• Published 3rd Sep 2016
  • 1,187 Views, 113 Comments

Nightmare: An Equestrian Tragedy - Meep the Changeling



Princess Luna tells her bodyguard her life story.

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The Moon

The Moon - Countless days

The last thousand years - The Solar Era

I sat on a field of gray dust beneath a black sky, with only the palest motes of light to hint at a mere handful of stars. As if somepony had pulled a cloth over a lantern to extinguish it. The sun burned harshly overhead, showing me a strange and alien view of a dark and unpopulated world.

Over the horizon hung a blue jewel, forever out of my reach. It’s beauty kept from me by the bars of an invisible prison. A reminder of what had been taken away. A reminder of a terrible wrong where all held equal parts victim and villain.

The endless field’s size did not matter. It may as well have been a single square foot. It was more empty than a wasteland, for there was nothing here to have gone to waste.

Nothing existed here by my own anger, loneliness, and isolation. With only the rare cry for help from those I could never reach to remind me other people existed.

Though I cried out for help and in distress, none could hear me for I made no noise. Not even my connection to the Dream Realm could bring me any form of contact, though I tried to send my own waking nightmare to the few I had known and could call friend. I never knew if they heard me.


Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH

Present Day

“Woah, woah, woah! WAIT! You were alive, like living, on the moon the whole time!?” Lyra asked jaw dropping in shock and horror at Luna’s words.

“Yes. The banishment spell prevented me from leaving magically or flying back. But I was not in stasis or sent forward in time. Celestia is… Misinformed about that. And refuses to accept the truth of what she did to me,” Luna said in a matter of fact tone. “I lived each and every last day on the moon’s surface. Walking around in the burning sun. Starving but unable to die.”

“But, I… That’s horrible! How could anypony do that to anyone!? Especially their sister!” Lyra exclaimed, her face distorting in distress and alarm.

“We are thousand of years old, Lyra,” Luna sighed. “All of the tensions of three millennia were released in that single fight. Besides, after the first two centuries it wasn’t so bad.”

“Well, sure. Eventually, actual torture would just fade into background sensations,” Lyra muttered to herself.

“Actually, I was able to find some shelter after several centuries of wandering,” Luna informed casually.

“What, like, a crater or something?” Lyra asked.

Luna shook her head, “No. There are ruins…”


The Moon - Countless days

The last thousand years - The Solar Era

The ocean of gray sand stretched out forever, shining brightly but painfully, reflecting the harsh white light directly into my eyes. There was no escape from the light. It burned with a rage and hatred that was directed at me.

I wandered the blinding and burning days for an uncountable time matched only by the freezing and lightless nights. The sun was the enemy no matter where it was. Above the horizon, it burned, below the horizon and it froze. The moon held no warmth through the night, nor provided any shade.

I roamed the wastes aimlessly, only wishing to find a place away from the endless torment of the sun. Suddenly, shelter! Impossibly, something existed in this lifeless land. A metal skeleton of a four-legged beast, it’s bones covered in scraps of golden hide.

I crawled into a hole in its underbelly, it’s belly little more than an empty bowl. A space scarcely big enough to curl up in. But it was dark, and the light didn’t shine like death. It was a mercy.

With that shelter came opportunity. The Nightmare still burned within my mind. The rage and desire to kill Celestia sitting foremost in my thoughts as it always did. But sometimes, the rage would calm enough for me to think. Enough for me to plan.

If there was something constructed here, there must logically be other things too. Nature can create itself, but metal objects that seem designed to shelter ponies certainly do not. There must have been someone here who created this thing. And I would find them.

I was able to voyage out at night. I had the use of very little magic, and it would take entire days to focus enough to cast even a simple spell. But eventually, I was able to conjure a light ball. I used it to search the endless ashen wastes while the sun was away. The freezing cold was worth being able to see.

My search was futile. It never turned up a single thing. The mysterious golden skeletal ruin seemed to be the only thing there was on this world aside from myself.

Eventually, I got bored of the pattern. Hiding in a small metal bowl from the sun only to venture out into the cold, then return with nothing but the pain from the cold’s bite to show for my efforts. There was nothing but torment for me, even the bowl only shielded my eyes from the sun’s wrath. It did nothing for the searing pain.

