Author: DSNesmith
Description: A thousand years is a long time. When Luna is banished by Celestia, she finds herself trying desperately to cope with her long, lonely imprisonment. This is a record of her thoughts.A Millennium of Solitude
Additional Tags: Journal, Depressing, Moon, Bitterness, Revenge
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43 comments:
That was intense...
ReplyDeleteSad Luna :(
ReplyDeleteDay 27: it's 'retched' not 'wretched'
ReplyDeleteThat was epic.
ReplyDeleteA thousand year imprisonment is pretty damn harsh considering the motivation for Luna's crime.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous I was always of the mind that what Celestia did was a desperation move without much thought given to the aftermath.
ReplyDeleteIt could have been worse. Imagine if Luna had been trapped but yet still magically capable of seeing what was happening on Equestria. Ponies happy. Ponies peaceful. Maybe even ponies like Twilight enjoying Celestia's night time balls and festivals.
ReplyDeleteI still love Luna :(
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the nighttime stuff, the fact that it's in books and seemingly encouraged, I think Celestia was priming everything for Luna's return so that she'd have less to be emo about the next time around.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why I think Luna's just buying her time to strike again.
ReplyDeleteDeath to the Solar Matriarch!
གཧཀིསལ
The ludicrously high day numbers in this story hit home just how LONG a thousand years really is.
ReplyDeleteThere's simply no getting around the sheer horror of somepony being awake and aware for that long, all alone on a desolate wasteland in space.
Whether vengeful, sad, regretful, lonely, insane or any other brand of Luna, nopony deserves that.
One can only hope she was unaware, or that there was a great deal of "sleep of ages," as this story suggested...
Either way, an interesting read.
As the comments in Simply Rarity noted, the journal style is a very intimate yet structured way to get inside a character's head.
I...I think I need to read the sappiest, fluffiest Luna fic I can find now.
ReplyDeleteSpoilers
ReplyDeleteHmm. The one thing that slightly bugs me... We basically have two versions of Luna, I reckon. Both with an endless number of variations, but either Nightmare Moon is a different entity and Luna is somehow pushed to the back, or they are the same being. It seems a bit odd that we have nightmare Moon, then after a few days on the moon we have Luna again and even though she goes insane frequently, its still Luna. Then, towards the end of her banishment, she becomes Nightmare Moon again. I suppose this can be explained by her going completely insane again after so long a period of time, but... I don't know. It just bugs me a little.
Minor complaint though. Over all, well written. Indeed, gives a nice idea of how long she was banished. And the notion of her don't needing food, but feeling hunger... That's heavy. You portray that well. I also like that you explain the figure of the Mare in the Moon as seen in the episodes. One wonders though, what made it disappear in the ep when she was released? You handily avoid having to explain that, but yeah... :P
I really like how you described the loneliness and despair, it's kinda ridiculous how long 1000 years is.
ReplyDelete@Baree
ReplyDeleteActually, it makes sense to me. We all do things in anger, resentment, and frustration that we regret deeply later. Equestria's Goddesses seem to be much like the ponies under their care, so the idea of Luna snapping and doing something she'll regret then feeling absolutely terrible once she's had time to think about it is believable to me.
Pure awesome.
ReplyDeleteD:
ReplyDelete@Whiteout
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's fine, but then she returns to being Nightmare at the end again, and that is what bugs me a little. As I said though,minor complaint.
Eh... I can't really see things having worked out this way. Though she was imprisoned, I can't really see Celestia having tortured her Sister like this - but then so many seem to freely view Celestia herself as villainous.
ReplyDeleteEither way, this is a bit too melodramatic and maudlin for me.
Is the title a reference to G.G Marquez' "A Hundred Years of Solitude"?
ReplyDeleteIf yes, then well done brony.
that wasnt sad because of any blood or death....that was sad because of pure loneliness and thats what actually happened in the show.... great job man 5 stars
ReplyDelete@Stephen Cawking
ReplyDeleteUhh... everyone is entitled to their own opinions but sometimes some opinions are made because things were carelessly overlooked.
"Not an uncommon interpretation, but here we're supposed to sympathise with Celly and that kinda falls flat." - I was pretty sure that while you are reading that fic, you were meant to sympathise with Luna. Celly's line at the end seemed more of a device to portray the duality of the theme of loneliness from the two characters.
"Also, I think the Elements work better as physical objects, not something that you can call upon like Captain Planet." - Do you remember the first two episodes? Nightmare Moon "destroyed" the elements of harmony but lo and behold, Twilight explained to Nightmare Moon that the elements were personified/ponysonified in the form of her newly found friends. As Twilight explained this to Nightmare Moon, she pretty much did what the Planeteers did.
