A Wraith in Winter

The mare that approached the throne was a brown Earth Pony wearing an ill-fitting beige dress that stretched around her flanks. The mare performed a stuttering bow, then looked around the empty throne room nervously. One of the two Night Guards gestured to the throne with a wing, so the mare gulped and stared up at the elevated pedestal. Her knees were shaking so hard Luna almost told her to sit down.

It will do no good. Princess Luna sighed and rested her front hooves under her chin, reclining back in her sister’s throne. It was oversized for her smaller frame, so she ended up nearly disappearing into the plush velvet cushion. “State your petition, citizen,” Luna enunciated slowly, taking care to make her words clear. Modern Ponish still eluded her. The silver tiara bumped against her horn as she leaned too far back, so she moved a cushion between her hooves.

The mare whispered something. Nightshade, the commander of her Night Guard, tapped a silver-shod hoof on the tiled floor. “Speak up,” she barked in her rough voice. The mare’s trembling increased and her mouth locked up. It appears I must intervene. Luna waved a front hoof towards the back of her guard.

“Nightshade,” she said softly but with a lilt of disdain, “be kind to our first petitioner of the night.” Our only petitioner tonight, she thought sourly. Nightshade’s ears pinned back. The illusions on the armor gave the Pegasus a bat-like look that intimidated most of her citizens.

“I apologize, citizen,” Nightshade immediately bowed to the Earth Pony and spread out her bat wings.

Luna squinted through the windows to judge the hour. Her sister’s dawn was fast approaching, and the Lunar Princess had done nothing during her Night Court, seen no petitioners, and passed no decrees. The alicorn instead sat in the large throne, surrounded by cushions, and patrolled the Dreamscape. Anypony that wandered in would witness Princess Luna of Equestria seemingly passed out in the throne, guarded by two ponies that seemed more bat than pony. Luna was equally capable of doing her duties in her bed and study, but Celestia insisted that her younger sister be available.

“Everypony will gallop to the court to see you,” her sister gushed over pancakes at breakfast while Luna slowly ate several slices of varied fruits as her dinner. This conversation had occurred just after Luna's reappearance to reclaim Nightmare Night. Luna had simply nodded, knowing the conversation was already lost before she ever sat down at the table. She suffered through a lonely court every night, more proof that Equestria no longer needed her.

A thousand years ago, Luna believed that she would be the better princess to lead Equestria, jealous of her sister’s sun and frivolity. Together, they had bested Discord and forged a realm out of the madness, yet it was Luna’s mark that decreed the taxes and the laws. Celestia ran through the countryside, smiting the monsters left behind in the wake of Discord’s short reign, earning the love of the ponies they claimed to rule together. Whatever Celestia did, the ponies loved, yet they spurned Luna’s night and sneered at her decrees. It was no wonder she declared herself Nightmare Moon. Foolish mare, Luna snapped in her head. Thou hast no right to mock. This is the results of thine sins.

Luna focused on the small Earth Pony before the throne, her first and only petitioner for the long night. “Why have you come, my little pony?” Luna said, trying her sister’s favorite title for their subjects. It sat uncomfortably on her tongue. The mare swallowed and rallied her courage.

“I’m Misty Glade. I’m here from Hope Hollow,” the mare squeaked. Luna reassessed her age and the dress from her high-pitched voice. The mare was closer to a filly. Most likely to young too form a herd in this age. “We’re a small logging town in the west Whitetail Woods.”

“I am familiar with Hope Hollow,” Luna said easily. Her patrols in the Dreamscape were not bound by the material world. Luna could drift from doorway to doorway, skipping thousands of miles in a moment to quell the nightmares of her subjects. Hope Hollow had few nightmares, mostly mundane situations such as finances and relationship troubles.

Luna’s comment gave the filly more courage. “We cannot pay the new tax,” she said, then rapidly added, “I petition the crown for relief in dire circumstances on behalf of the community.” Luna’s ears perked. The mare spoke formally, using an updated sentence from her own law codes written a thousand years ago. Clearly rehearsed. She has done research.

“What dire circumstances hath,” Luna cut herself off, “has befallen your village?”

“Bushwoolies infested most of our trees for logging. We needed to hire someponies to help relocate them, and we’re behind on our quotas.”

A task for fair Lady Fluttershy. “You are here to ask for aid in this?”

Misty hesitated. “I’m here to ask the crown to exempt Hope Hollow from the tax increase.”

Luna frowned and fluttered her wings. “You wish to negotiate your tithe?" That was a matter for her lower court.

“Tax, Princess,” Nightshide corrected quietly.

“We can pay, but we can’t pay the increased crown tax.”

“What increase? We hath not authorized such a thing,” Luna narrowed her eyes. Her sister’s tax system was notoriously inefficient. Luna loved her sister dearly, but mathematics was never her strong suit, not even with Starswirl’s tutoring.

“The tax,” Misty said slowly. “The recent increase. Duchess Berry said it was for the crown. She had the postings put up and everything.” Misty pulled a folded slip of paper from her dress.

Luna floated it up to her muzzle with her magic and inspected it. It bore her cutie mark and her sister’s, which faintly hummed with energy. After a moment to scan over it, her teeth grinded together audibly. Forgery. The Duchess forged Our marks.

“Princess?” Nightshade called up. Luna realized she was kneading Celestia’s flank cushion with her front hooves, slowly rending it open on her silver shoes.