So I left. I chose a direction at random and just walked. I didn't stop for days. I just walked in that line. Going over any obstacle in my way. Not caring how badly it slowed me down. The point wasn't to go anywhere. The point was to expend time. To try and maintain my sanity by feeling like I was doing something. Anything.

One day, in the blinding wrath of the sun, I hit something. I had hit many things before, but this was different. It was cool to the touch. Not blistering hot, not flush dropping off cold. It was cool. Pleasantly so.

I think I had a heart attack from the surprise. Because suddenly it was dark and freezing, and my chest hurt badly. Night had come, and all I had to show for it was chest pain.

Remembering the cool touch I had felt before, I timidly stretched a hoof outwards, and felt something metallic in the darkness. Running my hoof over the surface I could tell it was rectangular and set inside a cutout section of a hill.

A door. It had to be a door! That meant people! That meant companionship! That meant shelter!

I drew back my hoof and pounded on the door, I could feel myself strike it, but no sound came from the blows. In that moment I realized I had not heard a single thing for the entire time I had been on the moon. It was a terrifying experience.

Nopony came to the door.

But that made sense. Because my knocking made no sound. So how could anypony hear anything?

There was only one thing to do. Finding the edge of the door I pushed, and pulled,and heaved, eventually sliding the door open, revealing another door. Because there was light inside.

Dim, barely there, orange light. Like a dying flame.

I stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind me as I opened the second one, pleading with every bit of my heart that there would be someone on the other side.

There was not. I had not found a home. I had found a ruin. A tomb.

The space inside was large. Once sprawling, perhaps as big as the castle I had shared with my sister. But most of it was buried behind collapsed hallways. There was dust everywhere, a hoof deep in fact. I never found any bodies. This place had been abandoned for more time than I could comprehend.

But it was away from the evil sun. It was pleasantly cool. And though the lights died completely a short time after I found it, it stayed cool. I believed most ponies would consider it to be a prison cell, the one habitable place made into an isolation room by the deadly heat and cold outside.

But not me. It was such a relief to not be burning or freezing that it felt like home. I couldn’t see anything in the inky blackness after the lights died, so the confines of that tomb of an unknown people became oddly nostalgic and comforting. I felt safe there.

It’s a pity that without the sun, I had no idea how long I remained in the dark, starving but unable to die...


Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH

Present Day

“And that’s basically how I spent the last two hundred years until the spell ended and I felt myself ripped back to Equestria,” Luna finished. “Shelter found, but still suffering permanent hunger pains. But I did manage to fix a few things up for comfort’s sake. Though I was still very much enraged to the point of white hot fury the entire time… And soul-crushingly alone… And in despair about that… Ever been enraged and despair at the same time? It really hurts your brain.”

Lyra bit her lip, clearly holding back a million questions. The torrent of curiosity only held back out of respect for her friend and leader, not wanting to turn the mare opening up about her banishment into a data mine for her own hobbies.

“I… Um…” Lyra stammered. “I think you really, really need a special somepony. I mean shit, you deserve some motherbucking comfort and love after that!”

Luna nodded slowly, a sigh accompanying the gesture. “I would like one. But we can’t always have what we want. Perhaps I will have somepony someday. But in the meantime, I do have some good friends.”

Lyra nodded firmly. “Damn right you do!” she exclaimed as she gently pulled Luna onto her hooves. “Which is why we're not going to sit in an empty courtroom and mope anymore. We're going out and having some fun.”

Lyra quickly shifted position, setting her shoulder against Luna’s left Flank and pushing her along the floor towards the door. “Come on! Enough depression for one day,” she said adamantly.

Luna laughed, a genuine heartfelt sound of happiness. “Lyra, talking about this is enough to make me sad, but you will never begin to fathom how high my bar for ‘depressing’ has been set. Let’s go, I’ll buy the snacks.”

The two mares walked out of the courtroom, heading for one of the brighter pockets in the dark of the night.

Author's Note:

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Comments ( 71 )

Annnnnnd, done... HURRRRK! :pinkiegasp:

Nope, just done, enjoy. Or you know, not enjoy. I mean like, enjoy the non joy. I mean...


