Waning Moon (Epilogue)
Looking out across the ocean at the red sun hanging high above the sky, Luna recalled.
She recalled her first waking moments on the strange planet that had no name.
She recalled the thousands of years of happiness and joy with her dear sister, the love they shared and the games they played. They'd meant so much to each other, an inseparable bond not broken by responsibility, indifference, jealousy, or even death.
She recalled the centuries of war and strife, of darkness and fear, and of hopelessness. The times when the sun had abandoned it's humble subjects to the cold despair of the night. The times when blood was spilled and tears were shed, times when civilizations rose and fell and the earth shook with the brute force of a war undesired by both sides.
She recalled every mortal pony who bowed to her and every one that rightfully opposed her during those dark years. Everypony she'd ever known, she had watched live and die while she remained unchanged. Across the long stretches of time when even the gods and Queens died, only Luna and the sunny skies of Equestria remained unaffected. But even now, like the sun was cooling and the light of the earth was dimming again, Luna was no longer the spry young alicorn she once was. Her flowing, starlit mane was still largely the dark blue it always had been, but it was also tinted with traces of purple and yellow around it's edges, a trait reminiscent of the mane of her sister. Now though, even it was beginning to grey with age.
She recalled Queen Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon, two friendship's she never would have imagined making. The brusque changeling Queen who kept her kind heart hidden behind her pride and selfishness, and the black alicorn who lived and died seeing herself as a monster and never realizing how wrong she had been. Both of them had taught Luna so much and helped her in ways she or they could never have imagined. She had first seen Chrysalis when she was a mere two decades, an arrogant and overconfident mare just out of fillyhood, but she had watched her grow into an elderly changeling of three thousand years. She had been so frail, her wings tattered, no more than a jagged bump on her forehead where her spiked horn had once been. Luna had visited her one last time, and learned that several days later she passed quietly with her daughter by her side.
She recalled the Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Heroes of their time now lost to the sands of tens of thousands of years past. Their children's children's children's children had passed half of a dozen millenniums ago, so that even the language they had spoken existed only as a memory in Luna's mind.
Most often, when she looked at the orange night sky and the red sky of day, she recalled Celestia. Her beloved sister, sustained in her memory forever as the good mare she'd known her as. The passing of time had rendered nearly ever mortal life a grain of sand in an ocean far too wide for a pony to sail even in a thousand years time, but the vivid clarity of those who had been close to her had never faltered with time. Once upon a time when she rested, her sister would join her in her dreams like she was really still alive, but when Luna awoke, the truth always dawned and hurt much more as she realized that it had been a mere dream. Eventually, Celestia stopped appearing in her dreams all together, which was probably for the better. Luna didn't dream after that, and even when she slept, the morning crept past the span of time like it had not existed at all.
As the poor old sun had slowly lost it's luminosity over the centuries, so too did Luna feel the end of her lifespan slowly creeping up on her. The unicorns had been raising her sun and moon for millenniums, and it was with comfort that she knew they did not need her anymore.
Luna felt tired and weary. When she closed her eyes, she felt as though if she wished, she could fall asleep and never awaken again. With nothing left and nopony she cared about alive, Luna simply recalled. It was her favorite thing to do, as she waited for the end. In a hundred years or so, she imagined the time would finally be upon her to die and she would close her eyes on her world one last time.
And it wasn't with fear that she thought of this looming guarantee. In fact, it was quite the contrary. She had lived long and, like her sister had requested thousands of years ago, she had found happiness again. There was always sorrow and longing looming behind the happiness, always the desire to see her loved ones again, and it was this desire that now kept her looking forwards with the hopeful optimism a young filly might have on Hearth's Warming Eve. For her, having lived so long, it felt like the same pathetically small yet unbearably long time interval.
For hundreds of years she had simply walked her earth, smiling up at the sun, revisiting all the places that had meant so much in her past life. She walked the boardwalk of Dusk Falls that was now nothing more than sand as red as blood, she crossed oceans that were now deserts or deep, waterless craters in the ground like sinkholes descending into darkness. The beautiful city of Canterlot, the peaceful silence of Ponyville, all civilizations come to dust in all but her memory.
She'd brought about peace. She'd ruled for many years and she had been happy during them. Now, her mane was grey and her eyes felt heavy with the strains of a billion lives, but the sun gave her comfort and warmth and made everything seem trivial and distant. Looking back at the almost twenty thousand years of life she had lived, she couldn't help but smile at the satisfaction of having it all behind her.
In many ways, the unknown future was all she had left. But it would be enough.
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Well in the space of a few hours I read the last three chapters, and words can't explain how I feel about them and the story as a whole, but I still cannot help but try.
The story as a whole is amazing and I have loved every piece of it. The past three chapters have been intense, from the final battle with Discord, the sorrowful end to Nightmare Moon, to this here ending, which I also feel is a tad bit sad.
I say it's a sadish ending because Luna has lived to what seems to be the near end of Equestia, and now patiently waits for the embrace of the after life, while remembering all the times of the past, mainly the good ones. That is merely my interpretation of the ending.
