Epilogue: Towards Her Meeting
Celestia explained her plan.
And when she had done, Luna had to admit that, if one were to attempt anything so foolish as loosing Discord once again upon the world, Celestia had chosen just about the wisest way to carry out such folly.
And the least selfish. For Luna saw that Celestia's plan would, indeed, be very unlikely to result in Celestia regaining Discord's love. His friendship, perhaps. But not his love.
That was forever gone, and probably unrecoverable. Even if Dissy might be regained.
Indeed, the plan would work best if Discord came to love another.
When Celestia was done explaining, and Luna with more than a few trepidations assented to the plan, and made some suggestions as to their backup should the Elements fail of application -- Discord was, after all, neither weak nor stupid, though his playfulness had cost him the victory fifteen hundred and three years ago, and once again just two years ago -- when that was done, the Sisters sat together and watched the setting Sun, leaning companionably against each other, toasting Mimic and Wind Whistler and their other beloved dead who had once been Undying, especially poor confused Shady who, at the end, had been neither so weak nor so stupid as she had seemed. They had all been heroes, and Shady not the least among them.
There was not enough wine to get them drunk. They were, after all, both Alicorns, and to get truly drunk they would have to down wine not by the bottle, but rather by the hogshead barrel.
But, then, they didn't really want to get drunk. They just wanted to be together, to be Sisters, as they had been for over two thousand five hundred years, if you measured it one way, and over thirteen billion seven hundred million years, if you measured it the other.
So they drank together, until all the wine was gone, and never got any farther into drunkeness than a comfortable warm glow, which in them was their regenerative factor neutralizing the alcohol. And they were happy, here together overlooking the world, and possibly the end of the world, if Celestia's plan went poorly. Even Luna was happy, because one cannot be the High Lady of War of a great Realm, without being aware that every plan carries with it some risk and cost of failure, especially down here at the Incarnate Level.
Celestia set the Sun, and Luna raised the Moon, and they watched the Moon and stars together for a while.
And then Celestia said to Luna, very gently. "I know this plan can fail. I always knew it could fail."
"I knew you knew that," Luna replied. "I know that thou art no dunderhead."
"If it fails," Celestia said, "then this part of our lives together may be about to end. Discord will probably not harm us, but he may harm those we love. He may drive them mad."
"I know," said Luna. "And I see now that thou didst always know as well."
"If I were you, dear Sister," Celestia said, "I would take care of any unfinished business you have, before -- well, you know."
"I do," replied Luna. "I can think of some that I've been putting off a few years now."
"Then do it," said Celestia. "I won't release him for some more days, and I'll tell you the exact date and time, of course, once I've finished my preparations. But -- don't put it off any more."
"I won't," Luna promised. "I won't."
"I must go to bed," said Celestia. "The wine seems to have made me sleepy." She smiled at her Sister. "Good night, Luna."
"Until the morrow," replied Luna.
Her Sister padded back toward her bedchamber.
And Luna was once more alone.
Now she stood in shadow, upon the branch of a tree overlooking the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville. It was a potentially-undignified position, but Luna feared no exposure, because she could almost entirely disappear into shadows at night, simply by willing it. It had been one of the very first of her powers to emerge.
Not that I need worry regarding my dignity. I am a Ruling Princess of Equestria! I am the High Lady of War! I am ... not certain how to approach her.
Her gaze was fixed upon the balcony, where Twilight Sparkle stood behind her telescope, gazing at the heavens.
Little stargazer, Luna thought fondly. We've come a long way since I first saw you, looking up at the Moon, when I was still trapped there, ridden by a Night Shadow, poor mad Nightmare Moon. Now, you lead Celestia's current Champions. And I am restored to my rightful place at my Sister's side. Free of the Nightmare.
Because of you. Oh, Twilight, if you do Ascend, and are my friend for another two and a half millennia, still it will not be time enough to pay you back for that great gift. Do you even suspect this?
Probably not. Twilight Sparkle was remarkably humble, for a Pony with her great gifts, intellectual and magical.
It was one of the reasons Luna loved her. And had loved her when Luna had been Moondreamer, and Twilight had been Dusk Skyshine.
Twilight had looked at various objects during the course of the night, taking notes in her journal. Luna noticed that Twilight was now looking at the Moon, as she had been when Luna had first seen her, all those years past.
