Historical Exposition
Lunch had gone by fine, though it had been a tad awkward. That wasn't a problem for long, though, as the smaller ponies relaxed after I had asked them more about their lives. It wasn't long before I saw the three relax and chat, with the princesses occasionally commenting. I was able to learn a few things too.
Twilight Sparkle, the pony my new body was based on, is apparently a huge bookworm. She tried to deny it, but even Celestia said it was true. In fact, I even learned about Twilight's backstory a bit. Turns out that she lived in the castle library since she was a little kid, and has been Celestia's personal student most of her life. I made a comment on how she still seemed nervous about Princess Celestia despite knowing her more than most.
"Come on Twilight," I said, "I've known her for less than an hour and I can tell that she's pretty cool. I'm sure you can relax around her. You are her student, and a fellow princess if the little I know is correct, so stop being so tense." I looked at the two other, smaller ponies. "You two as well, you are friends with the Princesses, right?" I glanced over to the royals that sat across from me and saw them both give a nod, though Princess Luna seemed a bit nervous. "So have fun. I'm sure that they get enough ponies acting so stiffly around them every day, they don't need their friends doing that too." It didn’t do much, but the smaller ponies tried better to be more casual.
I had asked Twilight what she did around Ponyville and learned that she was still living in a library and served as the local librarian. She spent a lot of her time with her friends or studying magic, leaving most of the actual librarian work to Spike, her assistant. I learned that Spike was also a baby dragon that she hatched when she was a little kid and had raised him since then. I found that pretty cool and a bit surprising, though after hearing her talk about him he sounded like your average kid, though more helpful than most.
Rarity had already said that she was a designer, so it was no surprise that she talked a lot about her work and designs. I didn't understand half of the names, places, or styles she mentioned, but I did my best to listen, noticing that the rainbow one seemed ready to fall asleep. While I'm not into fashion, I had fun hearing her talk about something she was so passionate about. I also appreciated how she worked hard and got what she earned. While I'm not sure about here, back home hard work could just end up with you getting the bare minimum to get by. Back home...
I had stopped listening to Rarity at that point. Whatever kept me calm and relaxed must have been starting to wear off, because I was starting to feel the effects of being ripped from everything you know once again. Not bad enough to make me freak and flail about in panic, but enough to make me think a bit.
I wasn't popular back home. I moved around every year since 5th grade and I never kept any friends since then. I was lonely a lot, so I distracted myself with books and video games. I loved playing RPGs where you could make your own hero. It was immersive to me. The games were fun and distracting, and I loved being great at them, but they were just games in the end. I often would pause my games to read just a bit more of my stories. Something about them drew me in, made me a part of that world. I felt the emotions of the main character and I'd often stop reading to react to situations in my mind. I didn't need friends, I had my books...or rather my friends were my books. I suppose I'm not different from Twilight in that respect, we both ended up preferring books over people. Even with my par-
"Erm...Dawn?" I heard Rarity ask. I looked up and noticed that everyone was looking at me with concern. "Are you alright darling?"
I realized I had zoned out for a while, and I'm pretty sure I didn't look to happy with what I thought of. So, quickly thinking of a lie, I spoke and put on a smile. "Oh, I'm sorry! I spaced out for a bit. I was just thinking..." I gave a sigh. "I'm worried is all. I don't know anything I should and I look like Twilight. I'm afraid that I won't fit in and such..." I was somewhat surprised when Twilight gave me a big hug.
"Oh don't worry Dawn, I'm sure everything will be fine. We're here to help you get used to all this." Twilight pulled back and held my pony shoulders with her forelegs, giving me both a bright, honest smile and a surge of guilt for lying to her. The feeling only intensified when I looked around to see the others giving me the same, soft smile and confidence.
"Thanks," I said when Twilight pulled back from the hug, "I'm sure I just need time." After that everyone was a bit quieter and soon we got up do do our own respective duties or activities. Twilight and Celestia went off together to prepare the younger alicorn for her upcoming coronation in three days, though three days seem a bit fast for a life changing shift like that. Rarity and Rainbow Dash went to a room in the castle to make sure they had their, or rather Rarity's, things put away before hanging around Canterlot.
