This story is a sequel to A Shadow Hangs Overhead
Nightmare Moon won.
The efforts of Twilight and her friends to stop Nightmare Moon in the Everfree Forest failed. Nightmare Moon took Rarity from the forest, leaving the other five to their fate. Now she rules Equestria with Rarity at her side, forcing her to take care of any threats to her rule.
And Rarity endures, for if she does not, it will not be her that suffers the consequences.
AU to A Shadow Hangs Overhead.
Want a print copy of this and Shadow? You can get one here!
Chapters (3)
If your doing AU's for Shadow Hangs Overhead, can I provide ideas?
6858853 Sure. I'm not sure if I'll do any more, but I'm open to ideas.
6858861
Great. Sorry, I just love giving people ideas.
W-woah...
6858862 You are also welcome to write anything based off of this universe.
6858929
I would, but I'm sadly trying to finish my own fics before doing anything else
I kinda want to see this continued but I understand if you want to keep this a one-shot.
all l could think of at that line (0:30-1:00)
I missed Rarity killing ponies every chapter thanks for refreshing my mind
Oh goody, a depressing AU before the inevitable depressing ending. This is why I like your stories, you like making whole new universes out of what-ifs from the original.
>"Hitmare"
>SLOR AU mixed with Nightmare Moon AU
yeaaaaahhhhhhh i'm just gonna................click that yellow star thingy.................right there.............
I have a "Nightmare Moon won" idea that had the whole "Using Sweetie to ensure loyalty" angle for Rarity as well.
Alternate Universe to an Alternate Universe... how deep can you go?
So many AUs to an AU. So confusing to explain to other people, but I love it! Yay!
I say your writing helps me get motivation to write replies on RPs or write my stories.
This is going in my favorites!
Interesting. Wouldn't mind seeing this played out to it's conclusion. It's clear that Rarity's beyond sanity if she thinks that it's necessary to kill someone she could possibly save just to preserve her image. Although maybe it's easier to blame herself for yet another death than to risk her being killed by someone else and feeling worse?
Whoa there son let's dial back on the dark here
But yeah, well written stuff. Good job.
An AU of an AU, of an AU.
We must go deeper!
I like the dichotomy of a killer not wanting to kill. I've read articles about some serial killers turning themselves in only to get the death penalty, and it raises an interesting question if people who have done monstrous things should be granted some form of clemency. Killers who feel guilty but know they will die in return may not be so forthcoming.
As morbid as it is, I like that Rarity hurts herself. Penance of some kind, no matter how small, can help. I got a little vibe of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. The world's fucked. There's no victory, so the best you can accomplish is some kind of moral victory, be it a physical sign of regret or a quick death. It's also interesting because it can be interpreted that Moony knows Rarity cuts herself. Interesting possibilities.
6861379
6860512
6861605 Yes, I know it's an AU within an AU within an AU. What did you think of the story itself?
6864197
I liked it, quite reminiscent of the first Secret LIfe of Rarity
6864197 I'm conflicted because Rarity clearly doesn't want to keep killing for Nightmare Moon but has to or Sweetie Belle dies
It shows that she isn't a sociopathic murderer but someone forced to kill. But, as far as I am aware, she doesn't have a conscience anymore telling her this is wrong seeing as how she told Annie she doesn't feel mercy or empathy anymore doesn't even give a thought about helping Annie escape and proceeds to kill her outright. Oh and she doesn't say sorry to Annie, that's eeeevil right there.
Overall, a great AU within AU within an AU. Git favorited.
6864358 She didn't say she doesn't feel mercy anymore, merely that she's never given an opportunity to show it. She's forced to be this mad killer, or else. Remember that she had to tear Annie apart to keep up appearances. Either that or make her a slave. Not really good choices.
6864367 I'd choose the slave if you know what I mean ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Tear her apart in a whole new way ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
F/F clop AU confirmed
6864197
I truly enjoyed it!
As with all your KilleRarity and Darker fanfics, they always get me going and inspired to do my own work.
For the story itself, it was a wonderful AU What If idea, i feel like you have set the grounds for a sequel with the "Coming Dawn" and such, but you have so many stories on your plate, I wouldn't want to overwhelm you.
Rarity doesn't want to do the killings, but it seems she has made herself so immune to everything, it's a mechanical reaction.
The Elements are dead in this, correct? But Celestia is alive.
6864779 Correct. Elements are dead, Celestia is in the moon.
One does not have to guess where this idea came from
Poor Rarity... and poor little Sweetie Belle.
AU whoooo! I love it!
I wish this were a full fledged story. It's fantastic though!
Hi I joined yesterday but have been reading since "The Secret Life of Rarity" that story tugged at my heart at the end and I STILL feel like crying when I read the end
no stay strong, also Shadow Hangs Overhead was great too caught up to where it is today. Other than that this was a good read and NEEDS to be a full story but I won't force you to write when you don't want to.
an AU of an AU of an AU? getting deep here, man
7042872 I know. What did you think of the story itself?
this was about as amazing as the others im super impressed jeez
...i promised myself I wouldn't read this.. *sigh* but I did. And i regret it and don't. I regret it, because feels. I don't because it was rather excellently done in my opinion.