Never fucking mind... :facehoof:

Celestia is… Misinformed about that. And refuses to accept the truth of what she did to me,

Maybe this is my constant urge to "Twist the knife", but I'd have told her.
In excruciating detail.
People deserve to know the consequences of their actions.

7536412
Yaaaayyyyyy I have the Meep Stamp of Approval to be a manipulative cunt.

7535990 If ponies were alicorns, no government would be necessary; if alicorns were to govern ponies, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by ponies over ponies, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. {grin}

Corporations are no different in substance or content from government; they are both constructs of law and custom which people use in different ways to regulate their economic relations in different ways in different contexts. It is the scale and that context which is important. Extinguish the name "corporation" and your government officials will double the offenses whose commission offends your sense of justice and fairness under the name corporation, because those offenses will be committed not in the name of profit and self-interest, but rather virtue and public interest. Good-cause corruption and lack of personal interest in outcomes always, in the total balance of outcomes, produces inequity and outrages in greater numbers than lowly self-interest and the metric of competition. The vast sum of outrages produced by great corporations are those generated by the structural resemblance of those great corporations to pseudo-government, motivated by virtue-signaling and wish to be loved rather than financially rewarded, rather than those aspects generated by those great corporations' often tenuous connection to the free market. Too many great corporations are themselves pseudo-governmental bureaucratic masses of cogs geared to turn in unison with similarly geared governmental bureaucratic masses, all of them soulless and careless of the ponies caught within the gears, and even, the ponies making up the gears.

The last thing we need are more masses of gears, and the basic income concept makes of all ponies, gears properly toothed for turning in the great machine. The Friedmanites propose the basic income because they feel that the welfare state has already made of ponies ill-fitting gears undesigned, and propose to reduce the stripping of teeth in the great machine by gearing the machine in limited and simplified ways. They're wrong because their proposals will never replace the existing gearing, but simply introduce new competing cogs within the already-taxed machine, rather than retiring the old mangling gearwork. Likewise their new simplified gearwork even if it were to replace the old cogs, would only intensify the great inequitable sorting of talent and energy, by reducing if not eliminating the great principle of competition within the dependent classes.

7536582 Okay, let's break this down from your wall of psuedo-legalese.

If ponies were alicorns, no government would be necessary;

Not true. If all were alicorns they would have vastly reduced needs, this is true. However, they would still have their own desires and boredom setting in across the ages. Organization of some kind (i.e. some form of government) would be necessary to maintain balance.

if alicorns were to govern ponies, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

I think Celestia puts the lie to that statement quite nicely.

and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

No government will control itself, because living creatures are inherently untrustworthy. They will always seek to harm others to put themselves forward. This is far less common with ponies, but the people that would seek governmental positions are the ones that would exploit the powers and privileges of the position.

Corporations are no different in substance....even, the ponies making up the gears.

This entire paragraph is so densely packed with deliberately oblique verbage and what looks at first like purple prose that your intent to paint corporations as a good and needful thing is almost lost. Corporations are, by their nature, run by greedy, self-serving, and evil people. They are designed to enrich their executives while paying their employees as little as possible, to thus increase the wealth of the already rich and reduce the wealth of those struggling.

They're wrong because their proposals will never replace the existing gearing, but simply introduce new competing cogs within the already-taxed machine, rather than retiring the old mangling gearwork.

And this is why the machine in-whole needs be torn down and built anew.

the great principle of competition within the dependent classes.

Except that you are demonstrably wrong here. There is already little to no competition. Corporations will cooperate to screw over the populace as much as they possibly can to rake in the greatest profit. Rather than compete, they collaborate to deliberately raise prices across the board.

I'm honestly not sure where your rhetoric comes from, as that is what it is: rhetoric without substance. A basic income would produce issues with most current governments, perhaps, because they're already run by the rich and greedy. It would undermine the 'screw everyone else' mindset of most corporations, as well, and because it would hinder the already wealthy by allowing those struggling to be able to focus on bettering themselves or allowing them to leave a job where they are treated terribly without worry, is why those same money-grubbing executives will throw millions of dollars into trying to ensure it can never happen and/or trying to convince people that it is something that they don't want.

7536694 The first part was an extended ponification of the famous bit from The Federalist 51 which starts "If men were angels" etc etc and is quoted in pretty much every political science discussion of balance of powers. I was trying to be funny, and ironic.