Princess Luna and I, however, traveled to a room filled with all sorts of odd things. Being in a tower, the room was circular and cozy, an empty fireplace opposite from the stairs. A few bookcases decorated the walls, filled with books of different shapes and sizes and making the room smell like an old bookstore. A large window was to the left, letting sunlight in to bathe the room in its gentle warmth. A rug decorated the floor in the middle of the room, with a few portraits of beautiful landscapes decorating the wall. There was a large table to the side with cushions surrounding it, reminding me that chairs probably don't exist here. All in all, it was what I'd imagine a castle room to be like and reminded me of decorating houses in Skyrim with all the things no one actually uses, but more elegant things to decorate. Like the books. Does anyone read those? I used to collect them in-game like crazy, yet I never read them.
Princess Luna sat on a cushion by the table, and I sat opposite of her. I had thankfully remembered to grab my blue ball, and once again set it down in front of me. it had caused a few confused looks from Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Luna, but they didn’t ask about it.
“I must admit, I am unsure on how to start.” Luna said slowly. “It is one thing to build upon previous knowledge, it is another entirely to build it up from scratch. Is there anything you’d like to learn about first?” I took a moment to think. There were a lot of things I could ask about, but I decided to think back to our first conversation. There were a few things that I could get clarification on.
“You mentioned something about a magic artifact, as well as something called Nightmare I think.” I had a hard time remembering the specifics, though can you blame me? I’ve had to take in a lot in a short amount of time. Without that weird calming effect my brain might have exploded by now.
“The Elements of Harmony and Nightmare Moon.” The princess started, a sad look upon her face. “Over 1,000 years ago my sister and I ruled Equestria together, however it was different than it is now. Back then the world was much more dangerous. We had much less land and were at war with the Griffon Kingdom, while still recovering from the futile battle to free the Crystal Empire. It was a stressful time, and my sister and I rarely had time together. She dealt with the more political and public issues, while I commanded the special forces and sometimes went to assassinate key enemies to cripple the Griffons.
“Our land went through years of conflict, and as it continued my sister shone in the light, her charismatic personality, wisdom, and political tact making her loved by all. She was the hope of the ponies, and was even able to convince the griffon king, Adelbert Swift-Talon, to end the war after much negotiating. However, during the war the griffons spread rumors of me and the night. Rumors that the night brought terrible monsters with it, and that...that we were a being of pure evil, come to snatch away ponies and to eat them.”
Princess Luna seemed sad and lost in her own story. I was confused about a crapload of the information, but I was getting the general idea. I got up and sat next to her, seeing how it seemed to affect her. If she noticed she gave no signs, looking at the grain of the table and lost in a time over 1,000 years ago.
“They called us Nightmare Moon, to further instil fear. In modern society that wouldn’t work as well, with ponies being more understanding and such. Back then however...those were dark times. There were food shortages, with Griffon warriors coming in and burning our farms, or killing any isolated groups of ponies in the cover of night. Dark meant death, and being Princess of the Night associated us with that fear. It did not help our image that we were always away from the castle...nay, it only spread the rumors faster. The idea that we were a horrendously evil monster...one that ate the ponies that went on their own and never came back and had to be banished after every night by her pure and good sister…” Her voice trembled, eyes growing watery as she tried to hold back the tears.
“Even after the war, despite the attempts of our sister, the rumors persisted. Ponies never spent any longer than they had to in our presence, only the soldiers under our command showed the love that the rest of our nation gave Celestia freely. A few years after, as our kingdom was still recovering, Discord attacked. Using his powerful chaos magic he took our land from us and twisted it to his desires. His reign lasted only a few months, but by the end of it many ponies went insane, those subject to his whims were never the same after.”
Can’t say I expected this. I thought she would give a short reply, not exposition of her life story. Still, can’t say I wasn’t intrigued. She had yet to mention the Elements, and I had a feeling that “Nightmare Moon” wasn’t just a fictitious legend.
