Celestia's Mistake
Celestia looked around in confusion. She had attempted to teleport close to where she had sensed Luna. Yet looking around she did not see her younger sister. In fact, she was the only pony in the room. All she could see were smooth, white walls that seemed to give off a soft glow.
‘I guess my aim is off,’ thought Celestia as she began to power up her teleportation spell. To her surprise her magic seemed to fail her. There was no glow coming from her horn or any other sign that her magic was working. She could feel her magic still inside her but she just couldn’t reach it. Like a jar of pickles with the lid on too tight.
To her right came a hissing sound that caused the sun princess to turn her head. A door seemed to have appeared in the wall which opened up to allow three ponies to enter the room. Two of them were heavily armored while the third was completely bare. Celestia raised an eyebrow as she remembered that she had seen this pony before. He was the one who had accompanied Twilight at the Summer Sun Festival. The two armored guards took their place in front of the doorway while the bat pony walked towards Celestia.
“I am Captain Shadow Blade of Princess Luna’s Royal Guard,” stated the bat pony as he stopped. “You attempted to teleport into a restricted area. We caught your spell and redirected it into this room. Here your magic has been neutralized until your fate has been decided. Now, why have you come here?”
“I am Princess Celestia,” said the princess in a kind but firm tone. “Sister of Princess Luna. I was only trying to talk to her face to face. May I see her?” She saw Shadow hesitate for a moment, as if he were having an internal debate with himself.
“My Princess has made it clear that she does not wish to have any contact with you,” said Shadow after a moment.
“Please,” said Celestia as she took a step towards Shadow. “I need a chance to explain. That’s all I’m here for.”
Shadow tilted his head to the side before letting out a sigh. “I will tell her you’re here. If she still does not wish to speak to you then there is nothing I can do. But until then you are to remain in this room. Any hostile actions will be met with force and you shall be detained in a prison pod. Do you understand?” Not having any other option, Celestia nodded. Shadow did not return the nod nor did he say anything else. Silently he turned around and walked out the door.
-x-
“Noob,” gloated Luna as she held her controller in the air with her magic. In front of her was a large monitor at least three times her size. On the screen was a pony in black armor with a shotgun. Next to them was a similarly clad pony, except her armor was pink.
Some ponies thought that being a princess was all fun and games. Well, in Luna’s mind, they could go buck themselves. From the moment she left her private chambers it was usually work, work, and work. She had to make decisions on water usage, listen to reports from research and development, work with the senate to make sure everything was fine within the Domes, and million other things. And when she went to sleep another part of her job was to check on her subjects dreams. So whenever she got a few free moments Luna would unwind with video games. Right now she was in the middle of a multi-player gamed called Modern Pony Warfare.
Looking at the top right hoof corner of her screen she saw a player heading towards. Grinning, Luna began to look for an ambush spot while thanking her good fortune that she saved up the points needed to get the motion tracker option for her helmet. After a few seconds of looking around she found a couple of large boulders that she could hide behind and wait. Luna waited in her hiding stop for a moment or two before her latest victim arrived. The moon princess grinned when she saw who it was, a red armored stallion named Sarge. Luna knew him well as being a loud annoying pony with little to no skills.
Luna aimed her characters shotgun at him. He kept walking, not knowing that Luna had him in her sights. She concentrated her magic on the fire button, ready to press it when the time came. She could easily smell her easy kill. Her target then realized she was there, but it was too late.
“PRINCESS LUNA!” shouted somepony outside her door causing Luna’s head to turn. Letting out a curse she quickly turned her head back towards the screen to find herself dead with Sarge holding her shotgun.
“You just got Sarged,” said Sarge on the screen. Groaning, Luna turned off her game station as she stood up. ‘This better be important,’ she thought to herself as she walked towards the door. Opening it she saw Shadow Blade looking a bit nervous.
“Shadow, has something happened?” asked Luna as her anger was replaced with fear. Shadow had never come to her like this. Usually he would try not to bother her during her time of rest.
“I, uh, that is we captured an intruder that tried to teleport into the castle,” he said while trying not to look at her. “Right now we have her in an anti-magic cell.”
“Is that all?” asked Luna as she raised an eyebrow. “Well I guess it has been awhile since some poor fool tried that. Tell me, was it an accident or intentional.”
