The Only Chapter
The statistics end now.
A monster, made a king by power and cunning.
Three hundred seventy-five thousand, four hundred and eighty-two unwilling subjects.
Four hundred ninety-six years of oppression.
Two hundred fifty-three grassroots revolts.
Two hundred fifty-two mercilessly put down.
Two of us, alicorns, born in secret, the last of our kind.
Six Elements, each representing a part of harmony, with strength forgotten by the ages.
One strike, decisive and world-shaking.
A former king, immortalized in stone.
Two of us, new rulers, promising an era of peace and progress.
Three species, united under a single flag.
One thousand, eight hundred seventy-one years of co-rule.
Two princesses, opposite yet equal, or so it is said.
Fourteen hours of your sunlight in a day.
Ten hours left to my night.
Fourteen hours ponies spend working, playing, and enjoying life.
Ten hours ponies spend sleeping.
Five hundred twenty-one visitors to your court on an average day.
Seventy-two visitors to mine on an average night.
Eighty-nine initial recruits for the Equestrian Guard.
Six assigned as personal guards for each princess.
Eighty-three soldiers placed under your command.
Six soldiers placed under mine.
Six founding members of the Lunar Guard.
Two hundred thirteen treaties negotiated without my input.
Ninety-six thousand, seven hundred forty-seven laws passed without my consent or, many times, knowledge.
Fifty-three notable wars over the course of our reign.
Fifty-three requests for a chance to lead in battle.
Twenty-eight replies of "You're too young, Luna."
Nineteen replies of "We'll see" or "Maybe".
Six instances of no reply at all.
Two hundred thirty-nine battles you'd fought in.
Zero battles I'd fought in.
Twenty-three thousand, eight hundred seventy-one books in the Royal Library.
One hundred thirty-seven years for me to finish them all.
One hundred forty-four years for me to finish them all again, along with two hundred and sixty new additions.
Three copies of Thomas Mane's Common Sense.
Two copies of the Griffanian Declaration of Independence.
Four transcripts of your lectures on the value of individuality.
One more blasted celebration about how great you are.
One too many.
Twenty inches of growth.
Forty-inch increase in wingspan.
Three-inch elongation of horn.
Two-size increase in armor.
One night when the moon did not lower.
Nine hours of your begging and pleading.
Nine hours of pure anger, venting through my words.
Sixteen hours of fighting.
Twenty-three square miles of land, better known as Canterlot, utterly destroyed.
One arts district wiped out, my favorite.
One cafe, at the northwest corner of Bridle and Mane, instantaneously set ablaze by a blast of solar energy.
One cafe which was also my favorite.
Two ponies killed in the ensuing fire.
One wise, old couple who showered me with nothing but kindness and friendly advice, and I cared very much about.
Two ponies you never bothered to notice.
One thousand, nine hundred and two square miles of land animated and contaminated by magical fallout.
Twenty-five years of work on three national parks in the area.
Twenty-five years of work made worthless overnight.
Thirty thousand, seven hundred ninety-one stones set in my personal observatory.
Twenty-six thousand, eight hundred forty stones disintegrated, blown to powder, or reduced to rubble.
Two hundred thirty-seven years of astrological study and observation, recorded in fifty-two volumes.
Fifty-two volumes of records buried in debris, never to be recovered.
Three attempts at poisoning you with magical toxin.
Four attempts at baking me to a crisp under concentrated sunlight.
One attempt to suffocate you in pure darkness.
One attempt to bury me in the crumbling masonry of my own castle.
Six ordinary-looking spheres of stone.
One pulsating blast of polychromatic energy.
Six colors, constantly bombarding me with waves of pain.
Two eyes, but nothing to be seen except pure white light.
Two eyes slowly opening, finding themselves in a foreign world.
Two hundred thirty-eight thousand, eight hundred fifty-five miles between me and my home.
Eleven million, five hundred thousand, twenty ponies alive at that moment.
Fourteen thousand, thirty-six ponies take notice of my absence.
Fourteen thousand, thirty-six soldiers left without a leader.
Fourteen thousand, thirty-six working ponies left with years of military training, no purpose or occupation, and a sense of betrayal and resentment.
Eight assassination attempts, or so I'm told.
Three hundred, sixty-five thousand, two hundred fifty days spent in complete and total isolation.
Two hours attempting to fly back, only to be blocked by a magical barrier.
Three hundred, sixty-five thousand, two hundred fifty days trying to stave off insanity.
