The Inhospitable Prism
Twilight stood in the very center of the library’s main room, pacing back and forth nervously. She was all alone, her mind racing with worry as she thought about the events of that evening. Spike had originally insisted on staying up with her to help take care of Luna, but the fun and adventures of the day had taken it’s toll on the small whelp. He was lightly snoring, even before the group were able to make it back to the library and was quickly put to bed.
When she finished with that, Twilight made her way to Luna’s room to try and help out there. However, Princess Celestia shooed her away, saying that she needed to try and calm down Luna on her own. This left Twilight with nothing to do, except for sit, wait and worry.
After what seemed like the longest of time, Twilight finally heard the door upstairs open quietly, then shut a few seconds later. This was shortly followed by the appearance of Princess Celestia, no longer in her disguise for the day descending the stairs. Twilight eyed her nervously as she entered into the main room with her head bowed low. “Well,” she began hesitantly. “How is she?”
Celestia lifted her head up and looked at Twilight confused, as though she hadn’t understood the question.”Hmm…”, she asked, before shaking her head. “Oh, Luna. She’s fine. I was able to get her to calm down enough to fall asleep at least.”
“That’s good, I guess,” Twilight said relieved. However, she stopped when she saw that Celestia’s expression still appeared troubled. “And… how are you doing Princess?”
Celestia looked down in shame as she sighed, her eyes becoming moist. She walked up to the table and sank to her haunches, resting her head against her front hooves. “How could this have happened?”
Twilight scrunched her lips as she walked up to her mentor. “Princess—”
“Everything was going so well for Luna, and yet I was stupid in not remembering it was going to be a full moon that night!” He slammed her hoof to the table, looking even more bitter than what she did before.
“Princess, it wasn’t your fault—”
“But it is, Twilight.” She looked up towards her student, streams of tears escaped her eyes and she was smiling weakly. “I literally destroyed my sister, Twilight.” She sniffed, her lips trembling as tears fell on the table. “I should have saved her back then Twilight, with the Elements of Harmony… instead I sent her to that Equestria-forsaken place to rot!” Her words became choked as she was now sobbing with her hooves to her face covering it.
“And what does she do in response? She apologizes to me. To me, Twilight! She takes one look at the moon, and starts apologizing like crazy, terrified that I’m planning on sending her right back. That’s her fear of the moon. She’s scared when she sees it, because she thinks it means she’s going to have to spend another thousand years there with some monster feeding off her soul!”
Somehow, Celestia seemed to sink even lower in spirits as she continued to sob. “How could I have done that to her Twilight?! How could I have been so stupid!?”
Twilight sighed.“You didn’t know back then, Princess. You thought you were doing what you thought was best for her and for Equestria. You can’t keep beating yourself up over a mistake that you’ve already made.” She did her best to put on a warm smile. “Besides, you’re doing everything you can now to try and help her. And did you see how well she did early today, when she was playing with those fillies? I can’t remember the last time that I saw her smile that much.” Taking a step forward she rested a comforting hoof on Celestia’s shoulder. “Just give it time. You’re both going to be just fine, alright?”
Celestia turned and looked at her student. She shook her head with a sigh. “I just… I just don’t know Twilight.”
“Just trust me on this alright,” Twilight said retracting her hoof. “Right now though, I think that we both could use a little bit of sleep. I think it’ll do you a lot of good.”
Celestia didn’t answer directly. Instead, she simply gave a single quick nod, before turning and heading towards the staircase. That was good enough for Twilight, who quickly rose as well and followed behind her.
As they trotted up the stairs, Celestia paused as they passed the small window there. She looked out, catching a glimpse of the moon as she did so. The mere sight of it was enough to drive her to tears again.
I’m so sorry Luna…
“Look! I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“But Spike! We need to apologize to her!” Sweetie Belle pouted as she and her friends were on going to the library, in what they called a ‘Crusade for Salvation’.
“Besides, she looks like she needs more company in her life.” Apple Bloom chimed in as she was walking in the middle of the group.
Scootaloo remained silent, but she kept on nodding to her friends arguing.
“I know, but Starry is not really in good condition to have visitors.” Spike countered with a fake story, having picked it up from Twilight’s methods of negotiating when hiding something very important. But, no matter what he did the fillies remained headstrong.
“What should w’all say to Starry to show her how mighty sorry we are?” Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle, remembering they did not have a proper apology planned.