Again I must reiterate, this has been a truly amazing story, one which brought out the feels, particularly in this and the last chapter, and has had me enthralled since I first read it.
5712102 Thank you for your praise. I was a little worried that the last three chapters sort of dragged, but I'm glad you found the pacing alright.
Good story, though ending could be longer.
Overall I have mixed feelings about this story, it had good plot and execution but something lacked or like it was cut short
5739697 Thank you. Having Nightmare Moon be untrustworthy/mysterious and likeable at the same time was amongst my main concerns, so it's good to know that I suceeded on that front.
5739906 This story is a prequel to another one with time travel involved. Hopefully that clears it up!
As for part two, you don't really have to look far, it's continued here.
5712102 Couldn't have said it better myself. There really are no words for expressing how much I enjoyed this story. I have a feeling of satisfaction, yet at the same time I feel there could've been more. Everything is settled, but I think the meeting of Luna and Celestia, in the afterlife would've been a more appropriate ending. As is though It was a truly amazing story. It will make for a fond memory, for sometime to come.
5743915 Wow...thank you. I was really self-conscious of the last 50,000 words being drab and boring compared to the "Pre-Interlude" chapters but I'm glad that's not the case. Especially considering you apparantly read over them in an evening. I'm seriously quite flattered.
Regarding the ending, I did have other variations in mind, one of which did indeed include Luna meeting Celestia again. In the end I decided not to because it already happens in one of the sequels, and also goes against my obsession for amigious endings. Almost all of my stories have Alternate Endings and who knows, maybe sometime I'll publish them for the heck of it.
Anyways, thanks again for your praise!
5744396 No problem. I will have to read sequel(s). This was easily one the most entertaining stories in all. Most stories go from entertaining to filler, but yours' didn't fall into that.
Ahhhhh, I'm so late.
I really enjoyed the ending. The story as a whole was really fun and interesting and I just couldn't stop reading once I started. And I love how far into the future you took the epilogue. That was definitely a neat idea.
After finally getting around to reading this story (curse my ever-growing backlog), I must say I am very glad to have done so. It was a wonderful exploration of a much darker "what if" scenario, and I loved the way you led us on a wild goose chase with the whole "Luna goes to Tartarus" ordeal.
I mean, I sort of started suspecting something was wrong when Discord was revealed as the ruler of the underworld, but before that? I really thought that Luna had succeeded in killing him, and this was truly a journey through the metaphorical hell to bring back Celestia. And then the truth is revealed and you realize there will be no refunds and that Luna has simply been living out a fantasy in her own mind ... this was a plot twist done right.
Nightmare's interactions with Luna and their slowly growing ... hm, perhaps if not friendship then companionship was interesting to watch, and I must admit you managed to make me feel a twinge of sympathy at the very end for Nightmare and her final letter. She might have been an evil parasite once, but her time with Luna truly did change her - and it was sort of fascinating to watch as she slowly reached that point.
All in all, this was a very satisfying exploration of "what if Luna beat Celestia ... a little too hard" and all the consequences that follow from that - both for her and Equestria as a whole, and her impotent despair at the whole situation. After all, indeed, Luna turned in to Nightmare because she wanted adoration and respect from her subjects ... can't very well have that if they all die as result of your actions, and only proves their lack of respect right.
The last chapter where Nightmare faced her end did feel a bit rushed (with the whole 'Twilight has gathered her friends and is ready to obliterate NIghtmare' ordeal) and almost painfully devoid of details, like you were in a bit of a hurry to finish the story at that point, but I guess it doesn't loose too much impact from that, as the essentials of Nightmare's fate were still there - still could have been fleshed out more though.
All in all, this was a most enjoyable journey and I thank you for writing it.
5919592 Thank you very much for your feedback. I'm glad you liked Nightmare Moon's interactions with Luna and her development, because I sure as hell had a lot of fun writing her.
This opinion is, unfortunately, pretty unanimously shared, to the point that I realize now that perhaps one more chapter could serve the story well. This story was written as a prequel to another which tells in detail of Nightmare Moon's defeat, but nevertheless I realize it was a mistake to be so swift and vague with the details in this story. Oh well, I guess it's never too late for a bit of minor revisions.
This story deserves such a better rating than it does now, it saddens me when I see amazing stories like these given such little to none attention.
This is relevant to my interests.
That wad really good, if crushingly sad at times.
Chryssie might've passed away, but her epic levels of sass shall live on.
Cya
Raziel-chan
That was beautiful.
I don't know what else to say... I'm a little speechless, I guess...
This was amazing. Some confusing parts, like Celestia's body not being mentioned while the Door to Hell was being opened, but meh, hindsight.
I am confused as hell as to how Celestia died. One would think that the Elements of Harmony would be incapable of killing someone.
Couple typos here and there, and I was rooting for Celestia to be resurrected, but a well deserved fav!
found this amazing story hidden in the depths of fimfiction while searching for something to read, and was a refreshing take on what if's stories that exist. thank you for this work
loved it
Good