“We hath decreed no such thing, nor sent notices,” Luna ground out, staring off at the windows of the throne room. Stained glass images of her sister and six ponies glittered in the light of the chandeliers. “Duchess Berry lied to thee.”

“She has ponies that come by and collect it, though,” Misty said, visibly confused. “Like always. I know some of them.”

Bribery. Luna did not know all the nobles of her sister’s court. Duchess Berry Bundle was one of the several dozen that had bowed low and swore fealty to Luna after her return. Luna remembered how their eyes always went to Celestia and avoided her own. The family lines she interacted with in the past had shifted with marriage or died out entirely during her thousand year absence. Young Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire was familiar, the distant descendent of Princess Amore. The only other was Blueblood, a foppish stallion and the last of the line of Platinum of the Unicorns.

“How long?” Luna asked, looking over the well-worn dress Misty wore. It wasn’t fit for a harvest dance, let alone the royal court. The dreams of lost money made more sense now in the Dreamscape. “Hath she increased such tithes before?”

“Um, yes?” Misty said. “W-when, uh, when you…” she trailed off.

When I returned. “We have not raised any taxes. Why are We only told now?” she said in a harsh whicker, addressed more to herself than her audience.

“We can't go to Duchess Berry, and I tried to go to Princess Celestia,” Misty protested. “I waited in line all day, but the deputy said it wasn’t a concern for the Princess.”

Luna could tell when a pony was honest; she once bore the Element of Honesty to defeat Discord. Misty had traveled for days to be rebuffed by her sovereigns. She had turned to her in desperation. The filly swayed on her hooves, fear combating fatigue. The ponies that waited in line for Celestia to hear their petitions passed through several guard checkpoints and seneschals, who turned ponies away with concerns that could be handled by the lower courts.

The velvet cushion exploded in a puff of feathers. “Duchess Berry is false!” Luna’s hoof clanged loudly against the throne, and she surged up to her full height, towering over the Earth Pony and her guards. Misty cringed back. More bribery, in our court, in our home. The forged letter crackled in Luna’s magic, and she flung it down to Nightshade. The Pegasus barely had time to catch it.

There was a flash as Luna teleported in her quill and inkpot from her study, then another as a parchment appeared before her muzzle. While descending the steps to Misty, the Princess wrote out her decree. “You shall pay no taxes henceforth to Berry Bundle and her House,” Luna roared. “She is known as a false friend of the crown forever more, and she will be—”

—she will be hanged is what Luna wanted to say, but Equestria ended the death penalty during her banishment. Doubtless, a decree of such from the feared Princess of the Night would be taken as the return of Nightmare Moon.

—she will be flogged was a compromise, but her sister forbade such actions as well. It would make Luna’s message clear, but nobility cherished one thing before any other, no matter the age.

“—and her family is hereby tripped of their titles,” Luna finished with a grim smile, then affixed a glowing magical seal of her cutie mark to the parchment. We still have that right, to make and unmake thee as We please. She cast an additional spell on the letter to preserve it, then floated the parchment over to Misty. "This decree is bound by my magic. She cannot contest this, nor can she destroy it."

The Earth Pony blinked at the flowing hornscript and tucked the letter to her chest. She yawned and blushed at the Princess with wide brown eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Not all of our subjects can enjoy the night,” Luna said in a softer tone. “It is a lesson We learned well. Where are you staying?”

“Warden’s Room and Board.”

“Lower Canterlot,” Nightshade snorted. “That place is a wreck, but cheap.” Misty didn't argue.

“Commander, set Misty up with a guest room, We have enough spares.”

“Please, Princess, I can’t!” Misty exclaimed, then her pupils withdrew in terror for shouting at the Princess. “The train leaves tomorrow at six in the morning,” she squeaked.

“That is in less than three hours,” Luna replied. Misty looked through the windows and her ears drooped. Trains. “Arrange my chariot and the flight crew,” Luna said, turning to the other guard.

“Are you planning to go yourself?” Nightshade asked warily. Luna snorted. If I did, Sister would hear of it by dawn. “Misty shall fly back and be reimbursed the cost of her tickets. Both of them,” she clarified with a stomp. “Our subjects should not have to crawl to us to see justice done. Arrange an escort and ensure the decree is delivered to Berry Bundle.”

Nightshade smiled and bore her illusionary fangs. "My pleasure, Princess."

Misty said nothing, struggling not to hyperventilate before Princess Luna. Commander Nightshade gently guided her away from the throne, pushing the smaller mare towards a side door. The other guard departed for the dockyards hanging underneath Canterlot to ready the chariot. Misty stumbled against the door, walking with three hooves as she clutched the letter to her chest. Luna made a note to seek her out in the Dreamscape for more details, such as the name of the seneschal who dismissed her. This is only the start. Even if Misty returned to Hope Hollow with a cadre of Night Guards, the Duchess would probably run to Celestia with her tail between her legs.

Luna stood alone in the throne room and remembered the old unicorn nobility, pompous hornheads of the likes of Duchess Berry. Her sister had scrubbed their shared history clean of the daily treachery of the Everfree Court after Discord, but Luna had not forgotten. She remembered seeking out plotters in the Dreamscape, and the occasional swing of her scythe in the night. It won her no friends, and her sister was always too busy carousing. It appears the past is not as far behind as I thought. Her teeth ground together again.