A Warm Welcome for Nightmare Moon

by Green121

Prologue

More than a thousand years ago, her sister turned a blind eye to the nobles' misuse of power. Corruption was rampant, and the mistreatment brought by the draconian policies against non-ponies was prevalent. And all of that was in exchange for the unification of the young nation, and a consolidation of power.

For Luna, this could not stand. In her eyes, this inaction was complicity, and it needed to stop. Celestia had explained to her that change would follow gradually and that politics was done with cooperation and compromise. Luna wasn't so convinced. Celestia, now perched on her throne, had forgotten her roots. "Cooperating" with thieves that stole from the destitute? Had she forgotten what made them stand up to rule in the first place? Luna was determined, and she vowed to clean out the dregs of old so that Equestria could start anew on a clean slate.

Her no-nonsense attitude and her zero-tolerance policy for political charades made her welcomed and appreciated by commoners and other marginalized demographics of Equestria, but unpopular among the major noble houses that held the most power. Despite all the backlash, malicious spreading of rumors, and other subterfuge from her opposition, it did not stop Luna from being a maverick of the throne room. But she eventually realized that the ones she loved, were the ones that ended up hurting her the most. Her sister had started to openly oppose her legislation and belittle her.

Luna could not believe what she was hearing. Celestia had truly turned complicit. She felt betrayed that her own sister would let herself be fooled by those silver-tongued crooks that surrounded her at every moment. She had hoped it would not come to this. So, a thousand years ago, she refused to lower her moon on that fateful morning. Mustering up her most intimidating form of "Nightmare Moon," she had faced her sister and her sun-loving nobles down. Now standing as tall as Celestia, she promised eternal night if they refused to get their act together. She won't just sit there as Celestia's little sister. It was her final form of protest—her ultimatum.

The nobles started shouting how "the evil spirit had shown its true colors" and how she had "gone insane from envy of her glorious sister." Celestia pleaded with her to give her and the court another chance, but Luna had heard enough of that. She was getting angry at hearing her sister give that same excuse over the past decade, watching as things got worse. And in that moment of standstill, confident of her abilities, Celestia struck first.

It was only when Luna started striking back that Celestia started to realize her overconfidence. The fight at the castle of the two sisters raged on as Celestia got humbled, being pummeled by her sister, whose form was strengthened by hatred and a sense of betrayal towards her sister. Only when Celestia used the Elements of Harmony as a last resort did the dust settle, and the older sister realized what had happened. She cried, for she had lost the one true confidant that she had had throughout her life.

Over the course of a hundred years, Celestia bid her time as she laid low, letting the nobles grow old and complacent. Meanwhile, she formed loyalists consisting of trustworthy cabinet members, her personal students, and graduates of her mage college (later renamed Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns), many of whom held important positions in the aristocracy and the royal guard. And when enough evidence was collected thanks to the minor noble houses sympathetic to her cause, she began a mass culling of corrupt officials and noble houses that had plagued Equestria since its birth. As the vast majority of the old guard got their assets seized, prosecuted, their titles forfeited, and even banished out of the country, Equestria was ready to start anew, and the solar alicorn was prepared to begin her atonement.

She started by looking into her sister's concerns that she had ignored, assessing the issues that dragged the nation down, written in detail in her sister's journal. Celestia began by abolishing archaic, draconian policies that date back to the three tribes’ era. Through legislature after legislature, she reworked tax codes, took down xenophobic policies, and diligently rooted out numerous problems of the old system to empower the nation as a whole.

Another thing she worked hard on was dispelling false rumors about her sister, which had still lived on even after the bitter nobles that weaved them had died of old age. With the help of her circle of scholars in major academia and her investment in public education, Equestrian history had gone through revisionism, spreading the truth about her sister's actions and also exposing the not-so-cheerful truth behind the Three Tribes and the Unification of Equestria. In the revelation, Celestia herself also began to face criticism in the process, but for what she had done to Luna, she gladly accepted all of them. It was a constant reminder, a sword above her head that would warn her of complacency.

With everything, it had taken centuries, but the legacy of Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon had gone through a revival. Once considered nothing more than Celestia's evil sister, she began to be viewed as a pony to look up to. Historians now consider her a forerunner of the time, laying the foundation for numerous civil rights policies that are still being used in Equestria today.

In various art forms, such as paintings, literature, and plays, she is commonly depicted as a tragic figure. She's a mare of integrity who holds onto what is right even in the face of adversity. Additionally, she is also interpreted as a mare victimized by the political landscape of her era, tragically betrayed by her own flesh and blood in the end.

Centuries passed as Celestia sought diligently to rebuild relations with their old allies, who helped them through their hardest times. Many ponies, including her and her sister, had once sought refuge in the neighboring non-pony nations during the destructive reign of Discord in the past. It was unfortunate that their hospitality was never returned, as the Three Tribes era and its resulting paranoid herd mentality completely ruined foreign relations with them. Improving relations was slow and often felt impossible, but Celestia kept on going for the sake of honoring her sister's wishes.

And during that period, the works of the royal astronomers and mages had finally borne fruit. "On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal." A concerning prophecy was made by the royal magus, but Celestia was beyond overjoyed. She had tried countless methods before to bring her sister back from the desolate moon and to break the spell cast upon her by the Elements. But they had all come up empty hooved. Now, she had a new lead. Further research by astronomers and artificers seemed to give weight to the validity of the prophecy. On the day of the 1000th summer sun celebration, the moon will orbit the closest to Equus in a millennium, while the precise alignment of the stars will briefly give a boost to Nightmare Moon's arcane prowess, opening her a window of opportunity to escape her banishment.

With the possibility of her sister's return, Celestia immediately began working on the preparations. While their old castle remained in the now uninhabitable Everfree, the small town of Ponyville existed directly next to the forest. She put the best engineers and artificers to work on constructing an observatory there in hopes of aiding and guiding Nightmare Moon's escape. They had hoped that if she were able to teleport, she would use the destination with the least thaumic resistance, which would be the teleportation pad of the facility, specifically attuned to her magic.

When the prophecy was released to the public, some of the ponies had their doubts. Some remained adamant that Nightmare Moon was strictly a myth, and that even if it were true, prophecies were prone to being inaccurate. Others worried about whether the part about "nighttime eternal" would come true. But that didn't stop the vast majority of Equestrians from being ecstatic about their long-lost princess' potential return. They were determined to give her the best-est, warmest welcome they could. They had hoped that Nightmare Moon would be able to see their sincerity, and finally see the future that she and her sister had created.

Comments

[Max Stroberger]

Oh I love it it's perfect.

[Griseus]

Fun concept but should be fleshed out more.

[PonyDragon]

She won't just sit there as Celesia's little sister. It was her final form of protest, her ultimatum.

Just prior to her transformation:
Luna: "This isn't even my final form!"

[Eroraf86]

Needs some grammatical tweaks, but an interesting premise.

[Xanni]

"Threstals" is a typo for "Thestrals".

[Gyro Pony]

I love this first chapter!

[redandready45]

I like the idea that Luna's descent into madness was not merely over her moon not getting attention, but also the result of a corrupt aristocracy making her relationship with Celestia more difficult.