Luna's Just Waiting to Become Retro · 6:03am Dec 19th, 2014
Celestia is the picture of poise and grace. Luna is awkward and nervous.
... the thing is, that's after 1000 years as the center of government and being trapped on the moon, respectively. Celestia has had centuries to master interpersonal skills, while Luna's knowledge of social cues and expectations is a full millennium out of date, with a heaping helping of guilt on top.
The idea that back in Ye Olden Times, when the land was untamed and the future uncertain, that Luna was the popular one and Celestia was the weird one no one knew how to talk to... well, it cracks me up.
Luna! The confident, aggressive war-hero! She can hold her cider, beat a minotaur at hoofwrestling, outfly any griffon you care to name, and zap the wings off a parasprite at a hundred yards!
Celestia! The bookworm who has all sorts of weird ideas about "politics" and "social equality" and talks all the time! Sure, yeah, she's just as good a fighter as her sister, but it's soooo easy to forget that...
"Huzzah, my sister!" Celestia flinched as the door to her chamber slammed open, revealing Luna still in her armor and filthy from travel.
"Luna! You're back! I take it the campaign went well?" Celestia quickly put her ink and scrolls away and turned to nuzzle her sister.
"Well? Well! 'Twas GLORIOUS, Celestia! The Diamond Dogs were routed, and sent running with their tails betwixt their legs!" Luna shook her head. "Alack, I still regret that your proposal of 'diplomacy' was ignored by all, but take heart! Someday, we'll meet an enemy who has more sense than soldiers, and you'll get your chance to show them how clever you really are!" Luna slapped Celestia on the back and let loose a boisterous laugh.
Celestia smiled at her sister, actually feeling her spirits lift despite being damned with such faint praise. Ever since the situation on the southern border has escalated and Luna had gone off to battle, she'd been a funk and had taken to sulking in her chambers.
"Now, come! We have returned victorious, and there shall be much merriment tonight. As I recall, there's still at least twelve hogsheads of mead in the cellars, and I aim to halve that number before dawn returns! I may need your aid with that, if only to give me an extra hour or two." Luna made a great play of winking at Celestia at that.
"Oh, well, I'd love to, but I was in the middle of devising a system of tribute that could be fairly demanded of all citizens, and the math is actually rather complicated and-"
"Nonsense! I know you, sister, and you have been hidden away behind your desk for far too long. Come, join me and the soldiers and celebrate with us." Luna suddenly grinned slyly and nudged Celestia. "We can fetch that unicorn who copies your scrolls for you, too. Mayhap you could slip away to practice some of your diplomacy with them, finally..."
"LUNA!" Celestia blushed furiously, as her sister roared with laughter again.
Seriously, just imagine Luna as Brian Blessed from the first season of Blackadder. Celestia only comes off as cool now because she's had centuries to arrange etiquette to her liking.
I love this possibility, except that it goes against Nightmare Moon. Unless if the explanation is 'everything is the fault of evil spirits', an explanation I despise, it makes no sense. Sure, the populace could generally shift towards favoring Celestia over Luna even back then, but the shift would be gradually enough that there'd be time to consider everything rationally.
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I don't know... I think that it might more sense, actually. Luna was popular because she fit in with the ponies of the time and felt like she was actively making their world better. However, as Equestria defeated its enemies and none replaced them, and Celestia made more headway in shaping a peaceful society, the types of ponies Luna was comfortable around and the situations where she felt useful would grow fewer and fewer.
Luna would try to adapt, certainly, but she'd always have the memory of how easy it used to be to make friends with ponies. There weren't salad forks or tea services... you just picked a fight with some dragons, and boasted about how many teeth you still had at the end!
Luna would try to go to a fancy party Celestia arranged, embarrass herself and sulk for a few days, then run off to do maneuvers with the troops to feel better. And she would feel better, but she also wouldn't learn how to make friends with the non-military ponies who were running Equestria now. Thus, she'd go to another party in high-spirits only make another faux pas, and run off to the troops again.
As time passed, her old war-buddies would retire, and eventually die, and Luna wouldn't connect to the new generation in the same way, and it would all be so frustrating, and she swears, sometimes, it's like Celestia is just making up new rules of etiquette to embarrass her, and when was the last time she found a pony who could watch her back in a bar brawl? Frustration and paranoia and loneliness would amplify each other, eventually leading to the Nightmare snap.
To put it another way, she's kind of like Gary King from "The World's End" -- she was cool back then, so why ever change? Even if it was ultimately self-destructive, she clung to what used to make her popular until it nearly did destroy her.
Heh. I suppose the elements of harmony were Celestia staging an intervention.
2664337 Still, it would simply take to much time to be a reasonable explanation. In this case she has centuries to adjust, the deaths of friends as traumatic wake up calls, and a loving sister who at any time could stage an intervention. If somehow this vast change in society and civilization took place over a period that was no more than fifty years, and that's the very highest I'd be willing to call possible, then I could buy it, but that's simply not how vast changes in civilization work. Especially ones without large scale easy communication networks to make sure the changes are the same throughout the country. Although I suppose there is no good explanation for how one is able to fall from such great height into the depths lack magic that easily, and this is as good as anything. Throw in some 'Alicorn psychology is different' and a dabbling of evil spirits and it could work.
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The longer it takes, the more reasonable it becomes, I think.
If it were sudden, if all her buddies died at the same time, that would be a wake-up call. She'd mourn, Celestia would comfort her, and she'd force herself to learn the new ways and make new friends. If, however, it happened slowly... fewer battles to be fought, seeing her old friends more often for reunions than for repelling invaders... she could cling to the old ways. She wouldn't need to adapt and could keep putting it off, until it was finally too late.
Why make new friends, when she can hang out with her old ones and complain about kids these days?
How do you talk about how much fun you had routing the zebras in the war 100 years ago, when most ponies today think it was wrong and more than a little racist?
Maybe toss in some feelings of being unappreciated by the common pony. Luna fought and killed and bled and watched good ponies die for every inch of Equestria, and ponies today just walk about like they've had it forever. It was only 600 years ago!
The longer she can put off having to make new friends, the harder it would become. It's the difference between making friends with someone 10 years younger than you and someone 80 years younger. Just... what do you even talk about? What do you have in common?
As for Celestia, she's suddenly in her element. She's shaping society, she's popular at parties, and Luna keeps telling her that "no, everything's fine, she just wants to hang out with the Admiral this weekend"... Celestia, used to her sister being totally capable and not needing to be looked after, wouldn't realize that she needed to intervene.
2665262 I understand what you're trying to say, but I just can't believe she wouldn't turn around one day and say 'Screw it, I'm going to reach out to the younger generation today.' All it would take would be Celestia being rather insistent about it and getting Luna to give it a chance. She could then find a replacement pass time for war, perhaps something dabbled in whenever there wasn't a major war going on, say astronomy, and BOOM! Nightmare Moon averted. Sure, it'd be difficult for her to adjust, but it's much more likely than her becoming evil and attempting to overthrow her beloved sister. But then there really aren't any good explanations I don't think for Luna turning evil if Equestria was a strong and united country pre-Lunar Rebellion.
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I may not have brought you around to my point of view, but there was still a healthy back and forth on the subject that let us expand on our positions. I call that a rousing success!
2665334 I agree on that completely. I must say, after this fic, a must read, you're blog posts probably have made me think more about head canon than anything else on fimfic.