No country for young mares · 1:36pm Nov 24th, 2020
Before I start things off, some music to set the mood.
It's strange in a way, given the same span of two thousand years you'd think it would be Celestia who remained set in her ways. The both of them started in the same place as unicorns; but where Celestia put down roots, Luna spread her wings. Freedom brings many things, among them the freedom to remain yourself rather than shift to accommodate your fellows.
Another progression; sister, friend, explorer, adventurer, diplomat, guardian, champion, princess.
Yes, diplomat. The realization snuck up on me too, but diplomacy wasn't always paperwork and schedules; at one point it was a meeting at a ford or boundary uncertain if it would end with blood or feast.
"Free spirited" describes Luna very well indeed, most of the first maps of Equestria are in her hornwriting, she was happiest when she was exploring something new, or sharing in the camaraderie of her fellow Equestrians.
so for the first age of Equestrian history things went very well, Luna beat the bounds and pushed the edges of the map, protecting her fellows every step of the way. Then Discord happened, and the Sisters were crowned co-rulers of a shattered Equestria. It took a long time to notice, what with reconstruction and several particularly nasty threats that needed handling, but after about five hundred years Luna realized that she couldn't remember the last time she didn't know what she'd be doing the next day.
Then Red Hill happened, and Luna took on the mantle of Dream Warden to protect her sister and people in a new way. The watchful nights closed in.
Eventually the days seemed to go by like clockwork, one month like another, one year like another, one decade like another. No respect, no appreciation, no freedom. A shadowed mind begat an Nightmare. Sombra's greatest masterpiece.
And here I find myself a problem. I'm writing practical realistic story, yes? Or, as practical as a story about magical ponies can be. Fast forward one thousand years after this
...In the thousandth year of the Age of Unity, on the very eve of the first Summer Sun celebration, the princess of the moon went mad. No warning was given, no demands were made. Instead of the light of dawn, a wailing shriek of fury swept through the streets of Everfree. The moon eclipsed the sun, and the golden city of Everfree fell to Nightmare.
- Excerpt from The Long Night, by royal archivist Solemn Witness
we have the events of Nightmare's return. So, five civilians and a princess's student defy a maddened alicorn who had once been rightly named "Dragon-dread", and somehow nobody dies. How? She has every reason to see them dead as soon as possible, and a litany of ways to do it. This is what I'm chewing on at the moment, finding the happy ending rather than a tragedy.
Hm.
Some brainstorming:
Well, I'm not sure of the details most appropriate to the universe you're working with, but I'd guess it ties back to her actively not wanting to win in the shadows. She wants victory, yes, but more than that she wants glory.
As you say, she was already in the shadows, and that was much of the problem; as for the aspect of not having freedom, well, if she'd been content in the shadows, a ready solution would seem to be sinking into them even further: leave government entirely, pass all of that to Celestia, and commence wandering the world in whatever disguises suit the whims of the moment. She probably still has to keep up her role as Dream Warden, but the rest of her time would be free.
But whether from a desire to not be so hidden, a feeling of being too crushed by duty to escape it, or some combination, she didn't do that; instead, she snapped.
And then we come to the return. Why make that appearance in Ponyville at all? Why, once she's taken care of Celestia, not make securing the Elements and any other such potential threats to her her first priority, then reveal herself? While she didn't think the Mane 6 would make the Elements work, she pretty clearly didn't think the probability was zero (unless she did but wanted the Mane 6 to actively fail), either, given her efforts to stop them, and how she went to the Castle of the Two Sisters immediately after Ponyville.
She wanted to be seen, and known. She wanted her enemies to admit defeat, not just vanish and not be seen again.
It's also possible Nightmare Moon wasn't planning to go to the Castle of the Two Sisters right away until Twilight stepped forward and interested her.
It's also possible that she wasn't killing them just because she could. The most expedient route to getting rid of them is a restriction; Nightmare Moon, so she thinks, makes the rules, and she has no need to be bound by such things if she does not want to be, not for just six mares; what threat could they pose? And she keeps thinking she can take them easily and so doesn't need to right up until the Elements fire up, at which point it's too late.
There's also a potential statement in not killing the foolish civilians suckered into fighting their true queen by Celestia's agents, since after all that's what most of the population of the country is going to be, and they'll presumably be more willing to accept her rule and glory if they think she won't crack down hard on them even for active resistance, so long as said resistance is ineffectual enough.
And there's the idea, done before, I believe, that Nightmare Moon at that point had an internal conflict, part of her wanting to lose.
