just a thought.
This is a good story and it shows rather accurately what happens in situations like Nightmare Moons victory.
Oh man I love this story so much! The writing is just incredible! I literally gasped out loud when AJ appeared at the end.........and Rarity's response made me shiver!
Oh man. This was so good.
The saying about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions is all too true. This is how reasonable, even good, people have acted during so many conquests and revolutions and regime changes: just play along to protect your family and friends and yourself. Most of the Nazis weren't monsters, after all, but ordinary people who just went along with a monstrous regime.
Video game
10027486
Apple Bloom and Big Mac were killed, that’s why AJ kept fighting while someone like Rainbow didn’t, she had nothing left to lose. Of course by the end she realised she still has her own life to lose, but it was too late to that point.
10027631
True. But like i said. An alternate story. Big Mac could've been wounded and unconscious the whole time. Maybe when the war went south he decided to throw away his uniform and found himself a new name under the guise of a worker. Or maybe some poor fella took pity on him and took him in and told the bats that he was a relative.
And Apple Bloom went missing. She could've been found somewhere and taken in for a variety of reasons.
This story is too good to let it end like the man in the High Castle.
Applejack made her choice. She was loyal long past the point loyalty mattered. Though I could see Nightmare Moon ordering the last cell not be eliminated but used as workers as a example of her 'benevolance' and 'mercy'.
Fluttershy it seems will move on for a while but her frequent absences will eventually catch up to her.
Rainbow Dash will remain loyal, but that loyalty is now to Nightmare Moon and possibly to Rarity do to there closer working relationship.
Rarity will move up the ranks, but honestly while now she has the Lie turned into Truth the future may hold other views for her. I doubt she will ever turn her viewpoint again unless she runs into someone to help her do so.
10027415
To be frank, she's not exactly one to say so. Or maybe it's the opposite and she says from experience. A shame she's wrong.
10027631
Libido, the instinct to live, is strong. Nobody in their right mind wants to die. But to be honest, in her case I'd say "better horrible end than endless horror".
10027711
Applejack coudn't turn all her life into a lie. That's it, mostly. Other elements are easier in this regard.
Nightmare Moon doesn't need any "benevolent" examples anyway, everypony left alive worships her. They know better than not to.
Rainbow Dash - I think at this point she's only loyal to her parents. When they die, might be the moment she decides nothing to live for anymore.
Considering another nations - I guess, they accepted her as Queen over Equestria because she gave the world some alternate way to grow crops instead of light. In any other case, they would have waged war - it's better than die starving, anyway - and given that the Resistance was actively fighting for four years and was rooted out after another two or three, they would have won.
10027919
You're entitled to your opinion, however incorrect.
She's the Mare in the high castle.
Why would the dragons follow NMM? They don't need the Sun. They eat gems. They find ponies pathetic. They'd see this as an opportunity to invade. NMM is nowhere near powerful enough to harm them.
Also, as with all such weak 'NMM wins and is a total psychotic bitch and somehow gets a zillion followers despite being barely in existence for 5 minutes as we saw in Season 4's opener' fics, YOU FORGET ABOUT DISCORD AND TIREK. In the same way the awful alt-universe timeline episode did. There is NO UNIVERSE that can be justified after Season 4 which does not end up with either Discord or Tirek winning easily against a mere angsty alicorn.
Discord WILL BREAK FREE. Tirek WILL BREAK FREE. And there are NO ELEMENTS to stop them.
And NMM, in her insanity, will be utterly HELPLESS against either one of them.
*smirks* I know how causality works. NMM loses. End of story.
10027439 I would kill Nightmare Moon.
It would be simplicity itself. We've all seen how weak the alicorns are against snow and vines.
Welp, Nightmare Moon rules this universe all for about two years or so before this guy appears. i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/38/08/e93808b201e5add515bc048da5e79395.jpg
Being that he is a badass incarnate that has placed the universe of Hell in fear, its a certainty that NMM and her cronies are toast. And he crosses into worlds and time, so yeah, this is possible.
10028408
10028395
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/018/489/nick-young-confused-face-300x256-nqlyaa.jpg
10028395
Bruh this story is about the mod for Hearts of Iron 4 called Equestria at War. Where you can start a scenario that will lead to a civil war in Equestria. No need to go psycho.
10027439
Suuure buddy
Oooh, that ending had me wanting a little more.
Rarity telling Rainbow what had happened. It'd be interesting to see how Dash reacted to that.
They mentioned Pinkie being gone, but not a single mention of what befell Twilight.
and I'd also love to see the aftermath of Twilight and Spike's visit in Cutie Re-mark.
I'm getting vibes from the man in the high castle show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcUr93gIECk
Violence is the supreme authority, from which all other authority is derived.
10028496
Don't worry he's like that in every comment section
Cool story.
It would have been even cooler if we got more than one point of view. At least that's my opinion.
10027919
all active cells being captured doesn't mean no one fights. The existence of people fighting may have justified inaction for some, when people notice the absence they may choose to start resisting in some wat
10028571
they don;t know Twilight. This is based on the no Rainboom timeline, Twilight didn't become Celestia's personal student
10028395
Discord may break free, but if as some people theorize in their fics it's the elements changing owners that weaken their previous spells then he may not. And a paranoid dictator like NMM may slap extra guards on Tartarus keeping Cerberus from wandering off
10028562 It reminded me entirely of that awful episode.
But, it also makes a devastating internal logic mistake: this world is, thus, a darker and grittier version of Equestria with machines and trucks and whatever.
