Another time, another world, another TwiLuna
Or, what if you change Luna and leave everything else mostly canon?
“Come on now, y’all,” Applejack said, or at least Twilight thought so. With how hard she was concentrating on the magically inert Elements of Harmony, it could have been anypony – if she even remembered the mare’s name right. “She needs to concentrate.”
Perhaps a minute later, Twilight idly noted that her five personal distractions were gone. The thought slipped away a moment later.
“Just one spark,” Twilight mumbled to herself.
According to the book, it only took a single spark to summon the sixth Element of Harmony. One little magical spark was all that was required to restart the natural flow of magic through the Elements.
Twilight poked and prodded the inert stone spheres before her with her magic. She could see the dead, lifeless channels in them. They should be coursing with enough magic to strike down a goddess. These were the real artifacts, not some distraction Nightmare Moon placed here.
But nothing worked. Every attempt Twilight made was rebuffed, as if the Elements themselves objected to her ministrations.
It made no sense! There had to be a way to revive them. Why would the book say it was possible if somepony had never done it before? The book had to be right.
“I hope,” Twilight whimpered to herself. Her teeth bit down on her lip as a terrible feeling settled into her chest.
The oddly metallic sound of hooves on stone echoed through the crumbling ruins. For a moment, Twilight paused to think which of the ponies who came here with her uninvited wore horseshoes. Pegasi never did. The unicorn would never be caught dead in plain, simple horseshoes, so she was out. Twilight had gotten far too personal a look at the pink one’s bare hooves, so that meant it was the cook.
Twilight shook her head. No, both the earth ponies were cooks or something, but it was the farmer-cook.
Something sounded wrong though. A frown worked its way onto Twilight’s face. Applejack – Twilight really hoped she remembered a name right for once in her life – was the one that cleared out the distractions. Why was she back?
Eyes widening, Twilight leapt to her hooves, ready for anything. The hoofsteps did sound wrong. They were coming from in front of her, not from the barely functional doors behind her.
“Nightmare Moon!”
The dark alicorn had come. She walked calmly forward as if she had not a care in the world, as if the instruments of her defeat were not in the hooves of her enemy.
She walked as if the instruments of her defeat were worthless lumps of stone.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon calmly replied. To Twilight’s disbelief, she sounded almost respectful.
Twilight felt herself mentally trip. This was the mare who, not a day earlier, had cackled and proclaimed the night would last forever like a lunatic?
Nonetheless, Twilight summoned up her magic in an instant. She shaped and formed it into a teleport. Flight was her only option.
“Ow!” Horn stinging, Twilight flinched and shook her head. The remnants of her half-formed teleport crumbled and dissociated into the background magic of Equestria.
“You’re kidding, right?” Nightmare Moon said, her tone somewhere between taunting and amused.
Not rising to the provocation, Twilight did the only sane and rational thing and tried again, putting her all into casting as fast as possible. Her horn protested, but it would be worth–
Twilight’s scream pierced the night. She collapsed to her knees. Her head fell downward as she tried to hide her horn away in the imagined safety of her own hooves.
“No need to bow. You are not my subject.”
Her head swimming, Twilight tried to teleport again, as it was the only thing that came to mind. It stung just to call forth her magic, let alone focus it, but she could still manage to cast spells. She had to.
A small sigh escaped the alicorn now looming over Twilight. One of her armor-clad hooves shot forward.
Twilight braced herself, her eyes squeezed shut.
“Ow…” Twilight whimpered. The relatively gentle kick would have barely hurt if her horn were in good health. As it were, Nightmare Moon was merely rubbing salt in the wound.
However, the blow did force Twilight to look up at Nightmare Moon. She was tall, as tall as Princess Celestia. The last time Twilight had felt so small, she had been eight years old and staring starry-eyed up at Princess Celestia.
“Come now, Twilight. I know my sister must have taught you better than to try the same thing over and over again.”
Twilight grit her teeth, an act which only reinforced how sharp Nightmare Moon’s were. This close, Nightmare Moon could tear into her throat before–
Nightmare Moon’s words only now registered. ‘Sister’? Nightmare Moon was Princess Celestia’s sister? Surely that was a lie.
No, true or not, it was a distraction. The fact was a relative triviality – a footnote in history – compared to escape.
But Nightmare Moon was right, as much as Twilight hated to admit it. Magic was not going win her her escape. Outcasting a goddess was a vain effort to begin with, maybe even outright impossible.
Yet what other option did Twilight have? Woefully underprepared as she was, her only skills were magic, research, and organization. She hardly thought offering to organize Nightmare Moon’s sock drawer would get her anywhere.
“Now with your permission, I would like to take this conversation elsewhere.”
Twilight tried not to let the shock show on her face. Nightmare Moon was asking for her permission.
Of course, refusing would certainly have consequences – unpleasant consequences. Talking was good though. Every second spent talking was another second Twilight had to think of an escape plan.
Even though she knew she had no other option, Twilight was still hesitant in her reply. “Okay.”
A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine as Nightmare Moon smiled. An almost overwhelming amount of magic flooded into the room. The cyan glow at the tip of Nightmare Moon’s horn was nearly blinding.
And in an instant, the world returned to normal, or as normal as Nightmare Moon’s world ever was. It was still night; what should have been daybreak had passed long ago.
That said, the place Twilight now found herself was well lit. Looking around, the magical lights floating about the admittedly comfy looking room absorbed shadows more than they projected light, or so it seemed to Twilight’s eyes. A small throne rested on one side of the room, and scattered about were various other office-like fixtures.
This place screamed ‘throne room’, however small and homely it appeared. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight spotted the Elements tucked away in a corner.
“Where are we?” Twilight asked. She tried her absolute best to make her question not sound like a demand.
“The Temporary Night Court,” Nightmare Moon replied, as if that answered anything. She crossed the room with all the grace and poise expected of royalty, settling down onto her throne. Even so seated, she stared down at Twilight.
Only once she was obviously comfortable and at peace did Nightmare Moon speak again.
“Twilight Sparkle, I have banished my sister to the sun.”
The words were like being hit by a train.
“You liar!” Twilight screeched.
“Then where is she? Why has the sun not risen?”
“She…” Twilight bit down on her lip, fighting not to tear up. Princess Celestia had been generous enough to share some of the secrets of the heavens with an inquisitive young filly. The world needed the sun; if the sun had to share the sky with the moon, so be it. There was no sun, therefore there was no Princess Celestia. QED.
Twilight cursed herself. If she were anypony else in the world, she could force herself to believe the sun’s absence to be a mere ruse, a trap, a plot. But no, her mind had to believe in facts, and evidence, and logic.
Staring at the floor, Twilight could only guess what Nightmare Moon’s face must look like. It had to be warped in manic glee as she watched Twilight struggle to accept reality.
Well, Twilight would hardly give the mare the satisfaction. She raised her head to glare back at Nightmare Moon.
Yet this only made Nightmare Moon’s smile grow.