“That’s easy, we say how sincerely sorry we are and do something to cheer her up!” Sweetie Belle answered, her voice cracking near the end of the sentence emitting a squeak from it.
Spike sighed and shook his head. He looked to Scootaloo, who was still looking down to the ground. “Scootaloo, what you make of all this?”
Scootaloo raised her head and met her gaze with Spike’s eyes. “I’m just curious about something Spike.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did Cheery call her sister ‘Luna’ when she was being all scared of the moon?” Scootaloo asked her friend, with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion in her voice.
Suddenly, the crusaders going to visit Luna was the least of Spike’s concerns. “Oh, um…” he said quickly beginning to fumble over his words. “It’s a nickname she uses for Starry.”
Scootaloo shot him a weird look. He in turn gave her a bright smile in response. Too bright of a smile she thought. Not to mention, he was visibly sweating the more that she looked at him. Still, Scootaloo simply shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so,” she said casually, even though she knew that he was hiding something.
Thankfully, he seemed to buy her acceptance. He turned around quite pleased with himself until he noticed that in the brief time he was chatting with Scootaloo, they’d managed to arrive at the library. Before he could say anything else, he was cut off by the sound of Sweetie Belle knocking loudly on the library door.
For a moment, Spike briefly considered turning and running away. However, he found himself stuck as the door swung open to reveal Twilight standing there. She looked down at the three expectant fillies with a surprised look. “Oh, hello girls,” she said before her eyes wandered to the nervous dragon standing in the back. “...and Spike,” she added with a raised eyebrow. Shrugging it off, she put on a bright smile. “What can I do for the four of you today?”
Sweetie Belle beamed, putting on her biggest smile. “Is Starry Sky here? We wanted to see how she’s doing.”
Twilight’s face turned pale and she chuckled lightly. “Well girls, I—” She gulped as she looked down on the three fillies and her baby dragon. “I’ll be right back!” She immediately slammed the door, leaving the children outside.
“What’s she doing?” Apple Bloom asked curiously, hearing many hoofsteps inside and she swore she heard the words ‘what do we do?!!’.
Before any of them could answer, the door opened again. This time, Cherry was there to greet the children with a broad smile, though her eyes showed signs of fear.
“Hi there!” She greeted them, her ear twitching as she looked around to see all three fillies looking pleased to see her, though Spike was cocking his eyebrow at her. He worded to her ‘What are you doing?’, hoping his friends didn’t see him.
Celestia cleared her throat to speak to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “You wanted to see my sister today?” She asked them kindly, her mind racing with ideas.
“We want to see Starry.” All three fillies answered her in unison, looking determined to see their new friend again.
“I’m sorry girls, but she’s not feeling tha—”
“Please…” All three were now sticking out their lower lip and their eyes became watery, as their iris’ grew larger.
Celestia tried to say the word ‘no’, but that word was lost to her when the fillies were looking at her with those eyes. Why am I so weak against this?! She looked to Spike for help, but he shrugged and used his lips to word out to her ‘might as well’ before walking inside.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Alright, but just wait downstairs for a moment please?”
“Yay!” All three fillies ran inside, at a speed that left dust hanging in the air before Celestia. She shook her head before sneezing, smiling a little at the energy they were displaying. She closed the door behind her and made her way upstairs.
The three fillies quickly moved to the center of the library, hopping up and down as they were barely able to contain their excitement. Spike came in from behind, stopping next to Twilight. She turned and shot him a very confused look. Spike just shrugged as if saying, Hey, I tried my best.
Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed before trotting over to the jumping fillies. “Now girls,” she said gently catching their attention. “I know that you’re excited, but remember that this is still a library and Starry still isn’t feeling well right now. You’re going to have to keep quiet while you’re in here alright?”
The three fillies beamed happily.
“Yes ma’am.”
“We can do that.”
“No problem.”
Twilight chuckled nervously. Somehow, she wasn’t entirely convinced. “Why don’t you girls take a seat over there while you wait for Starry to get ready. In the meantime, I could get you all a quick snack. Would you like that?”
The girls quickly nodded before rushing over to the chairs that Twilight had pointed at before. Spike ran over to Twilight. “Here, let me give you a hand with that.”
