Nightmare Moon slowly descends down a long flight of stairs. After several minutes pass she finally reaches the bottom as she enters a large room she is confronted by a cool breeze of air. There are only a handful of candles that don't even produce enough light for the entire room. The darkness in the room is so oppressive that one could almost reach out and grab it. It doesn't bother Nightmare Moon however, her eyes are just as well suited for nighttime use as they are for daytime.
This part of the castle used to be a wine cellar, back when it was still the Castle of the Two Sisters. Now it serves as a prison. Nightmare Moon's glum facial expression changes into a small but honest smile when she remembers all the times she used to sneak inside and secretly get drunk with her sister.
After a short walk Nightmare Moon reaches a large door guarded by two batpony soldiers. The door itself is made from thick steel plates with enchanted gems attached to them that absorb magic. As Nightmare Moon approaches, one of the guards opens the door and Nightmare Moon strolls inside.
This room is even more dark. But this darkness is not merely oppressive, it is almost sentient. Nightmare Moon can feel it grabbing hold of her and trying to drain her magic. Fortunately she is immune to it's effects because she made this herself to prevent the prisoner from using her magic to escape.
Nightmare Moon however is here for a reason and it isn't to test her security systems. She focuses on her horn, a small star appears at the tip of it. Then Nightmare Moon releases her spell and the star shoots forward and rapidly expands, driving away the darkness and lighting up the whole room in a magnificent white light.
At the end of the room, behind bars lays Celestia, the once proud princess of Equestria is laying curled up on a pile of hay that acted like her bed like a beaten dog, her rainbow coloured mane being the only colourful thing in this dull brick room. Nightmare Moon rears up on her hind legs and then violently stomps on the floor, the sound reverberating through the room.
"Wake up sister! We have much to discuss." Nightmare Moon announces matter of factly.
Celestia makes no effort to move.
"Why do you continue to come here?" Celestia speaks softly, her voice sounding just as broken as her appearance.
"Because even tho you committed many crimes against the batponies and you rose up against me when I tried to fix it. You are still my sister, and nothing would please me more then to have you at my side" Nightmare Moon answered kindly.
Now Celestia does move. She slowly stands up and looks at Nightmare Moon, her eyes radiating sadness.
"All I ever wanted was for my little ponies to be able to live their lives in peace and I have given everything to make this dream a reality. Yes I have made mistakes, the treatment of batponies being one of them. But!" Celestia's expression suddenly chances to one of absolute disgust.
"I have never been cruel, I never resorted to violence to solve my problems I never murdered those who opposed me, even when the communists in the north rose up and founded Stalliongrad and I was fully justified to resort to violence, I didn't."
Celestia moves even closer to the cell bars, her expression not changing.
"I will never sit by your side because you are not my sister! Luna cared about Equestria, about friendship and harmony. Luna would not lock me up in her personal recreation of tartarus."
Now it was Nightmare Moon's turn to glare.
"How dare you claim to not be cruel when it was you and you alone who imprisoned me on the moon for a thousand years!" Nightmare Moon all but yells.
"I only did it because it was necessary! And I have always regretted having to do so." Celestia says while breaking down in tears.
Seeing her sister in such a state, Nightmare Moon calms down.
"That is right sister, you did it because you thought it was necessary. Just like I know my transformation and revolt where necessary and how my Lunar Empire is necessary. The only difference between us is that I don't regret it because I know I am right. And I only put you in here for your own safety, there are those in my court that would rather see you dead. But if you repent and denounce the harmonic ways that have brought so much suffering to the batponies, then I can get you out of here." Nightmare Moon almost pleads.
"I won't do that. I will happily admit everything that I did wrong. But supporting harmony and friendship isn't one of those. And for as long as you take the place of my loving and kind sister, I will never even want to stand near you. And don't even get me started on your gang of violent thugs who don't know love, only death and destruction. I will never work with those who want to undo harmony. " Celestia speaks with a heavy amount of defiance in her voice.
After she is finished, Celestia turns around and lays down on her bed, her back pointing towards Nightmare Moon.
"Why can't you be proud of me! I am finally standing up for myself and making a difference, just like I did when I first approached you about the batponies. Fine, if you wan't to spend the rest of your life rotting away in here, then so be it!" Nightmare Moon shouts angrily.
Then she turns around and starts walking outside again. She doesn't see or hear it but behind her Celestia is quietly sobbing in her corner. As Nightmare Moon leaves the light slowly fades behind her. When she leaves the cellar she is suddenly confronted with her tiredness, she yawns loudly and decides that she has done enough work for today and needs to have some rest.
Ah, another sister now. Oh, how much I enjoyed playing Lunar Empire. Nightmare Moon has a fascinating attitude in the mod. She is far from being insane, as the pilot portrayed her, instead she is incredibly devious and infinitely calculating. If Daybreaker is blatant and straightforward, NMM in her "Forgiveness" tree has the very same shackles so velvet soft and soothing that her ponies don't even notice when they become her puppets. Rebelling against her is not only impossible (good luck bearing treasonous thoughts when she can plainly see everything you dream about at night), but also becomes counter-intuitive. The perfect form of control, the entire state set up in such a way that her subjects want to be her slaves. Tyranny its most refined form.
