Chapter 9
At the foot of the winding staircase to the observatory tower, is a thick wooden door. Twilight pushes it open with some difficulty and trots/walks into the anteroom chamber. The heft of the door, she knows, is a function of its usefulness keeping out the cold. On a cold night this room would serve as a good place to warm up after spending time in the observatory itself.
Accordingly, the room features fairly small windows, but does include a number of plush cushions and seats circled around a large stone hearth. There’s a little fire going, just to add a little bit of light and activity to the room, rather than much of any heat. It is after all, in the middle of the afternoon, and the temperature even at the top of the observatory tower is only slightly chilly.
Twilight finds her five pony friends, and Spike, congregated in a close huddle around the fire, as though they are a cabal discussing some conspiracy plot. Twilight smiles at the idea of her friends as plotters and schemers. Sometimes they don’t even agree on where to eat lunch, let alone how to carry out some devious scheme.
The creak of the door on its hinges signals her arrival to the gang. They look up from their huddle expectantly.
“Hi there,” Twilight says, “Am I interrupting anything?” She closes the door to make sure the distant noise from their talk doesn’t bother Celestia at the top of the tower. “Celestia says the spell is almost ready. I’ve been looking over it too, and I can’t see anything amiss, but she is being very methodical and checking every detail.” I can’t fault her there, Twilight thinks. It’s rather important to both of us this spell works.
“That’s good Twilight.” Applejack responds. “We were just saying how happy we were to see you and the Princess make up with each other. You had us all right concerned for a while. Ah would’ve said you’d never be back to normal after yesterday!”
“It was so sad, I just couldn’t understand.” Fluttershy adds. Her eyes very briefly make contact with Twilight’s before returning to an intensive examination of her own hooves.
Twilight can do nothing but smile. She knows her feelings have not changed. Forgiveness is beyond reach. But on the outside, she had chosen to spare her friends from that quarrel. It was difficult, but she had forced herself to control her emotions. She had met with her friends a few hours ago, after talking with Celestia, and told them that she had been temporarily insane when she had confronted Princess Celestia. Of course, she had added afterward, she is fully recovered and feeling much better now.
The lie nags at her conscience every now and again, but she pushes it to the back of her mind. It was for the best after all. That sounds a lot like Celestia's reasoning, Twilight thought. Have I started to become what I hate?
Yet she kept that hollow smile on her face. “I know Applejack, and I’m sorry Fluttershy, for being so mean in front of everyone. I didn’t mean any of it. It was just a bad dream, maybe. Something I thought I saw but really didn’t. I’m much better now.”
Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash hasn’t said anything yet. She looks at her and notices a strange expression on her face, as though she still has doubts about Twilight’s state of mind. Twilight isn’t surprised. Only Rainbow Dash knows what she saw in Luna’s memories, or at least, the abridged version of what she had seen. Perhaps she suspects what Twilight now called a bad dream was the truth, and her façade she maintains now is the lie. From what Twilight had told her, she knew the complexity of Twilight’s ‘dream’ and the level of detail which Twilight put into it readily surpassed the misty haze that usually surrounds the events in a sleepy unconscious flight of fantasy.
For all that though, Rainbow Dash doesn’t say anything on the subject. Twilight thinks it best she doesn’t. For one, she doesn’t want to be questioned any further on the subject. It has been hard enough pretending to love Celestia once again, she didn’t want to natter on in even more detail about it. Lying about it already turns her stomach. Secondly, she worries that Rainbow Dash might let something slip to alert Princess Celestia. Twilight isn’t sure precisely what the result of a mistake on Rainbow’s part would be, but she doesn’t want to find out. For her, and for Rainbow Dash, she has already made up her mind that it will be best to stay quiet, at least for the time being.
“How can you be so calm? You’re about to go to the moon!” Pinkie Pie exclaims.
“Shush Pinkie, you’ll freak her out.” Rainbow Dash scolds.
Twilight wonders about Pinkie’s question too, although she doesn’t let it show. She feels fairly calm, she knows what she must do, and she knows that if something goes wrong, it will have been after hours of checking and rechecking every element of the spell. But there is another part of her that is very excited, and perhaps it helps overrides the potential risk. That part can’t wait to get to the moon to perhaps meet the spirit of the true Luna. It’s like a dream, somewhat literally in this case, coming true. Thus instead of the excitement derived from falling off a cliff, she has the excitement that a Pegasus might feel in anticipation of their first flight.
Of course, if one is really daring, Twilight recalls from memory, it’s possible to do both at once.