But Twilight held up her hoof stopping Spike before he could run past her to the kitchen. “No, that’s quite alright Spike,” she said warmly. “I can handle this by myself. You stay with your friends, alright?” Then leaning down, she whispered so that the other Crusaders couldn’t hear. “And please, keep an eye on them. I don’t want them getting into trouble while I’m gone.”
Spike chuckled. “You’ve got it,” he answered with a salute, before running off to sit down with his friends.
As he approached, Sweetie Belle gave him a warm smile. “Gee spike. You sure have an awesome mom,” she said with a wink.
Spike immediately turned bright red. “Oh, well… You see…”
Thankfully for him, he was cut off by the sound of a door opening upstairs, and all the crusaders jumping up when they heard it. They rushed over to the staircase to see Cherry Blossom helping guide Starry Sky down the stairs to meet them.
“Hi Starry,” the three fillies said in unison.
As soon as Luna looked at the three fillies, her face immediately brightened as a soft smile formed when she saw who came to greet her.
“Hello,” she responded softly.
“Listen Starry, we wanna say how sorry we are for what happened last time.” Apple Bloom spoke, her head bowing a little as she apologized to the towering unicorn.
“Apologize?” Luna repeated the word, her eyes gazing down upon Apple Bloom. “To me?”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo cut in, jumping next to Apple Bloom. “That was so not cool what happened to you.”
“What happened… to me?”
Sweetie Belle nodded vigorously as Luna spoke. “Right, so we wanted to check up on you cause you’re our friend.”
“Friend?”
All the fillies beamed at Luna as they nodded. “That’s right. Friends always stick together no matter what!” They told her, with Spike standing next to them as they spoke.
A myriad of thoughts were now rushing through Luna’s mind, all of which were pleasant ones. It was becoming too much to bear though, with the addition of seeing three innocent fillies and one dragon willing to be friends with her. Why would they want to be friends with a pony like me? Her eyes were becoming watery, before a gentle smile became present on her face.
“Thank you.”
“Yay!” All the fillies ran up to her and began to bounce around her. “Say I know, let’s go play a game!” Apple Bloom suggested, before reaching up and slapping Luna on the shoulder. “Tag! Your it!” she cried before darting off across the library.
Luna smirked. Apple Bloom wasn’t going to get away that easily.
“Thanks for coming with me today,” Fluttershy said as she merrily skipped along. “I really appreciate it.”
Rainbow Dash simply scowled as she hovered alongside her friend. “Well, somepony has to keep an eye on you.”
Fluttershy turned to her friend and smiled. “I told you Rainbow Dash. I’m fine. Really, I am. You don’t have to keep worrying about me.”
“I know that,” Rainbow said with a sigh. “It’s just that… I still don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be spending so much time with Luna.”
“I think that once you see how much she’s improved. You’ll change your mind about her Rainbow. She really is doing much better.”
“Yeah, sure…” Rainbow said, before adding under her breath, “That’s what worries me.”
The pair continued on in silence as they made their way over to the library. As they approached the doorway, Fluttershy reached up her hoof to knock. Before she could do so however, Rainbow Dash had already grabbed the door and began to push it open.
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “You can’t just walk in like that. It’s not polite!”
Rainbow Dash gave her an odd look. “Um, hello? It is a public library isn’t it. Besides, if you’re so certain that everything is fine here, then what is there to be afraid of?”
Before Fluttershy could say another word, Rainbow pushed the door open and flew inside. “Hey, Twilight!” she called out. “Are you h—”
Her voice trailed off as she looked caught sight of the scene across the room. Huddled in the corner were three very familiar young fillies and dragon. They were cowering in the corner, the fear evident on their faces. Standing over them menacingly was a dark blue Unicorn with a slightly lighter mane. Hearing the voices, the unicorn turned to look at Rainbow and Fluttershy. The blood in Rainbow Dash began to boil as the unicorn’s pale eyes met hers.
She recognized those eyes.
“GET AWAY FROM THEM YOU MONSTER!!!”
Nopony had anytime to react as Rainbow Dash soared across the room. She immediately grabbed the disguised princess, hurling her across the room and placing herself menacingly between her and the crusaders.
“Wait Rainbow!” Twilight shouted out to her running over to where Luna had landed.. “She’s only—”
“I knew you were just waiting for a moment to strike! And to think you terrorizing children for your first victims! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
All three fillies looked at each other in confusion before looking back at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, what’s wrong with you? We were just playing tag with Starry—”
“Oh! So now you’re using a fake name to infiltrate into towns to gain the trust of your victims before striking!?” Rainbow’s wings flared at Luna, who was standing stock still in fear of the angry pegasus before her.