A total of six centuries focused completely on revenge.
Nine hundred fifty-eight thousand, twenty-nine days experimenting with dark magic.
Sixty-one thousand, two hundred eighty days developing physically.
Two hundred fifty days "meditating", more like brooding.
Three centuries in when I figure I've done all I can do to prepare for my return.
Thirteen days attempting to decide what to do next.
Thirty-thousand, eight hundred two craters on the light side of the moon.
Two hundred twelve paces around the first one I found.
One thousand, eight hundred forty-seven paces around the second one.
Ninety-one paces around the third one...
Twenty paces around the thirty-thousand, eight hundred second one.
Four years mapping the lunar surface in my mind, down to the absolute smallest detail.
For the next three centuries, complete and total insanity
Ninety-five thousand, thirty-six imaginary friends, many recurring and often several a day.
Four thousand, one hundred seventeen visits from you.
None of them real.
Sixty-two thousand, five hundred thirty-eight majestic "castles" built from lunar sand.
Nineteen thousand, three hundred twenty-one fantasy trips to anywhere and back.
Three centuries for me to become so unhinged I go sane again.
One week after the fact for the gravity of the situation to hit me.
One century of depressed nihilism as a result.
Three thousand, five hundred twenty suicide attempts.
Nineteen thousand, four hundred sixty-seven attempts at art to express my grief and self-loathing.
One week for me to realize my exile was ending soon (relatively speaking).
Three more centuries devoted to planning your humiliation and execution.
Two thousand eighteen possible assassination plots.
Average of one hundred thirty-eight contingency plans for each one.
Twenty-seven different "perfect" training regiments.
Four new branches of magic developed, each based in dark arts.
Two thousand, eight hundred seventy-one years of injustice to avenge.
Four stars perfectly aligned, lending me their power.
One straight path, from the stars, through the moon, and back to the remains of my observatory.
Three hundred ninety-five billion, two hundred seventy million, eight hundred sixty-three thousand, one hundred twenty-nine new trees in a forest that had sprung up over the millennium.
Two villages leveled in my search for you.
Four pegasi guards on your carriage team, half of what it was when I left.
One thousand years must have made you soft, sister.
Two explosive magical bolts to bring them all down.
Two thousand feet to watch you fall.
Thirteen seconds spent clawing through the wreckage to get to you.
Six inches of penetration in your flank with my horn.
Three seconds struggling before you succumb to the toxin.
One loose invitation to tell me all I need to now about where to go next.
At least three hundred ponies screaming and losing their minds in fear.
One thousand years can't drown out the nostalgia of the moment.
Three more guards eliminated.
Six ordinary ponies seem to think they can do better.
Your ninety-second student, isn't she, sister? Will she meet the same end as all the others?
Twenty-three feet of cracks beneath Sky King's Overlook.
Less than a millimeter of expansion needed to bring it all tumbling down.
At least seventeen thousand creatures in the Everfree Forest, and guess which one I run into?
Thirty-five trees "beautified" on my way back home.
Three millennia, and it's hard to believe that old filly's trick still scares ponies!
Six seconds around that creepy sea serpent, and I can already tell how much he cares about his lousy mustache.
One little snip for a quick, easy distraction, courtesy of Fabio the Scaly.
Two more on the rope bridge to buy time.
Three loyal pegasi, long dead and gone by now, who still may be of use to me.
Ten minutes later, they're beaten, too.
Five Elemental bracelets, corroded and worthless after years of abandonment.
Five simple replacement stones to fool your apprentice.
Those five gone, only her left, a perfect setup.
A single, simple whirlwind and teleportation spell, impossible to mess up.
The two of us show up in the empty quarters of my old observatory.
One stupid move, not anticipating her teleport.
But one simple feedback spell on my dummy Elements, with a little acting, to get back the advantage.
Thirty-four fragments left of the "Elements", and one priceless look on your apprentice's face.
But five more voices coming up the stairwell, voices who were supposed to be long gone.
Five little reminders for your student about the real nature of the Elements.
A sixth Element rediscovered, one too many, and maybe those stones weren't dummies after all.
Six Elements, united and channeled by six ponies.
One combined blast of energy.
Ten seconds of pure, excruciating, total agony, a reminder of events a thousand years before.
Two minutes of writhing about on the decaying stone floor, somewhere between Nightmare Moon and Luna.
Not even three seconds as Luna, not even one chance to escape, and you're already looking at me.
