The villain they remember

by Shaslan

The sister I can't forget

“I’ve almost completed a new poem, Princess!”

Celestia looked down with a smile at the court poet, a white unicorn with a lilac mane, a great-great-grandson of one of her own long-gone foals. “Oh, have you? Well, then, Shining Scroll, we must hear it.” She beat her hoof once on the dais of her throne, and the gold stuck the marble with a ringing tone.

At once, a hush fell across the court and everyone turned to listen.

“A new poem from my court poet, my little ponies,” Celestia smiled down at them all. “I think the rest of our business can wait a few minutes while we hear the latest from Shining Scroll’s quill. I am sure that whatever it is will be being read by everypony in Equestria before the year is out.”

Shining Scroll stepped forward, beaming. He was truly talented, but one of the things Celestia most valued in him was his humility. Even after three years at court, he was still genuinely thrilled at the acclaim his poems rightfully earned. “Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of the defeat of Nightmare Moon,” he said loudly, so everyone could hear.

Celestia felt her heart sink within her. Oh, no. Not this.

“Every year we celebrate Princess’ Celestia’s glorious victory over the greatest evil in ten thousand years,” Shining Scroll went on. “And to mark this most important anniversary, I have composed a new poem. This is only a work in progress, but I wanted to share it with you today. I think it will have the right impact.”

Celestia looked away from him and tried to school her face to impassivity. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.

With a gleam of pride in his eyes, Shining Scroll unfurled the parchment he held in the amber glow of his magic, and read aloud in the strident voice he was so well known for.

“As Luna falls in screaming plunge
Celestia, tearful, prepares to lunge.
One cries "Vengeance!"
The other "Wait!"
But both are drawn toward their fate.”

The moment the first line was read, there was an intake of breath. Luna — now known almost universally as Nightmare Moon, despite Celestia’s best efforts to quell the cruel name — was a topic avoided in polite society.

This was dangerous territory for a court poet, but Shining Scroll was a stallion keen to make a name for himself. He wanted to push the boundaries of his art. That’s all it is. Celestia tried to hold firm to that thought.

“The heavens split, night eternal falls
The dark Queen screams and Nightmare calls.
Mortals quake
Sunbeams fade
But the Princess will protect us all.”

Celestia felt tears pricking at her eyes. Fifty years ago now, she had used the Elements to banish Luna. What other option had there been? But to hear her described as a villain, to hear that Luna had hated her. It stung.

The ponies of her court were silent, spellbound. To hear event that only the oldest among them were able to recall raised up, mythologised in poetry, was to see history in the making.

Shining Scroll’s voice rose to a crescendo as he neared the climax of his poem, the sound thundering through the white marble pillars of Celestia’s throne room.

"Dark meets day, moon and sun,
Two exist in a space for one.
The world turns red,
The sky is gone,
Magic flashes and night is done.”

Shining Scroll’s voice dropped to a sombre whisper for the last two lines. The instant he was done, he looked away from his scroll to Celestia’s face.

She looked around her newly completed Solar Court, all gleaming white and gold. No blue or purple, none of the cooler colours Luna had loved. Nothing that could trip her up, remind her of the sister she had loved and failed and ultimately lost. But nothing that would keep the Princess of the Night present in her ponies’ minds, either. Already, they had forgotten who she was. The music she had loved, the wonders she had made for them.

All they remembered was her darkest self. The mare she had become for those last, awful hours.

It had hurt too much to stay in the forest where she and Luna had build their home and lived together for so many thousands of years. She couldn’t bear to roam the empty halls, or go to Luna’s empty room. She had moved her castle and her court to the mountains, and her little ponies had built her a new capital for Equestria. Canterlot, she had named it.

She looked now at the ponies gathered at the edges of the throne room, looking up at her, waiting for their cue. She returned her gaze at last to young Shining Scroll, and remembered his great-great-grandmother, her daughter Morning Breeze, a little white unicorn filly.

Luna had been with her all through the day while she laboured, ignoring her own sleep schedule. After Morning Breeze was born, it was Luna who first held her. She had looked down at her little neice and smiled sadly. “She looks just like Clover did when she was a baby,” she had said, though of course Morning Breeze had looked nothing like Clover. Luna had loved Morning Breeze and had helped to soothe her when she cried. And yet now, here was Morning’s descendant, describing his great-aunt as a monster.

As the pause lengthened, Shining Scroll’s expectant smile faltered. He looked up at Celestia uncertainly, and Celestia returned to herself. Shining Scroll had been born decades after the fight with Luna. He had no knowledge of her apart from the fear with which his parents described her. It was not his fault.

Celestia forced a smile onto her face and clopped her forehooves gently on the floor in appreciation. “Thank you, Shining Scroll. That was a very striking description.”

At once, the courtiers and nobles broke into applause. Shining Scroll beamed and relaxed again. “Thank you, thank you, everypony.”

He was surrounded at once by ponies seeking to congratulate him and ask questions on his work, and Celestia heard him explaining that he hoped to expand the poem into an epic — it would be his finest work, he said. He said he was going to speak with survivors of the battle to ensure his poem was accurate and captured the essence of what had happened.

Celestia did not let her head droop as she wanted to, and made herself keep smiling and nodding as her little ponies asked questions of her. It was not Shining Scroll’s fault, after all.

It was nopony’s fault but her own.

Comments

[Silent Whisper]

I'm always down for angst, and you've once again delivered spectacularly!

[BleuBlooms]

I liked this piece better. After a curious reading of your earlier work. It seems I have read both before and still find the eugenics not kind, generous, or loving of any kind.

On your earlier authors note you said you love the idea of manipulative (kind?) Immortal. I felt given the themes present in this pony fiction that ponies/Candy people don't like being abused (manipulated/Love) and wished to back up my claims with evidence.