“That’s enough Rainbow!” Celestia walked up to Rainbow Dash and placed a firm hoof on her shoulder. “Luna was just having fun with her friends and—”
Rainbow swatted Celestia’s hoof away, not bothering to look up and only continued to glare at Luna. “With all due respect Princess, that’s not your sister there! It’s a monster!” She shouted out the last word with disgust. “I read about how the ‘Nightmare’ infected ponies and others, they destroyed towns and killed how many others. Not once were they even cured! Only thing that stopped them in their tracks was ending them!”
The ponies gasped at what Rainbow was saying. She had indirectly mentioned killing Princess Luna, her justification coming from the books she had acquired during the months before. Celestia’s lips were trembling, both in rage and in sadness. She so wanted to teach Rainbow a lesson by a verbal lashing, but she paused when she saw the look on the children’s faces.
“So why don’t you do us all a favour and get the hay out of here! You’re not welcome here and never will be!”
Luna’s breathing became short and she was sniffing to contain the tears from her eyes. She just wanted to wail right there on the spot, but she did something else. She lowered her head, her lips quivering as she spoke.
“You… you’re right.”
Immediately, she ran upstairs with all her haste. She left a trail of tears in the air that soon evaporated and slammed her room’s door behind her. When she was gone, Rainbow Dash sighed and wore a smug smile on her face.
“Everypony, you can relax now. That monster won’t be—”
*SMACK*
Rainbow Dash staggered back, though more in surprise than from the pain of being slapped across the face.. She looked up wide eyed into the very angry face of Fluttershy.
“How dare you…?”
Rainbow Dash backed up slightly. “Well, I was just—”
“How dare you?” Fluttershy repeated, her voice still very angry and her eyes starting to grow moist. “How could you say those things to her?”
“Because, it’s what she is, Fluttershy. She’s a mon—”
“Princess Luna is not a monster Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy interrupted stamping her hoof into the ground. “Right now, she is just a pony, confused and scared of a world she still doesn’t understand.”
“But she—”
“She might have had a rough past Rainbow, but that’s exactly why she needs our help right now more than ever. She needs us to support her in case anything bad does happen.”
“Well, yeah but—”
“You’re right about one thing though. There is a monster here, but it certainly isn’t Princess Luna.”
“...Shy. I—”
“Go home Rainbow,” Fluttershy said turning her back to Rainbow. “Just go home and think about what you just did.” She walked off, towards the door Luna had just escaped through, pausing right before she walked in. “And don’t bother talking to me again until you do.”
Without another word, Fluttershy pushed the door open and trotted through. The entire library seemed to shake as she slammed it shut, leaving several stunned ponies sitting behind. Rainbow Dash sat unsure for a moment before she looked over to Twilight.
“Twilight… I didn’t…”
The unicorn sighed and shook her head. “I think it would be best if you just left Rainbow Dash. We’ll talk about this later.”
Without any support there, Rainbow turned her head to the other disguised alicorn who was scowling at her.
“You should listen to your friends, Rainbow,” Celestia told her before turning and heading towards the door as well. “You have a lot to think about.”
Rainbow continued to look around the room for support, but found none. With her head bowed low, she slowly walked across the room, stopping to give one last sad look around the room, before exiting the library.
The tension remained long after Rainbow had left. Twilight sat for a moment, before she finally bowed her head and sighed. “Spike,” she began quietly. “Can you start cleaning up in here a bit? I need to go and talk with Princess Celestia and Luna real quick. See if there’s anything I can—”
“Um… Twilight…” Spike nervously interrupted.
She turned her head back and saw Spike pointing towards the corner of the room. Following it, her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped as she spied the three very confused looking fillies looking up at her.
“Oh… right…”
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I really doubt three fillies, especially these three, can keep a secret.
Other than that, nice to see Luna talking more.
