Chapter 1
The unicorn known as Chancellor Neighsay stepped out of the portal to the main hall of Equestria Education Association headquarters.
He felt the cold stone floor under his hooves and quickly walked across the hall, ignoring curious glances from other EEA officials.
As they saw their Chancellor's expression, ponies turned away, nopony daring to even look at him.
Neighsay made his way to his own private quarters.
As the iron door slammed shut behind him, the frown disappeared from his face and he gave out a deep sigh instead.
Those damnable alicorn princesses! No matter the era, they were always the same. Always doing whatever they wanted, preaching the message of equality and kindness even as they ruled with absolute authority and power.
The hypocrisy was disgusting.
Celestia was the worst offender. She pretended to be bound by the laws of Equestria to appease her subjects and make them forget the fact that in the end, she had an absolute authority.
All that dancing around and sending Twilight jumping through bureaucratic hoops just for a show. She could have just skipped all that and given Twilight a free rein and it would have spared everypony a great deal of time.
Exactly what would anypony do if they disagreed with Celestia? File a complaint to a higher authority?
Although, by the looks of it, Celestia's method did work. He had spent a great deal of time studying the events that had transpired in the last thousand years, and nowhere was there a mention of a rebellion of any kind. If the history books were to be believed, Celestia’s rule had gone unchallenged and unopposed for ten centuries.
Of course, in Celestia’s place, he would have rewritten the history books every century or so to give out exactly that impression to young and susceptible minds of foals when they first read the history of the country.
He walked across the room past the giant bookshelves filled with books ranging from every possible subject from mathematics to magic.
He spared only a passing glance to the numerous cabinets filled with artifacts and trinkets, sent from all across Equestria and beyond by EEA members and others whenever they unearthed something interesting in their travels. It was a well-known fact that Neighsay had a knack for history and archeology, and many went out of their way to gain his favor with gifts.
Over the long decades he had held his post, curious objects found from both the deserts of the south and the northern tundras around Crystal Empire had reached his shelves.
He wasn’t entirely sure when the office he held had turned from a glorified bureaucrat into a position of great power and authority it was today, usually held by the most powerful unicorn mage of their time. He was even more surprised that Celestia had allowed it to happen.
But, that was how Celestia operated. She gave ponies just enough power and freedom that they didn’t resent her. She never enforced anything openly and subtly pushed things to go the way she wanted instead.
The thought of Cadence sitting on the throne of Crystal Empire made him grit his teeth. A puppet ruler with a husband who was a glorified mouthpiece, a slave like he had been.
Another alicorn tyrant playing the role of so-called Princess of Love.
Absentmindedly kicking away a small box lying on the floor with a sign of Crystal Empire’s mail service on it, Neighsay stopped in front of the large map showing the known world that was spread across the wall.
He sat down and turned his mind from the distant past to the uncertain future.
He had done his best and played the part of a strict head of EEA, trying his best to sabotage Twilight’s efforts. He had even tried to bring in the protection of Equestria and ponies into the matter, hoping that the youngest alicorn would understand.
Of course, she did not. Instead, Twilight shouted the same nonsensical creed of friendship Celestia had used for over thousand years with such great success.
Neighsay rubbed his chin and thought how the next years and decades would go. The students would be taught the same ways that had indoctrinated countless generations of ponies into docile sheep.
In time, those students would spread those teachings outside Equestria’s borders and there would be more students who would, in turn, do the same.
Neighsay gave a disgruntled snort of respect to Celestia. There would be no need for war. Instead, she would slowly turn all neighboring nations first to allies, then to subjects.
He could already see it, the world many centuries in the future.
A grand, continent-spanning empire comprised of ponies, changelings, yaks, hippogriffs, and others. Each ruled either by a puppet ruler of their respective species or another alicorn. Populations kept docile by the creed of friendship and everything relying on the power of alicorn rulers.
He shivered to the depths of his soul at the thought of it all.
While he did not hold any love for all these lesser creatures, Celestia and her clan of alicorns amassing even more power to their immortal cabal was abhorrent.
Neighsay sighed again and looked at a pile of brand new books on his work table.
Those were the future study books of equestrian schools. They were seemingly the same as the previous editions, but subtly encouraged distrust of lesser creatures, emphasized on the crimes of Celestia's pawns like Luna and Discord who had never had even a trial for their deeds, and entertained the notion of having some sort of limit and oversight over the powers of alicorns.
He had intended to play the long game like Celestia did and slowly tear out the roots of her power. To turn her subjects into the kinds of ponies who would question their gilded cage and eventually turn against the alicorn tyranny.
The plan was to wait until the young Flurry Heart was enough old and try to turn the future addition to Celestia’s cabal against the rest of her kind. The line of alicorns had destroyed the independence of Crystal Empire, it would have been fitting that they would also help to return it.
In the past, simply liberating Crystal Empire would have been good enough. But now, he could see that more was at stake. His old home would never be safe as long as alicorns ruled any part of the world.
It was a daunting task. He was alone, broken and weak. His enemy was an immortal monster who had spent the last thousand years building a loyal empire of willing slaves for herself. Celestia alone he could maybe handle in a magic duel, but with Luna, Twilight and Cadence in the picture, a direct attack was doomed to fail.
However, his righteous anger fueled him. He knew that his cause was just as it had always been from the beginning.
He would return the freedom to the world and tear down the alicorn tyranny. No matter how long it would take and how much sacrifices he would need to make, he would succeed.
If overthrowing the alicorns would require killing every single student of that damnable school to start a world war that would destroy most of Equestria, it would still be worth it.
Because the ponies strong enough to survive and walk out of the rubble would be free to build a new nation, a better nation. A strong, new empire.
An empire he would rule.
And in her final moments, Celestia would curse the day she first heard the name of Sombra.