“Intentional,” said Shadow Blade with a nod. “Definitely intentional.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Then if you have this foolish pony I see no reason why you should bother me,” she replied. “Just place her in a prison pod and be done with it. Now, if you'll excuse me.” Luna began to shut the door when Shadow stuck out a hoof to stop it.
“It is a bit more complicated than that,” said Shadow. “You see, the pony in the anti-magic cell is your sister. She wishes to speak with you.”
-x-
Twenty five minutes later, Luna found herself standing at the door to the prison cell. When she had heard that they had captured Celestia her first response was to have her sent back to Equestria. However, Shadow suggested that Luna should at least speak with her before that. If she didn’t, there would be a good chance that Celestia would just try again and again. Perhaps if they spoke for just a little bit then Celestia would get the message that Luna wanted nothing more to do with her. Deciding to trust her Captain of the Royal Guard, Luna agreed.
As Luna took a deep breath, she pressed a button on the wall to open the door. Once open she saw her sister standing in the middle of the room. At first she had a dejected look on her face, but when she saw her sister entering the room it quickly became much brighter.
“Sister,” said Celestia as she took a step forward. “I am glad you came.”
“You shouldn’t,” said Luna coldly. “When I said that I never wanted to speak to you again, it didn’t mean until later tonight! I am here now to inform you that you going to be sent back to Equestria and never to return again.” Luna then turned and began to leave the room.
“Please wait,” cried Celestia. “I know I messed up. But we must put all this behind us and move forward. We were meant to rule together.” When Luna heard this she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed in rage as she turned to face her sister once more.
“Rule together?!” she yelled as she pointed a hoof at Celestia. “When did we ever do that?! Everything always went your way. It was always ‘Trust me little sister’ or ‘Please wait and see sister’. You never thought I could do anything on my own nor did you value any of my ideas!” Luna then began to slowly walk towards Celestia who had a shocked look on her face. “And it was always you in the spotlight. You were always the one to host those grand parties. Always you who were invited to those big events like the Best Young Flyers Competition. Did you ever bring me along? No.” Now they were face to face, barely an inch apart. “Don’t pretend that it wasn’t like that. I was always in your shadow. I was falling into despair when I finally found ponies who noticed me and what I was trying to do. They saved me from myself and for that I will always protect them.”
Celestia looked away, unable to look at Luna as she made her accusations. Luna was panting from her long speech.
“Luna, please know that I never meant for things to get this out of hoof,” said Celestia as she slowly turned her head to look at Luna again.
“Then what did you mean?” demanded Luna. “Did you mean allow bat ponies to become outcasts barely able to survive? Did you mean to turn my ponies into monsters for foal’s bedtime stories?”
“Luna I-”
“Did you mean to turn me, your sister, into a monster that ate children?”
“No, I just-”
“What did you mean?”
“I was angry!” shouted Celestia. Luna took a step back in shock before narrowing her eyes at her older sister. Celestia lowered her head in shame. “Sister, when you left I was hurt. You did say anything to me, not even a goodbye. I had to hear about it from one of the nobles. It…hurt so much. You were always the one constant in my life. The one I knew who would always be there when everypony else left us. Having you around was what made immortality bearable.” Tears began to fall down Celestia’s face. “After that, I decreed that your name was never to be spoken again. I turned my back on all of the things that reminded me of you.
“Then one day I woke up on Dreamers Eve. It had been two hundred years since you left. I decided to go into town to partake in the celebration only to find that it had been changed to Nightmare Night. The stories they told about you were like a stab into my heart. I tried to talk to the historians, but it didn’t work. They wanted to know, if what I said was true, why didn’t I correct it sooner? Where was my proof that they were wrong? It hasn’t been easy to fix this without looking like a dictator.”
“Do you think it was easy for me?” growled Luna. “I did what I had to do back then. That day, when I met my subjects to discuss what we were going to do, they were so afraid. I had a mother telling me nopony would sell her anything at the market because she stayed up during the night. I had an earth pony inventor telling me how his lab was burned down along with all his notes. And after what happened Hoofshire they were all afraid they were next! I tried to calm them down, reassuring them that everything would be alright. That the two of us were working hard to stop this before any more lives were lost.” Luna then looked away. “Some began to talk about getting revenge. Hurting them the same way they hurt us. They wanted blood Celestia!”
