Three months have come and gone since her freedom from the Nightmare, and in that time, she has done much learning. Learning of the new world around her, and what wonders a far more modern Equestria brings. With all light comes darkness; she of all knows this well. The texts she spends time flipping through often do tell of dark, unpleasant things, but all have seemed to be in the past.
Venturing into the world around her, spending nights high in the skies over cities and walking down long town roads, she is quick to discover the present holds its own secrets. In the shadows of accomplishment hides a beast which she is determined to slay.
Great thanks to those who have helped make this story possible:
Matthewl419
Empty Shelf
Ice Star
kalash93
Chapters (11)
First >:)
8669626
REE
8669676
Third.
8669894
Thanks a bunch! I hate to self-promo like this, but if you'd like to know exactly when I publish new chapters, and if you'd like to see progress reports and even future stories, give my page a follow!
I didn't get to 200 followers by NOT doing that, ya know?
Well, it's starting to sound like a case of paranoid schizophrenia.
8669933
That's what one would think.
8670048
Or, possibly, it's something entirely different! We'll just have to find out...
The waitress is a very interesting character. I like where you're going with this.
8670193
Glad you do! I'll be releasing chapter 2 shortly, but not as quick as I otherwise would thanks to the fact I'm doing a bit of a re-write on it. Keep your eyes out, though!
New Story!
A misterious voice talking to a paranoid pony? An asylum that doesn't sound to be a nice place to stay?
I sense that this story is going to have a bit of suspense and perhaps horror.
I'll see how thing will actually play out.
8675816
you've become strangely adept at predicting my stories.
8675939
lol What? Seriously? I guess I've become too genre savvy for my own good.
8676042
You have read literally every single story I've ever put out ever, so I suppose it makes sense.
Another superb chapter. As expected, to be entirely honest.
Quick question: Have you already written a few chapters ahead and are posting these on a schedule, or are you writing according a plan and just releasing chapters whenever?
Edit:
Without a doubt my favorite part.
8690671
Thus far, I had this chapter, plus 3 and 4 totally written. I wanted to get a good feel for the story before publishing anything, that way I could make sure everything was good. Chapter 2, though, underwent a few re-writes before being ready.
Also, glad to hear you like things thus far! I'm glad to see I've set the bar high, and manage to keep myself at that bar.
This is quite interesting, I look forward to the investigations results.
Afterall, it seems Luna was the only one who could fix the mad ages past, let alone knew what was wrong/that they even could be fixed.
Mental Health is seriously stigmatized, feared, and underfunded. The staff are trying their best to care for the patients, but they lack Luna's experience, abilities, and insight.
They've been trying for a thousand years to manage the symptoms as best they can, with no idea the cure was locked away in the moon. Now the cure is back and is back and she's saying "What the hell have you been doing you incompetent morons?! You can just fix them by doing X, Y, and Z, obviously! All this is useless at best, and actively harmful in the rest of the cases!"
Though I agree wholeheartedly that the stark difference in quality between the staff and patient areas is evidence of a serious underlying issue: more welcoming and friendly environments have been proven to aid in mental health and stress-reduction, (though ponies may just be 50-100 years behind us on that subject. After all, our stereotypical image of insane asylums exists for a reason, it was true once.) something that should be at the very least of equal importance for patients as it is for staff, if not the most important aspect of treatment after only medication, counseling, and/or behavioral therapy.
8690846
Someone's starting to catch onto what I'm putting down.
Hmmm...
I mean, I know that all/most of the 'injustices' Luna is seeing are rooted strongly in pure practicality, budgetary constraints, and logistics, so her seeming assumptions that they are unjust are somewhat wrong, but...
...You also generally need an outside eye to see things clearly, an idealist to think of how things should be, not how they are or how they must be.
Luna raises good points precisely because "she doesn't know what she's talking about." She doesn't know the history and reasons they arrived at this point, so she's not rationalizing them away as "necessary." She's not unlike a precocious child who interrupts an adults conversation because something that was just said seems fundamentally wrong to them, but she's also way more experienced, older, and generally wiser and more insightful than any "adult."