And if you think that all corporate officers are evil capitalist orcs, greed-addled monsters with bank vaults where their souls ought to be... well that hurts them in their weepy, bleeding hearts, and you could probably shake some cash out of their charity budgets. I'm often surprised by the ways that the liberal guilt of corporate officers and the principal-agent conundrum collude in the big corporations funding their fiercest critics. And genuinely sickened by the well-intentioned horrors the big corporate foundations - the Ford Foundation primarily, but the Rockefeller foundations as well - have inflicted upon the inner cities and the Third World abroad. Good intentions have a higher body-count than the cholera.

Ri2

So...the basic lesson I got from this was that everything is Celestia's fault and she hasn't learned anything so what's to stop this from happening again?

7538024 Nothing. Because that's Tia's fault, she rarely sees anything as her mistake and blames the error on anything else.

7538043 Huh, a DEVO song I didn't know about. High five there, mate.

Ri2

7538092 And is anything going to be done to CHANGE this? Ever?

7538120 Of course. You dont establish a problem in the world when writing a story without intending fixing it.

Ri2

7538124 I dunno, seen plenty of worlds that have huge problems with them that are never, ever fixed. They are sad worlds.

Ri2

7538140
7534450 Shortskirtsandexplosions is a bad author?

7538147 If you introduce a conflict that would make for an interesting story and never resolved it, you certainly loose good author points. You can still be good, but you're not as good as you could be. I'm certainly guilty of this one myself in a few places, but I assure you, this one has been set up to be resolved.

Ri2

7538198 That's good

Excellent story as usual.

Can't say that I enjoyed this one, Meep, it was pretty much everything I can't stand about how the fandom fetishizes Luna wrapped up in a neat little package. Basically, Luna is correct about everything, when she isn't we can see from Lyra's reactions that she really was correct and she's just being too humble about it, the whole Nightmare Moon event was just her trying to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and Celestia is a worse pony than her sister in every single way that matters (uses evil mind magic liberally, manipulates her sister, manipulates Twilight, has been steering Equestria down a worse and worse path since its founding, never ever admits a personal fault or failing, it just kept going on and on). It pretty much hit every single mark about how Luna is Good and Celestia is Bad. I have seen them in so many stories, though probably not so efficiently collected up.

The only thing that could recover this for me is if all of the above is because Luna is the one telling the story, and that she's terrible at recounting events without letting her personal biases leak in all over the place.

But hey, I liked the dream magic worldbuilding, so there's that.

7541115 I

t pretty much hit every single mark about how Luna is Good and Celestia is Bad. I have seen them in so many stories, though probably not so efficiently collected up. ... The only thing that could recover this for me is if all of the above is because Luna is the one telling the story, and that she's terrible at recounting events without letting her personal biases leak in all over the place.

If I did Celestia's side of the story (and I just might) it would come across as exactly the same, but with Celestia appearing as the good one. The point of the whole thing is that no one sees themselves as evil. Well, no sane person. Yeah, Celestia does use mind control and approves it's use by the state (and I see that as evil) but she has her own reasons and justifications for it which ,well some are quite compelling. And well, Luna didn't mention too much about things she did back in the day, now did she? She in fact DID cause some pretty horrible things to happen, sometimes by direct order.

Luna's quick to use a bomb when a scalpel would have sufficed, favoring scorched earth policies to be triply sure. But she sees that as good, so of course she won't mention it. She's talking about the BAD parts of the old day. Ask her about the good and she might talk about the time she had her troops literally level a Diamond Dog city in retaliation for them torching a trade caravan and not recognizing Equestrian clais to their ancestral lands because... well the Dogs were there first. (They once had a City State rather than disorganized clans of murder hobos. Oh and they weren't always slavers... Though they would eat captives cus hey, carnivores gonna carnivore.) Luna's proud of that one. Her only regret is some of the Dogs escaped. Which is where the modern tribes come from.

Remember, Luna IS the war general of what is in everything but name an Empire comparable to Rome, and has been alive since it's beginnings. Her hooves are as dirty as her sisters. But of course she won't see it that way. Because everyone sees themselves under their own bias and Luna has only once broken her own moral code (when she attacked family).

But hey, I liked the dream magic worldbuilding, so there's that.

