The sun slowly rose to the sky as Celestia's horn glowed softly, casting a warm light throughout the room. The white alicorn lay in her hospital bed, her eyes closed as she rested. She may have been numbed to physical pain from her long life, but even she couldn't escape the exhaustion that came with losing her little lulu.
The events of the previous night had thrown everything into disarray, leaving Celestia to pick up the pieces and try to figure out what had gone wrong.
As she lay there, lost in thought, a pony entered the room, a doctor, his expression filled with worry. "Your Highness are you feeling any discomfort?" he asked, concern lacing his voice.
Celestia opened her eyes, offering the doctor a small smile. "No need to worry, doctor. I'm fine," she reassured him.
The doctor hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Very well, call me if you need anything," he said before leaving the room.
As soon as he was gone, Celestia's faithful student, Twilight Sparkle stepped out from the shadows, her expression grim. "Why did you keep me in the dark, Princess?" she demanded. "You asked me to come to Ponyville and oversee the Summer Sun Celebration, but I had no idea that you were planning something like this," Twilight asked, her tone laced with frustration.
Celestia sighed, "I'm sorry, my faithful student," she replied, her voice soft with regret. "I didn't want to involve you in such a dangerous situation. But I had to maximize the probability that the Elements of Harmony would work."
Twilight's eyes widened in shock. "What if I don't make any friends? What if the Elements don't work?" she asked in leveled tone.
"I had faith in you, Twilight. I knew you were capable of making friends, and I knew that the Elements would work. Nothing will go wrong. "
"But why did it have to go so wrong?" Twilight pressed on, her voice rising in anger. "You didn't even tell me that you were planning to confront Nightmare Moon yourself, and now you are hurt, and she's gone!"
Celestia's expression softened as she looked at Twilight, "I know, Twilight. I never intended for things to go this way," she said, her voice filled with sorrow.
Her plan to save her beloved sister had gone awry, and she was left feeling helpless. The first plan to confront Nightmare Moon herself had failed spectacularly, and the second plan using the Elements of Harmony never got off the ground as Luna declared that she no longer wanted the throne and even hated the night, something that was unimaginable for the alicorn of the night.
"I was too stunned to take any action before Luna ran off to who knows where," Princess Celestia admitted, her eyes filled with tears, she couldn't help but feel the weight of her failure. Her carefully crafted plan had hinged on a specific set of assumptions that were no longer true.
Her plan had been based on the premise that Luna wanted eternal night and that she was willing to do whatever it took to achieve her goal. But now it seemed that her assumptions had been completely off the mark.
Twilight's anger dissipated, replaced by empathy for her mentor. "I may not know how you feel, but as somepony with a sibling." She walked over to the bed and placed a comforting hoof on Princess Celestia's side. "We'll find her, Princess,” she promised. "But we must assess the situation first."
She offered her most faithful student a grateful smile.
Suddenly the door swung open, the sound of hoofsteps echoing throughout the room. Celestia and Twilight turned their heads to see the captain of the royal guard, entering the room.
"BBBFF, what are you doing here?" Twilight called out, happy to see her brother.
Shining Armor's expression softened as he caught sight of his sister. "Twily, it's good to see you," he said warmly before he walked over to Princess Celestia's bedside and looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
The sun princess gulped as she met her captain's gaze.
"I read the report," he said, his voice stern.
"Captain, I understand that you may not agree with my actions," Princess Celestia began, her voice hesitant.
"Agree? That's an understatement, your Highness." Shining interrupted, his voice laced with anger. "You put yourself, my sister, and this whole town in unnecessary danger, and now you're injured and unable to rule. Even if it was just a couple of days, who knows what kind of chaos could ensue in your absence?"
"I never meant for things to turn out like this," Celestia said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Celestia nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. She knew that she had put everypony in danger with her selfishness, and she had to make amends for her actions.
Shining let out a deep sigh, his anger dissipating slightly. "I don't doubt your intentions, Princess, but your actions were reckless," he said, his tone softer now. "You need to trust your guards to protect you. We're here to serve and protect you, not just stand around and look pretty."
Celestia wisely holds her tongue. The room fell into awkward silence.
"What's our next move?" Twilight who had been standing silently in a corner, spoke up.