“Now then,” Nightmare Moon said, her diction absolutely perfect. Something about that bothered Twilight. “I believe you have a…proposal to bring forward to The Night Court.”
For at least the second time tonight, Twilight’s mind ground to a halt.
“Speak, and you will be heard.”
Twilight fumbled with her mouth, seeking words that were not there.
“Come now, Twilight. What is the one thing I possess, might be persuaded to give, and you need?”
Twilight decided that instant that she hated Nightmare Moon personally. Before, she was just a villain that needed to be stopped. They were all over Equestria like weeds. That was what happened when a third of your population could alter reality with their mind.
But this – this – this arrogance, this goading, this railroading was insufferable. Nightmare Moon was after something from her.
A moment passed.
Twilight fought to keep her scowl from becoming a mere intense frown.
Nightmare Moon wanted something from her. Assuming that something was not entertainment of one kind or another, Twilight had something she might be able to use. The only question was what.
“I want Princess Celestia.”
Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Honestly, Twilight had expected more yelling and posturing at the demand. Still, she did her best to stare down Nightmare Moon to see just what she could get from her.
“If you insist,” Nightmare Moon finally said.
Twilight none-too-subtlety let her jaw drop.
“I might warn you though. Is she what you need?”
A dozen objections ran through Twilight’s mind. She stomped down on each one, instead asking, “What do you mean?”
“Surely you cannot be so blind?” Nightmare Moon’s words came off as a question. To Twilight’s blank expression, she continued, “I defeated her once already when she was at her full strength. How would I lose in a rematch when she is weak from her foray in the sun?”
Unable to stop herself, Twilight ground her teeth together. Again, Nightmare Moon was railroading her into something.
A thought struck Twilight. It was not something useful so much as perhaps a means to gain information.
“Are you weak from banishment right now?”
Nightmare Moon’s grin grew positively feral. “That is the million bit question, is it not? Perhaps at this moment, I have nothing left, no magic to even conjure a tiny glass of water.”
No. No, Nightmare Moon was baiting Twilight. The kind of power she used and ease with which she used it at the castle in the Everfree Forest was not what Twilight would expect to see from a mare scrapping at the dregs of her power.
Then was Nightmare Moon lying about Princess Celestia being weak on her return?
No. That information was too informative. If Twilight managed to rescue Princess Celestia, she would know to make the plan foolproof enough to secret the princess away before Nightmare Moon could intervene.
And beyond that, there was still something bothering Twilight about Nightmare Moon. She had the feeling that once she figured it out, a facehoof would immediately follow, like a hard math problem with a simple, elegant solution.
“Oh! Cycle day and night.”
Any attempt to rescue Princess Celestia and save Equestria would require, well, Equestria to be alive. The world would freeze without the sun.
A half second later, Twilight realized she said that out loud and placed a hoof over her mouth. This was not a homework exercise with Princess Celestia, even if Nightmare Moon was rudely stringing her along as if it were.
“Not quite.” Speaking more to herself than to Twilight, Nightmare Moon said, “Perhaps tomorrow we might discuss that.”
Tomorrow? That was a good sign. Or rather it was a not-bad sign. It suggested Nightmare Moon meant to keep Twilight alive, at least for now. Twilight felt just a little bit of the tension in her shoulders fade.
“Tell me, Twilight, what did you do before running off haphazardly into the Everfree and nearly dying?”
“I didn’t–”
Before Twilight could say more than two words, Nightmare Moon interrupted, “The Everfree is not as nice a place as it was a thousand years ago, especially so at night. Alone, you would have died. With those other mares and some…direction, you barely made it to the castle in one piece.”
It took all of an instant for Twilight to connect the dots. “You! You – you cast some spell and – and…”
And why on Equus had Nightmare Moon allowed Twilight to reach the Elements?
“You’re welcome,” Nightmare Moon said.
Twilight refused to dignify that with a response, not that her indignation made her predicament any less confusing.
“Now please answer the question.”
It took Twilight a few seconds to tear herself away from pondering what Nightmare Moon could possibly be up to, and another few seconds to admit to herself that Nightmare Moon already knew the answer. Nothing she could say would give anything away.
Twilight grumbled, “I read a book about the Elements.”
“Which was…”
“Research?” Twilight hesitantly replied.
Nightmare Moon waved a hoof in a circle, silently asking for her to keep going.
“Gathering information?”
“Quite so. So what do you need?”
“Information,” Twilight said, fairly confident that she she just reached the destination Nightmare Moon had railroaded her to. Still, there was the matter of what information she needed. “How to cycle day and night? How to rescue Princess Celestia?”
“No. You do not yet possess the magic to do either–”
Yet? Twilight tucked that thought away for later.
“–and as soon as I find her, I plan to arrange for your foalsitter to be taken care of. One way or another.”
Shouting, nearly screaming, Twilight said, “If you harm one hair on her mane–”
Twilight found herself screaming silently under Nightmare Moon’s magic. Words having failed her, she rushed forward, her magic flaring.
Before Twilight could form even the core of a spell, Nightmare Moon ripped the magic she had summoned away from her. She collapsed to her knees again, biting down to keep from screaming again.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon said, her voice icy, “Princess Cadenza’s fate lies entirely in her and your good behavior. I suggest you think before you act. Thinking is what you’re good at, I hear.”
‘Good behavior’ being the key words, Twilight bit out an weak, “Apologies.” At least she could speak again.
“Apology accepted. Now then, what do you need information about?”
“I don’t know.” Sick of playing this game, Twilight guessed, “My current situation?”
Nightmare Moon sighed. “Close enough. You might find it curious that I not only knew who you were, but also that I showed up in that backwater Ponyville to begin with. What kind of place is that to make my triumphant return?”
Rather begrudgingly, Twilight had to admit Nightmare Moon had a point.
“I had an extended” – Nightmare Moon chuckled – “conversation with my sister. I learned quite a number of interesting things about you, including where you were.”
A shiver ran through Twilight. Her mind conjured up progressively worse things Nightmare Moon might have done to get that information, culminating in some of the most nightmarish things imaginable.
Jumping on anything to distract herself, Twilight asked, “What interesting things?”
Nightmare Moon smiled again, as creepy as ever. Rather cryptically, she said, “Today is a great crossroads in your destiny, Twilight. Perhaps I might simply kill you.”
Twilight took an unconscious half-step back.
“Perhaps you might get lucky, free my sister, and live out the life she planned for you. But I rather doubt it.”
“Or what?” Twilight snapped. “I become your minion and help you rule the world?”
Nightmare Moon looked as though she were fighting off a laughing fit, yet her tone was as even and regal as ever. “That would be a bit…cliché, would it not? I could hardly expect the heroine to betray her beloved, wise old mentor to the villain for power.”
Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it a second later. She had no idea how to respond to that.
“Please, Twilight. Do not presume me the fool.”
A mad goddess was bad enough, but a mad intelligent goddess was an unmitigated disaster. Twilight’s threat assessment of Nightmare Moon skyrocketed.