Bonnie from adventure time ,darling, was a literal monster who drove her children to suicide and ingorance. She deliberate made her children less intelligent. And that is why your earlier work ,well, well written. Holds a belief in eugenics that is both unneeded and cruel.

Direct quote from the wiki -

Bonnie decided that the trio was best left as candy people, as she claimed they seemed happier in their simple-minded and obedient new forms and declared herself as their "princess." Since then, the majority of the princess's subjects she created were loyal to her and simple-minded, likely to prevent any future incidents similar to the one with her created family members. She eventually build her kingdom and created more

Candy People.

Further illustration of abuse

To end my thoughts...what couldn't you justify with your themes? Is nothing when you live long enough or birthed enough children? Or under gaise of kindness? And knowing better? What if all these 'disposable' body's called mortals woke up one day with life ever lasting and ..thought differently. How could either sister justify themselves to those that thought were sacrificing for the greater good? This methodology only works if no one is around to disagree ..forever.

Otherwise both and (bonnie) would have to question weither they righteous or not...

[Shaslan]

10986748
Honestly you're not meant to find the puppeteer Celestia loving or generous. Celestia thinks she is being loving and working towards the greater good, but all she's actually doing is working toward her own selfish goal of getting her sister back.

Bonnie from adventure time ,darling, was a literal monster who drove her children to suicide and ingorance. She deliberate made her children less intelligent. And that is why your earlier work ,well, well written. Holds a belief in eugenics that is both unneeded and cruel.

I like this interpretation of this character, and I like exploring her viewpoint. Nowhere do I say I as an author literally believe in eugenics (and the story is about social manipulation, not eugenics, anyway) and I'd rather you didn't imply that I do.

[BleuBlooms]

10986781
Oh...I figured that she was supposed to be.

I only implied when reading your own words (in a comment and a author note , even the story itself.) thus I would say its not a stretch to imagine the two are related. More over consider these three pieces and then think about (within the story, read, context) their is no moment of the victims having a voice.

(The only voice of doubt is Luna)

(For a tale about too sisters finding each other again. This is swell. Being it is still about eugenics (a sisters longing for her sister) I think another perspective could have been warranted to add a even greater sense of tragedy...in my opinion. Or to show the consquences in a moment of raw terror would have made it more real even on a deeper emotional level (for the immortals and their pain and what they would be willing to do to excise it.

Ultimately to me it is a story about eugenics more so because it is such horrible practice that (for me, read, me and only me) it overshadows the other parts of the story. (I find difficult to sympathize with your immortals. Nor can I ignore (in meat space) the actions that color my mind on...breeding.

It is your story. It does not mean the real world does not color its reading to some for good or ill.

It was a good story. (These stories remind me why well I think and know and enjoyed ,Ice Star's stories don't work for me...(I have read about ten or so...) a persistant theme (unspoken but, heard) is how mortals are silly and ignorant (where immortals are...in some ways better) These stories give off that vibe...to me.

I can naturally see how many could like this. Sometimes you have to read a author's work, to find it just isn't for you.

[Silent Whisper]

10986786
It kind of is a stretch, though, isn't it? This fic has literally nothing to do with eugenics. There's no mention of it in this one, a character that reminds you of the topic of eugenics was mentioned in an author's note of an entirely different fanfic... and you're reading way too much into your own thoughts on something else instead of what the fic itself says. This is not about eugenics. It is about sisters. It is not a metaphor for it. Celestia is controlling, yes, but nothing has anything to do with eugenics except for whatever thoughts you are bringing to the table.

[BleuBlooms]

10986804
See...I don't disagree. I have said this is how the works soeaks to me. As I said previously works don't exist in vacuum of those that like their work and. Understand it as intended. (the malazzan books of the fallen, anyone? Romance genre for those that don't care for it?)

I exist in the second category. I do understand what was intended and I agree with the author here. They have their representation of their work...but, is everyone going to agree? Or put another way...is the author and those that agree with given works interruptation...only able to be right?

Have you ever heard of queer theory? Film theory as whole? Their whole diciplines to look at works in ways never thought of before?

Or...is a work not meant to be read by those that may disagree with a works intent?

I said earlier expressing that (to me) that those paragraphs about as you say...a sisters love...looms less larger then the...effects of that love.

[Shaslan]

10986837
This story is literally only about Celestia missing Luna though

[Silent Whisper]

10986837
There's a difference between interpreting something different and accusing someone of believing in eugenics or writing a fic about eugenics when the author has stated you're on a wildly wrong track. Everyone takes something different from fiction, but that doesn't mean it's always right or kind to share it. It would be like if you wrote something you're really proud of, and then someone in the comments went "well, what I really took out of this was [Insert horrible issue here], and here's why I think that's morally apprehensive!" Sure, that's your opinion and what you took from it, and you have the right to have it, but that doesn't mean it's always appropriate to share it. Am I explaining this in a way that makes sense?

[Trick Question]

You might want to mark this as a prequel so people who read the other will know about it.

[Barbarity]

Great fic! I liked the representation of Celestia's guilt and the hints of the evolution of pony attitudes towards her and Luna. A classic tragedy.

[Tekket]

I liked this. I honestly think it hits harder, yet with fewer words, than A Flood of Starlight, and I can't explain why. You make it incredibly easy to see and feel Celestia's pain at how the memory of her sister is being marred by time, and I think that being able to write and convey that well is something truly special.

[Forcalor]

Just imagine how she should be tired of herself after a millenium of something like this, even if she actually remembered the past in all detail
Though face of her Sister on the Moon wouldn't let her forget that easily

I fully support the idea that Celestia misguided herself. She is a kind of a character that constantly makes mistakes