It was nothing if not an opening.
Luna took a deep breath, and teleported to Twilight's side.
Twilight turned and did a little half-jump, gasping. “Oh!”
In that moment of surprise, Luna found her utterly enchanting.
“Greetings and well-met, Lady Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna.
It was a beginning.
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In all, a well-reasoned scene between sisters with a lovely ending. There isn't much here beyond the argument, but it makes for a great prelude to A Meeting by Moonlight. Thank you for it.
7255516
Oh yes, it's a very dark story. Both in terms of how cruelly the alternate-Discord first abuses everypony else -- and then how very evil Opposition Twilight and her friends become because they have been warped by his actions. And what's worse, it's not even a direct magical warp, more a morally-corruptive influence.
You get to see it very strongly both from the point of view of our Discord, who gets horribly-tortured by the Opposition Six, especially Opposition-Fluttershy; and from the utterly-horrified Mane Six, especially Harmony-Fluttershy. And the worst of it is that it's very painfully obvious that Opposition-Fluttershy loves Discord -- it's just that her very ability to love has been twisted into something utterly horrible.
All the Opposition Six are like that, each in their own specially-awful way. I have a lot of sympathy for Opposition-Spike, who actually hasn't been all that corrupted, but is simply as loyal as he can remain to his friends, whom he knows have fallen into nightmares of evil and corruption, and which he clearly has no good idea how to save. Opposition-Spike still loves them, more than they can love each other or maybe even themselves any more -- and he can't do much more than watch helplessly.
As for Celestia, she's gone utterly-mad, but with her supernal intellect and vast lore still present, which only makes her all the more insane and dangerous. And Luna, of course, is dead, which is why Celestia's gone insane -- that and the fact that she knows it was Discord's fault, and Alara's Celestia also loved Discord. This is what Celestia looks like when she's lost all hope of anything like a happy outcome. It's not at all pretty.
There's a reason why the thought of that outcome gives my Celestia pause.
7254942
I can just see some alternate universe in which Celestia did go Lone-Mad, but instead of becoming Tyrantlestia or even Molestia, she just randomly interjects extremely-obscene phrases into her every utterance.
7256461
That was a very complex point, and I had to read it over a few times before I realized that -- yes, you're right, and that's probably one of the reasons why Celestia considers the Alara Variation a negligibly low probability outcome of her plan to release Discord.
Very insightful point there, and you're right. I alluded to it myself in Nightmares Are Tragic -- the Nightmare can't control Luna if she feels strong Love, because love is toxic to the Night Shadows, and when Luna realizes that Twilight Sparkle is the reincarnation of Dusk Skyshine, whom she greatly loved, it shatters the Shadow's hold on her mind, and once that's broken, she can realize that her true self loves Celestia, loves Equestria, and loves Ponykind -- and that consequently those who think they are fighting her are in truth her friends rather than foes. That's when she really starts consciuosly Fighting From The Inside against the Nightmare (during the whole story, though, her better nature is subconsciously fighting against it, though, which is why she manages to avoid killing anypony).
For Celestia to be driven to kill Luna, which is about the last thing she ever wants to do, she would have to have no choice, meaning that she'd have to be fighting a Luna who was going all-out against her and was killing or threatening to kill a lot of other Ponies if the fight continued. That's what actually happened in my version of Luna's Banishment as briefly shown in Royal Business -- when Luna fought Celestia, Nightmare Moon was loosing her gravity lances freely and devastating the Foreverfree City in the process of trying to kill Celestia. Celestia avoided killing Nightmare Moon (or being killed by her) by using the Elements against her instead. Celestia did not have the option of simply continuing to dodge for a number of reasons, one of which was that she eventually would have been hit again and again and again and been killed; and another of which that every time she was dodging, other Ponies were dying from Nightmare Moon's wild and callous use of power.
But one big difference in my chronology is that Luna returned in YOH 1500, Discord broke loose in YOH 1501, but Celestia is proposing to release him in YOH 1503, two years later. This is important because Luna has had two more years to regain her sanity and self-confidence. This is two years in which Luna has been making friends and coming to love the new version of Equestria. Luna would be much harder to push back into Nightmare in 1503 than she had been in 1501 -- you will notice that Luna gets pretty pissed at Celestia in their argument, and yet displays no hint of insanity -- even the most aggressive thing she says (her "I suffer neither fools nor knaves gladly" rant) is part of a rational argument against lowering moral standards just to accommodate Celestia's emotional desire to pardon Discord, rather than any real expression of a desire on her part to start killing Ponies. She makes a similar argument, also involving Discord, in Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason.