Or, possibly, she wasn't actually back to her full power yet, still recovering from banishment, and dealing with Celestia took most of what she had; the show she was putting on was mostly bluster and showponyship, and the things she tried to stop the Mane 6 with were as not-deadly as they were (though, even then, the rockslide or the manticore might actually have killed or badly injured one or more of them, had things gone differently) because she was trying to conserve energy; if she can scare them off, or even just delay them, with a simple illusion on some trees, that's more time for her to recover. In that scenario, she goes to the Castle of the Two Sisters because she can't face Canterlot and the Royal Guard there yet (though she presumably would have given a different explanation later, once she'd won).
I might be able to come up with more ideas, but I'm a bit low on time. I hope something in there helps, though! :)
edit:
Oh, and another interesting blog post, by the way. :)
5404658
Hey thanks for the writeup! You've got some great thoughts here, though I see you missed my little secret just after the mention of a shadowed mind. (try highlighting!) In general I think this is a splendid analysis of Nightmare, what she really wants is admiration, and and an equal part of Celestia's stature. But I've something of a world-specific hurdle to manage.
Maturity.
Specifically, in most worlds the sisters defeat Discord and become princesses when they're still quite young, and Luna goes all Nightmare Moonmoon when she's 25 or even younger. youthful foolishness, envy, loneliness, feelings of sisterly abandonment. All that good stuff.
Here, she's over 2000 already, and would usually be the first to acknowledge that she really doesn't want or envy Celestia's job. She's not very patient, she doesn't suffer ignorance well, and she despises paperwork. So if she was in her right mind she'd just, you know, talk to Celestia and take a very long vacation out to tour the Minoan tournament scene or summat.
If she was in her right mind...
Her appearance in Ponyville's a simpler matter, I simply assumed that she'd reappear where she was originally banished, the old palace deep in the Everfree.
Hmm, people always seem to go for the big showy spectacle, and I'm contrary to a fault. Perhaps there's an invisible mage's duel being fought the entire time between Nightmare in the old castle and Celestia off in some high place, and the greater part of Nightmare's attention is devoted to this incredibly intricate fencing match? So what the mane six encounter is pretty much Nightmare throwing semi-random jank over her shoulder in the hopes that it does something.
5404693
You're welcome! :)
And thanks. :)
re the secret:
Ah! Yes, I did indeed. I'm, ah. Not generally in the habit of highlighting random bits of blog posts for no particular reason, sorry? :D
And re the analysis of Nightmare Moon, aye, thanks. :) And yeah, she varies from universe to universe, of course, but I tend to feel/think that the desire for glory, as well as actual power, is at least usually a key part of her character.
And re maturity, well, right... but I'm a bit puzzled why you're finding it such a hurdle? As you say, she wasn't in her right mind here. And you appear to already have the mechanism for how figured out. :)
(Also, is it really most worlds Nightmare Moon happens that early on?)
...I'm also not sure what you mean about her appearance in Ponyville being a simple matter? Since Ponyville isn't where she was originally banished. I thought she went to Ponyville because that's where Celestia was. Eh, then again, Celestia was probably there because of its proximity to the old palace, so... I guess it depends on how you look at it? Is that the sort of thing you were thinking?
Oh, the mage duel idea is an interesting one, and I don't think one I've encountered before!
Hm. Though that does beg the question of why Celestia is off in that high place. Then again, the other way, there is the question of just how Nightmare Moon defeated Celestia in a back room of Ponyville's town hall without anyone outside noticing. There are potential answers, but it's still a question.
5404719
I suppose It'd be better to say that I found it to be a hurdle, and this was the solution. Yeah, usually she's pretty young I believe, and a further part of the problem is that they immediately advance into that day/night dichotomy without giving Luna a chance at finding her own way.
Yeah vis-à-vis Ponyville I assume it was a combination of Celestia's presence and Nightmare simply heading for the nearest visible community.
Last time they did this Equestria's Atlantis happened. She knew the time and place, and she's looking to avoid the truly astonishing destruction a "hot" duel would wreak. And she wants Twilight to do this on her own without constantly looking to her for inspiration.
5404729
Ah, okay. :D
"Yeah, usually she's pretty young I believe, and a further part of the problem is that they immediately advance into that day/night dichotomy without giving Luna a chance at finding her own way."
Ah, interesting; thanks. I'm not sure how often I've encountered that happening at a pretty young age, though I think the rapid advance into the day/night dichotomy has been fairly rapid in my experience, yes, relative to the other events.
Thanks.
That makes sense, though of course there'd still probably be details of the exact events to work out.