Raven
by Knight of Lycaeus
A soft caw drew my attention from the night sky. I was outside on the crystalline balcony of my new home, watching the night sky in hopes of calming myself down. The past week has been…. difficult, it wasn’t easy watching Tirek’s magic destroy the Library. My new home seems so vast, so quiet, so…. empty. I turned my focus towards the soft caws and there on the railing sat a dark figure. A small bird, a raven with its feathers of glossy black and deep midnight blue, the sharp silver beak and talons, and piercing blue eyes. I knew that bird although it had been several years since I last saw it.
The first time I ever laid eyes on that bird was back when I was still a student living in Canterlot. Even as a small filly, I’ve always enjoyed stargazing. The relaxing nature of watching the stars slowly drift across the sky night after night. The first time I saw the raven was very much like what was happening now; a soft caw had drawn my attention away from the wondrous night sky to find a raven sitting on the railing. Back then I did not know where the raven came from or why. It was strange watching the raven; the ponies of Canterlot treated the raven in vastly different ways. The Solar Ponies and by extension the Solar Guard if they chanced upon the raven sitting on my railing after it staying late into the night and into the dawn of a new day, would simply attack the bird or if they were Guards then weapons were favoured. To them they would give the bird no quarter, although some of the kinder ones merely sought to catch it rather than resort to running their blade through. The rarer Lunar Ponies instead seemed to almost revere the bird; its appearance to them was seen as a sign of luck and good fortune.
I would not learn the reason behind this discrepancy for many years. What I eventually did learn was that the raven, a carrion eater was seen as a harbinger of death by Solars. For them the raven inspired fear, it was the messenger from Beyond and it bode to whoever received it or looked at one nothing but ill omen. The Lunars instead saw them as a messenger from their goddess; she had disappeared from this world many years ago. But the Lunars had hopes and the belief that one day she would return, to be the recipient of a visit from a raven was a good omen.
The last time I had seen this raven was just before my departure from Canterlot, on that last visit the raven seemed more content than I had ever seen it before. It was on this visit that I learned, I learned about the discrepancy between the beliefs of Solars and Lunars. It was on this visit I learned who the raven was.
I smiled now; I thought I had lost her several years ago. Now it seems I had not; it seems she had been biding her time. Now was the time for her return, I watched as the raven grew in size and shape, I watched as the bird became a pony. The mare who had been with me for so long watching and guarding from the shadows, the mare I knew I wanted to spend my life with had finally stepped out of the shadows.
Quoth the raven: Nevermore.
Still no Myrandall story :(
4991314 4991314
Yes
You know, there is an astonishing lack of Negima/MLP crossovers on this site. I know of maybe two.
Unless there's a follow-up chapter waiting in the wings, I'm afraid this ficlet comes off a little weak.
That she could feel close to and a kinship for the raven is reasonable. At a stretch, she might have figured out that the raven wasn't a messenger at all, but an extension of the alicorn. But going from that, to wanting to spend her life with Nightmare Moon? Firstly, how would she possibly come to the conclusion that the overall benign raven was NMM? Everything you've provided--and her own experiences with both NMM and Luna--suggest that it would be Luna, not the Nightmare. Further, why would she want to spend her life with Nightmare Moon when their only real meeting was a battle deciding whether or not the world would end? Even if she felt an affinity for the raven, she and the raven haven't exactly talked (a talking bird is the sort of detail that at least gets a passing mention).
I could feasibly see her imagining that it was Luna and thinking too deeply about her friendship for the raven, but looking at the story as it is now doesn't give any feeling of connection between the first four paragraphs and the fifth.
4991544
You'll be leading off the 30th or 40th Prompt Special. 30th, if someone will hurry up and write "Greed".
4992013
No follow-up planned for this. But I probably could have ended it slightly different to be more plausible, so I might have jumped it a bit in the end. So the pacing in this could have been better especially with the ending.
However it is possible that conversations may have happened over one of the raven's overnight visits. As there are several hints that they certainly did talk one night not too long before Twilight left for Ponyville. This last chat was also the most open and revealing discussion between them. But I will acknowledge that it could have been made to be more plausible especially in relationship with the show canon.
4991970
I've only got Negima x WH40K out, myself.
4993920 When you say that, do you mean you only know of a Negima x WH40K story on the site, you've only encountered a Negima x WH40K story, you've only published a Negima x WH40K story, or something else that I'm too sleepy to think of?
4994409 ...why, yes, my previous statement was ambiguous at best.
Sorry. I meant I've only ever published a Negi x @H40K crossover; I've seen a couple crossovers (one was Negi x PaniPoni Dash; imagine the chaos...)
I still have to read the rest of Negima; I'm about 60% through the series. (But I have a secret weapon: I found purely by chance the Japanese-language "Negima Bible" in a little bookstore in Jinbōchō, Tokyo, when I visited three years ago! Only 2800yen!)
4995625
Y-Y-Y-You lucky bastard...
Could you drop me a link to your story? I've made a Negima/Naruto crossover over on fanfiction.net. The genre is... well... sort of all of them. All of the genres.
And the Kyuubi is one step shy from being the bastard hate-child of Khorne and Tzeentch.
(I really need to write more).
4996447 Sure!
Long Shadows Over Mahora [complete]
Dark Evangel [incomplete]
The Ravishing Raven in the Moon?
I hope there is more love this
another one that could be full story, with past interactions with the raven and how the two princess will take the news
7158691
Yeah...oh well. Probably won't happen...
Just beautiful