I had to toss something in there for the sake of world building fans :) I mostly wrote this one because I wanted to do a historical story and the idea to establish these events wouldn't leave my head.

I think you'll like what's up next on my to do list though. Back to changebugs and character driven storytelling.

Wow so many questions and comments for this one.
1. Is this story of Luna the one for all of your universes or is just the one Human Lyra visited where she met Luna when she was still a blind knight?
2. Why are there not more alicorns, if the spell was that simple? Also how did Cadence and Twilight do it? (for this universe) If so easy there should be more like the mane 5 for instance. Please don't hate me. just saying.
3. I am glad that you portrayed alicorns, in general, as powerful near immortal mages and not goddesses. They are far too flawed (in official cannon even) to be divine (maybe Greek god at best) and they didn't create ponies or anything else for that matter and are still very finite. Also, I am pretty sure a properly placed sword would kill them
4. Luna and Celestia sure have a lot of issues to still resolve. I wonder if Celestia feels even a smidgen of remorse for what she put Luna through?
5. Finally, as it was never confirmed at least for me as a technical reader, what did the Elements do to Luna when the Mane 6 used them upon her? Has she been partially mind controlled and is somehow aware of it. If so that is truly monstrous.

Good story overall. A- The later resolution of the story may change this grade.


Not that this is something that I usually discuss on a pony site but if you really think that all competition is evil and we should remake our government into some sort of Utopia I think you should watch this first.

7536694


But I do agree that much of Western society has been corrupted and is no longer capitalism but crapitalism. Special loop holes in the tax code for certain corporations and "too big to fail" are wrong because they are collusion and prevent true competition unfortunately the power of government is what made the present paradigm and only the power of government can unmake it.

7544797

Wow so many questions and comments for this one.

I'll do my best to answer them all :)

1. Is this story of Luna the one for all of your universes or is just the one Human Lyra visited where she met Luna when she was still a blind knight?

This is Beta's Luna. SO yes, the one Human Lyra visited.

2. Why are there not more alicorns, if the spell was that simple? Also how did Cadence and Twilight do it? (for this universe) If so easy there should be more like the mane 5 for instance. Please don't hate me. just saying.

The spell is NOT simple. It's very complicated, but Clover was capable of casting it (Starswirl was not). Cadence is a freak accident, she triggered a contingency plan Clover left behind by accident. Twilight Managed to work out the rest of the spell from the fragment Starswirl had recreated from memory in his journal (Celestia eventually asked him if he could remake it) and was able to cast it because she's that damn good.

3. I am glad that you portrayed alicorns, in general, as powerful near immortal mages and not goddesses. They are far too flawed (in official cannon even) to be divine (maybe Greek god at best) and they didn't create ponies or anything else for that matter and are still very finite. Also, I am pretty sure a properly placed sword would kill them

While personally I think the cannon Alicorns are best described as Greek Gods (Because well, they basicaly are. Even in behavior and moral ambiguity.) I prefer the immortal mage interpretation much much better. They are ageless, hard to put down in that they regenerate slowly (Twilight could grow back a leg in a few months.) and are immune to disease (at least natural ones), but a sword through the heart will still kill them. Ageless yes, immortal no.

4. Luna and Celestia sure have a lot of issues to still resolve. I wonder if Celestia feels even a smidgen of remorse for what she put Luna through?

I'm thinking about a sequel where Lyra askes Celestia for her side of it recognizing that Luna is a biased source. But incase I don't do that:
Celestia regrets her actions immensely, even though she refuses to believe Luna was concious and suffering unimaginable hell for the whole time. Her mind can't accept that she did that to her sister. None the less, she honestly truly hated every day of it. They have real problems, like any siblings will (especially as they get older) but they are still sisters. They give a fuck about each other even as they fight and squabble.

5. Finally, as it was never confirmed at least for me as a technical reader, what did the Elements do to Luna when the Mane 6 used them upon her? Has she been partially mind controlled and is somehow aware of it. If so that is truly monstrous.

Twilight's first use of the Elements was much like Celesitas, she had no idea she could control the results. The most recent thought in Twilights mind was 'friendship is magic', and so the Elements gave Celestia and Luna a chance to be friendly with one another again.

