Iron Quill landed with the harsh impact of dust and blowing sand. The incredible force of Celestia’s magic washed over and around him for a few more seconds, charring at his mane and burning at his eyes. Is this the end? The Tyrant has beaten us. Now I die for choosing the wrong side.
But he didn’t die. Alicorns were capable of terrible things, and he’d heard all the stories about the artifacts kept securely in the Castle of the Two Sisters. That was why they had to seize it so badly. That was why the consequences of failure were so high.
After a few seconds, the magic had all burned away to sparks, and Quill finally sat up. He had made a small crater on a gray desert, from the look of it. Dry powder spread around him in all directions, so dry it was uncomfortably rough on his bat wings. He rose, shaking them as clean as he could and taking in his surroundings.
The sky overhead was black, without even a hint of blue. His bat eyes adjusted quickly, and many stars came into view. But no moon—just the stars. The sunlight was relatively bright, though it felt strange on his skin.
Quill was surrounded by army ponies, landed almost in the ranks they’d been marching in. The supply tent’s poles and canvas were strewn around him, and his logs were scattered in the air. No wind blew to take the papers away. “Silver Needle!” he yelled, looking around for his first aid. “Silver Needle, where are you?”
“Here, sir?” said Second Lieutenant Silver Needle from not far away. He turned to see her emerge from the fallen tent, a unicorn wearing the white apron of a clerk. She rose, taking a few steps over to him—and she bounced. She curved through the air in his direction in a wide arc, scattering dust and sand. “What kind of spell is that?” he asked. “I don’t think this is the time. We’ve just been—”
“It’s not a spell, Colonel Quill! I was just trying to get over there!” she squealed as she went past, landing wrong on one hoof and tumbling. She landed past him, though without any apparent injury. “Sorry, sir.”
Quill raised an eyebrow, then jumped himself. He kept his wings folded, yet… he drifted. The earth beneath only seemed to hold him loosely. “No need for an apology, Silver. Just get the crew in order and…” He looked behind him, to the master stockpile.
It was every bit the nightmare he feared. Shelves turned over, barrels of wheat and barley and bales of straw scattered madly. “Moon and stars, what a nightmare. See to the wounded, and… deal with this.”
He bent down, offering a hoof to the fallen unicorn. She was young, too young to be part of a war.
But the Lunar Rebellion needed every willing hoof, even those that weren’t ready. Quill might not have fought in ages, but he could claim the best minds for himself. See that they weren’t wasted in the bloody machine.
“Aye, sir. But what of you?”
He looked away, towards the front of the formation. Where the princess had fought her terrible battle, and the Midnight Guard’s banners still flew proudly. “I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
The rest of his crew were assembling—aside from Silver Needle, they were all laborers of various kinds, young mares and stallions he had snatched as recruits from combat squads in exchange for extra rations. They were a dozen in all. With twice the brains as the rest of the army.
“From her?” whispered Swift Wing, his latest page. “Good luck, master.”
“Stay alive,” he said, shaking the dust from his wings again and taking off.
It was incredible—flying took barely a flap of effort and he was up. Instead of constantly fighting against the ground, he only had to occasionally pay it a little respect, flapping every second or two as he passed over the camp. Most of the soldiers were slower to recover than his inventory had been. The powerful wards around the armory and other supplies had probably shielded him from the worst of Celestia’s magic.
There were thousands of ponies in the dirt. They came from all over Equestria, farmers and blacksmiths and serfs of all kinds. While Celestia’s castles were filled with the elite, her sister had seen the suffering of the ordinary stallion and taken pity. They had all answered her call.
But now many of those brave ponies were lying in the dirt, pierced by white-shafted arrows or charred by magic. He didn’t want to guess at the casualties, but he knew they were devastating. Bad enough that Nightmare Moon herself had emerged to face their attackers. Each company had its own banner, sewn to represent the little villages and towns they’d joined from. They might be stupid louts the whole army over, but they were his brothers and sisters in arms.
And now we’re here. Now that he looked up, he could see that there was a moon after all. It looked strange in the sky, and it wasn’t casting the comfortable gray light he knew. It was so blue, so green… why was everything so wrong?
Something shimmered in the air above him, higher than he dared to fly. Iron Quill knew a shield spell when he saw one, and he kept well away. This bubble is gigantic. Had Nightmare Moon managed to protect the entire army?