Sweat slowly suffusing her brow, Twilight considered that maybe – maybe – Nightmare Moon was sane and Ponyville was all an act. Maybe even eternal night was just leverage for something else.
As if reading Twilight’s mind – and Twilight wondered if she could – the grin on Nightmare Moon’s face grew the longer Twilight thought.
Twilight gulped. “What do you want?”
Nightmare Moon leaned back on her throne, by all accounts satisfied with Twilight’s words.
“Nothing.”
“I… What?”
“Nothing,” Nightmare Moon repeated herself. “You are a charity case.”
“That doesn’t make any – I – but I tried to – and you – you’re lying!”
“Perhaps.” Nightmare Moon paused, frowning as her thoughts turned inward for a moment. Her brow furrowed as if struggling with something. Then into that brief silence, she said, “But then lies are simply data points you chose to ignore, as you say these days.”
That was hardly how that expression was meant to be used, but Twilight checked herself before correcting Nightmare Moon. Besides for a mare a thousand years behind the vernacular–
Twilight’s eyes widened.
Nightmare Moon grinned. She raised an eyebrow as if asking, “Yes? Do share with the rest of the class.”
Even as the evidence rolled in, Twilight almost refused to accept it. And yet it all made sense.
Nightmare Moon spoke Modern Equestrian with a perfect Canterlot accent. She even knew idioms, if not perfectly.
This throne room was all new but obviously used.
The spells Nightmare Moon used – from what little Twilight had witnessed – had neither the style nor structure of a mage a thousand years behind the times.
“How – how long have you been free?”
“A swing and a miss, Dear Twilight.”
That was impossible. All of the evidence pointed to Nightmare Moon having had enough time to update herself to modern standards. She was just lying again.
‘Lies are just data points you chose to ignore.’ The words echoed in Twilight’s head. There was some wisdom there; she could begrudgingly admit it. What then did Nightmare Moon gain? Or perhaps what was she trying to hide? Why did it matter when she returned?
“If you must know,” Nightmare Moon said, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, “I escaped my confinement during the winter solstice when my power was at its greatest.”
Two seasons? Two seasons was nowhere near enough time to learn everything Nightmare Moon would have needed to – Twilight felt nauseous even thinking the words – defeat Princess Celestia. Maybe it would be enough time to learn the language. Old Equestrian was the root language for Modern Equestrian, after all.
No. No, Nightmare Moon was likely telling the truth.
“Which winter solstice?” Twilight asked, a triumphant smirk on her face.
Twilight’s smile was returned in full measure. “You’re learning. Good.”
For a moment, Twilight made to protest but held her peace. Celestia forbid that Twilight would or could not learn. What a horrible world that would be.
“Please indulge me, Twilight. Do you know what the sixth Element of Harmony is?”
Caught off guard by the change in topic, Twilight replied automatically without thinking. “No.”
“Oh? Well, I suppose my sister did think you would have more time…”
Twilight had the horrible feeling that Nightmare Moon knew her weakness. Knowledge was much alike to a carrot on a stick. All somepony had to do was dangle it in front of her, and she would chase it to the ends of the world.
Worse, even if Twilight knew that and recognized it for the trap that it was, she would walk into it knowingly every time. It was a hard-learned lesson from magic kindergarten.
“Time for what?”
“To attune with the element she attempted to groom you for, of course.”
With the expectant look Nightmare Moon gave her, Twilight hazarded a guess. “Magic?”
“That hardly fits the theme.” Suspended in the cyan glow of Nightmare Moon’s magic, the Elements passed by between her and Twilight. “Honesty. Kindness. Loyalty. Generosity. Laughter, or more properly Good Humor, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue. No, Magic does not fit the pattern.”
Twilight had to admit Nightmare Moon had a point. She ran over all the virtues she possessed even a little bit, seeking the answer. ‘Organized’ was hardly better than her first guess. ‘Punctual’ was an even poorer fit. ‘Diligent’ might work, but it lacked the ring of truth Twilight expected. It needed to be more about personal relationships.
“Trustworthy?” At the very least, Twilight liked to think that her word was as good as truth or prophecy. Unless she overreached – and admittedly that had happened once or twice – she always did what she said she would.
Nightmare Moon appeared thoughtful for a moment, but she shook the expression away soon after.
“A very good guess, but no. The sixth element is as symbolic as it is functional. It takes a careful hoof to wield, as it channels and directs the other elements, which empower it.”
By this point, Twilight was scrapping the bottom of the barrel for virtues she possessed, at least for non-scholastic virtues. ‘Studious’ hardly fit the pattern, after all.
Eventually, Twilight gave up. “I don’t know.”
“Friendship.”
Twilight would have burst out laughing in any other company. She had friends, of course, but nopony could accuse her of being a paragon of friendship. Moon Dancer was the closest friend she had, but even that relationship was little more than study buddies at its heart.
“I did say attempted,” Nightmare Moon commented dryly. “If you don’t believe me, I’m sure we can unearth some old documents somewhere if we look hard enough.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Twilight said, still actually somewhat amused even in her current situation. Nightmare Moon’s answer fit well enough, and it hardly mattered at the moment.
Besides, what reason could Nightmare Moon possibly have to lie about it right now and to allow Twilight to call her bluff?
“Thank you.”
For once, Nightmare Moon’s smile was just that: a smile. There was nothing smug or predatory about it. Not that the arrogance and self-assurance had left her countenance.
The five Elements of Harmony fell to the floor in a circle. The moment they did, a bright light flared.
Twilight averted her eyes, but she recognized the color as Nightmare Moon’s magical aura before she was blinded.
Blinking away the sting, Twilight looked back. There was a sixth stone sphere in the center of the other five, one about twice the volume as the others. Emblazoned on it was the six-pointed star representing magic.
“Destiny likes to pull at our strings in more ways than just our cutie marks.”
For a moment, Twilight glanced back at her own with a frown. It was a six-pointed star with five smaller stars around it, much like how there were five elements surrounding the sixth at the moment.
“You stand at a crossroads, Twilight Sparkle. This will be the biggest decision of your life.”
Nightmare Moon arose from her throne. Her hoofsteps echoed steadily as she approached, stopping just in front of the elements on her side of the room.
“Will you pursue this?” Nightmare Moon gestured at what must be The Element of Friendship with a hoof. She held it suspended, as if inviting Twilight to ask her to roll the element across the room. “Do you wish to become a social butterfly? Do you wish to be a pony who drops her books for a party or a pony who delays her latest project in favor of tea and company?”
Twilight clamped down on her immediate response. It was what Princess Celestia had wanted for her. She could even admit it might, perhaps, possibly be the case that she should get out more on holidays. And if her suspicions about her cutie mark were on point, it was her fate, what she was always meant to do.
But it would taste a lie to say it was what Twilight wanted.
“That…doesn’t sound like me.”
“No, it does not.”
Twilight felt dirty inside at Nightmare Moon agreeing with her, much less at rejecting her destiny and indirectly disobeying Princess Celestia’s wishes.