Ok, so in this darker reality... Celestia still makes no preparations at all. She has a thousand years to prepare, COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY FOR A MILLENNIUM... and doesn't root out any cultish NMM lunatics, doesn't have backup plans for her backup plans.
Nope, NMM shows up and wins, despite her forces not possibly being able to make up 1% or less of the population and bajillions of regular ponies for whatever reason follow this genocidal freak instead of the Lovely White and Perfect Celestial God-Pony who brought peace for 500 generations, versus rising up en masse to slaughter the bat ponies and small number of cultists, leaving NMM utterly alone.
Oh, and apparently all the other countries of other creatures have no issue with a pony (recalling that most of them look down on the ponies) taking away the Sun and do nothing!
So, billions of creatures of all sorts with absolutely no reason to bow to NMM... all bow to NMM and are completely incompetent to do shit against her tiny forces.
It's be like ISIS deciding to attack China. It'd go about as well as that.
See, no matter how you cut it, IT MAKES NO SENSE. There is no way this works without so drastically altering the entire background and construction of the world-building that you might as well not even bother making it about the primary cast of the show, because in all likelihood they wouldn't even exist. Causality, ya know?
It's not only this story. It's virtually EVERY SINGLE STORY in which NMM wins and takes over and amazingly everypony is willing to follow her except a tiny number of rebels. There is no way in hell NMM would have a significant number of supporters under ANY circumstance even remotely similar to the show's world. Only if Celestia sucked as a ruler, there were wars constantly, Celestia was a tyrant herself, there was a major economic depression... you know MOTIVATION?... would even a quarter of the populace join this cackling idiot who wants to make eternal night (which, on its very face, sounds utterly insane to pretty much everyone not an emo douche with no purpose in life aside from brooding in a closet). And, in those Bad Celestia ideas... the Mane 6 would never come to be. BUT, in that case that Celly is nasty... wouldn't she have been ready with a massive and vicious force of magical fighters ready to beat the crap out of NMM when she returned? IT DOESN'T WORK!! Celly has TOO MUCH CONTROL, TOO MUCH POWER. There is no plausible way NMM wins!
I don't care if someone made a game mod. Game stories are frequently dumb and pointless; just a shell to build the gameplay around. It's rarely every plausible as a story.
This piece was quite the enjoyable read, with everything feeling so hopeless but also not completely doomed. Of all the futures shown in the Season 5 finale, I always saw the Nightmare Moon Rule was the..least bad? This shows that while things are much more aggressive and violent than when Celestia ruled, it at least implies that Nightmare Moon wants to still be a somewhat fair Princess/Queen. Again, this piece was super good and if there's ever a return to this world, I'd love to see it.
I love this story ❤️
10029086
>why don't people follow my specific headcanon?
Let people enjoy things.
10029086
As a dev for that game. Most Thestrals aren't in fact cultists. Most of the insane cultists are from the untameable jungles to the south where Daring Do does what she wants. The rest of them are an oppressed minority used as night shift workers for large scale industries who are powerful enough to fight any attempts to let the population even know of the Thestrals' existence. Let alone their plight.
Tie this into Tia's delusions that her ponies can do no wrong and you get a pony version of the Black Panthers. Then walks in Nightmare Moon. In game the war is insanely easy to avoid if the player wants too. The options are basically "Avoid it the war and give them all cake." "I don't know quite yet so ask me a bit later." and "Heck yeah! Let's burn this place to the ground." Almost literally.
We have content for dozens of nations with each having several paths.
Hoplite Commie Pegasi? Yep.
Commie Changelings? Yep.
Holy Orders of Griffions? Several in fact, all with differant goals and cultures.
Druids? Yep.
Necromancers? Yep.
A CK2 styled dating game? I don't know why but yes.
Want to go Yaks and invade the Crystal Empire? Sure.
Want to go Sombra and invade the Yaks? Ok!
Want to go Thorax as the Yaks go on the warpath, Luna goes Moonie, Celle goes Daybreaker, the Deer go Deus Vult and the Griffions decide you taste good and save the world with vampiric harmony? Sure!
We have 30k+ active users so take it up with them if you don't like our content, because they do.
It's very nice to see EAW on the Featured List though.
Luna reminds me of Chris Chan where the greatest crime you can commit is hurting their feelings and spilling an endless amount of blood in extremely cruel ways is completely justified.
Amazing story, clearly an instant fav.
A great story, really well done.
It's always great to see more Equestria at War inspired stories too.
As they say, history is written by the winners.
Wow this comment section is the worst
Also, how did they know her name was Luna?
10029639
True, the immediate history, but eventually the truth will come out over time. But by than, who would care? It happened "long ago".
10030125
Well...
I asked my dad about whether or not Andrew Jackson should be labeled a genocidal war criminal for what he did to the Natives.
His response: Andrew Jackson was a brave man who fought to build America. Now, he is not saying the treat of natives was OK. He says that making America great means Jackson did far more good than bad.
If Nightmare Moon were to build a prosperous Equestria, somepony 100 years from now might say "yeah, punishing the rebels was not nice. But Nightmare Moon built a great nation."
Are you ever planning on doing a sequel to this story? I'd love to read anything you have based in this world!
You needn't worry for your choices long Rarity, it's Equestria at War! I've never seen Nightmare Moon win against the Changeling Lands.
10031460
I did.
It generally depends on wether or not she conquered Stalliongrad already.
10030479
Every country currently existing is great, because the ones who live there are the ones it was made great for. The rest are dead.
This is the first story I have read on here, as I am new to this site. I must admit, this caught my attention, and it was worth the read. I would love to see a sequel, as this was very intriguing.