The experience of Lunar Empire was so inspiring that it became the reason for me coming here.
10273322
To be completely fair I haven't actually played as the Lunar Empire myself yet but she does intrigue me because just like you said she isn't insane, she actually want's to help thestrals, well at least that is her initial goal and depending on which path it could change to just fulfilling her own selfish desires. Also she is indeed very smart in how she achieves her goals. But and that is what I will also try to focus on in future chapters, she does have to deal with different characters that all believe in the same end goal but wan't to take different roads so to speak.
I find it really funny that I sort of had the same experience as you have but with the Solar Empire. My first story was about the Longswordian civil war, but Sunset and Sundown really ignited a love for writing that I had not experienced before.
10273429
Oh, I remember the war, yes. I even worked on it for Wingfried's Reformisten sub-mod briefly. We had a serious disagreement and parted ways quickly though. He said he wanted to make Reformisten a little less bloodthirsty but amazingly enough he made them even worse than they were without realising it.
Never liked EAW's griffons anyway. Every single griffon faction in the mod is filth of different flavour and so human at it that it stings to play them. The only ones that are not complete scum are the Host and Harmony Hellquil, amazingly enough.
Chrysalis and Daybreaker are pretty bad, but they are not filth at least. They both don't care about what race or bloodline you are, they won't murder simply because they don't like your kind and they won't send you labour camps unless you give them a reason. They just want power and as long as they get what they want they don't have problems with anyone.
10273477
Personally I don't have a problem with Wingfried's bloodthirst, but I would like it if the dev's would expand more upon his backstory and really give him a reason to hate river ponies. But I can understand that the dev's are busy with many other nations. I actually like the griffon nations because of the same reason. They feel real, they aren't perfect samaritans or cartoonish villains, they do good and bad things, although there are of course those like Beakolini and Wingfried and Ferdinand (and probably some more that I am missing) that do more evil than good.
Yes you can blame Chrysalis and Daybreaker for a lot of things but sadism and racism aren't one of them. Which in a way makes it more understandable why creatures would support them, the provide stability and they are fairly predictable, like you said if you keep your mouth shut you will live a long and happy live. And Nightmare Moon basically does the same thing but she manages to disguise it better, she doesn't say keep your mouth shut because otherwise I will kill you, she says follow me because our cause is just. Daybreaker does try to manage something similar in her empress-protector path, but I feel that security isn't as attractive of a subject as building a new utopia together.
10274284
Wingfried and his friends is one of the better examples, actually. They are rare examples of honesty in their kind. The thing is, almost all griffions think exactly what they do. Racism is an essential part of griffon national character, they simply wouldn't be themselves without it. Another thing griffons can't exist without is imperialism, that's the part that makes them utter scum. Imperialism is an incredibly ugly thing, in most examples it's not conscious, meaning the people don't even realise what is that they believe. Griffons, actually, have more in common with Russians than Germans. The kind of filth the Motherland produced during the last 300 years is legendary amongst all western European nations. Especially Ukrainians, Georgians and Baltic countries, practically everyone who knows Russians well.
Nightmare Moon doesn't specifically say or promise anything, this is where the entire point. She simply takes away every measure of choice her ponies had. Her subjects will serve her no matter if they want it or not and regardless of how much they like it. The only choice her ponies get is if they will have something for their trouble or not. Her subjects want to be of use to her so that they will be looked after in return. Coupled with the fact that she does not murder anyone and treats even her enemies with a surprising degree of kindness makes her an acceptable replacement for Celestia, which virtually eliminates any necessity for revealing, not that they have a single chance of succeeding and the very attempt will be used for Nightmare Moon to push her goals further.
10274381
Wingfried is indeed very open about his intentions, in that sense he reminds me a little bit about Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, both are very horrible characters but they also don't lie about it. While there are many imperialistic nations in Griffonia, I don't agree that Griffons need imperialism because there are also nations Like Vedina. Also I feel like their act's of conquest are more caused by a desire to unify all Griffons in one nation that to spread the griffonian ideology to non griffon countries. The Reformisten being an exception.
Indeed Nightmare Moon does not make any promises but she does give a positive spin on her dictatorial policies so that they look less like Nightmare Moon founding a dictatorship for her personal benefit (which she does) but more like, we need a strong leader to guide us through these hard times and I am the only one who can do this.
10274560
That's it, they want to "unify" everyone. They don't give a single buck what everyone thinks about it or even if their fellow griffons want to be "unified." This is exactly what imperialism means. They found themselves a reason to invade others' lands and now using it to justify their wars. The reason why Veidnians don't have the imperialistic trait is that they purged it from their own character. Vedinians fought for their independence and won. This is very significant, they would sooner die than return to the Empire. However, they still failed to eradicate the bias completely. Without their princess, they immediately return to their old way. Imperialism is a natural development of innate Griffon sense of superiority, this is who they are.