“I feel fine.” Twilight tells her friends. “It’s definitely exciting, but I’m also looking forward to getting back here afterwards!”
“Hmm, right.” Applejack nods, before moving on. “Well anyhow, we’ve got something for you!”
“Really? I mean, I hadn’t planned on taking much with me.”
“It doesn’t weigh much, dear.” Rarity speaks up from over Applejack’s shoulder. Applejack moves aside so Twilight can see her holding out a shiny silver pendant suspended on a fine loop of chain. The silver gleams in the firelight, outlining a serpentine pattern of curves melded into very fine shapes. “It’s a necklace,” Rarity says, “that we thought you might like to wear for good luck.”
“Please, Rarity, for once you don’t have to be modest.” Rainbow Dash chides. “She worked on that thing almost nonstop while you were out. She made a… what’s it called?”
“A mold.”
“Yeah, a mold for it, and then the palace forge cast it for her. She put in a lot of work!”
Rarity blushes slightly. “Well thank you, Rainbow, it was a fine way to pass the time, and more importantly, it expresses our friendship in a form that you can easily keep close to you, wherever you may go.”
“I don’t know what to say, it’s lovely!” Twilight examines the silver pendant, admiring its detail. She can discern the figures of a flower, an apple, a cake, a lightning bolt, and a diamond. Each one is tiny in size, but together they intertwine and form the shape of a heart. The chain fits through a neat gap in between the branches connecting the individual shapes. Twilight slips the chain over her head, and adjusts it to lie perfectly at the base of her neck. The chain, as she might have expected from Rarity, is the ideal length to fit snugly around her without any constriction. She looks down at the silver shining amidst her violet coat, and nods appreciatively. “Thank you Rarity. You really didn’t have to do this.” Twilight smiles. “And don’t worry, I promise I’ll be thinking of you all while I’m up there.”
Everyone takes turns admiring her necklace. It is nice to once again have the support of her friends by her side. Twilight reassures Spike that he is, in fact, represented on the necklace by the heart shape itself. Rarity nods in agreement, although Twilight doubts she had actually had Spike in mind when she made the necklace. Still, Spike seems to derive a certain enjoyment from being included in Rarity’s design, so Twilight isn’t about to insist otherwise.
For a few minutes the scene is almost just like one they would often have in Ponyville. They are just ‘hanging out’. Of course, it couldn’t last. There is a knock at the door. Twilight looks up to see Celestia poke her head in. The room instantly falls silent.
“I have checked everything thrice over. Now is the time, Twilight.” Celestia announces.
Nodding solemnly, Twilight crosses the room to the door. Her heart begins to beat a little faster now that the leap of faith draws near. She walks up the stone steps, to the observatory proper where Celestia has worked to construct and inspect the spell. Her friends follow to see her off, hopefully not for the last time.
They filed into the room, circling the glowing golden globe of Celestia’s spell construct. It would have been rather impressive for Twilight to see such a complicated spell, but for a fact Celestia had mentioned that somewhat spoils the experience. Apparently, in the past the Princess typically assembled spells of this caliber over months or even years. She had said she had studied and constructed the spell to channel the Elements of Harmony for more than ten years. In that sense, a spell cobbled together in a few days on very little sleep, and only checked over several times instead of dozens seemed a little less impressive and more frightening.
Twilight takes a place next to Celestia. The eerie glow that fills the room reflects off everyone’s eyes, creating a surreal scene. Only a few cracks of light entering through seams of the dome reveal the daylight outside. Otherwise the observatory is quite isolated from the outside. When everyone finds a place, Celestia begins to speak.
“Today our brave Twilight shall journey into the depths of the moon. Let us all remember she has agreed to do this out of love, not for greed, avarice, or any other material reason. This is what the bond of friendship means. Now and always, we shall give our respect to Twilight for her unique ability and willingness to help save my precious sister.”
“Thank you, Princess, that’s quite nice. Yes, I’m going to do this for friendship. Friendship is what keeps us together, now and always.” Twilight projects towards her friends. She doesn’t want Celestia to assert that she’s helping to save her sister because she loves the Princesses. Focusing on friendship, and turning the point towards her own friends, is the best she can do.
“Good.” Celestia says. “Step into the center of the spell when you are ready. Remember, you only have two hours, then your time is up and you will be brought back.” Twilight tries to ignore how tired Celestia looks as she says this, and muster as much trust as she can that when she steps into the sphere she won’t be turned to dust. I have to do it. For my friends... and for Luna.
