Chap. 8 - Epilogue Luna's Children
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Epilogue
--Georg (Editing by AlicornPriest)
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
"A Dream Within A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe
Dawn after the Grand Galloping Gala was supposed to be a time of peaceful contemplation, where the movers and shakers of Equestrian society considered their place in the upcoming year and the endless cycle of seasons. Mostly they just slept in, except those who were tiphooving out of strange bedrooms and going home.
The castle of Canterlot was no exception; the servants had all been given time off since they had mostly been up all night either cleaning up or engaged in wayward creature collecting, Princess Luna had been seen going into her bedroom just after dawn, and Princess Celestia made no secret of the fact that once the sun was properly up, she was going to sleep until noon and anypony who woke her up early would find themselves counting penguins for the rest of their lives. Just to be careful, and in the rare event he were to wake before noon, Prince Blueblood’s guards ‘accidentally’ lost the keys to his door. And wedged it shut.
And so in the hour after sunrise, the castle was a very quiet place indeed.
Too quiet.
In the Royal Tower, on the floor below the Royal Bedchambers, it was even quieter. And in the silence, the door to the stairwell silently opened, and Princess Celestia delicately stepped into the corridor, her hoofsteps silenced by a double-pair of white socks. A shadow moving down the hallway would have made more noise, and certainly would not have accumulated the number of bat-winged shadowy guardians that whispered silently along in her wake. She glided up to what appeared to be just another door in the Royal Storerooms and stopped to listen to the words that trickled out into the corridor interspaced with sobs.
“....was wrong...” “....needs you...” “.....home....again...” “...Please...” “...not queen...”
With a click that sounded like an explosion in the silent corridors, the door to the store room swung open.
“Hello, Laminia.”
The Night Pegasus huddled miserably on top of a crate twitched at the mention of her name but did not respond to the Princess.
“My sister is not in the bedroom above you this morning. One of our servants with an illusion spell has taken her place. Your words...fall upon deaf ears.”
Laminia flinched as if she had been stabbed. “You...knew?”
“Not until just now. I had hoped that you would trust me. Why did you not tell me?” Celestia’s eyes lowered with disappointment, every hour of sleeplessness she had suffered in the past month plainly written on her immortal face.
The bedraggled Night Pegasus drew herself up on her hooves, and crawled down to the floor from her crate. “I...wanted to. When I saw how much pain she was in after the fitting room, and at the Gala. I...never meant to hurt her!”
Fire seemed to fill the Night Pegasus mare as she straightened up and looked away to a vision only she could see. “I was raised all my life on the stories of the Tradition, about our Immortal Queen of the Night, who would one day return in glory and power to create a perfect world. A fable. A tale told to foals. A glorious dream every night, a defense against the hatred and bigotry of Canterlot ponies who despise us, even though none remember what our kind did to them! And then one glorious day, she returned!”
The mare crumpled onto the cold storeroom floor and her voice fell to a whisper. “She returned. As a powerless child, frightened of every shadow. A foal who made a mockery of every Tradition we held.”
“We must give her time to heal. She is my sister, and I love her very much. I will always be there for her.”
“Can’t you see!” As the Night Pegasus mare leapt to her hooves and advanced on Princess Celestia, the Night Guard came closer to protect their Princess. “She can’t accept you! You’re so perfect, it makes her feel so flawed! I know how she feels!” Laminia screamed as she walked, ending up within touching distance of Princess Celestia. “Why can’t you JUST...BE...ANGRY...AT HER!” Tears of despair streaming from the Night Pegasus mare blinded her as Celestia motioned to the Night Guard to stay back. “TELL ME!”
The Princess lowered her head, and Laminia was shocked as a tear from the Princess dropped to the floor to merge with hers. “I was angry with her, far more angry than you will ever know. For a time. But I realized that if I were to carry that anger with me, it would stain my soul with hatred and that would spill over to her children. To you.”