Good story overall. A- The later resolution of the story may change this grade.

Thansk for the high grade ^^

As for your other comment:

Not that this is something that I usually discuss on a pony site but if you really think that all competition is evil and we should remake our government into some sort of Utopia I think you should watch this first.

That's not remotely what I think. While we certainly could use social safety nets and honestly with the upcoming robotics revolution as most of the capitalist ideas will soon to begin to break down so we should be working on a plan for those not so distant days, I firmly believe that for humans, competition is nessicary for innovation to progress at a rapid rate. I also believe that a government's duty is to make sure the lives of its citizens are as prosperous as possible, which means we do need some reform to reach that ideal. The notion of what a government is is outdated and should evolve to fit the modern world. We can be more than our ancestors were, if we only try.
But I'm not a radical or anything. I'm just someone who says we could do better than we are now, which isn't half bad all things considered.

7544880 the last comment about economics was not directed at you Meep but to the other commenter.

7544892 Oh. Well, my mistake then. I hope I didn't offend you.

7544899 Not at all. I was probably unclear in the other comment due to being online at 4 am and not in bed. lol

7544880

The spell is NOT simple. It's very complicated, but Clover was capable of casting it (Starswirl was not). Cadence is a freak accident, she triggered a contingency plan Clover left behind by accident. Twilight Managed to work out the rest of the spell from the fragment Starswirl had recreated from memory in his journal (Celestia eventually asked him if he could remake it) and was able to cast it because she's that damn good.

This presents two questions:
1. Why were the elements necessary for it then as they spell was first used before the elements were found?
2. Could she not then cast it again on another as Luna obviously didn't cast it upon herself?

7536843

I was trying to be funny, and ironic.

Well, in that case I apologize for my own bout of choler there. That overly pretentious, oblique legalese crap just really bugs me. If one has a point, they should be able to make that point and support it in terminology that is easily understood by the layman, because otherwise they come off as being duplicitous.

I'm often surprised by the ways that the liberal guilt of corporate officers and the principal-agent conundrum collude in the big corporations funding their fiercest critics. And genuinely sickened by the well-intentioned horrors the big corporate foundations - the Ford Foundation primarily, but the Rockefeller foundations as well - have inflicted upon the inner cities and the Third World abroad. Good intentions have a higher body-count than the cholera.

Indeed, good intentions likely have the highest body count in history. I know for a certainty that there are some very few corporate officers, even a couple CEOs, that are decent beings....but the vast majority really are just using those charity budgets to dodge taxes and to try to make themselves look like they are trying to be decent and helpful. It is a quiet minority that are actually decent beings. The majority are the sorts you hear about on the news. Still....at least they are more honest than politicians.

7544831

but if you really think that all competition is evil and we should remake our government into some sort of Utopia

Oh hell no, competition is great for the people and for the companies. The problem is that we no longer really have much competition and instead have collusion to maximize profit. And no government can produce a utopia, but we certainly can do better. Corporations being marked as 'too big to allow to fail' and how much of a financial stranglehold they have on our government makes it beyond untenable.
A perfect government is simply impossible. A better government is not. There are a couple things that should change to fix that for us. Things like utility companies should not be privately owned. Power, water, sewage, and now basic internet service as of the last decade or so, these are absolute necessities and should be controlled by the federal government because having them as private corporations allows them to do some heinous crap. One example is NV Energy in Nevada where I live. Because we installed solar panels last year, NV Energy hits my family with a bunch of extra fees and in total we end up paying more than we were without solar panels, and NV Energy has paid off the state legislature to keep blocking and/or ignoring any petitions or legislation to get this stopped.

7545645

1. Why were the elements necessary for it then as they spell was first used before the elements were found?

Because Starswirl's redesign attempts to use the Elements as a sort of 'lense' to focus the spell. He was trying to make a version he could cast after all and as he couldn't cast the original he tried to basically make the Elements a part of it so as to be able to use it. Since you know, the Elements already can basically grant a wish when activated.

2. Could she not then cast it again on another as Luna obviously didn't cast it upon herself?

Yes she could. BUT there are two hurdles. 1 Whoever you use it on will live forever and that is something to majorly consider. 2 turns out it won't work on everypony. Even CLover's original spell will only work on a specific kind of person. The sort it calls for needs to have a large amount of drive and passion for something, among other still unknown traits. It's estimated that about 30% of ponies could be made into Alicorns.

