Imperial Revision

by The Sound of Loneliness

The Knight And His Lady

As Nightmare Moon crossed the doors to the hall once more, she found it full of ponies, all seemingly waiting for her. Guards standing in formation and Maids shyly herding together behind them. Twilight hastily hiding away her endless check-lists and calculations. Even Rarity coyly smiled at her side.

“First Guard regiment! Atten-tion!” the Captain shouted his command. The Guards, with drilled reflex, clapped their hooves against the floor and raised their chins to the ceiling,
“First platoon! Preseeeent arms!” monumental shuffling ensued as rifles were brought to the right side vertically. “Groooooound arms!” The Guards proceeded to lower the weapons to the floor with the same monumental clatter. The Captain skipped the officers’ saber salute, but considering the haste...
“To the front sa-lute! Sound the royal greeting!” the Captain called his next order.

“Hail, Lady-Marshal!” the hall rang with voices.

“First regiment of the Imperial Guard is lined up in Lady-Marshal’s honor!” the Captain finished.

Dead silence ensued. Nightmare Moon eyed the rows of her soldiers with curiosity. This was so obvious! She must have gotten far too submerged in Imperial affairs if she could be so unattentive. This wasn’t an underground party her Guards wanted to have without her knowing, the celebration was for her!

“Regimental orchestra! Perform the Imperial fanfare!” the Captain commanded, moving to the next part of the show. The orchestra began to play the composition as ordered. Nightmare Moon heard it dozens of times, even though her public appearances were scarce amongst the years, but this time… oh, it sounded new!
She never even thought of restricting the initiative her servants may show officially, but they were usually too quiet to dare add anything to her orders. This is why this whole performance was so special.

The brass humming, accompanied by the solemn percussion ended in a minute, once more leaving dead silence in its wake. It was her turn to speak, if only she’d known what to say.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the collective gasp of ponies present. Nightmare Moon lifted her foreleg and touched her cheek, picking the drop up on her shinning shoe.

The Captain, dutiful as always, rushed to her,
“Your Majesty, I apologize for upsetting you so! I should have never permitted-” Nightmare Moon simply laughed at the notion.

“Oh, Captain!” Nightmare chucked and wiped her second eye.”Dear Rolling Thunder, why would you imagine I would be upset? You, all of you, just made this old mare feel as if she was a young filly, getting her first taste of attention.”

“Well… you aren’t old at all, Your Majesty,” the Captain stammered for a second, unsure of what the normally authoritative mare meant calling him informally, by name.

“Why, that’s charming of you to say so.” The black mare gave him a warm smile only slightly spoiled by her sharp fangs, “Would such a gentlecolt grace the lady with a dance as well?” her smile narrowing into a coquettish grin.
Roling lost his jaw and his cheeks rapidly reddened. Somepony proceeded to blow him an encouraging whistle,
“You cannot possibly suggest that an officer of the Guard would not know how to dance?” the mare teased. She proceeded to wink at Rarity, who readily cantered away to the band to give them the details on the song.

Nightmare Moon offered her hoof to Rolling which he reluctantly took.

The orchestra started playing, signaling to the pair to start the waltz. Nightmare Moon was a large mare and one might believe the dance would look comical. That would’ve been true if Nightmare Moon was an ordinary large mare. The crowd held in amazement as their monarch demonstrated her grace once more, following the Captain’s every movement like a shadow produced by candlelight. Always dexterous enough to not bump into a much smaller stallion, but also careful enough to somehow not overshadow him despite her size. In waltz, it is always the male who needed to lead, and Nightmare Moon, of course, would not humiliate her loyal subject by taking the lead away from him.

Shortly, with little nudges from Rarity, other Guards began inviting maids to a dance of their own. Simple soldiers did not study in an academy, leaving their dancing skills sub-par, but what they lacked in studies, they compensated in enthusiasm. Although the Head Maid herself had barely avoided her hoof getting stepped on, she was still delighted to spin around the hall with a lucky private.

With the ponies dispersing all over the hall, Nightmare Moon could finally have a look at who else was present. Contently, she noted Twilight allowing herself a break from her endless notes, although not quite enough to let herself accept one of the extended hooves. Poor filly must have never received a dancing class! This was completely unacceptable! Luckily, Rarity more than compensated, she danced exquisitely!
The first guests Nightmare Moon managed to spot was the Shine clan, having a chat with some of Morning’s friends; Shadow shyly standing closeby, visibly uncomfortable without her disguise under so many gazes.
But where was Cadance? She couldn’t be seen anywhere in the hall. Nightmare Moon forcibly stopped her mind from connecting any dots, she was not to care about such things on this occasion, it would diminish the value.

Letting her Captain another smile, Nightmare Moon cautiously let him go, stopping their dance. He gave away a forlorn sigh, but obeyed her desire,
“You were wonderful, Rolling,” she commended. "Quite a gentlecolt you are, especially for a soldier."