He didn’t make it to the center of the formation before the Voidseekers stopped him. They were bats like himself, with black armor and black wraps underneath. Even he knew almost nothing about the sacred sect, except that once they joined no non-bat would ever see their faces again, and they would fight only by night.
They were also terrifying, just as much as the one they served. “Are you Colonel Iron Quill?” asked one—a stallion he was fairly sure, though he didn’t know the name.
“Y-yes,” he answered, slowing to a stop in the air and saluting with one wing. “The Moon shines forever.”
“Yes, yes.” The stallion waved his own wing dismissively. “Come with us. She asked for you.”
“Me?” Nightmare Moon was like a raging storm on the battlefield, but she had nearly zero interest for the day-to-day of how her army was run. When they attacked, they always tried to gather as many valuables as possible. That was about the extent that she helped him keep her army marching. “Why?”
When they turned to fly away, he followed without waiting for an answer. He hadn’t really expected one—the Voidseekers said almost nothing to outsiders.
They passed over the center of the formation, where the medical relief ponies were even now going through the most battered and beaten groups. My job is hard, but at least I don’t have to explain to their mothers why they won’t be coming home.
Then they were past the army completely, and into more of the gray wasteland. There were many little impacts, even where no ponies had landed. Bits of rock and stone were scattered everywhere, apparently thrown here by the force of Celestia’s spell. Except… the soil continued ahead of them, with openings of various sizes. Some were so deep he couldn’t see the bottom in the too-harsh sunlight.
They were flying up a slope now. A pony sat at the top, looking down into the darkness. Her mane radiated up into the air behind her, like a burning storm. Her horn glowed so brightly blue that even the sunlight seemed pale. She was casting a spell, a spell so powerful that getting close made him feel it. It moved through him, too.
The Voidseekers landed on the ground maybe twenty meters from her, at the base of a slope. He followed. The same one that had spoken to him gestured up the slope toward her.
“So that’s it? I thought maybe I’d be talking to General Stalwart Shield, or maybe General Night Stalker. I’m not important enough for this.”
He pointed again without answering. Iron Quill saluted in response, as stiff and angry as he could. Then he started walking.
Not walking as he’d known it before, each step was a kind of bounce, threatening to take him off his stride. He would have to be careful—where his princess sat there was a ridge, looking down into an impact crater of incredible size. Maybe the place she’d landed?
“G-great Princess of the Moon…” Iron Quill called, when he was close. He had only stood this close to her once before, when she’d taken away his feathers and given him the night. “It is my honor to stand before you.” He lowered himself to the ground, eyes in the dust. “I am at your service, as in all things.”
There was a long silence. He nearly stood up, confused as to whether she’d heard him at all. But then she spoke. Nightmare Moon had lost all her venom. Her voice was… weary, defeated. If she had spoken like this when she came to his monastery, Quill would’ve kept copying scrolls and never even thought her name.
“You are… Iron Quill,” she said. “Is that right?”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Rise out of the dust,” she commanded, tapping the ground on the edge of the ridge beside her with a hoof. “You will come and stand beside me.”
He obeyed. As he stepped up to the side of the ridge, he could see what Nightmare Moon had been looking at. A bleak expanse of shady ground, stretching away from them. Various craters broke the surface, just as frequently as the ones surrounding them. It seemed to continue on forever.
He probably should’ve kept his mouth shut. That was the smart thing in the presence of one so great. But curiosity was what got him here in the first place. “What did she do to us?”
Nightmare Moon turned her eyes on him. Those slits seemed to narrow, seeing him for the first time. Then she looked away. “My traitor of a sister… has banished us from Equestria. Look closer, child of the night. You know where we are.”
He looked. It took him a few more seconds—the green and blue sphere in the sky, the dark spots in front of them, the gray soil. His eyes went wide. “P-Princess. We can’t be…”
“We are,” she said. “Welcome to the Moon, Quill. You and every other pony who fought for me. It will be your grave.”
“W-what?” He stiffened, glancing back towards the army. Up here on the slope, he could see them moving. Many were dead, but thousands more were still alive. They were rising up from the dirt, lifting up their banners, righting their war machines. “We aren’t defeated, Princess! I’m no warrior, but I can see your army is prepared to fight. If we call for General Stalwart Shield—”
She draped a wing over his shoulder, holding firm enough that he couldn’t move. “Stalwart Shield is dead,” she said. “Night Stalker too. And whoever else you are thinking of. I do not know how, but their bow mares somehow knew our officers even though you wore no markings. My army’s chain of command has been decimated. Do you know how much danger we’re in? How precarious our survival, even now?”