Celestia opened her eyes and looked at Twilight and sighed deeply, her thoughts drifting back to the failed plan that had led to her being hospitalized. "My plan should have worked flawlessly," she lamented. "I wanted to confront my sister alone, maximize the chance of bringing her back peacefully without a fight. But if that failed, I was prepared to fight her. Even if I lost, I knew that the strain of escaping from the moon and fighting against another alicorn would have weakened her enough for Twilight to handle her." Instead, her sister somehow run away with nearly full reserve, if flaring up her power just to silence the panicked crowd last night were to be any indication.
She paused, her gaze turning to the window as she continued. "But if the agents I placed around Ponyville deemed her still too strong, then we were prepared for the worst-case scenario. They would lure her to the capital city and work together with the Royal Guard for a final siege that would hopefully have minimum casualties, with most of the population going out for a long holiday trip."
Her voice trailed off, the memory of the battle still fresh in her mind. "But that plan failed spectacularly," she said finally, her voice barely above a whisper.
Celestia's heart sank as she thought about the failed plan. She had put so much faith in her assumptions, but they had been built on a foundation that was no longer true. Her sister didn't want an eternal night, she didn't want to rule Equestria. She just wanted to be left alone.
Even if everything goes well, even if they still can track her down.
It would still fail in the end.
It was a harsh realization, but Celestia knew that it was better this way. Despite her love for Luna, she couldn't ignore the political implication that came with her return. It is better for Equestria if her sister stayed away.
The captain of the Royal Guard, who had been listening silently in a corner, spoke up. "Then why did she come to Ponyville? Why did she harm the princess at all?"
The room fell silent again as everyone contemplated the question. Suddenly, Twilight's eyes widened, and a light bulb went off in her head. "Herd instinct," she said quietly.
"Herd instinct?" Celestia repeated, confused.
"Herd instinct," she repeated. "It's a natural behavior for ponies. When they feel threatened, they group together for protection."
Princess Celestia and Shining Armor looked at Twilight with surprise, impressed by her bottomless insight. "That's very interesting information, Twily," Shining Armor said, nodding his head. "But how do we use that information?"
Twilight smirked. As a new hope ignited in the heart of the Princess of sun.
Thanks for the update!
I don't what twilight is planning but Celestia is gonna have make an effort to prove that her sister is wanted to convince her to stay with her. She hasn't exactly done anything that says I miss you and want you back.
This is always a treat to read
Having Shining pride crushed when he learns that IS what they are for. Every princess needed her hord of hot colts to worship her flank.
Let’s hope Twilight would be able to show that ponies love the night and care about Nightmare Moon. Also hopefully there is a way to separate Nightmare and Luna so Luna isn’t trapped in her body and can reunite with Celestia.
im hoping nightmare just goes and lives her life while the ponys are panicing and trying to find her
dam the alicorn got hospitalized
On a beach with a couple of cute guys drinking and being pampered sounds like a great time for our new overlady
11576117
when you realize mare's only joined the guard after luna returned.
"oh..."
11576449
It is in a similar manner to Event Horizon. When explaining specific aspects of the setting (there's way too many) you can point out the movies for reference to anyone who doesn't understand with barely any extra detail and it completely fits; Event Horizon for travel through the Warp without protection or guidance and Dredd for the entirety of Adeptes Arbites and even a low level sanctioned psyker. As for Spaceballs and Orville those are parodies so they fall into their own category however iirc Orville was originally written to be legitimately in the Star Trek setting but the deal didn't go through so changes were made and instead we eventually got the Lower Decks as an 'official'.comedy. *shudders* Also 40k actual stole the concepts from Dred, most of the early info and versions of 40k were blatantly stolen from popular media at the time including Xenomorphs, Terminators, and so on because it was originally fun minis that were parodies and satire.
11576119
At this point, I don't think NMM cares if ponies like the night or not. It's not like it's been her night for centuries anyways.
I also get the feeling this is one of those stories where NMM isn't a separate entity possessing Luna. Either NMM has gone delusional, deliberately swapped bodies with anyone else to escape her long isolation, or effectively gave up the ghost and made room for our human soul in the process.
I'm most curious to see how this plays out.
11576125
I'm kind of hoping she ends up in Griffonstone. With the human part already knowledgeable about MLP, she should already know that it's in ruin and in need of help. Besides, in her mental state with the previous severe isolation, she'll needs to be around people to stabilize.