Which makes sense if you think about it. Clover rushed the spell out as a weapon during wartime. She never really had time to correct its flaws before Discord showed up and she subsequently died.

7545892 ok cool makes sense. So in theory the other mane 5 could be, I am just thinking that due to the need for a national super weapon ie the rainbow power it may be necessary for the defense of Equestria for the other elements to ascend.

7545818

There are a couple things that should change to fix that for us. Things like utility companies should not be privately owned. Power, water, sewage, and now basic internet service as of the last decade or so, these are absolute necessities and should be controlled by the federal government because having them as private corporations allows them to do some heinous crap. One example is NV Energy in Nevada where I live. Because we installed solar panels last year, NV Energy hits my family with a bunch of extra fees and in total we end up paying more than we were without solar panels, and NV Energy has paid off the state legislature to keep blocking and/or ignoring any petitions or legislation to get this stopped.

I am not sure I agree with that on the utilities. I live in Texas and I was living a region that was run buy a single corporate provider. We were paying about 10 cents per KWH then we moved to a new region of the state that has a city run electric service. My electricity rate went up to 13 cents per KWH. In contrast, i went to school in Houston where there are hundreds of electricity providers due to deregulation of the service in most areas of the state save for some smaller towns. I was paying 8 cents per KWH and I went and checked the rates due the lower price of natural gas and found that it now only costs 6 cents per KWH in Houston. This was due to competition. Your above example sounds like a monopoly that is being enforced with the power of government as all true monopolies are. If you only have one choice of provider it doesn't matter if it is run by the government or a corporation; it is still a monopoly and you will get screwed.

7546301 Personally, I think you should be paying no cents per kilowatt hour, and that taxes should fund ALL electrical power period. We also should stop dicking around with coal, construct new modern thorium-based nuclear reactors, and update our aging and decaying grid. In the modern world, it's not possible for a person to function without power. As such, it should not legally allowed to be a commodity.

7546281 They probably could. But even if they didn't they are no longer normal ponies. I see them as having become avatars of the virtues they represent. Literally. Because well, they are now linked to the Elements and the Tree of harmony in an intrinsic way which seems to let them just sort of channel the element's power directly without the artifacts. Implying they now hold the power themselves. ANd under fantasy trope law, that means they don't age for as long as they have the Rainbow Power.

So in a way, they've already ascended.

7546505 oh so they are demi-alicorns. lol

7546505 Well I agree with you on thorium and fusion long term and a new grid. But I don't see how it cannot be treated as a commodity from a logistical perspective. If I were a czar and could just it. I would start a non-profit independent group who whole purpose is lay down the infrastructure for all electrical service. There is little to no force for competition to benefit the consumer in infrastructure. I would make it a small flat fee that everyone has to pay for their power bill that goes to infrastructure only. But the power generation and consumption. I would leave to the private sector so as to allow as many competitors as possible. As for people who cannot even afford the basic service. I would lead an effort to form charity groups to help those in great need. This way the price is as low as possible while there is still something for the destitute.

7546569 Thing is though, when a resource is actually REQUIRED for your civilization to function, it shouldn't be left up to businesses. Hell businesses would probably love power being paid for via taxes. They might even pay some god damn taxes for a change if you know, paying taxes had kickbacks for them.

Frankly, power, basic shelter (we're talking like tiny studio apartment here), basic food (Not all food, just the bare minimum bland sustenance only type), and water would benefit civilization far more as tax provided goods than as capitalist business plans. I'd be willing to add basic internet service to that list within a few more years too. See, if human survival is not at all dependant on one's personal income that frees humans up to spend more on things they actually enjoy. If you can't see how "I can just skip buying fancy food this month and be able to afford a new truck." isn't amazingly beneficial to the economy, you need to look a bit harder.

We could easily guarantee the survival of all American Citizens as a simple right of citizenship. And the direct result would be a massive greed boost to the economy. No need to spend 1/3rd of your cash on food, let's get a nice house this year! No need to worry about heating and gas bills, let's just get electric systems installed to save money in the long run. There is so much to gain by making survival not a personal responsibility but a right. It would be the biggest economic boom our nation has ever seen.