He shook his head.
“Let me enlighten you,” Nightmare Moon said, lifting one hoof and pointing up. “You stand inside a bubble two kilometers across. It contains the entire army, every pony who stood on our side of the siege, living and dead. As we sit together, the whole of my power holds this thin film and all it contains against the stone. Do you know what waits outside it?”
“I, uh…” He looked out. He couldn’t see the edge of the bubble—at a guess, Nightmare Moon was probably in the exact center. “This is a barren land,” he said. “The sun is high, and the soil seems desolate. Even our earth ponies may have trouble—”
Nightmare Moon silenced him with a glare that could’ve melted rock. “There is nothing outside my spell, child. Nothing but hard vacuum, as merciless as my traitor of a sister. Do you know… of course you don’t. The thing you’re breathing now, that you’ve always taken as endless and inexhaustible… is not.
“My magic contains it, for now. But that power will run out. I can feel it even now, a weakness beginning… when it overtakes me, the bubble will burst. The air I’m holding will escape into the void. You will all die in agony.”
Quill’s mind struggled to even comprehend what he was being told. What did it even mean to have land without air? No wind, no clouds… why would that kill them? And more importantly… why had she called for him of all ponies? Quill felt a sudden chill pass through his spine, unconnected to the blackness overhead. “And why tell me, Princess? What am I to do to serve you?”
“You are the highest-ranking survivor,” she said. “You must lead my army now.” She let go with her wing, though even this small movement seemed an effort for her. Her eyes went unfocused again, and her horn continued to glow.
Iron Quill did not dare contradict the princess directly. But perhaps there was a tactful way he could point out the flaws with her decision. “I haven’t held a sword in my life, Princess,” he lied. An old, famliar lie. One they shared. “My promotion was… a courtesy. I only know how to manage.”
The single eye looking in his direction narrowed, but this time she didn’t even bend down. “That should be no trouble for us here. Do you see an army to fight? Open your eyes and see the doom that comes for you. I cannot move from this place, cannot divert my attention to anything save the spell that preserves your lives. I believe I can give you… three days. Measure them by hourglass, as there will be no sunrise and no sunset during all this time. The light will endure.”
His eyes widened. He barely even understood the problem, and the thousands of lives of the army depended on him? “What should I do, Princess?”
She shook her head. “I wish so badly to bring us back to Equestria and have my revenge. My sister… dared to use the Elements against me. Their magic took us away. But I cannot turn my power to that, or else my army would be lost to the void.” She met his eyes, growing stern. “I grant you the service of Penumbra, my eldest Voidseeker. She will be your mantle of authority.”
A pony settled in beside him, moving so quietly that he hadn’t even heard her approach. She wore the same black armor as the other Voidseekers, with only her eyes visible from inside her helmet. She dropped something on the ground behind him. It was a bloody iron band—the general’s diadem, worn as a symbol of authority. Stalwart Shield had been wearing it last time he saw it.
“Take the diadem on your ears, Iron Quill. My revenge depends on you. Your survival depends on you.”
Had he imagined it, or did Penumbra turn away and snicker as she said it. He tensed, but then turned aside, taking the crown and dusting it with a wing. He settled it on his head, blood and all. “I will try, Princess.”
“No!” Her voice boomed through the bubble, lifting dust from the hill and causing the distant hum of sound to fall silent. The Royal Canterlot voice was always loud, but to a bat it was excruciating. “You will succeed! Our revenge is deserved, we cannot fail. Is that clear?”
He saluted, as crisply as he could. Not very, compared to the last pony who had worn this iron crown. “Completely, Princess!”
She waved a dismissive wing, turning away from him. “Then go to it. When you have solved it, find me here. On my life, you have three days. Use them well.”
Three days to understand the unknowable, then do the impossible. How hard could it be?
You have my undivided attention. I am VERY curious to see where this goes.
Oh, this is going to be delightful
...well, to read, anyway. I doubt this will be delightful for the characters.
Starscribe is one of the only authors I can't poke fun at for creating new chaptered stories without finishing old ones because he always delivers.
This is an amazing way to start a story. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
9641007
The fact that he's able to maintain a chapter a day (for different stories) schedule for months upon months is amazing. I really hope he doesn't burn out, though.
Well, it's clearly doable. Otherwise, this would be a very short story indeed.