“Tell me, in my absence, what would you wish to be?”
Far too many times Twilight had asked herself that question. There were simply too many things that held her interest and too many books to read. And always there was that foolish dream she had of being a princess, of being an alicorn just like Princess Celestia and Cadance.
“A researcher,” Twilight mumbled. It was the best viable choice, in her opinion.
“Of magic?”
Twilight nodded.
“I believe that is a poor decision.”
A poor decision? “And what would you have me do?” Twilight demanded.
“Nothing in particular, my little charity case.”
Nightmare Moon was lying again. She was still after something. Twilight knew it.
“I merely wish to point out the effort hardly seems worth your while. A thousand years behind the times, and I learned enough in two seasons” – Nightmare Moon actually rolled her eyes at Twilight’s glare – “to best my sister. Even should I have had a decade to practice, does that not sound strange? A thousand years of progress – I should be a barbarian.”
“You are.”
“Perhaps culturally,” Nightmare Moon admitted. “Have you ever heard of the Crystal Empire? King Sombra?”
History was not Twilight’s strongest subject, but she still shook her head. Surely Nightmare Moon would inform her. “So what?”
“My sister and I together removed them from the map. And yet a train still runs through their lands in the Frozen North a thousand years later.”
“That line goes to Rainbow Falls!” Twilight protested. Not that she understood the point Nightmare Moon was trying to make.
“After detouring hundreds of leagues through a snow-covered wasteland?”
Twilight had nothing to counter that.
“The train is an ancient device, Twilight. Why is it still in use?”
It was a tautology, but Twilight said, “Because it’s useful. Not everypony can fly.”
“True enough. Yet in a thousand years, surely somepony would have invented something more useful.”
Surely that was an unfair argument. Doors were older than civilization, and nopony would suggest that doors were antiquated or should be.
“Who was the last great historical figure in magic?”
Twilight automatically answered, “Star Swirl the Bearded.”
“He was born before me.”
“That doesn’t mean–” Twilight started to protest.
“Do you know of the Alicorn Amulet?”
“In passing, but–”
“It is as dangerous today as it was when King Sombra created it ages ago.”
Twilight stomped her hoof. “Spears are no less pointy either!”
“Ha! Spears! They were ancient when I was a filly, utterly harmless to a unicorn, and in the hooves of an earth pony, worthless against a pegasus. Spears were the weapons of the ancients when magic was barely more than supernatural powers and bizarre rituals.
“And still I see earth ponies harvesting and farming with their own hooves. Unicorns have the magic to make their lives easier with enchantments, if only they were to apply it properly.”
“But…”
Nightmare Moon was not finished. “And now, a thousand years later when ponies have leisure time in their prosperity and their foals run around playing all day, how much public education does a pony receive?”
“Primary and” – Twilight’s breath hitched – “training in their special talent.” She had a horrible intuitive idea of where Nightmare Moon was taking this argument.
“And you wonder why I say that research is not worth your time? It is an esoteric field, one not fit for civilized society.”
“That’s not true!” Twilight screamed.
“It is!” Nightmare Moon firmly said. She paused for a moment, then added, “Unless something changes.”
For a moment, Twilight almost let herself do the unthinkable: agree wholeheartedly with Nightmare Moon.
“Equestria is at peace,” Nightmare Moon continued. “Centuries of peace is impressive. Equestria is fat and rich. What more could anypony ask for? Equestria is open and accepting in ways it never was a thousand years ago, although it is still far from perfect.”
Nightmare Moon’s magic pulled Twilight’s head up to stare directly into her eyes and held her there.
“But you are dead intellectually. History is forgotten and fragmented, if not outright edited. Where are the changelings? What happened to the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Princess? Who is Lord Tirek and his sworn brother Prince Scorpan? What happened in the Discordian Era? Where is Princess Luna? Who is the Mare in the Moon?
“Electricity and magnetism is new, I admit, but what do you use it for? The occasional light when no unicorns are around to maintain magical ones? The compass is not new, only more studied.
“Your knowledge of medicine and healing is little better. The only truly great invention I have seen is the x-ray, yet that is but one idea in what should be millions.
“And your magic – ha! The fact that Star Swirl’s work is still relevant is a joke. You would spend your entire life amounting to–”
“Stop!” Twilight cried. “Please. Please stop…”
And surprisingly, Nightmare Moon did. Surely it was not the tears – Twilight could never bring herself to believe Nightmare Moon cared – yet she did stop.
Without the righteous thunder of her earlier words, Nightmare Moon said, “You live in a golden dark age, Twilight. You could choose to embody friendship, to perhaps even strike me down, but you will have to live with that decision forever. You would, in essence, embody the status quo: peace, friendship, and harmony.”
Nightmare Moon finally let her magic disperse, and Twilight slumped to the ground without the support.
“Now tell me, Twilight Sparkle” – Nightmare Moon turned to face away, as if Twilight would believe that made her vulnerable – “in my absence what would you wish to be?”
“I – I don’t – I don’t know.” Twilight’s voice was weak, uneven. What could she even do alone? What if Princess Celestia – and she could barely believe she was thinking it – would do nothing about this?
“Then I ask you another question. What do you wish to be in my presence.”
This – this was the trap. Twilight hated herself for it, but Nightmare Moon had her. And really, what other option had she possessed to begin with? Nightmare Moon had railroaded this entire conversation to this point.
“I’m not important,” Twilight mumbled, defeated, her head hung low. Whatever Princess Celestia saw in her, there had to be a thousand other ponies who could do just as well. Surely there was even somepony else to bear The Element of Friendship.
Nightmare Moon turned back around in Twilight’s peripheral vision. No doubt she was smiling from ear to ear.
“Twilight Sparkle wields some clout, being both famous and almost fanatically devoted to my sister. Yet she is nothing I cannot live without.”
Without warning, Twilight’s left foreleg lit up in the cyan glow of Nightmare Moon’s magic. She stared at it for an instant before panicking. She flailed the leg around to no effect as she slowly lost all feeling in it. Within seconds, it refused to even respond to commands.
“What are you doing?” Twilight screamed, eyes wide.
“Providing extraordinary evidence for an extraordinary claim,” was Nightmare Moon’s calm reply.
Without another word, Nightmare Moon cast one last spell, one Twilight recognized. She tried to counter the ordinary kitchen-grade cutting spell, but like every other time she had tried, Nightmare Moon countered her magic before it even took shape.
Twilight stared at her leg on the floor, unable to bare looking at the stump left behind where Nightmare Moon had severed it.
And yet the numbness was fading. Even in her shock, Twilight braced herself for the coming agony.
Any moment now.
Any moment.
Perplexed and somewhat morbidly curious, Twilight lifted her view to where her leg was supposed to be gone – supposed to be, but was not.
“W-w-what’s going on?” Twilight watched transfixed with equal parts horror and now scientific curiosity as her stump knit itself back together. In what was, Twilight swore, at most ten seconds, her leg was back and perfectly functional.
