Seaon Five Episode 13: In Regards to Doing His Duty · 2:29am Jul 12th, 2015
Blah blah obvious spoilers, pony at your own risk. It does not spoil the episode if you've read the synopsis, but it will if you wanted to go in blind.
Celebration! On this day, July 11th of 2015, let it be known that the fanfiction Doing His Duty- written by yours truly -has officially diverted from show canon!
Kind of!
Those of you familiar with the most recent chapter, A Midsummer Night's Nightmare Part I, will have noticed that Princess Luna went full ragemode and turned into Nightmare Moon to basically run around and yell at stuff. After a taking soon to be concluded vacation I'll be slapping that keyboard again on Monday, I swear I have had some time to ponder the state of Doing His Duty, especially the last chapter.
After receiving some killer characterization for Night Horse in the latest episode, I've noticed a huge plothole in the last chapter.
Luna really fucking hates Nightmare Moon.
Not only that, but in the episode they spoke of Nightmare as if she were dead and gone, and at the end I think that they directly said that she was "in the past". This, of course, pretty much kills my headcanon that Luna can let loose Nightmare when she needs a higher power level.
Oh well. C'est la vie. That's French for shit happens, get over it.
In addition, a gentleman by the name of Iron Sky Senpai has noticed you, Iron has called to my attention the fact that in chapter ten Nightmare Moon acted exactly as Luna would, and could be easily replaced by normal Luna, and that it had no real relavence to the plot. (Thanks for that, by the by.) I've even admitted that it was pretty much my own form of wish fulfillment. Nightmare Moon IS my villian-waifu after all.
So- he say as he finally gets to the point -I pose this question to all of you reading rainbows:
Do you think she should stay Nightmare'd for the next chapter, or should I go back to repair this minor infraction of canon and sensible plot development? Be mindful that this will not slow the production of chapter eleven, no matter what you choose.
I like it as is, maybe a tweak or two. Nightmare Moon is Luna embracing the nightmare creature and finally being at peace with who she was.
As a punk teen I did some stupid stuff that I later hated my self for. All through my early adult life I wished I could go back and redo, or make better choices. As an older adult I look back with less hate and self loathing. I am still that ass hole I was as a teen and had I not made thoes mistakes I would not be the well adjusted person I am now. I have come a long way due to the mistakes of the past. To deny them is to deny the lessons they taught me. I think this can be Lunas view
She can take the guise of Nightmare whenever she wants to be extra scary.
I say to go back and dump the Nightmare Moon thing. It really didn't add anything to the story at all and raised questions with the readers that could break the audiences willing suspension of disbelief, especially with the contradiction of (some rather obvious) canon.
Save the big guns for when she can really use them.
NMM raged in front of the Duke, and then he brushed her off. If she's there just to look intimidating, and her bluff gets called, she suffers serious badass decay.
I'd love to see NMM make a future appearance in the fic, but when she can be the Hyde to Luna's Jeckyll, and not just scary looking Jeckyll.