In any case, definitely looking forward to seeing where you go with this. It's an incredibly intriguing concept, though I don't envy Iron in the least.
Pretty soon my entire tracking bookshelf is gonna be flooded with nothing but Starscribe's stories.
Keep up the good work!
This may be the most original and realistic story I have ever read... just wow.
9641062
I do fairly often burn out on stories.
But I write all of them a month ahead. This means that if I'm not feeling one project for a bit, I can jump to another one, write that, then come back. I think people will really know I'm burning out when I stop starting new ones.
9641097
I'm starting to wonder if you're secretly some evil genius.
I want to see where this goes as well. I love sci fi stories and ones about creating societies are some of my favorites. Can't wait to see what the solutions are going to be.
Per chance have you read A thousand year change, by Darthvalgaav? It's an excellent story that is very similar in concept to this one
9641110
Considering his content I suspect that Star is an AI programmed to do nothing but write good pony stories.
9641276
This is an AI I can approve of
9641290
My experiments with AI-created stories have been... somewhat less than fully successful.
Well, now. Having just read another one of those Lunar Republic shill stories, this could be a pleasant counter.
9641073
Three days can be very long, what with horrible death looming all around. I rather fear the rationing the remaining Lunaists will have to engage in eventually... and the choosing of what, and who, to sacrifice.
Also: The title is very appropriate. It's not Luna leading them, it's Nightmare Moon—Luna is the place they're stuck on. Indeed she will prove unwelcoming.
So, you named it after a Heinlein, will this one also involve sex?...for anyone unaware, Mr. Robert Anson Heinlein was one of the three godfathers of Science Fiction(Alongside Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark), and had a habit of including a sex scene in every book he wrote. Mostly because he never really did anything provocative with it, it just...well, it was something to do.
That said, so far so good. It actually begins rather well, and makes me wonder how much of the book's narrative will seep into this, considering some of the elements already present. Hoping for a Mike Analog to show up at some point, just because I enjoyed that computer.
9641577
I plan on keeping the teen rating. I do like that sex on the moon ended up being a plot element in that story, but... it won't be in this one.
This has some rather unsettling implications for the Elements of Harmony, that they would send thousands to die in an inhospitable environment.
Unless it was Celestia who'd harnessed their power and deliberately twisted it to banish them to die on the moon.
Either way, it's a much darker Equestria.
9641577
No explicit sex scenes, just the occasional mention that people sometimes HAD sex.
(Well, in his nonjuveniles)
Back in his heyday, sci-fi was extremely straight laced. Pre 1970s, most writers never even took notice of the fact that humans had 2 sexes, let alone that this mattered in any way.
9641627
Hey, they're the Elements of Harmony, not the Elements of Mercy or even the Elements of Justice.
They need water. Water is life. Water is oxygen.
9641672
Honestly, Loyalty, Generosity, and Kindness might argue the point.
9641732
You will note that they are parts of harmony, not all of it.
Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/126415/five-hundred-little-murders
9641732
Giving a quick death when the law says to make them suffer is both generous and kind.
Calling those that rebel against their legal lords criminals is honest.
Siding with those that have broken no laws is being loyal to the law.
None of this means you are being fair or merciful or just.
Edit: And laughter can still be cruel even if you don't realize that it is.
Well, let's take stock of the situation, shall we?
A group of at least two thousand, trapped on the surface of the moon in a bubble of air two kilometers or so in diameter which can be held for three days, maybe four if we're lucky.
What does such a group need, at least to not immediately die?
Alright. What supplies do we have? Don't know, but at least one supply tent came with us, and I'm willing to bet a few more came with us. If we're lucky, we might have enough food to make it for at least our initial 3 days. Hopefully the same applies with our water.
Well, number one thing that needs to be done, I think, is figure out if a vacuum sealed shelter can be built given what we have on hand. Hunger kills in weeks, thirst kills in days, but once the shield fails, vacuum exposure and lack of oxygen will kill everyone in minutes without proper shelter, and tents aren't going to cut it. Furthermore, this shelter needs to not only be vacuum-sealed, but it needs to house thousands of people. There's no way in hell they can build that from scratch in 3 days. The only solution I can think of is to try to seal off one of the caves or lava tubes we saw on the surface. Whether or not that's feasible is unclear.
We need to check if we have any viable seeds in our supplies. If we don't have anything like that, we're probably SOL for producing any kind of food, unless Nightmare can magick up a solution. Also, better hope we either have a lot of food already or that we can grow more food pretty quickly. Also, actually, better hope we can grow anything at all. Do we happen to have any pots of soil around, and/or a hydroponics start-up kit?
