• Member Since 25th Oct, 2016
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Huk


"Consequences… Give a person a situation with no consequences and you’ll see the real them… Every time."

T
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A time-worn statue of a miserable mare stands in Canterlot's gardens. Legend has it it's Nightmare Moon herself, locked in the stone as a punishment for her crimes. Legend also has it that during the night, the statue quietly wails and sheds tears...


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Cover based on the images from:
https://derpibooru.org/images/958845

Proofread by Ginger and Grammarly :duck:

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 25 )

Not a bad story. The drama and tragedy of it all were quite intriguing to the point I got hooked on to see how it ended.

I would also like to ask for clarification on certain parts of the story. First, is the story involved within that image linked to this story? Second, I am a bit confused from what I have read so far Luna was turned into Nightmare Moon from torture where she freed them, where they proceeded to rampaged causing irreversible damages, and when she turned back to normal, she was judged for her crimes, but the bit confused me was that is it Nightmare Moon torturing luna or the league of villains? Also, where was discord for when all of this happened?

More. Gib now. I will gib my love if you gib more.

worst part? worst part is like what Discord said: beeing turned to stone didn't keep me from hearing every word of what Celestia said,

Huk

10974558

I'm glad you liked it :twilightsmile: as for the questions:

First, is the story involved within that image linked to this story?

If you mean, whether that image was specifically created for that story, OR if that story was inspired by that image, then the answer is 'no' to both. I got the idea more than a year ago from reading comments under my other story, and I found that image after writing this thing. It was just the best fitting image I could find :unsuresweetie:.

As for the second part:


Luna wasn't in her NM form when helping the trio. When the Elements of Harmony hit her then - just like in the show - NM was destroyed. However, in this AU the Elements did more and banished Luna (in her normal form) to limbo for crimes she committed AFTER returning from the moon (in the first two episodes of the show).

So, Luna in her normal form was locked in limbo for years as a punishment for her crimes. But the trio didn't know that. They thought that Nightmare Moon was in limbo and hoping to gain a powerful ally, they somehow freed her.

Since she wasn't her evil form anymore, Luna refused to help, and they began to torture her to coerce her to help them. After days of torture, they broke her mentally and forced her to help them, and lives were lost before they were all stopped and captured. And to be clear, Luna did kill these guards, here she is 100% guilty.

Also, it was Luna's mental state that made her forget to escape when she had a chance. She was so broken she wasn't even considering it (AFAIK, this is 100% real behavior after days of torture)

10974566

I'm glad you liked it :twilightsmile: as for more... we shall see :rainbowdetermined2:

10974579

Yup... Luna is 100% aware of everything. Frankly, it's a hell of a lot worse fate, than being blasted to the moon :applejackconfused:. The question is... is it justified?

10974601
oof, that's a though one, on one hand, yes, because she did Murder those pones, on the other, no, she was Forced,

Well, that was a depressing read. It really goes to show how cruel Equestrian “justice” actually is. Twilight comes across as a terrible ruler, easily swayed by the crowd while giving little consideration to extenuating circumstances. The ponies themselves act very vindictive, especially the guards. This new regime looks poised to become even more authoritarian than Celestia’s reign ever was. I don’t know what Twilight is Princess of here, but “friendship” certainly isn’t it.

Huk

10974615

I guess some punishment is in order, but a thousand years of live petrification is... pretty messed up. Pretty much fate worse than death :applejackunsure:.

On the related note, it makes me wonder what kind of sentence one would get in the real world for something like this if they were coerced or tortured into submission.

10974631

Yup. This is AU, but even in the show, Equestria's justice system seems to love extremes. On the one hand, some creatures are pretty much excused on the spot no matter how severe their crime was (Starlight, Discord). On the other hand, other, less lucky creatures deemed too dangerous are dumped into Tartarus and locked there... forever.

This is a really messed up approach if we think about it for more than a few seconds :unsuresweetie:.

I'll be honest, this is one of the truly dark/sad stories that i've ever read on here. It deserves to be part of my favorites.

Excellent work. Interesting AU as well.