OHHHHHHHHHHHH! Damn Straight, Rainbow just Got told OFF! Good job Fluttershy, I congratulate you on you're successful management of the situation. But yea, I don't like the fact that luna had to be the scape goat for Rainbow's anger, But I'm glad she got defended and Rainbow got severely shut down, I hope she's left in the mud for a bit after this.
poor Luna
Honestly, I can understand Rainbow Dash on this. Nightmare Moon was a legendary evil, admittedly not an evil believed in, but an evil well known. Plus, she knows more about Nightmare parasite than the others, and being the Element of Loyalty, she will want to protect those she's close to... so yeah. She might be overreacting, but at the same time it can be understood why she's like this. Honestly, I think Fluttershy, Twilight and Celestia are being a little unfair on Rainbow Dash. I mean come on, it isn't easy to just put aside the fact that someone used to be an evil that tried to, you know. KILL. EVERYTHING.
Nice one, Dashie. Now you made Fluttershy angry...and you wouldn't like her when she's angry.
Poor rainbow dash...
Now we have another nightmare candidate.
3281428
Do you realize RD doesn´t have the reader´s perspective about Luna? As far as Dash knows, Luna/NM is the monster who tried to usurp Celestia´s throne, terrorize Ponyville, kill RD and her friends and put the entire world into eternal night (basically slow, freezing death), just like she tried a thousand years ago.
Would you seriously be unconcerned if suddenly spotted a war criminal near children?
3281540 Did you really pull that? No never Mind, Just really look at it from Rainbow's angle, Flutterhsy has been telling her that Luna has improved and has been really kind, she hasn't been mean to any pony. honestly, its the same as Telling off Twilight and not forgiving her for the smarty pants incident. Rainbow for gave Twilight in that episode. Luna has been a lot nicer. maybe the situation was a bit condemning but Rainbow didn't look or take any part of the situation in mind, instead she immediately goes after the source of her frustration ignoring the calls of her friends to stop.
were I twilight or any of Rainbow's other friends I would not take her on any adventures if she isn't going to listen when it is important.
Oh Snap, son! Rainbow Dash just got Flutter-smacked! Whoops, looks like the CMC know the truth now. Scoots was suspicion anyway.
Gah! Where's my scroll and quill - I need to fill out a Criminal Complaint on a certain blue Pegasus!
3281502
If someone started ragging on my brother for something he did, I wouldn't care what the issue was, because that person would get a piece of my mind (that's my job and my job alone). Perhaps that's why I'm the on the other side of the argument...
Ya dun goofed, Rainbow. Big time.
3282704
You and everyone else it seems.
3282733
It fits Rainbow Dash's character and progresses the plot, but it's just one of those things where most people condemn it. Personally, I just happen to be biased for a few reasons, my aforementioned one and Luna being my favorite pony being the two most important.
I've got a feeling that Fluttershy may have actually saved Rainbow Dash here. By jumping on RD first, I think she deflected the worst of Celestia's wrath.
No matter what story they're in, the CMC will continue to Buck up everything
You dun goofed rainbow
3281502 Eh, I'm with you on this one. Well, I understand both sides of the argument but I'll be one of the few to also defend Rainbow Dash. I think I said it earlier but for all RD knows, Luna could very well still be NM. It's like saying "It's okay RD, Luna isn't all evil and wanting to plunge the whole world into darkness and you must believe me because I say so and can never be wrong and don't you dare think otherwise."
We also don't know how much "in the loop" RD is in when it comes to Twilight's research, she was rather preoccupied with trying to find out if Fluttershy was okay. She could have handled things a bit better with her confrontation with Luna, but I'll ease off her since thinking your friends are about to be attacked by an evil pony can cause someone to lose their cool, plus Rainbow is...... well, Rainbow Dash!
So, from RD's perspective, I'm guessing she would be feeling pretty hurt that all her friends suddenly turned on her like that, even as she was trying to protect them. The biggest blow would come from Fluttershy being the one to scream at her after all she did to help her (I'm betting Fluttershy is feeling pretty guilty about that right about now). I expect RD will be sulking at home for a while!
3284194
Glad to see I'm not the only one putting RD down. Sure, she messed up. But there is good reasons for why she did what she did.
Plus, this is very early on in the season, so apart from Fluttershy, her relationship isn't that good with the others.
...Oh dear. Now, RD, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation if you'll just stop and dema...Nope. Okay. Are we going to show any restraint whatsoever?
Apparently not. Really, girl, for someone trying to save those kids, you're doing a bang-up job of traumatising them.
