High above the great mass of creatures under the banner of the Lunar Empire, Empress Nightmare Moon sits upon her illustrious throne. Unopposed. Alone. Alienated.
To solve her dilemma, she will go incognito and venture into the city of Manehattan, the husband of her loyal Warmaster as her guide.
Yet it remains to be seen, when all pretences of imperial royalty are obscured, will Manehattan take kindly to her? And more importantly, will she like what she finds?
Takes place in my New Lunar Millennium alternate universe. This story prominently features original characters from the setting, but extensive knowledge is not required to read. More information can be found here.
In case you don't know what Selenite and Sol look like: https://derpibooru.org/images/2874846?q=solenite
Proofread and edited by Izzy Incraft.
Can confirm, Guns Nuts in a nutshell.
Yup, definitely a Gun Nut.
Well, I can name two ponies who will be dead very soon.
They are so fucked
Honestly, I would love to hear how Sol and Selenite met some day.
Also, as others have said, there are two particular ponies that are probably not going to be around for much longer.
A slight miscalculation on their part.
And the night was going so well...
Well...
Wow, Sol's demonstrating some very good survival instincts by speaking as non-judgmentally as possible to Nightmare Moon right after being a little harsh to capture her attention. I wonder if now that she's left temporarily whether Sol will realize that Nightmare Moon just insinuated that her favorite technically nonfatal punishment for her enemies or those who commit Lèse-majesté against her is to add them to the statuary in her personal chambers, and also realize that maybe on those occasions that Selenite didn't come home for a while for "extended assignments", it was actually due to Selenite earning another time-out as a statue.
The planet they live on is still called Earth?
Interesting story! I liked it, though I hope one day she truly begins to understand her subjects and change for the better!
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As do I.
Seems like some mare might be struck with depression after this trip.
Is NMM even saveable? Without a large amount of genuine soul searching and a desire which she so far lacks to change for the better, she will never be able to hold on to power without going full North Korea on those under her. Eventually, everyone capable of doing so will either leave the Empire for places like the River Coalition, end up in a prison or executed/petrified, or will try to form a rebellion in an attempt to overthrow her. This would almost certainly fail, due to how powerful NMM is, but history has shown that with nothing to lose, disparate people will always rise up eventually when pushed past their breaking point. And then, if she simply executed or imprisoned everyone involved, she’d have almost no one left to rule over.
NMM ironically supported the Aquillean revolution, which shows this exact same principle. An out of touch ruler who either believes themselves to be chosen by a god, or to outright be one, Julius Caesar, King Louis XVI, Benito Mussolini, all of these people had grand ambitions and started out supported by those they ruled over, but their lust for power and lack of an ability to relate to and empathize with their subjects are what ultimately led to their downfall, often at the hands of those close to them or those they meant to support. In some of these cases, ineptitude and destroying the lives of their citizens through their own incompetence caused this directly.
Even those loyal to her aside from Selenite and a few others are mostly there for entirely selfish reasons. Just look at the Vichy collaborators during WW2. They were willing to let their own people suffer and be deported simply because they knew that if they played their cards right, Germany would let them stay in control. How many members of NMM’s government are the same way, willing to throw anyone under the bus or say anything that the Empress wants to hear in exchange for prestige or better standing?
In base EaW, even with a harmonic government lead by both sisters who have good intentions, reforms are still needed to keep the country together. Whether it’s more token reforms to allow more freedom and involvement from the public in government or a full on abolishment of the monarchy and transforming Equestria into a democratic republic, growing agitation from the masses show that the status quo is unsustainable. Now imagine that scenario where oppression and tyranny are rampant and almost everyone is left dissatisfied with their current situation. Add to this the fact that almost everyone alive remembers the time before NMM, and thus remembers life before she took over, and have hope and desire to revert things due to nostalgia and desperation.
Do you have plans to cover this future series of events, and which way do you think you will take this universe? Perhaps we could even cover NMM more closely in a Sopranos scenario where she gets a private therapist who she talks to these things about? Whether or not this helps her or not, it would still be an interesting idea. Maybe Selenite or Sol will be able to get her to open up and put her on a path to self improvement. Or maybe this story will end like Breaking Bad, where things will continue to get worse. One thing is clear though, NMM is a ticking time bomb, both for her sanity, and for that of those she rules over.
Might be time to start planning that vacation to Rijekograd.
This makes me want to play EaW again. But that only reminds me I do not know how to play EaW again. So I'll read about it instead.
In EAW she didn't have such an emotional moment when she return since, whot Luna know is also know by Nightmare moon.
But here, this story would be such a good event chain during the brief peace after the civil to see how Nightmare moon "odd" can have "interesting" result.
I must say, your Nightmare is holding Villain/Idiot Ball greatly and seems to be degradating along with her (read: mostly of her subjects) success. Probably only thing, which can put her out of this attitude is personal failure of massive level due to her hubris, which she will not be able to push on others, so very hard to happen.
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It seems, that in EaW Nightmare had some time to adapt and learn about modernity after her defeat, when she was inside Luna's head and she some time to have second throughs about herself, which allowed her to have a chance to fix herself. At least in most of paths. Also probably Elements, even if she survived, did something to her on second strike.
Here it's Nightmare going full on constant pain, which gave birth to constant wrath, from her exile on Moon, which can't be drowned. Also her success made her feel, that this is right thing.