And ponies sure aren't going to want to be around her, NMM looks like a predator with the eyes and mouth full of fangs.
Nightmare Moon is still with Armstone right?
11576434
Its a real place that you can visit and conduct business within: Cayman Islands
I took what I remembered off the top of my head from the show; mixed in a bunch of logical reasoning, deduction, speculation, references, interpretation, and ideas I thought up; went with that fit together most pleasingly in a narrative sense; and you got a list of places and reasonings for how good an option they'd be from an in-character perspective.
In-character reasoning was used because that's the only reasoning that Nightmare Moon has to work with to decide what to do.
Also noteworthy is that any and all locations are EXACTLY as real as you say they are when you're writing the story.
It's important as a writer for you to be willing to tell canon what it is, rather than letting other authors or real-world physics walk all over you.
As an example, many authors steadfastly try to comply with real world laws of conservation of momentum and mass, relativity and special relativity, thermodynamics, and so on; despite writing in a setting where phenomena that disproves those laws are frequently shown.
Same for chemistry and biology - The moment aliens (space or interdimensional) come into play DNA isn't something you can count on even being present in those lifeforms.
Them using DNA as genetic material would be a highly suspicious to a biochemist, because DNA is a very specific polymer and merely one of countless thousands upon thousands of similar but distinct alternative molecular structures. This is why modern science believes all life on earth shares a common origin, because every cell ever examined has commonalities in places where changes cannot feasibly occur after the first few generatons.
In short: Get messy, be creative, don't be afraid to beat things with a stick until they behave for you.
Yes I made up locations on that list, but it was the right thing to do and I'd do it again.
11576119
11576700
I thought i made it clear in first prolouge about that fact.
11576497
Does that mean Re:creator is part of serial experiment lain because "bluring line between fictional world and reality"? And gurren lagunn is sequal of evangelion because antispiral/spiral is like adam/lilith?
11577902
What i mean is, is it cannon location or madeup?
A place like crayman island only exist because the whole world is connected together and nations use some kind of reserve currency to trade between each other. And reserve currency only able to function because there's at least one empire enforcing it. The cannon world looked like they skipped everything including worldwide imperialism and go for green revolution directly. And mine is still follow the cannon's one to some degree.
Maybe i can turn griffinstone into a city of the collapsed griffin empire named birdtania. Cawman island, Cranebridge, and Owlford.
11577971
I made it up.
The Cowman Islands is purely something I imagined for that message. Name comes from IRL Caymans, minotaurs and cows are both races in MLP, Cowman Islands was the result.
Some islands of unspecified size and location with inhabitants of some kind of bovine pursuasion. Never thought up more detail than that because it was a one-liner with a joking reference to the tax haven gimmick. Cowman probably has their own regional industries like any other place would, but I'm already throwing excessive detail into thinking it up here so I'll leave it at funny cow pun country.
I was going with the theme established with fillydelphia and canterlot where they often name things with puns or other wordplay.
Basically just imagined where someone might be able to go if they didn't want to be in Equestria. Some I took from the show as-is (crystal empire), some I made names up for because I didn't recall the original names in the show (breezieburg), some I just imagined new thematic locations (cowman islands).
11577971
I forgot it’s been a while since I read the first chapter.
Anyways love the story so far keep up the great work!
What the hell does this even mean? You might as well have just said: "This story is about stuff." and saved all the prose.
Seriously, you couldn't have told me less if you tried, and I give writers the benefit of the doubt. I mean Im going to read it because I know you as a writer and like some of your work, but come on. Put a little effort into it. What are you Mark Twain? 😎
Monk
11581499
It's the abridge information of cannon's luna. I put it there for people who jumped off fandom midway and then come back, some of them just read fanfics and don’t bother to finish all later seasons of mlp:fim.
Including me.
For example, all my knowledge about mlp the movie came from fanfic and wiki page.
I’m trying to accommodate someone who doesn’t even bothered to read wiki and still struck in fanfic of first few seasons of mlp:fim...... like me before writing this fanfic
That's redundant.
Query: How is here instinct related to the situation? Unable to create logical connection.
To be fair, there's no way Celestia could have adapted. But where is Twilight coming from and what does she mean?
11577990
Brazil equestre ?
Isn’t that literally what the Guard does in MLP?!?
Nightmare Moon will never be alone again. Ponies herd with Alicorns for a reason...