Princess Celestia looked up into the angry golden eyes of the Night Pegasus mare. “I...feared she was gone forever, but I always held out hope that someday, somehow, I would have my sister back. And when I did, I must have no regrets, no anger. I must be able to let her back into my heart, because she has always been a part of me, as I am a part of her. Without her I am...so alone.” The Princess sat down on the storeroom floor and lowered her head.
Something inside the Night Pegasus mare broke, and she collapsed weeping in front of Celestia, her head flat against the cold stone floor. “Forgive me, My Princess. I have no excuse for my actions, and I accept whatever punishment you shall impose.”
Laminia flinched as a shadow passed over her, and then a great warm white wing encircled her and wiped away her tears. “You are forgiven. I could never be angry at one of my sister’s children.”
Beneath Celestia’s wing, the Night Pegasus mare trembled. “I cannot truly be one of her children. Although I bear the touch of your sister, I am...not.” Slowly she unfurled her leathery wings from under her white blanket of feathers and Princess Celestia sighed.
“Child. Is this what caused you to act as you did? Have you never...” One white sock-clad hoof traced the extended dark wing. From the wing joint to the elbow it was thick and leathery like the rest of the Night Pegasi, but from there it was twisted and abnormal, half-feathered and obviously unable to bear her weight, deformed before birth. “The spell my sister used to create your kind was not perfect; no spell ever has been. Is there no reference in your Tradition to the fact that my sister and I are equals in our power?” Celestia lowered her horn to the outstretched wing and a white light enveloped it. One at a time, the feathers vanished, and in moments, the wing was whole and undamaged. Laminia flexed it briefly and gave it a trial shake, the unflawed membrane shimmering in the darkness. “It..does not hurt any more? My Princess, I....”
“Hush. You may express your gratitude when Luna returns from her...trip. Your punishment shall be to explain to her exactly what it is you have confessed to me. I shall also encourage my sister to place you somewhere you can be carefully observed, someplace close at hoof. She has been in need of a personal servant for some time. Perhaps she will accept you in that position, once she has accepted the fact that your kind …”
In the distance, she could hear voices.
“...kind are abominations, should be put to...”
“...just dump it in the woods...”
“...how could anybody do this to little....”
“...put down the spear. I’m not killing children...”
“...you ask her...”
“Your Highness? Princess?”
Celestia turned her tear-streaked eyes from the Elements of Harmony, now just simple stones scattered around the ruined Hall of the Royal Pony Sisters. It had been only an hour since she had used them to defeat Nightmare Moon and seal her away forever on the moon, but it felt like a thousand years had marched across her soul. The long-delayed morning sun felt as hot as fire on her shoulders, and illuminated the feathers of the hovering Royal Guard with a glow that failed to hide her worried expression.
“What is it?”
The pegasus guard nervously landed and bowed. “My Princess. The rebels. We’ve...captured several of them.”
The Princess looked up with alarm and glanced about the battlefield. Death and destruction surrounded her. Most of Luna’s supporters had died so horribly not even parts of their bodies were visible, only twisted black bones and shattered hooves scattered among the fallen stones. “How...could anypony have survived? My sister drew upon their life forces when fighting the Elements. She...I killed them all.”
“Not all of them.” A large cloud with several score of twisted pegasus fillies and colts was being pushed down to the ruins by two rather nauseated-looking pegasi guards. “We caught one of their kind trying to get away with the...creatures.” She watched in secret horror as one of the tiny twisted pony-like creatures walked to the edge of the cloud and hissed at her, glaring with squinting golden eyes. “The creature pushing the cloud fought and died bravely. Half of its body must have been caught in that last spell Nightmare Moon cast. It was dying already, I think.”
“What have you done with my brother! He was trying to save us!” One of the bat-winged creatures leapt off the cloud at Princess Celestia, its tiny wings fluttering ineffectually as it plunged to the ground. She levitated it quickly before it splattered on the stones and held it.
“Your brother is...gone. I’m...sorry.”