I just hope she manages to improve things without completely destroying well-meaning people who have been helping the best way they know how or by completely disassembling a semi-functional system to replace it with an unproven, naive, and potentially disastrous new one.
(I'm 100% fine with purging the actually corrupt, malicious, or fraudulent, mind.)
So I'm torn between wanting her to tear it all out and start afresh, or for her to learn of the sheer horrors and struggles of bureaucracy and administering public services in a large country numbering in the hundreds of thousands, or (hopefully) find a good middle ground between the two.
8705522
I thank you for the comment, but I have a question that I hope doesn't sound too... rude. What do the things you mentioned have to do with this exact chapter? I'm a bit confused is all, because this chapter is entirely about Cirrus Wisp. Your current comment seems to fit a lot better with the previous chapter.
8705556
Eh, mostly a continuation on that triggered by Luna's befuddlement and comments on the need to pay for electricity, as a further sign of the same mindset that led her to her current efforts regarding the mental health system and the actions of last chapter.
8705596
Ah, that makes much more sense now!
I don't really know what to say, either Luna is right and something big is going on or she's wrong and her well-intended actions will have negative consequences. Or maybe a bit of both.
I do have to say, withholding what Luna is doing behind Celestia's back will probably bite her in the flank later.
8721456
It's sort of funny... When you say she's either right or wrong is a question I still haven't answered myself. This story could go either way, and I still don't know which way I want it to.
8669626
Not if I can help it! To the T.A.R.D.I.S!
[Doctor Who theme]
Fuck me I've been busy
. I'm writing up a quickie review of what you have thus far to make up for being derrelict in my duties. I promise I'll be on tonight to talk shop with you, my dude. :)
8768219
Sounds good! i'll certainly be on.
Why do only some of your stories have the "Nº" in the chapter title?
8993740
Stylistic choice.
Nice moment of wisdom from Luna. Very well done.
Man i love the way you write Luna. On one hand wise, mysterious, and compassionate, but on the other awkward, unsettling, and kind of a hardass. Its hard to describe, but awesome.
9000214
Well, thank you! I'm joyed to hear you've enjoyed things thus far.
I do gotta ask, I've never seen you comment before, and I don't think you're a follower of mine; how'd you find the fic?
9000226
To be honest I don’t remember. I think it was in the feature box for a micro second or something.
9003894
Yeah, everytime I push an update it gets put in the lower three spots. Never stays long thanks to low reader count and the sheer number of updated stories.
I am sincerely loving this story so far. I dearly hope Luna will find a way to heal or at least help everypony imprisoned.
9042515
Well, thank you so much for reading! I've never seen you comment before; are you a new reader, or just been silent thus far?
9042526
Just silent thus far.
"Ah dear sister let us introduce the crack into which so many of our subjects hath fallen. Tis truly an oubliette, forasmuch care it holds he ponies there soon find them selves adrift in darkness"
any story about a mental health facility needs to use the word oubliette at least once the "little place of forgetting" is just to on the nose not to use.
as a side bar the largest mental health facility in the us on any given day is cook county jail, Rikers Island, Los Angeles County jail or Harris County Jail
9043010
Is that line from a story or did you cook it up on the fly? Either way, this is a word I didn't know existed and is a word I shall eventually employ.
9043122
off the cuff take it if you want it
9043434
That's the one
Super intriguing, each chapter leaves me wanting to know more about your world.
9069113
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying this tale thus far!
Alas! I am up to date and thoroughly intreagued!
9099569
That's awesome, because despite my previous blog I am actually working on chapter 8! Hopefully it'll be out in the next damn eon.
A little late to this party, but I like how this starts. An interesting mystery you've got going on here.
Curiosities abound! Still liking this, and the ramp up is to a tee, here.
Real quick, though: it's "'tis" and "'twas," not "t'is" and "t'was." The apostrophe substitutes for the dropped letter, not the space between conjoined words—take "wouldn't" for example.