Despite my apprehension at being possibly too friendly with the princess, I scooted closer to her in an attempt to be comforting. “Our sister and ourselves searched for something to defeat Discord, as our own powers were not enough. One day we found a tree in a cave, untarnished by the chaos outside. The tree, called the Tree of Harmony, gave to us the most powerful artifacts Equestria has ever seen. The Elements of Harmony. With our sister wielding Honesty, Kindness and Laughter, while we bore Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic, we challenged Discord. The Elements then encased him in stone and purged his influence from Equestria.
“We believed that with our part in his defeat, the ponies would see that we cared about them just as much as our sister. Unfortunately many ponies were not in their right state of mind, and those that escaped were in hiding. When it was safe to return, everypony believed Celestia to have beaten him single hoofedly. While they did not place blame on us, we were not mentioned either. We...we stopped trying to gain our citizens’ affection after that.”
I couldn’t imagine what she went through. She gave everything she could to make the people happy, and in return she only got fear and hate. I suppose it is to be expected. Once something is set in their mind, people won’t change it no matter what. Ignorant people anyways, and I bet back then this country was full of them. America is terrible about that, and we are suppose to be much more advanced than peasants living in the medieval era.
“We began to isolate ourself, keeping to our thoughts. After a few weeks of being mostly alone, we began to hear a voice. It whispered to us, whispered terribly sweet things.” Now her body began to shake. I began hugging her gently, though the fact that I had to scoot even closer, getting right next to her, made it a bit awkward for me. I’m not exactly affectionate at the best of times, and being a quadruped didn’t help me feel better. Still, I felt like she needed it.
“It told us that...that it would make us loved. It would allow us to be smiled upon as our sister was. It lured us in with what we desired, what we needed. Once we had fallen into its honey trap, it began to take control. Began to poison our mind with terrible thoughts, making us believe that the best way to become loved was to show the ponies that our sister wasn’t a perfect goddess like they believed. We caused problems for our sister and tried to bring her down. The voice said that it wasn’t enough, however. We needed to redouble our efforts...but we couldn’t bring ourself to do much more. We could see it was hurting our sister, but it offered a solution. It would make it all better, do the hard work for us. If we gave it control, we’d be loved like our sister was. Desperate, we eagerly agreed.”
She hugged me back, and I shook my head. I had read enough stories and such to know what happened. “You ended up getting possessed by a demon, huh?” She nodded, hugging me a bit tighter than I liked, tears leaking out. “What happened after that? I assume it did worse things than you expected the ‘helpful’ voice to do.”
“It sealed us away, giving us no control over our actions...we could only watch as it began to corrupt the guards and soldiers loyal to us, twisting them into her zealots as she filled them with hatred of the day and the one who represented it. The demon desired an eternal night, to hold Equestria forever in her realm of power.
“We couldn’t stop her, though we struggled. Then the day came for the foul spirit to execute its coup, the Summer Sun celebration. Using its gather power, it shifted our body into one better fitting and gave itself a name: Nightmare Moon. The same name the griffons used to make our citizens hate us.” And there was the connection. Still, for something as horrible as that, she was being strong. Then again she did have plenty of time to recover…
“She engaged our sister in combat, the powerful magic used destroyed large portions of the castle. As strong as our sister was...Nightmare had both our experience, as well as our magic. With a boost of her own dark powers, she was able to defeat our sister. Before the final blow was struck, Celestia was able to summon the Elements of Harmony. She used them on the Nightmare, but using them alone was not strong enough to pull it from our body, and so we were both banished to the moon for 1,000 years.”
“Fortunately, we went into a sort of hibernation before long. Nightmare Moon, however, was conscious the entire time. When she returned after the 1,000 years, about two years ago, she used her magic to trap our sister and kept the moon in the sky. She was stopped, however, by Twilight Sparkle and her five friends after they recovered the Elements of Harmony.” Princess Luna was calming down a bit, I noticed. Talking about it seemed to have helped, though I could tell it still bothered her. I wondered if she went to a therapist? If they had more modern health services, they had to have one. I decided to mention it to her later.