The first step is the hardest, but after it, the rest come easier. She finds it strange as she enters the spell how the tendrils of light seem to simply pass through her body, but she’s quickly engulfed by the sphere. After a moment’s thought, she decides to face her friends, rather than Celestia. Their faces are somewhat more comforting, and if it is to be her last sight, she would rather see her friends anyway.
Perhaps she lets some of those emotions tell on her expression, or perhaps her friends are also starting to worry more about the risk involved. She can see the expressions on their faces, and knows they are just as grave as her own.
“Ready?” Celestia asks her.
“Yes.” She says, after a deep breath. True or not, she knows she has to face it, one way or another, sooner or later.
“Three…” Celestia begins to count down.
Twilight’s heart is thumping to the beat of a racehorse's hooves, pounding a frenetic rhythm in her ears.
“Two…”
Until now, Twilight hasn’t addressed the risk that she’s taking with her friends. She has shrugged off the risk with the confidence of a pony who has been through many dangerous adventures already. But she couldn’t deny that she wants to return to lead more adventures, and she couldn’t leave without saying a word.
“Goodbye” She mouths to her friends.
“One.” Rings Celestia's voice.
The globe with Twilight inside winks out of existence, plunging the room into darkness, and sending Twilight far away.
--------------------------------------------
Twilight might have expected a vivid light show of colors shooting past her eyes, but in fact there doesn’t seem to be any sensation of movement at all. Everything felt the same as it had a moment ago, except now everything around her is black. Coal black, without a hint of light. Several possibilities thus occurred to her, for a moment at least.
Either she hasn’t gone anywhere, and the spell had simply fizzled out, or she had gone somewhere very dark. Or, of course, she’s dead, and the afterlife isn’t quite as exciting as she’d hoped.
After a few beats of her heart with only the sound of blood rushing through her ears, she decides she must have gone somewhere, and she probably isn’t dead if her heart is still beating. Somewhat relieved, she turns her mind towards figuring out where exactly she is, instead of where she isn’t.
I need a… light spell, yes! Twilight casts a simple spell to light the tip of her horn. A gleam returns from walls only a few feet away. They possess an almost metallic shine, like a chunk of iron or a fragment of a meteorite. She realizes that the chamber she’s in is really very small. She has just enough room to stand and turn around, and not much else. The floor and ceiling are made from the same material, although the floor is smooth, without the ridges and pits that the walls and ceiling shows.
Is this it? Twilight wonders in disappointment. It’d be a bit of a colossal let down if this is what banishment to the moon is like. On the other hoof, I’d feel a lot worse for Luna if she was confined in a tiny cell for a thousand years. Luna could have used her powers to sustain herself, but wow… would it be painfully boring. It’d be no wonder if she came back angry after being imprisoned like this.
Twilight put a hoof up to the wall and pushed, to make sure these walls weren’t just an illusion. Cold, solid rock resists her hoof. Hmm. Twilight chews on her lip for a moment as she thinks about the situation. No, this just can’t be. There’s no way I’ve come all this way, only to find Luna’s banishment is just a tiny cave. There must be more.
She turns in place, holding the tip of her illuminated horn out towards the wall. Each part of the surface seems to be unique, most likely naturally formed by a combination of heat and pressure. But she refuses to accept the conclusion that this cell is all that exists here. I know Luna. She would rather destroy herself than accept this. So she must have… Aha! Twilight sights a small ‘x’ that has been neatly carved into the wall.
Close nearby, she finds edges that have been concealed by a layer of dust. She wipes the dust away, progressively uncovering the seams of what appears to be a doorway. She finds the seams extend down to the floor, and at least up to head height. When open, she can fit through it, she estimates. As long as it is in fact a door. Only one way to find out, she thinks, setting both front hooves up against the door. She strains to push it out, but it doesn’t move an inch. She backs off and takes a deep breath. Realizing she may need all available resources to move this chunk of rock, she cues up a pushing spell, sets her hooves to the door and shoves with every ounce her muscles can manage, releasing her spell to coincide with a strong thrust.
Instantly, the chunk of rock slides backwards and shoots outward. Twilight tumbles through the doorway ungraciously, winding up sprawled on the ground. The door slams down with a boom that echoes off far distant walls.
The first thing Twilight notices is the smoothness of the ground. Or floor, she should say. She finds she’s laying on perfectly square tiles, each one a deep, shiny black, like obsidian. The mortar lines in between each block show impeccable craftsmanship. I knew that little cell couldn’t be all that was here, she thinks, I just—she looks up—wow.