Or she had a new one, at least. There was still a dismembered limb on the floor right in front of her. And while that was fascinating, there were other things on Twilight’s mind right now.
“I don’t understand! What is this? What did you do? What happened? How did this happen?”
Nightmare Moon cast a silencing spell on Twilight for the second time that night, waiting until she petered out.
“What did you do?” Twilight asked, if not calmly, then at least evenly enough that Nightmare Moon deigned to answer.
“I cut off your leg.”
“What else?” Twilight hissed.
Nightmare Moon clearly took some sadistic glee in the situation. She smiled as she said, “You tell me. What cannot be physically killed, regenerates, and is magically powerful?”
Glaring back at the patronizing mare, Twilight replied, “Alicorns.”
It took a second before Twilight tripped over her own thoughts, her words and their implications catching up to her.
“An alicorn filly, in your case,” Nightmare Moon said. “You’re such a cute, adorable little thing.”
At first, Twilight had no idea how to respond to that. But then Nightmare Moon tried to scratch her beneath her muzzle, cooing, “Coochy coo,” as if Twilight were a newborn filly. She batted the hoof away with her new leg and glared.
And yet Twilight’s heart was not in it. Her mind was still trying to process everything and struggling to cope. Being told she was an alicorn – filly or otherwise – was the last straw before it got up and left her to her own devices.
“So, Princess Twilight, what do you wish to be?”
It was too much to make a decision – to make any decision right now. Twilight needed time to think and regroup.
“If you do not want to be the Alicorn of Friendship, then what will you be? If you do not like this world, what will you do to change it? Who will you be to change it?”
“I…”
“Come now, Twilight,” Nightmare Moon said again. Twilight was really starting to hate that. “I should think the choice is obvious for you. Deep down in your heart what are you? You are the Alicorn of…”
And the truth was, Twilight did know exactly what word she wanted to finish that sentence with. It would be so easy. It would be so wonderful. All she had to do was fly out on her own away from the safety of Princess Celestia’s wings. With enough luck and determination, she could even save Princess Celestia from her banishment.
“And then what,” the little voice of doubt said. “What will she do when she sees what you’ve done with her Equestria?”
But Princess Celestia was not like that. No matter what Nightmare Moon said, Twilight knew Princess Celestia would understand and be supportive, maybe even thrilled. None of this could be her fault. No one pony could possibly wield that much influence and power. And Equestria was in a golden age, even if it was also in a dark age. Ponies were happier and better off than ever.
The problem was Nightmare Moon. She was going to freeze the world.
Except she alluded to ‘discussing’ eternal night. And she was smart; that much was clear. Twilight would never ever underestimate Nightmare Moon’s intelligence ever again, not after tonight. She would never destroy the nation she wanted to rule; that was a contradiction in terms.
No, Equestria would endure with or without Nightmare Moon at the mantle. So long it was there, Princess Celestia would have something to come back to. The short, easy victory through The Elements of Harmony was no longer an option. Twilight knew she would have to be in this for the long haul now. Whatever plan she came up with for victory, she had to be one-hundred percent, absolutely sure it would work.
Twilight doubted she would ever get a third chance.
“Magic,” Twilight finally replied, whispering the word at first. “I’m the Alicorn of Magic.”
Twilight’s head rose from staring at the floor in thought, and what her eyes found was far from what she expected.
In the place of Nightmare Moon stood a dark blue mare perhaps two-thirds her height. Her mane still flowed in an æthereal wind, but the stars in it where muted now, not blazing lights. The draconic pupils were gone, and her teeth were normal. She looked every bit a proper, regal alicorn.
Twilight noticed this mare’s cutie mark was the same as Nightmare Moon’s, however.
“Very well then, Princess Twilight, Alicorn of Magic. My name is Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Night, Diarch of Equestria, Mistress of Dreams. As my sister has seen fit to erase me from history, our first task is to slay Nightmare Moon and end this eternal night.”
And there was the confirmation of what Twilight had expected. Everything that happened in Ponyville was an act. The madness had been feigned. The threats, while real enough, where meant to be defeated. Eternal night was a sham. This Princess Luna was the villain and the ‘hero’.
Princess Luna…no, Nightmare Moon – for Twilight knew that was who she truly was, whatever else may happen – held out a hoof.
“Rise, Twilight, and let us remake this world in our own image.”
Twilight gulped. There was no going back if she took that hoof. She could refuse. Nightmare Moon would likely keep her alive for ‘reeducating’, but eventually Twilight would be left alone long enough to escape.
But that would hardly help anypony. Even being a nominal ally would let Twilight influence Nightmare Moon’s rule. As a prisoner or fugitive, she would be worthless, unable to do anything whatsoever. Not to mention Nightmare Moon’s comment about her ‘good behavior’ determining Cadance’s fate.
And deep down, as much as she hated herself for it, Twilight agreed with Nightmare Moon. Science had stagnated under Princess Celestia’s rule for a thousand years. Equestria needed to change. If Equestria had to endure Nightmare Moon for some time to bring that about…well, there were worse ways it could happen.
Princess Twilight hoped Princess Celestia would understand.
*Sees three chapters pop up in feed*
6904215 hay I'm grateful for the update that we got
Whhhaaaaaat?!? Three new chapters! 35,000 words! All at once? During the Superbowl?? You monster!
Oh well. The commercials have been rather lame this year anyway. *dives into reading*
So, is the story reaching its end now?
Be Prepared!
FINALLY UPDATES!
i have read untill 03:30 in the morning, and i have to be up in way not enough hours to go to work as well <.<
MORE PLEASE!
Very good Omake, nice work.
This omake has more potential for being a great epic than 90% of the epics on this site. I need more!!!
As soon as this story is completed first, that is
Well, I wasn't sure what to expect from that Omake... That was quite good!
Also, I love the angle (Which I don't see enough of) of turning someone to your side with logic and reason. Instead of appeals to emotion... *glances at Star Wars* Oh sure, I will betray the order that raised me and slaughter children on a vague promise of saving my wife! /George Lucas Writing
Two new chapters and a really food Omake! Thank you for a great Sunday evening spent reading Forthwith.
This omake deserves to be published as a separate one-shot in its own right, even if you never continue it!
6914166 You mean Captain-For-Eternity?
Well, that escalated quickly...
I don't really know which side I want to stand on here when everything is so gray.
It was extremely interesting hearing the arguments between Shining and Twilight about the rights and wrongs of the princesses but ultimately seemed to come down to "We can't say for sure whether we truly know either princess enough to make an ultimate judgement, but we both agree that they've each got issues and that those issues need to be resolved somehow" so like a usual political debate I believe.
The entire scene with Twilight finally revealing her true identity to Velvet and Nightlight was gripping, though it certainly helped that Pupa had already laid some groundwork and Twilight's parent's were smart enough to put the dots together without forcing Twilight to come out and say the brutal truth. I'm glad of Velvet and Nightlight's ultimate decision to just side with Twilight rather than letting their anger and Shining put them in Celestia's camp against Luna.