“Then why didn’t you come to me about this?” demanded Celestia.
“Because I knew it would be like all the other times I came to you,” said Luna with a sad laugh. “You’d think up some grand plan, manipulating ponies as if they were pieces on a chessboard. I would then be cut out of it while you took a gamble on whatever plan you had in mind.” Luna then shook her head. “I was not willing to take a gamble with their lives. I also knew that if I did come to you then you would do everything in your power to change my mind. I had already prepared myself for this. I knew what needed to be done no matter how much it pained me inside.”
“Luna,” said Celestia as she reached out a hoof. “Please, we can still make this work. If Twilight had not-”
“Do NOT blame Twilight for this!” screamed Luna as she knocked away Celestia’s hoof. “If you thought that I would be too stupid to figure out that things were still that bad then you really are a fool!”
“No Luna I just-”
“Guards,” called Luna as she kept eye eyes glued on Celestia. “Bring out the prison pod. And prepare the cannon.”
-x-
“We have you surrounded,” called out a guard. “Come out with your hooves in the air.” He, along with many of his fellow guards, had surrounded the Royal Archives. Pegasi ponies flew around the tower as the kept an eye out for the intruders while unicorns prepared their spells in cause they needed to attack.
Within the building Applejack, her friends, and Trixie were beginning to panic. They didn’t know how they had been discovered. At first they thought that Trixie might have been able to smooth things over, but one look at the blue mare showed them that she would join them in the dungeons as well.
“Well girls, no sense in waitin’ any longer,” said Applejack with a sigh.
“I do hope that whatever cell we are put in is at least clean,” said Rarity. “It is the least they can do after all.”
As they stepped out, all of them had their heads down. Even Rainbow Dash who had the book she had been reading earilier tucked under her wing. As the girls walked out a star began to sparkle in the night sky. A moment later it began to glow red and seemed to be getting closer. Eye’s wide, everypony began to run away from the tower as the prison pod smashed into the Royal Archives.
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Background ponies count. Go for it.
Also... Nice reversal with the cannon deal.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Uh Oh. That may have a been a bit rash, Luna. War's ah coming.
Gotta love the Red vs Blue reference!
You just got sarged...
Luna's terrible.
Great Chapter.
However, after reading it. I can't help but feel that this is now building up to an even greater tragedy then the nightmare moon saga in the current MLP universe.
It updated!
Ditzy is my favorite background character. Always bubbly and cheerful.
2558721 How do you figure? By doing what she believed was right? By defending the subjects who were persecuted for being different in appearance and/or belief? There can be no neutral side with good and evil. When one does nothing to stop evil, then they themselves are evil.
XD incoming Tia!
2558721
Honestly, it is kind of justified. After all, Celestia attempted to negotiate a merger between countries without giving out all the pertinent details (fraud), and attempted to infiltrate the castle of a sovereign nation (trespassing, attempted assassination, espionage). It's actually very lenient, deporting her back home.
2558688
Maybe, maybe not. Remember, this is a culmination of a thousand years worth of mistakes, most being on Celestia's side. The foremost being the neglect to mention that Equestria hasn't changed as much as she'd hoped, and enlisting her sister's help in showing her ponies that their lunar brethren aren't evil. I mean, have dignitaries attend celebrations, smooze with Equestria's nobility, befriend the populace in various parts of the country, that kind of thing. Once the word gets around they they're not murderers, or evil in any way, then you begin sending bat ponies with the delegations. Reform the overall perception of them.
I love this story so much! Though I do hope things get sorted out in the end.
2558874
are they isolated from the ponies of Equestria? Then it's the Luna's people fault that Celestia's people don't get them, IMO
2558854
And Luna herself admitted Celestia would act, she just didn't approve of the way Celestia would act.
Luna's personal anger is justly made but she seems to have let her personal feelings become more important than doing the best for her ponies. By firing Celestia back to Earth rather than letting her teleport home; will make Equestrian Nobles want blood/Moon pony heads on stakes.
2558923 Oh yes she would act, by 'believing in the better nature of ponies to get over their differences'. I wonder how many more lives Celestia would've allowed to be ruined before actually doing something.