Another thousand years of solitude in my future, or so I anticipate.
An unexpected offer of mercy.
A thousand years of bitterness and hatred melting away in heartbeat.
My one and only sister, enemy no longer.
An eternity of friendship restored.
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Its Good, excellent use of the same format to Nightmare Moon's mind.
wonderous and ye not derivative at all.
to the e=reader with you!
Ah! My emotions! these types of stories, the ones where it tells how broken down luna becomes on the moon, hit me in the gut so hard.
It's good, but man, after all this pain, betrayal, insanity, sanity, insanity, too sanity, thirty seven words fight, smashing by skin tearing rainbow blast and she just accept 'an eternity of friendhip'? That ending suck, but story is simply beautiful.
1358741 I don't really like the episode's ending either, but this was never meant to be a fix-fic, and it's canon, so what can you do?
My best guess is that the writers were running out of time, needed to introduce Nightmare Moon as Celestia's sister, and didn't want to leave a loose end of her escaping to plot another day, so they just gave Luna a quick repentance scene and left it at that, for better or worse. I've done a few Luna-revenge-fics, and I honestly think they turn out better in terms of realism. This is, of course, based on my belief that Nightmare Moon is still a willing and in-control Luna, and not some demon, otherworldly entity, etc. posessing her.
>the only chapter
>incomplete
Other than that, nice.
1360642 Thanks. I thought I got that when I made the story, guess not.
Man, now I regret not doing this. Oh well. I honestly didn't think that a Luna version could be done without it feeling like a retreading but am extremely happy to be proven wrong. Great story!
Yes! More numbers to read!
29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lltzgnHi5F1qzib3wo1_400.jpg
This is kind of creepy. Celestia treats Luna poorly, then exiles her to madness, never visits, never apologizes, then on her return, brainwashes Luna to love her with magic. Not this author's fault - the story in the show is hard to interpret in any non-creepy way.
1360504 The problem with the show's version is that it tells a story of conflict, and explains it as demonic possession. This is a bad, dysfunctional way of thinking about conflict that has caused war and horror for thousands of years. No reason to try to understand or come to terms with enemies who are possessed by demons. Kids really shouldn't be exposed to ideas like that.
1364194 For sure. I personally just like the emotional layers I get to work with when Luna consciously and willingly became Nightmare Moon, and not just blame it on a demon. Besides, if it was a demonic possession, how did she turn back into Nightmare Moon for Nightmare Night? If nothing else, I'd think the experience would've scarred her enough to keep her from ever doing it again. Just my headcanon, though.
More data can only add further insight, as you so skillfully demonstrated. Very well done.
This was awesome, but you might want to change that. Unless you meant to do that. But, I'm not even sure how you could restore an eternity of friendhip.
1372911 I was kind of going off of xTSGx's last line in the original Statistics:
An eternity of joy regained
I tried to put a Luna spin on it, but still hold to the happy ending. Of course, my headcanon doesn't work that way at all (let's just say that Luna was a little too quick to rush to her sister's hooves and repent), but commonly accepted canon does.
1372943
Friendship
Friendhip
Sorry, I wasn't being obvious on what exactly I was pointing out.
1375095 Oh dang, I should've seen that one. Three derps for me!
This was truly beautiful!
Thanks for a wonderful fic about our fair princess!
As I live and breathe... this might be one of those rare fan-made sequels that actually trumps the original. When the original in question is pretty damn good in and of itself.
I love it. Far more emotionally-charged than Celestia's edition, if I do say so myself.
Though, there is one little flaw: hearing Luna/NMM describe the sea serpent incident as if it were part of her plan sounds kind of silly. The dialogue from the episode hints that she'd cut off the serpent's mustache completely by accident (she was rushing to detach the rope bridge ahead), which makes a lot more sense to me. The whiny serpent did absolutely nothing to physically hinder the Mane Six - the river was doing all the work, and that could easily have been surmounted by having Dash & Fluttershy carry the other three across one at a time. In fact, I actually think NMM would be a bit surprised to learn that the Six took the time to help the serpent out when ETERNAL NIGHT! BWAHAHAHAHA! was knocking at Equstria's door.
I would have phrased it something like: "One creepy old sea serpent's mustache accidentally dismembered on the way to the bridge. He'll get over it."
2522815 You know, when I was writing this, I knew I should've gone back and looked at the original episode more closely. But I didn't, so you have this... I hope it wasn't too much of an issue.