I’d love a sequel where Celestia realizes it might have gone too far… only to unpetrify her sister to find a shell. Luna is depicted in the series as having deep issues, particularly self loathing, she literally made a monster to torture herself while she slept! On top of that she seems a bit more isolated then her sister, partially because of her dream duties (whether or not they are actually important is another matter), while Celestias work was no cakewalk it allowed her to better connect with her subjects. With this in mind, ponies really don’t know that much about Luna, she’s just the weird pony the princess claimed was her sister. So when she does something bad it’s easy for them to assume she’s evil again, instead of a deeply damaged mare. She needed Psychiatric help, although I have to wonder if that would be much better, for all we know ponies could have a very “Victorian” mental health system.

For Twilight, I do have to wonder if she would be a great leader… I mean besides sending her out to make friends and solve friendship problems does she actually have any formal training? Applying her knowledge of friendship to ruling could easily back fire, listening to your friends could easily translate to “mob rule”. Which historically never ends well for anyone who’s not in said mob. Imagine if ponies got it in their head that donkeys stole all the money, or that zebra hex’s were to blame for a crop failure. I’m sure there’s plenty of other friendship lessons that wouldn’t translate well to ruling, but I’m drawing a blank at the moment.

Seriously the Author and his readers should check out “Softening the Stone”, it really does depict Lunas guilt and insecurities well, along with the potential issue of leaving a mentally ill mare all alone in total isolation.

10974645
there is the Eletric Chair, horrible way to go,

Huk

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10974676

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :twilightsmile:

10974693

I'd love a sequel where Celestia realizes it might have gone too far… only to unpetrify her sister to find a shell.

If you or somebody else wants to write it, be my guest. If you meant me... well, I can't promise anything, but I must say that this idea had crossed my mind, so who knows... :twilightsheepish:

Luna is depicted in the series as having deep issues [...] She needed Psychiatric help [...]

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I would just add that IMHO the show depicted ponies in general as jumping to conclusions about creatures (both good and bad) very quickly:

  • They treated Zecora like a bunch of superstitious racists, only to be friends with her the next day.
  • They were afraid of Luna one minute, only to adore her the next, and so on.

Heck, the evil trio could sew the seed of distrust between pony races without breaking a sweat! All it took was 'a whisper here, and whisper there' and a few random accidents. It really showed how jumpy the ponies could be. I would imagine that when they heard Luna - or rather Nightmare Moon - helped the evil trio, they probably gave into their paranoia. Luna would have a tough time changing their minds no matter what she said.

For Twilight, I do have to wonder if she would be a great leader… I mean besides sending her out to make friends and solve friendship problems does she actually have any formal training?

As far as we know, she doesn't. Honestly, this always was the biggest problem with the show's ending. The way they showed it was that Twilight took over while Celestia and Luna flew away, leaving her to deal with everything on her own. Worse, in 'Between Dark and Dawn' Twilight was shown to be rather clueless when organizing and performing Celestia's royal duties! And yet, just a few months later, they left her alone to deal not only with Equestria's internal problems but also with other nations... To me, it would have made much more sense if they ruled together, or at the very least until Twilight was ready to take over. She could definitely use advice from a MUCH more experienced ruler.

Seriously the Author and his readers should check out "Softening the Stone", it really does depict Lunas guilt and insecurities well, along with the potential issue of leaving a mentally ill mare all alone in total isolation.

Oh, I know this one and love it! I love the very realistic way Luna was showed there and how she had to slowly develop her social skills from the very bottom. Too bad that story probably won't ever be finished :ajsleepy:

If you know of any similar stories, please let me know.

10974699

As accurate as that may be, the pain would last only for a few minutes at most on the chair. Here, it will last for a very long time. Given a choice, I think I would take the chair than what Luna got here :applejackunsure:.

I liked this and honestly I think justice is not done but, more fair ,then people perhaps are aware of. People like Luna and I think in liking her gives her degree of freedom to make mistakes. By that I mean she is immortal. This is actually more important then people realize because she will live forever. Well, ten guards died. If their is any 'justice' then this will be suitably punished for this.

