~*~
I wish I could ask you these questions more directly, and I wish I could hear you answer. But I still feel compelled to ask you... do they teach children nowadays about the time where the sun went away? When we were all plunged deeply into darkness? Or has the world forgotten what we went through by now? For all I know, the sun is gone again now, and you're reading this by candlelight. If that's the case, please know that I could have prevented that from happening to you. I could have washed away any chance of an endless night.
In case no one told you, let me put it simply. I would give you more detail but it's... a hard set of memories for me. I've already given you pieces of them, and you'll have to forge them together yourself if you want to get a good look at the image.
One of our rulers was in charge of the night, and she brought up the moon each evening. But somehow, she grew bitter about this duty, and took the sun from us for days and days upon end. We were bathed in darkness, and those creatures that stayed meek in the shadows were free to run rampant over us constantly, unchecked by daylight. We could not leave our homes. We could not do our work. The whole world screeched to a grinding halt without the sun, and we were frozen in time, just waiting for it to come back. I remember what it was like to open my eyes, expecting to see the morning light, and to instead find that there was only black outside my window. The roosters ceased to crow. I think they gave up hope sooner than we did.
It may have been a week before things changed, maybe two, it was hard to tell the passage of time without the day and the night to guide us. But once that week was gone, the night had taken ponies into it, enveloped them, swallowed them. And they were just gone. My brother was gone. Our other ruler may have found a way to restore the sun and the light, but she could not restore those we had already lost to her sister's childish tantrum.
I'll be fair, and admit that she did punish her sister. But it was just to send her away. Put the problem as far away as possible, on the moon. Every night, we felt fear that day would not return, and we'd have to look up at the moon to see her there, staring down at us, knowing what she'd done. It haunted us like memories of laughs cut short, eyes forever closed. Our now only ruler had done nothing to prevent this sort of horrible thing from happening again. She'd put the culprit in time out, like a spoiled child rather than a murderer.
It was not enough. It was never enough, not for many of us. Not for me.
But at that point, I had no power to do anything to help. I had no way to take matters into my own hooves, to ensure that this dark force would be stopped. And why did it take so long to stop it, anyway? Why did it happen in the first place? None of us had any answers, any say, any ability in this. We simply had to nod our heads and let things happen the way they happened.
I couldn't take that anymore.
When I came across these supposedly powerful words, these magic materials, I knew that I had found a way to make myself stronger than just a simple earth pony. Maybe... I could even get enough power to rival that of a princess. When I realized this, I vowed that never again would this occur. I wouldn't let it. I vowed that no more ponies would die in darkness, waiting for someone to relight the sun, unsure when or even if that would happen. I would fix this, permanently, at all costs.
And there were many costs.
o3o
first typo?
perminantly is spelled permanently
but who knows?
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Thank you for the catch!!! Fixed. :)
I do enjoy this “road to ruin paved with good intentions.”
I KNEW IT! Oh, I wish I'd posted chapters back that I thought Muse was trying to destroy NMM because of the eternal night thing, and losing her brother... I KNEW it! I actually feel clever for once, reading a mystery like this! Um...sorry to toot my own horn. I'm just super excited.
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This take on what seeing the Mare in the Moon was like for other ponies, the ponies that lived through NMM's first rise, is genius. I only ever thought about it from Celestia's perspective, a permanent and painful reminder of what she'd had to do to her sister, and a source of sorrow. The way you present it here is just genius.
The roosters ceased to crow. I think they gave up hope sooner than we did.
There are many great details in this chapter that add to the world building. I liked this one the most. Subtle, simple, and sad.
I do not sympathize with the book. This pony became the very evil it sought to prevent and faced the same punishment. A banishment to sit abandoned and think on her crimes.
You know, the book actually does have a pretty good point here. Canonically, the fight between Celestia and NMM was over pretty quick, but a lot of people's fanfics make this stretch out a lot longer, days, weeks, or even more. In those cases, those ponies in the first generation that lived through Nightmare Moon would probably have been traumatised every time they looked up at the moon and saw the Mare in the Moon hanging over them.
Wow. She makes an interesting point about that event.
Ok, Muse, if that's your real name, imagine this: You're one of the heroes and saviors of your people but instead of thanking you and loving you as you loved them, they ignore you when it's your turn to rule; your own sister who should love you doesn't sympathize or empathize with you about it.
Or let me say it like this: you have a child who only focuses on the other parent despite your unconditional love for them, despite you also being someone who made them, protected them, SACRIFICED for them.
So, you fall into depression or you snap, you've developed a Mental Disorder and it's weakened you. You can't help it; you need help. Of course thoughts about other things in the night aren't on your mind. Those things probably aren't even something you planned to happen... You're not thinking straight. You wanted love and recognition and appreciation. You needed it.
Instead of being helped you're sent away. And when you come back it's not like that pain will just be gone away. It's built up and festered and some weird moon creatures tried to braid your mane... which you hated. So there's annoyance on top of that.
Sorry for the rant, I know it's just a story...
That's why these hero stories never sat well with me. Everyone has to rely on the actions of a few, that are just as influenced by impulses and emotions as anyone else. No one has any agency except for the chosen few that the viewer is meant to get emotionally invested in. I can't blame her for being frustrated.
That being said, you know how horrible being alone is. Being stuck on the moon would, I imagine, feel very similar. I know you've compared your situation to "time out" before.
see my comment from last chapter.