2558947
judging by the canon show Celestia never went wrong trusting in ponies better nature
2558874
Yeah but delivery their ruler via a pod into tower isn't going to leave a good impression and we've already seen Celestia rollover and let the nobles run amok. And the luners have their war mongers too.
"Men, and Griff, we can all take a moment to celebrate my amazing victory over the insidious menace that has been infiltrating Blood-Gulch canyon."
"Your talking about the armored ponies, right?"
"What?"
"Ponies." Still no sign of recognition. "Like horses but smaller." Still nothing. "That small quadruped animal that every girl wants for their birthday and every woman your dating wants you to dress up as for Christmas when they bring their Drivers Ed teacher over?"
The rest of the group was silent as they just stared at Griff.
"Urgh, Simmons, just go ahead and poison Griff's next meal.....as much as it pains me to say this you'd be doing him a favour. It'd also save us from hearing any more details of his sordid past and these animals he keeps making up."
Just then Doughnut zoomed past them riding on a pony in neon pink armor. "Wheeeee! I love ponies!!"
Moment later the Warthog (aka "Chupa-thingy") drove past them with a white/electric blue armored pony behind the wheel and a mint green armored pony behind the gun.
Lyra. "Hurry up, Vinyl! They're getting away!"
More silence ensued as they watched both oddities disappear around a hill.
Griff. "Okay, now I just gotta know how they changed the music."
Man, so many fics on here would have had Luna listening to Celestia by now. Even partially. Which would've annoyed me to no end. I love that Luna sees through Celestia's bullshit and calls her on it! Hope that Celestia ends up in the sun and Luna takes complete control over Equestria as well as the Lunar Republic. Though I doubt it.
2559040
seriously? I see this descending into all out war because while Celestia is willing to make concessions and hope for change Luna forces things and makes enemies. It'll probably end with Celestia blowing up the moon because the choice is her citizens or her sister and then the mane 6 wake up.
2559009
I just have to say LOL!
2558923
But they weren't isolated when the incidents started, and ponies were burning down houses, workshops, and essentially being domestic terrorists. It was reaching the point where the country would have entered civil war status.
2558947 2558970
I have no doubt there would be loss of life had Luna not brought her followers to the moon. We also have to remember that this is not canon, and that these underlying issues still exist in canon equestria, although they haven't bubbled to this extent.
If you don't agree, go review how the ponies treat Zecora.
2559075 Have you been reading this story? Celestia likes change as much as rednecks do. And if a war broke out the Lunar Republic would kick Equestria's ass. And Luna isn't looking to make enemies. She's looking out for her ponies. She's disallowing Celestia's cold, long term manipulation style of governing from affecting the ponies of the night. *If she could she'd take the bat ponies from Equestria where Celestia's rule, for over a thousand freakin' years, has left them to suffer immeasurably. America didn't even take that long to end racism on that level and it's ruled by a bunch of corrupt dipshits who can't even wipe their own ass. She's a goddess of the freakin sun and she can't do the same after a millennium? That is gross incompetence on her part and the suffering caused by that incompetence is enough to warrant a stay in the sun. Luna is being fair and kind hearted to her sister by allowing her to remain in Equestria.
*By this point I've just started ranting and am no longer responding, but making another comment on the story as a whole.
2559111
they ran away from her.
2559151
only skimming it. Nothing I've read makes me want to dig deeper. I'm not interested in stories where I think one of the main character's is terrible? Luna's ponies needed the leader of a rival nation to be humiliated and potentially injured? I am aware that the Lunar ponies are more advanced. That's why I say it would be Celestia deciding between her sister or her citizens. The ponies of Equestria are outmatched and Celestia would have to stand in for them and bring the full power of the sun down on the moon
The situation just seems to keep getting worse. In general how I feel about the New Lunar Republic and the Solar Empire fan fight that if really were to happen it would end like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5R_pS0h5Qk
2559190>>2559151
OK GUYS!! Middle ground time, so please listen up!
First off, those two are NOT Goddesses, unless we are talking Greek Pantheon type, and I don't have to tell you what hijinks that lot got up to in their time.
That said, Neither Luna or Celestia are perfect, and this situation is spiraling out of control for one very good reason.
Emotions have been building too long and have spilled over logic on both sides.