Before her, a forest of intricate fluted columns suspends a floating roof of black rock over the sculptured structures of a stunningly beautiful palace. Its spires rise up to caress the ceiling of the cavern, and as they do, they take shapes that would impress a master woodworker, let alone an architect. Many towers were hollow things: long, slender cylinders of interwoven liana which stretch impossibly tall. In Twilight’s eyes they defy the force of gravity by their mere existence.
Twilight’s eyes follow the path of the towers to the dark ceiling. A few pinpoints of light greet her eyes. There are windows, barely discernible, finely latticed windows, opening into the great beyond. The contrast between the windows to the void, and the dark rock of the roof is minimal. Distinguishing one from the other would be difficult without the light of the stars shining through.
Eventually Twilight returns her gaze back towards the safe confines of the ground, and starts to recollect her thoughts. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined the beauty of the architecture, or the feeling of exhilaration that wells up inside her.
She can tell by the architecture and style that all of what she sees sprung from the same mind. The columns and towers are arranged in patterns, and are perfectly symmetrical. Everything around her shows consistency of vision and an eye for aesthetic beauty.
And yet, there is something missing. There is no noise, no movement, at least once the echoes of the door sliding to a halt finally ebb away, and most of all, there is no appearance of life.
Recovering from her initial shock, Twilight notices the stale taste of the air as she breathes in. Motes of dust irritate her nose, and she finds even more dust coats her flank from her tumble onto the floor. With a hoof she can draw a stark line on the floor, a layer of dry dust making every mark show up against the black of the underlying tile.
She notices the chill in the air, and promptly begins wishing she brought a coat. Already she’s starting to shiver. Looking about, she sees a myriad of blue, violet, and deep black hues, but no greenery. She walks a short distance to the edge of the tiles, and discovers what looks like a planter, or at least, what may once have contained plants. Its soil is dark and bone dry. Anything that used to grow there seems long gone.
A sense of sadness overcomes Twilight, as the realization of what this place is starts to haunt her. It is a dead city, a dead palace.
Resolution dawns on her, and she tries to fortify herself to her task. Regardless of the state of her surroundings, she must search the ruins for the spell. She can’t let her sadness get in the way of saving Luna’s body and finding her soul. There must be a clue, somewhere, which could give her some hint of the secret, and she is determined to find that clue.
She has to start somewhere, and after surveying the layout of the buildings around her, she picks the tallest towers as her first destination, on the assumption that the most important areas of the palace are centrally located. There is something of a road she can follow, snaking through several buildings and around empty plots. It is a path of black tiles, apparently unblemished by the passage of time, but covered in a thick layer of dust.
Each step down this path feels strange, as though her steps bear no weight. Out of curiosity she jumps into the air. Startled, she flails her legs as it feels like she simply floats in the air before gradually settling back to the ground. Suddenly the connection between her feelings and her surroundings enters her mind. Of course! She thinks. The moon must have less gravity, so I can jump higher, and buildings can be built in delicate artistic shapes! Amazing!
Yet even this curiosity is overshadowed by the sights around her. Every few paces she finds a new sight to marvel at, if only for the work that must have been put into each structure to achieve the level of delicate detail she discovers. Pillars supporting the roof a gazebo, for instance, each diverge like the branches of a tree midway up their height, only to recombine at the top and form a solid structure that supports a dome made of grey bricks. Twilight wonders if Princess Luna had begun to miss living in Equestria, and thus created buildings with roofs and windows even though such features were unnecessary in a cavern like this.
But there is something more to this place too. It isn’t just a palace. No, there are too many smaller buildings, too many paved paths. And furthermore, many of the smaller structures bear individual touches, as though they had been tailored to a specific pony. Below the towers and the palace itself, there are houses and shops. The conclusion Twilight reaches: other ponies must have lived here with Luna. Twilight wonders if she might have found a way to bring at least some of her followers with her into exile.
Twilight proceeds closer towards the heart of the complex. The path opens into a large plaza paved with alternating grey and black stone blocks. At its center a large sculpture soars, set on a circular plinth and surrounded by a low wall. Twilight admires the graceful lines of the sculpture which outline two figures that could be mistaken to represent the Princesses. Yet at a closer inspection, as Twilight circles the outer wall, she recognizes the features of Princess Luna and Orion. The Princess is pictured in mid-stride, while Orion flies close beside her. The only point of contact between the two is where Orion’s forehoof rests upon Luna’s neck. Twilight notes how his right wing crosses over and wraps around Luna’s body. Each looks at the other, and their exquisitely crafted faces display a mutual smile.