And tears
Yeahp, downvote.
Sorry but this story just goes to the needlessly, even idiotically, dark.
7381304 What makes you think that? Needlessly? What about it was needless? Rarity dying? That had to happen. She'd never live with herself. Same with Sweetie Belle. Moony was never going to let SB survive, especially when she noticed that Rarity wasn't fighting, which she would. That was the whole point of the necklace: keep Rarity in line so that she'd do whatever Moony wanted. AB was brutal, yes, but I'd hardly call a representation of how brutal things got under NMM "needless", especially when it gave AB motivation to survive for revenge. I did tone down her injuries a bit, though. Just kept the face scars.
Great story!
Now, I'd usually say there's enough Luna angst in fimfiction to power a nuclear weapon, but I'd like to see a sequel chapter to this - maybe where Luna wakes up and doesn't remember anything and finds out from ponies other than Celestia what she's done, or just general coming to terms with things. Not an entire story, mind you - but a sequel chapter to this would be nice, I think.
Also, not sure if I missed it, but in case I didn't and you just don't have one, I would highly recommend tagging self-harm trigger warnings in the description of this story for the content in the first chapter. I know that 'gore' is a tag on this story, but there's a difference between 'I killed them' gore, and 'I want to kill myself and so I'm cutting my own body' gore. I'll admit that the latter came as a nasty surprise to me personally, and it would probably be wise to tag the content as such.
Hmm. It's a poignant end for Rarity, but it seems almost pointless that Sweetie Belle died after everything - like, I know it's a crushing, bitter irony for Rarity, but at some point it just goes so far that it fails to strike me at all. It was... too obvious, maybe. Having Rarity die and Sweetie Belle survive in a broken world where her sister slaughtered hundreds just to prolong (Sweetie's) existence would have been a more twisted end to me, but I suppose that's just my take.
7381906 Yeah, but I also did that in PLoSB.
7382082 I suppose you're right - internalized guilt is a factor you've already worked with.
I don't know. This just felt hollow to me, and not in the intended way. But I love this AU (and its offspring AUs), perhaps much more than I should.
Thank you for adding this on. It gives the story a sense of closure that it didn't have before. I enjoyed reading it very much.
For all that it ties up the loose ends, this feels needlessly abrupt. What happened here could be summarized in a few short phrase. "Celestia wins. Applebloom hates Rarity. Celestia fails to persuade Rarity to continue living. Rarity kills herself." It also makes Rarity seem like even more of a coward. A trial would be more appropriate in my opinion. If the ponies pardoned her, then committing suicide would make more sense and remind the reader that she was effectively condemning herself anyway, actively refusing to accept their gift and provide an opportunity for other characters reflections if desired. On the other hand, if she'd been condemned to death she would probably have gone to it willingly and the angle of others wanting words with her could approached.
7381906
I agree. Especially with how it just -happened-. There's no build-up here or action scenes or anything. I think it would be interesting to have Nightmare Moon release her sister if she'll promise to do X, something irredeemably awful. Then Sweetie Belle gets to live, but Rarity just makes an even bigger villain of herself and maybe ruins any chance of a happy life for Sweetie. It would also make sense for her to as Nightmare demanded and throw away her life on the spot. If Sweetie Belle survived there would be tension between her and Applebloom because they would have equally valid grudges.
Enjoyed this ending alot, it was a cool idea
I also think that its cool that the theme of guilt will continue on after the story ends in luna and applebloom's future.
Maximum sadness for sweetiebelle, however i could also see it as sweetie escaping the world she hates, i dont think nightmare is a liar so sweetie died instanty via the necklace.
Lots to think about
Great story
One of the most tragic stories I've ever read on this site...
I LOVE HOW MUCH EMOTION YOU CAN PUT INTO WORDS OH MY GOSHHH
7390865 Actually, maybe Sweetie was kept alive by NMM in another way: she kept her from killing herself the whole time. It's the ultimate trap. If anything stops NMM, Sweetie dies regardless.
Once the spell over her is broken, Sweetie, having no idea what's going on, then kills herself.
Now that there's some grimdark!
And then Psycho Discord breaks loose and gruesomely eats everypony alive and they die slowly in all sorts of horrendously gory ways involving vore and Matt Damon.
SRSLY, being gross ain't hard. It's why the torture porn crap horror flicks just bore me. Nothing to it at all.
gg rarity
Ok I was wrong. There was a wAy to make the ending darker...
I kinda imagined Celestia realizing that darker elements existed in the background and Rarity's talents could be used to remove them. It would explain why there are so few serious villains amongst the general populace in Twilights time.
The boogey pony got them.