1011 Alone

Nightmare Moon felt her stomach growling again. There wasn't much she could do about it, unless she felt like eating rocks.

She stared straight ahead of her at the carved stone with the image of a unicorn mare, her eyes closed as a scroll wrapped around her body, "I think I shall name you, Knowledge." Nightmare said with a smile. She picked up the work and moved it to the side as she brought forward another stone block, "Hmmm, Knowledge, what do you think? Should I make you a sibling, or a friend?"

Nightmare looked at the statue as if expecting it to actually answer, it did all that it naturally was able to do. Nightmare Moon took it in stride and nodded her head, "Oh, I agree, siblings are over rated. They tend to want all the attention on them even if they don't deserve it. Perhaps a friend, a great confidant that you can share your knowledge with?"

Nightmare smiled as she carved out the stone slowly, taking her time. Talking to herself as she went on, "You know, once I am done with you, I should really do something to protect you and Knowledge... After all, one can not be too careful here. Why just yesterday when I was walking around I found a new crater." She paused as if listening, "You know I don't know how recent it came by, perhaps a couple weeks ago. The point is, I need to build a better way to protect the three of us and our future confidants. After all, it gets very cold here when my sister's sun can't get to us from the other side of the world above."

The mare used a wing to brush some of the dust off of the roughly carved stone, "Now you aren't much to look at yet, but don't worry, in time, i’ll make you a handsome young stallion”
The stone sat there as the mare on the moon used her magic to carve chunks out in finer detail. Nightmare Moon nodded every now and then mumbling the occasional yes or no to the statues.

Nightmare Moon kept carving and mumbling to herself as she did so. After all, she had all the time in the universe to work on this.
_______________________________________________________________________________

It has been a little over three months since Celestia had been forced to send her sister to the moon.

In that time, much has happened, Parliament had made arrangements to meet at a local tavern in a private room every day. In that time, the Princess would listen to the nobles, elected representatives and other important ponies as they carefully planned out what the next move for the Equestrian government would be.

At this moment, they were listening to the budget for building a new official capitol building.

"Now what I am thinking of doing, Your Highness, is we need to build a strong defensive castle, that is large enough to house yourself, and as much of the nobility as possible. If ever there is another attack on the capitol, this time we want to be prepared for the worst."

"Excuse me," Penny Pincher interrupted, "But what you are planning could deplete our country's coffers before we even have a chance to rebuild anything for the common pony!"

Blue Print sighed as he rubbed his forehead with a hoof, "I was going to get to that before I was so rudely interrupted." The light blue earth pony said with a frown, "I think that if we simply pull back on the plans to restabilize the Everfree Forest, we could use the funds from that, plus whatever would have been used as Princess Luna's stipend to make this work, with little effect on the common pony."

Silver Tongue stood up with her forehooves on the meeting table, "Are you out of your little pony mind?! That forest was home to thousands of ponies! If we pull out of that plan, then we would have to relocate nearly a thousand households into new cities and homes. Maybe even found all new cities! Unless you can shit bits in your spare time, there is no way that you can fund a whole new castle of the proposed magnitude!

Ink Well was writing down something on a piece of paper while the other ponies argument grew louder and louder. Celestia turned to her and whispered, "What are you working on?"

The cream colored mare looked at her princess through a pair of stylish glasses before using her horn to remove them, "Well your majesty, I was just thinking that there is a way that we can relocate the families to more permanent homes, and have a palace built. But I don't know if anypony here would like what it is."

Princess Celestia nodded, "We," She paused, correcting herself, "I think you should share your idea, after all you never know. Even if your idea is not popular, if it is a good one it shall chosen. You are apart of this too, and every idea counts."

Ink Well smiled a little bit, and raised her hoof to the air to grab the attention of the arguing trio, "Excuse me," The timid mare never stood a chance to get there attention.

Celestia saw this and rapped her hoof on the oak table, "Everypony calm yourselves, I believe that Miss Ink Well has an idea." She nodded her head to the bookish mare to begin.