For now I let her relax and settle down. Once she had recovered I’d ask for details and context. “At least you didn’t have to spend 1,000 years alone with that demon.” I said. “I’m sure it was a shock to see how things changed, but you still have your sister to help you through this.”
This made the princess smile. “Yes...you’re right. We still have our sister to help us recover, and with her help we have become loved by our ponies...just as we so desperately desired so many years ago. Thank you, Dawn.” She said with somber cheer.
I let out a sigh. And I have no one. I need to get through this alone...I wish I could have said goodbye. We stayed like this for a little while, softly hugging and in our own thoughts.
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I like the backstory for Luna here. Wow did she bungle the Nightnare choice. Now I wonder how these lessons will be going?
My heart.........it asplode.........hnng*ded*
Damn... That's harsh.
Well I was was a bit dissapointed that it ended so soon, but that was because I waited really long for that chapter. I really liked this chapter, I really like this story.
Not sure what else I asked you, but I hope she keeps being different, is maybe going to shock Twilight or her parents if she is getting adopted and that she can get her own friends as well. I don't mind her being friends with some of the main six or all of them, but I really want to see that she has some best friends like maybe Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and....Fluttershy?, but I really want her to have own friends, if you like even Blueblood. It only depens on how you would want to show someone like Blueblood, the missunderstod guy again, the disabled buy or whatever.
While I don't get why some are getting offended by it, I just really like to know and read about stuff like that, the disabled people or psychological stuff.
I just keep an idea for later stories as a spoiler, so if you want to use it and other people had read it already it is not my fault and you can well still use it without repeating the exact same scene or something like that. I'm still okay, but I had something to drink tonight so please forgive me should I make no sense.
I like that she is something similar like a friend to Luna and I would totally love to see Luna acting totally happy at some point, acting like a filly because they have "some plans" for the night. I mean Luna being a bit overexcited about doing friend stuff with her new friend, having a sleepover with someone where she is really sure that they forgive her for what she did. I mean Twilight is her friend too, but you mentioned how they act around them in this story and that could make Luna feel not to close towards her.
Long story short I imaged Celestia or others having a slightly suprised/schocked expression because Luna is acting like a filly that is having a sleepover.
Now that someone mentioned it, I'm pretty curious if Dawns future close relationship with Luna could somehow affect her in a way. Maybe she get's affected by Lunas Magic for some reason, creating a bond that Twilight and Celestia doesn't have, at least not that close since Twilight can't get over the "my teacher is a holy god" way to think.
Maybe Dawn even get's to know some spells, that Celestia would never teach to Twilight because of that. I like to think that Luna likes the war a bit more and thinks she needs to be ready as well as because of the relationship I mentioned.
Read, Write, Make funny faces at the guards, Help Luna pull Pranks/Counter-Pranks on Celestia... You know, Shenanigans...
For more serious stuff, she should meet Twilight's parents, Shining and Cadance, though I'm sure you were planing something for that already. After she's had a bit more time to get used to things and adjust maybe stumble across Twilight's Canterlot friends, and after the initial shenanigans where they confuse her for her "Twin" they become friends of their own. Especially Moondancer. Then they can all have "Mares Nights Out", and just generally hang out.
ANd now you just ruined this story for me. NIGHTMARE MOON IS NOT A DEMON BUT LUNA HERSELF. THE POSSESSION WEAKNESS LUNA AS A CHARACTER. please change this.
7938908 what is perceived is different from reality. Who says that Nightmare Moon wasn't Luna? This could be a denial coping mechanism. I won't say more, but I'll just say that it isnt so simple. Sorry if it's worded oddly, but trust me.
7938817 I really appreciate that, though be careful. This story may get darker as time goes on. And sorry about that, I still need to go back and fix that
Damn..... this chapter ended with a depressive note
7939451 I'm sorry, I'll try to fix it so that you can continue reading. I'm still learning how to write, so I still have a lot to learn.