Anyway, thanks for the good review. One of my favorite things about Luna, and something I think very few bronies get, is the gravity of spending a thousand years banished to the moon. I find in that so many aspects of torture: complete isolation, a dark and desolate environment, unforgiving cold, absolutely nothing to do. Combine that with all the pain and anger she was feeling before she was banished, and give the whole mixture a thousand years to simmer, and I don't know how she managed to maintain a bit of sanity at all, much less the composure she showed when she returned. Same with the hatred for her sister; that doesn't just go away after a single rainbow-blast. Luna is such a wonderful character to work with, because she has massive inner demons, and she doesn't even have to be fighting them; she can be as morally ambiguous as you want.
It's beautiful *sniff*
Decent, but not as good as the original.
2523091
Luna is so great to read because of all of her delicious flavors of morality, moods, and knowledge!
I honestly did not expect there to be a "Statistics" sequel but, I am pleased with it.
Not quite the emotional powerhouse as the first, but it tells more of the emotions of the princess talking than the first.
Great fic!
I sure am glad now that I clicked on your profile initially just to save a bigger pic of your avatar!
As for the solitary confinement insanity thing, I am reminded of the "Law and Order:SVU" episode entitled "Solitary" (season 11 episode 3) where one of the detectives decides to try solitary confinement for himself and arranges for 3 days and proceeds to start hearing whispering voices and loses track of time to the point where he thinks that he is in there for a week. He did this because a suspect, that had spent the majority of 16 years in prison in solitary confinement, stated that his main motivation for not doing anything unlawful was to avoid going back into solitary confinement and the madness that comes with it.
3322582 Glad to hear you liked it. Honestly, I'm a Luna-sympathizer regarding the whole thing, mainly because I relate to Luna more than Celestia (or most of the other characters, for that matter). I just had to do something with the concept to tell the story from Luna's side. I probably ought to mention that my avatar isn't my own design or art, but search Nightmare Dash on Google Images and you'll probably find who came up with it.
3324161
. (My older brother didn't like abuse me or intentionally put me in harms way or anything like that.)
One of the reasons that I am pro-Luna is because she is the younger of the two and I know that feeling of being in the shadow of the older sibling.
Also, I know that feeling of older siblings being jerks to the younger one because they can
3326359 I may be the oldest of my generation in the family, but what I sympathize with is the betrayal element of the story. People call Luna the traitor, I say wrong. Celestia betrayed Luna long before that by treating her like an inferior. Equestria betrayed her by spurning the night. And the bitterness of being constantly unnoticed and unappreciated, I feel for that too. Besides, Luna is a real character: she has flaws and complexities like any other of the Mane 6, unlike the "infallible" mother-figure Celestia.
In my headcanon history has been whitewashed by Celestia because Luna actually had valid reasons to oppose her.
3326586
Anyone would be pissed if they did a lot of complex intricate work, only for it to be ignored or even rejected. Lets not forget that a lot of stars visible in the night sky are actually entire galaxies, nebulae, and planets! In addition, each of those stars are different sized suns that she has to move all at once!
I agree that Celestia likely whitewashed it a bit since the Nightmare Moon prophecy is relegated to an old wives tale and makes it sound like the NMM conflict occurred in a day or two rather than the months that it likely happened and made Celestia look good. Though the argument could be made that Celestia whitewashed some of Luna's transgressions out to help her reintegrate upon her return (things would be rougher on Luna if NMM had a standing history of say.....ACTUAL baby eating to overcome). Though in the end, it is the victor that writes the history books and dictates how events are remembered.
In "Lullaby for a Princess", Celestia admits her transgressions against Luna (yes, I know that its also a fan work but, it really works)
Luna being flawed and having a redemption story was a large part of what drew me to her in the first season (also, she was so friggin cute!
).
Needless to say, I was happy when "Luna Eclipsed" came out
Why am I not feeling anything!? WHY AM I AN EMOTIONLESS ROBOT!?
Still a good story, though.
Awwww
3326586
AHEM
Celestia really does care for luna
And she IS a mother figure
You dont just raise your own personal student for no reason huh?
Besides
To quote what SHE said
we are meant to rule together
Aka THEY ARE MEANT TO BE THE BEST TOGETHER!
How am I discovering this a decade later?
This is amazing! Never before have I been so moved by numbers. Incredible work, NighmareDash. Incredible.
Into 'Heartstrings' this goes!