Epilogue: Auspicious Eventide
It had been quite a party. Of course, that was to be expected when a certain pink pony was given charge of the whole event. Luna was just glad she had managed to go through the event without any world changing faux pas. As the celebration died down, Luna excused herself. She had a visit to make.
Luna walked over to the balcony and overlooked her kingdom. It was calm and dark, a beautiful night. She looked down at the city. There were holes in buildings and streets, but aside from a small lingering scent of smoke, any fires of that day had been put out, the city revealing its gentler hues in the starlight.
The princess turned her gaze upon the swamp where the last of the changelings was. She scowled, but her task was not quite complete. She had one final message to send. With a glow of her horn, she sent herself into the dreams of her foe.
The dream was a nightmare, even before Luna's arrival. She found herself in Canterlot, witnessing the dream play out. The queen sat there in the chapel as the sun began to grow in the sky, expanding ever closer, setting fire to the realm as the queen recoiled at the heat. The sun bulged and swelled, changing colors in until it was a massive magenta wall, colliding with her and banishing her to the darkness, which only grew darker as Luna heard her own laugh echo through the darkness, as the changelings screamed in terror, just as they did when Luna had sealed them within herself.
Normally this would be when the Queen woke up, but Luna had a message to pass on. Changing her dream's form, she took on the image of her monstrous self: Nightmare Moon. Even upon the moon, this monster had sometimes found the opportunity to prey upon the thoughts and dreams of others as her namesake implied, twisting them in her own sadistic way as Luna watched on helplessly. Even though that dark presence was destroyed now, the form remained a powerful and frightful symbol to every intelligent creature.
The nightmare began as a sweet voice called out. “Oh look how the mighty have fallen. Alone in the world, your entire race banished to a realm of wickedness. Chrysalis, queen of the muck and the rot. A pity your subjects shall never return. Without them, you could not have stopped the Elements of Harmony from sealing you away, and never will be able to stop them again. All vengeance has been denied to you.”
The defeated form shook in terror. “Are you here to gloat, monster?” she squeaked. It was hard to put up a front when one was unaccustomed to lucid dreaming.
The nightmare replied in a temptress' voice, putting on a false sympathy. “Gloat? Why would I do that? No, I'm here to offer you a choice. You may remain here, dead in the land of the living, an empty shell of your former self. Or, you may join your kin and live in the land of the dead. I have been generous, and Charon's toll awaits you upon the dead grasses above the gate. I have seen that Cerberus will allow you a one way ticket into that realm. The choice is yours.”
Luna then ended her connection, finding herself lying down upon the balcony. Chrysalis would wake up with a start now, possibly screaming. Even for a loveless creature such as that, this day's events must have taken their toll.
The princess glanced down. The reception was over and everypony had gone home, silence once again filling the air. Even after all this turmoil and chaos, everything was back to normal, as if nothing had happened at all. Luna decided to spend the rest of the evening reading a book, she still had history to learn, and to be as effective a ruler as her sister, she would have to become as well versed as a history professor, as Celestia had been there at the center of it all for a thousand years whilst Luna had existed in an unwilling ignorance.
Luna walked down toward her room, about to enter when Midnight walked up to her. “Pardon me, princess, but would you mind coming with me?” he asked. The princess nodded and walked beside the captain. She may as well, anyway; she could not allow herself sleep until she lowered the moon in several hours. Sure she had been tempted to ask Celestia to do it for her, but as far as everypony else knew, Luna had been the one who had not done anything all day, and this was a tale she was not sure she wanted anypony but Celestia to know. She would have to regale her sister tomorrow at supper.
Midnight led her to an unassuming room and opened the door. There inside was a brightly lit room with streamers and a cake. “Hi Luna!” a voice yelled right next to her, startling Luna and making her jump. “Oops! Sorry!” Maria replied, turning visible once again. She was not wearing her armor, revealing her natural chestnut coat and cyan mane, but her eyes remained forever golden and draconic. A cutie mark of an eye made of a dashed line decorated her flank.
Luna looked about room the rapidly, still a little caught off guard. “What is this? I don't even. When did you-”
“I was stealing a piece of cake when a pink pony called Pinkie caught up to me. We talked a bit and decided we'd arrange a small victory party” she giggled.
Several questions popped into Luna's head all at once. First off, how Maria had gotten caught? It wasn't as if she could be heard in that tumult. Second, Pinkie Pie and Maria Breeze together? The mere idea of those two hyperactive ponies in the same room sent shivers down her spine. Third, just when the hay did they have time to set this all up? Pinkie never left a party and her train left for Ponyville not too long after! Of course, her mind soon relented and accepted that if Pinkie was involved, it was best not to ask questions, and if there was a party being planned anywhere near that pony, she would somehow be able to sense it.
