Shadow War Correspondence: A Meeting by Moonlight

I've been following Jordan179 for a while now, mostly to read his excellent world-building blog posts. In his posts, he often comments on how things work in "his" Equestria, the Equestria of the Shadow Wars universe; a universe which depicts the conflict between the ponies we know and love, and malevolent cosmic entites. Since I've been curious about it for so long, I decided to start reading the Shadow Wars 'verse, by order of publication... and since I'm reading them, why not comment as I go? This is a series of my posts on the subject; part-review, part-commentary, and part-whatever I feel like talking about at the time. Enjoy!

Trinity might be the first published piece, but A Meeting by Moonlight was the first story I read for this series. While I would hesitate to recommend Trinity, I have no such reservations with Meeting; in fact, I believe that reading A Meeting By Moonlight first improves the experience of reading Trinity, and provides a much better foundation to follow the rest of Jordan's work.

Set during season three, A Meeting by Moonlight is a short done-in-one, where Princess Luna meets Twilight Sparkle, and shares some of a secret history with her; both that of the Age of Wonders, and of Luna's own.

Meeting has an immediate advantage over Trinity, in that it features characters far more recognizable to the audience. It's a little difficult to read Trinity without commenting on the fact that the cast and setting is entirely an original creation (or at least a ponified one). OC's certainly can have an impact on an audience, and grow to become beloved characters; look at Little Pip, Nyx, or any background pony for proof of that. And while Sweetie's characterisation positions her as an interesting character and future protagonist, there is a certain familiar feeling that comes from reading a story featuring the characters and setting we already know and love which can be comforting and more easily engage the reader.

Of course, part of maintaining that means writing those characters well, and for the most part Jordan succeeds. The main voice of this fiction is Luna, and the passion that comes through in her words is a big part of why I recommend reading this before Trinity. Unlike the detached narrator of Trinity, Luna speaks from personal experience as Moondreamer; that difference infuses her voice, even she is trying to be detached and explain things in simple terms. The amount of information Luna gives about the Age of Wonders might border on exposition, but there is clearly emotion bubbling underneath it, particularly when she slips and has to correct when "planes" mean for someone who has never seen them, or when she is speaking about Dusk. The latter becomes even more obvious, naturally, when she begins to get angry, cursing the ponies for giving up and gradually breaking down into tears. Luna is torn between speaking and not-speaking; while at first she seems to have no difficulty talking about the Age of Wonders, as her emotions boil to the surface she not only starts to slip and lose control of herself, it culminates in her barely being able to speak as she thanks Twilight for saving her from Nightmare Moon. .. which is a theme that will carry on to this stories sequel, Adrift.

Twilight and Spike likewise remain in character, though with significantly reduced roles. Spike suffers from this more than Twilight does. Using him as a viewpoint character allows Jordan to keep Twilight's thoughts on what Luna has said secret, as well as leaving the mystery of Twilight's feelings for Luna (and whether she recognises that she is/was Dusk). I can't argue with this as an effective device; however, it is also fair to say that this comes at some detriment to Spike. Luna and her monologue dominates this short fiction, but Twilight has a moment of affirmation which is beautifully in character, and heartwarming for both the reader and the princess:

“We’ll do it again,” Twilight said.
Luna started in surprise.
“We – I mean the ponies of today, and of the future. I’ve studied a lot of history. We know more now than we did a generation ago, and our children will know even more.” Twilight gazed up at the Moon. “Someday we’ll re-discover how to make our own sunfire, or something as good, and build our own ships of space, and we’ll go back to the Moon. And beyond. Your – Moondreamer’s – dream. It won’t die. We won’t let it.”

However, Spike gets no such moment, instead being used mostly as a prop to provide the audience with a point of view. It is not as removed as the voice of the first chapter of Trinity- Spike does provide occasional thought and commentary- but, especially on a first read through, I found it easy to overlook and forget about him because of how much Luna dominated. It's not a deal breaker on the stories quality; in fact, it was probably the only decision possible. But it does leave Spike feeling like something of a plot device, rather than a character.

Of course, saying that, his interruption of the couple with a sneeze is kind of a funny moment.

In many ways, I think of Meeting as an overture for the Shadow Wars series. While it lacks a mention of the eponymous Shadows themselves (besides a reference to Nightmare Moon), it sets up the Twilight/Luna relationship which will be a running thread for the story. It reaffirms the (inevitable) tragedy and downfall of the Age of Wonders, made even more poignant by the fact that now the audience knows both how the Age will end and the impact it will have on Luna. It provides a setting which makes Trinity much stronger to read in light of; at the same time, it is a story which is ultimately about hope. Just as the Shadows will (eventually) be defeated, Twilight and the readers are confident that eventually ponies will reach space, that Moondreamers dream will live again... and, more likely than not, that she and Dusk will be reunited in this life.