7939580 oh thanks!
actually, the griffens are soposed to be war mongering people who love rich things and dont like eachother
Damn, this was a good chapter... I like how you portrayed the Nightmare as a demon. (it's basically one of my headcanons) Though I understand that others may dislike the idea, I thought it was nice.
Honestly... this. This is upsettingly accurate.
7940474 Honestly? I had no clue. I haven't watched anything past season 3 and everything I know is mostly head canon
7941443 oh also, the magic that we see in the show, the telekinesis, thats for our (insert word hear that means so we know its happening) so what many storys have done is make it so that only humans can see magic or a trained wizard
7941546 hum....I'll think about it. Might use for a more serious story
This story is quite good, the lack of uploads is just a personal preference. ( I NEED MORE READING MATERIAL) I find it good that you have come up with a bit of an alternative to the usual Luna -> N.M. And I can't wait to see what Dawn will get up to.
Also if I should throw in my two bits on what Dawn shouldbe doing, probably something around the school. Like using her/his/it's previous experience with RPG's to think of new ways to apply magic or something...
I'm not a creative person...
Anyway love the story, see yea at the next chapter!
Damn this is good.
I think we all know how that feels
So, an headcanon exposition-heavy chapter. Not bad, not bad at all! I always like to read about others' interpretations of the events which were basically just glossed over in the show.
Well, Dawn is not alone, not really. Self-imposed loneliness maybe, but there are those (all of them so far) willing to give her (female body, I'll refer to her as such) a chance.
Now the question is... how long until her truth bursts forth?
7946816 But if that's the case with the name, then AJ's should be "Applejack Bloom".
7946836
I understand your point, but feel that I must point out two key things.
One, Belle is separated from Sweetie's name by a space, making it a second name, while Applebloom's is one name, not two.
Two, Equestrian family names seem to follow an underlying theme rather than a direct last name likes ours do. The Apple family is so named because everyone's name is apple themed or has 'apple' in the name. Twilight Sparkle's mother's name is Twilight Velvet, suggesting that names might be passed down matriarchally, which makes sense considering the ruling power in Equestria is matriarchal. As for what Twilight's official family name is, we can only guess. The Star family? The Twilight family? Who knows? It's probably something punny, considering naming conventions in Equestria for everything else. Either that or nonsensical, as shown by the existence of the city known as the Crystal Empire. Unless it has a monopoly on Crystal exports or something... *shrug*
7949161 But their parents are called 'Hondo Flanks' and 'Cookie Crumbles'. Remember not all familys name their kin with same last names or themes.
7938908 This, you and I 100% agree on and always have.
7949177
True. I think it hearkens back to the time before we ourselves had last names, and we just went by names like 'John son of John' which eventually became Johnson. And stuff like that. Some family's like the Apple family stick to a theme, while others don't. It doesn't seem like naming conventions in Equestria are a standardized practice. Who knows why? I doubt even Lauren Faust knows, since she probably just went with names that followed pre-established pony convention thanks to the previous generations.
7950608 In the end its just my opinion, they wouldn't have normal names because they're culture and believes are different, but again its an opinion.
7950640
Fair enough.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/7/7d/Fluttershy_smiling_with_eyes_closed_S5E21.png/revision/latest?cb=20151018192420
I was very disapointed how Griffon country was portrayed in the show, I wanted them based on a warrior culture, not greed. For greed we have dragons already.
Interesting retelling. Curious how Dawn's going to deal with everypony thinking she's Twilight Sparkle, or else an imposter. Especially since the EoH have only Princess Celestia (and Dawn's) word that the one with wings is the real Twilight. It's enough to cast suspicion at least...
7952032 Ironically, they've started portraying dragons as a warrior culture.
*looks at story, looks at word doc.* well there goes that ideal...
7965277 what do you mean?
7965223
Eh I just decided to not watch more episodes after the fourth season.
7966949 I've seen nothing past season 3
7966979 you should :P
7966979 Don't worry about it. Watching that much is enough to get a good feel for the show, and the rest is just details.
This story has some real potential. I wonder what'll happen next?
Hey, that's pretty good!
There's three! Ponies will start putting two and five together...
9701764
And get fish!