So late Season Three Luna would be harder to Discord than was early Season Two Luna, and if she was pushed toward Nightmare, she has more friends, mostly notably Cadance, who could try and likely succeed in bringing her out of it. This very much includes Twilight Sparkle, who was key to Luna's initial liberation from the Nightmare, and with whom her friendship has deepened since Season One. For that matter, Twilight and all the Element Bearers are also now stronger and more skilled and confident; Discord would find them harder to attack as well (as we actually see in "Keep Calm and Flutter On," when Celestia gets to carry out the plan).
It's a matter of them being changed in their Incarnations by the magical and psychic force of how their Concepts are perceived by the mortals among whom they are incarnated. In the Age of Creation the Sun was seen as a mystical creative force, so Epona Ameterasu the Sun Mare was a goddess of civilization and enlightenment. In the Age of Wonders, they had a good idea of what both Fusion and Gravity were, and so Sundreamer was a scientist who developed fusion reactors, and Moondreamer an engineer who designed aircraft and missiles and spacecraft. In the time after the Cataclysm, the Sun was Light and Gravity perceived through the Moon and the Moon was connected to dreams, which is why Celestia came out as rather similar to Epona Amaterasu the Sun Mare, and Luna wound up with creepy mystical dreamy powers.
I got the idea of Luna's gravity lances from the depiction of the fight between Celestia and Luna, both in "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and in my favorite version of "Lullaby for a Princess." Bolts of what look like darkness that cleave right through fairly tough solid matter (the walls of a fortress) with incredible ease. To me, that says a graviton-based shearing plane, right out of E. E. "Doc" Smith. And so Luna has them, though sane-Luna understands that these are forces one uses only against a major-class foe and only if no friendlies are anywhere near the line of fire.
Nightmare Moon gives far less of a damn.
Interesting wrap up. And good writing as always. And the irony is that it's Nightmare Eclipse, not Discord, who ends up being the TRUE monster of Dark World, so hell bent on punishing the wicked she doesn't see she's become the wicked.
7256629
Celestia's point when she accused Luna of a biased understanding of events in that worldline. I didn't go into that much detail because I didn't want to put major spoilers for your novel into the actual text of my short story.
7256314 OK that could actually be a funny short story, especially if it followed the pre-reformed Sunset Shimmer as the viewpoint character. It could be absolutely hilarious.
All in all an interesting story. What I like, it showed the old sun butt is now taking her sister seriously, even when she disagrees with her. I also like that even when arguing like this, there's no hint that Luna is going to go nightmare again.
What I didn't like: the story felt a bit bland only because as a reader I knew that Celestia was going to win the argument and everything was going to turn out alright. Therefor there wasn't much tension. But that's no fault of your own so, I'll be waiting for the next one.
7257237
Glad you noticed that. They've both learned from their past mistakes. Celestia isn't cutting her sister out of the important discussions, treating her like a deadly but unbeautiful weapon to be taken out in wartime and put away and ignored in peacetime. And Luna isn't just holding back on her thoughts and opinions until she explodes in rage.
Yeah, I'm pretty much limited by this being an interquel whose outcome is already known.
7256629
Understand, while it's not quite "Twlight can do no wrong!" on Luna's part (she's too experienced in how even the best Ponies can screw up to take that attitude), SWSV Luna is a major Twilight Sparkle fan and tends to give her the benefit of the doubt. (I was very surprised in the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" IDW Comics story line when they actually had Luna say "I would follow you anywhere!" and then later shock Twilight by whispering some probably bawdy comment regarding Sombra and Radiant, because it was so much like the way I would have written my Luna's interactions with Twilight Sparkle).
So yes, SWSV Luna tends to see the events of "Dark World" as being almost purely Discord's fault, rather than Twilight's, because of her prejudices. SWSV Celestia is quite right about that. Though PonyPOVerse Luna may have a more a balanced appraisal of the situation.