Because...for one...

1. She could help out all her victims familys but, consider they will to die one by one. What of the potenitial life expetancy? All that joy...lost? (Read the book hench if you want to read a book that plays with concept. Aka the cost of powerful super heros on the world)

2. I think the stoning is cruel and I think outside authoritian pony land (which it largely is in my opinion.) There should be a better way to punish her for those one thousand years then

3. I will also touch on something that is a little slipery that is how will the people (mortals) of the world see (any) immortal ruler if they can not be punsihed? Like think about if everytime a mortal incidentally dies weither this system is bad or not. Tortured or not (and I very sympathetic. That is why I say not stoning something like prison with little contact)

4. Because in my mind the truest punishment is reconcile not just with their deaths but, all they could have done and lived and what if they were going to change the world?

Which leads mean to the easiest and perhaps cruelest and kindest solution in any reality.

5. The empathy spell. My favorite solution to crazies and evil doers who dont get it. What does is this...Luna becomes each of the guards had they lived...(she sees what could have been and feels to their last moments in both lives) further, this hones in a lack and that is empathy becasue empathy spells forces her and the people performing this spell to feel the weight of all their actions. No more may be its not so bad...no...you have to live forever knowing exactly what you did to someone and all that.

You and everyone would go free. Because whats the worst pain then guilt and shame at knowing you have done...but, not in superficial sense but, a deep, deep level.

Huk

10974766

5. The empathy spell. My favorite solution to crazies and evil doers who dont get it. What does is this...Luna becomes each of the guards had they lived...(she sees what could have been and feels to their last moments in both lives) further, this hones in a lack and that is empathy becasue empathy spells forces her and the people performing this spell to feel the weight of all their actions. No more may be its not so bad...no...you have to live forever knowing exactly what you did to someone and all that.

Well, that's definitely an original approach, but I'm not sure how much would it change in Luna's case. I mean, at the very beginning of the story, she wakes up from the nightmare, screaming. Later we're informed that she's constantly having nightmares about what she did. Maybe she's not seeing everything that could have been through her victims' eyes, but she sure is very much aware of what she did, and it haunts her.

What maybe could work better is if she would have to relive the last moments of her victims' lives every day, seeing everything through their eyes and feeling it. Although, that would be somehow comparable to what the trio put her through...

Then again, it would still be a hell of a lot better than the solution presented in the story.

10974794
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Good idea. I had not accounted for her already be rattled with guilt and all that. The only caveot to what I mean is it is a true feeling spell that is she has to feel their lives and so on. Which I think is different then just feeling really guilt, its more of forcing a immortal to bear true responbility in a world not as eternal as them? To keep them informed and less distant...after many things can be justified with the right...distance thus, forcing the eternal distance time, and apathy at bay by ...
Forcing them. To see themselves as more then just these consant things that can do what ever. Which is likely if not probable. Which is why it is important the memorys stay with and only when she really realizes what she took away can she be free. But! Not by anyones hands or hoofs but, by her own. And only she can know is she can let go or not.

Well that managed to hit my emotionless heart like a goddamn freight train.

Fantastic work.

Huk

10975376

Care to elaborate a bit more on what was so weird about it, and whether did you like it or not :unsuresweetie:?

10977733

Thank you, I'm glad you like it :twilightsmile:

I didn't like the outcome of this story. Twilight is sentencing Luna as though she made the conscious and rational decision to kill ten guards, but from the context Luna was not in a state of mind to make rational decisions. She was being tortured unceasingly, night and day, conscious and unconscious. Torture is known to be a useless interrogation technique because the victim will break down and say anything, admit anything, and do anything to make it stop.

Luna was being tortured day and night, waking and dreaming. Her titles include Princess of the Night and Princess of Dreams, for those are her domain. Yet she was rendered powerless to stop her torture in the places she was supposed to have total control over. Any hope of resistance against the three villains was crushed and swept away; her only reality was inescapable torture and being subject to the whims of her capturers without even death as an escape.

