Imperial Revision

by The Sound of Loneliness

To Fight With Thy Arms Down

“Luna, it is finally dusk again.” Sombra floated up to the Night Princess. Luna made no move, sitting down next to a pony on the ground. “We got all you wanted from him, he was no longer needed and you had to feed. Snap his neck or leave him to bleed out if you so choose,” Sombra reminded, his voice devoid of perceivable emotion.

“Sombra, how can you be this cold-hearted?” Luna asked out of the blue, tears standing her eyes. “This is horrible! I hate myself for having to harm others for my sustenance and you are saying I am to kill the pony who provided for me!?”

“Luna, may I remind you that this filth did not do so willingly? Or perhaps you are forgetting this is a member of the same gang you are hunting? I believed you wanted to avenge… Trixie, that was her name? A fitting punishment, wouldn’t you agree?”

“No, Sombra!” Luna cried out in indignation. “I want to seem them brought to justice, not murdered themselves! They may have blood on their hooves, but they are still royal subjects!” For a moment Sombra scoffed as if finding Luna’s sentiment entertaining, but he soon regained his composure.

“In that case, perhaps you should have tasked your little pet to start an investigation, as to my knowledge, she has not burdened herself such as of yet.”

“Nightmare has enough on her hooves as is, Sombra. I can do this myself.”

“Of course you can, Luna. You will find the petty criminals,” Sombra agreed. “And then?”

“Then they will be judged!” Luna shouted.

“Of course they will be, by you.” Luna began to open her mouth to protest again, but Sombra was way ahead of her, “You do not intend to drag them to a court yourself, now do you? This is not how justice works, My Love.
“You need evidence and even though tracking them down was trivially easy with a bit of spellcraft, I believe the word of an old stallion such as myself would not be enough for esteemed judges. So picky they are,” Sombra distastefully humped.

Luna’s eyes rolled closed, then she took a deep breath. The Princess lifted the unconscious pony trotted to the entrance of the cave they were staying in.

“Changed your mind?” Sombra asked.

“You are right, Sombra,” Luna gloomily admitted. “This is not justice, this is vengeance. This crusade was foolish. I will return to Nightmare now.”

“Why condone that creature in the first place?” Sombra asked, following Luna to the exit. “She killed more of your subjects than anyone else, yet you hate me and let her roam free?”

Luna’s mouth stretched into a grimace,
“How can you even compare, Sombra? You enslaved your own people! You forced them to die in your wars!”

“And she does none of this? Luna, she stole your identity and your crown. She is forcing your subjects to jump at her every whim. They will die for her if she tells them to. At least I was merciful enough to not leave them the illusion of choice.” Luna finally stopped as reached the entrance, casting a look at the purple, evening, sky, the stars already visibly shining.
“She is no better than I, My Love. Let me aid you, she is weak and we can cast her down easily. Free your ponies of tyranny. Was this not why you cast me down?”
Luna suddenly and sharply turned her head away from the sky and towards the woods,
“We can even purge that parasite from Celestia’s body,” Sombra whispered directly into Luna’s ear. Luna showed no interest, being completely fixated on some distant sound only she could hear.

A moment later Sombra was forced to test limits of his own flight, as Luna darted away carrying the unconscious pony away with her.

“And what if the Guard reacts?” a question reached him. “They seem serious.” Sombra stopped, as he lost Luna’s trail by now, but she was close enough for him to feel content. Sombra began listening instead.

“Ye ‘ought to spend less time in ye woods, me tellin’ ya. Hag’s ain’t like ‘dat. She won’t let her goons hurt us.”

“Since when do you know what she’s like AJ? I thought she ruined your life or something.”

“She sure as hay did. Imma just tellin’ ye what I saw with mah own two eyes.”

“So, you are saying we can just walk up to the front gate and no one’s goin’ to touch us? Sounds a bit too damn good to be true, AJ. It’s Nightmare Moon we are talking ‘bout here.”

“Ah know it’s Hag, dummy!”

“Then what’s about it? Don’t say she starting to grow on you.”

“Oh, hay no! I ain’t getting any friendlier with her till I’m on mah deathbed! Look, I am just sayin’ how things are, ‘kay? I dunno why the change, but she seems to be aversed to violence now, or something. No matter what ruckus Rainbow does in the palace, she just gets a spank and that’s all. She ain’t going to jail anypony for just asking nicely, ‘kay?”

“Well, damn, sounds like Celestia’s been getting through to her, or something.”

“Hey, it’s Luna, remember? She just got a bit antsy again, she’ll come back around, eventually.”

“She’s ain’t no Luna!” AJ could be heard violently slapping her hoof on some hard piece of wood. “Nightmare Moon has nothin’ to do with her, she’s like a different pony inside Luna’s head or somethin’ like that.”

“Not sayin’ you are lying, AJ, but that’s horsecrap. You got one bit of evidence?”

“Ah dunno how any of ‘dat works mahself,” AJ admitted. “I’m just tellin’ ya what Twilight said.”

“You mean the same Twilight who now lives at the palace? She sounds like a legitimate source alright.”

“Don’t ye dare to slander mah friends! Twilight tries to make life better for everypony, ‘dat includes ye slackers!”

“Everypony, stop fighting! We aren’t here for that! We are supposed to plan a protest! We can put our issues with each other aside for a cause, can we?”

“As long as ‘dis glob keeps his mouth shut.”

“So, what’s your plan, Starcall?”

“Simple, we only need to get ponies to come. They’ll figure it out on their own. This is going to be the hard part, though. Canterlot itself isn’t a good place to look for support. We can count for a few ponies in Ponyville and some others could take the train from elsewhere, but otherwise, I am out of ideas.”

“This is an opportunity, My Love,” Sombra whispered into the darkness, knowing full well that Luna could hear him.

Comments

[MadCelly]

10599260
So true. If you beat the mind of the enemy you can win without a tough fight or not even a fight at all for they will defeat themselves by loosing hope.
Once that has happened you stop using the stick and try offering the carrot. Willing slaves/workers are preferable to willful slave/workers or even dead ones.

Celestia "cares" about her "little ponies". Use them against her. Turn public opinion against her or even use the ponies as shields. There was a fic here (can't remember the name) where Flim & Flam basically won against Celestia by industrializing the place and installing a democracy that no longer needed "Royalty". USA? Anyways they allowed her to continue guiding the sun while they tried to figure out how to replicate her magic/ability. All the while keeping her out of the public eye. Eventually ponies stopped believing in her and though her a myth. Thus Flim & Flam won against a god of the sun (the story never finished unfortunately, with her trying to get public opinion back).

[The Sound of Loneliness]

10613410
Quite so. Celestia is mighty indeed, but all her might would not do any good if she was without the will to resist. Nightmare Moon put her in position where resisting would mean she would have to kill her Little Ponies. The very idea is unthinkable for Celestia.
Nightmare Moon did not simply win a struggle against Celestia, Nightmare Moon broke Celestia's spine. She destroyed her enemy so completely that Celestia not only did not have means or desire to resist, Nightmare Moon made her wish she was dead. And then Nightmare Moon showed Celestia her "carrot," she showed Celestia that her little sister was still with her and she was willing to let Celestia have her even without asking anything in return.

[TheSoulBlades]

Curses, I've finally found the (present) end of this amazing journey! Aggh! It's been fun to read through the entirety of this series the past few days, but the fun must end eventually. I eagerly await more chapters!

[The Sound of Loneliness]

10619768
Why thank you for such a charitable review!