For Luna, she had to deal with neglect and scorn, both for her ponies and herself from ancient times, and in her own judgement, could no longer trust Celestia to help her. Still, Luna is quick to anger on a good day, and believes in full measures, not half by any means. This, while effective as her Republic shows, is not always a good thing, and as this chapter shows can spark a powder keg like you would not believe.
Celestia, on the other hoof, has been too content to play the long game, loosing touch and allowing herself to become easily fixed on her own vision, both loosing sight of the big picture and of the small ponies that play a part. Still, she is sincere in her own way, and though she's made more mistakes than I care to list, she isn't a bad pony. She need to atone, and recognizing that she's been in the wrong several times, and moreover that her own actions need to be addressed as her sister would, which would be a big step in the right direction.
Still, the biggest problem hasn't been the sisters, but the populous of ponies in Equestria...Lunar Republic less so, but give them time.
As is, their attitude, actions, and overall willingness to believe in folk tales and spread IN-tolerance where the creed of "Love and Tolerate" is what we all gained from cannon MLP comes from.
...now I'm just throwing this out there, please don't lynch me.
But the Nightmare Moon incident may have forced Celestia to mature as a ruler and a pony more than any of us could have guessed. It's one thing to see your sister, your closest friend and the only pony you could safely say will always be there leave you of their own accord. On the other hoof, Celestia in cannon had to BANISH her sister, HAD TO! By that point, Nightmare Moon had stopped caring about the lives that would be lost by her extreme measures. When that happened, Celestia for the sake of life itself, had to stop her.
But even then, it was at best a delaying tactic, and she had a full 1,000 years to live with the trauma of seeing the mistakes she made given a truly horrifying form. This likely sparked her maturation into a better ruler, one who actually went among the ponies and if not routed out, then greatly reduced the amount of blind bigotry out there in her kingdom. Mind you, as in the Zecora incident it could still crop up, but after Twilight actually met her, the community seemed quick enough to accept her, with no lasting issues.
What I'm trying to say is, no pony is completely without blame here. Granted, there are innocents, like Scootaloo, and there are ponies trying to make things right, like the Equestrian Main 6 crew...Trixie non-withstanding. It'll be rather dicey, but depending on how things go, it may be the Main 6 we all know that either bridge the gap, or decide the Ultimate Victors.
...also, as an aside, calling it now. By the near end of this fic we will have TWO Nightmares, not just one. And when that happens, we see one heck of a CLIMAX!
Well not and unexpected outcome, Luna is still fuming over what happened, she wasn't about to act reasonably when Celestia barges in on her kingdom. While it's nice Celestia acted quickly to try and talk to Luna the timing was terrible, but I don't see either sister being the one to force the two of them to really deal with their issues, after all it's a certain purple pony who's destine to reunite the sisters. Of course I think Twilight is going to see battling Nightmare Moon as easy in comparison to trying to reunite Equestia and the Lunar Republic.
I'm also Curious the first chapter Twilight cast a spell to answer her what if Question, how are the girls experiencing everything? Are they just along for thew ride with their alternates? Are they observing from some limbo location? And How are THEY feeling watching this alternate version of their lives?
Love the rvb reference. Also I got a feeling that celestia isnt going to take what just happened to her lying down. Also a grammer error celestia says "You did say anything to me" I think you mean you (didnt) say anything to me.
2559107
Glad ya liked it, I've got a few more jokes/omakes/etc I'll try to post tomorrow night.
You can almost never go wrong with RedvsBlue jokes, unless it concerns Thanksgiving....then it's less "Bwahahahaha" and more "Seriously! WHERE DID HE GET THE HANDS!?".
mane 6 comments
omg luna banished celestia to equestria!!!
altternate universe or not LUna cant do that to celestia!!!
twi u do realise luna kind of did that because she was blaming you for them not putting there nations together right?
well still I think she could of been a little more polite
well I guess we arent going to find out what was in that history book
what? boo! I was for once really looking forward to learning about history.
run alternate me!!! we wont last a minute in the dungeon.
Sigh, oh Tia, you poor idiot. You are not helping the situation at all. However, the fact that she landed at the same location that the Mane 5 + Trixie is in (or near) might be a positive twist-of-fate that may turned everything around. Oh, I can't wait to see Celestia's reaction when her own subjects began to drilled her into what is going on with the false history, especially Rainbow Dash.