The mind breaks. It cannot function in such a condition. When she was told causing an eclipse would stop the torture, she had already long given up hope of escape or resistance. She had been brutally dominated in the places where she should have been her most powerful; there was nowhere she could escape to that was out of their reach and power. The torture could not be stopped unless they willed it to.

A drowning man will grab the point of a spear. Luna should have been immune to prosecution due to insanity, with any of her actions clearly being made under the most extreme duress imaginable.

Separate from that, the story was well-written.

Huk

10983711

You're spot on, on all counts here. My idea was that they mentally broke her to the point where she would have done anything they asked her to. It's hard to blame someone for not thinking straight in such circumstances.

The only thing that somewhat justifies Twilight's harsh decision is that, in this universe, all her interactions with Luna were bad. That made Twilight suspicious of Luna's motives, and the mob's screams did the rest.

At least that was what I tried to show... judging by the rating, it didn't go as well as I had hoped.

10984312
I have to admit, the mob being present was rather key for the setting. The court already knew ten guards were dead either directly or indirectly from Luna's actions, that was the basis for the trial if I'm not mistaken. The relatives in the mob aren't saying anything that's new or unknown to Twilight aside from calling Luna a murderer, which only Twilight herself could legally declare.

“Don’t believe that murderer!”

The single comment filled the air with treacherous whispers that quickly crescendoed into full pitch screams of revenge.

“She killed my son!” One pony yelled.

“And my daughter!” Another added.

“Silence in the court!” Iron Shackle and a few other guards tried to silence the crowd, but every attempt only made the mob angrier and louder.

“Don’t let her trick you! She’s a cold-blooded murderer and a manipulator... like that Cozy Glow!”

“No! I’m nothing like her!” Luna cried out. “P-please... You have to believe me!”

But the more Luna tried to deny it the guiltier she sounded. She could see as that glimpse of hope she saw earlier in Twilight’s eyes was quickly fading away. When the voices finally died down, Twilight’s face was a stone again.

Twilight really should have demanded or forced silence in the courtroom; as you noted, the mob is screaming for revenge, not for justice. That's why the mob's presence was key for the setting; without them screaming for revenge, Twilight would have made the correct ruling and recognized Luna was not culpable for the ten royal guards. With the mob pressuring Twilight during deliberation and sentencing, all the values of Equestria were thrown out the window.

I didn't like the outcome of this story, but that's not saying I didn't like the story. I do like it, in fact; it's an entirely reasonable presentation of mob-rule and the effects of letting it control the actions of leaders and authority, and how demanding revenge can render justice unattainable.

if you want to take this in a direction to make luna heal you could use discord to leave the statue and rescue luna and send her somewhere to heal.

“Leave, Twilight...” Celestia glanced up and whispered with a waterfall of tears still running down her white cheeks. “P-please, leave me alone with her.”

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But this feels like Celestia is disowning Twilight for giving in to mob justice. It felt like she was going to go somewhat easy on Luna. And then threw it right out the window when the crowd demanded blood. And she gave them blood.

Not literally. But still. Twilight doesn't deserve any of what she got in this universe when she does this. Whatever is wrong in canon, she's not like this for sure.

Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. I do like the story though.

Huk

11258105

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But this feels like Celestia is disowning Twilight for giving in to mob justice. It felt like she was going to go somewhat easy on Luna. And then threw it right out the window when the crowd demanded blood. And she gave them blood.

My intention here was to show that while Celestia accepts Twilight's judgment as a bitter necessity, she still blames herself for not stopping it. I wouldn't go as far as to say Celestia disowned Twilight, but what happened would definitely leave a lasting mark on their relations... and Celestia's psyche :ajsleepy:.

Not literally. But still. Twilight doesn't deserve any of what she got in this universe when she does this. Whatever is wrong in canon, she's not like this for sure.

Well, it's alt-universe for a reason. But to be fair, from Twilight's perspective, Luna in this universe is just a villain who tried to kill Celestia and kill her twice. Since the Elements here blasted Luna into a limbo, Twilight never met her under normal circumstances.

It's hard to feel sympathy for someone when you almost end up dead every time you meet :unsuresweetie:.

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