Oh, and let's not forget the whole 'pursuing a vendetta against a pony who has all your friends sympathies' (which needs to be dealt with _subtly_, and with a great deal of _evidence gathering_), and the 'verbally abusing/advocating the murder of your deity's long lost sister', which would be bad enough except _you do it right in front of said Solar Goddess._
Honestly, I reckon the only reason you're not a shadow on the opposite wall, or, at the very least, in hospital due to said Solar Deity teaching you some manners is because _some_ ponies had the presence of mind to remember that there were children in the room.
Oh, and 'Shy - yeah, threatening the pony who just let you almost starve to death by never seeing you, with never seeing you - not good. Stressing the unstable pony further could quite easily end very, very badly.
3281502
In this instance - even were she right, that is _not_ how you deal with the situation. Advocating someone's murder is a thing not to be done in front of family without a corps of supporters and some hard evidence, and little kids ever.
In general - the only thing she has done about the entire situation that was 'correct' was to research it. A simple comparison of notes with Twilight would likely reveal that the EoH were never used against the Nightmare.
You say that her actions are understandable, and, given her beliefs, they are. However, the basic assumption at the core of those beliefs - that the Lunar Princess is still possessed - is wrong. As independant observers, it is easy for us to see this. However, notice the complete dismissal by all her friends of this theory? This is because she is completely failing to support her theory with evidence.
Also, it should be fairly obvious that she is simply latching onto an excuse to avoid having to face her own failure as a friend, vis-a-vis Fluttershy.
This was fine for a while, but once she begain to suggest murdering someone, especially after it happened more than once, someone should have noticed, and called her on it.
3283317
Ditto!
3284231 Well, we don't know for sure how well she knew the others but I believe she would be less inclined to simply go along with what Twilight said than if one of the others did. Also, why are you using that light blue text color, my eyes are already going bad dammit!
3284284
Exactly my point.
Also, I always write in colour. Its just what I do.
3284280
I'm not saying she didn't mess up, but the actions of the cast were far to serve on her. Yes, Rainbow Dash did wrong, but her reasoning was justified. As for not exactly showing it that much... well, she's Rainbow Dash, what can on expect?
I don't mind Dash being loyal and a little thick headed but I honestly think that this was taken a little far. If you can justify her logic clearly (different type of personality, how she saw the information and events, etc) than I can let it pass over easier. Otherwise this is a down turn for me, not a game ended though. Just a moment of, "sigh, not again."
It admittedly worked well for plot but I still want to see her logic.
3281502
Heh~
3284335 I agree with you on this entirely and wish the author would actually touch on it. They're letting someone who by Celestia and Luna's own admission was a terror who wanted to effectively kill off all life on the planet trot around ponyville without any guards around, and hang around children. Do the CMC's parents know they're trying to play with the person who was nightmare moon? Are they somehow okay with that!? The worst part is everyone is just assuming Luna was possessed based entirely on a conversation between Twilight and Zecora with no evidence one way or the other. Maybe there was no nightmare creature possession, maybe it was just Luna and her name just happens to coincide with a Zebrican translation. How is Dash to know? Frankly, honestly, in this respect Dash is the only one acting rationally.
If anything Twilight should chew Celestia out for deciding to just hang out in a library with Luna and see if she gets better. She should be off in some secluded compound with Luna, surrounded by Guards and psychiatrists to help her get better and make sure she is truly cured of either this demonic possession thing or her own jealousy. Definitely not just randomly sitting in the middle of a small town where no one else knows what's going on.
Could you imagine this: "Hey, Han, this is Darth Vader. Yeah, I know, he was evil and tried to kill well, almost everyone, but hey, he's better now! We cured him of, umm, something... that was possessing him... maybe, and now he's just severely psychologically traumatized. Mind if he hangs out incognito in town with no armed guards to restrain him? Also, he seems to have taken a liking to your defenseless kids, so mind if he hangs out with them for a bit?"
I really do hope the author touches on some of this rather than just 'Dash Bad! She's not sympathizing with Poor Luna!"
3284829
It's not author it's authors
As for Dashie, wait and see~
3284829
... Well, it is a town with the bearer of the elements of harmony...
3284335
Her actions are justified - if you accept a flawed premise.There is nothing to indicate that she actually still _is_ the Nightmare, so the most RD can get away with is grumbling to her friends and a 'wait and see' attitude. I grant you, the fact that no one seems to have noticed her problem and attempted to deal with it reflects poorly on the M6, but their actual reactions, with regard to RD's actions, are still perfectly reasonable.