Nightmare Moon hardly pretends she has anyone's best interest in mind, does she? She takes care of her subjects, but everyone in the Empire knows exactly why. She does not even try to hide, she integrates subtle bias for bats in the society, for example. Her subjects obey her because they have no choice but to do so. Rebelling against her is pointless and even if they somehow win, what next? Who's going to raise sun and moon?
Rarity, for one, absolutely despises her, but serves her cause willingly. First, she does not have an option to refuse; second, she cares for Luna who is a prisoner in her own body and being used by NMM to gain legitimacy. Rarity's spirit of generosity doesn't allow her to leave a friend in pain to suffer and NMM uses it against her. This is an example of how she exercises her authority, she does not hide or pretend to anyone.
10274609
I do understand your position but I also think the Griffonia is different because it used to a single empire at some point. So I see it less as imperialism but more as retaking lost territory, similar to how most irl nations don't accept separatist movements because they feel like that territory rightfully belongs to the nation. I will say that the griffons founding Nova Griffonia is an act of pure imperialism because no griffons lived there. You are correct about Vedina but I see the reason for their possible relapse more as a cultural thing then it being in their nature because if imperialism was truly in their nature then they wouldn't be able to change at all.
That is sort of my point, she does take care of her citizens she doesn't let them starve or steals all their wealth. I think it was mentioned somewhere in the show that before Celestia and Luna controlled the sun and moon it was done by regular unicorns but took so much effort that it left them without magic or something like that. If Cadence and Twilight survived I think they should be able to take over that job albeit it would probably cost them a lot of energy. Yes Rarity's relation with Nightmare Moon is an interesting one and one that I will try to explore more in future chapters.
10275910
Griffons didn't exactly change. We've got British, who were the mightiest Empire around, but can you for a single moment imagine them suddenly "retaking" their lost territory again even if that didn't lead to the global outrage? On the other side of the planet, you have Russians, who are doing that exactly regardless if anyone says anything.
The fact that they once had some territory under their dominion does not make it theirs. Baltic nations don't belong to Russians, just like Kaiv doesn't belong to the Empire.
Imperialism makes it so the people, actually, living there into criminals for simply not being a part of their Empire.
10276033
Those examples are indeed very clearly pure imperialism because they wan't to spread their nation/people to completely different nations. On the other hand no British person would accept it if the city of London would just declare themselves independent, just like no dutch person would accept it if the province of Friesland would declare themselves independent, also no nation has a problem with Spain crushing independence movements in Basque and Catalonia.
So while I agree that the Griffonian Empire taking over Wingbardy would be imperialism it in my opinion would not count for something like the Griffonian empire taking over Romau or Feathisia.
10276044
British literally had Scots trying to declare independence. They can cry out all they want but they can't stop it from happening if Scots would desire it. London will never as much as try the same thing, because London will basically become independent from itself in the result. It simply does not work like that.
The reason why nobody cares about Basque and Caledonia is that its Spanish internal issue. International conflicts are everyone's problem. Since Russians annexed Ukrainian Crimea it has been a huge pain for everyone remotely involved with either of the nations. And it gets progressively worse as the time goes by. Now it's not only Russians trying to use dirty tricks to influence the international community, but Ukrainians too. Their very existence as a nation is at stake and they are getting desperate seeing the disinterest the international community treats their completely lawful claims with, they are willing to even intrude in US internal business to gain their support. At this point, the problems Ukrainians and Russians have with each other are everyone's problems.
10276058
That is sort of the point I was trying to make. Where lies the separation between internal conflicts and imperialism. Personally I would say that something like the Griffonian Empire invading Feathisia or Romau are internal conflicts, just like irl the problems in Basque and Catalonia (unless of course war crimes or crimes against humanity are involved). But something like the Russians supporting Ukrainian separatists is of course pure imperialism. Just like in game the Griffonian Empire invading Wingbardy would also be imperialism.
So I think we agree with each other, I just don't think that the griffons in law are really imperialistic by nature.
10276304
The difference is that Romau and Feathisia are sovereign states at this point. They are no longer a part of the Empire, regardless of what the imperials might believe.
nice work keep it up
10276355
Well you do make a good point. I have changed my mind
10276415
Thank you, I have already begun writing the next chapter but unfortunately I also have to write some rapports for my internship so I have somewhat less time. But I still think I will be able to finish it somewhere this week.
10276655
You just got tired, didn't you?
10276669
While our discussion has been going on for quite a while now I have actually changed my mind. While I still don't see the griffons as imperialistic by nature I do realise that many of the conflicts caused by the Griffonia Empire can be seen as acts of imperialism considering these nations have been independent for about a decade around the games starting date. I do still think you could also make the argument that in regard to nations such as Romau, Yale and Angriver that the Griffonian Empire is simply reclaiming illegally lost territory because the secession of most of those states did not happen legally. But something like the Griffonian Empire invading Wingbardy or Vedina would be pure imperialism.
Celestia, was it really harmonious if some ponies were not treated equally? And maybe you should have used more force to end the discrimination. Actions speak louder then words
10321087
Maybe force would be the right choice for Celestia but for better or worse she is a pacifist and does not believe in violence. I don't envy her position having to choose between holding the country together or doing the morally right thing.