We also need to have a couple people poke around for water ice. For drinking water, obviously, but it can also be electrolysed into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can also probably be used for energy, seeing as the moon gets pretty effin cold without an atmosphere. That's assuming we even know about electrolysis. I have to imagine we're SOL for oxygen otherwise, unless magic has a solution.
We're just going to ignore the high probability that moondust is pretty toxic for now.
So yeah. Build a vacuum-sealed shelter to house thousands of people in 3 days. No biggie.
That moment you never realized how much you Really Really wanted a story like this..... This is like the perfect combination to satisfy my previously unknown literary cravings!
9641765
That they're parts of Harmony is kind of the point. Without them, you can't really call it Harmony.
You may not be writing a white paper, but I shure hope your read a few...
It seems to me that the lunar ponies will need to make ample use of solar power.
The moon has no workable ores, save those from nickle-iron asteroid impacts. On the upside, such ores can be directly melted down into useful shapes. Being as they never contacted oxygen, they do not need to be reduced via carbon. Of course the shortage of carbon means that stronger steels will be a challenge to produce.
Rock Wool, which can be made by blowing pressurized air over the slag from refining metals, could be useful for vital insulation and rope.
Rockwool rope, soaked with an appropriately thick & vac tolerant substance could be used for air tight seals.
For low tech air-locks, I would imagine it less as a traditional airlock, and more of a series of rooms with slightly less pressure between each.
For farming, maybe the earth ponies can use lithomancy to grow quartz crystals to use as light pipes.
I read a story once in the xelee sequence of a peoples trapped on the moon for generations.
It is every citizens final duty to go into the vats.
Well, this seems interesting! :)
9641580
Ah. What exactly do you mean by "a plot element"? That it definitely won't be important to the plot at all, implying that (assuming these ponies don't just all die) it will definitely be this generation that gets off the moon, without a civilization being built (or possibly even considered)? Or do you just mean that the fine details won't be important, leaving the possible course of the story much more open-ended as seen by a reader at this point?
...Hm. I think I'll still go ahead and favourite the story, since the former case certainly could still be interesting (indeed, see The Maretian, for instance), but I'll admit I'm hoping that the latter interpretation is the correct one (it, after all, even still includes the possibility of them getting back in this generation, but with more suspense since it'd no longer be foreordained to be that or death).
9641810
Radiation suits.
That said, I wouldn’t overthink it. Everything will be solved with magical hand waving.
9641810
9641925
Here's a kicker to keep in mind, these are medieval-era rank and file. They consider a blacksmith making sword-steel in batch quantities to be at the height of metallurgic knowledge. They've never heard of a vacuum, the concept of radiation is right out.
But they do have one thing going for them, drastically reduced gravity and many hooves ready to work. Or dig. My instinct would be to dwarf fortress this stuff right up, strike the earth and get deep enough that Luna can redirect her magic to conjuring breathable air. Once that is accomplished, if they have access to some form of stasis spell or other temporary means of petrification, they should put as many non-essential ponies as possible into slumber. This way they can stretch out their supplies while they figure out a way to become self-sustaining.
Once regular food and water is solved they can slowly resuscitate the citizenry as they expand their capacity.
9641627
Unless, of course, Celestia had no more of an idea than anyone else that the moon is such an inhospitable place. She may have thought that she was simply sending them all somewhere very far away.
9642106
9641627
Celestia probably had no idea this would happen. The Elements were supposed to banish Nightmare Moon in the moon anyways, so her physically being on the surface is already different. In regards to the Elements, I have no excuse; but I do have some doubt they would send so many to their deaths just like that. Hm... the fact that, again, Nightmare Moon is present with her army is already an indication. If she were banished as was supposed to happen, they all would've died already.
9642140
Intent is a huge factor in matters like this, the Elements generally can't think for themselves. And even if they could, I doubt they'd be privy to this bit of cosmological trivia either. So Celestia intended to harmlessly seal Nightmare and her army away until such time as she was prepared to handle them, and the magic rocks said "eeyup, good plan."
Moon dust reacts with oxygen so that’s going to make things even worse.
Really looking forward to seeing how they Robinson Crusoe this.
9642170
I wouldn't be so sure. Twilight did not expect the Elements to cleanse Luna of her dark powers instead of sending her back to the Moon, for example. Agreed on Celestia likely not intending all of them to die, though. That's just not like her.