Also that Omake was exactly how I'd hope Twilight to be turned against Celestia, by showing her how much she and Equestria have been held back by Celestia. Twilight will continue her path believing it's for the best and ultimately she might free Celestia, but I don't imagine Celestia will be as understanding as she'd hope after all that effort on Celestia's part to keep Equestria in a golden dark age. I'd be extremely interested to see an interaction of some sort between this Twilight after she's ruled for a while and current canonical Twilight, perhaps from canon Twi's adventures with alternate realities in The Cutie Remark.
The only bit that really confused me was the sudden reveal of Twilight being an alicorn filly, I mean Twilight would have wings wouldn't she? Or is this like an idea that she'd slowly develop more and more alicorn features over time? Are alicorn fillies not born but instead are an evolution for extremely capable ponies? Anyways I thought the Omake was quite a fun idea .
Thanks for this delicious meal of words Forthwith, I devoured these new chapters wholeheartedly and yet hunger for more .
6913612 That feel when you've read over 350,000 today alone. I think some brain just dribbled out my ear
6904215 So you are making tha omake it's own story right?
Right
RIGHT
RIGHT
please
Holy crap, man. This is an interesting story idea in its own right; there are so many aspects that can be interpreted in a different light from this. Perhaps there really was no Nightmare Moon; perhaps it was Celestia who took things too far, maybe even doing this on purpose in order to protect her golden age- which, while it is indeed a time of peace and prosperity, it is so very... stagnant. What is the point of all this free time, if you do not take advantage of it to make life even easier and better for everyone involved? While I do not know much about the concept in and of itself, this plot still seems to have "Lunar Republic" written all over it. The arts, the sciences, the little things in life that we take for granted nowadays that make our lives easier, and may even keep us on this side of the mortal coil for more years than we were originally meant to- yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Luna on this. She may have ultimately not meant anyone any lasting harm, anyways; "dealing" with Cadance would probably not come to violence, if she could help it. Sealing Celestia on the Sun, well... that sounds like an act of petty revenge. But not necessarily undeserved, considering what Celestia had done to Luna. I wonder about this universe; it has the potential to be so nuanced... I wish I was good at the whole "research" and "writing" thing; I'd follow up on this on my own if I could. I'm terrible at sounding smarter than I am, though- I get too hung up on anything that I don't understand.
Sorry, that kind of devolved into rambling. I suppose I would have to ask, would you ever consider following up on this idea, once this current story (be it just the one, or a full-blown series of undetermined length) is done?
6914509
I have something else in mind that's already outlined with two chapters mostly finished and waiting for The Moon's Apprentice to be done, or approximately done at least. The last time I promised to take up a story part time, it ate my other projects for breakfast. I make zero promises for this to ever be anything more than an omake.
Not that I wouldn't like to see it expanded too, if anyone wants to take up the idea.
Now THAT...
Is something you don't read every day. An old tale, NMM talks to twi, and you put an entirely original spin on it. Not only that but it was brilliant to read!
Good sir, that takes talent. 5/5 Moustaches.
Celestia mostly just seems the type to tend to brush aside the desires of individuals in favor of the current good of all, without thinking too much about how her actions will affect them personally, or how temporary disruption might eventually lead to something better.
She wouldn't need to have the slightest bit of ill intent in order to create conflict between her and Luna. All she would need to do would be to start assuming that Luna would always agree with her decisions, and then stop paying attention.
From what I remember of earlier it feels like she actually did a ton to make up for what she did to Twilight, but never acknowledged that Twilight wouldn't agree with her that what she did was for the best. I'll have to go back and reread those parts at some point to be sure.
6914506 Doesn't bother me. My point still stands.
Please make this into it's own separate story. If only so I can give a thumbs up. Sadly I can only do it once.
Wow nightmare moon sure is a manipulative bitch in this story.
It's dawned on me how low tech Equestria is. We see them mixing around with technology going from stuff from the 1930s to ipods. Not to mention Star Swirl being the only powerful mage talked about. I get that he's suppose to be like Merlin but even Merlin wasn't the only mage there was. There's also the fact that Equestria had never dealt with foreign lands (even zebras are strange creatures to ponies!) until Luna's return.
That means Equestria stagnated itself for 1000 years. Tech slightly changed, military became lazy, and magic gets dumbed downed to recreational use only. Holy shit, Celestia is a horrible leader!
Cool Omake. The best villains are the ones that aren't villains, just fighting for a different 'right'. This would make for an interesting story in it's own right. The other potential element bearers confronting Twilight, possible resistance cells popping up, all the while two alicorns pulling equestria forcefully into an age of enlightenment.
And it's still going to stagnate under the countrywide civil war that's going to happen with the disposing of Princess Celestia's thousand year rule to make way for the literal boogyman.
Have fun sleeping at night with that. Hope you move your parents to a safe place quick, because there's nowhere in the country that would be safe for them.
Please turn this into it's own full story! (if only to see how Celestia reacts when that eventual reunion happens)
6914887
The nephew is Spike, since Twilight definitely has a mother-son relationship with him in this.
6914864
To be fair, Equestria's technology is constructed from narrativium - the tech level is only what's needed for the story, and it takes a back seat to older narrative tropes. They have trains because that's an old fast-transport trope which is powerful enough to beat out "long-range mass magic teleportation" (which also has the disadvantage of collapsing a lot of standard story tensions). It has X-rays because that's become a strong visual medical trope - any hospital setting is strengthened with an X-ray on the wall and a graph on a clipboard at the end of a patient's bed (and a machine that goes beep). It's also why the writers/animators have been careful not to show food-chilling tech, even in kitchens - the only item which makes sense these days is a refrigerator, but that's somewhat modern for the rather rural, low-tech village setting we tend to be shown in Ponyville. They'd probably be able to get away with a fridge-looking box with a glowing blue "cooling" magic crystal inside it, but that'd lead into awkward questions about how available magical items were commercially, and thus how reliant the domestic appliance market was on unicorns. (People never really seem to think about how steam engines are connected to industrial manufacturing tech.)
Likewise, guards with spears and shield and metal armor are *tropes*, even if they're vastly out of date technologically. We should be seeing rifles, let alone muskets, in a steam-powered era. And I think the only cannon we've ever seen is Pinkie's.
Meanwhile, Vinyl Scratch has functional records, mixing equipment, and what appears to be electric speakers. Either they're a custom magic set she built herself with special talent magic, or Equestria has a fairly widespread power source capable of running them. Yet I'm pretty sure we've never seen an electric socket in Ponyville.
No wonder Equestria has schizotech. It wouldn't surprise me if nearly all advanced devices and machinery we see were built by small groups of ponies with specialized talents, and are practically unreplicable/unrepairable by the vast majority of the population. That would go some way towards explaining both the esoteric mix of items and why tech as an industry hasn't advanced much - ponies in general aren't able to copy and build on each other's designs, or mix two ideas together to make a better version of something. It's quite possible that types of tech or devices actually die out or become a lost art when the ponies who were making it stop doing so (or die without a successor), then get rediscovered by a later-generation pony with an appropriate talent - or it takes decades for a sufficient number of such ponies to wind up working together again.