Luna looked to her captain. “Victory celebrations are good for morale, your highness, even with this lot,” Midnight stated.
The princess shrugged and smiled. “I guess I can go to one more party.”
The celebration lasted several hours. Maria and Fletch played a game of checkers, in which the unicorn had won a crushing victory, and then Fletch had won a game of darts against her. Even though she had magic and he was using his teeth he had managed to easily beat her. When the party ended, the two were still in the middle of a tie-breaker staring contest.
Midnight had been regaling the guard with some old stories from his mercenary days, including a particularly funny story about when he had to ditch a tail and wound up tricking him into going into an Ursa's den. Of course he had a little trouble with the homophone, which confused some ponies for a little bit as to why he would want to lose his tail.
The evening ended and Luna saw that it was once again time to lower the moon. Reaching out to it, she tucked it gently beneath the horizon as Celestia's sun rose once again.
Luna was exhausted. Parties, assassination attempts, powerful and exhaustive spells, lots of travel, dueling with a creature able to best the goddess of the sun herself, and damning an entire race of wicked creatures to Tartarus. Not bad for four hours of sleep.
The princess of the night tucked herself in for the morning, falling asleep once more and taking her well deserved rest.
Eight hours later, Fletch heard an alarm clock go off, and a loud BANG shortly after coming from princess Luna's chambers. He opened the door and poked his head in, seeing the princess pointing her horn at a gently smoking spot with a burnt out wire leading up to it. “Is everything okay, your highness?” he asked.
The princess glared at him out of the corner of her eye. “From now on”, she growled sleepily as she lowered her horn and rested her head on her pillow, “the guard wakes us up personally.” Fletch bowed his head and ducked out, closing the door behind him as the ruler of night drifted off to slumber once again.
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Alright everypony, my tale is at an end, and I hope you enjoyed the ride. Since this story wound up with a much more positive reception than I had ever anticipated, I may end up making another tale, when inspiration strikes me of course. I'm feeling quite a bit more confident than I was when I had published this and written my author's footnote. Of course, now I know how to use comments before I publish a chapter, so hah! Take that, story interrupting footnotes!
I'll still be making edits to the story, the most pressing at the time of writing this being italicizing thoughts. I'd to it now, but I'm procrastinating. Nope, not making an excuse, just admitting to procrastination.
I wish to make a blog shortly and write some of the moments I'm particularly proud of, some of the themes I wanted to get across, and some other tidbits somepony may or may not find interesting.
Thank you for all your feedback, everypony, I hope to see you soon.
Great story, I really enjoyed the creative backstories to your Lunar Guards. Well structured and told tale. Looking forward to seeing more stories from you.
Great ending to a great story!!
Awesome story bro!
Haha nice story :D
The aforementioned blog is up if anypony cares to read it.
All right, you've got things wrapped up pretty neatly. We've had enough characterization to flesh out the members of the Lunar Guard that we got to interact with, Luna herself did a pretty kick-ass job of proving that the night rules for combat still do the job of keeping the realm safe from all threats, and once again Pinkie proves that she can find a way to wriggle into any story she wants.
You've done a great job of setting up a believable guard force under Luna's command, I hope that at some point in the future you and your Muse will find another situation that calls for their special touch. Great work, and I'll be looking forward to your next story offering.
Ah, crap, it's over. I was hoping this would stretch on a little bit. Will we perhaps see these characters again in another story? I rather liked this one, and I'd love to hear about more of their secret exploits.
Oh well, Like and Favorite!
523496 *chuckle* Well first I have to come up with a basic premise for a story. I can't write in a vacuum of "muse", you know!
Don't worry, I doubt we've seen the last of our Lunar Guard.
This was quite the enjoyable read. A rag tag team of covert ops taking care of the messes no one knows about, and doing it without anyone knowing, is just plain fun. The lunar guards had some engaging, if a bit cliche, personalities, but its stuff like this that make me smile. Not to mention Lunar displaying why she is the princess (lets be honest, Queen) of the night. Nicely done.
Exquisite. The Lunar Guard is a force worthy of its patron and your avatar. And Luna regurgitating the changelings into Hell? That was simply epic. Great work.
AMAZING background stories for the certain mention Lunar Guard.
This story sounds like it actually happened!
Especially the part where you put Luna coming in saying " Hello everypony, did I miss anything?"
