This story is a sequel to The Silent Wind
Twilight has awoken in an abandoned world, her memories seemingly scoured from her mind, while the sun and moon's magic is slowly dying.
And yet throughout it all, it feels like the heaviest burden are the wings on her back.
This story was a gift for my mate Zon, and he requested a fanfic of one of his fanfics.
NOTE: This story is a Silent Wind sequel, however this is not the whole story. This is also a sequel to Shadow Within. Reading this other fic first will make certain events in this fic more understandable, but, choosing to unspoiler that link and read the other fic first will also spoil the reveal of this in this story. The story itself is comprehensible either way, so the choice is left up to the reader.
The story is finished and will be published daily until finished.
Thanks to all who helped, particularly Drider and Bike without whom I wouldn't have worked out how to publish
this is a good story.
This is literally the kind of world building I live for. Just taking a small detail, twisting it on its side, and letting it breathe until it becomes something new.
The description of the bread before this, and then this simple line, is just such a truly excellent delivery. What a great usage of 'rapturous'.
Again, this world building is chef's kiss. To be honest one of my favorite subgenres of MLP is the exploration alicorn lore. The show kinda gave us nothing, though I hear there's more in G5? I should watch it. But my point being, the show gave us the barest suggestion of what alicorns are & their power, so I just love when stories take that and run with it.
She is eating right now and we love her for it.
You really succinctly displayed so much comparison with this paragraph, and the one after, between the humanity/equinity of the guard and the almost alien otherness of both Luna and Celestia.
Ah, the hubris of alicorns. Love this story.
Whoah. The payoff for the mystery that had been building was definitely worth it. Great job sticking the landing near the end!
You know I'm a sucker for a good Luna, and your portrayal of her here is such a fantastic hook. Honestly, for anyone familiar with my stuff (I say, like I'm some author people should be familiar with), this opening alone should clue people in to what other story this is a sequel to.
This is such a good passage. I've touched upon this concept myself, but this just does it so nicely, with such disdainful emotion. "You want me to do six impossible things before breakfast? Sure. Okay. Why not."
The subtle implications of the RariTwi shipping here are not lost on me either, and are very nicely done.
Even here, the implication that Twilight has just always been the one expected to fix things, is perfect.
I love this. Luna is so overt in her hostility here, her otherness, that it's easy to overlook what Celestia is doing in her wake. And, of course, that's exactly how Celestia likes it.
I'm going to be honest this part right here makes Twilight sound like a hypocrite see quite literally chose her friends over everyone else in Equestria when she was fighting tirick. It was only because of pure plot that they found the secret magical key and use friendship to win that fight.
Very nice, would happily read more entries in this universe.
I was NOT expecting a happy ending from this story. You subverted my expectations, and did so in a way that worked, so good job.
amazing story thank you so much <3
ooh, love this Luna! though i am feeling that not having read "The Shadow Within" is making me lose some references here, i love how this captures the sheer difference in how the ruler-subject relationship works for the Luna of a millennium ago, and the problem of translation manifesting here in such a wonderfully sinister way is such a great setup
and yay i know what’s going on now, since i have read “The Silent Wind”! great way to introduce the state of Twilight’s life now
ooh love this cosmic horror-scale worldbuilding
but i get the feeling said interview will turn out to be less than completely irrelevant later! also, dang, what is going on here with these memories? definitely an interesting idea though, with the moon being the literal source of dreams going with Luna’s powers and duties of dreamwalking
aww very RariTwi! and idk if this was intentional but my brain is linking alcove and catacomb semantically so maybe Twilight's disintegrating one is as well
ooh, symbolism! just love this, and how the whole conversation really does loop back to being analogous to parents arguing in front of their young child in terms of incomprehensibility, with many years ahead of the child before they can even begin to hope to comprehend the context. they are just as above Twilight right now, and of course, any parents that actually did this
would be very unhealthy ones!
oh no! the only other living creature in Twilight's world now is... French...
ehehe so true and love it
ah that definitely explains what’s happening to Twilight’s brain! very cool worldbuilding!
ahaha that is so belittling i love it. i hope to one day be able to use this line in my life against someone
but why would the French of a matriarchial Equestria not use “quelqu’une” as the default, huh? immersion RUINED
in this age of effortless AI translators, commentary!
pourquoi cette jument parle comme un livre
j’aime ma femme
extremely relatable thing to feel upon seeing Rarity
ooooookay this is certainly getting unsettling! i didn't mean it that way!
ah dang, being an alicorn in this universe is pretty bucked up! and makes Luna seem more, well, alicorn-like in context
foreshadowing! except that it’s happening in a flashback after this was shown to happen so idk what that is
and augh love how well this fits in with the fact that in the canon Luna and Celestia are often so helpless and reliant on Twilight to save the day. and augh it’s like i’m reading a twisted mirrored version of some of my own ideas about Luna and Celestia’s conflict, it is distressing to me personally!
well that does explain Blueblood’s whole deal!
and ooh, what a direction to take the events of this story’s prequel!
well ok, now all that is a horrifying twist! love how all the pieces from the previous chapters that seemed so disjointed and random fit together to paint this awful and tragic picture
i mean, the most understandable sentiment imaginable, given how alicorns work here. augh.
Twilight is keeping it together extremely well, all things considered. though in the face of things, what choice does she have?
love this bit of Rarity
and just love this horror-survival story nested within Twilight’s with Twilight as the monster apocalypse. i just think that’s neat!
Rarity?
and augh, just love the layers here, and how this finally confirms that the difference between Celestia and Luna were approaches and not philosophies
the correct thing to feel about Rarity
ah wait so Luna didn’t mean a mistranslation by “originally”? and yes, that was quite the vain and shallow motivation! good thing we have fanfiction to make it much more horrifying
and what a twist of the knife that that is what helping Luna get rid of the Tantabus led to
augh i love it
i mean i’d say this is being harsh but considering what Luna is like in this story…!
and ooh, damn! love that this second revelation recontextualizes the entire situation of the world again! not to mention truly feeling epic in tension and scope. how did you do this???
well at least this part of Twilight’s brain isn’t addled by everything that has happened plus being an alicorn
and augh, what an end! i was horrified by this journey into this version of alicorn biology, then heartened that despite her biology, within the constraints of it, Twilight was able to hold onto and fight for her equinity in all senses of the word is a beautiful theme and so fitting for the character that Twilight is, coming full circle to reflecting her character arc in the canon. excellent work here, Sere!