6915134
Luna murder her...and recycled her corpse
Point out where Celestia murdered anyone...much less recycled their corpse
As for everything else supposedly blamed on Celestia:
Luna planned out what Celestia would do.
She new Celestia, and new exactly what she would do if she lost Sunset and found a new flare.
Luna planned on Celestia reacting that way and made sure Twilight would experience everything she did.
Celestia was manipulated just as much as Twilight was
Everything Twilight has experienced, every bit of pain, every bit of emotional turmoil can be squarely laid at Luna's Hooves.
And now Luna is making Twilight dance like the pathetic little brainwashed recycled meat puppet that she is.
Shoot, in the beginning I was rooting for Twilight because she was dealt a bad hand in life, and she was doing everything in her power to fight it.
I approved and understood, but when she found out that Luna literally manipulated every part of her existence from her death to her rebirth...brainwashing her and using her like tool...finding out that she was the reason for all the pain she has experienced in her entire life...Twilight finds all this out and inexplicably still loves Luna and hates Celestia...How big is the idiot ball Twilight holds?
"she used and ease with which"
"the ease"?
"a mare scrapping at the"
"scraping"?
"Besides for a mare a"
"Besides, for"?
"was scrapping the bottom"
"scraping"?
Hm, interesting, making trains ancient technology for Equestria here...
"vulnerable – “in my absence what would"
"absence, what"?
"in my presence."
"presence?"?
"unable to bare looking"
"bear"
Hm. An interesting short, yes; thank you, and thank you for your writing in general. :)
The... big one? But you said final chapters, so the big one isn't the end... Probably Luna's return. Well, that ought to be (and yes, I still seem to be using this word quite a bit) interesting. :)
Oh my gosh! The direction this went in is perfect. You didn't just convince Twilight that Equestria needs to change, but you convinced me as well. The train being around for a thousand years? They should be in the space age by now! As someone who believes advancement to improve a society is the greatest, and only, thing that truly matters in the long run, for various reasons, stagnation is evil in my eyes.
I have chills. I really, really, really wish this entire idea got its seperate story. It's so freaking good. It's... perfect.
6914938
Wars are actually among the best things for technological invention, even civil wars. Necessity is the mother of inventions, after all, and war creates a need to be better than the other side.
With that said, I doubt the ponies will actually resist against anypony strong enough to take out Celestia. It'll be more of a small resistance, if anything.
6915181 She does indeed have reason to hate Luna, but that still doesn't mean she has any reason to like Celestia. Celestia did try to basically reduce her to an earth pony for life, and whether Luna caused the situation to begin with does not change that. And regardless of any moral concerns, assisting Luna is to Twilight's benefit for the moment.
6914530
While I am looking forward to your new story as well, will you be going back to Seeking Power at some point? I appear to have Favourited every story you've published on this website, though, so... [shrugs] I'm expecting to enjoy myself either way. :)
6914980
Aye, aye; I remembered/figured out that later in reading the updates. Thanks, though. :)
6915273 Are you even reading the same story?
Every time the author has had Twilight interact with Celestia she has been anything but cold.
Heck when Celestia thought Twilight had been kidnapped by changelings Celestia was furious.
Celestia is very protective of Twilight.
Again, are you even reading the same story?
Luna's plans worked precisely because Celestia cares too much.
Luna new that Celestia would be trying to figure out a way to both save her from her own psychosis, and how to protect her little ponies while she did it.
Again this would not have worked if Celestia did not care.
Luna most likely instigated Sunset's and Celestia's frustrations, since it has been shown that she is more than willing to go to any lengths to see that she wins.
Luna new that soft hearted Celestia would not be able to make her heart that vulnerable again by taking on another flare just like her previous student.
Luna also new that with the time constraints involved Celestia would have to choose between saving her sister and possibly the rest of Equestria, or help Twilight.
Luna masterfully manipulated Celestia into a no win decision, and new exactly what her decision would be.
Heck it would not surprise me at all to find out all those dreams that Twilight had about being Celestias student and doing magic were forced on her by Luna to further torture her and make her ripe for the brainwashing.
Yeah, because family has never gotten pissed off for a stupid reason and taken it too far (sarcasm)...
How many times a week have we heard about some family member beating another to death because of one stupid reason or another.
Heck how many times have you heard of a mother accidently beating their baby to death because "They just would not be quiet..."
We don't know exactly what happened, but considering the lengths that Luna is going through which include murder, kidnapping, brainwashing, etc...Luna has shown that she will go to any lengths regardless of who it hurts.
Meanwhile Celestia is trying to save her sister and her country from her sister.
Never said Celestia was perfect. After all she obviously messed up when it comes to her sister, and yes as everyone likes to mention Celestia has rewritten a bit of history.
Problem is we do not know what she has rewritten.
Could she be hiding something scandalous about herself, yes.
She could also be hiding the fact that hearths warming was a much more bloody affair than was previously let on.
you do not know, but what we do know is that in recorded memory of the oldest living ponies there has been peace and happiness under her rule.
Not a perfect utopia, but she has done a good job.
People always hate it when you depict Celestia as some master manipulator playing a metaphorical game of chess behind the scenes, but lets face it... in this story Luna is the chess master behind the scenes...and she has got everyone moving exactly as she wants them too.
6915253 Never said she has to love Celestia, but this blind devotion to Luna is ridiculous when Twilight knows that literally every problem she has ever experienced has been planned out and set into motion by Luna.
I was right there with you in the beginning riding the 'hate Celestia' train, but once it was revealed that Luna literally masterminded the whole thing to force Celestia to choose between saving her sister and her country or teaching a new flare, it became clear who the real villain is. Heck Luna was even threatening Celestia with Sunsets death which as we all know is a moot point now since Luna already murdered her...Sunset is not coming back.
I know the author is trying to make this a grey area thing, but unfortunately the author has not properly balanced everything out.
Luna has murdered, brainwashed, blackmailed, kidnapped, and done basically everything she could to hurt Celestia.
Celestia has killed no one, has looked into finding peaceful solutions (elements of harmony), and has overall just been trying to keep everyone safe and alive.
Celestia is not perfect she does make mistakes, but at least she is trying to save everyone...Luna just wants to hurt Celestia, and she will kill, brainwash, and blackmail who ever it takes to do it.
The story literally puts Luna behind every single action that all the other characters have taken.
She is the chess master in this story.
D'uh... She make Twilight see the obvious.
6915354 "Hey, Twi, why're you stopping in the middle of our race?"
"Excuse me, Rainbow; just need to raise the sun -"
"Twi! What're you doing with my magic? That's cheating!"