3284829
Okay, granted, the Nightmare is a popular theory that they've all accepted because it seems to fit and explain what they know of the situation. You're point would be a lot more valid if RD took the angle you describe.
You keep mentioning 'guards', however.The only guard worth having is Celestia - all any of the others could do is become casualty statistics. Remember - this is the deity of the Moon, the second most powerful being (ambulating) in Equestria. Her big sister is with her constantly, as is the Element of Magic, and the rest of the Elements can be assembled within a reasonable amount of time.
Now, the secluded compound idea... Okay, that actually has its merits. Unfortunately, as I say, everyone has already accepted the one theory of 'what is wrong with Luna', and so feel no need to go see a psychologist. As for the keeping the citizens safe argument - I'm sorry, Princess!Celestia might have considered it, but you're looking at Big Sister!Celestia at the moment, and the rest of the M6 is assuming she knows what she's doing because 'she's the Princess'.
Now, your comparison to Darth Vader - sort've works, except you're forgetting the equally/more powerful sibling who will never let him out of sight for more than few moments, and the Force-killing superweapon distributed to several people within about half an hour's travelling distance.
As for playing with the kids - yeah, okay, that's Sister!Celestia reasoning again.
So, from the perspective of 'trying to get Luna better', RD is completely wrong to be acting the way she is.
And from the perspective of 'ensuring the safety of the citizens of Equestria', she has a few valid points, and is acting like a total ass.
3285564
But RD doesn't know for sure through, she doesn't know that Luna is 100% okay, that this 'Nightmare' no longer effects her at all. In fact, not even Twilight or Celestia can. Sure, it appears so, but the Element's of Harmony could of just repressed it instead of cleansed it, after all, if Celestia could of helped her sister instead of banishing her, she would of done. So she has full reason to be cautious.
3285446 3285564 Sadly this just brings up another issue. Celestia is watching bearers of the elements of harmony fighting with each other. This is something that has always pissed me off in a dozen stories I've read where something similar happens. Celestia has used the elements of harmony, but presumably now can't. She knows they're the most powerful weapons Equestria has. She knows there are horrors in Equestria that only they can deal with. Mostly importantly, she knows that they can only be used properly by the bearers, which means she knows that the bearers need to at least be on friendly, civil terms with each other to be willing and able to use them, as shown in the original discord episode and the EQ girls movie.
So right now she's just sitting there watching as the elements of harmony essentially, and she can only hope temporarily, become useless. She's watching her most powerful weapon, militarily, become inert based on fallout from her own personal decision. She's only recently managed to find ponies capable of wielding them after a thousand years, and she's okay with that? As a big Sisiter I get it, she's pissed at RD, fine. But some part of her has got to be saying 'For the good of Equestria, I need to get the bearers to calm down and remain friends, even if it means accepting I may have screwed up'. I wouldn't expect that to happen in the same chapter as RD yells at Luna, but once Celestia calms down and thinks rationally, as a leader who has been in power for over a thousand years, she should realize there are times when you need to put your personal feelings aside for the benefit of the country, no?
If she doesn't want guards around, then at least she should be convinced she needs the elements of harmony functional in case Luna relapses or the nightmare possession returns, no? And if not for the nightmare then for the other villains she knows are around or have been around Equestria in the past.
Frankly, IMO and given how head-strong RD is, she should refuse to apologize, a least for quite a while. Remember how headstrong she was in the mare-do-well episode, after all. In her mind she's being loyal to the citizens of Equestria and the CMC, even if her friends don't see it. Perhaps Applejack, being concerned for Applebloom, might even agree with her. Twilight and Fluttershy will obviously be pissed at RD and want to wait for her to apologize. Celestia, seeing the rift forming and the bearers angry at each other, should insist on them coming together again and at least talking it out, even if it means accepting she done goofed, for the good and national security of Equestria. In my mind at least, that's what a good leader would force themselves to do even if they don't like it.
I agree that RD is acting like an ass, no question. I agree that fluttershy, and especially Twilight, would just assume the princess is right because 'she's the princess'. But Celestia, being a thousand years old hopefully at least slightly wiser, should realize RD isn't entirely wrong. Celestia knows that if nightmare moon returns, or Luna gets possessed again, she CAN'T handle it. She's shown that twice now, first by having to banish her sister with the elements as her only option, and second allowing nightmare moon to return and relying on Twilight and the other bearers to have to stop her. If she's going to go with having no guards around because she and the elements can handle Luna if things get bad, then she needs to be concerned that the elements are fighting with each other right now, no? At least, once she calms down enough to think rationally.