7261878
Maybe a little of both. SWSV Discord, after Pony POVerse Discord, is an Incarnation of a Cosmic Concept, Discord or Dissonance. Dissonance is actually a friend of Fusion and Gravity; the trio form new stars and make them shine.
Fusion has become fascinated by mortals and especially the Ponies, so she Incarnated as Celestia. So did Gravity and Dissonance, who became Luna and Discord. Celestia, however, handles Incarnate life better than does her Sister and their best friend.
Part of what's wrong with Discord is that he powered-up before Incarnating, by among other things consuming his brother Destruction. The power has driven him mad. And he wasn't the sanest Concept to start.
Discord was raised Pony and fundamentally likes (even loves) Ponies. He wants to play with them.
Unfortunately, he sometimes plays too rough.
7256314 7257216 I wonder, though, how much of Celestia's extensive profanity collection would even be intelligible to a modern pony, even one as learned and sharp-tempered as Sunset Shimmer? Of course, that might drive Nightmare Sunspot to even greater (and just as futile) efforts...
Hmm, this might make a decent comedy after all. The climax, of course, would be the return of Luna who does understand just about everything in the collection...
7265044
That would actually be pretty funny. A mad Celestia trying to teach her students dead languages just so they could understand her dirty phrases.
I... am... confused. I think I'm missing context. Soooo freakin' much of it. You throw names and places and events around and I barely recognize any of it. It feels like this is part of a larger series, way larger - and if it is, there should be a hint or warning or something within the description of the story. I don't even know how to start asking all those questions I have, because there's so damn many of them - and to be honest, given how little context you provide, I don't even know if I should bother.
Sooo... yeah. Context or a hint in the description would be nice.
Oh and I remember the first chapter having some mistakes, switched up letters, missing ones, too, minor stuff like that, but quite a lot of it.
7266481
It's all -- like every one of my stories on this site -- part of the Shadow Wars Story Verse. Story is clearly labeled as part of a series (which is more than I can say for every story I've written). The Luna Arc so far is in order:
1. Nightmares Are Tragic (complete novella)
2. All The Way Back (mostly complete long novella)
3. Royal Business (half-complete novella)
4. "Teacher Zero" (complete long short story)
5. "Advance Warning" (complete long short story)
6. "A Meeting by Moonlight" (complete short story)
7. "Feeling Adrift" (complete short story but needs minor editing for consistency with "Advance Warning")
8. Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason (incomplete novel)
9. Post-Traumatic (complete short novel).
All have Twilight x Luna as a theme or subtheme, and Royal Business, Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason and Post-Traumatic also Spike x Rarity.
7265360 OK now I'm picturing Her trying to teach Twilight of all ponies to curse... Or worse/funnier teaching her the languages, which I can see her picking up, and then realizing that her beloved mentor is cursing worse then a drunken sailor all the time...
7256314 That could go from nasty to hilarious if the obscene phrases were mostly incomprehensible not just to the ponies, but to the reader.
7293415
I actually have a lot of sympathy for Luna -- both her emotions and her reasons -- in this story. And Celestia.
The fundamental disagreement they have is the degree to which Dissy survives within the current Discord. Luna is a pessimist, and Celestia an optimist, on this issue.
Celestia's strategy is questionable. Literally -- it's not totally insane, it's just taking a rather large risk if things go wrong.
7293424
They would be if I didn't translate them enough, by which I mean that the colloquialisms and cultural assumptions might be different. I've already done this with "Nosey," which is a far more obscene insult to the Ponies than to us, because of where the stallion is unwantedly nosing.
I wonder how Celestia and Luna feel about manipulating other ponies through their plans like this?
In any case, the ending was touching. Luna, reaching out to a new, friend, an old lover, and trying to forge ties with both.
7356412
In this case, Luna actually shows more fear of other Ponies being hurt than does Celestia. Of course, Celestia has the most emotional interest in taking the risk to reform Discord.
I'm glad you liked the way this story turned out.
7356815 This is probably why Luna was so quick to beat Celestia over the head verbally.
I'd like to see more interactions of Luna and Twilight in this 'verse. I will definitely read the further stories.
It's... difficult, to not outright dismiss Celestia's position as reckless and stupid. Canon!Discord was a selfish, cruel ***hole, but this one is a mass-murderer on top of everything.
Then again, this Luna is also a mass-murderer, so... does it balance out? Maybe.