C&Cs:
You did say anything to me, not even a goodbye.
> Correction: “didn’t”.
“After that, I decreed that your name was never to be spoken again. I turned my back on all of the things that reminded me of you.
> Add the ending quotation.
I had an earth pony inventor telling me how his lab was burned down along with all his notes.
> Capitalize ‘earth pony’.
And after what happened Hoofshire they were all afraid they were next!
> Add ‘at’ after ‘happened’ and a comma after ‘Hoofshire’.
They wanted blood Celestia!
> Comma after ‘blood’.
“If you thought that I would be too stupid to figure out that things were still that bad then you really are a fool!”
> Comma after ‘bad’.
Instant Correction: ‘Pegasi ponies flew around the tower as they kept an eye out for the intruders, while unicorns prepared their spells in cause they needed to attack.’
> ---
Within the building Applejack, her friends, and Trixie were beginning to panic.
> Comma after ‘building’.
At first they thought that Trixie might have been able to smooth things over, but one look at the blue mare showed them that she would join them in the dungeons as well.
> Comma after ‘first’.
“It is the least they can do after all.”
> Comma after ‘do’.
Even Rainbow Dash who had the book she had been reading earilier tucked under her wing.
> Comma after ‘Dash’. Correction: ‘earlier’.
As the girls walked out a star began to sparkle in the night sky. A moment later it began to glow red and seemed to be getting closer.
> Comma after ‘out’, ‘later’, and ‘red’.
Eye’s wide, everypony began to run away from the tower as the prison pod smashed into the Royal Archives.
> I don’t know if this is a mistake or not, since I’m unfamiliar with the usage, so I’m going to see if you or someone else might know. Is the correct form would be “Eyes’s”? I am not sure myself...
2558970 Judging by the fact the show was more child friendly and the worst racism tends to be is everyone running and hiding in their homes, there were no ponies that enjoyed the night, and bat ponies weren't seen till after Luna's return. But you can prove me wrong IF you can find me a canon episode of MLP proving that ponies once did kill each other due to racism.
Negation of the word is missing.
2559914
Wow. Maybe you should ask Darth if you can proof read his stories.
2559576>>2559190>>2559151
Ok, now it's time for my two cents. I agree with Isumo that neither character is perfect. In fact, Darth seems to be going out of his way to ram that fact into our heads.
Garfan, I hear what you are saying. Luna lost it big time. What she did might be seen as a declaration of war! Or it might be seen as a warning. She gave back Celestia while at the same time showing the ponies of Equestria what she can do at any moment. Also, I got a different vibe from what Luna was saying. She started out by saying how alone Celestia made her feel as well as unneeded. But then she got ponies who began to notice what she did and for that she is willing to do whatever it takes to protect them. She didn't want to go to Celestia because it would have been a gamble and a very long term plan. She also didn't seem to like Celestia manipulating her followers.
And while I know where you are coming from, Soulless, Luna might be allowing her anger to override her better judgement. Also, I have a feeling that Celestia isn't done trying to convice her sister.
~ARGH, I had this all typed out, and then I accidently the page.~
2559190
Originally, yes, they did run from her. But in addition to that, Pinkie made up a song about why she's evil.
She's an evil enchantress, and she does evil dances
And if you look her in the eyes, then she'll put you in trances
Then what'll she do, she'll cook up an evil brew
And she'll gobble you up in a big, tasty stew
So... watch out!
Fear
Applebloom then follows Zecora - willingly, might I add - and the ponies assume she's been kidnapped. They pursue Zecora and give her a repremanding and threaten her.
Anger
Then, when they get effected by Poison Joak - which Zecora warned them about - they assume she's cursed them. Applebloom goes into the forest to face Zecora, and leaves Appletini hanging from a branch. When the adults get there, they overhear Zecora at a potion, and believe she's set up to cook Applebloom.
Hate
They proceed to break down her door, spill the potion, and damage whatever the now-spilled potion touches. As far as we're aware, they never even offered to pay for the damages when it turned out they were horribly, horribly wrong!
Suffering
It takes Applebloom walking in to explain what's going on to keep the ponies from becoming violent. Following this trend, and applying a few more zebras across Equestria and giving them all the same bad rep, it's not farfetched that violence could break out.