The tiny fanged face screwed up in a horrible grimace, then burst into heart-rending tears. “He’s...all I had left. Mother and dad are gone too!”
Princess Celestia brought the little creature to her and cradled him close. “I understand.”
She sternly looked at the guardpony while holding the child under one wing. “You are to take the children back to Canterlot. They are Luna’s last surviving children, and we will not see the last vestige of my sister go uncared for. You will find good homes for them, and they will be raised by loving parents, and they will *all* be able to join the guard when they are old enough. This I do swear.”
Doubts still clung to the guard’s face, but she properly bowed to Princess Celestia and turned to give orders to her troops.
“Tell me, little one. What is thy name? And the name of thy brother who gave his life to save you?”
The big golden eyes of the creature...no, Luna’s child, blinked in the bright sun and looked up at her. “I’m Rye, and my brother was Pumpernickel.”
“Princess? Princess, wake up?” Celestia opened her eyes to meet the same golden gaze of the dozens of concerned Night Guard who had followed her to the tower room. They all looked so young and frightened to her immortal sight, that it seemed the cloud of foals so long ago had merely shifted forward in time a thousand years.
She chuckled, “My apologies, my little ponies. I was lost in thought, and I need to sleep.”
Princess Celestia started to get up, then changed her mind and sat back down again, wrapping her wing around the shivering Night Pegasus mare. “First allow me to tell you about your ancestors, and about the night you were created.”
(ties in with Two Unicorns Walk Into a Village )
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Awwww. May I respectfully ask for a sequel? Or unrespecfully demand one? Some combination of the two? I really want to see more of this
1059989 Lordlyhour - There is a sequel and I wrote it first Two Unicorns Walk Into a Village so it will be a little ....lot choppier and in need of typo-fixing and dialogue tidy-ing (Yes I wrote a 15k word story with a 19k word prequel).
Would there be any interest in a sequel where Luna sends Laminia off to Ponyville to be trained in "Ladylike behavior and grace fitting a hoofmaiden" by Rarity, with Pumpernickel as a "guard"? (Oh Luna wouldn't just happen to be trying to set those two up now, would she?) It would include scenes from Celestia's garden, where she has been crossbreeding flowers for well over a millennia, and considerable "fish-out-of-water" as the two big-city Night Pegasi get to deal with the little town of Ponyville (and vice versa)
Your little flashback there makes me think of the changelings (of all things) for some reason. I wonder what the relationship between the bat-ponies/Night Pegasi and the changelings is? Are the changelings also partly affected by the conversion spell or something? (Not that I expect you to know, or to try and figure it out. Just idle musings.)
I like how all your stories (so far, I haven't yet read the throwaway alicorn oneshot fic) subtly tie into one another. I'd just as soon you didn't mention it in the future though, I prefer the image of us nodding sagely at each other as we see the references (all, what, maybe fifty-so of us). It's by nature your call, though.
1061857
Well, I'd read it, at least.
By the way, I also want to read that novel you've been working on since apparently forever
1061857 YES! I Demand this as respectfully and undemandingly as it requires to be done! Also, I realised this was a prequel about five minutes after I wrote that comment. I read the Quel (because it makes sense to call it that) and enjoyed it immensly.
1150127 Heh. Yep. Just remember I wrote "Two Unicorns" first. **spoiler** I think I did well if you read that one and take until about halfway through to say "Hey, that's Luna!", and leaf backwards to see the hints you missed. If it's a surprise until the very end, I failed. Oh, and I'm not done abusing Pumpernickel yet either.
Pretty powerful ending.
Gotta admit, I teared up at this line.
Fun stuff, definitely going to check out the other stories that tie into this one ^^ There were a couple typos here and there, though. Might wanna catch 'em! :3
I nearly teared up that ending. It was a very lovely story with some great comedy and whimsy intertwined with sadness, but it never got too sad. Yet it remained very touching.