"My pleasure, Your Majesty!" the Captain bowed. "I am honored that you would-"

"Rolling!" Nightmare Moon giggled. "Can't you relax sometimes? This is not an official ball, you need not be this stiff now."

"I... he-he... it's just a habit, sorry," the Captain brushed off, but Nightmare felt his weakness already. She proceeded to take a step to her Captain and bowed her head to his ear.

"Rolling, if you do yourself good and relax today, I'll make a dance with the Captain of The Guard a tradition for every ball," she whispered teasingly to the stallion's ear, making it perk excitedly. She then proceeded to draw away to examine the results of her play.
A delightful rosy blush was once again spreading through his cheeks,
"Carry on, Rolling," Nightmare Moon said while walking past him deliberately close and even letting her magical tail touch his side ever so lightly. Time to see how her other Princess was doing.

“Your Majesty,” Twilight threw in a tiny bow and a smile, as Nightmare Moon approached her.

“Twilight, I must say, you are still full of surprises! Shadow alerted me of your gathering, but I had no clue even as I saw it.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Twilight bowed again, “But this wasn’t my idea, all I did is help.”

“So you say, my most humble Twilight. Say, where is Cadance? I thought she is staying with you.”

“She went to find your sister, Your Majesty. We believed she shouldn’t be left out of this either, but it seems Cadance is having issues.”

“Hmm…” Nightmare Moon glanced musingly at the hall’s doors. This was curious, did Cadance somehow get lost in the palace? Or perhaps Daybreaker was causing trouble again?
“They’ll return, eventually.” Regardless, it could be dealt with later. “Twilight, you should let yourself relax more. Stallions would kill to have you for a dance.”

The lavender Princess frowned,
“I’d rather avoid unnecessary humiliation,” she dryly responded.

“Why, you are too harsh to yourself. I would not believe Celestia did not teach you to dance.”

“Well, she did but… well, I skipped the lessons whenever I could, I always preferred more… academic studying,” Twilight confessed.

“I see.” The answer was hardly surprising, but it was disappointing nonetheless, “I shall make an arrangement for you to have a few more lessons.” Twilight let go a hopeless sigh and gave her Empress a pleading look, “A Princess must know how to dance, Twilight. It is very important,” Nightmare Moon lectured, her tone leaving no room for arguments.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Twilight dully announced her surrender.

“Twilight, don’t despair. Dancing is fun!” Nightmare Moon tried to cheer the depressed Princess. “Here’s my decree to you:” -Nightmare Moon pointed to the now lonely captain standing awkwardly at one of the tables- “give Rolling another dance. It is not customary for a high-ranking officer to walk without a pair at a ball.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Twilight sighed again.

Content with the answer, Nightmare Moon left Twilight to her own misery and moved on to other creatures present.

“Mistress, I did as you ordered, but Sir Morning seemed a little wary to see me,” Shadow reported.

“Forgive him, Shadow. Sir Morning could not expect to see you at his doorstep, undisguised,” Nightmare Moon proceeded to cast a look at the group chatting fervently at the next table. “I am sure he is quite happy he did see you,” she smiled.

“Mistress, I don’t understand,” Shadow started her usual tune. “This is a violation of protocol chapter eleven point five.”

“My Shadow.” Nightmare Moon affectionately patted the changeling on her head, “Protocol can be suspended for just one day. Rules exist to regulate the everynight conduct, not to restrict initiative. Initiative is a boon, Shadow.”

“But this contradicts your own orders!” Shadow stubbornly retorted. Nightmare Moon sighed.

“My Shadow, sometimes following orders is not the best course of action,” she answered.

“This is what Princess Twilight told me, I thought this was a correct course of action. Yet, I only caused harm! Both to you and myself,” Shadow whispered the last.

“Don’t say that, you had no part in my sister’s paranoia. She had no business being there, or taking any action without my sanction.”

“Did she not use her… initiative like you said we all should? Mistress, I don’t understand! Your decrees seem to contradict each other!” Nightmare Moon began distinguishing notes of desperation in Shadow’s voice.

“Shadow, mistakes are sometimes unavoidable, everyone makes them. Do not blame my sister for not being perfectly aware of what is required of her, or yourself.”

“But… If everyone of us can make mistakes, why wouldn’t you simply issue us more direct orders, Mistress?”

“Because I too can make mistakes, my Shadow,” Nightmare Moon quietly admitted.

The seemingly obvious fact has put the poor changeling in a stupor. Nightmare Moon softly touched the speechless changeling on the shoulder,
“Why?” Shadow managed to ask. Nightmare Moon slowly shook her head, even Mistress could not know everything.

Nightmare Moon noticed the hall suddenly falling quiet. The reason for the change was quite obvious. Daybreaker was making a valiant attempt to move through the hall as casually as she could. Cadance followed her like a prison guard, noticeably pale, yet determined. All good things must end. Nightmare Moon frowned.