6915096
I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but Sunset was reset to practically a newborn. Sunset's behavioral patterns and goals are gone forever, even if her physical self is still wandering around; the person is defined by their brain, and Luna had Sunset's basically scrubbed clean. If that doesn't qualify as death, I wouldn't know what does.
6915264
I probably won't go back to Seeking Power for a while. I need a break from TwiLuna before I do something crazy. Also, everytime I read through that project of mine I get the usual author angst that says, "This is a past work, so it's awful, and I need to rewrite it to be up to the standards I've learned and developed for myself."
6915331
Twilight mentioned Sunset in some depth with an abnormal amount of grief weeks before, so they had a long time to discuss and guess what was really going on. They came up with a lot of theories on their own time.
6915589 obviously you have read none of posts.
The comments you have made have not only been answered, but answered more than once in multiple posts in detail.
If you cannot be bothered to read them I am not going to be bothered to give up another wall of detailed text.
Suffice to say I have never said Celestia was ultimate good and Luna ultimate evil.
I have always said they both made mistakes.
However the author has written Luna in this story as the ultimate chess master that manipulates ponies in their dreams, has been murdering, blackmailing, and kidnapping.
Twilights entire situation was orchestrated by Luna. Literally everything about her life, and even Celestia's inability to teach her was all planned out by Luna.
Celestia at best is guilty of gross negligence while Luna is guilty of whole host of crimes including murder, black mail, kidnapping, and brainwashing.
This is not head cannon. This is all as the author has written it.
6915617 Again I have no clue where people keep getting that I think Celestia is perfect.
I have never said it or hinted at. In fact most of my posts have included me saying just this "neither of them are perfect."
Your right Sunset did deserve an answer, but Celestia did not think she was ready.
Honeslty Celestia's biggest mistakes really revolve around communication
triple negation? fuck you. That took me several minutes to make sense of.
Interesting story. Personally, i don't see why progress is supposed to be so extremely important. To make everyone happy? They already were happy. Bringing about change just has the risk of making someone unhappy. Especially if it's taken to the extreme. As usual, you probably need a good balance of progress vs stagnation. And this Luna might just be on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum than her sister.
Having an unrelated chapter in here kind of messes up the comments.
6915726 Well, maybe not exactly negligence alone. My angle is mostly that it has been going on for decades, and Celestia herself was the driving force behind it, even if she didn't intent to harm Luna by her schemes. Something like a long lasting mobbing campaign to politically destroy Luna, just more subtle. The whole thing caused a respected diarch to become a social outcast. And Celestia didn't care in the least what that did to Luna. Luna's only fault at this point is that she herself apparently didn't voice enough complaints, if any at all. That she tried to fight back with the same methods instead of talking to her sister.
6915678 Okay then, you don't completely see it black an white. But you still interpret every bit of information about Celestia in a very positive way, and everything about Luna in a very negative way. For example, Luna using Twilight and making her happy: evil mastermind. Celestia using Sunset and making her unhappy: caring mother figure. In the end, Celestia is probably the better choice of the two, but the difference is not as crass as you make it out to be.
And now that i think of it, if Luna actually went insane back then, she's not legally responsible for her actions. Which means psychiatrist instead of punishment.
6915887
This no interpretation this is fact. This is not head cannon this is the authors own words.
Luna had an agent kill Sunset Shimmer, Recycle her corpse, kidnap the original Sparkle child, and even told Celestia via agents that she had Sunset Shimmer...which makes hostage taking and blackmail.
Luna has agents all over Equestria that she can visit and send messages to via dreams.
This is all written by the author.
In what way is she not manipulating every part of this?
She even admitted to Twilight that she purposefully messed with Twilight's magic.
Celestia mean while is at worst guilty of ignoring her sister's problems, and not being completely open with Sunset about what she needed Sunset to help her with...which all fall under not communicating properly
Again this is all fact. Written down by the author themselves.
Yeah cause mothers and daughters never fight about what mom thinks is best...(sarcasm)
Again I am not saying Celestia is perfect. Both her and Luna have made mistakes.
I am simply pointing out that as the story is written the mistakes in no way balance out.
Celestia has made mistakes and is trying to fix them, where as Luna is murdering, kidnapping and brainwashing her way to freedom so she can get revenge on her sister.
All facts written in the story.
6915953 I'll have to disagree with you there. What Luna did to late Sunset/early Twilight was definitely horrible, but she managed to warm up to her and put effort into making Twilight happy, even building a personal relationship, which was not strictly neccessary for her plans. Luna cares for Twilight.
Celestia, on the other hand, didn't just have "a fight" with Sunset. Sunset was clinically depressed and spent alot of her time in taverns trying to drown her sorrow in alcohol. Celestia also never returned the affection, which i think is the exact difference between teacher and mother/friend. Celestia cares not (or at least far less) for Sunset.
You downplay the help and friendship Luna provides to Twilight, and you downplay the problems between Celestia and Sunset in this example.
That's not enough to make Luna the better choice, but the difference is smaller.
6916101
Which we can't tell of because Celestia is quite literally the only person we haven't had a viewpoint from in any of this.
6916148 Sunset herself, as shown by Twilights memory, coudn't tell whether Celestia liked her or not. I mean, you could construct it as "She liked her but never ever properly showed it", but that isn't exactly speaking in her favour either, because it doesn't change sunsets situation.
6916101 Sigh...
Honestly I wonder if you are even reading the same story or even reading my posts.
Of course she would want to have a good relationship with Twilight. She needs other alicorns on her side when she is freed. That was the whole reason she planned this out in the first place. Lets no forget Luna also cared for her sister at one point. Now she is willing to murder, blackmail, and brain wash any who get in the way of hurting her sister.
I am not saying she holds no affection for Twilight. After she did build her. Who isn't fond of their creations.
Now who is making assumptions.
Remember Celestia is bad at communicating. Twilight even comments on it when she is watching Sunsets memories. That if they had just communicated everything would have turned out differently.
Celestia cares for Sunset and Luna knows this and used it against her. Remember she had agents tell Celestia that they were holding Sunset Shimmer hostage. Now holding Sunset Shimmer Hostage hardly makes sense if Celestia did not care about her.
You completely ignore the fact that Twilight was specifically made from the recycled remains of Sunset Shimmer to be Luna's tool to use against Celestia. Luna even went the extra mile to screw with Twilights magic (Luna admitted to this). Then she made sure the young Twilight relied on no one else but her (brainwashing). Luna might have some feelings for her now, but make no mistake she would do it again in a heart beat.
Celestia did want to train Sunset to help her with her sister, and she could have made a better effort when it came to Sunsets feelings. The screwed up thing about all this is that Luna is getting a chance to feel something for the tool she callously created, but Celestia will never get the chance to make up with Sunset...Thanks to Luna's murderous ways.
6916243 Let's agree to disagree, i guess. Thanks for providing some anti-Luna viewpoints though, that helps me to not go too much overboard with my Luna bias. She is kind of the villain, after all.
This is an amazing little short, though, since it's not actually the same story as the one you posted it under, perhaps you should post it as a one-off under a different name?