2452226 Well, everyone loves Celestia, right? One would think she could do SOMETHING. In 1000 years. If she has sufficient control over the educational system.
AND YET...
2452992 Well, she is sleep-deprived throughout the story... And her flanks are really pristine, pink and flanks, so.... huh?
2454226 Well, you have a nocturnal fourth Pony race with bat-like wings, dragon-like eyes, and a long traditional history of being created by a Princess of the Night who will return someday to rule over the whole country. They're doing pretty good to be able to go downtown and shop for groceries without the normally panic-prone ponies of the town running away. Just look at the acceptance level of Zecora inside Ponyville, a bastion of love and tolerance.
There seems to be a burst of re-reading going on for this story. Maybe I should re-edit it up to my current standards (which have improved, thankfully)
California.
3358465 It gets darker. Laminia and Pumpernickel are two of my favorite OCs, and have shown up in several stories, which is better described in Short Guide to Batponies. In a metaphorical sense, they are insights into Luna's inner conflict, but in a practical sense, they're just fun characters to play with.
2458062
Edit, hmm? well...there IS one instance of "anybody" instead of "anypony" in this chapter. Then again, I've heard tell of ponies with bodies, so I wonder what the deal is there.
I don't understand why this is marked complete, but it was a pretty good story all the same.
Woah. I guess she knows the magic Luna used, at least. Though such deformities will probably be quite common, with them mixing with regular ponies.
Oh, wow. So that was the first Pumpernickel?
Remarks and corrections
> She chuckled, “My apologies, my little ponies. I was lost in thought, and I need to sleep.”
Should be a period behind "chuckled". Unless she actually chuckles out that sentence, which I doubt...
...And quite inconsistent ellipses again, without spaces behind them where needed. There's even a 2-dot one in this chapter. You should really go through the whole thing and fix 'em all.
6000149 hmmm, time for teh internetz!!!!
It would seem that a colon would be grammatically correct, whether it would be better or not I'll leave up for debate
For years, I put off reading this, as I did not want to see Luna dark and sad, as indicated by the tags. I have read every other story in the cycle, but this one I avoided. Having now read it, I wish that I could go give myself such a smack.
7864726 I have, and probably always will have problems writing things which are too dark or depressing. Every dark closet in my stories has a letter from Hogwarts lurking in the future. (Where the story will in all probability be attacked by a fearsome dark lord, abused by fellow students, and eventually killed⁽*⁾... You know, maybe I should pick a different analogy...)
(*) Yes, I know. He gets better.
7865030
Respectfully, I disagree. You don't have a problem, you have a gift. The fault was entirely mine for forgetting that there is a "tragedy" tag, and that you did not use it. When I read the story, I found that it ended rich with hope.
Bah! If I could give word to my thoughts to my satisfaction, I'd be the writer that you are. Me wrong. Story good. Good, Georg, good. <pats you on the head>
Is Pumpernickle a jinxed name or something?
Like many other fics with this name, your story shares a name with a song from the Halo: Combat Evolved (plus its' anniversary version) Original Soundtrack.
9880294
😎
Rrrrrrroooooollllllll credits!
11447566
Well, these days it's easy to self publish. Back in the 1960s, the youngest authors I ever heard of
Diary of Anne Frank Anne was 15 when she died. For this reason (among others) many think it was faked. IMO, at least heavily edited.
The Outsiders (Hinton) wrote most of it when 16. Published age 18 IMO the best novel in a long career
"Celestial Corkscrew" (Asimov) Wrote when 17, published at age 18. Far from his best. Didn't really hit his stride until "Nightfall" the 32nd
story he ever wrote, age 21.
Frankenstein (Shelley) Wrote it at age 18. Published age 20.
Clarke & Wodehouse had their first sales age 20ish but didn't really hit their stride for years & years.
So, at least until your mid thirties, I wouldn't worry about it.
11447698 I'm 60.
11447939
Then, you are in your prime as a writer. I look forward to your future efforts.