Twilight feels the pain inside her rising anew. She forces herself to turn away from the sculpture and study the buildings around her.
What Twilight assesses as the palace proper is the most prominent among them. Its wings embrace the plaza and partially enclose it on three sides. The walls are resplendent with tall windows, and between them, half-columns meld into exterior of the structure. A large balcony stands above the main entranceway, supported by a triple archway of black columns. Twilight imagines Princess Luna standing at the railing, speaking to her followers gathered below.
Where should I look first? Twilight wonders. The palace seems like the most obvious place, but it’s also the biggest. Hmm, I’ll just have to search quickly then! After all, I have to sta— Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud crash that echoes throughout the cavern.
Instinctively she turns to look behind her, searching for a stalking predator. All she sees are the traces of her hoofprints in the dust, leading away like tracks in fresh snow. She sweeps her eyes back and forth looking for any movement, but she sees nothing. A moment later a dull rumble sounds in the distance, and then through her hooves she feels a vibration. The vibration quickly builds to a tremor, and then the shaking starts.
The rumble intensifies to a roar as the ground beneath her hooves shakes violently. She braces her hooves against the ground, swaying back and forth. Nervously, she glances at the roof of the cavern, as showers of dust and small bits of debris begin to fall from the ceiling.
A haze of dust starts to form. Raised from the floor by the shaking, it rises into the air, obscuring Twilight’s vision with little dancing motes, and irritating her nose until she coughs for breath. Lacking any other way to help herself, Twilight crouches down with a squeak and buries her face under her forelegs, waiting for the tremor to stop.
After what seems like hours, the shaking subsides, and the rumble dies away. Twilight uncovers her eyes to the sight of dust gently settling like snowflakes over the ruined city. She gets up and turns to inspect her surroundings. Everything seems intact, although she notes a few pebble-sized rocks littering the plaza, most likely fallen from the ceiling.
Movement catches her eye as she turns back to the palace. Through the falling dust she can just make out… something odd. It is as if a pony moves through the dust, disturbing its fall, but this pony has no body that Twilight can see. It is only the outline of a shape that Twilight sees moving towards her. Panicking, she steps back as the ghostly outline continues to approach. It moves closer and closer, and when one of Twilight’s rear hooves suddenly bumps into the wall around the sculpture, she almost screams.
Dust continues to settle, and every so often a mote sticks to the form of the apparition, until the ephemeral outline of a large pony is clear enough to see. Twilight holds her ground only because she knows she has nowhere to hide in the wide open plaza.
Suddenly Twilight recalls what Celestia had told her. The spirit of Luna… she is bound to the moon in spirit only. Could it be? It must.
“P-Princess Luna?” Twilight asks timidly.
The ghostly outline of a pony stops before her, and Twilight waits expectantly. “I am pleased to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.” A disembodied voice says. It sounds distorted, and far away, but Twilight immediately recalls the timbre and sound that Luna had spoken with in her memories.
In a few moments, a shadow coalesces before Twilight, filling in the outline of the pony standing in front of her. The shadow never becomes completely opaque, but Twilight can distinguish Luna’s eyes, ears, and mouth, along with the outline of her horn and wings.
“By all that’s good! It’s really you!” Twilight kneels down in awe.
“Of course it is I. Who did you expect?” Luna jokes with a smile. “Oh come now, do get up from there! I think we know each other well enough to avoid the bowing and hoof-kissing.”
Twilight looks up. “But Princess, how can you know me? If anything I had thought you would be angry at me…” she asks, puzzled. Surely their previous meeting at Everfree Castle couldn’t have endeared her to Luna, nor should it have given Luna enough time to learn anything about her. Twilight had gone so far as to devise a plan ahead of time to try and calm Luna if her spirit was still in the form of Nightmare Moon.
“Ah, I understand your confusion. You are not aware of the properties of the mind melding spells Celestia used. I will correct her mistake.” Luna smiles and takes a deep breath. “In short, the spell my sister used to send you into my mind possesses the effect of allowing me to explore your mind at the same time. It is a mind melding spell. While you looked through my memories, I took the liberty of doing the same with yours. So you see, I know you quite well, Twilight Sparkle.” Her gaze fixes upon Twilight, somehow leaving Twilight with little doubt as to the truth of her claim.
“But how can that be? I don’t understand how you can be here and Luna’s…er… your body can be down there.”