7546594 Well I simply lack the faith, that you seem to have, in the government, that it can do anything efficiently. All humans are motivated by self interest and only competition forces people to do offer a service for less. Also who would pay for all of this. We already cannot support our current welfare state and you are proposing to add more. Even if you took all of the income (ie 100% taxation of the top) 1% you would only get around $800 meaning the middle class would yet again have to fill in the slack. The providers of these basic needs would become rich by milking the government. Another great example of this is student loans. With guaranteed student loans from the government tuition rates have been going up at a rate 4 times that of inflation for the past decade. Not everyone needs to go to college there is a great shortage of tradesmen in this country. Welders make much better money than many people with a degree after all. With the unlimited demand of guaranteed loans the prices naturally go sky high and we get water parks at universities instead of more lecture halls and instructors. The same would naturally happen to many of these goods and services that the government would then provide for everyone else. Yes certain segments of the economy would grow but others would be heavily damaged. It simply comes down in many ways to a choice between freedom and fairness. I always choose freedom personally because I don't want some bureaucrat deciding what is fair for my life or anyone else's for that matter.

7546833 Faith? In these assholes? XD Nah, I don't. I'm just thinking of how we could build a new gov once this one implodes like it seems to be starting to do.

Ri2

7538198 On the other hand, something occurs to me. If Celestia is really as blind, naive, self-centered, and incompetent as Luna says, how has the nation not disintegrated by now? It's been a thousand years.

7549166 She isn't. She's not perfect, but she is very good at keeping systems running.

Ri2

7549188 She's managed to keep a system this bad running for a thousand years, without acknowledging it sucks? How deep in denial is she?

7556343 How is it a bad system? The peasantry are happy, good quality lives as possible, poverty is almost nonexistant... Sure the nobility can control lower stations lives to a medium-high extent, but again, the average pony is happy, decently fed, and not living in a polluted hellhole or a warzone. That's not a bad government at all. Could it be better? Sure. Every system could be improved dramatically.

Ri2

7556843 Er...then what was Luna complaining about again?

7556869 The fact that the nobility are not under greater control, and the fact that she didn't get to shape the nation to her desires. Whether or not these are valid complaints are up to you. You are hearing the story from Luna, and she is naturally biased for this topic.

Ri2

7556882 This is true.

7701744 And just think... Celestia has no idea what's outside that small semi-stable patch of Tartarus she found...

7701803 Celestia's biggest problem pre-banishing her sister was her moral stance was 100% unflexible. A few centuries of guilt changed that.

As for the commoners, well, that's what happens to a people so well protected from reality that they have never seen violence in their life. There is such a thing as "too sheltered for your own good". You reach that point when you decide that all of ____ is bad despite the fact that you also need to use a little ____ yourself to keep the world running smoothly.

Well, I can't say that I wasn't entirely not expecting this outcome. When it comes to Luna's banishment, I would say that there's only two real possibilities-either a type of stasis or she endured every waking moment on the moon.

Although, I have to wonder how much of Luna's current personality is the result of the elements reconstructing or pulling her from insanity. I say this because, as Nightmare Moon, a thousand years spent alone on the moon under the conditions she was in would likely drive most minds insane, and the ones that aren't driven insane are likely not very close to a human mindset to begin with (saying this as a reader-in universe it would be pony mindset). Of course, Celestia has no problem with this, considering her love of mind altering magics.

I have to wonder how this Celestia would respond to encountering a villain that, while beatable, is immune to any and all attempts to "reform" its mind. Even the elements of Harmony would only depower it-its mindset is still the same.

Overall? I really liked this fic. It was relatively short and to the point-other people have written much longer fics on this same subject, the world building was superb as always, and the characters felt real and three dimensional to me.

That being said, I'm surprised Lyra didn't ask more about the shelters Luna discovered-sure she just found out Luna was actively awake for all of that, but at the same time I'd expect more curiosity from her, especially if this Lyra is a human relic/just human hunting fanatic from Lyra 7%-she has to have read or contemplated conspiracies that the humans left for the moon at some point. Hell, even if she wasn't obsessed with humans, the knowledge that some beings were able to reach the moon at all should have provoked a few curious questions.

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