Nocturnes: Tales of the Night Princess · 8:30am Mar 3rd, 2014
Princess Luna:
I've come to realize, is the whole reason I've been hanging around this place the past couple years.
I mean, the "woodblock print" opening of the first episode told me that this show was gonna be something worth watching--as I said in the review I wrote of FiM back in May 2011 for the Strange Horizons website, "Sibling rivalry, cosmic warfare, magic, myth, legend...and we haven't even come to the first episode's opening titles yet!" But the conclusion of the second episode, that was the moment when I knew this was gonna be something I could well and truly obsess over in a way I hadn't since the appearance of "Calvin & Hobbes" in the L.A. Times had caused me to spend the next ten years cutting the strips out and pasting them into scrapbooks.
But after that one scene, the show didn't mention Princess Luna again during the rest of the entire first season. And while I was enjoying the episodes they did show, I found myself wanting to see episodes they weren't showing, episodes about how Princess Luna was adjusting to life in Canterlot--and more importantly how Canterlot was adjusting to life with Luna. The back of my brain started constructing the bits and pieces of a story then, a story that would eventually become my first piece of fanfiction, Half the Day is Night, which then lead me to Equestria Daily and introduced me to the whole Brony phenomenon.
So it's all about Luna for me apparently. As is this whole collection of stories.
Introduction: In the Gloaming
I put together a contest, see, during the first three months or so of 2014, and these are the stories that were submitted to that contest. Except for these first four: they weren't in the running since I wrote one of them and the other three are too short. But I thought I'd include them here as the evening shadows gather before we get into the heart of the night.
"Darkness" by Ion-Sturm
"Rhapsody" by AugieDog
"The Quiet One" by Bad Horse
"Princess Luna Likes Coffee" by Bradel
Part One: In the Dreamtime
But let's get into the stories that are actually entered in the contest. We'll start with three that focus on Luna's role as Equestria's Dream Warden.
"Day Dreams and Nightmares" by Warren Hutch
"Dream a Dream" by Jaestring
"He Kindly Stopped for Me" by Pascoite
Part Two: In the Beforetime
Luna also divides Equestrian history into three convenient epochs: before she became Nightmare Moon; during her banishment; and after her return. These three entries start with Luna in the past and bring her into the present.
"Wyrmlysan" by Chris
"Philomeanie" by Skywriter
"Luna's Landing" by thescentedllamaofdoom
Part Three: In Modern Times
These two entries feature Luna entering the new Equestria, an Equestria she's still coming to grips with.
"Thou Goddess" by horizon
"Discord Comics" by Silent Strider
Conclusion: In the Pre-Dawn Darkness
And there we have it. Thanks so much to everyone for participating. Now all I've gotta do is pick one of these wonderful, wonderful stories as somehow being better than the others so I can send its author a Luna figurine. Yeah. That's all...
Whose idea was this, anyway? 
Maybe I'll just snuggle in and sleep on it a bit...
But as with all things, sleep must at last come to an end. So here's the post where I force myself to pick a winner.
Mike
Whoo! I've read some but not all of them. Time to read some Luna, then!
Yeah, a recent fiasco with the jobcentre kinda neutered my creativity so I didn't get mine written. Shame, though, I wanted to do something light-hearted (yet still meaningful and characterising), and I guess I still will at some point, but it was never going to win.
Still. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it once it slops it's way out of my brain. Did you ever read my Movements of Fire and Shadow, though? It's a bit of Luna that seems to have garnered a lot of praise and it's not like you to pass by without commenting, so...
That's the problem with contests.
Someone has to lose.
This... is a really impressive slate of contestants (and there's a Bad Horse story, to boot!)
Well, I knew this whole thing was going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to reading all of these!
I totally agree:
My appreciation for pony is 90%+ about the princesses (gotta save a little chunk to throw awesome fanfics about the less-awesome ponies), and best princess is front and center.
I've been eagerly awaiting this list, because you draw a damn fine quality of entrant, and I expect the seven I haven't read yet to be just as excellent as the four I managed to obsessively discover before you even made this post.
Betcha I can read these before you do! :V
No seriously, I'm gonna try and read them all today. No peeking at the review journal!
1892273
HaHA! You can't downvote my story twice!
Good Luck to everyone who entered!
I hope I get time to read the other stories soon, though I know I won't be able to today.
This was a really fun contest that got my creative juices flowing after a not-so-fun writing block. So THANK YOU SO MUCH
whether I win or not
If I ever get my entry finished, can I post it in the comments here?