"Um, right. So, my idea is pretty simple, It is a program in several phases. The first phase is to start a relief program for the dislocated ponies. As incentive to donate, we offer that their investments will grow. The more they invest the more they will have returned."

Several ponies balked at the idea, "Madness! Bits don’t just grow on trees you know, the economy doesn't work that way!" Penny Pincher yelled above the crowd.

"Yes It does, its called inflation! As time goes on, the money that they invest won't be worth the same when we give it back, so we offer to give more back than they turn in. It will be the same value, but they won't realize that. The next phase is to hold a contest for contractors to build the castle, the best design for the least amount of money, in order to qualify, you must pay to enter a competition to win the grand prize. The castle would pay for itself."

"Well that's all fine and good, but what about me? I'm the Royal Architect!" Blue Print yelled.

"You shall be one of the judges, and put in charge of overseeing construction of the winning contractor. Any more questions about this phase?"

Several ponies grumbled around the room before Ink Well continued, "The final phase will be after the fact, when everything is all done here, we start an initiative to make Canterlot grow into a bustling metropolis. We start a grant program to initiate new businesses in Canterlot. The businesses will generate income and create jobs, once our city is stable enough to do so, we can raise taxes for the better off ponies to spread the wealth to other cities that were hit hard by this crisis."

Celestia nodded, "All in favor of enacting Ink Well's plan, raise a hoof and say aye."

Out of a dozen ponies, eight raised there hooves.

"All opposed?"

Four ponies rose a hoof and said neigh.

"The aye's have it, we will begin as soon as possible."
_____________________________________________________________________________

Nightmare Moon's horn glowed as she cast the spell on a pile of scrap rocks.

This time the plan would not fail, this time for sure she could do it. The rocks began to take form, and strained under pressure. Finally the rocks could not help but bend to the alicorn's will, and became brick shaped.

"Huzzah!" Nightmare called out as she took the pile of fresh stone bricks to the low wall that she was building up. "This shall become a grand palace indeed, with almost all the comforts of home away from home."

"Oh Nightmare Moon, you are so wise. I can only hope to become half as good at spell casting as you are. Not to mention as wise and beautiful." Knowledge said from her pedestal.

"Oh don't be so modest, you are perfect just the way you are." Nightmare said back to the statue with a smile. "Oh Skippy? Can you bring me more rocks to change?"

"Oh you bet Nightmare! You know I just love to help you out cause your my bestest best friend ever!" Skippy said in a squeaky voice. Nightmare Moon's horn glowed as she moved Skippy over to a pile of rocks, and then brought the statue and rocks over to herself.

"Aww, you're the best Skippy!" The mare rubbed a hoof over the statues mane as she made it toddle away to the side before she cast the spell on a the rocks a few at a time, always laying the bricks on the ever growing wall as she carefully looked back at the blueprints that she etched into a rock to her side.

The work was hard, but it would be worth it. In a months time, she would have a single room built. But over time as she got better at this craft, she could make a truly grand palace of the moon within a year. Maybe two if she was slow.

"You know, Knowledge, I was thinking. Maybe after I finish with this room, we can look around and see if that new crater has any water in it. Who knows, a comet could have crashed and melted there for all we know."

"Oh Nightmare Moon, you are so smart!" Knowledge said without moving her lips.

Nightmare Moon nodded to herself as she continued laying bricks as fast as she made them, "Yes, yes I am."

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Phoenix Quill

Phoenix Quill #1 · Nov 29th, 2012 · · ·

Sorry if I spammed your inbox's with update messages, my mouse and PC is... Crap and it kept publishing then unpublishing.
Anyhow, I also wanted to let you know that I will be leaving soon, not by choice. But I use my cell phone as a wifi hotspot to get online, and this month I just can't pay the bill. Updates will slow down... a lot. However, if I get my way I might get a used laptop and just highjack a mcdonalds wifi from them.

Monk With No Name