In summation, Yoda from Star Wars states; "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, and Hate... leads to Suffering." Maybe there's more universal truth to that statement than we all would like to admit.
Ah, the infamous 'maleware'. A very unfortunate affliction. I suggest you use Spyware Doctor to make it femaleware.
AND BOOM everything goes to pot
I like how Celestia still tries to blame Twilight. That basically tells me that she still won't admit that she was the reason that Luna left.. All of this could have been avoided if Celestia had intervened directly. Oh well.
2559576
the thing is this story is not what if Luna left Equestria with her followers, instead of becoming Nightmare Moon, it's what if Luna had followers? There's no evidence the writer made the change from Celestia and Nightmare Moon was a battle that resulted in Luna's banishment to it Celly vs NM was actually a war with other ponies fighting many writers make.
So we have no idea if Celestia was forced to grow or change as a ruler, or needed to in the real timeline.
But Luna in one timeline tried to create eternal night and in the other ran away with her ponies. For a supposed equal ruler who spent half the time in charge she certainly seems unwilling to engage Celestia's followers. Maybe give an order, pass a law, something like that.
2560958
Just because one says they were equal, doesn't mean they were treated the same.
In their family, Celestia was and is the older sister. As such, it's natural that Luna defers to her on matters when she at least appears to have more experience.
However, we likely can both agree Luna, as the princess associated with night in a time of superstition and lesser knowledge of the world, would at LEAST be less popular that Celestia.
From there, we can easily establish more ponies would go to Celestia, which in turn makes her the 'More legitimate' Princess in the eyes of the Majority in Equestria of the past.
Odds are, Nightmare Moon DID have followers, what villain doesn't? But it's not the same. The story asks what would have happened if Luna had ponies 'who appreciated her night'? This all stems from that single point, like a butterfly flapping it's wings.
It's gotten to be huge in difference, but it's still a valid deviation.
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
Remember, this is a 'what if' story, so if it gets to be too much for you, there is always other fics and cannon to sooth frayed nerves.
2561065
Luna still had authority though. And by the very personality Luna accuses Celestia of she seems unlikely to be the sort to say "No, we're not doing that," once a law has been declared unless it's something horrible.
I don't believe Nightmare Moon had followers personally. She wanted to destroy not rule and there was only one pony who was equal to her.
Oh no, looks like both Luna and Celestia stepped in it.
This will not end well for either side.
But like I said before complicated family issues and ruling a country do not mix.
Glad to see you back
2561082
Dude, ponies much like humans, can be attracted to power. This attraction is formed on delusions of grandure and the thought of power coming to them for serving well. Naturally, it's bunk, but until it's too late, usually the ponies (or people) in question fight for the evil-doer anyway.
Also, Luna had authority, but she was in a Diarchy. And as such, for major actions to be taken against those who'd done such wrongs, she needed Celestia's support, which she did not get. Moreover, if Luna acted on her own, she'd have been feeding the hate-mongers more reason to hurt her sympathetic subjects with increasing measure, likely resulting in more loss of life.
It's was a catch 22 for Luna, damned if you didn't, damned if you did. In her case, she went with the option that spared the most lives, as waiting would have cost more as Celestia is often slow to act, and never in the same way Luna does. It's not a bad thing normally, but the situation dictated Luna's form of action was needed, and Celestia was too used to her own actions being enough that she ignored the need.
It's a flaw, but a common one in many ponies and people. I'll be honest, struggles like this are often MORE complicated for humans, so imagine what this guy may not have said which could have been going on as well.
Another great chapter. So we finally now know why Celestia let the whole Nightmare Moon thing happen in the first place. Will Celestia give up now that she's been shot out of a canon from the moon to Equestria in a prison pod?
So Celestia, I have a question I'd like to ask you.
Do you like mmmmmmmbananas?
If Celestia uses a regular cannon, what does Luna use?
This thing maybe:
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130101173244/generalsrotr/images/c/c6/ECA_Pandora_Ready_To_Fire.png
Not even the driver thinks it is morally justified.
2565075
so? the driver also thinks he has the best job in the world, or moon in this case
2565075 TO THE EARTH!!!!! .... Not as funny as to the moon.
Oh god! Luna cracks me up!
4730527
There is nothing you can do to convince me that is not a Donut reference.