After Nightmare Moon’s banishment, a mother struggles to cope with the death of her daughter and the lies being told about Princess Luna. In her despair, she is driven to a desperate attempt to find closure.
She will visit the moon in the Dreaming, and bring back her Princess of the Night.
Now on Equestria Daily!
Finalist and 11th place finisher in the Writeoff.me Great Expectations event.
Thanks to my editors: Alicorn Priest, Tek and Seether00
First comment is reserved for the author. This story will go into my very short guide for batponies (as seen by me), around the beginning somewhere. Hope you enjoy it. Update: And it's been approved by Equestria Daily.
I enjoyed it.
There is nothing more terrible than to realise that you are wrong and that the one you considered a wronged hero was actually the villain of the piece. I wonder if Dreamweaver's news was what kept Nightmare Moon sane and functional enough to get back to Equestria and (although not by conscious intention) to redemption?
That was a lovely bit of character writing. You did a great job at showing Dreamweaver's despair and the journey she had to take to return to reason and to look forward to better times. I wonder... Is Hope an ancestress of Pumpernickel's?
It also did a good job at presenting the psychic plane and what an alicorn, unmasked by any mortal preconceptions, might look like in that environment.
A fascinating look at a grim period of Equestrian history. I loved the portrayal of the Dreaming, the amorphous design of the Nightmare, and... well, pretty much everything else. Thank you for this.
I expected it to be Rye, but a daughter makes more since. Then, following the logic in Genealogy there should be a clan Hope. I hope one of Hope progeny makes an appearance in the third installment of the guard trilogy. Though I agree with BenRG I suspect she contributed some DNA to the modern and previous Pumpernickel.
Really wonderful read here. It was haunting.
What an appropriate name.
I'd like to think that knowing that some bat ponies survived helped Luna remain at least a little sane over the millennium of her imprisonment.
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The idea her sister was actively protecting them and guiding them probably helped too. I like to think that much of Nightmare's seemingly "cliche" super villain behavior was from Luna influencing her behavior, making Nightmare unknowingly sabotage her own plans by leave blatant flaws and only challenging the Mane 6 rather than actively trying to kill them. Knowing the descendants of her "children" where still alive and that Celestia still loved her giving her strength.
Perfect.
Perfect.
And just a bit more perfect added on for good measure.
I loved this look at Luna and Nightmare Moon, as well as the reactions of her followers. Wonderfully done.
I realize, with this story's publication, I no longer need to do the NLR deconstruction fic I had planned once upon a time. This doesn't have the same name, sure, but it's the same basic idea.
This story does not have enough views, votes or comments. It deserves more.
If I had writing skills and could express myself more eloquently I'd write a better comment explaining why I like this story, but I lack such skills. So "I like this" will have to do.
Fantastic!
That was so good. You gave such depth to Luna's treason and descent into madness, you gave an origin for the batponies that makes sense, and best of all, you gave the characters hope. I hate when stories leave everything in despair, but you took the despair that needed to be there, and introduced hope. Hope is so important and I love seeing it given its proper place in stories. Wonderful job. =)
insert crying here.
Nice. That's one Hope that won't be forlorn.
aw man ... no part two ... xd
great stort btw :)
If this were cannon I would agree. Killing is more Celestia's thing. However I shall have to see what's what here with my own eyes
Anyone ask how Nightmare feels?
So in canon, Luna got jealous of Celestia and one night went bat-fuzz insane bwah-hah-hah. most writers I've read and people I've talked to agree that that has to be a gross oversimplification of the actual happenings.
So
grainblock of salt take here but here's a few of my thoughts regarding NMM (as written super late at night on an ever more sleepy brain):