3285227
Sorry, authors.
I will be looking forward to it, and while I don't expect you to just write whatever I suggest, I do hope you'll at least touch on some of the points myself and other commenters have brought up. This is one of the few stories I've read that's doing a serious look and what it might be like for Luna to be psychologically damaged from her time on the moon, and it would be tragic if you took that seriously but glossed over the other serious implications going on in the story. A lot of time doesn't need to be spent on it but it would make the story that much stronger if at least touched on IMHO.
3285899
I doubt the falling out was that significant, and Celestia knows they need to work it out among themselves, besides. Your thinking too much.
3285925 I suppose I do tend to do that!
3285929
I don't think the author's thought this much about it, through I could be wrong.
3285899
Granted, Celestia is watching as an issue surfaces with her most powerful weapon. But as friends, issues will form between them, and the only thing she really can do is hope they can work it out themselves. With this specific issue, it isn't actually her fault that it's surfaced - certainly, her and Luna's presence has aggravated the situation, but the initial problem arose when 'Shy almost died, and Dash attributed this to a conscious act of malice by the Lunar Princess. So this issue would have come out eventually.
I agree completely. Except, she's done that for a thousand-plus years, now, and she was actually told, flat out, by a medical professional that, at least until Luna recovered, she needed to choose between the two. Quite frankly, given that motivation, the nation had best not press the issue, because it can by no means be assured of coming out on top.
You seem to have misunderstood - Celestia and the Elements _are_ Luna's guards. Celestia may not be able to stop Luna (with the only option available to her being more permanent than she is comfortable with), but she can easily keep Luna occupied whilst the Elements assemble. Literally the only purpose actual Guardponies would serve in the case of an emergency would be to evacuate the civilians - an unnecessary tactic as the Nightmare wanted to _rule_ them (the whole death-by-ice-age thing being an unfortunate and unforeseen consequence of eternal night).
Except she kind've _is_. Let's assume, momentarily, that RD is right, and the Nightmare is still present. The ponies _can't_ act without proof, for fear of harming an innocent (value of one vs many being a whole different argument). So, the best way to get this evidence is to make the Nightmare feel she has gotten away with her ruse, that any lingering observation is merely for worry of her own health, and encourage her to attempt to try again. Placed as she is, in such close proximity to both the Elements and the Solar Deity, one wrong move would have the Nightmare killed/banished before she could blink. An entirely alternative reason for Celestia's rage is that RD's outburst has greatly increased the likelihood of a possible Nightmare hiding herself for a lot longer than she would have previously - meaning Celestia needs to be on guard longer, hurting both her and the nation.
Again, only if the argument actually begins to threaten their friendship. Fluttershy's ultimatum only really worked because RD still wants to be friends.
3285593
As stated above, I fully agree that caution is the order of the day. But RD's attitude and outbursts help nobody.
Except that requires Celestia to be _aware_ of her ability to cure Luna. So far as she was aware at the time, Nightmare Moon and Luna were one and the same entity. Discovering otherwise practically destroyed her.
3286273
And yet, Twilight and the others managed to purge the Nightmare, when they didn't know the difference themselves.
3286378
Granted.
It would seem some clarification would be required as to how the Elements work, before we could start making justifiable claims as to the actuality of the situation, and where the blame may lie.
3286444
That is something I'm interested to know.
Rainbow Dash... You are... Uhh, no comments.
She turned her head back and saw Spike pointing towards the corner of the room. Following it, her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped as she spied the three very confused looking fillies looking up at her.
“Oh… right…”
I know this is a serious story, but it reminds me of this scene:
i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m517/KYLE-D1/Family%20Guy/FGBrianLove0015.jpg
Twilight: YOU LEAVE THEM TO ME!
I think the Nightmare transferred itself to Dash.
The angst in this story is as heavy and dense as a neutron star.
Unlike a neutron star, however, it lacks the compellingly intense magnetic field.
I know RD is protective and all but....
...
This is just too far....
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And Fluttershy brings the big guns. I vaguely remembered how much of a dingbat Dash was, but it's shocking to re-read it and see just how much of a tard she was.
>> Crochettail
Amen ta that!!