Wow, just WOW.
Some technical issues and nowhere near enough time given to your OC's, but overall a solid and enjoyable piece.
*Reads sequel first*
*Turns and reads this*
*Hesitantly comments*
... So Luna just came along and more-or-less killed an entire species of creatures that had the potential to be good, earnest members of pony via casting them into a firey pit of death in the underworld, all because they were easily led and currently under the control of a single, corrupt individual?
... All in order to mentally punish the aforementioned individual? (Who was, even then, given a chance to remain alive and by extension a chance to start over?)
... And finishes by happily partying at the castle for a few hours?
While that's fine and swell for everypony involved, I must express my dismay at how everyling (each one sentient and with a unique personality, like Silk says in "Remnant") was mercilessly punished for - as pretty much stated in the first chapter of the sequel - doing whatever the queen willed, simply because she was the queen.
ALL IN ALL, this is an amazing story by itself.
Its just that, when combined with a sequel showing the other argument, I find this canon's Luna to be, for lack of a more precise term, a monster.
Plus the vice-versa is never implied in this story! Luna implied that the changelings have been evil for all time right off the bat in chapter one, and it was this implied evilness that justified her to kill off the entire species.
Sigh.
I suppose these kinds of stories can't be read from sequel to original - so much of the magic that I see in the above comments was lost thanks to my realizing that the heroes of this story, the Lunar Guard (+princess), so nonchalantly killed off thousands of individuals capable of growing unique personalities (like Silk!) - and all simply because Luna didn't bother disposing of the queen when the swarm was disabled, instead opting to dump everyling into Tartarus and completely ignore Chrysalis while the corrupt leader was completely at her mercy. For this, I was sad.
And, the above, it seems, are my two bits on the subject.
Apologies if it wasn't exactly what you wanted by 'feedback' :/
821885 Oh indeed, there's a reason the sequel is labeled "dark". Remnant, told primarily from Silk's point of view, is there to portray the other side of the story. So honestly, I'm rather glad your view is like that!
I think you're going to like chapters 6, 9, and the epilogue.
822011
Something tells me that chapters 6, 9, and epilogue are either going to be very heart-warming...
... Or very opposite :c
Either way, great work on this + Remnant, eagerly awaiting dem chapters :D
This was a solid story overall. I liked the OCs, but I felt not enough time was spent on them. Hopefully that's fixed in the sequel. Nicely done.
Well done. This story was indeed very well done. Of course it felt a little quick at a few points, particularly the defeat of the changlings. But I did really enjoy the tales of how some of her guard ended up joining.
Pretty good fic overall. Really well done, and interesting to see how Luna would end up fighting any opponent. Though the way the changelings were defeated bothers me a little. For one I am not sure they would become that connected to Luna just by mimicry of the ShadowBolts. While changelings could indeed copy practically anything and take on the targets traits to better blend in, taking on such extreme magical properties even when they are not aware of them is pushing it a bit. Also the changelings should be just as good as the night guard at stealth missions and subterfuge. While their tactics in the show might not have been too impressive, I have a bit of headcannon that the changelings were doing a heck of alot more behind the scenes than what we saw. Besides their whole plan isn't something that was hastily thrown together. It was actually very well thought out and excellently executed. Pretty much the only flaw in Chrysalis' plan was that she put Twilight so close to Cadance. The fact alone that the Changeling Queen could get into Canterlot and replace the Girlfriend and Fiancee of the Captain of the Day Guard with nopony being the wiser is nothing to scoff at.
Honestly I think that if the Changelings wanted to remain hidden, they can very easily do so. Even giving the stealth based Night Guard a run for their money. Neither the Changelings themselves nor their Queen are stupid, they can't if they want to be effective predators using their shifting abilities. So it feels like their defeat was far too fast. Don't get me wrong the story is still quite good and an enjoyable read. Just a bit of a nitpick for me is all.
514400
THAT ending with the clock. i now have to feel sorry for the luner gaurd now
498596 Oh? So that's how Fletch's name came about... I think Pierce-Arrow was quite cool, but Fletch is more catchy as it resembles those military code names.
Doctor who did what? Oh god... I so need to watch that series....
oh my god... that not right she literally sent them to hell, that not right that just flat out wrong, I don't care what you did, that not up to someone to decide! Bribe's and magic can't make anyone go to hell, that is up to the guy upstairs to decide!
1405988 What sons and daughters?
*two previous comments deleted due to myself clicking the wrong reply button. My bad.
I enjoyed this one quiet abit.