Anyway, each to his/her own.
That was soulcrushingly depressing, this only makes me sympathize more with luna and dislike celestia more, I mean I wouldnt put my most hated enemies through that let alone someone I actually cared about!
ReplyDeleteVery intense read
ReplyDeleteI like it
Well, this will teach me to write things when I come up with the idea for it. I'm pretty sure this is the first Luna-on-the-moon journal fic, at least that I've read. And I was hoping to be the one to write it...
ReplyDeleteBut that's not what I should be focusing on. That was a fantastic story (as almost all Luna stories are), and I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I wasn't the only one with the idea that the Mare in the Moon was Luna's artwork, and kudos to you for actually letting the day numbers get up that high. I mean, wow. 364,999.... I need to go look at Luna Dancing Gif to make Luna happy again....
Hey, it's the author. Thanks for all the feedback--specially catching that 'retched' typo.
ReplyDeleteAlso Cawking, I agree, the bit with the Elements was probably the weakest part of the entire fic. Should have drawn that out a bit more.
As for the moon picture drawing vanishing, "IT'S MAGIC, I AIN'T GOTTA EXPLAIN SHIT lol trollface.jpg"
I do think some people are missing this being only one side of the story. This is not what happened but one sides interpretation of what happened. it is a diary not a story. the parts with Celestia did not happen that way, they were just viewed that way from the side of the one banished. I also do not believe Celestia knew what would happen when she used the elements. But also do not think Celestia had a good time down on the planet ether. She was almost as alone with nopony else who would live as long as her. Any friends she made she in turn would be there to watch them die eventually. Over and over with no one to share with. Immortality is a curse not a blessing. It may be a necessity of being a deity but it is still a curse. It only says you will live it does not say you will live well.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Luna stayed (mostly) sane for those 1,000 years. I was expecting her to go on a rabid, self-destructive rampage after around year 500.
ReplyDeleteYou should do something like this with Celestia's pov
ReplyDeleteLike she wanted to give Luna a year or so to cool off but messed up
@ Luna Epona
ReplyDeleteImmortal, Well 500 years would be nice..
That was chilling DSNesmith, and an effective reminder of the downside of immortality. Very nicely done.
ReplyDeleteGreat story! As others have mentioned, there were a few things that I feel i should comment on:
ReplyDelete1.) Elements of Harmony - As you mentioned, this scene could have been fleshed out more
2.) Luna's hunger: This reminds me a lot of Highlander where one particular character was marooned on an island and kept dying to hunger only to revive again. I can't quite imagine how this feels and really felt for Luna with this tragedy.
3.) Her cries to Celestia - That was absolutely one of the most depressing scenes in the story. Bravo on that :) Great way to show that the "fight's" outcome itself was something neither had really expected and how loneliness kept eating away at Luna. I do wish we could see Celestia's point of view for why she couldn't hear Luna.
Wow, eating rocks and moondust? That's incredible. If she's going this crazy after a month, then twelve thousand months later...
ReplyDeleteI love where her art takes her. That's a fiendishly clever idea. Eduard is also kind of an amazing story element.
That was just really good. A perfect combination of everything.
Quite possibly the most spine-tingly ending lines I've seen yet.
ReplyDeleteThis was incredibly...
ReplyDeleteI don't know the words in english...
Awesome.
ReplyDeleteAs others have mentioned, I would like to see a journal from Celestia's pov.
the ending is perfect. all I'm gonna say...
ReplyDeletePoor, poor Luna. She was so broken by the end of her banishment, so full of hate and envy. I'm glad that she didn't end up the long-term villain she was originally meant to be and that she was able to get the healing in body and mind she so desperately needed.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet there's a part of me that, after reading this, would like to see what happened the first time after she returned to Canterlot with her sister and got REAL FOOD for the first time in 1000 years.
~Ardashir
Manly tears were shed
ReplyDeleteEvery person at Hasbro needs to read this. This is the kind of story that really helps drive home a certain point: you do not just magically GET OVER a thousand years of isolation that your sister sent you to.
ReplyDeleteI don't care what Luna did or said at the end of episode two. It's one of the few points where MLP disappoints me with that easy forgiveness. We should have spent at least a whole season, if not more, watching Luna and Celestia trying to reconcile, not five seconds.
@Stephen Cawking
ReplyDeleteThat idea's occurred to me, that simply because of who she is Luna/NMM wasn't terribly affected by the experience, bu that would be a very...deponifying trait, for them to be able to shrug off such things. Especially since they both seem broken up about the time spent apart.
holy shit i cired alot
ReplyDeleteGod I wept tears for this. What was scary, was how close I felt to Luna. I've been there before ... Eduard.
ReplyDelete