Looking at some of the other stories I feel like a foal in the middle of grown ups. Just shows how much I still have to learn
BTW, I hope this doesn't sound like self promotion, but if anyone reading through the whole list wants to throw some comments on where I could improve, I will be eternally grateful
1892273
You're gonna beat me, then--I'm aiming for Friday to review these all on my blog.
Might not want to read those BTW, Augie--at least, if you're worried about me and PP wielding are nefarious influence upon you. I'm excited to dig into these-you certainly seem to have drawn quite the illustrious crowd of authors! Well, and me, but somebody's always got to crash the party
1892719
If you'd like, I'll make a point to leave some more author-specific advice on your story (or in a PM, whichever seems more appropriate). I'm looking forward to reading it!
Well, I'm better than halfway through at least. :B Y'all fuckers write a lot of moonhorse words.
> in a way I hadn't since the appearance of "Calvin & Hobbes" in the L.A. Times had caused me to spend the next ten years cutting the strips out and pasting them into scrapbooks.
You saw the original print run of Calvin & Hobbes.
You saw. THE ORIGINAL PRINT RUN. of Calvin & Hobbes.
1) You're old.
2) I'm so jealous.
Skywriter and horizon? Yeesh. I'm kinda glad I ducked out. But I've discovered that deadlines are good, so I've determined to publish by no later than May 1st.
I just read your MLP review, and I wanted to share:
My favorite surreal moment watching the vintage "My Little Pony" movie was seeing a lesson on cooperation -- complete with musical number, mind you -- from the villains. I mean, sure, the rest of the movie was kinda crap, but how do you top that?
1893016
Yes, I would really appreciate it, thanks
I've started reading the contest entries and really liked what I've seen up to now. Gotta read the rest today or tomorrow.
1893366
God, now I feel old. D: I didn't realize that was a thing worthy of envy.
1893016
1893274
One of the nice things:
About the way this last weekend lasted about a week-and-a-half for me was that it gave me a chance to do a preliminary read-through on all the entries before I posted this. So now they're all stewing and churning in the back of my brain in preparation for a final read through later this week.
1893366
I've gotta remember to go through and "follow" all the folks who contributed here that I'm not following already. I really liked the story you sent me the link to and think it would've fit right into Part Three up there.
1892577
Go right ahead!
Mike
And now I just went from nervous to terrified
Good God man, I left out the punctuation! The punctuation! If it's okay with everyone I'm just going to curl up in a corner here. Please ignore the occasional whimper.
1893016
Had I seen this sooner, I might've waited till Friday to decide which of these to read. I've already finished four - including one ineligible fic - and was just about to read a fifth before calling it a night. Might as well continue reading all of 'em; so far they've been pretty enjoyable (especially horizon's. I mean, seriously, that was just so freakin' good)
1894612
Ah:
But the puncuation's all there now, so none of these current readers will ever know!
Mike
1893763
Calvin & Hobbes; along with FiM, Firefly, LEGO building toys, and Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; is one of the Best Things I know of. To see it in newspapers would have been awesome.
1896380
Calvin & Hobbes:
Was one of those rare things that reached into my brain and grabbed hold right from the very start. Opening the paper to the comics' page, seeing a new one up in the corner, following those four panels that end with this tiger hanging upside down while munching on a tuna fish sandwich, I just knew this was gonna be something I needed to pay attention to.
Mike
1893763
Well, you don't have a strip that keeps reminding you of how old you are. I was born days before Garfield was first published, and the strip always does an anniversary strip reminding Garfield how old he is
Oh, and I just remembered I wanted to plug the review journal I did over these stories, in case anyone wants to know what a random guy thinks about their entry. :B
I guess you didn't think mine was worth showing. Oh well, I'll just go and be bitterly dissapointed in this corner over here.
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/710/897/41a.gif
1902213
If you'd be willing:
To move the story over here to FimFiction--you don't hafta hit the publish button since it's too short, but just load it up here so it'll match the basic format of the other stories--I will happily include a link to "Darkness" at the top of the Introductory section before the link to my poem.
Might that be possible?
Mike
1902213
Actually:
I think you'd have to click the "publish" button but not the "submit" button. That would give it a URL here, and then I could link to it.
Mike Again
1902519
I can't submit it to FiMFiction because it's too short (mininmum 1000 words). I assumed you would post the Gdoc I linked.
That said, I can probably post a collection of my short stories to go past the minimum words limit. I've been putting it off long enough as is.
1902958
Yes!
It would also solve the problem of me wanting to read more of your stuff...
Mike
1903834
Here you go. Enjoy!