I keep clicking on stories that look interesting and then it's Starscribe again! How do you work on 500 stories at once like this without collapsing??
9642193
Aye, but she did expect them to "defeat Nightmare Moon", which they accomplished quite handily.
Free Luna!
9641580
In addition to The Martian, I'd recommend reading The Moon Is Hell (Campbell)
https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/1627319/the-moon-is-hell/john-w-campbell/
For instance one of the things that they did was mine at night using Mercury for picks, hammers, etc. (freezes at -40). Stockpile the ore and use solar powered smelters when the sun shines.
Interesting concept, and I love the name reference
This is a pegasi paradise.
Ahh, a shield, I was wondering why there was air. Props to Nightmare Moon for putting it up that efficiently.
RIP this guy, never be the "highest-ranking survivor". Though that said, it might be for the best for everyone else that the pony in charge was in retirement copying scrolls at a monetary. Good bookkeeping and good management is what's going to save everyone.
On the other hand, it might really serve them badly that Luna is apparently still completely nuts.
There is no try, only do!
9642106
Seems in context. In this story the ordinary ponies have begun to figure out what the moon is, so it would make sense for Celestia to not know, she's the princess of the sun, after all.
One thing that could buy the time would be to shrink her shield a bit (in same fashion to Stargate Atlantis), but that'd only be a delay, not a halt to the problem.
Looks like MLP is about to go Oxygen Not Included...but without the tech and supplies needed to succeed. This shall be interesting to follow, assuming they can succeed. They have magic. In theory, if one knew how to desconstruct a materiel into atoms, then reconstruct those atoms into other materiel, say for example, air to breathe, that could help with that, but they'd still need a structure with an air-tight seal, which would probably block out the sunlight, making it impossible to grow crops. Then of course, the next issue would be water, again, deconstruct-reconstruct, but that would require the know-how, which it is doubtful any of them have it.
I'm reading the first lines and understand - Equestria truly is a place of great magic and fortune, even at it's darkest hour. If any of the military leadership survived to make the trip to the moon, the Lunar army would be doomed. They'd follow through with the one great feast and swiftly perished afterwards.
Instead, they were blessed with having a competent logistician with a civilian background to lead them and no higher authority, neck-deep in 'tradition' and 'military pride' and all the other horrific horseapples, to overrule him. The only option with even a sliver of a chance for something other than failure and imminent death.
Seems like Celestia of this shard of Equestria was just as emotionally charged as Nightmare Moon was. Her instructions to the Elements shifted from 'Save Equestria from my sister' to 'make them fuck right off to thier precious Moon if they want to see it up that much'. Still, it might be the Elements' will that the exiles retained Iron Quill and his team among them. This provided them with a shot at survival.
Oh man, is this the Martian with Nightmare Moon? Hello, I've been looking for something like this, but didn't know it was out there to find.
Let the grim business of living another day and loving one's neighbor commence.
I like how everyone is concerned for how the elements could have done this and all and here I am wondering whether or not the author was considering the dark side of the moon the same way science looks at it, so here is the scientific explanation as to the 'dark side of the moon'. Although equestrian orbital mechanics are weird so there is a grain of salt to take this with my intention isn't that the story is wrong I'm just trying to educate!
The moon is geo-locked with the earth, so one side is facing us all the time, this is due to slow geological? processes taking place on the moon (our moon) that slows the rotation down until it matches the orbit it has with it's bigger counterpart (so all orbiting bodies will eventually do this like the earth with the sun (although at different rates)). The dark side of the moon is the side we can't see and as such know very little about. The dark side of the moon isn't permanently dark and the moon has its own days as a result of its rotation, even eclipses as the world blocks the sun's path to the moon.
The more you know! Also, I hope you have a nice day!
Every space based, survival/city building game ever...
Not that I'm complaining, this sounds like an awesome idea.
I wonder if Celestia knew she was condemning all the mortal ponies to death? I wonder if she cared?
I like this take on the banishment. Luna was in the moon, not on the moon. As in, she became part of the moon. But this take on it, where she’s on it, her entire army with her, is interesting. It’s even more different with the whole idea that the moon has no aura to protect them from the lack of atmosphere. Every other story either gave the moon a pseudo-atmosphere, or simply gave Luna the ability to survive regardless of the lack of any atmosphere. Though, the latter could still be true.