New Lives in a New World
Rainbow Dash was standing in front of the door to her office, 'Colonel Rainbow Dash' was written on it. Her uniform felt weird, it was itchy and it just didn't feel right. Nightmare Moon had seen it fit to give her a job in the Lunar Imperial Air Force, Rainbow Dash was now the new commander of the 24th training group stationed near Ponyville. Her office was quite big, the window gave her a nice view of the surrounding countryside and her desk was made of oaken wood with an expensive looking leather bonded chair. Overall it was much nicer than the living spaces at the Wonderbolt Academy. Yet it just felt wrong to Rainbow Dash.
The blue pegasus had just sat down when somepony knocked on her door.
"Come in."
When the door opened, Rainbow Dash was shocked to see who had just entered her office. It was none other than her old rival Lightning Dust and her former boss Spitfire. Though they didn't look as she remembered them, They both seemed to lack the fiery passion in their eyes that they always had, but other than that she looked relatively fine.
"Major Lightning Dust and major Spitfire reporting for duty ma'am!" They yelled while saluting.
It took Rainbow Dash a while to remember how she was supposed to respond and she quickly stood up and returned the salute.
"At ease ladies. What are you two doing here?"
"We are you'r squadron commanders ma'am." Spitfire replied.
"I understood that. what I meant was, why did you join the Lunar Imperial Air Force?"
Lightning Dust took a quick glance around, probably to see if anypony was listening in to their conversation "I didn't really have a choice. The Washouts were disbanded for not complying with the standards set by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and I was arrested. In Prison they gave me a choice, join the Air Force as a trainer or be send to a work camp. Ironic isn't it, I always wanted to be the best flyer and now I have to teach others how to fly while barely flying myself." She chuckled sadly.
After Lightning was finished, Spitfire started talking.
"When the Wonderbolts were disbanded I was put in command of a fighter squadron but the Night Guard decided that I was a liability so they transferred me here. I don't like it but this is one of the few jobs that has a decent pay."
Rainbow Dash noticed that they both made sure to keep their voices down. Something she noticed almost everypony did. Nightmare Moon must have a lot of spies everywhere for ponies to be this paranoid, she thought to herself.
"It seems that we are all here against our wishes but I hope that by working together we can at least make this job slightly less worse." Rainbow Dash spoke, she tried to sound confident, hoping that by doing so she could inspire her colleagues to be slightly less miserable, but she wasn't sure she succeeded at inspiring them.
After discussing business like training schedules and the tasks that she needed to perform, the three decided to make their way to the cafeteria for lunch.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was in her castle, inside the map room to be precise, with princess Cadance sitting in front of her. The friendship map didn't appear to be working anymore so the room was turned into an office instead. They were in charge of the new Friendship & Reconciliation Commission, whose job, on paper, it was to reconcile the relationship between ponies who were on opposite sides during the civil war and promote friendship between the two sides. But in reality they were just supposed to spread pro Lunar Empire propaganda.
"Soo... How are Shining and Flurry doing?" Twilight asked carefully, she hadn't seen both of them since their capture in the Crystal Empire and had no idea what Nightmare Moon had done to them.
"I haven't seen or spoken to them since our capture but Nightmare Moon has told me that she is holding them somewhere and only if I behave myself and do my job, she will release them."
Twilight eyes widened at hearing this, her own brother and niece being held hostage.
"I am sure that they are fine and that you will see them again soon." Twilight replied. She tried to sound convincing but she wasn't sure she pulled it off.
Cadence wanted to reply but before she could do so the door of the map room swung open and and an earth pony mare with a light yellow coat and red mane walked inside carrying a large stack of files.
"Good morning princesses. Here are the plans for our new communication campaign that you need to sign." The mare spoke, and after she put down the files on the table she left again.
Twilight used her magic to pick up one of the files and take a look at it. It was just your typical propaganda campaign calling for 'unity and working together for a better future'. Twilight sighed and signed the document before moving to the next one.
Fluttershy was sitting inside her home, brushing Angel Bunny while looking around. Her house looked exactly the way she left it, a book about bear food lay on the floor next to the couch, it was the book she was reading when Twilight bursted through the door to tell her that Nightmare Moon had returned and they needed to leave immediately. She had dropped it on the floor and left immediately. Even the door was still open when she returned. All in all her house was completely untouched by the war or anything that followed after.