“What you see before you is the spirit that Celestia removed from that body. We are still linked though, for we both share a consciousness. My sister’s spell simply sent you to my part of the mind first because she believed that’s where you would find the answer she sought.”
Princess Luna studies Twilight for a moment. “By the fact that you are here, I presume you never found the cause of the illness weakening my body.”
“No, I didn’t…” Twilight confirms. She wonders if now is the proper time to apologize to Luna for the role she played, albeit unknowingly, in confining her here.
“Then allow me to show you. It is the best act left available to me now.” The shadowy form of Princess Luna walks to the low wall Twilight had put her back to. Twilight turns to see what she looks at. Luna checks over beyond the low wall for a moment, then turns her head to Twilight.
“Here, stand beside me.” She gestures with an ephemeral hoof to come closer.
“My Princess,” Twilight ventures. “I… I found out what Celestia did to you. It was wrong, very wrong, and I wanted to ask if there’s any way possible, perhaps, to return you to your rightful form, and…”
“Please, Twilight. I know you do not have much time here. Just do as I say and stand beside me. I will answer your questions later, but first there is something I must show you.”
Twilight opens her mouth to argue her case, but she quickly realizes there is no point in arguing the question of Luna’s return with Luna herself. Reluctantly, she obeys Luna’s command and stands beside her. She looks up at the sculpture again, thinking it is what Luna wanted her to see.
“No, look down.” Luna tells her.
Puzzled, Twilight shifts her gaze to the area behind the low wall. It is a geometric mosaic of small tiles, but nothing that stirs her senses to the same degree as the sculpture or the palace.
“Now close your eyes.” Luna commands.
Twilight complies. Wondering what point Luna intends to make.
After a moment, Twilight hears a new sound. The soft rush of water. Hooves clicking on paving stones. Jovial voices of other ponies. She opens her eyes, and sees her own reflection staring back at her. Startled, she looks up to see the same sculpture she recalls, but now water flows around its base, Cascading down from spouts under the hooves of Princess Luna and Orion.
“Ah, how I’ve missed the sound of the fountain.” Luna says beside her.
--------------------------------
To be continued in Chapter 10.
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
672 users online
963,510 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Am I the only one who was thinking of the movie, "The Cell" when reading this?
Oh my god.
You genius.
Wow!
1439306 Never seen it.
Ending is pretty abrupt. Just feels like a awkward spot to put the ending of the chapter. Other than that I have no complaints.
1439334 Thanks, although I'm afraid you give me more credit than I deserve.
1439429 Better than a 10000 word chapter that takes a month to write, I felt.
1439514
Nonesense :3
Yours is quite unique, and explore a side of Luna that not a lot of authors dare to explore!
That and going on the moon. Everything in your fic so far is interesting in my eyes so take my praises and keep writing.
Woo Hoo! A Sane Luna instead of the bat guano crazy Nightmare Moon!
I wonder if living life (and seeing Celestia) through Twilight's eyes changed Luna's opinion on Celestia and other things?
Now we just need to get her back in her body.
I don't really know why, but this kind of sets up the perfect setting and plot for a TwiLuna/MoonLight ship.
Damn.
MUST!
HAVE!!
CHAPTER!!!
TEN!!!!
NAO!!!!!!!!
NOICE
1441714 Hopefully in a good way.
This has been a wonderful read. Like the others. i wish for the next chapter an many more nows please!!!!
I mean., if that is alright...
Time for a flashback chapter? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
imgur.com/azzhT.jpg
Wouldn't Luna's conscience technically be Nightmare Moon? or was there something that I missed?
Outside of that, I feel a trip to imagination land coming on.
Yeah, that is about all I can think of. other than the fact I'm looking forwards to the next chapter. Bring Luna home!
Once more great job. I know its marked as "Sad" but I'm hoping for a happy(ish) ending.
Need.
More.
Now!!
Pweese?
1450746 Sorry, it's my usual tendency to explain thing's after they get introduced. The chapter break amplified the effect in this case.
1482205 I've been otherwise occupied much of the last week. But, I often write a lot all at once, so we'll see. Plus I'd like to make sure this chapter is what I want it to be.
This story is so very perfect for the mood I'm in right now, I don't know why.
I find it sad that Twilight doesn't feel empathy for Celestia, even though she sees her more as a normal pony than ever. Is it really right to expect Celestia to do absolutely everything perfectly?
This chapter is wonderful. Keep up the good work! I might write real criticism later.
Anyway, thank goodness I finally caught up in your story. Now I can get back to work!