A small tear left her eye. How naive they all were that they thought they could just use the elements of harmony and all the problems would be solved. They had no idea about the problems faced by the batponies, problems that couldn't just be solved by blasting someone with the elements. When she did found out, she stopped blaming Rarity for her 'betrayal'. Was it treacherous prefer one righteous cause over another? Fluttershy had never managed to find an answer. They all made their choices, now the all needed to live with them.
An oft forgotten group that was also living with their choices, were all the animals. The war changed them, no longer would they run towards her whenever she was around. Instead most would run away the moment they say a pony. Fluttershy couldn't blame them for the past years pony kind had brought nothing but death and destruction to Equestria. No wonder the animals were scared.
Nightmare Moon had giver her permission to continue to tend to the animals in the Everfree forest. So that is what Fluttershy would continue to do, care for the animals and hopefully help them through their trauma's.
Applejack's was doing the dishes in Berry Punch's cafe, her expression being one of utter disgust as she looked at her family's former farm through a small window. The file Rarity gave to her said that Nightmare Moon had given her some kind of important job at the ministry of agriculture or something like that, but the orange mare had no interest in working for a tyrant. So the moment the group split off she went looking for another job, something normal, something that in no way aided Nightmare Moon. Luckily Applejack didn't have to look far, Berry Punch needed a helping hoof to run her cafe, it was a good and honest job and the orange mare was happy to oblige.
Also speaking with the visitors also allowed Applejack to start getting some much needed information. Having been hiding in the mountains for soo long meant that she had no actual information on the Lunar Empire other than that Nightmare Moon was its ruler. It was only her first day but Applejack already learned a lot, she learned how order is maintained through sheer terror and intimidation, but also how the government wasn't as united as it seemed with there even being a coup attempt by radical members of the Night Guard. But most importantly Applejack learned that despite most ponies publicly praising Nightmare Moon, whenever the Night Guards are out of hearing distance the majority of ponies are openly against her.
While looking over her shoulder, Applejack could see Pinkie Pie slumbed over behind the bar, it had only been one day since they came here and the pink earth pony was already becoming a permanent resident of the cafe. The foul stench of alcohol coming out of her mouth was strong enough that Applejack could smell it all the way into the kitchen. She couldn't help but cry a little upon seeing the once cheerful Pinkie Pie like that. When Nightmare Moon returned and the civil war broke out the pink earth pony, like all of their friends except Rarity, joined the war against the Lunar Empire.
Applejack could still remember the night after their first battle, Pinkie Pie was crying her heart out, so heartbroken was she by seeing all the death and destruction brought about by the war. And who could blame her, she was the element of laughter, she was supposed to make creatures smile, not kill them. The only way to calm her down had been to give her a bottle of cider. And the worst part was that it did calm her down and she started to care less and less about laughter and joy and more about spreading death and destruction.
This was quickly recognised by her superiors and she started getting promotion after promotion and a steady supply of cider. But as Pinkie Pie became better at killing, she herself started looking more like a corpse. There were times, especially when it was dark, that Applejack couldn't even tell if she was alive or death. A part of Applejack believed that Pinkie Pie was death, her soul had died during that first battle, now all that remained of the element of laughter was a hollow corpse. To a lesser extent the same could be said of all her friends, no pony came out of the civil war unscathed, they all saw things they weren't supposed to see, did things they weren't supposed to do.
For Applejack this was Nightmare Moon's greatest crime. She forced her friend to go through the most harrowing experience of their lives and Applejack would see her pay for that.
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- DefiantPosition · 19k words · 36 7 · 1.3k views
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Whoa, I love seeing this continued at last.
Wonder how Spike is doing too?
11466597
Yeah I figured I should try to finish this one.
I completely forgot about Spike, I will try to include him in the next chapter.
11466885
Ok.
Bat ponies have big ears. Both figuratively and literally.
Why though?
As long as Equestria is filled with Friendship and Harmony the map should keep working.
... Never mind.
At least somthing.
Hopefully Flutters manages to bring things back to normal. Or at least keep things from getting worse.
Yup, no chance this will bite her in the back in the long run.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
11468776
Glad you liked it. It was a bit difficult to get into the story again due to the long pause.
And Nightmare Moon is putting them to good use.
If she doesn't achieve anything she at least made the lives of the small critters a bit more bearable.
That cuts both ways
really awesome page, please continue, I want more!
11522493
I do apologise for the lack of progress these last couple of years. I do want to finish this story, it is just that that I am quite busy irl, so that is why progress is soo slow.
11531098
Oh ok